[Tsundoku]

US Democrats maintain Senate majority as Trump claims voter fraud
Joe Biden’s Democrats have retained control of the US Senate and Donald Trump has again lashed out with unfounded claims of ballot rigging.

https://www.news.com...7a744cafe7fb7a6

Of course Dump and his soggy sao circle would continue to push the rigged election bullshit. I'd love to be there the day he actually gets that most people really do think he's a piece of shit.

This post has been edited by Tsundoku: 13 November 2022 - 03:56 AM

[worry]

Starting to think Donald Trump is a dumbass.

[Tsundoku]

worry, on 13 November 2022 - 04:27 AM, said:

Starting to think Donald Trump is a dumbass.

Well that puts you ahead of about 40% of your fellow voting age 'Muricans.

[Tiste Simeon]

worry, on 13 November 2022 - 04:27 AM, said:

Starting to think Donald Trump is a dumbass.

Nah he's the bigliest covfefe in the world, just tremendously bigly!

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Every election denier who sought to become the top election official in a critical battleground state lost at the polls.'

'The national repudiation of this coalition reached its apex on Saturday, when Cisco Aguilar, the Democratic candidate for secretary of state in Nevada, defeated [...] Marchant, the Republican nominee, had helped organize a national right-wing slate of candidates under the name “America First.”

With Mr. Marchant’s loss to Mr. Aguilar, all but one of those “America First” candidates were defeated. Only Diego Morales, a Republican in deep-red Indiana, was successful[...]

Their losses halted a plan by some allies of [...] Trump and other influential donors to take over the election apparatus in critical states'

Voters Reject Election Deniers Running to Take Over Elections - The New York Times

Halted it---hopefully... still need to be vigilant.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Trump Wants McConnell Out for Failing to Stop Him From Screwing Up the Midterms

“I think if [Republicans] win, I should get all the credit,” [...] Trump said in an interview immediately before the midterms. “And if they lose, I should not be blamed at all.”

Don’t Blame Me for the Midterms. Blame Mitch McConnell, Trump Says: Report


'Internal Senate Republican leadership politics, since Mitch McConnell took over in 2007, have been automatic. The conference unanimously reelects McConnell as its leader[...] Though the Republican base has always griped about McConnell, that griping has never affected his power within the Capitol.

For the first time, there’s a real debate about McConnell now. [...] Scott, the Republican campaign chair, reportedly dropped a plan to run against McConnell. But he’s still blaming McConnell for the blown election without specifically naming him.

[...] McConnell wanted to keep the message focused on Biden’s failures, while Scott wanted to release a Republican agenda. (If you’ll recall, Scott did release an agenda, in February, and it became fodder for Democratic campaign ads across the country throughout the election.) Scott also blamed Republican leaders for muddling the party’s message by “caving” to Democrats on gun legislation, the bipartisan infrastructure law, and the debt ceiling.

Many on the right are also consolidating around the belief that Republicans lost the Senate because of certain strategic decisions made by McConnell’s aligned super PAC[...] which [...] trained its firepower on Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Wisconsin, and North Carolina. It did, however, leave Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters to twist in the wind against Sen. Mark Kelly, while putting some money into Alaska to defend Sen. Lisa Murkowski against a Republican challenger, Kelly Tshibaka. As far as the Alaska decision goes, supporting incumbents is the job of a party leader, even if the incumbent is running against a member of the same party. And Arizona? Well, [...] Masters “had scored the worst focus group results of any candidate he had ever seen,” one of the more hilariously mean leaked details from all of the 2022 campaign postmortems.

[...] what we’re seeing so far is acquiescence to the Trump-generated, blame-shifting narrative that it’s McConnell’s fault, in effect, for doing an inadequate job shining up the lousy Senate candidates Trump, and Trumpism, left him with.

