. "Musk's Dept. of Government Efficiency Cuts Position of Vice President"
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) — Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has eliminated the position of vice president of the United States, Musk announced on Monday.
“The job of the vice president is to fill in for the president if he falls ill,” Musk said. “This seemed unnecessary since I’m in superb health.”
Musk added that he was inspired to cut the VP position “because JD Vance hasn’t been seen in weeks and no one’s missed him.”
According to sources within DOGE, Vance will immediately be reassigned as a used Tesla salesman.
One of the successes of the Kamala Harris Campaign was their Rapid Response Team, @KamalaHQ. This was excellent, hard-hitting and wildly popular social media.
As Axios reports, the Democratic National Committee is tapping veterans of this social media team for a new rapid response push ahead of Donald Trump's return to office. The new rapid response @FactPostNews initiative will combat online misinformation and respond to Trump administration actions by pushing out memes, videos and graphics.
Worth noting: @FactPostNews will start on X, Threads, and Bluesky and will eventually expand to TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.
Does anyone know if Sears recently talked about abortion and/or her social views in any depth? The only interview I could find is from June 2022. I linked it below.
I'm asking because Sears is a devout christan and has a long history of socially conservative statements. In her 2021 campaign she briefly supported a heartbill bill before backtracking.
Questioning how sincere her support for a 15 week ban is, should be a good line of attack. I doubt Sears is comfortable talking about it in a debate setting.
Personal believes, even those out of step with voters, are not necessarily a political liability. Tim Kaine as an example is personally pro life.
Sears won't lose voters if she can convince them that she won't act on her personal believes in office.
I just doubt that Sears can do that. You need practice to talk about this in a convincing way. Which Sears doesn't have as she avoids talking about the topic at all.
What Tim Kaine has that Earl-Sears doesn't have is the ability to put his personal pro-life views aside in the name of working women the right to think and decide for themselves what they want to do with their bodies.
Also, this anti-abortion rally Earle-Sears attended along with Governor Youngkin is going to be a liability for her in the general election. This coming after Trump becoming POTUS.
I can already see the Spanberger camp potentailly using campaign ads with Early-Sears at this rally. She's going to be hammered with this.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, both Republicans, joined thousands of Virginia activists Wednesday for an annual anti-abortion demonstration, where attendees denounced Democratic lawmakers who have blocked proposed restrictions since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Earle-Sears, who addressed a rally just outside the Capitol before attendees marched through downtown Richmond, joined other speakers in calling for housing, support and other resources for expectant parents. She also expressed compassion for women who have had abortions and exhorted attendees to keep up their advocacy.
“Let’s pray that hearts will be changed. Let’s pray that our legislators will change and the laws will change,” said Earle-Sears, whose voice broke with emotion at the start of her remarks.
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision ending constitutional protections for abortion and allowing states to enact bans, Youngkin said he hoped lawmakers in the then-politically divided General Assembly would enact new limits. He asked them to send a bill to his desk banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.
Spanberger will certainly address that. Here in Virginia, being viciously anti choice is a liability and has been for decades, even when the Old Dominion was still a hardcore Republican state at the Presidential level. I attended a Spanberger house party in McLean last night. One thing that she WILL have to address - she hemmed and hawed on it - is whether or not she supports efforts to repeal so called "right to work" here. Terry McAuliffe was absolutely hammered on this issue four years ago, and Earle-Sears will absolutely address it.
I think Spanberger may be in a better position than McAuliffe to address this concern about the right-to-work law but certainly the earlier the better. No disrespect to McAuliffe but he's better as a Democratic Party fundraiser and operative than he is an politician.
Now that she's out of Congress and on the campaign trail primarily focused on the gubernatorial race, Spanberger will be able to address this early on.
I'm not sure if support for RTW(FL) repeal is a political liability in today's Virginia. It certainly was in the past, which is why both Mark Warner and Tim Kaine openly supported this law in their runs for Governor in 2001 and 2005. However, Virginia is now a bluer state, so I'm not sure that supporting the repeal of this law is a liability.
To my knowledge, there hasn't been a poll recently that measures how Virginia voters feel about RTW(FL) laws, but I'd be curious to see one. Any such poll, though, would have to explain to respondents what these laws actually entail, since I imagine most people out there don't actually know that.
Spanberger most likely wins by a few points IMO, but for a Shapiro 2022/Stein 2024 landslide Sears would have to totally implode, and I don't think she will. Sears may well be too conservative to win, but probably won't sound like a nut.
