Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Come on, man.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

So many bastards, so little time.

In after Baud. Damn.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

In my day, never was longer.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Not all heroes wear capes.

T R E 4 5 O N

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

You are here: Home / Politics / It’s Not Over ‘Til It’s Over (Narrator: It’s Finally Over!)

It’s Not Over ‘Til It’s Over (Narrator: It’s Finally Over!)

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Griffin concedes.

(AP)

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The Republican challenger for a North Carolina Supreme Court seat conceded last November’s election on Wednesday to Democratic incumbent Allison Riggs, two days after a federal judge ruled that potentially thousands of disputed ballots challenged by Jefferson Griffin must remain in the final tally.

In a statement provided by his campaign to The Associated Press, Griffin said he would not appeal Monday’s decision by U.S. District Judge Richard Myers, who also ordered that the State Board of Elections certify results that show Riggs is the winner by 734 votes from over 5.5 million ballots cast in the race.

Griffin’s decision sets the stage for Riggs to be officially elected to an eight-year term as an associate justice.

“While I do not fully agree with the District Court’s analysis, I respect the court’s holding — just as I have respected every judicial tribunal that has heard this case,” Griffin said. “I will not appeal the court’s decision.”

He remains a state Court of Appeals judge whose term ends in 2028.  Not sure what happens after that.  Pure speculation on my part:  he’s hoping to avoid losing in 2028 if there is a retention vote for judges in NC.

More information in my post from yesterday.

Big Win in North Carolina!

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

129Comments

  2. 2.

    rikyrah

    That punk azz whiny bytch loser wasted all that time cheating.

    Phuck him and his mother for trying to disenfranchise such a large number of voters.

  4. 4.

    feebog

    This is a huge legal win.  Griffen singled out the most democratic counties for his challenge.  Blatant attempt to overturn a close but valid result.

  5. 5.

    Trollhattan

    In conclusion, North Carolina is a state of many contrasts.

    Trump, our guy!
    Black Nazi, getthefuckouttaheah.

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  10. 10.

    Belafon

    Props to the Heritage Foundation for picking a competent, even if Right-Wing, judge.

    The other lesson is that you keep fighting.

  12. 12.

    Hoodie

    Court of Appeals judges regularly stand for election.  Griffin needs to be defeated not only because he’s a right wing fucktard but also for putting forth this frivolous claim and the waste of resources in addressing it.

  13. 13.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah:

    Trump now says he doesn’t need other countries to agree to anything. He’ll just write down numbers and call it a deal.

    That’s a guy with a sharpie, not a trade agreement. And it’s not an enduring foundation for business

    There’s no reason to think that the economy won’t continue to (slowly? quickly?) ratchet downwards until the orange moron is out of office.  None at all.  Tariffs?  Deportations?  Daily hourly insanity in the form of EOs from Captain Alcatraz?  It’ll all impact people’s spending, tourism, scientific research, and so on.  Down, down, down…

    …and all because the MAGA GOP majorities in the House and Senate can’t be bothered to do the most basic parts of their job.

    #CallCongress

  14. 14.

    twbrandt

    “While I do not fully agree with the District Court’s analysis, I respect the court’s holding — just as I have respected every judicial tribunal that has heard this case,” Griffin said. “I will not appeal the court’s decision.”

    IOW, I ran out of money to appeal.

  16. 16.

    Belafon

    “Lilliput has agreed to join us as the 51st – suck on that, Canada – and our new citizens will make great factory workers, especially building the next iPhone.” – Trump

  17. 17.

    WaterGirl

    @twbrandt:  Me?

    I thought it was more that his attorneys probably said “you don’t have a rat’s chance in hell of winning an appeal; you’ll have to find new attorneys.”

  19. 19.

    RevRick

    @rikyrah: Yeah, but it was not just him. This was a test run for worse shenanigans on the federal level. That a Trump-appointed judge said, “No can do,” is significant on several levels. First and foremost, the Fox media ecosystem can’t scream “librul judges.” Second, it makes it way more difficult for the GOP to change the rules after the fact. And both those things matter… a lot.

  21. 21.

    JoyceH

    @Jeffro: Words cannot express how much I hate every single Trump voter for making us live through four years of this AGAIN. How is it even possible that they didn’t learn better the first time?

  24. 24.

    catclub

    @Belafon: ​
     

    Soon we will have trade agreements with Wakanda and Genosha.

    No love for the Duchy of Grand Fenwick.

