Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

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

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

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

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

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Second rate reporter says what?

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

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

In my day, never was longer.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Monday Morning Open Thread: Not the Onion

Monday Morning Open Thread: Not the Onion

by | 168 Comments

This post is in: ,

From the CNN article:

… “We’re not trying to get Larry onto ‘Saturday Night Live,’ of course — we just want to protect his equal right to speak to viewers,” Lessig campaign counsel Adam Bonin said in a statement to CNNMoney…

Clinton’s cameo on “SNL” lasted 3 minutes and 12 seconds, according to the memo. So Lessig would like the same amount of time, perhaps for informative ads about his campaign, which is focused on fixing what he says are the corrupting effects of money in politics…

On Saturday, Lessig reversed course on a pledge he had made to resign immediately after passing campaign finance reform if he were elected. He now says he would serve a full term, saying he decided his pledge had undermined his campaign.

His equal time request was sent October 10 to NBC’s top 35 affiliates plus those in states with early primaries. NBC responded on October 12 and asked for proof that both Lessig and Clinton are “legally qualified” candidates. The law calls for proof before equal air time is granted…

There is video (six-plus minutes, since we’re counting), but I can’t be that cruel to you guys this early in the morning.
*************
Apart from hopeless clowns with big dreams, what’s on the agenda for the start of another week?

Reader Interactions

168Comments

  2. 2.

    PurpleGirl

    Couldn’t sleep, so I’m at my desk trying to organize the paper around it. Also looking at kitten cams. Don’t know what I’m doing today, if anything other than watching TV.

  3. 3.

    Poopyman

    The washer repairman stood me up Thursday, so I’m taking off work AGAIN waiting for him to come this afternoon. I figured that if it was going to be a shitful day I might as well go all out, so this morning I’m taking FIVE cats to the vet for their shots.

  4. 4.

    patrick II

    I have some sympathy for Lawrence Lessig. It is clear he is tilting at windmills, but it’s the right windmill. And of course his loud assertions of what needs to be done is impractical and won’t be done, but he is at least making a big noise and riding on his steed harder towards the windmill than those of us who anonymously comment on blogs.

  5. 5.

    raven

    The addition should be finished this week as the exterior painting will start today, the KING size bed will be delivered Wednesday and just a few touch ups remain! Coming up on 2 1/2 years since we started!

  7. 7.

    Patricia Kayden

    “On Saturday, Lessig reversed course on a pledge”

    The man is flip flopping and he’s not even a viable candidate. Fascinating.

    @Momus: Prime Minister Trudeau is fondly remembered by many Canadians so it will be interesting to see if his son wins today.

  8. 8.

    Schlemazel

    @raven:
    This same stupid thing happened a few years ago in Deadwood SD. WTF is wrong with these people?

    I’m headed to the airport this AM to spend te week at team building BS under the new management. I am too old for this f’ing rodeo

  9. 9.

    NotMax

    It’s The Onion‘s world, we just live in it.

    However, if Trump does actually host SNL (as opposed to what was essentially an extended cameo for HRC) on Nov. 7, Repub’s will be crawling out of the woodwork to demand equal time.

  11. 11.

    Amir Khalid

    So is Prof Lessig seriously running for president or not? If he is, shouldn’t he be trying to get into the Democratic debate rather than on Saturday Night Live?

  14. 14.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Amir Khalid: Good question. I assume he’s doing both despite the fact that his campaign is dead on arrival. If anything though, he probably would be better in a Democratic debate than Webb or Chafee.

  16. 16.

    Schlemazel

    So, after tRump hosts SNL can we expect 17 letters demanding equal time for the other clown car inhabitants? That would be entertaining. In fact what they should do is have them all on at once & insist they write their own comedy.

  17. 17.

    Amir Khalid

    @NotMax:
    Yay. Fifteen consecutive weeks of SNL hosted by those mooks. No doubt the ratings will be sky high for Jeb’s night.

  18. 18.

    Phylllis

    Preparing to head to Myrtle Beach mid-week for safety/risk management training. So I can come home Friday, do laundry, pack up, and go back the following week for a federal programs conference. I’m already tired.

  19. 19.

    Schlemazel

    @raven:
    Since that story does not mention it I assume you saw a later one that said the shooting was intentional? With a crowd like that I can’t imagine hitting only your intended target so, not better. I live in a nation gone mad.

  20. 20.

    David Koch

    Baud deserves equal time, as well.

    At least I’ve heard of Baud, I have no idea who’s lessig.

  22. 22.

    Mustang Bobby

    Back to work after a long weekend in Lakeland, Florida, for the Lake Mirror Classic Auto Festival. The Pontiac was in among “American Classics” in the street show (no judging or trophies) but it was a nice day and I met up with the executive editor for Hemmings Classic Car magazine who wants to do a feature on the car. BTW, I checked the gas mileage on the trip up: after 233 miles from my house to the hotel, I put in 10.33 gallons, which comes out to about 22.5 mpg. Not bad for a car that is almost 28 years old.

  25. 25.

    David Koch

    Deez Nutz deserves equal time.

    According to the FEC 1277 individuals have filed to run for president. Do they all get equal time?

  26. 26.

