? Every advisor is an insider/failson/grifter with personal responsibility for 2022
? Replacing the RNC's incompetent leadership is off the table
? Report will come out too late to change the House GOP platform of conspiracy theories and racismDelighted to see this, @GOP! https://t.co/cifZsDJIyK
— John " https://mastodon.social/@johnlray " Ray (@johnlray) November 29, 2022
i am 1000% in favor of the RNC listening to a loser who lost a very winnable race with incredible unfavorables on what they should do next https://t.co/UZHEW0LJ8P
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) November 29, 2022
Per Politico:
… The RNC is tapping nearly a dozen people to serve in what it’s calling a “Republican Party Advisory Council” – a group that includes former Donald Trump White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, evangelical leader Tony Perkins and a pair of Senate candidates who ran this year.
Separately, the committee is starting what senior Republicans are describing as a “review” of the party’s mechanics during the midterms, which is being led by RNC members. The RNC is expected to publish the findings sometime during the first half of 2023.
Republican officials say they are moving to address broader concerns confronting the GOP in the wake of the midterms, when the party underperformed expectations in a political environment many felt was to their advantage…
Republicans say the council is designed to bring in new voices to the party and to provide guidance on matters like outreach to minorities and suburban female voters, groups that the GOP has often struggled to win over.
The list of members includes Alabama Sen.-elect Katie Britt, Texas Rep.-elect Monica De La Cruz and Rep.-elect John James, a Black Republican who hails from McDaniel’s home state of Michigan.
The panel will also include former Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters, who in the wake of his loss has called on the party to move on from “consultant one-size-fits-all strategies.”…
Top Republicans say they expect the post-election review to begin following next week’s Georgia Senate runoff. It will be led by Henry Barbour, a Mississippi RNC committeeman and the nephew of ex-RNC Chair Haley Barbour, and Harmeet Dhillon, a California RNC committeewoman and attorney.
Barbour was also a co-author of the post-2012 election RNC autopsy, when the party moved to address concerns about messaging and strategy following Mitt Romney’s loss to Barack Obama in the presidential contest.
In a letter to RNC members sent earlier this month, McDaniel said the review was aimed at assessing “where the party excelled and where we need to improve, especially in the clear underperformance among independent voters that we saw … and offer ideas as to how we do better in the future.”…
The Republican Party has just put Tony Perkins, a pastor who says natural disasters are God’s punishment for gay marriage and abortion, in charge of investigating why there was no red wave in 2022.
They’ve learned nothing.
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) November 29, 2022
Eric Lutz, at Vanity Fair, adds:
… It’s not even clear how the “working with Ronna” part of Masters’ statement will shake out, when the RNC chair could soon be facing serious challenges to her post. Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO and leading 2020 election denier, says he will run to replace McDaniel as head of the committee. It’s hard, maybe, to imagine such a campaign posing a real threat to McDaniel’s leadership, even though Trump—who has already launched his 2024 White House run—has seemingly expressed support for Lindell’s bid. (Lindell, who is running on an election-denial platform, suggested to Steve Bannon that he may not accept the results if he loses his bid to become RNC chair, setting up a kind of Big Lie Inception: “I would question any election which used a computer,” he told Bannon.)
But a more formidable challenge could come from Lee Zeldin, the New York congressman who lost his gubernatorial bid this year, but performed better than any Republican in the state in two decades. Zeldin has been openly considering a run for McDaniel’s job, and Republican gains in New York races this year have earned him some buzz within the party as a potential future leader. “Even in places where we came up a little bit short like Lee Zeldin’s race for governor in New York, he performed very well compared to Republicans in recent elections, and he probably helped save the House of Representatives by bringing four new Republican congressmen-elect across the finish line in New York,” Republican Senator Tom Cotton said of Zeldin in an appearance on Meet the Press earlier this month…
My favorite Mr. Charles P. Pierce:
… Look, everybody needs a gig, right? So I don’t expect this panel to be anything more than buffet-grazing busywork. Ultimately, there is no way for the GOP to excite current Republican voters except to tickle their G-spots of anger and fear, an approach that may finally have reached its limits. (Not betting either way on that one.) So I’m not sure what this latest panel is supposed to provide beyond window dressing. And the inclusion of Masters has to be a purely mercenary attempt to gain access to Peter Thiel’s wallet. Otherwise, the people of Arizona decided rather conclusively that Masters was something of a space alien. Hell, at least J.D. Vance was a Thielbot who won.
The major problem with all these post-disappointment post-mortems is that they elide the real reason why Republicans lose elections: their policies are resoundingly unpopular. This is part of the reason why many Republican candidates look like jackasses on the stump; and it is all of the reason why Republican candidates in tossup elections start their general election campaigns in a ditch, because of the jackassery they have to perform to win the primary. Which is how they ended up with Masters, Kari Lake and the rest of the cast of The Day The Earth Stood Still who ran in the midterm elections.
every republican candidate for office in 2024 is going to have to declare their hatred for and intention to investigate charmin soft for grooming cartoon child bears in a selfie video to please the 5 voters in their district who legitimately believe the earth is flat
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) November 23, 2022
Emmyelle
If there is a loving deity in charge of our well being, Pillow Guy will launch a scorched-earth campaign to unseat Rona, and win. And we will get to watch.
Evap
As always, rooting for injuries. Pass the popcorn.
Circular reasoning
Wow! I’m feeling like last night was the wrong one to go to bed early. Lots to catch up on!
narya
In a different kind of post mortem, my working life is ending several months sooner than planned–and I am not mad about it. I was offered a “voluntary separation agreement,” and, frankly, I will make out a little better than I otherwise would have, AND I won’t have to work at an increasingly dysfunctional workplace! I am the only person at the agency who was happy to get this offer; my only regret is that I can’t quit on April Fools’ Day as originally planned. I’ve also been truly touched by the number of people who are shocked that I was On The List.
