President Biden on Senate passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022:
"There's a whole range of things that are really game-changing for ordinary folks." pic.twitter.com/W6jDsjC2pp
— JM Rieger (@RiegerReport) August 8, 2022
Today, I sign into law the CHIPS and Science Act. It's a once-in-a-generation law that invests in America by supercharging our efforts to make semiconductors here at home.
Today represents a more secure economy, jobs, and a stronger future for our nation.
America is delivering.
— President Biden (@POTUS) August 9, 2022
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has led the Senate through a tumultuous yet surprisingly productive run despite little room for error. “My job is to get things done,” he says. https://t.co/QRzVhoA8so
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 8, 2022
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that President Joe Biden's administration sees Africa’s 54 nations as “equal partners” in tackling global problems. Blinken spoke at the University of Pretoria Monday detailing Washington's policies for Africa. https://t.co/a1vs8BwqDE
— AP Africa (@AP_Africa) August 8, 2022
It’s really something to see “obviously the search has galvanized Trump’s voters for this fall” and “I don’t know, remains to be seen if anger about Roe stays motivating all the way to November” co-existing as nearly equally held views out there right now
— Patrick Dillon (@mpdillon) August 9, 2022
When the FBI reopened its case against Hillary Clinton for allegedly mishandling government records, with just 11 days to go till the 2016 election, not a single liberal threatened violence or civil war.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) August 10, 2022
lol to trump getting raided by the fbi, losing his tax return disclosure case and getting wrecked by omarosa all in the same news cycle https://t.co/RkiihLHfb8
— Sen. Lemon Gogurt (I – Podcastia) (@Ugarles) August 9, 2022
sign of a good serial storyteller that by the time Chekhov’s gun goes off there’s already another one on the mantelpiece https://t.co/lIsURgUllL
— counterfax?? (@counterfax) August 9, 2022
But sure, stay home and bitch about "both parties" and "they're all corrupt" and how expensive gas w?a?s? ?t?w?o? ?m?o?n?t?h?s? ?a?g?o? is. And then lose your democracy while you were too busy watching TV. https://t.co/Xe6mi7peyn
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) August 10, 2022
Look, we all need to be realists and stop expecting politicians to move mountains but everyone's dream idea of a Biden administration was Joe in aviators talking about the new Electric Corvette on the South Lawn while Mar a Lago gets raided.
— zeddy (@Zeddary) August 9, 2022
Baud
👍
SiubhanDuinne
I hadn’t heard about the NDA thing.
cmorenc
Furious that Trump-stink dominates the news over Biden’s legislative accomplishments and other positive news about the economy.
Danielx
Schumer: as opposed to Mitch, whose appears to be stopping things from getting done unless they involve tax cuts for people who don’t need them.
OzarkHillbilly
Something tells me that is not what Mitch McConnell says to himself every night just before he goes to bed.
eta: @Danielx: I’d say great minds and all that but maybe in this case you should be worried.
Baud
@cmorenc:
I’m not. I refuse to cast a negative light on a good thing.
Inflation report coming out today. Expect that to dominate the news today unless it’s really good news.
schrodingers_cat
It is ironic that Never-Trumpers like Nichols get the peril we are in better than our so called allies who give Ds zero credit and move the goal posts when Ds achieve something.
Spanky
@Baud: Maybe.
Or …
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Are you talking about Twitter? Those people really aren’t our allies. I think a lot of people realize that now.
I haven’t seen dissention among the electeds.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
From what I’ve read, I don’t plan to get too excited about the tax return ruling, as there are still plenty of delays his lawyers can throw in the way. Sure, the walls honestly do appear to be closing in, but it’s kind of like that one chase scene in “Austin Powers”.
@SiubhanDuinne: Yeah, I had to do some googling to figure out (a) who she was and (b) what NDAs had to do with it. Turns out she’s one of the thousands of ex-employees who wrote a tell-all book, and they sued her over it on the basis of it violating her NDA. Which the court has now ruled as a BS agreement I gather.
brantl
Joe, Chuck & Nancy; kicking ass & takin’ names. Should be a rotating tag line.
Barbara
My take on the FBI search is that it is quite likely they have been trying to work with Trump on the inventory or return of documents he took with him, and after months of half assed, incorrect, or duplicitous responses they decided to do it themselves. This is how the feds generally work.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Baud
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
At this point, the tax returns are way down on the list of Trump transgressions to be interested in.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Baud: Agree. Along with the pee tapes, just kind of curious at this point.
All in all, the raid seems to be the biggest deal among all his worries, as it’s the thing that got him implicitly admitting he might be facing criminal charges (by talking about criminal defense lawyers).
Having all his lawyers scream at him multiple times a day to stop with the election-overturning stuff because he was breaking the law did not penetrate, did not make him admit there might be something illegal in it.
But whatever the FBI was interested in, or whatever he thinks the FBI got, does have him thinking that way.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I am talking St Bernard (and his spawn) and his tantrums during the passage of the IRA just days ago.
Those are going to be seen in many a Republican attack ad in the fall
ETA: Speaking of Twitter, ABL has gone off the deep end, she is still defending cray cray Doomzior.
Steeplejack
@Barbara:
I just saw this, which may help explain the timing of the raid: the FBI subpoenaed Mar-a-Lago surveillance tapes after their visit in June.
Baud
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I’m still befuddled that Trump cares about these documents, so much so that he resisted turning them over. Can’t wait to get the whole story.
Shalimar
People keep talking about the Mar-a-Lago search warrant taking attention away from all of Biden’s achievements. I wonder if that might not turn out to be a good thing. The Republican propaganda machine’s total focus on fluffing Trump’s victimhood means they aren’t planting the seeds for undermining all of the Democratic positives coming out.
That could be a positive in the last few weeks before the election. “Look at how many good things we have done for you” is a lot better message than “look at how horribly they’re treating Trump.”
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
Good morning! 🙏
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Yes. I actually appreciate his frustration because I don’t like some of the Manchin conditions, but he has the same duty to maintain message discipline as everyone else.
I don’t know that he moved the goal posts though. He voted for the thing.
raven
RIP Lemont Dozier
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Well, Moscow Mitch probably does say that, but it’s for “alternative meanings” of the phrase.
