Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

The new republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Come on, man.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Books are my comfort food!

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

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144Comments

  1. 1.

    Quaker in a Basement

    I can’t imagine that any one of them would argue that a veto is unconstitutional. They’ll argue that it is unethical, arrogant, tone-deaf, and contrary to the will of the people, but the president’s veto power is a black-letter constitutional authority.

  4. 4.

    d58826

    ok. here is another question. How many state legislatures have to vote yes to call a new constitutional convention? accorfding to Politico

    Republicans Crush Democrats At State Level, Control Two-Thirds Of Legislatures Now
    By David Sirota @[email protected] on November 05 2014 9:19 PM

  5. 5.

    James E Powell

    Democrats and the great mass of low information voters persist in the belief that there is some line that the Republicans will not cross, some internal control mechanism that will keep them from becoming more radical, more relentlessly right-wing.

    They also seem to believe that the corporate press/media will, at the very least, declare that a line has been crossed, when all they ever do is declare that there never was any such line, or that some Democrat somewhere crossed it first.

  8. 8.

    Roger Moore

    @Quaker in a Basement:

    They’ll argue that it is unethical, arrogant, tone-deaf, and contrary to the will of the people

    Exactly. It’s an aggressive approach that just creates more partisan rancor. If Obama really wants to work with the Republicans, he needs to turn into a rubber stamp for all their policies rather than try to hold any political positions of his own. That’s how bipartisanship is really supposed to work.

  10. 10.

    d58826

    With the kind of numbers the reactionary GOP racked up on Tuesday they can, at the state level atleast, wipe out the 21st century and most of the 20th. They can and will enact legislation that would fit quite nicely in 1910.

  12. 12.

    Sherparick

    Well, “Republican Party” of now and the “Democratic Party” from 1866 to 1928 are many ways the same party, e.g. “the Confederate Party” A solid South, with solid control of the plains and Mountain states.

    By the way, a Constitutional Convention of all the states may be the only legal way to dissolve the Union. Frankly, if at Tea Party Constitution was to foisted on us, I would like to see the Northern States and West Coast States split and let “Reagan” form its own white tribal homeland.

  13. 13.

    bushworstpresidentever

    @d58826:

    Two thirds, as set forth in Article V of the Constitution:

    The Congress, whenever two thirds of both houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states, shall call a convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several states, or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be proposed by the Congress; provided that no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that no state, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate.

  14. 14.

    Librarian

    I don’t think it’ll be anybody on Morning Joe, but it will certainly be somebody on Fox News. Fox and Friends, perhaps?

  15. 15.

    Suffern ACE

    @d58826: I think its 3/5ths. I don’t see why they wouldn’t if they could. I could see them taking care of a lot of cultural and business issues once and for all that way. Medicare, medicaid, limiting the commerce clause, Obamacare, voting, naturalized citizenship, gay marriage, abortion, whether or not Islam is a religion, heck, mandatory church attendance.

    The Democratic Party as a whole in the age of Obama just kind of sucks rotten eggs, doesn’t it.

  17. 17.

    Roger Moore

    @d58826:

    How many state legislatures have to vote yes to call a new constitutional convention?

    Two thirds; it’s there in Article V. But the Republicans aren’t going to do anything like that. The current system is already extremely favorable for a party that wants to block progress for them to want to propose major changes. Once the convention starts, it’s mostly out of their hands, and it’s at least as likely to turn on them and propose things that are extremely unfavorable to them, like enshrining Social Security as a right or apportioning the Senate by population. Besides, they need to get 3/4 the states to concur with any amendments they make, and there are too many that are controlled by the Democrats for them to force anything through.

  19. 19.

    srv

    How can One Man be allowed to stand in the way of the people’s duly elected representatives?

    That’s like a Dictatorship.

  21. 21.

    askew

    I think a more interesting question is how many more days to we have until the media just stops covering Obama’s actions at all. They are already acting like the party belongs to the Clintons now and we are due a quote from Hillary or Bill talking about Obama’s failure to win the midterm. We already have Clintonites attacking Obama in a new article. And Senate Dems whining that they only lost due to Obama. I expect the media to jump on board and start claiming that their Great White Hope, Hillary, is now in charge of the party.

  23. 23.

    Political Realism

    Here’s the strategy Republicans will follow:

    We will pass a record breaking number of conservative reforms – the abolition of ObamaCare and replacement with free market reforms, a new Ryan Budget, the Keystone XL Pipeline, gut any global warming programs, cut regulation to the bone etc etc. Obama will veto all of them of course . So, on 2016 we run an outsider like Snyder or Walker who will promise to break the gridlock and dysfunction in Washington, to set a “new tone ” in the nation s capital –pinning all the gridlock on Obama and career politicians like your nominee, Hillary Clinton. Expect the media to reference “Obama Fatigue” over and over and over again, with Koch Brother money funding this unstoppable message.

    It’s the model.

  25. 25.

    lamh36

    the only people in NOLA to be surprised by this are the young and naive and the usual racist white folk apologists. if u check out the comments section, the white racism apologists seem to be proving my point.

