I don’t watch a lot of political TV these days, aside from an occasional episode of Maddow or election night coverage. That sweet isolation allowed me to wonder if the people here who constantly complain about how President Obama is pilloried for every little fucking thing in the so-called MSM are exaggerating. Watching five minutes of “Morning Joe” today disabused me of that notion.
Scarborough was babbling in shocked tones about the effrontery of President Obama taking in a baseball game with Raul Castro when, according to Scarborough and the assembled morons on his panel, PBO should have flown home and set about handling the situation in Belgium. As if Belgium and the EU have no agency. As if we should let some craven trio of wispy-bearded fanatics in Brussels dictate the activities of the President of the United States.
I’m convinced that, deep down, clowns like Scarborough get off on a national crisis. I’m not saying they consciously wish for another 9/11, but they sure do miss the drama and sense of vicarious purpose that accompanied that tragedy. GWB, who was a spectacularly failed president by virtually every metric, milked our great national tragedy like a Dairy-O-Matic gone haywire, and that is the standard Scarborough and his contemptible ilk want PBO to meet. I’m glad he ignores them.
Yesterday after work, the mister and I went to a local pub to catch the tail-end of the Tampa Bay Rays vs. Cuban National Baseball Team on TV. Maybe because we live in Florida, we felt the need to experience it as a community event. A woman who was seated adjacent to us watched the game with tears in her eyes. She said she wasn’t even really a big baseball fan, but she never thought she’d see the presidents of the USA and Cuba watching a game together. She also said she never thought she’d have the opportunity to travel to that island not far to our south.
We told her we felt the same way. We reminisced about the Mariel boatlift so long ago, the Elian Gonzalez incident in the 90s and how those events roiled the community. We marveled at the change now. And we were grateful for the steady, thoughtful man who sat watching the game next to Raul Castro. What a vast contrast to the hysterical Republican nitwits who aspire to his job and the one who preceded him in it. What a colossal fuckup it will be if we choose to go backward instead of forward.
dedc79
Things Republican Presidents may do that Obama may not-
-appoint supreme court justices
-conduct diplomacy and/or reach international agreements
-attend sporting events
-play golf
-issue executive orders
-comment on race relations and civil rights
….
Frank Wilhoit
Belgium was created in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars in order to prevent the NEXT French military dictator from invading Holland. It has two of everything — one French, one Dutch — and they interact as little as they can help.
Of course, no one who is running for office knows any of that, nor yet could find Belgium on a globe if you gave them two hours and a magnifying glass.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
Black President Rules. The whole purpose of the GOP Congress and their media fellaters is to constantly pull Obama over for presidentin’ while black. They absolutely hate it that he gives them the finger from Air Force One.
Patricia Kayden
From an earlier thread, Elizabelle quoted Mika as saying that when one of our journalists was beheaded, Obama went golfing. Morning Joe really cannot get any lower with their disrespect towards our President.
Peale
I guess he could pass a foreign aid bill for Beligum so that their police force would have modern computer equipment, pledge to put 100,000 additional police on Belgian Streets. Maybe suggest options for comprehensive immigration reform for their parliament to pass. I mean, there’s lots he could do in the crisis…although the Belgians would probably complain that he was aloof and lecturing them and favoring the Walloons.
japa21
Well said. The fanatics in Brussels and elsewhere would have been doing the happy dance to see Obama cancel the trip, come back to DC and sit about doing nothing.
I remember when the GOP mocked Carter for not leaving DC to do some campaigning because of the hostage situation in Iran. Of course, if he had done campaigning in the normal manner they would have mocked him for that.
lollipopguild
Very well written-I could not agree with you more. Now we need people to defend the President on the talk shows that pass for intelligent discussion(not) in our country.
LAC
@Frank Wilhoit: and even if they had a guy from Belgium with a Belgium beer in his hand, frantically pointing it out on the map.
Miss Bianca
Who was it here yesterday who said s/he felt *far* more secure with President Obama in Cuba watching a baseball game than s/he would have with any of the Republican candidates flailing around trying to sound Presidential in the Oval Office? Moi, aussi.
LAC
Amen, Betty, amen.
LAO
“Nattering Nabobs of Nihilism” is going to be the name of my new band.
And yeah, no cable news for me either. I’m angry enough and cynical enough without it.
japa21
@Patricia Kayden: Not sure any of the media could get any lower. But then the idea of peak media disrespect for this President is as much a myth as peak wingnut.
lollipopguild
@dedc79: You could have added breathing.
Elizabelle
Betty: Cole’s persuading you to front page here is right up there with his rescuing Lily as “great things that happened to John G. Cole. Despite himself.”
Coming down to the other Florida coast to see the Florida Dog Surfing Championships this Friday and Saturday. Because. Dogs. On Surfboards.
No negativism allowed.
BGinCHI
Great post, Betty. Could not agree more.
MattF
Years ago, there was an elderly cuban-exile couple in my condo (same-sex, fwiw) who despised Castro and were ardent advocates for Elian Gonzalez staying in Florida. The unfortunate reality is that Fidel ultimately betrayed pretty much everyone he ever dealt with, except, apparently, his brother. I agree that it’s time for accommodation with Cuba, but I can see why it took so long.
Mike in NC
Here’s hoping Joe Scar dies a painful lingering death.
Elizabelle
@LAO: They’re training us not to watch them. Or take them seriously.
And NBC/MSNBC have jumped the shark and are looking for a whale to catapult.
Someone at BJ mentioned yesterday that one of the on air experts opined that ISIS was not the biggest threat the US is facing. And Brian Williams(?), anyway, NBC could not get that expert off the air fast enough.
NBC is TV for defense contractor wannabe advertisers.
Gin & Tonic
My dear wife, whom I love unreservedly despite this fact, likes to have CNN on as background noise. When I came home from work yesterday, Wolf Blitzer’s voice was practically quivering with quasi-sexual tension. I’m convinced just mouthing the words “Islamic terrorism” or “ISIS” gives him an erection.
Miss Bianca
Meanwhile, Boko Haram continues to rampage in Nigeria, killing dozens in each raid. Can you imagine what the right-wing media/politico response would be if President Obama decided to cut one of his international trips short because of *that*?
“Africa?! Who cares what happens over *there*?” being only the mildest form of insult.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
Great post Ms. Cracker. Thank you for that story.
@Miss Bianca: Moi, aussi. Not only that, I enjoy seeing President Obama in Cuba watching a baseball game.
@Gin & Tonic: Image I did not need, tyvm. What have I ever done to you?
Brachiator
@dedc79:
You left out
– take a vacation
– attend fund raisers.
Conservative media (and their rabid commenters) always scream about the expensive and wasteful vacations the Obamas take. And they can never understand why he “has to” go to Hawaii. I guess they still believe that he was born in Kenya.
And when Obama comes to town for a fund raiser, the conservative talk radio stations always whine about how traffic is clogged along the presidential route. But when it was a Republican president, the news was all “hey the president is in town. Come out, line the streets and wave to him.”
schrodinger's cat
Its not just cable either, even the Snooze Hour is bad, they too are CW worshiping and Republican fluffing bots where foreign policy and economics are concerned. BBC’s World News Tonight is much more even handed when reporting about foreign policy.
schrodinger's cat
@Miss Bianca: They will say that he is a Churchill hating anti-colonial, as if that were a bad thing.
