I did not have this many squares for Texas on my bingo card for this week!
- Supreme Court allows Texas to use its newly gerrymandered congressional map for 2026.
- Next it goes to the US (not so) Supreme Court where I’m sure they will follow the rule of law.
- Colin Allred drops out of the Senate race.
- Colin Allred decides to run for the House instead.
- Jasmine Crockett will announce today if she is running for Senate.
Am I missing anything else?
I searched for Texas in the media library, and this popped up. Not quite sure why it’s tagged as texas?
But it’s ever-relevant, so why not?
I wonder what state is next up on the bingo wheel?
Open thread.
piratedan
waiting for the inevitable shoe to drop where Trump states that he’s relocating the seat of the Government to Florida to keep it closer to home. The House of Representatives will be relocated to a trailer park, the Senate abolished and the Supreme Court downsized because he’s President, how can anything he does be considered illegal?
Baud
Is Beto running?
Parfigliano
TX off and on talks leaving the USA and being a seperate Country Next time graciously help them to the door out but US retains the military bases. When out treat the Country Texas like we treat the DPRK.
NotMax
All of ’em, Katie.
Including, thanks to Epstein info trickling out, shining a spotlight on the U.S. Virgin Islands.
//
Doug R
@Parfigliano:
Give ’em back to Mexico.
Old School
Pretty sure it was the U.S. Supreme Court that ruled on the Texas gerrymandering last week. Unless I’m misreading something.
Josie
@Old School:
I think it was a temporary stay. The issue is still to be decided, maybe next year? Three guesses as to how that will go.
Snarki, child of Loki
That was certainly the sign, from Trump’s NYC trial.
Is it now on a world tour?
Jackie
Indiana’s state senate votes on their gerrymandering congressional districts this week, I believe. The state House voted YES last week.
FastEdD
I have friends in Texas, so I wish them well. We in California just sent Darrell Issa to Texas. Sorry. Not sorry. I have been trying to get rid of that car thief for decades. It took Prop 50 to get rid of that boil on the butt of society.
Suzanne
I don’t know enough about Talarico to have any sort of thought about how the primary race against Crockett will go, or if he would have much appeal in a general. Would love to hear javkals’ thoughts on the matter.
Belafon
@Parfigliano: There are four people here in Texas talking about leaving, and none of them are in power. Even Abbott knows that Texas won’t survive on its own. Why would it leave? The Supreme Court is helping it.
Belafon
@Josie: It blocked the lower court from blocking the new map.
Josie
@Baud:
Not yet, but he is still heading his group, Powered by People, that is working on registering voters and getting people to the polls. He is truly an energizer bunny.
Jackie
@Josie:
Yes. The Supreme 6 decreed the temporary stay – with the caveat that the midterm elections get to use the Abbott/FFOTUS gerrymanded districts.
Belafon
@Suzanne: I suspect Talarico will be the nominee. And if Democrats can’t win with him, then we’ll have to wait another generation to try again.
Josie
@Belafon:
Yes, but aren’t they going to have arguments for a permanent decision?
Almost80
@Baud: Doesn’t seem to be. If you’re really curious about what’s happening in TX in detail, this woman on substack does a lot of research and keeps up with it for the rest of us: lonestarleft.com/
Jackie
@FastEdD: Didn’t Issa change his mind about moving to Texas? Or did he change his mind back after the SC ruling?
Bruce K in ATH-GR
I thought the Sinister Six declared that Texas could keep the gerrymander in place because it’s too close to the election to revert to the old rules? And the three actual Justices got as close as a dissent would allow to spit-roasting Mister Roberts and his partners in crime?
Some days, I swear…
Not that the government here in the rotted cradle of civilization’s perfect by any means. I just wrapped up a job with a too-tight deadline and way too many instances of “this abbreviation is so obvious it doesn’t need defining”, and I can’t properly express my opinion of it without risking a trip to The Hague in handcuffs.
RaflW
A Texas senate campaign would be a tough slog. I know the state is trending a bit less red, and Texas has asshole senators, but one does wonder about the financial prudence of going very big on that run. At the same time, the ticket line should not be empty, and it should be a Democrat who can motivate some fence-sitters or stay-homers to show up, not just a crank or wild card.
That’s asking a lot. I don’t have any great suggestions, just noting the challenging dynamics.
Suzanne
@Belafon: Do you think Talarico has a reasonable chance of winning the whole state?
rikyrah
wait…
ALL THIS IS TRUE?
I thought you were joking with us.
Everything outside of the clowns on the Supreme Court.
trollhattan
Deep dive into the Texas ruling, the majorities fiddling with “facts” and Kagan’s zesty dissent.
substack.com/inbox/post/180843145
Like, very deep. I had to get coffee and pray it’s not on the midterm.
WaterGirl
from Dan Pfeiffer:
I clarified the item in the bullet list.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: All true.
Josie
@WaterGirl: Yes
ETA: The lower court’s decision was stayed for the duration of Texas’ appeal.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
The best news in all of this is loser Allred got out. Him running for Senate again would have been the embodiment of “reinforcing failure”.
Color me skeptical of either Talarico or Crockett’s chances statewide given how we’ve been told time and time again “this is the year, this is the candidate” and then, for whatever hot take reasons, they lose easily.
Don’t get me wrong, we gotta do this but damn if we don’t need to do this better although I always struggle with what “better” might be outside of a party apparatus that operates 24/7/365 in order to give candidates like Talarico or Crockett a punchers chance in a state that continues to send awful people to statewide office despite the fact there are a shitload of Dems in TX.
Bupalos
@Suzanne: I’m a little sad that these two new talents and new attempted approaches will be going against each other,Crockett is a brilliant communicator and seems to understand the attention economy like few in the party. I don’t think Talerico has quite the same level of queen mandibular pheromone or smarts, but is an interesting attempt to make what could be critical inroads into faith-based morals voters. To me that’s a little like Trump targeting vulnerable parts of our base, you don’t have to do all that much to reap huge electoral rewards. It’s a shot to take.
But I’d like to see them each get their own clean shot.
Belafon
@trollhattan: One of their arguments is that we’re too close to elections to change now. If now is too close, then no election is ever far enough.
HopefullynotCassandra
@Parfigliano: There are more than 8.1 million registered democrats in Texas. There are plenty of other decent people, even some still registered as GOP. Can we stop suggesting tossing people away like we are some kind of reverse MAGA? The notion gives me heartburn.
As for U.S. military bases in Texas, your proposal would not work. Have you been to Texas? It is big, very big.
Suzanne
@Bupalos: Well, we’ll see. Whoever wins the primary, Texas is a heavy lift for a Democrat.
I have to say that I am skeptical that a candidate who represents progressive Christianity as part of their identity will be successful in attracting “values voters”. One thing I have really come to appreciate from reading some of the religious right-wing nutcases that I do is how much they hate lefty Christians. They think of them as the worst kinds of traitors. Kind of like how lots of Dems hate Sanders and his bros more than they hate squishy Trump voters.
Chetan Murthy
I used to have hope for Texas. Maybe Texans will figure it out, maybe they won’t.
For Texas Dems, all I can say is: send your children out-of-state — don’t sacrifice their lives and hopes on the altar of some vain hope that Texas will turn Blue. For brown people, my advice is more stern: don’t have brown children in Texas: you’ll warp and destroy their lives, raising them in that racist hellhole: GTFOT(here). I grew up in
WeatherfordEast Incest, and all my siblings and I left the state, and I have never forgiven my parents for foisting the damn place on us, and never will. A kid in my high school who was in the closet, left. A closeted best friend, left. I went back for a family medical emergency in 2019, and if anything things were worse than they had been when I was growing up. Worse, not better.As a famous philosopher once said: it is what it is.
p.a.
