Republican Politics

Open Thread: When It Comes to Redistricting, Pigs Get Fat, Hogs Get Slaughtered

by Anne Laurie| December 14, 202510:08 pm| 23 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Politics

Rand Paul says gerrymandering to the point that Democrats have no representation is bad and dangerous.
Gerrymandering to the point that Democrats have minimal-but-some representation is fine with him, though. Just don't be so nakedly greedy that you foment violence, that's his line in the sand.

— Kurt Busiek (@kurtbusiek.bsky.social) December 14, 2025 at 3:53 PM

Young Prince Rand said this on NBC today:“I think it’s gonna lead to more civic tension & possibly more violence in our country. Think about it: if 35% of Texas is solidly Democrat & they have zero representation, how does that make Democrats feel? I think it makes them feel they’re not represented…”

Of course, he referred repeatedly (defensively) to Both Sides — since his own state of Kentucky has been extremely gerrymandered, and not by Democrats — but if a totally self-interested career pol like Rand is willing to say this, I don’t think the other Republicans are happy, either.

i think the other thing that's going on here that the primary players don't want to talk about for obvious reasons is that shutting your state out of the House Democratic Caucus entirely is a really bad idea if you think Dems are about to take the House.

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— post malone ergo propter malone (@proptermalone.bsky.social) December 12, 2025 at 1:05 PM

either you can have some kind of advocate in one of the rooms somewhere or you can just…. not.

the WH, this WH, isn’t going to do shit for you in the situation where you’re shut out.

Maybe your Senators will, maybe, unless Rs lose the Senate too in which case you’re just all the way outside looking in on budget and appropriations.

i am reasonably convinced that this is also why the Maryland State Senate is dragging ass on redistricting their lone Republican out, even though Andy Harris is an exceptionally stupid and antagonistic prick even by the exalted standards of the larger blue-state-R tribe.

This is in fact exactly why a lot of states that could district themselves to be clean sweeps instead have one or two minority party seats still, like Indiana. You want somebody who can still bring home the bacon when your party's locked out nationally.

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— Andy Craig (@andycraig.bsky.social) December 12, 2025 at 1:09 PM

This sounds right, but an even simpler metric is how it comes across. If you have <4 reps, having them all be of one party is plausible in a fair system, but if you get a clean sweep of 7-10 reps where 30-40% of voters favor the minority (MD had Hogan until Jan. 2023), it comes off as dirty pool.

— Andy Genz (@ajgenz.bsky.social) December 12, 2025 at 1:24 PM

I think another obvious factor is that Trump directed swatting, death threats, & harassment to the Indiana GOP legislators & it wouldn’t necessarily stop if they capitulated. Trump made conditions so bad for GOP back benchers that they had nothing to lose by not cooperating.

— Jon Pennington (@jonpennington.bsky.social) December 12, 2025 at 1:28 PM

There is also a risk the gerrymander backfires with a big enough Dem swing. I’m not informed enough on the margins there to know if that’s a worry in this case but it can be since gerrymanders spread your voters more thinly.

— Gluon Spring (@gluonspring.bsky.social) December 12, 2025 at 2:19 PM

Kinda wild how quickly the entire trump admin moved on from the whole Indiana thing and how much it probably should tell everyone that you can tell him to fuck off and their need to constantly own the news cycle will mean that they move on from you within days.

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) December 14, 2025 at 4:56 PM

Open Thread: When It Comes to Redistricting, Pigs Get Fat, Hogs Get SlaughteredPost + Comments (23)

Open Thread: Philip Bump Is Now At MS-Now

by Anne Laurie| November 28, 202511:12 pm| 32 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Republican Politics

What Marjorie Taylor Greene’s resignation says about the post-Trump GOP
When Trump finally leaves the stage, six different MAGA coalitions will vie for influence in the Republican Party.

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— Jon Cooper (@joncooper-us.bsky.social) November 25, 2025 at 8:49 AM

It’s the Washington Post‘s loss. “What Marjorie Taylor Greene’s resignation says about the post-Trump GOP“:

… Greene’s resignation announcement spurred a flurry of agreement from other Capitol Hill Republicans. Speaking anonymously — a very important caveat — they told reporters from Punchbowl News that Greene’s depiction of a neutered legislature was accurate and as frustrating as she suggested…

… I’d say there are now six post-Trump coalitions to consider.

