Stephanie Grisham was Trump’s press secretary for just a few Scaramuccis before being fired and then taking on the role of Melania Trump’s chief of staff. The latter job must have been every bit as challenging as babysitting a potted fern.
But Grisham was in the White House when the insurrection went down, and perhaps she’s the source of the firsthand accounts of Trump’s activities Liz Cheney alluded to on last week’s Sunday shows. Today, Grisham will visit the 1/6 committee, per CNN:
Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham will meet Wednesday evening on Capitol Hill with the select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, according to multiple sources familiar with the meeting.
Grisham’s meeting with the committee came after the former White House aide and chief of staff to first lady Melania Trump had a phone call with committee member, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, during which Raskin encouraged her to meet with the panel.
A source tells CNN that Grisham and Raskin had in-depth phone call about her knowledge of events behind-the-scenes at the White House on January 6. The source told CNN that Grisham was “candid” about events in the White House at the time, many of which Grisham was present for, including knowledge of conversations involving former President Donald Trump that day.
Grisham resigned in protest after 1/6, and IIRC, she’s made critical noises about the Trumps ever since, so it’s not surprising she’s willing to spill the tea. Good.
Between Grisham’s cooperation, Meadows’ generosity with texts before belatedly clamming up, and coup plotters helpfully outlining their strategies on TV, maybe the committee can piece the larger story together.
Meanwhile, it’s not just Do Something Twitter criticizing AG Garland’s handling of the investigation into the attempted coup; Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) is fed up too:
“I think Merrick Garland has been extremely weak and I think there should be a lot more of the organizers of January 6th that should be arrested by now. ”
Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) joins CNN Newsroom to discuss the January 6 insurrection ahead of its one year anniversary. pic.twitter.com/viKcdQSzP1
— CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) January 4, 2022
I have no idea if Gallego’s criticisms of Garland are on point or not. But I share his urgency about addressing the “ongoing, slow coup” taking place in legislatures, boards of elections and recorders offices.
Garland is speaking about the January 6th attack at 2:30 ET. I’ll add a live stream if no one else does and/or I’m not busy cleaning up puppy shit. It should be fascinating.
Open thread!
Georgia’s 1332 waiver, navigators and ads
different-church-lady
This is the internet: you shouldn’t let that stop you from making obligatory loud opinion noises.
piratedan
considering we see insurrectionists still out there monkey-wrenching whatever functioning public institutions they can find, I am all for arresting and charging people that were there and entered the Capitol or participated in the assault on the Capitol Police or the destruction of public property.
I want it on their public record. Let them carry that with them forever, sure some of this is not exactly years in prison stuff but let this lack of judgement be their scarlett letter so to speak.
but like everyone else, I want the plotters, the financiers, those in Government that that enabled this or turned a blind eye to it.
trollhattan
Utah tech bro, not fond of “the Jews.”
“I know it sounds bonkers.” Then why’d you press “send” bruh?
dmsilev
@trollhattan: I’d like to think that if Jews ran the world we’d do a better job of, you know, stamping out anti-Semitism.
Ella in New Mexico
Given the VAAAAAAAST majority of people who are severely ill or die from COVID are UNVACCINATED then this Jewish plot seems to have backfired…
Unless he is living in the alternative universe that promoting the use of the vaccine is somehow paradoxicly forcing COVIDIOTS to refuse to take it–thus killing more of THEM?
Plus, I have a few more questions: is he Catholic or Mormon and how did he not know the whole “plot to take over starting with Pope Francis” thing would likely not make a lotta sense in that particular part of the country? And does he know the ultimate Christians–the Amish–also refuse vaccines, not just Hasidic Jews?
Seriously, in any other time outside of this pandemic I’d literally be diagnosing these conspiracy theory sourced Vax deniers/alt therapy promoters with delusional disorder.
Patricia Kayden
Another Scott
Good reminder thread from Popehat:
Getting the details right matters. Charging in like a common Leeroy Jenkins (2:51) isn’t going to help.
Cheers,
Scott.