    New Orleans’ wealthy neighborhoods discriminate against black renters, report finds http://s.nola.com/YYQ68KH via @nolanews

  26. 26.

    d58826

    @Suffern ACE: I thought it was 3/5s also. At this point here is no democratic party. It’s just a few folks scattered about the land scape.

    What is maddening is the ideas of the reactionary right do not represent the views of most Americans. There is a long article over on slate talking about the number or red states that voted to raise the minimum wage and at the same time elected senators who are opposed to the minimum wage. Colorado elected a senator who has made a career out of pushing extreme anti-abortion measures and the fetal personhood amendment (well until this fall that is). Yet the same Colorado Voters overwhelmingly rejected the personhood amendment that was on the ballot. This is the amendment that the new senator has supported his entire political career.
    I really do not have any idea how you square that circle

  27. 27.

    Political Realism

    It took two cycles to be rproven, but Citizens United is a game changer .

    Republicans will have a permanent Congressional and State Legislature majority — forever and ever and ever so long as the Koch Brother money flows our way and we can draw district boundaries as we please.

  29. 29.

    Belafon

    @srv: I’ll bite with a couple of questions:

    1. How dare McConnell spend the last six years blocking Obama? Or how dare Ted Cruz?
    2. Aren’t they all elected.
    3. The constitution.

  30. 30.

    Political Realism

    @d58826:

    Of your base is too lazy and stupid to vote on midterms or get a photo ID it deserves these losses and more.

    I guess Republicans are just more politically active and civic minded , no?

  33. 33.

    p.a.

    @d58826: circles and squares? That be science! We don’t need that pointy headed elitism. This was the Cleek’s Law Election re:politicians. But not re:policies. The ability to hold two contradictory beliefs at the same time…

  34. 34.

    replicnt6

    McConnell on Obama’s promise to do some Executive Orders on immigration:

    “It’s like waving a red flag in front of a bull to say, ‘If you guys don’t do what I want, I’m going to do it on my own,'” McConnell said Wednesday in Louisville, declaring that if Obama follows though, “I think it poisons the well” for legislative action.

    So I think the answer will be “it poisons the well” whatever the fuck that means. I guess it means “we’re mad at the black man for doing anything, so we’re not going to produce legislation that we don’t want to produce anyway. But at least now we’ll blame him for our unwillingness to produce said legislation. Because, really, when’s the last time he invited me over for drinks at the White House?”

    I love the analogy at all kinds of levels: “We Republicans function as enraged beasts. We are so mindless as to respond simply to a color that offends us. No, it’s not red, in this case.”

  37. 37.

    LanceThruster

    I’ve totally sworn off Morning Ho. He’s is just too smug and smarmy about his discredited worldview. Makes me physically ill.

  41. 41.

    mai naem mobile

    All of them Charlie. All of them. Harold Ford will.be up there fellating Mr. Ho.himself.

  43. 43.

    Cacti

    @replicnt6:

    “It’s like waving a red flag in front of a bull to say, ‘If you guys don’t do what I want, I’m going to do it on my own,’” McConnell said Wednesday in Louisville, declaring that if Obama follows though, “I think it poisons the well” for legislative action.

    Obama’s not running for anything again, and GOPers can’t blame Harry Reid for their Senate intransigence anymore.

    Enjoy the next 2-years, Yertle.

  45. 45.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    @Political Realism:

    Shit, Taco in da house.

    UNLIMITED CAMPAIGN CASH or something like that, right? I forgot, it’s been a while. At any rate, welcome back.

    You actually have a legitimate point about midterms. If Dems want to cede every other election – and at this point absolutely no one can argue that’s exactly what happened here – then they deserve the ensuing results and damage.

  46. 46.

    beth

    I see UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH has now resigned itself to only winning midterm elections – I thought all the UCC was definitely going to win the Presidential election – how did that turn out for you?

    Yeah, we’re number two!!

  47. 47.

    beltane

    Has it ever been proven that Taco isn’t really DougJ. messing with us? I want to see a birth certificate.

  48. 48.

    Cacti

    @lamh36:

    I appreciate Anthony from San Diego’s honesty.

    It’s better for us when the GOPers don’t pretend it’s policy differences that has been driving their animosity.

    A Mississippi group is now pushing for ballot measures to designate April as official “Confederate Heritage Month” and requiring the State leg to fly the confederate battle flag on state capitol grounds.

  49. 49.

    catclub

    @nastybrutishntall: Unfortunately, dislodging 7 GOP senators will be a struggle. For example, I think Marco Rubio would have to be in the list of the vulnerable ones. Given the previous election, I have a hard time seeing Florida voters rejecting him. Also the recent presidential elections were pretty close in Florida.

  50. 50.

    Cacti

    Boehner also says that the POTUS moving unilaterally on immigration is “poisoning the well”. Looks like that’s the new talking point.

    Happy to watch the POTUS flip them the bird on this one. What are they going to do? Shut down the government again? Hold another Darryl Issa hearing?

    Bring it on, GOPers.

  51. 51.

    Elie

    Now that the election is over, our media can actually report real facts about ISIS and not HOW AWFUL THE ADMINISTRATION’S POLICY ON ISIS AND IRAQ!!!

