Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

I did not have this on my fuck 2024 bingo card.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

The US Supreme Court is on the ballot in november.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

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

An almost top 10,000 blog!

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

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

Washington Post’s Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

We’re not going back!

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Motown is Joe-Town!

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Fear or fury? The choice is ours.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

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Reader Interactions

208Comments

  2. 2.

    Another Holocene Human

    If you said I-10 and I-75 I’d be like whatever. I think they already have some faded as shit dogshit looking confederate flag up there somewhere. I-75/I-4?

    Way to let the mask slip, white suburbanites.

  3. 3.

    Mustang Bobby

    Off to Miami Beach this morning to pull watchman duty at the Memory Lane exhibit at the auto show. taking photos for the club website (and checking out the new Mustang), and — shameless self promotion here — celebrating the eleventh anniversary of my blog with friends later today.

  4. 4.

    Phylllis

    Grocery store, covering an election protest hearing for the local paper, and college hand egg. Gamecocks have a bye week. I’m predicting bye week wins 38-35, scoring all their points in the remaining minute fifty of the fourth quarter.

  6. 6.

    Morzer

    @JPL:

    Well, my heritage demands that I should now march through Georgia burning every property and hanging every traitor that displays that worthless insult to America.

    If challenged, I plan to explain that ‘Actually It’s About Ethics In Gaming Journalism’.

  7. 7.

    Keith G

    I met with a reporter last night from our city’s newspaper. She’s writing an article on how the ACA has performed during its first year with an look at what the new sign of processes will be like. I tried to walk the line between saying as much as I could about how important Obamacare is to people like me without saying too much about me.

    The good news is that she will be calling me back before the article is published to give me a chance to review how much information is shared.

  12. 12.

    Gvg

    what sha doing up my way? that is near that drag racing museum by Big Daddy Garlitts and I was told that he was a KKK imperial wizard. so there are racists there but also people who hate the racists. I recall some attempt by the KKK to hold a march in Gainesville to recruit and raise public profile. they were unhappily allowed because of free speech but a a counter protest was much bigger. Papers ran a picture of a confrantation between him and Tom Petty. I had not known Petty still kept up with what happened here as he had moved to Hollywood years before. Picture was Tom and a bunch of random others angry face yelling right at the old dudes faces. No one backed down. KKK was a pathetic small old group. too mean to change but dying out.

  13. 13.

    JMG

    Leaf raking, then football on TV today. Harvested the maple leaves two weeks ago, now it’s time to harvest the oaks.

  15. 15.

    Aimai

    I freaked out when i read this because i thought it was written by Annie Laurie. And then that would have meant that the election of charlie (ugh) baker really took the lid off our home grown racists.

  18. 18.

    Denali

    Every time I am tempted to move back South, thhis kind of stuff hits me in the face. Why can’t the South be as nice underneath as it is on the surface?

  19. 19.

    big ole hound

    That flag is perfect for Florida. They elected Scott so maybe that is the the official state flag. “stupid is as stupid does” is the state motto now.

  21. 21.

    Suffern ACE

    @JPL: if only Obama had been more accommodating and more black voters would admit that Ben Carson is a better American, none of this would be happening.

  24. 24.

    RaflW

    Heading to a 3 hour workshop with author, professor and retired minister Mark Morrison Reed. He’s gonna talk about the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, and what opportunities Unitarian Universalists have to reclaim our history of civil rights work and move forward on voting rights and racial justice.

    His new book The Selma Awakening: How the Civil Rights Movement Tested and Changed Unitarian Universalism is on our bookshelf, hoping to read it soon. My partner and I visited Selma, Montgomery and Atlanta this past June. It was hard to see that the more things change, the more they stay the same, as the saying goes. Saw some creepy racist stuff, and lots of Voter ID billboards in Alabama. Still, we carry on!

  25. 25.

    Raven

    @Denali: It’s just so great to have these dumbass conversations week after week since we know that idiots are confined to a geographic region.

  26. 26.

    NotMax

    @Morzer

    Well, my heritage demands that I should now march through Georgia burning every property and hanging every traitor that displays that worthless insult to America.

    Except Savannah.

    /historical stickler

  28. 28.

    WereBear

    Some idjits put up a Confederate flag as big as a semi truck at the junction of I-75 and I-4.

    Of course they did. Because (I realize now) the war never ended.

    I was sick in bed last night, watching Justified, which I dearly love. But I had to bail early because (in my weakened state) I just could not stand one more Southern-fried, proudly-ignorant, boarhog-mean, Jebus-whining, bully-minded, woman-hating, white-man-entitled, asshole-bad guy.

    I reached my limit in high school.

    Of course, every area has their own regional version. But that particular flavor made me develop some serious antibodies.

  33. 33.

    JGabriel

    Betty Cracker:

    Some idjits put up a Confederate flag as big as a semi truck at the junction of I-75 and I-4.

    I don’t think we need a constitutional amendment to ban burning the US flag, but I really wish we were burning the Confederate flag a whole lot more instead – because if there’s any flag that deserves burning, it’s the flag of Southern Treason & Slavery.

    Flying that flag is no more acceptable than waving a Nazi swastika. I really don’t get what makes anyone think otherwise, much less so many.

  35. 35.

    JPL

    Weather is now the hot topic on the national news. Borowitz was right, that ebola will disappear until 2016.

  38. 38.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Heading for Baton Rouge. Won’t surprise me in the least if I see fewer Confederate flags down there than I do around here.

    Saw one painted on the tailgate of a truck the other day. It was paired with Old Glory. All I could think was, “You really don’t know what you are doing.”

  41. 41.

    NotMax

    @Morzer

    Yeah, I was riffing off the direction of the original.

    Come to think of it, Alabama scans perfectly as a replacement for Anatevka in the last song of the play.

  42. 42.

    Chickamin Slam

    This one guy in radio chat told a story that happened while he was stationed up in Anchorage, Alaska. In a bar was another division of soldiers, fresh recruits up from someplace. Anyways the new recruits put in a request for “Sweet Home Alabama” and started getting rowdy as the song went on. “The South is gonna do it again!” one of the them shouted. The guy in chat telling the story remarked “What, lose?” At this point the battlelines were drawn. The chatter said his buddies immediately bailed as the “South is gonna do it again” soldier and his friends wanted to start brawling. The chatter elbowed out onto the streets the “Sweet Home Alabama” bunch on his heels. He spies a bus ready to leave, doors closing. He jumps onto the bus surface holding the gutter Spiderman like while flipping off the people chasing. He said he held on until the next stop and then got on board, paid his fare plus a tip.

