Politics Today Bulletin 28, 12/17/24

… Marge Greene says she is prepared to shoot down the mystery drones herself if the government doesn’t do something: “I’m going to tell you right now that if they try to tell us all to stay inside, stay home, shelter in place ‘FOR OUR SAFETY’ from the drones, there is no way in hell I will comply with that absolute bullshit. Not doing it. No way. I’ll shoot the drones down myself along with every other red blooded freedom loving American.”

… Nancy Mace was asked if she thought the government was being honest about reports of drones over NJ: “No. Absolutely not.” She thinks they are either aliens from another planet or they are from a hostile country: “If it’s not craft from outer space, because I think that has to be on the table, that has to be an option, is it our technology, or Russia, Iran or China? Is it someone who’s winning the arms race and are we behind.”

… More Mace: “I hope that it’s not our adversaries or something from outside the universe … We should also know why they are out there. Are they looking for radiation? A missing nuclear warhead?”

… MAGA podcaster Wayne DuPree: “Mace’s tinfoil hat is on too tight.”

… PA State Senator and former Trump-endorsed Republican nominee for Governor Doug Mastriano got fooled by a fake post that showed a picture of a TIE-Fighter from Star Wars which claimed it was one of the drones that crashed and washed up on the beach. He was pretty freaked out. Maybe he never saw the movies.

… Rep. Anna Paulina Luna: “What is our government hiding about these drones? SHOOT THEM DOWN!”

… Rudy Giuliani said he is concerned that the drones are from China and the government is covering it up just like the Chinese balloon incident last year: “Basically, we allowed China to rape us with the balloon.”

… The electors cast their official votes for president today. No Democratic fake electors attempted to show up a State Houses to sneak in the back door as an alternate slate. Indiana Trump elector Allen Stevens once burned a cross outside the home of an interracial couple, though. All the best people.

… Trump has now filed his threatened lawsuit against the Des Moines Register and pollster Ann Selzer for “brazen election interference” since her poll released shortly before the election showed Harris up 3 points. Trump won the state by 13 points. The lawsuit was filed under the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act.

… The lawsuit claims that the poll was not simply an honest mistake but was done intentionally by Selzer: “Left-wing pollsters have attempted to influence electoral outcomes through manipulated polls that have unacceptable error rates and are not grounded in widely accepted polling methodologies .. This type of manipulation creates a narrative of inevitability for Democratic candidates, increases enthusiasm among Democrats, and compels Republicans to divert time and money in areas where they are ahead.”

… The lawsuit also says that the Iowa poll results were leaked to Democratic operatives two days before it was released to the public, and not to any Republicans. Trump argues this shows it was not just negligence but was intentional and calculated.

… The Des Moines Register issued a statement saying that while the poll was significantly inaccurate, Selzer used typical methodology which they released to the public after the election to be completely transparent. They said they have already released “the poll’s full demographics, cross tabs, weighted and unweighted data, as well as a technical explanation from Ann Selzer. We stand by our reporting and believe this lawsuit is without merit.”

… Now we will see if they cave and settle it. Seems to be the new trend.

… AOC lost her election to Gerry Connolly to be ranking member of the Oversight Committee by a vote of 131-81. The leadership of the party lately reminds me of a few lines from an old song by The Who called ‘We Won’t Get Fooled Again’:

And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

… Punchbowl reports that one of Connolly’s main sales pitches to members was to point out how many Republicans said they wanted AOC to be ranking member of Oversight. I guess their reverse-psychology ploy worked on our great strategic thinkers.

… AOC: “Tried my best. Sorry I couldn’t pull it through everyone - we live to fight another day.”

… Punchbowl reported that AOC was “very gracious” after the vote and “hugged Connolly.”

… Connolly was asked by Fox about many Democrats wanting leadership to get younger: “I think that's a false narrative, frankly, propounded by the media. We're looking at capability. We're not looking at age. Is somebody capable, irrespective of how old they are, and if they bring energy and enthusiasm, like Angie Craig, she got elected.”

… Former RI Dem State Rep. Aaron Regunberg: “If you HATED the Democratic Party, and wanted nothing more than to destroy it by permanently alienating enough young and working class and progressive voters so Dems could never win a majority again, could you find a better plan than the one Dem elites have followed this past year?”

… Connolly supporter Rep. Don Beyer, to Axios: “Gerry’s a young 74, cancer not withstanding.” Alrighty then …

… MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle said that she called Trump on his cell right after his Madison Square Garden rally 5 days before the election to ask for an interview and he answered the phone: “I called DJT to say, ‘Yo, can I have an interview. And he told me to go f—k myself. But I still was able to connect with him.”