    Also, the deficit continues to fall and we are awash in ever cheapening oil. But Obama is INCOMPETENT AND OVER HIS HEAD! Hillary took pains to kneecap the administration a month before this election along with his loyal ex Defense Secy Pancetta (fondly known as meat head) — and even Jimmy Carter who had to pipe in with his 2 cents.

    Putin is getting further and further isolated with more of his inner circle under investigation or endictment, but OBAMA DOESNT KNOW HOW TO GET IN PUTIN’S FACE!

  52. 52.

    Cacti

    @catclub:

    Toomey, Kirk, and Ayotte are the lowest hanging fruit in 2016.

    Fielding strong candidates in PA, IL, and NH should be a top priority.

  55. 55.

    Shalimar

    @Political Realism: Name one political organization in history that stayed in power permanently in any country ever.

    IOW, you’ve been sniffing glue again. You should know by now that shit is bad for you.

  57. 57.

    lamh36

    @Elie: notice too, no new Ebola stories either…hmmm anyone else now willing to admit the Ebola freak out was stupid as fuck!

  58. 58.

    beth

    @lamh36: Apparently the dumbest man on the internet is hawking a story that Obama’s Ebola czar made a deal with the news organizations to not report any suspected Ebola cases before the election. Because the media’s been nothing but friendly to this administration, obviously.

  59. 59.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    @James E Powell: I keep hearing that I’m just being a drama queen, and that the Rethugs can’t possibly fuck things up as bad as all that. Well shit. I live in North Carolina. It took less than a year for the GA and the Senate to drive us back fifty years or more. The only possible restraint on the Rethugs is the veto, especially with SCOTUS enabling these assholes.

  61. 61.

    Elie

    @lamh36:

    It was meant entirely to pump the fear and get the whites out to the pols in one highly terrified but motivated mass. It worked, sad to say.

    Its not just the republicans — the media is 100% complicit. The Democrats fed into it by having weak candidates and no message that spoke to the President’s (and their) accomplishments. I think I hate them most of all.

  65. 65.

    Woodrowfan

    to answer the original OP, if we’re talking Sunday Morning “Meet the Republicans” show then I bet Little Miss Graham will clutch some pearls and declare that the nasty man in the White House dared to veto a bill, why who does he think he is anyway? Then he’ll faint.

  66. 66.

    Lady Bug

    @Elie:

    It’s a miracle!!! The election was only two days ago, and already Republicans have reduced ISIL’s power!

  67. 67.

    Another Holocene Human

    @d58826: They already controlled a bunch of state leges and appalachia was next in line anyway. What, like, really crucial lege fell that nobody expected?

    The blue states with split leges like NY had them on Monday.

    I don’t want to be all ‘this was a good night’, it wasn’t, and old fox news imbibing white folk have emotional issues that they’re attempting to work out in unhealthy ways. But this was not 1994 or 2006.

  68. 68.

    JPL

    @beth: The nurse who traveled on the plane to Cleveland did not feel sick or odd before she returned home. The phone call to the CDC didn’t happen. Gee, I wonder who started that story.

  71. 71.

    Another Holocene Human

    Look at this Voter turnout history from Florida.

    Midterm turnout was over 50% until 2002 (JEB and GWB).

    http://doedoe.dos.state.fl.us/voting/voter-turnout.shtml

    Any informed opinions? I moved in Florida after Hurricane Frances, so the last few years are my normal. WTH happened?

    eta: only 17% turnout to the primary election in 2014, I guess they don’t have exact figs on Tuesday yet

  73. 73.

    catclub

    Dickerson at Slate:

    McConnell mentioned several times that there will be no government shutdowns on his watch and no debt ceiling breaches.

    Isn’t this the kind of thing that Ted Cruz reads as a challenge?

  74. 74.

    Kryptik, A Man Without a Country

    @Cacti:

    It’s all about making Obama so even more toxic and terrible that Dems will have no choice but run even further rightward to get the hell away from him, since it’s so obvious that the country is doing nothing thanks to that fucking crazy intractable unhinged tyrant and all that bullshit.

    The thing that terrifies me most is that I expect Dems to do exactly that and run screaming to the right even more, since apparently that’s exactly what voters want. Policies lean Dem, sure, but fuck that D label, the country only wants Rs, Rs forever, Rs until the end of time because Ds and liberals are all to blame for everything, and we need daddy GOP to save our country before it’s too late.

    Oh. Name change to reflect my mood now. I don’t care how defeatist it is or sounds at this point, because it is what it is: I feel like I don’t have a country anymore because this country so thoroughly despises me and anyone like me that it wants me dead and gone. I’m not an American anymore, because I’m not ALLOWED to be an American.

  77. 77.

    Kryptik, A Man Without a Country

    @catclub:

    Just wait. Just wait. Soon enough, McConnell will say that ‘Obama has forced our hand’ and the shutdown is for the good of the COuntry to stop a radical, dictatorial president before any further damage is done. And the Media will declare the GOP as fucking gods for it.

  80. 80.

    Another Holocene Human

    Florida county by county turnout not complete:

    http://enight.elections.myflorida.com/CountyReportingStatus/

    A little above 50% right now.