    Amir Khalid

    @raven:
    My question: why was Carter allowed to join the performance when he’d missed the weapon safety check? The performer he shot is lucky not to be dead.

  31. 31.

    amk

    @patrick II:

    I am with you there. When compared to the total nutcases on the other side, he is a saint.

    Question to AL – Hillary is getting the nom in the end. But I see only non-hillary candidates being put down by you. Why so insecure?

  37. 37.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Schlemazel: Wonder why NBC is letting Trump host SNL. He’s not a movie star, singer, or entertainer and is currently running for the highest job in the world. I thought they had washed their hands of him after his xenophobic comments about Mexicans.

  38. 38.

    Keith G

    …hopeless clowns with big dreams….

    Not sure that Lessig has earned this invective, though it is early.

  39. 39.

    Another Holocene Human

    @patrick II: Bullshit, some of us on blogs are engaged in practical activism.

    All I know about Lessig are the weird reactions he seems to engender.

    Frankly he strikes me as someone well versed in legal and political theory, but downright stupid about politics in the flesh. His windmill tilting is totally irrelevant to my life or anything I’m trying to get done, and to the extent he may end up sucking energy away from toppling TeaPublicans out of office on every level, he is my enemy.

  41. 41.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Another Holocene Human: So where does this man live? Massachusetts?

    He doesn’t have to live under GOP misrule like academics in OH, WI, IN.

    He doesn’t have to live in a barely-held-together, lawless shithole like MO or TX.

    He doesn’t have to live in third world squalor with the “smaller government” of SC or FL.

    He can sit down and shut the fuck up.

  42. 42.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Patricia Kayden: Probably at the urging of serious people seriously high in the organization who were perturbed by how well Dame Hilary came off and the perception that NBC was “helping” her.

    Back in the 90s pols could show up on entertainment shows and it was entertainment. Now all is coordinated and subordinated for Party.

    ps: said serious people don’t give a f*** what Latin@ activists have to say about it

  46. 46.

    OzarkHillbilly

    “At first what popped into my mind was that someone popped a bag of candy or something and was goofing off or something,” said moviegoer Heather Myers.

    “It took a while after the bang, but this guy started shouting ‘Oh my God, I just shot myself! I just got my concealed and carry,’”
    …..
    Kansas’ concealed carry laws changed July 1, making it legal for citizens with permits to carry guns anywhere they like.

    Myers said that while she supports the law, the situation on Friday jarred her.

    “I believe in protecting yourself, but it is scary knowing they’re in public places,” she said. “I feel absolutely terrible for the gentleman that shot himself, but the first thing I thought of was thank God he didn’t shoot anybody else.”

    And this is why we can’t have nice things.

  50. 50.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: He didn’t ask if you can sing well, he asked if you can sing. I’ll bet you can sing like a canary.

  56. 56.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Baud: As Kate Smith rotates in her grave fast enough to supply the power needs of the State of Oklahoma.

  57. 57.

    Chyron HR

    @amk:

    Question to Berninators: I only ever see non-Sanders candidates being put down by you. Why so insecure?

  59. 59.

    Gimlet

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    I thought OBL ran a training school for “terrorists” just like the School of the Americas. And that one of his students planned and carried out the 9-11 attack.

    Can the US be responsible for the actions of alumni of the School of the Americas?

  60. 60.

    Sherparick

    Matt Yglesias has an article, which of course speaks of anonymous “Democrats” as a group. Given Vox’s distaste for unions and representing U.S. working class interests in the traditional party for those on the left edge of the political spectrum, the Democrats, it is surprising that he notes that with the decline of said unions and working class solidarity, the Democrats have been slaughtered in the rural and southern and even midwestern states the last 5 years. This has left the nutjobs in the GOP pretty much in control of 3/4ths of the United States Government (Senate, House, and 25 statehouses, with partial control in another 18. As the result, this has resulted in huge misgovernment, but because – “look, there is a black guy in the White House with Muslim name” the off year elections, a solid 65% of which is white, has produced for the Republicans. Of course the Democrats organizationally have problems, starting with leaving Debbie Wasserman-Schultz as head of the DNC, and neither Hilary or Bernie seem to be to trying to create the local infrastructure on a precinct level to counter-act the Evangelical church and “tea party” organizations and to replace the unions. But it would be nice if Matt put actual names next to “complacent” Democrats.

    http://www.vox.com/2015/10/19/9565119/democrats-in-deep-trouble

  61. 61.

    Baud

    Ahmed Mohamed, the Muslim high-schooler whose homemade clock became a national story because his teachers in Texas thought it resembled a bomb, visits Washington today for Astronomy Night.

  63. 63.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    al Jazeera – Eritrean mistaken for Palestinian shot dead in Israel – Eritrean bystander shot by security guard and beaten by mob after deadly attack on Beersheba bus station.

    Graphic still picture and video.

    Horrible.

    :-(

    I fear that things like that will become common in the US if trends (too many guns on the street, too much anger about “the other”, too much distrust of the government) continue.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  71. 71.

    NonyNony

    @Another Holocene Human:

    Frankly he strikes me as someone well versed in legal and political theory, but downright stupid about politics in the flesh.

