[Where is the GOP headed?] House Ousts Ilhan Omar From Foreign Affairs Panel as G.O.P. Exacts Revenge

By artappraiser on Thu, 02/02/2023 - 1:48pm |

In a highly politicized vote, the Republican-led chamber criticized Ms. Omar’s statements about Israel, exacting retribution for the removal of G.O.P. members when Democrats held the majority.

By Karoun Demirjian @ NYTimes.com, Feb. 2

[....] The 218 to 211 party-line vote, with one member voting “present,” settled a partisan score that has been festering since 2021, when the House, then controlled by Democrats, stripped Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona of their committee assignments for social media posts in which they endorsed violence against Democrats.

The removal of Ms. Omar delivered on a threat that Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California made at the time to retaliate if his party took the House majority by removing Democrats whom Republicans regarded as unfit to serve on committees. Last week, he unilaterally removed Representatives Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, both of California, from the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where membership is appointed and thus not subject to a vote.

Mr. McCarthy’s decision to force the removal of Ms. Omar, a step that some of his rank-and-file resisted, in the earliest days of his new majority demonstrated his determination to ingratiate himself with the hard-right Republican base, which has made the Somali-born Ms. Omar a target for some of its most vicious attacks [....]

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https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/02/us/politics/ilhan-omar-house-committee-republicans.html

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I think that this is the way a lot of normies are going to think about this news:

There are worse things https://t.co/KwfRdC0ZdC
— Joe Gabriel Simonson (@SaysSimonson) February 2, 2023

The Dem party had two years to do 'Sister Souljah' type numbers on 'The Squad', but they chose not to, and to go with solidarity with the left instead. That's basically a vote for keeping things real partisan.

A reminder that all-important swing and centrist voters in 2020 said they don't want that, they don't want extremists right or left having power in Congress: How the Worst Fears for Democracy Were Averted in 2022

A lot is made of the fact that the GOP didn't get the red wave it wanted. But keep in mind that Dems still lost seats and control!

by artappraiser on Thu, 02/02/2023 - 2:15pm

NEWS: Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas Will Deliver GOP SOTU Response
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) February 2, 2023

by artappraiser on Thu, 02/02/2023 - 3:55pm

the House GOP are obviously looking to get Dem liberals on the record supporting all things unpopular with the majority as to culture wars:

BREAKING: Here are the 100 House Democrats that voted against the resolution to denounce socialism. pic.twitter.com/1t503PcUCM
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) February 2, 2023

100 Democrats just refused to denounce socialism.

That’s scary—and it explains a lot about why Congress has been spending so much these last four years. pic.twitter.com/LmlspApDFM
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) February 2, 2023

that's just smart politics in their current situation.

by artappraiser on Thu, 02/02/2023 - 4:56pm

oh my, is this the beginning of some Sister Souljah moments?

Hakeem Jeffries, the House Dem leader, voting for a GOP messaging bill to denounce socialism.

Just perfect. And extremely on-brand and predictable. https://t.co/iEOs25AN8p
— brent is Witcherpilled (@brent858) February 2, 2023

by artappraiser on Thu, 02/02/2023 - 6:13pm

just so you know if someone tries to claim that stuff like this doesn't happen in other countries:

The House of Commons is spending this afternoon debating LGBT history month. Not sure exactly what there is to debate - but it must mean all is rosy in this country. Clearly politicians have to fill their days somehow & there is no substantive business for MPs pic.twitter.com/BKpkkoExBB
— Michael Mosbacher (@MossyMosbacher) February 2, 2023

by artappraiser on Thu, 02/02/2023 - 11:30pm

this is mano v. mano stuff, will be interesting to see how Desantis reacts:

Trump insisted Thursday that Ron DeSantis “had tears coming down from his eyes” while pleading for the then-president’s endorsement for office.

Read the latest from @besslevin: https://t.co/1DgcVXHylL
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) February 2, 2023

by artappraiser on Thu, 02/02/2023 - 6:24pm

McCarthy tells MTG that Ashli Babbitt was NOT 'murdered; Trump 'totally' disagrees and says she was -

My Washington Post subscription allows me to share access to great journalism. Check out this gift article, at no cost to you.

Read here: https://t.co/BPmxGOraHg
I do not write the headline to this share link as a sharer of the article. It is done by WAPO
— Pass H.R.1 - For the People Act (@MshellButtercup) February 3, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 02/03/2023 - 9:59am

Ashli Babbitt was in insurrectionist and traitor. She knew where all the tunnels and safe rooms were as a result of her training in the DC National Guard. That’s why she was sent thru the window first. She was supposed to lead Oath Keepers to the Speaker’s safe room. pic.twitter.com/CTRT1xawEu
— Faith, parolee from *Bird App* jail (@faith_jvs) February 3, 2023

Oops, whole article pasted...
BTW, Babitt stalked her husband's ex-wife as well - Gone Girl II

Ashli Babbitt. Show caption

US Capitol attack

‘She was deep into it’: Ashli Babbitt, killed in Capitol riot, was devoted conspiracy theorist

Babbitt, shot by police on Wednesday, saw storming of Capitol as a pivotal moment for the country

Lois Beckett and Vivian Ho

Sat 9 Jan 2021 06.00 EST

In late December, the incoming vice-president, Kamala Harris, tweeted about her plans for the first hundred days of the Biden administration. She promised “to ensure Americans mask up, distribute 100M shots, and get students safely back to school”.

Among the thousands of responses was an angry tweet from a 35-year-old air force veteran in San Diego.

“No the fuck you will not!” Ashli Babbitt replied to Harris. “No masks, no you, no Biden the kid raper, no vaccines...sit your fraudulent ass down…we the ppl bitch!”

Babbitt wasn’t just tweeting. She had a plan to fly to Washington DC the very next week to take part in a major public demonstration demanding that Donald Trump, not Joe Biden, be sworn in as president.

Babbitt was shot to death during Trump supporters’ chaotic invasion of the Capitol, officials said, while four other people, including a Capitol police officer, also died.

In the days since Babbitt and other Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building on 6 January, forcing lawmakers to flee or hide, her social media has been scoured for insights into her radicalization.

Babbitt’s Twitter account shows a woman deeply engaged for months with a conspiracy theory that painted Democratic lawmakers as evil pedophiles, and then persuaded, and infuriated, by Trump and his allies’ lies about election fraud.

For weeks before she joined the mob in Washington, Babbitt had been retweeting false claims from Trump himself, as well as the pro-Trump lawyers Lin Wood and Sidney Powell, alleging massive voter fraud and asserting that Trump had won the 2020 election.

Many of Babbitt’s tweets, according to extremism experts, also marked her as a believer in QAnon, a conspiracy theory that claims Donald Trump has been trying to save the world from a cabal of satanic pedophiles, including Democratic politicians like Biden and Hollywood celebrities, and that he will soon bring his enemies to justice.

Capitol attack: the five people who died

Babbitt had not been a leader or major influencer within the QAnon movement, according to Marc-André Argentino, a researcher who studies QAnon and other extremist groups. She had not posted a lot of original content or sold QAnon-themed merchandise. But she had tweeted regularly about the conspiracy theory since February 2020, and she had posted a lot on Twitter in general, about 50 posts a day, he said. On election day, she had posted 77 times.

Her social media also showed posts skeptical of masks and public health measures. She had responded with fury to an alert in early December that California public health officials were reinstating a stay-at-home order to prevent the spread of coronavirus, which was surging in southern California: “This is that commie bullshit.”

The QAnon conspiracy theory, although lurid in its claims about the torture of children, is very much a political movement, not just a personal delusion, experts say.

“The people that went to the Capitol weren’t just trying to save Trump, they were trying to stop the coming multiracial democracy” which they believed would institute “a radical leftist globalist agenda”, Joan Donovan, the research director at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, said.

