Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

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

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

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

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

This blog will pay for itself.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Let there be snark.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

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

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

The words do not have to be perfect.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Ron DeSantis, the grand wizard, oops, governor of FL

It’s the corruption, stupid.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

He really is that stupid.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Open Thread: Protest Vote

Open Thread: Protest Vote

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My not-so-hidden cynic notices that the kid can still get valuable experience working for O’Malley while standing very little chance of inconveniencing Repub candidates who are not Bush in the process. But, hey, he is a kid — with luck, he’ll learn something. From the article:

… Shooter Russell, a University of Texas sophomore who since June had held the formal role with Bush’s “Mission: NEXT program,” told the Houston Chronicle he made the switch because of the GOP’s opposition to people fleeing war-torn Syria.

“The final nail in the coffin were Trump’s comments on Muslims, the inaction by the party, and our very own state’s actions on blocking Syrian refugees,” said Russell, who added that he has cousins who do mission work in the Middle East.

As state director, Russell said he oversaw about 80 volunteers at 15 chapters across the state, set up phone-banking plans and helped organize an event featuring Bush’s son, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush. Now, he said, he is planning to travel to Iowa to campaign for O’Malley, a former governor of Maryland who is far behind in the polls…

Speaking of Ripe to Rot, or whatever Jeb’s superPAC calls itself, Vox reports that “Team Bush’s spending is twice as much as the combined money spent on ads for the top four GOP candidates in the polls — Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Ben Carson…”

All the media people seem to like that analogy — here’s a related article from Matea Gold in the Washington Post:

… “Because of the many channels of information across all these media platforms, paid advertising is having as limited an effect as anyone can recall,” said Rob Stutzman, a Sacramento-based GOP strategist who is backing Bush.

“And it’s fairly obvious that who Jeb is is not thus far what most Republican primary voters have been looking for,” he added. “Now, when they start going to the polls, we will see if that changes.”..

Reader Interactions

107Comments

  3. 3.

    redshirt

    For some bizarre reason iCarly is spending big on radio ads on the local classic rock station, in Maine – though I suppose some listeners might be in NH.

    Puzzling.

  4. 4.

    ruemara

    They could have given me a few million and it would have gone to better use. About to start watching it happened one night.

  5. 5.

    Mike in NC

    JEBzzz the sorriest fucking loser the GOP establishment has hacked up in a very long time. At least Trump and Cruz have actual supporters, as deranged as they are. He makes his dry drunk brother seem like a Nobel prize laureate.

  9. 9.

    Ken

    “Now, when they start going to the polls, we will see if that changes.”

    Apparently saying the polling is skewed is now a job requirement for GOP strategists.

  15. 15.

    NotMax

    Jeb! Will Flub It.

    Have seen other reports over the past week that the RtR superPAC has spent (burned through, frittered away, whatever) over $50 million so far, half of what the Brink’s trucks have dumped on their loading dock.

  16. 16.

    ruemara

    hmm, the base cookie recipe for my white chocolate cranberry cookies has a flaw. It seems emulsified, the cookie is quite melted. Very annoying. I think I’m going to have to do them over. Not sure if I can afford to do over & ship out christmas stuff in the same time period. dagnabit.

  19. 19.

    Marc

    The smart move would be to conserve his cash, since tRump gets all the free airplay via his latest screech. But, donors want poll results to prove they’re backing the right person, and nobody can get traction by being seen as an establishment candidate, or worse, sane. Bush knows what the government and executive branch can and can’t do, while the others are just tossing more red meat to the base, not caring if law or reality will accommodate what they say or not. Thus they keep their numbers up, while forcing Bush to burn cash just to tread water. Not a good situation for anybody aside from the folks who are raking in the cash for those media buys. TV and Radio folks are going to have a great year.

  20. 20.

    p.a.

    Bet W’s not walking down any stairs if ¿Jeb’s behind him.
    “After you…”
    “No, after you…”
    “Oh but I insist…”

  21. 21.

