The Common Ills: Maybe it's time to start drug testing Congress?

Wednesday, June 26, 2024

Maybe it's time to start drug testing Congress?

BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX & THOMAS FRIEDMAN IS A GREAT MAN & ANN'S MEGA DUB & THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS & THE COMMON ILLS -- THE KOOL AID TABLE

OFTEN REFERRED TO AS "THE FORGOTTEN MEMBER OF CONGRESS," U.S. HOUSE REP. MARIANNETTE MILLER-MEEKS SURPRISED THE WORLD AND HER CONSTITUENTS BY REMINDING THEM SHE WAS ALIVE VIA AN APPEARANCE ON FOX "NEWS" BIDNESS ON MONDAY WHERE SHE INSISTED THAT U.S. PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN WOULD BE AT THURSDAY'S PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE HOPPED UP ON DRUGS. SHE RAISED HIS ENERGY PERFORMANCE IN THIS YEAR'S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS AS PROOF AND INSISTED -- APPARENTLY REFERRING TO HERSELF AND SENATOR RAND PAUL (BOTH EYE DOCTORS) -- "MANY OF THE DOCTORS IN CONGRESS FELT HE WAS ON SOME TYPE OF STIMULANT."

REACHED FOR COMMENT BY THESE REPORTERS -- MUST CREDIT BULLY BOY PRESS & CEDRIC'S BIG MIX & THOMAS FRIEDMAN IS A GREAT MAN & ANN'S MEGA DUB & THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS & THE COMMON ILLS -- U.S. HOUSE REP. MARIANNETTE REVEALED THAT SHE DID NOT ACTUALLY KNOW THAT "BIDEN WILL BE HOPPED UP ON DRUGS BUT A MAN AROUND 60 OR 70 OR 80 CALLING HIMSELF JOE SHOWED UP ON MY PORCH SUNDAY NIGHT TO BUY A DIME BAG. IF IT WASN'T JOE, IT WAS A SIGN FROM POTHEAD JESUS TO ME THAT BIDEN WOULD BE HOPPED UP ON DRUGS."

POTHEAD JESUS?

"WHEN I TURNED 20 AND REALIZED I WAS NEVER GOING TO ENTER A PRETTY-AT-THE-TABLE PHASE, JUST REMAIN UGLY-IN-THE-CRADLE FOREVER, POTHEAD JESUS APPEARED TO ME ONE THURSDAY NIGHT AFTER I SPARKED MY THIRD DOOBIE AND HE SAID,, ' MERRY MARIANNETTIA, TURN ON THE TV NOW. I HAVE BROUGHT BACK 'THE LIFE AND TIMES OF BARNEY MILLER' AS 'BARNEY MILLER' SO THAT YOU COULD SEE SOMEONE WHO LOOKS JUST LIKE YOU ON T.V. TURN YOUR TELEVISION SET ON RIGHT NOW AND GO TO ABC TO BEHOLD YOUR IDENTICAL TWIN ABE VIGODA AND GRASP THAT LOOKS ARE NOT REQUIRED FOR SUCCESS. AND SINCE THAT JANUARY 23, 1975 DAY, I'VE KNOWN THAT I WOULD BE OKAY. PRAISE POT HEAD JESUS, PRAISE HIM."

AS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT THURSDAY'S DEBATE WILL AIR AND STREAM LIVE 8:00 PM EST ON CNN, AS WELL AS ON CNN'S WEBSITE, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, HULU LIVE, YOUTUBE LIVE TV, SLING TV AND ON MARIANNETTE MILLER-MEEKS' BONG IN HER BASEMENT DURING HER 'GONE GANJA AND BACK' PARTY.

FROM THE TCI WIRE:

A lot to cover today. Let's start with Jamaal Bowman.

I don't know Jamaal Bowman. I'm sure he's a wonderful person. But watching the attempts to save his seat in Congress? Bewilderment.

Who was this sitting member of Congress and why should I care?

Tomorrow night US President Joe Biden is scheduled to debate Convicted Felon and well known liar Donald Trump. I hope we don't see the behavior on that stage from Joe, hope this is some new Democratic Party fad passed off as 'framing' or whatever.

Jamal is probably a nice person.

But watching the nonsense that I watched -- as a nonvoter (I don't live in his state, let alone district) -- I kept waiting for a coherent story as to why he mattered and I never got that.

Beggars can't be choosers, agreed. And in a fight like this -- a Democratic Party primary -- he needed and probably took any support he could get.

That's fine for the voting booth, that's not good for get out the vote.

So the first mistake his campaign made was in the selection of some of the mouth boxes they threw in front of the cameras.

