Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

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

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Everybody saw this coming.

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

Come on, man.

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

When we show up, we win.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

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

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Yay for Harriet Tubman!

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Yay for Harriet Tubman!

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As a matter of fact, yes, I was extremely pleased to hear that Harriet Tubman will get a little more of the recognition she deserves. The implementation of the new currency… well, it’s a horse created by committee, so it was never liable to be an elegant process. History so seldom is.

… While Hamilton would remain on the $10, and Abraham Lincoln on the $5, images of women would be added to the back of both — in keeping with Mr. Lew’s intent “to bring to life” the national monuments depicted there.

The picture of the Treasury building on the back of the $10 bill would be replaced with a depiction of a 1913 march in support of women’s right to vote that ended at the building, along with portraits of five suffrage leaders: Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul and Susan B. Anthony, who in more recent years was on an unpopular $1 coin until minting ceased.

On the flip side of the $5 bill, the Lincoln Memorial would remain, but as the backdrop for the 1939 performance there of Marian Anderson, the African-American classical singer, after she was barred from singing at the segregated Constitution Hall nearby. Sharing space on the rear would be images of Eleanor Roosevelt, who arranged Anderson’s Lincoln Memorial performance, and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who in 1963 delivered his “I have a dream” speech from its steps.

The final redesigns will be unveiled in 2020, the centennial of the 19th Amendment establishing women’s suffrage, and will not go into wide circulation until later in the decade, starting with the new $10 note. The unexpectedly ambitious proposals reflect Mr. Lew’s tortuous attempt to expedite the process and win over critics who have lodged conflicting demands, pitting mainly women’s advocates against Hamiltonians newly empowered by the unlikely success of their hero’s story on Broadway….

Harriet Tubman spent some time in Boston, because of course she would have, so the local news stations are big fans. WCBV5/ABC was happy to remind everyone that a local girl sparked the current movement (Wednesday was her eleventh birthday!). WBZ/CBS had a clip on the South End settlement center founded by Tubman and still in business. I’ve put the embed below the fold, along with some bonus twitter snark, because commentors using some browsers have complained about video invisibility and/or autoplay in the past.
**********
Apart from celebrating small victories, what’s on the agenda for the day?


Reader Interactions

166Comments

  2. 2.

    bystander

    When do gay guys get James Buchanan’s face on a bill? Preferably not the $3 denom.

  3. 3.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    I am sorely disappointed Frances Perkins doesn’t have a spot somewhere. Woman who brought in SS and workers’ safety rules. Really???

  5. 5.

    TheMightyTrowel

    Thanks for the link AL. Didn’t know the story about the girl from Cambridge. As a Boston native myself made me quite proud!

  6. 6.

    Poopyman

    @bystander: Well clearly, you don’t have to be president to be on currency, so I think you can find a better candidate than him.

  8. 8.

    bystander

    @Mai.naem.mobile: I believe FDR called her “Madame Perkins”. Dad always altered that and referred to her as “Ma Perkins”. Hence, whenever Perkins is mentioned, I somehow see Ma Barker. Not someone you want to see on currency.

    @Baud: I tried to spare you by interposing Buchanan. But you left yourself open to the amusement of poopyman.

  9. 9.

    bystander

    @Poopyman: While I would relish the shrieking and gnashing of teeth a Harvey Milk $20 would provoke, I prefer to rub everyone’s nose in what a 3rd tier POTUS you get when you turn to closeted liars.

  10. 10.

    satby

    I voted for Harriet Tubman in the straw poll they had on the subject, so I’m pleased she was selected. And that the wingers are melting down is icing on the cake.

  14. 14.

    raven

    In Vietnam we were issued Military Payment Certificates (MPC) or “funny money” to combat the black market. It sort of worked because they had super secret days when they would lock down every US facility and GI’s would have to turn in their notes for the new ones. There would be Vietnamese with wheelbarrow’s full of the old bills outside the gates begging to exchange them! The point is that there were women on those bills but it seems like they were just pictures because I cannot find out who they were!

  15. 15.

    Geoduck

    Re: Vox’s tweet. It’s also been pointed out that Jackson hated paper money, so he might actually might have been glad to see him image removed. Not replaced with a black woman’s, of course..

  17. 17.

