#PELOSI LOSES CONGRESS

[phaeton-flier]

The actual funny thing/irritating thing about "withholding your vote to move the Dems left" is that I'm fairly sure it tends to work the opposite way: representatives in more solidly blue districts tend to feel safer about taking more extreme positions. Not always, and the relationship isn't linear with vote margin: Pelosi is hardly the leftmost member of Congress despite likely being able to serve until she dies, but I think there the old person opinions outweigh the safety margin

But in general politicians in thin margin districts are a lot more worried about losing the next election if they go out on a limb than someone in a D+20 district, if for no other reason than the latter has more to fear from a left-wing primary challenger than their general election opponent.

[beardedmrbean]

https://x.com/allenanalysis/status/1940954093037453524?t=vp_o-m7TpmKwhomxSYTViw&s=19

Might have something to do with the fiscal year starting dates, they can't actually do that unless the democrats take back congress at the mid terms, if they don't they set a landmine for themselves to step on.

If that's what the idea really is, but hey it's not like that would be unheard of for either side to do.

Covid eviction moratorium was going to time out, president couldn't extend it because they lacked the authority and the courts told congress that they can do it, because it part of their job, and then we had members of the house out protesting the moratorium running out instead of actually doing their job and trying to get some legislation through that would actually extend that whole thing.

Remember when nancy said flat out that the president lacks the authority to forgive student debt because that was something that only congress has the authority to do and then they sat on student loan forgiveness dangling it in front of the voters faces through the midterm elections, which ended with them losing control of congress then biden still tried to do it and the ruling from the supreme court quoted nancy saying that the president doesn't have the authority to do that saying she was right?

The Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan on Friday, and its conservative justices used former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's words to do so.

Quoting Pelosi during a 2021 press conference, the Court's majority opinion wrote, "People think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not. He can postpone. He can delay. But he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress."

The justices agreed with six Republican-led states, while disagreeing with two individual borrowers, in a pair of lawsuits that challenged the Biden administration's student debt relief program. Although the Court ruled that the private plaintiffs lacked standing in their challenge against Biden's plan in the Department of Education v. Brown, the justices ruled against Biden in a 6-3 vote in Biden v. Nebraska, effectively shutting the program down. ______________________________________

____________________

I'm not sure how anyone could be shocked that politicians are acting in anything other than self interest the lions share of the time.

all of them, regardless of party or ideology

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Stephanie Kirchgaessner at The Guardian:

When the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, sought to shut down a Catholic charity that was was providing shelter and aid to undocumented migrants at the border, the San Diego cardinal, Robert McElroy, took a robust public stand against the attempt. “The state of Texas is using governmental pressure to curtail the work of the Church in one of its most fundamental obligations: to feed the hungry, to shelter the homeless, and to provide drink to the thirsty,” McElroy said in a statement at the time. “No government can morally tell us to abandon or limit this mission.” Last week, as billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg adopted policies that seemed designed to ingratiate themselves with the incoming Trump administration, Pope Francis took a different tack when he tapped the Harvard and Stanford-educated McElroy to the role of archbishop of Washington DC – one of the most high-profile positions in the US Catholic church. It followed Donald Trump’s own announcement that he was appointing Brian Burch, a rightwing political activist and critic of Francis who heads CatholicVote, a conservative advocacy group, to the role of US ambassador to the Vatican. In his statement, Trump claimed that Burch had helped deliver him more Catholic votes than any other presidential candidate. Both allies and critics of Francis say the appointments set the stage for conflict between the Vatican and Trump’s Washington, at a time when rightwing and far-right Catholics – from Leonard Leo to Steve Bannon – wield significant influence in the US capital. It was noted, too, that Francis chose 6 January, the anniversary of the Trump-inspired insurrection on the Capitol, to make the announcement.

“McElroy is incredibly polished intellectually. He is a thinker. He is a quiet man and he can say the strongest things against a certain kind of immigration policy with a soft voice. He’s courageous,” said Massimo Faggioli, professor of theology and religious studies, who noted that McElvoy was one of closest officials to Francis in North America. “He is Francis’s voice in many ways, and being in Washington DC elevates his voice. It is the place where power is brokered, and not just at the White House. In the Congress and the supreme court,” Faggioli added. Those corridors of power have increasingly been influenced by rightwing Catholics who are opposed to Francis’s agenda. The most prominent politicians who support him are losing influence and power, from the outgoing president Joe Biden to the former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Both are devout Catholics.

Steve Bannon, the Christian nationalist Trump adviser, who is also Catholic, said Francis’s choice of McElroy showed he was on a “collision course” with the incoming White House over one of Trump’s main agenda items. “The whole process of deportations will begin when President Trump takes his hand off the King James Bible,” Bannon told the Guardian. “Immediately you are going to have the Vatican, through their cardinal, trying to confront this. Bannon, who lives in Washington DC, said he believed the Catholic church and affiliated charities could face criminal investigations by the DoJ for their role in facilitating what Bannon and other rightwing leaders of the Maga movement have called an “invasion” of undocumented immigrants into the US. “I believe this will lead to the actual technical bankrupty of the church,” he said. McElroy, he added, “is a player, not some shrinking violet”.

Bannon is not the only Maga hardliner to show contempt for church practices. Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has previously said that Satan was “controlling the church” and has repeated rightwing claims that Catholic charities are being enriched by US government contracts to help migrants.

[...] Just as some supporters of Francis believed McElroy was a pick that seemed too good to be true, Bannon praised the appointment of Brian Burch to represent the US in the Holy See. The job has traditionally gone to major donors but not political operatives. Even the choice of Calista Gingrich, the wife of former House speaker Newt Gingrich, was not seen as too controversial. Bannon said he believed the choice of Burch was connected to Leonard Leo, the rightwing Catholic activist who has almost singlehandedly turned the supreme court into a rightwing power base. A non-profit linked to Leo has donated more than $1m to Burch’s CatholicVote group.

Cardinal Robert McElroy was recently selected to lead the Washington DC Archdiocese to replace the retiring Cardinal Wilton Gregory due to the 75 year-old age limit. With Cardinal McElroy helming the archdiocese, conflicts over Donald Trump’s fascistic mass deportation policy and other harmful anti-immigrant policies will abound.

[deadpresidents]

Is there any truth to the claims that Obama pushed Biden to exit the race?

