2022 American Political Scene

[TopHatter]

Another year, another....something. I don't even know what to call it anymore.

Let the games begin!

[Albany Rifles]

It's never good when the ex-girlfriend testifies....


Gaetz's ex-girlfriend enters Florida courthouse where grand jury investigating the congressman meets - CNNPolitics

Gaetz's ex-girlfriend enters Florida courthouse where grand jury investigating the congressman meets


By David Shortell, Paula Reid and John Couwels, CNN



Updated 12:20 PM ET, Wed January 12, 2022

(CNN)An ex-girlfriend of Rep. Matt Gaetz, who is seen as a key witness in the ongoing investigation into alleged sex trafficking by the Florida Republican, entered an Orlando federal courthouse with her lawyer on Wednesday where a grand jury has been meeting, according to a CNN reporter on the scene.

A source familiar with the case previously told CNN the ex-girlfriend was expected to testify before the grand jury investigating Gaetz.
The woman, a former Capitol Hill staffer, has been linked to Gaetz as far back as the summer of 2017. Investigators are interested in that period of time because that is when the congressman is accused of having sexual contact with another woman, who was 17 years old at the time.


The ex-girlfriend also could be integral for authorities investigating potential obstruction of justice as the probe into Gaetz's conduct heated up. CNN has reported that investigators are aware of a discussion that Gaetz and an associate had about talking to her in October 2020.Multiple people familiar with the matter have told CNN that a grand jury -- a group of laymen who hears evidence presented by prosecutors behind closed doors about a potential crime -- has been meeting at the George C. Young Federal Annex Courthouse regarding the Gaetz investigation.The lawyer for the ex-girlfriend, Timothy Jansen, declined to comment. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.

[zraver]

Den headwinds heading into 22

1. COVID
2. Stalled BBB

3. Inflation

4. Immigration

5. China

6. Russia

7. Activist Left

8. Gasoline Prices

9. Questions about Biden (health, honesty, competence low polling)

10. Party infighting

11. Looming SCOTUS fight if they try and federalize elections.

12. Gerrymandering in Red States

GOP headwinds

1. Trump (his mouth, J6, sucking the air out of the room, necyrial king maker)

2. A SCOTUS overreach on abortion

3. Censorship and media bias/ ability to be honestly heard.

4. Gerrymandering in Blue States.

5. Party infighting

[TopHatter]

New Poll: One Year After Jan. 6th, Disturbing Support for Authoritarianism
Survey suggests that millions of Americans would support an “armed revolt” to put Trump back in the White House.

Ayear after supporters of Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn his election defeat, a new survey has found that a small but significant portion of his devotees believes he should be reinstated by any means, including armed revolt.

More generally, the survey, which I sponsored, finds that, although Americans remain strong believers in liberty, there is a powerful undercurrent of potential support for authoritarianism.

The survey of 1,000 American voters was conducted online and by phone between Christmas and New Year’s by political scientist David B. Hill of Hill Research Consultants. Respondents were asked a battery of 21 agree-or-disagree questions—indicators of possible support for or opposition to authoritarianism. The results were then weighted to match national demographics. (The poll results and an explanation of the methodology can be found here.)

The responses showed solid majorities of support for liberty, democracy, and the rights of protesters.

However, nearly half the respondents (49 percent) agreed with the assertion that “Once our leaders give us the go-ahead, it will be the duty of every patriotic citizen to help stomp out the decay that is poisoning our country from within.”

More than half (56 percent) agreed with the sentiment that the “only way our country can get through the crisis ahead is to get back to our traditional values, put a tough leader in power, and silence the troublemakers spreading radical ideas.”



Half (50 percent) agreed that it is more important for a leader to “stir the deep passions of the common man than to offer intellectual advice about policies.”

And more than half (53 percent) agreed that the country will be great if we “honor the ways of our forefathers, do what the authorities tell us to do, and get rid of the rotten apples who are ruining everything.”

