Trump has no allies, only people who tolerate him in the hopes of making money off of the “true believers” who follow Trump like a deity.

Who gives a shit what he says

Just enough of Congress (and the Supreme Court) to let him get away with shit like this.

JD Vance is Peter Thiel’s ventriloquist dummy. Anything that comes out of Vance’s mouth is only due to the words being supplied by his puppetmaster (and the hand up his ass making his mouth move).

Thiel founded Palantir, which is just as much in the AI soup as the rest of them, but Palantir (AFAIK) doesn’t have a Public AI, they only use it for government, corporate, and military stuff. It wouldn’t surprise me if Thiel wants to kneecap all the other AI companies while getting his a pass.

Yet another headline I am disappointed to find out is only a metaphor…

Not common at all. Wikipedia lists only 4 cities, and one of those was never actually used as a living space by any of the mayors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Mayors'_mansions_in_the_United_States

They seem to all be gifts from a rich person to the city.

I don’t agree at all with the idea of sending kids to a protest like this, but I just want to point out that “Mamdani’s home” right now is really Gracie Mansion, the official residence* of the NYC Mayor**.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gracie_Mansion

*(Unless said mayor is getting divorced, then his soon-to-be ex wife kicks him out…)

**(Or, unless the mayor is a gazillionaire with his own mansion that’s better, thank you very much)

My point is that it’s not like they doxxed him, they all know where he lives.

In a few weeks, we’ll find that the Kennedy Center has been sold in a “bankruptcy” sale at below-market price to real estate developer John Barron…

All Hillary did was call them all deplorable, and they all clutched their pearls over it.

They’ve removed committee assignments from members who do dumb things before

If the Democrats win an extra seat, they should double dog dare him to switch. Make him Chairman of the committee for naming post offices.

Because ICE has that app that can tell a person’s citizenship by their picture. Their plan will be to harass and arrest anyone their app tells them looks foreign. Even if that person has their ID, and proof of citizenship, ICE will just tell them their ID is fake and confiscate it.

YouTube/Google doesn’t have a broadcast license, so can’t be harassed in quite the same manner by the FCC. Although Google has a history of premature compliance…

So, they’re taping the interview along with the rest of the show’s content, but not broadcasting it? Are they going to show dead air in its place? Or maybe a QR code to the interview, along with a countdown timer? I don’t think even Jimmy has the balls for that, but it would be awesome.

Yet another headline that gets my hopes up, but turns out to be a metaphor.

He’s probably talking about all the equity deals the US government is getting involved in

https://www.cfr.org/articles/washingtons-growing-portfolio-tracking-u-s-government-investments

Remember when Republicans had a cow when part of the Obama administration’s bailout of GM involved the US government taking an equity stake in the company (which it has a plan to sell a few years later?) Well, now that Republicans are in charge, they’re doing the same thing, in overdrive.

According to that link, it’s only 27B total to far. But, of course Trump not only takes credit for it all, but overvalues it by at least 10x…

The America Files, apparently.

Kinda sucks that the USPS is diminished either way. Even if we nip this creeping fascism in the bud, the price is forcing states to use these private couriers for ballots, further eroding the Postal Service’s reason for existing.

The USPS operates under a Universal Service Obligation to provide mail service to every addressing the US, no matter how remote, and regardless of whether the delivery is part of a profitable route. The irony is that if Republicans suceed in abolishing or privatizing it, Republican voters in rural areas will find themselves paying the true cost of delivery to their locations. Yet again, Republicans vote for politicians who actively work to undermine those voter’s interests.

I think it’s more about mobilizing voters. Yes, voters who are paying attention have chosen their side already, for the most part. Both parties are now going after the apathetic voters.

Since we are talking about Texas, I found some data from Texas about voter turnout.

First, for the non-Americans, not that the “Primary” elections are just to pick the candidates from each major party, and in many cases are not highly contested. So many Americans just skip those. They have 12 to 15% turnout of registered voters, but those elections maybe outright canceled in some districts if neither party has multiple candidates.

For the purposes of this, also ignore elections in odd years. No Federal races are on these ballots.

The even years labeled “Presidential” have over 60% turnout the last few years. But the even years labeled “Gubernatorial” correspond to mid-term elections like this one, because Texas elects their governor at the same time. And note how that turnout is < 50% most years.

The goal of each party in the midterms is to try to motivate the 10%+ of their voters who only pay attention to the Predisential election to show up for this one, while at the same time try to discourage the voters from the other party from making the effort. Margins are so thin right now that even a Democrat can win in Texas if enough of their people show up.

Donald Trump did not become President (twice!) by listening to anything experts had to say.

Turns out the “Tabletop exercise” was just Hillary Clinton playing Avalon Hill’s “Diplomacy”…