The Never-again Trumpers. This evolution of the Never Trumpers is perhaps the most obvious group, the central carryover from Fabrizio Lee’s 2021 delineation. These aren’t entirely Mitt-Romney or George W. Bush-style Republicans, but the group includes many who would fit that description, people who sided with the establishment against the Tea Party or who objected fervently to Trump’s rejection of agreed-upon (if imperfectly manifested) conservative and American values.

It’s important to note that this group will almost certainly be larger in future years than it was in 2021. There will be more space for people in the waning days of Trump’s presidency (and after) who reject Trumpism on the grounds of his break with party tradition than there are now. Just as twice as many people said they were at Woodstock as actually were, there will likely be plenty of people who claimed to be Never Trump but were actually Very Much Trump.

The anti-establishmentarians. One segment of the right embraced Trump because he rejected the sort of establishment Bush and Romney embodied. Despite being a billionaire crony of America’s wealthy and powerful, Trump managed to tap into this sentiment by relentlessly casting institutions and the establishment as dangerous in aggressive terms.

To some extent, he believes it; to some extent he understands that eroding trust in everyone else also lowers the bar for how much trust he needs to have instilled in himself. As a political tactic, though, it worked, convincing millions of people to come out and vote for him who might otherwise have stayed home out of the belief that voting didn’t matter. We’ve already seen that this bloc invests its energy and power in Trump almost exclusively, with Republican candidates stumbling in years when Trump wasn’t on the ballot. It’s likely that, in a post-Trump world, most of these voters will dissipate back into indifference rather than coalesce around someone else. What it depends on, really, is that someone.

There’s an important subset of this group: the conspiracy theorists. They are inherently anti-establishment, since conspiracy theories necessarily depend on a rejection of fact and authority. But, thanks to Trump’s self-serving embrace of conspiracy theories as a means to accumulate power, those conspiracy theorists are also heavily loyal to Trump (as Fabrizio Lee found in 2021)…

The Trump loyalists. Just as Trump retained significant support in March 2021, he will also retain support in 2028 and beyond. It’s just a question of how much — and who is the elected standard-bearer for the idea.

Oddly, this may be the weakest of the six competitors for the right’s power. A lot of Republicans will position themselves as the inheritor of Trumpism, but since Trumpism is so dependent on Trump, those inheritors will never be able to actually keep the loyalists satisfied.

Perhaps the most potent non-Trump faction on the right at the moment is the America Firsters. Greene used the term repeatedly in her resignation statement, referencing the idea that MAGA hasn’t gone far enough in protecting the U.S. and its citizens.

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The emergence of America First as an alternative to MAGA is heavily a function of a tactical error Trump made. Trump has, to a significant extent, neglected his base, choosing to focus much of his attention during his second term on increasing the power of corporations and other wealthy Americans. (When, for example, is the last time he held a rally for his supporters?) A focus on boosting foreign partners, tariff carve-outs for allied businesses and Trump’s embrace of visas for skilled immigrants — not to mention his suggestion that America lacks similarly skilled workers! — have prompted allies (including Greene) to suggest that he’s taken his eye off the ball…

The extremist fringe. It used to be that white nationalism, antisemitism and Christian nationalism existed on the fringes of political argument, and nowhere near political power. But that’s changed, in part because political power on the right is so heavily dependent on attention as currency. In a social media, ask-your-own-questions world, policing the frontiers of the fringe and keeping it out of mainstream discourse becomes difficult, if not self-defeating: Why are you trying to keep me from learning about this? What are you afraid of?

Carlson’s recent interview with antisemite Nick Fuentes forced an uncomfortable conversation on the right about the extent to which antisemitism and, more narrowly, hostility to Israel would be welcomed in the right’s coalition. That there was a debate at all, though, shows how far from the fringe these ideas have progressed.

Christian nationalism, meanwhile, barely elicits any consternation at all. There’s a correlation between Trumpism and Christian nationalism; Trump’s second term has seen a focus on integrating Christianity into the federal government that’s been without equal in recent memory. At the same time, it has eliminated recognition of America’s ethnic and racial diversity, through the guise of combatting “DEI.” These ideas are already empowered and will be defended.

What isn’t clear is how much of the American right fits into this segment. By its nature, it’s tricky to measure, given the unwillingness of most people to admit these sorts of views (or even to recognize them within themselves). It’s similarly hard to measure the size of the other groups, given how nebulous the boundaries between them often are.

