After the fact "livestream" of Brainworm Bobby becoming "Wasted Space" by dropping out

First, to take the new header I added to Wednesday's piece when this was hinted?

Endorsing Trump IS the functional equivalent of dropping out, even if he never says the magic words "I'm dropping out," either today or any time before Nov. 5. 

And, he has officially "suspended."

Per that logical sage, Mr Spock: "A difference that makes no difference IS no difference."

No "suspended" campaign has ever unsuspended. (Perot did a full drop-out in 1992 before re-entry.)

Other than ego, the only reason he may not utter that magic phrase today is Federal Election Commission money sitting out there for which he should remain eligible.

Also, no campaign that has endorsed another candidate has ever "unendorsed."

==

OK, without actually embedding Tweets, here's selections from what I tweeted.

First, arguably the worst part, beyond his various hypocrisies? The shit-ton of Camelot bullshit he spread all over the place. And he spread it thick.

As far as "my late uncle" and his honest campaigns? Let's dig up Richard Daley and all the Chicago tombstones that got voted, and ask Tricky Dick how honest a campaign Jack ran.

Let's dig up the $1 million or so in 1960 dollars that your grandpa got delivered to West Virginia sheriffs as "walking around money" before that primary. Let's then dig up Hubert Humphrey and ask him how honest of a campaign your uncle ran.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. Wasn't worth wasting more time.

==

Then there was Conspiracy Theory Bobby. That was with statements that the DNC threatened to arrest him, and also Trump, over ballot access issues. 

A. No such thing happened.

B. It was clear the mask had slipped BADLY at that point by him pretending he was running alongside Trump.

==

Then, in today's world, worse than that or the Camelot bullshit? There's the gaslighting, lying, hypocritical bullshit on one issue, claiming that he's antiwar.

We all know that Brainworm Bobby is just as much a genocidalist on the Israel-Hamas War as Donald Trump, Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. Fuck off, lying piece of shit.

(Sidebar: Claudia de la Cruz will officially be on the Texas ballot. Don't vote Jill Stein.)

==

Then there was the Crack-Smoking Bobby or whatever. His claim that he could somehow still win a "contingent election" if the Electoral College deadlocked 269-269?

First, you'd get not one vote in the House.

Second, that's not how it works constitutionally. Only candidates who get any electoral votes, if nobody gets a majority, advance to the House in the first place. 

==

That, in turn, was a subset of Pity Party Bobby. His claims no candidate had ever been treated worse and other stuff? Maybe that was due to some Horse instead of crack?

Tying back to the Camelot era? This was the worst pity party speech by a national-level politico since Tricky Dick's "You won't have Nixon to kick around any more" speech in 1962.

==

Then there was the stupidity of his Veep nominee, Nichole Shanahan, in the last hours before the announcement. She claimed Antivaxxer Bobby would only endorse Trump if he officially ended Operation Warp Speed. Honey child, he wouldn't do that if you had gotten on your knees and given him your own Operation Warp Speed.

==

Sidebar per Brainworm Bobby's past? Cheryl Hines, file the divorce papers now and get out while the getting's good.

==

Sidebar 2: Why would I believe Brainworm Bobby, given all the lies he told Friday, when he claims there's no quid pro quo, when he asked both Trump and Harris for exactly that earlier in the month?

The abortion fix was in, in Arkansas

In a scene reminiscent of third-party and independent presidential candidates trying to get ballot access, by a 4-3 margin, the Arkansas Supreme Court yesterday barred a petition to put a pro-choice referendum on the ballot.

Details:

Election officials said Arkansans for Limited Government failed to comply with state law primarily because it submitted documentation regarding paid signature gatherers separately and not in a single bundle. The group argued that it should have been given more time to provide any additional documents needed.

“We find that the Secretary correctly refused to count the signatures collected by paid canvassers because the sponsor failed to file the paid canvasser training certification” in the way the law requires, Justice Rhonda Wood wrote for the 4-3 majority.

A dissenting justice wrote that the decision strips Arkansans’ of their rights and effectively changes the state’s initiative law.

States generally show some flexibility on such requirements — unless "the fix" is in. And, per the story, it clearly had more than enough signatures.

The fix was in, organizers say:

Supporters of the measure said they followed the law with their documentation, including identifying each paid gatherer. They have also argued the abortion petitions are being handled differently than other initiative campaigns this year, pointing to similar filings by two other groups.

State records show that the abortion campaign did submit, on June 27, a signed affidavit including a list of paid canvassers and a statement saying the petition rules had been explained to them. Then, the July 5 submission included affidavits from each paid worker acknowledging that the group provided them with all the rules and regulations required by law.

And, that's that.

Sidebar: One of the three-justice minority, per the story, is challenging Wood for the chief justice spot. 

