stevenkesslar

My heart bleeds for you, Sis. I won't argue with you about his lack of respect. But, may I suggest, as selfless a public servant as you are, and as generous as you are in altruistically meeting certain intimate needs of BDE Democrats, that this is really about The Fet's total lack of respect for even the most basic of fashion principles? And please don't be mad at me for what I said above. If we have to take a Pennsylvania moderate to win in 2028, at least Shapiro has the decency to wear a suit, and look pretty good in it. Maybe not quite BDE, like I said. But hardly a brute.

Just to reinforce my affection for long-winded White data geeks who have zero BDE, here is the right-wing equivalent of Ryan Grim: Sean Trende at RCP. This also reinforces the Big Tent Energy theme of this thread. I think Trende nailed everything he said in the first part of this video about the election yesterday, which is about the first 20 minutes. The fact that it is now almost an expectation that "DSA adjacent" candidates will pick off anyone they target is itself a reflection of a massive shift. As he says, if you compare this to the Tea Party, they didn't pick off everyone every time. He cites John McCain as an example of a guy with true independent cred who dispatched a Tea Party primary opponent in Arizona easily in 2010. But his overall conclusion is that all the signs point to this being like 2018, when the Democrats had a similar lead of about 8 % in the generic ballot. There's discussion throughout the first 20 minutes of Washington state. I took it as a good sign that moderate Marie Gluesenkamp Perez dispatched her DSA opponent easily in a jungle primary. She'd be a good comparison to McCain as a Democrat with true independent cred in a swing district. Trende talks about Virginia House 1 as an example of a pretty solid Republican House seat that he thinks is now in play. The incumbent Republican, Robert Whitman, won that seat 56/44 in 2024. If that is now a 50/50 seat where a Democrat could win, that's a huge shift. They also make an interesting "silver lining in the cloud" argument about Virginia. The Democratic Virginia gerrymander that was thrown out by Republican judges would have made Democrat House members vulnerable in a good R year, anyway, Trende says. This way, Democrats might still win two or even three House seats in Virginia. But they will be somewhat easier to hold long term when the tide turns again. Assuming that DSA-adjacent progressives and old school moderates can cohabitate a happy (enough) big tent, that is. The most important fact Trende cites earlier in the interview is that conservatives outnumber liberals two to one. What Trende said about 2 to 1 is debatable. It was more true when Clinton was POTUS, which was Trende's point. He said Clinton succeeded by building a coalition between liberals and moderates. Trende did not mention this. But it often pissed off liberals and Gays. I'd argue Clinton then Obama then Biden managed to also nudge policy a bit more to the liberal end, even though liberals are not a majority. That said, I also just explained why Democrats can't keep Senate seats in more centrist states like Iowa and Montana and North Carolina - all states that voted for Obama at least once. Unrelated, Mark Halperin has this monthly list of which Democrat is most likely to be nominee in 2028. And it is all over the map. Just weeks ago he was saying Bernie may run in 2028 and may be unstoppable. For some reason he now put Shapiro at the top of the list. The math above suggests that moderate Democrats are going to prevail nationally. Which is what happened in 2016 and 2020. Even though most Republicans would not call Clinton or Biden moderates. They were compared to Bernie or Warren. Running Joel Shapiro would be a clever thing to do, if what Democrats care most about is winning. You can argue that if Harris picked him, she would have won. You can also argue that Genocide Joel would have cost her more votes in Michigan. Either way, it looks like Shapiro is headed to a blow out win in 2026. El-Sayed won't win in a blowout. Shapiro and El-Sayed are both handsome guys. And Shapiro also has BDE. It would not be a marriage made in heaven. But stranger marriages have happened. Just ask Mike Pence. That said, if we have to have a Jew, can we please have Ossoff? 😉

