mtutiger

I'm sorry, but treating the current breakdown in American political culture and the violent undertones of it as being completely symmetrical is a bunch of hooey. There is one party that is led by a leader that sicced a mob on the capitol, there is one party that is led by a leader that blanket pardoned all of the people involved, has legitimized groups like the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, etc. I understand the tendency to want to see things from both sides and all.... but on this particular subject, it's wildly asymmetrical and oughtta be treated as such. And the fact that we treat "both sides" as if they are "the same" on this only emboldens more bad behavior.

Your point is... what exactly? Ridiculing these guys as a bunch of weirdos isn't a downplay of a threat that they present. But they're also deeply despised right now in the broader culture, much more than they were in November 2024. And they oughtta be treated accordingly.

They've been saying variations of this **** for 10 years now.... and they still sound like a bunch of weirdos every time they say it.

Maybe Dana Bash can ask Senator Scott to "tone down the rhetoric"

It's crazy that any of this even has to be said.... but when you have a media and political ecosystem built around treating this guy as if he's a normal President and not an aging 80 year old narcissist who is increasingly losing his fastball, this is what you get.

Again, think there's this tendency to view these guys as all being evil geniuses, but they really aren't... it's a party built on feeding the ego of an aging 80 year old narcissist. There's no other logic to it than that.

Old enough to remember when they hounded Biden for not going out in public enough...

Genuinely astounding at a time of higher gas prices and Americans feeling as anxious as ever about their own personal finances, *this* is something that vulnerable Rs are running with.

Wow

Almost 24 hours on and it's wild how the main response has centered around getting the Ballroom built. Just an incredible like when Americans are paying $1.50 more per gallon for gasoline than they were eight weeks ago

Setting aside that he's under contract, while the Boston name has a lot of prestige, the organization itself looks like a dumpster fire right now. This is a better team and a better job at this point in time. He'd be crazy to leave for that job

Don't know if it should be held either, but in terms of the impact it makes outside the Beltway chattering class, it's a non entity Tangentially, this tweet from Dylan Byers kinda makes the point better than I ever could... For the President and these journalists, this event (both the dinner and the shooting) was a big deal. To average people? WGAF, playoff hockey is on.

But even if this were the case, to what end? This will likely be forgotten in a week or two, just as Charlie Kirk was forgotten within a week or two for the vast majority of people. As Viktor Orban learned a few weeks ago, the playbook starts to lose its effectiveness when people are pissed about their material conditions

I don't buy the conspiracies surrounding this and continue to believe this administration is too incompetent to actually execute anything elaborate that is often attributed to them in times like these. Having said that, hard not to find a bit of dark amusement that all these people who have worked diligently to lower trust throughout greater society and exploited it gleefully while campaigning for power now find themselves distrusted by many people now that they themselves have power.

Suffice to say, this appears like a significant breakdown in security.

Video from the dais... Trump looking pretty feeble

Have a bigger issue with them wasting money on this when prices continue to go up and the administration continues their stupid war in the Middle East. It's an administration that continually messages that they care about literally anything else except for making your life better, and the stuff surrounding relining the reflecting pool, building an arch, knocking down the East Wing, etc. all play into it.

Looks like more Konstantin Chernenko stuff there lol

"Yes" didn't actually get that great of turnout compared to "No".... The analysis post-vote suggests that yesterday's electorate may have been more Republican than the one that gave Glenn Youngkin a win in 2021. But they drove home the message in NoVa hard and the swings in each of the counties around Washington were enormous. The two takeaways I have from the affair is that Elon Musk and DOGE get an assist in getting this across the finish line and that, in a Midterm environment where there are actual candidates on the ballot and not an issue referendum like this one, it's not going to go nearly as well for them electorate-composition wise as this one did

This is very very sweaty.... and with good reason

The gutting of the VRA on net is bad in my view. But the part that doesn't get talked about is that removing requirements for states like AL, SC or MS also means removing the same requirements for states like CA, NY or IL. All of whom could draw even more aggressive maps favoring Ds without VRA requirements to adhere to. On pure partisanship it nets out worse for the Ds, but it's hard to tell the effects without discussing how blue states might react as well

I hate gerrymandering as well and would love for some national consensus to emerge on the subject. But absent that, it's not clear to me why it should be the expectation that one side shoulder the responsibility for shunning the practice while it is assumed that the other side is just gonna do whatever they want and gerrymandering like crazy. After all, that is how this started, an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting in Texas. The other thing I would say... As a current resident of a Dem gerrymandered state (IL), the complaints from last night by VA Rs are nothing new. However, during the last redistricting cycle, the GOP in the state I used to live in (TX) took a meat axe to the only competitive State Senate district in the state (centered around Fort Worth and Arlington) and drew it to be about 25 points more Republican, with completely illogical borders. Essentially drew my State Senator at the time out of existence. Until the party comes out in favor of some national consensus on how to draw lines, my assumption is that they're all fine with Texas doing it, or Florida or North Carolina, and only give a **** when it affects them. I'll have more sympathy when they start to shun the practice altogether

This this this... A whole lot of whining and crying on the GOP side tonight about this result, but the reality is that NONE of this would be happening if their Golden Calf POTUS wasn't out there encouraging GOP leaders in states like Texas and Florida and NC. He and they made their beds here...

No is getting what it needs to in more red/rural counties but the results from Loudoun suggest that they are going to underperform in NoVa... not to mention nothing reporting from Richmond yet as well