Mastodawn

Vic Guerrero May 29, 2023

Tony, Pretty Much

Republicans should be nervous if this is happening in places like Texas. Sure, Paxton’s extra corrupt and it’s been ignored by the Texas legislature for too long, but accountability is what matters. And those who enabled him won’t be forgotten.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton impeached, suspended from duties |
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/27/ken-paxton-impeached-texas-attorney-general/

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton impeached, suspended from duties

The House voted 121-23 to suspend the attorney general and refer him to the Senate for trial on charges of bribery, abuse of office and obstruction. It was the first such impeachment since 1975.

The Texas Tribune

Steven Molnar May 27, 2023

@TonyStark I hope you're right, but my (very amateurish) read on it is that this is just internecine warfare, and has nothing to do with a Republican aversion to corruption.

Roberto May 27, 2023

@TonyStark Excellent news!

P.J. Quill May 27, 2023

@TonyStark It’s really weird to see Republicans doing the right thing for once.

Joy Cohen May 28, 2023

@TonyStark The Texas Senate still has to do their job. Hope they can muster the courage.

Michael ☕️May 28, 2023

@TonyStark
The breaking point was, I think, him asking the state to pay the $3.3 million settlement to cover up... er, settle his harassment charges. Using taxpayer funds instead of cleaning up his own mess just won't fly.

Rhodey May 28, 2023

@TonyStark Let the leopards eat their own faces off.

Stacey Campbell May 28, 2023

@TonyStark A lot of media is tiptoeing around identifying the Paxton impeachment as a manifestation of the inevitable GOP schism we all saw coming years ago.

Lindsay Graham said it out loud in 2016 with "If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed.......and we will deserve it."

Tony, Pretty Much May 28, 2023

@stacey_campbell Great point. I’m not surprised to see it underplayed. It’s a bigger deal than many want to admit.

Derek Kompare May 28, 2023

@TonyStark @stacey_campbell There’s been a long-simmering war here in TX between the old-school GWB-type country club GOPers and the true-believing culture warriors, going back at least a decade. This is a state gov’t where those true-believers currently hold the reins while the former, dwindling group accedes to them. The turn against Paxton (a textbook corrupt culture warrior) is a pretty unprecedented public spillover of this rift.

Derek Kompare May 28, 2023

@TonyStark @stacey_campbell Unfortunately, there’s not much Democrats can do here to capitalize on it enough in the short term to flip the state, due to gerrymandering and suppression, and the GOP’s all-out war against blue cities (Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio and El Paso in particular).

Femme Malheureuse May 28, 2023

@dkompare @TonyStark @stacey_campbell Should be a subject of discussion right now anyhow though — how to optimize fragmentation within the right to the benefit of opposition. You can be the right-wing has been having the same conversation and trying to rally all behind conservative touchstones.

silverhorseman May 28, 2023

@dkompare @TonyStark @stacey_campbell
Up until very recently, the greedy right have been using the crazy right to get what they want.
Now the crazy right are running the show. Will be interesting to see how long that can work.

Derek Kompare May 28, 2023

@stacey_campbell @TonyStark @silverhorseman Exactly. The tables have turned.

Alice Marshall May 28, 2023

@TonyStark @stacey_campbell don't kid yourself. Trump could beat the Wiemar Democrats in 2024.

Tony, Pretty Much May 28, 2023

@stacey_campbell @AliceMarshall Huh?

Alice Marshall May 28, 2023

@TonyStark @stacey_campbell Biden is not popular. not capable. he could lose.

Tony, Pretty Much May 28, 2023

@stacey_campbell @AliceMarshall The Weimar thing is incredibly disturbing so please do that somewhere else. Gross.

Roberto May 28, 2023

@TonyStark @stacey_campbell @AliceMarshall Unfollowing Alice. That’s sickening.

synlogic May 29, 2023

@AliceMarshall @TonyStark @stacey_campbell Biden is extremely capable and effective, based on observable evidence, with lots of experience, legislative wins and great concrete stats to cite, and has already beat Trump once in a head to head matchup for Presidency

since then Trump's gotten more legal troubles. Biden has way more charisma than DeSantis too

he aint perfect but hes the overall frontrunner for reasons

Allen B. Skye May 28, 2023

@AliceMarshall @TonyStark @stacey_campbell Trump couldn’t even rally support for Ken Paxton in the Texas legislature. He lost the house in ‘18, lost the presidential election and senate in ‘20, and it took a bazillion tries to get his guy elected as House Speaker (and it was likely his fault that the GOP didn’t win more seats in ‘22).

He hasn’t won anything since the election in 2016.

Alice Marshall May 28, 2023

@raddude12 @TonyStark @stacey_campbell for all our sakes I hope that you are correct. because if Trump did win many people will die. I just think it is possible that in spite of everything he could win.

Allen B. Skye May 28, 2023

@AliceMarshall @TonyStark @stacey_campbell After 2016, anything is possible.

Comparing the Biden admin to Weimar Republic is hyperbolic rhetoric, though.

Tony, Pretty Much May 28, 2023

@stacey_campbell @AliceMarshall @raddude12 Not to mention pretty insulting to Jews. A lot of us are tired of people using that.

Why Holocaust Analogies Are Dangerous — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum-
https://www.ushmm.org/information/press/press-releases/why-holocaust-analogies-are-dangerous

Why Holocaust Analogies Are Dangerous - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Museum historian Edna Friedberg on the dangers of misusing the Holocaust in political discourse.

MJ May 28, 2023

@raddude12 @stacey_campbell @AliceMarshall @TonyStark It’s right up there with white people comparing things to slavery. Don’t.