Jeffg166
Once again the GQP will decide it isn’t conservative enough for the voters. The next round of purges will begin.
matt
At least they’re just doing a fake audit of their own stuff instead of stealing voting machines this time around.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
Reminder – Tony Perkins is the asshole who got fined for laundering nearly $100,000.00 in normal GOP contributions to David Duke for his Klan-heavy mailing list in the mid-1990s.
Amir Khalid
It doesn’t seem that difficult for the Republican party to find people who could do a professional, largely unbiased post-mortem on the 2022 midterms. Me, I’d want a mix of academic political scientists and grassroots activists. I’m not confident actual politicians could be clearheaded and objective enough to identify the lessons to be learned.
citizen dave
@narya: As a colleague used to email people leaving my workplace, “Congratulations on your release” It will be nice to do more of what you wanr to do, even if that includes some work at a place you want to be at (eventually)
As far as the Republicans go, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?
Circular reasoning
@Amir Khalid: i don’t think anyone could disagree with your sentiment, which is exactly why it is so evident that “unbiased” is not their goal. It’s ass covering window dressing and continued grift.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Amir Khalid:
Because a panel like that would conclude that the party is running headlong at a demographic cliff in the most populous places in the country, where people expect government to actually work.
They really don’t want to expend mental energy doing cost-benefit analyses (something a good governing coalition or opposition would engage in on every proposed change in policy).
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
They broke the record by 100,000 votes – that’s 40% more than the previous record. I have to think this spike in turnout is a backlash to yesterday’s outburst by Kanye West.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@citizen dave:
They won’t do that so long as they can claim near monolithic support in the rural, exurban and village/small town hinterlands.
AnonPhenom
Amazing what a Republican can accomplish when the Chair of the NY Democratic Party, Jay Jacobs, is one of your fans.
piratedan
waiting for the GOP punditry to stumble upon trial-by-combat as their de facto selection process and make it a pay per view event to both ensure that their slate of candidates are the “strongest possible” and to raise money for the coffers that Senator Scott and TFG are busy emptying.
JWR
@citizen dave:
Excellent question. We should help them find out. ;)
Layer8Problem
@AnonPhenom: “Amazing what a Republican can accomplish when the Chair of the NY Democratic Party, Jay Jacobs, is one of your fans.”
Jacobs is a Zeldin fan? Do tell.
Amir Khalid
The supermarket was all out of Jalapeño Cheetos today. Pout.
Snarki, child of Loki
@piratedan: “waiting for the GOP punditry to stumble upon trial-by-combat as their de facto selection process”
Open carry at all GOP primary debates!
Otherwise Second Amendment Jeezus haz a sad.
Albatrossity
I could save them a lot of time AND give them the correct diagnosis.
They have to say stupid shit to win a primary, and that stupid shit sounds like stupid shit to the general electorate.
Win-lose.
MagdaInBlack
@Amir Khalid: The “Flaming Hot” won’t cut it in a pinch? I’ve not tried the jalapeno yet
Eta: Flaming hot cheetos and a glass of milk is one of my weirdo midnight snacks
Amir Khalid
@MagdaInBlack:
No, all they had were the regular Cheetos. Sigh.
MagdaInBlack
@Amir Khalid: Damn it, that just ain’t right.
Ohio Mom
@Amir Khalid: I did not know jalapeño Cheetos existed. I wonder if they are sold in southwest Ohio, I am giving Ohio Son silly foods for a few nights of Hanukkah. (The other nights, it’s socks and underwear, per our family tradition.)
They are now on my shopping list. This blog remains an endless education for me.
Mai Naem mobile
I am wondering if the GOP puts up such horrible candidates for the Senate because they underestimate Mark Kelly. Martha McSally was an awful candidate. On paper she looked good but candidate performance wise, she was awful. Blake Masters was so bad he made McSally look like a Bill Clinton level candidate. Meanwhile, Mark Kelly is literally a rocket man with a former congresswoman wife who was shot on the job. Mark Kelly would have given John McCain a run for his money.
Matt McIrvin
Trump winning in 2016 upended all conventional wisdom about what you can say and do and win an election. Now, it’s open for debate whether going full fascist and threatening violence is electoral poison, and even if it still is in most cases, Republicans are not necessarily going to believe it. I mean, Trump literally fomented a bloody failed coup to stay in office in 2021 and there were still times he polled ahead of Biden in hypothetical head-to-heads afterward.
So I’m still feeling a bit too burned to say, with certainty, that this will doom them down the line. But the full-Trumpist attitude didn’t seem to help them much in the midterm, where boiling rage at the incumbent administration would traditionally be expressed, so I guess we’ll see.
Barbara
@Albatrossity:Not just stupid, but threatening. It’s no surprise that those who feel most threatened vote to protect themselves.
Mai Naem mobile
@Amir Khalid: you need to try the flaming hot fritos. They’re hotter than the jalapeño cheetos and not as salty as the regular fritos(i find the regular fritos way too salty.) There was a shortage of regular flavored Doritos here a few months ago. They have a bunch of new flavors but couldn’t keep up with the original flavor.
Ned F
@Amir Khalid: Jalapeño Cheerios?? …Oh wait, never mind
I’ve seen a commercial lately for a cheetos grinder to add powdered chemical dust to all your favorite foods. I’ll pass on that gift this year.
kalakal
@Amir Khalid: I have a couple of co-workers who are into insanely hot snacks. They’re mostly bags of chips with metal names like Haunted Ghost. The problem with them is they mostly are flavourless except for the heat. The one’s I do like are Death Rain which actually taste good. They also work out very cheap as a little goes a very long way – it takes me days to finish a bag
Kay
@Amir Khalid:
They did a professional, unbiased post-mortem after they lost in 2012 and the next cycle they nominated Trump, who would become a one-term President who lost them both senate seats and governors after he was defeated in his own re-elect.
