With Trump in particular, we would have benefited from this. We still can. If the mainstream media wants to actually call out bullshit rather than promoting it.
Perhaps one of our talented BJ peeps could mock something up like this for DeSantis? Blah blah blah would have to become woke woke woke, I think!
*image from Aidan
Totally open thread.
Baud
First I’ve heard of the US-Iran prisoner swap.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Upping from previous thread
Anyway
@Baud:
There was something in the WaPo but TL:dr ( shame on me)
Dorothy A. Winsor
Anyway
US media is good at laundering RW BS and introducing it into mainstream discourse.
Yarrow
@Baud:
Heard about it on the radio (NPR) on I think Friday.
Baud
I think someone talented should do a parody of this, with the “yips” replaced by “woke.”
WaterGirl
@Baud: Me, too!
That was my first thought, we had to learn about that from The Telegraph?
I googled it after noticing that in the image, and it’s only tentative at this point – the 5 prisoners are out of the awful jail but still in confinement elsewhere. The $ Iran would be given by the US could only be used for food, medicine, stuff like that. Seems like a smart deal to me.
WaterGirl
@Baud: That would be perfect!
Lacuna Synecdoche
CNN via Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’ve always said that, in 2020/21, Trump sounded like the kind of guy who was certain Joe Biden couldn’t have won without cheating because Trump himself cheated and couldn’t believe he still lost anyway.
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s like a turducken! Watergate wrapped inside the J6 Coup Attempt!
WaterGirl
May I just say that the (hopefully) Tuesday indictment will be cake-worthy?
Please let her indict Lindsey Graham and others, too. I cannot wait to see the list if indict-ees.
OzarkHillbilly
@Anyway: No shame on you. These days one has to pick and choose what they stay on top of.
Yarrow
Why would anyone think they want either of those things just for the sake of doing them? They want what makes them money. If it’s calling out bullshit, they’ll do that. If it’s promoting bullshit, they’ll do that. If it’s inventing a horse race and bothsides-ing everything, they’ll do that. They also promote their own agendas, like the Murdoch press has for decades, with the goal of influencing elections and policy. It’s not about news. It’s about doing what gets attention and sells newspapers, TV commercials, social media ads, etc. And for many individual reporters it’s about building their personal brand.
Lacuna Synecdoche
@WaterGirl:
Which is close to another thing I’ve been saying for years: that Trump getting the Russians to hack Clinton’s campaign, and steal Podesta’s emails and other campaign information, was exactly the same as Nixon’s plumbers breaking into Democratic campaign offices at Watergate, except that at least Nixon had the decency to hire American (and Cuban) instead of outsourcing it to the KGB.
Lacuna Synecdoche
@OzarkHillbilly:
So much Republican criming, so little time to read it all.
OzarkHillbilly
@Lacuna Synecdoche: I mean, I do have a life.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Lacuna Synecdoche: Indeed
N —
LAO
@Dorothy A. Winsor: welcome to another week of me not getting any real work done.
Mai Naem mobileI
@Baud: I heard rumors about it early last week and then it was confirmed mid week. Ofcourse it was immediately followed by the expected RW bitching about Biden giving away the story for 5 measly hostages. Whatevs…Biden could cure cancer and they would find something to bitch about even if it cured their own child’s cancer.
Yarrow
Who’s this asshole on MTP, Rep Dean Phillips from Minnesota, saying he has “grave concerns” about Biden running for president and saying he should “invite” primary challenges? “People want to turn the page.” “Asking the president to pass the torch.” “I’d like to see a heartland Governor.” UGH!
Do these idiots not know about the value of incumbency and the damage a tough primary fight would do to Dems up and down the ticket? If (when) T wins the R primary, he would be treated as the incumbent if Biden has to fight his own party for the nomination.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@LAO: As long as you add your insight on BJ, it’s all good!
Jackie
@WaterGirl: If Meadows hasn’t flipped, he’d better be on the short list!
Lacuna Synecdoche
@OzarkHillbilly:
Heh. But it’s a moot point. I don’t even have a life, and I still don’t have enough time to read about all the Republican criming being uncovered these days.
Omnes Omnibus
@OzarkHillbilly: LIAR!
