105 replies to this topic

[LFC]

Great. A billionaire is backing the candidacy of an author who is unqualified to really represent anybody to the tune of $10M. Welcome to the GOP.

Quote

Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, dumped $10 million into a SuperPAC backing “Hillbilly Elegy” author and venture capitalist J.D. Vance, who may run for retiring Sen. Rob Portman’s (R-OH) seat.

Thiel deposited the money into a SuperPAC called Protect Ohio Values, created last month to support a possible Vance run, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Thiel publicly backed President Donald Trump in 2016, and endorsed his candidacy at the Republican National Convention. He sat out the 2020 election, feeling that Trump was a long shot.

Vance, also a Trump supporter, has been making recent appearances on Tucker Carlson Tonight and tweeting about Dr. Seuss and the southern border, putting himself in line with current GOP priorities.

[golden_valley]

LFC, on 15 March 2021 - 02:58 PM, said:

Great. A billionaire is backing the candidacy of an author who is unqualified to really represent anybody to the tune of $10M. Welcome to the GOP.

I figured Vance would run for Portman seat. He used to work for Thiel's venture capital firm in California but moved to Ohio. His wife clerked for Roberts and later Kavanaugh so he's hooked in with the money (Thiel) and the Federalist Society. No question that he would run for office and I doubt he intended to work his way up through elected offices from a city councilman or something lowly like that.

[baw1064]

golden_valley, on 15 March 2021 - 07:16 PM, said:

I figured Vance would run for Portman seat. He used to work for Thiel's venture capital firm in California but moved to Ohio. His wife clerked for Roberts and later Kavanaugh so he's hooked in with the money (Thiel) and the Federalist Society. No question that he would run for office and I doubt he intended to work his way up through elected offices from a city councilman or something lowly like that.

Well, his book has "Hillbilly" is the title, so that's got to put him in touch with the common folks!

[LFC]

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-ALl Asshole, All The Time), member of the House Treason Caucus, wants an upgrade to join the Senate Treason Caucus. And look at the steaming pile of evil by his side.

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Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), who helped lead the crusade by Republican lawmakers to steal the 2020 election on ex-President Donald Trump’s behalf that eventually led to the Capitol insurrection in January, is reportedly poised to launch a campaign for the Senate next week.

Punchbowl reports that Brooks will announce the bid during his rally with former Trump adviser Stephen Miller on Monday.

On Wednesday, the congressman posted a flyer for a “campaign rally” that promised “an exciting announcement” without specifying what the campaign was about.

Republican sources told Punchbowl that’s when Brooks will reveal that he will run for Sen. Richard Shelby’s (R-AL) seat after the senator announced that he would not seek reelection in 2022.

The Alabama Republican was one of the most aggressive boosters of Trump’s “Big Lie” that falsely claimed the 2020 presidential election, which Trump decisively lost to now-President Joe Biden, was plagued with voter fraud and therefore illegitimate.

Hours before a violent mob of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol on January 6, Brooks gave a fiery speech at the ex-president’s rally in which he told the crowd that “today is the day that American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass.”

“Are you willing to do what it takes to fight for America?” the GOP lawmaker shouted.

Brooks has refused to take responsibility for fueling Trump supporters’ rage with falsehoods about the election and has claimed that he was not encouraging violence that day. He’s also refused to apologize for his role in the insurrection, which led to five deaths.

“I make no apology for doing my absolute best to inspire patriotic Americans to not give up on our country and to fight back against anti-Christian socialists in the 2022 and 2024 elections,” the congressman said in a statement.

[Bact PhD]

Although tangential, this piece seems to belong best here...for the time being.

Greetings from Flori-DUH, home of the Heir Apparent (at least in some circles):

https://www.nbcnews....-house-n1261547

Quote

It's been a fast rise — and an even faster seesaw of political fortunes, considering where DeSantis' reputation was early in the coronavirus crisis. He was ridiculed and second-guessed for rejecting mask mandates and reopening businesses. His approach was compared, unfavorably, to other governors from both parties, including now-embattled Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York. DeSantis' popularity in Florida cratered.