At least twice in a lifetime. Surely you remember Roy Moore of Alabama? He enabled us to elect Senator Doug Jones – the man who should have been Attorney General instead of Merrick Garland.
'Virginia Man' Cory Mills is my Congressman; I discount his chances for promotion greatly (especially, as I suspect, if DeSantis appoints Ashley Moody)
Bobby Pulido, an award-winning singer-songwriter with a devoted following throughout the Southwest, is being heavily recruited to challenge Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz in Texas’ 15th district. And Democrats involved in South Texas politics expect him to jump in after he wraps his farewell tour, according to two people familiar with the recruiting effort, granted anonymity to discuss party dynamics.
Meanwhile, another legacy media loss is Substack's gain. Jen Rubin has exited the Washington Post and launched the Contrarian. Well worth checking out.
Subscribed. Jennifer Rubin’s column has long been my main reason for still subscribing to WaPo. On Wednesday, Jen is hosting a chat at WaPo, with readers invited to submit questions in advance. Here’s mine:
"Would you please detail your reasons for leaving The Washington Post? Best of luck with the Contrarian!"
"Dear Jen, Please share your thoughts candidly! You have long been my main reason for still subscribing to The Washington Post. Your columns are insightful and crystal clear – a refreshing and reassuring contrast to the paper’s slide away from its once-proud editorial integrity and journalistic values."
And in fact that chat won't happen, nor is she likely to write anything more for the Post. Any future chats with her would be at the Contrarian, and would be a good feature for the site.
Her last column for them was yesterday saying that the LA fires probably won't change the views of climate denialists, but should. There's no indication in it of her forthcoming departure, which I learned of today from Simon Rosenberg.
UPDATE from WaPo: "Jennifer Rubin is no longer writing for The Post. Her live chat, including this week's, and her subscriber-only newsletter will not continue."
Cory Mills’ combat experience includes providing tear gas canisters to be used against Black Lives Matter demonstrators. In fact, Mills brags about that.
Wow. Sarah McBride barely even starting her first term as Representative of Delaware At-Large and already she’s killing it with a new bill she’s introduced that targets credit repair scams.
The beauty of this is that McBride already has bipartisan support for this bill. Rep. Young Kim has so far signed on as a co-sponsor.
Delaware Congresswoman Sarah McBride's first bill is a bipartisan effort to crack down on what she said is fraud in the credit repair industry.
The "Ending Scam Credit Repair Act" would prohibit Credit Repair Organizations from charging any up-front fees until six months after they've demonstrated that they have actually improved the customer's credit score. According to McBride, these organizations have exploited legal loopholes by charging fees to consumers who are in some cases desperate to reduce their debt.
McBride is the first freshman Democrat to introduce a bill in the 119th U.S. Congress. Congresswoman Young Kim of California is also a sponsor.
"Delawareans deserve real results, not empty and costly promises. I am grateful to Congresswoman Kim for working across the aisle with me on common sense solutions to deliver for our constituents,” McBride.
Being a voter in Virginia, I hope that the democrats are not going to go the old route if running several good people against each other. I believe Spanburger will make a good governor.
On a lighter note:
. "Musk's Dept. of Government Efficiency Cuts Position of Vice President"
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report) — Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has eliminated the position of vice president of the United States, Musk announced on Monday.
“The job of the vice president is to fill in for the president if he falls ill,” Musk said. “This seemed unnecessary since I’m in superb health.”
Musk added that he was inspired to cut the VP position “because JD Vance hasn’t been seen in weeks and no one’s missed him.”
According to sources within DOGE, Vance will immediately be reassigned as a used Tesla salesman.
https://www.borowitzreport.com/p/musks-dept-of-government-efficiency
Since the DOGE duplicates the OMB, the first act of the DOGE should be to eliminate the DOGE.
And eliminate the DOGE Bitcoin currency as well!
Who raised these losers?
Good news from the DNC
One of the successes of the Kamala Harris Campaign was their Rapid Response Team, @KamalaHQ. This was excellent, hard-hitting and wildly popular social media.
As Axios reports, the Democratic National Committee is tapping veterans of this social media team for a new rapid response push ahead of Donald Trump's return to office. The new rapid response @FactPostNews initiative will combat online misinformation and respond to Trump administration actions by pushing out memes, videos and graphics.