More troubling than those majority or near-majority responses, however, are some of the strong minority views unearthed in the survey. When presented with the claim that “We might have to make America a little less democratic in order to protect and preserve the most important American values, traditions and principles,” more than a third of the respondents agreed (34 percent, including 12 percent saying they “strongly” agree).

More than a fifth of the respondents (21 percent) consider democracy “so corrupted” that “we need new revolution to reestablish order.” And nearly as many (18 percent) say that the Constitution “gets in the way of things too much nowadays and should just be ignored when it interferes with taking action on some issues.”

Regarding the former president, a third of the respondents (33 percent) say they believe the 2020 election was “stolen” from him. Out of that third, a majority considers the participants in the Jan. 6th attack on the Capitol to be “patriots” rather than “insurrectionists.” A small minority of the Trump-supporting respondents (13 percent, or nearly 5 percent of the overall sample) believe the ex-president should “reinstated by all means possible, including armed revolt,” including a small number (just under 2 percent of the overall sample) who say they themselves would be willing even to “take up arms” to see Trump reinstated.

• Our country desperately needs a strong leader who will do what has to be done to defeat radical efforts to move away from traditional American values (56%/41%)
• It is important to protect the rights of protesters (75/22)
• The situation in our country is getting so serious, we need to take steps to eliminate troublemakers & get America back on its true path (64/34)
• We need more marches & demonstrations to protest how badly minorities are treated in America (42/56)
• What our country needs instead of more civil rights is a good stiff dose of law & order (54/44)
• Days of women being expected to be submissive to husbands should be strictly in the past (80/19)
• Obedience & respect for authority are the most important values children should learn (58/40)
• You have to admire those who challenge the law & the majority's view by protesting for their causes (58/40)
• Once our leaders give us the go ahead, it will be the duty of every patriotic citizen to help stomp out the decay that is poisoning our country from within (48/49)
• It is good that nowadays young people have greater freedom to make their own rules & to protest against things they don't like (58/40)
• The only way our country can get through the crisis ahead is to get back to traditional values, put a tough leader in power, & silence the troublemakers spreading radical ideas (56/43)
• Everyone should have their own lifestyle, religious beliefs, & sexual preferences, even if it makes them different from everyone else (86/13)
• We might have to make America a little less Democratic [sic] in order to protect & preserve the most important American values, traditions & principles (34/64)
• The 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump (33/64)

---

As a former university lecturer in Holocaust studies, I’ve watched America’s slide towards autocracy with a feeling of both alarm and familiarity. We’ve seen this movie before. We know how it ends.

Since the Jan. 6th insurrection one year ago today, various surveys have shown continuing support among Republicans for Donald Trump and his Big Lie about the 2020 election. Some of the surveys show support for violence to achieve political ends—such as this Washington Post/University of Maryland poll from mid-December showing that more than a third of respondents (34 percent) believe that violence against our government can sometimes be justified. Many other recent polls confirm this finding.

But how many Trump supporters would be willing to actually take up arms to reinstate him as president? I watched for this number, but all the polls I saw focused on attitudes, not actions. So I contacted David Hill and commissioned the new poll to measure just how autocratic we are today and expect/want to be in the future.

The results were even more alarming than I suspected. As noted above, in our survey nearly 2 percent of the respondents said they would be willing to take up arms to restore Trump to power. Admittedly, that figure is within the poll’s margin of error (3 percent). But assuming that it is accurate, that 2 percent, if extended to the entire nation, would translate to some 3 million people willing to take up arms in support of Trump. That’s a number that should get all of our attention.

---

Academics have drawn various historical parallels to today’s divided and contentious America. Some hark back to 1968—the assassinations, Viet Nam, the Chicago convention, the Moral Majority vs. the New Left. Others go back to the period leading up to the Civil War.

I believe the more accurate analogy is with Germany in the early ’30s. As dramatic as that might sound, consider some of the parallels between the events of the past five years in the United States and Weimar Germany’s slide into totalitarianism:

Attacks on truth: The Trump movement—from the prevaricating ex-president to his loyalists to their Republican legislative allies on down to the base—simply refuses to acknowledge the truth about the 2020 election, even when presented with clear-cut evidence. What American president other than Trump could get away with saying “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening”? We’ve now reached the point where the only elections Republicans will accept are the ones they win.