Ryan Grim, unfortunately, has a bad last name. And he kind of looks the part. But he comes closer than most journalists to reflecting my own political ideology, and data wonkishness. He says some things that I timestamped at 35:30, at the very ends of that video, that I think really nailed it. His main point is that if you predicted this around March, he would have said no fucking way! To summarize, at that point it looked like there was no way El-Sayed could win a one on one race against either moderate. McMorrow, who was tied or leading at the time, attacked him as a radical anti-Israel guy that should be denounced. Appropriately enough, in The Jewish Insider. She nailed her own coffin shut, as it turned out. Grim says the same with the two DSA-endorsed/progressive House candidates who won: Lawrence and McKinney. That wasn't at all obvious in March. So you are right. The verdict is out. But as Krystal Ball notes after Ryan Grim (what names!) makes his points, this will be THE test of whether the left can deliver the goods in a general election in a swing state or swing district. If Hong wins the Wisconsin Guv primary, that is even more so. It's no coincidence this all started around the time the Iran War started. There's a good question as to whether the Genocide Jew is more genocidal to Palestinians, or mainstream Democrats, or Trump. I hope the message that mainstream Democrats get is that the Genocide Jew is deeply committed to killing every mainstream Democrat, and your wife or husband, and your children. If you are a mainstream elected Democrat. the Genocide Jew will bash your child's brain in. Even as he tries very hard not to bash your child's brain in as he is bashing your child's brain in. If the election were in March, Grim is right. El-Sayed would not have won. Neither would Lawrence and McKinney, perhaps. Neither would Hong, if she wins next week. Thank the Genocide Jew for all these wins. Take a bow, you Genocidal Piece Of Shit. If any Democrat knows how to count votes, and elect Democrats, it is Nancy Pelosi. It is telling that she voted against sending bombs to the Genocidal Piece Of Shit. Of course, the Genocide Jew only matters in so far as he was able to bullshit amoeba-brained Donald Trump, strategic peanut, into starting a stupid war. But Biden and Harris had the same problem. The Genocide Jew didn't help them in Michigan in 2024. So my guess is that the anti-war momentum that kicked this off in March, which only built on the momentum about affordability that got Mamdani elected, will only keep building through November. If that turns out to be true - HUGE IF - winning races for Senate in Michigan and Maine and Senator BDE's state - and maybe even Earnest Jimmy Texas - will only build more momentum for these types of candidates. That's my hope at least. And I'm an optimist. You didn't answer my question. Paul Wellstone and Jeff Merkley were/are incredible optimists who both took out incumbent Republican Senators. They both also were/are guys who tended to take big risks. A close friend of mine tells a great story about a bank-in where Wellstone was supporting farmers being foreclosed on, back when he was a loud mouth nobody. His wife Sheila told my friend, "Don't let Paul get arrested." Paul got arrested. Merkley, when he was a do-gooder nobody, helped me organize a coalition in Portland that took on every bank in town publicly. I told him be aware bankers could retaliate against you. And he said he didn't care. We won everything we wanted plus more. But they did do something retaliatory to him that was painful at the time. Five years later he was the leader of the Oregon House and we were allies in crime fighting Enron and getting a great progressive electricity restructuring bill passed. Wellstone had BDE. He actually did wrestle in college. Merkley does not have BDE. But I'd argue both had/have vision + optimism. It got Merkley and Wellstone US Senate seats. El-Sayed has that. They will all be among the most progressive members of the US Senate. El Sayed is not only an optimist. He is cocky. Statements about Fetterman being an ogre and and asshole were unforced errors. And they may have hurt him. It will certainly not help him build bridges with Democratic moderates. Optimism, and vision, will help him.

One more interesting article How Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan: Big turnout, liberal towns, walkup votes The general election will definitely be a test of how much Democrats can count on young voters. And whether 2024 was the change of a trend that young voters are more Democratic, and demography is destiny. Or whether 2024 was just an interruption due to inflation and COVID and Biden seeming old and senile. Did I mention Trump seems old and senile? Nate Silver already weighed in that primary polls for Congressional races are notoriously unreliable. But Michigan early voting started in early July, I think. There was a poll in early July showing Stevens was +7. All the polls showing El-Sayed was up by double digits came after early voting started. Only 5 % of ballots were cast on election day. The results are not necessarily inconsistent with the polling showing El-Sayed was way ahead. That report says Stevens won about 52 % of the vote in the Detroit metro counties overall. But El-Sayed won 59 % of the votes cast on election day in the same counties. It's the reverse of Texas 2020, which as much as anything killed Bernie Sanders. Bernie won the early voting ballots. But the Biden surge at the end when "ABB" (Anybody But Bernie) kicked in delivered Texas to Biden. It is not bad news that the late surge in Michigan went to El-Sayed. If I had to guess, it's going to be harder to turn out young voters than Black voters in November. And it doesn't hurt that Donovan McKinney won narrowly. So if El-Sayed is the BDE/Gym Bro/BTE+/LGBTQIABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ+ 🤢 candidate who can get young people to vote in November, I'm optimistic.

