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

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

this guy is the grift that keeps giving

The odds of him completing a term seem slim.

🐦[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🕸]🐦

He does seem hilariously like some Russian oligarch's idea of an American candidate. In the indie comedy version of this, he was concocted by an inept cell of slacker agents who spend most of their time getting high.

https://i.imgur.com/96HQb6m.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbGnU96ByYQ

if he were a russian asset, Tulsi wouldn't have been going after him so hard. Or maybe she's mad he was such a bad liar.

https://i.imgur.com/r8WBNBm.png

he made up everything, won his election 55-45 and wikipedia doesn't have a photo of his opponent, bob dylan

now that's the american dream

phew! positive update on one of the AZ recounts:

Kris Mayes, the Democratic candidate for attorney general in Arizona, prevailed in a recount by a margin of 280 votes over Abraham Hamadeh, a Republican, bringing clarity to one of the last undecided races of the midterms.

Dems in array!

Democrats fell just short of an ambitious goal of confirming 100 new federal judges as time ran out on the 117th Congress, but they are optimistic they can continue to reshape the courts over the final two years of President Biden’s term.

The Senate’s top two Democrats say their ability to outpace the concerted Republican judicial push of President Donald J. Trump’s first two years, with a total of 97 judges seated, was especially noteworthy considering they did it with a 50-50 Senate, an evenly divided Judiciary Committee and little cooperation from most Republicans.

And the personal and professional backgrounds of the judges they confirmed were markedly different from the past. The Senate named scores of women and people of color to the courts, many with specialties in defense and civil rights work as opposed to the corporate law partners and prosecutors who were the norm in previous administrations of both parties.

“It’s remarkable to think that an 11-11 committee, with the Republicans we have on that committee, was able to achieve this,” said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat who, as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, led the judicial push.

Nice.

There's the tax returns.

good morning!

what's going on, folks?

!!!

haha it's the big day qualmsly!

Qualmsey! We made it!

This seems like a good time for a YSI? joke.