    Dade, Broward were a bloodbath.

    Guess some congresscritters in the next class ran a GREAT campaign despite that. Murphy barely eked by in 2012 and he’s still in! !!! Also, Gwen Graham beat Southerland who also won (with Mitt Romney) in District 2 in 2012. Wow!

    What the hell happened, South Florida?!?

  83. 83.

    chopper

    @Political Realism:

    I think it’s just adorable how excited you are over winning one election. It’s like you got laid for the first time and you think that makes you a player.

  84. 84.

    Another Holocene Human

    Pinellas was over 50%, Hillsborough close to it, so SEIU is off the hook, looks like you got your voters out.

  85. 85.

    boatboy_srq

    @beth:

    Obama’s Ebola czar

    I love how we have an Ebola czar (can we get an Influenza czar? At least one a year?) because a Surgeon General would get Teahadi panties in a twist and we can’t have that.

  86. 86.

    Trollhattan

    @ranchandsyrup:

    Wowsers, that took some balls to publish. Next thing somebody will be telling us tobacco actually does kill people.

    My gut feeling was the latest IPCC report was released just before our election on purpose. Well, we sure showed them we can’t be distracted by facty things. Squirrel!Ebola!

  87. 87.

    Trollhattan

    @chopper:
    (Shhhh, now that it’s out of work for a year we’re trying to lull it to sleep, then double its thorazine dosage.)

  88. 88.

    mai naem mobile

    I really thought Ron Johnson was gonna be beatable but with Scottie Walker being reelected jeezus. He truly sounds like not the sharpest knife in the drawer but now we got Jonie Ernst who is even less of a sharp knife. Well, at least Jonies wife Gail can hang out with Lindsay once Lindsay gets hitched to John McCain. They can knit and crochet together and go shopping for curtains for the WH

  89. 89.

    Lady Bug

    @Elie:

    I don’t “hate” members of the media, but I’m frustrated with them above all. I see the point about Democrats needing to get on point and actually boast about their accomplishments, but it doesn’t matter how good or how on point your message is if the media (in general-with very few exceptions) subscribes to a “pox on both of your houses” theory of political journalism, doesn’t report facts for fear of appearing partisan, hire far-right hacks like Erik Erikson as “serious political pundits” and care more about their own ratings than reporting factual stories on Ebola etc.

    I don’t think this holds Democrats off the hook with regards to the media. As someone in an earlier thread mentioned, the reason why John McCain is on MTP every Sunday is because John McCain makes himself available to be on MTP every Sunday. A Democratic Congress person needs to do the same thing.

  91. 91.

    Trollhattan

    @beltane:
    I should think that if Taco and BiP ever show up in the same thread a wormhole will open up and swallow the solar system within seconds. But aren’t you at least a little curious how that might go?

  92. 92.

    Sherparick

    Daniel Larison has some interesting observation and depressing thoughts on the midterms. http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/

    I think he is wrong about Walker (at least about Walker being the best candidate to try to boost the Republican share of the white vote to 65%. He has gift for polarization and resentment politics not seen since Tricky Dick.

    “Looking through CNN’s exit polls from around the country, I was struck by a few things. First, many voters backed candidates that clearly didn’t represent their views on at least one major foreign policy issue. For example, Iowa Democratic Senate nominee Braley built his political career around opposition to the Iraq war, and Ernst hammered him on this during the campaign, yet supporters of the war against ISIS split evenly between them. Among those that disapproved of the military action, Ernst won handily 53-43%.

    If Ernst ends up winning, it will be thanks to many Iowans that oppose the current war that she supports, and her victory will be treated as a vindication of her hawkish views. That was replicated in Colorado, where Gardner won 52% among those that disapproved of the military action despite launching the most shamelessly demagogic attacks on his opponent on this very issue. This pattern was repeated nationwide: opponents of the war against ISIS tended to vote for Republican House candidates (55-43%), most of whom have been reliably in favor of the intervention, and a slim majority of supporters of the war (51%) voted for Democratic candidates. It is no wonder that the more hawkish candidates prevail when relatively dovish voters back them regardless of their positions. Nonetheless, this also gives us another reason to be skeptical when hawks claim that these election results are proof that aggressive foreign policy is a political winner.

    Whatever the outcome of the Wisconsin governor’s race, there were a couple numbers in that exit poll that deserved a few comments. When asked if they thought that Walker would make a good president, 56% of voters in Wisconsin said no. Even if Walker does win re-election, that should put to rest the idea that he has much of a chance of carrying Wisconsin as the Republican nominee, and frankly it should put an end to the idea that Walker would be a good standard-bearer for the GOP in 2016.”

  93. 93.

    jake the antisoshul soshulist

    @Another Holocene Human:
    In a generally bad day, Kentucky Democrats held onto the state house. Not that KY Democrats are anything special. At least they don’t run away from my vote like the Republicans do.

  94. 94.

