New Developments III

[danfrank]

Who is this madman and why would he even make such a statement in this day and age? Wonder how he would feel his home State getting nuked instead.



https://www.thedailybeast.com/sen-linds ... t-decision

He’s just a despicable being. He’s well-known nationally primarily because he frequently engages in attention-seeking behaviors such as this. This one crosses far over the line and deserves censure from his colleagues in the Senate. Given the state of the Republican Party these days this is unfortunately not likely to happen. The U.S. press isn’t giving this story much attention because Graham’s words don’t carry much weight here.

[Sabin]

Reza wrote
Who is this madman and why would he even make such a statement in this day and age? Wonder how he would feel his home State getting nuked instead.

Oh God. That's Lindsay Graham. South Carolina Republican Senator. You don't really need to pay attention to him. I think it's fair to say he's one of the biggest war hawks in the country but also one of the least respected Senators. Democrats hate him for being an extremist obstructionist war hawk. Republicans hate him for being a moderate member of the establishment (and some hate him for being a war hawk). I think if you were to take a poll of which Senator today has the politics most deplored by most Americans Lindsay Graham might come out on top.

If you would ask me to describe Graham in one word, I would say "corrupt." There are lots of rumors about him. One of which is he's bought out by the military industrial complex. There are... other rumors as well. But I'm talking corruption on a deeper level. His soul is bought out in a deeper way than your average politician (or maybe I'm being naive). He started off as a petty Reagan-Gingrich Republican who attacked Bill Clinton. Then he became a Senator of some respect for at least being open to bipartisanship. Then the Tea Party took over and his war hawkishness and openness to bipartisan efforts came under fire so what did he do? He ditched the bipartisanship and just became the most war hawkish Republican in the Senate. Hilary Clinton (with whom he came into Senate at roughly the same time) remarked that "I don’t know what’s happened to Lindsey Graham. He used to believe in climate change... It's like he had a brain switch." Graham deserves some credit for being the Republican most hostile to Donald Trump, the one most open to calling him racist, but two years into his Presidency he became his biggest cheerleader. Actually, that's putting it mildly. He encouraged Donald Trump to not concede the election but wouldn't join on the "stop the steal" bandwagon, which is another way of saying he'll fan the flames of insurrection but won't join in on the barbecue. His one consistency is war hawkishness.

I know you didn't ask for a history lesson but I can't stress enough. This guy sucks.

[Reza]

Who is this madman and why would he even make such a statement in this day and age? Wonder how he would feel his home State getting nuked instead.



https://www.thedailybeast.com/sen-linds ... t-decision

[Sonic Youth]

I'd vote for the worm.

[Sabin]

Onto more normal news, a worm ate RFK Jr’s brain.

[danfrank]

"Look, me shooting my dog isn't a secret. Everyone in South Dakota knows I shot my dog. It's very public knowledge."

"I want people to know the truth. That dog I had? It wasn't a nice dog. It was a piece of shit. It had to die."

"I would like to be Vice President. First thing you gotta know about me. One time I had a dog. I shot it. It was the right thing to do. I don't know how you choose to introduce yourself and say hi, but that's how I do it."

"Wanna know another dog that deserves to die? President Biden's. Commander. I'll mention that dog by name. I have strong opinions on which dogs deserve to die and which dogs don't. If a dog crosses the line, I'll kill it myself."


I don't know if this is the worst audition for Vice President of all time but it's so unbelievably stupid.

Yes, and all said behind about two pounds of poorly applied makeup. She’s not recognizable as human to me.

[Sabin]

"Look, me shooting my dog isn't a secret. Everyone in South Dakota knows I shot my dog. It's very public knowledge."

"I want people to know the truth. That dog I had? It wasn't a nice dog. It was a piece of shit. It had to die."

"I would like to be Vice President. First thing you gotta know about me. One time I had a dog. I shot it. It was the right thing to do. I don't know how you choose to introduce yourself and say hi, but that's how I do it."

"Wanna know another dog that deserves to die? President Biden's. Commander. I'll mention that dog by name. I have strong opinions on which dogs deserve to die and which dogs don't. If a dog crosses the line, I'll kill it myself."


I don't know if this is the worst audition for Vice President of all time but it's so unbelievably stupid.

[Sabin]

Greg wrote
Trying to predict Trump's mind, including the VP choice he will make, always appears to be a lost cause.

Bloomberg is now reporting Trump’s final four are Doug Burgum, Marco Rubio, Tim Scott, and JD Vance. Which means he’s probably picking JD Vance, right?

I was wondering why Doug Burgum? He’s worth over a billion. Trump needs money.

It can’t be Little Marco. Right?

I don’t know if I would laugh if he picked Tim Scott or be terrified.

