Right-wing operative James O'Keefe is laying off employees at his Project Veritas group, known for its undercover stings. https://t.co/ggvC1V1W4o
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) December 6, 2022
Not hard enough, IMO, but the fewer paid ratfornicators out there, the better:
… O’Keefe announced the Project Veritas layoffs in a Nov. 28 internal email reviewed by The Daily Beast. Roughly six people will be laid off, according to a person familiar with the plan.
It’s not clear how many people work for Project Veritas, but its tax returns from 2019—the most recent available—list 45 employees. At that size, laying off six people would represent more than 10 percent of the nonprofit’s total staff. A spokesman for Project Veritas didn’t provide more recent employment figures…
A spokesman for Project Veritas insisted the group is still hiring, asking The Daily Beast to include a link to its jobs page.
The layoffs come as Project Veritas faces federal scrutiny as part of an investigation into presidential daughter Ashley Biden’s diary. Last year, FBI agents raided O’Keefe’s apartment and other addresses linked to the group. In September, two people who stole the diary pleaded guilty to taking it and selling it to Project Veritas…
Been a bad season for Roger Stone’s light-fingered, lying little helpers…
Right-wing operative James O’Keefe has a big new problem: a former employee turned porn performer has gone rogue, revealing the names and tactics of O’Keefe’s undercover agents at Project Veritas. https://t.co/EQ999yTAMi
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) November 19, 2022
Last I remember hearing about JOKeIII’s political blackmail operation was back in September, when they ‘lost a jury verdict to Democratic consulting firm’, after the NYTimes piously announced the group was ‘under further Federal investigation’ for attempting to peddle a diary stolen from one of Biden’s daughters to GOP donors.
When a grift like this breaks down, it’s all nasty little seamy details…
… The ex-employee, whose real name is Patrice Thibodeau, has taken to YouTube to reveal what he describes as the organization’s secrets, including the names of O’Keefe’s alleged undercover “sting” operatives and the kinds of hidden cameras he says the group uses…
“James is fucking done, bitch,” Thibodeau, a former Project Veritas videographer who left the organization in 2020, said in one of the videos. “I’m laughing my ass off, this is so pathetic.”
Project Veritas has scrambled to stop Thibodeau from disseminating its supposed secrets. On Nov. 7, the group asked the New York Supreme Court for an injunction to prevent Thibodeau from publishing confidential information about his former employer, a filing first reported by the New York Post…
Thibodeau’s videos about Project Veritas have disappeared from YouTube, and the lawsuit redacted the details of his on-tape revelations. In one video obtained by The Daily Beast, however, Thibodeau revealed the names of people he said worked undercover for Project Veritas, as well as what he described as the group’s methods for running its sting operations on liberal groups.
For example, Thibodeau claims to have been in Washington’s historic Georgetown neighborhood while attractive female Project Veritas operatives attempted to secretly record dates with federal bureaucrats, a plan previously reported by The New York Times…
Thibodeau also alleged in the video that Project Veritas uses hidden cameras that like buttons or coffee cups, supplied by a surveillance manufacturer called LawMate. In its lawsuit against Thibodeau, Project Veritas accused him of violating confidentiality clauses in his employment contract regarding “covert devices.”
In the footage, recorded in August, Thibodeau mocks O’Keefe’s group for failing to land any major bombshell videos in 2022. Thibodeau described what he claimed was O’Keefe’s process for running the stings and feeding the right-wing media content “machine.”…
The Daily Beast was not able to independently confirm Thibodeau’s descriptions of the Project Veritas employees. But the organization itself appeared to acknowledge that at least some of the names revealed by Thibodeau are genuine, describing the names in his video as “highly confidential trade secrets” in its lawsuit.