    Jay C

    … “Because of the many channels of information across all these media platforms, paid advertising is having as limited an effect as anyone can recall,” said Rob Stutzman, a Sacramento-based GOP strategist who is backing Bush.

    Gee, you have to wonder whether it ever occurred to this guy that the reason why the advertising is having so “limited” an effect is that it is trying to pitch a VERY limited candidate, i.e. one John Ellis Bush?

    PS: Maybe I missed something on the “site update” threads, but what happened to the comment numbers?

  22. 22.

    Steeplejack

    @Jay C:

    Maybe I missed something on the “site update” threads, but what happened to the comment numbers?

    Temporarily gone while work is in progress. Specifically, there is a problem with a theme for which Alain is awaiting a fix (at last report).

  23. 23.

    Roger Moore

    @Marc:

    Not a good situation for anybody aside from the folks who are raking in the cash for those media buys. TV and Radio folks are going to have a great year.

    Also, too, the media conslutants who make the media buys and get a substantial commission on every one. The SuperPAC business is a form of grifting.

  24. 24.

    danielx

    Jeb Bush’s operation appears to have set $32.5 million on fire https://t.co/px5csGeitf

    — Black Intellect (@Blk_Intellect) December 12, 2015

    Whereas all Il Douche has to do is get up in the morning and decide who he is going to piss on (and off), make the appropriate statement(s), and zoom go his poll ratings with Republican primary voters. For an investment of nothing other than time, to all intents and purposes. Give the fucking fascist some credit; he has a better grasp of the media and how to manipulate it than any of the other candidates and/or their advisors. Nobody else even comes close. As long as he doesn’t care who he insults, and there is no, zip, zero, nada evidence that he does so care, any kind of publicity is good because it keeps the pot boiling and people talking about him. Kind of like a Hollywood agent’s advice to one of his clients: “Would you rather be on the cover of National Enquirer because of rumors you’re cheating on your spouse and screwing your nanny/carpenter/co-star, or not be there at all?”

    One would think that with all the dirt in Trump’s background, some serious ratfucking sappers would have been deployed by now and be showing results. The Turdblossom must be busy grinding his molars down to stubs at this point – “if only Jeb had hired me, I’d have that Manhattan motherfucker face down in a manure lagoon by now. But nooooo, his daddy can’t stand me, so that evangelical idiot with a very few scruples is never going to be in the Oval Office. Well, fuck him and Trump both.”

  26. 26.

    Roger Moore

    @efgoldman:

    OTOH, in a good year, the regulation used to say, and maybe still does, that politicals get the station’s lowest regular rates, so they can’t jack them up for e.g. the holidays or Washington’s birthday, or even local availabilities in football playoffs.

    I don’t think that’s true in general; at the very least it isn’t true for the SuperPACs, who are the ones making the really huge ad buys.

  27. 27.

    NotMax

    @Jay C

    Summary: Everything (including changes previously made, such as re-adding comment numbers) more or less on hold until the theme designers answer Alain’s e-mails about why the thing is broken in about 12 different places. And then after that (supposedly) the new commenting interface goes live. That ought to be a rollercoaster ride for a while.

  28. 28.

    redshirt

    @efgoldman: I believe in Alain. He’s stated very clearly what’s going on – he’s waiting to add back those changes till the theme issues are resolved.

    We’ll get them back. But in the meantime, we still have recent comments which is the single best feature on the site.

  33. 33.

    catclub

    @Roger Moore: My understanding is that the actual campaigns can buy at the preferred rate, but the SuperPacs do not get that preferred rate.

    Explains why the media hate on both SuperPacs and Citizens United has not been particularly full-throated.

  34. 34.

    catclub

    @Jay C: Advertising works if the other side does not have similar resources. Romney was able to blitz Gingrich and Santorum – by about 6 to 1.

    But Romney could not blitz Obama because Obama has his own resources PLUS gets coverage as the major party candidate. Likewise, when Trump and Cruz get lots of free coverage, they do not need advertising. — As long as it is not pure hate from the media.

  44. 44.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @divF: No, the town is older than that. It’s just a fundraising cookbook.