Brachiator
The UK Telegraph is wonderful here. However, the conservative media in the UK is even worse than the US when it comes to other news. They continue to lie about BREXIT and happily indulge in smear campaigns directed at celebrities and political figures. I think that James O’Brien of LBC talk radio noted that just three men have been editors of seven of the national newspapers.
Mai Naem mobileI
I am pissed off about Weiss’ special prosecutor getting extended for another fucking season. This mofo has been chasing this for 5 fucking years. It’s not complicated. Guy didn’t pay his taxes for 2 years and had a gun he wasn’t supposed to have for a very short time and didn’t do anything illegal with it. Let Hunter do time. Whatever. He could have taken a plea deal serving time, five years ago and have already been done with it. This is where my taxpayer money is going?
Ivan X
Saw the ftfnyt had an above the fold headline today that said “Hunter Biden Still a Burr in Biden’s Campaign” or something to that effect. Gee, I wonder why that is? Could it be because our so called paper of record is running it as front page, above the fold, Sunday edition news? Or, at all?
Suzanne
@Lacuna Synecdoche:
Yeah yeah. And he sounds like one of the douchebags who readily admits to shoplifting or stealing office supplies because they think everyone does it.
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all!
Mai Naem mobileI
@Lacuna Synecdoche: haha my conversations with my sister on this stuff are often – ‘no, that’s the NY one’, ‘no,no, they’re talking about the Jan 6th one’, ‘nope, that’s the GA one. That’s the one coming up’, ‘that’s the docs one with the Trumper judge.’
I am waiting for Arizona and Michigan to join in.
Scout211
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Trump’s legal team has decided that Sidney Powell is the
fallguyfallperson, apparently. Remember when the defense plan was to blame the lawyers? Well, the rest of the co-conspirators have ratted on Sidney Powell. Looks like it was a team effort.Originally reported in Rolling Stone (which is behind a subscription wall).
Excerpted at Raw Story.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: National security journalist Laura Rozen (@lrozen) has been following the Iran/prisoner story closely on her Twitter feed. She’s a pretty good source on foreign matters in general, and I think she’s on other platforms as well. I learned about Ms. Rozen through Cheryl Rofer.
WaterGirl
@Yarrow: Truth.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mai Naem mobileI: They would refuse to give the cure to their child.
Microchips!
George Soros cooties!
Anthony Fauci wants to turn my child gay!
WaterGirl
@Mai Naem mobileI: Out of the other side of their mouths:
Why doesn’t Biden care about American citizens who are imprisoned overseas???
Yarrow
@Scout211:
What a complete surprise that they blame the woman. *eyeroll* Any woman who associates herself with T in any way whatsoever is an idiot.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Yarrow: I have some vague recollection of Phillips being a bit of PITA in the past, but I can’t remember exactly what. The use of “heartland”– mwhere some Americans are more American than other Americans, purely coincidentally the older, whiter and more rural Americans– should be a tell at this point.
OzarkHillbilly
@Lacuna Synecdoche:
@Omnes Omnibus:
Hey now, it might not be much of a life, but I’m still breathing!
WaterGirl
@Jackie: He could have flipped for the feds and STILL be on the short list for GA.
Nukular Biskits
I see Newt Gingrich is trending on Twitter for some reason. Every time I see that asshole’s name, I’m reminded of this by Betty Cracker:
UncleEbeneezer
@Dorothy A. Winsor: But why did Fani Willis do nothing for two years?!! This just proves she was the wrong person for the job /sarcasm (in case, it isn’t clear)
narom
@Brachiator: The UK Telegraph is the Daily Telegraph (and I’d seriously doubt it would give that kind of attention to what’s happening in India). The Telegraph in the OP is an English-language Indian newspaper.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: She is good. She is one of the twitter tabs I keep open in my browser.
But as others are saying, it’s nearly impossible to keep up.
Ishmael
@Yarrow: That was my first thought about Powell: useful idiot.
Hang it all on her like a hatrack.
WaterGirl
@Yarrow: Let’s hope she’s smart enough to rat out the attorneys who have turned on her.
WaterGirl
@Nukular Biskits: That one has aged pretty well!
HinTN
@WaterGirl: The funds are held by Qatar and may only be disbursed for humanitarian supplies. (Yes, Iran can then use other funds for other purposes but they mostly do that anyway.) This is a very good thing. Wingers will whinge in 3, 2, 1…
WaterGirl
@narom: Thanks for clarifying that!