Josh Marshall again today on the requirements to have any chance to return to our imperfect pre-W democracy:
Any Dem not yes on 1 and 2 isn’t serious about changing anything.
taumaturgo
A message from the trenches that is most likely considered heresy in this bubble.
wired.com/story/big-interview-event-david-hogg/
Josie
@HopefullynotCassandra:
Thank you.
HopefullynotCassandra
@Josie: the Court set aside the lower court ruling without any finding of clear error while lambasting that trial court for following the Supreme Court’s prior precedents.
Belafon
@Suzanne: I think he’s got a better shot than even Beto did, but this is Texas, where most of the state doesn’t vote, and most of those that do couldn’t tell you couldn’t tell you the names of the people they’re going to vote for (this has almost always been true). At some point, he will start receiving criticism from Republicans along the lines of “Stop lying to people that the Bible says we have to take care of the poor and immigrants,” and plenty here will think he’s wrong.
kindness
I don’t have faith Texas would elect a Democratic Senator. Not now days. The Texas race that is important is whether Paxton beats Cornyn in the Republican primary. Cornyn sucks but Paxton is like a Trump level of corrupt and evil.
rikyrah
No Dear.
Elections have consequences.
You are having the day you voted for.
But, at least you are semi-acknowledging that this wouldn’t be happening if you have just voted for the Black Lady.
Ronald Brownstein
@RonBrownstein
Mayor of heavily Arab-American Michigan city asserts Dems aren’t doing enough to protect his community from Trump immigration enforcement-after MI Arab-American voters shifted sharply to Trump in 24 to protest Biden over Gaza. They directly empowered this.
x.com/RonBrownstein/status/1998052813159763978?s=20
HopefullynotCassandra
@FastEdD: sadly for San Diego, but not for Texas, Darrell Issa has decided to stay in California.
nbcsandiego.com/news/local/darrell-issa-california-texas-move/3941368/
rikyrah
Brian Stelter
@brianstelter
Trump blasting Paramount right now because “60 Minutes” aired an interview with MTG: “THEY ARE NO BETTER THAN THE OLD OWNERSHIP, who just paid me millions of Dollars for FAKE REPORTING about your favorite President, ME! Since they bought it, 60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE!”
8:35 AM · Dec 8, 2025
x.com/brianstelter/status/1998038817388028336?s=20
trollhattan
@Belafon:
Exactly how they, okay, McConnell and Graham, framed strangling Garland’s nomination, later shooting Barrett into her seat using a cannon.
rikyrah
@RaflW:
I believe the Texas GOP is stupid enough to throw over Cornyn for Paxton, which would turn it into an open seat.
Not saying any Dem could win, but, an Open Seat is better than going in against an incumbent.
trollhattan
@HopefullynotCassandra:
Issa must have taken a trip to Texas.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@taumaturgo:
Free archive link:
archive.ph/aQ77I
Best quote from the piece:
Maybe if groups like his pull it off, yes. But I’m highly skeptical that it’ll otherwise happen. How primary season shakes out next year will be the indicator.
trollhattan
@rikyrah:
Don’t make Bari Weiss sad, Donny. You know how she gets.
Belafon
@trollhattan: California values aren’t welcome here in Texas.
Chetan Murthy
There’s one making the rounds (e.g. at r/LAMF, dKos) of a Somali-American Republican activist who stood with Trump at a rally and all, and he’s shocked/shocked/SHOCKED that there’s anti-Brown/Black-immigrant Fascism going on. Just shocked.
All of us dark-skinned immigrants, we come here and we say “we’re not Black, nononoooo, we’re {Indian,Somali,Nigerian,Jamaican,whatever}” not realizing that it doesn’t matter what we think we are: what matters is what wypipo think we are (as Hannah Arendt put it so well). And we’d better have solidarity with the people with whom we’re lumped. Which means with Black people.
Bupalos
@Suzanne: I don’t disagree with that the way you’ve stated it. Certainly most religious voters are going to remain with the GOP. Just like most hispanics stayed with Democrats in 2024. That is electorally irrelevant. Trump won by changing hispanic margins from overwhelmingly Democratic to just Democratic. There is a structural advantage in politics to attacking your opponents strength rather than weakness.
Worth a shot anyway.
Belafon
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: We have the leaders we deserve. We would like different leaders.
Almost Retired
@Chetan Murthy: Oh my, Weatherford. I had a college girlfriend who was a journalism major and split her Summer doing an internship for a big city newspaper (Minneapolis Star-Tribune) and a small town newspaper – in this case the Weatherford Daily Sheepfucker, or whatever it was called. I visited her in Weatherford. For entertainment, the local yutes gathered in dirt lots in their pick ups and power-chugged beer and picked fights with kids from the nearby much-hated town of Mineral Wells. One of the counties was dry at the time, which was why the Weatherford and Mineral Wells kids gathered in the same spot (whichever was the wet county). Not really the stuff of a Larry McMurty novel.
Suzanne
@Bupalos: Hey, at this point, we really need to throw a lot at the wall in Texas to see what (if anything) sticks. I don’t live there, so I don’t get a say, and thus I don’t need to formulate a strong opinion.
Baud
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
They can obviously support whoever they like, but the political rhetoric against older candidates has been pervasively ageist, not ideological.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Somehow BS of Vt has immunity from the ageism charge from lefty bros.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
Next year features old Markey against younger but more conservative Moulton. I haven’t heard much about the age issue there, except from Moulton.
Interestingly, a quick search in Wikipedia says that the MA Dem chairman has said Markey should step aside.
trollhattan
@rikyrah:
He’s not letting go of this travesty.
Pro tip to Donny: if you have to explain your joke it’s not a joke.
You’re welcome.
HopefullynotCassandra
@trollhattan: San Diego is one of the Earth’s living paradises. A lot of Texas is lovely, though, too. Hill country is quite spectacular. Mr. Issa would likely struggle mightily with the heat and humidity.
Chetan Murthy
@Almost Retired: Oh god I’m so sorry for her having to spend time there. “The Weatherford Democrat” was the paper. We spent a year in
Mineral WellsWest Incest, which was -so- benighted our parents moved 30mi east. Sadly, if they’d only managed another 30mi, we might have had a much different childhood: Fort Worth wasn’t perfect, but so, so, so much better than Weatherford . Ah well.Your description is accurate: Parker County was dry, and Tarrant (Fort Worth) was not. There was a (eponymous) liqour store just across the county line, and the way I remember it, there was a frightful rate of accidents involving kids driving back from that store to town. Ah well. And yeah, the thing to do of a Friday night, was to sit in the parking lots adjacent to South Main and drink beer, or drive up and down South Main (drunk or not (yet)).
A town entirely without redeeming features.
P.S. I don’t remember if Palo Pinto County was dry or not. During my time there (late 70s) the yutes went east, not west. I -do- remember when we arrived in West Incest, we went to the grocery story on a Sunday, and were confronted with Blue Laws. We’d come from Delaware, and they had nothing like that [Delaware was no paragon: my sister tells me the kids in our elementary school used to ask us why we’d come, why we didn’t go back to where we’d come from, etc]. It was an entirely unmooring time. I shut down, basically don’t remember much about it other than the relentless pressure to fit in, to Be White (which was of course impossible). My sister remembers more: she knew even at age nine that she was in a place that regarded us as so much meat, not human.
We have never forgiven our parents for what they did to us.
HopefullynotCassandra
@Belafon: Darrell Issa has values?
Chetan Murthy
@Baud: Mmmm …… AFAICT, there hasn’t been that pressure on St. Bernard to retire, that there has been on the old-fogey Dems. One could say it’s ageist, but somehow
(a) these aged folks routinely disappoint when it comes to actually getting shit done, or even just being steadfast in opposition
(b) there have been incidents and histories with distressing frequency, of these old fogies demonstrating that they’re well along in dementia.
JWR
Somebody asked which state would dive into the redistricting wars next, and I remembered reading about Florida a day or two ago, but they seem sort of a weak afterthought. From NBC:
Baud
@Chetan Murthy:
I’m not sure who that describes except Feinstein. Fetterman has issues, but not due to age. People complain a lot about Jefferies but he’s not old.