Thibodeau made his videos in August in the aftermath of a lawsuit filed against Project Veritas by another former employee named Antoinetta Zappier. That complaint painted Project Veritas as a raucous, drug-fueled, sexually charged workplace…
Jerzy Russian
Here is a question. Suppose James O’Keefe and Ted Cruz were standing side by side. How does one decide which face is the most punchable, and hence the one to get punched first? Is punchability a continuous quantity (e.g. a real number), or is a discrete thing? If it is a discrete measure, then it is possible that they can have equally punchable faces, in which they both get punched at once.
Alison Rose
Okay, first, because you mentioned the NYT above it, I thought that excerpt was from them, and I was like HOLY HELL THEY PRINTED CURSE WORDS???? Then I realized.
Also, that photo of him in the top tweet looks a wax sculpture, which, if it existed, would probably be smarter than the real thing.
Alison Rose
@Jerzy Russian: This would be a case in which even the most left or right handed of us would give the non-dominant one a pep talk and go for simultaneous jabs to both faces. Preferably while wearing brass knuckles. With spikes. Covered in cayenne pepper.
West of the Rockies
He sure aged rapidly in a few years. I suspect there is no genuine bliss or joy in his empty, hateful life.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Alison Rose: Alternately, a baseball bat is a good tool. Protects your knuckles from damage and has enough surface area to catch both faces with one swing.
Anotherlurker
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: I would prefer to empty a can of hornet spray into his smug mug.
HumboldtBlue
It appears they all will fuck each other over and then wonder why they’ve been fucked.
GregMulka
@Jerzy Russian: Go wide with both hands so the impact knocks their heads together.
SFAW
@Jerzy Russian:
Dropping a Python-esque 16-ton weight on both of them might address the issue. I think that would equalize things, in case one is not ambidextrous.
SFAW
@Anotherlurker:
But which one?
[Of course, the proper answer is “yes.” Or maybe “both.”]
John Revolta
Guy’s gesicht has not gotten any less backpfeifen with the years, has it?
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Jerzy Russian: Proficiency in ambidextrousness would be a premium in this instance.
Anotherlurker
@SFAW: I prefer to improvise. After the first can is empty, maybe I’d use a baseball bat to make sure he got the message.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@SFAW: Actually, I like this idea better.
Amir Khalid
@John Revolta:
Corrected, for my own peace of mind.
Amir Khalid
I am saddened to learn this, but somehow not surprised.
Daoud bin Daoud
@West of the Rockies: I had the same thought. Evil people age rapidly.
opiejeanne
@Daoud bin Daoud: My mother told me that your face will eventually resemble what you are inside.
Ruckus
@West of the Rockies:
I suspect there is no genuine bliss or joy in his empty, hateful life.
Where would he put it?
How would he know what bliss or joy is?
Why would he waste his time with any human emotion that didn’t bring him more hate?
Does he have the
skillshumanity necessary to see joy or bliss?Why am I wasting my time discussing this shithead?
Ruckus
@Alison Rose:
Also, that photo of him in the top tweet looks a wax sculpture, which, if it existed, would probably be smarter than the real thing.
Probably?
Ruckus
@SFAW:
A 16 ton fish perhaps?
Cheryl from Maryland
I was at a convention when a man I had worked with once tried to greet me with a kiss on the lips. I turned my head (because my lips are reserved for my mother and my husband, both now deceased) so he put his tongue in my ear. He got a double slap in the face. He left the convention. I bet that is more than James O’Keefe could take. No baseball bat needed.
Aussie Sheila
Off topic, I’m sorry, but an earlier thread was dead before I could get to it.
On Sinema, I trust that whatever the AZ Dems decide, it will be for the best of their party retaining the seat for Dems in 2024 which I understand will be a heavy lift for Dems given the number of seats up for re-election. No matter how angry they may be, retaining that seat looks from here to be very important.
However, once it is all over, whatever the outcome, some consequences need to be meted out to Sinema, to ensure that nothing like her ever gets near a Dem preselection ever again. What that is I don’t know. However I believe that one reason for the success of the Biden administration (apart from his own deep political experience and smarts), is the much improved Dem discipline in government. I remember the BO admin trying to get health care reform through and it was a disgrace.