They had to dump Trump when he lost his re-elect. They were too cowardly to do that, so now they have fake post-mortems.
They have to admit they lost the 2020 election. They can’t go foward until they do.
artem1s
whatever. the GOP will decide they have no agency in the matter and it’s all the Dems fault. or women or lazy workers who don’t want to work. or muslims. or jews. or the gheys. or furries. or anyone else except them. FSM forbid they should have to change their ways.
artem1s
whatever. the GOP will decide they have no agency in the matter and it’s all the Dems fault. or women or lazy workers who don’t want to work. or muslims. or jews. or the gheys. or furries. or anyone else except them. FSM forbid they should have to change their ways.
lowtechcyclist
@narya:
Congratulations!!
I’m planning to retire on 12/31/23, but if my agency were to make a decent early-out offer, I’d be there. I’m definitely ready for the weekends to go on forever.
Ken
I must criticize Charles Pierce here, if he’s using this as a way to say “weird aliens”. Klaatu was a good person, and I’d vote for him. Mars Attacks would be better.
(I’m assuming he means the 1951 movie, which he must, because there was no remake.)
RandomMonster
Who will be surprised when the GOP advisory panel report is published with just one conclusion: the election was stolen!
AnonPhenom
@Layer8Problem:
Jacobs loves him some Long Island Republicans, always has.
Kay
I can’t believe the Republican Party, led by Elon Musk and his contract Substack employees, are now going to insist we all view photos of Hunter Biden having sex, taken from his laptop in the name of “free speech”.
Free speech demands Hunter Biden’s private recording of his sex life be posted continously on Twitter.
How many times are they going to leer at these photos? Jesus Christ. They’ve been passing them around since 2019. Hunter is a fucked up, drug addict middle aged man. There’s a huge public demand for photos of him having sex?
Kay
Chief Oshkosh
@MagdaInBlack: Not even close, but I agree that Flamin’ Hot should be a close substitute for Jalapeños Cheetos.
AnonPhenom
@AnonPhenom:
Jacobs is skating on thin ice.
oatler
“He’s trying to find out why the ship doesn’t move.” I ran to the side and looked over, and what I saw was not the night sky. Stars- innumerable stars were spread at an infinite distance below me, and as I looked at them I realized that the ship ,as my aunt had said, did not make headway or even roll, but remained heeled over, motionless. I looked back at her and she told me, “It doesn’t move because he has fastened it in place until he finds out why it doesn’t move.”
dream in Gene Wolfe’s “The Fifth Head of Cerberus”
Geminid
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
I’m curious: what do you think of the new Kentucky 3rd CD Representative? Mr. Mcgarvey is following a tough act to be sure; do you think he has the skill set and work ethic Democrats need in the House?
I see that the current Representative, John Yarmuth, is 75 years old. I hope he has good years ahead of him. Yarmuth has a lot of knowledge. I hope he stays in public life enough to pass some of it on.
Kay
So much for the far Right/far Left (completely invented) theory that Biden is standing in the way of talks to end the war.
Putin tells everyone over and over that he will accept no compromise and Ukraine cannot exist but for some reason they refuse to believe him.
You would think they would smarten up after they all predicted Putin wouldn’t invade although he was telling them he was going to invade.
Why don’t hs fans ever believe him?
Ocotillo
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch:
Now on Thursday, Greg Palast was on the Thom Hartmann radio show and was saying because voting by mail had all but been eliminated and drop boxes cut back, that the long lines were voter suppression.
So is the turnout way up if you take into account the loss of mail in ballots or what?
Dorothy A. Winsor
The Rs already know why they lost: The wrong people voted. They’ll redouble their efforts to fix that
Josie
@Amir Khalid:
OMG, I didn’t know there was such a thing. Cheetos are one of my all time guilty pleasures. I must start looking for the jalapeño ones.
sukabi
funny how these “good christians” can’t even find the words and teachings to follow that their savior left for them….so now they’re trying to figure out how to proceed from listening to grifters, lowlifes and thieves….
guess not being a shitty person is too hard for some people.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I was catching up on the much-hyped “Twitter Files” release and trying to figure out what I was missing, but yeah, that seems to be the conclusion: Musk apparently thinks the First Amendment requires private sector media platforms to host revenge porn content.
Even Taibbi admits no one in the government was “censoring” the revenge porn tweets — private citizens were asking a private-sector platform to take down material that violated the platform’s TOS (and lots of laws too).
It’s salacious stuff, so Musk and his hard-right political allies won’t be able to stop themselves from spreading it far and wide. Will no one think of the normies?
Booger
@sukabi: ‘Grifters, Lowlifes and Thieves’ is my favorite Cher song of all time.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
It seems like an easy call to me. Hunter Biden has partners in some of the sex photos they are gleefully disseminating. Even if one doesn’t think Hunter Biden has any privacy interest (I think he does – the recording of his sex life were private, he didn’t release them – they were stolen) surely his partners do.
Also- just gross that it’s Taibbi – the pig who rose to fame on he and his repulsive buddies lurid description of having sex with 15 year olds and sexually exploiting female employees.
It’s bullshit that they were “young”.so ha ha, boys will be boys. I’ve raised three boys. At no point did any of them demand sex from co-workers. I have a 20 year old now. He doesn’t solicit sex from 15 year olds. His GF is a consenting adult.
Kay
Wilson Heath
Is the hotdog suit guy meme omitted because it’s so obvious now that we should all be adding it in our heads?
sukabi
@Booger: Cher sang it with gusto….🙂
these silver-spooned clowns have reached the patheticly embarrassing realm….