On Twitter, Babbitt had been sharing messages urging people like herself to take action, with messages like: “Your government doesn’t fear you anymore. That needs to change. ASAP.”

Babbitt was a small business owner and self-described libertarian. She owned a San Diego-based business, Fowler’s Pool Service and Supply, according to California business records. Her LinkedIn profile lists her as the company owner since May 2017.

In one tweet, first reported by Bellingcat, Babbitt said that she had voted for Barack Obama before voting for Trump. In recent months, she had become a devoted adherent of conspiracy theories boosted by Trump and others.

Babbitt also had a history of confrontational behavior. In 2016, she was charged with reckless endangerment, dangerous driving and malicious property damage in Maryland, but she was later acquitted, according to court records. A former girlfriend of Babbitt’s husband wrote in the application for a protection order against Babbitt that Babbitt had followed her in a car and rear-ended her three times, multiple news outlets reported.

“She was screaming at me and verbally threatening,” the complaint states.

Attempts to reach Babbitt’s family were unsuccessful.

Babbitt wrote that she believed the 6 January protest she was joining would be a pivotal moment for the country, and a fulfillment of some of the key events that QAnon believers had been expecting: “Nothing will stop us....they can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours....dark to light!” she tweeted the day before the rally, referencing key QAnon slogans.

Since 2018, QAnon has been identified as a potential domestic terror threat and linked to a series of violent and criminal acts.

Travis View, the host of the QAnon Anonymous podcast, said posts showed that Babbitt was “100% a dedicated QAnon follower. She was not casual about it. She was deep into it.”

The scene at the Capitol

At that 6 January rally, Babbitt would listen as Trump urged his supporters to march over to the Capitol building as lawmakers were in the process of officially certifying the 2020 election results, and confirming Biden’s victory.

“You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong,” Trump told them.

“It was amazing to get to see the president talk,” Babbitt said afterwards, in a Facebook video obtained by TMZ. “We are walking to the Capitol in a mob. There is a sea of nothing but red, white and blue patriots.” She was grinning.

At the Capitol, Babbitt would be among the crowds of Trump supporters who pushed and fought their way past the Capitol police and into the building itself, forcing lawmakers to flee or hide, and temporarily halting the certification of Biden’s election victory.

Multiple videos would capture the moment in a Capitol hallway where Babbitt was at the front of a crowd stopped at a door to the Speaker’s Lobby, which has been shut and barricaded. On the other side of the door were members of Congress and Capitol police protecting them, according to news reports.

Video obtained by the Washington Post shows Babbitt and other members of the mob shouting at a cluster of officers who are guarding the door, telling them to step aside, as other Trump supporters pound on the door’s glass, shattering it. The video shows the officers moving away from the door, and members of the crowd surging forward, shouting “Break it down” and “Let’s fucking go” as they try to break through the door.

Other widely circulated videos show Babbitt hopping up to push herself through one of the door’s glass panels, towards the legislators at the other end of the hallway, as a man shouts “Bust it down!” The footage shows a shot ringing out, and Babbitt falling to the ground. Officials would later confirm that she had been shot by a Capitol police officer, and that the shooting is under investigation.

Lawmakers from both parties who were present at the moment when Babbitt was shot have spoken out about the dangerous behavior of the crowd.

“The mob was going to come through the door; there was a lot of members and staff that were in danger at the time,” the Oklahoma Republican congressman Markwayne Mullin said, according to Fox News.

He defended the police officer’s decision to shoot Babbitt: “His actions will be judged in a lot of different ways moving forward, but his actions I believe saved people’s lives even more. Unfortunately, it did take one, though.”

In interviews, members of Babbitt’s family have defended her political views, and her anger.

“My sister was a normal Californian,” her brother, Roger Witthoeft, told the New York Times. “The issues she was mad about were the things all of us are mad about.”

Babbitt had served in the military for 14 years, Witthoeft said. “If you feel like you gave the majority of your life to your country and you’re not being listened to, that is a hard pill to swallow. That’s why she was upset.”

by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 02/03/2023 - 1:28pm

see whole thread

The new standard of toughness in the GOP: posing with a gun and boasting about how you personally would shoot down a balloon.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) February 4, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 02/04/2023 - 5:47pm

Trump pussed out multiple times when it came to Chinese spy balloons. Do you think it had anything to do with Ivanka’s Chinese trademarks? https://t.co/f2wKrHdsRg
— Fellarific (@fellarific) February 4, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 02/04/2023 - 5:49pm

Man, all those clown parties for 4-year-olds when the clown shows up with balloons - gonna be like Gunsmike.

by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 02/04/2023 - 7:00pm

Jenna is literally making things up to be outraged about.

LAX is doing renovations, and this men’s bathroom has been temporarily converted to a women’s bathroom. (You can even see the sign has been tacked over the .)

Also, I thought only “groomers” filmed inside bathrooms. https://t.co/MXUnuF3dGU
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) February 4, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 02/04/2023 - 6:15pm

Trump taunts Haley about past statements on challenging him https://t.co/hw1ZfEDorJ pic.twitter.com/SYFmodl5UX
— The Hill (@thehill) February 4, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 02/04/2023 - 7:22pm

“In two straight-to-camera videos this week, Trump suggested that parents should select school principals through a “direct election” process and threatened to end federal funding for schools that teach “a child that they could be trapped in the wrong body”” https://t.co/A3KKuju5rV
— The UnWokable Podcast (@UnWokablePod) February 5, 2023

Republican presidential hopefuls have begun casting themselves as impassioned defenders of “parental rights,” turning schoolbooks and curricula, doctors’ offices, and sports leagues into a new political battleground https://t.co/33GOaGCQDM
— CNN (@CNN) February 4, 2023

This is definitely a major thing, and what's more, I see very little evidence of national Dem politicians addressing it one way or another, or in any which way. Why not?

(I hope we aren't going to have to revisit things like how much in the bag the Dem party is to the teacher's unions - that's really a negative as far as any moderate voters much less swings. Parent voters are the demographic to worry about, not the grade school teachers.in unions.)

by artappraiser on Sat, 02/04/2023 - 8:50pm

Worth thinking about (it is after all, how the far right approached abortion, playing the long game while most people didn't counter because they thought the most more restrictive laws could do was make it 'legal but rare", tempering late term availability)

This piece from the far-right website Revolver News is better than most of the centrist commentary on “wokeness” because it explicitly states the goal is to keep liberal and left-wing opponents disoriented and cement right-wing control over education https://t.co/fLuy3yhY0V pic.twitter.com/UputjsMO8H
— David Austin Walsh (@DavidAstinWalsh) February 5, 2023

I mean obviously take an anonymous piece of hack writing on a news aggregation website with a grain of salt but as a piece of political analysis it’s better than what gets into the @nytimes about DeSantis these days.
— David Austin Walsh (@DavidAstinWalsh) February 5, 2023

Doesn’t matter how many times the right says “we are doing this in bad faith to stymie liberals” into video cameras airing live on TV liberals will never not take the bait because they have no core ideology except for token opposition to conservatism
— aarond (@aarond) February 5, 2023

Walsh is Postdoc @UVA. I study far-right politics, political culture, conservatism, labor, and political economy. Book: TAKING AMERICA BACK // Yale Press

by artappraiser on Sun, 02/05/2023 - 11:39pm

"liberals will never not take the bait because they have no core ideology except for token opposition to conservatism" -
you mean retarded statements like this? "conservatism" means a grab-bag of stupid shit destructive moves under "owning the libs", vs a "core ideology" that includes actual lists of policies? I mean, I remember the 70's when "conservatives" was actually a coherent set of somewhat complementary ideas, disagree or not. Now it's just rhetorical bullshit. This isn't "token" opposition - this is fundamental horror at how stupid & shit-disturbing the right has begun, vs a real sparring partner in the arena of ideas.

by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 02/06/2023 - 7:44am

On the subject of teachers clearing out libraries or face felony charges...

