Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Republicans in disarray!

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

In after Baud. Damn.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

When the time comes to make an endorsement, the pain of NYT editors will be palpable as they reluctantly whisper “Biden.”

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

I am pretty sure Katy Tur wasn’t always such a bootlicking sycophant.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

No Justins, No Peace

You are here: Home / Music / Thursday Morning Open Thread

Reader Interactions

143Comments

  1. 1.

    Schlemazel

    AL? You the only one left to handle the front page? I expected people to be depressed but not to give up entirely! :)

  2. 2.

    WereBear

    See if my computer will get on the Internet at work. Everyone else is on the Ethernet ok. But not me, not even the wireless.

    I tested it at a local coffee shop, and then spent a few hours in a local museum, then home, all fine on the wireless. Maybe it just wanted to get out of the office.

  4. 4.

    JPL

    Good morning, The news is saying the repubs don’t want the President to poison the well. Since they have refused, time and time again to compromise, I think they are muddying the water.

  5. 5.

    WereBear

    @Schlemazel: It IS weird.

    I have a laptop Mac and they all have desktop PCs, but my iPod touch picked up the wireless fine. And my laptop picked up the wireless fine, just not at the office.

    I did enjoy my day out very much… but I swear it’s true!

    I will check my settings on the Ethernet with our IT person today.

  6. 6.

    Mustang Bobby

    Off work today to help set up the Memory Lane antique car display at the Miami International Auto Show that starts Friday and runs through the 16th at the Miami Beach Convention Center. We have about 20 cars ranging from a 1915 Buick to ’60’s muscle cars.

  7. 7.

    beth

    @JPL: Of course they don’t. Apparently the narrative is going to be that Obama’s defiant and combatative instead of being contrite and compliant. I even heard some newspeople reporting that Democrats are angry that he didn’t take credit for the losses they suffered. Funny how that narrative popped up so quickly. I’m sick to death of politics; I can’t imagine how the president feels.

  8. 8.

    WereBear

    It’s sad that we are surrounded by people with all they know being headlines they read online. It’s like working in a dysfunctional office where everyone just repeats what the jerk boss says, and blame each other.

  9. 9.

    Fair and Balanced Dave

    Love October Project. It’s too bad they only recorded two albums but both are gems.

  10. 10.

    Althea

    Oh that Howard Dean is SO 2004. Standing up against the Iraq War (ISIS, WHO KNEW??), being fearless and saavy with journalists, inserting as many inconvenient facts as possible before they could say “I guess we’ll have to leave it there.” His campaign being forged mainly on the internet paving the way for Dem fundraising in the future, including Obama’s presidential race. I’m not even going to get into the 50-state strategy.

    But then the Dem party meekly participated in his manufactured media assassination and shamed his supporters, so I don’t expect much in the way of bravery in supporting any plain spoken, passionate, values-driven candidate of the future, should they be lucky enough to find someone masochistic enough to run.

  11. 11.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    It looks like ALG lost by 222,057 votes according to the official unoffical count. In 2012, Obama lost by 407,820 votes (with a larger turnout). I don’t think that anything she did would have made much of a difference in the margin. Her “gaffe” probably made the reporters happy but didn’t change much of anything.

    Plus, one thing I’ve not heard mentioned is, it’s extremely hard to throw out a senate party leader in a general election. I remember when Tom Daschle losing was a huge deal (Frist campaigned against him – Reid didn’t do that for ALG (probably for good reasons))…

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (Who hopes that people don’t learn the easy, and wrong, lessons from this election (but isn’t optimistic).)

  12. 12.

    Phylllis

    @Mustang Bobby: That sounds so cool. When I worked at the mall in Bradenton, they would host an annual car show inside the mall. There was one retiree there who had a mint condition suicide door Lincoln. That was a beaut.

  13. 13.

    PurpleGirl

    Later this afternoon I have a group therapy session, but other than that I have no plans. It’s rainy and cold — a gray day.

    I need to spend some time kitten watching.

  17. 17.

    Botsplainer

    I just bought my IMAX ticket for Interstellar tonight. Wife is off diving in Mozambique and I’m a little footloose. It’s not her kind of movie unless she’s captive to an airline seat anyway. There have been several that I wanted to see but she rejected, then we get to talking by text or on return and she says “oh, we should have seen it in the theater. I watched it on the plane and it was “SO GOOD”. Best part is that this is usually before I’ve gotten to see them. The last two she declared on were Godzilla and Lucy.

    So maddening.

    Anyway, I won’t see her until Sunday before Thanksgiving. She gets home two days after I leave for a week of diving in Bonaire. When she travels like this (which is frequent), she’s got a lot of really nice activity to sop time. I get house stuff and intense boredom.