Suppression: Like Trump, the Nazis never won a majority of the popular vote. But once installed in office, they moved quickly and decisively to solidify their power. After Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election failed one year ago today, Republican-led state legislatures started passing legislation restricting access to voting. They have also sought to oust impartial election officials, seeking to put Trump allies in important posts responsible for the counting and certification of votes in upcoming elections.

Demonization: Every autocrat needs an enemy, someone to demonize and hold up to their audience as the source of their problems. For Hitler it was the Jews, even though they constituted less than 1 percent of Germany’s population. Trump’s parade of enemies is a long one, starting with Mexicans and Muslims, then continuing to include the press and the “Deep State”—and of course any Republicans who dare to dissent from Trumpism.

Intimidation: The Nazis perfected the art of terrorizing an entire country. In the United States, we have seen death threats against public officials and hostile rants against local school board members. And while the intimidation has largely been verbal to date, we’re just one murder of a school board member or local politician away from seeing the candidate pool go dry.

Education: The various right-wing objections to how American students are educated—most prominent nowadays in complaints about critical race theory—don’t reach Nazi levels of control but are troubling in their desire to repress facts, especially relating to race in America.

In my seminars on genocide and the Holocaust, I taught students that genocide is like cancer: You have to recognize it in its earliest forms and treat it aggressively. By the time you reach the point of concentration camps or gas chambers, it’s too late. While we are nowhere near that point, the trends are worrying.

Our liberal democracy is in danger. And unfortunately, no one—not the Biden administration, not Congress, not the Democratic party, not the majority of Americans—seems capable of taking the actions needed to protect it. An entire year has gone by since the attack of January 6th, allowing a penchant for totalitarianism to metastasize in a sizable segment of our population. We can’t let another year go by without acting to protect our democracy.
_________

[tbm3fan]

New Poll: One Year After Jan. 6th, Disturbing Support for Authoritarianism
Survey suggests that millions of Americans would support an “armed revolt” to put Trump back in the White House.

Ayear after supporters of Donald Trump attacked the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn his election defeat, a new survey has found that a small but significant portion of his devotees believes he should be reinstated by any means, including armed revolt.

More generally, the survey, which I sponsored, finds that, although Americans remain strong believers in liberty, there is a powerful undercurrent of potential support for authoritarianism.

The survey of 1,000 American voters was conducted online and by phone between Christmas and New Year’s by political scientist David B. Hill of Hill Research Consultants. Respondents were asked a battery of 21 agree-or-disagree questions—indicators of possible support for or opposition to authoritarianism. The results were then weighted to match national demographics. (The poll results and an explanation of the methodology can be found here.)

The responses showed solid majorities of support for liberty, democracy, and the rights of protesters.

However, nearly half the respondents (49 percent) agreed with the assertion that “Once our leaders give us the go-ahead, it will be the duty of every patriotic citizen to help stomp out the decay that is poisoning our country from within.”

More than half (56 percent) agreed with the sentiment that the “only way our country can get through the crisis ahead is to get back to our traditional values, put a tough leader in power, and silence the troublemakers spreading radical ideas.”



Half (50 percent) agreed that it is more important for a leader to “stir the deep passions of the common man than to offer intellectual advice about policies.”

And more than half (53 percent) agreed that the country will be great if we “honor the ways of our forefathers, do what the authorities tell us to do, and get rid of the rotten apples who are ruining everything.”

More troubling than those majority or near-majority responses, however, are some of the strong minority views unearthed in the survey. When presented with the claim that “We might have to make America a little less democratic in order to protect and preserve the most important American values, traditions and principles,” more than a third of the respondents agreed (34 percent, including 12 percent saying they “strongly” agree).

More than a fifth of the respondents (21 percent) consider democracy “so corrupted” that “we need new revolution to reestablish order.” And nearly as many (18 percent) say that the Constitution “gets in the way of things too much nowadays and should just be ignored when it interferes with taking action on some issues.”