Sometimes you just have to read the bill for yourself.... pic.twitter.com/GSCeRQLsc6
— Black. Conservative. Educator. Free Thinker (@FavoriteTeach11) February 5, 2023

1/I wish non-Floridans would simply talk to an actual Florida teacher. https://t.co/KCOhYhWaoO
— Black. Conservative. Educator. Free Thinker (@FavoriteTeach11) February 5, 2023

2/ Me teaching the "Forbidden" since the Stop Woke Act pic.twitter.com/VqoSwlzWC9
— Black. Conservative. Educator. Free Thinker (@FavoriteTeach11) February 5, 2023

3/ For those of you who like to say it doesn't count because I teach at a predominantly Black school....

It does!

In addition, I know several teachers who teach my AA History in predominantly White schools with no problems...

Can someone please tag a Florida teacher who
— Black. Conservative. Educator. Free Thinker (@FavoriteTeach11) February 5, 2023

4/ changed the way they teach Black History since the Stop Woke Act?

I have questions.

Further, the Block isn't about getting rid of Black History.

It's about getting rid of anything that has NOTHING to do with Black History.

End.
— Black. Conservative. Educator. Free Thinker (@FavoriteTeach11) February 5, 2023

by artappraiser on Sun, 02/05/2023 - 1:04am

Threatening teaches with felony violations to get them to abide?

by PeraclesPlease on Sun, 02/05/2023 - 11:34am

She's saying they aren't about anything of import. It's basically the same as "momoe" said here about Desantis and my one brother says to me privately : you're taking troll bait which is for political effect on lefties only and isn't affecting a damn thing in Florida and Desantis is doing a good job as governor while he plays that game .And if you don't "get" how that is meant to trigger you into jihad mode that is unattractive to normies, you won't get why he gets high approval rating and go "but the Dems should have won!" You are being played. To get outraged about nothing real.

by artappraiser on Sun, 02/05/2023 - 1:18pm

Ah, but i haven't written anything about the law at all until now, only noting that a felony for misteaching is a pretty over-the-top threat to have on the books.

So technically i don't think I've "taken the troll bait".

I know the subjects I'd focus on for K-12 and there's little about addressing all the historical wrongs of the world.

The chatGPT software is another example of how it's going to be hard for the kids of today to find a job tomorrow. Being able to rage about racial injustice won't help that.

by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 02/10/2023 - 4:21am

And it seems Dems are still winning elections, so maybe not everyone is talking crazy shit, and maybe it's as much media focusing on the extremes rather than the majority of Dems, esp. in the public. (hard to say what % of party apparatus is controlled by overwoke types, tho prolly less than how much quoted & interviewed.)

(Meant to past something on PA elections, Held majority by 1 seat)

One of the revelations re Russian bots in Macedonia is a lot of time leftwing fake bots were fighting rightwing fake bots - not so one would win, but to increase the chaos. Seems to happen in real life as well as whichever domestic online presence is manipulated - the show becomes more of the point than any actual argument or policy - people stay confused, such as with Trump's continual chaos monkey. It only takes 1 contrived Antifa opponent to say, "see, they're doing it again!" and yes, they can usually go to the usual suspects.

You seem to be saying exactly this elsewhere.

(You keep saying "Sista Souljah", but i largely think that ship's sailed - MTG or Nicole Hannah-Jones or the Ilhan Omar or Kari Lake - they have their constituencies, denouncing is irrelevant (ok, maybe it hurt Lake. Tulsi thrives on being a joke with some superficial trapping). Aaron Maté and Max Blumenthal can be proven wrong a million times a day and they'll keep their constituency. Jesse Jackson took a hit for anti-Semitic language 35 years ago - now it's all baked in.)

Not so long ago liberals were hypocrites who understood what the guy in the blue suit was saying reflexively and didn't need to say it while they flaunted their bien pensant opinions for clout.

Now their progeny are all high on their own supply.

Another blanket young/old liberals statement.

I mean, my generalizations about Republicans/the right are mostly about the old values many seem to have abandon d or don't hold their representatives to, and how successful unscientific, economically damaging discourse had taken over their party's platforms. I still believe a lot of both parties don't have time to think about these things too much, but the internet helps us draw up hardened pre-fixed positions anyway.

So are all liberals guilty of this, or is it yet another exaggeration theoretically searching for truth?

by PeraclesPlease on Fri, 02/10/2023 - 5:47am

Bolton is against Trump and Pompeo and for Desantis; Desantis likes Bolton:

So, some good news!

‘John Bolton on Thursday called former President Donald Trump's 2024 bid "poison" to the Republican Party, and insisted the former president's reelection campaign is "going downhill." ‘https://t.co/kCDpFxkTMs
— Mark Merizan (@MarkMerizan) January 27, 2023

Trump posts about John Bolton on Truth Social Today.

Bolton just told the media that “Trump’s 2024 campaign is poison to the GOP.”

Bolton has been a donor of Ron DeSantis’s for many years, and is someone Ron says he admires. pic.twitter.com/qpTFAphLqS
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) January 27, 2023

WATCH: In this video, Ron DeSantis says he views his leadership style as being similar to Ambassador John Bolton, & said Bolton is someone he admires and aspires to be like.

Bolton just told the media, “Trump’s 2024 campaign is poison to the GOP.”

Bolton is a DeSantis donor. pic.twitter.com/pI9mwNdcLi
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) January 27, 2023

by artappraiser on Sun, 02/05/2023 - 2:53pm

The network of donors and activist groups led by conservative billionaire Charles Koch will oppose Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination, mounting a direct challenge to the former president’s campaign to win back the White House.https://t.co/hZk7ARRvnU
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 5, 2023

by artappraiser on Sun, 02/05/2023 - 6:33pm

Marjorie Taylor Greene is presiding over the House pic.twitter.com/Cc99EwzNgi
— Acyn (@Acyn) February 6, 2023

by artappraiser on Mon, 02/06/2023 - 5:39pm

In his State of the State address, Gov. Kemp announced reinstating HOPE Scholarship and Grants to cover 100% of college tuition.

He highlighted scholarship recipient Oba Samaye, a first-generation college student at the University of Georgia.

Tune in to GPB Lawmakers at 7 p.m. pic.twitter.com/bSx8E4F5q3
— GPB News (@gpbnews) January 25, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 02/07/2023 - 12:08am

an ex-Romney campaign strategist on Niki Haley:

"[Nikki Haley] went out and said that Trump was everything that she taught her children not to be, and she went from that to saying that she wants to carry on the Trump legacy. It's just so sad. She's already broken before she gets in the race." https://t.co/JsEa31QBh8
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) February 6, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 02/07/2023 - 12:22am

Mitt Romney on SS and Medicare:

Rs and Ds both recognize the fact that Social Security and Medicare are heading for insolvency. Without action, retirees will see drastic benefit cuts. If you’re against a *process* to even talk about possible solutions, you’re not serious about saving these programs. https://t.co/QKoc8eAkKu
— Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) February 6, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 02/07/2023 - 12:31am

I'm still confused why people argue DeSantis's numbers will go down once Trump attacks him. It's been months of these kinds of direct messages from Trump. https://t.co/6SwYqc1auf
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) February 7, 2023

DeSantis leads Trump in head-to-head match-up: poll https://t.co/Cg5oNCqJPS
— NewsNation (@NewsNation) February 7, 2023

I'm now tracking name recognition to my 2024 GOP polling average. Across 8 recent national polls, only 83% of the GOP knows DeSantis. That means he has a golden opportunity to grow with the other 17% relative to Trump.
— Logan Phillips (@LoganR2WH) February 7, 2023