Sidebar two:

The proposed amendment would have prohibited laws banning abortion in the first 20 weeks of gestation and allowed the procedure later on in cases of rape, incest, threats to the woman’s health or life, or if the fetus would be unlikely to survive birth. It would not have created a constitutional right to abortion.

The ballot proposal lacked support from national abortion rights groups such as Planned Parenthood because it would still have allowed abortion to be banned after 20 weeks, which is earlier than other states where it remains legal.

Will Planned Parenthood ever make itself more flexible on this issue? The story doesn't say it opposed it, but it does say it didn't support it. That said, did petition drive organizers want its support anyway?

That said, that's a lie by PP anyway. I mean, the story says that post-20-weeks exceptions would have been part of law.

I personally don't believe that post-20-week abortion should be allowed without restriction. I think Roe's trimester system has collapsed. But, I think viability will never be pushed back before the 20-week mark, so the proposed amendment is actually right up my alley.

In other words, I'm part of the great muddled middle on abortion and long have been. This is why I don't write about it often here, have never written about it for pay, and have never given money to an organization like Planned Parenthood.

Texas Progressives talk CD18, border water, more

Off the Kuff reports on the CD18 nomination and special election.

SocraticGadfly says that declining water in Rio Grande reservoirs isn't entirely Mexico's fault.

Law Dork brings the latest bad SCOTUS news, this time about Title IX. 

Deece Eckstein documented his decade as a monk.

The Texas Observer talked to Amanda Zurawski turning her trauma into activism.

Texas Monthly revisits The Texas Chainsaw Massacre at its 50th birthday. The Texas Signal reminds us that the pro-voucher forces are still moving forward.  

Mean Green Cougar Red visited Nashville and did not express any opinions about that city's football team.

Jill Stein is again the Green Party nominee. 

RIP Phil Donahue, fired by MSDNC for telling the truth about the Iraq War.

Texas news roundup

The national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, politely and indirectly, basically told Donald Trump to go fuck himself for his "asinine" Medal of Honor comments. Will this sway many #MAGAts in the local VFW posts, not to vote for Kamala Harris instead of Trump, but to stay home or to ponder Chase Oliver or other options? Probably not. Maybe a few.

Kenny Boy Paxton threatens to sue the State Fair over its gun ban. And, of course, the gun nuts are out of the woodwork with the usual "good guy with a gun" comments. A Texas doctor, in a new book, forcefully challenges such stupidity. That's as wingnut groups are trying to overturn red flag laws in other states.

Kenny Boy IS suing an immigrant aid group. The "no political speech by nonprofits" state law is never enforced against wingnut groups and we all know that.

Legiscritters want to further cut property taxes, rather than help public schools they've thrown in the ditch, with an alleged surplus they'll have next year. Let's not forget, as The Great Recession showed, that surpluses can disappear and that, when they do, our banana republic every-other-year Legislature can be up the creek without a paddle when that happens. And, why is a Trib reporter acting as a moderator?

Troy Nehls "allegedly" has a homophobic workplace? Shock me. Oh, and if you're a staffer, working for a Congresscritter wingnut, wouldn't you expect this in the first place?

The state is likely undercounting heat-related deaths? Even more seriously, shock me.

Bugs for food? Of course that triggers wingnuts, even though Mormon pioneers in Utah ate the grasshoppers of early days infestations. And, even though the Christian bible says John the Baptizer lived on "locusts and wild honey."

Roundup of Democrats being Democraps

Meet Tim Walz, Zionist toady and not much better than Josh Shapiro. Perfect Veep pick for Kamala is a Zionist Cop. So, sorry, Mike Elk, both might be good on labor, but I wouldn't pay for you to cover them. Related? Harris shouts down protestors; Walz won't even meet with non-protestor Palestinians.

Why does Gavin Newsom hate rooftop solar? Answer: the former Mayor Pothole is a neoliberal and a solutionist.

Earlier this year, Colorado Democrats passed into law a new bill exempting Legiscritters, which they control by a wide margin, from state open meetings law. Gov. Jared Polis signed it so fast he probably got paper burns. That said, the state's Rethuglicans in the Lege appear to be going along.

Jill Stein remains on the Wisconsin ballot for now. But Democraps, after an initial legal screw-up, said they'll be back.

Gretchen Whitmer has failed on many promises, including many that involve no needed legislative action, like more executive branch government transparency. Sounds like the Democrats in the Colorado Lege on that. Instead, with things like non-disclosure agreements, she's even gone backward.

It's not just elected officials, either. The #BlueAnon rank and file who continue to post things on Twitter like #StagedAssassinationAttempt? Who would want to be part of your club, per Groucho Marx?