    Yes. Lessig’s a good guy, but he has zero idea of how politics works. He should be running for a House seat if he wants to be pushing a single issue agenda like this. And if he wants to move the discourse to the left on his pet issue, he needs to do more groundwork to build up the cred to do it. (Like Sanders – who has spent a liftetime working to push the discourse on economic issues to the left and is only now trying to do it in a presidential run.)

    His windmill tilting is totally irrelevant to my life or anything I’m trying to get done,

    Yup – he’s not going to impact you.

    and to the extent he may end up sucking energy away from toppling TeaPublicans out of office on every level, he is my enemy.

    See above. Nothing that Larry does in this election cycle is going to impact anyone in anyway. There are only two groups that are exceptions to this – Larry himself, who will be lumped into the same category as other quirky Presidential runs like Ron Paul or Lyndon LaRouche, and people who believe in the political reforms that Larry is pushing. Because when he becomes a laughingstock his ideas – even the good ones – get dragged along with him.

    (I’m in that latter camp, so I’m kind of peeved at Lessig that he’s potentially going to turn these issues into fodder for a clown show. The only consolation I have is that nobody is paying any attention to him, so he hasn’t even risen to the level of a laughingstock yet.)

  79. 79.

    Jeffro

    @Gimlet:

    I thought OBL ran a training school for “terrorists” just like the School of the Americas. And that one of his students planned and carried out the 9-11 attack.

    Well if he did, one thing’s for sure (according to Ben Carson): if we had just declared that we were serious about energy independence, OBL’s “hosts” would have turned him over to us before 2001 was out.

    No, really: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ben-carson-energy-independent-osama-bin-laden

    The best part is, when corrected on his facts, Carson…surprise!…doubles down and goes with his “gut”. I have to hand it to him, the guy definitely sees connections where no one else does…

  80. 80.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @OzarkHillbilly: It gets even worse. According to Rep. Elijah Cummings,

    “To further inflate your claim, you placed your own redactions over the name of the individual with the words, “redacted due to sources and methods.” To be clear, these redactions were not made, and these words were not added, by any agency of the federal government responsible for enforcing classification guidelines.”

    I know everyone here is absolutely shocked, shocked I say, that the estimable Rep. Trey Gowdy would do such a thing.

  81. 81.

    PaulW

    @Mustang Bobby:

    Those were the two days I’m NOT in Bartow. :(

    Friday I was at the Florida Writers Conference

    Sunday I had my parents over to help me wrestle my terrified cats into getting flea medications on their necks.

  82. 82.

    Botsplainer

    Kansas=Florida minus beaches and warm climate.

    http://m.kwch.com/news/salina-police-investigate-theater-shooting/35892080

    Dumbass novice CCW shoots his dumbass fucktard self in the leg 45 minutes into a movie. Cops simply treat it as a medical emergency, and intrepid Kansas newsies refuse to investigate or release the name for mockery, scorn, derision and recommendations to a good hormone replacement clinic to remedy that low T condition.

    Meanwhile, clueless movie patrons are jarred but support his “right to protect himself”.

    I just find myself saddened that there wasn’t another “good guy with a gun” present to put down the threat.

  85. 85.

    lol

    @Sherparick:

    Did you know that building local precinct-level organizations is the job of the state and county parties and not the DNC?

    If your local party is a mess, get involved. It’s *your* job to make your local party better, not DWS’.

  89. 89.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Shorter Larry Lessig:

    PAY ATTENTION TO ME! PAY ATTENTION TO ME!

    This guy has the personality of my cat!

  91. 91.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Jeffro: We declared we were “serious about energy independence” in 1980 when we elected the shitty grade Z movie star to the Presidency, and the first thing the guy did after taking the oath of office was remove the solar panels from the White House, then he proceeded to shitcan every fucking energy initiative Jimmy Carter got started.

  92. 92.

    Germy Shoemangler

    Fascinating inteview with Michael Dukakis:

    Dukakis is surprisingly clear-eyed about what went wrong in 1988. “I mean, look: I blew that election,” he says matter-of-factly. “It was very winnable, and I made two big mistakes. First, I spent too much time talking to folks who I thought knew more about winning the presidency than I did, all of whom pooh-poohed the idea of precinct-based, grassroots organizing. Now, I got elected around here three times because I knocked on every door, and I’m really kind of a fanatic about it. It took Barack Obama not once but twice to prove to us that [it’s] just as effective on the presidential level.”

    “The second thing was that I made this decision — which in retrospect turned out to be one of the dumbest decisions I’ve ever made — that I was not going to respond to the Bush attack campaign.” Dukakis says he thought people were tired of the politics of conflict, so much so that they’d be willing to ignore the salvos from the right. Atwater would later make a deathbed apology to Dukakis for what he called the “naked cruelty” of the Bush campaign’s attacks on him. “It was nice of him,” says Dukakis, “but if you know anything about Atwater …” His response is essentially “Thanks for the apology, but we didn’t do what we should have done.”

    http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/10/talking-hillary-and-trump-with-michael-dukakis.html

  95. 95.

    ThresherK

    Before Bernie Sanders declared, we watched Elizabeth Warren meet publicly with Hillary, and plenty of lefties who “knew her back when” wanted to draft Warren.

