Biden didn’t pardon Hunter until Trump said he would appoint Kash Patel as head of the FBI.
Kash Patel has openly admitted he would abuse the power of law enforcement to go after Trump’s enemies.
Why doesn’t anybody recognize that the person who is breaking norms and abusing power is TRUMP?— Mikel Jollett (@mikeljollett.bsky.social) December 3, 2024 at 10:29 AM
I half-hoped the deluge of unpleasant stories about Kash Patel’s past might convince his Dear Leader that putting him in front of the Senate was a bridge too far, but we’re in High Kakistocracy mode now…
My latest on Kash Patel and the FBI: www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnb…
— Frank Figliuzzi (@frankfigliuzzi.bsky.social) December 2, 2024 at 1:58 PM
… It isn’t just that Patel is wholly unqualified to lead the pre-eminent law enforcement and intelligence agency in the nation and perhaps the world. Yes, he lacks the professional experience needed to lead the bureau’s 37,000 employees in 55 U.S. field offices, 350 satellite offices and 63 locations abroad that cover nearly 200 countries. But that’s the least of my concerns. After all, Trump’s picks for homeland security secretary, director of national intelligence and defense secretary are also remarkably lacking in competency for their proposed roles. Trump’s first choice for attorney general was so problematic that he withdrew from consideration before the Senate confirmation process could begin.
Patel’s particular problem goes far beyond competence: His record shows no devotion to the Constitution, but blind allegiance to Trump. Patel helped spread the fabricated conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was rigged against Trump. He has promoted the conspiracy of a “deep state” within government institutions whose aim is to topple Trump. Court findings and the jury system are things that should matter to an FBI director, yet Patel seems not to care that more than 60 court challenges found no evidence of fraud in the 2020 election, nor that grand juries and trial juries of American citizens determined Trump should be criminally indicted, held civilly liable and even convicted.
If he becomes FBI director, Patel will have to take an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, but his public statements raise concerns about his ability to keep that oath. In an interview last year with Trump adviser Steve Bannon, Patel promised to pursue judges, lawyers and even journalists he perceived as having wrongly investigated Trump and influenced the 2020 election. “We will go out and find the conspirators,” he told Bannon, “not just in government but in the media — yes, we’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.” That doesn’t sound like a man who intends to strictly adhere to the rule of law. It sounds like a wannabe cop planning on false arrests and fabricated evidence…
@radiofreetom.bsky.social
on the nomination of Kash Patel:
“Patel is about as dangerous as it gets, not because he’s that much of a true believer in anything, but because…he believes in nothing except serving Donald Trump…”— Republicans Against Trumpism (@rpsagainsttrump.bsky.social) December 1, 2024 at 4:20 PM
Until Christopher Wray is fired by AG, resigns or ends his term, Trump has no more right to name an FBI director than you or I do. Every Republican senator voting to confirm any AG must hold any AG candidate accountable for the consequences of Patel at FBI, and should be held accountable.
— Ben from New Mexico (@bluefiddleguy.bsky.social) December 2, 2024 at 9:30 AM
Bad development for Kash: “Republican Sen. Mike Rounds emphasized his support for current FBI Director Christopher Wray after President-elect Donald Trump announced he intended to nominate loyalist Kash Patel for the department's top job.”
— Judd Legum (@juddlegum.bsky.social) December 1, 2024 at 10:49 PM
Trump pick Kash Patel must prove he'll restore public faith in the FBI, a leading GOP senator says
— Associated Press ?? (@asssociatedpress.bsky.social) December 1, 2024 at 12:01 PM
Weak reeds, our Republican Senators:
Donald Trump’s drive to upend the FBI was welcomed by Republican senators although it was not clear on Sunday how strongly members of the incoming majority party would embrace his move to install ally Kash Patel as the next director of the Justice Department’s top investigative arm.
Patel, a onetime national security prosecutor who is aligned with the president-elect’s rhetoric about a “deep state,” “must prove to Congress he will reform & restore public trust in FBI,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, in line to be the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman when Republicans take control in January, in a post on X.
Patel lacks the high-level legal and management experience that FBI directors, including Robert Mueller, James Comey and Christopher Wray, who now holds that job, had before their nominations. It’s a 10-year term, and Trump named Wray in 2017 after firing Comey. So Trump’s announcement late Saturday means Wray must either resign or be fired after Trump takes office on Jan. 20, 2025.
“Every president wants people that are loyal to themselves,” said Sen. Mike Round, R-S.D., on ABC’s “This Week.” But he called Wray “a very good man” picked by Trump himself, and “I don’t have any complaints about the way that he’s done his job right now.”
A president has “the right to make nominations,” Rounds said, before noting the job is normally for 10 years, a length meant to insulate the FBI from the political influence of changing administrations.