I think Obama was one of many voices within the Democratic Party that was urging President Biden to step aside. I think Biden takes anything coming from Obama more personally because they have a more complex relationship now than when Biden was Obama's Vice President. They had one of the closest personal relationships between a President and Vice President in American history during the Obama Administration, but there has been a change because Biden was hurt in 2016 when Obama basically made it clear that he believed Hillary Clinton was a better option to succeed him than Biden was.

Biden felt validated in 2020 when he was able to do what Hillary couldn't do and defeated Trump, and the Biden-Obama relationship has been more distant since then. I think it's also probably a weird dynamic for both of them because Obama was obviously the dominant figure throughout his Presidency and I imagine it's difficult for him to have the tables turned now that Biden is President. In the public events that they've done together during Biden's Presidency, Biden always seems overshadowed by Obama and I think that causes some friction, as well. There is a genuine personal friendship between Obama and Biden, but there's also a competitive dynamic to their relationship. Biden has wanted to be seen as his own man in the Presidency, and Obama has wanted to protect his legacy, which he believes is undoubtedly linked with Biden, especially since there's so much overlap with their respective White House staffs.

It's been pretty obvious from the reporting over the past week that President Biden is still having some difficulty coming to terms with the idea of not running for re-election. I've seen sources outright saying that the President is "pissed off". I don't think Obama was as big of an influence in getting Biden to step aside as some of the senior Congressional leaders, like Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, and Jim Clyburn. It sounds like once Biden lost Pelosi, it became clear that things might get ugly if the President didn't make the decision to step aside on his own. Pelosi is still an enormously powerful figure in the party and a juggernaut when it comes to fundraising. If she was working behind-the-scenes against Biden, the President was probably on his way to losing the support of pretty much everybody in Congress -- that's how powerful Nancy Pelosi still is. I don't know how direct Obama was in those efforts, but the fact that many of Obama's closest political operators -- David Axelrod, David Plouffe, the Pod Save America crew (Favreau, Pfeiffer, Lovett, Vietor), etc. -- were making the argument on Obama's behalf was pretty clear to me.

[mugiwara-lucy]

Now as promised I would be getting back to my daily Politics/Vote Blue posts since I took a day off since yesterday was my birthday and apparently it's going around that apparently Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama asked Biden to step down.

Thankfully I've went to both of their Twitters so this was revealed to be bullshit put out by CNN (no wonder their shit network is losing viewers left and right) but I need EVERYONE TO CALM DOWN AND CONSIDER THE RAMMIFICATIONS if Biden were to step down.

If Biden DID step down, the ONLY WAY people MAY vote blue is IF (and it's a pretty strong if) Kamala Harris takes over BUT here's the problem.

The MAGAts in Red States have said they would make sure the next Democratic Nominee would NEVER get on the ballot and the sad part? They'd actually SUCCEED since I've had friends to call me in Red States (I live in a blue one) and confirm they've been pretty rampant with the Anti-Harris ads.

You all (Not talking to all Democrats/Liberals but the ones who think biden needs to step down) need to realize Biden is HERE TO STAY and if you're gonna be weak as to let some weak spineless Democrat Congress folks and some washed up actors like George Clooney or a dumbass news organization like CNN talk about how Biden is old and sleeps yet ignores Trump's fat, orange pedophile ass sleeping during his OWN SON'S SPEECH DURING THE RNC; I would almost say you deserve a second Trump term BUT I think of all the innocent people like my parents, grandparents, little sisters, friends irl, disabled, mentally ill, POC and my mutuals on here and they don't deserve to suffer just because some of you so called Democrats are as spineless and weak as the people you claim to be above.

[misfitwashere]

Musk’s dangerous bullying

ROBERT REICH

DEC 2

Friends,

No one better illustrates the sinister consequences of great wealth turned into unaccountable power than Elon Musk. 

Musk, the richest person in the world, is not only claiming presidential authority to fire federal workers, but he’s posting the identities of those whose jobs he wants to eliminate — with the clear intention that his followers harass and threaten them so they quit. 

Musk is utterly unaccountable. He has never been elected to anything, but he spent $120 million helping Trump become the president-elect and is now acting as if he’s Trump’s co-president, calling himself Trump’s “First Buddy.”

After buying Twitter for $44 billion, Musk turned it into a cesspool of disinformation and conspiracy theories and manipulated its algorithm to give himself 205 million followers, to whom he is now distributing treacherous lies. 

In recent days, Musk boosted posts on his website singling out the names and job titles of four federal employees working in climate policy and regulation who have done nothing other than hold titles Musk dislikes. All four targets are women. 

In one instance, Musk quote-tweeted a post highlighting the role of 37-year-old Ashley Thomas, a little-known director of climate diversification at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.��

Musk’s repost — “So many fake jobs” — garnered 32 million views, triggering a tsunami of taunts against Thomas, such as, “Sorry Ashley Thomas Gravy Train is Over” and “A tough way for Ashley Thomas to find out she’s losing her job.”

Musk apparently took the word “diversification” in Thomas’s title to mean the “D” in “DEI,” which Musk considers “woke.” 

Thomas (who holds degrees in engineering, business, and water science from Oxford and MIT) is focused on climate diversification to protect agriculture and infrastructure from extreme weather events.

Following Musk’s tweet, Thomas shut down several of her social media accounts. 

In another repost, Musk mocked Alexis Pelosi, a relative of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who works as a senior adviser to climate change at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“Nancy Pelosi’s niece should not be paid $181,648.00 by the U.S. Taxpayer to be the ‘Climate Advisor’ at HUD,” the original account wrote. “But maybe her advice is amazing 🤣🤣” Musk snarked. 

Musk also singled out the chief climate officer in the Department of Energy’s loan programs office and shared the name of an employee serving as senior adviser on environmental justice and climate change at the Department of Health and Human Services.

IMHO, Musk’s targets should sue him for defamation. 

This is hardly the first time Musk has targeted specific people, and he obviously knows how dangerous such targeting can be. 

After taking over Twitter in 2022, Musk targeted Yoel Roth, the platform’s former head of trust and safety, who had recently left the company. Musk tweeted, incorrectly, that it looked like Roth had argued “in favor of children being able to access adult Internet services.” Some platform users interpreted this as Musk calling Roth a pedophile, and they posted calls for Roth’s death. 

Roth moved out of his house because of the threats. 

Musk has also singled out specific civil servants. In 2021, he targeted Missy Cummings, a former fighter pilot and senior adviser at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, whom Musk claimed was “extremely biased against Tesla” because she questioned the safety of Tesla’s advanced driver-assistance system. 

Cummings said she received death threats and was forced to leave her home as a result of Musk’s posts.

