I mean he did create a random clone army, while basically pulling the strings of the trade federation to manufacture a crisis. I mean sure, it probably didn’t go exactly as anticipated, but there were enough pieces in play to allow him to send up in control that I’m ok with saying he planned very well.

The $2000 stimulus checks passed in the House with surprisingly bipartisan support. Puts a lot of pressure on Collins and Loeffler.

As someone in the WH said early on, he's not playing 4-dimensional chess, he's just eating the pieces. It's amazing to me how they still think he's some sort of super genius.

trump is a genius because he lets his base do all the mental gymnastics for him

But he is on TV so he must be!

I did not see this coming.

Jesus Christ, are you fucking kidding me

Only the best wasteful additions to the military. Lots of people say great things about the Space Force.

Is the only reason Star Trek hasn't sued them because the "Space Force" only really exists on paper?

I'm not sure those uniforms are the reich choice.

It’s not even subtle, unlike your post - well played, sir!

Dola, although after a quick google, I can’t find any link to this - is it definitely legit?

So McConnell has blocked unanimous approval of having a $2000 direct stimulus payment. Trump retweeted someone reporting that Sen Sanders is going to filibuster the NDAA until the $2000 is brought to the floor. Perdue and Loeffler in GA have come out in favor of the $2000 stimulus (realizing they have to come out against McConnell to have a chance to win)

It's nice seeing McConnell in a pincer like this.

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I wonder how much money was spent designing that uniform.

The guess on how McConnell handles this is he adds the two other things Trump wanted votes on (repeal 230 and election investigation), and then when it fails, he'll say "well, I let it have a vote, but the Dems voted it down."

He could also just add any simple "poison pill" on to the bill that could pass, but the House will not agree to.

One thing I doubt will happen is an actual vote on the $2k stimulus. McConnell is going to block it and try to blame it on the Dems somehow.

He'll just tack on stripping out Section 230 and force the Democrats to vote it down.

My hope is that it is not real. My guess is it is a bit of banter from the other branches of service. At worst, it was a test balloon they could easily distance themselves from by saying that they are not considering that uniform for the final product. In any case, a uniform in development is not something you would find via google.

Cool look, but can do without the belt buckle. Reminds me a bit of Starship Troopers.

Eh, our helmets nowadays look a lot like the German WW2 helmets.

But there's a functionality reason for that.

McConnell can try, but reports are that the vast majority of Senate Republicans are against the $2000 stimulus amounts. So a McConnell bill may go down 90-10. And there is the fear that in conference they may remove the poison pills and send it back to the Senate. Also any long term discussion may delay the NDAA vote significantly. So he's gotta figure out how to balance all those considerations.

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Spend my tax dollars on me. That is not a difficult thing. Shoot, the government is more than willing to drop a couple trillion on corporations. A couple grand my way is a drop in the bucket.

The crazy is strong among my HS Facebook friends.

Treasury says they started sending paper checks today, and direct deposit will go out tonight through the begining of next week.

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In the middle of all that, he throws in that Trump also cut some burdensome regulations.

600 or 2000?

600 is current law. The 2000 is what McConnell is trying to kill.

If they send out 600 and then the bill for 200 passes, do we get both or 1400?

Durbin too.

2000 total. The bill is about boosting the payments to 2000, not adding another 2000 on top of the 600.

I read that... felt like a speed bump.

Can't help but whatabout even when arguing with nobody - it's pure reflex

SI

McConnell officially put in a bill with the $2k, repeal 230 and a commission to investigate voter fraud. A bill that can't pass, and even if it did the House will not pass. What a surprise. I never saw it coming.

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A Republican congressman-elect from Louisiana died today of COVID. He was only 41.

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And the thing is it will work and the Democrats will somehow come out the losers because they are awful at messaging.

I think being out in front of this before it got to McConnell is going to help a lot. Esp with the GA runoffs in a few days.