Belafon
@Chetan Murthy: The best part of Weatherford was the Iron Skillet at the truck stop.
Chetan Murthy
@Baud: There’s been at least one other rep who was basically outed in the middle of a serious dementia episode — I forget her name (it was a she). Then there’s Gerry Connolly: sure, it was cancer, but that’s a serious risk the older you get, simply by the odds. There was Pat Leahy. Chris Dodd. I’m sure if I dig around a bit, I could think of others.
Some of what gets called “ageist” is just people from previous generations. Joe Crowley (who got unseated by AOC) is 63 — so not exactly aged) but does anybody dispute that AOC has been a better Rep? I sure don’t: even just her work to expose Trump’s tax fraud at the Michael Cohen hearings (which resulted in the prosecution of the Trump Org) was enough for me to believe that. And Crowley has gone on to some pretty questionable lobbying work (I remember that got discussed either here or LG&M).
I’m 60, so Crowley’s age. And I firmly believe that younger Dems are more likely to be willing to take a scorched-earth approach to G(r)OPers than people my age. And I’m not (yet) senile.
Chetan Murthy
@Belafon: heh, there was a Stuckey’s (I think it was called) at the truck stop south of town (that got turned into a Petro when I-20 came thru): they had good pecan pie. But I can’t think of any restaurant really worth eating at, in the town. There was the Country Donut Store across from the Jack-in-the-Crack I worked at for 2.5yr: their chocolate cream donuts were good.
tam1MI
@taumaturgo: From the article:
No lie told there.
Chetan Murthy
@Belafon: The old county courthouse was kinda pretty, and the square around it (with the five-and-dime) was quaint. I couldn’t really appreciate it at the time, and even then the northern part of town was dying away, but in my memory, it was kinda quaint.
Baud
@Chetan Murthy:
Maybe so, but that’s still a decision based on substance, not age.
To use my example above, Markey would probably be more aggressive than Moulton, even though he’s older.
And as Hogg said, he’s not interested in younger candidates who aren’t ideologically different than the older candidates they’re replacing.
None of that is ageist IMHO
ETA: I personally think Dem women have outshone Dem men, but I’m not suggesting running against a male incumbent simply because their male.
Geminid
@trollhattan: Rep. Greene just fired an interesting (to me) parting shot at Trump, on Twitter. It was a picture of her posted by an anti-AIPAC group, showing her with zero contributions from the pro-Israel lobbying organization.
There was a picture of Trump next to it, captioned with a large figure for his AIPAC contributions.
I’m used this issue raised regarding Democrats, but now I’m starting to see this issue raised in connection to Republican politicians by “America First, America Only” conservatives.
Shalimar
@p.a.: I would add a third. We absolutely need an amendment limiting Supreme Court justices to 10 or 12 years of active service. It is supposed to be the culmination and reward for the best and brightest, not a place to put unproven 40-year-olds so they can serve for 35 years.
rikyrah
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
I honestly believe Texas is a voter suppressed state. But, they also want someone who is an Actual Democrat and sounds like they will fight for Democratic principles.
I was sad that Beto lost, but, I agree with his approach to campaigning way more than Allred, who seemed to be scared to say that he was a Democrat most days.
Chetan Murthy
I googled that, found this interview w/MA Dem chair ( cbsnews.com/boston/news/massachusetts-democrats-steve-kerrigan-ed-markey/ ). He said
Perhaps there’s something else? In any case, the idea that Markey should step aside for Seth Moulton ? Bwaahahahahahha. Maybe you’ll say that my criticisms aren’t ageist, but rather substantive, but I would say that I remain on the position that, all other things being equal old pols like Markey should retire — and less-old pols should be training a cadre of successor candidates. So my -bias- is toward younger candidates. But that said ….. Moulton? Moulton? [falls off barstool laughing]
JoyceH
Granted I’m no Texas expert, but I think that Talarico is the sort of Democrat who can win Texas. It’s going to be a hard enough reach for some of those Texans to vote for a Democrat, but they sure won’t vote for one who sounds like a New York Librul. In places like Texas, vote for the Dem who can win and vote for the overt Fighters elsewhere. The Dem Who Can Win will be the master key that unlocks the majority.
Citizen Alan
Not as bad a situation as yours, probably, but when I was around 40, my late mother casually mentioned that she and my father had discussed moving from a rural area outside New Albany, MS (population 5k or so at the time) to the bustling metropolis of Tupelo when I was 6 or 7. The official reason they decided against it was that my 14yo sister wanted to play basketball and stood a better chance of making the team in a podunk de facto whites-only county school than in “the big city.” (TBF, that podunk rural school had a very competitive girls’ basketball team that had won a 1A state championship in recent years.) Officially, they decided not to move so far (30 miles) away from my grandparents, but I assume that “Fear of a Black Planet” was the main but unspoken reason they decided against it.
RevRick
@RaflW: @Suzanne: It’s estimated that the Texas Senate race may take $750 million in 2026 to win.
NotMax
@Shalimar
I have no strong objection to the in theory independence granted by judicial lifetime appointments (tracking with federal judges) but would prefer changing to a mandatory retirement age unless re-nominated and re-confirmed by vote of the Senate at that juncture (something I would favor for federal judges as well).
FastEdD
@HopefullynotCassandra: Pecker head. He won’t win in his current district, but may wait 14 years like a locust. My own district is the one with Calvert and Kim and Prop 50 actually made it worse, even though I knew that when I worked for it. My job next month is to work on endorsement of a Dem to run against them.
trollhattan
As one knowing little about how Texas politics work I have to rely on others, given it’s the 2nd largest state. Anyhoo, one unenthusiastic read on the Dems’ current situation:
truthandcons.substack.com/p/texas-democrats-are-doing-the-party
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Chetan Murthy:
Exactly. I’m not all in on “replace the olds” because who might replace them could be worse and Moulton’s not the only example of that.
Eolirin
@Suzanne: I would not put any money on us having a chance in hell of winning Texas this cycle, even against Paxton, so I don’t think it matters much.
Suzanne
@RevRick: I don’t know how anybody can say anything like that with confidence. We are at a point when Dems raise more money than Republicans and still lose.
Chetan Murthy
I could be sorely mistaken, but …. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that the kind of people who are as you describe above are …. also the sort who think Saint Bernard wuz robbed, etc. That is to say, they’re not actually ageist either: they just wield it as a cudgel for their other beliefs, which are “beat the Dems, beat the Dems”.
But I could be wrong.
Josie
@RevRick:
Is that including the primary?
MattF
Via CNN, Alina Habba resigns as USA for NJ.
taumaturgo
@RevRick: May I ask, whose estimate? It seems to is from the consultants that prefer the top-down approach to elections while coincidentally lining their pockets, instead of a grassroots movement that elected Mamdani and AOC.
rikyrah
i Expose Racists & Pedos
@SeeRacists
‼️VIRAL VIDEO: Black San Francisco Environment (SFE) worker bravely records shocking harassment by a white man in a trailer park—who falsely accuses him of “burglaries” in the neighborhood, follows him aggressively and nearly runs him over!
📍San Francisco, CA
The worker, on duty promoting city sustainability efforts, faced unprovoked racist fury: the driver yelled racial slurs, blocked his path, and revved his engine inches from him, forcing him to dodge for safety. “I’m just doing my job—why target me?” he pleads in the clip, highlighting the fear of everyday bias.
UPDATE: Suspect identified as 52-year-old local resident Mark Harlan Thompson.
SFPD confirms investigation into racial motivation.