  47. 47.

    Baud

    @Chickamin Slam:

    The chatter said his buddies immediately bailed as the “South is gonna do it again” soldier and his friends wanted to start brawling

    Some friends.

  49. 49.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @RaflW: Thanks for the pointer to the book. It looks very interesting. (It’s in my Amazon cart at the moment.)

    Enjoy the workshop.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  53. 53.

    Schlemazel

    @Amir Khalid:
    They believe they are the only true patriots. They have bought into a mythology that theirs is the real America. This is not new, the treasonous bastards claimed back in the 1800’s that they were remaining true to the founders tradition and therefore more real American than the non-treasonous areas. Once you buy that broken view it becomes simple to believe todays America is the enemy of patriotism.

    If I may paraphrase Sam Johnson:
    patriotism is the last refuge of an scoundrel idiot

  54. 54.

    Yoda Dog

    Im just so depressed. I just don’t see why the republicans aren’t going to take control of everything and then take away the vote, and then we don’t even have a democracy anymore.

    Snark and humor used to be my salve but after Tuesday even the best like Colbert or the commentariat here can’t get me to perk up.

  57. 57.

    Cervantes

    @Amir Khalid:

    To me, Americans flying the Confederate flag would be like Malaysians flying the Communist Party of Malaya‘s flag. I don’t see how you can do it and call yourself a patriot.

    Odd comparison.

    What did the Communist Party of Malaya do to deserve it?

  58. 58.

    Tenar Darell

    @Morzer: Well there’s a Hitler meme video of “ethics” why not one on the confederate battle flag? The only one I could find was Hitler vs. the CSA. Not linking. It was as unfortunate as that sounds. Stereotypes on top of jingoism, with sideswipes at Lincoln, “the tyrant.”

  59. 59.

    beltane

    The Romans really knew how to crush a rebellion. Their methods were harsh and inhumane in the short term but at least the misery wasn’t prolonged for centuries as with the candy-ass treatment of the American south.@Morzer: Better yet, we can sell them to the Asians as pets to fund our socializms, just to get the point across.

  60. 60.

    Schlemazel

    @Yoda Dog:
    I have a lifetime of dealing with the black dog. You have to find a technique that will work for you. First, remind yourself that its only temporary, this too shall pass. Try to find enjoyment in any place you can. Remember that life is not always the happy dance, sometimes you just have to put one foot in front of the other & stay moving, you’ll get to the dancing at some point.

    If you actively think the world would be better off without your presence get help right away. If you find its just not getting better tell your doctor & ask for antidepressants. They make a lot of difference for most people. If they don’t for you go back & ask to try a different one. Never give up.

  61. 61.

    sherparick

    The one thing about big Neo-Confederate Party victories (I think calling them Republicans dishonors Lincoln, Grant, TR, Bob LaFollette, Fiorellla LaGuardia, and Dwight Eisenhower), is that they can’t help to overplay their hand. I will really interested in seeing the budget resolution that comes out of the Jeff Sessions and House budget committee now chaired by Corwin. It will also be interested how the media plays it. For years the meme of “liberal mainstream media” has been just a meme in our culture, but I think looking at the facts of the messages of the mainstream media the last six years, it is the conservative stories and narratives they have advocated and adopted. Look at Chuck Todd, Scarborough, Ron Fournier, the gang at Politico, Fred Hiatt, etc. There criticism of the White House is relentless and Republican obstruction is never the story, no matter how much it injures the country. Look at the stories the conservative, corporate, MSM, chose to focus on the last 3 months, Ebola and ISIS, and not in a way to inform, but by spreading misinformation and panic. However, 4 days after the election, the stories have disappeared from CNN, even as 1,500 more troops go to Iraq. It is a big “never mind.”

  63. 63.

    Amir Khalid

    @Cervantes:
    The CPM began an armed insurgency that lasted from 1948 to the mid-1970s or thereabouts. They did not formally lay down their arms until 1989. I don’t fault them for being communist or for wanting to promote communism here, but they were effectively at war with the legal government for some three decades, and they were not above committing atrocities against civilians.

  65. 65.

    Yoda Dog

    @Schlemazel: Thk you guys. I dont mean to worry anyone, I’ve been more depressed than this, I dont have suicide in me. That can never happen, if for no other reason, I wont just give the bad guys another victory. I’ll be there with you all to fight like hell in 2016 and beyond.

    But I’m just terrified. What kind of world do we live in where people like Rick-fucking-Scott can continue to be elected?? What if the pendulum doesnt swing back? What if they take the white house?

  67. 67.

    JMG

    Nobody watches cable news and network news but old people (I’m 65 so I get to say that). Therefore, all cable news and network news, not just Fox which is more blatant about it, is aimed to appeal to the fears and prejudices of old people, especially fear, as fear leads people to stay indoors at home where they will watch more television. This summer there was a front which moved through Eastern Mass. with tornado warnings and strong thunderstorms, and one station’s news gave the obligatory “turn off your computer, move to the basement or center of house, etc,” warning and then added “and stay tuned here for the latest!” Huddle in your basement with the tube. It’s a glorious vision of old age, huh?

  68. 68.

    kindness

    What do you do when your Supreme Court goes rogue? The most recent example of them taking up the ACA’s subsidy of the Federal Exchange members without any lower courts disagreeing over the interpretation of the law. The whole ‘The Moops Have Invaded Spain’ thingy. Clearly there are those that are intent on pushing their political preferences on a majority with no concern over the ethics of blatant & brazen pillaging of not only a law but those who wrote it.

    When one of the pillars so cheapens themselves at the expense of a nation, what is one to do? How does a citizenry fight such an act? Some would say by elections. By change over time. Yea, that’s the most pacifist progressive broism but what happens when the 20 years later it takes to do such a thing that the country is burning in wreckage by the carnage that was created?

    Overturning Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
    Citizens United.
    Pulling Medicare coverage out of the ACA.

    The conservatives on the court don’t care that they’ve lost their legal moorings. They are happy to pull a power play because they can, put lipstick on the pig and call it the most honest & moral decision they could come to. They don’t even bother to hide the wink to their gang.

    Pitchforks? Torches? What? Doing nothing to me seems like (forgive the proximity to Godwin’s Law) the Warsaw Jews doing nothing about the siege of the ghetto during WWII. Morally correct but dead doesn’t seem like a good plan. Know what I mean?