Many of these Senate Republicans who want to delay leadership elections would love to see the party turn on Trump. They know Trump is a drag on the party, and they want him to step aside so they can be president. As ever, though, they don’t want to be the ones who do the turning. It’s much easier to ride with the base, point the finger at Mitch McConnell'

Democrats win Senate: Republicans bicker about who's really to blame for their poor midterm results

Yet again from lol to smh...

[Mentalist]

"I proposed shitty candidates that turned the moderate voters against us, but it's everyone else's fault they didn't get votes"

[Cause]

I would vote for Rick Scott!

When he is done making the rest of their election funds disappear and announcing that he supports killing puppies as well as social security the republicans party will surely flourish.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Trump Shares Demon God Conspiracy [...] on Eve of 2024 Election Announcement

[...] “Hopefully TODAY will turn out to be one of the most important days in the history of our Country!” [...] Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform [...] after he “retruthed” an image by a user named God_Bless_Trump who warned of demon gods running the world. [...] Despite the fact that he “has it all,” [...] “perhaps he could not stomach the thought of mass murders occurring to satisfy Moloch,” [...] “Perhaps he could not stomach the thought of children being kidnapped, drugged, and raped while leaders/law enforcement of the world turn a blind eye,”'

Trump Shares Demon God Conspiracy Bullsh*t on Eve of 2024 Election Announcement


'Trump "Hiding" After Defying Jan. 6 Deposition: Committee

Trump failed to turn up for a deposition with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot on Monday—setting up a potential contempt of Congress vote during the chamber’s upcoming lame-duck session.'

Contempt Battle on the Horizon as Trump Defies Jan. 6 Committee Subpoena


Not literally 'hiding' though (not yet...).



'In the Trump cult’s theology, Mr. Trump is a god with a dual nature: He is simultaneously the macho, swaggering hero and the eternal victim at the mercy of the same powerful forces — “elites” — that his followers believe themselves to be victimized by. Hence the insistent refrain: “When you say Trump is evil and foolish, you are saying that we who voted for him are evil and foolish.” That doesn’t follow logically, but this line of thinking is about divine transubstantiation, not politics. Mr. Trump’s proposition to his followers is straight from the Bible he has probably never read: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.”

That isn’t thinking for a political campaign — it is thinking for a personality cult. [...] A great deal of the psychological energy behind Stop the Steal is directed at changing the subject from the fact that the 2020 coalition was, after all, a losing partnership. [...]

[...] No doubt Mr. DeSantis is thinking about the 2016 example of his fellow Floridian Senator Marco Rubio, who went all in on a rhetorical assault on Mr. Trump in the Republican primary and succeeded only in sidelining himself, a classic case of trying to kill the king and failing.

If Mr. Trump’s politics are fundamentally personal, you can be sure his governing agenda for his second term would be, too. It was laziness and ignorance, not good advice, that kept him from doing as much damage as he might have during his presidency. But his lieutenants have learned from those chaotic years, and they have a plan for staffing not only his administration but also much of the federal civil service with political loyalists under Schedule F, a new federal employee classification Mr. Trump created in 2020 by means of an executive order[...]

[...] perhaps it is time for these dinosaurs to meet their asteroid. The loss of the current Republican Party — deformed, depraved, backward and, in the end, fundamentally anti-American — would benefit the country.'

Opinion | Why Trump Could Win Again

That 'asteroid' metaphor may be more (disastrously) on point than they'd imagined... an asteroid didn't just abduct the dinosaurs.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Trump is expected to announce tonight that he will be a candidate for the presidency again in 2024. Two obvious questions come to mind: Why do it? and Why announce now?

[...] there is greed. Trump is constantly looking for ways to mix politics and profit, and it's likely that a "potential future president" can cut better deals than a mere "disgraced former president." Yesterday, on the eve of his pre-announced announcement, news broke that his company signed a lucrative contract with a major Saudi developer to brand a golf-housing-hotel development in Muscat, Oman, with the Trump name.

For all the merit of those explanations, though, they pale in comparison to another[...]

