Senate adjourns, Alex Morse, and the DNC schedule.
how long do you think everything will continue to suck for?
Hey there folks. We hope you’re having a good morning on this, the whatever day of the slowest conceivable apocalypse. Everything will either get better at some point or we’ll just die which is fine too.
The Senate has adjourned through Labor Day despite not coming to a coronavirus stimulus package agreement: that next round of checks that was looking very likely not-too-long-ago is now a distant possibility that you may get if you’re good for Christmas.
Congressional candidate Alex Morse was subject to some pretty serious allegations that has now revealed itself to be the subject of a kind of conspiracy: the motivation for which was to gain an in to a political career with an incumbent Democrat.
We’re learning more about the DNC schedule: and like much of what the Democrats do these days, it’s mostly a huge middle finger to leftists. Cool!
Don’t despair! Things could totally get better! Seriously! Let’s take a look at what we’ve got.
CONGRESS
The Senate Has Adjourned Through Labor Day Without a Coronavirus Package
The Senate is out. They’re done with their jobs until weeks from now, when a deal may end up being reached but who really knows at this point!
On the Table
The biggest points of contention are extended unemployment benefits. Democrats want that $600/week addition to be renewed, Republicans say hell no. Democrats also want $900 billion toward state and municipal aid plus $60 billion in food assistance, all of this much higher than what Republicans want. Nancy Pelosi says no deal until Republicans concede on these points.
Both parties are down for another round of stimulus checks. Where they disagree is, again, the amount: the low-end being another $1,200, with some calling for $2,400.
Everyone is concerned about the eviction moratorium. Trump kinda sorta tried to address it with his executive order but it didn’t actually do anything, just instructed people to look into whether it was reasonably necessary or not to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Bottom line: We’re waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting waiting oh god please help.
CAMPAIGNING
A Brief Summary of the Alex Morse Allegations and the Plan Behind Them
Alex Morse is running for Congress in Massachusetts. He’s the 31 year old mayor of Holyoke, Massachusetts and has been since he was 22. He’s up against incumbent Richard Neal who has been in Congress since 1989. Allegations against Morse were made recently too, which some saw as a sinker for his candidacy—now, more deals have emerged.
The Letter and Allegations
According to reporting by Ryan Grim at The Intercept, the Massachusetts College Democrats penned a letter informing Alex Morse that he was no longer welcome at their events. The letter was also published by the school’s newspaper.
The reason included allegations that Morse “made students feel uncomfortable by sending messages through Instagram and matching with University of Massachusetts students on Tinder,” as well as having “sexual contact” with students at UMass Amherst where Morse worked as an adjunct professor.
Morse denied the real substance of the allegations. He didn’t deny having relationships with students at UMass Amherst, just that he wasn’t a supervisor or teacher to any of them.
It’s also important to note that the chief strategist of the UMass Amherst College Democrats, Timothy Ennis, has been accused of being politically motivated and also trying to pave the way for a career with Neal, who he took a journalism class with, in the future.
None of the correspondence that the letter alleges was inappropriate has been published. No victims have come forward either.
*nathan fielder voice* The Plan
The story doesn’t simply end with unsubstantiated allegations and a candidate denying them. Things get a bit more conspiratorial from here on out.
The leadership of the UMass College Democrats, including the aforementioned Timothy Ennis, began hatching a plan to ruin Alex Morse’s campaign as far back as October.
The group decided to seek out his dating profiles to find out incriminating evidence. Something to note here: Morse is a gay man, and many have since pointed out that this seems like a weird gay panic type of deal.
The only conversations we’ve seen are with Andrew Abramson, who became the president of the UMass College Dems. After Morse met Abramson at an event, Morse messaged him on Instagram to say it was nice to see him—the rest of the conversation is in this Grim piece but is incredibly tame and appropriate.
Ennis used this as the basis to pitch a story to Alex Thompson, a political reporter at Politico. Ennis also actively sought out Morse on dating sites though he never directly communicated with him.
The letter is written in such a way that it is coming at the behest of those impacted by “Morse’s behavior” but it seems to be the case that the letter was largely written by the leadership of the organization without input from its members.
Bottom line: weaponizing the fact that we live in an era where being a sex pest can ruin your career is bad news. Being an actual sex pest should preclude you from being an elected official but flirting, dating, or even having sex with consenting adults who you have no explicit power dynamic probably doesn’t meet that bar. Some of you may still find the age gap between Morse, who is in his 30s, and college students, likely in their 20s or even late teens, to still be inappropriate. That’s a conversation worth happening. This hatchet job only muddies those waters.
Morse’s campaign is raking in cash and since more info has come out about this fabricated scandal, more organizations have come out swinging for this candidate.
DNC
The DNC Has Revealed Their Priorities With Their Speaking Schedule
The DNC is showing its hand. We’ve learned a bit about the DNC’s speaker choices and we’re unimpressed.
Ooooooooffff
With 35 speaking spots, you’d expect a pretty rounded-out cast of left-wing characters. Nope!
AOC is the only speaker from the Squad. She has reportedly been allotted 60 seconds of speaking time. Sixty. Seconds. Of Speaking Time. For one of the most prominent Democrats in the country.
But hey, Mike Bloomberg and John Kasich get to speak! What’s that? Kasich is a Republican and Bloomberg might as well be? Ah, humbug! Don’t worry though, the RNC would surely let a Democrat make their way on stage.
Even poor Andrew Yang expressed dismay at not being invited initially. Don’t worry, Yang Gang, they gave him a pity slot.
By our count, only three speakers are under 50. Only three speakers are Latino. No speakers are Muslim. No Julián Castro, no Ilhan Omar, no Rashida Tlaib.
Bottom line: it’s a fucking virtual convention! There’s a pandemic and no one is showing up and no one likes Biden but people are still going to vote for him anyway! Would it kill you to at least make it look like you care about progressives in your party by letting them have some significant speaking time or inviting them whatsoever to your silly event that like, 20 people who will even be alive to see the Democratic party in 30 years will look like? Also: Let Beto skateboard on stream you hacks!
BREADCRUMBS
Where the News Gets “Fun!”
“Biden’s Promise of a Deportation Moratorium is Nowhere In His Platform.” A slight slip up or is the former VP already failing to follow through?
“Financial disclosures reveal postmaster general’s business entanglements and likely conflicts of interest, experts say.” These types are always as endlessly stupid as they are evil.
“The Post Office is Deactivating Mail Sorting Machines Ahead of the Election.” Maybe we can just guess who won? That might be fun.
“Trump Encourages Racist Conspiracy Theory About Kamala Harris.” The originator of the racist birther movement strikes again. Honestly, that was faster than we expected.
“Tribune Publishing closes Daily News newsroom in Manhattan.” They also closed two newsrooms in Maryland and one in Florida. The consolidation of the news creates all kinds of issues, this kind of thing included.
Check out this dope ass Ed Markey ad by the way:
END OF THE LINE...
That’s it for today.
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Have a good one,
The Bread Line
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