  69. 69.

    WereBear

    @Eric U.: the whole “southern nice” schtik makes my skin crawl.

    Especially if you know how it gets indoctrinated.

    My family moved to to the South when I was eight, and my brothers and I were treated so badly for being “raised by wolves” that I have issues to this day. We were supposed to say “sir” and “ma’am” every five minutes and kiss adult behind and be subservient to everyone in sight.

    We were actually well-raised children and perfectly polite. Just not groveling enough for our new environment.

  70. 70.

    catclub

    @Schlemazel:

    If I may paraphrase Sam Johnson:
    patriotism is the last refuge of an -scoundrel- idiot

    And if I may paraphrase Ambrose Bierce, it is the first.

  71. 71.

    beltane

    @kindness: Don’t forget Bush v. Gore, the horror that started it all. And you are correct, morally correct but dead is not only a bad plan, but in the end it is not even morally correct.

  72. 72.

    Morzer

    @kindness:

    One thing that troubles me in all of this is the way the police have increasingly become a militia for fatcats and white racists aimed at repressing the people above all else. I don’t think this is a coincidence.

  73. 73.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Yoda Dog:

    What if they take the white house?

    They will be f’d. So will we of course, but look at the damage Brownback has already done in Kansas and think about how much more will be done over the next 4 years. They are getting their “perfect experiment in Republican governance” and it is looking uglier all the time.

    To quote another: “Americans always do the right thing, but only after trying everything else first.”

  76. 76.

    Morzer

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Well, you know who is set to be governor of Kansas even as its economy collapses into smoking fragments? Why yes, the man who wrecked the joint.

    Clearly, the people of Kansas haven’t taken enough of a beating to recover their collective sanity yet.

    Inconceivable, but … true.

  77. 77.

    Tommy

    @OzarkHillbilly: I fear Bruce Rauner might try a kind of “lite” version of Brownback in IL. He was not totally clear in his campaign what he planned to do other then saying jobs, jobs, jobs, lower taxes, and less spending. But those that seem to know him thinks he’ll gut spending and lower taxes across the board. I think a double whammy for the state.

  78. 78.

    Morzer

    @Tommy:

    He was not totally clear in his campaign

    I’ll bet he was very clear and deferential to the oligarchs who have just bought Illinois.

  79. 79.

    beltane

    @Morzer: I think it’s become quite clear that a rather large percentage of white Americans would prefer to fund their last meal by selling their children to traffickers before they would ever vote for a Democrat. Maybe we win by running against this type of person rather than by catering to their prejudices.

  80. 80.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Cervantes: Amazon is good and bad, like any large company. While the UU Bookstore price for the book is the same, with Amazon I pay local sales tax (a good thing), and I’ve got Prime so shipping is free (already paid-for). UU charges at least $5 shipping without collecting sales tax. And Amazon already has my particulars; dunno if I want to share them with them UUs… ;-)

    My single purchase of this book isn’t going to matter either way. For expensive purchases, I do consider much more than price and convenience.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  81. 81.

    Tommy

    @Morzer: I am sure. He floated a potential budget early in the campaign and he got crushed for being specific. Some believed it could cut something like one in seven public school teachers. After that he stopped being specific.

  82. 82.

    Morzer

    @beltane:

    I’ve worried over the years that far too many liberals seem to assume that their decency and real-world first approach is so self-evident that it will carry them to victory automatically. Too many on our side of the fence seem to assume that all you have to do is shake your head sadly and point out that the GOP is crazy and vicious – and the voters will magically be transformed into sober, rational, patriots who put America’s interests first.

    If only!

  83. 83.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @kindness: I am 56 years old. That makes me older than the VRA, Medicaid, and political contribution limits. (Hell, I remember “Whites Only” signs). Somehow or other we lived without even the existence of those things, I think we can live with them being limited in ways we don’t like until our day returns in 2 years.

  84. 84.

    Morzer

    @Tommy:

    I am not trying to get at you or give you a hard time, Tommy, but I am genuinely curious about what it would take to get your parents to stop voting for the GOP. Can you think of anything that would do the trick?

  85. 85.

    JGabriel

    @Amir Khalid:

    To me, Americans flying the Confederate flag would be like Malaysians flying the Communist Party of Malaya‘s flag. I don’t see how you can do it and call yourself a patriot.

    All it takes is ignorance, hypocrisy, and hate.

  86. 86.

    Morzer

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    But, what if, in 2 years time, all the GOP has to do is filibuster and obstruct and, in the end, call in the five horses’ asses of the apocalypse from the best little Supreme Court that money can buy? It might be a long wait – and that’s assuming we retake the House, which no-one seems to think is possible under our heavily gamed system until maybe 2022.

  87. 87.

    skerry

    Another child has died from the shooting in Marysville, WA on Oct 24. 15 year old boy, cousin of the shooter. Bringing the total dead to 5 (including shooter). No arrest/charges against adults that allowed a teenager to access the weapon, a .40-caliber handgun, and bring it to school.

    Another boy, a 14 year old cousin of the shooter, was released from the hospital yesterday. He was “just” shot in the jaw – non-life threatening injury.

    School resumed yesterday. Lunch was served in the gym since the cafeteria shooting site is still closed.

    How many more?

  88. 88.

    Tommy

    @Morzer: As I said the other day, or yesterday, they are voting Democratic more often. For POTUS and state-wide elections. Not so much local. Now to your larger question of maybe why it took so long I think most of it was just habit. What they always did. That is sad to say but I can’t really explain it any other way. I think you could call my mom a feminist. And my father’s PhD might be in military history, but he respects knowledge and thinks global warming is a reality. So much of what I agree with they do as well that I honestly shack my head at times unable to explain it.

  89. 89.

    Morzer

    @skerry:

    America can have as many dead children as it can stomach – and it will as long as the media refuse to face the true scale of the problem and politicians cower before the NRA terrorists.

  90. 90.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @beltane: Heehheeeheee. Kansans are really f’d and most Kansans are republicans so I must respectfully disagree. They voted against Obama but never even noticed he wasn’t on the ballot. Stupid is as stupid does.

  91. 91.

    WereBear

    @Morzer: decency and real-world first approach is so self-evident

    Sadly so. If people operated that way we would all be liberals.

    But I learned to my horror that there were people who prioritized beating up someone else for an imagined slight over staying in school and actually having a future.

