Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

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

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

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

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

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Books are my comfort food!

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

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

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

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

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

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Fight them, without becoming them!

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

You are here: Home / Politics / Activist Judges! / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Same Stuff…

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Same Stuff…

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As BettyC so kindly pointed out, there was another Democratic debate last night, this time on Spanish-language Univision in cooperation with the Washington Post. New and intelligent questions were asked, and both candidates responded in an adult fashion, much to the disappointment of the Media Village Idiots.

Meanwhile, Trump’s campaign manager seems to have manhandled a female reporter from “the famously Trump-friendly Breitbart News“… and her employers signally failed to support her. In case anyone needed a further clue as to Repub social values…
***********
Apart from that, what’s on the agenda for the day?

gop flasher convention wilkinson

(Signe Wilkinson via GoComics.com)

Reader Interactions

155Comments

  5. 5.

    bemused

    I just read over at JuanitaJean (hilarious Texas blog) that grifter and sleezebag Neil Bush has joined Ted Cruz’ finance committee.Tangled webs, indeed.

  9. 9.

    glory b

    Six women, one man killed, three others injured in an ambush mass shooting around 2 miles from my house in Pittsburgh!

  13. 13.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @raven: We’re out of the PAC-12 tourney, beaten by U$C(for the 3rd time this season) in the first round. With a 15-17 record, we’re not getting a bid for the big dance.

  16. 16.

    A Humble Lurker

    Rachel had the weirdest bit on last night. It was a case for the idea that the Republican party would survive Trump because it survived Goldwater. Now, I recognize that wishing the GOP is finally managing to kill itself is like wishing for unicorns, or ponies, or unicorn ponies, but it was kind of weird how shallow the argument was. It didn’t take into account the actions of LBJ that lost the Democrats the south, the GOP’s fairly recent and unprecedented shitty behavior, the growth of diversity in the years between then and now and how the growth of the internet which has made it much harder for the right to hide it’s nuttiness. It was odd.

  17. 17.

    Baud

    Aside from the crowd booing questions in Benghazi, I found the debate a little depressing. It feels like a certain level of monotony has come over the Democratic primary.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Right. It’s hard to compete with the clown show for entertainment value. But I feel like our side has become predictable. It’s like reading the same paragraph in a book over and over again.

  24. 24.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    Anyone hear the NPR piece on global reaction to the US race yesterday? The reporter from China was interesting. She said there was a lot of interest and excitement over Obama because he was an ethnic minority & that just can’t happen in China; no minority there is going to rise in politics they feel. They are completely disinterested this year, according to her, because a guy who came from wealthy parents (Drumpf) and the wife of a former leader are exactly what they get in Asia so they assume politics here is the same as there. Sadly, they may have a point if you look at it from their POV, many of us have complained about money & dynasties dominating the scene. I just found the piece interesting to see us through other eyes.

  27. 27.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Schlemazel (parmesan rancor): Sam Wang was recently in Hong Kong and reported that there was a lot of interest there, mostly horror over Trump and what he might do to foreign (and, I suppose, trade) policy, though some thought he might be all right for domestic policy because he was a businessman.

  28. 28.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The only way I can see the GOP going away is if the racists become an organized force within the party, as opposed to simply being the base whom politicians dog whistle to.

  32. 32.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    @Baud:
    From an emotional stand point that may be true. I went into 08 believing we would never elect a Black Democrat President (I assume it would be some Republican because they would play nice with him). It was a proud night when he was declared the winner. But those two in a debate? Hard io imagine how reved up it would get. I think that would be exciting.

    @Matt McIrvin:
    Everyone always looks at how an election might affect them so I am not surprised that folks in HK would think that way. The fact that they care at all about the election in a different country says a lot about the US, both as our position in the world as the 800 LB gorilla and of our people who mostly couldn’t name more than 3 world leaders right now.

  33. 33.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: I thought that’s what the Tea Party was. We live in interesting times that are about to get a whole lot more interesting. Sometimes it seems almost anything could happen.

  34. 34.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    Best correction of the day:

    Correction at 9:58 a.m. on 3/09/2016: Due to an oversight involving a haphazardly-installed Chrome extension during the editing process, the name Donald Trump was erroneously replaced with the phrase “Someone With Tiny Hands” when this story originally published.