Almost Retired
I can’t quite figure out Stephanie Grisham. I really don’t think that she was so appalled by January 6 that she suddenly found her inner moral compass. It seems more personal. I suspect she was excluded from what she perceived as her rightful place on the grift train (1st class, please, not economy) and is extracting her revenge. Who knows. Maybe it’s in her book, which I. will. not. buy (unless she’s our next book club author and agrees to show up).
trollhattan
@dmsilev: @Ella in New Mexico:
Disappointed that nowhere in the article can I find a reference to Jewish space lasers, but his role as a major Republican Party donor is right there, as one would presume. (I’m sure they’ll give that money back, now.)
Starfish
Everyone just got told to shut up and send their kids back into the COVID factories called schools during an infectious event that is outstripping our testing and contact tracing capacity.
If this 1/6 stuff turns out to be a pageant of people who will not be held accountable as another round of COVID rips through the country, a lot of people are going to treat this Congress as the unserious entity that let it happen while they held their political parade.
Kay
@Ella in New Mexico:
I almost feel sorry for him. He needs medical treatment. He seems like he was an asshole before he lost his mind so maybe that’s why none of his “friends” or “associates” intervened as he was clearly losing his mind.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
IANAL, I have no idea what kind of lawyer John Dean is, and I’m ambivalent about his character, but this makes sense to me:
(Not so sure about that 2024 part, but…) Again, IANAL but it seems to me the prosecution of the higher-ups in this matter has to be airtight. The defendants will have limitless resources, and smart, talented ruthless lawyers more dedicated to trumpism (which they would prefer without trump) than the Constitution, and there is a good chance they will be appearing before judges who come from the same mold. That’s before we get to jurors. And after jurors, there are appeals.
The investigation is on-going, the Thompson committee seems to be pretty good at addressing the new news bias that hurt Mueller. This can’t be rushed. Prosecuting trump is the ultimate case of “If you take the shot, you’d best not miss.” even if he drops dead the day after the case is resolved, a dangerous precedent could be set (I think, again, IANAL).
or as somewhat put it less diplomatically on twitter: This isn’t a fucking Dick Wolf script.
Roger Moore
I’m deeply suspicious of Meadows’s cooperation. He was happy to hand over documents that implicated some people, but willing to go to jail to protect documents from others. That sounds a lot more like someone settling scores by selectively releasing documents that implicate the people he wants to implicate than someone who’s honestly interested in helping the committee.
Origuy
Reposting for the day shift. My friend Susan rescued a litter several years ago. They are now cats with medical problems. The latest is her Tabitha, who just had five teeth pulled. The vet bill is $1700. If anyone can throw a few dollars toward the bill, Susan, Tabitha, Snickerdoodle, Sandtoes, Dixie, Dusty, and their brother Braveheart would appreciate it. I didn’t mention before that they’ve already lost their sister Stevie after a big vet bill. You can use PayPal or Zelle to my email address, Jlanam AT comcast DOT net or with Venmo to @Jeffery-Lanam. I’ve already gotten $300 from juicers. You all are great, thanks.
Starfish
@Roger Moore: He also had a book to sell so keeping his name in the news that week was his “book tour.”
mrmoshpotato
@Patricia Kayden: It’s up to 167,000 from the previously estimated 43,000? ?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Roger Moore: He published a book that revealed that trump was even sicker than we found out he was long after he was by the last revelations about the contemporary cover-up, and that trump knowingly exposed Joe Biden to Covid at the first debate. Then he was surprised that trump was mad. I kinda think maybe Meadows isn’t that bright, and doesn’t know what he gave the committee.
To what extent might his book be useful as testimony, I wonder.
Soprano2
@trollhattan: There goes the theory that people at the top of things have better judgment than others. LOL What an idiot – it’s still hard for me to believe that people actually think things like this are true – as if anyone could cover it up if this were actually happening. Interesting that he thinks Pope Francis is actually a Jew.