I started my monthly donation to El-Sayed today and was poking around his website. Jobs and Trade That's a pretty good answer. That said, I'm not sure how well "R & D" resonates with voters in Michigan. "Unions" is a good answer. But it speaks to what I said above. You can't just parachute in auto factories and steel factories. \ To me the simple and good enough answer is "tax the rich and corporations more and invest it in things that create well paying jobs." Again, seemed to work when Socialist Dwight Eisenhower was President. This was Haley Stevens' answer, brought to you courtesy of $30 million from AIPAC. They were great ads. But they didn't work. And I assume most people have no clue AIPAC paid for them.

Again, I am swelling with pride, Sis. Deep thinking, while deep throating. That's what we need more of.

This is an example of where Mark Halperin is the best in the business, when you put aside the axes he likes to grind. And Halperin's downfall literally did stem from his cockiness. He was saying last night on his 2Way podcast that Rogers has two big disadvantages that play right into El-Sayed's hands. First, he basically lives in Florida. El-Sayed does a good job of presenting himself as a "son of Michigan," who has focused on the everyday needs of Michigan folks. Like eyeglasses and clean water. Second, Rogers is rich. And a ton of outside money will flood in for him. Just like the AIPAC money. El-Sayed relies on small donors. It may actually turn out to be an advantage for El-Sayed.

This is a list from GovTrack of the most politically right to most liberal Democrat. Bernie is the most liberal. But he is not listed since he is technically not a Democrat. Senate Democrats most politically right #1 0.55 Sen. Warnock [D-GA, 2021-2028] #2 0.54 Sen. Kim [D-NJ, 2024-2030] #3 0.54 Sen. Peters [D-MI, 2015-2026] #4 0.53 Sen. Schiff [D-CA, 2024-2030] #5 0.51 Sen. Hassan [D-NH, 2017-2028] #6 0.48 Sen. Kelly [D-AZ, 2020-2028] #7 0.48 Sen. Tester [D-MT, 2007-2024] #8 0.47 Sen. Ossoff [D-GA, 2021-2026] #9 0.44 Sen. Rosen [D-NV, 2019-2030] #10 0.42 Sen. Carper [D-DE, 2001-2024] #11 0.42 Sen. Warner [D-VA, 2009-2026] #12 0.42 Sen. Hickenlooper [D-CO, 2021-2026] #13 0.41 Sen. Coons [D-DE, 2010-2026] #14 0.38 Sen. Bennet [D-CO, 2009-2028] #15 0.36 Sen. Shaheen [D-NH, 2009-2026] #16 0.33 Sen. Cortez Masto [D-NV, 2017-2028] #17 0.33 Sen. Schumer [D-NY, 1999-2028] #18 0.32 Sen. Kaine [D-VA, 2013-2030] #19 0.32 Sen. Cantwell [D-WA, 2001-2030] #20 0.29 Sen. Casey [D-PA, 2007-2024] #21 0.27 Sen. Cardin [D-MD, 2007-2024] #22 0.27 Sen. Schatz [D-HI, 2012-2028] #23 0.26 Sen. Luján [D-NM, 2021-2026] #24 0.26 Sen. Heinrich [D-NM, 2013-2030] #25 0.26 Sen. Stabenow [D-MI, 2001-2024] #26 0.25 Sen. Klobuchar [D-MN, 2007-2030] #27 0.24 Sen. Gillibrand [D-NY, 2009-2030] #28 0.24 Sen. Murray [D-WA, 1993-2028] #29 0.24 Sen. Baldwin [D-WI, 2013-2030] #30 0.22 Sen. Reed [D-RI, 1997-2026] #31 0.22 Sen. Brown [D-OH, 2007-2024] #32 0.20 Sen. Fetterman [D-PA, 2023-2028] #33 0.20 Sen. Murphy [D-CT, 2013-2030] #34 0.18 Sen. Smith [D-MN, 2018-2026] #35 0.17 Sen. Durbin [D-IL, 1997-2026] #36 0.16 Sen. Duckworth [D-IL, 2017-2028] #37 0.15 Sen. Hirono [D-HI, 2013-2030] #38 0.14 Sen. Whitehouse [D-RI, 2007-2030] #39 0.13 Sen. Van Hollen [D-MD, 2017-2028] #40 0.13 Sen. Padilla [D-CA, 2021-2028] #41 0.12 Sen. Booker [D-NJ, 2013-2026] #42 0.10 Sen. Wyden [D-OR, 1996-2028] #43 0.10 Sen. Markey [D-MA, 2013-2026] #44 0.08 Sen. Warren [D-MA, 2013-2030] #45 0.08 Sen. Blumenthal [D-CT, 2011-2028] #46 0.07 Sen. Merkley [D-OR, 2009-2026] #47 0.06 Sen. Welch [D-VT, 2023-2028] That doesn't surprise me. GovTrack doesn't really spell out examples of what makes you more politically right. But sponsoring lots of bipartisan bills is one factor they state. And I know Warnock and Ossoff do that a lot, and brag about it, in a state that is still right of center. If it were up to me to pick the 2028 nominees, I might pick Warnock/Ossoff - in that order. You never want too much BDE. The "Rev" thing tempers it. El-Sayed for Veep? That may be an inch too far. Or several inches, if my Sister In Cock is right. My point is that if El-Sayed went after Rev. Warnock as an ogre whose head we want on a pike, it would be political suicide. I'd rather see Warnock be President.