Brainworm Bobby, political whore AND potential dropout, aka Wasted Space

Oh, fucktards, now that it's happening? Endorsing Trump IS the functional equivalent of dropping out, even if he never says the magic words "I'm dropping out," either today or any time before Nov. 5. 

And, he has officially "suspended."

Per that logical sage, Mr Spock: "A difference that makes no difference IS no difference."

No "suspended" campaign has ever unsuspended. (Perot did a full drop-out in 1992 before re-entry.)

Other than ego, the only reason he may not utter that magic phrase today is Federal Election Commission money sitting out there for which he should remain eligible.

And, here is an after-the-fact "livestream" of edited thoughts from actual livestream Twitter comments.

====

Yes, Brainworm Bobby is a political whore, and a candidate without relevance, and a candidate who knows that, if, after contacting Donald Trump looking for his 30 pieces of cabinet office silver, he reportedly did the same with Kamala Harris.

Laughably, the fucktard (Jordan, I don't have to censor or bowdlerize myself here) Nuña tries to get other IPR readers at that link to believe his self-delusional lying eyes about what Brainworm Bobby did and did not do. He's some mix of paleocon Rethuglican, Buchananite racism, sexism and more all included, with a dollup of Mises Mice Libertarian and other things.

As for Brainworm Bobby? I guess it's possible to be a Judas to one's own self.

And, he ain't in. He's allegedly about to be WAY out.

==

He and even more, his potential wife No. 4, Nicole Shanahan, dropped the masks Tuesday.

RFK’s VP Nicole Shanahan says they are debating whether to stay in the race or drop out and join forces with Trump:

“There’s two options that we're looking at and one is staying in, forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and Waltz presidency because we draw more votes from Trump.

"Or we walk away right now and join forces with with Donald Trump and explain to our base why we're making this decision.”

So, Brainworm Bobby and Shanahan officially pull the masks off on their political alignment, with talk of dropping out to help Trump? Fucking shock me.

Update: Presser on Friday the 23rd is expected to make it official. And, the rumors about this already on the 21st were bringing MAGAts out of the woodwork on Twitter.

Oh, and Nuña? That IS a quid pro quo. Not all quid pro quos have crassly materialistic exchanges.

==

That said? Don't get fooled by the Twitter account that posted that Shanahan video. (I got it from Winger at Ballot Access News.) Here's my hot take on it after scrolling through its feed:

Looking at its feed? This "End Tribalism in Politics" looks like kinder, gentler MAGAts, to riff on Poppy Bush, trying to hide themselves under a veneer of a pretendian version of Dear Leader Obama's Kumbaya.#MAGAts #Gaslighting https://t.co/cFqkFXwZgr
Yes you @EndTribalism

— TheRealSocraticGadfly-VoteLeftOfStein 🍉☢️🌻🌲 (@real_gadfly) August 20, 2024

People like this are such obvious gaslighters. Do they really fool that many people? 

I guess they fool enough to grift for bucks. Social media: Another sign that, if not a failed state, Merikkka is a failing state.

==

That said, Brainworm Bobby and his "Kennedy Victory Fund" will not get 30 pieces of silver from the Florida Libertarian Party. And, per earlier info on that, it won't get anything from the Reform Party either.

I think the mounting financial woes, Shanahan's spin aside (and perhaps her cutting off the purse strings for any more campaign "loans") have been the trigger point.

==

I said yesterday on Twitter, that if he does drop out, I'll start calling him "Wasted Space." Or better/worse if I think of something.

==

Finally, in all of this, we'll see what sort of moderation Independent Political Report does with "Nuña." Or myself. Or both.

In any case, I plan on not starting anything, but being even firmer in calling him out. Bridges will be crossed when they need to be.

Getting Texas environmental news wrong again

Seriously, the Monthly needs to have an outside person vet most its environmental news stories.

Contra the Monthly, black bears have never really been "gone" from West Texas. I've seen two at Big Bend, heard reports of a third siting, and heard one in the Guadalupe Mountains. It's the Monthly. Beyond West Texas, I've seen Parks and Wildlife's reports that more are moving into NE Texas from Oklahoma's Kiamichis. Texas' lack of public land compounds all this. You won't see that in the Monthly, either. 

Meanwhile, who with a brain would pay for this shit?

As long as the Monthly's paywall is a Javascript fake that still lets me read the story, just not click the links, I'll keep reading for free. When it becomes a real paywall, I'll stop reading. As I did with the article on Lone Star Beer, as there, the Javascript covered the screen, including my right-hand slider.

These boots were made for protesting and for telling Shepard Fairey to fuck off

Virtual roll call presidential votes? No diff.

Zionist Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker's threats? Not a problem.

The indifference of Conservadem leaders in the Shiny Pointy Abandoned Object State like Charles Kuffner? Can't stop anything.