Not because of BO, but because of the preening fucknuckles making up the caucus in the Senate.
I know a lot of people here are more tolerant than I am about these matters, but I will never resile from the position that you get your ducks lined up before you go into battle. Party discipline in government is essential. Look at the repugs. In future, a Dem candidate needs to get forensic scrutiny. Not on the particular policy positions they may hold-after all local party orgs know how to deal with those matters, but how they acted if they ever held elected position before- were they loyal, how did they support their colleagues etc. Oh and another thing. In the US context, I would add, never, ever preselect someone who has been a US Green. At this point I am convinced they are nothing more than a political dollar washing op for Putin.
Sorry for derailing the thread, but I couldn’t help myself. Sinema is possibly the most disgraceful exhibit I have seen as a centre left politician. Her joy and insouciance in voting down the minimum wage rise was simply outrageous.
I am more leftier than the median US Dem, but I can’t help thinking that if you weren’t enraged by that, you should never be supported for Dem political office.
eldorado
in case you were curious about the story but hesitant to click the link, rest assured everyone in it appears to be complete dirtbags
James E Powell
@Jerzy Russian:
You go Moe Howard on them: grab them both by the hair and bang their heads together.
sab
@Aussie Sheila: You come from a parliamentary system. USA doesn’t have that. There is no party discipline because our parties aren’t that powerful. Here it is bottom up. Whoever can win the party primary then represents the party, even if the party hates them. It is very bottom up, although financially supporting candidates is very top down (rich donors).
Our founding fathers hated parties, but parties are inevitable in a democracy. Founding Fathers were new to democracy and feeling their way
ETA I read this and it sounds discombobulated. It is. This is our political system. I have huge problems with it, but I don’t think the parliamentary system is beter.
Ryan
He’s packed on about 50 pounds since the last time I saw him. That was during the dildo lube boat limo phase.
sab
@sab:ETA I think this is why Tim Ryan lost. Values there. It isn’t all party loyalty. Middle aged black women I know did not think he cared about them. Why would they when they saw his ads?
I know he was on their side, but he was so busy courting Appalachia that he forgot that base. And they, not familiar with him, were horrified.
El Cruzado
@Jerzy Russian: God gave you two fists for a reason.
Ryan
@sab: Abblebees, not Appalachia.
sab
@Aussie Sheila: 3 a.m. You aren’t derailing anything. New perspective from not USA. How could that be bad?
sab
@Ryan: You might be right. Too much talking to media.
Aussie Sheila
@sab:
OK I get you don’t think Parliamentary systems are better. However, in a parliamentary system, people don’t vote for a ‘leader’, they vote for the party. Now it is true that our system is still focussed on a ‘putative leader’, but at the end of the day, the party program/manifesto is expected to be adhered to by the elected representatives.
Your system is all ‘vibes’ but no real outcomes unless people ‘reach across the aisle’. A more opaque and obfuscating system that obscures what is really happening and who is doing it.
In our system political parties’ brand is gold. Once a party has lost their ‘brand’ they are in a world of hurt. It took the ALP from 1996-2007 to recover their brand as being for working people, because of the neo liberal cluster that the Keating government and ratcheted up by the Howard liberals, imposed on working people.
However, once regained, never lost again for now in Australia as our ALP government works to change legislation to make union organising easier in hard to organise sectors like Aged Care. ‘Vibes’ are a great way to win easy elections. They are a shortcut to a big problem when difficult issues arise.
That is my mystification with the US centre left. I get that exciting candidates are exciting, but political pros should be a lot more ideologically focussed, in the absence of strong parties. I believe that strong parties are actually far more democratic than the free for all primaries so beloved of US centre left normies by the way.
A moments look at the state of the industrial and social wage in the US should give the left in the US a clue.