Musk’s current targeting is even more dangerous because he has the apparent authority of the president-elect. Although the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” that Musk is co-heading (with Vivek Ramaswamy) isn’t a real department and has not been authorized by Congress, Musk is acting as if it’s real. 

Cummings says Musk’s personal intimidation is already leading some longtime federal employees to leave their jobs: “He intended for them, for people just like this, to be intimidated and just go ahead and quit so he didn’t have to fire them. So his plan, to some extent, is working.”

**

I worked in the federal government between 1974 and 1980, first at the Federal Trade Commission and then at the Justice Department, and from 1993 to 1997 I served as secretary of labor. 

Most of the federal employees I came to know cared deeply about the common good. The vast majority did their work carefully and thoughtfully. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude. 

But ever since Richard Nixon attacked “unelected bureaucrats” as America’s enemy and Ronald Reagan blamed “liberal bureaucrats” for government’s failings, government employees have been scapegoated. And now Trump is preparing to attack the so-called “deep state.”

In fact, America spends less each year on the federal government’s civilian workforce (roughly $200 billion) than we spend annually on federal contractors ($750 billion). 

Much of the “fat” is found in these private, for-profit contractors, who aren’t accountable to anyone except the office that draws up the contracts. 

The biggest waste is in the Defense Department, where many contractors have avoided competitive bidding because they have a monopoly over critical technologies. 

Which brings me back to Musk, whose businesses are fast becoming among the government’s largest contract monopolists. According to USASpending.gov (the government database that tracks federal spending), Musk’s SpaceX and his Starlink satellite division have signed contracts totaling nearly $20 billion. 

I don’t know how much waste and inefficiency are to be found in Musk’s government contracts because I haven’t been able to find any reports on them — which is precisely the problem. 

While Musk seeks to intimidate federal civil servants whose job titles he dislikes, forcing some to leave government because his postings have elicited threats to their lives, Musk is distracting attention from himself and his own profitable dips into the taxpayer trough. 

I invite any of you with an inclination to root out waste and inefficiency to find out what you can about any likely abuses in Musk’s government contracts, and let us know what you come up with.

[darkmaga-returns]

4/3 ASTROLABE LINKS:

(67) Paul Suda on X: "TRUMP 47 Week 11 of 208 "THE COMMUNISTS HAVE THE MUSIC" https://t.co/VVtRA2dOIn" / X

EthnoGuessr

(44) Coddled affluent professional on X: "I’m dying. This is savage. The NIH institute heads fired by Bhattacharya were offered jobs in the Indian Health Services. ‘“This underserved community deserves the highest quality of service, and HHS needs individuals like you to deliver that service,” it says, offering https://t.co/11L8pCgWQO" / X

(44) Glenn Beck on X: "Where are all these lawsuits against the Trump administration coming from? Let’s look at some of the main players: There’s American Oversight (a “nonprofit” created in 2017 specifically to fight against Trump), Democracy Forward (created by Marc Elias and John Podesta, both tied https://t.co/krAXTEf2WE" / X

(42) Logan Hall on X: ""i don't worship capitalism. i worship god. this is not a religion. if your system is making it impossible for my children to get married then i am totally happy to set your system on fire and blow it up. i'm not serving the system. i'm serving my children." https://t.co/CDLVOoTGUx" / X

(42) stricture on X: "If Trump is COOKED now, why aren't (professional) democrats acting like it? I get that you're saying the economy will be bad but if your primary profession is politics, then winning elections is way more important than 2 years of economic downturn. Instead they're seething ?" / X

(45) MAZE on X: "Incredible clip from 1996. Nancy Pelosi on tariffs and the trade deficit with China. "On this day, your member of Congress could have drawn the line to say to the President of the United States, do something about this US-China trade relationship that is a job loser for the https://t.co/DFlQ9wWSKh" / X

(54) Karli Bonne’ 🇺🇸 on X: "Jesse Watters opening monologue is a master class on how we’ve been ripped off over the years @JesseBWatters https://t.co/TJrbwQWTSy" / X

(42) Eric Daugherty on X: "🚨 JUST IN - VP JD VANCE ON TARIFFS: "What has the globalist economy gotten the USA? Incurring a huge amount of debt to buy things other countries make for us... we borrow money from Chinese peasants, to buy the things they manufacture. That is NOT a recipe for economic https://t.co/jLxYZSNJ9f" / X

(45) Trump War Room on X: ".@VP: “Think about how many factories we have seen close down since NAFTA, in the early nineties, 90,000 American factories have been closed down. That is small towns that have been blighted. That is millions of workers who have lost their jobs. That has to stop!” https://t.co/mczySvdjKZ" / X

(45) George on X: "WATCH: White House officials just released a lecture on why the tariffs are a game changer. Stephen Miller really understands it. "Well, the announcement today is the most significant action on global trade policy that has taken place in our lifetimes. It's not even a close https://t.co/K2GbFrpq24" / X

(42) TONY™ on X: "“I’m not a Pro-Trumper at all. But I believe in it. I’m a business owner. I know how it works” Trump’s Tariffs explained in simple terms! America’s business owners want this!! 🔥👇🏼 https://t.co/iyQPux7w0b" / X

(24) ☦️ Kingpilled 👑 on X: "Taken from 4chan but this is a good way to explain this all to normies: Let's look at this from the standpoint of lithium ion batteries. > Tariffs make lithium batteries and lithium more expensive > US-based mining company goes to the Western Carolinas where they just…" / X

(42) Geiger Capital on X: "Scott Bessent before the Election: “In the next few years, we are going to have some kind of grand economic reordering. Something equivalent to a new Bretton Woods. There’s a very good chance that happens in the next 4 years and I’d like to be a part of it.” https://t.co/2LDgk4QAoN" / X

(42) Insurrection Barbie on X: "Bessent: as a student of economics I can tell you that the surplus countries always lose in a trade war escalation, and we are the deficit and everybody else is a surplus country. https://t.co/BHQdZO4nUE" / X

(42) Tom Luongo (Head Sneetch) on X: "@CharlieShrem OMG … someone else on Twitter actually has a functioning brain! Now wait until he puts Alaska in the Sov. Wealth Fund, and offers us a way to unlock the equity in our houses." / X

(70) Eric Daugherty on X: "🚨 BREAKING - IT'S STARTING: Trump reveals that "EVERY" country has been calling up the White House after his tariff announcement. https://t.co/dIBGrZyHeQ Art of the Deal time. "Every country's called us. That's the beauty of what we do. We put ourselves in the driver's seat." / X