It is nonetheless safe to say that this is a broadly fair presentation of the battlefield as it stands. It will evolve further, partly in response to how and if Trump attempts to reconsolidate his base. It is inevitably the case, though, that Trump’s power will eventually fracture and be reassigned to candidates and voters who align at best imperfectly with his politics. Where that power will be centered is anyone’s guess.

Open Thread: Philip Bump Is Now At MS-NowPost + Comments (32)

Open Thread: Further (Longer) Discussions of Last Night’s Vote

by Anne Laurie| November 10, 202510:34 pm| 90 Comments

This post is in: Democratic Politics, Open Threads, Republican Politics

Lots of opportunities for Republicans to somehow fumble this and reclaim all blame for the shutdown.
Last night was a vote to invoke cloture on a motion to proceed to consideration of a CR that still expires on November 21st, by its terms.
Lots of work and lots of votes between that and reopening.

— David Waldman (@kagrox.bsky.social) November 10, 2025 at 7:57 AM

I’m not saying that’s good news. It’s just news.

But the president and a good 60% of his party in Congress are insane and fairly stupid. So it’s something to watch.

They’ve got to adopt the motion to proceed, amend the bill, possible invoke cloture on the amended bill, and then pass the new one.
I’m not saying that’s good news. It’s just news.

But the president and a good 60% of his party in Congress are insane and fairly stupid. So it’s something to watch.

They’ve got to adopt the motion to proceed, amend the bill, possible invoke cloture on the amended bill, and then pass the new one.

Then the lunatics in the House have to agree to accept the Senate wording, unchanged.

Last time they were supposed to “work together” on that, the House adjourned indefinitely rather than stay in session to compromise with the Senate.

What, if anything, could change votes in the Senate during the next stages?

With this president and Republican Party, anything. He could have ICE invade New Hampshire, for instance. Would that do it? Maybe. WOULD he do it? Maybe!

1 will Johnson even open the House to take up this vote?
2 would trump even sign it?

— tyoder.bsky.social (@tyoder.bsky.social) November 10, 2025 at 8:08 AM

He really has to. If he doesn’t, they irrevocably reclaim all blame for the shutdown.
Now, they may be ready to do that, and/or stop using Congress for anything at all and just go full dictatorship. But short of that, the House must return. This vote did not by itself reopen the government.

— David Waldman (@kagrox.bsky.social) November 10, 2025 at 8:12 AM

Don't see how GOP loses blame for the shutdown anyway.

— Colin Jacobson (@oatsdad.bsky.social) November 10, 2025 at 8:16 AM

The that’s one problem off the table.

— David Waldman (@kagrox.bsky.social) November 10, 2025 at 8:19 AM

From the 11/20 edition of Electoral-Vote.com, “You Got to Know When to Hold ‘Em, Know When to Fold ‘Em”:

When you’re playing poker, and you’re up a good bit, you have a decision to make. You can keep going, and hope that your good fortune and/or good play continue. Or you can call it a night, which means you won’t be winning any more money, but you will also preserve the gains you’ve already made.

Late last night, the Senate had a “breakthrough” and managed to come up with a bill that can get 60 votes for cloture…

This bears the hallmarks of a vote that was carefully managed to get it to 40 votes and not one vote more. Everyone here is either retiring (and is bulletproof) or has pretty good political reasons to steer a centrist course. Normally, with these “just enough” votes, the party leader is one of the 40. Obviously, that did not happen with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who did some very loud squawking and said he does not like this bill. Inasmuch as Schumer figures to face the reelection fight of his life in 2028 (possibly against AOC), it’s plausible that he just could not afford to be one of the “yea” votes on this one.

In addition to Schumer, many other Senate Democrats complained about the bill. We have no doubt that some of them, like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), really are mad. Others… it’s a little less clear. For example, Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) voted no and said he didn’t like the bill, but then turned around and declared that his colleagues who voted for the measure did not “cave,” that they did “what they feel is helping the most number of people” and that “there is no good solution.” It is very possible that much of the complaining yesterday is political theater for the benefit of voters, and that the Democrats decided as a group to take the deal, and then found the 8 caucus members (well, 5 members, since three were already voting “yea”) who could most afford to vote a position that will be unpopular with many Democratic voters.