America, WE HAVE A PROBLEM!!
x.com/SeeRacists/status/1998034952881840247?s=20
Citizen Alan
@Shalimar: I haven’t looked closely at it, but I’ve seen it suggested that we don’t even need an amendment to add a term limit as a SCOTUS justice. Article III of the constitution says they get life tenure, but there’s an argument that they can be constitutionally limited to a set-term on SCOTUS and then given the option of retirement or senior status (working as a judge with a reduced case load and no longer deciding SCOTUS opinions).
Belafon
@Chetan Murthy: I grew up in Abilene, but I20 has existed as far back as I can remember, so the Petro was always there for me. There was a Stuckey’s between Abilene and Weatherford, which is why I still remember the roof shapes.
Baud
@Chetan Murthy:
Thank you for checking. I was confused by and misread the title of the article.
Josie
@trollhattan: I find that very persuasive, possibly because it agrees with my take. I don’t think Crockett can win statewide, and Talarico has a good shot at it. I hope Democrats understand this and vote for him in the primary.
ETA: I am already donating a small amount monthly to him and plan to volunteer to write post cards when the time comes.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Chetan Murthy:
I don’t know the answer to that since I’ve never followed any of the “discussions” that have grown around Sanders over the years.
Chetan Murthy
@rikyrah: Rikyrah, do you have suggestions on what we can do (I’m an SF resident) to ensure that this racist pig gets charged? Call the mayor? My supervisor? SFPD ?
Eolirin
@Citizen Alan: Wouldn’t the court get to decide whether or not that was constitutional?
HopefullynotCassandra
@JWR: De Santis said Florida is waiting for the Supreme Court (to finish destroying the Voting Rights Act).
Shalimar
@NotMax: A mandatory retirement age still doesn’t stop the problem of Republicans nominating underqualified young judges because they will be able to serve longer.
To me, this was the starting point of what has mushroomed into Republicans not really believing in experience and competence anymore, which is how we end up with Kash Patel leading the FBI and Pete Hegseth running the god-damned War Department.
Suzanne
@trollhattan: That is unenthusiastic. Thank you for sharing it, though.
Belafon
@Citizen Alan: The constitutionality would be decided by the court unless Democrats laugh at them while helping pack their office.
HopefullynotCassandra
@FastEdD: I hope you find an excellent one!
Shalimar
@Citizen Alan: I am fine with that too, if it turns out to be constitutional. I do not trust our current justices to determine constitutionality though.
DK
Texas: I think Talerico has a chance if Paxton is the GOP candidate. A good number of GOP voters might skip that election. Plus Paxton might energize other voters to vote against him. I’ve lived in South Texas a really long time but wouldn’t say I have any special knowledge.
Old School
@Josie:
@taumaturgo:
Yes. And a Republican consultant.
It was in the overnight Crockett thread.
dm
@schrodingers_cat: I think that’s because he’s able (with AOC’s help) to pull in thousands to rallies when most Dems were still shell-shocked at the (perceived) scale of Trump’s victory.
UncleEbeneezer
@rikyrah: It was pretty damn obvious that the whole point of the Uncommitted and Muslims-In-Dearborn shit was for a bunch of people who didn’t want to vote Dem to 1.) endlessly shit on Biden/Harris, 2.) possibly hand the election to Trump and then 3.) blame Dems/Israel for it.
Who knows if they had enough power to achieve 2, probably not. But the fact that they are now blaming Dems is totally on brand. and predictable.
HopefullynotCassandra
@MattF: Ms Habba is only 7 days late. Since the Court expelled her from that position on Dec 1, 2025 and has been excising her name from filings since, it is about time.
Belafon
@Shalimar: Democrats are just going to have to point at the constitution and say “This line right here says we have the authority to set the structure of the courts” and help Thomas move out of his office.
Gravenstone
@taumaturgo: How the fuck do you keep crawling out of the slime (and pie)? Back in you go.
UncleEbeneezer
@Geminid: Recycling old Jewish conspiracy theories is the sort of harmless fun that crosses partisan lines. Sure lots of other PACs lobby on behalf of strong US relations with other foreign countries but ya know for some reason it’s just more dangerous when it’s by Jewish Americans.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Chetan Murthy: what was your parents reason for moving to (that part of) Texas? Being a N Californian, I can’t imagine one.
Baud
It’s finally safe for rural folks to hate trans people again.
Chetan Murthy
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): The money. My father was a cardiologist, taught at UPenn med school, worked for the VA. Compared to that, private practice in a small TX town was the fucking gold rush, even though most of the respectable white folk wouldn’t be patients of one of those brown doctors.
The money. I’m thankful my younger siblings went to a private school in Fort Worth where they apparently didn’t get the kind of racism we got. But me and my eldest sister? Ugh. Just. Ugh.
ETA: and to be clear, even besides destroying our childhoods, moving to Texas meant getting basically -no- education. The damn public schools sucked so goddamn much my mother pulled my younger siblings out and put them in a private school 30mi away b/c my youngest sibling was bored in elementary school, already having learned how to -read-. My eldest sister and I were so bored we took an RPGII programming class at the local community college while we were in middle school. That bored. So bored I worked a fulltime job my junior year in HS, at the end of which I graduated (so, a year early). I spent all day in school sleeping in classes, b/c I was workin’ until 2am every night at Jack-in-the-Crack. Didn’t affect my grades, b/c that was how shitty that school was.
So in the end, they got a ton of money, but what we learned, we learned -ourselves- without any real help from school.
Baud
Working class party
rikyrah
@Citizen Alan:
Age limit – kicks them to SENIOR STATUS.
They can stay on the Court, but, it enables a President to nominate a new Justice.
Chetan Murthy
@Baud: I can only hope that CA and other blue states will push hard on that shit. It’s not -insurance-.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Chetan Murthy: Ugh. So sorry!
Chetan Murthy
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): This is why I’ve -always- told brown people I meet, whether professionally or otherwise, that they should never think about moving to the South if they plan to have children.
Though it’s not just the South. There was the case of that Muslim doctor who moved to a small town in Minnesota, only to find (around when Trump ran for President) that his neighbors included a massive number of stone racists. It got written-up in WaPo. I wrote him a letter (via his hospital and via WaPo) asking him to please move his family (w/young kids) out of that hellhole, and telling him about my life, my (lack of a) childhood, and urging him in no uncertain terms to do it for the welfare of his children. I read later that he moved his family to the UAE, though he and his wife still spend some of their time in MN.
I like to think that my letter helped push him over the edge, but he probably came to the right decision already. I mean, he probably wasn’t a shithead like my father.
RevRick
@Josie: Yes
jonas
@Baud: It really helps to take your time and shop around for the cheapest chemo treatments you can, especially when you’re stage 3 or 4. /s
Republicans like to imagine that we all live in some version of the Simpsons’ Springfield and can just choose the cut-rate Dr. Nick Riviera if Hibbert is charging too much and everything will end up ok with a lot of laughs along the way. This gag is also a classic in the same spirit. Funny because we all know that’s not how anything in the real world works.
Geminid
@Geminid: And speaking of Marjorie Taylor Greene, her likely successor threw his hat in ring today. Thirty-one year old state Senator Colton Moore announced he’s running in the GA-14 special election. Moore says he’s 100% pro-Trump, 100% pro-life, 100% pro-gun, wants all “illegals” deported, and called for “cheaper gas and groceries.”
Once Rep. Greene retires January 5th, Governor Kemp is to call a special election scheduled no sooner than 30 days from his annoincement. It will be a “jungle” primary with all candidates on a single ballot. If the top finisher does not win more than 50 percent of votes cast, they and the runner-up will face each other in a run-off.
Scout211
Has anyone posted this yet?
Axios is reporting
It’s all making sense now.
lowtechcyclist
@UncleEbeneezer:
For how many of those foreign countries are both of the following true:
There’s lots of evil shit going on in the world. There’s a limit to how much we can stay aware of it all, let alone police it. But we can damn sure not fund it.