Amir Khalid
I dunno why, but I keep thinking you need a hyphen between “Nay” and “bobs”.
Fun fact: “Nabob” (the most common spelling) is derived from the princely title of “Nawab” used by the Moghul (that is, Muslim) royalty in India.
Humboldtblue
Brussels is in Belgium and Brussels is the home of Brussels sprouts and Michelle Obama is a nutrition and food Nazi forcing kids to eat healthy vegetables they hate … like Brussels sprouts ergo, QED, Obama hates America and its children and would rather watch a ballgame with Stalin’s nephew than love America. And it’s children.
It’s all so easy to understand when you apply the science.
LAO
@Elizabelle: The advent of 24 hour cable news is the worst thing that to reasoned discourse in this nation — instead of news channels (and I choke on calling cable channels, news channels) is the need to fill every damn minute of every damn day — so instead of breaking news and well researched pieces, we get a constant stream of speculation and innuendo.
Also (as I learned in law school) — he/she who frames the issue wins and we let the crazy right wing frame the issue of objectivity. Any criticism of their bat shit crazy agenda and blatant racism by the media and they cry look at the liberal media (the lame stream media) the’re not fair or objective so lets just reject reality and create our own.
Makes me want to crawl into a cave.
Thoroughly Pizzled
“The Ur-Fascist hero is impatient to die. In his impatience, he more frequently sends other people to death.”
bystander
Great post, BC. I’ve gone on Moanin’ Joe’s profile on Facebook to post my disdain publicly in the past, if only for catharsis. I don’t even bother anymore.
In an ad the other day hyping Maddow, I caught the voiceover as he intoned, “…called the smartest emcee on television…” I looked up from my iPad to see Maddow seated with Brian Williams. Yep. No mistaking to whom he referred.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: So Bill Safire was a closet Muslim sympathizer?
schrodinger's cat
@Amir Khalid: The Nawabs were high ranking officials, usually governors of provinces who became quasi royalty after the Mughal Empire disintegrated after the death of Aurangzeb.
Humboldtblue
@Miss Bianca: Well BLACK Africa, the parts of Africa where the black people live, not the part of Africa that has places like BENGHAZI!!!!!
raven
I watch it because it’s on and I get up early. Also skewed heavily toward politics and has a few non-republicans on. If I didn’t watch it then how would I know that Tweety adopted the same perspective last night and even told Capheart that he was “unfair” for saying these fucking asshole do this no matter WHAT the issue is. As far as race, it’s very important but it won’t stop if honky lady wins.
MattF
@LAO: I remember when “The McLaughlin Group” first came on the air and everyone was taken aback by the way the participants on the show all yelled at each other. Cable news is a symptom of the continuing decline of our political culture, but that decline’s been going on for quite a while now.
wormtown
@schrodinger’s cat: Yes, and NPR, as well. I’ve started watching “Democracy Now” on my Roku. Only problem, is, it can be really depressing. But, it does really illustrate how silly all the new outlets are.
raven
@LAO: What’s the difference? It’s where we are now and we have to drive in.
Paul in KY
@Elizabelle: Seconded! Hope you see some dogs hangin 16!
CONGRATULATIONS!
I’ll say it. I’d bet cash money they wake up every day and the first thing they do is pray for one.
And yes, the GOP has truly become a party of nihilists. Their only goal – to destroy the United States Government. They’ve literally worked on doing nothing else for the last eight years. If anyone can show me one, simply one, productive piece of legislation that they’ve sponsored and passed, I am all ears.
TaMara (BHF)
The coverage yesterday and today on MSM was breathless, sounding exhilarated by the events. It is no more than tragedy porn, recounting over and over eyewitnesses and victims’ horrific stories with barely concealed glee at feeling relevant again.
Great post, Betty.
RaflW
@Betty: deep down, clowns like Scarborough get off on a national crisis.
Deep down? It’s right there on his shallow, horrible surface.
ETA: They’re still trying, all these years later, to try and find a gotcha to balance Bush continuing to read a book to kids after the Trade Center was hit. Which was, y’know, in the United States. Not across the Atlantic in a country with it’s own leaders, military and emergency responders.
dedc79
@Brachiator: Good additions. He’s also not allowed to tell/make jokes about anything, ever. It’s un-presidential when he does it.
Nor can he point out that the american people elected him to pursue his policy platform.
Paul in KY
@Brachiator: I got one who rails about Pres. Obama’s trips to Martha’s Vinyard. Says the Dubya trips to his ‘ranch’ were much less expensive, due to blarragh.
Miss Bianca
@Humboldtblue:
And then someone would confuse Nigeria with Kenya, and PBO’s condemnation of Boko Haram would just become more evidence of his sekrit Mooslim identity…good Lord, I’m just driving *myself* down the rabbit hole now, ain’t I?
Kropadope
[Thing that Obama did] is wrong because [after-the-fact rationalization].
See? I’m qualified to be a cable news reporter!!!
LAO
@raven: It just means that I no longer have the will to fight this battle — but rock on to those that do.
MattF
@dedc79: And also, W insisted that men wear suits in the Oval Office. QED.
dedc79
@wormtown: and NPR, as well.
Patricia Kayden
@Gin & Tonic: “When I came home from work yesterday, Wolf Blitzer’s voice was practically quivering with quasi-sexual tension.”
Okay. I needed that laugh. Thanks!
@Miss Bianca: Yep. Who cares if terrorists kill Brown/Black or Muslim people anyways?
Mike R
@Miss Bianca: It helps to remember we were all pushed into the rabbit hole. I prefer thinking of it as navigating.
JPL
At least the previous President just cleared brush and told the rest of us to go shopping.
RaflW
@Brachiator: Oh, if only Obama would just go clear brush on his Hawaiian ranch. That, they’d understand.
burnspbesq
OT:
Unfuckingbelievable: the Republican leadership called the North Carolina Legislature into special session for the sole purpose of overturning the Charlotte anti-discrimination ordinance.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article67418872.html
Jeff
@dedc79: @dedc79: You forgot breathe.
D58826
@dedc79: you forget – actually being president
Miss Bianca
@Mike R:
Heh. Indeed. Tho’ at this point I’m not sure whether I feel more like Alice or the White Rabbit…maybe I’ll just be the Dormouse, and sleep thru’ all the crazynezz.
AkaDad
If Trump were President, he would stop gazing at himself in the mirror and give the most amazing, fantastic speech ever.
Kropadope
@RaflW:
Why, that would be even more expensive than Martha’s Vineyard, I got the vapors just thinking about it. I let Lindsay Graham take my last smelling salts too, damn.
dedc79
@Jeff: Hey, the list is a work in progress.
@D58826: Beginning the day after he was elected/reelected, the american people deserved an opportunity to weigh in again before he actually exercised any presidential powers.
Patricia Kayden
@Paul in KY: Shame on you for not knowing that Black travel is always more expensive than White travel! Hence, President Obama’s trips are always more expensive (by billions of dollars) than those of President Bush.