[...] By formally becoming a presidential candidate, Trump thinks he'll get an edge on prosecutors. [...]

[...] If he gets convicted in Georgia, even if re-elected, he can't pardon himself for a state conviction. [...] Trump may take solace in the fact that a jury pool in Fulton County might well have a few of his true believers on it. [...]

As for federal indictment, any trial of Trump will be brought in Washington, D.C. The Justice Department has a perfect record there in convicting the only three January 6th insurrectionists to try their luck before juries. [...]

[...] The Republican National Committee already announced that it would stop paying Trump's legal bills if he formally became a candidate. Because he is being investigated on so many legal fronts, those bills are not pocket change.

[...] by formally announcing his candidacy, Trump loses the ability—legally at least!—to spend $100 million in PAC money however he wants. By law, the spending must not be associated with his campaign.

Trump giving up a dollar sooner than he has to is sure confirmation of fear. He hears the heavy footfall of the constable closing in behind him. He can't stay still. He has to run.'

The Real Reason Trump Runs

... and keep running from jail (or... Russia? if he can make it there) if needs be...

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 15 November 2022 - 04:28 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Suppose that last article's right, and Trump is primarily running because he thinks it will help in the criminal cases against him.

So if DeSantis (or someone else) really does manage to beat him in the primary (which seems unlikely, though some experts claim that if the anti-Trump Republicans unite around DeSantis they can win---and it's true Trump never won a majority of Republicans in last presidential primary)... Trump will probably run as a third-party candidate? Or at least use that as a threat to try to cut a deal (... though if it were in exchange for a pardon, how would he enforce it?)...

[Tiste Simeon]

I'd love it if he ran as a third party candidate that would surely split the right wing vote nicely?

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Tiste Simeon, on 15 November 2022 - 09:22 PM, said:

I'd love it if he ran as a third party candidate that would surely split the right wing vote nicely?

Yes, though if he thinks he's losing in the primary he may be able to use the threat of that effectively... 'It's either me or that Communist Monster Biden!' IDK if he could get DeSantis to drop out (probably in exchange for something...). If he loses the primary he may try to play a sort of game of chicken trying to get the Republican to drop out before the election....

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'"If an indictment is brought in D.C., [...] Trump's team would move to change the venue to South Florida," [...] hoping he'd find a more favorable jury pool—and possibly judge—in the heavily Republican area. The fight over jurisdiction itself could take months, depending on appeals. Trump, though, couldn't delay forever. "Unlike civil proceedings, judges do try move quicker on rulings in these criminal cases," Moss said. "They don't like letting it sit too long." Still, how long Trump is able to delay on issues like venue is "anybody's guess." [...] timeline of "late-spring, early summer of 2024 when we're finally getting to the possibility of a trial." Trump's goal then, he says, will be to delay proceedings as long as possible in the hopes that he will be [...] safe from a jury's verdict while he serves in the presidency—or that an ally will win the presidency and pardon him or commute his sentence.

[...] the main question will be when the jury actually gets to hear the case, and if it happens before Trump or a Republican friendly to Trump is able to win the White House [...] Trump's campaign won't stop the trial process, but the simple fact of his candidacy can slow it down via lengthy pretrial arguments and appeals over claims of "selective prosecution."

[...] "That will[...] almost certainly fail, but it will drag out the process."'

Trump running for president: Why many believe he's announcing his 2024 campaign now

'Facebook fact-checkers will stop checking Trump after presidential bid announcement'

[...] While Trump is currently banned from Facebook, the fact-check ban applies to anything Trump says and false statements made by Trump can be posted to the platform by others. Despite Trump's ban, "Team Trump," a page run by Trump's political group, is still active[...]
Meta plans on considering allowing Trump back on the platform as soon as January'

Facebook fact-checkers will stop checking Trump after presidential bid announcement

... evaluated on the basis of good behavior desire for profit...


'new poll, conducted in the days after the midterms, shows a reversal of another Yahoo News/YouGov poll last month which showed that more voters preferred Trump over DeSantis to be the GOP nominee in 2024. [...]