    Warren and Sanders are softening the thick heads of our media to get across the message that (1) this campaign is more than the witchhunt that is Benghazi!, (2) policies which Warren and Sanders propose are actually, y’know, popular with the voters moreso than the courtier press, and (3) the actual politicking personalities of Warren and Sanders are more popular with voters than with the Beltway Inbreds.*

    Does Lessig serve any of these uses? Does he want to do anything that a meaningful amount of voters would actually vote for, or want to see as real governance? Is he going to be invited to rev up the crowd at a big campaign stop?

    For my own two cents, I’d say: No and No, not really. Any reform ideas he has are waaaaay down the to-do list, and he has no idea how politics works. There might be a spot in an administration for him, but I don’t have that deeply an informed opinion.

    (*My fervent hope is that this will all make Hillary a better candidate and, should she prevail, president.)

  96. 96.

    Jeffro

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    We declared we were “serious about energy independence” in 1980 when we elected the shitty grade Z movie star to the Presidency, and the first thing the guy did after taking the oath of office was remove the solar panels from the White House, then he proceeded to shitcan every fucking energy initiative Jimmy Carter got started.

    Therefore…Reagan is responsible for 9/11! OMG if word of this ever gets out…

    /Carson logic

  97. 97.

    Cervantes

    Apart from hopeless clowns with big dreams

    Wait. Is that … content-free name-calling?!

    Even so, it’s actually a step up from your previous effort, Anne Laurie, where you claimed to be criticizing Lessig because he “insists that *[you]* disarm in the middle of an all-out war,” when, in fact, he does no such thing.

  98. 98.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @raven:
    This happens occasionally, and it’s why one of the rules of gun handling is ‘always treat the weapon as if it was loaded, even when you’re sure it is not.’ Not that it would help here, but it demonstrates the point.

  100. 100.

    Chris

    So, I somehow got onto the Washington Times’ email list, and yesterday they sent me an outraged email about how “Captain America Fights Right Wing Conservatives In New Comic.”

    After getting the obvious responses out of the way (“the new comic’s set in World War Two?” and “as opposed to all the left wing conservatives I keep hearing about?”), I googled it, and it turns out that Cap, having already taken on some form of the teabaggers twice, is now punching out racist border militia thugs.

    You go, Cap! Pissing off the Washington Times is a noble cause.

  101. 101.

    rikyrah

    How the Republican Obsession With ‘Free Stuff’ Could Backfire
    Some Republican strategists are urging the party’s presidential candidates to dial back the rhetoric.
    October 19, 2015 — 4:00 AM CDT

    It has become a familiar Republican refrain. Senator Marco Rubio on Wednesday called the first Democratic debate a contest over “who was going to give away the most free stuff.” New Jersey Governor Chris Christie quipped Friday in New Hampshire, “There’s gonna be more free stuff for more people than you can even imagine sitting and listening to Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton and the rest of the crew up there.”

    Last month, Jeb Bush characterized Democrats’ message to African-American voters as “get in line and we’ll take care of you with free stuff.” A few days earlier, Senator Rand Paul mockingly accused Sanders of promising voters “free stuff.” In 2012, Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting Mitt Romney told a voter, “If you’re looking for more free stuff, vote for the other guy.”
    These aren’t rhetorical coincidences—the language reflects the strongly held beliefs held by many in the GOP base that spending on safety-net programs should be slashed, and that the Democratic Party is powered by minority and immigrant voters who leech off the government.

    “I think people need to tread carefully when it comes to that kind of language. We’ve had a long track record of Republican candidates characterizing the Democratic Party as offering voters free stuff. … It hasn’t seemed thus far to end well,” Republican strategist Patrick Ruffini said, citing Romney’s “47 percent” comment to donors in 2012 and his later attribution of defeat to President Barack Obama as a result of the Democrat offering “gifts” to blacks, Hispanics, and young voters.
    Ruffini argues that linking Democrats with free stuff “certainly will be a popular line in the Republican primary,” but doing so risks alienating minority voters, whom he said the language tends to be associated with, and with whom the GOP needs to improve its performance in order to win a general election. “You do kind of run the risk of slighting those groups of voters by saying they’re only voting Democrat because they’re being bribed,” Ruffini said. “So I think that aspect of it is not necessarily the most productive.”

    Michael Steele, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said the GOP needs to be “less careless in our rhetoric” when it comes to low-income Americans.
    “If you are a member of the working poor who’s barely making ends meet and need some assistance—maybe food stamps, maybe child care—they don’t consider that free stuff. They consider that necessary stuff so their family isn’t broken up, so they’re not sleeping in cars and park benches,” Steele said. “Be smart and careful about how you describe the plight of others, because there but for the grace of God go you. To judge their existence and how they’re living their lives—we need to get out of that business and get in the business of offering self-empowerment and opportunities.”

    http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-10-19/the-republican-obsession-with-free-stuff-could-backfire

  102. 102.

    ruemara

    Well, I can’t say if his heart’s in the right place, but his foot’s edging dangerously past his tonsils.

    Another glorious morning of buffoonery in America, I take it?

  103. 103.