Layer8Problem
@AnonPhenom: Well, that’s one. Who isn’t Zeldin. In an article from 2012, when Jacobs was the Democratic Party chair in Nassau County.
It looks more from what I’ve seen that Jacobs at best feckless and at worst a backslapping business-as-usual Albany pol who couldn’t be bothered with inconvenient facts on the ground.
Suzanne
@Ohio Mom:
There is a Flaming Hot LIMON variety of Cheetos that lots of my kids love. It is covered in this red dust that makes it look like they were
bakedfabricated in a nuclear power plant. I didn’t know about jalapeño, though!Marmot
@Ken: Yeah is he talking about Gort, who, let’s be fair, was righteously aggrieved?
He should’ve chosen The Thing.
Edit: I have no memory of a Day the Earth Stood Still remake, none! There never was one. Never!
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Oh but you know how this goes. The content is just Hunter Biden having sex (not an interest of mine) so they can’t say that’s a vital public interest and Twitter pulled the sex photo story down, not the FBI or Biden so there’s no governmental intersect but they will just move the goalposts and insist it’s proof of yet another conspiracy to silence cranky, bitter middle aged Right wing men.
I wish they would get better at personal relationships. I think a lot of this has to do with them being unable to from lasting relationships- the bitterness and rigidity. They’re really unhappy.
Layer8Problem
@Betty Cracker: “Musk apparently thinks the First Amendment requires private sector media platforms to host revenge porn content.”
Well then I say that fairness and balancedness demands that the world get to see the pee-pee tape and Gaetz’s escapades on the bird site.
And if that does happen I personally will stick to reading the transcript. I’m delicate.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
It is just so funny how consistently the Bold Contrarian Take is actually just the Republican Party take.
Every. Single. Time. They move in perfect coordination with the GOP. My local paper had Jim Jordan promising Hunter Biden sex scandals yesterday and…will you look at that! Here come Elon Musk and the Substackers with the exact same political campaign.
They should just come out as Republicans. They’d all be solidly in the center of the GOP – they’re much stodgier and more conventional than the GOP fringe.
Marmot
@Kay:
That’s probably right. Maybe related, they seem to be really bad at basic empathy, or even understanding the drives of other people. So it’s often rake-stepping time.
Ohio Mom
@Suzanne: There are aisles in the supermarket I rarely walk down — ice cream is one, I’d rather go out to Graeters and buy a cone.
Then there are the aisles I never walk down — cold cereal, pet food, TV dinners, and whatever aisle the Cheetos are in. I am going to have to look for Cheetos aisle and study my choices. Limon sounds like another sure bet.
I’ll also be looking for that spray cheese in a can, I know he’ll love that.
Ken
The Republican post-mortem reminds me of the Blackadder “Dish and Dishonesty” episode, where Pitt (the Even Younger) is asked if he’s disappointed at his loss of the Dunny-on-the-Wold by-election.
“Yes! I’m horrified! I smeared my opponent, bribed the press to be on my side, and threatened to torture the electorate if we lost. I fail to see what more a decent politician could have done.”
Another Scott
@Dorothy A. Winsor: +1
The only questions are:
1) How many millions the report will cost.
2) How many minutes will pass after its release before it’s memory holed like the previous one.
Something something when his salary depends something something.
Cheers,
Scott.
Balconesfault
“when the party underperformed expectations in a political environment many felt was to their advantage…”
Yes, the corporate media absolutely believed that despite the widespread anger over Roe, an economy that has been cranking along at a solid clip throughout Biden’s Presidency – in many ways tie-able directly to legislation passed by Democratic congress with absolutely no support from the Republican side of the aisle, additional legislation and executive actions tied directly to climate change and student debt – both which helped activate a younger base of Voters who had grown largely cynical with politics, a continuous stream of mass shootings while Republicans steadfastly block even the smallest movement toward gun regulations, and a Republican party who had largely staked a position that any election not won by a republican is proof that elections are inherently corrupt in America. … All created a playing field which was enormously beneficial for the Republicans.
Well, I guess at least they figured that if they ignored almost all the stuff above, and only talked about inflation, illegal immigrants, and crime statistics, that Republicans would have a big electoral advantage.
kalakal
@Marmot: Definately the wrong film.
I think he just felt the title fitted perfectly and went with it
AnonPhenom
@Layer8Problem:
You were expecting a Jacobs’ act of *commission* and not the neglect and acts of omission that he’s famous for?
You don’t play this game very often, do you?
Suzanne
@Kay:
I will never get over how many people worry about sex they aren’t having. It’s just repulsive and, honestly, it’s pathological.
I would say that the corrective action is to get these people laid more often, but I don’t want to put anyone in charge of that.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Layer8Problem:
and as near as I can tell from mostly reading (non-Taibbi) tweets, this whole thing relies on the idea that Joe Biden was POTUS in the summer/fall of 2020
Ksmiami
@Amir Khalid: nah – they want the insanity. In fact, I fully expect that the recommendations from these ass hats will be that the GOP needs to bring back the Salem witch hunts to be more competitive…
Dorothy A. Winsor
OT but this afternoon from 1-3, I’ll be at the local author fair at the Highland Park, IL library. Drop by and see me. Bring your friends and their wallets!
UncleEbeneezer
I can’t believe y’all are sitting here talking about crispy, spicy munchies and nobody has even mentioned the GOAT: Andy Capp’s Hot Fries! (Actually I prefer the Cheddar and Pub Fries but my wife loves Hot Fries so I often take one for the team). Sadly, Andy Capps snacks are no longer readily available in SoCal so we only get to have them when we travel.