    Baud

    Hey baby, hey baby, hey
    Boys say, boys say
    Hey baby, hey baby, hey
    All the boys get the girls in the back

  22. 22.

    MomSense

    @Baud:

    I’ll be sippin on chamomile watchin the boys and girls and their sex appeal but I won’t be reading the Breitbart comments because those racist turds are melting down.

  23. 23.

    Patricia Kayden

    Looking forward to all these changes in 2020. And loving that Conservatives/Rightwingers are having another racist breakdown because a Black woman will be on their bills. Sweet!

  31. 31.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    WASHINGTON — The Army announced Friday the first 22 women to be commissioned as infantry and armor officers under new rules that open all ground combat jobs to females this year.

    The move is a major step toward integrating women into so-called ground combat jobs, placing them in leadership roles in occupations that were never open to them.

    Someone should tell Obama “Stripes” and “GI Jane” weren’t documentaries.

  34. 34.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    NEW YORK — Trump narrows Vice Presidential search to Curt Schilling, Johnny Manziel, and Susan Sarandon.

  38. 38.

    Baud

    @Poopyman:

    There is a 50/50 chance I would mistakenly use the trillion dollar coin as a subway token.

    Oh the sit-com hijinks we would have if I were president.

  39. 39.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: I’ve never seen it. I don’t have TV. This is all from the Guardian.

    ETA: but I hate joke too. just on principle

  41. 41.

    Keith G

    Cokie Roberts in the New York Times opinion pages provides a blistering takedown of $10 face man Alexander Hamilton. She apparently doesn’t like him any better than she likes Donald Trump.

    I am on the go (more or less) waiting for a light to change or else I would supply a link

  42. 42.

    Technocrat

    @Baud:

    Episode 22: Baud! thinks he’s signing his kid’s permission slip, but accidentally signs hilarious alliance with North Korea!

  45. 45.

    Schlemazel (parmesan rancor)

    @Keith G:
    I mentioned yesterday how public opinions swing in regards to Hamilton & Jackson. It seems neither is human & one is revered while the other reviled or at least ignored. The same thing happened recently with Tesla and Edison. Some clown on the Internet decided to start a campaign to elevate Tesla and made Edison the foil. There are corners of the Internet today where suggesting that Edison was not the worlds greatest monster or that Tesla was not the worlds greatest genius will result in conversations like this place had a couple of days ago with more ‘fuck yous’ tossed in. It seems rather juvenile that we can’t see our history as complex and people as a mixed bag of good, bad and indifferent.

  48. 48.

    Germy

    AP
    Created: 04/21/2016 6:54 AM
    REDONDO BEACH, Calif. (AP) – Chyna, the WWE star who became one of the best-known and most-popular female professional wrestlers in history, has died at age 45.
    Los Angeles County coroner’s Lt. Larry Dietz says Chyna, whose real name is Joan Marie Laurer, was found dead in Redondo Beach on Wednesday. Dietz said his investigator was still at the location with the body late Wednesday night, and he had no further information on the death.

  55. 55.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: I wish they would stick to fvcking up the GOP instead of trying to do the same to the Grand Canyon. (link above)

  56. 56.

    Jack the Second

    @Geoduck: You know, I am totally OK with moving dead racist white guys exclusively to coins — even make up some new ones, get some new 50-cent and dollar and 2 and 5 dollar coins in circulation — and putting a slate of not-white-guys on the paper money.

    Let all the MRA goldbugs jingle like a Christmas song.

  60. 60.

    raven

    Dwayne ‘Pearl’ Washington helped make the Big East the Big East

    “And in a way, they were. Dwayne “Pearl” Washington was every inch a showman, a basketball player so skilled he left fans in a constant suspended state, somewhere between awe at what he just did and wonder in what might come next. Boeheim, in town in the early 1980s to recruit Washington, didn’t know it at the time, but they always lined up to see the Pearl.”

  63. 63.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: They will never know the meaning of ‘angst’. At least not before the mob crashes thru the gates.

  66. 66.

    evodevo

    I voted for Wilma Mankiller myself. Replacing Andy Jackson would be the essence of karma – trail of tears and all that.

  70. 70.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The latest in Illinois gridlock:

    Horseshoe Lake State Park near Granite City will close indefinitely starting Monday due to termination of trash and electrical service, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources said Wednesday.