    ETA: I don’t see how it raised funds.

  50. 50.

    divF

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    When people want to bring food to a holiday dinner, I set up two ground rules:
    (1) No cream of (X) soup in the vegetables.*
    (2) No miniature marshmallows in anything.

    *Generally, (1) is enough to prevent the use of canned french-fried onions.

    ETA: No one seems to remember any of the vile things you can do with jello, so I don’t want to bring it up and remind them.

  51. 51.

    p.a.

    @ruemara: I found out recently they still sell those canned crispy onions that go atop ‘tuna casserole surprise’ etc. Think they now come from Chernobyl.

  53. 53.

    NotMax

    @p.a.

    Now, now, by propriety the canned fried onions go atop vegetable casseroles. La Choy crispy noodles go atop tuna casserole.

    :)

  55. 55.

    benw

    @divF: point (1) is well-taken. However, point (2) means no casserole of sweet potatoes served under a layer of toasted mini-marshmallows, which is very very wrong.

  58. 58.

    redshirt

    I have an aunt who is “famous” for her Thanksgiving desert “affectionately” called “Green Stuff”. It’s a green jello mold with little marshmallows and fruit embedded within and it’s truly abhorrent but I eat a piece whenever duty calls. For freedom.

  59. 59.

    Prescott Cactus

    @p.a.:
    I had stinky tofu on multigrain toast. I bought it and goddamnit I’m gonna use it.
    Cleaning a woodchipper ?

  60. 60.

    divF

    Another female household-hinter gave a recipe for a big hearty main dish of elbow macaroni, mint jelly, lima beans, mayonnaise and cheese baked until “hot and yummy.” Unless my taste buds are paralyzed, this dish could be baked until hell freezes over and it might get hot but never “yummy.”

    Betty MacDonald, Onions in the Stew

  64. 64.

    PurpleGirl

    This thread reminds of a scene from Auntie Mame wherein Mame is at the home of her supposed to be future niece by marriage and whose mother has made canapes of some weird components. Mame has ditched the things in the garden along with pouring out the drinks made with honey. (No, I don’t remember what the canapes were made with — maybe peanut butter and herring. Weird.)

    Anyway, I think those recipes are more 1950s/60s using commercial products and often aimed at church potluck suppers or supposedly being “innovative” or “international” food tastes. Weird, very weird.

  65. 65.

    Mike G

    “And it’s fairly obvious that who Jeb is is not thus far what most Republican primary voters have been looking for,”

    This is the business wing of the Repukes. Selling a shit product with relentless advertising is what they do, in business and in politics.

  66. 66.

    Anoniminous

    @divF:

    No one seems to remember any of the vile things you can do with jello …

    I submit everybody remembers the vile things done with jello and that is why we don’t do them.

  68. 68.

    redshirt

    @PurpleGirl: Apparently branded products were highly admired back then, due no doubt to the novelty. Then when a mother teaches a daughter, it becomes tradition.

    How else to explain Velveeta?

  69. 69.

    PurpleGirl

    And efgoldman: threadjacking and making weird recipes the focus was a fun thing to do. Current politics gets so boring after a while.

  71. 71.

    Anoniminous

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Shall I report the Christmas dinner where one of the guests brought sweet potato mushed-up in cream with chocolate chips folded in? The rest of the offerings were equally …. something.

    Where “something” is not coterminous with “palatable” or “appetizing.”

  72. 72.

    Anne Laurie

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I don’t see how it raised funds.

    You know this as well as I do: the flipside of all that fifties Midwestern Neighborliness was a very Nordic equivalent to the ChiCom’s neighbor watch committees. You didn’t necessarily have to use the recipes, but surely you’d want a copy of our very valuable community offering, comrade, for the PEOPLE! — plus an extra copy or three as gifts, sometimes for people you didn’t like very much.

    (Actually, by the 1970s, I remember the upgraded models being touted as nostalgia gifts to send to Grammy in her Florida condo or your cousin now living in Southern California.)

  75. 75.

    p.a.