The Moar You Know
@trollhattan: def needs moar Jewish space lasers
Otherwise pretty bog-standard blood libel with some good ol’ American 1920s anti-Catholicism mixed in for some flavor.
Jeffro
@Roger Moore: he’s not a very bright guy. Maybe he started to turn them over, then it hit him: a) “hey…these guys actually do seem pretty serious about this investigation and all….” b) “hey…I turned over some of my texts with X but now they’re asking for the ones with Y and Z…whoa nellie!”
And so on and so forth.
Or (equally likely) trumpov got word that Meadows was cooperating, and put an immediate halt to it, before everything was turned over.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Origuy:
Glad to hear it, and glad you got signed up with Zelle. I became an evangelist last year after Major^4 mentioned it and I used it to solve the problem of my landlord having extreme delays in receiving my rent charts. It has come in handy in other situations, too.
Healing thoughts for Tabitha!
Another Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Thanks for finding the receipts. I was looking for something similar earlier without success.
The young reporters don’t have the personal knowledge of how long it took for Watergate to go from a weird burglary reported in the local paper to a presidential resignation and assorted convictions. It was a slow process.
It looks like the failed Business Plot against Roosevelt and the USA had 3+ months of House hearings in 1934-1935 over actions that were taken in 1933-1934.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: yes, they’re moving faster than the Watergate investigation. But they have to, because a lot more is at stake here.
Let’s get going with those televised hearings, 1/6 Commission. And let’s started with the parade of GQP Congressmen and women who need to answer, publicly, about what they knew in advance of trumpov’s coup plot, and their roles in it.
Redshift
@Roger Moore:
His publicly stated reason for ending cooperation was that the committee was seeking phone company records to know who he’d been in contact with, which would match up very well with that theory. He could be lying about that reason, of course, but he seems dumb enough to believe he could get away with only selectively turning over stuff and the committee would never find out.
narya
For the record: (1) Despite the urgency and ongoing assault on democracy, I am okay with Garland taking the time he needs (I follow Popehat and EmptyWheel and John Dean on this). (2) I think Meadows isn’t that bright, and didn’t realize what he was handing over. (3) Grisham may also be doing some ass-covering of her own. (4) a perfectly ripe pear, and a slice of awesome apple cinnamon wheat bread from a local artisan bakery, with some perfectly ripe camembert on the bread, is a spectacular lunch.
piratedan
@Jeffro: agreed, antenna TV, three hours a night on every broadcast network. You want the American people to see this as opposed to waiting on the media to tell us what was said, because we should know by now that they absolutely suck.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jeffro: it’s a very tricky business, from what I understand, to get MoC to testify, and they’ll fight it tooth and nail (and don’t get me started on how Manchin will kvell if they try to subpoena say Josh Hawley). I think what the Thompson Committee is doing is trying to build up the facts of what Hannity, Hawley, Jordan and others said, did and knew from the people they interacted with, boxing them in as best they can even if they don’t testify
Josh Hawley, January 4, 2021
Raoul Paste
I understand there are 350 insurrectionists that are still at large, yet to be found by the FBI. And while the FBI has posted pictures of these multitudes for the public to see, it makes for sensory overload
OTOH, Never underestimate independent Internet sleuths
Jim, Foolish Literalist
am I the only one who thinks prime time TV is an outdated concept? First of all: lots of time zones. TV habits have changed. The cooking and real estate and sports channels aren’t gonna carry this. I say do it in the afternoons. Get the highlights and the headlines and viral moments ready for people’s drive home, for when they turn on the news while cooking dinner and waiting for the sports and weather, when they turn on Facebook to look at their high school friends’ baby pictures, etc.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@trollhattan: Didja catch the whinefest over the rejection of San Diego law professor Larry Anderson’s (white, tenured, age 78) diatribe against what he said was the acculturated ignorance of “the blacks” by the woke tyrants at Emory Law Journal? Fellow San Diego law professor Gail Heriot (also white, wrote a conservative critique of affirmative action that was enthusiastically touted by Yale law professor Amy Wax) was outraged that this fine man would be so scorned by the forces of wokeness.