SFAW
@Baud:
That’s immaterial. Just think of the initial comment as someone else’s version of Ozark’s “Blech.”
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: The goal post moving was a comment about the Do-something Twitter.
Doomzior has moved the goal post for doing something. Now it is the Kushner indictment.
Shalimar
@schrodingers_cat: Those don’t seem like very effective ads. Bernie voted for the bill, and everyone knows he’s a cantankerous asshole. Who cares what he said before the vote?
Baud
Trump deposition today in NY.
ItinerantPedant
@Baud: I dunno. I think the tax returns may be the key to any behavior that isn’t obviously about his bigotry.
Because *I* suspect that they’ll show how deep into the Russian Banking System he’s been since the early to mid-90s. Which means that he’s been (almost certainly knowingly) laundering Russian mob money, what with the Venn Diagram of Putin’s Cronies, Oligarchs with Banking Ties, and Russian Mob making an almost perfect circle.
And that in turn makes everything else explicable; how much he’s been wild to retain power (and immunity), every move he’s made up to an including Jan 6.
If you start with an assumption that he’s a bigot who’s knowingly committed crimes and is wild to stay out of prison, all his actions make sense.
Jeffro
@cmorenc: THIS
I know our snooze media is wired to wake up each morning, wondering what Republicans are going to be enraged about today, but this is ridiculous. All mainstream outlets ought to be walking their readers/viewers through trump’s history of stealing shit, his history of insecure communications, noting how warrants are obtained/served, etc – NOT hyper-stenography-ing whatever the GQP is throwing around, minute by minute.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Clarification:
schrodingers_cat
@Shalimar: His cult cares what he says and it contains many blue check journobros and comedy writers, mostly male and mostly white. They immediately started downplaying the Dem achievement.
Baud
@Shalimar:
I disagree. It’s exactly the type of ad that people use against their political opponents. I doubt people would be blasé if anyone else gave the GOP talking points.
raven
Songs written by Lemont Dozier
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Thanks. It is frustrating to speak to those who insist that BS can do no wrong.
dm
Wait: the electric Corvette is real? I thought it was a Biden-washes-Corvette-in-White-House-driveway-style joke.
SFAW
@Baud:
I certainly know the term “deposed” — I’ve read hundreds, maybe thousands of depositions during my career — but when I see it used in the current environment, my mind [sic] immediately jumps to expected efforts to remove President Biden, should the Party of Traitors take the House this year, and to thoughts of 1/6/21.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Everyone except me can do wrong.
It was a misstep, but plenty of people will make plenty of those between now and November. I’m not going to stress about it too much.
Baud
@SFAW:
Heh. I never made that connection before.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I think it’s the principle he cares about. The principle that nobody anywhere can tell him what to do. The principle that he is above such puny little details like laws and such.
Shalimar
@schrodingers_cat: Insisting BS has become irrelevant outside of a few thousand loud assholes on twitter is totally different from insisting he can do no wrong.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
All too true, dammit.
SFAW
@Shalimar:
You must be new here.
Geminid
I think trump’s legal problems will be a third level issue in the midterms, except maybe in a few Senate races where the Republican got a well publicized trump endorsement to win his primary, like in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Arizona. Even then trump’s troubles will only be a second level issue.
I think the economy, health care, and women’s rights will be the first level issues. These are what I would classify as “kitchen table” issues that normal voters talk about a lot. Texans may be talking about their crappy electrical grid around the “kitchen table” as well.
Important as trump’s legal jeopardy might be, it’s more of a “coffee table” issue that more politically engaged people talk about at their coffee tables or on forums like this one.
Baud
@Shalimar:
I don’t think it’s a question of his relevance. If any random Dem has given the GOP talking points against the bill, they would use it.
SFAW
@Baud:
Until reading/reviewing deps became part of my job, I rarely thought of it otherwise. Probably part of the reason I never went to law school. [Well, that, plus my undergrad grades would have only been good enough to get into the Trump School of
GriftLaw.]schrodingers_cat
@Shalimar: Those Twitter loudmouths have big platforms to spew anti-D talking points.
You didn’t say that he could do no wrong but excuse making for BS and the Squad goes to ridiculous lengths on this and similar forums.
zhena gogolia
Lamont
satby
FB just reminded me of a friend in India’s birthday today. Unfortunately, he died in the first horrible Delta wave in India early last year, leaving a wife and two young children. He was 39. 😥
Starfish
@Baud: The best Twitter is shoebill Twitter.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: He is far from a random dem. Magic Grandpa has an international fan following because he bashes the US from the left.
He is like the Naom Chomsky of the senate.
lowtechcyclist
@schrodingers_cat:
Is this a weird reference to the late Lamont Dozier? I can’t make it connect in my head to anyone else.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m not sure Chomsky has much influence with voters either.
oldgold
1. Monday the FBI executes a search warrant at Shit Stain’s swanky seaside shack and leaves a list of materials found and removed.
2. Tuesday the card carrying members of the GQP choir begin singing a corrupt chorus about the FBI planting evidence.
3. My conclusion, the FBI found some damning materials.
narya
@raven: That is . . . insane. I remember catching a piece of a bio on Carole King, and it’s the same kinda thing. I read that list you linked to and I hear part of the soundtrack to my adolescence in my mind.
schrodingers_cat
@lowtechcyclist: Sarah Kendzior who called Nancy Pelosi and Garland Russian agents.
lee
@dm:
Yep it is real. There is also an electric ‘Mustang’ you can purchase.
The quotes are because it is a Mustang in name only. It is an SUV and not a muscle car. I do believe Ford is working on an actual electric muscle car.
Steeplejack
@raven:
A one-two Holland-Dozier-Holland combo from the Four Tops: “Reach Out I’ll Be There” and “Standing in the Shadows of Love.”
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Not directly but they both help spread this canard amongst the apathetic and the uninformed (normies) that both sides are just as bad.
Which leads to some clueless folks voting for 3rd party candidates like Nader, Stein etc.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
I think they’ve lost a lot of the mojo they had in 2016 though. Important to stay vigilant, but I’m not going to stress over them. People like that will always be with us.
lowtechcyclist
@schrodingers_cat: Ah, someone I’ve heard of, but only barely.