Chetan Murthy
@UncleEbeneezer: Two thoughts:
(1) What percentage of Jewish-Americans support AIPAC’s priorities? I’m going to guess it’s not a majority. Wouldn’t be surprised to find it’s a small minority. But I could be wrong.
(2) But there’s one thing you’re right about: there aren’t any other foreign-nation-identified PACs, where Americans originally from that foreign nation get tarred as a group with that foreign nation’s policies. In the eyes of certain kinds of antisemites, everything Israel does is every Jewish American’s fault, individually and collectively.
cain
@Suzanne:
They must also hate Jesus. I mean do there people actually read their bibles? It literally encourages open borders.
One thing our side could do is just start weaponizing the Bible against them..so far Dems have not done that.
cain
@p.a.:
You know that the dem caucus are very uncomfortable with all this. It’s a sad thing that they are not willing as a group to go full boar. But it is what it is
Geminid
@UncleEbeneezer: I’ve always assumed AIPAC is supported by non-Jewish as well as Jewish Americans.
jonas
@Scout211: “We have better corrupt access to the President’s inner circle than our competitors” is going to be an increasingly common (and brazen) business strategy in the coming years, I fear.
But that’s how Republicans have always envisioned the “free market” working.
Belafon
@p.a.: Tie it to ending the Shadow Docket: If they can’t have a hearing on it, then they can’t rule on it.
trollhattan
@Scout211:
Making this, from yesterday, an interesting contrast.
“Tell us what you think RIGHT NOW, sir, and thank you sir.”
Deputinize America
@Baud:
Lucky for the farmers that they don’t have to rely on payday loans to buy weak bootstraps to pull themselves up with, like all those lesser city people.
Shalimar
@taumaturgo: I generally like Hogg and would vote for him against most current House members if he chose to run somewhere, but we’re fighting a government trying very hard to eliminate us. Now does not seem like the best time to be focused on fragging our own leaders.
trollhattan
@Deputinize America:
Thoughts, he has them.
Glidwrith
@FastEdD: Whoa, you got me all excited! Washington Post said on Thursday that the ass is staying here after all.
Deputinize America
@trollhattan:
I’m reaching the conclusion that in addition to the known moral hazards of stock buybacks, mergers and consolidations siphon money away from the productive employees of both the acquiring and the target enterprises.
Deputinize America
@trollhattan:
The unified D response to this needs to be this – “enjoy it now, farmers, because your free rides are over. We won’t be able to afford it.”
cain
@JoyceH: the GOP fucked themselves with that gerrymander. It’s not going to save them because they mixed their population with blue. No more dirty tricks with polling stations for them. Plus they have pissed off white people too.
The economy is doing to get a whole lot worse by November next year.
cain
@Eolirin: the goal is for them to spend a lot of money in texas so that we can win elsewhere.
cain
@UncleEbeneezer:
They should complain to the candidate that they elected to office with their votes.
cain
@Geminid: I expect Greene to field an America First candidate type against him for her seat.
cain
@Shalimar:
We frag our leaders in this blog all the time. Jeffries gets a lot of flack here. I am ambivalent about Jeffries. I try not to go down the vibes path.
cain
@trollhattan:
I don’t think that bailout is going to happen. They got no fucking markets. It isn’t sustainable.
Big Ag is going to get all the money.
WTFGhost
@Belafon: Yes, the state of Texas redistricted too close to an election, to allow federal review, so, oopsie poopsie, we have to let them use the new districts, because otherwise, the state would suffer irreparable harm, and no one cares about the people any longer.
Betty Cracker
@UncleEbeneezer: You’ve insinuated in multiple threads that opposing AIPAC for promoting Likud-aligned priorities in the U.S. is antisemitic. Every time I see it, I’ll keep pointing out that this is not only bullshit, it’s a lie that smears many liberal American Jews.
Geminid
@cain: Colton Moore *is* an “America First” type. And I doubt very much Rep. Greene can sponsor a candidate who can compete with Moore. He might even win in the first round. Just watch.
coin operated
@Baud: That $12B is a pittance to all the money China has poured into the global south. We need to reform how we farm, because row crops will never again be profitable for US farmers. China has seen to that..
Plus what cain said….
NotMax
@cain
Nor ought they.
The Bible (in its multiple versions) is a book, not the law of the land.
gene108
@Scout211:
Kushner’s lined up investments from Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Qatar’s sovereign wealth funds to be part of the Paramount counter offer.
jackmac
I’ll echo sentiments above about Indiana being next up. GOP seeks a 9-0 advantage in Congressional seats (up from current 7-2 split). If it wasn’t for Chicago-adjacent northwest Indiana and portions of Indianapolis, this state might as well be Alabama — where ignorance is bliss.
WaterGirl
@Belafon:
Absolutely!
MagdaInBlack
@cain: It’s just words. Nothing will come of it.
NotMax
@gene108
WB = Wahhabi Brothers?
“You don’t even need to change the logo. That’s a real cost saver right there.”
//
Kosh III
I wanted to share something a caller said last night on the Siriusxm John Fugelsang said:
POTUS now stands for Piggy of the US.
Glidwrith
@gene108: So, like golf, a huge chunk of our entertainment industry will be owned by the Middle East?
Say goodbye to what freedom women have left.
NotMax
@Kosh III
The judges will accept Pustule.
:)
Melancholy Jaques
@Chetan Murthy:
Help me out, what is wrong with Seth Moulton. He seems like the ideal candidate from the marketing department: Ivy League, Marines, blond wife, two children who are too young to have any DUI issues, not likely to have social media problems. Looks like a guy who could play the president in a movie. He should skip the senate campaign and just get ready for 2028, no?
Geminid
I am very interested in seeing how Rep. Crockett campaigns; what themes will she center and how she will message.
Jasmine Crockett has made a name as a combative and acerbic Congesswoman while representing a safe Democatic district. But Crockett impresses me as a smart and pragmatic politician, and I expect her adapt to the task at hand. And I’m not going to stereotype someone who is only halfway through their second congressional term.
One thing is for sure though: the Democratic nominee in this race will be much younger than the Republican. Jasmine Crockett is 41 years old while James Talerico is 36. John Cornyn is 71 and Ken Paxton is 61.
Baud
@Geminid:
Unfortunately, age is not a bugaboo on the right
ETA
I didn’t realize it was official
Matt McIrvin
@Gravenstone: There is a bug in the pie filter: it is case sensitive, so a nym that is pied in one capitalization scheme will be let through with another… BUT the list of who has already been pied is determined case-insensitively, so you can’t just pie the alternate version too, you have to un-pie it first, and you can’t pie two or more different capitalizations of the same nym at the same time.
This mismatch is exploitable (means left as an exercise for the reader). They really should fix it. The system should be either case-sensitive or case-insensitive, not this strange mix of one and the other.
Geminid
@Baud: No, Republicans haven’t made age an issue the way some Democrats have.* But age will still a dynamic in the general election, although it could end up a minor one.
* Actually, my observation is that the age issue is essentially a stalking horse in the Progessive-versus-Moderate fight.
FastEdD
@HopefullynotCassandra: Thank you! It will be an uphill battle. I’m a week behind on my Issa news.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Both Crockett and Talarico are good in very different ways. It’ll be interesting to see how this race unfolds, and who the Texas Dems pick to run against the GOP nominee.
I would hope for the sort of nomination race that is more about drawing differences than making attacks, so that the loser will have no problem supporting the winner, however it works out.
Aziz, light!
Why do so many lefties believe that every Jew in the world is responsible for and fully supportive of Israel? Gosh, I just can’t think of a reason.
tam1MI
@rikyrah: Age limit – kicks them to SENIOR STATUS.
“Justice Emeritus” has a nice ring…
trollhattan
@Geminid:
She entertains the hell out of me and seems smart as a whip. Happy she’s in congress kicking butt an taking names.
I’m not sure she gets elected statewide in California, much less Texas. See Katie Porter’s governor run for more.