[Big Magilla]

Without a Brain.jpg (185.85 KiB) Viewed 4288 times

[Greg]

What do you make of DeSantis' meeting with Trump? After the Kristi Noem meltdown, I don't see a strong VP candidate for him. Everyone else comes with significant problems (besides the fact that they're all obviously insane) and he needs money.

Trying to predict Trump's mind, including the VP choice he will make, always appears to be a lost cause.

[Sabin]

Greg wrote
And now, DeSantis just signed a law criminalizing food he doesn't like.

What do you make of DeSantis' meeting with Trump? After the Kristi Noem meltdown, I don't see a strong VP candidate for him. Everyone else comes with significant problems (besides the fact that they're all obviously insane) and he needs money.

[Greg]

And now, DeSantis just signed a law criminalizing food he doesn't like.

"DeSantis signs ban on lab-grown meat in Florida, says ‘elites’ are pushing it:"

https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/05/01/d ... ushing-it/

[Greg]

DeSantis signs law ensuring accurate teaching of communism’s ‘evil’ history in Florida schools:

https://www.local10.com/news/local/2024 ... h-gardens/

I wonder what will be considered communism. During the McCarthy era, there were searches for hidden communist messages, based on the idea communists were too smart to directly produce something pro-communist. The movies The Best Years Of Our Lives and It's A Wonderful Life were both investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee as having pro-communist messages based on their negative portrayal of bankers. I wonder if DeSantis would consider anything that questions Wall Street's power as being pro-communist.

[Sabin]

Couple quick things:

This got a fair bit of traction recently. Someone moderately important in the RKF Jr. campaign admits her no. 1 priority is preventing a Biden victory.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/08/politics ... index.html

I don't really view this as a smoking gun that RFK Jr. was meant to be a Biden spoiler. I view this as a smoking gun that RFK Jr. has a lot of weird people in his campaign. That said, I've always thought/felt that RFK Jr. has more spoiler effect for Biden than Trump in that Biden needs just about 100% of his coalition to win and barring RFK Jr. running an insane right-wing campaign a la Wallace (which he isn't) is critical to Biden. I also think RFK Jr. has picked out enough lefty wedge issues (pardoning Snowden for example) that allows for Independents & Democrats to keep their hands clean while not voting for Biden.

This is the other thing:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/03/us/p ... about%20it.

I'm full of fears about this coming election but one of my lingering ones has been about the Trump-Bin Salman relationship and if it's one of those "If I lose re-election, hike the gas prices" kinda deals.

[Sabin]

RFK Jr. has announced that his running mate is Nicole Shanahan. Who? Exactly.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/ ... o-00149015

EDITED FOR LENGTH:

I've been a bit more concerned about the impact of RFK Jr.'s candidacy towards Biden than most on this board. I think anyone who looks at his choice of Nicole Shanahan and dismisses it as an unserious choice for an unserious candidate is correct to do so. The kindest thing I can say about his choice is that 1) she'll fund his campaign, and 2) there was no way for RFK Jr. to choose a serious running mate without alienating some key constituency of lunatics. Imagining for a second that RFK Jr. has a 1% chance of being President and taking his campaign seriously, I think this is a lousy choice because he's effectively turned off his loudest group of right-wing supporters and turned them towards Trump by choosing someone with progressive-ish causes and was married to one of the tech giants that RFK Jr. built the start of his campaign railing against. I think Trump was always going to win most of those lunatics back but I think he just won at least 50% more of them back. Her selection pivots RFK Jr. towards his history of environmentalism and towards independents, Democrats who just want a third option, and young people. All of whom, Biden desperately needs to win in historic numbers.

By the way, anyone that wants to reassure me that we have this thing is welcome. I keep hearing Truman comparisons touting about. I keep seeing Benjamin Harrison.

A couple scattered thoughts:
-depending on how you look at it, Nicole Shanahan is the first Millennial on a major-ish ticket. Evan McMullan's 2016 campaign was pretty niche. His running mate Mindy Finn was born in February, 1981 which (as a January 1981 baby) is a pretty borderline case. Nicole Shanahan is born in either 1985 or 1986. She is fascinated by gut biomes, her favorite show is Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt, and she met her most recent husband at Burning Man. She is a fucking Millennial. I could see her helping RFK Jr. with young voters. This is going to help RFK Jr. with his right-policy/left-vibes campaign.
-unless I'm mistaken, this is the first major-ish ticket where both the top and the bottom are divorced. Maybe someone can correct me. I vaguely recall this being a big stigma during my political awakening. Not anymore. They're also both twice divorced.
-if Trump chooses a woman (which all speculation points to), then this will be the first election where all major candidates' running mates are women. Like Harris, she's also Asian-American. If Trump chooses a person of color, then this will be the first election where all major candidates' running mates are people of color.