    I wonder how long before they shut off the electricity at the Governors mansion?

  73. 73.

    raven

    @Gin & Tonic: I was also bummed to learn abut Jerry Sloan’s dementia and parkinsons. I was a Bulls fans and he, Chet “The Jet” Walker and Bob “Butterbean” Love were a sight to behold!

    eta I had forgotten about this “While at Evansville, coach McCutchan suggested that Sloan coach at his alma mater. After retiring in 1976, Sloan took the Evansville job but withdrew after five days.[7] That same season the Evansville basketball team as well as coaches were killed in a plane crash at Evansville Airport.

  74. 74.

    C. Isaac

    It’s amusing watching the resultant vitriol from certain alt-Right wingnuts over the Tubman changes. You’d think someone just kicked their dog.

    Or, as the Twitters says:

    https://imgur.com/qxdLY6m

    “Make sure you stay hydrated today, there’s gonna be a lot of salty crackers on Twitter.”

  75. 75.

    Tinare

    @OzarkHillbilly: Do you think they grew up watching movies like “It’s a Wonderful Life” and thinking that characters like Mr. Potter were the heros?

    They are so totally vile.

  78. 78.

    Bostondreams

    From that WCVB article:

    President Alexander Hamilton will remain on the front of the $10 bill

    Oh. My. God. Really? Really? Makes this old history teacher scream. Wow.

  85. 85.

    MomSense

    So Haley Barbour is on my teevee saying he will vote for the GOP nominee because we can’t afford 4 more years of Obama’s failed policies. Why can’t one person ask him which policies failed and why? In not asking for investigative journalism but a damned follow up question once in awhile would be nice.

  86. 86.

    Denali

    Still want to see Susan B. Anthony honored for her role in vioting rights for women. She needs her own bill(not the $2) not as a bit part in a revolving cast of characters.

  87. 87.

    tinare

    @Bostondreams: Maybe they meant to say, “well know for being fatally wounded in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton will remain…” And so they just left out a few words.

  88. 88.

    satby

    @Schlemazel (parmesan rancor): Well said. On our road trip recently, one of the stops was at The Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s plantation in Nashville. Not because I admire the guy, but it’s a historical site and they have a tour of what used to be the slave quarters with description about how the slaves lived. And Jackson was considered to be a “good” slave owner, because he kept the families together and let them keep the small wages they earned if lent out to other plantations. But the tour guide left no doubt about the conditions, restrictions, and brutality of the slave system, which is what I wanted the girls to see and hear because it’s still poisoning this country today. So genocidal to Native Americans, more humane toward slaves? Does that even make sense? Not to us today, we recognize both groups as fellow human beings.
    We judge these people by today’s standards but they lived 200 years ago, under very different conditions. Doesn’t make slavery or genocidal policies right, but our time will be judged as harshly 200 years from now (I hope, because that would mean progress in human rights had continued).

  91. 91.

    srv

    Well, we all know who will be on the Trillion Dollar seigniorage coin to raise the debt ceiling.

    It will be the liberals new nickel.

  95. 95.

    Poopyman

    So Jackson stays on the $20 until 2030, which is the bicentennial of the Indian Removal Act, so there’s that nice coincidence.

  96. 96.

    rikyrah

    See, this is why we can’t have nice things.

    IF Edwards were say, another Harold Ford, Jr., I’d understand. But, she’s not.

    This is also why SENATOR Barack Obama completely ignored them and passed them by on his run for the Presidency.

    Edwards confronts black lawmakers over refusal to back her
    Locked in a surprisingly competitive Senate race with party favorite Chris Van Hollen, Edwards is pressing for more support from the Congressional Black Caucus.
    By Rachael Bade
    04/21/16 05:24 AM EDT

    On the verge of a possible upset of the Democratic Party’s longtime golden boy, Rep. Chris Van Hollen, in Tuesday’s Maryland Senate primary, Rep. Donna Edwards has a question for her fellow members of the Congressional Black Caucus: Why aren’t more of you endorsing me?
    POLITICO has learned that Edwards met privately last week with several CBC members to voice her frustration that so few African-American lawmakers had offered her their support, according to five sources familiar with the meetings.