Chetan Murthy
@sab: @Aussie Sheila: Not all of us think that parliamentary systems aren’t better than what we have. But sab is still correct, that what we have is not conducive to party discpline. Ah, well. It’s tough to change these things, given there are so many veto points in our legal framework. And …. if somehow we got busy changing things, there’s no certainty that things might not become much worse, since money has so much influence and could put its fat fingers into the process.
It is what it is, as a famous philosopher once observed.
West of the Rockies
@Anotherlurker:
I propose instead a nice big hive of hornets…
sab
@Aussie Sheila: I think if we could reform/ abolish the eElectoral College that would be huge.
sab
I see Canada ( twelve years Stephen Harper) and Australia, and UK and I don’t think parliamentary systems are better.
America would be much better if we had never let Aussie Murdochs into our country. What positive did they bring, other than lots of money? Vile people, and that is on Australua not USA. We let them in. You guys grew them.
I have a bunch of immigrant relatives who are lovely people and a real plus to our country. Disgruntled oligarchs from elsewhere ( Australia) aren’t among them..
Expatchad
@Alison Rose: Relace the pepper with cavity embalming fluid. ETERNAL pain and preservation of evidence
Aussie Sheila
@sab:
I agree, but short of a constitutional convention that will never happen, which means it will never happen.
However people can change the way they do things which can bring about different outcomes. I am a great believer in ‘bottom up’ organising, but in the absence of a strong ideological focus that can lead to nothing much more than mobilisation. I have spent nearly 50 years organising and advocating in and for unions in Oz. I understand the difficulties of bringing people together to a shared outlook. However nothing, absolutely nothing in my experience, beats investment and attention to grassroots work, combined with strong centralised leadership. It might not be possible in every state in the US, but a ‘union organising’ approach in a few must win/could win states might yield better results. I get the role of money, but that means that the Dem leadership need to be more attentive to political possibilities. After all, we have a problem with money here too. It’s just that basic social solidarity can count for a lot more than dollars when the chips are down.
I admire Pelosi for her Parliamentary skills which are second to none, but it is not good that a constitutional position has so much influence in relation to fund raising and the like. No dissing on her, but even from here I can see how her ‘look’ can alienate younger and more radical voters..
I am glad a younger person has taken over that position. I don’t care that he is obviously a ‘machine’ politician. Every party needs a ‘machine’ It is important however that the machine is quiet, and that its only evidence is effective results for the base it represents.
sab
@Aussie Sheila: I don’t know, but this fundamentally important. Two slightly different views of democracy with huge differences.
American founding fathers were struggling with whether democracy even made sense.
Australian founding fathers knew democracy made sense, but what was the best version.
ETA American version is fucked up, but I don’t know how to fix it.
Aussie Sheila
@sab: yeah but he abandoned his Australian citizenship and your country granted him yours!
I agree he is a pox on the Anglo sphere, but you know, we beat him here twice this year. In May in our federal election, and in Victoria state election two weeks ago. How are you guys doing beating him?
I get Fox is the pox, but the bleating about him is getting stale. These A holes can be beaten. But you need to burrow deep and dodge the obvious fire coming your way.
In other words, you don’t need to change your constitution, just your way of doing left politics. Less charismatic vibes, and more attention to the necessity of deep organising with a purpose. Like Stacy Abrams in Georgia.
sab
@Aussie Sheila: Okay. I will stop blaming you for him. He was just born there. Every country has toxic citizens.
UK and USA accepted the Murdochs with open arms. That is on us, not on Australia.
sab
@sab: Sheila from Australia: Nobody cares what I think, but I think this parliamentary sytem v USA primary system is massively important.
I have no idea which is right, but we need to figure out a system where people can have an input that actually matters
ETA However we feel about our own counries, nobody has fucked things up more than UK.