“We’ll see what his process is, and whether he actually makes that nomination. And then, if he does, just as with anybody who is nominated for one of these positions, once they’ve been nominated by the president, then the president gets, you know, the benefit of the doubt on the nomination, but we still go through a process” of providing advice and consent under the Constitution, Rounds said.
He added: “That can be sometimes advice, sometimes it is consent.”…
If you’re wondering what his qualifications for FBI director are, we present The Atlantic’s Kash Patel profile from August👇🏽
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc…— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 7:31 PM
Trump’s FBI pick KASH PATEL: “We’re going to come after people in the media who lied about 🇺🇸 citizens, who helped Biden rig presidential elections.”
A regular on Bannon’s show, who has made no secret of their plans. Believe them.— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 7:16 PM
The FBI has made about 1500 arrests of January 6 rioters and criminals. About 1000 or so have been sentenced. And the guy Trump wants to put in charge of the FBI has pushed fact-free conspiracy theories about 1/6 and has provided financial support to some of the rioters.
— David Corn (@davidcorn.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 9:04 PM
The thing about Kash Patel's enemies/"deep state" list is that "deep state" means nothing more than "anti-Trump" or even "anti-Patel." www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202…
— Philip Bump (@pbump.com) December 3, 2024 at 2:05 PM
Kash Patel: We will prosecute journalists www.cnn.com/2023/12/06/p…
— Bobby Allyn (@bobbyallyn.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 8:42 PM
Trump says he'll nominate Kash Patel as FBI director to remake the agency. Here's what happens next
— Associated Press ?? (@asssociatedpress.bsky.social) December 1, 2024 at 12:13 AM
… Patel is likely to face deep skepticism during his confirmation hearings over his stated plans to rid the government of “conspirators” against Trump, and his claims that he would shut down the FBI’s Pennsylvania Avenue headquarters in the nation’s capital and send the thousands of employees who work there to “chase down criminals” across the country.
And while Trump may have wanted a loyalist willing to pursue retribution against his perceived adversaries, that perspective is likely to give pause to senators who believe that the FBI and Justice Department should operate free of political influence and not be tasked with carrying out a president’s personal agenda.
Foreshadowing the potentially bruising confirmation fight ahead, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, who is expected to the the ranking Democrat next year on the Judiciary Committee, called Patel “an unqualified loyalist” and said in a statement that “the Senate should reject this unprecedented effort to weaponize the FBI for the campaign of retribution that Donald Trump has promised.”…
If Patel is confirmed, can he actually do what he’s said he’ll do?
Patel has made a series of brash claims about his plans for the federal government, but most of those proposals would require backing and buy-in from other officials and would almost certainly encounter significant resistance.Under the FBI’s own guidelines, criminal investigations can’t be rooted in arbitrary or groundless speculation but instead must have an authorized purpose to detect or interrupt criminal activity. And while the FBI conducts investigations, the responsibility of filing federal charges, or bringing a lawsuit on behalf of the federal government, falls to the Justice Department. Trump said earlier this month that he intended to nominate former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi to serve as attorney general.
Patel has also talked about disentangling the FBI’s intelligence-gathering activities — now a core function of the bureau’s mandate — from the rest of its law enforcement operations. It’s unclear whether he intends to carry through on that pledge or how it would be greeted at a time when the U.S. is facing what officials say is a heightened threat of terrorism.
And he’s said he thinks the FBI’s storied Pennsylvania Avenue headquarters should be shut down, with the employees who work there dispatched around the country to fight crime. It’s not clear if that’s a hyperbolic claim simply reflecting disdain for the “deep state” or something he’d actually try to implement.
This story about Kash Patel simply fabricating Nigerian airspace permissions for an American military operation is absolutely unhinged. In a normal administration (in a normal anything!) it would be a firing offense at a minimum. https://t.co/FPjxfmMrjR
— River_Tam (@RiverTamYDN) August 27, 2024
Kash Patel has been a danger to this country for years. John Bolton compared him to a Soviet secret police leader. Bill Barr said he’d let Trump appoint Kash to the # 2 spot in the FBI “over my dead body” saying the idea showed a “shocking detachment from reality.” Patel should never head the FBI.
— The Lincoln Project (@lincolnproject.us) December 3, 2024 at 12:26 PM
Tim Miller tears into the nomination of Kash Patel:
“The most dangerous nominee we’ve seen yet to our democracy…Kash Patel was a key player inside the Trump WH pushing for and orchestrating the coup attempt in 2020…”— Republicans Against Trumpism (@rpsagainsttrump.bsky.social) December 1, 2024 at 1:06 AM
Trump’s FBI Director, displaying some of the products he has for sale.
— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) December 2, 2024 at 7:46 AM
@anntelnaes.bsky.social
Kash Patel, FBI Director— paulpro (@mariopro.bsky.social) November 30, 2024 at 11:11 PM
Parfigliano
Lost Sen. Rounds. Patel must be a real nasty piece of shit.
Chris
Well, he should fit in pretty well at the FBI, then.
Steve LaBonne
I confess that I feel considerable Schadenfreude thinking about those assholes in the NY FBI office having to deal with this crazy shithead.
Nukular Biskits
Evenin’, y’all!
How many have called their Senators opposing Patel, Hegseth, etc?
Splitting Image
Oh, they recognize it all right. If they didn’t see what Trump was doing, they wouldn’t be working so hard to cover it up.
Chris
@Steve LaBonne:
They’ll probably be his biggest fanboys within the Bureau.
Omnes Omnibus
Test
ETA: Weird, FYWP just ate a brilliant comment I lovingly composed.
Harrison Wesley
KREAM by Groundhog Day 2025.
different-church-lady
Because they’re assholes.
Suzanne
I have no doubt that Kash Patel is evil, but this statement makes me oddly hopeful that he’s also an idiot.
Steve LaBonne
@different-church-lady: I n the case of “journalists”, because it’s difficult to get someone to understand something when their paycheck depends on not understanding it.
MagdaInBlack
@different-church-lady: Nailed it, as always.
different-church-lady
@Steve LaBonne: Which makes them assholes.
NotMax
“in Trump we trust, all others pay Kash.”
//
Ryan
I’m sorry, but I’m lost to the Pod Save bros, Ellie Honig., etc. I’m fine with the Hunter Biden pardon because of the lawless era we’re about to begin. Am I wrong.
Geminid
@Nukular Biskits: My two Senators are Tim Kaine and Mark Warner. Kaine is on the Armed Services Committee and will vote against Hegseth there. Then he and Warner will vote against Hegseth if his nomination makes it onto the the Senste floor.
I don’t think it will. Hedgseth’s nomination was the lead item on CBS’s hourly radio news this evening. First there was a soundbite from a Republican Senator saying he would give Hedgseth “a hard look.”
Then the news reader said that a charity intended to assist veterans had fired Hedgseth for financial misconduct, sexual harrassment and “frequent intoxication.”
I was like, “No need to stick a fork in this guy. He’s done.”
Steve LaBonne
@Chris: Until he keeps his promise to break up FBI HQ and sends them to someplace like Wyoming.
Jeffro
Senate GOP (well, some of them, anyway): “…we’re trying…to…find our…spines…someone, anyone…please help…”
trumpov’s a 78-year-old dementia patient who, btw, is TERM LIMITED, you GOP nimrods. Y’all have to face your constituents in 2, 4, or 6 years (no Cruz, I know you don’t care, I’m talking about the rest of them) to say nothing of having to live in this country like the rest of us. Patel, Gabbard, Hegseth…they’re all hopelessly compromised, incompetent, corrupt, or (D) all of the above. It’s YOUR lives in danger just like ours are if you confirm these kkklowns.
Do your job, Senate GOP. (Your real job, not kneeling to trumpov)
different-church-lady
@Geminid:
“Seriously, are we not doing phrasing anymore?”
Kay
Elon Musk and Mike Lee are on Twitter chatting about terminating Social Security. I actually thought they would hide the ball longer than 3 weeks.
Oh well! People were warned! Can’t say we didn’t tell them.
Jeffro
I’m pretty reassured having Warner and Kaine here in VA, but you’re right – we all need to weigh in with all of them.
It’s on tomorrow’s to-do list, for realz
marcopolo
@Nukular Biskits: Well, I called both last week the day Senator Schmitt went on record on Fox later saying we need a disruptor running the Pentagon; but neither has replied to my comments.
Nukular Biskits
@Geminid:
Both of my senators, Roger Wicker (who is also on the SASC) and Cindy Hyde-Smith, both GOP, have been on radio silence regarding Trump’s nominees.
Wicker, while criticizing just about every Biden nomination, has some sense about him and, while never going full MAGA, offered only milquetoast endorsements of Trump, enough to get him reelected.
Hyde-Smith is nothing but a cheerleader for Trump, which makes her silence all the more puzzling.
Baud
@Ryan:
If pardoning Hunter was wrong, I don’t want to be right.
different-church-lady
@Jeffro: I hare to tell you this, but their constitutes are eating this up with a fork.
Jeffro
“I already have the end in mind; let’s just ignore whatever it’s going to take, or break, to get there” – Patel and also every MAGAt, ever
Baud
@Kay:
But Trump promised….
piratedan
you guys are overreacting, DJT and Patel won’t prosecute all journalists, they’re only going to go after those actually attempting to perform actual journalism, so its a very small number. Based on the ethics of this profession, it shouldn’t take long for them to coordinate this and you’ll probably not even notice any difference than what is showing on the MSM and in newsprint today.