    Only four of the 46 CBC members — Reps. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin, Lacy Clay of Missouri, Robin Kelly of Illinois and Hank Johnson of Georgia — are backing Edwards over Van Hollen, an unusually small number for a group known for standing by fellow African-American lawmakers. Meanwhile, Van Hollen has been making hay over his growing number of endorsements from black political leaders in Maryland, including some in Edwards’ district, though he has yet to be endorsed by a CBC member.

  98. 98.

    Roger Moore

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I wonder how long before they shut off the electricity at the Governors mansion?

    Maybe they should defund the protective detail before turning off the power. It might be more effective in getting attention.

  99. 99.

    Redshift

    @MomSense: Following a link from Twitter, I read the bit of Kasich’s interview with the WaPo where he talks about his plan to cut taxes and how it will all be paid for by the 3.9% economic growth that will result. The only response that would be actual journalism would be to treat it as the crackpot idea that it is.

    They did push back some, but allowed him to get away with pretending there could be details that might matter, instead of just saying “That has never worked. Why would it work now?”

  100. 100.

    rikyrah

    GOP’s anti-Planned Parenthood panel descends into ‘farce’
    04/21/16 08:00 AM
    By Steve Benen
    As ridiculous as the House Republicans’ Benghazi committee has become, at least the GOP’s investigation is scrutinizing a real event. Sure, by Republicans’ own admission, the entire exercise is a partisan political stunt. And sure, the events in Benghazi in 2012 have already been investigated by seven other congressional committees. But at its root, four Americans died in a terrorist attack that actually happened.

    The existence of the House Republicans’ anti-Planned Parenthood committee is arguably tougher to defend.

    The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank highlighted the latest antics of the panel’s far-right chair, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who “isn’t one to worry about appearances.”
    The Tennessee Republican didn’t make any pretense this week of being impartial with the committee she chairs, the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives, commonly known as the Planned Parenthood committee.

    On the eve of her panel’s Wednesday’s hearing, Blackburn went over to Georgetown University to participate in a protest against Planned Parenthood, the very entity she is supposed to be investigating…. Then Blackburn showed up at her committee hearing the next morning and proclaimed, “My hope is that both parties can work together.”

    Of course, when Blackburn talks about the parties “working together,” what she’s referring to is a hope that Democrats will simply go along with a culture-war crusade as if the GOP’s latest select committee were a legitimate exercise, probing a genuine controversy.

  101. 101.

    Roger Moore

    @MomSense:

    Why can’t one person ask him which policies failed and why?

    Obamacare failed because there are still uninsured people.
    Libya failed because Benghazi!
    Iran failed because we haven’t bombed them yet.
    Syria failed because ISIS.

  102. 102.

    RSR

    Lucretia Mott. Interesting. And good! There’s a neighborhood in the township just outside Philadelphia where I grew up named in her honor: La Mott. She resided there and her home was a stop on the underground railroad.

    My business has worked with the Quakers here in Philadelphia duplicating cemetery memorials in the Historic Fair Hill Burial Ground, including that of Ms. Mott.

  103. 103.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Roger Moore: Not a pain, really, it’s just that it takes forever. So if you’re behind that person in the checkout line, go to another line.

  104. 104.

    rikyrah

    Meet the Black Woman Architect Behind the New Smithsonian Museum
    POSTED ON APRIL 19, 2016
    BY TRAVIS HENRY

    It was only a couple of months ago that we found out that the Smithsonian was creating an African-American museum. To make the news even better, now we know who the architect is. Her name is Zena Howard, and she is a dope Black woman architect.

    Howard focuses on all of the aspects of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, but hones in on the porch, which happens to span 200 feet and it serves as an transitional space between the outside and inside of the museum.

    “I think that the porch is…quintessential America,” says Howard. “In African American history, we use the porch in a different way.” It’s more “an extension of the indoor living space than probably in any other culture.” She explained that how as a child “everything was done on the porch. We ate on the porch. We sang on the porch.”

    Out of all the projects that Howard has worked on, which include the Anacostia Public Library in the nation’s capital and the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina, she said that her favorite project, thus far, is the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

  105. 105.

    sdhays

    @Keith G: Oh, goodness. I hope NPR once again reiterates that she’s not a journalist, but a worthless pundit, and her silly, embarrassingly unprofessional opinion is merely her own and does not indicate that NPR has any position on the goodness or badness of Donald Trump Alexander Hamilton. We wouldn’t want any Federalists getting upset…

  106. 106.

    rikyrah

    Ok, this hurt my soul.