  18. 18.

    Althea

    And if you couldn’t fight the establishment then, you’re certainly not gonna beat the Koch machine now. Anybody that can create ads in which Nikki Haley does not appear to be chewing on a turd when speaking, has got some serious money for top notch image consultants.

  20. 20.

    raven

    We watched then first two episodes of Olive Kitteridge last night and thought it was great! Tonight is our 10th Cirque in the big city so we got that goin for us.

  21. 21.

    debbie

    @WereBear:

    It’s sad that we are surrounded by people with all they know being headlines they read online.

    NPR had a segment about Murkowski celebrating her imminent takeover of the Energy Committee. She proclaimed her “fact” that volcanic emissions from one volcano equal 1,000 years of emissions from all the cars and manufacturing plants in Europe.

    They then interviewed a climate change expert from Princeton who audibly sighed, stated he didn’t know where she got that information from, and pointed out that it was more like annual European car/manufacturing emissions are 10 times the annual emissions of all volcanos. “So not only is the number wrong, but the context is highly deceptive,” he says.

    http://www.npr.org/2014/11/06/361896179/republican-sweep-highlights-climate-change-politics-in-alaska

    I’m beginning to feel like I did during Reagan. It’s going to be a very long 2 years.

  22. 22.

    bemused

    @debbie:

    Rachel Maddow pointed out last evening the big sign right behind Priebus and other Republicans at the RNC press conference yesterday that said,

    STOP OBAMA
    FIRE REID

    Has any other media even mentioned this?

  23. 23.

    Cervantes

    @Althea:
    @Althea:

    I have encountered many critiques of Dean as strategist but have never found them completely convincing. It seems to me that a successful Democratic approach to electioneering would have to include some of Dean’s ideas, some of OfA’s ideas, and a better long-term strategy either against, or in light of, current campaign finance rules and lack thereof.

  26. 26.

    Steeplejack

    I am going on dog patrol this evening. I have to spend the next three nights at bro’ man’s palatial Arlington manse so I can feed the greyhound, let her out before bedtime and then let her out first thing in the morning. She is all right during the day because there is a dog-walker that comes in the early afternoon. The housecat will be left to run things here, and I’ll be back in the daytime.

    This is necessitated because bro’ man is in Florida taking custody of a baby girl that he and his husband have adopted. The hubster has been here this week but is flying down to Florida today. There’s still a lot of paperwork flying around—letters of transit, bills of lading, whatever—but they should be home early next week. So call me Uncle Steep.

    This is actually a big fucking deal. So much so that the RWNJ side of the family (mother and other brother) has already announced that they are coming for Thanksgiving. And these are two people who really hate to travel.

  27. 27.

    Cervantes

    @debbie:

    Thanks. That NPR article by Martin Kaste ends thus:

    On the forefront of global warming, Alaska and its politicians have settled into a kind of acceptance. Instead of arguing about causes, they’ve decided to concentrate on trying to adapt.

    Trying to adapt while making things worse by ignoring causes, he does not point out.

  28. 28.

    JMG

    American political journalism is always pretty lousy, but it is at its absolute nadir in the days immediately following an election, no matter who wins it.
    PS: If I were Obama, I’d compile a list of the salaries of all those White House correspondents and make sure every American got it by email, snail mail, or whatever. It’d put things in context.

  29. 29.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Cervantes:

    Lost track here — too busy elsewhere — what would these non-lessons be? (Thanks.)

    Really? Hmm…

    How about the theme of: “Don’t panic. Everything will be different in 2016 because it’s a presidential election year. Look at how much better everything was with Obama’s coat-tails!!11” I think that’s a wrong lesson to learn from places like Kentucky.

    How about the theme of: “Yeah, things were bad. But once we have comprehensive immigration reform and more of the oldsters die off, then everything will be great!!11” We can’t wait for the stars to align. We can’t assume that things will change on their own. Change is hard. Change is scary. Change takes real work by real people.

    I think the main point is, Democrats don’t always win with higher turnout, and smart work is going to be required to make things happen for the better. More is going on than Democrats staying home and oldsters beating up everyone. Blindly applying “MOAR GOTV!!” without careful consideration of what happened in each race isn’t helpful. Trying to apply a few second sound-bite from a general national theme to a particular election is a way to not win the next time.

    My $0.02. HTH.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  30. 30.

    Kay

    Senator Brown endorsed Mr. Wojtanowski for chairman as someone with skills and understanding of the concerns of working people.

    The Ohio Democratic state chair resigned and this guy is Sherrod Brown’s pick to replace him.