Here's tip one: Voters don't usually go for painted up whores. If you're a member of Congress trying to support another member of Congress, minimize the make up. That's especially true if you're wearing false eye lashes and even more so if those lashes are opening and closing repeatedly every time you speak. Do you think anyone's listening to you when you can't stop batting your eyes with those two to three inch eye lashes on? They're not. They're laughing at you at worst. The kinder ones are just distracted and maybe wondering if thick false eye lashes make it harder for you keep your eyes open.

Here's tip two (and see Marica's "The bald idiot needs to let someone else speak publicly"), you are trying to get them on the side of the person you're supporting. Stop yelling at them. It's one thing to be enraged about possible policy ramifications if the candidate you're supporting doesn't win. But you push people away when you're just yelling or hectoring. Nobody wants a big mouth trying to tell them what to do.

In fact, we could go on and on but we have a lot to cover so let's just sum the tips above and about 15 more I had as: Watch what Ayanna Pressley did and don't do that. Any member of The Squad could have done a better job than Pressley did.

Ilhan Omar, for example, invites you into a conversation when she's advocating for someone or some issue. Pressley, from the opening, leaves you off put.

Again, I don't know Jamaal. More importantly, after weeks of his defenders taking to the media and YOUTUBE (I'm not referring to podcasters offering analysis, I'm referring to guests on those shows who were supposedly advocating on his behalf), I still don't know him.

AIPAC is awful and shouldn't be allowed to be involved in US races. No foreign money should be allowed period. And that's something people could have supported. Israel sticking its nose in a US district election? No one wants that anymore than they want France or China or even the UK flooding our 'home' elections.

So you could have made that a strategy. When AIPAC was raised, I understood what they were getting at but don't think most listening would. They needed to make that a strong point and they needed to make it an easy to understand point.

But they failed at that.

Just like they failed to tell us his record and failed to let us know his plans for the future.

AIPAC defined him as unworthy and all his supporters that spoke to the media did was say, "Oh, but he's a good guy."

That's not how you fight.

Andrew Solender (AXIOS) notes:

AIPAC spent at least $14.5 million on anti-Bowman ads through its PAC, United Democracy Project, as of June 20, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
Much of the spending came after a poll in March from pro-Israel group Democratic Majority for Israel showed Bowman trailing by 17 points.
Bowman has emerged as one of Congress' most vocal critics of Israel in recent years, with Latimer running as a pro-Israel alternative in the heavily Jewish, affluent suburban district.

Now with all the money that was spent to defeat Jamaal, there's a good chance it wouldn't have mattered what he or his supporters did.

And the AXIOS article notes, "Said another Democrat more bluntly: 'AIPAC didn't pull a fire alarm. AIPAC didn't speculate about 9/11'." Yeah, he had baggage.

But that could have been defeated or at least strongly challenged and it wasn't. I have no idea what he plans next. He could run as an independent in this cycle. And he could win. I never would have thought when Ned Lamont defeated the awful Joe Lieberman in the Democratic Party that this country would have to endure Lieberman in the Senate again. But he managed to pull off a miracle. Bowman could do the same. If he's planning that or if anyone else is being targeted by AIPAC, they need to make AIPAC the target.

"I'm trying to work for you" is the appeal to the voters "while this mega rich lobbyist group wants me out to install someone who will work on behalf of a foreign government. Local politics does not translate as 'whatever Israel wants'."

In terms of Thursday night, Joe Biden better explain what needs to be done and better stress that it's about making America all it can be for all Americans. He better bring us into the dream he has for this country. The media spokespeople Bowman had did not do that for Jamaal.

Jake Johnson (COMMON DREAMS) notes:

Progressive Rep. Jamaal Bowman lost his reelection bid in New York's 16th Congressional District on Tuesday to an establishment-backed county official whose campaign was propelled by nearly $15 million in spending by AIPAC's Republican-funded super PAC.

The United Democracy Project's (UDP) spending made the Democratic primary contest the most expensive House race in U.S. history. According to a Sludgeanalysis of independent election expenditures dating back to 2001, UDP's $14.5 million onslaught to oust Bowman was "more than any other group besides those affiliated with a political party has ever spent on a House election."

The investment paid off, with Westchester County Executive George Latimer leading Bowman by a margin of 58% to 42% with close to 90% of the vote counted in the 16th District, which was redrawn ahead of the 2022 midterms to include more of suburban Westchester County and less of the Bronx.

Bowman, a former Bronx middle school principal who won his House seat in 2020 by defeating AIPAC favorite Eliot Engel, said in his concession speech late Tuesday that "we should be outraged when a super PAC of dark money can spend $20 million to brainwash people into believing something that isn't true."

RECOMMENDED: "

"Iraq snapshot"