  36. 36.

    aimai

    Jeezus christ–do they not have editors at the Wapo? The article you link to uses “disavow” to mean “disabuse.” Also it is in fact the case that Bernie, though obviously not a supporter of either the minutemen or the koch brothers, is not promising to maintain obamacare and is promising to attempt to do something risky with health care as currently constituted in an attempt to get to single payer. The next president has to be prepared to fight a god damned holding action just to keep the current good parts of the ACA. If he’s not promising to support Obama’s work and Obamacare, he is going to end up destroying it.

  42. 42.

    Matt McIrvin

    The national head-to-head polls for Clinton vs. Ted Cruz show this amazingly stark difference right now: Internet polls all show Clinton beating Cruz by gigantic margins, and phone polls show Cruz beating Clinton by small margins. A similar thing is going on with Clinton vs. Rubio, though it’s not as extreme. It looks as if they’re sampling very different populations.

  45. 45.

    Mustang Bobby

    Marco Rubio held a rally yesterday in Hialeah, a predominately Cuban suburb of Miami. It was in a football stadium to hold the anticipated overflowing crowd, and … they barely got past the 20 yard line.

    If he can’t find a crowd there, the show’s over.

  46. 46.

    BruceFromOhio

    … and her employers signally failed to support her. In case anyone needed a further clue as to Repub social values…

    Gaia save me, Breitbart and Il Douche’s campaign should be slobbering all over each other.
    A pox on both their houses!

    Re: shootings and accident victims, demonstrates we have room to grow. People, I challenge any and all to go out of your way to demonstrate kindness and compassion. That these traits have become seemingly rare makes them that much more valuable. Yeah, naivete, thy name is Bruce, but sheee-yit, gotta start somewhere…

  47. 47.

    PaulWartenberg2016

    When I saw that George Martin had died last night, for a minute I freaked that Game of Thrones was ruined forever. Then I saw it wasn’t George RR Martin and I breathed a sigh of relief.

    Then I saw it was SIR George Martin of the Beatles who died. Now I’m crying again.

  48. 48.

    Baud

    @debbie:

    It’s grown up, which is good. It’s also predictable, which is bad. I’m not looking for entertainment. But I would like to see some sort of flow or rhythm to the primary, and I don’t see it right now.

  49. 49.

    BruceFromOhio

    @Matt McIrvin: The FromOhio’s have a landline that is published. We do not answer it. It rings pretty regularly from 6pm to 8pm most weeknights, and you can hear the hang-up click before the answering machine even gets past ‘Hello’ with the greeting. Making a speculative leap here, but in the twist of demographics, I’m going to propose that the folks answering the phone will tend older, and thus more likely to identify conservative.

  51. 51.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    I’m not sure what kind of rhythm or flow you’re looking for at this point. Primaries have always been unorganized scrums, in my experience. The organized messaging is for the actual campaigns.

    Speaking of rhythm, where are the Clinton trolls?

  53. 53.

    debbie

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    NPR ran a segment this morning about a high school debate teacher trying to teach about the Lincoln-Douglas debates in the midst of the GOP’s antics.

  54. 54.

    Baud

    @debbie:

    Trolls show up about comment 80.

    As far as rhythm or flow, it’s hard to describe, but I believe it’s an essential element of anything interesting in life. Maybe it’s just me with respect to this primary.

  57. 57.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @MomSense: How could people not help people? Once while sitting at a bus stop I saw an old woman get run over by a p/u. My buddy and I ran out into the middle of Kingshighway to help her, another person jumped out of their car to help her, and one guy tried to catch the hit and run driver (failed) but came back to try and help, and nobody just drove around her/us as we tried to get her out of the street.

    I was taught that that is what people do.

  58. 58.

    Technocrat

    @debbie:

    Yeah. I figure if I had two candidates for Director Of Human Resources debating, it wouldn’t be particularly exciting. But we have a little bit of the Warrior God mythos going on with Presidents, they have to seem larger than life.

  59. 59.

    Baud

    @Technocrat:

    I figure if I had two candidates for Director Of Human Resources debating, it wouldn’t be particularly exciting.

    Disagree. The battle over core competencies would be epic.

  60. 60.

    debbie

    @Baud: @Technocrat:

    I think the problem is that campaigns are so damn long anymore. I hope people haven’t tired of politics once the actual campaigns begin.

  62. 62.