… Ruhle: “But the reverse of that - if I wanted to connect with VP Harris or President Biden, there’s 50 people between me. I could write a note that maybe could get to somebody to get some somebody then through Pony Express and then a pigeon, then something might end up in a mailbox near them.”

… Mike Johnson failed to release the CR last night as promised, leading more Republicans to grumble this morning that they won’t have time to read it before it has to be voted on. The deadline to fund the government or shut it down is this Friday.

… Not having enough time to read bills was one of the main complaints they had about Nancy Pelosi. Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH): “Another status quo Christmas in Congress.”

… Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ): “Tuesday morning, 7:30. Still no text for the short-term omnibus.” He would be waiting a loooooooong time.

… Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO): “This is a total dumpster fire. I think it’s garbage. I was frustrated before I came here, now I’m more frustrated. I expected more from my Republican colleagues. I expected more from my Speaker to be the conservative that I thought he was. Instead, we’re going to push through a package that’s going to add more to our debt.”

… Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY): “Everything I am hearing about the CR thus far leads me to believe that I’ll be voting NO. Republicans are in the majority and yet the Democrats seem to get more of their priorities in it than we do.”

… More Burlison: “We complained about Nancy Pelosi dropping thousands of pages of omnibus bills before Christmas, how is this any different?”

… Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN): “Where are the Republicans who have been talking about DOGE nonstop for the past few weeks?” They love to talk about cutting spending, they just don’t love when they actually have to do it. Burchett later in the evening: “This was a terrible night for taxpayers. We should be ashamed.”

… Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ): “I’m off to the gym. Still no sign of the massive 1,500 page “cram”nibus aka “crap”nibus. No one will have time to read this before voting.”

… Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL): “Much to our horror, they have buried over $100 million in disaster relief funding in a massive CR - this is a sneaky mega-omnibus in disguise. This should have been a stand-alone bill, but they chose to hold us hostage instead.” Translation: Luna has to vote for whatever comes out since a big chunk of that is going to her district which was hit by a hurricane, so she has to go through this performance first. The oldest game in DC.

… What is making this problematic is that instead of doing a clean CR for 90 days to give Republicans time to hash out their own budget after taking over the Senate and presidency, Johnson is trying to do this as an omnibus with lots of stuff added in which will cost votes and cause problems with his tiny majority.

… Surprise! Marge also isn’t happy with Johnson: “This CR is turning into a 3-month omnibus, that will result in more Democrats than Republicans voting for it. The Swamp is using farmers and victims of natural disasters as pawns to fund an over-bloated pet project filled disaster. Why are farmers and victims of natural disasters always political pawns in an effort to continue funding bloated government? But it’s the same old Uniparty BS, dangling important programs around as bargaining chip to fuel more government waste and adding to our deficit.”

… But wait, there’s more! Because if this mini-omnibus-CR finally passes the house with 24 hours to go before a Christmas government shutdown, the Senate still needs to pass it. And the Senate has Rand Paul in it. And Paul is already signaling that he could be a serious problem. He told The Hill that he won’t yield back time on the floor unless Schumer guarantees a full debate and opportunity to vote on amendments.

… Paul: “I can’t anticipate giving any time of consent to condense time without debate and debate means amendments. We’ll probably put forward some pay-fors. There are some big existing pay-fors and I think they should be forced to decide: Do you want to help the people in Asheville or do you want to help green-energy companies, multimillion-dollar companies with subsidies for green energy?”

… This is going to be bumpy ride, all caused by Mike Johnson constantly waiting until the last minute to face the wing-nuts in his conference because he is afraid of them.

… Kamala Harris’s Digital Director Rob Flaherty told Semafor that Democrats are way behind Republicans in developing their own independent alternative media platforms: “Part of this starts with putting real effort into building the left and center-left’s own independent media ecosystem, divorced from the nonpartisan media that has historically satiated Democrats’s appetite.”

… From the article: “Flaherty said that Democrats need to invest in boosting independent partisan friends online, as well as content creators and media figures … to counter the surging online pro-Trump right.”

… What Flaherty is saying has been my largely-ignored mantra for 5 years. The Right has a powerful alternate and independent media and social media ecosystem while the Left has largely relied on traditional legacy media to convey their messaging. This is why we developed Meidas, which pumps out content on X, IG, Threads, Bluesky, YouTube, TikTok, a website, Substack and other places. And we built it with zero help or promotion from the party or PACs.

… You can read my full article about that here.

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… Sen. John Fetterman said that just because he has an independent voice and disagrees with other Democrats on some things, that does not mean he should be compared with Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema. He told Axios: “I’m not leaving my