Makes perfect sense.
JPL
@burnspbesq: As a consequence of the religious liberty bill in GA, the anti-discrimination law in Atlanta will probably be overturned.
I have complete disgust for the zealots.
Shell
I am.
D58826
@CONGRATULATIONS!: No they don’t want to destroy the US government. They want to turn it into the private police force for the 1%
RaflW
@burnspbesq: As I said in a thread earlier today, the GOP continues its outreach efforts per plan. They will resist the demographic tide right up to and beyond the drowning.
TaMara (BHF)
Kinda OT: But anyone heard from Cole? His facebook and twitter feeds have been unusually quiet today….
Kropadope
@D58826: I think they actually just want to supplant it outright by private industry which, lacking a larger governing body, will become the de facto government of the U.S. To think, we were so worried all these years about people explicitly voting away their Constitutional rights while we may actually just let them quietly vanish.
Betty Cracker
@MattF: I don’t blame Cuban-Americans who hold a grudge because it’s personal, but I can’t understand why it took so long, not when the US has long counted among its allies countries that oppress and enslave women, execute people for sorcery, behead apostates, etc. The Castros damn sure aren’t saints, but it’s not like the US has any claim to the moral high ground either. I’ve always thought the embargo was the height of hypocrisy.
JustRuss
@Gin & Tonic:
Mrs. G&T must be something, that would be a deal breaker for me. I was forced to listen to CNN for 40 minutes at an airport recently, it was horrible. I can’t believe people subject themselves to that voluntarily.
Arky Vaughan
Do these people realize that Brussels is in another country and not in , say, Ohio? Isn’t one of the Right Wing Nut Jobs concern is one world government? Yet they want Obama to be King of the world?
Carolina Dave
@burnspbesq: Not the sole purpose. Thanks to ALEC they plan to be super productive. A ban on local minimum wage increases and non-discrimination laws will pass in this special session. Local control is good except if the local governments are in any way progressive.
RaflW
@Patricia Kayden: Didn’t Bush just get in a Lincoln Navigator and road-trip with Laura back to Texas all the time? I mean, why bother with that 747 – they’ll take pictures of you peering at New Orleans out a window, and make fun of you if you do that. Much better to just pretend you’re a boring old white couple in an SUV.
Oh, and Kennebunkport is much cheaper than the Vineyard, amirite?
Mike R
@Betty Cracker: The embargo was like conservatism, if it doesn’t work beat the dead horse harder.
dogwood
Bitching about where president’s go on vacation, and how often,along with shit about their golfing etc. is actually one instance where “both sides do it” is probably apt. I don’t care where a president is at any given movement, or what he/she might be doing at that time. Presidents are never on vacation.
Kropadope
@JustRuss:
Consider listening to MSNBC or Fox for 40 minutes. Now reconsider listening to CNN. Not so bad any more, is it?
Though what really helps with any network is picturing the anchors in their underwear.
Brachiator
@burnspbesq:
I can’t believe this crap. It’s all for the benefit of the wimmins and chilluns.
Paul in KY
@Patricia Kayden: I should have known. All the bling & courvasiers & stuff.
boatboy_srq
@Patricia Kayden:
Could be worse: he could have been reading to kindergartners during story time…
/snark
RaflW
@JustRuss: I was driven to near insanity once at O’Hare. I could not get away from Don Lemon blathering about somethingorother while connecting. It was everywhere on the damn concourse. Then I went to the men’s room and discovered it was TV free. I lingered long enough I was afraid the cops might bust me for a wide stance.
bemused
Morning Joe sounds like it was a massive train wreck today. I was thinking of watching it online but decided to avoid raising my blood pressure when I saw the msnbc video is titled Obama’s catastrophic optics.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: I think it might (early on) have had something to do with The Monroe Doctrine & Soviet help to Cuba flouting that line-in-the-sand. Republicans also started courting Cuban vote to get Florida in the red & so on & so on.
Roger Moore
@japa21:
Not true. Their disrespect will collapse as soon as there is another Democratic president, who will then be compared unfavorably to his unflappability and gravitas.
boatboy_srq
@Paul in KY: Tsk tsk. Hennessy Louis XIII. NEVER Courvoisier.
Paul in KY
@dogwood: Dubya gave it the ole college try, at times (IMO).
Edit: He had Cheney to President for him.
boatboy_srq
@Roger Moore: At what point in that progression do they canonize FDR? Because it’s been 70 years and 6 Dem Presidents and that still ain’t happenin’.
Paul in KY
@boatboy_srq: Dammit! Guess I’ll never be invited to throw down with Barak & Michelle. That’s what I get for being whitey-white.
Obama!!! (shakes fist in a generally Southern direction)
boatboy_srq
@Brachiator: Says a lot about how predatory white heterosexual males are, doesn’t it, that the first thing they think of regarding trans accommodation is how some straight perv will use it to molest teh kiddies.
boatboy_srq
@Paul in KY: Just show up with some Remy 1738: you’ll at least get points for trying, and nobody will feel guilty drinking it with you. And WHAT is it with cognac that suddenly it’s an AA beverage?
rikyrah
5 Outrageous Examples of Voter Suppression in the Arizona Primary
Zach Cartwright | March 23, 2016
During last night’s primary, Arizona election officials showed America what textbook voter suppression looks like. While Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both won their respective primaries, the lingering questions of voter disenfranchisement will mar those victories.
Here are five examples of how Arizona voters were denied their voice last night:
1. Lines were so long people literally spent an entire work day waiting in line
In 2012, Maricopa County, which is the most populous county in Arizona, had over 200 polling locations open on primary day. In 2016, that number was reduced to just 60. This amounted to over 20,000 voters for every polling location, meaning voters had to stand in line for hours to cast their ballots.
As it turns out, elections in Arizona are governed by the county recorder, who determines how many polling places are actually open on Election Day. The recorder in Pima County, which houses Tucson, had twice as many polling locations open than in Maricopa County. And Pima County is roughly one-third the size of Maricopa County.
Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell was responsible for the reduction in polling places in 2016, justifying it by saying turnout was traditionally low, so the solution was to reduce the number of places where citizens could cast their vote.
…
In the wake of so many stories and social media outbursts about long lines, Helen Purcell became the target of outrage. However, when confronted by a local reporter, Purcell instead blamed the voters for getting in line. Literally.
Purcell may have been responsible for a new Maricopa County record: The last ballot in her county wasn’t cast until after midnight local time, or 3 AM Eastern time.
2. Clear voter suppression in Latino neighborhoods
In Helen Purcell’s mad dash to consolidate polling locations across Maricopa County, she somehow forgot to have polling places open in densely-populated Latino communities on the day of the primary. This is a glaring oversight given that 40.8 percent of Phoenix’s 1.5 million residents are Latino. State Senator Martin Quezada told AZCentral.com that the lack of available polling locations for the Latino community was problematic.
“In my district, there is only one polling place,’’ Sen. Quezada said. “In my neighboring district, LD 30, there are no polling places.”