    Maybe they never really believed they had a future. All they had was beating up that one kid, or not. And they decided their whole life was about that.

  92. 92.

    Morzer

    @Tommy:

    Well, they’ve made quite a bit of progress towards the side of the angels, so clearly your good work is achieving something. I just wonder how many more people are out there voting for the GOP out of habit rather than anything else.

  96. 96.

    Tommy

    @Morzer: I am not that proud to admit it but taxes and voting with their pocket book is a big factor. My father was a middle class government worker. When his father passed away he inherited milllions. My grandfather really did no estate planning and my parents got hit with a ton of taxes. I know world’s smallest violin and all. But it really pissed them off and kept them in the Republican party for a little longer.

  97. 97.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Tommy: He has to get his “program” thru a Democratic state legislature. Take a deep breath and relax a little. Yes he can do damage, but IL is not Kansas.

  99. 99.

    Ruckus

    @JGabriel:

    Flying that flag is no more acceptable than waving a Nazi swastika. I really don’t get what makes anyone think otherwise, much less so many.

    I don’t believe they do think otherwise. I believe they want it to be the national flag. They are proud to be exactly what you think they are.

  101. 101.

    Tommy

    @Ruckus: Now clearly not everybody in the south is racist. Not even close. But having lived in southern Louisiana and seeing that flag flown a lot, plus being called a “Yankee” on almost a daily basis made me realize the “hate” and the pain left over from the Civil War was far more real then I understood.

  102. 102.

    beth

    @Baud:

    North Korea just released two Americans.

    Somewhere in the last few days, I’ve seen a Republican congressperson on tv spouting the line that since the U.S. has overwhelmingly elected the party that’s for a tougher foreign policy, we may start seeing our enemies start pulling back a bit. I wonder just how long it’ll take before they start saying that North Korea was scared of the bigger, badder US?

  103. 103.

    Cervantes

    @Amir Khalid:

    The CPM began an armed insurgency that lasted from 1948 to the mid-1970s or thereabouts. They did not formally lay down their arms until 1989. I don’t fault them for being communist or for wanting to promote communism here, but they were effectively at war with the legal government for some three decades, and they were not above committing atrocities against civilians.

    History did not begin in 1948 and the CPM did not begin with violence. For more than a decade they tried to fight for workers’ rights peacefully (correct me if I am mistaken). The Brits, in a daring act of cowardice, refused to allow them to participate in the political system, outlawing the party, jailing its sympathizers and members — and killing its leaders, either directly or by deporting them to China where the government happily executed them by proxy.

    When the Japanese invaded Malaya in 1941, that’s when the Brits suddenly decided to accept the CPM’s offer of help. That is when the CPM first took up arms — against the Japanese invasion — in a deal made with the Brits, who, in fact, armed them and trained them. As the Brits retreated and fled, the Communists formed the Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army, which, unlike the Brits, actually fought the Japanese in Malaya until 1945.

    And what happened after the war? Not quite done ransacking the country, the Brits came back and asked the Communists to disarm, which, for the most part, they did! But when workers began to strike again, aided again covertly and openly by the Communists, the Brits turned on their erstwhile allies, conveniently declared an “Emergency” in 1948 (yes, after three British colonists were murdered), and promptly started harassing and slaughtering the Communists again.

    Yes, I agree there’s more to the story — but history should not be ignored, nor should it be replaced with seventy-year-old British propaganda.

  104. 104.

    Baud

    @beth:

    I don’t blame them. It’s important to take credit for stuff in politics. It’s a lesson liberal Dems should learn.

  105. 105.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Morzer: Something that mystifies me to no end. Here in MO there was a state amendment on the ballot that amounted to what I called the “Penalize Teachers who Teach in Poor Districts” Constitutional Amendment. It failed. Badly. In Missouri. A state with veto proof GOP majorities in both houses of the legislature.

    What the hell happened up there?

  107. 107.

    d58826

    @Morzer: That is nothing new. The robber barons of the 1880s/90s and the fatcats in the 20’s and 30’s used the police, pinkertons, and when needed the national guard, to break strikes and kill union members.

  108. 108.

    JGabriel

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I am 56 years old. That makes me older than the VRA, Medicaid, and political contribution limits. (Hell, I remember “Whites Only” signs). Somehow or other we lived without even the existence of those things …

    A lot of people died due to the lack of things like Medicaid. And without the VRA, a lot of people who should have had a voice in electing our leaders and shaping our future did not.

    So I think it’s inaccurate to say we lived without the existence of those programs. The country survived, yes, but a lot of people died much younger than they should have. There are real consequences, not just inconveniences, to the policies Republicans want to implement. And those policies will kill some people, as they did the last time Republicans held the presidency and both houses of Congress.

    That said, we still have a Democratic president, and I believe we’ll elect another Democratic president in 2016 and retake the house. So I’m optimistic that the damage Republicans can inflict on the country over the next two years will be limited. But let’s not downplay the very real pain, damage, suffering, and deaths Republican policies can cause.

    Edited to add: Damn, I’m preachy this morning. No personal offense intended, OzarkHillbilly. It’s just that the We Lived Without (Insert Phrase Here) meme is one of those things that riles me up a bit.

  109. 109.

    skerry

    @Tommy:

    Now clearly not everybody in the south is racist. Not even close.

    The black and brown people in the south aren’t racist. Is that what you meant?

  111. 111.

    Howard Beale IV

    @Morzer: What is it about these nanocephalic slackjawed mouthbreathers that continually insist on flying the flag of losers?

  112. 112.

    skerry

    @OzarkHillbilly: This is the same thing I’ve been telling people about Maryland. The governor will be a Republican. We’ve had Republican governors before (See Ehrlich, most recently). The legislature is heavily Democratic – in both houses.

    So nothing gets done. Progress is slowed, not reversed.

  113. 113.

    ruemara

    @OzarkHillbilly: history speaking here. That’s utter bullshit. The arc bends while you and yours get to break, waiting for justice.

    The Roberts Court is wasting no time going after the good parts of the ACA. They don’t see any reason to keep a mask on anymore, they’ve won big and have instituted so many structural changes that they will have power for decades. If we’re lucky, after the punishments, they’ll go back to offering a certain amount of benefits as largesse masquerading as progressive policies.

  114. 114.

    JGabriel

    @Baud:

    I still blame Obama for the fact that North Korea hasn’t captured Dennis Rodman.

    I blame Ayn Rand.