(42) TONY™ on X: "“Everybody expected prices to go up with the tariffs announcements, but Ford just kind of did the opposite.” “They just announced employee pricing for everybody on almost every single model. And it’s not like some generic $2K off… it is THOUSANDS of dollars off.” WOW!! 🔥👇🏼 https://t.co/3mkorwEwTV" / X

(42) Eric Daugherty on X: "Winning! General Motors is now going to expand truck production in Indiana, increase overtime hours and hire more workers https://t.co/tzfiMU5VPc" / X

VW Among Several European Automakers To Halt Vehicle Shipments, Raise Prices, In Response To Tariffs | ZeroHedge

(42) Rapid Response 47 on X: "JCB to double size of US plant amid Trump’s newly announced tariffs https://t.co/DGe3w3ABjH" / X

(43) ib on X: "Comparative advantage and free trade maximalism are stupid. If a country *doesn’t* make its own computers, antibiotics, steel, or food, it eventually *won’t* be able to — first not at a competitive price, then at good level of quality, finally *at all*. It becomes dependent." / X

(43) Josiah Lippincott on X: "Asset valuations and wages are inversely correlated, at least in the short run. The more money a corporation needs to pay its workers, the less profit it has to give shareholders. On a company's balance sheet, salaries are a liability. This is why corporations outsource labor" / X

(43) Space Age Maximalist on X: "Imagine you made $200 million in crapto, bought your toys, and invested in fixed return that feeds your kin forever. $80 million is left over, you invest for 5% return = $2.5 million yearly after taxes. Consider the impact that the online RW has today, not only on popular" / X

(73) Eric Daugherty on X: "🚨 BREAKING: Homeland Security just ARRESTED a man in Texas for threatening to "open fire" on ICE agents. This comes just days after another person on TikTok called on people to sho*t ICE agents. The man on the left, Robert King, FAFO'd. Now, the TikToker on the right needs to. https://t.co/jYHS4fgzlo" / X

(42) Will Chamberlain on X: "Let's tell the story of Kilmer Armado Abrego-Garcia, the "Maryland Father" (read: likely member of MS-13) who was removed to El Salvador, and who The Atlantic (and apparently the entire political left) are demanding be returned to the United States. https://t.co/m3TRAFFGs0" / X

(42) Dissident Soaps on X: "The blackpillers saying that they weren't doing anything have never managed a large enterprise, military unit or business. You can't turn the largest enterprise in the world (the US Government) around on a dime in 60 days. You have to obtain buy-in from subordinates (or" / X

(42) Devon Eriksen on X: "As I've observed before, you only have two choices. You can put people in prison. Or you can run your entire society like a prison. Because some people, a certain small percentage, just plain don't act right. Doesn't matter why — bad seed, bad parents, bad celestial" / X

(42) Wade Stotts on X: "In this video, I try my best to understand Vivek Ramaswamy’s definition of American identity. https://t.co/uVGOE1ooL9" / X

[comeonamericawakeup]

Donald Trump appears to be "losing his marbles," said Michael Tomasky, so why isn't his obvious mental decline a bigger story? For months, Trump has been repeatedly referring to running against Barack Obama in 2016 and in 2024 and showing other disturbing signs of memory loss and incoherence. But he hit a startling new low last week while attacking GOP primary opponent Nikki Haley. At a rally in New Hampshire, he claimed Haley was "in charge of security" for the Capitol on Jan. 6 and was therefore at fault for the invasion of the building by MAGA followers. Huh? Haley was a private citizen in 2021; clearly, Trump was confusing her with then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

This was no simple gaffe: Trump used Haley's name four times in trying to blame her for Jan. 6 - strong evidence he mixed up the two female adversaries "as people" in his mind. Haley, his Republican primary opponent, became Pelosi, his Democratic foil in Congress. If Joe Biden had made a comment this addled, "Fox News would be looping it nonstop."

Trump's revealing error got little attention except for some low-key coverage of Haley "questioning Trump's mental fitness for office." Trump is unfit for that office in so many ways - and now it's clear there's another.

THE WEEK February 2, 2024

[tomorrowusa]

The 119th Congress convenes on Friday. The biggest item on the agenda will be the election of a House Speaker.

Because of small Democratic gains in November, the House now has this narrower makeup...

219 Republicans

215 Democrats

1 vacancy (adios, Matt Gaetz!)

218 votes are required for a majority. To make matters more complicated, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY-04) has stated that he will not vote for current Speaker Mike Johnson – though he hasn't revealed which far right doofus he will support.

Democrats plan to be in the House chamber in force. Even Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, still recovering from surgery, will be there.

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi posted a video on social media Thursday from her flight back to Washington, ahead of what will be her first public appearance in the Capitol since she underwent hip replacement surgery after being hospitalized last month for an injury while traveling in Luxembourg. And Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Pa.), who hasn't voted since having what his office described as a "minor" stroke in May last year, is set to return Friday, his office confirmed. Democrats are expected to universally oppose Republican Rep. Mike Johnson for speaker, meaning he can lose only one vote and still win the gavel. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has already said he will vote against Johnson, and others like Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) have signaled they're on the fence. President-elect Donald Trump has publicly endorsed Johnson and said he'd make calls for him too, though some Republican holdouts appear unmoved by his appeals.

While things probably won't get as chaotic as in autumn of 2023 when Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted, it's not a time when you'll want to run out of popcorn. 🍿

[eaudrey35]

Democratic elites and pundits Nancy Pelosi Adam Schiff George Clooney Chuck Shumer and the rest. If the Democrats lose the election it won't be because of Biden/Harris but because of u unloyal irritating unfocused idiots morons. If the Democrats win the election it won't be because of y'all but because the voters understanding and backing of Biden/Harris. If we win its because we stayed focus against Trump Project 2025 we kept our eyes on the Epstein files. We fought for Women reproductive rights all by reelecting Biden/Harris. If we win the Senate and Congress its because we gave them want they needed to finish the job started. Democratic elites u think u can screw ur voters cause u got money and take away our choice and force two new somebody's on us no. Biden/Harris got incumbency behind them and a record of delivering on their promises. So Democratic elites fuck u and ur two new somebody's. Our choice the voters choice is Biden/ Harris.

[longwindedbore]

We used to call bribery “Graft”.

Now we have renamed bribery as “corporations-are-people-too making enormous dark money donations to largely unregulated and anonymous Political Action Committees.”

If the GOP had not packed the SCOTUS decades ago to get their Citizens United ruling their Party wouldn’t have sufficient political donations to run campaigns.