    “My job as a party activist and elected official is to listen to Democrats about what happened and what do we do so it doesn’t happen again,” Mr. Brown said. He said Mr. Wojtanowski was “pretty much a full-time volunteer” for three cycles.
    About the election, Senator Brown said the party had a good slate of down-ticket candidates, but that the national “blame-Obama-for-everything mood” and political stumbles by gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald made it impossible for any of them to win.

    It’ll be good if Sherrod Brown is more involved. It’s by default in a way because they don’t have any other statewide winner, but Brown is not only a really good lawmaker, he’s had really solid and smart campaigns.

    Redfern, the state Party chair, resigned immediately which is good, because he was getting fired if he didn’t.

    I think it would be a good thing if DC Democrats fired some top people too. There should be accountability at the top. They can’t ask ordinary people to volunteer and donate if everyone at the top of the campaign arm of the national Party keeps their job after such poor work.

  32. 32.

    raven

    The field grew last night,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said in a telephone interview. “Everybody on our side will see what they want to see. And everybody will see some validation of who they are politically.”

    But Mr. Graham, along with many center-right Republicans on Wednesday, suggested that the party should not take the success this year as a sign that they are bound to be competitive again in the most crucial states. Their problem is the opposite of Democrats’: When a diverse electorate shows up, Republicans struggle to win.

    “There were a lot of people who didn’t vote last night and will in 2016,” Mr. Graham said. “Not to borrow from John Edwards, but there are two Americas — two American electorates. So I don’t think we should have a false sense of confidence from last night.”

  33. 33.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Cervantes: Probably just writing styles, I guess. I thought the train of thought in my original post was clear, but maybe not.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  34. 34.

    Cervantes

    @JMG:

    First paragraph: I agree.

    Second paragraph: Disaster. Someone else should do it, perhaps, but not anyone in government.

  35. 35.

    Betty Cracker

    @raven: I watched the whole Olive K series and thought it was really good. I loved the book and wondered how on earth they’d manage to stage it since so much of the action takes place inside people’s noggins. Well, the answer turns out to be “hire Frances McDormand.” The whole cast was good, but they couldn’t have pulled it off without FD, who is awesome.

  37. 37.

    Betty Cracker

    @Cervantes: Short answer: there is no grand single takeaway from Tuesday’s results that, if applied, would magically improve the results next time around.

  41. 41.

    Botsplainer

    @Cervantes:

    At bare minimum, EVERY race up and down the line has to be contested, especially the local ones.

    The party can pick up the initial filing fees on the impossible ones (some will get lucky due to death, disability or scandal).

    The presence has to be felt.

    There were at least 10 GOPers on my local ballot that ran unopposed. These people haven’t had opposition for the past 3 elections – surely to god there are people who might have an inclination to do that.

    And no, it ain’t something for me. Back when I would have tried I was too busy with kids; nowadays, I could count on zero spousal support. Plus, from my observation of two younger co-workers who are metro council members and one former legislator I used to work with, the schedule is grueling on top of a law practice and tends to wipe out marriages.

  42. 42.

    debbie

    @raven:

    Ha! I’m not far behind you, and I too would like the years to slow down. I just wish the extra time could be spent on more pleasant things.

  46. 46.

    JPL

    @debbie: Wow! I can remember in the olden days when if that happened, the news would be all a twitter about troops overseas and stuff.

  47. 47.

    beltane

    @raven: I hope they don’t listen to Lindsay Graham.

    For everyone still bashing Alison Grimes, the governor of Vermont during the entire Bush administration, Jim Douglas, was a Republican who publicly kept as much distance between himself and Bush as possible. Presiding over Middlebury’s town meeting, he was even quite good-humored about bringing an impeachment resolution against Bush up for a vote. Had he chosen to campaign with Bush or be more vocal about his ties to national Republicans (he was at one time head of the Republican Governor’s Association), it would have been a lot easier to defeat him. As it was we had to wait for him to retire on his own terms.

    Yes, Grimes could have come up with a wittier answer, but if your party is deeply despised in the state you’re running in, there aren’t many good options.

  48. 48.

    jayjaybear

    @raven:

    “There were a lot of people who didn’t vote last night and will in 2016,” Mr. Graham said. “Not to borrow from John Edwards, but there are two Americas — two American electorates.

    Yeah. The aggrieved white electorate and everyone else.

  49. 49.

    Elizabelle

    Think I will go see matinee of Dear White People.

    Sounds worth a view, and love to give a young filmmaker some cred. In a theatre.

    Raining lightly in NoVA. Nice day to stay inside.

  50. 50.

    Betty Cracker

    @Steeplejack: Congrats, Uncle Steep! It’s amazing how quickly people with…less enlightened views on gay marriage and parenthood can change their tunes when a baby is involved.