Of course, there are other people, like me, who think that older entitled white academics need to shut the fuck up with regard to making sweeping critical statements against people of races outside their own personal racial context.
The Dangerman
Firsthand account of Trump’s actions while he was watching video of the riot? Well, a first hand was almost surely part of the proceedings…
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I agree. I’m not even sure the traditional networks would carry it.
Baud
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Why doesn’t he publish it at Liberty U Law Journal?
MattF
Re: JWST watch. The secondary mirror has been deployed and latched into place. Note that this mirror is at the end of a 7 meter long boom structure that had been folded up and pinned into place in order to survive the stress of launch. The optics of the JWST are… complicated, and the optics of the instrument package are ridiculously complicated. The secondary mirror is the link between them.
Baud
@MattF:
?
Miss Bianca
@narya:
Drool…
Benw
Republicans are tired of shitty Presidents that lost the popular vote; they want one that lost the EC too!
dmsilev
@MattF: Yep. Next big step will be unfolding the two wings of the primary mirror; that’ll be getting underway in a day or so. Once that’s done, the scope is basically in its final form, with the main remaining mechanical task of carefully tweaking the positions of all the various optical elements including the mirror segments so that everything is in focus.
p.a.
I respect John Dean, but as for “we got ’em in Watergate, we’ll get ’em now”… Nixon was pardoned, and much of the filth behind GHW, GW, and donnie dumbo derives from Nixon’s own sewer spawn.
Starfish
@p.a.: I watched the video in response to Katrina, and GWB was so terrible.
Steeplejack (phone)
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Barbara
@dmsilev: “I wish Jews actually had as much power as some people think we do.” Said by a friend of mine.
No doubt Mr. Tech has some conspiracy infused theory for why he has been so successful even though he is a raging anti-semite. Something like, “part of their plan is to make people like me who know the truth seem so crazy that most other people will refuse to listen to the us.” I only wish it were true that most people refused to listen.
Starfish
@Steeplejack (phone):
Here is an embarrassment of riches making fun of NFT folks that I think you might enjoy.
West of the Rockies
It’s been noted that keeping 1/6 front and center well into ’22 could help mightily come November. I’d rather have a strong case built slowly than a botched rush-job.
Baud
@Steeplejack (phone):
My political committee accepts homemade food.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Steeplejack (phone):
Jesus Christ.
And this was her response to the clapback:
Still trying to insist that cryptocurrency is here to stay and is a good thing. She needs to drop this hot potato. Who the hell advising her thought this was a good idea?
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Baud:
There’s a whole tier of institutions that love that level of “scholarship”. Liberty, Patrick Henry, Hillsdale, Bob Jones U, Oral Bobs….
Mike in NC
I just started reading an excerpt from “The Steal: The Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election and the People Who Stopped It” by Mark Bowden, author of “Black Hawk Down”. Some of the MAGAts who pop up in it are truly deranged and disturbing. These were the freaks that thought Trump walked on water and was coming to save Western Civilization. Many of them flocked to his hate rallies no matter how far away they were being held.
MattF
@Steeplejack (phone): Jamie Zawinski, aka ‘jwz’, has some thoughts about crypto. He’s a notorious curmudgeon, and is also one of the all-time greatest programmers. He now runs a nightclub in SF.
Starfish
@Baud: I have a donation for your PAC.
Sure Lurkalot
Lord knows I’m deficient in the patience quotient, but my concern is that even those held in contempt are free to continue their activities to subvert democracy. For example, Bannon on his podcast incites violence and is actively working to install election infrastructure to overturn the will of the people. The Big Lie seems to be getting more buy-in, not less, the more distant we are from the actual events
I don’t get why the committee is questioning televising the hearings. Daytime, prime time, saturate the airwaves. We are a forgetful people, easily drawn away by the next shiny object. We need to focus Americans’ attention like Alex in Clockwork Orange, making it impossible to turn away.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Guessing some quasi-leftish manbun neckbeard in a stained “Han Shot First” T-shirt. The daylight separating him from his rightward compatriots is a razor thin beam, but he might get laid hanging around an energetic woman’s campaign.