    JMG

    I did not watch the debate last night. Our primary in Mass. was last week, so I already voted. In that sense, I am no longer involved in the Democratic race except as a spectator, so I watched college basketball instead. Am I wrong to feel that way? I will happily support either candidate when it’s down to one, but to immerse myself in the intramural contest for months would leave me a burnout by July.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    They’re selling quite a few tickets for the Dem dinner in the northern part of the state. I didn’t have anything to do with organizing it and I thought the tickets were too expensive ($25) but I always think it should be “$5” which is unrealistic. “Why can’t it be $5? Because it can’t” :)

    Marcy Kaptur is the speaker. I thought she endorsed Clinton for some reason but checking the internet it looks like she’s staying neutral.

  64. 64.

    JPL

    @OzarkHillbilly: Hopefully, that situation is not reflective, of the country we live in today. I am so sorry for the family, and I can’t imagine the pain they are feeling. It’s horrendous.

  66. 66.

    debbie

    @debbie:

    But also, maybe the rhythm bothers me less because I’m distracted by the political shenanigans going on in my area. I’m really looking forward to next week’s vote, if only for local and county issues.

  67. 67.

    Baud

    @debbie:

    That might be it. And I get that most people don’t pay daily attention to politics, so it’s all new to them, even if it seems repetitive and monotonous to me.

  68. 68.

    Technocrat

    @Baud:

    Next debate lets have Killer Mike and Snoop Dogg go at it:

    I’m protesting the duality
    of income inequality!
    filling the Big Tent
    to bring down the 1%!

  70. 70.

    Technocrat

    @Baud: @debbie:

    I think I agree that it’s dragging on at this point. There’s very little new information that the candidates can bring to each debate.

  71. 71.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: Pity the teachers… plugging the dike** with their fingers while the waters rise up over the top.

    ** when first I typed that it was with a “y”. Sexual fantasy or too many gay rights articles?

  72. 72.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    @Matt McIrvin:
    are phone polls still stuck to land lines? I believe Crudz would win if only people with hard wired phones got to vote

  73. 73.

    Emperor Snapper

    @A Humble Lurker: Well, in 1964 the Republican party did not have a firm, gerrymandered grip on the House of Representatives, which they do now, so that works to their advantage.

    Honestly, at this point a Trump nomination is the best thing that can happen to the Republicans. If he loses big in the general election they are rid of him. If he wins the general election, they control the White House (up to a point). If they use convention shenanigans to deny him the nomination despite being the most popular choice among the partisans, they risk ripping the party in half.

  74. 74.

    Patricia Kayden

    From the Daily Beast link: “Lewandowski’s explanation to Boyle, said these sources, was that he and Fields had never met before and that he didn’t recognize her as a Breitbart reporter, instead mistaking her for an adversarial member of the mainstream media.”

    Is no one bothered by the fact that Trump thinks it’s okay for his thugs to attack reporters from “adversarial” mainstream media outlets? Is the media okay with Trump picking and choosing which reporters cover his campaign and his use of violence against those he deems “adversarial”? This has really gotten crazy.

  75. 75.

    Keith G

    @A Humble Lurker: I think that the Republican Party survives even if in a slightly altered form because our political traditions call for us having two major parties. I think what we would observe is something akin to the first practical lab experience I remember in 8th grade earth science. A jar containing creek water with a layer of sedimentation at the bottom was shaken up. The whole jar became thick with mud. Then things obviously began to settle back down. And 10 minutes later it was back to its original form. Stasis achieved.

    By the way, I just finished reading Jeffrey Goldbergs article on the Obama Doctrine. Is at the Atlantic.com. It is certain to be a topic for some interesting discussions.

  78. 78.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Do you think they know who Cruz is yet? I don’t. They have yet to experience the joy of daily Ted Cruz.

    Some conservative group is running a bizarre ad here. It’s about how Hillary Clinton stood by while Isis destroyed Christianity in the world. It was actually helpful to me because that’s Ted Cruz’s culture war wedge issue- Christians under attack. I didn’t know they meant it literally. I thought they were talking about women having the temerity to buy contraceptives when they work for certain entities or of course the huge “forcing Christians to sell wedding cakes to certain people” controversy.

  80. 80.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    Christians under attack. I didn’t know they meant it literally. I thought they were talking about women having the temerity

    They are, but only Evangelicals hear that, so for the rest of us he has to get the ISIS baseball bat out and beat us over the heads with it in order to feel properly under siege.

  81. 81.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @JMG:

    Our primary in Mass. was last week, so I already voted. In that sense, I am no longer involved in the Democratic race except as a spectator,

    That’s how I’ve felt since early February.