CautionWIP 🎃+🇨🇦+🏳️‍🌈=

@TonyStark @stacey_campbell @AliceMarshall @raddude12 Also a Jew here, and I feel that given the current situation of rising fascism & targeted attacks on the trans community make such analogies not only justifiable, but important. Don’t forget - the Nazis targeted the LGBT community first. They are using the same tactics the Nazis did, & pretending that they aren’t won’t go well for any of us.

We say “we remember” for a reason.

Tony, Pretty Much May 28, 2023

@AliceMarshall @stacey_campbell @cautionwip @raddude12 Please read up. The person I’m talking to is comparing some Democrats to the Weimar Republic. That’s fucked up no matter how you slice it.

Tony, Pretty Much May 28, 2023

@cautionwip
“Careless Holocaust analogies may demonize, demean, and intimidate their targets. But there is a cost for all of us because they distract from the real issues challenging our society, because they shut down productive, thoughtful discourse. At a time when our country needs dialogue more than ever, it is especially dangerous to exploit the memory of the Holocaust as a rhetorical cudgel. We owe the survivors more than that. And we owe ourselves more than that.”

CautionWIP 🎃+🇨🇦+🏳️‍🌈=

@TonyStark Yes, careless use of Shoah related terminology is inappropriate & should be avoided. But when it’s used as referent to remind us that such horrors should not happen again, or when it’s used as a lens through which to view the current mobilization of the far right?

Book bannings, anti-trans legislation targeted at some of the most vulnerable members of society. We’re the only people who’ve suffered genocidal attacks. The folks that study this stuff say likewise.

Tony, Pretty Much May 28, 2023

@cautionwip I agree with you and once again, that’s not what the original poster I was talking to was saying. It could certainly happen again but people using us to make points that aren’t anything close to it are dangerous to everyone. Anything someone doesn’t like isn’t equivalent to the Holocaust. It’s using us for a cheap and easy score and it’s diminishing at the least.

CautionWIP 🎃+🇨🇦+🏳️‍🌈=

@TonyStark No worries. 🤷🏽 I don’t find it an inappropriate analogy, and you do. Two Jews, disagreeing about topics related to Judaism, imagine that. 😀

And just to clarify my lines here, I think Seinfeld’s “soup nazi” was a a shonda.

Tony, Pretty Much May 29, 2023

@cautionwip That’s not what I said. I said it’s inappropriate in many cases, especially where people use it to express displeasure about something they don’t like that’s not a serious issue.

All I’m asking is for people not to do that and a museum dedicated to our history feels the same. It’s not a disagreement as much as it is a situation where someone on social media won’t admit they read something wrong. Nothing new there.

CautionWIP 🎃+🇨🇦+🏳️‍🌈=

@TonyStark And yes I read up-thread and personally, I don’t find that an egregious analogy. Comparing modern political situations to historical ones isn’t conflating them, it’s a necessary tool for evaluating where we as a culture are, right now. And right now, the US is a supposedly progressive country with major economic issues & a growing network of fascists who want to bring it down and install a strongman leader that is unequivocally racist.
Sound familiar?

A. Park May 29, 2023

@TonyStark @cautionwip It's similar to how people try and use the plight of Asian-Americans in America for their own talking points. We can do better.

GuerillaGrue May 28, 2023

@raddude12 @AliceMarshall @TonyStark @stacey_campbell Depending on what metric you look at, he didn't win that one either.

Grandpa Don May 29, 2023

@raddude12 @AliceMarshall @TonyStark @stacey_campbell

I still contend he did not win that one without fraudulent vote counts from 3 states.

Badger AF (he/him) DEMOCRACY May 29, 2023

@AliceMarshall @TonyStark @stacey_campbell Gotta disagree - Biden sold McCarthy a shit-sandwich and got him to eat it.

McCarthy got very little of what he was asking for and got out-maneuvered. Biden realized we don't have the House and took crashing the economy of the table. This deal also prevents Repubs from another bite at the apple until after 2024.

Could Biden lose? Yes, I'm not taking anything for granted, but he's the only won he beat TFG and can do so again.

einfeldt May 29, 2023

@Badger_AF @AliceMarshall @TonyStark @stacey_campbell Here are the details of what we know about the debt deal
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/5/27/2171832/-Debt-limit-deal-reached

Debt limit deal reached; Republicans hard-liners are livid

UPDATE: Sunday, May 28, 2023 · 6:11:55 AM +00:00 · kos Delicious. What do we have, 18 Biden-district Republicans? If they don’t want the majority, Democrats would be happy to take the gavel. UPDATE: Sunday, May 28, 2023 · 6:11:20 AM +00:00 · kos As...

Daily Kos

Badger AF (he/him) DEMOCRACY May 29, 2023

Thanks for posting!

Badger AF (he/him) DEMOCRACY May 29, 2023

@einfeldt I found this to be a pretty cogent analysis of the debt ceiling negotiation...

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/talking-stock

Talking Stock

We now know the basics of the deal between Biden and McCarthy and a vote is set. Let's take stock of where we are. First, just to catch us up on earlier posts, the deal is broadly what was leaked at…

TPM – Talking Points Memo

einfeldt May 31, 2023

@Badger_AF Thank you !

synlogic May 29, 2023

@stacey_campbell @TonyStark Trump vs DeSantis vs Pence vs Liz Cheney in 2024 will be a beauty to behold in terms of GOP self-sabotage

Vic Guerrero May 29, 2023

@TonyStark you hit the nail right on the head 👏🏼👏🏼

Christopher Noyes May 29, 2023

@TonyStark couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy ( wink )