    @NotMax: White Corning casserole, blue cornflowers, glass lid?
    We also had 1950’s era Cronin set, yellow with blue tulips, but that was for show. (Lead glaze I bet). Got nice $ for it in eBay, but blue/blue and pink/blue were more rare.

  76. 76.

    PurpleGirl

    @Anne Laurie: In the 1980s I helped put together one of those cookbooks. It was a fund raiser for renovating/rebuilding the pipe organ of the Lutheran Church I was a member of at the time. Recipes came from the church members and the printing company provided standard pages of measurements and some other basic cooking information. I don’t think I’ve ever made anything out of the book but I look at it from time to time.

  78. 78.

    Geoduck

    Jeb! probably won’t get the nomination at this point, but I still wouldn’t be totally shocked if he bumbled his way into it in the end.

  79. 79.

    divF

    @efgoldman:
    Besides, we are all willing parties to this (except for Omnes Omnibus, who is still not getting out of the boat), so you certainly can’t take the all the blame / credit.

  80. 80.

    TriassicSands

    In the United States, every Republican candidate running for president in 2016 has publicly questioned or denied the science of climate change, and has voiced opposition to Mr. Obama’s climate change policies.

    From the NYTimes

    That sentence should eliminate any possibility of a GOP presidential win in 2016. That it doesn’t is a sign of just how deeply entrenched ignorance and stupidity are in the US today.

    So the individual countries’ plans are voluntary, but the legal requirements that they publicly monitor, verify and report what they are doing, as well as publicly put forth updated plans, are designed to create a “name-and-shame” system of global peer pressure, in hopes that countries will not want to be seen as international laggards.

    From the NYTimes

    Shame? Well, we know that won’t work at all for Republican politicians, who, long ago, demonstrated that they don’t know what the word “shame” means. If a Republican wins in 2016, by 2020, the next time the countries are scheduled to meet to revisit the climate change issue, the US will already be a good four years behind in efforts to address the greatest threat modern civilization has ever faced. (Actually, we’ll be much more than four years behind, but the clock gets reset to 2015 by this agreement, so our years of doing next to nothing won’t count.)

    Sometime in the future, the GOP will be among the most vilified groups in human history. Their refusal to embrace science and join with Democrats to address climate change will be seen by historians as the most selfish and short-sighted policy choice ever made by an American political party. And the Americans who voted Republican in election after election will probably be claiming they always supported candidates who accepted the science. The same people who are ignorant, stupid, or selfish enough today to elect Republicans will lack the integrity to take responsibility for their actions.

    As catastrophic warming continues, perhaps the Republican Party will finally die the ignominious death it so richly deserves — sadly, it will be too late to repair the damage they will have done.

  82. 82.

    Anne Laurie

    @redshirt:

    It’s a green jello mold with little marshmallows and fruit embedded within and it’s truly abhorrent but I eat a piece whenever duty calls.

    Does she whip the mix into a froth before putting it in the mold? They called it ‘ambrosia’ when I was in the Midwest, but I’m not sure whether that term only applies to the aerated variety…

  85. 85.

    Anne Laurie

    @p.a.:

    Some of the egg nog out now is ‘egg nog flavored drink’ in the fine print.

    That’s the big gubmint label nazis– you can’t call it egg nog if it doesn’t contain eggs, and frankly anyone drinking the commercial stuff doesn’t want it to contain eggs. Heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla flavor is plenty for the annual nostalgia binge, thanks.

  86. 86.

    redshirt

    @Anne Laurie: I have no idea how she makes it but yes it is “cloudy” jello with the fruit and solid marshmallow bits all about. So, yes, frothed, I guess. I mean, it’s not that bad, I suppose. If you were a prisoner of war. I always liked to think of myself at a diplomatic dinner, with certain diplomatic obligations to perform – like, to eat the “Green Stuff” and say “MmM, love it Aunt Marilyn.” Like 30 years running.

  87. 87.