Jeffro
It’s great that they’re having their late-night dorm conversations out in the open like that. It would be even greater if the snooze media could give it a tenth of the Hunter pardon coverage, but I know that’s a lot to ask.
Kay
Hegseth drinks so.much he had to be CARRIED OUT of work events. Trump is such a dope. He picks such losers.
Nukular Biskits
@marcopolo:
Don’t feel bad. I regularly DON’T get a response from either of mine.
I may have already mentioned this but , about three weeks ago, I contacted both senators via their official webpages, asking for their public appearance schedules for the past few years.
The responses? From one, nothing but crickets chirping, not even an acknowledgement. From the other, a boilerplate email about the votes for Senate Republican leadership positions in which he not once mentioned how he voted and which wasn’t even relevant to the topic.
Jeffro
@different-church-lady: whose? GOP Senators’ constituents?
I hear you but regardless of MAGA constituents, there are some GOP Senators who can probably be pressured here, either because their state isn’t super-red or because they might still have a shred of conscience. Or they have at least a minimal ability to see what comes next if Hegseth, Gabbard, or Patel are installed. These are positions that affect the whole country’s security, in very concrete ways. It might register.
We’ll see soon enough.
Kay
@Jeffro:
Oh, voters were told repeatedly, for years, that Republicans were gunning for Social Security. George W Bush tried to end it and would have been successful but for Democrats in Congress. Democrats can’t bail voters out this time – fuck around long enough you’ll eventually find out.
MagdaInBlack
@Kay: Great. I get my first check in February. Maybe I’ll be able to bank a few before they steal it all.
Kay
@Baud: m
NY Times has a gushing article up about Musk’s budget cutting plans.
They’ll happily promote killing Social Security. They promoted it 20 years ago when Bush tried it.
Gretchen
@Ryan: The Podbros are against it too? I think they thought they should get jobs in the Biden administration and are still mad that he hasn’t shown them proper respect
Jeffro
@Kay: that sounds like the makings of a good ad (oops I forgot – Democrats don’t campaign until September of election years, or have the media infrastructure)
“Remember how we thought the protections of Roe were a given? And then through the GOP’s patient bribes work, just like that, it was gone.
Now they’re coming for your Social Security…”
MagdaInBlack
@Ryan: You’re not wrong. I dumped them shortly after the election.
Baud
@Kay:
Well, thankfully Manchin is gone because he’s be the Dem to support it. I wonder if any other Dem is eyeing the hole he left.
Kay
@MagdaInBlack:
I’m glad for you – they won’t be able to touch current recipients but there will of course be a serious solvency issue if they end it and no one pays in.
We’re going to get a full court media/GOP press to cut entitlements and this time there aren’t enough Democrats to stop.them.
Dan B
@Kay: That current recipients can’t be touched is good news for me since it’s 90% of my income and my nest egg would only keep me for a year. Then I’d have to sell my house and leave Seattle for a cheaper location
Also if they deport immigrants they would no longer be paying in, and not collecting.
Gretchen
@Kay: That’s the amazing part
Kay
@Dan B:
Well, they can’t retroactively claw back an entitlement. But Social Security beneficiaries rely on CURRENT payroll taxes so if it were repealed there wouldn’t be any continuing funding for those drawing now.
schrodingers_cat
There is a one to one correspondence between those who wanted Biden out after the debate and those who are now kvetching about the pardon.
Normies abandoned the Dems because no one likes feckless weak kneed buffoons, who say how high when the MSM tells them to jump.
frosty
@Nukular Biskits: Sorry, haven’t gotten to it yet. I owe Fetterman a call to blast him for treating Oz like a real person.
p.a.
Lots of idiot youngs be like: SS won’t be there for me anyway.
Damn straight it won’t with that attitude you stupid fucks. Go vape some more…
frosty
@Omnes Omnibus: That’s the only kind FYWP eats.
MagdaInBlack
@p.a.: I said that in my ’20’s. This time they may be right.
schrodingers_cat
@different-church-lady: They are Trump’s base.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
Well, no, because I wanted Biden out (still think.that was the best decision) and I don’t care about the pardon.
Harrison Wesley
Hmm. Wonder if they’ll risk a shot at Railroad Retirement (interested because I’m a recipient of same). I sort of don’t think so, since that would probably mean a national rail strike.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: I should have specified that I was talking about the elected Ds. BTW, Congrats on the Kash Patel and Hegseth nominations.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
I don’t agree with you that Biden would have won. He’s really unpopular.
frosty
@p.a.: That was my attitude when I was in my 30s. Now I’m getting the SS deposit every month. As Kay said, we’ll see if it keeps coming when no one is paying into a non-existent system.