    For everything.

  116. 116.

    Bobby B.

    “The South shall rise again, and please kill Kyle and Stan because Ahhhh really hate those gaahhhhs…”

  117. 117.

    Poopyman

    @Morzer:

    One thing that troubles me in all of this is the way the police have increasingly become a militia for fatcats and white racists aimed at repressing the people above all else. I don’t think this is a coincidence.

    No comfort, I know, but it was ever thus. All you have to do is read the history of labor unrest in this country to see where the police and even the army have been used as tools of the oligarchs.

  120. 120.

    OzarkHillbilly

    So I think it’s inaccurate to say we lived without the existence of those programs.

    Not my point, my point was that the world isn’t ending just because “we” lost an election. “We” have lost lots of elections over the years and yet somehow someway little by little things improve anyway. Lots of ups and downs but the general trajectory is up. I’m just pushing back against all the doom and gloom from everyone. Listening to some it feels like “slit your wrists” time. It’s not, it’s “get back to work” time.

    And speaking of which, it’s time for me to get to my vacationing. Ya’ll have fun while I am gone, be safe, and don’t let the bastahds git ya down.

  122. 122.

    WereBear

    I see the Republicans deepening the crevasses between blue states and red states, certainly. Whether people will figure out the difference, in any kind of timely manner, remains to be seen.

    Like Mississippi is not enough of an abject lesson for anyone.

  124. 124.

    Amir Khalid

    @Cervantes:
    I’ll agree the British were a double-crossing bunch. They did that to just about everyone here, and they started the fucking over of Malayan civil rights that goes on to this day under the present management. But the CPM did their cause no favours by making a shooting war of it. And a lot of Malaysians reckon they forfeited their claim to a place in our political life by doing that. Which is a pity, because it would have been nice to live in a leftier, more liberal country than we have now.

  125. 125.

    Ruckus

    @JGabriel:
    This.
    The damage may be limited but it gives the idiots hope that they can turn the rest of us into idiots so that we can suffer just like they think we all should.
    And there is nothing that really gives me hope that we will have a democrat president elected in 2016. Yes we may have the numbers in total. We may actually get people to go to the polls and vote. But it is possible that it may not happen. I don’t like the odds that it is even possible that we might go through another republican rout, for they are fucking crazy and want all of us to join them in celebrating their crazy by bending over, grabbing both cheeks and asking for more.
    Some of this is selfish. I’m 65 and getting SS. I get my healthcare from the VA. Both of these are programs they want to demolish. Of course this is along with Medicare, Medicad, the ACA……
    The current republican party wants us to be governed by their church. And it’s not a happy fun time place, with love and joy and all that crap.

  129. 129.

    Poopyman

    @skerry: Agreed, mostly. The one thing I worry most about is O’Malley’s moratorium on fracking in the state. Unless the leg moves with a veto-proof majority I’m afraid we’re gonna get it good and hard.

  130. 130.

    d58826

    @kindness: @ruemara: I was about to make the same point. Roberts voted to uphold ACA in 2012 to avoid giving the democrats an issue in the 2012 campaign. He took a pounding from the right for what was a tactical political decision. The court will now dismember ACA piece by piece based on any kind of right wing flights of fancy, i.e. corporations have religion and now 3 poorly chosen words in a 2000 page law. If need be they will invalidate ACA because the democrats used the wrong font when the law was printed. After Tuesday there is nothing to stand in their way.
    The voters who sent the GOP back into power deserve to lose any heath care that they obtained under ACA. Elections have consequences so they can just live with them. I’m thinking of the woman who gave an interview that after obtaining health care under the Ky system she was going to vote for Yertile because he was going to repeal the law. Its just ashame that the rest of us have to drown in the same swamp of ignorance.

  132. 132.

    scav

    @Tommy: Well, not everyone in the South sprouting this shit has necessarily much to do with inherited pain from losing a rebellion. Lot of the originally KY lines I’ve traced down moved more south well after the war, and the service was overwhelmingly blue not grey. And they nevertheless can manage to evoke a proper skin-crawl response on shall we say, topics. Flag of Cross Treason: It’s like the B&W 50s for others, an idealized pre-edenic Cockaigne where ‘their sort’ had it easily good by default and thus it must be returned to, despite the fact their actual sort probably didn’t on the actual ground. Everyone assumes they’re upstairs in visions of Edwardian summer.

  133. 133.

    Cervantes

    @Baud:

    I still blame Obama for the fact that North Korea hasn’t captured Dennis Rodman.

    He’s like Moosylvania, subject of that old border dispute between the US and Canada, each side claiming the other side owns it.

  136. 136.

    Tommy

    @Ruckus:

    Some of this is selfish. I’m 65 and getting SS. I get my healthcare from the VA. Both of these are programs they want to demolish.

    I tend to be in the Warren camp that the government does so much for me. So I don’t want this to sound like I don’t realize that. But as a specific government program goes, like SS, the ACA is really the first program I’ve signed on to. It is a god sent. I work for myself and the plan I now have is far superior to what I had and LESS expensive.

    I am not much of a “pitchfork and torches” kind of guy, but just try to take that away from me. Just the free preventative care is huge, cause I am nearly my mid-40s and I need to have some tests run. I don’t even get colds, blessed with amazing health, but I am getting older and I want to be able to care for myself in a manner that doesn’t leave me in the “poor house.”

  137. 137.

    Steeplejack

    Haven’t read the thread, so excuse me if someone has already pointed this out, but that flag in the picture is not even a “genuine” Confederate flag—another example of redneck fail. The real flag has white stars on a blue background.

    Confederate flags here: in the top picture, battle flag on the left, Stars and Bars (the “official” CSA flag) on the right.

    Didn’t realize I was a closet flag nerd. Must’ve been because of watching that Sheldon Cooper YouTube series Fun with Flags.

  138. 138.

    d58826

    @Tommy:

    in a manner that doesn’t leave me in the “poor house.”

    Don’t worry you won’t , the GOP will shut them down also. SOOOOOOOclism you know

  139. 139.

    Ruckus

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    I’m not one who thinks the conservative crazy all started with ronnie. I think it goes back much farther than that. Over the years we have many accounts of the crazy. But they were seemingly isolated incidents. But they no longer are. The crazy are organized, they have the media, the have the racists, they have the rich, they have the house, the senate, USSC, 31 state governors, the majority of state leges, and the crazy. Right now they have the momentum. What we have is the hope that we can swing the momentum back in our favor in 2 yrs. You’d think that examples like KS, FL, WI would be enough to do that. But we just saw that it isn’t. Yes in theory the numbers do favor us, especially over the long haul. But if they get another chance you and I will probably never see the pendulum swing back in our lifetimes.