  25. 25.

    kindness

    @RevRick: Oh MAGA types will still scream ‘Liberal Judges!!!’.  They’ll just bury the Donald Trump nominated part.

  27. 27.

    Jeffro

    @JoyceH: I know, right?

    Except it’s actually far worse this time…LIKE WE TOLD THEM IT WOULD BE.

    Tom Edsall has a good piece up about how trumpov is about to be the greatest grifter of all time, thanks to crypto and a supine MAGA majority in the House

    (gift link)

     

    On Sept. 9, 2024, the F.B.I.’s criminal investigative division reported that “as the use of cryptocurrency in the global financial system continues to grow, so too does its use by criminal actors.” The exploitation of cryptocurrency, according to the F.B.I., “was most pervasive in investment scams, where losses accounted for almost 71 percent of all losses related to cryptocurrency.”

    Seven days later, Donald Trump declared on X “Crypto is one of those things we have to do. Whether we like it or not, I have to do it.” In the same post, a month and a half before the election, he promoted his new venture World Liberty Financial Inc.

    Back in the White House, Trump has discovered that what he criticized as ‘not money’ could now serve as an ideal way to profit from his presidency….

    …for Trump, a critical determinant of his ability to continue to profit from cryptocurrency will be the outcome of the 2026 election.

    If, as appears possible if not probable, Democrats retake the House next year, the likelihood is that Trump might well be impeached for a third time, and crypto would almost certainly be a centerpiece of that proceeding.

    The prospects that two-thirds of the Senate would vote to convict Trump of any impeachment charges about crypto — or anything else — are, however, slim to none, even if Democrats surprise everyone and retake the upper chamber.

    So what Trump can look forward to is holding office through to Jan. 20, 2029, while he and his business partners continue to come up with new digital currencies and new marketing techniques to raise their potential profits.

    At that point, with Trump no longer in office, the Supreme Court will once again be able to rule that any pending complaints involving foreign or domestic emoluments are moot.

    In other words, Trump is well on his way to becoming the greatest grifter of all time.

  28. 28.

    rikyrah

    @JoyceH:

    @Jeffro: Words cannot express how much I hate every single Trump voter for making us live through four years of this AGAIN. How is it even possible that they didn’t learn better the first time?

     

    NEVER EVER EVER will be forgiven

  31. 31.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @rikyrah:

    That punk azz whiny bytch loser wasted all that time cheating.

    Phuck him and his mother for trying to disenfranchise such a large number of voters.

    That’s exactly the kind of comment needed from a talking head on Totebagger Radio.  If they did that, even once, I might consider donating again.

    I think it’s safe to say they’ll continue not seeing my monies or my ears.

  38. 38.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @JoyceH: I know. This morning I read about some MAGA’s having their face eaten by the leopard, and the author expressed some sympathy. I just can’t. I have no sympathy for any of them. If that makes me a bad person, then I’m a bad person.

  39. 39.

    Juju

    @rikyrah: That’s also a guy who may very well have dementia. My mother said and did similar stuff when she started showing signs of dementia.

  40. 40.

    WaterGirl

    @twbrandt: Guessing that the two days it took for him to announce his decision was actually two days of (unsuccessfully) trying to get new attorneys to take his case.

    I wonder how many “nopes” it took for him to realize this was over.

  44. 44.

    Cliosfanboy

    I see Vulgaria is still holding out despite the 200% tariff on slightly used children’s clothing.

  46. 46.

    Cliosfanboy

    @Juju:

      same here. Gad. The only people in the world who don’t know TFG are demented in the US, Russia, North Korea, and probably Israel.

  51. 51.

    WTFGhost

    “While I do not fully agree with the District Court’s analysis, I respect the court’s holding — just as I have respected every judicial tribunal that has heard this case,” Griffin said. “I will not appeal the court’s decision.”

    Geez, what an effing baby, the court rules on two of the most obvious of civil rights, and he can’t even admit they got both of those rulings perfectly correct.

    I don’t know if I was in favor of him being recalled before, but now I totally am. No one should be a judge if they can’t agree with basic civil rights protections.

  52. 52.

    AM in NC

    This makes me sooooooooooooooo happy!  Re-taking the NCSC in 2028 is the one chance we have to un-rig our elections from GOP gerrymandering/fuckery, and without Riggs retaining her seat, that would have been gone.

    PLUS, is there any doubt that, had this tactic worked, the Republicans would have used it everywhere?  Still possible they’ll try, but being slapped down by a FedSoc judge was helpful.  Fuck Griffin. May he be shunned by decent North Carolinians everywhere he goes.