And that speaks to the risk that the Democrats are taking here. They were clearly “winning” the shutdown, in part because they remained unified and on message, and in part because Donald Trump has shot himself in the foot several times (more on that tomorrow). They could certainly have kept going, buoyed by Tuesday’s election results. Now that they have “worked something out” without getting any firm concessions on health care, we may well see the return of “The Democrats caved again” and “The Democrats don’t know how to play this game” and “DACO” (Democrats always chicken out).

However, sh** was about to get real. Many Americans were increasingly at risk of going hungry. Airline travel was turning into a mess, and with Thanksgiving right around the corner. Many federal employees were suffering due to the lack of pay. Any of those things could plausibly have changed the dynamics of the shutdown and of the polling. So, the blue team (or, at least, some members of the blue team) decided to quit while they were ahead. The Democrats have a huge burden the Republicans don’t have: They care about people suffering; Republicans don’t care who suffers, even when it is their own base.

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As part of the negotiations, the Democrats did manage to advance some of their priorities… [T]hey really wanted to help out federal employees, and that happened. They also got money for the DoA and SNAP, and the vote on the health care subsidies. You might think the part about the GAO was a Democratic “win,” but that part of the deal was actually put there because of demands from a few moderate Republican senators. That is very interesting—that some GOP members are asserting themselves, and (indirectly) defending their power of the purse. Anyhow, while the Democrats undoubtedly approve of that provision, it’s not their doing.

And now, let’s address a couple things the Democrats got that they cannot necessarily announce publicly. The vote on the subsidies is known, and it certainly seems like a loss, since a vote on the subsidies is not the same thing as restoring the subsidies. However, for those who would call it a loss, consider that maybe the blue team (the five new aisle-crossers, at least, and very possibly other Democratic members like Hickenlooper) are actually playing the long game. Well, not exactly long, but maybe the short-to-medium game. There are only three outcomes when it comes to the promised vote: (1) The subsidies are restored, or (2) The Republicans vote down the subsidies (again), either in the Senate or the House or (3) Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) refuses to hold the vote.

In the first case, the Democrats get what they want. In the second and third cases, they get crystal-clear proof that the Republicans are the ones who don’t want poor people to have health insurance, which the blue team can then wield as a club in the 2026 elections. Oh, and if things don’t work out to their satisfaction, the Democrats can resume their resistance on January 30, when the government will shut down again if there is no bill. In that scenario, the blue team will have even more political cover AND they won’t have to worry about people who need SNAP going hungry, or veterans going without their pensions. In short, the Democrats got some pretty good stuff from a politics perspective without actually giving all that much up.

The second thing the Democrats got is pressure on Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to reopen the House. If he does it, then Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) will have to be sworn in, and then Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-KY) Epstein files bill would have the necessary signatures to be brought to the floor of the House. If Johnson doesn’t re-open, then he will open the Republicans up to withering criticism that they care more about protecting sexual predators than they do about hungry children. That is not a political winner.

Ultimately, many Democrats, including some who voted to hold the line (like Hickenlooper) concluded that the White House was never, ever going to give in on the subsidies. Shaheen, for example, concurred that “this was the only deal on the table.” If that is true, then the blue team got about as much as they could have hoped to get, and they made the correct tactical decision—to cash out. If it is not true, and there was a real possibility of Trump caving, then the Democrats should have pushed all-in. That’s really the crux of the matter; readers can decide for themselves if Hickenlooper, Shaheen, et al., assessed the situation correctly when they decided this was the best deal possible. (Z)

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1.) I disagree that this was the best way forward. The RIF language pretty clearly indicates to me that there's a taste in the senate GOP (at least) for reigning in Vought. Vought is probably incredibly mad about it, because it directly contradicts what he wants to do.

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) November 10, 2025 at 10:24 AM

2.) I think its insufficient, and I think Dems should have pushed for more. Power of the purse language, tying OMB staffing to approps, etc.

That said, I think two things are very important: The shutdown couldn’t go on forever, and there needed to be an end.

I was, last night, trying to articulate both what I thought was a reasonable goal for the democrats to achieve, and why they failed to achieve that, and, in my mind, caved before they should…

This is a shit sandwich, and there are no good answers in a shit sandwich. You fund foodstamps, congratulations, 22m people now don’t have health insurance. You bring civil servants back, and Vought has the ability to do it all again.

