Kansas Crimson

Nebraska is a red state. Why do its voters keep backing blue policies?

japhy wrote: ↑Wed Nov 15, 2023 5:21 pm When I went to vote last week, they were gathering signatures for a similar ballot initiative here in Missouri. This was for a $15/hr minimum wage and a paid sick leave. There seemed to be a steady stream of voters stopping to add their names to the list. This is the same process that got recreational weed son the balloon and put into law here. Our politicians didn't want it but the majority of MO citizens did. We are looking to add abortion access to that ballot mix. The Rs are trying to keep it off the Nov 5 2024 ballot, cuz it drives the "wrong" people to show up and vote.

X, née Twitter, the microblogging platform this genius bought on accident for twice its value a little over a year ago and which likely is now worth less than a quarter of what he paid for it, is struggling. It is losing its most valuable advertising partners, whose money has always provided nearly all the company's anemic bloodflow, entirely 100-percent because of stuff Musk has done to the company and its product, either via numb-skulled executive fiat or through the sneering bigotry he himself posts and promotes on the site. Again, this is entirely 100-percent because Musk is, and I do not say this lightly, the rankest ignoramus presently living.

As briefly as I can summarize: He destroyed Twitter's utility as a news service. He actively elevated and empowered its most poisonous and/or frightening and/or tiresome users. He made it janky and unreliable by gutting its workforce. He renamed it "X," instantly rendering it somehow both anonymous and incandescently corny. Worst and most poisonous of all, he associated it with himself—with, that is, the rankest ignoramus presently living. It's that guy's website, now.

As to that. People still evidently want to hear from this absolute buttmunch, which is not really surprising I guess, even where it can't be explained by ghoulish rubbernecking. Just about everything bad anyone might ever wish to say about society under capitalism is both crystallized and proven correct by the fact that Elon Musk remains Important despite all of the above. In fact he is probably at least as important as he has ever been, because "important" is just a synonym for "rich" in a society in which nothing substantial can be accomplished or even meaningfully attempted without first convincing at least one hyper-rich cretin that it will gratify them personally or financially. Conceivably Musk might not be quite as rich, or uh liquid or whatever, as he was some time ago, or maybe his rate of becoming richer has slowed somewhat, but he remains, inarguably, super duper friggin' rich, and therefore important at a scale previously reserved for, like, pharaohs. Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times and CNBC interviewed him earlier this week, and it served as a nice reminder of why pharaohs so seldom sat for interviews.

[video]

This bit, in which Sorkin attempts to extract lucid thoughts from Musk on the harm his own actions have done to X/Twitter, is a hilarious document for a few reasons. The first is just Musk's whole personal deal, which is instantly familiar to anyone who has ever shared a dreary retail shift (or, hell, elevator ride) with a tiresome dickweed who does all of his day-to-day socializing in hyper-curated online spaces. There's the man's howling bottomless anti-charisma; the painful, excruciatingly misplaced cocksureness; the not merely bad but actively uncanny timing of someone unaccustomed to unmediated meatspace interaction. Has there ever been a less magnetic individual? I wouldn't follow him if he was ahead of me in line for free ice cream.

Musk, for his part, seems to think he's crushing it. The man is so profoundly sure that his dumb, todder-like, obviously pre-planned "Go fuck yourself" is going to dazzle and delight the crowd; that they will, depending on their sympathies, gasp (the owned libs) or applaud (astounded freethinkers) at his boldness, or moral courage, or edgy fearless cool or whatever. He's so sure of it that he takes not one but two more passes at the line, each more deathly than the last: first with some theatrical handwaving that earns him a smattering of pity-chuckles from the crowd, and then again as a psychedelically cringey "G ... F ... Y" that makes clear he either doesn't understand or is intentionally dodging Sorkin's anodyne question.

[...]