  57. 57.

    WTFGhost

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m having a really hard time feeling it for immigrants who felt that Trump wasn’t a racist punk. “OMG, our son with a green card might be deported! Trump said he was going after the faces of CRIMINALS, not IMMIGRANTS! My god, if only he proved his bigoted bona fides by bellowing ‘they’re eating the dogs!’ on a debate stage, or something!”

     

    @Cliosfanboy: Russia and North Korea know Trump is brainless. If Israel doesn’t, Netanyahu thinks of Trump as being just as brainy as Netanyahu sees himself, which means Israel really is in for a world of hurt.

     

    @Baud: Never trust negotiators who show up in evening wear, and have herring breath.

  60. 60.

    Redshift

    @Jeffro: 

    the Supreme Court will once again be able to rule that any pending complaints involving foreign or domestic emoluments are moot.

    As I said on Bluesky, the originalists on the SC will rule that a memecoin can’t be an emolument because it isn’t mentioned in English Common Law or 17th-century witch trials.

  61. 61.

    karen gail

    The conclave for new pope starts today; the cardinals make noises about ‘doing the will of god’ but these are master politicians all hoping to be the one to manipulate the world stage. Trump is a toddler who dreams of being a senior in high school without any idea of what the real world is like.

  63. 63.

    Geminid

    French President Macron and Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa are holding a joint press conference.

    I saw a picture on Clash Report of Macron welcoming al-Sharaa and I gotta say, the French honor guard’s dress uniforms are really something. They make Turkiye’s honor guards look like glorified traffic cops.

  64. 64.

    HopefullyNotcassandra

    So relieved that Judge Riggs won

    and yet, all of the overseas babies of North Carolinians who are still overseas* still have nowhere to vote.  That is wrong in a big way.

    * this group is referred to as Never Residents.  I do hope this is not a first shot in stripping these folks of their citizenship.  !

  65. 65.

    Fair Economist

    @rikyrah: Per pretty much every sane person’s expectation, nobody is making a deal with somebody who ripped up his own 2018 NAFTA replacement deal and then promptly broke the deals he made then a month later. No trade deals until the next administration. The question now is will Trump back down or are we going to be trade warred into a depression?

  68. 68.

    Laertes

    @Belafon: Right? I read that whole ruling, and I couldn’t believe it was written by a Trump-appointed judge. It was clear and forceful, and if he was ruling for the Dem through clenched teeth, I didn’t notice.

    The only bit of wingnutese in the ruling was where he dunked on Al Gore for following Florida law in his initial request for a partial recount. (I guess the correct move would’ve been to defy FL law by demanding a full statewide recount, and argue that their presecribed partial-recount procedure was invalid because it was an equal protection violation. Not a lawyer, so I can’t form a worthwhile opinion as to whether such a filing would be practical.)

  69. 69.

    Jeffro

    @cain:

    Hows your brother and your dad doing? :-)

    LOL

    not great, I’m guessing!  (cue many, many violins)

     

  70. 70.

    Jeffro

    @Geminid: LOL ok you can show yourself out now with that one  =)

    He should start spilling the beans about it any day now…”this crypto thing, it’s amazing!  I’m going to walk out the door in 2029 with more money than Putin!!  All untraceable, too!”

    Nickel bet!

  71. 71.

    jonas

    @rikyrah: MAGA voters didn’t put us in this situation. It was ignorant, low-information voters pissed about high gas and grocery prices and too stupid to understand where to assign the blame, because the salient feature of American public life in the 21st century is that nobody understands how anything works and has the memory and attention span of a methed-up hamster.

  72. 72.

    Jeffro

    @dc: speaking of victory parties…I’m starting to get very excited at the prospect of hosting a ‘No Kings’ block party on June 14th!

    http://www.nokings.org

    It might literally just be a bbq with some funny recipes (there will definitely be ‘MAGA snowflake cookies’ and trumpov sandwiches*) but it’ll be great to pre-celebrate the orange moron’s eventual departure!

    *baloney on the whitest bread, with Russian dressing and a small pickle ;)

    And since it’s Flag Day, we’ll be flying the American flag (and maybe a few Canadian and Ukrainian ones?) like real Americans.  I might have to get some Gadsen flag toilet paper, though…

  73. 73.

    rikyrah

    Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) posted at 9:03 AM on Wed, May 07, 2025:
    🚨🚨BREAKING — A new CBO analysis shows that several policies Republicans are considering for slashing Medicaid spending would lead to millions of people losing health insurance coverage.