PAM Dirac
@narya: Not only that, but look at how many of their songs have been covered over 100 times. And by a ridiculously wide range of artists. As brilliant as the original Motown stuff is, their work reaches far beyond that.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Wise Baud.
lowtechcyclist
@schrodingers_cat:
True patriots never find fault with their country.
SFAW
@Baud:
Bingo.
schrodingers_cat
@lowtechcyclist: I never said that. BS stance is everyone is corrupt except him. Which is ridiculous.
PAM Dirac
Inflation came in lower than expected. I’m sure we will mostly hear why that’s bad news for Biden.
Baud
@PAM Dirac:
👍
ETA: The recession begins. /MSM
Geminid
@schrodingers_cat: The Libertarian Party was a significant factor in 2016. They got a lot of votes that election, almost three times as many as in the elections before and after.
Libertarians are sometimes characterized as to the right of Republicans, but I suspect Gary Johnson’s voters were all over the ideological map. Some may have thought trump was certain to lose, and thought they had a free “protest vote” to express dissatisfaction with the Democratic Party and it’s nominee.
OzarkHillbilly
@PAM Dirac: First he missed his projected jobs numbers and now he misses the expected inflation? Can’t he do anything right???
zhena gogolia
Yesterday the NYT headline (Peter Baker article) was: “Biden’s on a Roll. Will It Last?”
Mais bien sûr
JWR
From the Politico piece linked via tweet in the last thread, (by germy shoemangler), this is the kind of talk I wish we were hearing more of, if only to shut TFG’s true believers the hell up. (Yeah, I know it won’t shut them the hell up.):
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I’m pretty sure it will end when the becomes a red giant and swallows the earth. Happy, NYT?
SFAW
@lowtechcyclist:
Don’t worry, I’m sure others here will tell you how awful Kendzior is
Scout211
I missed this when it was enacted. It may be old news to the commenters here, but in 2018 Trump signed a law making removal of classified documents a felony. This (of course) was to make Hillary a felon.
Link to Jeff Yarbrough Twitter.
PAM Dirac
@OzarkHillbilly: LOL. Now he’s telling us drug prices will go down for seniors. What if they go down more than he says? How can people feel safe when there is so much uncertainty?
Baud
@PAM Dirac:
Haha.
Booger
@Steeplejack: “Reach Out” also features one of the most killer bass lines by the amazing James Jamerson.
You can find isolated Jamerson bass tracks on YouTube for both ‘Reach Out’ and ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,’ and in both cases it’s amazing how much of the song is in the bass line. Worth a listen.
SFAW
@Scout211:
Well, THAT was something I didn’t expect to see.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: Mr and Mrs Baker are as bad as MAGA Haberman. And their reputation laundering for that vile Kelly makes me like them even less than Axis Maggie.
Ken
@Steeplejack: I suppose it would be too much to hope that the surveillance tapes showed Trump handing a box of classified documents to someone and receiving a briefcase of cash.
PPCLI
Concerning McCarthy’s huff-and-puffing at Garland: “Preserve your Documents and Clear your Calendar”!
I certainly hope that the next time he is interviewed on TV, someone asks him: “If instead of preserving those documents, Garland flushes them down the toilet, do you think he should be indicted and charged? Or is that OK?”
PPCLI
@Ken: Or a shiny bar with “Russian Gold” stamped on it.
schrodingers_cat
BTW who do you guys think flipped? Meadows would be my guess. I haven’t heard anything from him.
SFAW
@PPCLI:
It’s only a REAL crime when a “Democrat” does it. [Not that Garland is a Dem.] When a Rethug does it, it’s a “process crime.”
Baud
@Ken:
You never know what those Ring cameras pick up.
Ken
At least the US isn’t a company, where “missing analysts’ expectations” causes the stock to take a dive.
Though there is some similarity, in that no one ever suggests the problem might be with the analysts, and certainly never suggests that maybe investors should rely so much on their expectations.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Scout211:
I never knew that. But my need for security clearance ended in 2017, and I never would have removed a classified document from a classified space anyway. I was always damned scrupulous about making sure there was no UNCLASSIFIED proprietary or “For Official Use Only” stuff among my papers.
That’s why stories about Republican government officials being sloppy with protecting secrets infuriate me, and when they go beyond “sloppy” and into “giving them to our enemies”, I just…
We went to the Spy Museum in DC years ago. I love spy stuff, spy novels, historical spy stories, etc. But every time I ran into a contemporary spy story that I remembered at the time, especially if I had some tenuous connection to the same classified info, I couldn’t even look at the exhibit for the rage.
RedDirtGirl
Reason 1,437 to delete your Facebook account. Facebook hands over texts btw mother and teen daughter to Nebraska prosecutors in illegal abortion case.
Danielx
@OzarkHillbilly:
What, me worry?
lollipopguild
@ItinerantPedant: If you are a crook then being President is the ultimate job to have. Trump wanted to be like putin and be President for Life so he could steal everything.
Geminid
@schrodingers_cat: Someone said that two days before the “raid” on Mar-a-Loco trump’s lawyers had put out the word to stop talking to Meadows. I saw this on Twitter so I know it must be true!
Meadows has kept a low profile lately. I read that in April that he told a semi-private gathering that he and his wife had been “humbled.” They certainly have been. Meadows gave up a safe Congressional seat to be trump’s chief of staff. Now Meadows is in the shit.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Ken: I wouldn’t be surprised if they saw foreign intelligence agents among the people getting tours of our secrets. I always figured it was a given that there were intelligence assets among the staff and guests at Mar-a-Lago, and that TFG was surrounded by bugged “gifts” from Uncle Vlad giving the Russians an open pipeline.
SFAW
@Ken:
I remember some stock (years ago) taking a big hit to its price, not because their numbers missed analysts’ expectations — they actually beat expectations — but because they didn’t beat those expectations by as much as analysts thought they should have.
I sometimes get the idea that the same “standards” get applied to President Biden.
Baud
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
“And here’s the room where we keep all of the nation’s biggest secrets. You have half and hour to walk around. Please return on time because the bus isn’t going to wait for you.”
Kay
@RedDirtGirl:
Be careful with this one. Abortion is still legal up to Casey standards in Nebraska (20 weeks, with exceptions for life of mother, etc.) This was 28 weeks which is outside the window for a drug induced abortion, so contrary to the label. It would be a crime anywhere.