It all sucks! But the people who are your enemies are in the WH, not the people who are just trying to fucking survive. There’s nothing wrong with a civil servant being desperate to get back to work and get their backpay. Check your fucking fire.

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this is a loss because Democrats have now signed on to ACA cuts as a complicit party and once again made it a less effective issue for the mid terms

All judgments of the effectiveness of midterms strategy must be considered in the context of Trump doing a YMCA dance party while under federal indictment & winning the popular vote

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— Chatham Harrison dba TRUMP DELENDUS EST (@chathamharrison.bsky.social) November 10, 2025 at 12:27 PM

Which is to say that the reasonable presumption should be that this won't matter much, & to the extent that it will, the weeks of bad headlines during the shutdown will weigh more heavily on the incumbent than anything that comes of the shutdown's conclusion, or really anything Democrats do at all

— Chatham Harrison dba TRUMP DELENDUS EST (@chathamharrison.bsky.social) November 10, 2025 at 12:32 PM

Open Thread: Further (Longer) Discussions of Last Night’s VotePost + Comments (90)

Monday Afternoon Open Thread: (Putting Out) Little Fires Everywhere

by Anne Laurie| November 10, 20251:24 pm| 262 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Republican Politics, Trumpery

Remember, those of you with social media accounts: If you agree with a statement here, share it elsewhere!

Here we go

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— George Pearkes (@peark.es) November 10, 2025 at 11:23 AM

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Okay well that’s good anyway.

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— Democrats In Array Thanks Joe Biden (@demsinarray.bsky.social) November 10, 2025 at 9:42 AM

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Democrats have been fighting for months to address America's healthcare crisis
For the millions who will lose coverage
For people with cancer who won't get the care they need
For working families who can't afford to pay $25K more a year for healthcare
We will keep fighting

— Chuck Schumer (@schumer.senate.gov) November 9, 2025 at 9:33 PM

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My statement on the spending legislation and Republican healthcare crisis.

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— Hakeem Jeffries (@hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social) November 9, 2025 at 7:08 PM

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NEWS: Late last night Trump ordered once again by court to pay full SNAP to hungry people: “The record here shows that the government sat on its hands for nearly a month, unprepared to make partial payments.”

— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar.com) November 10, 2025 at 8:15 AM

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Lots of opportunities for Republicans to somehow fumble this and reclaim all blame for the shutdown.
Last night was a vote to invoke cloture on a motion to proceed to consideration of a CR that still expires on November 21st, by its terms.
Lots of work and lots of votes between that and reopening.

— David Waldman (@kagrox.bsky.social) November 10, 2025 at 7:57 AM

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Trump and Republicans already did an economic turnaround, and in record time.
They took us from Biden/Harris’s economy, the envy of the world, into record job losses and tariff-fueled price hikes in just two quarters.
Even the Wal-Mart Thanksgiving dinner went from 21 items under Biden to just 15!

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— Democrats In Array Thanks Joe Biden (@demsinarray.bsky.social) November 10, 2025 at 8:29 AM

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I have always been a Democrat and I always will be. To walk away from them now is exactly what Republicans want. After last week's election they are worried. Trump is terrified. Show them we are disappointed but united, and that they have a reason to be worried. It will make them very nervous.

— Bailey (@baileyprice.bsky.social) November 10, 2025 at 12:10 AM

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OK, here’s a deal. This is not the end. There are still votes to be had. So we have to dust off our jeans and take a deep breath. We still have votes to go.
1/2

— Ariella Elm (@ariellaelm.bsky.social) November 9, 2025 at 9:57 PM

We still need to fight like we have a chance to stop this because we literally had eight Dems vote and if even one votes no it doesn’t go through on the next vote
What I mean is there is another vote that takes 60 votes before this passes the Senate. And we only need one d or one r to flip
2/2

— Ariella Elm (@ariellaelm.bsky.social) November 9, 2025 at 9:57 PM

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Yep. Now there is immense pressure on the House to reconvene (seating Grijalva and forcing the Epstein vote too)
And a month of Republicans trying to justify their healthcare cost increases.
There isn’t much more the minority party could have gotten, given the majority’s disdain for Americans.

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— Democrats In Array Thanks Joe Biden (@demsinarray.bsky.social) November 10, 2025 at 9:19 AM

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Reduction in Force. All people RIF'ed from October 1st to now need to be rehired, and no RIFs are allowed until the end of the CR.
The mechanism of enforcement is the Anti-deficiency act, which is real and has serious teeth, and the explicit nature of how it's spelled out is not nothing.