Yarrow
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I looked up his district – it’s the west side of Minneapolis. It looks like he’s the first Dem elected there since 1958. He’s probably doing this to make it look like he’s “listening” (he used that word several times) to his Trumper constituents so he’ll be reelected. Can’t believe he got a national platform to push this bullshit.
WaterGirl
@HinTN: Money is fungible.
It’s still the right thing to do.
Shalimar
@Mai Naem mobileI: From what I understand, the 2 tax crimes were only able to be charged in Delaware because of the plea deal. Now that has fallen apart so they have to be prosecuted in California, which is why Weiss needs special prosecutor status to continue his job. The actual investigation is still over unless Comer ass-fucks himself into new evidence somehow.
OzarkHillbilly
@Yarrow:
Jack Smith: They are all telling me you were behind it all. Do you want to reply?
Sidney Powell: Lalalalalalalaaaah. Lalalalalalalalaaaaahhh. (warming up to sing an aria original to her)
M31
“These were really really really dumb guys and things got really really really out of hand. And they took notes on a criminal fucking conspiracy.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Yarrow:
Yeah. He is an extremely rich, self professed Centrist who flipped a wealthy suburban district. He needs to do what he needs to do to keep his seat, but he deserves no national attention.
Nukular Biskits
@WaterGirl:
I think I snorted iced tea out my nose when I first read that one.
There have been several nuggets from Juice de Balloon that have stuck in my noggin for years. This was one of them. Another would be DougJ’s “Al Gore is Fat” sarcastic commentary about climate change deniers.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@OzarkHillbilly: not to excuse Sidney Powell, but is Bernie Kerik really a reliable witness? And, just for grins…
The Kraken Cracks Under Pressure: Sidney Powell Claims No Reasonable Person Would Conclude That [Her] Statements Were Truly Statements of Fact (the Dominion lawsuit).
Today’s Zoom will be fun.
dmsilev
@Yarrow: Everything else aside, I fucking hate the whole ‘heartland’ thing. ‘You people who live on the coasts aren’t real Americans. Because Reasons’. At least have the guts to say so openly instead of hiding behind that euphemism.
Anyway
Fani Willis can take as long as she needs but this constant “Breaking Indictments THIS week” that’s been going on since the beginning of the year is beyond annoying. Let her get to it — I have no interest in the anticipatory-media- infotainment.
Yarrow
@Omnes Omnibus: I guess if he’s getting a national TV interview in the dog days of August when most people aren’t paying attention that’s not a huge issue. Then he can tell his constituents he called for primarying Biden and point to the interview. I’m glad a Dem flipped the district, and so long as he’s a reliable Dem vote on most things then he can do what he needs to do.
artem1s
@Lacuna Synecdoche: It went way beyond that. They were actively pressuring local BoE offices in Trump friendly precincts to give them access to the voting machines. They were planning on planting evidence that Dominion machines were vulnerable to tampering – that they were flipping votes during the election. Then they were going to use that as evidence that the Democratic leaning precincts vote counts were tampered with and should be thrown out. That’s what the latest GA evidence is all about. They got caught bragging that they had been given access illegally to Coffee County machines. The BoE staffers who gave them access are being charged too. We know from the ‘perfect call’ TFG was trying to get the GA SoS to ‘find’ an extra 10K votes. But they were also actively trying to get GA, PA and other states to disqualify and throw out Democratic leaning precincts votes. They were actively trying to manufacture evidence that would bolster their case about illegal votes. This is why they had Fox news ranting about the Dominion voting machines.
Nukular Biskits
@HinTN:
“whinge”.
TIL that’s a real word. I had always assumed that someone had misspelled “whine”.
You forced me to get off my lazy arse and actually look it up:
Merriam-Webster – Definition of “whinge”
Another Scott
@Baud: It’s a complicated bit of kabuki, and isn’t fully done yet. Reuters (from August 10):
It’s amazing what’s possible when actual experts are allowed to do work for the US…
Cheers,
Scott.
Shalimar
@OzarkHillbilly: Powell has gone totally nuts over this. I wouldn’t be surprised if her defense basically is “I wanted to be behind it. I gave them all these great ideas and helped in every way I could and the assholes still froze me out of everything actually criminal.”
Iirc, Powell was mostly out by late December after all of the lost lawsuits she helped fuck up, but she did have a part in arranging the Coffee county voting machine raid from late January that Willis will charge.