Here is where I started thinking about the ridiculous anecdote from Walter Isaacson's Musk biography that tore its way around the internet a while back, the one where a younger Elon continually goes all-in on poker bets, losing and losing and losing, until, solely because he has enough money to absorb the losses and keep at this stupid-ass gambit, he lucks into a winner, at which point he gets up and walks triumphantly from the table. Here are the wages of lifelong insulation from accountability and material consequence: The poor doofus simply has no idea how to judge stakes, success and failure, causes and effects. On a basic level he does not even really possess the capacity to tell who is risking what in a conflict; he is the equivalent of a tennis player, down two sets and a double-break in the third, exulting because their opponent faulted on a first-serve attempt. They wanted an ace there and didn't get one, and that makes me the victor.

WASHINGTON ― House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Tuesday that Republicans are blurring faces in security footage from inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to protect rioters from prosecution.

“We have to blur some of the faces of persons who participated in the events of that day because we don’t want them to be retaliated against and to be charged by the DOJ,” Johnson said at a press conference.

The Department of Justice has long had access to the footage and has used it in some of the roughly 1,200 criminal cases against people linked to the riot, which saw participants fight police and storm the Capitol building.

Johnson’s comment is a remarkable statement of sympathy for supporters of then-President Donald Trump who illegally entered a restricted federal building as part of a violent attack on Congress.

Though prosecutors already have the video, blurring people’s faces could prevent amateur investigators from sending tips to the FBI. Online sleuths have previously used social media and facial recognition software to help the government track down a number of suspects.

Shortly after becoming speaker in October, Johnson announced that Republicans would release thousands of hours of footage from security cameras, fulfilling a pledge he made to the far-right flank of the House GOP conference. The video has previously been available to criminal defendants and reporters by request.

Johnson initially said that the footage would allow people to see for themselves what happened that day so that the public would not have “to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials” ― as though Trump supporters had not really ransacked the building as part of an effort to undo his loss in the 2020 election.

Conspiracy theorists and some Republican lawmakers have pointed to video snippets as evidence that it was actually the Justice Department that orchestrated the riot. Several lawmakers claimed that video showed a Trump supporter flashing a badge at Capitol Police officers, for instance. The object in the man’s hand turned out to have been a vaping device.

japhy wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 11:27 am You can't make this shit up. It just goes on and on.

WASHINGTON ― House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Tuesday that Republicans are blurring faces in security footage from inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to protect rioters from prosecution.

“We have to blur some of the faces of persons who participated in the events of that day because we don’t want them to be retaliated against and to be charged by the DOJ,” Johnson said at a press conference.

The Department of Justice has long had access to the footage and has used it in some of the roughly 1,200 criminal cases against people linked to the riot, which saw participants fight police and storm the Capitol building.

Johnson’s comment is a remarkable statement of sympathy for supporters of then-President Donald Trump who illegally entered a restricted federal building as part of a violent attack on Congress.

Though prosecutors already have the video, blurring people’s faces could prevent amateur investigators from sending tips to the FBI. Online sleuths have previously used social media and facial recognition software to help the government track down a number of suspects.

Shortly after becoming speaker in October, Johnson announced that Republicans would release thousands of hours of footage from security cameras, fulfilling a pledge he made to the far-right flank of the House GOP conference. The video has previously been available to criminal defendants and reporters by request.

Johnson initially said that the footage would allow people to see for themselves what happened that day so that the public would not have “to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials” ― as though Trump supporters had not really ransacked the building as part of an effort to undo his loss in the 2020 election.

Conspiracy theorists and some Republican lawmakers have pointed to video snippets as evidence that it was actually the Justice Department that orchestrated the riot. Several lawmakers claimed that video showed a Trump supporter flashing a badge at Capitol Police officers, for instance. The object in the man’s hand turned out to have been a vaping device.

Shirley wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 2:17 pm Fuck this pos:

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., announced Tuesday that he is dropping the bulk of his monthslong hold on hundreds of military nominations.

Tuberville told reporters that he has lifted his hold on all military promotions three-star and below, amounting to over 400 promotions.