    But…they are there to ‘ Protect and Serve’.

    And, it’s all in Black folks imagination – why we are skeptical of Law Enforcement.

    ………………………

    WATCH: Dash cam video shows Florida cops stood by as teens drowned in stolen car

    Tom Boggioni

    20 APR 2016 AT 22:51 ET

    Video taken from a police cruiser dash cam shows that sheriff’s deputies made no attempt to save three drowning Florida teens who drove into a cemetery pond after stealing a car last month.

    16-year-old Dominique Battle, 15-year-old Ashaunti Butler, and 15-year-old Laniya Miller all died on March 31, following a car chase with the sheriff previously stating that officers on the scene dropped their gun belts and waded into the water trying to save the screaming teens.

  107. 107.

    Hal

    I like Robert Reich, but this post he has up is a little confusing to me. I am all for open primaries and agree New York’s voter laws are total crap, but wasn’t this common knowledge and not some new, out of the blue rule? Sanders is running as a dem, not an independent, and NY has a closed primary. Go ahead and change the rules, but don’t act like no one knew about this in advance.

    As I predicted, the mainstream media this morning are saying the race is essentially over. But so far, no article I’ve read about yesterday’s New York primary mentions that independents weren’t allowed to vote in it. Yet 42 percent of American voters are now independent, and only 29 percent are registered Democrats (26 percent are registered Republicans), and we can assume a similar distribution in New York. A significant portion of Bernie’s supporters across the nation are independent – for the obvious reason that Bernie’s candidacy takes on the establishment. In addition, most young voters are independent. Independents gave Bernie huge victories in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Washington, for example. And independents obviously will play a large role in any presidential election.

    The inclusion of superdelegates and exclusion of independents from many Democratic primaries makes the Democratic Party far less democratic than many assumed. This is the prerogative of the Party, of course. But the mainstream media have a responsibility to let people know all this, for the purpose of assessing the significance of a given primary outcome.

  109. 109.

    Peale

    @Hal: “we can assume that New York” doesn’t follow the same distribution for party registration. I don’t get why he assumes that 42% are independent in the state since we have closed primaries.

  111. 111.

    Librarian

    @Keith G: I read that. Basically she says that Hamilton should be taken off because of his private life. If we disqualified people from being on money because of their private lives, we would have to take off Jefferson, FDR, and JFK, too.

  115. 115.

    Aimai

    @rikyrah: how cool! Rikyrah i really appreciate your posts here. I think john cole should make you a front pager/regular poster. It would be wonderful!

  116. 116.

    D58826

    OT but did brighten the day a bit – The donald doesn’t give a d*** where Caitlin Jenner pees!!!!!

  119. 119.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    So, TrumpsterFire is down with the trans? How is this guy going to keep the Two Minutes Hate wing down on the farm?

    Oh that’s right, by ignoring what everyone knows is Jesus Bullshit and focusing on the issues people actually give a fuck about. The guy would be truly dangerous if he weren’t so disorganized.

  120. 120.

    Lee

    Apparently The Heritage Foundation is already bemoaning the fact that Andrew Jackson is being removed.

  121. 121.

    D58826

    @Lee: The wingnuts would complain if the Obama administration painted Saint Ronulus the Unready’s face on every flat surface from Maine to Hawaii

  122. 122.

    Keith G

    @sdhays: Well, since she was writing an opinion column in the New York Times I imagine that most people would recognize that her statements were indeed her own personal opinion.

  124. 124.

    The Lodger

    @Gin & Tonic: And if there’s an infinite number of lines, the last person in the line next to you can move to the end of the line next to them. Etc.

  125. 125.

    Roger Moore

    @Hal: Quoting Robert Reich:

    Yet 42 percent of American voters are now independent, and only 29 percent are registered Democrats (26 percent are registered Republicans), and we can assume a similar distribution in New York.

    Yes, you could assume that, but it’s a stupid assumption. Those national numbers include states with open primaries, where there’s much less disadvantage to being an independent. Also, New York is a notably blue state, which means the party affiliations there are unlikely to be similar to the country as a whole.