  82. 82.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I hope Ted Cruz is the nominee. It’s not an accident that everyone he works with hates him, and Trump is setting the table on “liar”. Donald Trump calls Ted Cruz a liar approximately every 21 minutes.

  83. 83.

    danielx

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Yep, you’d think that even the Trump campaign would balk at stomping a reporter but such is clearly not the case. His staffers have clearly internalized his insight that all coverage is good, and Trump himself holds reporters in contempt. I can’t say I’m surprised, but I can’t wait for someone to actually file charges against one of his staffers or “very passionate” supporters, as he refers to them.

  84. 84.

    Betty Cracker

    I must have nodded off during the new and intelligent questions portion of the debate. Seemed like the same old bullshit to me, only occasionally translated into Spanish.

  85. 85.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Cruz would have that fundie army to organize for him, but he’s not Bush so I don’t think he would be able to put together the other piece, which is shallow people who vote on “good man” and “gut”.

  86. 86.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Unlike Donald, Ted is transparent as to what he is. If America votes for him, it’ll be with eyes wide open.

  87. 87.

    Technocrat

    @Kay:

    It’s the difference between wanting to “have a beer with him”, and “throw a beer at him”.

  91. 91.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: Believe it or not I’ve never heard the man speak or seen a video of him. My perception of him is based wholly and completely on how other people perceive him which, outside of psychopaths, is with universal loathing.

  96. 96.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    He’s gross even with his fans. He patronizes them. I don’t think he can help it. He rephrases what they say because they get it wrong. “Yes, religious liberty is a huge issue” in response to a 5 minute ramble on something or other.

  99. 99.

    satby

    @Baud: I totally agree. Boring doesn’t fire anyone up, and I went from neutral on Bernie to starting to really hate him every time he opens his yap.

  105. 105.

    Applejinx

    @O. Felix Culpa: Click through to the ‘furries greet Syrian refugees’ to feel better. Neither furries OR Canadians would be that kind of monstrous, and it’s good to be reminded.

    Justin Trudeau is Prime Minister over there. Good things CAN happen.

  106. 106.

    A Humble Lurker

    Would like to clarify that I don’t think this is the end of the Republican party (as I believe that’s too much to hope for) but if you’re going to argue the reason it’s not is because Goldwater didn’t end them, you have to take the societal and governmental and even technological changes between then and now into account when you make your argument. Not doing so is just malpractice….and weird.

    The general is going to be a hell of a thing though. Repubs are holding back because they want Trump’s votes. The Dem nominee won’t, and that’s when things will get really interesting.

  107. 107.

    Cermet

    I am only now realizing how lucky we where living in the cocoon that Dad (read President Obama) provided all of us. I knew ACA would be defended, and that the economy would slowly, but steadily improve and that there would be no danger of a new, major war (not that minor ones wouldn’t continue.) I even knew that climate change would remain on the radar and knew small steps would be taken.

    Now, all that is changing and that comfortable world is crumbling; maybe Hillary can continue to provide some of that (expect far less on climate change, the economy will not be managed well, and congress will grant few victories – she isn’t Obama.) Sanders would be a lost cause because he’d achieved zero victories with congress and he has said he’d possibly abandoned ACA; so, the economy would be pretty much be on its own as banks/wall street raise a Chicken Little cry of “the sky is falling” just because.)

    Or worse, tRump burns down most of what President Obama achieved these years.

    Not happy at all about Dad leaving …

  109. 109.

    Steeplejack

    @Patricia Kayden:

    From the article:

    The 75-year-old Bamberger is wearing his Korean War Veterans Association Chapter 4 shirt [. . .].

    Since the Korean War ended in 1953—almost 63 years ago—he must be the youngest dude that ever served. Or else his veterans’ group has some sort of rule that if you were ever in the military and visited Korea you’re eligible.

    ETA: Nailed it! From a comment to the article:

    [I] had a look at the KWVA website. Anyone who has served in Korea since 1945 is eligible, as well as anyone who served outside of Korea between June 25, 1950, to January 31, 1955. Technically South Korea and North Korea remain at war to this day, so it makes some sense.

  110. 110.

    raven

    @Steeplejack: I was thinking exactly the same thing. I served there in 67-68 and it was called “the DMZ War”. It took years for them to authorize a Korean Defense Medal that recognized the situation there but I would NEVER call myself a Korean War Veteran.

    eta I look at their site and you are correct, outfits like this do anything they can to keep their membership up. My dad was on a destroyer that worked with Marine Raiders and their organization made the sailors eligible for membership.

