United States Senate 2

[GreyhoundFan]

When I was young, we had to learn "new math". Well, I guess Chuck has developed "grasshole math".

 

[47of74]

I may have to start calling Cornyn Tilt-a-Whirl John.

Quote

Remember the Tilt-a-Whirl? It was my favorite ride at the Fort Bend County Fair. You sit in a car that rolls and spins around an undulating track, moving in at least three different ways at once. The ride is a blast. When you get off it, it's hard to walk. You get the sensation that the ground is spinning and heaving. But it's not. It was the chaotic ride that made the ordinary seems disorienting.

Someone who's clearly been on the Trump Tilt-a-Whirl too long is Sen. John Cornyn of Texas. The poor man is staggering about, wondering why the earth is spinning.

On Monday, in an analysis of a Politico story on Biden's media strategy, he tweeted this about President Biden: "The president is not doing cable news interviews. Tweets from his account are limited and, when they come, unimaginably conventional. The public comments are largely scripted. Biden has opted for fewer sit down interviews with mainstream outlets and reporters." Cornyn said he was worried about whether Biden was "really in charge."

Whoa. What makes him think that? Does Cornyn really miss the last four years of presidential Twitter? Does he not remember the insanity and toxicity that former President Donald Trump unleashed every day on social media?

 

[clueliss]

If I weren't in the office right now - I'd probably cuss a blue streak about this. 

 

Hey hey - ho ho - Josh Hawley as GOT TO GO!

[fraurosena]

I know, I know, it’s still more than 18 months away from the midterms, but this is interesting. A filibuster proof majority in the Senate could be within reach.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Ted is so loathsome:

[Audrey2]

2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Ted is so loathsome:

What I want to say Really? What? That's not how I remember it.

How I will respond: I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed man.

[fraurosena]

Merrick Garland was denied a seat on the SC because McConnell refused to hold confirmation hearings because it was an election year, but as soon as Trump was in office Gorsuch was on the SC sooner than you could blink your eyes. Despite all the allegations of sexual misconduct against him, and the knowledge that somebody bought off his debts, Kavanaugh was confirmed onto the SC. Seven months ago they fell over themselves in their haste to replace RBG on the SC mere weeks before the elections. Just about the only thing that McConnell would allow on the floor of the Senate for a vote was to fill the courts with conservative judges.

Fuck these smug, arrogant, gaslighting, hypocritical liars. 

[Cartmann99]

I feel for the sane people of Missouri who have this jackass representing them:

Here's the blurb from the listing at Amazon:

Quote

The reign of Big Tech is here, and Americans’ First Amendment rights hang by a keystroke.

Amassing unimaginable amounts of personal data, giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple—once symbols of American ingenuity and freedom—have become a techno-oligarchy with overwhelming economic and political power.

Decades of unchecked data collection have given Big Tech more targeted control over Americans’ daily lives than any company or government in the world. In The Tyranny of Big Tech, Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri argues that these mega-corporations—controlled by the robber barons of the modern era—are the gravest threat to American liberty in decades.

To reverse course, Hawley argues, we must correct progressives’ mistakes of the past. That means recovering the link between liberty and democratic participation, building an economy that makes the working class strong, independent, and beholden to no one, and curbing the influence of corporate and political elites.

Big Tech and its allies do not deal gently with those who cross them, and Senator Hawley proudly bears his own battle scars. But hubris is dangerous. The time is ripe to overcome the tyranny of Big Tech by reshaping the business and legal landscape of the digital world.

He hates Big Tech, so naturally he's promoting his book on Twitter and asking you to buy his book on Amazon.

For those who have slept since he lost his original book deal, Regnery is his current publisher:

Spoiler

 

[47of74]

Fuck Stick von Cancún und Cruz couldn't be bothered to stay awake this evening.

Probably too busy dreaming about his next trip to said Cancún.

Edited April 29, 2021 by 47of74

[fraurosena]

I am fascinated by the psychology behind a POC who willingly says this. His cognitive dissonance has made him completely delusional.

 

Edited April 29, 2021 by fraurosena
Autocorrect fails

[GreyhoundFan]

Of course Rafael still found time to be nasty. I love some of the reactions to his idiocy. "Ted Cruz was roasted for appearing to nod off as Biden spoke. He blamed the president: ‘Boring, but radical.’"

Quote

As President Biden detailed his immigration policy in his address to a joint session of Congress on the heels of his first 100 days in office, C-SPAN’s cameras cut to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.). With viewers watching, Cruz’s eyelids drooped repeatedly, and his eyes appeared to roll back into his head.

The apparently impromptu nap — which echoed an earlier bit of eye-resting by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) as Biden discussed his push for a higher minimum wage — left “The Daily Show” tying Cruz’s slumber to his state’s massive power outages earlier this year.