I think they were overcharged but it’s a crime. All prosecutors use Facebook and other online sites – it would be ordinary practice to go after what they call “socials” – they love social media, especially for use in prosecutions of teenagers.
lowtechcyclist
@schrodingers_cat:
Your characterization certainly is.
Besides, he voted for that corrupt bill, so he’s corrupt too.
divF
@raven: I just looked at that list. There are around 20 songs all written between 1963 and 1966, that are permanently etched into my brain. Just wow.
Kay
@RedDirtGirl:
State says 28 weeks but there’s no reason to rely on that. They know it was past 20 and that’s all they need.
lowtechcyclist
@Kay:
Which reminds me, they’re charging her as an adult, even though she was 17. Are there standards for when a prosecutor can charge someone underage as an adult, or can prosecutors just do it whenever they feel the urge?
sab
@zhena gogolia: Wow. That actually sounds exactly like a DougJ parody.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: I’m thinking Meadows flipped too.
But: might have been several others that flipped as well, and they are all under the radar. For now.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: Another unanimous vote by the Democratic Senate Caucus! I think the Democratic House Caucus will do likewise on Friday. They all voted for the larger BBB bill last fall, except for Jared Golden (ME-2).
Golden’s stated objection was the size of the bill’s new SALT deduction. That’s not in the IRA.
Steeplejack
@Ken:
I’d prefer a sack with “$” printed on it. 💰
schrodingers_cat
@lowtechcyclist:
Your words, not mine.
PAM Dirac
@Kay: Not that it means staying on Facebook is a good idea, but in this case, Facebook was responding to a subpoena. Apparently the basis for the subpoena was a “friend” who knew all, so it was unlikely that the subpoena could have been successfully challenged.
lowtechcyclist
@schrodingers_cat:
“This bill must be terrible – look at the way Bernie the Antichrist tore into it!” Yeah, that’ll goose GOP turnout.
Not to mention, all the faults he finds in it are undoubtedly things that the GOP doesn’t regard as faults.
lee
@RedDirtGirl:
While there are many reasons to delete your Facebook, that is not one of them. A judge ordered them turned over. It is no different than if a judge ordered Verizon to turn over all text communications between them.
The lesson here is not to use an unencrypted messaging app.
My personal choice is Signal
Mike E
I see what you did there!
lowtechcyclist
@schrodingers_cat:
I assume you had some sort of point there.
lee
@PAM Dirac:
Holy shit. I had not heard that a friend narced on them. Fucking hell, I’m not sure I could refrain from overwhelming violence if I was in that situation.
Burnspbesq
@dm:
Not for several years, but eventually. “Performance EV” is not an oxymoron. I drive the proof-of-concept (Porsche Taycan).
OzarkHillbilly
@PAM Dirac: He’ll probably do something really stupid like get us out of Afghanistan or something.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: Republicans might use a clip from Sanders’ Friday night speech where he said that the inflation Reduction Act would do little to reduce inflation.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
To borrow Art Buchwald’s (yup, I’m that old) paraphrase of Ronald Reagan’s Iran Contra testimony: “I think I don’t remember”
Burnspbesq
@lee:
It’s not a Taycan or a Model S Plaid, but you can have plenty of fun in a top-spec Mach-e.
PAM Dirac
@OzarkHillbilly: Goodness me can you imagine the chaos! It early, but I must retire to my fainting couch.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid: This has been quite a roll for the good guys!
I’m starting to feel downright hopeful about this fall, and maybe even about the longer term, IOW climate change. If we can hold the House and pick up a few Senate seats, next year we may be able to build on the good start that’s in the IRA bill.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@divF: My peak music years probably began around 1968, but somewhere along the line I heard and fell in love with a lot of the earlier Motown stuff. A huge number of old friends on that list, many of which are in rotation on my current playlists.
Ken
@PPCLI: @Steeplejack: All very appropriate for a political cartoon, but might cause people to say the tape was faked.
Eh, what the hell, people will say it’s faked anyway.
lee
@Burnspbesq:
The first Tesla model (I think ‘S’) is a performance EV. It has a button for ‘insane mode’. There are videos of folks trying it out.
I think the range drops to a couple of blocks in that mode ;-)
Another Scott
@lowtechcyclist: I am not plugged in enough to get the reference either. Sarah Kendzior (sp?) maybe??
Dunno. Not getting out of the boat yet.
Cheers,
Scott.
RedDirtGirl
@lee: appreciate the reality check. Thanks.
Another Scott
@lee: I think that the EPA calls the Mach-e a “station wagon”. Which makes me smile a little.
Cheers,
Scott.
Gregory
It’s true Trump has committed many worse transgressions since hiding his tax returns, but he wouldn’t be working so hard to hide them if they didn’t contain something embarrassing if not outright criminal.
OzarkHillbilly
@Steeplejack: Delivered by Boris and Natasha?
Baud
@Gregory:
The IRS has them. I don’t know why they would ignore obvious criminality if it was apparent in the returns.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Another Scott: I’m all for Ford’s new lines of EVs and hybrids, but the names “Mustang” and “Maverick” mean something, dammit!
My mind still reels that with what I assume are massive marketing research budgets, Ford execs (and probably their competitors) were shocked at the demand for a smaller hybrid pick-up.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Gregory: I’ve always thought it was more embarrassing than criminal. The most obvious that he’s not as rich as he says he is– I don’t think that would penetrate with the MAGAts, but he’d rather admit Stormy Daniels was telling the truth– and that he made more money from the game show and what Papa Fred left him than from being “a builder”. Also, massive debt.
Mike E
@Baud: a tweet I saw about that: the gov’t going after him proves that he isn’t an actual billionaire
Steeplejack
Steve Kornacki is recapping the primary results from last night on Morning Joe. It bothers me that the news of extreme Trumpers winning sounds dire (for us) without the context that they could be more likely to lose in the general election in November. And of course the next question is are they more likely to lose in November? As we know, predicting is hard, especially about the future.
Frankensteinbeck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
This will be interesting, if only to see how he reacts. Apparently Trump’s lawyers and advisers have long been desperate to keep him out of testifying in court rooms, because Trump is convinced he’s a genius orator and can outwit any lawyer. A deposition is not a witness stand, though!