Socolofi
I really, really hope Crockett doesn’t try for the Senate. At best, it’s a ~2 year audition for some fed job after she is crushed. She’s awesome in the House, and great for fun sound bites. But Texas doesn’t elect a Black woman, especially one, as they say down there, is frequently uppity.
Talerico is likely the best shot. Young white dude, openly religious, and does a nice job on social media calling out patently stupid stuff (like there was some performative anti-furry bill and he asked the main sponsor what schools allowed kids to use litterboxes like he was saying). If he doesn’t also run to keep his State seat, no big (not like TX legislature is going Dem anytime soon). Wider exposure in a Senate race.
It’s still a HUGE uphill climb… even with a clearly horrible GOP candidate, Talerico need to convince a lot of TX GOP-leaners who might split that he’s OK and shares enough of their values that he’d do the right thing for TX and the nation.
Baud
@trollhattan:
I don’t know why people are comparing Crockett to Porter. They seem like completely different people.
trollhattan
@cain:
For sure. Midwest factory farms where corn and soy go straight to the factory for products that may or may not even be food-adjacent. Think we’re shedding our corn-ethanol fuel scheme anytime soon?
They’re happy to grab any gummint handout as soon as it appears. Chuck Grassley says so.
Socolofi
@Socolofi: I guess I missed where she’s already filed. Sigh. OK, well that’s why there are primaries. ;)
Scout211
She already announced.
Nettoyeur
@Chetan Murthy: I ran into Bernie Sanders walking on the sidewalk toward the Capitol a couple of years ago, he was then over 80. He was striding along at a decent clip. Said hello to me with a smile. He’s years older than the orange felon and clearly in much better shape. Then there is Nancy Smash, a year older than Bernie and still sharp. Some people do remain vigorous and clear headed as they age.
Miss Bianca
@Shalimar: And yet, here we are. Because for some reason, however bad the Republicans are, for a certain segment of the left-leaning population, somehow, Democrats are Always Worse.
tam1MI
Can’t get an exact number at the moment, but off the top of my head, we give military funds to Turkiye, who are slaughtering Kurds.
Elizabelle
@Scout211: Was hoping she would not. Oh well. Plz behave better than Katie Porter, Jasmine.
I realize that Senate seats do not open that often, but Jasmine was doing such an excellent job in the House. It would be better to have her there. Oh well.
trollhattan
@Baud:
Because they have a lot in common?
Baud
@trollhattan:
That’s news to me. Maybe I haven’t been paying enough attention.
Gvg
@Shalimar: and term limits would not solve that. Term limits on other offices have made more problems such as increasing the power of lobbiests and have not solved anything. Only on executive office is there any worth to term limits, because of the power one individual has, President, governor, and sometimes mayor.
What we need is non political enforcement of ethics on the Supreme Court. And I don’t think that should rule out political/Congress also enforcing ethics, they should back each other up.
The court problem comes from the fact we are in the middle of a non shooting civil fight. One side is allowing and using corruption as a lure because they wanted to win so badly, and we’re losing without that. IMO. Because of this fight, both sides have had to calculate and pick judges who are young not elder wise people. And I don’t know about it ever being a reward. All government jobs should be considered service to the public good.
HopefullynotCassandra
@cain: these whited sepulchers lie about what is in the Bible too, or they reach for an ambiguous Old Testament line and bend it beyond all meaning. They have no shame. They are nihilists.
Decades back a fed soc. fellow was snorting at a room full of his doubters that “our kind of nihilism” was going to open the doors for every kind of evil. Turns out, we were not the nihilists. We just were trying to love our neighbor, even if our neighbor was not our clone.
Unless that man became a never trumper, he and his fellow Federal Society “the nihilists are coming!” trumpet brigade were actually announcing their own arrival.
HopefullynotCassandra
@cain: these whited sepulchers lie about what is in the Bible too, or they reach for an ambiguous Old Testament line and bend it beyond all meaning. They have no shame. They are nihilists.
Decades back a fed soc. fellow was snorting at a room full of his doubters that “our kind of nihilism” was going to open the doors for every kind of evil. Turns out, we were not the nihilists. We just were trying to love our neighbor, even if our neighbor was not our clone.
Unless that man became a never trumper, he and his fellow Federal Society “the nihilists are coming!” trumpet brigade were actually announcing their own arrival.
trollhattan
@Baud:
Both are attorneys originally from the Midwest. Both have a very demonstrative and passionate presence on the House floor and use visual aids effectively. Crockett IMO has the more engaging personality vs. Porter, while both can be quite confrontational which, being women, is frequently not appreciated. Naturally, dudes get applauded.
Regardless of the comparo, Texas Mountain is presently a very high peak for any D to climb. How has that bastard Abbott not worn out his welcome?
Gravenstone
@Matt McIrvin: Not the bug this time. I checked to confirm the name was filtered and did not see it. I know damned well that I did not remove it.
HopefullynotCassandra
@Deputinize America: up to 279% interest in Tennessee! Yippee!
propublica.org/article/flex-loans-tennessee-advance-financial
Baud
@trollhattan:
Porter got in trouble for being confrontational with people who are not Republicans.
To my knowledge, Crockett has been laser focused on Republicans.
I didn’t know they were both Midwesterns, however. That’s interesting.
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
you do know that they just destroyed her district with the new gerrymandered map.
trollhattan
@HopefullynotCassandra:
Cripes.
Even California has a usury law but a semi can drive right through. I can recall thinking the CFPB would put an end to payday loan and similar scam storefronts.
Better off borrowing from Guido, who knows a guy I know from a thing we did.
Geminid
@trollhattan: Rep. Crockett is similar to former Rep. Porter in that they both have– or had in Porter’s case– a broad national fan base. But Jasmine Crockett strikes me as the more sound politician.
There is one interesting contrast between the two. While they both have legal training, Porter was a law professor and Crockett was a trial lawyer. Porter dealt with policy and operated on the battlefield of ideas. Crockett dealt with judges and juries, and learned procedure and practical persuasion skills.
Also, Porter was a political novice when she won her congressional seat in 2018. Crockett had (I think) two terms as a state legislator under her belt before she entered Congress in January of 2023.
HopefullynotCassandra
@Geminid: the wedding picture of Coltin Moore with his lovely bride carrying not just any bridal bouquet, but a semi-automatic battle-ready monster high powered rifle really does say it all. Does that kind of gun blow Bambi’s head clean off? Traumatized Disney watchers need to know.
trollhattan
A resignation ending with a threat. Buh-bye, hawt lawyer lady.
WTFGhost
@cain: I don’t know if the Bible encouraged “open borders” but non-harassment of travelers was a big, big deal, and Jesus called on people to be kind to migrants. He might, perhaps, consider “mass deportations now” to be necessary, but He’d never allow the methods the Trump team uses. There’s no reason not to have reasonable holding facilities, other than cruelty, including the cruelty inherent in keeping them away from the courts, to protest their treatment, which will become moot (be mooted? Mootified…?) once they’ve been deported.
@Betty Cracker: I’ll note that I’ve seen people make such arguments from a strong position of support from others. I’ve fallen for such arguments myself. I don’t know if it’s a formal fallacy, but, if you belong to a group of people who strongly support (e.g., AIPAC), and you constantly need to support them against slings and arrows, it becomes nearly impossible to believe ill of (in this e.g., AIPAC). You hear that “friend, AIPAC really is different,” and it sounds truly bigoted to you, because you’ve been knocking down all the little bits of bigotry, many unearned, for a significant part of your life. It feels like people picking on the little guy. And that’s a perfectly reasonable emotion, but, sometimes some organization really is different.
Sometimes, it’s just a matter of recognizing strong emotion on the other side. Like, I’m pro-choice. If someone who is pro-life wants to throw me the stink-eye, I feel that’s their right. I can accept that, although they believe a lot of bullshit lies about what “pro-choice” means, that’s okay-enough, I can still treat them as human, and accept their anger, even as I think it’s misguided.