“It is no coincidence many poor and predominantly Latino areas didn’t get a polling place,” AZCentral.com editorial columnist Elvia Diaz wrote Tuesday night.
3. Democrats mistakenly registered as independents, given provisional ballots
As Arizona voters were still waiting to cast their ballots, US Uncut reported on allegations that voters who had previously registered as Democrat were instead listed in the voter database as “independent” or “no party listed.” In Arizona’s closed primary system, independent voters are denied their voice by having to vote with a provisional ballot. But what voters classified as “independent” who cast provisional ballots don’t realize is that their ballots are never counted.
42-year-old Kelly Thornton, who worked as an Election Day Technician in Yavapai County voting center 5 on Tuesday, told US Uncut that roughly two thirds of voters who came to her precinct had been mistakenly identified as independent by the election software. All of those voters were subsequently forced to cast a provisional ballot.
“One man was a lifelong Democrat who was listed as independent. He left the precinct, went to his house, and came back with a card showing that he was registered as a Democrat,” Thornton told US Uncut. “But when I called the election center (administered by the county recorder’s office), they told me to just give him a provisional ballot anyway.”
Big Ol Hound
Of course the GOP and their media kiss asses get off on any world violence. They exist to make their stocks in the military industrial market keep going up. If all congress critters had to divest their family interest in these stocks then they might think twice about going into combat.
Paul in KY
@boatboy_srq: I think (and I’m just surmising here) that some hip hop artists have made it a meme (or stereotype).
Black commenters, please correct me if I’m wrong about this.
dww44
Like you, Betty, I don’t watch nearly as much political TV these days. Formerly a faithful nighttime MSNBC viewer most days the programming gets preempted to cover presidential horse races. More disturbingly, every time I stroll by their channel, there’s almost always a GOP pundit on, Trump is on the phone, or Kasich or Cruz are being interviewed. Guess the suits have made a decision that money comes from moving right and I bet you if the GOP wins in November, bye bye to any liberal programming on that network.
We really really do need a Fairness Doctrine and/or a viable network that will provide truly unbiased coverage. One that is NOT dependent on a GOP Congress for funding and/or deep pockets conservative owners for its existence.. Without this, the conservative efforts to move the country backwards will continue to succeed.
boatboy_srq
@rikyrah: Predictably appalling.
Gives me nightmares about how the general will turn out, and what shenanigans Diebold will be up to.
boatboy_srq
@Paul in KY: Louis XIII: priced like Pappy Van Winkle, but without the racist Bourbon aftertaste, I guess.
Betty Cracker
@Roger Moore: Yep. If Hillary Clinton becomes president, the Beltway yammering class will imply that she’s a hysterical female in comparison to the 44 cool-headed men who preceded her. Not a doubt in my mind that will be a constant refrain.
WarMunchkin
Is there a Betty Cracker fan club and where do I join and is there a theme song
Archon
Betty, conservatives not only want they need another 9/11, (or at least Paris style attacks) between now and November.
The Band-Aid hiding the true nature of American conservatism has been ripped off completely, no point pretending otherwise now.
dww44
@JPL: We need to keep the pressure on Governor Deal to veto that bill. Calls and LTE’s do have an impact. Tying the bill to negatively impacting business and corporate interests in the state is essential. Notwithstanding that there’s an oped in my paper today saying that the RFA is good for Georgia and will not keep the NFL from bringing the Super Bowl to Atlanta.
Paul in KY
@boatboy_srq: Have never tried the Pappy. The wine bar I frequent got in 12 or 14 bottles at Christmas & had a raffle for about 6 weeks (2 bottles each time). People came in by the droves to get in that raffle. Winners got to purchase the bottle.
I don’t really like bourbon or most hard liquors.
Cacti
@rikyrah:
When it comes to AZ voting, I would recommend the following to anyone and everyone:
1. Get on the permanent early voting list
2. Vote by mail
Or
3. If you don’t trust it to get there by mail, fill out your early ballot, seal it in the return envelope, and drop it off at the nearest County Recorder’s office prior to election day.
JPL
@dww44: Will do. I’m hoping that the corporate pressure will convince him to do the morally right thing.
Germy
Filed under Proud To Be A Democrat and Politics:
After two months, I finally found a roofer who A. Returned my calls and B. Showed up and gave me an honest estimate, and seemed competent and reputable. He climbed his ladder and took pictures of my roof, showed me exactly which slates needed to be replaced. We shook hands and he gave me his business card. He made a good impression on me, no assholish attitude. He had good online reviews on h0meadvis0r. So he’s scheduled to return next week and do the roof work.
I didn’t know his full name until he handed me his card, and so after he left I decided to google his name. And what do I find?
His faceb00k page, full of “likes” for the Duck Dynasty crew, conservative news outlets. RW Patriot sites. Nothing overtly racist (that I could find), no confederate flags or outrageous hate sites, but definite RWNJ territory.
Just once I’d like to hire a contractor with progressive values.
japa21
@Miss Bianca: Actually, they would view his condemnation of Boko Haram as further evidence of his racism. Why else would he condemn a group best know for the song “A Whiter Shade of Pale”?
Gin & Tonic
@Paul in KY: The Van Winkle bourbons are over-priced because of the scarcity factor and the coolness factor. HL Weller 12-year is the same mash bill, and I’ll put good money that the hipsters dropping $50 or more for a pour of Pappy wouldn’t be able to tell the difference in a blind tasting. Plus, to my taste, at least, the most expensive Pappy, the 23, is just too old. There is a sweet spot for aging, and 23 years is on the other side.
dww44
@rikyrah: This is just horrible. We need Federal monitors on the ground in Arizona and other GOP led states to observe these shenanigans and hopefully forestall them. If the GOP wins in November it will most likely be due in part to voter suppression tactics like this..
boatboy_srq
@Germy: Construction is a haven for conservatist bigots. Big or small, it seems to be fairly consistent. Only place I ever found libprog or LGBT contractors was San Francisco.
lollipopguild
@Kropadope: You forget that Hawaii is a foreign country.
Paul in KY
@Germy: I know you won’t sugarcoat your views (if they happen to come up, somehow). If he is fair & does good work, then he’s to be commended for that.
Paul in KY
@Gin & Tonic: A lot of the bourbon aficionados who I have spoken to like the Blanton, for taste & relative inexpensiveness.
Paul in KY
@japa21: Hasn’t Obummer issued an executive order banning them from the Rock HOF?
Germy
@Paul in KY: I’m not bringing up politics in any conversation with him. I like his work ethic. I called three other roofers, two didn’t return my calls, the third told me to wait one month on the slate work and then call back when they were less busy. And then when I called back, the sarcastic person said they didn’t do slate. So I was impressed he returned my call quickly and showed up the next day and behaved professionally.
If he does a good job, I’d like to hire him again, but my experience with RWNJ contractors has not been good. More attitude than competence or honesty. I’m hoping this guy is different.
Brachiator
@boatboy_srq:
I think it just says a lot about the fantasies of many conservatives, and their fear and loathing of gay and trans people. It’s sad and despicable.
Germy
@boatboy_srq:
I’ve had contractors, plumbers, etc. tell me some of the vilest, most racist things. I didn’t like giving those assholes my money, and I didn’t like their toxic crap in my house.