Sure. I'd step inside with him. Oops! Democrats need BTE. Big Tent Energy. Elissa Slotkin has BTE. The outgoing more centrist types like Sen. Peters and Gov. Whitmer weighed in for Haley Stevens. But Slotkin kept her mouth shut. She is a proven BTE type. Because she had to be to win her House district for several cycles. Which a Republican then won in 2024, when she won her narrow Senate race. The progressives got their preferred candidate, Sunrise Movement co-founder William Lawrence, for her old House seat. So she will have to do some heavy lifting this fall putting the embrace of a moderate Democrat on two clearly lefty candidates. Pete Buttigieg has BTE. He just explicitly refused to tell Politico who he voted for in the primary. He said his priority is to unify afterward. Pete and Chasten always add a certain Gay Grace to these things. Abdul has BDE and Gym Bro Energy. And he is cocky. That may not be helpful. The last thing that came up on the radar with him nationally is the "ogre on the pike" comment, which he said was directed at Fetterman. Not exactly a warm embrace of the moderates he needs to win the primary, let alone the general election. I'm delighted with the results. They could not have sent a clearer message that both warring tribes of the Democratic Party need each other to win. So either we listen, or we lose. The pain of 2024 is so deep, in part because it was a close election in which Trump never got 50 % of the vote, that I am betting Democrats will listen. Real Clear Politics says Democrats are now 7.2 % ahead in the generic Congressional ballot, which is just a tad ahead of the 6.9 % advantage in 2018. As my Sister In Cock and I keep saying, every inch counts! I didn't follow the Missouri House race at all. But it suggests Blacks don't want to get involved in the AIPAC Wars. That said, AIPAC spent $30 million to defeat El-Sayed, and they got their ass kicked. So that worked out well, too, in my opinion. El-Sayed keeps saying he wants to focus on putting money in your pocket, not bombs for Israel. But if this becomes an anti-Israel crusade with the goal of Fetterman's head on a pike, that is a self-destructive loser. And the same pattern emerged as NYC. El-Sayed won because wealthier and college-educated voters wanted him to. Blacks, the working class, and rural voters went for Stevens. That may be good news for Democrats. I don't know how well turnout in college towns actually went. But the NYT graphic makes clear that El-Sayed did best in counties with college towns. If he can get them out in droves in November, without alienating more moderate voters, that may be the ticket to victory. When I was fluffing Senator BDE this morning 🫢 I asked him if he had a message for Michigan's college students. Sometimes Jon is so predictable!