Yarrow
@dmsilev: Me too. And what states EXACTLY qualify for “heartland” status? Obviously Iowa. Any others? Would a non-coastal state like New Mexico count, or is it too brown, too blue? Is Idaho the “heartland” or is it too far west?
I wish some reporter would ask them which states are “heartland states” so we’d know. I also wish I had a pony. Neither will happen.
dmsilev
@OzarkHillbilly: I trust her costume includes that leopard print coat and, just because,a Valkyrie helmet.
LAO
@WaterGirl: Powell may not be the sole architect of the legal coup attempt but let’s not forget she’s up to her eyeballs in terms of culpability. She absolutely traded her credibility as a former US attorney by headlining almost all of the bogus legal challenges.
Moreover, her credibility may be so damaged that Smith may not want her as a cooperator. Fani, on the other hand, may find her useful.
Personally, I think Smith will indict all of the currently “unindicted co-conspirators.”
OzarkHillbilly
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Are any of them reliable witnesses? This is a case where statements are only accepted as truthful when backed up by contemporaneous written communications.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@dmsilev: I can hear Anna Russell in the background.
LAO
@dmsilev: same. 100% same.
Villago Delenda Est
The US MSM isn’t run by the talent, it isn’t run by those with journalistic skills. It’s run by MBAs who are working on orders from billionaire parasites. It’s propaganda, pure and simple.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Powell seems detached from reality, but more than Rudy? I don’t think so.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@LAO:
I certainly hope so. It is hard to decide who is the worst of them, though I would put Sidney Powell near the bottom of the list. My picks are Eastman and Clark.
Anyway
@dmsilev:
This a hundred times. I hate that there’s no pushback against this slurring of millions living in big cities. AOC — I sense an opportunity…
OzarkHillbilly
@Shalimar: Yep, a true whack-a-loon.
@dmsilev: Heh, I might even pay to see that.
Nukular Biskits
@Another Scott:
This is the result of when you really do hire the best people instead of unqualified hacks and cronies.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I just love that her own submission states that no reasonable person would [to paraphrase] take her seriously. Talk about an admission against interest!
Villago Delenda Est
@Another Scott: If the PAB was in charge, he’d give them Greenland in exchange for just one detainee.
smith
@Yarrow: And now it looks like he might get a primary challenger himself. I’m sure he will welcome it.
Alison Rose
Okay, that image made me cackle. I know it’s not all that clever, but it got me :P
Villago Delenda Est
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Eastman has been trying to get his disbarment procedure delayed, or even dismissed, on the basis of “ZOMG I’m unindicted co-conspirator number two”, but the California officials running the show are laughing in his face.
UncleEbeneezer
@Scout211: Good luck with that. She’s literally Co-Conspirator #3, so I’m betting there is plenty of evidence of interaction with Trump. Even if there isn’t, that doesn’t matter. A criminal Conspiracy doesn’t require that every Co-Conspirator interacts with every other one. Powell could have only interacted with Rudy and she would still be part of the conspiracy. And the same goes for Trump. Contact with ANY of the Co-Conspirators makes him part of the Conspiracy.
LAO
@Mr. Bemused Senior: I mostly agree, however I’m currently leaning towards indict them all and let a jury sort it out.
I can tolerate a lot of bad behavior but when a lawyer uses their license to commit crimes, I’m pretty intolerant.
Villago Delenda Est
@Nukular Biskits: Now that is fascinating stuff!
Another Scott
@dmsilev: What else has the heartland got??
Someone here made a smart point once – People farm out there in flyover country because there’s nothing else they can do to earn a living.
;-)
Seriously, I take this “heartland” stuff the same way I take Yankees fans. Ok, fine. Great for you.
Eyes on the prizes.
Cheers,
Scott.
schrodingers_cat
India’s MSM is far gone even compared to the US media and its love for the Republican party line and Republicans.
Telegraph also own a TV channels in several languages which are pro-BJP (like Fox News). So this is not as “brave” as it seems at the first glance.
Their Marathi news channel ABP maaza (My ABP) is nicknamed BJP maaza.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@LAO:
Fair enough.