That being said, it's kind of funny that Trump is pushing to remove Section 230 as it would almost surely lead to the banning of Trump from Twitter (as they would not want to be liable for his libel). And Parler would be sued out of existence.

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Hawley's going to contest the Electoral College results, meaning a 20 minute counting will take 12-14 hours.

I’m glad I’m not the only one thinking this - I nearly posted something similar a couple of days ago when I first saw that it was one of his stipulations, but assumed I must have missed something.

They want to strip section 230 and then sue social media companies for censoring conservative voices when they start dropping bans.

Yes, it's stupid and wouldn't work that way but that's the end game they hope for.

I wish Dems would vote this through and then deal with it in conference. Dems should message that tey are in favor of 2000 checks, but the GOP will only help people if they can destroy the internet.

It's amazing how when McConnell says something like "we aren't going to confirm any of Obama's nominees" or "We aren't going to vote on $2,000 checks," the Dems say "Yes, sir" and just take it. Maybe they give a speech or two saying "no fair," but they don't actually use any leverage to make anything happen.

But when he says something like "Hey, GOP Senators, don't join in the House's objections," the GOP Senators will actually do what they think is in their best interest.

The Dems are just SO BAD at this. Even the GOP manages to stand up to the GOP better than they have.

Check your accounts. Our stimulus checks just arrived via direct deposit.

I don't see how Hawley's contesting is anything more than a "no fair" or a Sanders threatening a filibuster on the NDAA that goes no where. It's literally les effective than the five gazillion failed attempts to strike down the ACA. It's just going to take a little bit less time than an angry speech.

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It's different if you're in the GOP. Now they are going to have to go on record individually and that's going to lead to some number of primary challenges.

It's more that McConnell asked the GOP not to do this, and Hawley actually realized that he could do what he wanted.

The GOP seems to be broken up into 3 major groups right now. 1.) Those that have accepted Trump's loss and have largely moved on 2.) Those that feel the election was likely/possibly stolen by Dems but have turned their focus to Georgia and '22 3.) Those that feel the election was 100% stolen and support any and all means of staying in power.

One seems to be a growing group. Trump's handling of the stimulus has really chipped away at his support based on what I've seen on social media and reddit. Group 2 is split between people that have moved on from Trump and those that still support him. Group 3 is still far too many people

The party is largely a mess. They're going through a more conspiracy-tinted form of acceptance that Dems struggled with in 2016. The difference is the GOP has always been able to pull everyone back and get their eye on the ball. It's going to be interesting to see if they can pull it off post-Trump. Hawley's 2024 hopes seem to be a gamble of playing to Trump now and at some point in the future replaying some greatest hits to get everyone focused on a common enemy again.

I mean, if Pence behaves in the traditional manner, the House and GOP will, at worst, split on the votes, leaving the original slate in place, and yeah, it becomes a tantrum.

There is a fringe element whispering in Pence's ear, though: "Psst, since you're the one who opens the envelopes containing the electoral votes, you can just open the pro-Trump envelopes instead for AZ, GA, MI, NV, PA, and WI and presto we win."

And Hawley contesting the results gives Pence a fig leaf to try that.

I think Congress would still have to vote on whether to accept the alternate slate, and a failure by both houses to accept it would leave the certified ones in place, so I don't THINK that maneuver can go anywhere, but I'm not a Constitutional Law scholar. Maybe there's a loophole I don't know about.

Not to mention that approach leads to mass demonstrations and violence.

There's no loophole. Pence's job is simply to read the certified states. Then it's Congress's job to approve or contest each state and any attempts to contest have to be agreed to by both a majority of the house and senate. That isn't going to happen.

Despite what some on the right believe, January 6th is largely ceremonial. Any attempts to contest are people trying to position themselves for 2024 or to stay in Trump's good graces.

Let's take the $2,000 checks as an example. Their goal is a vote on them with nothing attached. What leverage do they have to employ to make McConnell do that?