Another Scott
@Kay: +1
Companies have to respond to legal subpoenas. We don’t want FB and T and all the rest to be treated differently because their records are digital rather than being kept in manila folders. Eventually everything will be digital.
The problem wasn’t that FB responded to a subpoena. The problem is the prosecutor and the law criminalizing health care.
Eyes on the prizes.
Cheers,
Scott.
OzarkHillbilly
Alex Jones just learned that it’s still sworn testimony.
Elizabelle
@Frankensteinbeck: So true. A FTF NYTimes story last month, with anecdote from the opposing counsel who won the $25million penalty re Trump University.
Lawyer described Trump as a “dream deponent.”
Frankensteinbeck
@Baud:
For the same reason they need 87,000 new agents. Rich people, and definitely Trump among them, need a lot of investigation and resources to nail down the truth about their financial frauds. The IRS hasn’t had those resources.
Burnspbesq
@lee:
Teslas are quick in a straight line, but get left in the dust on a winding road, and the build quality is suspect. Not to mention all the issues with “driver assistance” technology.
Elizabelle
Here’s the article. It was amusing, in some parts.
FTF NY Times:
Trump Faces Questions About His Net Worth in Interview He Tried to Avoid
Former President Donald J. Trump has embraced the verbal sparring of legal depositions in the past, but now faces significant risk.
Mike E
@Steeplejack: it’s the msm blunting the obvious: how shit-flecked lunatic candidates are demoralizing “normal” repub and purported independent voters who will stay home (or flip a few to opt for Dem candidates). Political media needs a horserace to survive.
schrodingers_cat
@Steeplejack: Doesn’t it depend on the district though?
Frankensteinbeck
To loop back to old events, Trump’s conviction he’s a genius orator had to be heavily involved in his release of the damning Ukraine call ‘transcript’ and his reaction to it. In his eyes, what it proved was that he’s a ‘perfect’ negotiator. He was furious that other people looked at that conversation and didn’t see it as praiseworthy!
Steeplejack
Too lazy to hunt down a link right now, but I’m pretty sure that House Minority Leader Kevin “Preserve Your Documents” McCarthy is right now in defiance of a request to turn over documents he controls to the January 6 committee.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: Also, the investments of the Infrastructure bill will be kicking in. The $60 billion for AMTRAK will exceed total capital investment since the system began. It will expand a service map that hasn’t changed even while the US population increased by 125 million. The money for mass transit includes $10 billion for New York’s MTA alone.
And electric school buses! The bill will help replace 20% of the county’s diesel school buses with electric. I think the transition will go faster than that once people see the improved air kids breath. The life cycle cost for electric buses is less than that for diesel-powered, so this is not a cost problem but a finance issue, like many other aspects of the clean energy transition.
Ken
Was Tesla the one where the owner’s guide actually said that some assistance modes would break the law, for example by rolling through stop signs? I’m wanting to say it was the “aggressive” setting.
Another Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: There was a Mustang station wagon concept car in the ’60s, kinda like that little Volvo and that little Opel sporty wagon. (On my phone so no links, but easy to find.)
They can make it work.
It’s quite common for car names to get recycled every few generations – they own the names, why not?
Cheers,
Scott.
Layer8Problem
Have Greenwald or Snowden weighed in on the descent of the republic into police state/
StalinistMcCarthyist/banana republic/KGBGestapo persecution of common folk like the King of Mar-a-Lago yet? I seem to have some kind of mental block keeping me from typing those names into the Google.stinger
So maybe Biden actually knew what he was doing when he appointed Merrick Garland as Attorney General?
Mike E
From your keyboard to FSM’s noodly appendages!
Geminid
@Frankensteinbeck: The IRS also needs a lot of new agents to properly audit programs like the Q45 tax credit for carbon sequestration. That sizable tax credit will be utilized more and more in coming years and right now enforcement is basically an honor system.
twbrandt (formerly tom)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: that Maverick is high on my list for my next vehicle. Rumors are going around that Ford will introduce a plug-in hybrid and/or a full electric version soon. I hope so!
stinger
@Geminid: But maybe by then there’ll be real-world evidence that it does reduce inflation. Making the clip pointless.
Gin & Tonic
@Another Scott: You are correct. Commenter s_c has had a bee in her bonnet about Sarah Kendzior for years now.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@twbrandt (formerly tom): there’s talk of a Ranger hybrid, too
Steeplejack
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yes! Or the Spy vs. Spy guys.
jonas
@Barbara:
I think that’s right, too. Would be nice if he’d release the warrant and we could clear all this up, wouldn’t it? But a dramatic, pre-dawn FBI raid to reclaim some files that were part of a dispute over record-keeping procedures seems a little, er, harsh I guess. Unless what was going on is that some of those files were top secret national security documents and unauthorized people were getting access to them. DOJ had to stop a national security breach and time was of the essence.
schrodingers_cat
@Gin & Tonic: Folks here can check out her feed and draw their own conclusions.
She is a grifter who uses doom and gloom to get clicks and $$.
Geminid
@stinger: Only as pointless as many of the other attacks will be.
The IRA probably won’t reduce inflation generally by November, but provisions like the $35/month cap on insulin cost for Medicare, and the $2,000 cap on Medicare drug cost will be a real benefit for some Americans, and their friends and family will hear about it.
Steeplejack
@Mike E:
I didn’t think Kornacki was putting any spin on it; he was just reporting on radical Trumpers bumping off slightly less radical Republicans.
jonas
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Lessee. What criming was this about? It’s hard to keep track during a week like this. Oh, yes. The tax fraud where he’d claim his buildings and golf courses were worth like $20 at the most come tax time, but then go to banks for a loan, claiming they were prestige properties worth billions. His appraisal firm just turned over a massive trove of documents to the NYAG, so I’m sure they’ll have some interesting questions for him. And of course he’ll claim he had no clue about anything and that he was just leasing his name to his own company and had no day-to-day role in running it.
Or he’ll just spend a whole day taking the 5th, like Eric did.
stinger
@Frankensteinbeck: But despite Trump’s corrupt pressuring, Zelenskyy refused to announce he was investigating Hunter Biden. The Perfect Negotiator ain’t so perfect.
