US Politics, December 2022: "They're now the working class party, man."

owned

Kyrsten Sinema has an 18% favorable rating in Arizona right now.

Democrats: 5% fav, 82% unfav
Independents: 25% fav, 56% unfav
Republicans: 25% fav, 45% unfav

(Normally this is paywalled here so just screenshots) pic.twitter.com/kC54Iy6hwL

— Drew Linzer (@DrewLinzer) December 9, 2022

she's toast

centrist, third way thinking is the religion of op-ed writers and lobbyists. they are always looking for a champion

She could be a guest on every Sunday show every week if she wanted to be, but she flips off the press just as disdainfully as her constituents, and that's what is really going to be her (political) doom.

What did she do in late July that made everybody dislike her more?

That was when Manchin agreed to vote for the IRA and she held out to keep the carried interest loophole--which pissed off Democrats. Then she voted for the bill, which pissed off Republicans.

thought you meant Irish Republican Army at first

If only the Loyalists and the Republicans had someone like Sinema to bridge their differences

(Perhaps not the right thread, but I wonder if both Putin and Biden recognized and capitalized upon the significance of the prisoner exchange for their own and the other's constituencies and about the strategic and quotidian consequences, i.e., it was a fair exchange based on values and their consequences.)

@mtsw (now private) otm in hit quote tweet of this "Impossible for me to understand the people who thought this guy was gonna lose his election."

It me + G + Christian Bale circa 1830 pic.twitter.com/4NXMuUQ5j5

— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) December 9, 2022

dfag about sinema

and re this:

this feels like a better strategy than going after brain damaged ken bone types

PA Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro's campaign sent out a memo outlining how it ran up the margins last month.

Key to the strategy? An effort to target Trump voters who believed Biden was legitimately elected pic.twitter.com/9z4kInAj51
— Allan Smith (@akarl_smith) December 8, 2022

― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Thursday, December 8, 2022 5:32 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Republicans enjoyed a superior turnout this fall, based on authoritative data on turnout by party from NC, AZ, GA, NV, NY and FL, but lost high-profile races because of defections from Republican-leaning voters https://t.co/fFYmIuzOOg

— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) December 9, 2022

given the current GOP, it's easier to win republican voters than true swing voters, and there are more of them.

Wasn't that Shapiro's strategy?

yes.

None of us would gaf about sinema, if she weren't a us senator and perpetually capable of shitting on the floor in a closely divided senate

now THAT i'd love to see, literal shitting on the senate floor

https://processedmedia.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/mr-show-s1-ep4-3.png

didn't she dress like that once

ChatGPC helping me write alternate future history:

Hello, and thank you for coming to hear my concession speech.

I am truly bewildered at the results of this election. I am shocked and disappointed that I did not receive a single vote.

I want to congratulate Tony Hawk on his historic victory and his impressive performance in the electoral college. I also want to thank all of the voters who participated in this election.

I am grateful for the support and encouragement I received during my campaign, and I am humbled by the opportunity to have run for President.

While this is not the outcome I had hoped for, I accept the will of the people and I will continue to work to make our country a better place.

Thank you again for your support.

[Kyrsten Sinema is hit in the face with a pie thrown by Tom Higgins. She looks surprised and confused, but quickly recovers and walks offstage]

Re: Griner's release

Bout’s conviction in 2011 came after years of painstaking effort by US intelligence, diplomatic and law-enforcement agencies; exchanging such a dangerous criminal for an athlete with no discernible intelligence value to Russia is, unavoidably, an affront to the US justice system.