    PurpleGirl

    @PurpleGirl: Took the cookbook from the shelf:

    The Friends and Members of Trinity Lutheran Church
    Present
    Cooking with the Best

    For the Benefit of the E.M. Skinner Organ Restoration

    The organ was worth restoring, it is was great instrument. Most of us didn’t want to get an electronic organ because those things usually needed to be replaced every ten years as the parts wore out and couldn’t be fixed. A real pipe organ was a treasure. I was a member of the church council by this time and took part in the decision.

  88. 88.

    oldgold

    Starting In Iowa is a real problem for the GOP. Basically, the winner will be who the wooden shoe knotheads in Sioux County decide to support. In ’08 it was Huckabee and in ’12 it was Santorum. How did that work out for these ‘winners.’

    The Democratic caucus in Iowa is not much better. But, at least the Cooper Age mythologist and literalist are not in charge. The whole thing is an outrageous waste of time

    I am an Iowan.

  91. 91.

    Ruckus

    @redshirt:
    Found out decades ago that if enough of the extended family just doesn’t eat certain dishes, there is a minor bit of huffery going on for a few days but that dish doesn’t show up next year. So it takes a few holidays to not see whatever it is that no one, including the former maker, wants to eat out of some strange obligation. It also helps to offer to cook something else to save them the time and effort. That offer was never accepted until late adulthood at which time you were required to prepare the entire meal.

  92. 92.

    ? Martin

    @TriassicSands: California will abide by the agreement even if we’re the only state doing it. We’ll do it because it will continue to give us an economic advantage which is something the GOP apparently doesn’t believe in.

  94. 94.

    mclaren

    @Mike in NC:
    Jeb? The sorriest loser the hop has put up in quite some time?
    Dude! Have you forgotten 2008? Sarah Palin?
    Then there’s dan Quayle…michelle Bachmann..Herman Cain…Ben Carson…the list goes on.

  95. 95.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @TriassicSands:

    Actually, we’ll be much more than four years behind, but the clock gets reset to 2015 by this agreement, so our years of doing next to nothing won’t count.

    Not only will our Republican ‘friends’ do next to nothing, they want to burn more fossil fuels, you know drill, baby drill.

  96. 96.

    Anne Laurie

    @p.a.: The people I know who drink the stuff are either children or indulging their inner child. No eggs, no bourbon.

    (Back in the Midwest the non-alcohol eggnog was used as a late-night party “patch” for those guests who’d maybe imbibed enough that you didn’t really want them to get behind the wheel just yet. “Have some nog, Jethro! We’re hoping the fat and sugar will make you barf up that third glass of punch, or at least make you sleepy enough that we can wrest the car keys away from you!”)

  97. 97.

    Frivolous

    I’m appalled that some parents named that poor kid Shooter.

    I mean, what’s next? Blaster? Bomber? Wanker?

  98. 98.

    Petorado

    Trump seems to have single-handedly rendered Citizens United obsolete. Who needs unlimited campaign cash to buy face time with voters, when being batshit insane gets more free voter face time than money can buy? Jeb!, by all rights, has won the money game and therefore should have won the media game. But the media is instead following the shiniest object, making Jeb! the wealthiest loser. The media is still in the pocket of Republicans, just not the one the Establishment wants.

  99. 99.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Velveeta has a legit place in some southwestern cookery. It goes back to before refrigeration was common there. Per an 80s cookbook called The feast.of.Santa.Fe.

    PS Jello salad in many homes requires cream cheese. That does hide.some things.

  103. 103.

    Another Holocene Human

    @benw: We’re going to have to fight. Sweet potatoes are already insanely sweet so you add sugar and candy to them? Nasty.

    I love that old Moosewood Cookbook Sweet Potato Pie. Poppyseed crust and a hint of oranges.

  104. 104.

    Another Holocene Human

    @NotMax: citrus and crab meat actually sounds good but I now need brain bleach for that mayo and vomit “cocktail”

  105. 105.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Anoniminous: cream AND chocolate chips? I think my wife would actually cry. (Lactose intolerant and averse to the smell of milk chocolate, probably because of the lactose intolerance.)

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