Among Republican voters, 41% said they preferred DeSantis compared to 39% who preferred Trump, while 8% said they preferred neither.

[...] margin of error is ±2.7 points.'

More voters prefer Ron DeSantis to Donald Trump as 2024 GOP nominee: Poll



Wonder if that's why Trump chose 'Ron DeSanctimonious'... bit of a mouthful. May be more nicknames to come.


'DeSantis' [...] ascendance doesn't mirror Trump's so much as that of previous rising GOP stars who went on to flop on the national stage after years of presidential whispers. Recall that there was similar hype, if not the same insider consensus, around former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie heading into the 2016 GOP presidential primaries.

[...] a mediocre debater who sports an empty-storefront stare while speaking and a penchant for getting publicly owned by his opponents. When hit with a particularly sharp jab, he tends to look like someone who has just felt the ominous first pangs of the stomach flu and knows he only has minutes left. He has middle-manager charisma that will become apparent when he steps out of the Florida echo chamber.

[...] DeSantis has been so obsequious toward his new nemesis that he even remade his mannerisms and style to look and sound like Trump.

[...] DeSantis got the bizarro hand gestures down, the ones that seem to be constantly measuring the size of something. He's got the ill-fitting suits. He's perfected the art of cruel and pointless stunts as a substitute for actual policymaking. He campaigned for election deniers [...] But he still won't say whether he thinks the 2020 election was stolen [...] He was silent about abortion during the campaign, though he reportedly plans to pursue a more draconian 6-week ban in Florida. In a national nominating contest, he won't be able to dodge these issues, especially if he faces Trump. Where will he need to stand in order to win the GOP primary?

Wherever he lands, his positions will represent precisely the mix of MAGA extremism and grandstanding that voters just rejected across the country. DeSantis won't embody a move away from Trump, but rather a passing of the baton from the MAGA founder to the ideology's most prominent acolyte—one who lacks the former president's cruel showmanship, his personal connection to the movement's millions of devotees, and his talent for casually wrecking the careers of anyone who dares cross him.'

Ron DeSantis: Potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate is not the answer for Donald Trump

If Trump is able to do the insult comic act as well as he did in the 2016 primaries... that may be entertaining. Though going after DeSantis for being 'sanctimonious' and claiming to be 'a fighter sent by Go*' may introduce some cognitive dissonance for Trump's supporters... not that seems to have bothered them much before. With the 'fighter' part at least DeSantis is asking for it. As for 'sent by Go*'---will evangelical 'prophets' and other religious leaders say 'sorry, Trump's no longer the chosen one, now it's DeSantis'?... 'Trump is now obviously possessed the devil'? Seems unlikely but IDK...

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 16 November 2022 - 07:10 PM

[worry]

Aren't you glad election season is now 100% of the year, every year.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'He was once their esteemed president, but to the New York Post, Donald Trump is just another "Florida man" now. Following the [...] announcement that he's running [...] again in 2024, the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid skewered Trump with a below-the-fold headline of "Florida Man Makes Announcement."

[...] dubs Trump a "Florida retiree." “If elected, Trump would tie Joe Biden as the oldest president to take office. His cholesterol levels are unknown, but his favorite food is a charred steak with ketchup,”'

Trolly New York Post Headline Proves Murdoch Is Done With Trump

'Dumping Trump Is Just the Start of Murdoch's Ugly New Era

[...] Fox mogul [...] hell-bent on regaining control of his media empire—and American politics.

At the age of 91, Murdoch has cast off what he felt were the shackles of a constraining marriage and is in the process of regaining total control of his [limp ...]

[...] He has to persuade the stockholders in [...] Fox Corp and News Corp, that they should be merged into one, with him at the top[...]