Just One More Canuck
@Elizabelle: need pictures of that please
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Germy: Good luck with that. Here in SoCal, all the ones I can find who are available – the good ones are booked out for a couple years straight – show up with their 3% window stickers, some gun maker bumper sticker, talk nothing but Trump and run a workforce of 100% illegals, Guatemalans usually, who can barely speak Spanish never mind English.
Real Republicans, right there.
Paul in KY
@Germy: I know you wouldn’t, but if he’s in your kitchen (for example) and sees some Isalmofacist, Obummer stuff, he might make a snarky comment. Probably wouldn’t, as he needs your business. But you never know with that ilk.
RaflW
@rikyrah:
These people are playing for keeps. I don’t have an answer for what to do, but this sort of blatant voter suppression merits legal action, doesn’t it? Kay? Anyone?
Tripod
@Cacti:
The problem is #1 – a campaign that is turning our independents and Republican crossovers might want to get their early voting shit together and not rely on eleventh hour turnout.
Jeff Weaver is an incompetent baboon.
Ohio Mom
I thought that the Presidential thing to do after a mass tragedy is deliver a sheet birthday cake to a friend and make a photo op out of it. Not go to a baseball game, so I definitely see the issue here.
Miss Bianca
@japa21:
LOL – or rather, G(iggle)OL. I should have anticipated *that* joke!
RaflW
@Germy: I’ve seen a few in Minnesota. I was torn about who to use to paint my house. If I’d intended to stay in the house for many years. I’d have hired the expensive hippy, as he guaranteed his work with annual touchups (can’t remember for how long).
But I was painting to sell, and ended up employing some nice young dudes of unknown politics. Ended up having an amazing carpenter with them, who built a new odd-size custom hardwood storm door, too. He lived in a far suburb that is mostly RWNJs though. Home contracting doesn’t seem to attract many progressives, I guess I’m sayin’.
Betty Cracker
@Germy: It’s fairly common around here for evangelical Christian business people to put the fish symbol on their websites and marketing collateral to signal their piety. Maybe we libtards need a symbol so we can recognize one another for the purposes of commerce. What could it be? So many possibilities!
Miss Bianca
@Germy:
And yet, I knew that the mayor of my town – the head of the volunteer fire brigade, member of the ambulance crew, and a staunch political opponent (he had no trouble smearing me when I was running for town council some years back) – is a man I would trust *without hesitation* to put out my house fire or treat my injuries with coolness and competence if I got in a wreck on the highway.
Sometimes you just gotta put people’s personal politics aside.
rikyrah
There you go, giving them credit they should not get.
So, I’ll say it for you..
THEY’VE BEEN LONGING FOR A 9/11 EVENT EVER SINCE JANUARY 20, 2009.
PERIOD.
LAO
@Germy: Recently, I decided i wanted to add some cabinetry in my apartment (I dreamed of a pantry) and I joined homeadvisors and selected 3 guys. The first guy — very nice, very french, but didn’t love his ideas. Second guy — a lubavitch jew, design ok, price pretty reasonable, Third guy — super friendly, super exuberant, gay man — fantastic ideas but pricey.
Was trying to decide between #2 and #3 — went with 3 (and my G-d, it came out fabulous!) because even though #2 was cheaper — I didn’t want to give money to a guy who wouldn’t shake my hand. I realized it really bothered me, as a Jewish woman.
rikyrah
@Miss Bianca:
.
ICAM
Immanentize
@japa21: Ha! Exotic Birds and Fruit — “Nothing but the Truth.” See, Procol Harum works perfectly in this context!
Big Picture Pathologist
@Betty Cracker:
Good point, not to mention our history of being total scumbags to the country for DECADES (if the following seemingly-legit article is true ):
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/15/cia-motto-proudly-overthrowing-the-cuban-government-since-1959/
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: How about the simple:
“Black Lives Matter.” Banners that say that are now hanging on all the liberal churches in my area outside Boston. I think that creates a reasonable identity distinction…
Punchy
Technically, the Elian Gonzalez thing was the 00’s, not the 90s.
Roger Moore
@boatboy_srq:
I don’t think they ever really like the Democratic presidents, but the expressed hate level goes down a notch as soon as they’re out of office. It goes down even further when they can be used to pillory the current administration for failing to live up to the previous president’s standards. There’s nothing they love more than using a previous Democratic president as a basis of criticism for the current one, because that lets them pretend it’s the current president’s actions they’re criticizing rather than his party affiliation.
lollipopguild
@rikyrah: They long for an event that would allow them to turn the country into a right-wing dictatorship.
scav
Let us also pause to remember the entirely appropriate and no doubt admirable and effective response to dealing with the deaths of Americans on American soil during Katrina: birthday cake with McCain and photo-ops with guitars and sombraros!
Shell
Maybe he’s out clearing brush.
Librarian
@Gin & Tonic: When Safire used the word, he probably didn’t even know what it meant; he just needed a word that began with “n”.
Shell
Or owning a pizza franchise
Paul in KY
@LAO: Did you kvetch about your menses? That would have gotten him sweating!!
LAO
Bella Q — if you are out there, Shawna Cox moved to modify the conditions of her pre-trial release to remove home detention. Pretrial services consented but the government objects.
ETA: http://www.scribd.com/doc/305675990/coxmotiontomodifyhomedet-pdf
@Paul in KY: I kept a respectfully 10 feet from him at all times.
hamletta
@Paul in KY: I’m not black, but I was a bartender in the early ’90s, and cognac and coke was a thing. Some guys would order the real expensive stuff — with coke. Seemed a waste of good liquor to me, but the customer is always right!
MattF
@scav: There’s an interesting bit of cognitive dissonance about Katrina– even wingers agree that it was a huge fuckup. But, somehow, W wasn’t to blame. How do they manage to do that?
Betty Cracker
@Punchy: Elian Gonzales was fished out of the sea in 1999 but returned to Cuba in 2000, so I guess it spanned both the 90s and aughties, technically.
Germy
@RaflW:
that’s what it boils down to, I guess. As long as they aren’t nasty about their beliefs (like the plumber who spewed ugly bile about Al Gore, Barbra Streisand) I’m willing to let them do their goddamn jobs.
@Miss Bianca:
that’s what I’d like to do this time. I don’t want to dig further into his faceb00k “likes” because I’m afraid the deeper I go, the more hateful it might get. He made a good impression, I think he’ll do a good job, I’ll leave it at that.
@Betty Cracker:
The guy I paid to cap my chimney last year had a website full of evangelical bullshit. He did some basic work, but took a ton of photos inside my chimneys and sort of suggested I wasn’t “up to code”. There were a few things I didn’t like about the work he did, but now I find myself suspecting he’ll try to blackmail me with “code violations” if I don’t agree to his schedule of yearly inspections. Sometimes people like him roll like that. (My uncle told me “never do business with a man who has a bible on his desk”)
About 25 years ago, when I was new to the area, I hired an exterminator for a house I’d just bought. He started free-associating when I asked him about the neighborhood. He admitted the next town over was full of blacks, and that they should be exterminated like bugs.
