New Developments III

[Big Magilla]

Sabin wrote:
The only concern I have about Kari Lake is if Democrats just don't vote.

That's the concern I have about most of the races this year.

[Sabin]

danfrank wrote
Yes, and let’s hope that Ruben Gallego runs a strong campaign because Kari Lake would be far worse than Sinema.

I think Gallego is going to win. I'm hearing a lot about how "progressive" he is but he's not nearly as far to the left as Lake is to the right. She is the worst of all worlds. She's been to the far right on every issue and reversed all of them at some point. She's also a previous loser for governor. The only concern I have about Kari Lake is if Democrats just don't vote.

[danfrank]

Krysten Sinema has bowed out of the Senate race in Arizona. Good riddance.

Yes, and let’s hope that Ruben Gallego runs a strong campaign because Kari Lake would be far worse than Sinema.

[Sabin]

Krysten Sinema has bowed out of the Senate race in Arizona. Good riddance.

[Big Magilla]

The election results in New York and Pennsylvania special elections last Tuesday sent shock waves through the Republican Party, or what there is left of it. The New York vote reduced Republican control of the House to just two representatives. The Pennsylvania vote retained control of the State House for the Democrats.

The Trump supporters are talkers, the Biden supporters are doers.

Shame on Jon Stewart and all the rest of these talking heads for making fun of Biden's gaffes whether they compare Trump's to his or not.

Everyone misspeaks, saying a wrong word here or there, getting a name wrong, not remembering the year someone close to them died. They may not remember the date, but they don't forget the situation. And, yes, the longer you are around, the more often you will make a mistake, sometimes the same one over and over.

There are real issues at stake in this election. Let's not be distracted by inconsequential nonsense.

[Sabin]

Last week went about as poorly for Biden as a week could go. His cleanest line to knocking Trump off the ballot dissipated, the Hur report dropped, and Biden's immediate response (while not IMO pointing to senility) did nothing to help him. And the return of Jon Stewart didn't spare Biden an inch save for saying "Hey, Trump is an old forgetful guy too."

This week... Trump has to pay $350m (!) and gave Biden a clip we are going to see non-stop ("I'll encourage Russia to do whatever the hell they want.") the same week that Navalny died in prison. We don't know for sure if Putin killed him ("for sure" is doing a lot of heavy-lifting) but it makes Trump look dangerous at worst, recklessly naive at best.

Have we been here before? Of course, although I don't recall Trump's comments ever been so tragically rebuked in real time. And of course, we're long past the point where anyone can get through to his people. Truly, we're just going to have to cycle through them. But this week is a good reminder that it ain't over till it's over.

[Sonic Youth]

Once I built a tower up to the sun.
Brick and rivet and lime.
Once I built a tower. Now it's done.
Brother, can you spare a dime?

[Sabin]

I'm posting this because literally months ago, a friend asked me under what circumstances at this point would someone other than Biden be the nominee and I basically laid out these scenarios.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ ... e-00140790

I'm a bit mixed on the "Biden's losing it" issue. I definitely think he's lost a few steps, but I don't think he's senile or anything. On the other hand, there's a perception out there that he is. I think part of that has to do with the fact that Biden doesn't think the President needs to be front and center every minute of the day and wants to go back to a pre-Trump/pre-social media presidency. That's not going to happen. Sadly, a President has to be some kind of a present messenger. He's not fantastic in that regard. So, if Biden wants to stay in, he's going to have to fight that perception.

If not, then he releases his delegates and it goes to a blue state governor.

There is only reason why I think Biden would go this route if he wasn't intending on being the nominee and that is that he and folks in Washington don't think that Kamala is up for it.

If this happens, it'll be messy as hell, almost unprecedented... and kind of exciting. Except for the nomination contest key, right?

[Sabin]

Congratulations to Joe Biden for winning South Carolina with an estimated 96.5% of the vote. That's an insane victory and yet it's also a total non-event. But more importantly, the Democratic path to the nomination has now changed today. It's easy to speculate on how the primaries might have shook out differently in races prior (and how different today's political landscape might look) but starting this year we're probably going to see less raucous Democratic primaries moving forward.

[Greg]

The U.S. Supreme Court will start hearing oral arguments this coming Thursday on whether or not Donald Trump should be barred form the ballot this November. This involves the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution barring insurrectionists from holding office and Trump's involvement with the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

[danfrank]

At the risk of appearing superficial, E. Jean Carroll looks amazing for being 80. she could very well have a few decades left in her.

There’s an expression: Looking good is the best revenge.

80+ million dollars is effective, too.

[Greg]

At the risk of appearing superficial, E. Jean Carroll looks amazing for being 80. she could very well have a few decades left in her.

[Big Magilla]

Meanwhile back in New York, a jury just awarded E. Jean Carroll $83 million in her defamation suit against Orange Hitler.

[OscarGuy]

They already lost one Civil War...are they really willing to lose another?

[Sonic Youth]

I don't think what's going on in Texas represents the start of a civil war, like my feed is freaking out about. That said, someone is going to file a (certainly unsuccessful) lawsuit attempting to disqualify those states' electoral votes, right?

Or this will be used as a reason to get Biden off state ballots.