Worth noting: @FactPostNews will start on X, Threads, and Bluesky and will eventually expand to TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.
https://www.axios.com/2025/01/13/dnc-social-media-trump-kamalahq
Okkknokaa☹️ k 🎁🎁🎁🖼️📩🏷️🍑🍒🍏
Someone's toddler get ahold of their phone?
Perhaps Elon Musk’s four-year-old, X Æ A-12 ('X' for short) somehow grabbed Karen’s phone.
Does anyone know if Sears recently talked about abortion and/or her social views in any depth? The only interview I could find is from June 2022. I linked it below.
I'm asking because Sears is a devout christan and has a long history of socially conservative statements. In her 2021 campaign she briefly supported a heartbill bill before backtracking.
Questioning how sincere her support for a 15 week ban is, should be a good line of attack. I doubt Sears is comfortable talking about it in a debate setting.
https://www.wric.com/news/virginia-news/watch-live-lt-gov-winsome-earle-sears-on-abortion-rights-in-virginia/
I’m sure her support is sincere; if anything, she probably finds it insufficiently draconian
Personal believes, even those out of step with voters, are not necessarily a political liability. Tim Kaine as an example is personally pro life.
Sears won't lose voters if she can convince them that she won't act on her personal believes in office.
I just doubt that Sears can do that. You need practice to talk about this in a convincing way. Which Sears doesn't have as she avoids talking about the topic at all.
What Tim Kaine has that Earl-Sears doesn't have is the ability to put his personal pro-life views aside in the name of working women the right to think and decide for themselves what they want to do with their bodies.
Also, this anti-abortion rally Earle-Sears attended along with Governor Youngkin is going to be a liability for her in the general election. This coming after Trump becoming POTUS.
I can already see the Spanberger camp potentailly using campaign ads with Early-Sears at this rally. She's going to be hammered with this.
https://apnews.com/article/virginia-abortion-protests-glenn-youngkin-edf65ed4610f256344dd9c8571e674d8
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, both Republicans, joined thousands of Virginia activists Wednesday for an annual anti-abortion demonstration, where attendees denounced Democratic lawmakers who have blocked proposed restrictions since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Earle-Sears, who addressed a rally just outside the Capitol before attendees marched through downtown Richmond, joined other speakers in calling for housing, support and other resources for expectant parents. She also expressed compassion for women who have had abortions and exhorted attendees to keep up their advocacy.
“Let’s pray that hearts will be changed. Let’s pray that our legislators will change and the laws will change,” said Earle-Sears, whose voice broke with emotion at the start of her remarks.
After the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision ending constitutional protections for abortion and allowing states to enact bans, Youngkin said he hoped lawmakers in the then-politically divided General Assembly would enact new limits. He asked them to send a bill to his desk banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy with exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.
Spanberger will certainly address that. Here in Virginia, being viciously anti choice is a liability and has been for decades, even when the Old Dominion was still a hardcore Republican state at the Presidential level. I attended a Spanberger house party in McLean last night. One thing that she WILL have to address - she hemmed and hawed on it - is whether or not she supports efforts to repeal so called "right to work" here. Terry McAuliffe was absolutely hammered on this issue four years ago, and Earle-Sears will absolutely address it.
I think Spanberger may be in a better position than McAuliffe to address this concern about the right-to-work law but certainly the earlier the better. No disrespect to McAuliffe but he's better as a Democratic Party fundraiser and operative than he is an politician.
Now that she's out of Congress and on the campaign trail primarily focused on the gubernatorial race, Spanberger will be able to address this early on.
I'm not sure if support for RTW(FL) repeal is a political liability in today's Virginia. It certainly was in the past, which is why both Mark Warner and Tim Kaine openly supported this law in their runs for Governor in 2001 and 2005. However, Virginia is now a bluer state, so I'm not sure that supporting the repeal of this law is a liability.
To my knowledge, there hasn't been a poll recently that measures how Virginia voters feel about RTW(FL) laws, but I'd be curious to see one. Any such poll, though, would have to explain to respondents what these laws actually entail, since I imagine most people out there don't actually know that.
I am hoping for a Mark Robinson 2.0..but seriously doubtful; imo Robinson was a once in a lifetime gift
This won't be Robinson or even a Mastriano situation. More likely is something like WI-Gov 2022.
Tim Michels won the primary by fully supporting an abortion ban. He immediatly backpedaled after the primary but it still cost him votes.
Spanberger most likely wins by a few points IMO, but for a Shapiro 2022/Stein 2024 landslide Sears would have to totally implode, and I don't think she will. Sears may well be too conservative to win, but probably won't sound like a nut.