Florida residents outraged over governor’s vaccine rollout
But Florida has, since the beginning of the pandemic, seen fewer per-capita coronavirus cases and deaths than many states, including many that instituted the more restrictive measures. And DeSantis' poll numbers are rebounding a year ahead of his re-election bid. A Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy survey last month found him with a 53 percent job-approval rating.

"I think he's the odds-on favorite to be the next president," if Trump doesn't run again, said Joe Gruters, a Florida state senator and chairman of the state Republican Party.

Such declarations can't be discounted as parochialism in a state where two other Republicans — Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott — nurture White House ambitions. Nationally, the picture is similarly encouraging for DeSantis.

[JackD]

How trustworthy are Florida's Covid numbers?

[Traveler]

Who knows, but NYT is a pretty good source. Where I am (Clay Co.) is less than half where I live (Chesco). 8 vs. 18 per 100k. 4% vs.5% positive. Having the first shot, mask protocol only used inside.

Ominous trend though in both. The decline is over, and now starting to climb again. All I can say is we got ours. Second shot next Saturday. Gotta wait till friends get it and maybe the long isolation is over.

[Bact PhD]

Traveler, on 21 March 2021 - 07:00 PM, said:

Who knows, but NYT is a pretty good source. Where I am (Clay Co.) is less than half where I live (Chesco). 8 vs. 18 per 100k. 4% vs.5% positive. Having the first shot, mask protocol only used inside.

Ominous trend though in both. The decline is over, and now starting to climb again. All I can say is we got ours. Second shot next Saturday. Gotta wait till friends get it and maybe the long isolation is over.

Just to your southwest, the official county & state #s here have us hovering at the 10 per 100K mark, positivity rate sub-2%. The ICU occupancy rate has (barely) dipped below 85%. The drop has halted; we seem to be holding steady the last 3-4 weeks on most metrics. The pace of vaccinations seems to have slowed down a bit, but on a per-day basis running 10-to-1 (at least) versus new cases.

Chem PhD gets his 2nd jab in a week. Technically, I am eligible effective today, so it’s going to be luck of the draw somewhat as to when I can get in. In my social set (includes a fair # of physicians & families), many have already gotten at least one shot. Dear Daughter, the nanny? Her BF, the grocery worker? Dear Son, the teen in school who would theoretically be able to get the Pfizer shot? Who knows???

Dear Son’s school’s most recent round of “be extra vigilant regarding symptoms because a classmate of your son/daughter has a household contact positive” expired the first week of March. The athletic department increased the number of people permitted to attend baseball games, masks still required in the stands. The baseball coach admonished the players going into Spring Break to “be smart, we could make a strong postseason run...” (we don’t have too many bodies to spare if one or 2 get knocked out due to COVID).

Still “Stay Tuned”...

[LFC]

A Georgia Republican state rep, MAGAt, and fascist (but I repeat myself) is going to primary Brad Raffensperger in 2022 (paywalled).

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Trump loyalist Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) on Monday officially announced his campaign against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a bid to be the top elections official in the state that ex-President Donald Trump relentlessly targeted in his bid to steal the election in 2020.

For a sitting member of Congress to ditch his seat for a state-level administrative role is virtually unheard of. What’s behind this bizarre career move?

Well, Hice’s announcement makes no attempt to hide the fact that his campaign, which was quickly endorsed by Trump, is about anything more than greasing the wheels of the former president and the rest of the GOP’s growing attacks on voting rights.

“Free and fair elections are the foundation of our country, which is why I am excited to announce my campaign for Georgia Secretary of State,” Hice said. “Together, we can renew integrity and secure our elections.”

The congressman’s sales pitch is spawned directly from MAGAland’s false narrative that the 2020 presidential election was tainted by fraud in Georgia and several other states Trump lost and that the former president’s defeat was therefore illegitimate.