  51. 51.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    Kay, have you met him? He’s a friend of one of my brothers and is a great guy. If he gets the job, I think it’ll bode really well for the Democrats. I think he’ll be a great spokesperson.

  52. 52.

    beltane

    It’s nice that sparsely populated Alaska feels they can handle the challenges of global warming. That must make the billions of people threatened by it very happy. It always amazes me how certain types of Americans, with their “fuck you I got mine” attitude can turn around and wonder in disbelief how anyone can hate them.

  53. 53.

    debbie

    @beltane:

    On the other hand, Denton TX and a couple other towns have banned fracking. A small but positive sign. The oil lobby in TX is already up in arms and challenging it. Another good sign.

  54. 54.

    beltane

    Some good news. A very nice former DKos commenter was elected to the Vermont legislature on Tuesday. That is kind of inspiring.

  55. 55.

    raven

    @Betty Cracker: My brother-in-law is a former LA truck driver, harley rider and AF vet. Pretty standard racist homophobe. His oldest daughter is gay and his youngest had a baby with a Filipino tattoo artist from San Diego who wanted nothing to do with her or the kid. He’s had a change in attitude.

  57. 57.

    beltane

    @debbie: There will always be more to Texas than oil extraction. Alaska has fisheries-threatened by global warming-but once the oil runs out there will be nothing much there for people like Murkowski.

  58. 58.

    Kay

    @Althea:

    so I don’t expect much in the way of bravery in supporting any plain spoken, passionate, values-driven candidate of the future, should they be lucky enough to find someone masochistic enough to run.

    Not everyone is a huge fan of Howard Dean. Number one, he lobbies and he doesn’t reveal it when he appears on tv or writes editorials. Number two, the “50 state strategy” in this county consisted of a single not very hard-working organizer who doesn’t live anywhere near here and met with us twice and a thousand-slide Powerpoint presentation which was so complex it caused the people in the back of the room to start openly jeering. I was joining them by slide 679. Number three, he strikes me as petty, and I wouldn’t hire “petty” to run a national organization with a really diverse group of activists. He’s ungenerous and egotistical. He takes shots when he doesn’t need to, just to score personal debate points.

  60. 60.

    Belafon

    There’s a good diary at DK about Democrats over thinking this election. The short version is:
    1. We are a two party system. Your choices are the one in charge, and the other one. He quotes Chris Rock on this: “Obama didn’t cure cancer fast enough! I’m voting for cancer!”
    2. Its the midterm election for the second term of the president. We were going to lose.
    3. As long as Republicans get to keep the country in suck mode, Democrats will win in election years, and Republicans will win in between.

    The last one makes me hope they’ll kill off the filibuster. You don’t necessarily want to give the launch codes to your enemy, but it really does need to become the party in power gets to pass the bills. I would add one thing if I were to end the filibuster: It only takes a majority vote to bring a bill to the floor; the leadership can no longer block bills.

  61. 61.

    bemused

    @debbie:

    I was thinking of beltway media and no surprise they ignore it. Not likely they will talk about the National Review editorial, “The Governing Trap” either. As Kevin Drum pointed out, this kind of talk used to be done behind closed doors, now “no one thinks twice about spelling it out in public in explicit detail.” The beltway media is all in on how Obama can compromise and McConnell is sounding conciliatory. Total bs.

  63. 63.

    Cervantes

    @JPL:

    Right, but it was always an idiotic and bad-faith argument to make.

    What we need is more people willing to make such arguments!

  64. 64.

    raven

    @bemused: I did have to laugh when my sister, a weird surfer charismatic rock and roll churcher, was talking about how she had come to accept her daughter being gay. She said, “I’m getting better with it but I ain’t marchin in no parade”!

  65. 65.

    Tommy

    @raven: My aunt moved in around the corner from my parents. Think of all the stereotypes of a gay women and you have her. I was not so sure how this would work out. Funny thing, my mom’s best friend.

  66. 66.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    @bemused:

    It doesn’t matter because the media will continue to treat it like ‘just playing the game’, how the GOP doesn’t really mean all the extreme and obstructive shit they say and how being willing to simply say it shows how masterful and brilliant they are, while Obama sneezes and it’s suddenly proof of how horrifically divisive and destructive Dems and libs in general are, and why the fuck don’t they simply compromise, as if Obama himself was having a fucking temper tantrum every single day and refusing to work or some shit.

    And it’s only going to get worse. Infinitely fucking worse.

  67. 67.

    Stan of the Sawgrass

    How long until the anti-Hillary investigations start (and Benghazi doesn’t count.) Should we start a betting pool?”