Regarding the former president, a third of the respondents (33 percent) say they believe the 2020 election was “stolen” from him. Out of that third, a majority considers the participants in the Jan. 6th attack on the Capitol to be “patriots” rather than “insurrectionists.” A small minority of the Trump-supporting respondents (13 percent, or nearly 5 percent of the overall sample) believe the ex-president should “reinstated by all means possible, including armed revolt,” including a small number (just under 2 percent of the overall sample) who say they themselves would be willing even to “take up arms” to see Trump reinstated.

• Our country desperately needs a strong leader who will do what has to be done to defeat radical efforts to move away from traditional American values (56%/41%)
• It is important to protect the rights of protesters (75/22)
• The situation in our country is getting so serious, we need to take steps to eliminate troublemakers & get America back on its true path (64/34)
• We need more marches & demonstrations to protest how badly minorities are treated in America (42/56)
• What our country needs instead of more civil rights is a good stiff dose of law & order (54/44)
• Days of women being expected to be submissive to husbands should be strictly in the past (80/19)
• Obedience & respect for authority are the most important values children should learn (58/40)
• You have to admire those who challenge the law & the majority's view by protesting for their causes (58/40)
• Once our leaders give us the go ahead, it will be the duty of every patriotic citizen to help stomp out the decay that is poisoning our country from within (48/49)
• It is good that nowadays young people have greater freedom to make their own rules & to protest against things they don't like (58/40)
• The only way our country can get through the crisis ahead is to get back to traditional values, put a tough leader in power, & silence the troublemakers spreading radical ideas (56/43)
• Everyone should have their own lifestyle, religious beliefs, & sexual preferences, even if it makes them different from everyone else (86/13)
• We might have to make America a little less Democratic [sic] in order to protect & preserve the most important American values, traditions & principles (34/64)
• The 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump (33/64)

---

As a former university lecturer in Holocaust studies, I’ve watched America’s slide towards autocracy with a feeling of both alarm and familiarity. We’ve seen this movie before. We know how it ends.

Since the Jan. 6th insurrection one year ago today, various surveys have shown continuing support among Republicans for Donald Trump and his Big Lie about the 2020 election. Some of the surveys show support for violence to achieve political ends—such as this Washington Post/University of Maryland poll from mid-December showing that more than a third of respondents (34 percent) believe that violence against our government can sometimes be justified. Many other recent polls confirm this finding.

But how many Trump supporters would be willing to actually take up arms to reinstate him as president? I watched for this number, but all the polls I saw focused on attitudes, not actions. So I contacted David Hill and commissioned the new poll to measure just how autocratic we are today and expect/want to be in the future.

The results were even more alarming than I suspected. As noted above, in our survey nearly 2 percent of the respondents said they would be willing to take up arms to restore Trump to power. Admittedly, that figure is within the poll’s margin of error (3 percent). But assuming that it is accurate, that 2 percent, if extended to the entire nation, would translate to some 3 million people willing to take up arms in support of Trump. That’s a number that should get all of our attention.

---

Academics have drawn various historical parallels to today’s divided and contentious America. Some hark back to 1968—the assassinations, Viet Nam, the Chicago convention, the Moral Majority vs. the New Left. Others go back to the period leading up to the Civil War.

I believe the more accurate analogy is with Germany in the early ’30s. As dramatic as that might sound, consider some of the parallels between the events of the past five years in the United States and Weimar Germany’s slide into totalitarianism:

Attacks on truth: The Trump movement—from the prevaricating ex-president to his loyalists to their Republican legislative allies on down to the base—simply refuses to acknowledge the truth about the 2020 election, even when presented with clear-cut evidence. What American president other than Trump could get away with saying “What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening”? We’ve now reached the point where the only elections Republicans will accept are the ones they win.