Aussie Sheila
@sab: Yes I agree about the UK. But have you noticed which social block is standing up to the Tories? It’s the TU movement. It reminds me of Australia in 2007. The TU movement if it is democratic and well organised is the best defensive and offensive weapon against the lumpen bourgeoisie that currently dominates a lot of the social and political discourse in both countries. You can’t conjure one up from nothing, but you can learn from the organising and advocacy skills that unions have in abundance.
sab
@Aussie Sheila: 5 am here. Going to bed.
But this is hugely important. I hope we and other jackals talk tommorow.
Geminid
@Aussie Sheila: I would say that Hakeem Jeffries is an “establishment,” not a “machine” politician. He was an insurgent in his early career, challenging an incumbent state Assemblyman, and later the sitting Congressman for his district. The Congressman retired rather than face the formidable Jeffries in a primary.
Jeffries had served only three terms in Congress when his peers elected him Caucus Chairman in November, 2018. They and leadership were impressed by his talent and work ethic.
The appelation of “machine politician,” an invidious term here, may stem from that caucus election. Jeffries beat Barbara Lee, a fine legislator and a Progressive icon. There has been a small but vocal anti-Jeffries faction ever since.
Last month, when Speaker Pelosi said she would step back from leadership, that faction vented their spleen with bitter attacks on Jeffries. “Bloodless Wall Street leach” was a typical epithet. The “machine politician” tag may have been pinned on him by this group.
I have seen Jeffries characterized as a machine politician in a different way. Referring to his controlled and focused communication style, a New York journalist one compared interviewing Jeffries to “talking with a very handsome robot.”
Jeffries can be a very inspirational speaker, however, and has been called “the Brooklyn Barack” with good reason. I thought his nomination speech for “the Once and Future Speaker” Nancy Pelosi on the first day of the new Congress in January, 2019 was a masterpice. I do not link well, but those interested can easily find the speech. I would recommend it to those who have not seen it
Gvg
@Aussie Sheila: what is the TU movement? I don’t recognize the abbreviation.
ColoradoGuy
The USA is really, really decentralized compared to most other democratic nations, and the founders designed it that way, with powers scattered all over the place. City, state, federal, all doing different functions, but with overlap that has changed over time.
Combined with that, the South was a Roman-style oligarchy for most of US history, and they hated, and continue to hate, the parts of the country that are (much) more democratic and economically and socially dynamic. In a sense, the Culture War has been going on for 200+ years, and is nothing new.
The USA, unlike European countries, has multiple capitals. Not just the obvious ones of Wash DC (politics) and New York (finance, media, arts), but powerful regional capitals such as Los Angeles (arts and aerospace), the Bay Area (silicon valley and arts), Seattle (big tech), Denver (mountain west and tech), Dallas, Chicago, New Orleans, Miami, and Atlanta.
The practical effect on lifestyle is that parts of the country simply ignore not just the other parts, but the Feds, too. Coloradans don’t give a shit about Federal marijuana prohibitions, and if Texas bounty hunters try to intimidate women here, they’ll get their asses shot at. Not joking, we have no patience for Southern attitudes here.
Go fifty miles north, you’re in Wyoming, and it’s almost entirely empty, with scattered MAGA outposts here and there. “Deliverance” out on the empty prairie. So a lot depends where you are, especially the migration from failing rural economies to the cities. The young people leave, and the old people stay and watch Fox TV all day, because there’s nothing else to do.
You’ve given me food for thought about the US Senate. There are 100 Senators, and if it were evenly divided by population, there would be 3.2 million people for each Senator. California would get about 12 Senators, while a big chunk just north of me would get one Senator, spread over four or five states.
Geminid
@Aussie Sheila: The Democratic Party has really upped its organizing game in the last few cycles at the local and state levels. The last two midterms may have demonstrated that the party has a achieved a rough parity in with the Republicans in this respect. We can and ought to build on this of course.