UncleEbeneezer
@Anyway: If anything, it is the cities that are the “hearts” of America. They drive our economy and culture and the people actually look like a slice of what America is in 2023.
artem1s
@Another Scott:
oh boy, moar pallets of cash for the MSM and GQP to bitch about. good news is maybe that will push Hunter’s laptop off the front page for a little while.
Suzanne
@dmsilev:
Agree. Also…. there are cities in the middle. They seem to forget that critical bit of info.
Another thing: I have to say…. I remember having car trouble a few times while out in the middle of God-knows-where. It’s, uhhhhh, never made me feel good about the middle of the country.
Yarrow
@smith: He should “invite” primary challengers for his seat. That’s what he said Biden should do.
Villago Delenda Est
@Suzanne: The “heartland” state of Illinois has banned book banning. You don’t get much more “woke” than that.
Sure Lurkalot
@Mai Naem mobileI:
Despite the monkeys howling coverup, this reminds me of the Durham hijinx which reportedly cost $6.5MM, found nothing and they still lied about what it didn’t find.
Anonymous At Work
Doonesbury covered DeSantis with “blah” already:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/doonesbury/strip/archive/2023/7/9
Mr. Bemused Senior
@UncleEbeneezer: not to mention the population concentration. A quick Google serves up
some interesting data visualization
Lacuna Synecdoche
@artem1s:
I am so looking forward to these charges being announced.
Soon.
Yarrow
@Suzanne:
The guy who said “heartland” is a Representative from a suburban Minneapolis district. I got the impression by “heartland” he meant more states in general than just rural areas since he said the “Governor of a heartland state” would be a good choice against Biden.
I just want to know what they mean when they say heartland. They say it all the time. What is it? Who counts as living in the “heartland?”
trollhattan
That’s pretty great on the part of the paper, and above the fold where it belongs.
Not that Modi gives two shits, he’s got Bibi’s longevity and they also share a sense of fairness for all.
Brachiator
@narom:
Thanks for this. I was looking at the thread on my phone and didn’t zoom in to see the Calcutta dateline.
Lacuna Synecdoche
@Villago Delenda Est:
Does Illinois really count as “heartland”?
I mean, it’s got Chicago — and Chicago is on a “lake” large enough to be called a sea anywhere else in the world.
Suzanne
@Yarrow: The body metaphor for the country also never seems to extend past “heartland”, which obviously has connotations of being the middle. We never talk about New York or California being “the hands” of the country, aka “the parts that do stuff”. Florida can be the dick and Texas can be the asshole. I guess that makes Alabama and Mississippi America’s taint.
Kay
@Lacuna Synecdoche:
That’s big, I think. It’s the missing piece of the conspiracy. They planned to plant evidence of fraud or machine malfunction. They would then produce the evidence and say that the election had been stolen or, alternately, there were tabulation errors. That’s how they planned to have results thrown out.
The Michigan charges point that way too, so this was not limited to GA. They got access to the tabulators in MI. They were in.
I haven’t seen anything on Arizona but I would bet there’s a trail there too.
It’s why I think i’s essential there be state charges. I’m a little disappointed MI didn’t charge the elections offocials who were supposedly “deceived”. I think they’re lying and they were in on it. Chain of custody of tabulators is the holy grail of election process. No way full time election employees were fooled into handing it over. I hate that they still have jobs in elections. They’re unfit.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Kay: they were actually planning to plant evidence. The mind boggles.
Nukular Biskits
@Suzanne:
As a Mississippi native, sadly, I can’t find any logical flaw in that proposal.
Yarrow
@Suzanne: Which state is the spleen? Or the intestines? Or the liver?
topclimber
@Yarrow: It’s any state that has its own genuine Heartbeat. I dunno, could be there’s a lot of them, though sometimes there seem to be few.
Brachiator
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
Fascinating link. I didn’t realize that New York had ruled for so long. Arguably, Boston had been the leader as the intellectual center of the colonies and early nation. But New York soon took the lead.
Hence the famous New Yorker magazine cover depicting the primacy of Manhattan.
Thor Heyerdahl
@Yarrow:
“You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.”
William Randolph Hearst
Kay
@Mr. Bemused Senior:
Willfully damaging a voting machine. They either broke the seal or attempted to break the seal.
The defense of the elections workers is ludicrous. One of the people elections workers listened to because they were “deceived” was a candidate in that election. They gave access to the voting apparatus to a candidate. By “mistake”. I don’t think any of them should be anywhere near an election. They either violated their oaths or they’re too stupid to have custody of anything.