Gin & Tonic
Traffic jams leaving Crimea, and this woman crying about her vacation being cut short. You know what? Fuck that bitch.
Mike E
@schrodingers_cat: encouraging peeps to click on clickbait? Seriously?
Steeplejack
@schrodingers_cat:
Yes, it does. It’s just somewhat daunting to see the raw results without the district context.
oldgold
Wednesday, from Shit Stain: “The FBI and others from the Federal Government would not let anyone, including my lawyers, be anywhere near the areas that were rummaged and otherwise looked at during the raid on Mar-a-Lago,” the twice-impeached former president wrote. “Everyone was asked to leave the premises, they wanted to be left alone, without any witnesses to see what they were doing, taking or, hopefully not, ‘planting.'”
And, from Fox and Fiends: “His lawyer said they brought in backpacks, what was in those backpacks?” Earhardt said. “Did they bring those in to fill them up or did they have something in there?”
UncleEbeneezer
@Baud: Looks like some possibly good news:
Holy cow: There was ZERO inflation last month. That’s the headline number, which is well below expectations of +0.2%. Also a good core inflation reading: +0.3%, also below expectations of 0.5%. Finally some good news on the inflation front. We’ve likely seen the inflation peak.
jonas
@oldgold:
There was a guy in a comment thread yesterday over at Wonkette saying he had spent the morning lurking in some wingnut forum and had successfully got the whole group flipping out by saying that he heard a rumor that the raid had been funded by George Soros, who had also paid for the agents to spend the night at a luxury hotel in Miami or something. Kinda funny, but also a little disturbing in a “hey, do you really want to whack that hornet’s nest now?” way.
UncleEbeneezer
The Schaden it Fraudes!
“Q: So when did the DOJ start treating removal of classified documents like a felony anyway?
A: When President Trump signed a 2018 law making it a felony.”
oldgold
@jonas:
My conclusion is they had to invent this planting story because the search turned up damning evidence.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
really trying not to count any chickens, but they are squealing like badly stuck pigs
Part of it may be that they don’t know who has said what. I don’t know if Meadows flipped, but I’d bet that when Cassidy Hutchinson testified trump was all “Who’s that girl?” and his lawyers are wondering how many other people trump never noticed are talking
artem1s
@cmorenc:
Wait 24-48 hours and you can be furious about Do Nothing Garland again.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I don’t want to practice medicine without a license, but this sounds like codswallop from Rudi.
Mike E
@Steeplejack: Kornacki is a good and worthwhile (albeit short) segment of the media’s stilted coverage of our teetering democracy. He’s like the local news weatherman! The incessant “hapless Dem” narrative is a feature not a bug, sadly.
@UncleEbeneezer: this is good news for John McCain!
Ken
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I keep getting disappointed when I do this, because it turns out the event already happened, but:
Anyone interested in a pool to guess when Giuliani is next spotted on a plane?
MisterForkbeard
@UncleEbeneezer: The first article I saw on this was from NPR “why falling gas prices don’t matter: core inflation hitting your wallet” or something similar.
It’s very good news. But I think the media will just ignore it, the same way they’ve ignored gas prices after spending months screaming about them.
Patricia Kayden
@Spanky: I really hope that this actually takes place. Attorney Leticia hates his guts as much as we do so she will go HARD. He needs to be brought down.
Kay
@Another Scott:
A self abortion past 20 weeks is a crime in any state. The Roe/Casey framework is not actually “any abortion/anytime”.
This case would be a good opportunity to make that distinction, because it’s correct. The Right wants to tell people it’s “abortion on demand” until birth, not true. Never true.
But there’s absolutely prosecutorial discretion and I think they were overcharged. We had a similiar case in Toledo where a religious cult that bans medical intervention had a death in a home birth that wouldn’t have been intentional but certianly was reckless- the mother was high risk, which they knew. They then hid the body- someone ratted them out too. The mother wasn’t charged with anything and the father was charged with abuse of a corpse – a lowest level felony.
jonas
@UncleEbeneezer:
Year-over-year inflation is still high, but yeah, at least it stopped getting worse for now. Lower gas prices helped a lot. If we can see a nice-sized *drop* in inflation over the next two months, I think that will put Biden and the Dems in a really good position heading into midterms.
Patricia Kayden
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Travel to where he is and depose him there. He’s playing games so call his bluff.
Geminid
@Mike E: In context the comment was warranted. Someone tried to dismiss the commenter’s argument about Kendzior by citing Kendzior’s books, but the commenter was complaining about the woman’s more recent Twitter feed and that’s why the commenter directed people to it.
PST
The horrified tweets by GQP politicians and pundits about the search warrant have a pro forma quality to them, at least as I read them. Like they need to cover their asses in case TFG gets away with everything, as he so often does, and what they say will be forgotten if he doesn’t. Even the civil war crap being unearthed in the more unhinged corners of the internet in order to illustrate how upset the base is seems much like the usual civil war crap. Maybe I’m wrong, but reaction seems muted and temporary. I suspect the fruits of the search will be far more important and enduring than anything being said about it.
jonas
Lower gas prices cancelled out, effectively, a big jump in grocery prices. The effect is that overall inflation stopped growing for the first time in a while now. Nice of NPR to go with the glass-half-empty spin, though.
Patricia Kayden
@artem1s: Trump being investigated by the FBI hasn’t overshadowed President Biden’s legislative accomplishments at all. Both are ways to place Republicans on the defensive. Democrats need to continue to go on the offense.
Burnspbesq
@Ken:
Yup, that’s the one. It’s a pattern with Musk and all of the companies he controls: contemptuous disregard for a wide variety of Federal laws, from auto safety to antitrust, securities, and environmental.
Geminid
@Patricia Kayden: The IRA will get another news boost when the House votes on it Wednesday. Republicans will likely vote against it unanimously, and Democratic congressional candidates can go on the offensive over that bill’s many popular components.
Of couse, who knows what kind of crazy shit going on in the trump camp will make news that day! I think that background noise will be more or less loud from here on out.
jonas
@PST:
Fascism, as Walter Benjamin observed, is less a philosophy or set of doctrines or policies than it is an aesthetic — performative outrage, resentment, authoritarianism. All incoherent, but all capturing a mood that really gets people going. So what we’re seeing is what happens when fascists have to deal with something they don’t like. They don’t argue or reason, they just wig out and whoever wigs out the most is the most loyal and therefore the most right.