    Most importantly, though, you don’t have to assume anything because it’s possible to get the actual numbers with a couple of minutes searching on Google. Those numbers show the actual registration is about 49% Democrats, 23% Republicans, 25% Independent or blank, and about 2% minor parties (the numbers don’t add to 100% because of rounding errors). But I guess that would be too much effort for a Bernie Bro like Reich has become.

  126. 126.

    NotMax

    Couple of tidbits regarding Lucretia Mott.

    She has appeared on a U.S. postage stamp.

    Also was short in stature. She’s the one between the two tophatted gents in the front row in this picture, taken in 1869. (Fairly certain the one with the dark beard, next to her, is husband James Mott.)

  127. 127.

    hamletta

    @Roger Moore: In addition, there are whole states with no party registration whatsoever, like Tennessee and Arkansas. Are all those voters counted as Independents?

  128. 128.

    Elizabelle

    From the Guardian:

    New York is one of only 11 states with closed primaries – ie primaries in which only voters who are registered as Republicans or Democrats are allowed to cast ballots – and it is the only state in which currently registered voters must declare their party affiliation more than six months before a primary in order to vote.

    I think this is appalling and undemocratic. I see the point of declaring as a Democrat; my issue is the six-month deadline. Even three months (or one or two) would be far more representative. I can see the point of wanting to party-build and also avoid mayhem (a last minute surge by Rushbots, etc.), but this did not serve actual intending voters very well. (And Hillary likely still would have done fine.)

    I hope New York will change its policies before its next presidential primary.

    I volunteered in Delaware in 2008 for Barack Obama, and remember the phone calls from sad residents eager to vote for BHO, but they were listed as “independents” and so could not. One young lady almost cried; she was eager to be a part of history. Delaware’s deadline was nowhere as onerous as New York’s.

    Did you all discuss this in an earlier thread? (I’ve been traveling and lurking and missing 90% of content recently ..)

    PS: Good morning! Hello from Asheville NC.

  129. 129.

    rikyrah

    I love this site

    ……….

    THE NAPA VALLEY WINE TRAIN SETTLEMENT IS THE BLACKEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED THIS WEEK

    Damon Young, 4/19/16

    I’ve already touched on the multiple levels of Blackness involved in the story of Sistahs on the Reading Edge; the California book club thrown off a wine train for being too rowdy.

    Exactly how many levels were there? Good question. Let’s review!

    1. A group of Black women in a book club. (Because the only thing Black women love more than book clubs is Jesse Williams.)

    2. The name of the book club being Sistahs on the Reading Edge.

    3. A group of Black women in a book club called Sistahs on the Reading Edge doing a wine tour together.

    4. A group of Black people having such a good time that it’s making White people uncomfortable.

    5. A group of Black people doing absolutely nothing other than “enjoying life while Black” facing some sort of legal consequence.

  130. 130.

    BR

    @Elizabelle:

    I think this is appalling and undemocratic. I see the point of declaring as a Democrat; my issue is the six-month deadline. Even three months (or one or two) would be far more representative. I can see the point of wanting to party-build and also avoid mayhem (a last minute surge by Rushbots, etc.), but this did not serve actual intending voters very well. (And Hillary likely still would have done fine.)

    I think this only applied to existing voters — so new, young voters (or those who recently moved) did not have the 6 month restriction.

  131. 131.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Roger Moore: I don’t quite get how Robert Reich has managed to become such a bumblefuck in 2016. Or maybe he was always this way and I was blinded by his wit and anti-charismatic charisma.

  132. 132.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @Elizabelle: Just a clarification that you’re probably already aware of. That 6-month deadline is for people who want to change an already declared party (or independent) identification. For new voters, I think the deadline is one month.

    I agree that 6 months is too long. IMHO, caucuses such as the one I go to are undemocratic, but here in Iowa, even they allow party registration at the door. Even from a purely self-serving reason, it’s good for the party to have more registered members.

  134. 134.

    Roger Moore

    @hamletta:
    I guess I’m most appalled by failure to look up the actual numbers. It took me a couple of minutes to find them and a couple more to get them into a spreadsheet so I could calculate the percentages. Was Reich’s failure to do so a matter of laziness or mendacity?

  135. 135.