    Cervantes

    @Another Holocene Human:

    So where does this man live? Massachusetts? He doesn’t have to live under GOP misrule like academics in OH, WI, IN. He doesn’t have to live in a barely-held-together, lawless shithole like MO or TX. He doesn’t have to live in third world squalor with the “smaller government” of SC or FL. He can sit down and shut the fuck up.

    Is there some logic to this? Is it a calculation thing that you do with ZIP codes?

    Otherwise let me ask: you do know where Anne Laurie lives, right?

  104. 104.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah:

    Michael Steele, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said the GOP needs to be “less careless in our rhetoric” when it comes to low-income Americans.
    “If you are a member of the working poor who’s barely making ends meet and need some assistance—maybe food stamps, maybe child care—they don’t consider that free stuff. They consider that necessary stuff so their family isn’t broken up, so they’re not sleeping in cars and park benches,” Steele said. “Be smart and careful about how you describe the plight of others, because there but for the grace of God go you. To judge their existence and how they’re living their lives—we need to get out of that business and get in the business of offering self-empowerment and opportunities.”

    Mr. Steele, whenever you’re ready…come on over.

  105. 105.

    Betty Cracker

    @lol: Good point. The local Sarah Palin-knockoffs who dominate local and state government in my neck of the woods seem to hatch under the school district heat lamps and then move up from there. In other words, the problem starts here. The solution has to start here too.

  106. 106.

    Cervantes

    @Chris:

    it turns out that Cap, having already taken on some form of the teabaggers twice, is now punching out racist border militia thugs.

    That is an interesting development.

    Needless to say, I had no idea. Thanks.

  107. 107.

    D58826

    Two depressing items for a Monday.
    1.On VOX there is a map of the states controlled by the GOP and those controlled by the democrats. The democrats control only 7 state governments. Since it is at the state level that most election law is written it gives the GOP a lock on how our elections will be conducted.

    2. The conventional wisdom is Boehner will get a clean debit limit passed with mostly democratic votes. The wisdom may be wrong. The last increase passed with just 221 votes, only 28 from the GOP. Nine of those yes votes are no longer in the House. Several have been replaced with hardliners and will the rest risk the wrath of the tea party to vote yes. Boehner may not have to votes even with the democrats all voting yes.

  110. 110.

    Iowa Old Lady

    Apparently on one of the Sunday shows, a Benghazi committee member claimed to Andrea Mitchell that Clinton got all her intelligence from Sidney Blumenthal. Mitchel, for a wonder, said that was factually incorrect. The R talking to her said it was absolutely correct. She again said no.

    Two things strike me about this. 1) The MSM is beginning not just to notice but to name problems with this committee. 2) This guy believed what he was saying. He has a story spun in his head, and he believes it.

  112. 112.

    Cervantes

    @Amir Khalid:

    As I understand, Captain America has historically been a bit left of centre.

    As I recall, the character started out in the years before the US entered WWII. With Hitler obviously up to no good in Europe, the writers were appalled that isolationists and assorted Nazi-sympathizers seemed to be holding sway in Washington. They felt they could make a difference by introducing an America that saw what was at stake and fought for it.

  113. 113.

    Amir Khalid

    @Bobby Thomson:
    Methinks what the prof needs to do is present himself as a non-frivolous candidate. But it might be too late for that; having started a candidacy the way he did, how can you ever expect people to take you seriously?

  117. 117.

    Kay

    @D58826:

    The democrats control only 7 state governments. Since it is at the state level that most election law is written it gives the GOP a lock on how our elections will be conducted.

    The raw numbers are really bad but what’s even more alarming are some of the states. Democrats are losing even blue states in the NE. They need to take a really hard look at why that’s happening, instead of attributing everything to turnout dropoff. They shouldn’t be losing nearly the whole block of Great Lakes states. I don’t know- if I were running the Party and I couldn’t even retain an incumbent in a state like Illinois I think I’d do something about it. All we get is handwaving as if this whole thing is attributable to turn out.

  119. 119.

    Peale

    @D58826:

    The democrats control only 7 state governments

    I blame Obama. O.K. maybe not entirely as the hollowing out of the party structure was happening before he became president. But seriously. I don’t really care about the Democrats favorable demographic tailwinds. They don’t actually have a party.

  120. 120.

    Peale

    @Kay: Kay, Kay, Kay. You worry too much. All we have to do is wait for 2 generations of people to pass away, and probably most of my generation as well…and hold the Presidency for the next 6 straight elections, and we’ll be sitting pretty.

  123. 123.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    I don’t know- if I were running the Party and I couldn’t even retain an incumbent in a state like Illinois I think I’d do something about it.

    Quinn
    a) ran a bad campaign. Didn’t run on his accomplishments.
    b) was tainted because of Blago
    c) chose a hideous running mate.

  124. 124.

    Kay

    @Peale:

    It isn’t just election law that is mostly made in states. It’s 90% of the law that affects people every day. There’s something fundamentally wrong with the Democratic policy platform in states and they should look at governance too- the job Democratic incumbents are doing- because they can’t even retain incumbents in some of these states. They’re not even “holding”, forget “growing”. Scolding people about turnout isn’t enough. These are northern states with huge cities. They shouldn’t be losing them.

  125. 125.