Baud
@Starfish:
Oh my. We are truly living in a wondrous time.
Soprano2
I just read this Greg Sargent column in WaPo where he talked to Dave Wasserman from the Cook Report about redistricting. The bottom line is that it isn’t nearly as bad for Democrats as people thought it would be. Perhaps someone could do a post about it sometime in the next day or two, to counter the “Dems are DOOMED next year, it’s a certainty” stuff we hear so much.
Starboard Tack
@dmsilev: I’m watching the animation on YouTube that shows the difference between the hot and cold sides. One pair of sensors is pretty stable ~380°F. The other has risen from ~340°F to ~360°F over the last day or so. Wondering if it will reach 400° on station.
Another Scott
@MattF: Excellent.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@Steeplejack (phone): I think Fried started walking back that cryptocurrency stuff before the day was over, when it triggered a lot of criticism.
I would agree that it was not a good move. Cryptocurrency is rightfully controversial, and the critics far outnumber the proponents. The biggest fans are on the Republican side, and Fried needs to win a Democratic primary this year.
Cameron
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I thought Amy Wax was at Penn. At least, I seem to recall hearing her name when I still lived in Philly,
James E Powell
My Outrage of the Morning
LA Times online headline: Thousands of US Troops defy COVID-19 vaccine order
LA Times paper headline: Vaccine divide in US military
Facts from mid-December (source: Army Times):
98% of Army active-duty force at least one shot. Marines – 95% at least one shot. Air Force and Space Force – 97.5% at least one shot. Navy – 98.4% fully vaccinated.
I posted those numbers in another thread and I don’t mean to be tiresome, but this is yet another bullshit press/media narrative that distorts reality.
They did the same thing with teachers. All kinds of noise, then like 80 teachers were let go. 80 out of 26,500 or 0.3%
jonas
@dmsilev: There’s a famous old Yiddish joke to this effect: Two Jews in pre-war Germany are sitting on a park bench. One is reading a copy of Der Stürmer, the notoriously antisemitic Nazi propaganda paper. The other is reading a mainstream daily. “Good grief,” says the one reading the regular paper to his neighbor, “how can you read that dreck? Don’t you see what it prints about us?” “Well,” says the one reading the Nazi paper, “what does it say about us in your paper? We’re being discriminated against, attacked in the streets, our businesses are vandalized and we’re continually humiliated. Here in this article it says we’re an all-powerful, wealthy elite that controls the world. Which do you think I’d rather read about?”
Barbara
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: When my 70+ BIL with tenure expresses an opinion on similar subjects I usually respond by asking him if maybe it’s just time to retire. He sent us a whine about how Steven Pinker was being treated shabbily after a linguistics association asked that he not be used as an official contact for their organization. My daughter’s reply was scathing (like, why shouldn’t you be able to decide who gets to speak for your organization?) and not nearly as, um, diplomatic as mine usually are. He stopped sending us that kind of thing shortly thereafter. He has had a lot of health problems and I sometimes wonder if they have made him feel vulnerable and victimized.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Cameron: She is, but she really liked Heriot’s conservative critique of affirmative action – which tells us a lot about Heriot.
trollhattan
@Geminid:
Speaking of things crypto, Kosovo(?!?)
IDK if this topic was even on the agenda at COP26, but must be front and center in any climate discussion.
Geminid
@Soprano2: It may take a few more weeks for final redistricting plans to get finalized. New York has yet to get their plan ready, and they might not be the only ones.
But it does look like Democrats are coming out way better than many feared. supposed. Part of this was because Democrats in states like Illinois, New York (prospectively), Oregon and New Mexico drew up aggressive maps. And part of it is because Republicans in states like Texas can’t get much more out of the gerrymandered 2011 maps, and now have to think more defensively.