For sample Jim Jordan gets his money for campaigns from PACs and virtually nothing from his constituents. I haven’t bothered to look at the rest of the GOP clown car, nor the anonymous majority of GOP turds in Congress. What would I find if I did?

The Democrats actually fundraise their constituents as well fundraise from out of towners/out of state contributors with requests by individual campaigners.

BIG HOWEVER: most/all of those individual requests tend to come from the big Pelosi controlled PAC called DNCC. (Not to be -or rather, intentionally to be - confused with DNC.)

The vice grip that one Democrat PAC has on campaign contributions is the essential explanation why a plurality of the Dems are over 110 years old.

The individual state parties that I participated in on a precinct level work hard to suppress leftist, or young & enthusiastic, or even merely interesting candidates who might one day be a threat to the Dem hierarchy.

After all the hierarchy stays in place, even if the candidates lose. But if the more progressive candidates win they can affect who is the Party Leadership

Like the GOP, the other side of the USA’s One Corporate Theatrical Troupe & Debate Team gets most of its funds from corporations.

More accurately, not actually from Corporations shareholders but from 1,500 Ivy-League legacynepo-baby sociopaths who inherited their stock shares with voting power and thus control the Corporations.

if we really want to turn this country around, we would foreclose on all the stocks these geniuses pledged when they failed to stop Covid and had to get their PPP loans. As well as the stocks pledged when they collapsed the world economy in the real estate derivatives scheme in 2008. How about we charge them for the Bush and Trump tax cuts?

Just reset the Fortune 500 corporations as co-ops. Then do a rapid phase out coal coal fired electrical generating plants.

That would end dark money contributions. Change the face and balance of the Parties.

Incidentally, the sociopaths also bribed Congress so they could sell derivatives again. We can expect a stock market housing caused collapse at any time. But given all the other shit, we’re going through who cares about the stock market?

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dean Obeidallah at The Dean's Report:

It’s a “coup!” declared hysterical Republicans.  Were they talking about Donald Trump’s efforts after the 2020 election to overturn the election for which he’s currently facing criminal charges in both federal court and Fulton County, Ga?! Nope! What Republicans from JD Vance down were calling a “coup” was President Biden dropping out of the 2024 race. (I’m serious!)  Arkansas US Senator Tom Cotton wrote on X shortly after the news broke, “Joe Biden succumbed to a coup by Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and Hollywood donors, ignoring millions of Democratic primary votes.”  “The coup is complete,” wrote Trump loving Representative Paul Gosar from Arizona. That was followed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene who also echoed the claim we witnessed a “coup” with Biden dropping out.

Talk of a coup even made it all the way to the top of the 2024 GOP presidential ticket when—in an interview that aired Monday--Fox News host Jesse Watters asked Trump and his running mate JD Vance, “Is it a coup against Joe Biden?” Vance responded point blank, “Yeah, I think it is.” Trump though—perhaps reflecting on what he did after the 2020 election—was uncharacteristically sheepish, offering Watters only this two word answer: “Sort of.”

Back on planet earth, we know that Biden made the decision to drop out for the same reason politicians have chosen to end their campaigns since time immemorial. As NBC News reported, in reaching his decision, Biden reviewed along with his family and top aides extensive polling data, including how Vice President Kamala Harris would fare in a potential matchup against Trump. It’s true Biden was not happy with the growing calls to drop out after his deeply troubling debate performance three weeks before. However, as NBC News noted At the end of it all, “Biden came grudgingly to accept that he could not sustain his campaign with poll numbers slipping, donors fleeing and party luminaries pushing him to exit.”

That led us to Sunday afternoon when Biden released a letter that informed the nation, “While it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.” (President Biden is addressing the nation on Wednesday night where we will find out even more of the details.) That’s not a coup. That is what American politics and democracy have long looked like. True, given it was a president dropping out only a little more than a hundred days from the election, it was both jarring and history making. But at the end, Biden made what he believed was the best choice for himself, his family, his party and his country.

[...] Trump attempted a coup in every sense of the word. Despite losing the 2020 election, he attempted to overturn the results to remain in power. That is why the federal indictment against Trump charging him with four felonies states, “Despite having lost, the Defendant [Trump] was determined to remain in power.”   To that end as the indictment continues, Trump “pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results.” Trump’s “criminal scheme”--as the indictment describes--included replacing legally elected electors to the Electoral college with fake ones chosen by his campaign to deliver Trump the victory he didn’t actually win. Trump’s illegal plan also included��preventing Congress on Jan 6 from certifying the legitimate votes cast for Joe Biden--despite Trump losing every court battle to invalidate these very votes. Then there was the brutal Jan 6 attack on our Capitol, which FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before Congress was an act of “domestic terrorism.” As the Jan 6 House committee’s final report put it: “The central cause of January 6th was one man, former President Donald Trump, whom many others followed,” adding, “None of the events of January 6th would have happened without him.”

Dean Obeidallah debunks the right-wing bad faith “coup” attacks against Joe Biden, and rightly points out that replacing Biden with Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee (before the nomination was formalized) is NOT a coup, but the Capitol Insurrection on January 6th, 2021 and Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results were most definitely one.

See Also:

The UnPopulist: Republicans' Bogus Claims that Democrats Acted Illicitly in Replacing Biden

[heathersdesk]

Ah, I see we have some historical revisionism in the house we need to deal with. Because while many of these points are accurate, the story here is incomplete.

Why are people older than you blaming Democrats for Roe v. Wade being overturned? Because back in the Obama administration (while much of our youngest cohort of voters were children or not yet born) the Democrats ran Obama as the one who would codify Roe into law. That was the campaign promise he made, that if we elected a supermajority of Democrats to Congress, they would finally get this done so the world we now live on would never exist.

As you can see, that was a lie and they never got around to it. They broke the promise they made to us because if they finally followed through on this, they'd have to find some other kind of precarity to cajole us with to vote for them every election cycle.

They gambled with our lives and lost. That's why Democrats share in the blame for Roe v. Wade being overturned. And unlike some, I know this is true because I was there. I was alive to see that in 2008.

The fact that the Republican party succeeded in doing this is their fault. The fact that they still could was the fault of the Democrats. They share in their conspiracy to keep those without means at their mercy. That's not a uniquely Republican failure. None of them are your friends. You can't trust any of them at their word. And the sooner y'all figure that out, the more effective you can be at the polls.