The equivalent here would be accepting that some people, for reasons good, or bad, have strong emotions about AIPAC, and pushing back if they actually try to give you crap, but letting them, well, “be wrong on the internet” here and there.
It would also be most excellent, were people to remember some people feel antisemitism is an existential threat, and hence, fury at AIPAC could be misunderstood as an attack on Jews, even if perhaps one thinks of them as a black sheep of the community
Old School
I like to work up a good sweat before getting on a three-hour flight.
Who’s with me?
trollhattan
@HopefullynotCassandra:
Good lord, I see him listed as “An American auctioneer and politician.”
Nice C.V.
trollhattan
@Old School:
Wait, the guy who wants me to wear and suit and shoes, now wants me to pump iron in the terminal? I’ll sweat right through that suit, buddy, make up your mind!
Socolofi
@Shalimar: The big question here for people is whether they believe the current crop of Dem leaders are capable of doing enough to win come 2026 / 2028.
If yes, yeah, keep ’em and don’t make unnecessary waves.
If no, frag ’em, the earlier the better.
I like sports analogies here. Every year is a new season, with some new players. Expectations are set based on how things went last year, who has carried over, who has left, who is new.
Let’s pick baseball.
LA Dodgers, Toronto Blue Jays. World Series, with top payrolls. Game 7. Single run victory. If you’re the Dodgers, clearly keep. If you’re Toronto, while mad, still clearly keep the coaching staff.
Seattle Mariners. Not a top payroll. Not even close. Punched WAY above their weight, almost took out the Blue Jays (again, Game 7). Clearly keep the coaches.
New York Mets. Highest payroll in the non-salary capped MLB. Didn’t make the playoffs. Frag ’em.
Me personally… I’m kinda in the “frag ’em” bucket.
Elizabelle
@Baud: I wonder if it’s because they are perceived as House members who want to make the leap to Senate too quickly?
Which got me wondering if that is a double standard for women, and if men slide by with that [attempted] career trajectory.
Adam Schiff served 12 terms in the House. Katie Porter served three at most, maybe just two. Jasmine Crockett has served one term in the US House, after one term in the Texas House. I will agree that Jasmine is a phenom, and wonder how that political career stacks up against previous contenders and Texas US Senators. At least in modern times.
Betty
@Old School: While wearing a suit! These people are hopeless.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
Crockett only has one term? Wow. She is a phenom. I would have guessed at least a couple more.
rikyrah
Johnny Loveless
@JohnnyLoveless
The relationship MAGA has with Trump is no longer based on value he can add to their lives.
He isn’t doing anything whatsoever that adds value to the life of any American.
Nothing is more affordable or prosperous on any metric.
No, MAGA’s relationship with Trump is now solely based on the license he gives them to be openly hateful, cruel to their perceived enemies, subjugate disenfranchised minorites, and engage in normalized bigotry.
And for them, even if they’re starving or sick, that’s enough.
3:27 PM · Dec 7, 2025
x.com/JohnnyLoveless/status/1997780091204432246?s=20
rikyrah
Mark Warner
@MarkWarner
Unbelievable – House Republicans just killed our broadly bipartisan housing affordability bill, which would have been a great first step towards lowering skyrocketing rents & mortgages.
Republicans are actively torpedoing progress towards lowering your rent.
12:05 PM · Dec 8, 2025
x.com/MarkWarner/status/1998091627467026697?s=20
Elizabelle
@Old School: And then douse oneself in some body perfume or the equivalent of Giorgio perfume (we are mostly old enough to remember how strong that scent was, and that there were restaurant signs “No Giorgio perfume”).
Oh joy, to sit next to that for hours.
rikyrah
ProPublica
@propublica
New: Chemical industry lobbyists have long pushed the government to adopt a less stringent approach to gauging the cancer risk from chemicals, one that would help ease regulations on companies that make or use them. They finally got their wish.
x.com/propublica/status/1997971953202671888?s=20
Omnes Omnibus
@trollhattan: Porter is also a Phillips Academy, Yale, HLS person. Not your average background.
rikyrah
Scott Hechinger
@ScottHech
One of the most surprising, cruelest things about U.S. immigration is there’s no recognized right to counsel. Immigrants — including children – must face government trained lawyers alone.
There was a program to at least help children facing deportation. Trump ended it.
x.com/ScottHech/status/1998084122976358873?s=20
HopefullynotCassandra
@trollhattan: the company got the Tennessee legislature to carve out an exception for them. They are not payday loans, they say! Thanks to nice fat donation checks?, the legislature agrees with them. No doubt it is usury and the Bible definitely tells us usury is a sin.
rikyrah
Suzie rizzio
@Suzierizzo1
The way Immigrants were being detained at Court Houses as they showed up for their scheduled hearings was because DHS changed the rules quietly so nobody knew!People that thought they were here legally no longer were & were detained & deported! A judge ruled this Unconstitutional
x.com/Suzierizzo1/status/1997963038352138608?s=20
Omnes Omnibus
@rikyrah: My guess is that she would have made the jump if Texas had not specifically targeted her district. No way it was a coincidence.
rikyrah
Brian Allen
@allenanalysis
Sen. Chris Murphy just exposed what Trump is calling a “peace plan” for Ukraine and it’s not a peace plan at all. It’s a business deal for Trump’s billionaire friends.
Putin didn’t send diplomats.
He sent the head of his sovereign wealth fund to meet Trump insiders in Miami, with Jared Kushner in the room.
Their pitch: lift sanctions, end the war, and open the door to massive Russian gas projects that Trump’s donors can cash in on.
Ukraine gets nothing.
Russia gets territory.
Trump’s circle gets rich.
x.com/allenanalysis/status/1998070379395383481?s=20
rikyrah
Tim
@trouble_man90
Biden’s presidency was killed for far, FAR, less than this, yet trump is allowed to just chug along like nothing’s wrong. Why?? Why?? It’s not even just a double standard, trump is held to no standard at all whatsoever. Why?
x.com/trouble_man90/status/1997898435010212227?s=20
rikyrah
Not a Drag Queen
Chicano Marine 🇲🇽🇺🇸💙
@elchicanomarine
“Gateway Church founder Robert Morris was handcuffed and escorted out of the Osage County District Court in Oklahoma on Thursday after pleading guilty to five counts of lewd or indecent acts to a child.”
His church has been closely tied to high-profile Republican figures, including Donald Trump and former Texas Governor Rick Perry.
x.com/elchicanomarine/status/1997788073753723165?s=20
Geminid
@tam1MI: We do not give military funds to Turkiye; they pay cash for the American weapons they purchase.
And Turkiye is not slaughtering Kurds either. In fact, PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan initiated a peace process a year ago and this process is quite far along now.
Middle East Eye has reported on these events extensively. Rudaw English, based in Erbil, Iraq is a good Kurdish source on this settlement process.
I would urge people interested in the Kurdish people generally to read the articles in Rudaw English. They report on Kurdish matters in Turkiye, Iraq and Syria, as well as Iraqi Kurdistan which gets the most coverage.
Erbil is the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government. The KRG runs Iraq’s four northern provinces, and is the closest Kurdish prople have come to self-rule in the modern era.
rikyrah
LongTime🤓FirstTime👨💻
@LongTimeHistory
ICE detain undergrad—point guns at witnesses including other students & staff.
Agents admit they did not have warrant to be on university property—when confronted by school administrators.
“I don’t know if I feel safe here,” said student. “If they can bust in, just take whoever they want without a signed warrant signed by a judge, that’s worrisome.”
The incident occurred outside a residence hall at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota. #DemsUnited
x.com/LongTimeHistory/status/1998015997224046683?s=20
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Vaguely aware of that, and not sure if she could move, or Texas even requires that. (GOP did that to Abigail Spanberger’s district after a term or two, although she was not required to relocate. Happily, she is now getting ready to move into Virginia’s Executive mansion.)