  140. 140.

    Iowa Old Lady

    Car Talk ran a tribute show to Tom this morning. Ray hosted it and played clips. If you’re a fan, find it on line.

  141. 141.

    Morzer

    @Ruckus:

    The numbers favored us. Then the GOP discovered how to engage in vote suppression on the grand scale, protected by those treasonous thugs on the Roberts Court.

  142. 142.

    burnspbesq

    @Aimai:

    the election of charlie (ugh) baker really took the lid off our home grown racists.

    What lid is that? Did you not live in Bahstan in the mid-1970s? I remember whan a guy i knew in undergrad who was from Southie started missing classes. I asked one of his fraternity brothers if he was OK. “Oh, he’s fine. He went home to throw rocks at school buses.”

  143. 143.

    Scamp Dog

    @Yoda Dog: my coping strategy has been to quit listening to the local NPR news affiliate, and listen to the public radio jazz station, KUVO. The do play the NPR news at the top of the hour, but I’m spared Cokie Roberts, Mara Liason and the rest of the Nice Polite Republican villager crowd.

  145. 145.

    Tommy

    @d58826: I think the “poor house” might be the one place they keep open.

    I tried to explain to some Republicans why the savings of $118 a month in my healthcare was a big deal. About $1,500/year. That is seven months of my power/water/sewage (all on one bill). I don’t monitor/track my food spending, but a heck of a lot of food. Months and months. A new computer for my business. That is “real” money.

    Money I will put right back into the economy and not an insurance company that outside of “piece of mind” provides me zero services at this point because I am never sick (knock on wood).

    I wrongly thought they might understand my POV, since all of them get their healthcare through the VA and a few get SS. But alas I was too hopeful. They totally didn’t get my point.

  146. 146.

    burnspbesq

    @Amir Khalid:

    To me, Americans flying the Confederate flag would be like Malaysians flying the Communist Party of Malaya‘s flag. I don’t see how you can do it and call yourself a patriot.

    In trying to understand the American South, clear thinking will only lead you astray.

  148. 148.

    d58826

    Huffington Post has the headline ‘death panel’ and a picture of the 5 conservative justices.kinda hits the nail on the head.

  149. 149.

    Poopyman

    Yet another version of “elections have consequences”:

    With the GOP takeover of the Senate, all the leadership positions will be filled by Republicans after the first of the year. Two of the most frightening changes will be on the Environment and Public Works Committee and the Subcommittee on Science and Space which will likely be chaired by James Inhofe (R-OK) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) respectively, two of the most adamant climate and science deniers in congress.

  150. 150.

    Ruckus

    @Tommy:
    You and a whole lot of others. I’ve been self employed for most of my adult life, right now I in my second year of only the second job I’ve held since I was 28. One of those business handled what CA defined as hazardous waste. It cost more to recycle it than it did to purchase it new. A lot more. A neighbor with a similar business moved to NV to avoid any environmental regulations. But I liked them because they had cleaned up CA, made it liveable. I tell that story because it was illustrative of the two main political sides we see in this country. One respects that things/people do harm because it is easy and needs to be addressed and the other thinks that everyone will just have to suck it up, we all die, who cares if you go early and badly.

  151. 151.

    Cervantes

    @Amir Khalid:

    And a lot of Malaysians reckon they forfeited their claim to a place in our political life by doing that.

    Who wrote the version of history that has caused “a lot of Malaysians” to reckon that way? Assuming the version I laid out above is not entirely nonsensical, are “a lot of Malaysians” aware of anything like it? If they are not, do you think it would make a difference if they were? (I have no idea, obviously.)

  152. 152.

    Tommy

    @Iowa Old Lady: Thanks I will find it. Not listened to them for years, but used to almost every weekend. I heard a clip of Tom that really got to me, because the show IMHO was always about a lot more than just cars. This is paraphrasing, but the core if it is accurate.

    Tom said he was always right, but learned a long time ago being happy is more important than being right. He never let his wife know she was always wrong and he was always right when they disagreed. That made her love him with all her soul and made him happy.

    I’ve never been married myself but that sounds like some pretty solid advice.

  155. 155.

    Gene108

    @Morzer:

    I think it is more than assuming everyone is as rational as you are and reacts like you do. Everyone, to varying degrees, has some sort of self-selection bias where they assume people are like them.

    The difference between conservatives and liberals is three fold.

    1. Conservatives want to win at all costs. Winning and getting your way is all that matters. If you look at movement conservatism, since the late 1970’s, they are all about mobilizing a small energized base to win and get their way in politics. Whether deliberate or not, this method of an organized minority to run roughshod over the majority is very much the same tactic Lenin used to secure power.

    2. Money. This cannot be underestimated, but often is. The right-wing movement is underwritten by billionaires with an ideological axe to grind. They do not care, if they lose money in the short term funding think tanks, newspapers that do not turn a profit, etc. they want to rewrite the political landscape of America, where IGMFY is the law of the land.

    People talk about Democrats having poorly run campaigns, but in most cases it comes down to money. Gore and Kerry had significantly less money than Bush and could not counter-attack. Republucans generally had a money edge over Dems, but after CU that has increased exponentially, especially in down ticket races, where a little cash goes a long way.

    Also, the evisceration of state level Democratic parties only began in earnest 10-12 years ago, when state level Republican parties won elections and basically said, dips businesses gave any more money to the Dems, the Reps would black ball them.

    3. Message discipline. Conservatives have it. They do not deviat from the script. They do not reflect (in public at least) as to why policy has failed. Tying into point one, policy only fails, if it hinders conservative ascension to absolute power and winning.

    Liberals, even those on TV, like the MSNBC prime time line-up, are really into self-reflection and thinking about how any sort if success has flaws, while conservatives are a unified message machine.

    The end result is the non-info junkie hears “Democrats bad” from conservative sources and “Democrats bad” from liberal sources, creating effectively a circular firing squad for liberal messaging.

  159. 159.

    Tommy

    @Gene108: I don’t really disagree with anything you said. All points I think I would make and have made. But I would put message discipline at the top of the list. Factor in money and there is the perfect storm. I spent the first 15 years of my life working at branding ad agencies for some of the largest tech companies in the world. It takes amazing discipline to stay on message.