Suppression: Like Trump, the Nazis never won a majority of the popular vote. But once installed in office, they moved quickly and decisively to solidify their power. After Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election failed one year ago today, Republican-led state legislatures started passing legislation restricting access to voting. They have also sought to oust impartial election officials, seeking to put Trump allies in important posts responsible for the counting and certification of votes in upcoming elections.

Demonization: Every autocrat needs an enemy, someone to demonize and hold up to their audience as the source of their problems. For Hitler it was the Jews, even though they constituted less than 1 percent of Germany’s population. Trump’s parade of enemies is a long one, starting with Mexicans and Muslims, then continuing to include the press and the “Deep State”—and of course any Republicans who dare to dissent from Trumpism.

Intimidation: The Nazis perfected the art of terrorizing an entire country. In the United States, we have seen death threats against public officials and hostile rants against local school board members. And while the intimidation has largely been verbal to date, we’re just one murder of a school board member or local politician away from seeing the candidate pool go dry.

Education: The various right-wing objections to how American students are educated—most prominent nowadays in complaints about critical race theory—don’t reach Nazi levels of control but are troubling in their desire to repress facts, especially relating to race in America.

In my seminars on genocide and the Holocaust, I taught students that genocide is like cancer: You have to recognize it in its earliest forms and treat it aggressively. By the time you reach the point of concentration camps or gas chambers, it’s too late. While we are nowhere near that point, the trends are worrying.

Our liberal democracy is in danger. And unfortunately, no one—not the Biden administration, not Congress, not the Democratic party, not the majority of Americans—seems capable of taking the actions needed to protect it. An entire year has gone by since the attack of January 6th, allowing a penchant for totalitarianism to metastasize in a sizable segment of our population. We can’t let another year go by without acting to protect our democracy.
_________

Heil...

[DOR]

Question: What do these stories have in common?

Woman with semi-automatic rifle, other guns in vehicle arrested outside U.S. Capitol Police headquarters, CBS News Jan 13, 2022 [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/kery-ly...headquarters/]

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes charged with seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6 Capitol riot The Washington Post, Jan 13, 2022 [https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...430_story.html]

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell says he has enough evidence to put '300 MILLION' Americans in jail for election fraud before his appearance at Trump's rally on Saturday, The Daily Mail, Jan 12, 2022 [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...er-fraud.html]

R.N.C. Signals a Pullout From Presidential Debates
The Republican National Committee says it will require candidates to pledge to not participate in debates run by the Commission on Presidential Debates. What would replace them, if anything, was unclear, The New York Times, Jan 13, 2022 [https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/13/u...bates-rnc.html?]

Answer: Two years ago, each would have been taken directly from The Onion.

[TopHatter]

Question: What do these stories have in common?


Answer: Two years ago, each would have been taken directly from The Onion.

Let's face it, pretty much any headline about, or tweet from, Donald Trump from the past 5+ years would've been taken directly from The Onion.

[Versus]

Another year, another....something. I don't even know what to call it anymore.

Let the games begin!

Groundhog day (year). This one will be more sarcastic than the previous, that is for sure.

[TopHatter]

The fates of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump
The 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol have increasingly become pariahs as their party moves in the opposite direction.

When the 10 GOP House members, along with seven of the party's senators, joined Democrats on Trump's impeachment, they said that the former president bore responsibility for inciting the mob of his supporters and was no longer fit for public office.

But a year later, those Republicans are finding themselves ostracized - and even facing death threats - for being out of step with a party that continues to embrace Trump.

Three of the 10 have decided not to run for reelection this year. The others are all facing Trump-allied primary challengers who accuse them of lacking fealty to the most influential figure in the GOP.

And Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), who was serving as the third-ranking House Republican, was unceremoniously booted from her leadership post last year for repeatedly pushing back against Trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Unlike in the House, only one of the seven GOP senators who voted to convict Trump in his impeachment trial faces voters later this year: Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska). She, too, will face a Trump-backed primary challenger.

Here's a look at what's happened to the 10 House Republicans since their impeachment votes.