Fuck the Supremes for their ridiculous decision on redistricting for the upcoming midterms. I can barely stand to read the newspaper these days.
Elizabelle
@Geminid: What is the other publication you recommend? New Lines magazine or something?
Am training myself not to read the FTF NY Times or WaPost as frequently. It is just depressing.
ETA: Did you get snow? We’ve got maybe 3 inches and it is still falling. Cold out there, though.
lowtechcyclist
@HopefullynotCassandra:
I remember when we used to have laws against usury.
HopefullynotCassandra
@Melancholy Jaques: No. Seth Moulton does not understand why democrats don’t join the gop in underbussing trans people. Perhaps he will grow to believe human rights must be universal and this conversation can begin again.
nhjournal.com/ma-dem-moulton-under-fire-after-calling-out-partys-trans-extremism/
The link is to the NH Journal, which explains the scapegoating title. The editorial thinks Rep Boulton joining the GOP in dead-pronoun-ing trans people, while denying Billie Jean King’s* existence is titillating.
* Billie Jean King shattered the myth that girls always lose to boys in sports. The myth was never true anyway. There are many girls who run, throw and catch like the wind and an equal number of boys who can do none of those things. This modern GOP finds the existence of Billie Jean King to be a triggering event.
Betty
Help! Has anyone else run into this problem? In logging on to Bluesky for the third time today, they began asking for my birth date. The screen shows a birth date from 2007 so I scrolled all the way back to 1948, having to click each month along the way. It still didn’t register the correct date. Not sure what to do now.
HopefullynotCassandra
@Miss Bianca: some people in this country have been carefully taught that (& rudely Rush Limbaugh’ed at on the same theme) their entire lives.
lowtechcyclist
@WTFGhost:
There are verses like the following in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers as well, but this one’s from Deuteronomy 10:17-19 (New English Bible):
Seems clear enough to me.
HopefullynotCassandra
@Elizabelle: There is nothing wrong with Katie Porter and many things in Sacramento she might fix. IMHO
lowtechcyclist
@Old School:
Can you imagine having someone all sweaty from a workout, sitting in the seat next to you on an airplane? Gah!
I assume Duffy hasn’t flown coach in eons.
MagdaInBlack
@rikyrah: We are not surprised.
lowtechcyclist
@rikyrah:
Wait, I thought he’d just said Trump didn’t add any value to the MAGAts’ lives.
tam1MI
Thank you for this information, and for “keeping me honest” on matter of foreign policy. :)
But I would point that, if we are going to say the Turkish repression of the Kurds is all good now because a peace process is in train, well, a peace process is in train in Gaza, so logic suggests that what Israel does with the money we give them so no longer be of concern.
Geminid
@Elizabelle: Yes, we got about 3 inches of snow here in Greene County.
And New Lines Magazine is the publication I’ve recommended. It’s based in Washington, DC. Editor-in-chief Hassan I. Hassan has excellent journalists from all over the world contributing.
I learned about Mr. Hassan and his magazine a year ago, when the Assad regime fell. British-Lebanese war correspondent Oz Katerji recommended Hassan as a sound source for Syrian news.
New Lines does not focus too much on US politics, but on December 1st they published a long article about the political ramifications of the Epstein affair.. The author is Ryan Biller, and the title is:
This link ought to work:
share.google/OUXCGmdhST0GUpRYE
Matt McIrvin
@rikyrah: This can be extended in all sorts of interesting ways:
US: You’re an illegal alien!
CITIZEN: No, I’m a citizen! I can prove it in court!
US: Sorry, illegal aliens don’t get to do that!
frosty
@coin operated:
Fortunately many of the farmers I see in my area have given up on row crops. They’ve planted 2x4s and are raising subdivisions.
Lancaster County PA has some of the best soil in the United States. It’s been getting converted to houses for Philly and Chester County commuters for decades now.
Elizabelle
@Geminid: Link works, and thank you. Will be reading New Lines Magazine more now.
Also enjoying dw.com — Deutsche Welle.
Did I mention I got to spend a few days in Istanbul in September? Absolutely loved it. And Turkish Air, and that incredible airport. Wanted to return there for a few days on the way home, but der Trump was making noises about closing down some flights (overloaded ATC system, in the midst of the TrumpShutDown), so I just came back to the US of cray cray. With some regret.
Elizabelle
@HopefullynotCassandra: I wish California another good governor. One of my favorite states.
I lived there for a few years, and in 2010 got to vote for Kamala Harris for Attorney General.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Elizabelle:
Istanbul is wonderful.
WTFGhost
@lowtechcyclist: Well, what I’m trying to say is, “let’s give Christians the benefit of every doubt, okay? They might be convinced that certain people can’t stay here, but, the Bible is so clear that you must be kind to travelers, detention must be humane, etc.”
As a former-Christian, I consider open-borders to be far more of a Christian policy than the raw, open, bigotry of Trump and his ilk. However, as a logician, I can’t say “but no TRUE Christian would believe otherwise.”
I don’t want to defend the soi disant Christians in the Trump orbit. I just wanted to say “yeah, they’re massive sinners, even if you judge them far less harshly than they judge others. And Jesus suggested those who judged harshly would be judged harshly themselves.”
WTFGhost
Yeah, I had a date in Constantinople, but I found her waiting in Istanbul.
Geminid
@Elizabelle: One article thst really got me interested in New Lines concerned archeological excavations on Orkney Island, where amateur archeologists discovered a Neolithic British city. That one is worth checking out.
So is their article on a Damascus bicycling club, and two articles about education in Gaza written by a Palestinian university student living there.
UncleEbeneezer
@Chetan Murthy:
In fact AIPAC is the only one that I (or anyone here) could probably name. And that was true long before the war that Hamas instigated. Why is that? And doesn’t that seem strange? It’s not strange at all if you know the history of libels and tropes that have cast Jews as sinister puppet-masters who pull the strings on our politics. And it’s not particularly difficult to see the connection between those historical libels and the fact that AIPAC is the ONLY one we ask/demand our politicians to disavow or refuse $ from. And again, that was also the case well before the most recent war.
Nick Fuentes: “AIPAC owns Congress.”
David Duke: “AIPAC controls American foreign policy.”
What do you think it is exactly about the demonization of AIPAC that appeals to these notorious Jew-haters? Because I can really only see one obvious answer. They understand that AIPAC is commonly used as a stand-in for Israel which is commonly used as a stand-in for Jews (regardless of whether Jews support AIPAC, Israel or not) so they are happy to join the chorus. They know antisemitism when they see it and flock to it. I trust their judgement (along with the judgement of the vast majority of my Jewish friends, colleagues).
Elizabelle
@Geminid: Will do. Thank you.
Just measured snow. Almost 4 inches and coming down in glittery precipitation. Not flakes, per se.
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Constantly on the lookout for low fares to get back to Istanbul and Kedikoy. It is magical. And warm. And lovely people, great food, and street cats and dogs. So much history to learn.
dm
@HopefullynotCassandra: Not to defend Moulton, but he did apologize and walk it back — that article is a year old.
I think Dems should reply to a republican who brings up trans kids in sports by ridiculing them (“look at the big tough Republican picking on a couple of high school kids” — or “I think the obsession my Republican opponent has with children’s genitals is creepy”
Chris T.
@Belafon:
Now: “It’s too close to elections, but we’ll take another look later.”
Later: “Oops, we were wrong, it wasn’t too close to elections. But it is now, so our prior decision stands anyway.”
Professor Bigfoot
@WTFGhost: Reminded me of one of my favorites:
Bart & Baker “Istanbul Was Constantinople”
ETA- it’s music on YouTube.
cain
@Old School: ah yes .. get in that 15 minute workout between fights. Maybe know before you go through U.S. customs !
Ramalama
@rikyrah: Not gonna lie. I blame George Cooney.