    The analysis, requested by Democrats, says that per capita caps for the Medicaid expansion population would save $225 billion in federal spending and result in 1.5 million more uninsured people by 2034. Blocking provider taxes could save $668 billion and lead 3.9 million to lose coverage, per CBO.

    Read CBO’s letter to Democrats here: pbwl.news/yhw
    (https://x.com/JakeSherman/status/1920117404232761837?t=JTbN9N5B8u6dVIYUR-dZxA&s=03)

  74. 74.

    rikyrah

    Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) posted at 9:42 AM on Tue, May 06, 2025:
    a stammering Bessent refuses to answer Mark Pocan’s question about who pays tariffs https://t.co/ah1uaiW6gg
    (https://x.com/atrupar/status/1919764721449808358?t=FbI-Ma-32dnpdAHMcxLWKQ&s=03)

     

    William Melvin (@willmelvin) posted at 8:21 AM on Wed, May 07, 2025:
    This is very revealing. Trump’s tariffs are promoted explicitly on the falsehood that others pay them. The Secretary is trying very hard to avoid stating that tariffs are a tax paid by Americans not foreigners.
    (https://x.com/willmelvin/status/1920106813539631608?t=g-RPNlt9rkjohB5uzppS-A&s=03)

  76. 76.

    rikyrah

    Melanie D’Arrigo (@DarrigoMelanie) posted at 6:39 AM on Wed, May 07, 2025:
    A 25-year-old DOGE bro at the CFPB held $715,000 in stocks that ethics lawyers told him he wasn’t allowed to own while working there — then DOGE fired those ethics lawyers.

    This is corruption.
    Always call it out.
    https://t.co/KrtaloHlKc
    (https://x.com/DarrigoMelanie/status/1920080923829104821?t=GYSq2l-Cu5rWkDs-mOhmuw&s=03)

     

    scary lawyerguy (@scarylawyerguy) posted at 9:09 AM on Wed, May 07, 2025:
    I know I’m a broken record on this stuff, but the fact these stories are not “-gate” level scandals is an indictment on the media.
    (https://x.com/scarylawyerguy/status/1920118777456234954?t=z-iAfWN2mBbhpkPqN_z8Lw&s=03)

  78. 78.

    rikyrah

    Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns) posted at 7:07 AM on Wed, May 07, 2025:
    Lots of regular people voted for Trump for boring reasons. But MAGA’s most fervent online warriors are weak men with little going for them, losers bitter that a changing world has passed them by, lashing out at women, immigrants, and anyone who’s stolen what’s ‘rightfully theirs’ https://t.co/w2hWtIhNwV
    (https://x.com/JeremiahDJohns/status/1920088104402031005?t=0GLi_wFRT7c7ZH3fcbGF-A&s=03)

    Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 (@JeremiahDJohns) posted at 7:07 AM on Wed, May 07, 2025:
    I’m in back in @thedispatch writing on why weak men love strong men and MAGA’s popularity amongst people who are, to be blunt, losers: https://t.co/OiayUCY6sq
    (https://x.com/JeremiahDJohns/status/1920088102082580771?t=7n32mX6Dq8Ru5buhh2eyZQ&s=03)

  81. 81.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah: trump’s memecoin scam allows foreigners to influence U.S. policy by putting money directly into his pocket

    it’s even worse than we think

    Back in the White House, Trump has discovered that what he criticized as ‘not money’ could now serve as an ideal way to profit from his presidency. Estimates of the value of his crypto assets vary widely, from $2.9B to $6.2B

    I think they’re lowballing it.

    One of the US’ biggest money launderers has discovered a way to get a cut off of everything…untraceable, untouchable…I think they need to add at least a digit to those estimates, if not 2 or 3

    And then he just…rides off into the sunset…?

    For Trump, a critical determinant of his ability to continue to profit from cryptocurrency will be the outcome of the 2026 election.

    If, as appears possible if not probable, Democrats retake the House next year, the likelihood is that Trump might well be impeached for a third time, and crypto would almost certainly be a centerpiece of that proceeding.

    The prospects that two-thirds of the Senate would vote to convict Trump of any impeachment charges about crypto — or anything else — are, however, slim to none, even if Democrats surprise everyone and retake the upper chamber.

    So what Trump can look forward to is holding office through to Jan. 20, 2029, while he and his business partners continue to come up with new digital currencies and new marketing techniques to raise their potential profits.