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— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) November 10, 2025 at 11:42 AM

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I'll repeat saying it again even though I'm confident that it may not convince anyone to refrain.
If you are attacking Democrats over what they've done rather than going after Republicans for what they've done, then you are working for the wrong team if you like democracy and rule of law.

— Just Kevin (@kevinleecaster.bsky.social) November 10, 2025 at 8:03 AM

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You know, it's entirely possible that Trump still does something to blow up this deal.

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— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) November 10, 2025 at 11:31 AM

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Last time this happened, I didn't know everything, nothing played out as I thought it would, & I wasted a ton of emotion. If the midterms go badly b/c of this deal, I will be furious but not before then.

— 40% Chickpeas (@chickpea7.bsky.social) November 10, 2025 at 8:56 AM

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All I can say is save some of your self righteous populist anger because we'll be back here in a couple months.

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— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha1.bsky.social) November 9, 2025 at 9:49 PM

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Whatever you're mad about this morning, I blame Donald Trump & you should too

— Chatham Harrison dba TRUMP DELENDUS EST (@chathamharrison.bsky.social) November 10, 2025 at 9:57 AM

Monday Afternoon Open Thread: (Putting Out) Little Fires EverywherePost + Comments (262)

Big Friday News Drop Open Thread

by Anne Laurie| November 7, 20254:45 pm| 277 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Politics

oh yeah see there it is

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— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) November 7, 2025 at 3:11 PM

Some people are grumpy about this but I think this is a pretty reasonable stance, especially if the minibus has a "no touchy" to Vought. It also looks pretty bad if Thune says no.

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— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) November 7, 2025 at 3:10 PM

And now you all understand why Schumer made that offer publicly. They all knew this was going to be the GOP response. It's making them own the shutdown even more, just as air travel cuts are being made.

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— Katherine Alejandra Cross (@quinnae.com) November 7, 2025 at 3:13 PM

Democrats: Let’s reopen the government today, extend the health insurance subsidies for one year, then let the voters decide in the midterms if they want to extend them further or cancel them.
Republicans: HELL NO!!!

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— Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) November 7, 2025 at 3:16 PM

How you can tell the shutdown is getting to Trump now

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— Jen Bendery (@jbendery.bsky.social) November 7, 2025 at 11:47 AM

******

BREAKING: The USDA tells states funds will be made available later today to pay November SNAP benefits in full.

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— MSNBC (@msnbc.com) November 7, 2025 at 3:45 PM

It also appears that it was pointless posturing. Multiple states have reported the benefits were made available and have gone out this morning.
Vance was literally preening for the camera and trying to make it sound like the admin didn't cave to a judge when they did.

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— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) November 7, 2025 at 12:29 PM

Which is like.. the worst of all worlds? You make it sound like you want to starve people and then still end up doing what you said you're all big and tough enough that you don't have to do.

— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) November 7, 2025 at 12:30 PM

******
Compare & contrast — Dems vs Repubs:

Elizabeth Warren tells me the clear message from Democrats' sweep in Tuesday's elections is that people want affordability and for Dems to fight for that — not fold in, say, a high-stakes fight to extend soon-to-expire health care subsidies for millions of people. www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-…

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— Jen Bendery (@jbendery.bsky.social) November 6, 2025 at 2:43 PM

“It's not enough just for us to stand there and sympathize,” Warren said. “Democrats can't just be the sympathizers. We also need to be the fighters and produce results."
Tuesday's election outcome "was about that.”

— Jen Bendery (@jbendery.bsky.social) November 6, 2025 at 2:45 PM

"The cruelty feels sudden, but it’s anything but accidental."
Read: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol…

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— Rolling Stone (@rollingstone.com) November 7, 2025 at 3:05 PM

Big Friday News Drop Open ThreadPost + Comments (277)

Open Thread: TrumpCo’s Pentagon Chooses Its Press Corpse Corps

by Anne Laurie| October 25, 20255:42 pm| 35 Comments

This post is in: Media, Military, Open Threads, Republican Politics, Trump Crime Cartel

Easy to overlook this particular ‘autocracy in action’ thread amidst the spate of recent outrages…

The time of the legitimate White House Press Corps would be better spent investigating real stories about the Trump Admin than hanging around asking these lying bozos questions.