  111. 111.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Applejinx: Correction: According to wiki East St Louis is 98% black. I was giving white people a little too much credit. Don’t know why, I’m the only white person I know who has willingly gone to ESL.

  112. 112.

    raven

    March 7, 2016
    STATEMENT FROM THE KOREAN WAR VETERANS ASSOCIATION REGARDING A RECENT EVENT AT A RALLY IN KENTUCKY FOR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE DONALD TRUMP
    The leadership of the Korean War Veterans Association (KWVA) is fully aware of the unfortunate circumstances that occurred at a recent political rally in Kentucky for presidential candidate Donald Trump that involved one of its members.
    The association has reviewed the actions and reactions which precipitated the events at that rally and is continuing to investigate the matter in order to determine if there are appropriate actions that the KWVA will take in an effort to resolve this issue. Mr. Bamberger was not officially representing the Korean War Veterans Association at this event and the association does not, in any way, condone his actions.
    The KWVA places a great deal of emphasis on the conduct and decorum of KWVA members at public meetings. Once the association has learned all of the facts regarding this incident, and there are many yet to be revealed, it will then be in a position to better move forward and determine the applicable actions to be accomplished.
    Larry Kinard
    President, Korean War Veterans Association
    blockquote>

  113. 113.

    Kay

    Trump is becoming more favorable among the GOP electorate and less favorable among the general electorate.

    An unpopular populist might be a problem, if it continues :)

    At least Ted Cruz can fall back on “true conservative”.

  115. 115.

    Steve in the ATL

    Lee Chapel, where silver medalist Robert E. Lee is buried, is flying it’s flag (the US one) at half-mast today in memory of Nancy Reagan.

    Why?

  116. 116.

    Unsympathetic

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Would it be cost-prohibitive for all news organizations to hire muscle-bound “assistant cameramen” for the teams covering Trump?

    I hear the Pinkertons are available.

  117. 117.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Kay: Can we coin that–“Trump’s unpopulist campaign” or “Trump the unpopulist”?

  119. 119.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Steeplejack: Technically it wasn’t a war at all, since Congress never declared it, but a police action under the auspices of the UN. For troof in advertising they should change the name to “Korean Police Action Veterans” & open membership to anyone of any country who served during that distant unpleasantness. Could get right innerestin’ when the Turkish contingent showed up–they were such badasses that the PRANK wanted nothing to do with them…

  120. 120.

    NotMax

    Canadian snark (emphasis in original).

    During the outdoor speech, Trump is distracted by something in the sky, presumably a plane or helicopter: Uh oh, it’s ISIS! Get ’em down! Trump then forms his index finger and thumb into a gun and pretends to blast the object out of the sky. Yes, this actually happened. Oh, I’d shoot that guy down so fast your head would spin. This boast comes from a man whose record of military service consists in its entirety of multiple deployments to breakfast with Cap’n Crunch. Source

    Whole piece is good for your daily ration of snickering.

  123. 123.

    NotMax

    Likely buried in the innards of the business section of your local fishwrap.

    Saudi Arabia is seeking a bank loan of between $6 billion and $8 billion in what would be the first significant foreign borrowing by the kingdom’s government for over a decade.

    Riyadh has asked lenders to submit proposals to extend it a five-year US dollar loan of that size, with an option to increase it, in order to help plug a record budget deficit caused by low oil prices.
    [snip]
    In mid-February, Standard & Poor’s cut Saudi Arabia’s long-term sovereign credit rating by two notches to A-minus. The world’s other two major rating agencies still have much higher assessments of Riyadh, but last week Moody’s Investors Service put Saudi Arabia on review for a possible downgrade. Source

  124. 124.

    jonas

    In poll after poll, voters disagree with just about everything Republicans do, from their government shutdowns, to inaction on common-sense gun control, to climate change denial, to stonewalling SCOTUS nominees. The question is, will anyone really punish them at the polls for any of this? The answer is no and they know it.

    How a persistently unpopular party gets to pursue persistently unpopular policies and still remain in power remains one of the enduring enigmas of American politics. Gerrymandering, I guess, but there’s probably more to it…

  126. 126.

    Steve in the ATL

    @jonas: Gerrymandering, brainwashing (Fox News, AM radio, etc.), and the very structure of the Senate

  127. 127.

