"In a closed-door vote conducted by secret ballot, Mr. Thune emerged victorious by a vote of 29 to 24 over Senator John Cornyn of Texas, another well-respected establishment Republican, according to two people familiar with the vote. Senator Rick Scott of Florida, who pitched himself as the Trump candidate in the race and had been supported by right-wing allies of the president-elect, was forced out of the contest in an earlier round of voting after drawing just 13 supporters ..."
Say what you will, but Mitch McConnell has been a highly effective Senate leader for his party. He has dominated the Senate on the same scale as Harry Reid or LBJ. He has used and twisted the arcane rules of the Senate to fit his and the GOP's needs, and has done so without hesitation or remorse.
On a non-partisan level, tip your hat to Ol' Mitch, perhaps the last effective Republican still in Congress. I'm not going to miss him as Majority Leader, but at least Mitch knows when it's time to get out of Dodge.
Ta, Gary. I loathe and detest Scott with the heat of one hundred billion suns. Anyone who commits Medicaid and Medicare fraud on such a grand scale belongs in federal prison, not the Senate.
It's how Don, "daddy Gaetz" got he and Matt, into politics as well. Only Daddy Don Gaetz had sold the company by the time the feds figured out they were scamming. But he owned the company during some of the scamming.
Matt Gaetz has been a vocal supporter of the tea party’s agenda, crusading against the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion in a state with 2.6 million uninsured residents. But Gaetz wouldn’t be where he is today without government health care programs. In the late 1970s, his father co-founded a nonprofit hospice company that successfully lobbied Congress to allow Medicare and Medicaid to cover its services. Once the public money started flowing, the nonprofit became a for-profit corporation, Vitas, that grew into the country’s largest hospice care provider. In 2004, Don Gaetz and his partners cashed in, selling the hospice company to the parent company of the plumbing behemoth Roto-Rooter for $400 million. When he ran for state Senate two years later, Don had a net worth of $25 million. In 2013, the Justice Department sued Vitas, alleging that between 2002 and 2013, the company had defrauded Medicare by filing false claims for services never provided or for patients who weren’t terminally ill. The company settled the case in 2017 for more than $75 million, at the time the largest settlement ever recovered from a hospice company. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/07/how-matt-gaetz-used-daddys-money-to-become-trumps-favorite-congressman/
My dad keeps trying to get me to move to Florida, of course he doesn't know his grandkids are trans. He left our family when I was three, they divorced when I was four, I decided at eight that I was done with the infrequent and incredibly emotionally painful visits and told him I didn't want to go with him anymore. He basically shrugged and went along with it and didn't speak to me. Then in HS one of my teachers guilted me into contacting him (they graduated HS together) and that led to me putting up with him and his 3rd wife. Funny thing about being a daughter to a man who keeps getting remarried; their wives NEVER like you and your father will likely pit the two of you against each other. Anyway, he is at wife number four and living in the Villages, we visit maybe twice a year. I get long sad text messages when he starts drinking. I think I only speak to him because my mother and all my grandparents are gone :/ Anyway, I think eight year old me was smarter than 52 year old me...
Do not move to Florida, until we oust our pos gov. And then wait and see if the replacement is worse. And especially not to the villages, a/k/a the std capital of Florida.
Rick Scott's big idea is to shred the U.S. Code every five years. That means introducing and passing 236 years of federal legislation toot sweet every five years. We already know, given how they only work three days a week and take one month off every three weeks, that senators don't like to work and shredding the U. S. C. needs both houses and the president's Sharpie. Rick ain't going to be majority leader.
I had a conversation with a younger family member awhile back and she said she couldn't stand either party. I told her I don't know what you want it's not going to get any better. And it never will.
The Democrats should literally just rebrand as the Freedom Eagle Patriot Freedom Party. Keep all the same policy positions, but add a couple of really absurd gimmicky policies.
"Mitch McConnell, who is retiring from the job after accomplishing his goal of slow-walking American democracy into the shitter"
The Turtle was, is, and always be a Party first kinda guy. Rather than buck the Fulvous Flatulence after his second impeachment he issued a bovine scat-laden memo ending any possibilities that the Sociopathic Marigold Swamp Monster would face any consequences for his actions, even though it is the Senate's responsibility to hold POTUS to account by holding a trial if an impeachment is brought to the Senate floor. The man has no honor or self-respect and is fully deserving of his legacy of appeasement when strength was called for, and for putting party over country.
Despite the WaPo's tagline -- Democracy dies in darkness" -- thanks to asshats like McConnell Democracy was murdered in broad daylight.
-----
"State motto: Come visit all our degenerate psychopaths!"
If I'm not mistaken, the Free State of Florida's motto is "Come visit, unless you are a POC, an independent minded woman, LGBTQIA+ or one of their allies, an immigrant (except Cubans are always welcome since most have a hard Right POV and can be counted on to vote Repub), nonMAGA, you're a Dem...."