I actually did think that was El-Sayed when I first saw the image, before playing the video. They both for sure have Gym Bro energy. It's not clear whether the Democratic operative was referring to the political signals that sends. Or whether AE-S's pool attire naturally revealed his well hung cock. He may need those nine extra inches in November, it turns out. That quote comes from an article titled, "Progressives didn't get the big election night they wanted." But we did get another candidate with BDE energy. And I am now sending him money. Does that make me a cock-hungry whore? Never mind. I know the answer to that question already.

Quite the opposite, Sis. I had lunch with Secretary Pete. He did serve in the military, and he is a warrior. But not of the other Pete's ilk. And no. There were no blow jobs. As fond as I am of Pete, I could never do that to Chasten. Anyhoo, I mentioned your thoughts about Stephen Miller, and Pete referred me to this recent interview. Anyhoo, my pride for you swelled yet again. Saving Western civilization and what not! Even Matt Damon found that challenging. Perhaps you might take some of those wrestlers in singlets with you on your mission, Sis. You can never have enough T, or VPL.

Remember. I'm an optimist. OMG! You're an optimist, too. Well, he's more a moron than an optimist, for sure. But maybe even a dumb dog can be taught we don't want kids with HIV to die?

It's so much sexier when he explains it. I love him, and Spain even more. And glad to see someone gives Kaitlan the respect she deserves. Speaking of respect, and a kind heart. I wonder if Ferran could help the stupid barking dog and Elon understand that kids with HIV are worth saving, too? 🤔

I have to say I'm impressed. First we find out the barking dog can write. Now we're learning he can make important contributions to our fashion conversations, Sis. I'm thrilled. The hat raises an obvious question. And I don't think my Sister In Cock @Suckrates is any better than me at Spanish, or English for that matter. Why did the hat say "Make Spain Great Again."? It should have said, "I Made Spain Great Again. I Scored The Winning Goal." Perhaps he's modest, as well as adorable. Regardless, I'd like to suck his cock. Wow. He likes to be on top. I'd like him to fuck me, too. But, Sis, here's the really intriguing question that I need an answer to. Is he Gay? If so, I really want to give him a blow job. Since you are focusing on domestic politics with Zohran and Senator BDE, Sis, may I suggest you leave the international diplomacy to me? And, finally, another very important question has arisen, that I suspect only you can answer, SIs. When you give him his victory blow job tonight, my beloved Sister In Cock, would you be so kind as to inquire whether Abdul is referring to percentage points, or inches?

I'm sorry. I know we're all supposed to be polite and shit. But this is really unfair. How come you get to talk about how big Canada's economy is (great news, by the way) but we can't talk about Ossoff's big penis? (Disclaimer: 8 out of 10 whores surveyed said BDE does not correlate with a large penis. Past performance does not guarantee future results.)

I am swelling with pride for my Sister!

Note that I did not point out I am sending money to Troy Jackson. But let's be honest. Would you want that finger up your butt? There. Now that I said it, you won't get the image out of your brain. My sister takes personal responsibility by making her Mayor happy. So, yes, she is a whore. And, yes, she likes to brag about it. I never brag. 🤔 What would I have to brag about? So at least, in my fantasies, I can provide a small taste of pleasure to Senator BDE, other than by paying him money. I do feel this is my personal responsibility. Just like my devoted Sister In Cock. It's a bit like escorting. Money and sex. Who am I to be against that?