Cheney

Cheney has gone from being one of the highest-ranking House Republicans plotting strategy against Democrats to accepting an invitation from Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to serve on the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. Since her ouster as the House GOP conference chair, Cheney hasn't hesitated to criticize her former leadership colleague, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), for reversing his initial position that Trump bore some responsibility for the attack to full-on embracing him again. Trump has endorsed trial attorney Harriet Hageman to challenge Cheney in the GOP primary this summer. Cheney's response: "Bring it."

Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (Ohio)

Gonzalez cited "toxic dynamics" within the Republican Party in a September statement announcing his decision not to run for reelection. He would have faced a Trump-backed primary challenger, former White House aide Max Miller. "While my desire to build a fuller family life is at the heart of my decision, it is also true that the current state of our politics, especially many of the toxic dynamics inside our own party, is a significant factor in my decision," Gonzalez said. "1 down, 9 to go," Trump said in a statement after Gonzalez's announcement.

Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (Wash.)

The Washington State Republican Party state committee passed a resolution condemning Trump's impeachment and expressing disappointment in Herrera Beutler and Rep. Dan Newhouse, another Republican from the state who voted to impeach the former president. Herrera Beutler serves as the top Republican on the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees legislative branch funding and has participated in numerous hearings scrutinizing Capitol security since the insurrection. She faces multiple GOP primary challengers, including one endorsed by Trump, Army Special Forces veteran Joe Kent.

Rep. John Katko (N.Y.)

Aside from voting to impeach Trump, Katko has crossed party lines numerous times since the Jan. 6 riot in defiance of Trump's position. Katko, the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, backed legislation to create an independent bipartisan commission to investigate the insurrection, which was blocked by Senate Republicans. He also was among the 13 House Republicans who voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill last fall. Katko ultimately announced Friday that he won't seek reelection "so that I can enjoy my family and life in a fuller and more present way." In his retirement announcement, Katko added, "My conscience, principles, and commitment to do what's right have guided every decision I've made as a member of Congress."

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.)

Kinzinger is currently the only other Republican serving alongside Cheney on the House select committee investigating Jan. 6. He became the second Republican who voted for impeachment to opt against seeking reelection when he made his decision known in October. In his retirement announcement, Kinzinger recalled hearing from supporters during his first race in 2010 unseating a Democratic incumbent to "be my own man and to never 'do what they tell you to do.'" "I stand tall and proud knowing that I have done just that," Kinzinger said.

Rep. Peter Meijer (Mich.)

Meijer was the sole Republican who voted to impeach Trump who was only in his first term in Congress. He has since been censured by county-level GOP groups in his district, and multiple Republicans are vying to unseat him in the GOP primary. Trump in November backed former Housing and Urban Development official John Gibbs to challenge Meijer. Meijer said in an interview with The Atlantic that he hoped after Jan. 6 that Republicans "would do the necessary soul-searching and reconstruction." But months later, he realized: "It's like, 'All right, this is going to be a longer, deeper project than I thought.'"

Newhouse

Multiple Washington Republicans are vying to challenge Newhouse in the GOP primary in August, though Trump has not yet endorsed a particular candidate. Shortly after the vote to impeach, Republican county leaders in Newhouse's district called on him to resign. Newhouse rebuffed the calls, stating that he is "still a conservative Republican who holds the principles of our Constitution and the priorities of central Washington above all else."

Rep. Tom Rice (S.C.)

The South Carolina Republican Party voted last year to censure Rice for his impeachment vote. Since then, a crowded field of Republicans has emerged to challenge him in the GOP primary in June. While Rice voted to impeach Trump, he did vote against certifying the 2020 election results. Rice told Politico in December that he now regrets his decision to vote against the certification. "In the wee hours of that disgraceful night, while waiting for the Capitol of our great country to be secured, I knew I should vote to certify. But because I had made a public announcement of my intent to object, I did not want to go back on my word. So yeah, I regret my vote to object," Rice said.

Rep. Fred Upton (Mich.)