@Harrison Wesley: Good for you! You guys may have enough clout to save yourselves.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: His replacement lost, we will never find out whether he could have won or not.
Kay
I don’t care about the pardon but I don’t believe Hunter Biden is some sainted marytr either. There are a lot of relatives of powerful people who get promoted based solely on nepotism and have personal problems. I hope I never hear about him again, actually. I am sick to death of the grown children of politicians.
Jay
@Kay:
Only with the Media.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: On this we are in agreement.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
Right, which is why you complain about the switch and the people who backed the switch literally every day.
I don’t apologize for it. I think it was going for a long shot win in a sure-to-lose situation so there was only upside. I’d do it again.
schrodingers_cat
@Jay: And he was more popular with Dems than KH who did an amazing job in the time she had to build a campaign.
Replacing Biden 3 months before the election made Ds look like a hot mess to those who don’t follow US politics. That was the consensus among those I met in India when I was there this fall.
Baud
Kay
@Jay:
Well, no. He was an unpopular President by really any measure. Whether that’s fair is not it is true.
PJ
@Kay:
You know who else is really unpopular? He’s on deck to be the next President. And Biden beat him soundly before. Why people wanted to get rid of Biden still boggles my mind.
Kay
@Baud:
Good. New blood.
p.a.
Besides potentially losing the current workforce paying in, grandfathering SS is like my last union contract or two, after we couldn’t protect all our bennies for newhires: are they going to agree to strike to protect bennies they don’t get themselves? Big ask. After grandfathering, the “policy” attacks will continue and the pool of support is decimated.
John S.
@Kay:
I think given that the voters were largely anti-incumbent and pretty angry about economic conditions, it’s pretty wishful thinking to presume that Biden would have gotten re-elected.
But wish casting and armchair quarterbacking seem to be in vogue around these here parts.
MagdaInBlack
@frosty: Maybe Elon will have the fund converted to crypto and we can all be gazzillionaires.
schrodingers_cat
@PJ: He is not exciting and he beat the white liberal leftist favorites (Sanders and Warren in 2020). So they never liked him and badmouthed him from the get go.
Kay
@PJ:
He wasn’t at 30% approval when he beat him before. You can think.its unfair he was unpopular as a President but I don’t think.there’s any point in denying it. They all knew he was going to lose, too. Hence the Hail Mary switcheroo.
Suzanne
@John S.:
That, and the fact that voters brought up Biden’s age as an issue back in 2020, to the point that he was asked at that point if he would commit to only serving one term.
The Biden popularity that others report has to be a generational or regional thing. Mr. Suzanne did a ton of volunteering this cycle, and our state rep sponsored Spawn’s soccer team, so we went to some of her events. I did not meet one person who expressed any sentiment about Biden more positive than, “He’s better than the other guy”. And when I talked to Spawn the Elder and his friends, and a few of my younger colleagues about it, they were extremely unhappy about the choices before them.
So I think I agree with Kay here.
Kay
@John S.:
Yup. Too, it is just a fact that Democrats were going to lose in either 24 or 28. If the anti fascist plan was “never lose another election” that was not a good plan. They’ll be anti incumbent in 2028 too, because they’re spoiled pampered 4 year olds who pitch hissy fits any time they are even slightly uncomfortable.
Gretchen
@MagdaInBlack: I dumped the Podbros in July when they were giddy about dumping both Biden and Harris and having a fun mini-primary at the convention. Dumbest idea ever
Baud
RevRick
Hi Everyone,
Kash Patel perfectly embodies the uniquely American version that is Trump’s fascism. It’s both mystifying and completely explicable that a South Asian would embrace caste identity of deciding between who is included and belongs and who is excluded and outcast, who is blessed and favored and who is cursed and despised.
Speaking of caste, I just finished watching “The Great Migration” narrated by Professor Davarian Baldwin on the Great Courses+ streaming service.
John S.
@Kay:
Yup, that’s our American electorate in a nutshell.
Gretchen
@schrodingers_cat: Yes. Exactly one to one. And these are the people who think we should do politics their way. I’m listening to people like Jasmine Crockett and AOC. No more butter knives for the gunfight
Kay
Pittsburgh area steel workers are upset because Trump.will block Nippon merger and he PROMISED not to!
Ha ha. He “promised” And they believed that! Suckers.
John S.
@Suzanne:
I live in permanently blue western Washington, and there were no signs of Biden enthusiasm here either.
But at this point, it doesn’t matter. What’s done is done, and we would all be better off dealing with circumstances as they are instead of all this woulda coulda shoulda nonsense.