I realize I have used way more than my bandwidth on this issue. But I learned some things in revisiting it. I'm posting this video specifically because of the part with Dr. Birx, who literally stood side by side with Fauci through much of this. It is timestamped at about 19:00. I think she is right that the fuel to this is anger, from the right especially, that somehow the government fucked up. Birx says we ought to be trying to think about what we do next time and not sort ourselves to red and blue. There is no county where everyone is either red or blue, she says. True. But the fact is that in red counties in Michigan that supported Trump the most, people were 7 times as likely to die after the vaccines came out, because they did not use them. So if the point of "debate" and "meeting in the middle" is to lynch Fauci - and Birx - because they told us lies that killed us, there is zero value in that. It's like interviewing that evil bitch Elon Musk who smugly laughs and says there were "zero deaths." As if we should applaud his arrogance and ignorance and pretend we learned something or know something. I like that Birx singles out John Fetterman as a voice of reason at this hearing. Fetterman, like Birx, was pushing the "meet in the middle" approach. I think they are well meaning and sincere. I don't believe Ron Paul is well meaning. I think he wants a partisan lynching. Saager Enjeti on Breaking Points took his typical anti-government line and went with the idea that all these people someone screwed up. But he had some interesting fact-based perspectives. He said we were lucky because, unlike the Spanish flu, this virus mainly killed "fat and old" people. While blunt, that explains why Australia had a death rate about one-fifth of the US. And why many of the people who died were vaccinated. And fat or old. Australia closed the gates and waited until after most people were vaccinated to open then. But the virus still killed old and fat people. The "zero facts" crowd wants to pretend somehow Fauci and Birx lied to them. It's whining bullshit. Assessing the impact of Australia’s mass vaccination campaigns over the Delta and Omicron outbreaks Even in Australia, which had an overall death rate 80 % lower than the US, whether you got vaccinated - after the vaccines came out - increased your chances of living 7 to 11 times if you were over 50. The part about "over 50" matters a lot. As Enjeti said, that made COVID very different than the Spanish Flu, which for reasons still unknown targeted and killed younger men and women like him and his partner Krystal Ball, both young parents, in particular. Birx tells grandmother’s story in social distancing plea So there is a two minute video and a related new article there. It explains why the right wing should lynch Deborah Birx, if they want a good lynching. Why? Because Birx followed horrible social distancing rules, as explained in the first video, because she was worried about killing President Trump or Vice President Pence. Why was she worried? Because her own grandmother never forgave herself for killing her own young mother, when she brought the Spanish flflu home from school and unknowingly infected her own Mom. Who died in 1918. This is the kind of story our stupid dangerous dog loves. The barking dog could care less when children die of HIV. He would probably be barking loudly and happily when the pitchforks go into Dr. Birx for pushing the same rules that Dr. Fauci pushed. Which the mad barking dogs now say caused death, when actually they prevented death. To me, one of the worst moments of COVID, in retrospect, is when Birx told that story. The story is simple. Sending a child to school innocently killed her young mother, and meant the young girl felt guilty her whole life. On the face of it, it explains why Dr. Birx felt passionately about masks, school closures, and social distancing. I feel bad about a specific conversation I had with a friend who was the CEO of a well known education corporation. He said in late 2020 these school closures would have devastating consequences for school kids and test scores. I told him the store of Trump's expert, Dr. Birx. Happily, I'm not Joe Rogan. I don't have to worry about giving anyone bad advice. Turns out, as Enjeti noted, this virus was less fatal to young adults than the Spanish flu. By late 2020 we knew that. In retrospect, as Birx gets at in the recent interview, I think those kinds of stories and fears did cause people to overreact. As Birx said, we learned this along the way. And, as Birx said, the partisan war prevented Americans from using that knowledge the way some other countries did. My own simplistic and overly rigid view is this. Everyone should have gotten vaccinated, just like we do with measles. Had everyone gotten vaccinated, it would have made it far easier to keep schools and businesses open. Older grandparents or obese Moms might have died anyway, after vaccination. But all the facts say they had a better chance. Of course, the vaccines did not come out until 2021. What pisses me off is the "zero facts" lynch mob wants all of us to live on their fact free diet. Nobody tells me a fucking thing! And Birx and Fauci were dead right. Lots of Republicans went to the grave fighting for their principles.

First, not to be disrespectful, Sis. But get your pronouns right. It's "her." Second, I am throwing my money around to James Talarico every month. And Senator BDE in Georgia. And once he wins the primary, which he looks like he will today, El-Sayed goes on the list. Granted, unlike you I don't get to give them a blow job as well. Yes, my life is a fucking tragedy. But not all of us get to be as young and pretty as you and your BFF Zohran. So don't press your luck. But do, always and forever, press your VPL. 😉 Third, guilty as charged! I'm an optimist. Since you are being a smart ass and can "see it coming", I'll ask you this. It relates to past predictions, where we know how things eventually played out. Who is Bev Stein, and what does she have in common with Francesca Hong? Who are Paul Wellstone and Jeff Merkley, and what do they have in common? And how is the stupid barking dog not like any of them?