    It would seem to me the Republicans have like a Borg collective. When they want to talk about something they all puppet the exact same buzz words. Heck I noticed I have said the last election was a “bloodbath” here a lot. I watched the Daily Show from a few days ago and he ran like 12 clips in rapid fashion of Republicans and Fox Noise host using that exact phrase.

    I then use it myself …. clearly not a positive. I didn’t even realize I was doing it and I used to shape how you talk about this or that for a living.

  161. 161.

    Gravie

    That Confederate flag has been at the intersection since 2008. It makes me grit my teeth every time I visit my relatives in Brandon. I grew up among the Southern vipers who revel in that kind of thing and learned at an early age to loathe them.

  165. 165.

    polyorchnid octopunch

    I’m getting to play a lot of music with some great musicians this weekend. Aside from that, wtf Kinder Morgan? The going’s getting weird up here. Good collection giving recent background here.

  166. 166.

    Amir Khalid

    @Cervantes:
    Are you saying that a lot of Malaysians don’t reckon the CPM forfeited their place in Malaysian politics by resorting to violence? Or that if more of us knew the history you mention, there’d be more sympathy for the CPM? It’s hard for me to imagine the latter.

  170. 170.

    GregB

    Little Green Footballs has a picture of Mia Love, newly elected Black member of Congress addressing a gun rally complete with Confederate flags a flying.

  173. 173.

    Cervantes

    @Amir Khalid:

    Are you saying that a lot of Malaysians don’t reckon the CPM forfeited their place in Malaysian politics by resorting to violence?

    Not at all — I don’t know enough, not by a long shot, to deny your assertion about what “a lot of Malaysians” think. I take your word for it.

    Or that if more of us knew the history you mention, there’d be more sympathy for the CPM? It’s hard for me to imagine the latter.

    I asked if anything like my version of that history was known and disregarded — or if it was unknown and therefore not accounted for in what “a lot of Malaysians” think.

    Also, about that three-judge panel: was one of those judges known for his previous dissents (re the ISA, for example)?

  175. 175.

    PaulW

    there’s a KKK neo-nazi compound out that way just south of the I-4/I-75 intersection (just outside of Brandon). It’s a KKK group that relocated out there, what I’ve been told, that used to be in Palm Harbor before their trailer home burned down one night back in 1981.

    They have a big-ass traitor flag they fly from time to time to show off their asshole creds, when they’re feeling smug or insulted. Guess having the Medicare Fraud win re-election has gotten their spirits up.

  176. 176.

    PaulW

    @JPL:

    It’s not racist. They are just supporting their heritage.

    It’s their heritage of being LOSERS. ’cause I vaguely recall something about the slave-owning rebels getting their ASSES kicked.

  178. 178.

    Violet

    It’s lovely here today. I just toured a beautiful garden and now I’m stuck inside working on a class I decided at the last minute to take. Boo. I’m excited about the class but wish I weren’t behind (couldn’t do any work this week) and would like to be out working in my own garden. Oh well, I’ll probably take a break in the afternoon and get outside.

  179. 179.

    cckids

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    don’t let the bastahds git ya down.

    Too late. :)

    Gotta drink my tea & try to find the energy to get up. Again.

    And hope against hope that the Repubs don’t crash the economy. Again.

  180. 180.

    sharl

    IMO, there is a good interview in Newsweek with the two anonymous online people who researched and reported large scale plagiarism carried out by Benny Johnson (during his BuzzFeed tenure) and Fareed Zakaria. It includes a discussion of the media dynamics that allowed Zakaria – who has plagiarized before – to keep his job, but were not in place to save Johnson at BuzzFeed. Don’t worry about Johnson though: he landed at NRO where he appears to be a natural fit.*

    *Heads-up on that last link – it is on a site that is (or was) created by denizens of Weird Twitter, and as such, cluttered post composition and eye-searing graphics are features, not bugs.

  186. 186.

    sharl

    @Baud: {Putting on my Republican mind-meld aluminum foil hat…}

    Hmm, we need someone “safe” to go out front to trash this nomination in public. Someone call Mia Love; promise her a next-in-line place for one of the less significant subcommittee chairs.

    {Removes foil hat, staggers off half-blinded to find aspirin…}

  187. 187.

    PIGL

    @Morzer: there is demonstratably no limit to the number of dead children the United states of America can stomach. Not that the Belgians or Britts are any better.

  188. 188.

    Skerry

    @burnspbesq: Baltimore police have arrested the adults responsible for the shooting of a 3 year old by another toddler, a 2 yr old. The child was shot in the leg and foot with a shotgun.

    Baltimore police detectives arrested and charged Kia Vashawn Richard, Andre Maurice Hill and Cantria O’Neal Reddick with reckless endangerment, possession of an unregistered shotgun, leaving firearms accessible to minors and other charges.

    I want to see more arrests like this.

  190. 190.

    beltane

    @Skerry: I’m guessing the adults arrested are not white. Shit like this happens in rural areas all the time with no repercussions for the parents whatsoever.

  191. 191.

    ranchandsyrup

    Had some breakfast burritos and then went to the beach with the dogs and family. Tide was way up so we watched these kids on body boards and surf boards use the rebound waves off of the cliffs to “double up” and do some tricks.

  192. 192.

    CaseyL

    Things have been worse than they are now; whether things will get better than they are now is the question. And the answer is “No, not for the foreseeable future.”

    We knew when Bush was appointed President that we were fucked as a democracy. We knew when Bush was elected in 2004 we were probably fucked as a nation. The damage he did – not just the obvious stuff, but the institutional damage too – we knew would not be fixed for a long, long time.

    We’re still reaping the consequences of the Bush-Cheney years, and will be for probably another 20 years. In that light, we’re not actually doing too badly.

    ‘Course, it’s easy for me to say that: I live in one of the bluest cities in the country, in a state that still functions adequately.

    My plans for the day… I’m going to see Interstellar. Pretty excited about it.

    ETA: The “good” news about Kansas is that when the economy crashes and burns so gaudily it can’t be explained away or denied, Brownback and the GOP will get the blame, rather than being able to hand it off to the Democrats. Which they would have done if the Dems had won.

  193. 193.

    Amir Khalid

    @Cervantes:
    It has to be noted there’s always been a lot of antipathy to the CPM from the Malay community because, even though it had some Malay leaders, it drew most of its support from non-Malays. I tend to think that among those who know the history — and it’s not really a secret over here, after all — it is largely discounted, but I can’t point to polls or anything like that.