Voting does matter. Anyone who says it doesn't is probably a right wing boot licker. But voting isn't enough. You need to stay angry with these people and constantly keep them feeling like they're one bad vote away from losing their jobs. Every day. All the time. And anyone who tells you Democrats don't deserve that kind of scrutiny and blame when they genuinely drop the ball on all of us are the ones who thought Hillary Clinton could beat Trump, that Nancy Pelosi should stay in office/in leadership until she dies, and let RBG make that same mistake, which was what put reproductive rights in the coffin in the first place.

It doesn't take a lot for Democrats to have a better platform than Republicans at this point, and it's made them lazy and opportunistic. Stop treating them like your friends. They will sell you out for a Klondike bar.

It is extremely disturbing how many posts I see claiming that Roe v. Wade was overturned on Biden's watch and blaming him and the Democratic Party for it. It's disturbing on a number of levels.

First, it was Trump and Bush-appointed justices who handed down the Dobbs decision. This is a flagrant example of blaming Democrats for things Republicans did, and not coincidentally is one of the the most widely felt differences between the two parties. As a result, it's usually the first example Democrats and their allies point to; this misappropriation suggests a deliberate attempt to undercut that fact.

Secondly, and related to the first point, it obfuscates who the real enemy is, and I am comfortable using word "enemy" to describe the Republican Party because of the policies they advocate and enact. The truth is that states controlled by the Republican Party were where the effects of Dobbs are most severely felt, while states controlled by the Democratic Party are passing laws to protect abortion. It is important to know which party opposes abortion and which party supports it. If the Republicans gain control of the House, Senate, and White House, they will pass a national abortion ban, as they have done at the state level in several places.

Thirdly, blaming Biden for Dobbs demonstrates a very concerning lack of understanding of how the government functions. The judiciary is its own branch of government; judges are appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate. It doesn't matter who is president when a decision is handed down, it matters who was president when the justices were appointed. People sometimes react to this by moving the goalposts and claiming the real issue was a failure by Democrats to "codify" Roe v. Wade. I am not sure what "codify" means in this context, and I'm not sure they are either. One thing it does not mean is that congress can pass a law saying "abortion is legal forever." Republicans could easily repeal such a law and it the federal government cannot necessarily prevent states from restricting abortion at the state level. Roe v. Wade was a ruling stating that the constitution guaranteed a right to privacy, which included the right to have an abortion. This prevented abortion restrictions in a way federal law cannot. That doesn't mean passing federal law protecting abortion is a bad idea, but it isn't a foolproof protection. It's fair to argue that the Democratic Party and the left of center generally were complacent about abortion. The form of this complacency was not taking the courts seriously, while the right spent fifty years openly filling the courts with anti-abortion judges.

The last thing that worries me is that this is popping up phrased almost the exact same way all over the place. I am afraid that it is not merely incompetence, but intentional misinformation, that is then repeated by the incompetent who believe it.

I know some will probably dismiss this post as being from a "vote harder" liberal Biden supporter, but whatever your feelings about Biden, the Democratic Party, or the democratic process in the U.S., you should care about the truth. The truth is that Roe v. Wade was overturned by Republican-appointed judges and abortion bans are being enacted by Republican elected officials, and Joe Biden opposes these things. You can do with that information whatever you wish, but you denying it is dishonest.

[smokeybrandcompositions]

Imaginationland

Zohran Mamadani is poised to become New York City’s next Mayor and the establishment is losing their f*cking minds about it. Mans won the Democratic bid in an unexpected “upset” according to mainstream outlets but if you were watching the campaign, you knew this was a forgone conclusion. Their current Mayor, Eric Adams is a corrupt asshole who will definitely lose next election and the only other competition was Andrew Cuomo, a disgraced former NY Governor who had to bow out after he was exposed to be a sex pest. Mamadani is everything the American dream used to be. He’s a Muslim Indian from Africa who immigrated to the States when he was a child for a better life. He’s done everything he’s supposed to do; Went to school, worked hard, earned his stripes. The issue is, other than the Brown and the Islam, is the fact that he is a Progressive. Not a Corpo Democrat but an anti-establishment, Democratic Socialist, who wants people to pay their fair share so we can all be better off. Mans won that Primary handily, on a platform of free public transport, free school lunch, and free adult education within city limits. You know, the Devil’s Cocktail according to Fox News and the like. The thing is, Zohran won that Primary by more than twenty f*cking points! It was a landslide victory for him running ON those principals! That means the people want that sh*t and aren’t our civil servants supposed to serve the civilians?

It’s wild to see such aggressive resistance to the sh*t the People actually want, particularly from the Democrats who took a shellacking in this last election. The DNC just forced out David Hodge for trying to implement changes which would be beneficial for recapturing young voters and Jasmine Crockett was routed for a lead position on the Senate Oversight Committee because her “management style” is unpopular. That’s code for Jasmine being loud, Black, female, and combative. Crockett isn’t afraid to speak her mind, to anyone, and welcomes the conflict. She’s been going after Trump for years, never backing down or sugar-coating her messaging. That’s a problem for Establishment Dems, who are all f*cking Boomers and older to begin with, that don’t want actual change. These assholes ruined America by voting Reagan into office back in the Eighties and have done everything in their power to make sure they hold on to that power, ever since. Like, you got Nancy f*cking Pelosi in office for decades. Actual decades. Ma has been in the Senate since the f*cking Eighties. I was three when she was sent to Congress, man. I’ll be forty-one in September! That sh*t is egregious. How the f*ck is an eighty-five-year-old woman supposed to know what life is like for a twenty-year-old? How the f*ck do you know what the world is like in the year of our lord 2025, when the last time you were outside among the regular folk was in the f*cking Seventies? There’s no way you have a realistic take on the plight of the common man when you’ve been part of the establishment for forty goddamn years and that’s the entire goddamn problem.

Congress is way too old and their understanding of the world is long past relevant. They have no idea what it’s like for someone like me, a Xennial who grew up with technology, to exist in the world they created. How could they? They’ve been a gilded palace since the f*cking Eighties, pretending to do the work of the People! These mother*ckers seem to think that you can still live off eight dollars an hour because, when they were working regular jobs, that was a lot of money. I mean, of course it was, you could buy a pop with a nickel back then. So, when someone like AOC comes in an tells them to their faces, they have no idea what the f*ck they’re talking about, that the People want these things I’m campaigning on, those Establishment assholes just ignore it. It’s easier to turn a blind eye and keep getting those Lobby dollars than it is to actually do right by the people who sent you to Washington on to do a job. Sandy (and the fact that I know her High School nickname is Sandy, is an entirely different ordeal that’s worth a rant in its own right) mentioned the other day that its crazy people call her radical for having progressive views and she’s absolutely correct. Like, what is the progressive agenda? Universal healthcare. Universal College. Free day care and actually baby leave. There are other aspects, of course, but those are the core three issues and people on both sides of the aisle stay with their hackles raised about them. F*cking why? What is so “radical” about our tax dollars going to the things we should be using taxes for?

