Georgia’s most infamous Congresswoman had a normal one on Tuesday:
“This you?” responded political Twitter:
It took months for conspiracy theories about 9/11 to catch on, but the perpetrators of 1/6 were using the Shaggy defence on 1/7.
But, you know something? She’s actually right. Not about the Beer Belly Putsch being carried out by top secret Antifa Rothschild Reverse Vampire False Flag agents, but about it ruining Trump’s attempt to challenge the election results and making Trumpism even more toxic than it already was.
A disturbing number of Republicans, including more than half of the GOP House caucus, still voted to challenge the electoral college results even after the storming of the Capitol. But some did find what was left of their consciences and changed their minds:
In a vote Wednesday evening, six Republicans in the Senate and 121 in the House backed objections to certifying Arizona’s electoral outcome, while seven Senate Republicans and 138 House Republicans supported an objection to certifying Pennsylvania’s electoral outcome. (We’ve included a full list at the end of this article.)
[…]
Originally, about 14 Senate Republicans and roughly 140 House Republicans had planned to vote in favor of the objections, meaning some lawmakers did change their votes after the attack on the Capitol on Wednesday.
Those who did so have said they want to emphasize the legitimacy of Biden’s victory and to repudiate the violence that was perpetrated.
“I cannot now in good conscience object to the certification of these electors,” Sen. Kelly Loeffler said in a floor speech. “The violence, the lawlessness and siege of the halls of Congress are abhorrent and stand as a direct attack on the very institution my objection was intended to protect: the sanctity of the American democratic process.”
Others who reversed their positions included Sens. Steve Daines (R-MT) and James Lankford (R-OK), and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA).
They never had enough votes to successfully challenge the results - not in any legal way, at least - but the Capitol incursion destroyed whatever momentum they had.
As I noted yesterday, many of the lawyers who worked with Trump to challenge the election results have become toxic to their firms and even their state Bar associations. Parler, the Trump-friendly social-media network, is still trying to find its way back online. Trump himself lost his Twitter account.
And the ex-President has been pretty quiet since the election results were certified. Even without Twitter, he still has other ways to get his message across. OANN and Newsmax would have him on in a heartbeat, and let’s be honest - for all of their self-righteous blather about telling the truth, no “mainstream” news channel like CNN would turn down an exclusive post-election interview from Donald Trump.
He still turns up every now and then, most notably in his amazing letter resigning from the Screen Actors Guild, but I don’t think he’s said anything at all about how the election was ‘“stolen” from him. The Trump cultists love their Dear Leader because “he fights,” but after January 6, he stopped fighting.
Would all of this have happened even without the storming of the Capitol? I doubt it. Parler and the Trump Twitter account would have survived. “Peacefully” contesting the election results was bad enough, but no one was hurt. Attacking the seat of American government - and killing a police officer in the process - crossed a red line, and even many of Trump’s most dedicated voters backed off.
The Trump cult knows this. And that’s why they’ve been desperately running away from it.
Bad news for French President Emmanuel Macron: with an election just over a year away, he is extremely unpopular.
The good news for Macron: the French don’t like any of his opponents, either:
Decimated by the implosion of the Socialist Party and the collapse of mainstream conservative Republicans in 2017, France’s political landscape remains a field of rubble.
Macron’s La Republique en Marche party — hastily assembled with second-string politicians and civil society activists after his meteoric ascent to the Elysée Palace — has failed to put down deep roots around the country. But nothing else has grown back either.
The left is a shambles of rival splinter groups and fiefdoms. The Republicans, riven by personal ambitions, have local and regional power bases, but they lack a unifying national leader and are squeezed by Macron’s occupation of the center-right economic and social terrain. His reforms of labor laws, the SNCF railways and the tax system sparked protests but — until the coronavirus struck — they had begun to spur growth and bring down unemployment.
[…]
Le Pen has tried to channel everything from vaccination skepticism to anti-lockdown fury but has failed to widen her core support, polls suggest — despite an effort to soften her image by qualifying as a licensed cat-breeder during the lockdown. Though she rushed to distance herself from former U.S. President Donald Trump after his supporters rampaged through the Capitol, she remains a collateral loser from his defeat. Her National Rally party is broke and heavily in debt.