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— Patrick Chovanec (@prchovanec.bsky.social) October 23, 2025 at 12:14 PM

Per the Poynter Institute, “The Pentagon’s new press corps — journalists or advocates?”:

For years, the Department of Defense — one of the most important, scrutinized and reported-on departments in our government — has been covered extensively by reporters from inside the Pentagon. This included journalists from some of the most respected and accomplished news outlets in the business, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN, just to name a few. In fact, CBS’s Eleanor Watson noted, “During D-Day, CBS News radio correspondent Joseph F. McCaffrey reported live from the Pentagon about the strategy and General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s background.”…

But those outlets are no longer in the Pentagon after refusing to sign a new press policy that prohibits journalists from accessing or soliciting information that the Defense Department doesn’t make available to them, including even unclassified information.

It’s troubling which news outlets are no longer at the Pentagon.

Just as troubling is which outlets and so-called “journalists” are.

In a statement on Wednesday, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said more than 60 journalists have agreed to the new rules. He wrote that they represent “a broad spectrum of new media outlets and independent journalists.”…

According to the Post’s Harwell and Scott Nover, the outlets now supposedly doing the digging and working the halls inside the Pentagon include Tim Pool’s Timcast, the Gateway Pundit, the Post Millennial, Human Events, the National Pulse, Turning Point USA and a Substack newsletter called Washington Reporter. Then there’s the very pro-Trump One America News, the Federalist and the Epoch Times. It also includes Lindell TV — as in Mike Lindell, the MyPillow guy and ardent supporter of President Donald Trump. And, the Pentagon said, there are a bunch of “independent journalists.” Although none were mentioned by name, it’s a good guess to say that the “independent journalists” are certainly big on “independent” but not so big on “journalists.”

All are clearly OK with the Pentagon’s press restrictions. That alone should make anyone question their journalistic chops. Meanwhile, most of them have proven to be strong supporters of Trump, his administration and the entire MAGA movement…

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As I wrote last week, just because places like The New York Times, The Washington Post and the networks are no longer inside the Pentagon doesn’t mean those places will stop reporting on the Department of Defense. But, undoubtedly, their jobs just got a tad bit harder in terms of having access to those they cover.

They aren’t, however, going to give up, even though Parnell claimed those who didn’t sign the new policy “self-deport(ed)” from the Pentagon.

Barbara Starr, who covered the Pentagon at CNN for two decades and served as a board member of the Pentagon Press Association, tweeted, “First we wish any legitimate journalist well on their journey to cover the news. But ‘your’ government announcement of a next gen press corps is shall we say beyond odd. The Pentagon press corps still is working every day no matter how afraid of it you all seem to be. ‘Self deport’? Naw. Too busy working!”…

Here's who @scottnover.bsky.social and I have confirmed so far.
All right-wing bloggers and influencers who
* agreed to the press restrictions refused by established reporters
* are known for soft-touch treatment of the Trump administration
* will now get special access to the "Department of War"

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— Drew Harwell (@drewharwell.com) October 22, 2025 at 2:13 PM

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An important thing about these rw grifting types is not only are they intellectually dishonest, they're really fucking lazy.
So this is gonna be something.

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— Schnorkles O'Bork (@schnorkles.bsky.social) October 23, 2025 at 10:44 AM

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Extremely funny that INFOWARS has agreed not to publish anything without the explicit consent of the US government

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— Simon Little ?? (@simonplittle.ca) October 23, 2025 at 1:52 PM

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lots of little hairline cracks starting to show

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— GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) October 16, 2025 at 3:18 PM

this woman's not going to become a democrat or anything, but demoralizing the base so that, say, one in ten stay home is a landslide win

— GHOULLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) October 16, 2025 at 3:21 PM

Open Thread: TrumpCo’s Pentagon Chooses Its Press <del>Corpse</del> CorpsPost + Comments (35)

Sunday Open Thread: Neutering Opus Dei

by Anne Laurie| October 19, 20254:40 pm| 103 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Religion, Republican Politics

BREAKING: Pope Leo XIV is set to effectively disband Opus Dei in the coming weeks.
This would be the most sweeping internal reform of his pontificate — and a dramatic continuation of Pope Francis’s legacy.