-----
"“Senators do not take kindly to having an army of social media trolls attack them,” the aide texted us last night."
True that. But, of course, the RINO Senators have had no problems with internet trolls taking their Dem counterparts to task. The New GOP's hypocrisy is out there for all to see, if one cares to look; when pressure is put on them in social media they cry out that they're being treated unfairly and the posts must be either taken down completely or at least censored, but when a Dem Senator is held up to the light the RINOs retweet, "retruth," and cross-post until the sun decides to rise in the West.
-----
"we all got to watch live on television as the humiliation adhered to him like skunk spray"
The opprobrium was well placed, but there was more than enough to go around to others as well. We got to see Jim Jordan eat shit and then ask for a second helping. We got to see the the misogyny aimed at MTG for supporting MyKevin. We witnessed the ironically named House Freedom Caucus be the tail that wags the dog (and they still are). The RINOs eating their own in the name of personal power. Etc... etc... etc. The schadenfreude was delicious but not very filling.
-----
Laura Loomer, who possesses levels of crazy somehow above what the current iteration of the GOP has reached"
Loomer is *a* face, but not *the* face of the high end whacks in the New GOP tent. Looking at just the nonelected RINOs we find: Ben Shapiro, Nick Fuentes, Stephen Miller (now part of the Amber Ardipithecus ramidus' incoming administration), Steve Bannon, Lara Trump...
-----
"Rick Scott might feel some richly deserved disappointment"
Maybe, maybe not, but one thing is certain: he will remain MAGA to the core, even if he's dissed.
You called it!
"In a closed-door vote conducted by secret ballot, Mr. Thune emerged victorious by a vote of 29 to 24 over Senator John Cornyn of Texas, another well-respected establishment Republican, according to two people familiar with the vote. Senator Rick Scott of Florida, who pitched himself as the Trump candidate in the race and had been supported by right-wing allies of the president-elect, was forced out of the contest in an earlier round of voting after drawing just 13 supporters ..."
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/13/us/politics/trump-senate-thune-cornyn-scott.html
Say what you will, but Mitch McConnell has been a highly effective Senate leader for his party. He has dominated the Senate on the same scale as Harry Reid or LBJ. He has used and twisted the arcane rules of the Senate to fit his and the GOP's needs, and has done so without hesitation or remorse.
On a non-partisan level, tip your hat to Ol' Mitch, perhaps the last effective Republican still in Congress. I'm not going to miss him as Majority Leader, but at least Mitch knows when it's time to get out of Dodge.
Like it or not he has been the most powerful man in Washington regardless of minority or majority status
Koch, and other Looney Tunes religiofascist billionaire backing will do that for you.
Can we get the Loch Ness Monster for Speaker of the house? Now there's a sea-beast you can rely on.
Dagon Libelz!
Cthulhu says he will eat you last, if you support him!
Rick Scott is the worst possible candidate? In today's GOP, that guarantees he gets the job.
“𝑆𝑒𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑠 𝑑𝑜 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑙𝑦 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑟𝑚𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑎 𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑠 𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚,” 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑡𝑒𝑥𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑢𝑠 𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡 𝑛𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡.
Who'd a thunk I'd have something in common with Republican Senators?
Ta, Gary. I loathe and detest Scott with the heat of one hundred billion suns. Anyone who commits Medicaid and Medicare fraud on such a grand scale belongs in federal prison, not the Senate.
It's how Don, "daddy Gaetz" got he and Matt, into politics as well. Only Daddy Don Gaetz had sold the company by the time the feds figured out they were scamming. But he owned the company during some of the scamming.
Matt Gaetz has been a vocal supporter of the tea party’s agenda, crusading against the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion in a state with 2.6 million uninsured residents. But Gaetz wouldn’t be where he is today without government health care programs. In the late 1970s, his father co-founded a nonprofit hospice company that successfully lobbied Congress to allow Medicare and Medicaid to cover its services. Once the public money started flowing, the nonprofit became a for-profit corporation, Vitas, that grew into the country’s largest hospice care provider. In 2004, Don Gaetz and his partners cashed in, selling the hospice company to the parent company of the plumbing behemoth Roto-Rooter for $400 million. When he ran for state Senate two years later, Don had a net worth of $25 million. In 2013, the Justice Department sued Vitas, alleging that between 2002 and 2013, the company had defrauded Medicare by filing false claims for services never provided or for patients who weren’t terminally ill. The company settled the case in 2017 for more than $75 million, at the time the largest settlement ever recovered from a hospice company. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/07/how-matt-gaetz-used-daddys-money-to-become-trumps-favorite-congressman/
My dad keeps trying to get me to move to Florida, of course he doesn't know his grandkids are trans. He left our family when I was three, they divorced when I was four, I decided at eight that I was done with the infrequent and incredibly emotionally painful visits and told him I didn't want to go with him anymore. He basically shrugged and went along with it and didn't speak to me. Then in HS one of my teachers guilted me into contacting him (they graduated HS together) and that led to me putting up with him and his 3rd wife. Funny thing about being a daughter to a man who keeps getting remarried; their wives NEVER like you and your father will likely pit the two of you against each other. Anyway, he is at wife number four and living in the Villages, we visit maybe twice a year. I get long sad text messages when he starts drinking. I think I only speak to him because my mother and all my grandparents are gone :/ Anyway, I think eight year old me was smarter than 52 year old me...