  68. 68.

    Mustang Bobby

    Lesson in Irony: I was lectured on Facebook about the evils of Common Core by someone who doesn’t know the difference between “your” and “you’re.”

  73. 73.

    PurpleGirl

    @Steeplejack: Congratulations to your brother and his partner on adopting a daughter. Good on you for doing part-time pet sitting. I use to pet sit for friends in Peekskill — a menagerie in a 9-room house.

  74. 74.

    raven

    @Mustang Bobby: We’re doing a needs assessment of our faculty development offerings. I just got this

    Guys I have little interest in these areas because I already am “expert” in most of them and know the quality of training you plan to give. I’ve been trained to death and have been to multiple teaching conferences where the most incompetent teachers are telling me how to teach or what there “research” shows. What a crock.

  78. 78.

    beth

    Wasn’t there a guy commenting here who was running for the Michigan state legislature? Anyone know how he did?

  80. 80.

    max

    TPM:

    Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) says he won’t continue on in his role as the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, following the GOP’s sweep of both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections.

    Israel told Newsday on Wednesday that he turned down House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) request for him to return as DCCC chairman during the next election. But he did say that he expressed interest in filling another leadership position.

    Ahem. HOT DAMN! He’s out!

    max
    [‘Now maybe we can actually work on getting the House back.’]

  81. 81.

    bemused

    @raven:

    Funny. Good on her too for getting to acceptance.

    I live in rural, small town MN with the typical segment of people ranging from resistant to hostile to any kind of change. It’s been interesting to see the changes in attitudes when their families are no longer strictly white and straight.Still a ways to go though.

  82. 82.

    JMG

    The media loves conflict, so they don’t really want Obama and the Republicans to compromise. It’s just something they say to show they’re “centrists” rather than the shallow shills they are. Believe you me, a government shutdown or better yet impeachment would be Christmas and a trip to the circus combined for cable news, which lest we forget nobody watches.

  83. 83.

    Cacti

    I see the Demsplainers for Grimes still can’t let go of what a turd of a campaign she ran.

    Grimes: “I’m not Obama”

    Obama: “Damn straight. I win elections.”

  84. 84.

    Tenar Darell

    @Steeplejack: Congratulations on your impending Uncle-hood! That’s wonderful news, it really brightens the day. Your brother and his husband must be over the moon.

  85. 85.

    Cervantes

    @Botsplainer:

    At bare minimum, EVERY race up and down the line has to be contested, especially the local ones.

    It is demoralizing when that does not happen.

    Not to mention unthinking.

  86. 86.

    Cacti

    And one small suggestion:

    Now that we don’t have to worry about conservadem defections, hows about we shitcan Harry Reid as leader of the Dem caucus and replace him with someone from a blue state.

  88. 88.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    @JPL:

    I’m sure they’re just priming the pump and wanting their new star faces to take center stage first and show just how amazing and moderate they really are.

  89. 89.

    Betty Cracker

    @Belafon:

    As long as Republicans get to keep the country in suck mode, Democrats will win in election years, and Republicans will win in between.

    To me, that’s the most worrisome development of the last several years. You’ve got to hand it to the Turtle; he devised a political strategy — let the country burn to the ground if that’s what it takes to deny Obama a victory — and it worked. We’ve seen obstruction before, but not on that scale, and not with such high stakes for the country.

    So the takeaway is, make it impossible for your opponent to govern, and eventually the voters will punish them, not you. It’s a brilliant strategy for advancing the fortunes of a party. For advancing a country? Not so much.

  90. 90.

    mai naem mobile

    @Mustang Bobby: they weren’t messican so it doesn’t matter.

    And OM fucking god i cannot listen to Joni Ernst’s laugh. Also too, her husband’s name is Gail. Seriously, Gail. Granted he doesn’t have the ghey like Marcus but Gail.

  91. 91.

    Kay

    I had such a nice experience yesterday. I have a really difficult case and we’re headed for hearing. There was a case somewhat like mine that went to appeal, and “my side” lost so I called the lawyer who lost yesterday to see why he thinks he lost and he’s sort of a “big shot” lawyer (IMHO) so I wasn’t sure how much time he would spend on this. He not only talked to me for an hour, just brutally blunt and clear-headed on why he lost, he sent me all the briefs and all the case law he relied on and what he left out, immediately.

    I was thinking about it because picking it apart after a loss CAN be hugely valuable!

    Maybe not in elections, though :)

  92. 92.

    mai naem mobile

    @Cacti: i don’t think Harry is going to run in 16. Hes had health issues. Hes kinda old. I think itll be Chuck Schumer and Patty Murray. I would like it the other way.

  94. 94.