For what they are worth at this early stage, opinion polls taken in January gave Le Pen a slender lead over Macron in the first round of voting, with roughly 25 percent to his 24 percent. One survey found the president’s lead over her in a head-to-head run-off ballot had narrowed to 52-48, but none has so far has put her ahead.
No one else comes even close. The best-placed mainstream conservative is Xavier Bertrand, a former health, labor and social affairs minister who is president of the northern Hauts-de-France region. He trails a distant third, with about 16 percent support. Other center-right politicians such as Valérie Pécresse, president of the Ile-de-France region that includes Paris, and Laurent Wauquiez, a more hardline former leader of the Republicans, score less well.
On the left, veteran anti-capitalist Euroskeptic Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who won a whopping 19.6 percent in 2017, has declared his determination to run again. Polls suggest support for the fiery orator has dwindled to about 10 percent. His divisive presence would dash any chance of the left uniting behind a single candidate in the first round, and hence of reaching the run-off. But barring ill health, it’s hard to see him dropping out, least of all in favor of a center-left Socialist.
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, a Socialist who governs the capital in alliance with the Greens, is polling under 10 percent, barely more than the best-placed Green standard bearer, Yannick Jadot, who led the party’s successful European Parliament campaign but has bitter rivals among less pragmatic members.
Other possible Socialist contenders include former Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, a left-wing icon and poet from French Guyana, and Arnaud Montebourg, a protectionist former industry minister who swapped politics for a bee-keeping start-up after being fired for serial dissent by former Socialist President François Hollande. Hollande too seems to hanker after an utterly improbable comeback.
A 40% approval rating is disastrous in the United States. In France, it’s actually a pretty good starting point, especially if you’re up against an even more polarizing and controversial candidate like Marine Le Pen. Anything can happen in the next year and a half, but right not it looks like Macron should win effectively by default.
Mary Wilson, R.I.P.:
Mary Wilson, a founding member of The Supremes, has died at the age of 76, her publicist has said.
Wilson died suddenly at her home in Henderson, Nevada, on Monday. A statement did not state a cause of death.
Wilson, a singer as well as best-selling author, helped form female singing group The Primettes in Detroit in 1959, alongside Diana Ross, Florence Ballard and Betty McGlown. The latter left the group and was replaced. Wilson, Ross and Ballard went on to enjoy huge success as trio The Supremes.
Under the Motown Records label, the group scored 12 no. 1 hits with songs like “Baby Love” and “Stop! In the Name of Love,” and still remains influential decades later.
Wilson, a singer as well as best-selling author, helped form female singing group The Primettes in Detroit in 1959, alongside Diana Ross, Florence Ballard and Betty McGlown. The latter left the group and was replaced. Wilson, Ross and Ballard went on to enjoy huge success as trio The Supremes.
Under the Motown Records label, the group scored 12 no. 1 hits with songs like “Baby Love” and “Stop! In the Name of Love,” and still remains influential decades later.
The Supremes went through several lineup changes, but Wilson was the backbone of the group from start to finish. Even after Diana Ross left, they carried on with Jean Terrell as lead vocalist, and still made some absolutely timeless music.
I’d put this one, a top ten hit in 1970, up against anything from the “classic” Supremes era. Did any record company produce as much pure gold in such a short time as Motown before it decamped for Los Angeles?
It’s a good thing Trump was not more intelligent or self-controlled, or this could all have turned out very differently. Luckily Taylor Greene doesn’t know when to stop either.
I like the sound of the Supremes song - knew the name but had not heard their music. No surprise there as I’m generally not very familiar with the music of my own generation after growing up with my parents’ rock and classical LP collection from the 60s and past centuries, respectively. The leading voice in this song reminds me a little bit of Joan Baez. Just with a lot more gusto and energy! :)
I guess searching for Motown songs would actually be a good way of finding more songs from my own time (1970) and just before. :)