If DeSantis does similarly well with those voters, his support will rise by 9%, and he'd take a 55.3% to 44.7% lead over Donald Trump. pic.twitter.com/VeWzSaunBu
— Logan Phillips (@LoganR2WH) February 7, 2023

This doesn't guarantee a DeSantis victory by any stretch. Not only could Trump knock him down a peg, but another serious contender could emerge who is in the low single digits today - much like Buttigieg in 20, Bernie and Trump in 16, or Clinton in 1992.
— Logan Phillips (@LoganR2WH) February 7, 2023

Nonetheless, it's a clear sign that Trump could lose the nomination to DeSantis. And that is why Trump will keep attacking DeSantis every chance he gets. The stronger DeSantis polls, the more heat Trump will throw his way.
— Logan Phillips (@LoganR2WH) February 7, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 02/07/2023 - 8:10pm

So now the smart ones wlll have an answer to all those pro-choicers who say they don't support live children:

"However, now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, many Republicans have gone on the defensive about their abortion bans, including by offering to expand government programs aimed at women and families." https://t.co/fXZ0ytgZms
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) February 7, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 02/07/2023 - 8:31pm

.⁦@LeaderMcConnell wearing a bright yellow and blue tie — Ukraine colors — as he walks into the House chamber for #SOTU. pic.twitter.com/NN0Sf7jpTJ
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) February 8, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 02/07/2023 - 8:51pm

Speaker McCarthy has quietly appointed Rep. Gaetz, who led the unsuccessful push to derail McCarthy's bid for speaker, to the select committee investigating the so-called weaponization of the federal government. https://t.co/UWlKBf7S99
— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 8, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 02/07/2023 - 8:53pm

GOP State of the Union response by Sarah Huckabee Sanders is heavy on culture war themes. Excerpts include: "radical left's America... children are taught to hate one another on account of their race... woke fantasies... big government colludes with big tech"
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) February 8, 2023

(he just got the text of the speech)

by artappraiser on Tue, 02/07/2023 - 8:55pm

Historical continuity.

As anyone with a passing familiarity of the House GOP in the last 12 years knows, the centrists raise their voices from time to time but they don't buck leadership when it really counts. It's unlike the Dem caucus, where the centrists do flex vs. leaders. https://t.co/IPwaAmNMPq
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) February 7, 2023

Don Bacon is one of the most centrist House Republicans. He sits in a swing district Biden won. He's been an outspoken critic of the GOP's far right, even floating a speaker backed by Dems. If Bacon is not on board, it’s doubtful ANY Republican will be.https://t.co/I05l5WTZ9j
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) February 7, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 02/07/2023 - 8:59pm

sure does look like what the Mittster said

“Hey, you oughta be embarrassed” https://t.co/LBxRa7MVjo
— Christian Vanderbrouk (@UrbanAchievr) February 8, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 02/07/2023 - 9:04pm

CNN caught what Mitt actually said to Santos:

Sen. Mitt Romney told Rep. George Santos: “You don’t belong here,” according to a member who witnessed the tense exchange in the House chamber before President Biden's State of the Union https://t.co/VS0u3BicNP
— CNN (@CNN) February 8, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 02/07/2023 - 11:21pm

Reporters torturing Mittster about Santos after the speech:

Here's Sen. Mitt Romney's exchange with reporters after his scuffle with Rep. George Santos on the House floor. pic.twitter.com/mY3xYFfOxB
— Nicole Markus (@nicolejmarkus) February 8, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/08/2023 - 12:50am

better video, shows Mitt was happy to opine on Santos

Holy shit Mitt Romney pic.twitter.com/jyJlS94oXM
— Wu-Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) February 8, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/08/2023 - 2:44pm

Romney-Santos Confrontation Reflects a Broader Clash Within the G.O.P.

The run-in between the senator from Utah, an institutionalist who prizes decorum, and the newly elected, embattled congressman from New York encapsulated the tension inside the Republican Party.

By Annie Karni @ NYTimes.com, Feb. 8, 2023, 5:57 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON — [....]

Mr. Santos, by contrast, invented what now appears to have been a largely fictional persona to propel himself to Congress, and has spent his first weeks on Capitol Hill thumbing his nose at convention and refusing to address the cascade of allegations against him. He encapsulates the ethos that has come to drive the Republican Party since the rise of Mr. Trump, in which shamelessness in the face of attacks is rewarded and the notion of keeping one’s head down, even in the midst of scandals of one’s own making, is seen as a sign of weakness.

“It’s not the first time in history I’ve been told to shut up and go to the back of the room, especially by people who come from a privileged background,” Mr. Santos said Wednesday afternoon. “I’m never going to shut up and go to the back.”

The run-in between the two men symbolized the broader clash between Republicans like Mr. Romney, a rapidly dwindling group, and the ascendant right wing that is dominating the new House Republican majority.

Surrounded by Republicans who defended Mr. Trump through two impeachment trials and lambasted Mr. Romney for voting twice to convict and remove him as president, the Utah senator has long found himself an island within the G.O.P.

On Tuesday night, the hall was similarly filled with Republican leaders and members who have mostly refused to punish Mr. Santos or call on him to resign. Mr. Romney, by contrast, said that not only should Mr. Santos have been keeping a low profile in the chamber on a meaningful night, he “shouldn’t be in Congress” at all.

Some observers said that criticism was actually a broader critique of the G.O.P.

“George Santos certainly deserves the stern Mitt Romney lecture,” said Sarah Longwell, an anti-Trump Republican strategist. “But so does the whole Republican Party right now.”

Mr. Santos clearly does not feel chastened, and it is plain to see why. Rising stars of the House Republican conference like Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia have employed some of the same tactics and been rewarded handsomely. Ms. Greene punctuated President Biden’s address Tuesday night with outbursts and jeers, behavior that is anathema to Mr. Romney, but that has helped vault her to prominence and popularity within the Republican Party.

Mr. Santos did his own heckling online on Tuesday night after his confrontation with Mr. Romney by tweeting, “Hey @MittRomney just a reminder that you will NEVER be PRESIDENT!” [....]

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/08/2023 - 11:23pm

Chris Christie Feb. 5

I’m the target of Donald Trump’s new tantrum. None of his lies about me today bothered him when he asked me to prep him for every general election debate or offered me 3 different cabinet posts. He’s the only man to lose to Biden outside Delaware. That loss to Joe still stings.
— Chris Christie (@GovChristie) February 5, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/08/2023 - 1:46am

McCarthy told them not to do it, but they did it anyway:

I have a lot of thoughts on SOTU—and will have a new piece up by tonight, hopefully—but one thing is abundantly clear:

McCarthy failed his first real test as Speaker of the House. https://t.co/ib8wUw2T1G
— Angry Staffer (@Angry_Staffer) February 8, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/08/2023 - 1:04pm

More McCarthy looking hopeless:

This is insane. https://t.co/4C3PUgRBBt
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) February 8, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/08/2023 - 9:08pm

it is true that this Twitter/Hunter Biden hearing is not going well for Republicans. But Hannity, Tucker, and Ingraham will still be able to find 20 second clips of the Jordans and Comers of the world owning libs, and in that world that's the most important thing.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 8, 2023

This is similar to how Desantis courts both groups, keeping the Fox pundit demo by pandering to culture wars issues that don't matter much in the end

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/08/2023 - 1:52pm

Aaron Rupar -

Incredibly rich thread about what House Republicans are choosing to prioritize for the next 2 years. The same bumbling crew that held more than 30 hearings on the Benghazi manufactureversy and found nothing are focusing on Hunter Biden’s laptop & Elon’s TwitterFiles vendetta. https://t.co/gTXe97g6Lv
— Sanho Tree (@SanhoTree) February 9, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/08/2023 - 8:58pm

Tom Nichols retweeted:

Good morning! Allow me to make myself unpopular. Again. https://t.co/mGXXQ4ZTVn
— Jeff B. is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) February 8, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/08/2023 - 9:12pm

My fellow Republicans… you really want this as a role model for your kids? Do you really think the next generation will want to be part of this? I don’t pic.twitter.com/oXIQpJJqhH
— Adam Kinzinger #fella (@AdamKinzinger) February 8, 2023

I get it, the knee jerk reaction is to love or hate @POTUS speech based on your politics.

