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

xp There is mad bank to be made in telling white people what they want to hear.

i.e. the existence of Pete Buttigieg

i'm not sure anyone has a good idea of what a trump schism in the GOP would or will look like in practice, but i think it would probably involve stuff like this.

Charlie Kirk, the 29-year-old activist who leads Turning Point USA and a network of conservative affiliates, wrote with a warning.

In a Monday email to the 168 members of the Republican National Committee, he told them that donors and activists would desert the party unless it changed. The result, he said, would be colossal failure in the 2024 presidential election.

“How do we plan to win in 2024 if you so boldly reject listening to the grassroots, our donors, and the biggest organizations and voices in the conservative movement?” he asked in the message, which was obtained by The Washington Post. “If ignored, we will have the most stunted and muted Republican Party in the history of the conservative movement, the likes of which we haven’t seen in generations.”

...
Kirk alerted the RNC members to a new initiative of his group’s political arm, Turning Point Action, that would seek to pick off RNC members deemed “disconnected with grassroot conservatives.”

He said the effort, called the Mount Vernon Project, will “recruit leaders to serve on the RNC and at the state level who wish to better represent the grassroots voice.”

The initiative, which was previously reported by Politico, is “funded graciously by donors who are vocally disenchanted” with the RNC’s members, Kirk wrote.

The project brings to the national stage a model of bare-knuckled politicking used by Turning Point in its home state of Arizona, where it has worked to purge GOP officials who stood in the way of Trump’s efforts to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election. Now, the focus is on the race for GOP chair, with Kirk saying at his group’s weekend summit in Phoenix: “Turning Point Action might remove members of the RNC if they vote incorrectly.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/23/charlie-kirk-rnc-ronna-mcdaniel-harmeet-dhillon/
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/20/tpusa-ronna-mcdaniel-rnc-chair-00074826

Turning Point Action further commented that the RNC has ruined the word "conservative" and that Kirk is forming a new splinter party called the Not C party.

LOL

Charlie Kirk's nickname in Trump World is "Fräulein Anna."

i left it out of that excerpt above because i didn't want to copy/paste a mountain of text, but a key part of it (was about Turning Point/Kirk's efforts to replace RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel with the supposedly more trump/fascist loyal Harmeet Dhillon. the politico link focuses on that.

but what's crazy is that Ronna McDaniel was _already_ a loyal trump fascist? the jan 6 report that was released last night talks about that. here she is just a couple weeks before jan 6:

But the report provides new details which tie the scheme to national party leadership.

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, for example, personally gave Trump an update on the fake elector effort on the evening of Dec. 14, the day that the slates all voted.

Her involvement was previewed on Monday, when the committee released the executive summary, which stated that Trump “solicited the RNC’s assistance with the scheme. McDaniel agreed to provide that assistance.”

The full report goes further. McDaniel’s message purportedly said that “President Trump’s electors voted” both in “states that he won” and also in six “contested states.” It’s a funny formulation — both a cop to Trump’s ego and a partial admission that the effort was all a sham.

Trump’s executive assistant replied to McDaniel 101 minutes later, the report says. “It’s in front of him!” she wrote.

Ronna's terrible and I support anything that makes her unhappy

I'd probably stop short of wishing death on her children.

last thing on that, sorry, but jeez:

“I’m here to offer this party an alternative. I’m here to redefine what this party sees as victory. It means winning elections,” Dhillon said as she addressed a thinned-out conference Tuesday, in one of its final sessions. “It doesn’t mean turning out more voters. It doesn’t mean outreach. It doesn’t mean the number of phone calls you try to make but didn’t connect.”

“That’s not a victory. Victory is our people in office making laws that protect our fundamental liberties.”

the spirit of 1776!

hopefully they can replicate all the GOP success in Arizona nationwide

Harmeet Dhillon is yet another scammer. Some of our local hard-right types hired her firm to fight against a court-ordered student mask mandate last year — the locals were VERY impressed with her, because they see her on Fox News — and her firm coauthored one of the dumbest, most embarrassing lawsuits I've ever read. One of my lawyer friends said she couldn't believe any attorney was even willing to put their name on it. Even when they eventually filed to dismiss it (because the mask thing got settled by other parties), the federal judge went out of his way to call it a sham even as he was dismissing it. (Exact language: "a political orchestration underneath the veneer of a federal lawsuit.")

One of my lawyer friends said she couldn't believe any attorney was even willing to put their name on it.

That is a very typical reaction to Trump lawsuits in general. As a member of the profession, am embarrassed by these people and am delighted when they have to face consequences for this kind of shit.

*I am

Inside the Jan. 6 Committee.

The Republicans have two choices in front of them: 1) try to appeal to voters and not run insane candidates who even turn some Republicans off (witness Masters in Arizona), or 2) acquire power through non-democratic, but “constitutional”means, through gerrymandering and the Supreme Court—who I expect to bless the “independent state legislature” theory as what the Founding Fathers really meant. I think they’re gonna go good and hard for the latter.

That NYTM thing seems like 70 pages of breathless “the real story is the story of the story!” i’m too wore out for that tbh, just need to quietly lapse into coma here

kind of impressive how many different contingents of enthusiastic wackjobs the republicans have in their stable right now, from dark enlightenment weirdos like Masters to dumb enlightenment qanon types, with the Trump loyalists in the center trying to grift on top of both while attempting to fuck up voting

this is absolutely not a model for the democrats, but I’m not sure what a good model would look like

who I expect to bless the “independent state legislature” theory as what the Founding Fathers really meant. I think they’re gonna go good and hard for the latter.