    JMG

    The Senate Majority/Minority Leader job has little to do with winning elections or being a public face of the party. It’s about forming a collection of egomaniacs into a unified position and holding them there. Both Reid and McConnell have been pretty good at that.

  96. 96.

    PurpleGirl

    @Kay: That was nice of the attorney to give you so much time and thought. He was probably thinking about the case and forming thoughts about why it turned out as it did and your call gave him a chance to verbalize what he was thinking and a have a sounding board. Hope your case does go better.

  97. 97.

    Iowa Old Lady

    Our credit card was compromised last week. The company caught it immediately and said they’d send up a new one, but it hasn’t come yet, and I’m going crazy because I’m getting notices from the places we autopay on that card. Sigh. Maybe today.

  99. 99.

    Pee Cee

    @Botsplainer:

    There were at least 10 GOPers on my local ballot that ran unopposed.

    This is why GOTV for Democrats isn’t going to be easy in a non-Presidential year – particularly in deep red states. Here, other than the hopeless House race and equally hopeless statewide races (and a few of *them* had no Dem challengers), there were literally no Democrats to vote for on the ballot.

    (Now, I live outside the city, and there are Democrats who aren’t on my out-of-the-city ballot that win there, but still …)

    I guess this is a case where “They. Didn’t. Even. Try.” is a valid criticism. No Democrats to vote for leads pretty directly to no votes for Democrats.

  100. 100.

    Belafon

    @Betty Cracker: Which is why I think the filibuster needs to end. We as a country will just have to deal with what happens if Republicans get all the levers.

  102. 102.

    Amir Khalid

    @Botsplainer:
    I just got back from seeing Interstellar on a regular screen. I think you’ll like it, but it does demand a lot of the viewer. (I’d anticipated as much: quite a few of the less-kind reviews consisted of the critic complaining that their head hurt from having to pay attention, and for three whole hours.) It’s a 2001 for the 21st century, but it’s also a richer movie in terms of character and story than Kubrick’s ever tried to be. I am leaning towards seeing it again in IMAX.

  105. 105.

    Daniel'sBob

    @Tommy: Glad to see you’re still here after the vile comments made about your parents–and millions of other people–last night.

  107. 107.

    Steeplejack

    @Betty Cracker, @PurpleGirl, @Tenar Darell:

    Thanks. As with everything, there is some nuance. My mother’s not a flaming RWNJ, just more of an elderly misanthrope who watches too much Fox News, specifically Bill O’Reilly. She worries about illegal immigrants in the abstract, but, for example, when the (mostly Latino) construction crew was redoing her patio she got on a first-name basis with them, was making them lunch every day and worrying that they were working too hard in the hot sun. And for quite a while now she has been making pointed “jokes” that bro’ man and the hubster should adopt a little brown girl. Which they now have.

    Same with the gayness: she is, or used to be, bothered about it in the abstract, but she has always accepted my brother, and she gets along great with the hubster (as well as bro’ man’s previous partner). But years ago, whenever I visited her, I knew there would always be a solemn conversation in which she told me how much she worried about bro’ man’s “lifestyle.” I think I was one of the early adopters of the “How old were you when you chose the heterosexual lifestyle?” defense. She has lightened up a lot on that subject, or at least shut up about it.

    But, yeah, she thinks Obama “is in over his head,” her taxes are too high, crime is rampant, Harry Reid (her senator) is senile and needs to resign, etc., etc. The latter said while we were looking at stock footage of Reid and Boehner standing together, at which point something snapped and I told her what Boehner needs to do, i.e., DIAF. That led to some coolness for a while.

    The RWNY brother is more of a classic case: ex-cop, ex-Navy, gun nut, exercised about moochers and takers, “Seal the border!,” etc. (Doesn’t seem to be wound up about the gay thing. And he’s not religious.) It’s too bad, because when he was younger he was a great guy. I have to think some of the change was the result of a massive depression/anxiety disorder. And, like Mom, he has become a misanthropic loner/shut-in.

    Oh, yeah, forgot to mention that bro’ man’s hubster is Brazilian. Don’t know if that qualifies for some sort of trifecta, but there it is.

    This has been today’s episode of Postmodern Families of Anytown, USA.

  108. 108.

    Mike E

    @Boudica: NC legis are taking that page of the TX playbook to heart…they made local govts cede their home rule to fracking interests; and, tried to wrest away local control of Charlotte’s airport and Asheville’s water authority. After this election, they won’t slow down in these pursuits except when the courts intervene, thank gawd we have a pretty measured judicial system here.

  109. 109.

    Mustang Bobby

    @Pee Cee: I know it’s a tired line, but Wayne Gretsky had it right: “You might not make all the shots you try, but you’ll miss 100% of the ones you don’t make.” Or something like that.