In wake of his freshly launched campaign, let’s look at how Hice served as an enthusiastic participant in the ex-president’s crusade to overturn the election:

Peddled Lie Claiming Trump Won Georgia
In an interview with pro-Trump media outlet Newsmax in November, Hice asserted that he was not “convinced at all, not for one second, that Joe Biden won the state of Georgia” despite the clear fact that Biden had done exactly that. (Hice’s comment was flagged Georgia Public Broadcasting.)

The Georgia Republican would go on to push the “Big Lie” afterward.

Falsely Claimed Georgia’s Hand Vote Recount Would Show Trump Won
Hice told former White House press secretary Sean Spicer in another November interview that the hand recount of the votes in Georgia would show an “enormous difference” in the election results than what the voting machines had tallied.

“At the end of the day, I think we’re going to see President Trump come out on top here in Georgia,” Hice said (Trump still lost the race after the recount).

The lawmaker also boosted Trumpland’s bogus conspiracy theories about the vote tallying machines by Dominion Voting Systems flipping votes to Biden.

“We know the Dominion count and all the problems that Dominion itself has had-where there’s smoke there’s fire. There is no way to determine the accuracy of the machines unless you count by hand and then compare the two numbers,” Hice said without offering evidence.

Those conspiracy theories are now at the center of Dominion’s billion-dollar defamation suits against Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, the lawyers who tried to use the courts to overturn the election with clownish lawsuits.

Railed Against Expanding Absentee Ballot Access
In the same interview with Spicer, Hice parroted Trump’s attacks on voting by absentee ballot, which elections officials across the country had expanded amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Republican complained that Raffensperger’s office automatically sending registered voters applications to request absentee ballots was a “poor mistake” and baselessly claimed they would go to “illegal” or dead people.

Posted Photo Declaring ‘Our 1776 Moment’ On Jan. 6 Before Capitol Insurrection
On the day that a mob of Trump supporters ransacked the Capitol on January 6, Hice posted a photo of himself walking down a hallway with a caption that said “This is our 1776 moment” before the attack.

The post was deleted shortly after the insurrection. Hice’s spokesperson, Sarah Selip, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution the next day that the post was “our way of highlighting the electoral objection.”

“We removed the post when we realized it could be misconstrued as supporting those acting violently yesterday and storming the Capitol, both of which Rep. Hice strongly condemns,” she said.

Joined Texas’ Lawsuit To Throw Out Votes In His Own State
Hice was among the more than 120 House Republicans who signed an amicus brief in Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s doomed lawsuit to toss Georgia’s election results along with those of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

And Naturally Voted Against Certifying Election Results
Like 138 of his House GOP colleagues, Hice voted to object to the official certification of Biden’s victory even after Trump’s supporters disrupted the proceedings at the ex-president’s encouragement by violently breaching the Capitol and ransacking the congressional chambers.

Hice led the Georgia delegation in their objection to certifying the results in their state.

“As shameful and tragic as January 6 was, it does not change the fact that tens of millions of Americans believe the November 3 general election was fraudulent,” the Georgia Republican said in a statement several days after the attack (whatever those Americans believe, the election was not fraudulent).

Trump has already endorsed him.

[LFC]

Republicans looking to run for Sen. Rob Portman's seat in Ohio are going all out MAGAt.

Quote

So far, the GOP race to replace Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) has been molded by one central theme: fealty to former President Donald Trump.

Josh Mandel, the former state treasurer who ran twice against Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), insists that his burning indignation over Trump’s second impeachment is what pushed him to run in the first place.

Ever since, he has seemingly been on a mission to tweet something outrageous enough to prompt Twitter to respond, letting him rail against the “censorship” that conservatives supposedly suffer at the hands of social media companies. He succeeded last week with a poll asking his followers which “illegals” are more likely to commit crimes in the United States: “Muslim terrorists” or “Mexican gangbangers.”

Twitter flagged the tweet as a violation of its rules and, per the press release Mandel blasted out immediately after, temporarily suspended his account.

“Conservatives everywhere should be frightened by the ongoing censorship by Twitter, Facebook, Google and the liberal media,” he wrote, accusing Twitter of “silencing” him because he criticized “Biden’s border crisis.”

In a perhaps even more striking turnaround, Jane Timken, previously the chair of the Ohio Republican party, has been eager to shed positions that put her out of step with the former President.