    At that point, with Trump no longer in office, the Supreme Court will once again be able to rule that any pending complaints involving foreign or domestic emoluments are moot.

    In other words, Trump is well on his way to becoming the greatest grifter of all time.

  86. 86.

    Melancholy Jaques

    Very pleased to see that Pete Buttigieg agrees with my constant refrain.

    To be effective, our opposition to today’s abuses must run alongside a clear picture of what we are actually for – and how everyday life could be better with different leadership.

    Or as I like to put it, Who are the Democrats? What do they stand for?

  87. 87.

    Kirk

    @jonas:

    You forgot something in there.

    MAGA voters didn’t put us in this situation. It was ignorant, low-information RACIST WHITE voters pissed about high gas and grocery prices and too stupid to understand where to assign the blame, because the salient feature of American public life in the 21st century is that nobody understands how anything works and has the memory and attention span of a methed-up hamster.

  88. 88.

    schrodingers_cat

    @rikyrah: First and foremost is Ezra Klein who is now at the NYT. And Dem leadership that followed him and the NYT like lemmings.

    CBC didn’t.  I always watch what the CBC does. They are the pragmatic moral core of the party.

  89. 89.

    karen gail

    The screen shot of cardinals in procession made me think of scene from “Handmaiden’s Tale” all those red dresses.

  90. 90.

    Librettist

    I’d call their tariff revenue projections fairy tales, but I don’t think they’ve made any.

  91. 91.

    zhena gogolia

    @Melancholy Jaques: NORMAL LIFE WITHOUT GRAD STUDENTS BEING PICKED UP OFF THE STREET AND BIZARRE EMBARRASSING TWEETS WITH THE PRESIDENT DRESSED AS THE POPE

    Is that good enough? It’s good enough for me.

  93. 93.

    Jackie

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    This morning I read about some MAGA’s having their face eaten by the leopard, and the author expressed some sympathy. I just can’t. I have no sympathy for any of them.

    If that makes me a bad person, then I’m a bad person.

    All we bad people are sitting together on an overcrowded sectional.

  94. 94.

    Geminid

    @rikyrah: Rep. Veronica Escobar ran for Beto O’Rourke’s El Paso-based seat in 2018, when he ran for Senate. Escobar and O’Rourke were allies from the time they and two other activists, Steve Gomez and Susie Bird, wrested control of El Paso politics from the old Democratic machine. Escobar’s Wikipedia biography describes their effort, and says El Pasoans called the four “the Progressives.”

  96. 96.

    Ruckus

    @rikyrah:

    When has shitforbrains ever been anything more? (yes I know you aren’t talking directly about him but people with his attitude exist on the wealthy side of life. And on the not so wealthy side of life.

    He has been far worse than a useless jackass his entire life. Pompous, arrogant, and expects that to be his ticket in life. Never met anyone with his money that acted in any way like him but I’ve known a number of wealthy people from my time in professional sports and while I can say I’ve never seen anyone as pompous and arrogant as shitforbrains I’ve seen some with a monied attitude. Most of whom got their asses handed to them one way or another by someone when they acted like their money made them special. It actually could, just not in the way they wanted or expected.

  97. 97.

    Bupalos

    @schrodingers_cat: If the party had followed Klein “like lemmings” Biden would have been encouraged to announce he wasn’t running nearly a year earlier and had a competitive primary. Klein was given no notice whatsoever within the party until the precipitous drop in general support.for Biden, which did include a split within the CBC that was similar to the party generally. What we maybe are reacting to is a couple leaders of the CBC making statements on their own. The CBC never took a position as a group, and the individual differences correlated with whether or not they had a competitive district to win. If their district was competitive, they tended to be ambiguous on Biden support.

  100. 100.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Except as it affects our strategy in recruiting voters to our side, I don’t care why these people voted for Trump. As far as I’m concerned, their doing it tells me all I want to know about them.

  104. 104.

    Geminid

    @Bupalos: Most A lot of Democratic Reps never took a stand on whether Biden should drop out. Of the 20-22 who called for him to step aside, I’m pretty sure not one of them was a CBC member.

  105. 105.

    Bupalos

    @zhena gogolia: We’ll never know. I’m just suggesting that there wasn’t universal support for Biden within the CBC. Like the house generally, the degree you wanted to back Biden tended to have more to do with whether you thought his unpopularity would endanger you in your election.