At least twice in a lifetime. Surely you remember Roy Moore of Alabama? He enabled us to elect Senator Doug Jones – the man who should have been Attorney General instead of Merrick Garland.
And that guy Todd Akin....
agree but I consider Robinson in a class above all others
A class *far below* the others?
Hershel Walker
Earle-Sears isn't another Mark Robinson 2.0 but that won't be needed anyway as VA is more to the left of NC to begin with.
'Virginia Man' Cory Mills is my Congressman; I discount his chances for promotion greatly (especially, as I suspect, if DeSantis appoints Ashley Moody)
Bobby Pulido, an award-winning singer-songwriter with a devoted following throughout the Southwest, is being heavily recruited to challenge Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz in Texas’ 15th district. And Democrats involved in South Texas politics expect him to jump in after he wraps his farewell tour, according to two people familiar with the recruiting effort, granted anonymity to discuss party dynamics.
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/weekly-score/2025/01/13/democrats-recruit-tejano-star-for-south-texas-house-seat-00197758
Sounds like an interesting get! We definitely should recruit unique outsider candidates like this where we can
absolutely
After THOROUGH vetting.
Gotta love a candidate with solid name recognition, no voting record and an ability to fundraise. If 2026 is like 2018, we can win here.
Meanwhile, another legacy media loss is Substack's gain. Jen Rubin has exited the Washington Post and launched the Contrarian. Well worth checking out.
https://contrarian.substack.com/
Subscribed. Jennifer Rubin’s column has long been my main reason for still subscribing to WaPo. On Wednesday, Jen is hosting a chat at WaPo, with readers invited to submit questions in advance. Here’s mine:
"Would you please detail your reasons for leaving The Washington Post? Best of luck with the Contrarian!"
"Dear Jen, Please share your thoughts candidly! You have long been my main reason for still subscribing to The Washington Post. Your columns are insightful and crystal clear – a refreshing and reassuring contrast to the paper’s slide away from its once-proud editorial integrity and journalistic values."
I don't know if she'll be hosting that now that she's left.
If the Post weren't in effect my local paper I might have dropped it, if I ever subscribed in the first place.
And in fact that chat won't happen, nor is she likely to write anything more for the Post. Any future chats with her would be at the Contrarian, and would be a good feature for the site.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/01/15/jennifer-rubin-live-chat/
Her last column for them was yesterday saying that the LA fires probably won't change the views of climate denialists, but should. There's no indication in it of her forthcoming departure, which I learned of today from Simon Rosenberg.
UPDATE from WaPo: "Jennifer Rubin is no longer writing for The Post. Her live chat, including this week's, and her subscriber-only newsletter will not continue."
As an aside, there are serious questions about Cory Mills actual combat experiences (Trump's DOD will not be helpful here)
Cory Mills’ combat experience includes providing tear gas canisters to be used against Black Lives Matter demonstrators. In fact, Mills brags about that.
DE At-Large:
Wow. Sarah McBride barely even starting her first term as Representative of Delaware At-Large and already she’s killing it with a new bill she’s introduced that targets credit repair scams.
The beauty of this is that McBride already has bipartisan support for this bill. Rep. Young Kim has so far signed on as a co-sponsor.
https://www.wdel.com/news/congresswoman-sarah-mcbride-introduces-1st-bill---what-are-its-goals/article_507d5b26-cf95-11ef-bd1c-1bbc0ed2053a.html
https://youngkim.house.gov/2025/01/10/rep-young-kim-pushes-to-protect-consumers-from-credit-card-repair-scams/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Delaware Congresswoman Sarah McBride's first bill is a bipartisan effort to crack down on what she said is fraud in the credit repair industry.
The "Ending Scam Credit Repair Act" would prohibit Credit Repair Organizations from charging any up-front fees until six months after they've demonstrated that they have actually improved the customer's credit score. According to McBride, these organizations have exploited legal loopholes by charging fees to consumers who are in some cases desperate to reduce their debt.
McBride is the first freshman Democrat to introduce a bill in the 119th U.S. Congress. Congresswoman Young Kim of California is also a sponsor.
"Delawareans deserve real results, not empty and costly promises. I am grateful to Congresswoman Kim for working across the aisle with me on common sense solutions to deliver for our constituents,” McBride.
Another super sick narcissist.
Being a voter in Virginia, I hope that the democrats are not going to go the old route if running several good people against each other. I believe Spanburger will make a good governor.