Rick Varco

Senator in 2010 deposition: 13-year-olds can consent to sex U.S. Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma testified as part of a civil case into an alleged sexual assault at the Baptist church camp he oversaw that he believed a 13-year-old can consent to sex.

Just throwing this out there for reasons

apnews.com/article/2022...

RCTs, like surveys, occur “in channel.” People are recruited to respond (usually through online solicitations), made to pay attention (with financial incentives or simply due to how testing platforms are configured), and register their preferences knowing they’re being observed. Once upon a time, when Americans were captive viewers of limited network television channels, forced to sit through commercials without even a remote control for ready escape, these experiments more closely mirrored real-world conditions. Today, however, political messages reach Americans as they are scrolling or cooking or breaking up skirmishes between their kids. Indeed, they’re mostly doing their best to avoid ads altogether. In-channel testing gauges the response to a single exposure of a message and pronounces these to be the message’s effect. But messages aren’t single-use plastics. Many don’t work until they are repeated frequently. Some are more rebuttable than others. Some could work if spoken by messengers other than those in the materials tested. Vote choice tends to be the gold standard in electoral RCTs. Treatments that produce higher numbers of respondents saying they’d vote for the Democratic candidate are considered to have bested the game. While this may seem like the obvious metric — the task come election day is to net more votes — this simplifies how one reaches that goal. You cannot mistake winning a trial heat for winning an election. Often, what you need to measure is what would make the story that favors your side seem credible, what punctures the key strength of your opponent, or what — only upon unrelenting repetition — reframes the electoral stakes to your advantage. Tellingly, when consumer juggernauts use RCTs, their most critical metric is often belief in key attributes such as trust in the brand rather than would you buy this product.

really key point. polls, particularly issue polls, are a WILDLY unrealistic way to measure how people actually interact with political messaging these days

Ken Starr signed an email to Jeffery Epstein with "hugs"

NYT had details of Trump's engagement with Jeffrey Epstein's child sex trafficking and *hid it for him*, at the same time it was crucifying Clinton as untrustworthy due to her document retention & security.

I worked on the high risk pools back then. They were a constantly underfunded disaster. Small groups of people with wildly volatile costs are not sustainable. Not to mention that the small percentage of people who make up most of the costs is not a fixed set of people. He’s an idiot

Ghislaine Maxwell lied about Trump never going to Epstein's house (directly contradicted by her email correspondence with Epstein), and she was rewarded for that lie with a transfer to a cushier prison. The coverup is happening in plain sight.

Trump Still Polling Well With Working-Class American Pedophiles

Trump Still Polling Well With Working-Class American Pedophiles https://theonion.com/trump-still-polling-well-with-working-class-american-pedophiles/

Here's a package of stories I put together in *2010* on abolishing the filibuster. Featuring contributions from, among others, @kagrox.bsky.social, Sen. Tom Udall, and @mattyglesias.bsky.social.

The filibuster sucks for reasons that have been well understood for a long-ass time now.

When the Conservative Party in Korea declared martial law, the Korean Democrats knew if they didn’t send them to hell there would be no opposition afterwards. And look at them. They’re taking the ex conservative president and ensuring he never breathes free ever again.

Has been from the day it was created.

I know we've all got a lot on our minds and the gusher of news doesn't stop for anybody, but....

Did you see where the President of Iran announced that the drought there is so bad that if they don't get any rain in the next two months they'll run out of water and *evacuate Tehran*?

Every time this stuff happens, my thought process begins to consider what kind of justice will be required in 3 years for these people.

Trump Administration officials are all about Confederate monuments; can we just reopen Andersonville and put them there?

Another J6 insurrectionist pardoned by Donald Trump was arrested on other charges, this time, kidnapping and rape.

Across Eastern Europe, they have what are known as "lustration" laws that do exactly this for people who were in the Stasi and its various equivalents. It's a model we should be examining.

‘You Are All Terrorists’: Four Months in a Salvadoran Prison

An actually essential piece of journalism from the times:

"We interviewed 40 of the men who were imprisoned: They described being beaten, sexually assaulted by guards and driven to the brink of suicide." 1/2

"When I picked up my granddaughter from the federal agents, she had a dirty diaper, a bruise on her face, and was developing a rash. She was exhausted and cried… My heart aches knowing this could happen to others, to my kids, or even me, despite being U.S. citizens.”

The internet gods still deliver from time to time.

Chris Murphy: "There will be pretty substantial damage to a Dem brand that has been rehabilitated if on the heels of an election in which the people told us to keep fighting, we immediately stop... if we surrender without having gotten anything, I worry it'll be hard to get them back up off the mat"

Republicans denounce new Democratic offer to end shutdown - Roll Call A new Senate Democratic plan for ending the partial government shutdown met with a wall of Republican resistance late Friday.

fine. keep it shut. Trump's approval seems to drop every week this goes on. rollcall.com/2025/11/07/r...

With federal subsidy set to expire, some Minnesotans face eye-popping health premium increases A federal tax credit meant to drive down the cost of health insurance premiums for people buying their own coverage is about to expire. For some Minnesotans, the change is coming with a dramatic price...

A federal tax credit meant to drive down the cost of health insurance premiums for people buying their own coverage is about to expire. For some Minnesotans, the change is coming with a dramatic price tag.

The world’s first trillionaire initiated a move that has left more than half a million people dead, most of whom are children.

I want to get out Quine's Methods of Logic and write it out in formal language

I love this phrasing so much.

🚨🚨🚨 The jury has reached a verdict. Sean Dunn, aka the DC Sandwich Guy, has been found NOT GUILTY of assault.

Scoop: House language barring GAO from suing the administration over impoundment without Congressional approval is a sticking point in Legislative Branch talks, as lawmakers work to finish 3 bill package to attach to new CR. More: plus.cq.com/doc/news-83471.. 12:38 PM • 11/6/25 • 265 Views 1 C 1 ↑ Aidan Quigley @QuigleyAidan • 13m Many Rs want to include the language, but Collins is opposed. And such a restriction would be a nonstarter for Dems, who have long sought stronger guardrails against impoundment, not weaker. ihl 207 企 Aidan Quigley @QuigleyAidan •12m It's one of a handful of open items in the Legislative Branch bill, and Ag also has a few remaining items. Milcon-VA is closer to being done. Ill 173 企

Illegal impoundments are so important to Republicans that they’re insisting on language that would prevent GAO from suing.

How can you make a budget deal when one side insists on the ability to ignore that deal?

Trump Is Right: Ditch the Filibuster The tactic is a deformed anachronism. Its demise would benefit the whole country, and Democrats especially.

Burn the filibuster to the ground! www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...

Thank you to everyone who made this victory happen! This was an incredibly common sense change that will make Saint Paul better.