It’s hard for me to eat Cheetos after Cheeto-dust became a running joke about Jonah Goldberg back in the early-aughts.
lollipopguild
@sukabi: Many of these “good christians” have been christians in name only for a long time. a lot of them are racist/sexist Nazis but they were hiding how they really felt until trump came along and gave them permission to act just like him.
Suzanne
@Ohio Mom: So last year, my husband found Cheetos branded mac and cheese in a box (near the Kraft, I presume). He bought it, kind of as a joke, for the kids. When they made it, it was, like, neon. TERRIBLE. Hilarious.
Speaking of SNACK FOOD….I don’t know under what rock I’ve been living, but I recently learned that there are recipes for making Chex Mix (and similar) in the crockpot. I love those snack mixes. I know it’s so Gen X middle-class of me, but I love them. I want to make one with Crispix. Any favorite recommendations?
Kay
@Suzanne:
This sad, fucked up middle aged man filming his sexual encounters is titallating to these people? Gross.
I’d get off Twitter if I had put anything on that site that I didn’t want revealed. Trusting Elon Musk and the celebrity clickbait “contrarians” who work for him with personal information seems insane to me. If it becomes politically useful they’ll do it to you too. They may not think Hunter Biden has any right to privacy, but they should understand that these folks think no one has any right to privacy. Let the buyer beware.
Geminid
@AnonPhenom: Jay Jacobs is not irreplacable. I don’t think the blame for the party’s performance last month can be debited to one person, but I think New York Democrats need to make this election an inflection point, and they need to move forward with new party leadership. I’m talking about the party apparatus here; their political leader is Governor Hochul, and I think she is a good one.
New York Democratic politics are complex and opaque to me, and make the fractious Israel politics that I follow seem simple in comparison. But, if the Queen of the World came to me and said, “Geminid, I’m appointing you Count of New York; see what you can do about the Democratic Party there,” I would do two things:
1) I would fire Jay Jacobs, the State party chairman, and
2) I would ask Governor Hochul to hand pick his successor. I might suggest a simple mandate: do what it takes to crush New York’s Republicans in the next cycle and for the rest of the decade.
Then I would resign my Countship and claim my reward: a month’s free vacation in Myrtle Beach. With a pass good for any of their 25 miniature golf courses.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: The coordination is so obvious. Musk calls DeSantis a “sensible centrist” one day, and a week later, DeSantis is screeching about “woke tyranny” and demanding investigations because Apple declined to keep spending millions on Twitter ads.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
zhena gogolia
@Ken: Surely he’s thinking of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Snarki, child of Loki
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: “this whole thing relies on the idea that Joe Biden was POTUS in the summer/fall of 2020”
Like Clinton being the cause of 9/11, or the 2008 recession blamed on Obama.
GOP: “f’n calendars, how do they work?”
kalakal
@Suzanne:
I was gobsmacked when I first saw Cheetos* at around the age of 50. My first thought was to get a Geiger counter. I’ve worn deep sea survival gear that was less visible and that was designed to let SAR helicopters find me if I fell off the rig in a storm.
I couldn’t believe people would eat them
*Not a thing in the UK, probably some pesky EU regulation about toxic waste, thank heavens for Brexit. /s
Jim, Foolish Literalist
also, right-wing twitter seems genuinely excited that one-time B+ list actor James Woods is going to sue the DNC. “I’m coming for you!” he said to them via Tucker Carlson.
I know a lot of people confuse actors with their roles (Arnold and Stallone and Costner come to mind), but I can’t remember any of Woods’ work well enough to guess which role they think he’s going to be playing.
Layer8Problem
@AnonPhenom: Your latest article backs up my assertion that Jacobs is at minimum feckless. And you’re moving the goalposts with “neglect and acts of omission that [Jacobs] is famous for”, which I agree with. Your original assertion here, “Amazing what a Republican can accomplish when the Chair of the NY Democratic Party, Jay Jacobs, is one of your fans”, hasn’t been documented yet. Perhaps we at least agree that at minimum Jacobs needs removal.
You don’t often get contradicted much, do you?
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Right? Libs of Tik Tok allege litterboxes in public schools and the following month it’s central to the Michigan GOP 2022 platform.
Luckily they aren’t very good at discerning what normies care about and they get more bizarre every fucking day…there is now an actual wing of the GOP who seek to mandate Catholicism. They’re invited to mainstream GOP events. Wackos as far as the eye can see.
The public rejected the Hunter Biden sex tapes once- we’ll see if they reject them again.
Anyway
As a junk-food connoisseur I heartily recommended Jalapeno Cheetos. Prefer the flavor to Flamin’Hot (done the research).
Kay
Read the whole thread. Its just shameful. Voters are jumping thru the hoops though – God love em, as Joe Biden might say.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I’m heartened by the fact that all of contrarian substack land predicted a mass exodus of mothers from the Democratic Party due to covid restrictions. They based this on like 3 Right wing celebrity mothers who appear on CNN as paid contributors, which I just found out pays 50k a year for 3 minutes a month babbling some stupid shit about cancel culture. No wonder CNN is cutting staff. They pay too many idiot commentators.
Layer8Problem
@Geminid: I’m in complete agreement. Jacobs needs replacement and the Democratic apparatus at least needs an overhaul. And New York Democratic politics are complex and opaque to me and I live here and have an active business-as-usual Democratic organization in my very county, as well as upstart Democratic and progressive organizations looking to break into that.
Geminid
@Mai Naem mobile: Masters was a lousy, lousy candidate. Someone even leaked the results of a campaign funded focus group where he scored record unlikeabilty evaluations.
The only reason I can see for Republicans to put Masters on this committee is that they want to see Peter Thiel’s money keep flowing. On his own merits, Masters wouldn’t be tasked with running so much as a bake sale.