The most frustrating thing about that sh*t is the fact that the US used to actually HAVE these programs. A pretty solid majority of the people in Congress doing their goddamndest to keep this sh*t from happening for the younger generations, literally took advantage of these same programs until they voted them away in the Eighties. I went to a City college for a semester. Didn’t graduate because that sh8t was High School all over again and I couldn’t tolerate coming out of pocket for an education I already had. That three months cost me two grand but it included parking, books, and incidentals. My ma went to the same school, about forty years before I did, and paid two hundred dollars. For everything I paid for. But for the YEAR! She got an entire year of Junior College, for less than three hundred f*cking dollars! My kid brother went to City, too, about a decade after me. Guess how much he paid for a semester? Six grand. By the time my brother first got to the school, the cost of junior college had increased three thousand times since my f*cking mom went to the SAME goddamn school! Now imagine how much college in general, never mind a Junior or State system, was for f*cking Pelosi! That sh*t is insane and its f*cking staggering that literally no one who can fix it, will fix it. And that’s why Zohran scares the Establishment so much. Not just the Corpo, career, Democrats but the entirety of the Right, too. Because he sees that bullsh*t and, as a Mayor, might actually be able to implement those “socialist” changes on a city level.

Like, Zohran literally said free college for everyone attending a City school and the entire weight of the US political system came down upon him. I have never seen this degree, this level of vitriol, from bipartisan attacks in my entire life. It’s crazy that THIS, just the specter, of reviving a system these assholes cast away after they used it to get to their positions, got the likes of Chuck Schumer and Donald f*cking Trump, agreeing. Like, they used this ladder to get to where they were then pulled it up after them, but along comes this thirty-something brown kid from Africa trying to pull that sh*t back down, and its knives out. It’s flabbergasting how goddamn selfish this sh*t is and absolutely unwarranted. I’ve seen article after article saying that the Jew in NY hate the kid over is stance on Palestine but he still won that Primary and most Jewish people vote OVERWHELMINGLY Dem. I say another one saying he pissed of the Italians because he called for a Columbus statue to come down but what Italian actually gives a sh8t about f*cking Columbus like that? None of these are new issues, Tweets from way back when, masquerading as “gotchas” but are just sentiments shared by literally anyone under the age of Forty-five. Nothing about Mamadani is controversial or radical outside of the fact he wants more for the People, at the cost of the elite paying their fair share. That’s it. I mean, there are requisite bigots for the African Indian Muslim thing, but that’s not why Trump is threatening to intervene in this election. He’s doing that because, if Mamadani has a real shot at implementing his programs, showing the country how successful they can be, and lighting the match of a whole ass social revolution in this country. And he’d do it as an African Indian Muslim immigrant. Can you imagine?

[smokeybrand]

Imaginationland

Zohran Mamadani is poised to become New York City’s next Mayor and the establishment is losing their f*cking minds about it. Mans won the Democratic bid in an unexpected “upset” according to mainstream outlets but if you were watching the campaign, you knew this was a forgone conclusion. Their current Mayor, Eric Adams is a corrupt asshole who will definitely lose next election and the only other competition was Andrew Cuomo, a disgraced former NY Governor who had to bow out after he was exposed to be a sex pest. Mamadani is everything the American dream used to be. He’s a Muslim Indian from Africa who immigrated to the States when he was a child for a better life. He’s done everything he’s supposed to do; Went to school, worked hard, earned his stripes. The issue is, other than the Brown and the Islam, is the fact that he is a Progressive. Not a Corpo Democrat but an anti-establishment, Democratic Socialist, who wants people to pay their fair share so we can all be better off. Mans won that Primary handily, on a platform of free public transport, free school lunch, and free adult education within city limits. You know, the Devil’s Cocktail according to Fox News and the like. The thing is, Zohran won that Primary by more than twenty f*cking points! It was a landslide victory for him running ON those principals! That means the people want that sh*t and aren’t our civil servants supposed to serve the civilians?

It’s wild to see such aggressive resistance to the sh*t the People actually want, particularly from the Democrats who took a shellacking in this last election. The DNC just forced out David Hodge for trying to implement changes which would be beneficial for recapturing young voters and Jasmine Crockett was routed for a lead position on the Senate Oversight Committee because her “management style” is unpopular. That’s code for Jasmine being loud, Black, female, and combative. Crockett isn’t afraid to speak her mind, to anyone, and welcomes the conflict. She’s been going after Trump for years, never backing down or sugar-coating her messaging. That’s a problem for Establishment Dems, who are all f*cking Boomers and older to begin with, that don’t want actual change. These assholes ruined America by voting Reagan into office back in the Eighties and have done everything in their power to make sure they hold on to that power, ever since. Like, you got Nancy f*cking Pelosi in office for decades. Actual decades. Ma has been in the Senate since the f*cking Eighties. I was three when she was sent to Congress, man. I’ll be forty-one in September! That sh*t is egregious. How the f*ck is an eighty-five-year-old woman supposed to know what life is like for a twenty-year-old? How the f*ck do you know what the world is like in the year of our lord 2025, when the last time you were outside among the regular folk was in the f*cking Seventies? There’s no way you have a realistic take on the plight of the common man when you’ve been part of the establishment for forty goddamn years and that’s the entire goddamn problem.

Congress is way too old and their understanding of the world is long past relevant. They have no idea what it’s like for someone like me, a Xennial who grew up with technology, to exist in the world they created. How could they? They’ve been a gilded palace since the f*cking Eighties, pretending to do the work of the People! These mother*ckers seem to think that you can still live off eight dollars an hour because, when they were working regular jobs, that was a lot of money. I mean, of course it was, you could buy a pop with a nickel back then. So, when someone like AOC comes in an tells them to their faces, they have no idea what the f*ck they’re talking about, that the People want these things I’m campaigning on, those Establishment assholes just ignore it. It’s easier to turn a blind eye and keep getting those Lobby dollars than it is to actually do right by the people who sent you to Washington on to do a job. Sandy (and the fact that I know her High School nickname is Sandy, is an entirely different ordeal that’s worth a rant in its own right) mentioned the other day that its crazy people call her radical for having progressive views and she’s absolutely correct. Like, what is the progressive agenda? Universal healthcare. Universal College. Free day care and actually baby leave. There are other aspects, of course, but those are the core three issues and people on both sides of the aisle stay with their hackles raised about them. F*cking why? What is so “radical” about our tax dollars going to the things we should be using taxes for?

