Lynne Fischer🐬

Ret govt anlyst, views my own. Please pay attention to what's happening to democracy in our lifetime. Our children will pay the price if we don't.

[Maine @TheMaineWonk]

I’m old enough to remember when we used to call examples like @AbdulElSayed “The American Dream”

Michigander born to immigrants, attends UM, then Oxford on Rhodes Scholarship & Columbia for his MD.

His commencement address mentions:
“…audacity to believe we can change this world…”

[Nick Sortor @nicksortor]

🚨 WTF?! John Thune tells reporters that even HE hasn’t seen Mitch McConnell since the 84 year old Senator was hospitalized almost TWO MONTHS AGO

The amount of contempt these people have for Americans is INSANE.

Kentuckians deserve SOLID PROOF OF LIFE.

[Lynne Fischer🐬 @lateefish]

@WalshFreedom Who is antisemitic? Stop it.

[Lynne Fischer🐬 @lateefish]

@kylegriffin1 The “Senator” did NOT release a statement. Someone did on his behalf- start reporting exactly what is happening

[Lynne Fischer🐬 @lateefish]

@NormOrnstein EXACTLY. Using old pictures!!! So maddening!!!

[Norman Ornstein @NormOrnstein]

This is journalistic malpractice. He didn’t say anything. He hasn’t said anything for many weeks. It is a statement. You are misleading your viewers and readers.

[Lynne Fischer🐬 @lateefish]

This is why Republicans are afraid- he speaks for regular Americans. Listen.

[BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ @mmpadellan]

PERFECT speech here by @AbdulElSayed.

Time to STOP conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism. Disagreeing with Israel is not antisemitic.

He says very clearly "I love the Jewish people."

That's Michigan's next US Senator.

[Joe Walsh @WalshFreedom]

Well done.

[Lynne Fischer🐬 @lateefish]

Every fucking word of this 💯 👇🏼

[Charlotte Clymer 🇺🇦 @cmclymer]

This afternoon, the Office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released a statement, purporting to be from him, that announced he’s been discharged from a rehabilitation center and has returned to his home in Kentucky, where he will “maintain an intensive regimen of physical therapy during the state work period…”

It was written in the first-person and everything, as though Mr. McConnell had dictated it to staff. Philip Lewis of HuffPost helpfully posted a screenshot of the statement, and you can read the whole thing online.

For those unaware, state work periods are the official way of describing those frequent breaks Congress takes during the congressional session. Many lawmakers actually do go back to their states and their districts and do work. Some do not.

Anyway, I find that phrasing rather interesting because it carries the soft implication that Mr. McConnell will be returning to Congress. It’s a way of kinda-sorta winking: hey, I’m recuperating, and I’ll be back at it soon — but without explicitly saying that.

It was 53 days ago—June 14th—that Senator McConnell was found unconscious just before 9am in his townhouse on Capitol Hill. He was subsequently hospitalized, of course, and the American people haven’t seen him in public since.

Well, that’s not entirely true. His office did release two photos of him and his wife—former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao—that are said to be from his hospital/rehab rooms on July 12th and July 27th.

Some have claimed these are AI-generated images. I do not believe they are AI, and there’s no proof that they are AI.

However, I can’t pretend that I’m 100% convinced these photos were taken since the day he was found unconscious, but I do believe they are real images.

I realize that doesn’t make sense, and yet, given the very long pattern of bad faith words and actions on the part of Sen. McConnell and the Republican Party and Donald Trump, there remains a small part of me that wouldn’t put it past these folks to be, how shall I put it, less-than-honest on the whole nature of this thing.

Neither Sen. McConnell nor his office have released any videos of him talking about his health status or the business of the U.S. Senate or any national security matters (like that whole War in Iran thing we got going on) or even the recent, unexpected death of his longtime colleague, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham.

And that’s very curious because not a week has gone by—literally—without someone in the Republican Party or the world of conservative media claiming to have had long phone calls with Senator McConnell.

But no videos. Not one. He’s healthy enough to chat with all sorts of folks in his orbit over the phone and temporarily pose for pictures with Secretary Chao.

But no videos. No cable news interviews from his hospital/rehab room, which might be rather endearing and immediately end all speculation.

No phone calls with any Democrats, including Gov. Andy Beshear, the man who leads Mr. McConnell’s state and is charged with ensuring his constituents are represented capably in Congress.

No phone calls with any actual legacy media journalists, not conservative pundits pretending to be journalists.

No phone calls at all with anyone outside of Mr. McConnell’s tight ideological circle.

His office has released three press statements total in all that time, all of which are written in the first-person — again, as though Mr. McConnell had dictated them directly to staff. And that’s not including quotes claimed to be directly from Mr. McConnell given by his staff to reporters.