Upton, who has served in the House since 1987, has come under fire from his party for repeatedly crossing party lines in recent months. Aside from voting for Trump's impeachment, Upton also voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill and to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) from committees for her past statements embracing conspiracy theories and promoting the idea of violence against Democrats. Trump endorsed Michigan state Rep. Steve Carra in September to challenge Upton. "He doesn't deserve to keep his seat," Trump said of Upton.

Rep. David Valadao (Calif.)

Valadao represents what's been one of the most competitive House districts in the country in recent years. His support for Trump's impeachment marked one of his first votes upon his return to the House in January 2021 after unseating the Democrat who defeated him in 2018. Valadao faces at least one GOP primary challenger, Army veteran Chris Mathys. But Valadao has a powerful ally in McCarthy, who told a local NBC News affiliate that he "strongly support[s]" him despite his impeachment vote. Valadao affirmed Wednesday that he will run for reelection, saying that "I'll continue to be an independent member of Congress who will stand up to the divisive partisanship in Washington D.C."
___________

[Albany Rifles]

The fates of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump

It sucks to have a spine and ethics in Trump's Republican Party.

As all of these folks voted against the John Lewis Voting Rights Act I know I wouldn't agree with them on most anything.

But I acknowledge they at least have the guts to stand up against the mob.

[JRT]

Lindsey Graham has warned Mitch McConnell
18 January 2022

Lindsey Graham has a message for Mitch McConnell if he wants to lead the Senate GOP after the 2022 midterms: Have a working relationship with Donald Trump or get out. In the latest episode of The Point, CNN’s Chris Cillizza unpacks McConnell’s tumultuous relationship with Trump and why being on good terms with the former president is crucial to leading the Republican Party moving forward.

.

...

[DOR]

“Mitch McConnell says Black people vote just as much as 'Americans'”

“U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is trending on Twitter after making an insidious comment related to voting rights, in which he implied African Americans are not Americans.

After a vote to move the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to the Senate floor failed Wednesday, McConnell was asked by a reporter about concerns among voters of color.

"Well the concern is misplaced, because if you look at the statistics, African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans," McConnell responded.”


Well isn't that white of him!

https://www.courier-journal.com/stor...ns/6590081001/

[TopHatter]

“Mitch McConnell says Black people vote just as much as 'Americans'”

“U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is trending on Twitter after making an insidious comment related to voting rights, in which he implied African Americans are not Americans.

After a vote to move the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to the Senate floor failed Wednesday, McConnell was asked by a reporter about concerns among voters of color.

"Well the concern is misplaced, because if you look at the statistics, African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans," McConnell responded.”


Well isn't that white of him!

https://www.courier-journal.com/stor...ns/6590081001/

When you don't even bother to hide the racism anymore...

[Parihaka]

“Mitch McConnell says Black people vote just as much as 'Americans'”

“U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is trending on Twitter after making an insidious comment related to voting rights, in which he implied African Americans are not Americans.

After a vote to move the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to the Senate floor failed Wednesday, McConnell was asked by a reporter about concerns among voters of color.

"Well the concern is misplaced, because if you look at the statistics, African American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans," McConnell responded.”


Well isn't that white of him!

https://www.courier-journal.com/stor...ns/6590081001/

When you don't even bother to hide the racism anymore...

If you think this is a problem, then so should be this.

Biden tells voters 'you ain't black' if you're still deciding between him and Trump – video | US news | The Guardian

In truth neither is, your actual problems are far worse.

[TopHatter]

If you think this is a problem, then so should be this.

Biden tells voters 'you ain't black' if you're still deciding between him and Trump – video | US news | The Guardian

I'm aware that you're still under the delusion that I'm a "leftist" and thus naturally have some knee-jerk desire to defend Joe Biden or else face yet more accusations of "leftism".

The truth is that you, as is the case with Jason, are entitled to your delusions and logical fallacies.

However I am under no obligation to indulge them.

We seem to have reached a certain level of amicability in the past several weeks so I'm going to leave this one alone entirely.

In truth neither is, your actual problems are far worse.

If by "your", you mean U.S. society as a whole, then I agree completely, there's no question about it.