Burnspbesq
@Patricia Kayden:
Not a depo; it’s an appearance before the grand jury. Not exactly feasible to transport an entire grand jury from ATL to NYC.
plus, do you really doubt that Rudy is lying his ass off?
NotMax
@twbrandt (formerly tom)
Enjoying my new Maverick, delivered in mid-March. But don’t hold your breath for plug-in or fully electric version anytime soon. Maybe, once supply chain kinks and battery availability issues are smoothed out so actual production time frames become more predictable, in 2025 (or late in ’24 model year).
As it is there remain thousands of existing ’22 Maverick orders placed in ’21 that cannot be built in this model year and will be carried over to the ’23 model year once ’22 build scheduling ceases next week.
For anyone contemplating a ’23, order banks for those open up mid-September.
PST
@UncleEbeneezer:
That’s the real story! Headlines and lede graphs are never clear about what the rates they cite mean. To say that inflation has gone down from 9.1 percent to 8.5 percent sounds meh. Better than nothing, one is tempted to say, but not a big deal. But those numbers are year-to-year comparisons. The real importance is that the CPI did not go up at all between June and July. The change from 9.1 to 8.5 tells us something about what was happening to prices between June and July of 2021, but between June and July of this year average change was nil. Of course, a lot was going on in segments of the economy, with wages and rents going up, fuel and food going down, but on the whole, no change. I’m not suggesting that this will persist, but it is a better way of understanding the July numbers than headlines would suggest. In addition, the claim that we are in recession because of GDP declines in two quarters depends on deflating the figures to account for price changes. If inflation is slowing, it will be more obvious that jobs are telling the real story.
schrodingers_cat
@Mike E: I have no patience with people impugning NP and Garland as Russian agents YMMV.
Kropacetic
@schrodingers_cat: Thanks for continuing to spread your own brand pf doom, despair, and hopelessness. The store brand is garbage.
Ken
@Patricia Kayden: @Burnspbesq: So the option might be to send a couple of marshals with a warrant to bring him to Atlanta? I could get behind that, especially if they use a bus or train — so many opportunities for people to snap pictures of the handcuffed criminal.
PaulB
Also from Zeddy, this spin on yesterday’s news: “FBI raids home of Epstein-linked Clinton donor.”
Elizabelle
@Geminid: I wonder if the GOP will vote against the IRA, every single one of them.
There is a change in the wind. Some of the windsocks in the GOP caucus may be reconsidering. We will find out.
PST
@jonas: Agree about fascism. I just think that the degree to which the faithful are wigging out about this is going to prove disappointingly small to TFG.
Geminid
@PST: Inflation was low in the Great Recession, and stayed low for years after. One could say that we got 12 years worth of “normal” inflation in the last two years. Hopefully inflation will settle down to a more normal rate now.
Layer8Problem
@Steeplejack: The day before yesterday the graphic on a Lawyers, Guns, and Money post was the 2018 House race in Ohio. A state full of red with a small number of dots and smears of blue. Some people will look at a binary up/down presentation like that and say “DOOMED!” Hell, my first reaction was “this sucks.” The next thought was “wait a minnit, how close were some of these, where would more money do some good? Where’s a graph showing gradation from red through degrees of purple to blue?” To be fair to Lemieux, his point was this was the final result of gerrymandering. Context matters.
jonas
@RedDirtGirl:
They had a warrant, so I don’t think in this instance Facebook had much of a choice. I believe a lot of the 1/6 rioters are being convicted based on evidence provided to prosecutors by the big social media sites, so this goes both ways.
jonas
@PST:
I wonder when Fox will get the order from on high to dump Trump and start boosting DeSantis. Word has it the Murdochs have had it with Trump and want to get behind DeSantis.
Geminid
@Elizabelle: I think that twenty House Republicans voted against leadership’s wishes on the CHIPS+ Bill, and two even defected on the assault weapons ban. So yeah, there may well be defections on the IRA by Representatives with tough races. I overstated matters when I said I expected Republicans to vote unanimously against the IRA.
Elizabelle
@Geminid: Quite OK. I rather hope we see some greatly improved numbers.
200!
jonas
@Ken:
They don’t need to go through all that. Just toss him in the back of a Suburban, drive in shifts, and get his damn ass to Atlanta.
Omnes Omnibus
@Layer8Problem: Gerrymanders can be overcome by a wave election.
Elizabelle
@jonas: I hope the J6 committee goes very hard against Fox News and the rightwing media sphere. They created this mass of horrible, horrible people, too many of whom vote, and some of whom riot.
You cannot have a saner Republican party if you leave Fox in the mix.
Rupert Murdoch has been a modern day agent of destruction and chaos.
How can you have a democracy with that in the background? You can’t. This isn’t handing out handbills on the street. This is letting Joseph Goebbels hide behind the First Amendment, and treating his business as sacrosanct.
I know Dominion Voting Systems will take a hard shot at Murdoch, but why does it just have to be business that has been injured? What about our civil society? Our ability for self-governance?
Feathers
As this may interest some here, Yuzuru Hanyu has started a YouTube channel to livestream his practices and put up other videos: https://youtube.com/channel/UChXVX37lFVqMfYWNsDvqhdQ
Probably not something I’ll watch much of, but you can hear the blades and it might make for interesting background TV, for those who use such a thing.
In some of the most predictable Fanyu news ever, there was a Twitter post made about an upcoming livestream that hadn’t been officially announced. There was a typo in the English language portion of the tweet. Mass outrage and reporting the account began, leading to the account being deleted. Subsequent events have shown that the account was undoubtedly Yuzuru himself (or his team). In case anyone needed a definition of toxic fandom.
Mike E
@schrodingers_cat: I refuse to be baited.
SFAW
@Layer8Problem:
“Fair to Lemieux”? Don’t start that shit.
Miss Bianca
@stinger: THAT’S JUST CRAZY TALK!!