Other commenters here have commented as well on the exceptional unity that now seems to exist in the party. Political scientist-turned campaign professional Rachel Bitecofer agreed in a Tweet the weekend before the midterms:
More to the point you are making about Senator Sinema, I consider this an Arizona problem, not a systemic one. The party apparatus may not select our candidates (the voters in primaries do), but I think that’s a good thing even if it means we get a Sinema now and then. I think that overall this system has given us a very talented, hardworking and loyal set of elected officials..
Geminid
@Gvg: Maybe Trade Union movement.
Steeplejack
@Gvg:
I think it’s “trade union.”
TS
@sab:
Which I don’t think anyone disagrees with – we wish they had never got the media power in Australia.
But this does not relate to any type of government. Parliamentary systems have power divided between the parliament & the judiciary. The “president” or Governor General or
QueenKing is a figurehead only. The Prime Minister is the leader of the majority party in the House – partly equivalent to your Speaker of the House. This person thus (with agreement from his/her party) sets the agenda, appoints the ministers and administers the government.The US has power divided into 3. Ignoring the judiciary, power is divided into two the President and the congress and they may be of different political parties, which appears from the outside to cause problems not encountered in a Westminster system. It has the advantage of rarely does one political party have all the power – so the systems are different, we often prefer the one we have because we understand it much better.
Aussie Sheila
@TS:
I don’t think the strict division between the Executive and the ‘Parliament’ a la the US has any advantages at all. It sets up veto points that hamper proper legislative action, and it also obscures the reasons for legislative and policy failure. The electorate should be able to easily assign responsibility for legislative and policy failure. For good or ill, democracy simply can’t work when an arcane and archaic system works to obscure democratic accountability, ably assisted of course by a useless media which claims a quasi constitutional status, but fails every time to discharge it remotely honourably.
The US system has the appearance of democracy, because they never cease having elections, for every effing body up to and including judges in some states, god help us. And no sooner is one billion dollar plus national extravaganza over, than another one begins. No time for governing, but everyone gets a say in who should govern-something.
But what they don’t appear able to do is to ensure that the franchise is equal, honest and based on fair electorates. I am tired of the ‘our primary system is great because it is bottom up’. No, it’s not great, if all you end up with is a grifter that gets to like his/her donors and the life in the national/state capital more than they fear an electorate that will reliably turn up to vote.
Geminid
@TS: Like the US, Australia has a federal system with some power distributed among the Provinces(?) as it is among our states.
The UK and France have more unitary governing systems with executive and legislative power more concentrated in the central government.
One important difference between those two nations is France’s strong President. In the Fifth Republic, executive power is concentrated in the office of President, who is elected independently of parliament. When the Algerian crisis plunged France into political turmoil, Charles de Gaulle made this new constitutional format a condition for his entering politics and running for President. This hybrid system has proved much more stable than that of the Fourth Republic.
Geminid
@Aussie Sheila: You are looking at one Democratic Senator and saying this is “all you end up with.” What about the other 50? We ended up with them too.
I think you are making too much out of this one case.
Aussie Sheila
@Geminid: Yes, but I don’t like the strong powers the French system grants the President. A stronger parliamentary system is a better guardrail against strong man politics, Bojo in the UK notwithstanding. In fact his demise is proof that when your party colleagues see the show is going off the rails, they can ditch you. Imagine if trump could have been so easily ditched, instead of the ludicrous process quasi judicial, quasi political, that is impeachment. A term and process borrowed from 18th century England and therefore not to be emulated imo, under any circumstances.