Without a doubt, Biden absolutely crushed the GOP “dumb yellers” masterfully. Every President will try to recreate and fail.

But I mourn the loss of decorum by GOP
— Adam Kinzinger #fella (@AdamKinzinger) February 8, 2023

The GOP should lead the censure of @RepMTG for her behavior.
— Adam Kinzinger #fella (@AdamKinzinger) February 8, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/08/2023 - 9:29pm

You're basically asking MTG to censure herself.

I mean, Jim "pedo to the metal" Jordan in charge of investigations & Matt "everything goes better with coke, even young girls" Gaetz receiving intelligence briefings?

Why not just identify all our blackmail weaknesses to our enemies? What could go wrong?

by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 02/09/2023 - 10:17am

Opinion Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s strange ‘woke’ rant reveals a big GOP problem

By Paul Waldman and Greg Sargent @ washingtonpost.com, February 8, 2023 at 3:34 p.m. EST

[....] At a House hearing Tuesday, Republicans hammered border police officials with hallucinatory notions about immigration. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) pushed them to say many arriving unaccompanied minors are MS-13 gang members, and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) prodded one official to say his testimony was doctored to make it less negative about the border. The officials politely shot down both assertions.

Still, the claims went viral, demonstrating the GOP skill at harnessing agitprop to compete in our attention economy. But at the same time, House Republicans have failed to persuade the moderates in their own caucus to support the party’s extreme new border security bill. They can demagogue an issue brilliantly, but they can’t persuade the middle to support their policies.

There does seem to be a theory guiding these efforts, one developed during Bill Clinton’s presidency. Pour enough wild accusations and feigned outrage into the discourse and whip the base into a frenzy, and swing voters might develop general unease about the opposition and the country’s direction. Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg calls this the right’s “negative sentiment machine.”

But how well has this worked for Republicans in recent cycles?

To be fair, all of us, liberals included, are prone to cherry-picking from electoral outcomes to convince ourselves that the public shares our cultural vision. We might be overreading how significant it is that Sanders failed the generally impossible task of delivering a cogent and effective State of the Union response, or what 2022 meant in terms of rejection of the right’s culture-warmongering. After all, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won a big reelection victory in November as the foremost culture warrior on the right and plainly intends to take his approach national in 2024.

Still, recent focus groups of Florida swing voters found that few could define the term “wokeness,” raising doubts about how important it was to DeSantis’s reelection. And again, similar GOP candidates lost in many places outside Florida.

Yet DeSantis’s victory appears to have instilled a touch of hubris among right-wingers about the national potential of his type of cultural politics. On Tuesday night, Sanders seemed deeply in the grip of that hubris.

But consider what happened that night. Biden talked about protecting Social Security and the need to continue creating the green and tech manufacturing jobs of the future, many for Americans without a college degree. Then Sanders fulminated about confusing acronyms.

Democrats should relish taking that contrast into 2024.

by artappraiser on Thu, 02/09/2023 - 12:02am

The New Lincoln Project!
(Ukraine Flag…………) https://t.co/uVf60EwnUO
— The UnWokable Podcast (@UnWokablePod) February 9, 2023

by artappraiser on Thu, 02/09/2023 - 2:47am

Ygelsias:

Pay attention to the rich Republican / poor Republican splits on DeSantis / Trump polling.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) February 9, 2023

I mean I’m sure if Trump loses the nomination he’ll work his ass off to make sure Obama/Trump crossover voters and disengaged low-SES Trump fans turn out to support the GOP ticket so it probably doesn’t matter.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) February 9, 2023

When you think about it, it’s actually pretty funny that one of the leading figures of the GOP is a grifter who everyone knows has zero commitment to the party as an institution or any of its ideas.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) February 9, 2023

by artappraiser on Thu, 02/09/2023 - 6:41pm

Pathetic. https://t.co/AN153RdoXn
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) February 9, 2023

by artappraiser on Thu, 02/09/2023 - 8:37pm

4 Republicans voted to confirm—Collins no surprise, Tim Scott & Lindsey Graham because she’s from S.C., but Thom Tillis of N.C. is interesting —9th most right-wing in 2020 per @govtrack but last year voted for gun regulation, then codifying same-sex marriage, now this. https://t.co/M8hrQjXjvT
— Kurt Andersen (@KBAndersen) February 10, 2023

by artappraiser on Thu, 02/09/2023 - 10:35pm

The GOP Is Starting to Plot Against Donald Trump - POLITICO

https://t.co/0TKezJXZO2
— Mike Walker (@New_Narrative) February 10, 2023

by artappraiser on Thu, 02/09/2023 - 10:52pm

McConnell BURNS Rick Scott:
confirms “that was the Scott plan” to sunset SocSecurity & Medicare
“I think it will be a challenge for him to deal with this in his own re-election in FL: a state with more elderly people than any other state in America”
On @terrymeiners @840WHAS: pic.twitter.com/yAIhVLb6LY
— Joel Lawson (@JoelLawsonDC) February 10, 2023

FOX: How's your relationship with Mitch McConnell?

RICK SCOTT: I'm going to vote for the citizens of Florida.

FOX: But are you guys cool with each other? Are you talking?

SCOTT: Well, he just kicked me off a committee. So that was pretty petty. pic.twitter.com/zr0xqCZwKK
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 9, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 02/10/2023 - 12:16am

A Republican Makes Jokes About an Unlikely Subject: Her Own Party

In frequently bawdy terms at a press club dinner, Representative Nancy Mace brought down the house with her barbs at fellow House members and other Republicans.

By Maggie Astor @NYTimes.com, Feb. 9, 2023

Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina has worked hard to cultivate an image as a different sort of Republican — one willing to publicly criticize former President Donald J. Trump and the party’s embrace of the far right, even as she usually votes the party line and has come to adopt some of the same rhetoric.

That image was on full display on Wednesday at the Washington Press Club Foundation’s annual dinner — one of several chummy galas where politicians and journalists poke fun at the people, actions and inaction that affect 330 million Americans’ lives, before returning to the White House and the Capitol to get back to the action. Or inaction.

In frequently bawdy terms, Ms. Mace joked about the 15 votes and the substantial concessions to the right-wing Freedom Caucus that it took for Representative Kevin McCarthy to be elected House speaker; the Jan. 6 riot; antisemitic comments from Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia; and even the child sex trafficking investigation involving Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida.

In a jab at Mr. McCarthy, she said: “I haven’t seen someone assume that many positions to appease the crazy Republicans since Stormy Daniels,” referring to the pornographic film actress who said Mr. Trump had paid her $130,000 not to talk publicly about an affair she said they had.

“Let’s be honest: We all knew Matt Gaetz would never let the vote get to 18,” she said, adding that Mr. Gaetz would have been in attendance if only he could have found a babysitter — “to be his date.” It was revealed in 2021 that Mr. Gaetz was the subject of a Justice Department investigation over allegations that he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid for her to travel with him. (He denies the allegations and has not been charged with any crime.)

Ms. Mace also managed to combine into one joke two of the biggest elephants in any room containing congressional Republicans: Mr. Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him, and the fact that one of the G.O.P.’s newly elected members, Representative George Santos of New York, fabricated nearly his entire résumé.