WaterGirl
@narya: Are they going to let you stay a couple more months because of the things only you know?
ian
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Hades from Hercules?
Kay
Per my nurse practicioner, I have the flu, not covid although I got a flu shot w/the covid booster. It’s…uncomfortable. I can’t imagine how bad it would be w/out the shot.
It is amazing to me that I haven’t gotten covid yet. I have been running around working in this covid petri dish of a county for going on three years now. I go into locked juvenile facilities regularly where they get covid in cycles- over and over. Last month we (once again) had the highest infection rate in the state.
WaterGirl
@citizen dave:
Rotating tag!
Suzanne
@kalakal: I have a few ultra-processed “foods” that I unabashedly love. Spaghetti-Os from a can. Fantastic. Those Flipsides cracker-pretzel bastards. Incredible.
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: Do you do the puffy ones or the crunchy cheetos?
There is one right answer, and I should tell you that this will go on your permanent record!
opiejeanne
Has anyone else seen the strange ad where a woman in her 30s tells us that Congress needs to leave the tech companies alone because they are something something inflation/gas prices gazpacho?
I have no idea what she was talking about nor which tech company she thinks Congress is going after. I’ve obviously missed a lot, there’s too much information for me to keep up with everything, but wtf?
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: The puffy ones are an abomination.
WaterGirl
@Kay:
Is that a fair description? I thought he was getting his shit together and that he is a recovering drug addict.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@opiejeanne: I’ve seen it and like you, don’t get it. I was guessing they’re worried about anti-monopoly legislation
ETA: on-topic, I was on a road trip yesterday and stopped for gas and had a sudden craving for Fritos. All they had was BBQ. Talk about an abomination
opiejeanne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Just like Obama was President during Katrina.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Taibbi has skeletons in Russia. Bet on it
rikyrah
@[email protected] (@david_darmofal) tweeted at 8:18 AM on Sat, Dec 03, 2022:
This was a really good week for the Democratic Party. Choosing a diverse set of serious, substantive legislators for House party leadership. And finally making the nomination process truly representative of the party’s base. Well-done, Democrats.
(https://twitter.com/david_darmofal/status/1599045302429765633?s=02)
Layer8Problem
@Kay: ” . . . 3 Right wing celebrity mothers who appear on CNN as paid contributors, which I just found out pays 50k a year for 3 minutes a month babbling some stupid shit about cancel culture.”
Ooo, that sounds like a sweet gig.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: They’ve succeeded in making me pity Hunter Biden, and I don’t usually feel sympathetic toward well-connected wastrels, regardless of political pedigree. But damn, I’ve never seen anyone’s private shit so brutally and relentlessly exposed. The people making hay off it better hope what goes around never comes around.
Suzanne
@WaterGirl: #teamcrunchy
Citizen_X
That actually sounds like a fun vacation.
Layer8Problem
@opiejeanne: Would that be an American Edge ad? It sounds like the ones I’ve seen. They’re a Facebook/Meta-funded group, fighting to keep Washington from regulating their “innovation”, which is bad because they don’t like it.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes!
Miss Bianca
@Geminid: And it is weird, as someone noted above, that if they wanted a Thiel-backed candidate who *won* an election, as opposed to resoundingly losing, why didn’t they pick Hellbilly Elegy Dude?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: I can never bring myself to watch more than a few seconds of those Don Jr videos that have people retweeting with “Is he okay?” captions. I don’t know if he’s coked up, boozing (I think he says he’s several years sober?), or just acting out the psychoses resulting from his probably abusive upbringing.
I remember when Ivana published her memoir of raising her kids that included stories (I think meant to be amusing) about how his father neglected him, and his eulogy for her centered on the beatings she gave him when he was small. If I hated my mother, I wouldn’t have told those stories at that moment.
and no, I don’t feel sorry for him. I do feel sorry for his kids
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I feel bad for him too. I think everyone has a right to privacy. I was really affected by Joe Biden’s pleadiing vm that the douchebags released. We have had so many drug addict funerals here- I know so many parents who have lost a child to addiction or are currently on that roller coaster. The vm makes me cry. My middle son, the electrician, was a wild young man. I used to get so worried about him when I couldn’t find him (frequently missing from age 17 to 22) I would become physically ill. Joe Biden and Hunter – that relationship- breaks my heart.
rikyrah
Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) tweeted at 6:12 PM on Fri, Dec 02, 2022:
I look forward to the media being frustrated about having to treat Black people like they matter in the months leading up to the first Democratic primary.
(https://twitter.com/eclecticbrotha/status/1598832475815694338?s=02)
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: I think the mental and physical injuries from the car crash that killed his mother and sister probably set him up for more problems than the typical “well-connected wastrel.”
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus: I like both. The puffy ones melt in your mouth.
I haven’t had a cheeto in about 25 years, I’d guess.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
It’s the phucking hypocrisy of it all. He is a private citizen. Has always been one. And, they are just hideous, keeping on going after him..no conscience.. The entire lot of them😠😠
opiejeanne
@Layer8Problem: I don’t know. I was making supper when the ad came on and I didn’t hear a “paid for by” disclaimer. It must have been a note at the bottom of the screen.
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah: Yeah!
Kay
@rikyrah:
Oh, he’s a great guy. Just a super human being. Another celebrity psycho who was poorly raised:
At least Hunter’s partners appear to be consenting adults and are not workplace subordinates.
Mel
@Ohio Mom: Try Target and Meijer for jalapeño Cheetos, if you are in the Cincinnati area.
Also, Over the Rhine Bagel Bar used to have a Flamin’ Hot Cheetos Bagel. Not sure if they still have that on offer, but if so, that seems like a possible addition to the food gifts!