“Looks like Ted’s eyes are hooked up to his state’s power grid,” the show tweeted.

Comedian Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show” suggested that Cruz “was only escorting his daughters to dreamland and was planning on coming right back” — referencing the senator’s explanation after leaving Texas for a Cancún family vacation during Texas’s deadly power outages.

Cruz, though, tried to turn his lethargy into a political weapon. On Twitter, he quickly retweeted a clip showing him nodding off with a hashtag aimed at Biden: “#BoringButRadical.” On Fox News, the senator repeated that phrase “boring, but radical” while trying to make the same delicate balance of criticisms. While Cruz complained that Biden had said “nothing notable,” he also accused him of making “radical” proposals.

“Joe is deliberately being boring,” Cruz told Fox News, “but the substance of what he’s saying is radical.”

Biden’s own backers might not disagree with that assessment of his efforts to avoid the outrage and controversy emblematic of President Donald Trump while still pushing sweeping plans. New York Magazine recently noted that Biden, once dubbed “Sleepy Joe” by Trump, had managed to quell some opposition by playing nice.

“The quality that has made him so effective up to this point is, well, his sleepiness,” Jonathan Chait wrote in the magazine’s analysis of Biden’s first 100 days in office. “Republicans can’t stop Biden because he is boring them to death.”

Indeed, as Cruz appeared to snooze, Biden outlined an ambitious agenda — including universal preschool and free community college, tax increases on corporations and the very wealthy, and systemic changes to policing.

Cruz is hardly the first to be caught resting his eyes at a presidential address. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg famously dozed off after enjoying a glass of “very fine California wine” before President Barack Obama’s State of the Union in 2015. In 2019, an 11-year-old boy invited to the State of the Union became a social media darling after he fell deeply asleep. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), meanwhile, denied slipping into a slumber at that same event: “I wasn’t sleeping. I was trying not to scream,” she wrote in a tweet responding to a photo that showed her eyes shut.

The long history of State of the Union naps didn’t stop the Internet from unloading on Cruz on Wednesday.

On social media, many joined in on the fun, with some mocking Cruz and Romney for falling asleep, and others saying the drowsy moments were “the most relatable” the lawmakers had ever had.

One person on Twitter declared that it was “past bedtime for Sleepy Ted Cruz.” Many others speculated that Cruz was recalling his brief February trip to Cancún.

“What is Ted Cruz dreaming of, ya think?” satirist Jeremy Newberger tweeted, alongside a Photoshopped image that showed the senator dreaming of walking through an airport.

 

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

Did Cruz or Lee explain their choice? Or is it just inexplicable spite?

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Rafael made the pilgrimage to Mar-a-Loco to kiss the massive mango ass. "Ted Cruz’s Awkward Mar-A-Lago Photo Op With Trump Gets The Treatment On Twitter"

Quote

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) bragged that he had a “great dinner” with former President Donald Trump at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Tuesday night. But the moment looked more than a little awkward, and not just because of the unusual framing of the photo. 

During the campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, Trump called Cruz “Lyin’ Ted,” attacked his wife’s looks and implied that his father was somehow involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. 

“He’s a nasty guy,” Trump said of Cruz in 2016. “Nobody likes him. Nobody in Congress likes him. Nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him.”

Cruz, for his part, described Trump as a “pathological liar” and a “sniveling coward” and didn’t endorse him during a speech at the Republican National Convention. Cruz ultimately flip-flopped and backed Trump, and has since become one of his staunchest defenders. 

Twitter users had a lot of thoughts on the photo op: 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I can't stop laughing at this takedown of Ted:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Lindsey has upped his sycophancy another 10 notches:

 

 

I love this reaction to Lindsey:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I wish Amy would have thrown something at him.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

I would love to know what dirt the former guy or his boss, Putin, has on Lindsey.

 

[Cartmann99]

 

[AnywhereButHere]

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/18/demings-running-for-senate-rubio-489137?fbclid=IwAR2s5YtHHC6ccFtqBVBI37G0veRjAdAg-VzulFVjk5p1jwT7cBZi2z7KXAs

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ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida Rep. Val Demings is planning to run for the U.S. Senate, rather than governor, providing Democrats with a big-name candidate to take on Republican Sen. Marco Rubio next year.

For months, Demings mulled which statewide office to pursue, but decided she could do the most good by taking on the two-term senator, according to several Democrats familiar with her thinking.

...

The adviser left some wiggle room for Demings to change course, saying there was a “98.6 percent chance” that she would ultimately challenge Rubio. By running for Senate, Demings leaves the gubernatorial field to Rep. Charlie Crist and state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, who is expected to announce a bid soon.

Demings expects to make her decision final as early as next month.

This could be interesting if she chooses to run. I hope she does. There is certainly no guarantee that she'd win, but I think she has a very good chance.