In one such move, she hastily called on Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH) to resign for voting to impeach Trump — a denunciation that came just a month after she called him “an effective legislator” and said he must have had a reason for voting on impeachment the way he did. That brazen 180-degree turn was reportedly catalyzed by private polling showing an overwhelming majority of Ohio Republicans clamoring for Gonzalez’s ouster.

She, like Mandel, is not being coy about her hunger for a Trump endorsement: she recently took a bold stand supporting a local lawmaker’s effort to rename a local park for the former President, and has described her whole reason for running as a desire to “fight for the Trump agenda.”

Her efforts have not been good enough yet: a March Axios report captured Trump’s advisers urging him not to endorse her — or anyone — this early. It included a detail likely chilling to Timken: Trump is questioning whether she’s sufficiently loyal to him.

[LFC]

Another GOP House seat is opening up after Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) said he'd resign after sexual misconduct allegations.

Quote

Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY), who recently floated a potential campaign against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), announced on Sunday night that he would neither run for governor nor seek reelection in 2022 after a lobbyist accused him of sexual misconduct.

“Simply put, my behavior caused her pain, showed her disrespect and was unprofessional,” Reed said. “I was wrong, I am sorry, and I take full responsibility.”

Nicolette Davis, a lobbyist for the insurance firm Aflac, had told the Washington Post that Reed unhooked her bra and ran his hand up her thigh during a gathering with other lobbyists at a bar in 2017.

The GOP congressman denied Davis’ allegation in a statement to the Post on Friday, claiming that “[t]his account of my actions is not accurate.”

On Sunday, Reed walked back his initial response and said that his “personal depiction of this event is not relevant.”

He also stated he was “powerless over alcohol” at the time and has since sought treatment for his addiction.

Reed’s announcement comes after he told Fox News “seriously considering” a gubernatorial bid to unseat Cuomo, who has been hit with multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and workplace harassment.

[LFC]

Serial liar, fascist traitor Rep. Mo Brooks (R-ALl Outa' Sanity) wants to run for a Senate seat. Maybe he's jealous of the attention Ron Johnson is getting.

Quote

Mo Brooks, the Alabama congressman who is about to launch a campaign for Senate, has officially said he condemns the Capitol riot and opposes violence.

But in hours of right-wing media interviews before and after the deadly insurrection on Jan. 6, he repeatedly raised the prospect of violence as a possible response to Donald Trump losing the 2020 presidential election.

“This is pretty much it for our country,” Brooks said in a December podcast interview that has not been previously reported. “In my judgment, it rivals the election of 1860,” he added, referring to the election of Abraham Lincoln, “and we saw what ensued from that” — meaning the Civil War.

Brooks’ office didn’t respond to requests for comment for this article.

Brooks was outspoken in baselessly accusing Democrats of “stealing” the presidential election and seeking ways to keep Donald Trump in power. Now he is hoping those statements will springboard him to higher office in a Senate race that will test the endurance of Trumpism in the Republican Party and show what political consequences lawmakers may face for openly advocating anti-democratic ideas.

[andydp]

Looks like Matt Gaetz may be leaving early because he wants to take a job with OANN. Pay no attention to the investigation of his involvement with a 17 year old.

https://www.newsandg...3mwCp8qMG7tlTrI

[LFC]

andydp, on 30 March 2021 - 06:07 PM, said:

Looks like Matt Gaetz may be leaving early because he wants to take a job with OANN. Pay no attention to the investigation of his involvement with a 17 year old.

Maybe he and Madison Cawthorn can share a cell and take turns being the abused girl.

[andydp]

LFC, on 30 March 2021 - 06:42 PM, said:

Maybe he and Madison Cawthorn can share a cell and take turns being the abused girl.