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Yep, two of my friends have lost sons to drug overdoses and several others are dealing with addicted children. It’s a nightmare that’s happening everywhere.
It’s possible the hard-right douchebags who are hyping the HB content are misreading the room now the same way they did when they released that voice mail. It’s astounding that they thought it reflected poorly on Biden — just the opposite.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Drug addiction in grown children is a real leveler here. It spans the whole economic range. I attend drug court meetings for families and it’ll be fancy mom from my neighborhood sitting next to subsidzed apartment resident mom. The counselor told me the best thing- she told me they’re all mourning, including the addicts, who have lost so many friends and family members. Once I saw it in that frame I understood the really profound sadness that just pervades the room. I hear that in Biden’s voice on the voicemail.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I think the elder Bidens essentially raised Hunter’s daughter, thats what I picked upin the big press freak outover her wedding (I didn’t know that) which is another commonality they have with the hundreds of grandparents here who are acting as parents because the parents are drug addicts.
I wish Biden would speak on it. I would bet it would be much more well received than conventional wisdom would assume and it might mean something to those parents- that the President is one of them. But it’s his call. Its so painful for them.
WaterGirl
@Suzanne: Yes!
Betty Cracker
@Kay: WaPo did a really great story this week about overdose deaths and ripple effects in Greenville, NC. ETA: Yep, it would be incredibly powerful if Biden spoke about it, but I agree — totally his call. It must be incredibly painful.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah:
I just wanted to see that again. Disgusting that it’s true, but the truth of that statement is a thing of beauty.
Subsole
@Amir Khalid: Oh, it isn’t. The thing is, they already did it.
After Obama cleaned their clocks, desks, and cupboards back in 2012, the GOP sat down and did a whole postmortem on it. The conclusion? Stop acting like maniacs, stop abusing the minorities who are already here (important distinction), go back to the Lee Atwater dogwhistle days.
They turned around and elected Trump.
You can lead assholes to water, but…
Citizen Alan
@Ken: Look at it this way. Except for the Earth woman who tried to help Klaatu, the entire human race was populated by warmongering paranoid idiots.
James E Powell
@Ken:
Keanu haters never stop.
Subsole
@Kay:
They won’t.
The GOP as currently structured exists to protect the feelings of the worst people in America from the consequences of their decisions.
Geminid
@citizen dave: The Republicans certainly are intellectually bankrupt. Their centering of culture war issues indicates to me that they are scraping the bottom of the policy barrel.
Now, ithout even remotely popular policy alternatives, negative partisanship- getting people to vote against the other party- is the best tool in the depleted Repuican toolbox. But that tool, it seems to me, can lose its edge and temper from overuse. The negative partisan dynamic that Republicans push depends on voters buying their portrayal of the Democrats as a bunch of radical, authoritarian elitists, and they’re just not.
Now Republicans are showing that theirs is the radical, authoritarian and elitest party. They are themslves vulnerable to the political weapon of negative partisanship, and I think Democrats will wield it effectively.
Of course, political messaging stratehies do not a substitute for delivering tangible results. On this count, I think Democrats have delivered on the federal and state levels and I think they will continue to do so.
The midterms did not go as well as I had hoped, but I don’t think Republican control of the House will negate what Democrats have accomplished. Going forward, they may impede progress but they won’t entirely prevent it. And I suspect that in the next next two years House Republicans will set the stage for their own return to the Minority after the 2024 elections, and probably for the rest of this decade.
Amir Khalid
@WaterGirl:
Crunchy.
Eunicecycle
@opiejeanne: yes they are playing that ad in Ohio, too. I thought it was something about Intel building a big facility here but if they’re also playing it in your neck of the woods I guess that’s not it!
Ohio Mom
@Mel: Meijers was already on my list for tomorrow’s errands, I will definitely look for Cheetos there.
And you are right, Ohio Son would love a Flamin’ Hot Cheetos Bagel.
Thanks!
Miss Bianca
@Geminid: God, I hope so. Di d you happen to see that link to an article I posted in one of yesterday’s threads? The one about Colorado Republicans having a hissy fit because their losses all across the board on a state level meant that the Colorado GOP *isn’t conservative enough*? That’s their election post-mortem right there – “we lost with our bat-shit insane conservatism, so the answer is obviously EVEN MORE BAT-SHIT INSANITY!”
Ohio Mom
@Betty Cracker: I wonder if Biden believes the story is Hunter’s to tell, that talking about his experience as a parent of an addict would be violating Hunter’s privacy.
Biden insists he is proud of Hunter, talking about Hunter’s darkest days would contradict that.
Geminid
@Citizen_X: A walk on the beach every morning, breakfast in any one of 30 pancake houses, miniature golf after? Who could ask for more?
I guess anyone with a life less boring than mine.
Myrtle Beach is quite built up, so I would spend some time 20 miles south, at Huntington Beach State Park. I might even camp there for much of the month, and just return to the Grand Strand on the weekends to sleep in a soft bed, and watch movies and football games on TV. And play more miniature golf.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
that’s my read as well. I can’t imagine that living in the shadow of the martyred paragon Beau hasn’t played a role in what was, as I understand, Hunter’s relapse, and his POTUS father talking about the pain of those times in a national spotlight, even with the best and most compassionate intentions, might not be the best thing.
Hunter has been very open about his life. He did a long interview with Marc Maron (thirty-ish years sober) that I had set aside to listen to, but never got around to it
James E Powell
@opiejeanne:
I haven’t seen it lately, but it was running constantly during sports programming in September & October. Maybe they were just trying to promote dissatisfaction?
Geminid
@Miss Bianca: I’m not surprised Colorado Republicans want to double down on radicalism. They’ll have to get thrashed a couple more cycles at least before the radicals cede control back to their saner colleagues.