    Another Holocene Human

    Orange/Osceola turnout absolutely terrible, as bad as downstate. I thought that was John Morgan’s territory. What happened? Lot of Puerto Rican voters there, angry at the President about immigration reform? (Note: the community is from PR, Central America, West Indies, Mexico, but only people from PR have the franchise and a few youth who were born in the states*, also there are internal US migrant Latin@s from NYC who settle in Central Florida, they can vote too. The Spanish press in Florida has been all immigration reform all the time, and even people with citizenship see it as an existential issue if they’ve faced color line or language line discrimination.) I’m just guessing, who knows. I know that the PRIMARY in August was a bigger election for labor in Orange county than the general, and that hurt those state rep and US rep races. Ouch!!

    *-oops also US Caribbean territories but explaining West Indian identities would take more than one sentence, only some would be part of this voting bloc

  95. 95.

    Tree With Water

    “The Democrats’ failure or inability to be the party of Franklin Roosevelt– remember, the reason we have the Democratic Party, the reason they still exist as a national party is because of what they did in the 1930s, their heroic period. And they’re incapable of doing those kinds of things today. You think of the way they could have responded to Wall Street”.

    A writer named Frank at Salon.com said that in an interview today, and said it well.

  96. 96.

    Another Holocene Human

    #Trayvon

    Here is how Seminole County, home to Sanford, voted:

    http://www.voteseminole.org/live/index.php?refresh_value=&ss_value=&results=

    (yes, that is the url, it ended in a special character)

    Only small portion of the county in Brown’s district, probably represents a mix of a lot of African American households. The rest is Mica, and even though Sanford is the terminus of the Autotrain, where they just alienated a lot of top dollar dropping snowbird customers by making the food more TV dinner than land cruise, they reelected “$10 cokes!” Mica who was so outrageous in his attacks on Amtrak F&B operations in 2011 that the Republicans kicked him out as chair!

    Drilling down, 6000 people voted for Crist and Bondi, further down I see higher totals for Adam Putnam than for Pam Bondi so either some Dems like the job Putnam is doing OR some Republicans weren’t impressed by her performance during the Zimmerman trial. Huh.

  97. 97.

    boatboy_srq

    @Another Holocene Human: Lots of things.

    1) Notice how South Georgia / Coastal Alabama (draw a line above Tarpon Springs, above Orlando and over somewhere around Ormond Beach and you’ll see it) has higher turnout? That’s Teahad country, and they’re all motivated (at least until they get their rabies shots). Yoho’s from up there: he’s not atypical.

    2) The ’04 and ’05 hurricane seasons flattened a goodly amount of housing stock: residency proofs probably went with the houses. After Charlie, for example, Arcadia was pretty two-dimensional, and it wasn’t the only badly-hit place.

    3) Katherine Harris.

    4) Buddy Johnson.

    5) Fallout from the 2000 hanging chads made for fugly voting procedures: I voted in ’08 in Ybor, and the polling place was a madhouse. Insufficient ballot stock, too few ballot scanners, the works. A couple cycles of that and you’re strongly tempted not to show up.

    6) Don’t forget that Governor Voldemort showed up almost out of nowhere: in early ’10 he was nowhere to be seen, and got airdropped into the election sometime in the summer. I don’t think anyone saw him coming – and certainly not with the kind of support he got. With that kind of event, predicting that your one lonely vote will make any difference is hard.

    There’s more, but those are my first thoughts.

  98. 98.

    Mike E

    @Lady Bug: That game is rigged. A certain commenter here, what’s the nym, something about Wipe Out The Village…he’d like a word with you.

  99. 99.

    Another Holocene Human

    @jake the antisoshul soshulist: The horrible denied-him-as-the-cock-crowed Grimes is probably why they held on. Look at the 2014 vs 2012 top of ticket R vs D votes and R’s lost more voters than D’s did even though R’s are still ahead.

    Grimes was NOT crying on Tuesday night and that is why. Some Dems need to learn how to play a god-damn long game. Now look across the border at WV and weep.

  100. 100.

    lamh36

    @Suzanne: my birthday was great, only one thing marred it a bit.

    Yesterday I went in a tour bus to view the sites.

    While waiting for other to file in, I happened to talk this this older white gentlemen who was on the tour with his wife, daughter and son in law. The man and his wife were retired, him union & military, her an “educator”. they were from Washingtin state and Daughter was from Oregon I think.

    ok.so if u have ever been to Hawaii in the past 6+ years, then you know they are very proud of the President and his Hawaiian heritage. So of course, the tour was peppered with tidbits about his visits and landmarks that people may associate with him (i.e. where he stays, where he spread his mother’s and grandmother’s ashes…etc). The tour guide affectionately referred to him as “Barry Obama”.

    So anyway, we had stopped in this town along the scenic highway route where you could get touristy stuff and whatnot . so the old man and his family got back on the bus. Another passenger, from North Carolina said to the SIL, “you didn’t get one of those Obama bobble heads…” to which. the SIL not missing a beat said, “why so I can shoot at it?” after which the old man and family all had a hardy laugh at his joke. I had BTW, noticed some “bristling” from the bunch whenever any tidbit about Obama was thrown into the tour even before this.