Like you said, It would be nice to have a redistricting post soon. I am in a new district, and I bet I’m not the only one. Independent redistricting commissions seem to be a coming thing, and they are worth discussing. California’s seemed to do well by Democrats, but the new ones in Colorado and Virginia left some Democrats steaming.
One outcome of redistricting will be primaries between Democratic incumbents, McBath vs. Bordeaux(sp?) in the Atlanta suburbs, and Marie Neuman vs. Sean Casten in Chicagoland. That’s unfortunate, because all four seem to be decent politicians. McBath and Casten were first elected in 2018, Bordeaux and Neuman last year.
Soprano2
We just got an e-mail saying that for the next few weeks they are re-instituting the mask policy for all employees. I’m sure there will be a lot of complaining, but it’s prudent for them to do it. City services cannot shut down.
trollhattan
@Soprano2:
My employer has an all-hands Covid meeting set for Friday. Guessing they’re planning on ratcheting down the current requirements, which might catch my Division in a vice with their “park your butt here >50% because reasons” policy.
We shall see, the county positive test rate has skyrocketed and the last they told us, our workforce was something like 60% vaccinated even though it’s “mandatory.”
sdhays
@Geminid: It’s perplexing that she decided to bother weighing in on this fight. How many people in Florida give a shit about Florida policy on cryptocurrency? Isn’t most of the action at the federal level anyway?
I guess she wanted crypto-oligarchs to contribute to her campaign.
Geminid
@trollhattan: I think some shrewd drafting of public utility regulations could create a high enough electricity rate for cryptocurrency production to suppress it somewhat. The miners would scream bloody murder, but I think there is a demonstrable public interest that would withstand legal challenge. This might require action at the federal as well as the state level, but if it can be done I think it’s the way to go.
gvg
@Steeplejack (phone): I assume other people will tell her how stupid that is, since I can’t quickly find a ways to tell her myself as a Florida voter without apparently signing up to get lots of unwanted spam from her campaign.
I had hopes of her, but stupidity is a red flag for me.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’ve kind of liked Fried, but between the crypto thing and this, I’m wondering if she might not be the latest Democrat to confuse twitter with the electorate.
trollhattan
@Geminid: Agree, maybe some kind of tiered rate, especially if they’re paying straight rates at present. I’m not up on commercial versus consumer pricing structures for electricity; at home we pay varied rates based on time of day and day of week (5-8 in summer is REAL costy). Kosovo Serbs refusing to pay their bills at all is one cost-cutting approach.
Geminid
@trollhattan: I think another avenue of attack on cryptocurrency will be through financial regulation. I suspect that one of Treasury Secretary Yellen’s deputies is having quiet talks with some of their counterparts in the EU. If and when they come up with a plan to better regulate cryptocurrency, a lot of governments will buy in. Control of legal currency has long been a perquisite of sovereign states, and they have an incentive to keep competition in it’s place, just like wolves don’t tolerate coyotes in their territory.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Sasha Beauloux may not have approved of Fried’s dicktater tweets, but a lot of Democrats did. Beauloux might have disliked Fried to begin with. That kind of animus is part of why New York Mayor Eric Adams is now getting roasted by people who were mad when he won the Democratic primary.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Soprano2: Little does this guy know, the first Pope was a Jew.
catclub
@MattF: all of these need to be tempered with “the market can stay insane longer than you can stay solvent ( if you bet against that insanity)”
I think the fact that there are very few ways to short crypto artifacts is one reason for it staying up in the stratosphere.
catclub
@Geminid:
You would think that would work, but China has already tried that and the effect is much smaller than one might wish.
catclub
@Geminid: I don’t.
Roger Moore
@Geminid:
I think this is a huge part of it. The Republicans already gerrymandered the hell out of the states where they could in 2010, so they didn’t have as much to gain as people assumed. Meanwhile, the Democrats were a lot more circumspect, so they can make up some ground by more aggressively gerrymandering in the places where they can.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Geminid: a couple of our Floridian regulars have expressed skepticism on Fried’s ability to take on De Santis, but I don’t recall why. I don’t think it was ideological.