Do not move to Florida, until we oust our pos gov. And then wait and see if the replacement is worse. And especially not to the villages, a/k/a the std capital of Florida.
Rick Scott's big idea is to shred the U.S. Code every five years. That means introducing and passing 236 years of federal legislation toot sweet every five years. We already know, given how they only work three days a week and take one month off every three weeks, that senators don't like to work and shredding the U. S. C. needs both houses and the president's Sharpie. Rick ain't going to be majority leader.
https://www.senate.gov/legislative/landmark-legislation/oath-act.htm
Bat Boy is an unlikable prick who cost republicans the Senate last time. I doubt he has much support outside of MAGAt world.
Of course, he’s also the guy who gave Trump an ashtray and told him it was a major award, so who knows.
I had a conversation with a younger family member awhile back and she said she couldn't stand either party. I told her I don't know what you want it's not going to get any better. And it never will.
The Democrats should literally just rebrand as the Freedom Eagle Patriot Freedom Party. Keep all the same policy positions, but add a couple of really absurd gimmicky policies.
Not who we meant whilst declaring "Great Scot!"
I guess Thune is the least objectionable. He’s not from Florida or Texas.
Any word on when Usha has to change her name to ForJD ?
I doubt we'll be seeing much of the Second Family. How many people in this country actually know that Dick Cheney has two daughters?
"Who's side are you on ?"
"I'm on my side."
Rick (Humphrey Bogart),
CASABLANCA
random number generators are utterly predictable, if you know the exact time the computer thinks it is
By the time you know, you're wrong.
(If I were writing the software, I'd have a bit of fun with a temperature sensor or two, as well as the last several digits on the clock.)
"Mitch McConnell, who is retiring from the job after accomplishing his goal of slow-walking American democracy into the shitter"
The Turtle was, is, and always be a Party first kinda guy. Rather than buck the Fulvous Flatulence after his second impeachment he issued a bovine scat-laden memo ending any possibilities that the Sociopathic Marigold Swamp Monster would face any consequences for his actions, even though it is the Senate's responsibility to hold POTUS to account by holding a trial if an impeachment is brought to the Senate floor. The man has no honor or self-respect and is fully deserving of his legacy of appeasement when strength was called for, and for putting party over country.
Despite the WaPo's tagline -- Democracy dies in darkness" -- thanks to asshats like McConnell Democracy was murdered in broad daylight.
-----
"State motto: Come visit all our degenerate psychopaths!"
If I'm not mistaken, the Free State of Florida's motto is "Come visit, unless you are a POC, an independent minded woman, LGBTQIA+ or one of their allies, an immigrant (except Cubans are always welcome since most have a hard Right POV and can be counted on to vote Repub), nonMAGA, you're a Dem...."
-----
"“Senators do not take kindly to having an army of social media trolls attack them,” the aide texted us last night."
True that. But, of course, the RINO Senators have had no problems with internet trolls taking their Dem counterparts to task. The New GOP's hypocrisy is out there for all to see, if one cares to look; when pressure is put on them in social media they cry out that they're being treated unfairly and the posts must be either taken down completely or at least censored, but when a Dem Senator is held up to the light the RINOs retweet, "retruth," and cross-post until the sun decides to rise in the West.
-----
"we all got to watch live on television as the humiliation adhered to him like skunk spray"
The opprobrium was well placed, but there was more than enough to go around to others as well. We got to see Jim Jordan eat shit and then ask for a second helping. We got to see the the misogyny aimed at MTG for supporting MyKevin. We witnessed the ironically named House Freedom Caucus be the tail that wags the dog (and they still are). The RINOs eating their own in the name of personal power. Etc... etc... etc. The schadenfreude was delicious but not very filling.
-----
Laura Loomer, who possesses levels of crazy somehow above what the current iteration of the GOP has reached"
Loomer is *a* face, but not *the* face of the high end whacks in the New GOP tent. Looking at just the nonelected RINOs we find: Ben Shapiro, Nick Fuentes, Stephen Miller (now part of the Amber Ardipithecus ramidus' incoming administration), Steve Bannon, Lara Trump...
-----
"Rick Scott might feel some richly deserved disappointment"
Maybe, maybe not, but one thing is certain: he will remain MAGA to the core, even if he's dissed.
fnord