Then came today’s news. The move from rehab to home to “recover” and do “physical therapy” and “continue to engage with my staff and colleagues on important Senate business.”

It’s a strange thing, though.

There are no photos of Mitch McConnell leaving the rehab center. There are none of him arriving at the airport to depart for Kentucky. There are none of him arriving at his destination airport in Kentucky. There are none of him arriving at his Kentucky home.

None whatsoever. Just the statement and legacy media reporters giving a quick salute and dutifully reporting the update. No questions asked.

It’s especially strange given that Mr. McConnell continues to make votes.

Oh, yes! You read that right. As reported this afternoon by Tyler Spence of NOTUS, Senator McConnell was able to cast tie-breaking votes today in the Senate Agriculture Committee.

How is that possible?

Because the Committee’s rules permit an absent senator to allow a colleague to cast a vote on their behalf (“by proxy”) in their absence.

This time it was Agriculture Chairman John Boozman of Arkansas, who claims to have chatted with Mr. McConnell last night (you guessed it: over the phone) and received direct approval to vote on his behalf.

A man who has not been seen in public or any publicly released videos since June 14th has somehow written and/or approved all his press releases and seems to be on the phone quite a lot with a small, tight-knit group of people (but not the governor of his state) and continues to cast committee votes through his colleagues.

I don’t pretend to know exactly what’s going on with Senator McConnell.

I don’t know if he’s dead or incapacitated or if this is the most bizarre and irresponsible and selfish communications strategy ever undertaken by an incumbent Senate Majority Leader, who, by the way, has a rather important national security obligation while our country is at war.

Here’s what I do know:

There are thousands of media professionals with congressional credentials and hundreds of them have Congress as their main beat.

There are 100 Senate offices and about 5,000 Senate staffers.

There are tens of thousands of political professionals in D.C. with regular contact with those two groups.

It’s pretty crazy that in the most gossipy town in America—full of ravenously ambitious people always talking to other ravenously ambitious people, where influence is about knowing things firsthand—no journalists know for sure what’s going on with Mitch McConnell after 53 days.

And yet, legacy media continues to report his press releases as straightforward.

What are the odds?

That’s all to say that I want to be the first to congratulate the reporter(s) who are feverishly gathering intel on Mitch McConnell’s status right now that will be withheld and published in a bestselling, tell-all book in about a year.

----
Link to full essay available here for easier sharing: https://t.co/v40OGgZVFo

[Charlotte Clymer 🇺🇦 @cmclymer]

This afternoon, the Office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released a statement, purporting to be from him, that announced he’s been discharged from a rehabilitation center and has returned to his home in Kentucky, where he will “maintain an intensive regimen of physical therapy during the state work period…”

It was written in the first-person and everything, as though Mr. McConnell had dictated it to staff. Philip Lewis of HuffPost helpfully posted a screenshot of the statement, and you can read the whole thing online.

For those unaware, state work periods are the official way of describing those frequent breaks Congress takes during the congressional session. Many lawmakers actually do go back to their states and their districts and do work. Some do not.

Anyway, I find that phrasing rather interesting because it carries the soft implication that Mr. McConnell will be returning to Congress. It’s a way of kinda-sorta winking: hey, I’m recuperating, and I’ll be back at it soon — but without explicitly saying that.

It was 53 days ago—June 14th—that Senator McConnell was found unconscious just before 9am in his townhouse on Capitol Hill. He was subsequently hospitalized, of course, and the American people haven’t seen him in public since.

Well, that’s not entirely true. His office did release two photos of him and his wife—former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao—that are said to be from his hospital/rehab rooms on July 12th and July 27th.

Some have claimed these are AI-generated images. I do not believe they are AI, and there’s no proof that they are AI.

However, I can’t pretend that I’m 100% convinced these photos were taken since the day he was found unconscious, but I do believe they are real images.

I realize that doesn’t make sense, and yet, given the very long pattern of bad faith words and actions on the part of Sen. McConnell and the Republican Party and Donald Trump, there remains a small part of me that wouldn’t put it past these folks to be, how shall I put it, less-than-honest on the whole nature of this thing.

Neither Sen. McConnell nor his office have released any videos of him talking about his health status or the business of the U.S. Senate or any national security matters (like that whole War in Iran thing we got going on) or even the recent, unexpected death of his longtime colleague, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham.

And that’s very curious because not a week has gone by—literally—without someone in the Republican Party or the world of conservative media claiming to have had long phone calls with Senator McConnell.

But no videos. Not one. He’s healthy enough to chat with all sorts of folks in his orbit over the phone and temporarily pose for pictures with Secretary Chao.

But no videos. No cable news interviews from his hospital/rehab room, which might be rather endearing and immediately end all speculation.