How weird does it have to get for Tucker Carlson to call the interview strange ? Added bonus: Gaetz tried to bring him in

[Bact PhD]

andydp, on 30 March 2021 - 06:07 PM, said:

Looks like Matt Gaetz may be leaving early because he wants to take a job with OANN. Pay no attention to the investigation of his involvement with a 17 year old.

https://www.newsandg...3mwCp8qMG7tlTrI

My local rag has a little more (damning) info:

https://www.gainesvi...irl/4812302001/

(Paywalled, so more heavily excerpted)

Quote

Rep. Matt Gaetz is reportedly being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department over allegations that he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and paid for her travel, according to a report from the New York Times.

The Times cited "three people briefed on the matter" who said investigators are examining whether Gaetz violated sex trafficking laws.

The report said investigators were scrutinizing "encounters" with Gaetz that occurred about two years ago when the girl was 17.

Gaetz responded to the report on his Twitter account Tuesday evening, later sending the statement to the Pensacola News Journal, alleging he was the victim of a former Justice Department official seeking $25 million payment.

"We have been cooperating with federal authorities in this matter, and my father has even been wearing a wire at the FBI’s direction to catch these criminals," Gaetz wrote. "The planted leak to the New York Times tonight was intended to thwart that investigation. No part of the allegations against me are true, and the people pushing these lies are targets of the ongoing extortion investigation."

Gaetz said he demanded the Justice Department release recordings which would implicate the former officials.

The investigation on Gaetz was opened in the final months of the Trump administration when William Barr was U.S. attorney general.

Gaetz told the New York Times that his attorneys who had spoken with the Justice Department were told that he was the subject of an investigation and not the target.

"I only know that it has to do with women," Gaetz said. "I have a suspicion that someone is trying to recategorize my generosity to ex-girlfriends as something more untoward."

The investigation of Gaetz began with another investigation into former Seminole County Tax Collector Joel Greenberg, who was a political ally of Gaetz. Greenberg was indicted last summer on 14 federal charges including sex trafficking.

Gaetz told a crowd in Niceville on Monday that he would not make a career out of being a congressman.

"I'm not going to be a lifer in this job," said Gaetz, now in his fifth year in office. "I will not be here decades. I think four years to eight years sounds about right. I may not stay eight years. Six years has a good ring to it. I hope you're not disappointed in me if I don't stay more than a decade."

Gaetz, 38, is no stranger to both personal and political scandals since he was launched into the national spotlight as a congressman in 2016.

[snip]

Later that year in December, Gaetz cast the lone no vote on an anti-human trafficking bill that easily sailed through both houses of Congress on Dec. 19. Gaetz said at the time, from a Facebook Live session in his living room, that he voted no because, despite best intentions of the bill, it represented "mission creep" at the federal level in creating the committee.

[snip]

Then, in June 2020, Gaetz sent shockwaves through social media in June when he announced he had a Cuban “son,” Nestor, who he claimed to have been raising for the past six years. Nestor is the biological brother of Gaetz's ex-girlfriend and he said at the time he was a "single dad."

And just before New Years 2021, Gaetz got engaged to his girlfriend, 26-year-old Ginger Luckey, the sister of Oculus VR founder and prolific right-wing donor Palmer Luckey.

Hmmm. Methinks he doth protest too much.

Frankly, I wouldn’t buy a used car from the man.

[AnBr]

andydp, on 30 March 2021 - 06:07 PM, said:

Looks like Matt Gaetz may be leaving early because he wants to take a job with OANN. Pay no attention to the investigation of his involvement with a 17 year old.

https://www.newsandg...3mwCp8qMG7tlTrI

Well, you know the Repugs and their propensity to project all of their sins. They swear that it is the Dems are the pedophiles, but every time a pedophile politician is busted it is a Repug.

[Probabilistic]

Matt Gaetz is being profiled. Just because he looks like an entitled asshole...

[LFC]

Probabilistic, on 31 March 2021 - 09:00 AM, said:

Matt Gaetz is being profiled. Just because he looks like an entitled asshole...

Oh I think he's provided enough evidence to prove he's an entitled asshole many times over.

[Probabilistic]

LFC, on 31 March 2021 - 09:08 AM, said:

Oh I think he's provided enough evidence to prove he's an entitled asshole many times over.

I'm just gently mocking his overdeveloped sense of victimhood.