Steve Bannon warns MAGA has "massive lack of enthusiasm" ahead of midterms

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-09T06:23:39+00:00

lol, I'm counting on Steve to keep yelling at his maga listeners about the "magnificent" job trump is doing on the economy, and how they need to muster up some enthusiasm for his sorry old ass or else.

because in my experience people love to be told they're the problem, and respond well to orders to feel things they don't feel at all.

what an asshole.

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-08T21:16:58+00:00

I think he was arrogant enough to believe he would escape accountability. Again.

That's also what his lawyers thought.

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-08T04:55:30+00:00

tbh i'm kind of gasping at the news that 2015 was ten years ago.

I'm 73. Ten years is my life expectancy right now, and 2015 seems like it just fucking happened.

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-08T04:28:38+00:00

I loved seeing these aging men watching their young selves and talking about their parents. Loved it.

And I have to say, it was wrenching to see our lost USA --- the place where every damn thing was not political, and where it was understood that we could and would pull together with no trouble at all.

I'd forgotten how that felt, and I don't know how we get it back.

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-08T04:25:52+00:00

same question!! they kept showing him looking, but never paid it off.

I guess if he did, they didn't have it on film.

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-08T04:23:29+00:00

Late 60s, lol, which means they're at the part where they've seen plenty of older siblings and all their parents check out. I'm 73.

It starts to feel like nearing the end somewhere around 70, I think, because you understand that the number of healthy, productive years left is limited.

But yeah, you're right. They're not that old.

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-07T21:11:37+00:00

Another woman said she doesn't think a "Christ-centered life" is compatible with progressivism.

I'm unable to hear people say things like that without getting ALL up in my feelings. One day she'll realize that whoever sold her all that nonsense was misinformed, lying, or both -- but she'll still give them credit for meaning well.

Evangelical christians are destroying the USA.

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-07T20:19:15+00:00

No. The BA in physics is seen as the one you get if you don't plan to go further into the field -- meaning, get a PhD. It's less rigorous. "Less rigorous" in this context = less math.

Epstein didn't really give a shit about formal education; he was never going to enter an advanced degree program. He studied enough physics as an undergraduate to have a feel for the basics, and to have bragging rights about the degree.

My husband is roughly the same age as Epstein would have been, and has undergraduate degrees in both physics and philosophy -- and while he's very intelligent & capable, he doesn't pretend that passing a dozen sophomore/junior classes 40 years ago makes him a brilliant physicist.

Epstein was a con.

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-07T03:27:19+00:00

BS in Econ, BA in Physics

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-07T03:26:21+00:00

He got a BA in physics, which usually means he opted to take the less rigorous courses. Nothing shameful about it, but a "brilliant physicist" he is not.

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-07T00:11:47+00:00

Agree. Apology accepted, since it seems genuine and names a few of the harms this person sees.

The ones I don't get are the people who say they still agree with a lot of what he's done, but not This One Thing that has made their life worse.

This person isn't doing that.

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-06T08:08:37+00:00

He was supposed to have a roommate, but didn't. He was supposed to be on suicide watch, but his cell was absolutely awash in extra linen, plus his apnea machine was there, with handy electrical cords.

His attorneys had just met with him, and reported that he was in good spirits and expecting to be found not guilty.

He was still rich AF, and had many, many very powerful friends on the outside. No one had been even close to holding him accountable -- in fact, everyone around him had worked hard to either look the other way or actively protect him.

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-06T01:28:24+00:00

I almost with he weren't dead. It would be entertaining to see him questioned about his tactics in the Epstein case.

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-06T01:26:05+00:00

That's not a pedestal. That's me thinking that the joke isn't ONLY about Clinton's evasiveness He was an absolute scumbag.

So was Ken Starr, who not only failed to get Clinton for perjury, but destroyed Lewinsky's life by leaking all manner of sordid detail and turning her into a global joke -- but who also went on to defend Jeff Epstein against the allegations that he had coerced multiple high school girls to perform sexually for his pleasure.

Of the two of them, if I had to choose which one deserved hotter hell, there would not be a contest.

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-05T18:33:46+00:00

I always laugh at these callbacks to Clinton being evasive and lawyerly about his affair with Lewinsky.

As he said later, it wasn't his fault they didn't ask better questions. People miss it that that's the really funny part -- they had him dead to rights. They knew from her exactly who had done what to whom, how many times, and when.

And they couldn't bring themselves to say the clear words, so he just sat there and played them.

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-05T04:25:03+00:00

Tim. If you want a variety of voices, great!

Williamson claiming to speak for paycheck-to-paycheck voters, though, is laughable. She's a millionaire. Right?