I guess that’s why I’m so fucking sensitive about who I give my money to. I’m still not sure I want this latest roofer inside my house (he told me he does general contracting “inside and out”)
Chyron HR
@MattF:
Well, you know, NOLA’s full of THOSE people, so the emergency management was bound to go poorly.
West of the Cascades
@MattF: because Katrina was Obama’s fault, somehow. Regarding golfing while journalists die and baseballing while Brussels explodes, the GOP and its media enablers don’t seem to recall that the President also engaged in Trump-mockery while Osama bin Laden was being killed on the President’s orders. When we stop acting normally, the terrorists win — I guess what the President does is analogous to what Teddy Roosevelt termed speaking softly but carrying a big stick.
scav
@MattF: Teflon is now factory-installed on their latest models, or maybe it’s now genetic in the genome along with other charming characteristics. Can’t quite decide if they’re carried on Recessive or Regressive genes.
Also, can we establish a special sub-tribe of the Nattering NayBobbleheads of Nihilism for the obvious suspects?
gene108
<a href="#comment-5722714"schrodinger cat:
NPR too is a thinly veiled exercise in dispersing right-wing talking points.
“The Take Away” had a policy “expert” from a “think tank” to talk about our crumbling infrastructure. The first thing the “expert” mentioned was a morass of environmental rules that made it “too hard” to plan anything.
Raven
Damn, going to the VA medical center is like when I used to get thrown in the hooscow! I know everyone.
Immanentize
@Germy: I think the guy who took pictures and told you you ‘weren’t up to code’ was probably trying to sell you an extra — like a chimney liner. I wouldn’t worry about the code police….
ruemara
@rikyrah: the amount of Bernie supporters trying to blame this on the DNC is astounding. I’m getting madder & madder at people who cared more about Monsanto last election but not the VRA.
smith
Re Chimpy’s activities during Katrina, remember that the hurricane was *not* a surprise. We all knew it was coming, we watched in horror as it came, and Bush still took the time to party.
gene108
@MattF:
They find some non-Republican to blame and blast it across the media. EDIT: And their right-wing “ditto-head” audience laps it up, because otherwise they would have to admit liberals are not wrong all the time (admitting liberals are right might be a bit hard, so baby steps).
9/11/01 was Bill Clinton’s fault for not arresting bin Laden in Sudan, when something something someone was going to turn him over to us. Plus Bush, Jr. was only in office barely 9 months, so how can he get any blame?
Katrina could’ve been handled better, if Mayor Nagin had used all the city’s school buses to evacuate people out of their homes and city, instead of having the hole-up in the SuperDome. Bush, Jr. can’t be faulted for Nagin’s lack of planning.
Ampersand
There have been some areas where I’ve strongly disagreed with President Obama, but, my god, he’s easily the best person to have held that office during my lifetime. I mean, it’s not even close. On the rare occasions that I look at a newspaper or peek at CNN, I feel like I’m entering an alternate universe. “Well, the left says up is up, and the right says down is up, so the truth must be somewhere in the middle!”
Peale
@ruemara: yep. Cause clearly the democrats control that state, which is why they’ve been so successful at throwing sherrif Joe out of office and electing governors.
Elie
Our country is filled with unhappy people that are made unhappy at least in part, by a media that focuses on entitled resentment of whatever. Obama and the Democrats are favored targets, in my opinion, because they tend not to play as much to resentment, outrage and fear — the essential tools of the MSM for hooking their dwindling audience. They hate that the President continues to exude and act with confidence and to project that confidence abroad — not run around like Henny Penny. The “full faith and credit” of the United States is projected in this confidence and that is the spirit of any greatness we have, if any exists. Denigrating him is decreasing the power of the United States.
The only rubes who don’t get the MSM scam are the Fox viewers who already had the entitled outrage going on their own and the Fox approach just overlapped their need perfectly. Problem for them is that there is no cure for their lives in the path they have taken with hate, resentment and fear. Only more of same. Losers. I have very little sympathy for those who only blame others and don’t take responsibility for making things better.
I don’t want our side to be drowning in resentments of our own… There is no solution in that no matter how justified — we must always take our grievances to the step that we actually DO something positive, no matter how small. We must hold up our heads and step with confidence to the future — not spend our time and energy articulating grievance. I believe that is what will make the difference in this election cycle and I hope our candidate can raise our heads and hearts…I know Trump or Cruz will not.
ruemara
@gene108: local gov person here. You cannot evac without a destination. FEMA rules. If the dome was a designated shelter, it is the legal, approved shelter. Expanded needs and coordination requires, you guessed it, more FEMA & other municipalities to provide them. Nagin may not have done good, but these plans required a functioning fed gov.
Paul in KY
@hamletta: Cognac is one of those spirits I just don’t like. Coke would probably improve it (for me).
Elie
@rikyrah:
This issue is critical… we have to get on this.
What is so bizarre is that there is no reason to have people “go” to a polling place. Mail them in! WA state is all mail — we do not “go” to vote! We should work to get our elderly and anyone else absentee ballots where we can. This should be our most important activity…
Matt McIrvin
@rikyrah: Sanders supporters in my Facebook feed are already claiming that Hillary Clinton stole Arizona. The pre-election polling was heavily in her favor and if anything Sanders outperformed it, but I suppose that could have been wrong too.
The situation is, of course, shameful even apart from the question of who actually won.
Roger Moore
@dww44:
This is a huge reason I see revising the VRA as the #1 priority for Democrats if they finally win back control of Congress. Voter suppression is tremendously important in places like Arizona because they’re potentially winnable for the Democrats if we can get the voters to the polls.
bemused
@Germy:
My instinct is the more in your face religious a person is, the less likely I am to trust him/her with anything.
Matt McIrvin
@smith: It actually was a surprise that the floodwalls failed; they weren’t supposed to. But that’s no excuse, because Katrina was also expected to be a more powerful storm when it came ashore when it actually was. Everyone knew that if a Cat 5 hit the city head-on, the water could come right over the tops of the levees and do exactly what we saw happen.
retiredeng
@Miss Bianca: Obama is a cool character indeed. If it were myself I think I’d be like Samuel L. Jackson in Jurassic Park. Chain smoking, on the verge of a coronary frantically working to boot the computer up and get the place under control!
CONGRATULATIONS!
The Mustache of Understanding has just shit out the penultimate Friedman column. It’s really a work of art, definitely influenced by the school of High Broderism but with that faint whiff of condescension and utterly disconnected bullshit that marks a true Friedman masterpiece.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@LAO: You’re an enabler. Thanks – I can’t for the life of me figure out what pretrial services are thinking, beyond “we got too much else to do.”
I’m also trying to puzzle out how to track the 2 trials. Payne’s NV counsel makes a very good point that she can’t adequately prepare for a case with a potential life sentence by telephone. Speedy trial issues are real (as you know). In state court with a two jurisdiction situation, I would ask the court for an OR in one jurisdiction to lengthen the speedy trial time there – presuming that bond in the other jurisdiction was sufficient to prevent a potential fleer.