Activists who had planned to protest Genocide Joe Biden at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago paused, took stock, then said they're doing the same with Kamala is a Zionist Cop Harris.

Per the story, Harris made her own bed with her "I am speaking now" comment to protestors a couple of weeks ago. That said, they were protesting because she had already started dropping the mask and/or they'd seen through the mask's fakery.

“Don’t fall for the wolf in sheep’s clothing,” said Andy Thayer, who is a longtime progressive organizer and a leader of a protest scheduled for Sunday. “Harris has made it clear that she is standing behind Israel 100 percent and is not going to stop the flow of arms to Israel.”

That's the bottom line.

Of course, you can decide to be a "pergressuve" and kiss Kamala's ass and tell both her and yourself that it smells like roses.

Or you can be Shepard Fairey, as pictured at left, and decide you're going to grift.

No shock there, and if he's doing like he did in 2008 and stealing a licensed photo AND USE IT COMMERCIALLY, there's plenty of grift.

And, the message he has to go with that artwork shows he's a typical #BlueAnon tribal pergressuve.

In his message going with the "Backward" poster, he can't be bothered to mention things like Zionism and genocide. And, I told his PR flak listed in the piece exactly that.

If that's not enough, let's let me show you what I thought of Fairey in 2008.

There you are.

Change is still cheap when you're offering pergressuve pseudo-change at 10 cents on the dollar, whether you're Dear Leader, Kamala Harris or Shepard Fairey. (Yes, my Photoshopping.)

The first such protest was Sunday night, and not primarily about Palestine. Rather, post-Dobbs, it was about national Democrat hypocrisy in reproductive choice issues, first and foremost. It was also about sexual alignment issues, second, but third, also looped in Gaza protests.

Kamala is a Zionist Cop campaign manager, per that story, claimed that staff, but not the head cheese, met with both Arab American and Jewish American leaders from Michigan earlier. Wayne County Assistant Executive Assad Turfe claimed it was "incredibly productive." How many people in Dearborn who aren't Democratic officialdom think that?

And, because Fairey doubled down on his dreck in 2012, I doubled down on the non-duopoly skewering (it's a skewering, not a parody, or not just a parody) of that.

But, you know what?

You know what?

I was further inspired this afternoon, and I was in Photoshop already, so ready to act on that inspiration.

Yes, act.

As I fill in bits more lorem ipsum for formatting space.

I was really inspired.

You'll see.

This inspired:

And more honest than Shepard Fairey-Tale.

What's worse, per his Wiki page, is that Fairey produced this AFTER ADMITTING in 2015 that Dear Leader didn't come close to living up to expectations.

In an interview with Esquire in 2015, Fairey said that Obama had not lived up to his expectations, "not even close".[79] He continued, "Obama has had a really tough time, but there have been a lot of things that he's compromised on that I never would have expected. I mean, drones and domestic spying are the last things I would have thought [he'd support]."[80]

In other words, we're in "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice ..." territory with Fairey. 

But wait, it's worse YET per his Wiki:

This work is a mural for Urban Nation in Berlin, Germany. The street art was created in 2014 by Fairey. The work became a motto for street artists and demonstrated Fairey's political support for anti-war movements and peace. The work was made like traditional street art with spray paint and features many of Fairey's motifs and symbols from other works. This repetition includes the black and red cartoon-like style with repetition of symbols such as roses.

So, Fairey is not only a gaslighting grifter, he's a flat-out hypocritical one.

Update, Aug. 21:

And, as long as you fucktards keep posting new stuff by Shepard Fairey or riffing on him?

I'm going to keep kicking your ass in Photoshop.

Instead of the vacuousness of "Rise," can't we rise above 35-year-old Palestinians born in refugee camps, presumably spending all their lives there — until raped by the IDF? 

Meanwhile, Ryan Grim notes that Kamala is a Zionist Cop and the DNC wouldn't even let a DNC-vetted person from the "Uncommitted" movement speak. Here, via Mother Jones, is what George state Rep. Ruwa Romman would have been saying. That said, what will she and leaders of the "Uncommitted," which has a Twitter, be doing in November? As I just told them, it's time to shit or get off the pot. (I note their Twitter nameline has a pink hibiscus flower type version of a DSA Rosey rose.)

Mondoweiss spells it out with the story title: "Message from the DNC: The Democrats do not care about Palestinians."

Seth Ackerman spells it out with noting that this genocide is approaching Pol Pot's Cambodia.

The Nation, basically hypocritically, let Kareem Elrefai call out AOC for throwing Gazans in the ditch. But, come November, we know what The Nation will officially say. Don't be fooled by this.

Brains' weekly funnies are primarily about the DNC.