[front hugs > duggs]

2 hours ago, AnywhereButHere said:

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/18/demings-running-for-senate-rubio-489137?fbclid=IwAR2s5YtHHC6ccFtqBVBI37G0veRjAdAg-VzulFVjk5p1jwT7cBZi2z7KXAs

This could be interesting if she chooses to run. I hope she does. There is certainly no guarantee that she'd win, but I think she has a very good chance.

Can't wait to vote for her!

[GreyhoundFan]

I can't stand Johnson:

 

[Ozlsn]

That chyron, seriously. "Unnecessary"??

[GreyhoundFan]

Ted being Ted: "Sen. Ted Cruz insulted a ‘woke, emasculated’ U.S. Army ad. Angry veterans fired back."

Quote

The first half of the TikTok video shows a muscular Russian man with a shaved head doing push-ups, jumping out of a plane, and staring down the scope of a rifle. The second half shows a brightly animated U.S. Army ad telling the true story of Cpl. Emma Malonelord, a soldier who enlisted after being raised by two mothers in California and graduating at the top of her high school class.

The U.S. Army said its ad showcases the “the deeply emotional and diverse” backgrounds of its soldiers. But to Sen. Ted Cruz, who retweeted the TikTok on Thursday, the contrast with Russia’s campaign instead made American soldiers “into pansies.”

“Holy crap,” Cruz said in his viral tweet. “Perhaps a woke, emasculated military is not the best idea …”

His jab did not sit well with critics, including many former service members, veterans groups and Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who is a retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel.

“Holy crap,” Duckworth tweeted Thursday, mimicking Cruz’s words. “Perhaps a U.S. Senator shouldn’t suggest that the *Russian* military is better than the American military that protected him from an insurrection he helped foment?”

In the hours after Cruz’s quip, #emasculaTED trended on Twitter.

“Ted Cruz attacks a US Army soldier for telling her story, says he prefers Russians,” VoteVets, a liberal political group that advocates for veterans running for office, said in a tweet responding to Cruz. “Because Ted Cruz is a sedition-loving traitor.”

The unedited Army recruitment video also picked up steam in the last week on YouTube and Facebook, where the U.S. Army posted it on May 6. The ad shows illustrations of Malonelord growing up, marching with her moms to protest for LGBTQ rights, attending her mothers’ wedding, and, ultimately, putting on the Army uniform.

“I like to think I’ve been defending freedom from an early age,” Malonelord said in the ad.

But the original video received so much negative backlash on YouTube over the last week that the account disabled comments, the Army Times reported Thursday.

“The comments violated our social media policy and were not aligned with Army values,” Laura DeFrancisco, a spokeswoman for the Army Enterprise Marketing Office, told Army Times. “Out of respect for the safety and well-being of our soldiers and their families, we have disabled the comments.”

Conservative ire over changes in the U.S. military is not new. Many have opposed proposals to allow women to serve in combat roles, including Cruz, who called the idea “nuts” while campaigning for president in 2016. Last week, the commander of a Space Force unit was fired after claiming that the Pentagon was pushing an agenda “rooted in Marxism” for promoting diversity and trying to address extremism within military ranks.

The origins of the spliced TikTok video that Cruz shared on Thursday are murky — an account with the handle @thoughtcrimes_ originally posted it but has since been deactivated and its videos have been removed from the app. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for more information.

Alexander Reid Ross, a doctoral fellow for the U.K.-based Center for Analysis of the Radical Right, told The Washington Post that the video surfaced on Twitter when a Dutch user who frequently posts far-right content shared it. A real estate agent from Dallas shared the video from the Dutch user’s post, and Cruz retweeted her.

But Ross said he had been tracking versions of the video on extremist Telegram channels earlier this week. He said the clip popped up repeatedly in channels that promote fascist and anti-Semitic beliefs.

“Ted Cruz is obviously sharing this video that I’ve seen bouncing around some of the most violent and anti-American Telegram accounts that I monitor,” he said. “It just struck me as odd.”

Cruz’s office did not immediately respond to an inquiry late Thursday about whether the senator vetted the source of the video before sharing it.

But Cruz was not alone in panning the Army’s new recruitment ads.

John Noonan, who is an adviser on military and defense affairs for Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), retweeted the same TikTok video with the comment “We are going to be the most tolerant military in history ever to lose a war.”

Cruz replied, “yep.”

Noonan went on to say that he didn’t believe the ad was real.

“It can’t be,” he said. “I just can’t envision someone in the army hierarchy approving it.”

Despite the backlash, Cruz refused to take back his disdain for the video.

“I’m enjoying lefty blue checkmarks losing their minds over this tweet, dishonestly claiming that I’m ‘attacking the military,’ ” he said in a follow-up tweet late Thursday. “Uh, no. We have the greatest military on earth, but Dem politicians & woke media are trying to turn them into pansies.”