Aussie Sheila
@Geminid: I disagree that Sinema is the only problem. I well remember the shocking process, or lack of it, that took up two years in the BO admin to simply get some health insurance reform. Not even universal coverage or a publicly funded insurer. That wasn’t BO’s fault. I followed it closely. It was the unimaginable ill discipline of 60 Dem Senators. Unbelievable. So no. Sinema is terrible, but she is not sui generis . Are you sure that other Dem Senators haven’t been hiding behind her and Manchin?
geg6
@Geminid:
Agreed. Without our bottom up primary system, I would not now be able to say that I am represented by Senator John Fetterman. The party would never have picked him. Conor Lamb would have been the nominee and I have much doubt he could have beaten Oz.
oatler
@sab:
When I see Guardian headlines I’m constantly amazed that its citizens haven’t torched No. 10. But they probably have the same reaction to our headlines.
JR
Are Thibodeaux’s new colleagues aware of the company he used to keep?
Geminid
@Aussie Sheila: Well, if we’re getting historical I would point out that the first Impeachers were the noblemen who impeached a King’s advisors in the 14th (I think) century. The advisors were convicted and beheaded.The King later got the upper hand, and the Impeachers also all ended up losing their heads.
Modern Republicans are not so savage. Of their 10 Congressional Impeachers, four were allowed to retire intact, while four others lost their political lives in primaries but were spared the block. Two, Newhouse and Valadeo, even survived to sit in the next Congress.
Those two were from Washington and California, two “jungle primary” states. Those states hold open primaries between all candidates, and the top two advance to a November runoff.
Alaska’s new system combines a jungle primary and a top four finsher, ranked choice runoff in November. I would not be surprised if this system becomes more widespread in coming years.
Along with New Hampshire, Alaska is a state where a majority of voters register as Independents. My state, Virginia is more typical with Independents constituting around 32% of the electorate. This is by self-identification in polling. Virginia has no party registration, but Arizona and other states that do register by party show a similar number of Independents.
Geminid
@geg6: Mayor Jim Kenney of Philadelphia endorsed Conor Lamb and said he did so because he thought Lamb had the best chance of winning. I’m not saying Mayor Kenney knows more about Pennsylvania politics than you do, but I think he knows as much.
I think Kenney was right as to Lamb being a strong candidate. In many respects Lamb is a clone of Bob Casey Jr., who won reelection in 2018 by over 600,000 votes even without John Fetterman’s special sauce.
But I think you are right about the choice being better made by Pennsylvania’s Democrats rather than party leaders.
Aussie Sheila
@Geminid: Interesting re impeachment . I didn’t know the pre 18th century history! In any case, it is a ludicrous system for dealing with wrong doing by an office holder. Strong parties, relying on an electorate that turns up to vote and which as a consequence, must ruthlessly utilise power to deliver for its constituency-note, not just its party members, but the constituency that voted for it, is vital.
I believe that the ‘professionalisation’ of a lot of politics here, in the UK and the US has been part of a growing democratic deficit everywhere. That can only be overcome by political parties on the left ceasing to look for charismatic ‘fixers’, and focusing on reorganising the restructured working class delivered by 40 years or so, of economic and social restructuring.
Joey Maloney
@opiejeanne: Orwell said, “By the time he’s 50, everyone has the face he deserves.”
artem1s
@Aussie Sheila: if you absolutely have to post about an attention whore that is not in your country, please wait for another post about Twitter. This one
iswas supposed to be about GOP failures. Now it’s been derailed by a ‘Dems in disarray’ attention whore.Mai Naem mobile
@Aussie Sheila: the problem is McConnell breaking with Senate norms not the system. McConnell would have done something similar in a parliamentary system. The real problem is Citizens United and overall campaign funding. I don’t know if there is a way of turning the SBF campaign funding lemon into some lemonade by getting some campaign reform legislation passed. One of the reasons the ACA took so long to pass was because all the financially interested parties were pouring boatloads of money into all the politicians’ campaigns. IIRC Max Baucus got the most money from HC companies that election cycle.
Aussie Sheila
@artem1s:
I don’t think the Dems are in disarray at all. In fact they seem to be more in array now than in the time I have closely followed actual electoral politics there. Which is from when Bush was ‘elected’ by the US Supreme Court in 2000. That number made me sit up and take notice, and then the Iraq war.