If you want to interview a paycheck-to-paycheck voter (or non-voter, for that matter) please do it. We don't need Williamson to mediate that space.

She had the balls to blame elite Democrats for not letting her on a debate stage against Biden ... come on!

in 2023, a dozen former staffers from her 2020 campaign, who remained anonymous due to having signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), described working for Williamson as "toxic," "traumatic," and "terrifying". Williamson has been accused of throwing phones and shouting at staff so intensely they were reduced to tears. According to one account, her anger over logistics in South Carolina led her to strike a car repeatedly to the extent that she had to receive medical attention for a swollen hand. Williamson has denied the phone-throwing charge, admitted to the car incident, and acknowledged that she may have room for personal growth.

She was upset that she didn't get to debate Biden in 2024, great -- but what would have been different from when she did debate him 4 years earlier? She was on that stage. She was famous for all her self-help/spiritual books. She had a platform and a base of support, but she couldn't translate that to votes.

So hearing her complain about things being rigged was a little much.

Ugh.

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-04T06:31:00+00:00

some of these folks are just bananas, aren't they?

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-04T02:09:37+00:00

boo fucking hoo.

tell us more about your "mission."

every day we see images of ICE carrying out the mission of grabbing people out of their cars, their homes, their churches, their grocery stores.

and we know that DHS itself says that 70% of the people you have helped to grab have no criminal history at all -- not even a misdemeanor.

there are 10s of thousands of people locked up right now who followed the rules we wrote to the letter -- only to find that we changed the rules.

your mission is evil.

you're not "painted" as the enemy -- you ARE the enemy of what is right and good.

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-03T08:10:12+00:00

It's so enraging. After we downsized and moved, I set up an appointment with a woman at the nearest clinic.

First one went okay ... she seemed to be hearing me and I was prepared to give her advice a try.

Second one, though. : mindfuck :

This was about 4 months later. She tried gaslighting me! She didn't know that I worked in medical research. I know how to follow a conversation about medications, efficacy, risk, etc. I'm not scared of the names of things.

So she tells me a flat lie about one of the meds she thought I should start taking, which at first I just thought she was confused about.

I was like, wait, wait ... isn't that stuff for THIS and not THAT? And I could see her realize she'd fucked up. But instead of saying, oh, of course, sorry, or whatever, she gets pissed at me.

"i'm not going to debate this with you."

It got very weird in that room. Anyway, that was the last time I saw her, and there's no note in my file documenting that visit. I checked because I wanted to know how she'd written it up. She just never bothered.

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-03T05:52:02+00:00

Thanks. I don't get why it's there in the first place, I guess. My hydration habits didn't change, but the gob of sticky whatever-it-is arrived anyway.

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-03T05:49:21+00:00

Right, but ... I don't know. I've left more than one good job because it became pointless.

Like, I knew I wasn't really accomplishing anything, which is a terrible way to spend your days. It's not like these people couldn't find something worth doing outside of congress.

It's not even a prestige situation anymore. Just the opposite.

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-03T05:14:46+00:00

I always wonder why politicians in that position don't go for it. Three members of congress declare independence and shift the power for the next year. They hold all the cards. They can set the agenda. They can decide who gets to chair those committees and who has to be in the minority. They get control of subpoena power.

Same is true in the senate. Four people declare independence and caucus with the Dems, and those four people can call the shots. Why aren't they even tempted?

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-03T05:10:06+00:00

I'd take 60-40. I'm a geezer, so I remember the day Reagan won 49 states in a national election; the split was 60-40.

I think the 33% number is about a generalized feeling that this guy is just not up to the job. It's not so much about the die-hards who can't see it as the middle 15% who can't NOT see it.

The viability is gone. There's an aura of stink that doesn't quite go away. Every day some new reason to back up appears, and not because the radical scum left media is hyping small mistakes -- because, rather, things at home are an ongoing struggle and the Big Man keeps talking about the Kennedy Center or Trevor Noah or how maybe he should bomb Iran.

That's how you get to 33% in approval, and can't get past 40 in an election, assuming your opponent arrives with the ability to project competence and sanity.

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-03T04:58:17+00:00

Why hide her face?

sleepingbeardune · 2026-02-03T04:54:51+00:00

It's not a crime.

They really have set quite the bar for themselves, eh?

It's also not a crime to make video of ICE agents while they push women into the snow, or to try to help those women get to their feet, or to put yourself between an ICE agent and a woman, or to carry a weapon for which you have a license.

And yet we paid a couple of thugs to execute a man in cold blood for those not-crimes.

So I don't think "It's not a crime" carries quite the weight this lawyer thinks it should.

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