    Now I had just had a perfectly fine exchange with this man, but needless to say, it pissed me off. I’m traveling alone, so I had no one to vent to, but as you can imagine, I couldn’t sit next to this family or group of people anymore, so thankfully the bus was only 1/2 full, so I moved up and away from the lot of them. I did my best to neither talk to them or be near their presence for the remainder of the tour. I’d rather sit by myself than be in their presence or smile in their faces or even try to have any sort of conversation with them.

    anyway, just had to share this story, it hasn’t colored my trip, or the remainder of the tour, but it’s still pissed me off so much that I’m sharing the story with y’all today.

  101. 101.

    beltane

    Turnout in Vermont was the lowest ever at under 40%, while in the liberal bastion of Burlington, also our largest (only) city, it was only 32%. The result, we came within a hairsbreadth of getting stuck with a Republican governor no one wanted. And still I hear from people that the Progressive Party needs to run gubernatorial candidates again because Shumlin isn’t liberal enough.

  105. 105.

    Another Holocene Human

    @boatboy_srq: I know about 1, I live in Alachua County and work with people who live in Williston, Trenton, Orange Heights, Keystone, Bradford Cty, Putnam Cty (no, really), Union County, etc. Those areas are very depressed so they come to bigger cities like St Augustine, Gainesville, and Lake City if that’s the one at the I-75/I-10 junction to work. (Too many placenames with Lake in them to keep straight.)

    Hate radio has these people in its grip. They know Obama’s gonna take their guuuuunzz. Now when racial stuff has happened like the murder of Trayvon Martin some of the cityfolk (whites) were more hateful than the rural people. The rural people are freaked about their guuuuunnzz. They still have some very low level local offices with pro-guuuuunz Dixiecrats.

    This summer it was nothing but Ill Eagles Ill Eagles Ill Eagles and I can’t even describe the hatred and rage and paranoia. So, yeah, dumbass Yoho benefited from that. I work with somebody who hired him as a large animal vet. What kills me about Yoho is that his staff was airlifted in from another state. He’s a fake, just like Keith Perry, the failed roofer-turned state rep from the same district.

    Yoho said some anti-war stuff and made the really spaced out DFH’s in Gainesville (I guess they stay indoors because they’re all vegan-pale) happy.

    I did notice there was good turnout, so I guess the Radio Rwanda was hyping up the election to send Obummer a message about their guuuuunz. And Ebola.

  106. 106.

    Buddy H

    AMSTERDAM NY – Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is in the Capital Region along with Rep. Paul Tonko. They’re both in Amsterdam NY talking about jobs.
    But another big focus two days after Election Day is the big shake up in Washington. Republicans will soon control the U.S. Senate.
    Gillibrand says she came Amsterdam to support a business that is thriving despite a tough economy. She toured the century-old wholesale distribution company Thursday morning alongside Tonko with the goal of examining a successful business model.
    Gillibrand says one thing she wants to get done in Washington is raise the federal minimum wage.
    Her party will, of course, now be the minority after Tuesday’s election. She says the election was a cry for change.
    “I’m hopeful that everyone took note of the outcome of this election. That it’s not an election about preferring Republican policies, it was an election about the status quo isn’t working. What’s happening in Washington is a failure for Americans. So we really have to listen, we have to get back to work, we have to find common ground, and we have to get things done,” Gillibrand said.
    As for the Senate leadership, Gillibrand says she supports Sen. Harry Reid as the minority leader and she thinks he will work hard in a bipartisan fashion to get things done.

  107. 107.

    Another Holocene Human

    Another thing about rural North Florida is that the Lege actually revoked the charter of one of the towns. Think there was a speed trap but also some funds filching. All of the small town governments are mismanaged and they try to break the law when someone does nose around and try to do a public record request. And that guy who did that website where a lot of SYG reporting goes on? Blanked on name. He was arrested a few years ago in a Western Alachua County city commission meeting. Archer or Alachua, don’t remember.

  109. 109.

    grandpa john

    @Elie:

    ts not just the republicans — the media is 100% complicit

    This , a hundred times this, and until some way is found to return our media to reporting news truthfully with integrity and objectivity nothing will change. The media coverage of this election is one of the major reasons for the results, the openly biased reporting and worship of candidates , the flaunting of personal opinions as facts. the hackery and bald faced lying of the supposedly objective reporting. Until the people in this country decide that they want honest and objective news coverage , nothing will change

  110. 110.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Cacti: It’s the GOP’s plans NOT to do anything if you believe the National Review’s stand.-and knowing those mouth breathers, that’s exactly what they’ll do.

    Just fucking amazing. Spend billions of dollars to put fart snarfers in Congress and the Senate to engage in Koch-led felching sessions. I think the Dems need to start out-ammosexualing the GOP just to scare the living shit out of them to think they’ve gone all left-wing commie-pinko on ’em.

  111. 111.

    grandpa john

    @Woodrowfan: I live In SC,was looking at vote totals yesterday and was surprised to see that although both won, Scott got considerably more votes than Graham .

  112. 112.

    Buddy H

    Pardon my redundancy, but I’m still haunted by a brief incident on election day. After it happened I posted the following:

    I (a white guy) voted earlier in the day. Nothing out of the ordinary in the experience. I signed my name and was given a ballot. Everything went smoothly; nothing weird. No one challenged me.