I have lots of old colleagues from the US TU movt but I never paid much attention to electoral politics there until 2000.
Tony G
@HumboldtBlue: A real fuckin’ clusterfuck.
brantl
@Jerzy Russian: Use a right or left cross, carry through, starting with the one you want to hit the most.
davecb
@ColoradoGuy said
Canada started out trying to be the opposite, with our two founding fathers giving the federal government the “nuclear bomb” power to override the provinces. They had looked at the experience in the United States between 1776 and 1867, and said a resounding “no”.
Over time, the provinces have tried to gain “state’s rights”, to the point that the Federal government recently had to consider overriding an Ontario law, one which abrogated people’s rights, and an Albert one which purported the change the constitution.
ian
@Aussie Sheila: Trump very easily could have been “ditched” by his fellow party/cabinet members via the 25th amendment. They didn’t do so. They were terrified of what chaos would be unleashed against them from the Republican base if they had done so. The problem wasn’t a lack of tools in the system, it was the people operating the whole party apparatus who lacked the courage or will to operate the tools.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Speaking of low life assholes, here is Thunderfoot tearing into Musk’s recent unveil of the Tesla semi.
main points are.
* The Tesla electric semi has a quarter the carrying capacity of a diesel semi.
* The Tesla electric semi has a 500 mile range and takes 14 hours to recharge.
* The entire first production run will used used by Tesla to ship Tesla cars to Los Angeles.
Just focusing on the actual presentation it’s a really strange thing, the crowd cheering Musk, over a semi, and the all the boasting about how fast it can accelerate, cup holder and wireless phone rechargers. It really feels like Musk thinks this semi can be marketed like a sports car.
karen marie
Project Veritas received $558,900 in covid relief funds in April 2020, for those keeping track.
Geminid
Test:
https://www.eenews.net/articles/attacks-on-grid-infrastructure-in-4-states-raise-alarm
A good article in E&E News about 9 recent attacks on US electrical substations.
Citizen Alan
@Jerzy Russian: You have two fists, don’t you?
Jerzy Russian
I thank everyone for their thoughtful responses regarding faces and punchability. After posting, I had a small matter to attend to, and after that, I was so dead tired that I went to bed and was therefore unable to engage in real time.
sojourner
@Aussie Sheila: Regarding your thoughts about the Dems getting their ducks in a row before the vote, if you haven’t already, you should read the Cato book about LBJ when he was the Senate Majority leader. He used to routinely chastise subordinates when they said they were not 100% sure of a senator’s vote. He didn’t want a maybe, he wanted absolutes.
Reverse tool order
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I looked at about half of that presentation, it’s a useless mess. He makes up his own net weight for the Tesla test load from weight of an obviously different and far smaller modular concrete barrier. Later, he compares weight of a full load of similar barriers, but it’s on a seven axle tractor + semitrailer versus the five axle Tesla. From that, concludes Tesla is lying about an 81,000 lb gross combination weight.
Then, he figures the Tesla is only capable of hauling 25% of what a diesel powered truck can. So, the 11 Jersey Barriers pictured must only weigh about 1,100 lbs each (25% of about 24 net tons; real ones are almost 4,000 lbs).
The Freightliner eCascadia 3 axle is rated for 82,000 gcw with less power and smaller battery than the Tesla and looks to weigh roughly 3,000 lbs more than a diesel version.
As shown in the video, the point of more power is climbing grades faster, not acceleration. Aside from the unrelated aero drag, the work (energy used) for the climb is the same.
Regarding battery range, it’s true 500 moles or less won’t work for a sleeper team or a 2 or 3 shift slip-seat operation. Apt to be fine for a lot of single shift local or regional operations that come back to a yard overnight.
By the way, regenerative braking will be especially good with 50-80 k on while not hammering everyone’s ears with a jake brake.
E Musk is yet more a jerk even so.