No phone calls with any Democrats, including Gov. Andy Beshear, the man who leads Mr. McConnell’s state and is charged with ensuring his constituents are represented capably in Congress.

No phone calls with any actual legacy media journalists, not conservative pundits pretending to be journalists.

No phone calls at all with anyone outside of Mr. McConnell’s tight ideological circle.

His office has released three press statements total in all that time, all of which are written in the first-person — again, as though Mr. McConnell had dictated them directly to staff. And that’s not including quotes claimed to be directly from Mr. McConnell given by his staff to reporters.

Then came today’s news. The move from rehab to home to “recover” and do “physical therapy” and “continue to engage with my staff and colleagues on important Senate business.”

It’s a strange thing, though.

There are no photos of Mitch McConnell leaving the rehab center. There are none of him arriving at the airport to depart for Kentucky. There are none of him arriving at his destination airport in Kentucky. There are none of him arriving at his Kentucky home.

None whatsoever. Just the statement and legacy media reporters giving a quick salute and dutifully reporting the update. No questions asked.

It’s especially strange given that Mr. McConnell continues to make votes.

Oh, yes! You read that right. As reported this afternoon by Tyler Spence of NOTUS, Senator McConnell was able to cast tie-breaking votes today in the Senate Agriculture Committee.

How is that possible?

Because the Committee’s rules permit an absent senator to allow a colleague to cast a vote on their behalf (“by proxy”) in their absence.

This time it was Agriculture Chairman John Boozman of Arkansas, who claims to have chatted with Mr. McConnell last night (you guessed it: over the phone) and received direct approval to vote on his behalf.

A man who has not been seen in public or any publicly released videos since June 14th has somehow written and/or approved all his press releases and seems to be on the phone quite a lot with a small, tight-knit group of people (but not the governor of his state) and continues to cast committee votes through his colleagues.

I don’t pretend to know exactly what’s going on with Senator McConnell.

I don’t know if he’s dead or incapacitated or if this is the most bizarre and irresponsible and selfish communications strategy ever undertaken by an incumbent Senate Majority Leader, who, by the way, has a rather important national security obligation while our country is at war.

Here’s what I do know:

There are thousands of media professionals with congressional credentials and hundreds of them have Congress as their main beat.

There are 100 Senate offices and about 5,000 Senate staffers.

There are tens of thousands of political professionals in D.C. with regular contact with those two groups.

It’s pretty crazy that in the most gossipy town in America—full of ravenously ambitious people always talking to other ravenously ambitious people, where influence is about knowing things firsthand—no journalists know for sure what’s going on with Mitch McConnell after 53 days.

And yet, legacy media continues to report his press releases as straightforward.

What are the odds?

That’s all to say that I want to be the first to congratulate the reporter(s) who are feverishly gathering intel on Mitch McConnell’s status right now that will be withheld and published in a bestselling, tell-all book in about a year.

----
Link to full essay available here for easier sharing: https://t.co/v40OGgZVFo

[Neil Stone @DrNeilStone]

I'm 5 years after my first mRNA vaccine

What's supposed to have happened to me by now?

[Angry Staffer @Angry_Staffer]

I support Miller trying to tweet his way through this.

Doesn’t make him look like a lunatic at all.

[Sarah Ironside 💙 @SarahIronside6]

My father is alive today because of organ donation. I don’t believe in hell, but I wish it existed just for this entire administration to burn for eternity.

[George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway3d]

It’s right out of the authoritarianism how-to manual

[🔥Reverend Aiden @SweetFnLucifer]

JESUS CHRIST, CORPSE ON A FUCKING STICK! Todd Blanche and the Trump DOJ are ACTIVELY preventing the New Mexico government from investigating reported DEAD BODIES of victims being buried at Epstein's former ranch.

[Zara Quinn @_Zaraquin]

11 bodies of young women and an unborn child were found buried deep in West Mesa in 2009, less than one hour from Epstein's Zorro Ranch.

[Bernie Sanders @BernieSanders]

AIPAC spent $30 million trying to defeat Abdul El-Sayed in the primary. They lost.

Now, they plan to spend tens of millions more against him in the general election.

This is not democracy. This is oligarchy and a corrupt billionaire-funded campaign finance system.

Fight back.

[Lynne Fischer🐬 @lateefish]

@Timodc @AvalonResists This seems like more FRAUD

[Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini) 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @AdamKinzinger]

Trump lost another one tonight! Bye bye Andy Ogles

Trumps endorsement is starting to hurt

[Headquarters @HQNewsNow]

2 Republican Georgia mayors have announced they will back Democrat Jon Ossoff for reelection:

“He’s been very good to South Georgia, and in my nonpartisan role as mayor, I have to look to someone who takes care of their constituents. I’m a Republican, but there are times when a person exceeds the party. They go above and beyond.”