The most frustrating thing about that sh*t is the fact that the US used to actually HAVE these programs. A pretty solid majority of the people in Congress doing their goddamndest to keep this sh*t from happening for the younger generations, literally took advantage of these same programs until they voted them away in the Eighties. I went to a City college for a semester. Didn’t graduate because that sh8t was High School all over again and I couldn’t tolerate coming out of pocket for an education I already had. That three months cost me two grand but it included parking, books, and incidentals. My ma went to the same school, about forty years before I did, and paid two hundred dollars. For everything I paid for. But for the YEAR! She got an entire year of Junior College, for less than three hundred f*cking dollars! My kid brother went to City, too, about a decade after me. Guess how much he paid for a semester? Six grand. By the time my brother first got to the school, the cost of junior college had increased three thousand times since my f*cking mom went to the SAME goddamn school! Now imagine how much college in general, never mind a Junior or State system, was for f*cking Pelosi! That sh*t is insane and its f*cking staggering that literally no one who can fix it, will fix it. And that’s why Zohran scares the Establishment so much. Not just the Corpo, career, Democrats but the entirety of the Right, too. Because he sees that bullsh*t and, as a Mayor, might actually be able to implement those “socialist” changes on a city level.

Like, Zohran literally said free college for everyone attending a City school and the entire weight of the US political system came down upon him. I have never seen this degree, this level of vitriol, from bipartisan attacks in my entire life. It’s crazy that THIS, just the specter, of reviving a system these assholes cast away after they used it to get to their positions, got the likes of Chuck Schumer and Donald f*cking Trump, agreeing. Like, they used this ladder to get to where they were then pulled it up after them, but along comes this thirty-something brown kid from Africa trying to pull that sh*t back down, and its knives out. It’s flabbergasting how goddamn selfish this sh*t is and absolutely unwarranted. I’ve seen article after article saying that the Jew in NY hate the kid over is stance on Palestine but he still won that Primary and most Jewish people vote OVERWHELMINGLY Dem. I say another one saying he pissed of the Italians because he called for a Columbus statue to come down but what Italian actually gives a sh8t about f*cking Columbus like that? None of these are new issues, Tweets from way back when, masquerading as “gotchas” but are just sentiments shared by literally anyone under the age of Forty-five. Nothing about Mamadani is controversial or radical outside of the fact he wants more for the People, at the cost of the elite paying their fair share. That’s it. I mean, there are requisite bigots for the African Indian Muslim thing, but that’s not why Trump is threatening to intervene in this election. He’s doing that because, if Mamadani has a real shot at implementing his programs, showing the country how successful they can be, and lighting the match of a whole ass social revolution in this country. And he’d do it as an African Indian Muslim immigrant. Can you imagine?

[news-9-miami]

In a swift reversal, Democratic leadership has voided the February election of David Hogg as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, removing the 25-year-old gun control activist just 130 days after his historic win. The DNC cited procedural concerns and internal unrest, voting 294 to 99 in a virtual session Wednesday to oust Hogg, despite previously standing by the vote as “conducted fairly, transparently, and in alignment with the rules.” The move follows weeks of internal friction and public drama, capped by Hogg's decision not to contest the position again. 'I’m Not Running Again' Rather than endure further humiliation, Hogg took matters into his own hands Wednesday, announcing on social media that he would not seek reelection to the post. “I started Leaders We Deserve for a simple purpose: to be the Emily’s List for progressive young Democrats,” Hogg wrote in a lengthy X thread. The organization, Leaders We Deserve, works to elect left-leaning Gen Z candidates to Congress and statehouses. But Hogg's blunt critiques of the Democratic establishment, especially those aging incumbents he sees as “asleep at the wheel” have made him a lightning rod inside party circles. After seeing a serious lack of vision from Democratic leaders… it became clear that Leaders We Deserve had to start primarying incumbents and directly challenging the culture of seniority politics, he explained. No Room for Dissent? Hogg’s recent candid remarks to an undercover Project Veritas reporter likely added fuel to the fire. In the covertly recorded footage, Hogg appeared to criticize former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for “alleged insider trading” and claimed Anthony Bernal, Jill Biden’s former chief of staff, wielded “an enormous amount of power” inside the White House, just as the administration faces scrutiny over its handling of executive authority in its final days. While the party has not cited the video as a reason for his ouster, it painted an unflattering picture of internal disunity just months before a pivotal election cycle. DNC Chair Praises Hogg—Even as He Exits Despite tensions, DNC Chair Ken Martin issued a public statement of support after Hogg stepped aside: “I commend David for his years of activism, organizing, and fighting for his generation. While I continue to believe he is a powerful voice for this party, I respect his decision to step back from his post as vice chair. I have no doubt that he will remain an important advocate for Democrats across the map. I appreciate his service as an officer, his hard work, and his dedication to the party.” Sources say Martin had sharply reprimanded Hogg in recent days. Diversity Fight Resurfaces as Kalyn Free Reenters the Ring https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uanox8aY6DI The original challenger to Hogg’s election, Kalyn Free, is reportedly making another bid for the vice chair role. A Native American activist and party veteran, Free previously accused the DNC of violating its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies by failing to elect a more “representative” leadership team. Though unsuccessful in February, she may now have a clearer path with Hogg out of the race. Internal Civil War—or Growing Pains? Behind the scenes, the DNC appears caught in a tug-of-war between old guard pragmatists and the ascendant progressive youth movement. Hogg, once seen as a bridge between the two, ultimately found himself alienated by both. In his parting thread, he issued a stark warning: “We lost voting share with almost every demographic across the board, and despite all that Trump has done, our approvals remain at 27%. If we don’t show our country how we are dramatically changing… we will continue to lose.” While he emphasized he had hoped to play a “positive role,” Hogg admitted, “there is fundamental disagreement about the role.” What Comes Next? New elections begin Thursday, with Democrats scrambling to stabilize the party's leadership and message heading into 2026. Whether Hogg continues to publicly criticize the DNC or retreats to behind-the-scenes organizing, remains to be seen. But one thing is clear: the generational and ideological divides inside the Democratic Party are no longer simmering beneath the surface. They’re now center stage. Read the full article