    Later in the day, I walked back to the polling place with my wife (a black woman). I waited in an outer room while she voted. When she came out, I asked her if everything went smoothly. She said while she signed her name, a woman sitting next to the election volunteer asked the volunteer “Is she on the list?” The volunteer said “no” and my wife was given her ballot. My wife thinks the woman sitting next to the poll worker, who asked if she was “on the list” was a republican, because she was a fiftyish woman with a 1965 cheerleader hairstyle.

    I wish I’d walked in with her. I would have asked “exactly what list are you talking about?” When we got home, I asked her again what she thought the list might be. She had already forgotten the incident. I’m still running it over and over in my mind. What list??

    Again, sorry for repeating this post, but I’m curious as hell what happened on election day. We both voted, but only one of our choices won. I didn’t expect Howie to win governor, but I couldn’t bring myself to vote for cuomo (Moe from simpsons) or astorino (alfalfa from the little rascals).

  113. 113.

    Another Holocene Human

    Wait wait wait, hold up, those are turnout per registered voter figures, not out of estimated eligible population.

    Maybe it’s the effect of the Motor Voter law, auto-registering marginal voters or non-voters?

    A lot of people moved in Florida in the 2000s and then towards the end, a lot of them moved out in a hurry.

    Maybe these particular ‘turnout’ figures will see an uptick as REALID, which makes it really hard to get a Florida ID or renew it, is phased in.

  114. 114.

    Liberty60

    @Another Holocene Human: I’ve decided to begin waging a one man crusade to begin the conversation about repeal of the 2nd Amendment.
    Sure, I know it won’t happen any decade soon, but I want to question the very foundation of the gun nuts argument. I’m tired of having to careful pay obeisance to the assumed right to carry, then negotiate over the tiniest regulation.

    Why is there an assumed natural right to own and carry a deadly weapon?
    Outside of a demonstrated need for self defense, why can’t public safety override the desire to brandish a weapon?
    Why can’t we restrict and regulate guns the way we restrict and regulate cars?

  115. 115.

    Another Holocene Human

    @grandpa john: Tim Scott is a True Conservative and Lindsey Graham is a RINO who outwitted them this time, but Real Conservatives can still send him a message.

    TBF, Scott probably got a few Black votes that weren’t straight R tickets.

  116. 116.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Liberty60: Why can the cops shoot me if I open-carry a nerd blade? That’s the question I have for the lead poisoning hobbyists.

  117. 117.

    Trollhattan

    @Liberty60:
    Got my vote. If every single try to reign in gun violence is fought because: “camel’s nose under the tent” then I say stomp ’em flat with the whole fucking camel.

  118. 118.

    boatboy_srq

    @Another Holocene Human: I got to see the Dem total fumble in Sarasota in ’06 and ’08. The local party groups are seriously incestuous and all claws: getting anywhere in the local political scene is nasty if you’re a Dem and expensive if you’re a GOPer, but it seems there are more rich GOPers than there are good fighters among the Dems. Dem outreach sucked, in no small part because the Dems that were potentially successful weren’t especially likeable.

    Gulf Coast is all about Washington coming for their munny. They keep forgetting that Tallahassee takes more than Washington, and that at least some of that goes to the schools their [grand]kids attend. That’s why Buchanan ran, and how he won. Ill Eagles is a warm (not hot) button there. And they forget how cheap some things are elsewhere. EXAMPLE: friends in FL tried to dissuade me from moving to NoVA because Taxes. My housing costs went down, my insurance costs plummeted, and domestic maintenance stuff dropped to near-insignificance (no more $150/hr lawn service, no more $300/month car insurance, etc), and my salary doubled: I’ll happily pay 6% state income tax in exchange. But explaining that you can make more money, spend less of it, and live better, elsewhere is near-impossible to do because they’re so convinced they’re living in the Best Of All Possible Worlds. I still get recruiters absolutely dumbfounded that I won’t take a 40+% pay cut to move back and work harder for the smaller paycheck that doesn’t go as far.

    There’s a lot of airlifting in FL. That’s in part from how the state maintains its population growth: it’s Retirement Hell Heaven, so The Olds have been coming in, and there’s been strong growth in the grifter economic segment support industries.

  120. 120.

    Another Holocene Human

    @grandpa john: My feeling is that some of “our” communications were also at fault.

    Broadly, the constant hysteria by labor and other interest groups leads to their membership tuning them out. “It’s the most important election every year. Fuck it.”

    More specifically, it was VERY hard to do labor calls for Crist when every union member could detail for me all these obscure reasons that Crist was a g’damn rat bastard. He did all kinds of great stuff for the state and actually worked with the unions to save education dollars but they had so successfully demonized him that their rank and file wouldn’t show up to vote for him.

    Crist was NEVER that bad. His first act before he was even sworn in was to get rid of the racist inaugural song and replace it with a song composed by a Floridian. J.E. “I have crossover appeal” Bush never did that.

    I’ve also heard many times in the last four years that the AFL was basically a wing of the Florida Democratic Party and it got them up shit creek without a paddle AND the local Dem pols all over Florida knifed labor good and proper when the recession came. I came in the year everything changed. Just goes to show that an un-fucking takes a long damn time!

  123. 123.