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— Christopher Hale (@christopherjhale.bsky.social) October 16, 2025 at 5:15 PM

*If* Pope Leo can carry this through — there’s an immense institutional weight, not just within the Roman Catholic Church, that will resist — he’ll be the most impactful pope since John XXIII and the Second Vatican Council. Christopher Hale describes himself as “Proud Tennessean. ‘20 Democratic Nominee for US Congress. DNC Delegate. Obama-Biden White House & campaign alum. Former nonprofit exec. Pope Leo tweeted about me once.” “Pope Leo Set To Break Up Opus Dei”:

A report from InfoVaticana — a Spanish outlet with close Opus Dei ties — claims that Pope Leo XIV is on the verge of approving new statutes that would effectively dismantle Opus Dei as it exists today.

In Rome and at Opus Dei’s headquarters, no one denies that the Holy See’s intervention is imminent.

Two independent sources tell Letters from Leo that the text of the reforms is finalized and its promulgation is only weeks away.

According to the leaks, the changes would “mean the definitive break of the original structure” that St. Josemaría Escrivá envisioned for the organization.

Three Entities Under the New Statutes
The draft statutes would split Opus Dei into three distinct parts:

Clerical Prelature: a significantly reduced personal prelature comprising only Opus Dei’s own incardinated priests, in line with new canon law norms.

Priestly Society of the Holy Cross: a retooled association to integrate diocesan clergy who wish to share in Opus Dei’s spiritual charism (formerly these priests were loosely affiliated with the prelature)

Lay Faithful Association: an independent public association for all lay members — numeraries, associates, supernumeraries, and cooperators — who until now were under the prelature’s umbrella…

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This is very hopeful. Opus Dei is the crazy right wing of the Catholic Church that is only 100 years old and includes all of our nutty Supreme Court Catholics.

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— JCBlue88 (@jcblue88.bsky.social) October 17, 2025 at 5:55 PM

and JD Vance.

— "Do Not Obey In Advance" and "Don't give into the Lies" (@pamdess.bsky.social) October 17, 2025 at 6:13 PM

… The leaked information given to InfoVaticana suggests this would amount to a definitive end of the “unity of spirit and government” central to St José María’s vision. Quoting unnamed Vatican and Opus Dei sources, InfoVaticana claims that the changes reflect a desire to “restore order” after decades in which Opus Dei had allegedly acted like “a Church within the Church.”

Within Rome, the Holy See is said to frame the reform as a technical adjustment to the 2022 motu proprio Ad charisma tuendum and the revised Code of Canon Law. But observers close to the Vatican reportedly see the move as a decisive shift, bringing Opus Dei into line with new canonical norms and curbing its influence in the Curia and beyond.

Inside Opus Dei itself, InfoVaticana describes an atmosphere of silence and unease. Members are said to have been instructed not to comment until the decree is officially published, though some are allegedly expressing private concern that the reform changes “the very essence” of the institution. Others, according to InfoVaticana, interpret the development as a test of fidelity and maturity, while admitting that “Opus Dei as we knew it will disappear.”

In response, the Opus Dei Communications Office issued a brief unsigned statement on 11 October, describing InfoVaticana’s article as “an opinion piece based on anonymous sources and signed with a pseudonym.” The statement confirmed that a proposal to reform the statutes was submitted to the Holy See in June but insisted there were “no new developments.” It also expressed regret that “unverified rumours” had caused concern among members.

If confirmed, the alleged reform would mark the most significant transformation in Opus Dei’s history since it became a personal prelature in 1982.

heartbroken to learn the pope sympathizes with the poor. how can i continue to believe in god

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— derek guy (@dieworkwear.bsky.social) October 17, 2025 at 1:43 PM

Sunday Open Thread: Neutering Opus DeiPost + Comments (103)

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

In my day, never was longer.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

We will not go back.

That meeting sounds like a shotgun wedding between a shitshow and a clusterfuck.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Not loving this new fraud based economy.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

Open Thread: When It Comes to Redistricting, Pigs Get Fat, Hogs Get Slaughtered

Open Thread: Philip Bump Is Now At MS-Now

Open Thread: Further (Longer) Discussions of Last Night’s Vote

Monday Afternoon Open Thread: (Putting Out) Little Fires Everywhere

Big Friday News Drop Open Thread

Open Thread: TrumpCo’s Pentagon Chooses Its Press Corpse Corps

Sunday Open Thread: Neutering Opus Dei