    D58826

    @rikyrah: D’s also lost Maryland and Mass. However Brownbeck, in spite of tanking the Kansas economy still won. Same with Scott in Fla. and that lunatic in Maine. The R’s are doing something right.

  126. 126.

    PaulW

    If Republicans keep insisting that Democrats are handing out free stuff, then I say the Democrats should start campaigning on that.

    “Hey, poor white folk! Guess what! We’re giving away free stuff! All you hafta do is vote for us to get it. Woot! That nice new car in the parking lot? The keys are yours after you put in the ballot!

    Don’t vote for those thieving Republicans who are gonna take away your Social Security and your Medicare and your pensions! They aren’t promising you that shiny nice new candy-colored car, are they? No they ain’t. SO VOTE DEMOCRAT BECAUSE EVEN REPUBLICANS KNOW WE’RE GIVING IT ALL AWAY WOOHOO!”

    …what, too illegal?

  127. 127.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    c) chose a hideous running mate.

    I agree with you there, but how clueless do they have to be to choose that person? By the end of that race I was convinced it was thrown- I was seriously considering whether Democrats were actually working for the other side. I would not have been surprised if Quinn and Vallas took positions in the Rauner Administration. It was so bad I was thinking “this is some kind of deal they made”.

  129. 129.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    And I don’t mean to pick on Illinois. Ohio was even worse. They chose a candidate who 1. drove without a license while on the public payroll, and 2. had a reputation for extramarital dalliances while parading his wife and kids around as a central part of his campaign. His wife is an adult so that’s her business, but I was horrified he’d put his kids thru that public ordeal. I think that’s appalling behavior from anyone.

  130. 130.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Belafon: no, she’s creating an infrastructure to get herself reelected. Yglesias’ good point is that down ticket races matter and Dems are getting crushed there. His weaker point is that Dems are “complacent” about this.

  131. 131.

    japa21

    @Kay: There also happens to be the fact that Rauner was an appealing candidate to many. Illinois, like many states, was having trouble pulling out of the 2008 recession. Debt was piling up, lot’s of pension problems, etc.

    It is too bad that most voters, be they Dems of Reps, really don’t sit back and do any analysis. Otherwise, they could have seen Rauner for what he is, a more appealing version of Scott Walker. They see it now, but too late. Hell, thanks to Rauner vetoing a budget because the Dems won’t pass his union wrecking legislation, people who win more than $600 in the lottery can’t even collect.

    Rauner will never win reelection in Illinois.

  132. 132.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Sherparick: Yglesias seem to be straining for contrarianism, by stating something we’ve been worrying about here and elsewhere for many years as if it were something Democrats are denying and only he dares to say.

  133. 133.

    Bobby Thomson

    @lol: Dean supported those efforts. I guess there really is something to that complacency after all. “Ain’t my job.”

  134. 134.

    Bobby Thomson

    @ThresherK: it’s a very important issue, but short of overturning Citizens United (which Sanders is running on overturning), it’s intractable. And Lessig is engaging in a lot of revisionist history about how he described his own campaign.

  136. 136.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Cervantes: Then after WWII, there was a period in which Captain America was a good jingoist fighting the Commies… but that version didn’t really work out, and they eventually retconned it away as some other guy wearing the costume, and turned him into a deranged villain when Classic Cap returned from being frozen in the Arctic.

    And he’s been mostly depicted since then as a liberal who is often conflicted about the country whose colors he’s wearing not always being the good guy. (Except that I get the impression the Ultimate version was something of an exception, and nobody liked him either.)

    Right now, in the comics, Steve Rogers is actually retired and Sam Wilson (aka The Falcon) is now Captain America. And he still has his Falcon wing gizmo, so he’s a flying black Captain America.

  137. 137.

    Cervantes

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Thanks for bringing that story up into the present day.

    that version didn’t really work out, and they eventually retconned it away as some other guy wearing the costume

    If only we could do that in real life; I have a number of people in mind.

  138. 138.

    trollhattan

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
    Saturday’s This American Life–on the Rabin assassination and the immediate death of Oslo and Bibi’s ascendancy to the throne–was phenomenally disquieting. I don’t foresee peace in my lifetime or my kid’s. God, you see, created the opportunity to kill Rabin and thus, this act was His will. Now where have I heard this rationale for conducting horrific acts before…?

  139. 139.

    Elie

    @patrick II:

    Ok — got it. Like you, right?

    BTW: I am a Democratic precinct coordinator — you know — getting out the vote, informing Democratic and other voters in my precinct.

    Speak for yourself.

  140. 140.

    lol

    @Bobby Thomson:

    Dean’s solution was to throw money at dysfunctional state parties to hire a few staff to do whatever. That was it. OFA 2.0 was actually more in line with what everyone seems to think the 50 State Strategy was.

  141. 141.

    Brachiator

    @Momus:

    Voting today, and thus helping to send the Conservatives away. Far, far, far away.

    Good luck. I’ll be popping in now and again this evening to catch the latest results.

    Some of the pre-election news is weird and fascinating

    Canada’s Conservative prime minister posed for pictures with Toronto’s former crack smoking mayor on Saturday and thanked his family for helping organize a campaign event ahead of Monday’s election….

    Questions have dogged the Harper campaign all week about its association with former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who became an international sensation in 2013 when he acknowledged he had smoked crack cocaine in one of his “drunken stupors.”