UncleEbeneezer
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Exactly. It’s where the people are, where the jobs/economic activity are, where the culture is generated, and demographically it isn’t stuck in the 1950’s. But of course that’s precisely WHY they insist on saying that Rural America = the “Heartland,” because it’s all about the assumption that America is a White/Xtian Country.
prostratedragon
@Anonymous At Work: Heh. “Is this thing woke?”
eclare
@Yarrow:
I live in Memphis, and I say any state/city on the Miss River is part of the intestine, getting the shit downstream.
piratedan
@Dorothy A. Winsor: gotta admire the Trump legal crew, they were sure that there were elections shenanigans taking place in Georgia. They were right on that one because they were the ones doing the deed. I guess they were hoping that just the mere evidence of tampering would be written off as the Dems doing it and viola! fait accompli!
Mr. Bemused Senior
@piratedan: “every accusation is a confession.” [not original with me of course]. How many times will it take for this to sink in?
Geminid
@piratedan: An interesting aspect of Georgia’s situation is that the Republicans leading the state government would not go along with Trump’s attempted election subversion. Kemp and Raffensperger did not make a big deal out of it in public; they just kept telling Trump no.
Another of them, former Lt. Governor Duncan, said he will appear before the Fulton County grand jury early this week. I get the sense that he is a very willing witness.
JPL
I would love to see America’s mayor cuffed, but I guess I’ll have to be happy to hear his name read. Part of me wants to head downtown and celebrate on Tuesday. Fortunately, there’s a part of me that says, what a stupid idea that is.
wjca
@Yarrow: Heartland states (close approximation): the Midwest, plus any state bordering the Mississippi River from there to the sea. Arguably the states along the Missouri River as well, but YMMV.
Miss Bianca
@Suzanne: I always want to ask “Heartland” extollers just where, exactly, the “Heartland” is. And then where “Kidneyland”, “Liverland”, and (speaking of Florida and Texas) where “Gonadland” might be located.
Ruckus
@Yarrow:
This.
It is business. To stay in business one has to make/do something that makes money. (I’ve owned 2 businesses, no matter what you do to make money, be it making jam or saving the world, you have make money or you will be out of business)
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Lacuna Synecdoche:
It was a bargain.
hedgehog mobile
@Yarrow: Just thinking the same thing. I bet Colorado (where I live) wouldn’t count.
Ruckus
@dmsilev:
The “heartland” people vote more conservative, which is of course the rational for giving them this “status.”
The costal people, CA NY etc vote far more liberal.
And like everything rethuglicans do, it is just more bull and shit.
Because bull and shit is all they’ve got.
Ruckus
@UncleEbeneezer:
YES, But!
Think of all those farmers who grow the grain and corn for the entire country! The same old story. Those farmers use modern machines that do most of the work and those machines had to be designed and built, shipped, sold and serviced. And while that may be part of the basics, a lot of the money today is made by moving – money. Not goods, services, or advancing anything but making more – money.
smedley the uncertain
@WaterGirl: Apparently $$ “given by the US” belong to Iran and are being held in the US.
Kathleen
@Yarrow: Subtext is “salt of the earth white people”.
Geminid
@smedley the uncertain: I think the money is in South Korean banks. My understanding is that these are payments for Iranian oil that were frozen by US sanctions.
dnfree
@Lacuna Synecdoche: Illinois is as heartland as it gets. We’re right in the middle of heartland. Illinois has 102 counties, of which one contains Chicago and six are the “collar” counties. We grow a lot of corn and soybeans—and pumpkins.
mbobier
@Baud: Sounds like a job for Randy Rainbow!
Hamlet of Melnibone
I actually live in Dean Phillip’s district. This is really dumb of him. This district has a lot of well off people who like low taxes, but aren’t on board with Trump’s hate, for the most part. The district has swung strongly to the Democratic side in recent years, like many of the suburbs. We have a lot of educated folks who want good schools for their kids.
It’s not a super liberal district, but he is in no danger as long as he says “reasonable” things. There is no reason for him to be talking like this.
dave319
@Yarrow: Oh, they sought him out. “A Dem, willing to do Brandon dirty? C’mover here, little boy…don’t be shy. Talk to the nice man with hatchet-shaprd mic in his hand.”