22 thoughts on “Thursday Open Thread”

1. Meanwhile in Arizona…(someone’s gotta keep the grift going)

   The Bottom-Up Election-Denial Strategy

   Nullifying the votes of some 47,000 people for no reason is certainly a choice—and a nihilistic one at that. These two board members are engaging in a strategy of bottom-up election obstruction, apparently to clog the gears of democracy with enough sand to spread distrust throughout the entire system. Nationally, the Cochise County supervisors’ strategy may prove inconsequential, at least for now. But it’s a perfect illustration of the state of American democracy—and could be a test run of much greater consequence for 2024.

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2. Twitter is now purging mainstream liberal accounts. (Josh Marshall)

   To be specific, these accounts are being subjected to right-wing de-platforming campaigns. If enough alt-right twitter users complain, the accounts go into suspension.

   Twitter has fired all the humans who review these suspensions.

   The world's (maybe not) richest fascist has his own private website.

   What’s relevant to take from this is that it’s an illustration of how Musk’s malevolence, ingenuousness, inexperience and slapdash management are interacting with and catalyzing each other. Meanwhile, to the extent these actions weren’t intentional on the part of the new management, they’re unlikely to get resolved since Musk seems entirely in the thrall of a series of far right accounts which now camp out in his Twitter timeline telling him he’s doing a great job and that everything is going according to plan.

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3. Wicked Twitter Thread on Kanye West and Nick Fuentes sitting down with a White Supremicist.

   Same as it always was. Ronald Reagan was jovial, grandfatherly White Supremicist.

   The problem with seeing Nick Fuentes as evidence of a clear white supremacy lurch within Trumpism is that first, Trumpism has always quite explicitly had white supremacy as a key feature. Second, this white supremacy is always relational.

   The Trumpist formation is always a jumble of elements – violent masculinity, heteropatriarchy, antisemitism Caesarism, nativism, pro-cop despotism, etc. It always mixes racism and curious forms of antiracism as well. 

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   1. Twitter is lit 🔥 today… can you imagine the energy it took the Kardashian PR machine to keep this loon under wraps for so long?

      

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      1. There is one good thing about Hitler: He's dead.

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4. Colorado Rep. Joe Neguse elected to House Democrats' No. 5 leadership post, in charge of messaging

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   1. 👍👍

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5. Today I am very curious about Kevin McCarthy's statement to the January 6 committee chair Bennie Thompson to "preserve all records and transcripts" from their investigation.

   The committee of course has every motive to preserve these docs, and I think McCarthy has every motive to do the exact opposite, and not preserve them as he claims.

   Does the committee really have to turn them over? 

   Once the docs are in his possession, can McCarthy just issue an order to destroy the documents and thus bury the whole thing?

   Can the committee keep copies, or at least take an accounting and make a master list of the file names for each doc in case some of them just magically disappear?

   Something very shitty is going on and I confess I have no idea how this works. I am sure someone here knows what the process is. If you do please let me know! 

    

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   1. The Hard Boiled MAGA Caucus is reportedly demanding that McCarthy authorize many, many investigations into many, many topics including Nancy Pelosi's alleged role in causing 1/6. That means that a new select committee will be appointed by the new speaker to investigate whether the 1.6 committee covered up Pelosi's alleged role in causing 1/6.

      All 222 GOP members cannot spend all of their waking hours looking at Hunter Biden's laptop. They need other things to do.

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      1. They need other things to do, as long as it doesn't involve governing.

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         1. Yep. Let’s investigate Nancy Pelosi for Trumps riot. Let’s investigate Dr. Fauci for Trumps incompetent Covid response. Let’s investigate the FBI for investigating Trumps crimes. Anything but actually doing their jobs… 

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            1. Don't forget: Ken Buck still wants to investigate whether George Soros funded Antifa to cause the 2020 summer riots

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      2. All 222 GOP members cannot spend all of their wanking hours looking at Hunter Biden's laptop. They need other things to do.

         FTFY

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         1. Kinda depends on your definition of "Waking"

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   2. Yesterday, there was a clarification of what will soon happen.

      WASHINGTON — The House Jan. 6 committee will release transcripts of interviews investigators conducted in their investigation into the attack on the U.S. Capitol, the panel's chairman, Bennie Thompson, said Wednesday.

      "We plan to make available transcripts and other materials," Thompson, D-Miss., told reporters on Capitol Hill. He later confirmed that the panel had finished all of its depositions.

      The transcripts will be made public at the same time as the committee's long-awaited report summarizing and detailing the probe, Thompson said, adding that he expects they would be released before the Christmas holiday.

       

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      1. Thanks JiD. So McCarthy's blovating about the 1/6 documents is pointless, because they're already doing it.  Sounds just about exactly right.

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         1. Like when Ronny RayGun suspected the Berlin Wall was falling, so he rushed right over to demand that Gorbachev “tear down this wall” and claim the credit?

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            1. If MyKevin does become the "Golden Retriever of a Speaker"  there is one event I do not want to see. I do not want to see Nancy Pelosi hand this fatuous criminal the gavel.

               There must be a way to arrange for someone else to do it.

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         2. McCarthy's "bloviating" is premature and designed to try and get elected as Speaker. As of now, it's unclear if he has the votes. 

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            1. I agree CHB. McCarthy has to kiss the ring of the nutbag caucus to get the job. Then the two sides will start bickering with each other about BS investigations and showboating. Dysfunction will ensue.

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               1. Inept McCarthy making public promises is likely to create 3 impressions

                   * he's weak, and beholden to the people he's making promises to;

                   * he's weak, and the promises make him less likely to maintain votes among the NON-Freedom Caucus; and

                   * he's weak, and the promises aren't enough to win over the hard-core Freedom Caucus anti-McCarthy-ites  — including Reps Good and Biggs. 

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6. Duke – please email me (need your email to ask you something).

   david @ {my last name} .com

   thanks

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