“Really, who lies about playing college volleyball? Like, who does that?” she said of Mr. Santos, who, among many other things, claimed to have been a member of Baruch College’s volleyball team. “If you’re going to lie, at least make it about something big, like you actually won the 2020 presidential election.”

Senator Raphael Warnock, Democrat of Georgia, also spoke at the dinner and joined in the mocking of Mr. Santos, working him — and his alleged mishandling of donations to GoFundMe campaigns for dogs — into a joke about Alvin, the dog Mr. Warnock famously walked in a campaign ad.

“My opponents were going around saying that I lied about Alvin the beagle being my dog,” he said. “Here is the truth. I’m going to give you the exclusive. Alvin was actually a paid actor. He needed the money after a Long Island congressman stole thousands of dollars from his GoFundMe page.”

Mr. Warnock’s routine — which also alluded to people mistaking him for another Black senator, Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina — was much more restrained than Ms. Mace’s.

For Ms. Mace, no topic seemed off limits — not even Trump supporters’ storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election, an attack that led to multiple deaths.

“I know everyone thinks Republicans aren’t funny,” she said. “But if you get a bunch of us together, we can be a real riot.”

by artappraiser on Fri, 02/10/2023 - 3:30am

Roger Stone condemns Desantis supporters for spreading false stories about Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, saying that Trump only hung out at Epstein’s place once and “left after only 15 minutes because he was uncomfortable with the mix of younger women and a limited number of men.” pic.twitter.com/Ee7fnypny0
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) February 10, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 02/10/2023 - 8:03pm

DeSantis is reportedly forcing attendees at his events to go through metal detectors and he’s also refusing to attend events unless guns are banned. Yet he’s simultaneously pushing for permitless carry to strip gun safety requirements. Safety for him, violence for everyone else.
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) February 10, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 02/10/2023 - 9:30pm

2. Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) claimed to have Jewish roots. However, this appears to have been a fabrication.

The Congresswoman's paternal grandfather, Heinrich Mayerhofer, served in Nazi Germany's army during World War II.
— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) February 10, 2023

by PeraclesPlease on Sat, 02/11/2023 - 1:13am

DeSantis takes on ESG while Trump takes on Rihanna. What else do you need to know? pic.twitter.com/sitEOAhxRi
— David Sacks (@DavidSacks) February 14, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 02/14/2023 - 1:02pm

I happen to like Meatballs. But this will turn off a lot of conservative voters. Not a wise move if true. I hope it’s not.https://t.co/ghLP1Q1M7A
— Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) February 14, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 02/14/2023 - 8:47pm

DOJ tells Matt Gaetz that he won't be charged in sex trafficking probe, his lawyers say https://t.co/GxX2kZ5fUx via @nbcnews

The rich and powerful get special treatment from the DOJ.

Merrick Garland should RESIGN
— Heal the Planet (@fwtoney) February 15, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/15/2023 - 5:24pm

Exclusive: Attorney for Gaetz’s ex-girlfriend says prosecutors didn’t have credible evidence to charge

@CNN, Published 5:23 PM EST, Sat February 18, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 02/21/2023 - 4:37am

Bill raising abortion to homicide draws Republican pushback https://t.co/ocRqKEjQlg
— Enigmatic America (@Freedom4Enigma) February 16, 2023

by artappraiser on Thu, 02/16/2023 - 3:50am

NBC News confirms: Rick Scott has now amended his controversial 'Rescue America' plan that called for all federal legislation to sunset.

The plan now lists "specific exceptions of Social Security, Medicare, national security, veterans benefits, and other essential services."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 17, 2023

(Biden SOTU ploy wins. For now. They'll try again another time.)

by artappraiser on Fri, 02/17/2023 - 1:32pm

Donald Trump to visit East Palestine, Ohio, after toxic train derailment, son says https://t.co/36GV8py5om
— KCRG-TV9 (@KCRG) February 18, 2023

by artappraiser on Sun, 02/19/2023 - 1:08am

Virginia Gov Youngkin follows Florida on seeking review of AP African American studies class - The Washington Post https://t.co/7a79ksXozP
— Patricia Zengerle (@ReutersZengerle) February 18, 2023

by artappraiser on Sun, 02/19/2023 - 1:11am

SCOOP: @VivekGRamaswamy, a leading intellectual godfather of the anti-woke movement, is planning to run for president. I recently went to Iowa with the former biotech entrepreneur, who’s worth hundreds of millions of dollars, as he tested out his message.https://t.co/dOxznZmCc6
— Daniel Lippman (@dlippman) February 13, 2023

by artappraiser on Mon, 02/20/2023 - 1:03pm

DeSantis:

I visited Staten Island to talk about how law & order has been central to FL's success.

FL leads the nation in protecting LEOs & our crime rate is at a 50-year low, while NYC saw a 23% surge in major crime in 2022.

Anti-police politicians should stop catering to the woke mob. pic.twitter.com/FpFDy0V4DZ
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantisFL) February 20, 2023

Prepping for the all important Staten Island primary. https://t.co/u3h5JBFlJO
— Reed Galen (@reedgalen) February 20, 2023

by artappraiser on Mon, 02/20/2023 - 2:04pm

First look at DeSantis foreign policy:

- Blames US for Russian invasion of Ukraine

- Attacks US president while in war zone

- Signals we should dial back support for Ukraine

- minimizes RUS threat

- Anti Afghanistan withdrawal

- Bellicose talk about China https://t.co/jgnkKg65nI
— Tim Miller (@Timodc) February 20, 2023

by artappraiser on Mon, 02/20/2023 - 11:08pm

full video thread on Trump's Presidents' Day event -- one that had a number of notable moments https://t.co/yfJMYV0waY
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 21, 2023

Nikki Haley cannot, for the life of her, explain how she differs from Trump https://t.co/mFlFrwgj4k
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 21, 2023

by artappraiser on Mon, 02/20/2023 - 11:11pm

.@AlyssaFarah comes out strongly against Ron DeSantis, trashing him as someone who's not conservative & instead is obsessed w/"capturing media attention," "ril[ing] up the base," & irritating "lifelong conservatives" like her

She says Hogan & Sununu are the real conservatives. pic.twitter.com/MB5GYKEAaG
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) February 20, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 02/21/2023 - 12:33pm

MTG's "national divorce" shtick isn't new, but the combination of slow news day and more political power made it get more traction this week.

It's still fundamentally 1) a nonsensical idea that would put her in blue America and 2) a troll. https://t.co/pbn5uKez5J
— Philip Bump (@pbump) February 21, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 02/21/2023 - 12:39pm

Trump Trashes New York Post, Fox News, WSJ, Karl Rove, Salena Zito In Burst of DeSantis Rage

By Caleb Howe @ Mediaite Feb 19th, 2023, 4:49 pm

by artappraiser on Tue, 02/21/2023 - 2:46pm

a useful reminder of a certain conservative demographic

Ann Coulter: Trump is “profoundly stupid.” pic.twitter.com/95l0smx2vI
— PatriotTakes (@patriottakes) February 18, 2023

by artappraiser on Tue, 02/21/2023 - 10:22pm

I challenge every GOP candidate to join me in making some easy commitments:
- End affirmative action
- Abandon climate religion
- Total decoupling from China
- 8-year limits for all federal bureaucrats
- Say NO to central bank digital currencies
- Release the “state action” files
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) February 22, 2023

There’s a lot else we can disagree on. But if you can’t make these basic commitments, you shouldn’t be a serious GOP contender.
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) February 22, 2023

He's gonna force them to talk real?!

by artappraiser on Tue, 02/21/2023 - 11:48pm

The amount of people who are already going after @VivekGRamaswamy in the few hours since he officially announced he was running for President tells me that the Trump base especially, is very afraid of him.