    Here in my district Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R) ran unopposed yet again. I can’t remember ever seeing her on the ballot, and I’ve lived through four elections here. Sheesh.

  112. 112.

    Cervantes

    @Daniel’sBob:

    That reminds me of Gale Gordon on Fibber McGee. Few people remember either the actor or the program, I suppose.

    And when TV overtook radio, he was frequently on with Lucille Ball.

  116. 116.

    Mnemosyne

    Continuing to ice my sad little broken (?) toe this morning. It still hurts, but not as much as last night. I don’t have the right supplies to buddy it up with the neighboring toe, so I’m going to swipe some from the first aid box at work.

    So I probably won’t be doing too many long hikes in Hawaii, but I don’t see any reason I won’t be able to go bike riding or snorkeling/swimming, so I’m annoyed but not too upset.

    ETA: In case people ask, there is no interesting story for my toe — I bashed it into the ottoman while trying to avoid stepping on a cat.

  121. 121.

    Betty Cracker

    @JMG: I agree 100%. I’ve been exasperated with Reid a thousand times during his tenure, but he’s actually played the hand he was dealt pretty damn well. I must grudgingly say the same of Yertle.

  124. 124.

    Mike E

    @Mnemosyne: Unless it’s compound fractured (very doubtful) all they will tell you to do it tape it to the next toe for a splint, and wear an open toe shoe until it heals sufficiently. You may have to cut a hole out of a good walking shoe to accommodate this and your trip, sadly.

  127. 127.

    debbie

    @Steeplejack:

    I know how that goes. I’ve got 3 brothers in various shades of right-wingedness (one who still questions the birth certificate). There’d be a couple more in my immediate family, but both of my parents have passed.

    I’m kind of dreading Thanksgiving. It’s an all-day family affair.

  128. 128.

    Mnemosyne

    @Cervantes:

    I checked online and even the National Institutes of Health say the best treatment is rest, ice, and elevation, unless it’s sticking out at a weird angle (it’s not) or there’s blood (there isn’t, but there’s a lovely dark purple bruise). I’m still debating a quick stop at urgent care so they can say, “Yep, that’s a broken toe, all right,” even though I know they’ll tell me to do the same things the NIH advised.

  130. 130.

    Cervantes

    @Mnemosyne:

    Sounds good.

    Speaking of which, was there a sound? When last I broke my feet, the sharp, snapping noises quickly quieted everyone else so that I was able to crumple to the ground with a minimum of distraction.

  131. 131.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mike E:

    I did the “buddy toe” thing before I went to bed last night and that seemed to help. I don’t have medical tape at home, so I did it with a band-aid, but there are better supplies at work that I can use. I don’t really have any open-toed shoes, but I think my clogs will work okay — it’s a little swollen, but not outsized.

  133. 133.

    Cervantes

    @Mnemosyne:

    Feel better, and enjoy the trip, but meanwhile:

    Remember, even if you go home and tell people all you did was lay on the beach and look at the ocean all week, they’ll still consider it a completely successful Hawaiian vacation.

  134. 134.

    max

    @Mnemosyne: I did the “buddy toe” thing before I went to bed last night and that seemed to help. I don’t have medical tape at home, so I did it with a band-aid, but there are better supplies at work that I can use. I don’t really have any open-toed shoes, but I think my clogs will work okay — it’s a little swollen, but not outsized.

    *Loose* tennis shoes will work. When I broke my toe (I was carrying something heavy and I was barefoot, and I couldn’t see my feet, so I plowed by toe into a landscape timber), it made a horrible crunch, and it was pointing out at an angle. So I salvaged a piece of scrap metal (a slot pacer from the inside of a PC) and ran it underneath my foot and taped it up. And took a lot of ibuprofen. That worked – it’s a little wider on the side than it should be, but it points in the right direction and otherwise works.

    I recently piled the other toe into a board but didn’t break it. It swelled up terribly, but it was fine after a couple of days.

    A popsicle stick or anything like that tape to the bottom of your foot with the toe taped to the splint will do the trick. I found that taping the toe to the other toe didn’t work if flexing the toe upward caused the pain. A loose shoe that can accommodate the splint will work great, especially if there isn’t much flex in the sole.

    max
    [‘Fun.’]

  135. 135.

    Steeplejack

    @debbie:

    We get along fairly well, for limited periods of time and with certain zones of prickliness. I’m actually looking forward to Thanksgiving, because (I think) this will be the first time my mother has been back East in 10-15 years. In addition to the new baby, she’ll get to marvel at bro’ man’s palatial manse and his backyard garden. They are both avid gardeners/landscapers, and she has a limited palette to work with in the Nevada xeriscape.