I’m leery of twitter-warriors in general.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Roger Moore: I think it was Eric Levitz who said Dems in NY and IL (and maybe CA?) have been willing to sacrifice incumbents to strengthen the partisan edge– IIRC putting Marie Newman and Sean Casten up against each other, for example, to make a D-leaning district downstate (not sure I have those details right)– whereas the Rs went with incumbent protection
Steeplejack
@Starfish:
Lordy.
That Nikki Fried thing seems like such an own goal. Is she going after the massive libertarian tech-bro vote? ?
Roger Moore
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Not CA. There was a bipartisan move in 2000 to make more safe districts, but we switched to a non-partisan redistricting commission before the 2010 census. I think the Republicans hoped/expected this would help them, but it has tended to help the Democrats instead.
This is actually an area where I think Arnold Schwarzenegger deserves a lot of credit. He was the driving force behind moving to a non-partisan commission, and he’s stuck with it. Since leaving office, he’s continued to make that an issue, and he’s trying to make it a model across the country.
Betty Cracker
Re: Nikki Fried, my guess is her toxic jerk pot entrepreneur fiancé is into crypto, so she hears a lot of positive things about it. I like Fried’s willingness to take the fight to DeSantis. It’s possible she’d have a better chance than a tired retread like Charlie Crist. But if Fried gets the nomination, I do worry that lots of skeletons might come tumbling out of that particular closet.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Well, Fried does have a record beyond Twitter, as Florida Agriculture Comissioner. You are not going to know it unless you look, just like with Eric Adams.
Fried faces two viable opponents for the nomination: Congressman Charly Crist and State Senator Annette Taddeo. Last polling I saw showed Crist a point or two ahead of Fried when matched with DeSantis. I don’t think the three Democrats have much to fight about except who is most electable. If I were voting, right now I’d be inclined to back Fried as the more dynamic. But Florida Democrats (and maybe some Independents) will have a few months to decide.
Burnspbesq
@Roger Moore:
It also sounds like someone who doesn’t understand the rules regarding waiver of an otherwise applicable privilege. As someone who understood those rules once said, “this ain’t softcore porn; you don’t get to open the kimono half way.”
J R in WV
@Soprano2:
Someone already pointed out that the founder of Christianity was a Jewish fellow. Former carpenter, name of Jesus. I’m not sure if he pronounced it with a Gee-sus or the more traditional Hey-sus.
Perhaps as a LDS Mormon this guy wasn’t aware of the religious identity of the founder of Christianity? Actually, lots of Christians don’t seem to be aware of that tiny detail, so whatever. Does seem to need medication and care, though, no question about that.
WaterGirl
@Almost Retired: My theory is that Melania treated her like a piece of crap and she had to put up with it in real time in order to stay close to power. This is her revenge for that.
Starboard Tack
@J R in WV: I want to know what happened to Ay-sus, Bee-sus, Cee-sus, etc.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@catclub: They can legally tack on an excess use charge for residential addresses. The way around that is to incorporate and become a business, but it will deter casual miners.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Casten ended up in the district he represented before, and Neuman was just outside. Another incumbent, Chuy Garcia represents the district Neuman lives in, and Casten’s new district actually has more of her constituents than it does Casten’s, so Neuman announced for that district immediately. She may well move there, although she can contest it even if she doesn’t live within it’s boundaries.
In Virginia, Abigail Spanberger is definitely moving to the new 7th District. It combines 200,000 of her former constituents with residents formerly in the 1st and 5th. Unlike the last cycle, Spanberger will face a primary. Greene County, where I live, used to be in the 5th District but now is the western edge of the new 7th. The district runs east to Fredericksburg, and northeast to Dale City. Analysts averaging presidential and state elections since 2016 describe the new 7th a D+7.
J R in WV
@Starboard Tack:
OK, now I’m LOL, great job. We need more LOL to get through this cloud of BS!!
Starboard Tack
@J R in WV: Thanks but I got it from Eddie Izzard.
Starfish
@James E Powell: I am really surprised by the behavior of the Air Force here.