Well I definitely have a contrarian opinion on this. I'm not in any way trying to paint either Tillis or Cornyn as heroes. They're not. Like I said in a different post, I'll Paxtonize them (not a word, either) and use Senator BDE's word to describe them both: scumbags. I give Tillis marginally more respect. He got into it with Trump about the impact of Medicaid cuts on North Carolina constituents. You can argue he was only looking out for his own ass. But his point, bluntly, was, "If we do this, it increases the odds I will lose." Trump essentially said, "Why the fuck should I care? Good riddance." So you could say it all proves they only care about themselves, not the impact of Medicaid cuts. But all of this is helping Roy Cooper and James Talarico. If Talarico wins, it will really be a textbook example of serial political malpractice. Cornyn's role is it's a little grudge match. Of course nothing is ever over with Trump, whether it is rape or grift or really awful genocidal judgment or whatever. But it does not make matters worse that the payoff to insurrectionists is rescinded. Mostly, I accept the grift for what it is: something that tragically has to happen. The same way I accept that there are millions of stunningly stupid and dangerous barking dogs being stupid and cruel to Medicaid recipients in North Carolina and kids in Asia with HIV. I'm not happy for the grift or stupidity or cruelty or war or death of kids with HIV , of course. But, sadly, in America you really do have to take it to the extreme until the pendulum swings and goes the other way. The barking dogs have to deny that kids with HIV are dying so that ignorant stupid Joe Rogan can be told by James Talarico and Bono that, geez, kids with HIV are dying. And the dog barks and barks and takes pride in ignorance and cruelty and the death of children. The ‘Zero’ People Who Died After USAID Was Dismantled So all this to me is a calculus about how far it has to go one way to start to go back the other. But Tillis and Cornyn and the barking dog won't change, or be less dangerous.

Let's not split hairs when we should be focusing on VPLs, Sis. I don't disagree that under Trump, any piece of paper is worthless. Let's take the MOU with Iran, for example. If Democrats win the House and impeach Trump again, it will be worthless. Because they won't have the votes in the Senate. I would not discount the idea that Trump will go the way of Nixon, when his Republican "friends" in the Senate like Thune place the dagger in his fat worthless ass. It's unlikely. And it partly depends on what I wrote above about stock market bubbles and the economy. My nephew and I disagree, and he is no Bob Shiller. But he thinks the economy is on its last legs, as do many Americans. If we have are in a recession by 2028, which we could be, Trump will really look like the loser he is. He is losing voters and allies by the day. Trump has already said he doesn't want to be the next Herbert Hoover. I think his problem is more like being the next George W. Bush. A loser Forever War and an economy going into recession after a bubble collapses (housing, in the case of W.)

You are truly tragic. Fauci started PEPFAR, which saved 26 million lives of people with AIDS all over the world.. Your heroes Trump and Musk cut it. Your hero Rogan is a self-proclaimed "moron" who can't get his facts straight. You revel in lies and cruelty. Especially cruelty to kids with HIV. 5 times as many Americans died as Australians because MAGA Americans rejected Fauci's advice to get vaccinated. You're ignorant and dangerous. Please. Keep posting this stuff. Every day. Lots of it. It will help fair-minded moderates understand what it wrong with the ignorance and cruelty. It reveals what a miserable ignorant excuse for a Gay man you are.

Or make money from it. My nephew who is my stock trading buddy will make over $1 million on leveraged semiconductors today (SOXL). It's a bubble, but he's playing it. It's funny. He rents an apartment with his wife and tends bar. His wife was born in the US. But her older sister and parents immigrated from Ireland. Her sister runs a business she started that is very successful. And now my nephew and his wife are going to be multi-millionaires. So hopefully all this happens right before the Democrat who replaces Trump raises taxes on the rich. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. He and I actually joke about. He thinks Trump is a piece of shit, like me. We both think it is likely the AI bubble will pop by 2028, leaving Trump and Vance holding the bag of shit. Couldn't happen to nicer guys. I will believe until I die that Dwight Eisenhower's Socialist America was a great place to be. The middle class thrived, tax rates on the rich were near the highest they had ever been thanks to FDR, small businesses (the one my Dad started, for example) prospered, and America grew. Men were men, and they wore wrestling singlets. 😉 My nephew and his wife live in a prosperous and nice Chicago suburb and are modeling the same thing. Without the singlet. Meanwhile, as you note, Sis, all Republicans are still wimps, and "scumbags", to quote Senator BDE from Georgia. Regardless, it was a small victory. And a taste of what is to come when Senator BDE chairs an oversight committee. Hopefully he'll wear a wrestling singlet when he pins those Trump Grift Motherfuckers down.