    NotMax

    @NotMax

    #120 – corrected for coding error.

    Canadian snark (emphasis in original).

    During the outdoor speech, Trump is distracted by something in the sky, presumably a plane or helicopter: Uh oh, it’s ISIS! Get ’em down! Trump then forms his index finger and thumb into a gun and pretends to blast the object out of the sky. Yes, this actually happened. Oh, I’d shoot that guy down so fast your head would spin. This boast comes from a man whose record of military service consists in its entirety of multiple deployments to breakfast with Cap’n Crunch. Source

    Whole piece is good for your daily ration of snickering.

  128. 128.

    FlipYrWhig

    @jonas:

    In poll after poll, voters disagree with just about everything Republicans do

    And half of them hate the idea of what Democrats MIGHT do even worse. So you need to have Republicans in there to stop them from doing what Democrats would totally do if they could!

  129. 129.

    EZSmirkzz

    Hilarious!

    It was either that, or touche.

    We should not over look the fact that our candidates pasts only defines where they were back then. Not whom they have evolved to become. We may disagree, but we wish to live in a modern world.

    Our fellow Americans on the right would rather live the hard life of pioneers in covered wagons, always being the last train through the closing of the American frontier.

    The thing about baboos which is not fully appreciated is the division between older boomers who hated Johnson for the war, and the younger boomers who hated Nixon for the invasion of Cambodia and the peace with the honor of waiting for the train, surely the light at the end of the tunnel. There is the white male voters of the Republican Party, older boomers and “southern” hates Democrats and the demographics of Democrats, or/and the eighty per cent of the country that wants to live in 2016 in 2016, not 2016 in 3142.

    Bernie’s politics, in my view, transcends the sixties, Hillary’s are rooted in the sixties, and they have evolved from there. They have not only grown, but they have learned to thrive, to be here now, just like eighty per cent of the country. Democrats are rooted in our past, yet choose to blossom in the future, ” Some people see things as they are and ask why? I see things as they could be and ask why not?”. ( RFK or something).

    I choose not to be a conservative mushrooms of ancient wars, and invite you to look to the future, not the past, for the land of milk and honey.

  130. 130.

    Steeplejack

    @raven:

    I notice this stuff because my RWNJ brother gets involved in this kind of bullshit. His latest is the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association. Their decals and patches have a bad-ass logo (skull and spade symbol from a deck of cards) that conjures up images of hogs speeding across the desert with a 50-cal mounted on the sidecar, but when you read the fine print it’s combat veterans who happen to like motorcycles. And combat experience? My brother was on destroyers in the ’80s and was off the coast of Lebanon on one deployment when some A-rabs might have looked at them funny from shore. Thank you for your service, but that ain’t combat.

  131. 131.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Applejinx:

    Justin Trudeau is currently at the White House on a state visit. Friends of mine from the Embassy and the Wilson Institute’s Canada Centre attended the welcoming ceremony this morning.

    Me, envious?

  135. 135.

    raven

    @Steeplejack: Death cards. That combat shit gets thrown around a lot. The vast majority of Vietnam Vets, myself included, are not what I consider “combat vets”.

  136. 136.

    Kay

    @Steve in the ATL:

    You can! Trump has the highest unfavorables of any major party candidate in the history of that poll.

    It will go up a little when Republicans fall in line, though, so we’re still in for a “comeback!” narrative :)

    They’re doing that thing they do where they count the opinions of white men as the gold standard and proxy for “America”, again. There’s what white men think, “America”, the REAL measure, and then it’s just a bunch of “interest groups”.

    Democrats need to flip that. Start asking why Trump has such “narrow appeal” :)

  137. 137.

    Origuy

    @Steve in the ATL: The President ordered flags on public ground to be at half-staff until sunset on the day of her funeral. It’s not unusual for people of national prominence other than elected officials.
    pedant: It’s half-mast only when it’s on a ship. Flags on dry land fly on staffs. /pedant

  139. 139.

    Steve in the ATL

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Justin Trudeau is currently at the White House on a state visit. Friends of mine from the Embassy and the Wilson Institute’s Canada Centre attended the welcoming ceremony this morning.

    Me, envious?

    SiubhanDuinne is a cougar. Dossier updated.

  140. 140.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Origuy: D’oh!

    Rookie mistake. In my defense, I was quoting Lee Chapel’s FB page, but not adding [sic] in on me.