By one estimate, 60 US citizens are currently held as hostages or otherwise wrongfully detained overseas. Given the administration’s self-congratulatory social-media barrage following the release, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that Griner’s celebrity was a major reason her cause was treated with outsized urgency. Whelan’s family gave a very generous statement celebrating Griner’s release — while also noting that it was “a catastrophe for Paul.” Other families may feel the same way.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-12-09/biden-cut-a-costly-deal-for-brittney-griner?srnd=premium-asia

exchanging such a dangerous criminal

o no he might go back to competing with OUR arms dealers

it’s hard to escape the conclusion that Griner’s celebrity was a major reason her cause was treated with outsized urgency

I can't muster any outrage at this conclusion. hundreds of thousands of people exert much greater political influence than just a few hundreds of people can hope to generate.

an athlete with no discernible intelligence value to Russia

get fucked

re: the Bloomberg opinion and the trade

http://twitter.com/Sharon_Kuruvila/status/1601224322051624960

Sorry, not sure why that didn't work. Quote from that tweet re: Bloomberg and other such reactions:

fundamentally the vast majority of people whining about this have not cared about the Merchant of Death right up to the point he could be used as a card against the government

the real reason people are bitching is because they somehow think the Black lesbian should have been left to rot in a gulag

interesting that paul whelan is being used as the foil here cause it seems like he might actually have been up to some shit, also the government has said that russia wants more for him so its not like it was a choice between him and griner

I think there's some ex-KGB hitman in a German prison, and Russia wants the U.S. to exert heavy pressure

Also the people running around calling Whelan "a Marine" tend to leave out this bit:

Whelan served with the Marine Corps Reserve from 2003-2008, much of the time as an administrative clerk in Iraq. At the end of that period, he was dishonourably discharged for larceny and other lesser offences, after being found to have tried to steal $10,000.

lol

also has a history of lying about law enforcement experience and at the time of his arrest was "director of global security and investigations for BorgWarner, an international automotive parts manufacturer based in Michigan" ie he exactly fits the profile of someone who might try to do some amateur spying

Also his family's statement was gracious and made super clear that the two cases are completely different and it was never an either or. That Bloomberg writer is a piece of shit.

read that as BongWater xpost

Majority Leader Sinema?

There’s no better way for Democrats to show their commitment to bipartisanship than by making the quirky triathlete the Senate boss.

— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) December 9, 2022

triathlete huh bike accident just an idea

read that as BongWater xpost

Who else will join her Chenin Blanc Caucus?

A caucus of one is no caucus at all

I saw someone tweet that Sinema either needed more attention or less attention at some earlier stages of her life, but either way it's too late now.

*chef's kiss* pic.twitter.com/Va74BB6EG9

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 9, 2022

Famous people you thought were dead...

Probably mixed him up w/the Dad from ALF.

That’s Mr Willie Tanner to you!

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/09/politics/kari-lake-election-lawsuit-arizona/index.html

"Defeated Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has filed suit in Arizona Superior Court challenging the certification of the state’s election."

Seeing that photo of Lieberman takes me back to Days of Hangdog Sanctimony Past.

Xpost so it's basically just "It's fraud because who wouldn't want to vote for me?"

Like Trump, she cannot imagine anyone not voting for her.

Benjy Sarlin tweets: Yesterday’s dumb “they won’t arrest him because of his donations” conspiracy becomes tomorrow’s “they arrested him to stop his testimony” conspiracy, just putting down a marker

Yesterday’s dumb “they won’t arrest him because of his donations” conspiracy becomes tomorrow’s “they arrested him to stop his testimony” conspiracy, just putting down a marker

— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) December 13, 2022

And then the comments go on to prove him exactly immediately right.

I just realized I never eulogized the Iowa caucuses

rip, you probably made my state worse

At one Des Moines precinct tonight, an attendee brought in a concealed bottle of wine, dropped it, and it shattered everywhere pic.twitter.com/qHNMP6NLOH

— Iowa Starting Line (@IAStartingLine) February 4, 2020

(I’m pretty sure that was at my precinct lol)

(I’m pretty sure that was at my precinct lol)

double posting? sounds like someone's been drinking coat wine

So the FTX guy can commit fraud, be charged and arrested and extradited in seemingly less than a month, while Trump can literally have stolen classified docs scattered around his house and the case will take years?

I don't remember FTX attempting to overthrow the govt.