  144. 144.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Brachiator: It’s all good, Robbie’s brother was on TV saying that the demon weed is the scourge of solons, so, presumably, crack is just super caffeine for busy elites.

  145. 145.

    lol

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I think Ultimate Captain America was supposed to be something of a parody of post-9/11 patriotism (especially the “DO YOU THINK THIS A STANDS FOR FRANCE!?” line) but everyone took it seriously and then it became the ongoing characterization. I dunno. Mark Millar is really frustrating because he comes up with great ideas and plots but his actual writing veers into 2EDGY4U grimdark nihilism way too often. It says a lot that adaptations of his work frequently end up being far superior to the source material.

  146. 146.

    Elie

    @Kay:

    I agree Kay. From my experience at the local level here in Western WA, (where we are used to being on top), there is a lot of self-satisfied complacency down with Democratics. You can’t talk about this and be heard by any of the leadership. We have a big Christian publishing business that has moved in Bellingham and hired quite a few young people. There is a lot of outreach and support for young people by the conservatives here. We, the Democrats and progressives are largely run and supported by old timers. We need a different strategy. There are a lot of younger folk but they have kids, are trying to find and keep work here and I don’t think we do much for them. Our policy platforms — keeping corporate money out of politics and some important enviro stuff is important, but I don’t think it resonates to really wake up and connect to the constituency of the near future. Our old timers will be gone in twenty years, then what?

  147. 147.

    WaterGirl

    @rikyrah: That’s disgusting! I’m sure things like this are what Republicans are thinking about when they say they don’t recognize the America they used to know, right?

    There was an episode of The Good Wife where their client was taken to a secret detainment center, and I wondered if there really was such a secret detainment place. The Good Wife is also where I learned that (for awhile) it was illegal to record a police officer.

    Scary.

  148. 148.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Jeffro: I here I just took him for a frivolous upper class twit (who was nevertheless personable and charming). Damn.

  149. 149.

    WaterGirl

    @japa21:

    Rauner will never win reelection in Illinois.

    At least there’s that for us to hold on to. For another 5+ years. So depressing.

  150. 150.

    WaterGirl

    @japa21: It’s not just the lottery. Some people who work for the state or a public university in IL are receiving letters saying that yes, they still have health insurance, but the state isn’t paying out on their health insurance policies, so they will have to pay out of pocket and get reimbursed (when? in a year or two?) for their medical costs.

    Sure, just write a check for that 15,000 MRI and wait to get your money back for years. Sounds great.

    Edit: I see that I am late to the thread and I am talking to myself again. sigh.

  151. 151.

    Elie

    @Elie:

    I forgot to add the rural counties are almost overwhelmingly conservative and that Bellingham is also starting to have more conservative voting. These are tea party and Christianist for the most part…

  152. 152.

    Bobby Thomson

    @lol: Dean’s solution worked out really well in some states before it was abandoned, and OFA was only about getting Obama elected.

  153. 153.

    D58826

    @nastybrutishntall: and look what we have to look forward to come Jan. 2017: (from huffington)

    WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton isn’t president yet. She hasn’t even won the Democratic nomination. But a Republican congressman is already getting ready for the opportunity to impeach her — on the first day of her hypothetical presidency.

    Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) recently spoke with talk radio host Matt Murphy and said the real issue with Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state is “how many lives she put at risk by violating all rules of law that are designed to protect America’s top-secret and classified information from falling into the hands of our geopolitical foes who then might use that information to result in the deaths of Americans.”

    Brooks added Republicans are going to make sure this issue follows Clinton into office, should she be elected president in 2016.
    “And in my judgement, with respect to Hillary Clinton, she will be a unique president if she is elected by the public next November, because the day she’s sworn in is the day that she’s subject to impeachment because she has committed high crimes and misdemeanors,” he said.

    Two comments: 1. we don’t need the Onion and 2. time to buy popcorn futures.

  154. 154.

    mclaren

    Sorry, I have zero sympathy for Lawrence Lessig. This guy could write a book titled “How to be a total dick.”

    And, hey — Amir Khalid, just because Vermin Supreme (the guy who wears a boot on his head) is running for president doesn’t mean we have to take Lessig seriously.

  156. 156.

    Ruckus

    @patrick II:
    Do you really think that Lessig will be any more influential than say, most anyone on BJ? He has come off the box as such a clown that even his message will be laughed at. Sanders is also pretty much a one note candidate as well but he is at least serious about the serious job he is running for and is attempting to be an actual candidate. Lessig isn’t in any way trying to be serious. Running on quitting, leaving who in his place? I’ve laughingly offered on BJ to run and would be a far more serious and far better prepared candidate than Lessig. I have actual policies in mind, ones that might just possibly work and I’m willing to work with others to improve them and at least try to realistically make this a better place. Can anyone say that about Lessig?

  157. 157.

    Jeffro

    @Another Holocene Human: I know they don’t care, but message to the right wing purity police: when you are losing Michael Steele and David Brooks, you have blown your cover and are about to be consigned to the dust heap of history.