    I know it’s a cliché, but the baby might give her a new lease on life. When I was out in Las Vegas a couple of months ago, her back was hurting and she was talking about being “ready to go” after she sees one more springtime in the desert. Hell, already the kid has motivated her into air travel, which is something that terrifies her.

  136. 136.

    Mnemosyne

    @Steeplejack:

    Before my boss had her twins, her mother was ill enough that she ended up in a rehab center after a fairly minor surgery, but having two new grand babies really did seem to extend her life by a good five years (and good ones, since she was able to check out of the facility and move back into her house with some nursing assistance). So there is something to that.

  138. 138.

    phoebes-in-santa fe

    I’ve been thinking a lot the last couple of days and what I’ve come up with is even worse than what I thought before. Democrats are real fond of saying, “oh, yes, it happens in every midterm (and actually it does, if you look at political history) BUT, just wait til 2016, when Hillary runs!. And just look at 2020 when all those ol’ white people who vote Republican are dead!”

    Well, the problem is that we are putting all our eggs in one almost-70 year old basket, in terms of 2016. I really think that Hillary’s support is wide…but essentially shallow. Who else do we have if Hillary dies and/or wises up to the absurdity of running for President? We have no one. And don’t suggest Joe Biden. (Who I like a lot). He’s even older. I have always had the feeling that Hillary either won’t run or will be defeated if she does.

    And we’ve been waiting for the old folks to die off fo-evah, and essentially it doesn’t change much. Dems still can’t get their people off their (fat) asses to vote in the mid-terms.

    And what are we giving Dems to vote for? Our gubernatorial candidate – Gary King – who was chosen by the voters in a three-way primary – was a completely lame and inept candidate who ran a lame and inept race. I’ll bet the only people who voted for him this week were either relatives or people who held-their-noses when they voted.

    And that leads us to another essential truth about Democrats (God love us, because we are so awful I don’t know who else would!) We do not support a president who accomplished so much his first two years – albeit with a strong Congress – because “Obamacare didn’t go far enough”, he “shoulda done this…and he didn’t”, “he disappointed me because he’s not liberal enough”, etc, etc. Now, I will be the first to admit – and to strongly admonish Obama and his administration – that their “messaging” was dreadful, from the very start. But we also display an astonishing ignorance when it comes to knowing how the government functions; that Obama couldn’t right all the wrongs that have come before him. BUT, the economy is doing well, unemployment is down, and so are the deficits that the Republicans have been complaining about for years. Why doesn’t EVERYBODY know that? Because the Obama administration hasn’t done much to broadcast that fact.

    We’ve got a lot of soul-searching to do…

  139. 139.

    debbie

    @Steeplejack:

    I know her grandchildren extended my mom’s life. My dad had died more than 20 years earlier, but the first grandchild of her favorite son brought all kinds of joy back into her life.

  140. 140.

    fidelio

    @Cervantes:
    The big problem with Howard Dean’s 50-state strategy was that Howard Dean was not one of the RIght People. Also, it might have inconvenienced entrenched local Powers-that-Be, no matter how incompetent, lackadaisical, or indifferent to anything but their own advantage these might be.

    Nothing more need be said about why this was allowed to fall by the wayside.

  141. 141.

    fidelio

    @Kay: Not having worked with him, or with people who have dealt with him a lot, I can believe he’s far from perfect. I can also believe that the execution of the 50-State strategy plan was weak in some areas and a failure in other places; it’s the sort of plan that takes a long time to develop; you don’t grow strong local committees in a few months or even a couple of years.

    But the basic concept looks to be a lot better than what we’re seeing at work now.

  142. 142.

    cckids

    @Kay:

    Number one, he lobbies and he doesn’t reveal it when he appears on tv or writes editorials. Number two, the “50 state strategy” in this county consisted of a single not very hard-working organizer who doesn’t live anywhere near here and met with us twice and a thousand-slide Powerpoint presentation which was so complex it caused the people in the back of the room to start openly jeering. I was joining them by slide 679. Number three, he strikes me as petty, and I wouldn’t hire “petty” to run a national organization with a really diverse group of activists. He’s ungenerous and egotistical. He takes shots when he doesn’t need to, just to score personal debate points.

    Thank you, Kay. On top of the rest of the shitstorm that hit Tuesday night, the repeated calls of “Where is Howard Dean? He wouldn’t have let this happen” were maddening.

    And to your list, I’d add: He ain’t Superman, and he’s too old. National Dems need someone who isn’t tied to the 1990’s, who can think about the next decade & where we need to be.

Comments are closed.