Great question. So three videos. Two of which are short. Like two minutes each. And one of which is longer, but sexy. Sorry, no wrestling singlets though. 😉 I thought it would be interesting to see if I could find a short clip where some democratic socialist talked about how they will create jobs, in their own words. I couldn't find anything that was short and made any sense to me. This is the clip that I thought came closest. No surprise that Bernie would be the one to define the movement Bernie as much as anyone started. But that definition fits for me, based on my own understanding of what people who want "democratic socialism" want. They don't want Putin to revive the Soviet Union so they can live in it. They want a set of economic rights. Bernie grounds it in FDR and MLK. I think that's right. Many people seem to view it as New Deal Plus. Or Equal Rights Plus. Like King in the latter stages of the Civil Rights Era, who tied the movement more and more to universal economic rights. What universal economic rights? I thought for a two minute video, that did a pretty good job of defining what lots of young democratic socialists want. Affordable housing. Decent wages. More unions. Affordable child care. Affordable health care. What Bernie would call a set of economic rights. That all begs the question: but how do you actually create jobs? I think what a democratic socialist would say is we don't want to replace a free market. We want to fix all the inequalities it creates. And this is where you get into the Green New Deal, as one example of how public investments will create all these great new jobs. Biden and Harris did not lose because of that idea. They lost because of inflation and things like seemingly open borders. The core idea to me has always been very simple: raise taxes on the rich and corporations and use the money to support the working class and middle class. This always polls very well. And that is certainly what Mandani, El-Sayed, Sanders, and Talarico are talking about. Talarico is on the cutting edge, in my mind. Texas has NOT elected a Democrat statewide in a long time. And Talarico is NOT a democratic socialist. But going after the "billionaires" who the current economy is rigged to benefit sure ain't hurting him. So there. That's my answer. As long as they are talking about these things, they are doing pretty well. Even in swing states and Texas. When they talk about getting rid of ICE, and the US Senate, and borders, and the police, and prisons, it's not "democratic socialism" so much as "a way to scare people and lose elections." To me, at least. One other idea, before I get to the sexy part. I was struck back in 2017 by some interview I read with a Republican Senator. Who I don't recall. But it was a really good interview. The Senator said that there was a broad awareness that all the lost factories and factory jobs in the Midwest/Rust Belt had created a huge political sore spot after eight years of Obama. And this Republican said, correctly in my mind, that Trump did a very good job of picking the scab off that wound. Those fallen Blue Wall states gave him his victories both times. But the Senator said we are very aware we can't just drop tire and steel and auto factories down from the sky and bring back the 1950's. My point is we have now gone through two Trump Administrations. And in fact they have never offered a comprehensive solution. It's now just a fact that cutting taxes for the rich didn't bring back factories. So that's what democratic socialists can run against. But what can they run for? I think the best answer so far is what Bernie says. A bill of economic rights. You may drive an Uber or work at Walmart. But at least you should have certain economic things. And if a capitalist economy can not produce those things by itself, a democratic socialist politics should tax the rich and provide it to you. I think two Trump Administrations, not to mention Trump Grift, set the stage for this to seem like a very legitimate idea. And now the sexy part. Talk about BDE. In a way that gym bro chat was disappointing. You'd think if you put a Sandernista like David Sirota in El-Sayed's home gym you'd get some type of policy wonk discussion about a Green New Deal or preventing AI job loss. No such luck. We do learn why El-Sayed thinks Fetterman is an asshole. And I'll leave it up to my younger and prettier Sister In Cock to comment on their less than perfect gym fashion choices. But the guy has BDE + GBE. And if Gym Bro Energy is not enough, he has his own ideas about masculinity. It's an interesting chat. Nice arms and legs, too!