It’s going to be problematic for trying those defendants who are in both cases, I expect.
satby
@rikyrah: I hope the DOJ investigates and sues AZ.
Poopyman
He seems nice:
(WaPo) …
Alain the site fixer
Ignore test and be well.
geg6
@TaMara (BHF):
He commented on one of my FB posts about midnight. Since then, no.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Matt McIrvin: The Sanders supporters on my Facebook feed – and there are quite a few of them – have claimed the same about every single Clinton primary victory.
Some people cannot be helped. I just stay quiet and let them have their freakout.
He’s pulling crowds – big ones – but not the votes. Sadly, real politics requires more than taking a day off work and spending it partying down at the convention center. He should have had people hitting up every single attendee for voter registration, if he’s not doing that already. Too late for that now, I guess.
LAO
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): I pulled the docket sheet on pacer (Oregon) and Judge Brown is sending them all to Nevada for 10 days. The district courts are going to have to decide on an order for trial — a defendant does not have to consent to delay for that delay to be excusable under the speedy trial act.
18 USC 3161(h)(1)(B): The following periods of delay shall be excluded in computing the time within which an information or an indictment must be filed, or in computing the time within which the trial of any such offense must commence: Any period of delay resulting from other proceedings concerning the defendant, including but not limited to delay resulting from trial with respect to other charges against the defendant;
If it were me — I’d sever all of the Nevada Defendants from the Oregon Defendants and send them to Nevada for the 1st trial. If they are convicted in Nevada, where the penalties are harsher, may be a second trial in Oregon would not be necessary.
Betty Cracker
Oooo, just got my New Yorker in the mail — they trolled the shit outta the Short Fingered Vulgarian with a cover cartoon featuring his Vienna sausage-like fingers!
jl
” I’m convinced that, deep down, clowns like Scarborough get off on a national crisis. ”
I agree with BC there, but I think that is a different issue from them being upset over Obama’s behavior.
Obama is black, a Democrat and comparatively liberal, so by definition can do nothing right.
It doesn’t make even a tiny bit of difference what Obama does. If he had cut his trip short, he would be a panicky weakling, according to bigoted ignorant layabout oafs and PR hacks like ol’ MSNBC GOP Jughead there.
I remember when public evidence of BW Bush’s shitty behavior in military service became too strong to deny (setting aside the kernings and the authenticity of one piece of evidence). The reactionaries suddenly discovered that some ineffable essence that they called ‘moral courage’ (which of course was important and that W obviously had) was completely unrelated to physical courage or willingness to keep one’s sworn commitments because one did not feel like it.
Only thing to do is call them dishonest propagandists. There is absolutely no merit in a word they say. Every word is lie, inlcuding ‘and’ and ‘the’ (which is a quote from a famous writer, I forget who).
Edit: Scarborough looks like Jughead from Archie. He should wear one of them funny hats.
Kathleen
@Patricia Kayden: mark halperin called pbo a d##k on mourning joke.
Betty Cracker
@geg6: He just retweeted something a little bit ago according to the feed at right. He lives! :)
Elizabelle
@Just One More Canuck: Will try with the surfing dawgs photos.
And if they turn out horribly — cuz I am not (yet) a skilled photog — there is always Ms. Cracker’s illustration skill to enhance them.
Before heading for the
SunshineStand Your Ground State, chowing down on some NC BBQ. Luella’s in Asheville, specifically. So good it does not need the sauce.Matt McIrvin
@CONGRATULATIONS!: This particular one feels bigger to me, maybe because it sounds like the AZ primary was genuinely messed up. There’s some outfit called the “Justice Gazette” with a poll that they claim shows that Bernie really won, lots of people passing it around.
piratedan
@Matt McIrvin: Sanders did do some time in the state and to be honest, I think he really touched base with a solid progressive base here. Hillary did what she had to do, she rallied a good many of the latino bloc and probably did well with the native and asian vote here too. What’s demonstrative of the hills that need to be climbed is the idiocy and partisanship that takes place locally. There’s damn little that they won’t say and do to stay in power by any means necessary. That holds true from Governor Ducey down to the smallest county recorder. It’s as if they don’t believe that anyone but them has the right to govern.
Gravenstone
@Arky Vaughan: Oh, they don’t really have an issue with the concept of a one world government. What they have trouble with is anyone other than the US being in control of that government.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@LAO: There’s no easy way to do it, though I’d also want to sever those 5 and go for the longer sentences first. The problem with that is one of image – they’re among the high profile ringleaders in OR, and people with a less sophisticated understanding of both penalties and the pragmatics of multiple trials would see that as “giving a pass.”
Since the OR charges were filed first, it’s arguably reasonable that the judge there gets an earlier trial. But the judges really need to work this out because the NV situation was much more aggressive.
Cluster potential, in other words.
@Betty Cracker: I’ve been hoping that would make his head asplode. It’s hilarious.
Calouste
Feel the burn:
Matt McIrvin
@Gravenstone: I don’t know, some of them have problems with the US being in control of the Southeastern states.
Germy
@Betty Cracker: I tried, I really tried to finish Ann Beattie’s short story in the last issue, but I couldn’t. Bunch of prosperous folks at a cocktail party.
I used to read every issue word for word (to combat my insomnia) but now I find myself skipping over entire articles. I guess I have less patience than I did years ago…
jl
@Matt McIrvin: The situation is shameful. and I am still a lukewarm Sanders supporter. But I don’t see how HRC was responsible for the voting suppression in Arizona, unless the parties themselves run the primary elections there, and I find that hard to imagine. Do they?
Sounds like a wingnut state government problem.
Too bad those Sanders supporters’ bitterness have driven them around the bend, unless they are blaming HRC for a wingnut state government.
@piratedan: thanks for the info on what goes down in AZ. Looks like from what you say it was generic wingnut voter suppression.
Brachiator
@Matt McIrvin:
I guess she stole it real good. I saw on Rachel Maddow that Sanders spent twice as much on ads, etc. So if he couldn’t get traction, and couldn’t steal it himself, there’s not much to say about it.
Matt McIrvin
@Calouste: What are we going to do without this guy?
Just Some Fuckhead
If Obama cared about America, he would have cracked open a book about a goat and read it wide-eyed and shitpantsed to a bunch of first graders.
That’s how real leaders roll. When there ain’t a birthday party to go to while a major city is drowning.
CONGRATULATIONS!
In other news, here goes the CA Democratic Party doing what it does best: losing local elections before they’ve even been held.
Nice going, guys. Can we run Hitler for the Assembly?
jl
Is a naybob a nabob who always says ‘nay’?
Any relation to knights who say ‘Ni’?
Ben Cisco
@Calouste: Snarky, clearly-out-of-fucks-to-give PBO. Awesome.
JMG
If Donald Trump became President, started a Middle East war which led to a nuclear act of terrorism near (but not too near) media offices in NYC, that would be cable news trifecta heaven.
People only watch cable news en masse during catastrophes. Therefore, all bad news is made to seem like a catastrophe for marketing purposes.
Ben Cisco
@Ben Cisco:
I thought that was a neighbob.
Southern Beale
How An AR-15 Ended Up At The TN State Legislature This Morning.
Hilarity ensued.
