Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of July 11

Looks like we are heading for another epic battle between a giant douche and a turd sandwich, according to the NYT.

Some fun notes from this article:

• Both Biden and Trump have the same favorability score (39%) which is truly impressive when you consider Trump's constant barrage of scandals. The man knows how to maintain a base.

• When asked if the country is on the right track or headed in the wrong direction, nearly 80% of voters polled said "wrong direction" - closing in on the all-time high set in 2008. Interestingly, for most of the last 30 years and almost all of the last 20 years, "wrong direction" has been the more popular answer.

• 61% of Democrats want someone other than Biden to be the nominee in 2024, with most citing age and job performance as the reason why (10% said not progressive enough - we did it, tildes!). Nevertheless, there doesn't seem to be another option right now, according to our friends at the New York Times. Biden polls significantly higher than Kamala Harris (shocking, I know) and the only up-and-coming figures the article mentions as potential candidates to emerge are Stacy Abrams and Raphael Warnock.

At some point you just gotta step back and laugh. Looking back at the 2020 primary, the Democratic Party establishment did everything in their power to make Joe the crypt keeper Biden the nominee, while his message was basically, "C'mon! Let's sing Kumbaya, Jack! You know I'm the only one who can win!” Any time concerns about his age were brought up, they would tease the idea of him being a one-term president that would come in and calm everything down then pass the torch off to some mystical, popular, not quite ready for primetime VP. They held off the grassroots progressive momentum, as is tradition, then dangled BBB in front of progressive voters to assure them that he's on their side. And here we are two years later: the VP is Kamala Harris, BBB is dead, the Republican Party is crazier than ever, nodoby wants this old fuck to run in 2024, but there doesn't seem to be anyone who can take his place.

Oh, my God! That's Hillary Clinton's music! Get ready for it, baby! Third time's the charm!

Edit: since posting this comment, the NYT has posted a similar version of this story to the top of their homepage https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/11/us/politics/biden-approval-polling-2024.html

This should be interesting…

Congress Has Roger Stone’s Encrypted Chats With Proud Boys and Oath Keepers
https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxn5k5/roger-stone-chat-proud-boys-oath-keepers-jan-6

Roger Stone was part of an encrypted group chat involving the leader of the Proud Boys and the leader of the Oath Keepers in the months leading up to Jan. 6, 2021.

The chat was named F.O.S., or “Friends of Stone”, and was mentioned in Tuesday’s Jan. 6 Select Committee hearing, which promised to expose ties between allies of former President Donald Trump and extremist groups.

The existence of the encrypted chat was first reported in May by the New York Times, which said it had as many as 47 members. In addition to Proud Boy chairman Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keeper leader Stewart Rhodes, other participants included Infowars host Owen Shroyer and “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander.

This isn't really politics but tonight (in 5 hours and 40 minutes as of the time of this comment), Joe Biden is announcing and presenting the first pictures from the James Webb Space Telescope.

Herschel Walker explains the climate crisis:

"Since we don't control the air, our good air decided to float over to China's bad air. So when China gets our good air, their bad air got to move. So it moves over to our good air space. Then -- now we got we to clean that back up."

Walker is the Georgia Republican Senate candidate. The Senate, the more thoughtful, deliberative body of Congress...

Limited access to abortion is a public health issue: How you can help (Your Local Epidemiologist)