I hope you're wrong, but fear you're right. They'll have to ignore all the stuff they pretend to hold important to do so.

to think how quaint the lunacy of the GOP and its base was in the early 2000s. it was still terrible, but it was a familiar terrible. all racist, misogynist, homophobic warmongers who you could call just that. now they're all of those things AND they believe in secret pizza molesting children or w/e

"Dumb enlightenment" is great

The Benighted States of America

https://kesq.com/news/2022/12/24/more-migrants-dropped-outside-vice-presidents-home-in-freezing-weather-on-christmas-eve/

Failure to properly smite Greg Abbott proves that God is not omnipotent.

this week in political moments that resemble bad Nathan Fielder bits

“I never claimed to be Jewish,” Santos said. “I said I was `Jew-ish.'”

George Santos, GOP congressman-elect, admits some lies and tries to spin others. https://t.co/ar4t5eRiHB

— Dan Diamond (@ddiamond) December 27, 2022

xxxp I saw that story about the migrants. As I understand the story, a nonprofit was there to take care of them. The truly great move would have been for V-POTUS to have taken them into her home.

xp funny he doesn't look jew-ish

Reminds me of: https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/ccdb7aad-6808-410b-bb30-56ff75b6b07c

From: James Carville
Subject: The work of electing Democrats isn't cheap

Tawdry, maybe. Disreputable. But never cheap.

https://y.yarn.co/7c10353b-1b1a-49b3-ba76-979c13dcc20b_text.gif

Let us be cheap, but never vulgar.

This seems like good news.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/us/michigan-whtimer-governor-kidnapping-sentencing.html

Feds were pushing for life, though.

So Tulsi Gabbard fills in for Tucker Carlson on Fox News and now she's good?

oh boy pic.twitter.com/DWW3TNt8IP

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 28, 2022

Click through to the thread if you'd like to watch her absolutely roast George Santos

Of course they've got the knives out for him. His flagrant bullshitting puts their slightly less flagrant bullshitting at risk.

Santos made the amateur error of telling lies that were 1) very easy to expose and 2) were only designed to make himself look smart and important. That's a big mistake. Looking smart and important doesn't win Republican votes.

The real pros confine themselves to loudly endorsing all the lies the Republican base most ardently believes. This flatters them into thinking they are voting for the next best thing to voting for themselves.

I'm not sure Republicans are all on the same page about Santos. The ones in congress very much want him to stay no matter what because they only have a razor thin majority.

this is a softball for Tulsi and her ilk. Santos obviously was lying about everything and is only half-heartedly pushing back on it. he only has regional appeal. Tulsi can do her limp-dicked McCarthy "have you no shame?" and give the appearance that they Fox News dorks actually police their own while cheering on every other thing that members of the GOP do.

and in two days, the first thinkpiece titled "Why Democrats Forced Santos to Lie" will hit twitterverse

The money behind Santos is interesting.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/republican-george-devolder-santos-got-cash-from-andrew-intrater-cousin-of-russian-oligarch-viktor-vekselberg

this is a softball for Tulsi and her ilk. Santos obviously was lying about everything and is only half-heartedly pushing back on it. he only has regional appeal. Tulsi can do her limp-dicked McCarthy "have you no shame?" and give the appearance that they Fox News dorks actually police their own while cheering on every other thing that members of the GOP do.

― Fash Gordon (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 28 December 2022 03:58 (one hour ago) link

the tulsi praise is garbage. rnc/fox/etc. probably figured that's a pretty easy D flip next election and just cut the cord. he's not a stefanik that could weather the next election cycle on that type of career wizardry based on the redistricting.

Friday!

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/12/27/trumps-tax-forms-to-be-unveiled-friday-morning-00075641

Good morning!

wherefore art thou qualmsey?

Not surprisingly, Marge Green is defending him.

unrelated, but Congress passing SECURE Act 2.0 on 12/23, which changes the Required Minimum Distribution age to 73, which would require retirement plan recordkeepers to update all automated customer-facing documents, as well as update training materials and retrain existing agents in a month where about everybody takes PTO....expert level trolling, congrats guys.

(yes this affects me but fortunately I'm not on the technology side who is probably flipping out about this).

this feels like another 'rich people' bill because people who aren't well off aren't likely to delay taking their retirement benefits

Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) on Wednesday announced he has cancer, but he said the condition is curable and he expects to work during treatment.

The congressman, who led the second impeachment of President Donald Trump and is a member of the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, announced the diagnosis in a news release.

“After several days of tests, I have been diagnosed with Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma, which is a serious but curable form of cancer,” he said. “Prognosis for most people in my situation is excellent after four months of treatment.”

Raskin is one of the few Congress humans who is worth a damn. I stumbled upon and joined a protests he led outside the Saudi Embassy in DC about the murder of Jamal Kashoggi.

Kevin McCarthy has the support of gay Republicans, Catholic Republicans, Jewish Republicans, poor Republicans, ultra-rich Republicans... and that's just George Santos.

— Mark Russell (@Manruss) December 28, 2022

Santos:

Ahhhh Omg pic.twitter.com/r1g0Nr1XKc

— Tyler Dinucci!! (@TylerDinucci) December 29, 2022