DL Open Thread Thursday, July 1, 2021

The Biden presidency has been a crisis for the media — without a daily Fresh New Hell, ratings and readership are in the tank. Everybody’s web traffic is down, but it’s been especially bad for the most partisan sites on both the left and right. Remember this when you read of this week’s newest threat to democracy, whatever it may be. Fearmongering is their business plan.

Here’s a good example: Republicans could win the 2022 midterms through gerrymandering alone. Yes, they could, and there’s nothing you can do about it except worry. That should do lots and lots of good.

Political scientist Rachel Bitecofer, who called the Democratic wave in 2018 and has since quit academia for politics, says Democrats are setting themselves up for disaster:

Under my model, Democrats win the White House in 2020, and then in 2022 they’re going to have a very tough electoral cycle, because turnout for Democrats will go back to normal. And because Democrats have poor electoral strategy, they’re going to compound that problem, probably by not appealing to Democrats to get them to the polls.

On the other hand, here’s a threat to democracy sounds pretty bad: South Dakota’s bimbo Gov. Kristi Noem has sold her National Guard force to the highest bidder, in this case a stunningly ignorant billionaire from Tennessee who wants those troops at the Mexican border. As one commentator noted, when someone overseas does this we refer to him as a “warlord.”

You know how Republicans think every problem should be addressed with tax cuts? Republicans should probably sit down before reading this: Researchers have determined that after 50 years of tax cuts for the rich, none of the money has trickled down at all. The study doesn’t mention it, but this was the plan all along.

Sure, Lincoln freed the slaves, but apparently he missed one: Britney Spears. A California judge denied the 39-year-old singer’s request to have her father removed as her “conservator,” conservator being so much nicer a word than slavemaster.

Disgraced comedian Bill Cosby was released from prison and had his sentence overturned because prosecutors used testimony from a civil suit after compelling Cosby to talk by telling him he wouldn’t be criminally prosecuted.

Speaking of disgraced clowns, polling in Arizona shows trouble ahead for show pony Kyrsten Sinema. Wags have also dug up video of her from 2010 speaking out against the filibuster. The problem for Democrats is that an unmotivated electorate will probably allow the GOP to flip that seat back.

Erik Loomis of Lawyers, Guns & Money gave now-deceased Nixonian warmonger Donald Rumsfeld the obituary he deserves. Spoiler alert: It isn’t pretty.

The floor is yours.