“I’m releasing everybody. I still got a hold on, I think, 11 four-star generals. Everybody else is completely released from me.” Tuberville told reporters. “But other than that, it’s over.”

The Alabama Republican had been holding up military nominations for months in protest of the Defense Department’s policy that allows service members to be reimbursed for travel costs related to getting an abortion.

[...]

KUTradition wrote: ↑Fri Dec 08, 2023 7:51 am “Hey, f–k you! Guess what, bitch? All I have to do is pay $7 to watch your daughter shove her phone up her p—y!”

GOP lawmaker: Ousted aides targeted my daughter for OnlyFans account

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/0 ... illiams%20(R%2DN.,access%20to%20sexually%20explicit%20content.

Shirley wrote: ↑Fri Dec 08, 2023 8:13 am

KUTradition wrote: ↑Fri Dec 08, 2023 7:51 am “Hey, f–k you! Guess what, bitch? All I have to do is pay $7 to watch your daughter shove her phone up her p—y!”

GOP lawmaker: Ousted aides targeted my daughter for OnlyFans account

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/0 ... illiams%20(R%2DN.,access%20to%20sexually%20explicit%20content.

Wow, I had seen the video of Williams confronting the aide about going after his family, but you could only hear a brief amount of the confrontation, and the details were sparse. It was also hard to tell if Williams had lost it, because the aide had a very convincing, innocent, "what, me?" look on his face while Williams confronted him. I also remember it being on the day or day before they finally expelled Santos, so it fed into the inescapable "these are not serious people" vibe that republicans in the House have so richly earned.

But now, the fact that Williams is being so frank about the details involving daughter, argues authenticity.

KUTradition wrote: ↑Fri Dec 08, 2023 8:24 am

Shirley wrote: ↑Fri Dec 08, 2023 8:13 am

KUTradition wrote: ↑Fri Dec 08, 2023 7:51 am “Hey, f–k you! Guess what, bitch? All I have to do is pay $7 to watch your daughter shove her phone up her p—y!”

GOP lawmaker: Ousted aides targeted my daughter for OnlyFans account

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/12/0 ... illiams%20(R%2DN.,access%20to%20sexually%20explicit%20content.

Wow, I had seen the video of Williams confronting the aide about going after his family, but you could only hear a brief amount of the confrontation, and the details were sparse. It was also hard to tell if Williams had lost it, because the aide had a very convincing, innocent, "what, me?" look on his face while Williams confronted him. I also remember it being on the day or day before they finally expelled Santos, so it fed into the inescapable "these are not serious people" vibe that republicans in the House have so richly earned.

But now, the fact that Williams is being so frank about the details involving daughter, argues authenticity.

i’m honestly a little confused…the daughter is trying to get paid, so why is everyone protecting her identity?

KUTradition wrote: ↑Sun Dec 10, 2023 11:09 am jfc

The chair of the Florida Republican Party, Christian Ziegler, is being accused of rape by the woman he and his wife reportedly sometimes have sex with. Ziegler denies the accusation but the investigation alone has scandalized fellow Republicans who held the Zieglers as paragons of conservative virtue. In resisting calls to resign his position, Ziegler cites the party's leader, Donald Trump, and Republican acceptance of the behavioral standard Trump has set. 

‘murica

Shirley wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 10:16 pm
Moms for Liberty chapter splits off over response to rape allegation against co-founder's husband

Allegations against Florida Republican Party Chairman Christian Ziegler, whose wife is a Moms for Liberty co-founder, have created tensions in the conservative powerhouse group.

A Pennsylvania chapter of the conservative activist group Moms for Liberty split from the organization Monday over the national leadership’s response to a rape allegation against a co-founder’s husband.

Clarissa Paige, who was Moms for Liberty’s chapter chair in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, and the state legislative lead for the group, said she was disturbed that the national leaders quickly jumped to defend Florida Republican Party Chairman Christian Ziegler and his wife, Bridget, after the allegations — and the criminal investigation into Ziegler’s conduct — became public last week.

[...]