[...] Many investors in News Corp, which houses Murdoch's legacy newspaper businesses [Wall Street Journal, etc.], don't want to be associated with Fox News—[...] "Fox News is kind of toxic and should be ringfenced." On the other side, Fox investors fear that their company, which gushes profits, would lose value by being in the same stable as the newspapers, in a struggling sector with far larger costs and that generates far less money.

[...] it is hard to find anyone who thinks the merger makes any sense in business terms. [...]

"This is a move to centralize things around him in the U.S.," [...]

[...] Another front page[...] hailed Florida governor Ron DeSantis as "DeFuture."'

Dumping Donald Trump Is Just the Start of Rupert Murdoch’s Ugly New Era

[Mentalist]

Well, there we go. GOP got the House.

Will have +4 majority, looks like.

This post has been edited by Mentalist: 17 November 2022 - 04:39 AM

[Tsundoku]

Which is 2/5 of Fuck All really.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'Narrow House Majority Empowers "Manchin Of The House" Moderates

Centrist lawmakers see opportunities to flex their muscle

[...] moderate Republicans, are seen as the most likely to cut deals across parties. On the flanks, groups like the conservative Freedom Caucus, could threaten to block legislation to win concessions.

"In a tight majority, every vote and every voice matters," said Rep.-elect Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.), who flipped a district that would have voted for [...] Biden [...] "And I intend to leverage that."

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) will have "his hands full" wrangling factions of his party[...]

[...] Republicans would need to "force a level of communication that you haven't had before" to avoid the "fractious" disagreements he said typified House Democrats over the last two years.

[...] "Our trick is now teaching the members that they're going to have to talk to each other scream and point their guns at each other the DemonSeaRats."

[...] Rep.-elect George Santos (R-N.Y.), who flipped a Long Island seat currently held by a Democrat, said the narrow majority promises "a lot more diversity of thought" and "a great opportunity to work center-out and deliver real results."

[...] At least 11 Republicans next year will represent districts Biden carried [...]

Rep.-elect Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), who won a heavily Democratic district [...] touted his bipartisan voting record as a state assemblyman.

"I said from the very beginning I wasn't going down to just be one of 435 [or] be a rubber stamp for anybody," [...]

Several Democrats have a history of bucking their party. Golden is often the only Democrat voting against major bills[...]'

Narrow House Majority Empowers 'Manchin Of The House' Moderates

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 17 November 2022 - 11:04 AM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

'The Texas Legislature Is Preparing an All-Out War on Trans People’s Existence

Republicans’ midterm debacle could have led the party to conclude that centering an assault on the existence of transgender people is not a winning electoral strategy. [...] Instead, the GOP is doubling down on its crusade against LGBTQ people. The most vivid example can be seen in the Texas legislature [...] bills to [...] criminalize gender-affirming care for trans youth, criminalize drag shows, ban trans kids in sports (again), limit changes to gender markers on the birth certificates of minors, and limit discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.

For those who are not terminally online, the continued attacks on LGBTQ rights, especially those around drag shows, may seem baffling. [...] is the logical legislative follow-up to the chaotic and threatening scenes outside of drag shows, pride events, and children’s hospitals [...] LGBTQ events throughout Texas drew protests from neo-Nazis, proud boys, and Christian nationalists—while the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club, a group of LGBTQ anti-fascists clad in all-black armed with AR-15’s, were present to provide community defense.

[...] a moral panic pushed by far-right online influencers such as [...] the notorious Libs of TikTok [...] One of the [...] targets was a drag event at the Mr. Misster bar [...] the drag brunch was surrounded by far-right Christian nationalist protestors, one of whom yelled that the police should [...] “go in there and put bullets in all their heads … that’s what the badge is for.” [...] Tucker Carlson covered the protest and opened with “another weekend in Weimar Germany,” a reference to the extremist view that the “degeneracy” of Weimar Germany—particularly its LGBTQ community—necessitated the rise of the Nazi party to restore “traditional” values. This talking point is commonly repeated in radicalized far-right forums.'

Texas transgender laws: New bills criminalize drag shows and persecute parents