2028 Elections: "If you can keep it."

Handyman said:

grimm ☀️ (@mugrimm.bsky.social)

The Dems saw that David Hogg was anti-gerontocracy and said his PAC might primary currently seated Dems (something a majority of Dem voters agree on rn) and they said "Fuck off forever" almost immediately, and got rid of him in a way almost custom designed to lose voters and empower the right lol.

bsky.app

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...the Washington Generals of politics...

This is what the Dems need...so of course they want to get rid of him.

aparch said:

In an interesting twist, it has come out that Democratic Candidate for the IL-09 district Kat Abughazaleh is in a long term relationship with The Onion CEO Ben Collins.

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So this kind of blew up my timeline because they were at the AEW Dynamite in Chicago last night and posted pictures. Some very whiny people with very terrible opinions had feelings. Kind of reminded me of the K-File story about Walz where no one even knows if anything bad is actually being discussed, they just know they are supposed to be angry because...reasons?

Well one dude has been ranting about this I guess for weeks and made a huge thread about it. Mentioned that Collins reached out to meet and show he is not this evil person the guy thinks he is. The guy does not respond but instead puts him on blast in quite the meltdown. How dare the CEO of The Onion have a girlfriend in politics! And how dare he support her! Well anyways someone posted this blurb from Kat's wiki page:



References to her and Collins are not hidden at all on her page and Chicago Magazine had it in the writeup of her on the 5th. It is such a nothingburger...but it is funny to watch a bunch of people who don't like how young she is (or that she is Palestinian) get their panties in a twist over it.

Handyman said:

So this kind of blew up my timeline because they were at the AEW Dynamite in Chicago last night and posted pictures. Some very whiny people with very terrible opinions had feelings. Kind of reminded me of the K-File story about Walz where no one even knows if anything bad is actually being discussed, they just know they are supposed to be angry because...reasons?

Well one dude has been ranting about this I guess for weeks and made a huge thread about it. Mentioned that Collins reached out to meet and show he is not this evil person the guy thinks he is. The guy does not respond but instead puts him on blast in quite the meltdown. How dare the CEO of The Onion have a girlfriend in politics! And how dare he support her! Well anyways someone posted this blurb from Kat's wiki page:

References to her and Collins are not hidden at all on her page and Chicago Magazine had it in the writeup of her on the 5th. It is such a nothingburger...but it is funny to watch a bunch of people who don't like how young she is (or that she is Palestinian) get their panties in a twist over it.

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I'm trying to figure out the issue. What is the issue? Am I being dense?

I'm not saying I see the problem people could have and it's dumb, it's that I don't even see a dumb thing for people to get pissed about. Are we supposed to hate the Onion or something?

I like her enough. I would vote for her and work on her campaign if it were my district.

Kepler said:

I'm trying to figure out the issue. What is the issue? Am I being dense?

I'm not saying I see the problem people could have and it's dumb, it's that I don't even see a dumb thing for people to get pissed about. Are we supposed to hate the Onion or something?

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Well the issue is three fold from what I gather:

1) she is a full on carpetbagger from DC who does not live where she is trying to get elected. (she lives in Chicago just a different district) While annoying, she is following the rules...

2) Collins before being CEO of the Onion was a regular contributor on NBC and I think CNN. He is not some WaPo guy or anything but he used to be on TV as a tech/social media critic so it does kind of seem icky that he would promote a candidate without disclosing first.

3) she is running a grassroots campaign and now it could be construed (as aparch said) that she is not as underdog as she seems. I mean they split an apartment and the rent is about right for the area so I am not sure why people think that...but maybe The Onion is making Collins a millionaire

Now the thing is, I follow both of them and until it became the issue de jour a few days ago I never seemed to see him pimping her or anything. Every so often I would see them maybe quote each other but they both worked in similar fields (she is a media influencer and she used to work for Media Matters and Mother Jones) so nothing seemed out of place. Now that he runs a satire site/paper there is no conflict of interests.

The truth is, she is a young woman who isn't White (though can definitely pass) who has no filter and they hate that. (a lot of Left Wing Incel Misogyny on desplay) She is also unseating someone pretty popular and a member of the Progressive Caucus so there is that as well.

OK, got it. Thanks.

Kepler said:

I'm trying to figure out the issue. What is the issue? Am I being dense?

I'm not saying I see the problem people could have and it's dumb, it's that I don't even see a dumb thing for people to get pissed about. Are we supposed to hate the Onion or something?

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That makes two of us.

If the Dems want to win they need to be more like Anelise and less like Gavin and the leaders of the Democratic Party.

If you scroll down you can see Anelise's mother responds with background.

Handyman said:

Alex Kirshner (@alexkirshner.com)

this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: https://www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/rep-libbys-rhetoric-spoils-high-school-running-letter/

bsky.app

If the Dems want to win they need to be more like Anelise and less like Gavin and the leaders of the Democratic Party.

If you scroll down you can see Anelise's mother responds with background.

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Why would they want to win? People expect them to, like, do stuff when they're in the majority. It is so much easier to send lots of fundraising emails promising to do great things when they win (want a $2000 check? Vote for Warnock!). Winning just screws things up when they reveal they have no intention of getting progress (still waiting for that $2000 check).

The Washington Generals of politics.

Kudos to Anelise. No less than I've come to expect from a Yarmouth Clipper!

To be fair the GOP did legitimately nothing and still held the House...

Handyman said:

To be fair the GOP did legitimately nothing and still held the House...

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That's because their base expects them to do nothing. One of the benefits of campaigning on "The government is broken."

Of course they weren't able to do anything...