Good. They should be.
— Karlyn Borysenko (@DrKarlynB) February 22, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/22/2023 - 1:08am

I went on Tucker’s show last night to announce my candidacy. I committed to ending affirmative action & abandoning climate religion. Looks like the DNC issued a statement and is very unhappy with my entry into the race. pic.twitter.com/3azaHJHQCm
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) February 22, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/22/2023 - 3:24pm

There's something amazing about seeing a former RNC chairman being told by his state party that he's no longer a Republican. https://t.co/pUf8mju6kK
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen) February 21, 2023

Gov. Racicot is one of the most honorable, thoughtful and patriotic leaders I’ve had the privilege to meet. https://t.co/JLYVeovG4T
— Reed Galen (@reedgalen) February 22, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/22/2023 - 1:19am

DeSantis' bragging rights:

Florida has more jobs than New York for the first time https://t.co/JOGy3iCndv
— Bloomberg (@business) February 22, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/22/2023 - 1:32pm

Outstanding piece.

Due to economic stagnation, policymakers turn to “political capitalism” to reward constituencies at others’ expense, bringing regions and sectors into culturally-coded conflict.

Dems now represent credentialed elites in healthcare, tech and finance… https://t.co/p4oUv9Eyj8
— Russ Greene (@GreenPlusAnE) February 22, 2023

And R’s increasingly represent those with fewer credentials and those who work in the material economy (energy, mining, transportation, etc.)

One piece missing from this is that the left’s environmental policy and ESG agenda is deeply hostile to red state industries.
— Russ Greene (@GreenPlusAnE) February 22, 2023

The open question now is how this “dealignment” will translate to policy. Will supply side progressives (don’t call them neoliberals!) gain a foothold among Dems?

Will R’s embrace the administrative state, or heed @avik’s advice here? https://t.co/99IyEqImEt
— Russ Greene (@GreenPlusAnE) February 22, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/22/2023 - 3:28pm

p.s. hence, Dems like Yglesias saying things like "Let Joe Manchin Have His Pipeline"?

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/22/2023 - 3:34pm

If you're a fan of large marge, you need to read this article.

Mitt Romney Has A Blunt Message For Marjorie Taylor Greene https://t.co/c5L0as1eLl
— Tim (@LuebbertTim) February 22, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/22/2023 - 4:05pm

tne new anti-woke guy's anti-identity politics video is going viral:

This video has 1.3M views in less than 24 hours. Millennials, take note, and take hold of the torch of liberty. https://t.co/tETuODO1UQ
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) February 22, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/22/2023 - 6:27pm

note this tweet is from Chuck Schumer:

Mike Pence is calling out Republicans for not being open about their plans to cut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security: “No one in Washington DC wants to talk about it.”

House Republicans need to show Americans what they want to cut and their plan to address the debt ceiling. https://t.co/RFlyMULOxo
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) February 22, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/22/2023 - 8:59pm

Praise from a senior Biden admin official for GOP House chair of foreign affairs committee who admin seems to see as an ally in continuing bipartisan support for Ukraine https://t.co/c05BWXSUyH
— Laura Rozen (@lrozen) February 23, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 02/22/2023 - 9:28pm

From the horse’s mouth — vote Ron DeSantis if you want someone who’ll engage in less crazy nonsense than Trump in favor of more laser-like focus on cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits. https://t.co/U5e3nujlAv
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) February 22, 2023

by artappraiser on Thu, 02/23/2023 - 8:37pm

Mitt Romney today on Ukraine, long Twitter thread, starting here:

It is in America’s interest to support Ukraine. If Russia can invade, subjugate, and pillage Ukraine with impunity, it will do the same again to others, and a world at war diminishes the security of Americans.
— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) February 23, 2023

by artappraiser on Thu, 02/23/2023 - 8:56pm

My #1 takeaway here in Iowa: people don’t want to just hear about the problem anymore. They want solutions. They’re sick of obsessing over “who.” They want to hear about the “what” & the “why.” I’m surprised by how many people are showed up in droves at our events. Says something https://t.co/Ks5BhtgWmE
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) February 24, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 02/24/2023 - 3:47pm

hmmm interesting meme I haven't seen before about Lindsey Graham:

RINO/TRAITOR! https://t.co/IAVmBR6S14
— Jennifer Cassidy (@Jennifer33950) February 23, 2023

could it mean it's possible he's going to be thrown under the bus?

by artappraiser on Fri, 02/24/2023 - 4:26pm

Rudy's in East Palestine, OH; just pointing it out:

Courtney lives right next to where the train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio.

I'm here to offer my experience with crisis management, as I'm concerned by the federal government's slow response.

We're going to make sure Courtney—and everyone else here—gets the help they need. pic.twitter.com/rPsOwOqVSc
— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) February 23, 2023

by artappraiser on Fri, 02/24/2023 - 6:19pm

There’s one thing Republicans do, and that’s get in line when it matters. Despite what they tell you, Trump isn’t going anywhere in 2024. @TheRickWilson breaks it down on MSNBC. pic.twitter.com/sogVjlTliy
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) February 25, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 02/25/2023 - 12:49am

this is a reminder that the anti-funding-Ukraine crowd that Carlson is stoking here:

The President of the United States is personally visiting a corrupt foreign country to announce a half billion dollars in new spending. Meanwhile you have a mushroom cloud over East Palestine, Ohio; the animals are dying and the water is glowing. pic.twitter.com/daJCd3nF3d
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) February 21, 2023

is like only 28% of the U.S. public - SEE THE POLL INFO. I POSTED HERE on the Ukraine news thread.

I have no idea why Carlson is beating this drum, but suffice it to say: THIS DRUM IS NOT GOING TO WIN ANY ELECTIONS FOR THE GOP. It's only 28%

Read the whole article there - Americans may in general be isolationist, but on funding and backing the Ukrainians against Putin: not so much!

by artappraiser on Sun, 02/26/2023 - 5:27pm

and this of course

A lot of wierd shit has happened in the five decades of my life, but the single weirdest thing may be the relatively recent Republican embrace of totalitarian Russia. Just to own the libs? Pro NATO was literally a foundational belief of Reagan Republicanism.
— Peter Moskos (@PeterMoskos) February 27, 2023

by artappraiser on Mon, 02/27/2023 - 4:09am

Important to bear in mind as 2024 takes shape with a small-dollar donor base Trump has repeatedly gone back to the well with https://t.co/zgXcqmXm0D
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) February 26, 2023

by artappraiser on Mon, 02/27/2023 - 3:44am

i also think that, jeb https://t.co/MIAQhL2xbH
— Philip Bump (@pbump) February 27, 2023

by artappraiser on Mon, 02/27/2023 - 4:37pm

sucks for Ivanka?

Trump announces if elected that he will start a global trade war by implementing a mercantilist system. He will raise tariffs on “most foreign products,” phase out all imports from China in 4 years, and punish US companies who do business and invest in China. pic.twitter.com/867rDuz2O2
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) February 27, 2023

by artappraiser on Mon, 02/27/2023 - 4:45pm

I don't know if it is replicable, but negative attention from the NYT, MSNBC, and The New Yorker was great for Trump among Republicans and DeSantis was paying attention.
— Sam Haselby (@samhaselby) March 1, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 03/01/2023 - 3:34am

DeSantis plans to go after Wall St. next -

Republicans spent the last several decades promoting companies' political speech rights - through cases like Citizens United and Masterpiece Cakeshop.