Gretchen
@Baud: AOC would be a great replacement for Raskin. She’s always prepared and doesn’t get distracted by bullshit.
schrodingers_cat
@RevRick: He will go the Gaetz way.
How did you think British Empire functioned? White supremacy doesn’t always need a white face. A nonwhite face is even better, it gives them plausible deniability.
Kay
@John S.:
They really blew it this time, though. Usually there are enough Democrats to step in and save them from their own stupidity but not this time. This time they’re going to get what they voted for. Good. We shouldn’t reward recklessness by taking the risk.out of it.
Harrison Wesley
@schrodingers_cat: I agree that it was a mess. I didn’t think it was a good plan for Biden to exit, but I’m starting to believe that no Democrat would have won.
Baud
@Harrison Wesley:
I think we’re a center right nation. Barely, but that’s what we are.
Suzanne
@Kay:
LAWL.
I swear to the FSM, some of these people have never bought a used car and it shows.
Baud
@Suzanne:
It’s a little more complicated, but there are a few Trump supporters who aren’t happy.
schrodingers_cat
@Harrison Wesley: He had a better chance. We don’t know what would have happened.
@Baud: I don’t think so. I don’t think we are ideological. White people do like their privilege just like most privileged groups do.
Harrison Wesley
@Baud: That may well be the system when it’s at rest, but in the current turbulence we’re likely to spin off to extremes. And the current extreme looks seriously authoritarian.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
That’s what helps makes the country center right. It’s not about being ideological, it’s about having preferences that lean a particular way.
Baud
@Harrison Wesley:
I personally don’t see any viable extreme on the left that matches the extreme on the right.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: But it is not a stable equilibrium. We are living interesting times.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Extreme left also spends most of their time attacking the Ds.
Jay
@Kay:
Given that 1/3rd of the US Electorate googled “Did Biden drop out?” when voting started,
And Harris polled 47% to Trump’s 41% 6 days after the election in Ohio,………
Well,
Princess
I assume Wray will offer his resignation on Inauguration Day because of comity, norms etc,
Suzanne
@Baud: The extreme left in this country consists of anonymous randos on Twitter and that crazy guy on every college campus holding up the sign that tells you you’re going to Hell for wearing yoga pants. Whereas the extreme right is…. our soon-to-be VPOTUS, four SCOTUS justices, and a whole array of media and think tanks who support them. Not the same.
Harrison Wesley
@Baud: I don’t either. So fascist-friendly authoritarianism is our bright tomorrow.
mapaghimagsik
I’m in Garmish-Partenkirchen right now, drinking beer and learning about how the National Socialists took over Germany. Technically its about Christmas markets and Krampusnacht, but the tour guide is a history buff who loves digging into the unsolved mystery around the death of Ludwig the II.
Its simultaneously wonderful and distressing, mostly because some the tour guides, all ex-pats who regularly go back to the states, are complaining about the lack of plastic straws and that if they only gave people the choice, it would all work out.
I’m on day three of helping the tour guide get his phone un-hacked, full well thinking that without some of these regulations that seem so frustration and that Musk wants to take an axe to would have resulted in his accounts being drained and him holding the (empty) bag. Not wingnuts by any measure, and the people who really have the power and resources to affect change are off building fairytale castles that harken back to the days when kings had all the real power. Its oligarchs, all the way down.
Harrison Wesley
The “extreme left” in this country would fit into a phone booth. The “extreme right”will be taking charge in Washington in late January. I don’t see an equivalence.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Again, a must read to counter the narrative here by the Never-Wrong-In-Their-Minds-But-Always-Wrong crowd:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/a-kamala-harris-canvassers-education
John S.
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
I read this when you posted it the other day. Thanks for sharing.
Geminid
Chad down!
From Saudi-based Al Arabiya:
Chad Chronister! I’m starting to feel like I’ve fallen into some sort of Moebius Rabbithole.
Jackie
Interrupting to celebrate good news amongst the otherwise gloom and doom on yet another thread:
Quinerly
Just caught the tail end of this….sounds like WSJ reporting Hegseth is on his way out and Trump on the path to nominate DeSantis for DOD.
Geminid
@Geminid: Also from Al Arabiya, in the category, “Phone calls I would have loved to have listened in on”:
Jay
@Jackie:
Will the Hillbilly Eulogy even bother to show up for tied votes?
Quinerly
@Quinerly:
https://www.wsj.com/politics/elections/trump-mulls-replacing-pete-hegseth-with-florida-gov-ron-desantis-8f682ad2
Jackie
@Quinerly: Pudd’n Boots for DOD???
I’m now busy cleaning my phone from spewed wine…
Jackie
@Jay: He’ll break Senate ties, not the House.
Jay
@Jackie:
Club soda,………..