  141. 141.

    karen marie

    mistaking her for an adversarial member of the mainstream media.

    In which case, no apology at all would have been necessary. Hate the media? Vote Trump – he will get rid of everyone who doesn’t publish his press releases verbatim or even suggests criticism of Our Dear Leader. I went to sleep in Arizona and woke up in North Korea. WTF?

  142. 142.

    Cheap Jim, formerly Cheap Jim

    If anyone is interested in the Baltimore mayoral race, a UB/Sunpaper poll has Sen Pugh and Sheila Dixon in a statistical dead heat along with undecided (Pugh: 28% Dixon: 26% Undecided 25%). Well back is David Warnock, a millionaire with lots of Baltimore County (not city) money behind him, and my own city councilor, Nick Mosby. Deray McKesson is back with the other also-runnings at <1%.

    But it's still anyone's race, because even 45% of the decided said that their could still change their minds. I don't know how well attended the debate tonight is going to be, and I don't intend to find out; I'm going to listen on the radio (WEAA, 7pm).

    Remember, the presidential and Congressional races are exciting because they get to do stuff like set national policy and order the Navy around, but the local stuff is about making sure the schools don't stink (although in Baltimore, the mayor has little control) and the police aren't inherently hostile.

  143. 143.

    Kathleen

    @Baud: Too many debates can contribute to that perception. At you willing to decree a debate limit? That could be a vote gettet!

  144. 144.

    Citizen_X

    @Patricia Kayden: And, from the link, this is what happened: while following Trump and his entourage, she had asked him about his previous comments on Scalia’s opinion on affirmative action, and

    Before Trump could answer, Lewandowski grabbed Fields from behind, taking hold of her left forearm and “yanking her down toward the ground like a ragdoll,” a witness told The Daily Beast.

    She ended up with bruises from the attack. It’s assault and battery no matter you slice it. (A friend pounding Lewandowski into the ground in response? Not so much.) So this is how they think “adversarial” journalists should be treated?

  146. 146.

    J R in WV

    @Citizen_X:

    Yes, indeed! Why isn’t this Lewandowski thug arrested already? I would bet lots there’s good video of the assault, also, too! Nazis shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this kind of thing, no matter how much money they have behind them.

    Not in America!!

  149. 149.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: The right is definitely trying to make this a foreign-policy election. Whether it is one probably depends entirely on whether something relevant happens in the last couple of months.

    Yesterday I was involuntarily exposed to Fox News and they were showing “Outnumbered”, maybe the worst show even on Fox News. Anyway, they were talking about Obama’s latest bid to close Gitmo, and they all ended up energetically agreeing that Obama was preparing to just let all these terrorists go free on the streets in America, by executive order. It was based on nothing, just this story they made up out of whole cloth and convinced each other of, and they were clearly working on a theory that Obama just likes terrorists and wants them to kill us. It was hard to listen to, at least until they changed the subject to Nancy Reagan and just went over to fluffy hagiography.

  151. 151.

    Miss Bianca

    @Kay:

    I always liked the “$5, more if you got it, free if you’re broke” kind of deal, myself…that’s how our little radical political theater troupe did it. For everyone who gave us $5, or $3, or nothing, seems like we got 5-10 people tossing $20s into the hat.

    If Bernie Sanders does nothing else, maybe he’ll stir the notion that there’s power and good will to be had in a lot of small donations.

  152. 152.

    The Other Chuck

    Fields needs to press charges for assault and battery. You do not fucking attack reporters. Even if they’re from Breitbart.

  153. 153.

    The Other Chuck

    @aimai: Can we finally dispel with this notion that the major media outlets have any kind of quality control?

    Yeah, I can handle words acquiring new meanings over time, but newspapers shouldn’t be at the goddam vanguard of that.

  154. 154.

    The Other Chuck

    @OzarkHillbilly: In a lot of black communities, there’s a pervasive “keep your head down, and you didn’t see nothin'” attitude. Comes from the fact that telling the cops anything is perceived to do no good at best, and gets your friends killed at worst. This looks like the logical outcome.

    Not a racial phenomenon per se, but it’s the most visible instance. Still thought a kid would warrant a little more response.

  155. 155.

    The Other Chuck

    @Uncle Cosmo: Pretty sure the two Koreas call it a war. Anyway, that technicality hasn’t really meant anything since, well, Korea. Was the UN’s inaugural action in ending all war … the use of the word anyway :-/

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