By then it could be a hollowed out party destined for majority status in only a few rural areas. Statewide, their minority status could be more or less permananent.
That’s where I think Virginia Republicans are headed, last year’s win by Foungkin Youngkin notwithstanding. I guess next year’s General Assembly elections could show if this view is correct.
rikyrah
For folks without college degrees? Yeah, this is good.😒
Hunter’s laptop #5 (@realworldrj) tweeted at 8:19 AM on Fri, Dec 02, 2022:
Sure, I would have loved for workers receiving 4 weeks paid leave but here’s what Biden negotiated
24% pay increase by 2024
14% immediate raise
$1,000 annual bonus for 5 years
No increase to copays and deductibles
Average pay would be $110k by 2024
That’s pretty fucking good
(https://twitter.com/realworldrj/status/1598683158647644161?s=02)
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
Yes, Amir, you are exactly correct — the problem is that Republican christo-fascist leaders do not want and will not accept a “professional, largely unbiased post-mortem” — the reason they lost so much ground in the 2022 mid-term elections is that their proposals to the electorate are by and large repulsive to even conservative voters.
Which fact if acknowledged would mean the current leaders of the Republican party need to resign, go away, and get jobs they are qualified to perform, like grocery store checkout baggers. Or something equally difficult…
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Thanks. My husband put Narcan in both of our cars after he saw an ordinary bystander administer it in the parking lot of the Circle K. You can mail order it free in any Ohio county. I put the flyer with the instructions ON TOP of mine in the glovebox because I read directions- he does not. His patient will get someone winging it :)
Kay
@Ohio Mom:
What I have learned is the parents have their own living with addiction story though- it’s as valid and as much theirs as the addicts. But obviously Biden makes that call.
I think it might help with some of the shame and stigma the parents and siblings and spouses and friends talk about.
J R in WV
@rikyrah:
Good morning, rikyrah — this is a civilized time to get up, esp for retired folx. Like me.
After some cold winter rain earlier, now it’s sunny and warming up a little bit. Pretty for this time of year.
J R in WV
@opiejeanne:
i haven’t seen it, but I think the strange woman may be the GA fitness queen and steroid abuser — Congresswoman Marjory Taylor Green, who tried to say Gestapo (German Nazi police) and instead said Gazpacho, inflation/gas prices, etc unintelligible babble nonsense.
If she’s in charge of the post-mortem election review, it is sure to lead the Republicans out of the wilderness and back to big winning strategies everywhere!!
Ohio Mom
@Kay: I have two good friends who have sons who are users. I think younger of them straightened up enough after a stint in the county jail but the other, the meth user, has been at it for over two decades and it’s hard to see what is going to change for him.
But both families are just average families, they aren’t in the public eye like the Biden family is. There are no reporters chasing after them or nosing around their online presence.
I agree with you that dropping the shame and stigma is essential for everyone moving forward with their lives but I just think the calculations on where to draw the line has to be different for the Biden’s.
Jackie
@opiejeanne: I’ve seen it a few times and have no clue what the what? she’s babbling about. She sounds like and vaguely resembles Tiffany Smiley – which caught my attention – until I realized it wasn’t her.
lowtechcyclist
@Kay:
Siri, buy ALL the popcorn!!
Yeah, white evangelicals are gonna LOVE that.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Geminid: I don’t agree. They want Masters, Perkins, and more diverse members because this committee will be making recommendations. They need to figure out how to thread the needle between keeping their crazy base on board while expanding their reach. I don’t think we should underestimate them. I do think think they made inroads with people who are misogynists, homophobes, and antigovernment conspiracy minded in minority communities. I expect them to double down on that to rob us of our demographic advantages.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
He’s going to sue the Electoral College and take it all the way to the Supreme Court!
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Kay: @Betty Cracker:
I too wish Biden would speak about and for parents with addicted children. People of all political stripes have been there. The GOP would really let loose their contempt. I want Republicans who have dealt with addiction in their own families to really see it.. to understand these people have no intention of ever helping with this epidemic.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: I’m kind of hoping the politicized religious bloc will fracture and they’ll revert to their former rivalries with each other. I saw a hint of this a few months back when I was listening to the local Baptist radio station. Some preacher finished his half hour sermon with a pitch for listeners to buy his new book “Calvinism: None Dare Call it Heresy.” I said to the radio, “You go, guy!”
I read the Wartburg Watch* blog every now and then. It’s put out by a couple evangelical ladies who are thoroughly fed up with the oppressive patriarchy and rampant grifting and abuse infesting their churches. They report on this in a lot of detail, while also pointing readers to less compromised examples of their faith. It’s very interesting reading, even for a nonbeliever like me.
*Wartburg Watch is named after the Thuringian castle where a German Elector stashed Martin Luther while the Church was trying to get him burned like they’d done with Jan Hus. Luther left when it became safe, and he and the Elector never actually met in person.
Quiltingfool
@Suzanne: No one wants to be in charge of those folks getting laid (I’m vomiting in my mouth a bit typing this).
I have heard there are professionals who can meet their sexual needs – cost you some money, but you can have sex. Heh.
”If it flies, floats or fucks, lease, don’t buy.” A pithy bit of business advice I read in the novel, Baja Oklahoma, by Dan Jenkins.
Soprano2
@Kay: We recently had a cook at our pub die of an overdose the day before her 24th birthday. Her uncle is our head cook, he got her the job and was trying to help her kick it. The memorial was hard, it’s so tragic when a promising young life is cut short. I don’t think Republicans realize that vm makes Biden more human and relatable because it’s the same experience so many people have had..
Layer8Problem
@Soprano2: I’m so sorry for her uncle and for you. God the universe can be cruel.
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: Most excellent choice!