Ben Cisco
I stopped watching the cable stuff a couple of years back; the network stuff even before that. It’s too infuriating and depressing; neither was Mrs. Cisco a fan. My disgust is so complete, I cannot even watch Oliver, Wilmore, Noah, or Bee making fun of them anymore.
Brachiator
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Isn’t that every column?
D58826
@Matt McIrvin: Not to defend the pretty much indefensible Bush but the real issue isn’t that he went to a birthday party for McCain. Just like Obama going to the ball game, he should be able to multi-task. The real problem is that Bush filled the government with incompetent boobs who wanted the government to fail.
Miss Bianca
@Germy:
With the understanding, of course, that it *is* your money, and voting with $ is perfectly acceptable and even laudable. I’d say, with repair guys, is that *if* they can manage to refrain from saying hateful/bizarre stuff to me within the walls of my own house, I’m gonna not dig too deeply, IYKWIM. Never had to face a Lubovicher not wanting to shake my hand, so not sure how I’d deal with that one…altho’ that one might be kind of a deal-breaker for me.
ruemara
@Matt McIrvin: if the Justice Gazette has a link, that might be worthwhile. Hillary was winning nearly 2-1, so they need to show some numbers to back up Bernie winning and it can’t be “among my online friends”, which has taken a serious hold on people. Polling showed her being ahead.
Brachiator
@Ben Cisco: RE: Is a naybob a nabob who always says ‘nay’?
This was from a Reagan era campaign against overuse of horse tranquilizers.
Just say neigh, Bob.
Elie
@Matt McIrvin:
Don’t know about you, but its a pretty scary prospect….. On the national stage, his projection of indomitable confidence and optimism has helped us make it through some really horrible times. I pray that a) a Democrat wins the Presidency and b) that he or she can pick up those same reigns.
I am just completely perplexed by the Republicans who project nothing but fear and weakness. Its like they don’t understand being adults in a complex world — that they don’t even understand about the limitations of walls and barriers. Trump is repulsive — not just ineffective — That such a person would find such a following is just beyond sad… what a humiliation for a nation that keeps bleating about “we’re number 1”. That a fat, ugly, ignorant bully would be their champion….. I still can’t get over it…
Ben Cisco
@Brachiator: Well done…
Miss Bianca
@Poopyman:
What is it with these CHOCOLATE-EATING SURRENDER MONKEYS?? Don’t they understand that Israel *requires* them to freak out about Muslim terrorists??
Calouste
@Matt McIrvin: I think we should give him a late-night talk show on TV, or more likely on Amazon or Netflix.
Gravenstone
@Poopyman:
That seems like an interesting portfolio.
Amir Khalid
@Betty Cracker:
Strictly speaking, 2000 was the last year of the 20th century. The first year of the 21st century was 2001. The entirety of the Elian Gonzalez business happened in the 1990s, which ran from 1991 to 2000.
Matt McIrvin
@Calouste: Obama’s given some pretty clear signals that he’s not going away or shutting up. I think that as an ex-President, he’s going to be more of a Jimmy Carter than a George W. Bush or even a Bill Clinton.
Gravenstone
@ruemara: Polling also showed Clinton winning MI handily, yet Sanders won. So I guess his supporters get to pick and choose? If election results don’t comport with polling, but are in their favor it’s all good? Otherwise, it must be skullduggery afoot.
Matt McIrvin
@ruemara: Here it is. Seems kind of tinfoil-hat; references to “Hacking Democracy” and suggestions that the news media were in on the conspiracy too.
Matt McIrvin
@Gravenstone: Not only that, the (very scarce) polls were way off in Utah and Idaho, showing a close race instead of the extreme Sanders blowout they got.
goblue72
Its not Republicans. Or rather, its not the Republicans in the media, like Scarborough. Its the media, period. And specifically, TV media – and radio. Less so print, but they are still guilty of it in part. Controversy sells, whether manufactured or not. Crisis sells, whether real or artificially inflamed. Disaster sells. Scandal sells. Fear sells.
If it bleeds, it leads. Same as it ever was.
Because stuff like this appeared in our nation’s dailies back when the dailies were the cable TV news of the day: The Spanish Brute
Remember the Maine!
goblue72
@Matt McIrvin: I think part of the disconnect happens as a result of the difference between caucus states and primary states. In a lot of primary states, voters can vote early via mail-in or drop-off ballot. Arizona’s early vote starts 4 weeks before the primary. (This is why Rubio got voters even though he had dropped out. Voters had sent mail-in ballots before he dropped out.)
Mail-in vote campaigns are different from election day GOTV campaigns. And generally, at least in Democratic primaries, early mail-in voters tend to be more affluent and somewhat more conservative. Which is why you see this big pop for Clinton as soon as the polls close in primary states that have early voting. Those votes were already counted just not released and they tend to come from more conservative Democratic voters. Voters who vote on Election Day (as opposed to mail-in/early voters) tend to be more liberal/left and their vote tends to favor the outsider (at least, tends to favor the outsider candidate more so than the early voters).
We see this in municipal and state elections all over the place in “blue” areas. Establishment Democrats lead in the vote-by-mail/early vote; more left-wing candidates wind up doing better on day-of votes. In some Democratic districts (esp those where the Democratic primary decides who wins, since the GOP candidate is never going to win in the GE), the outcome turns on whether the establishment pick has amassed a sufficient firewall of early votes to counter the day-of GOTV efforts of the lefty candidate. Day-of voters tend to be younger and more liberal. This is also why same-day registration is an electoral reform that favors liberal candidates generally, and on General Election day, favors Democrats over Republicans. And thus why the GOP opposes same-day registration.
Similar thing we saw in Arizona. Hillary swamped Sanders in early votes. Day-of votes it was a lot closer. I have seen report of it being essentially tied day off, or with one or the other slightly leading.
Thus the “I saw long lines and a lot of people I knew in the line were voting the Bern” type stories and why folks can feel confused or that there is some conspiracy. There isn’t any. They just aren’t seeing all the voters who already voted by mail and who tended to vote for the other gal.
agorabum
@Miss Bianca: Not only Africa, but ISIS has killed thousands in various bombings in Iraq. That is terrorism, but it gets a shrug because it is ‘supposed’ to happen over there – even though no such thing happened before the US invaded Iraq.
These media people are terrible because they believe George W Bush was a good president and Obama is a bad president, even though Bush’s Iraqi blunder is the source of all this instability.
catclub
@Matt McIrvin: To the extent that ex-Presidents need to schmooze donors,
I expect Bill Clinton to excel over Obama. I do not think it will matter, and I suspect Jimmy Carter has not done it that way and been very great as an ex-President.
Still want him as Chief Justice of the SC.
Miss Bianca
@Southern Beale:
OMG!!
@agorabum:
Yes, you are absolutely right. ISIS/Daesh is a far greater scourge to Iraq than it ever will be to the West. The whole hand-wringing over “white victims of terrorism” that ignores facts like these just makes me sick and wicked with rage.
Tom
@Germy: I mainly like the cartoons, movie and tv reviews.
Paul in KY
@Calouste: Damn, that’s a good quip!
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