But when companies disagree with Republican views, Republicans decide companies https://t.co/NspmcpCYSX… https://t.co/TM0H22HE8g
— Adam Kovacevich (@adamkovac) February 26, 2023

by artappraiser on Wed, 03/01/2023 - 3:47am

sometimes it almost seems like Trump gets it that DeSantis' culture wars are phony posturing meant to steal his fans under false pretext:

“Trump, allies say, seems set on ‘Ron DeSanctimonious,’ even though others around him don’t think it’s a bullseye. Some of the new ideas the former president’s entertained: ‘Ron DisHonest.’ ‘Ron DeEstablishment.’ Or even, ‘Tiny D.’” https://t.co/2ropKvmSWp
— Ashley Parker (@AshleyRParker) March 4, 2023

by artappraiser on Sat, 03/04/2023 - 3:10pm

In the News

Russia plays weak hand in Palestine
Russia plays weak hand in Palestine

submitted by PeraclesPlease 8 months ago

The intra-Palestinian meeting in Moscow has precedent

Russia's hosted such meetings in the past, most recently Feb 2019

Russia has long lamented the US' "monopolization" of the peace process & tried to carve out a niche for itself: mediating among the disunited Palestinians/2
— Hanna Notte (@HannaNotte) February 29, 2024

Read the article at https://twitter.com/HannaNotte/status/1763116222256701787

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Mother Jones is Reaching out to Alternative Party Voters
Mother Jones is Reaching out to Alternative Party Voters

submitted by HSG 8 months ago

Here's what I told them: https://halginsberg.com/vote-for-jill-stein-again/

Read the article at https://halginsberg.com/vote-for-jill-stein-again/

2 comments

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Controversial Brazil law curbing Indigenous rights comes...
Controversial Brazil law curbing Indigenous rights comes into force

submitted by artappraiser 10 months ago

Controversial Brazil law curbing Indigenous rights comes into force https://t.co/pCoDg05irX
— Gareth Harris (@garethharr) December 28, 2023

Read the article at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/28/brazil-law-indigenous-land-rights-claim-time-marker?CMP=share_btn_tw

1 comment

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Security Alert: U.S. Embassy Port-au-Prince, Haiti (...
Security Alert: U.S. Embassy Port-au-Prince, Haiti (December 25, 2023)

submitted by artappraiser 10 months ago

Location: U.S. Embassy and residential compounds

Events: Heavy gunfire is occuring around the area of the U.S. Embassy and residential compounds adjacent to the Trutier area of Tabarre. All Embassy personnel have been instructed to remain indoors and shelter-in-place until further notice. All others should avoid the area.

Actions to take:

Avoid the area;

Avoid demonstrations and any large gatherings of people;

Do not attempt to drive through roadblocks; and

If you encounter a roadblock, turn around and get to a safe area.

Read the article at https://ht.usembassy.gov/security-alert-u-s-embassy-port-au-prince-haiti-december-25-2023/

3 comments

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Pakistan Is Creating the World’s Next Refugee Crisis
Pakistan Is Creating the World’s Next Refugee Crisis

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

By The Editorial Board @ Bloomberg.com, December 8, 2023

A mass expulsion of Afghan migrants could destabilize the region and fuel radicalization. The West should pressure Islamabad to change course.

Read the article at https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-12-08/pakistan-s-expulsion-of-afghan-refugees-risks-another-crisis

6 comments

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Internet shut down in Chad
Internet shut down in Chad

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

All eyes on #Chad right now
Chad has two internet trunks coming into the country: One from the Red Sea via Sudan; the other from Cameroon. Not possible for the totality of the country's internet network to be shut unless done centrally. A lot of rumors swirling; few facts. https://t.co/N6bDJZ2ixO

Read the article at https://x.com/_hudsonc/status/1732891968709992511?s=20

2 comments

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[Economy] where Joe's success falls short
[Economy] where Joe's success falls short

submitted by PeraclesPlease 11 months ago

Read the article at

3 comments

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[CRIME News] 3 loss-prevention employees in Macy’s across...
[CRIME News] 3 loss-prevention employees in Macy’s across the street from Philadelphia City Hall stabbed

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

BREAKING: Three loss prevention employees in Macy’s across the street from Philadelphia City Hall stabbed, one of them has died from stab wounds, @PhillyPolice sources tell me. Police converged on the store as the three workers were rushed to Jefferson Hospital. pic.twitter.com/4U1eKycL4W

Read the article at https://x.com/KeeleyFox29/status/1731713272942940365?s=20

38 comments

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Former U.S. Ambassador Arrested, Charged With Working As...
Former U.S. Ambassador Arrested, Charged With Working As Secret Agent For Cuba

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

Former US Ambassador Arrested, Charged With Working As Secret Agent For Cuba https://t.co/LDwo4ZJI1K
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) December 4, 2023

Read the article at https://www.huffpost.com/entry/manuel-rocha-ambassador-arrested-cuba_n_656d1e2ae4b028b0f3d07478

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[War in Israel, Chapter II] UNRWA under scrutiny
[War in Israel, Chapter II] UNRWA under scrutiny

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

[Chapter I news is HERE, Oct. 7 til today]

You don’t get it.
It’s not about an UNRWA teacher who held an Israeli kid hostage in his house.
It’s all about how for 75 years you have destroyed the future of generations of Palestinians, including my family.
My cousins in Arab countries are still not citizens - not even the… https://t.co/nv6anubGhc
— George Deek (@GeorgeDeek) December 2, 2023

Note 'Community Notes' attached to UNWRA's statement.

Read the article at https://x.com/GeorgeDeek/status/1731020551328579863?s=20

58 comments

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Maduro, Under Pressure, Holds Vote to Annex Territory From...
Maduro, Under Pressure, Holds Vote to Annex Territory From a Neighbor

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

Imperialism for me but not for thee?

It's wild that Venezuela is now holding a vote on whether 2/3 of Guyana actually belongs to them! Analysts suggest that Modoru may want military action to pump up his sinking popularity.

Could we have a war in South America?!?

"The people who live in Essequibo are largely… pic.twitter.com/QvMEjkkgwy

Read the article at https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/03/world/americas/maduro-vote-essequibo-guyana.html

6 comments

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[Where is the GOP headed?] Divisions leave Florida’s House...
[Where is the GOP headed?] Divisions leave Florida’s House Republicans powerless

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

The lack of a cohesive delegation has allowed attention-seeking lawmakers to act on their own.

McCarthy: “You have [Rep. Matt] Gaetz, who belongs in jail…”

Gaetz: “Tough words from a guy who sucker punches people in the back. The only assault I committed was against Kevin’s fragile ego.”https://t.co/LctPuz6Pcf

Read the article at https://www.politico.com/news/2023/11/29/divisions-leave-floridas-house-republicans-powerless-00129200

10 comments

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‘She got so mad at me’: book on the ‘Squad’ details AOC-...
‘She got so mad at me’: book on the ‘Squad’ details AOC-Pelosi clashes

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

By Martinn Pengelly in Washington DC for TheGuardian.com, Nov. 30

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tells Ryan Grim life in Congress ‘completely transformed’ after Democratic leader stepped down

Read the article at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/30/squad-book-aoc-nancy-pelosi?CMP=share_btn_tw

15 comments

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US health insurers Humana, Cigna in talks to merge -source
US health insurers Humana, Cigna in talks to merge -source

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

@ Reuters, Nov. 29

Read the article at https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/us-health-insurers-humana-cigna-talks-merge-wsj-2023-11-29/

3 comments

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Central Africa’s dinosaur regimes and the art of coup-...
Central Africa’s dinosaur regimes and the art of coup-proofing

submitted by artappraiser 11 months ago

"Both the AU and the intl community place more weight on whether elections are held than whether they are free and fair. Sanctions/expulsions occur when there is a coup but not necessarily when elections are rigged or if an “institutional coup” occurs." https://t.co/m9dNimJP0D
— Cameron Hudson (@_hudsonc) November 28, 2023

Read the article at https://africanarguments.org/2023/11/central-africas-dinosaur-regimes-and-the-art-of-coup-proofing/

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