Quinerly
@Geminid:
I have been poking around looking for the “why.”
Other than being unqualified, have you seen anything being reported about this guy?
Jay
@Jackie:
Will he?
Queen of Lurkers
@RevRick: Kash Patel is ethnically South Asian, but his parents immigrated to the US from E. Africa (says Wikipedia). I don’t know how far back his parents’ roots in E. Africa go. It’s interesting, however, to see how many South Asian politicians of African origin in the UK have gravitated to the right. Rishi Sunak, Suella Braverman and Priti Patel come to mind.
Aussie Sheila
@John S.:
Precisely.
The past is a different country. They do things differently there.
Jay
@Quinerly:
Ramona
@Kay: I still remember this cool ad which IIRC the AARP put out where a couple are complaining about their malfunctioning sink and a whole crew of energetic people in identical clothing come rushing in and start to demolish the walls and ceilings likening what Bush was planning on doing to “fix” Social Security.
Jay
@Queen of Lurkers:
It’s actually not too surprising.
The Brits in their Colonial Projects in Africa, “imported” large numbers of Colonial “Indians”* to be bureaucrats and technocrats in their “Administrations”.
As they were the privlidged “enforcers”, they were hated by the native populations when they were colonies, and even more hated after Independence.
*British “India”, not India per se, so India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, etc.
Geminid
@Quinerly: That was the first I ever heard of Chad Chronister. The Al Arabiyo post has a picture of him and it reminds me of that weirdo Blake Masters. I’m not sure I even want to know the rest of this story.
Jay
@Geminid:
Dirty Cop covers it. ACAB.
dww44
@Kay: Biden was unpopular in large part because he was smeared relentlessly by the right wing regardless of any missteps he might have made during his term. I know you found fault with his stance on Israel/Gaza as did many others, but what else may have contributed to that unpopularity?
I thought that he was overall a capable and accomplished president and his unpopularity was/is largely a byproduct of the dominant right wing rage machine. We cannot compete without an effective counter to that.
Kayla Rudbek
@Jay: oh god, there’s a Notre Dame connection (the DeBartolos having attended and donated a lot of money. Like the performing arts building named after them loads of money). And the rumor around campus was that they had mafia ties.
RevRick
@schrodingers_cat:
@Queen of Lurkers: If they belong to the Brahman caste, the right is their natural home. They are the top dogs in India.
Sally
@different-church-lady: Universal answer
Harrison Wesley
@Quinerly: Chad Chronister? Wasn’t he some background character in Nick and Nora mysteries?
rikyrah
@Kay:
Makes.me think of those Southern auto workers that rejected the UAW..
And the moment they did, the car company scuttled everything they dangled in front of the workers to get them to reject the UAW.
Absolute suckers
Queen of Lurkers
@Jay: Well, I was actually suggesting/implying that the Indian-African community has a particular ideological mindset, derived from their history of immigration to Africa and their experience there, that’s distinct from that of Indians from India. It is a mindset that leans towards authoritarianism.
Queen of Lurkers
@RevRick: It’s not always easy to determine caste from a person’s surname in India. The surname Patel is very common in Gujarat (Kash Patel is Gujrati), but it’s a surname that occurs in other Indian states too. A Patel could be Brahmin or it could just as well be a “lower” caste.
Bill Arnold
@p.a.:
Idiot youngs have been saying that for 30+ years now.
Some are now collecting it.
Jay
@Queen of Lurkers:
Well, they were the #2 “dogs” in British Africa, getting to lord it over the natives, with the full power of “The State” behind them for several generations, until Independence, where upon many of them took their “British Passports” and fled to Britain, or the Colonies, but not to “India”.
Jay
@Queen of Lurkers:
Kash Patel was born in Garden City, New York to Indian Gujarati parents who had immigrated to the United States through Canada from East Africa.[10][11]
Quell surprise.
Kristine
@Kay: I’ll start collecting in April. Hoping that’s in the safe zone.
Jay
In moderation at #128
Jay
Try again
Quell surprise.
hitchhiker
@Ryan: No, you’re not wrong.
It’s a great pleasure to just turn the dial away from every damn one of the pundit class right now. These people — along with political consultants — are fucking wealthy.
Not that I begrudge wealth, but it helps me to remember that their lovely homes and nice vacations exist because they’ve convinced millions of us that they know more than we do.
What happens when that story collapses? I don’t know what happens to them, but what happens to me is my head clears. I’m not at the mercy of their hot takes. I’m not interested in their analysis.
It’s obvious to anybody with common sense that the prosecution of Hunter Biden on those charges was bullshit. That’s the only story here.