    Liberty60

    @Trollhattan: I’m betting there are only a tiny minority of gun nuts, but they make up in ferocity what they lack in numbers (maybe about, say, 27%);

    By getting ordinary non-crazy Americans to actually ask the question “Hey, why NOT regulate guns like cars?” things can shift, and faster than one might imagine.

  124. 124.

    Another Holocene Human

    @JPL:

    The nurse who traveled on the plane to Cleveland did not feel sick or odd before she returned home. The phone call to the CDC didn’t happen. Gee, I wonder who started that story.

    Wow.

  125. 125.

    Elie

    @Lady Bug:

    I just don’t think that its as benign a process. No way.

    Why all the craziness about Ebola and ISIS right before the election? And now its magically disappeared and we begin to learn that Duh, while it takes some time (just like O said), that it sure looks like we have made some progress against ISIS.

    I just do not believe this is accidental. I will however, cop to believing that this White House has consistently been poor with messaging and controlling how its policies appear. That has been a serious and at times, crippling problem. I have no idea how they can fix it, but shit, they need to try to figure out how they can improve this over the next two years.

  126. 126.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @Buddy H: I read this when you posted it before, and I’m curious too. It’s hard to believe that race played no role.

    But your wife sounds strong as hell given that she apparently just brushed it off.

  128. 128.

    boatboy_srq

    @Elie: @Lady Bug: I agree with Elie here. We’ve had fifteen years of FauxNews unFair and unBalanced infotainment, that they’re already on the record calling it not news and denying any responsibility to accurately inform. And with Faux out there, all the other outlets – especially after Rather’s fiasco – have raced to The Fictitious Middle because being accurate doesn’t poll well or sell advertising time.

  129. 129.

    boatboy_srq

    @Buddy H: Until we have official confirmation, I say we call it the “Two-Fifths List” – for all the votes that aren’t counted so the Founders’ Original Ratio is observed.

  130. 130.

    Elie

    @catclub:

    Ok — I hear you on the overall turnout, but don’t you think all that negative press may have suppressed the progressive votes? I do (though no proof) Combined with poor messaging from the administation, the negative message that all the progressive policies were terrible or failures, that they President was not on top of things — would make it unlikely that progressives would be influenced to throng to the polls.

  131. 131.

    Mnemosyne

    @catclub:

    Actually, you guys aren’t saying very different things — the reason Republicans won big in 2010 wasn’t how much turnout there was, it was who turned out, namely old, scared white people. I agree with Elie that old, scared white people are going to be the ones who respond to the Ebola and ISIS hysteria by voting for the party that Fox News tells them to vote for.

  133. 133.

    catclub

    @Elie:

    but don’t you think all that negative press may have suppressed the progressive votes?

    You started out saying that ISIS and ebola news were generating lots of turnout by white elderly voters.
    I pointed out that the turnout of those white elderly voters was lower than in 2010.

  134. 134.

    catclub

    @Mnemosyne: Yeah, but the ISIS and Ebola news appears to have reduced turnout of those white elderly voters in comparison with 2010. Not very effective, in that case.

  135. 135.

    Elie

    @catclub:

    Well, the question (and the important answer to it) is what suppressed progressive turnout? Maybe the hysterical and fearful tone may have suppressed all voters except the panicked elderly?

  136. 136.

    Mnemosyne

    @catclub:

    Do you have a link to some actual demographics of Tuesday’s vote? The story you linked to above just talks about general turn-out and doesn’t talk about turn-out by demographic group.

  137. 137.

    catclub

    @Elie: I already agreed that the democratic votes went down even more. I think you are grasping at straws. I read this and it seems fairly non-sensical:

    may have suppressed all voters except the panicked elderly?

    Wouldn’t they stay home and cower in fear of contagion?

  138. 138.

    catclub

    @Mnemosyne: Here is my ‘link’. It was in the article:

    It’s certain, of course, that turnout wasn’t down uniformly, even in a given state, but that turnout was down more for Democratic-prone voting groups. That’s what “midterm falloff” is all about—the problem the DSCC’s Bannock Street Project was confidently aimed at mitigating, and the problem Republicans were deliberately trying to exacerbate with various efforts to make voting more difficult, especially for young and minority voters.

  139. 139.

    boatboy_srq

    @catclub:

    Wouldn’t they stay home and cower in fear of contagion?

    Absentee ballot, because the respirator and dialysis equipment won’t fit on the Hoveround. So yes, but it didn’t matter so much.

  142. 142.

    Mnemosyne

    @catclub:

    Right, but that doesn’t seem to say that turnout among scared old white people was significantly down. There are no numbers at all, in fact. So I think I may want to hold out for some actual numbers before deciding for sure that the ISIS/Ebola drumbeat didn’t help the Republicans.

  143. 143.

    Patricia Kayden

    @askew: I would think that Hilary and Bill would be worried about Tuesday’s results. If they anger Obama supporters by trying to distance themselves from him too much, his supporters may not vote for her in 2016. Will be interesting to see how she campaigns.

    I’m going to vote for her but keeping my wallet closed. She should be able to get the woman’s vote easily and being a White woman should be a big plus for her among voters who would never vote for a Black man.

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