Geminid
@Omnes Omnibus: The advantage given by gerrymanders can decay over time due to demographic change and political shift. I saw this in my state the last few years of the last decade. Then, as you say a wave election can break through the levees. This happened in Virginia in 2018, when three Democrats flipped seats on a Republican drawn map. Democrats similarly flipped seats in Michigan, Georgia, Kansas and Texas that year, on Republican maps.
The state legislature gerrymander Republicans drew in Texas also started to break down that year, although they still retained control of both houses.
Ken
@jonas: But the poor marshals, having to spend fifteen hours in a car with all that whining. Plus the constant requests to stop for a bathroom break.
(That’s been the pattern when I’ve gone on church youth work trips — we make the stop, then sigh as each youth exits the gas station with a 64-oz MegaGulp, setting us up for another stop in an hour. Maybe the marshals will be able to limit Giuliani’s intake.)
SFAW
@stinger: Not sure how the FBI executing a search warrant on/at Mar-a-Lardo confers sainthood (so to speak) on Garland. And please forgive the choice of words, but, in general I think the jury is still out re: whether Garland deserves praise or criticism re: how well he’s doing his job.
One thing that gives me hope re: 1/6 prosecutions is that there apparently were zero leaks re: this warrant; I’m hoping that means any grand jury efforts re: TFG and 1/6 are similarly locked down (vis-a-vis leaks). [I think it’s less likely that GJ leaks can be completely stopped, but “ya never know.”]
mrmoshpotato
Who/what is Tom Nichols bitching about?
Layer8Problem
@Omnes Omnibus: Absolutely, as I constantly remind my partner in gloomier moments. Vide Virginia.
Layer8Problem
@SFAW: My decreasing scale of LGM infuriationitude: Loomis, Campos, Lemieux, Farley, Shakezula, Vacuumslayer, Nelson.
Miss Bee
@schrodingers_cat: I don’t understand any of the insiders lingo you just posted.
SFAW
@mrmoshpotato:
Sounds like he’s bitching about the latter-day Naderites (“both parties are the same”) and the “disaffected” Dems (“give me a reason why I should vote for Dems, when they didn’t give ME a gold-shitting unicorn like [sic] I asked!”)
Cmorenc
@Kay: Although the Nebraska facebook subpoena case involved an abortion at 27 weeks, illegal under roe/casey, the case illustrates how social media posts will be aggressively scrutinized and used to suss out abortions at 7 weeks – rabid anti-abortionists will be on the lookout for any whiff of a hint any woman may have contemplated abortion.
SFAW
@Miss Bee:
Might be better that you don’t.
UncleEbeneezer
@SFAW: Nah. Garland said from the very beginning that nobody is above the law and that his DOJ will follow the evidence for any crimes related to 1/6, and that is exactly what we have seen with investigations (and searches/seizures) of: Eastman, Clark, Powell, Gillian, the Proud Boys, The Oathkeepers (including extremely rare Seditious Conspiracy convictions), and now Rick Perry and potentially Trump himself.
Oh and he also is prosecuting Breonna Taylor’s killers, convicted George Floyd’s killers and convicted Ahmaud Arbery’s killers, while also suing to protect voting rights, healthcare access, LGBTQ rights, Abortion rights etc. It’s time to admit that Garland’s tenure so far, has been a resounding success, he has managed the DOJ very well, is restoring faith in our Justice system and all of the people who endlessly shat on him for 18 months were completely fucking wrong and should be big enough to admit it.
Geminid
@Layer8Problem: Virginia’s House of went from 65-35 Republican going into the 2017 election to 51-49 coming out. One Republican seat was won on a coin toss!
After the 2019 election Democrats controlled the House of Delegates 55-45, and the State Senate 21-19.
These gains were made on the gerrymandered map Republicans installed in 2011. Next year elections will be held on a map drawn by a pair of special masters after the new Redistricting Commission deadlocked. The new map looks fairly neutral and I predict big losses for the Republicans.
SFAW
@UncleEbeneezer:
I don’t have a big problem with the guy, but I get concerned that it’s not yet obvious that TFG will suffer any consequences* for his actions between Election Day and 1/6 (and after, I guess). I see a lot of “you just don’t understand that these things take time,” but I view that as mostly contrarian/”I’m an expert” pap. And, of course, patience is not one of my strengths. I’m concerned, but not despondent about the (apparently) sluggish pace. Yet.
* “Consequences” == indictment(s). I do not believe TFG will ever see the inside of a jail cell, deserve it though he might.
Baud
@Geminid:
I didn’t realize how big the swing was.
Kay
@Cmorenc:
Right. You’ll have better examples than this though. My suggestion is don’t use this- it just doesn’t fit and isn’t correct. I don’t expect people to know Roe/Casey backwards and forwards – I think people are allowed to not read legal opinions and perhaps read some books or play basketball or something- but I also don’t want to jam facts into a narrative, especially if it’s a hard case with bad facts for your side. You’ll have more to work with than this- it’s probably already happened in one of the abortion ban states.
I have been pleading with teenagers to stop recording everything they do in writing for a decade. It seems like each group of them have to be newly told. TALK ON THE PHONE OR FACE TO FACE.
NotMax
@
King Canute 2.0.
;)
NotMax
Arrgh, Fix.
@Kay
King Canute 2.0.
;)
Kay
@Cmorenc:
A lot of younger people say they are off Facebook. I don’t know if they’re lying – it’s a cool thing to say- but maybe also it is sinking in that they need use some caution in what they write and send off to god knows where. Again- social media is the best thing that ever happened to prosecutors. They all use it and they will continue to use it because they would be crazy not to. You’re handing it to them.
Geminid
@Baud: Virginia’s had a lot of demographic change. The economy is strong and the state attracts college educated voters. That used to be a majority Republican group but this has changed for the better. Also, the state has added a lot of first and second generation immigrants to it’s voting rolls, and a majority of them vote for Democrats.
The political shift has been the state’s Republican party turning hard right. Their own gerrymander contributed to this electorally self-defeating dynamic. That radicalism does not hurt Republicans so much in red states like Alabama and Arkansas, but it can do them in when it comes to purple states like Virginia and North Carolina.
The Lodger
@Another Scott: It’s still not a Mustang though. Something about the hatchback form factor breaks the brand.
(Even the Mustang II didn’t break the brand as much as this one does. Ford should have just called it the Mach-E.)