YY_Sima Qian
South Korean politicians & civil society showing it how it’s done (when was the last time there was a general strike in the US?):
Pretty brave act (video through the link), in the US she’d be shot dead:
Yoon could be tried for insurrection, because he had not called a meeting of the full cabinet before declaring martial law:
SK parliamentarians barricaded themselves against encroaching special forces soldiers, fended them off w/ fire extinguishers (video through the link):
The likely fallout:
Jay
The Scarammuchi Autoglope,………
YY_Sima Qian
The average USian’s understanding of the world is heavily distorted by the narratives the US government, MSM & think tanks choose to convey:
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: Had to look up “autogolpe” on Google when Baud mentioned it yesterday, did not come up in Merriam-Webster.
Aussie Sheila
Congratulations to the Korean people, Parliamentarians and the Korean worker’s movement. I trust Yoon will be impeached, criminally tried and convicted of a crime against the Korean people and the Korean State.
How different things might be in the US had the US State in the form of the DoJ devoted itself half as assiduously to the protection of its people in 2021.
My gob will never get over being smacked at the ease with which a US President and members of Congress got away with a similar move on Jan 6 2021.
This inanition will haunt US democracy for generations.
Jay
@YY_Sima Qian:
Vids coming out now from South Korean lawmakers showing them beating South Korean Special Forces trying to shut down the vote with fire extinguishers and cell phone camera flashes.
lgerard
Politico floating Ron “Woke” DeSantis as the new Secretary of Defense.
I think I would prefer Kash if only for the entertainment value when it all blows up
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/12/03/trump-considers-desantis-defense-secretary-hegseth-00192521
YY_Sima Qian
Very mealy mouthed statements out of USG through the farcical drama (@DeputySecState is Kurt Campbell):
YY_Sima Qian
@Jay: Yep, linked to one of the videos at #132.
Aussie Sheila
@lgerard:
While I appreciate the schadenfreude that would ensue should Patel become FBI chief, I am not at all appreciative of what his appointment or the appointment of either Hegseth or the absolutely appalling Tulsi Gabbard would mean for my country. It’s bad enough here when ‘ordinary’ US administrations take office. This lot portends terrible outcomes in the Indo Pacific region. Mainly because they know nothing and care even less, and simply won’t listen to any sense.
What a cluster fuck.
One good thing from my pov, at least it undermines the ‘wisdom’ of the ALP government’s decision to support the previous government’s decision to support AUKUS.
I hope that clusterfuck dies in a ditch.
egorelick
@Quinerly: Maybe it was the realization that ETTD. It can’t escape people who the truth of that.
YY_Sima Qian
More prognosis of the potential fallout from Yoon’s autogolpe (I’m liking this word), the quoted bits I am pasting below show the lens through which the US (though the writer works at Australia’s ASPI) tends to view its allies in the Asia Pacific, all the highfalutin language about shared values notwithstanding:
Aussie Sheila
@YY_Sima Qian:
Yeah well, the US State Dept can’t be too critical here can it? After all, an attempted autogolpe in the US resulted in the coup plotter and his associates elected and otherwise, being returned to power.
The US has never really opposed coups in countries who are considered ‘allies’.
The amazing thing to me is that the US State doesn’t really oppose them at home now. Truly imperialism always comes home in the end.
YY_Sima Qian
I had to chuckle at this quip:
Aussie Sheila
@YY_Sima Qian:
A very measured and fair editorial. And quite right in its call for action to be taken against Yoon.
I wonder if the US will see such when trump assumes power in 2025 and the expected cascade of authoritarian and quasi to non Constitutional Presidential actions and orders come tumbling out of the criminal enterprise otherwise known as the US government. I also wonder whether the US Congress will assiduously defend the US people in the way the Korean Parliament did today (AEST).
A big wake up call for democracies everywhere.
YY_Sima Qian
@Aussie Sheila: Once you realize that most of the US diplomatic & natsec professionals & appointees, especially at more senior levels, are far more motivated by pursuing & preserving [the already lost] primacy, than universal or liberal values, things make much more sense.
Ramalama
@Kay: agree and also … naked photos paraded on the floor of congress happened because
schrodingers_cat
@RevRick: Kash Patel is not a Brahmin, KH’ s mother was a Brahmin. Caste dynamics are not as simplistic as you are portraying.
schrodingers_cat
@Queen of Lurkers: I didn’t know that.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: You are not exactly a neutral about Biden. You have been blaming him for Gaza for well over a year among other things.
NotoriousJRT
@Ryan: my take is the Pod Save guys despise Biden deep down. They aren’t my age cohort which may be why I often find them arrogant, “smartest guys in the room” – and everywhere else. Biden got lots of stuff done. I think it irked them. I stopped listening to all but Vietor’s shows because I never got the sense they respected the time of their listeners. But, as I mentioned, I’m OLD.