DL Open Thread: Friday, May 20, 2022

COVID Ain’t Over, Y’All.  I think everybody should be a little more cautious.  Two of my friends have caught it in the last week or so–one here, one on the west coast.  They feel like shit. I’m gonna mask up a little more. And, of course, being naturally anti-social, stay away from people.  Which is hardly a sacrifice…

Trump Claims Pa. Election Was Rigged.  BTW, here’s a key reason why it takes so long to count the mail-in ballots:

As in 2020, the delay in completing the counting of thousands of mail-in ballots has created space for Trump and his allies to raise doubts about the outcome. Under state law, county officials are not allowed to start processing ballots submitted by mail until Election Day. They have called on state lawmakers to change the law to allow ballots to be processed as they are received, as is common in other states including Arizona and Florida.

Perdue Turns Chicken.  Basically abandons run for Ga. Governor.  Yet another embarrassment for Le Grand Orange:

“At the end of the day, Donald Trump doesn’t care about David Perdue winning. He just cared about Brian Kemp losing,” said Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, a Republican who chose not to run for re-election and incurred Trump’s wrath for defending the state’s 2020 election. “And that was a very shallow attempt at trying to unseat a perfectly fit conservative governor.”

Perdue’s campaign has scheduled $0 worth of ads for the campaign’s final week, while political action committees backing him have placed about $280,000 worth of ads on the air, according to data from the ad tracking company AdImpact. Compare that to Kemp, whose campaign is set to spend more than $1 million in ads during the campaign’s homestretch. A pro-Kemp PAC sponsored by the Republican Governors Association has readied nearly $700,000 in advertising.

Madison Cawthorn Embraces ‘Dark MAGA’:

Dark MAGA is a “post-alt-right online aesthetic movement” rooted in the radical pro-Trump online space, according to the Global Network on Extremism & Technology (GNET).

The movement is deeply entrenched in “meme warfare” and internet trolling techniques common among online far-right communities, according to Tim Squirrell, head of communications and editorial at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.

I highly recommend this article.  You can learn about how the worst of the worst bring this stuff into the mainstream.  Know Thine Enemies.

Boycott Oklahoma.  Not that I’d ever want to visit there.

Carlson And Biden: Privileged Pals.  Hunter tried to help Tucker get his son into Georgetown.  Read this in case your diet is low on iron(y):

In another email reported by the Post, Susie Carlson wrote: “Tucker and I would be so grateful if you could write a letter or speak to someone in the Georgetown Admission’s [sic] Office about Buckley.”

Biden reportedly agreed to write to the university president and said: “I will do anything you would like me to do.”

According to the Post, Tucker Carlson wrote: “I can’t thank you enough for writing that letter to Georgetown on Bucky’s behalf. So nice of you. I know it’ll help. Hope you’re great and we can all get dinner soon.”

Amid reaction online, the author Radley Balko wrote: “The story here is that Tucker Carlson is the living embodiment of the unearned, privileged elitism that Tucker Carlson derides on his show every night. The Hunter Biden part is just gravy.”

Pot Legalization Not Dead Yet.  Look for another vote in June.  Larry Mitchell is supposedly a yes. (Primaries help, my friends.)  Osienski only changed his vote from yes to no to enable him to restore the bill. A necessary parliamentary maneuver.  A shitload of pressure from pro-legalization forces should targeted at Ramone and Mike Smith.  Bush is a lost cause. And, um, I don’t trust Speaker Pete’s ‘conversion’ here.  He might just have been getting a lot of shit from his constituents. People at the beach like to smoke pot.  If Carney says he’ll veto the bill, Pete may stop the bill from passing the House by switching to no.

What do you want to talk about?