    (wishful thinking, but still…)

  158. 158.

    mclaren

    @Jeffro:

    I know they don’t care, but message to the right wing purity police: when you are losing Michael Steele and David Brooks, you have blown your cover and are about to be consigned to the dust heap of history.

    Dude, a Republican party that controls most of the state legislatures, most of the governorships, and both houses of congress is not “about to be consigned to the dust heap of history.”

    Jeez. Wake up, liberals. You’re in a fight to the death here. Get real.

  159. 159.

    Cervantes

    @mclaren:

    Sorry, I have zero sympathy for Lawrence Lessig. This guy could write a book titled “How to be a total dick.”

    And are you saying you would read it?

  161. 161.

    Kay

    @Ruckus:

    Lessig isn’t in any way trying to be serious. Running on quitting, leaving who in his place?

    I see why this makes no sense to anyone because he never bothered to explain it. Lessig believes that we will not get policy and laws that reflect the country until the campaign finance/funding issue is addressed. He begins further back than you do. He doesn’t know what “policy and laws that reflect the country” would look like because he believes that “public will”, call it what you want, is being subverted by all the money washing around. He thinks that issue is bedrock- that nothing else will come clear until it is addressed.

    If we had a “clean” system, one where huge wads of cash weren’t skewing the debate and we ended up with conservative policy or liberal policy he can accept that. What he doesn’t accept is that what we have now is a valid expression of public intent.

  162. 162.

    Chris

    @Cervantes:

    That is an interesting development.

    Didn’t occur to me to mention it this morning, but… Cap, in most depictions, is a first or second generation Irish-American, raised in a time when prejudice against Irish immigrants was still a thing.

    So thematically, it’s actually a beautiful fit for the character. He’s beating up modern day Know-Nothings, and protecting the modern version of his own family.

  163. 163.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    Sorry, Ralph…erm, I meant Larry. No more Fairness doctrine, perhaps you should read the news every now and then.

    No “equal time” will be forthcoming.

  164. 164.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    Dude, a Republican party that controls most of the state legislatures, most of the governorships, and both houses of congress is not “about to be consigned to the dust heap of history.”

    Jeez. Wake up, liberals. You’re in a fight to the death here. Get real.

    @mclaren: My “deep blue state” of CA is anything but locally. Locally, we’re rock solid red clear up to the State Assembly level. And this is a very recent development; I could not have said this five years ago.

    Dems watch national politics far too much. Local politics is what drives national politics, and on the local level, at least where I live, Dems are getting wiped out of office en masse.

    Fight to the death indeed.

  165. 165.

    J R in WV

    @D58826:

    The biggest problem the Republicans will have with this email nonsense is that the past 3 Republican administrations did much the same thing with their email.

    Regardless of how they specifically did it, all that email went away, lest it be used to prosecute Powell and Condi Rice, and Dickhead Cheney and Rumsfeld and all for war crimes, not to mention the pallets of bundled $100 bills shipped to Iraq, C-130 air cargo planes full of money, that went missing, never accounted for.

    Who got those billions of dollars? Wanna bet they were Republican thieves?

    But all those Secretaries of State used non-federal email servers, and Clinton just followed their lead. I hope she mentions that in her testimony later this week.

    Regarding the other Democratic issues, maybe the party should open free child care centers all over the country? Talk about helping younger workers out! And the contrast with Republicans would be strong, too.

  166. 166.

    Anne Laurie

    @Cervantes: Yes, I live in Massachusetts, and Lessig is embarrassing those of us with more of a clue about how politics actually works.

    If through some improbable confluence Lessig were to fvck up the Democratic nominating process and Nader the election to whichever toxic clown eventually wins the Repub slot, us Massholes won’t be on the front lines of the GOP Destruction Machine. Professor Lessig, in particular, has an excellent high-paying day job when he’s not making a cake of himself, so it matters very little to him if Kansas decides that EBT recipients should be held in public stocks, or if Texas decides that their angry Gawd wants abortion practitioners committed to death row, much less whether the federal government goes into receivership because St. Reagan’s math demands it.

    Despite his earnest beliefs, he’s not part of the solution — he’s part of the precipitate.

  167. 167.

    Cervantes

    @Anne Laurie:

    Lessig is embarrassing those of us with more of a clue about how politics actually works.

    That would be you, I imagine — although, as I showed, you didn’t even understand his position enough to explain why you oppose him — so there’s that.

    Anyway, you have clues about “how politics actually works” and so Lessig embarrasses you.

    What embarrasses me, on the other hand, is the legalized bribery our elites laughingly call an election system. Taking part in it, we are doomed to perpetuate it. And enforcing it, our two major political parties and their acquiescent candidates are embarrassing only themselves.

    If through some improbable confluence Lessig were to [actions and consequences elided]

    You lost me at “improbable”!

  168. 168.

    Ruckus

    @Kay:
    Sure you won’t see this but what you say certainly has some validity. Only problem, OK only the first problem I see is that he isn’t running for czar of elections, he’s running for president. Lessig liking it or not, the job, as you most assuredly know, is a lot more complex than one issue. Especially an issue that he has no way of getting fixed, one he hasn’t explained any better than any issue tRump has mentioned. Yes it’s an important issue, a vitally important one, but he is a farce. A sincere one for sure, but still.

Comments are closed.