    Now it is true that competitive districts for black members tend to be less black districts, so one would still free to correlate Ride-or-die Biden support and blackness through a kind of second-order effect. However if I remember correctly by mid July there wasn’t any significant ethnic disparity among democrats in polling on the question

    EDIT

  106. 106.

    Baud

    @Geminid:

    Utterly anecdotal, but the largest share of voices I see on Reddit favorably comparing Biden to Trump seem to be black voices, to the extent they are identifiable as such.

  110. 110.

    Bupalos

    @Baud: Increasing appeal for Black men is well documented, but it’s still only like low 20’s max. Online I have a feeling there are just a ton of blackface cosplay Trumpies.

  112. 112.

    Bupalos

    @Omnes Omnibus: I remember Cori Bush being at least backhanded about it. I’ll look it up.

    Bush says something like “I want him to do what he wants to do” while noting that 100% of the calls to her office were for him to step aside. But she also said it was a right-wing takedown… I think ambiguous is fair.

  114. 114.

    Baud

    @zhena gogolia:

    I think the bigger issue is, Republicans don’t care about the age of their candidates because they take political power more seriously.

  115. 115.

    Bupalos

    @zhena gogolia: It wasn’t competitive because primarying your own sitting president ends your career right there, so no one runs.

    It’s like the Guardians announcing open tryouts for major league spots to all college athletes, where you have to first renounce your college eligibility.

  117. 117.

    Bupalos

    @Omnes Omnibus: Loudly and officially, it was Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth… who didn’t necessarily fit the profile I was opining about, as he was in a safe seat.

  120. 120.

    Bupalos

    @Omnes Omnibus: Oh think there’s a lot more in the “ambiguous” category…I was just kind of going from memory.

    There’s probably a reason the CBC never drafted a statement or took an internal vote and had two leaders make their own statements. That’s not how a caucus supports an issue. What we probably all forget about that time is that early on and on a decreasing rolling basis, practically no one wanted to say anything. It was risky either way.

    “Rep. Don Davis (D-N.C.), one of the most endangered Democratic incumbents, did not respond to questions about Biden Thursday, though he’d previously called the debate “disastrous.” And Rep. Emilia Sykes (D-Ohio), also from a competitive district, didn’t respond to questions, either.”

    There was a fair amount of “sorry I can’t hear you over the deafening sound of those pigeons flying overhead…” all over the place, as people waited for the politics to become more clear. Since polling had black voters at almost exactly 50/50, it would be a little surprising for their reps to be universally one way or the other.

  122. 122.

    Geminid

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: I went over The Guardian’s list member by member. It mostly agreed with the BBC’s  but not exactly. I thought it the Representatives calling for Biden to step aside were fairly diverse. Some were in safe districts, some were in “battleground” districts; some were in the Progressive Caucus, some were in the New Democratic Coalition or Blue Dog Caucus; some were young and new, and some were older veteran Reps.

  123. 123.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @zhena gogolia:

    It doesn’t take much for you or for me. I thought “sent a violent mob to attack congress to overthrow a free election” would be a deal breaker.

    We need a majority, so we need people who are not like us.

  124. 124.

    Joy in FL

    More than 600 are on the celebration Zoom for Justice Riggs right now.
    15 minutes to celebrate then back to work!

  125. 125.

    Ruckus

    @JoyceH:

    They didn’t learn because they didn’t want to, weren’t capable of it, and think their exhaust doesn’t stink.

    They didn’t want to because it would cost them far more than money, although that would be an issue.

    They aren’t capable of learning because they think that everything in their brains is perfect. But because they are not capable of learning, everything in their brains is bullshit.

    Now on that third thing, because everything in their brains is bullshit, they have an overload and all they can see/do/or believe is bullshit as well. It is a conundrum of epic proportions that the rest of humanity has to live with.

    And no one has ever figured out how to fix/repair the endless stream of bullshit. I believe it is a human failing that has been with us from day one and is a possible test to see how good our problem solving concepts are, a test of our strengths and desires to wallow in bullshit or find a way to teach others how to live with morons.

  128. 128.

    dnfree

    @zhena gogolia: We can’t rerun the last couple of years to know what the result would have been if Biden had announced earlier that he wasn’t running again.  You have your opinion, but it’s just that.  We do know the result of Biden persisting in running and then having a debate performance that brought the issues with him into sharp relief.

    My opinion is that Biden did not have another four years in him.

  129. 129.

    Chris T.

    @Baud:

    The conclave just started. Too soon to call it a failure.

    But what would he take as his Papal Name? Orangemandius? Biggly-us?

    (Pope Bilious the First!)

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