    As for the judges on the panel, I’m not really convinced that the political leanings of one judge could have that much effect on the other two in a controversial matter. That’s why there are judicial panels, to overrule any outliers like that, right?

  194. 194.

    Skerry

    @Poopyman: Fracking is a huge concern for me. Public comments on the last study are due Nov 17th if you’d like to weigh in. Here’s hoping O’Malley puts something permanent in place before he leaves office. The moratorium is temporary – only until the study concludes.

  195. 195.

    danielx

    @JGabriel:
    @Amir Khalid:

    Intellectual and logical consistency and coherency are not major strong points of wingnut thinking and philosophy. Flying the flag of declared traitors to this here US of A while at the same time considering themselves the only true citizens and patriots of that very same US of A isn’t all that big a stretch, actually. Consider the mental gymnastics necessary for a union member to vote a straight Republican ticket, which happens more frequently than one might think. I’ve talked to people like that, and I’m all “how can you vote for people who want you to die as an economic and political entity” and they’re all “well, I just don’t like Democrats, and the Republicans aren’t really going to destroy the unions”.

    At which point I’m thinking well, if someone says they’re going to wipe me out somehow, I wouldn’t be voting for him or her. What am I missing here….oh yeah, the Democrats are those people who you have been told are going make your children get gay married and make you change out all your light bulbs, and they are also going to take away all your money and give it to Those People. None of which is true, but…

  196. 196.

    Skerry

    @beth: @beltane:

    These adults are not white. I, too, want to see more adults of all types arrested for similar crimes. I also want little black children protected.

  197. 197.

    trollhattan

    @sharl: Just aired here. They did well, really captured his infectious spirit. I can attest they crossed generations, as my 12YO loves the show. You’re missed,
    Tommy.

  198. 198.

    WereBear

    @danielx: “well, I just don’t like Democrats, and the Republicans aren’t really going to destroy the unions”.

    This is one of the most inexplicable things about an inexplicable situation: I mention all the horrible things Republicans say they want to do, like ruin Social Security or take away health insurance, and they say:

    “Oh, they won’t do that.”

    “Why do they say it then?”

    “That’s just to get elected.”

    “They get elected to do that!”

    “They won’t do that.”

    And round and round it goes. I don’t understand it.

  199. 199.

    Ruckus

    @WereBear:
    Remember this is the party that thinks President Obama is the worst president ever and that all politicians lie to get elected, or whenever their mouths are moving. They’ve been fooled into thinking that all democrats want them to die. Projection is a horrible thing in politics.

  200. 200.

    Gian

    @beltane:
    their officers – probably colonel up, and their “elected” leaders should have had trials and executions for treason, but we were all about “binding the nations wounds”
    but it was 150 years ago. not much to do now.
    too hard a peace and some shithead with a mustache would’ve been telling them they were betrayed and yelling Appomattox at torch lit rallies in football stadiums.

  201. 201.

    J R in WV

    @Gian:

    This! Over and over, a thousand times, this. Sherman should have turned right once he got to the sea, and kept on burning everything he found on his way out of the heart of the Confederacy. Treason is defined in the Constitution, and every person in the Treasonous Confederation Army was guilty of treason defined in the constitution.

    Actually, it was defined the same in the Confederate constitution, which was identical to the US constitution, except for the article upholding Slavery Forever. That makes the blather about states’ rights a total meaningless lie, since they didn’t do anything to change states’ rights in their shiny new Treasonous Confederation Constitution.

    It was all about slavery, only about slavery, will forever only be about slavery. And Treason. Don’t forget the treason. Slavery and Treason!

    Now the Republicans are working to recreate slavery under another name, which they haven’t announced yet. It will also be for people who aren’t black, like Democratic candidates.

  202. 202.

    Woodrowfan

    @Morzer:

    Well, my heritage demands that I should now march through Georgia burning every property and hanging every traitor that displays that worthless insult to America.

    I am so stealing that!!!!

  204. 204.

    Cervantes

    @Amir Khalid:

    It has to be noted there’s always been a lot of antipathy to the CPM from the Malay community because, even though it had some Malay leaders, it drew most of its support from non-Malays. I tend to think that among those who know the history — and it’s not really a secret over here, after all — it is largely discounted, but I can’t point to polls or anything like that.

    That’s really interesting, thanks. What does your “it is largely discounted” mean?

    As for the judges on the panel, I’m not really convinced that the political leanings of one judge could have that much effect on the other two in a controversial matter. That’s why there are judicial panels, to overrule any outliers like that, right?

    I wasn’t suggesting that one judge’s political leanings affected the other two. I was only trying to find out if that one judge was, in fact, the one (of the same name) who had previously expressed skepticism re the Internal Security Act and such. I gather from your response that it was the same judge — whose “profile in courage,” then, I have to say I find interesting.

  205. 205.

    dww44

    @beltane: Having canvassed white voters ( surrounded by black neighbors) who were blatantly anti-Obama in a quite shout out-loud way, I agree with you. We have to really go after our base, soft though it may be. I had some AA voters tell me that they only vote during Presidential elections and others tell me it didn’t change anything.

    Forget going after Southern White Voters. It is now an entrenched cultural ID to not vote Democrat and it’s not blatantly racist, just linked to class and cultural norms. Although, there is a lot of that.

  206. 206.

    Cervantes

    @dww44:

    Forget going after Southern White Voters.

    Not sure I agree. Trying to attract those votes in Alabama, Mississippi, or Louisiana may be counter-productive (less than 15% support for Obama in 2008), maybe; whereas abandoning them in Tennessee or Kentucky may not be a viable strategy (more than 33% support for Obama in 2008).

    More fundamentally, abandoning the effort to attract any particular ethnic group of voters seems philosophically repugnant to me; plus it will not convince or change those minds, especially younger minds, that may be somewhat receptive; and it may cause us to forget how to talk to an entire swath of the country, surely not a good thing at the local level.

    Shades of a self-fulfilling prophecy, in other words.

  208. 208.

    Jebediah, RBG

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:

    Amazon is good and bad, like any large company.

    Given the way they treat warehouse employees, whatever good they offer isn’t enough. I won’t buy anything from them.
    I also dislike the loss of sales tax revenue, especially in our current “taxes are worse than Ebola!” climate.

Comments are closed.