    A Ghost To Most

    @BR:

    I think this only applied to existing voters — so new, young voters (or those who recently moved) did not have the 6 month restriction.

    Wasn’t that date March 25? Which seems reasonable. As to existing voters, there is something to be said for preventing last-minute ratfuckery.

  136. 136.

    Elizabelle

    RE Delaware party registration: effectively 60 days advance registration as a party member to vote in a Presidential primary election. That would have been PLENTY of time for independents in NYS to make their selections. Ridiculous that NYS makes you select a party before the first primary or caucus has occurred. (Granted, NYS’s size swamps Delaware, so that might be a consideration. Even so, six months sucks.)

    From Delaware’s Dept of Elections site.

    When can I change my political party affiliation?
    Before a Primary Election: anytime except from the last Saturday in May through the date of the Primary.
    Before a Presidential Primary: anytime except from the 59th day before the Presidential Primary through the date of the election.

  138. 138.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Roger Moore:

    Was Reich’s failure to do so a matter of laziness or mendacity?

    It’s particularly surprising because most Bernie Sanders supporters are so adept with numbers and so little prone to wishful thinking.

  139. 139.

    Elizabelle

    @BR: Agreed. New voters did get a month.

    But it’s still unfair to the longtime registered. It’s a separate standard, and effectively disenfranchises them.

    FWIW, I registered “independent” when I lived in California because I did not want to show up on party lists or get constant telephone calls. It’s possible that the relentless Obama campaign method — roughly six voter contacts — has sent some peeps to the independent regions. Campaign robocalling has become a form of abuse, IMHO.

    And a lot of people love to consider themselves rugged individualists — ie. independents — when they actually do support one party more heavily than others.

  140. 140.

    Mike J

    @Elizabelle: The NY deadline isn’t based on making it easy to participate in primaries, it is an attempt to accurately reflect your beliefs. There is no six month deadline.

    The actual deadline for changing your party registration is 25 days before the general election. For the next primary, you are registered as a member of the party you were for the last general election. 25 days is perfectly reasonable.

  141. 141.

    Roger Moore

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    That 6-month deadline is for people who want to change an already declared party (or independent) identification. For new voters, I think the deadline is one month.

    It seems like they could relax the deadline for independents choosing to register with a party to the same as the one for new voters. That would minimize the risk of partisan gamesmanship without screwing over independents too badly.

  142. 142.

    Technocrat

    It’s interesting how the $20 bill change is resonating with the right. I work in a suuuper conservative environment, and there have been several conversations about it today. I know they think the issue is “Racial” because they pause or get quiet when I walk by (heh).

    From what I glean, the dominant objection is that she isn’t a President. Hamilton doesn’t count because Reasons.

  143. 143.

    Mike J

    @Elizabelle:

    And a lot of people love to consider themselves rugged individualists — ie. independents — when they actually do support one party more heavily than others.

    Then they don’t get to choose the leader of the party. That’s a perfectly reasonable trade off. You can still sneer at the sheeple who try to work together, but you don’t get to pick their leader.

  144. 144.

    Elizabelle

    @Mike J: Actually, if you were a previously registered voter, there is a six-month deadline to register as a party member to vote in the NYS Democratic or GOP presidential primary. If you were already registered to vote, but not registered formally as a Democrat by October 19, 2015, before a single primary had occurred, you were shit out of luck for voting in the April primaries.

    Whereas someone who had just newly registered could register as a Democrat or Republican as late as March 29.

    That is unequal treatment, in my book.

  146. 146.

    Roger Moore

    @A Ghost To Most:

    As to existing voters, there is something to be said for preventing last-minute ratfuckery.

    But if that’s the goal, it’s most important to have a long deadline for people switching from one party to another. For people who aren’t affiliated with a party who want to join one, they could use the same short deadline as for new voters.

  148. 148.

    Roger Moore

    @Technocrat:

    From what I glean, the dominant objection is that she isn’t a President. Hamilton doesn’t count because Reasons.

    Franklin wasn’t a President, either. Neither were John Marshall or Salmon P. Chase, both of whom used to be on large denomination Federal Reserve Notes.

  149. 149.

    D58826

    @A Ghost To Most: Either way, these have been the rules since 1911. It’s not like the HRC folks made a last minute change just to screw Bernie. The solution – register/organize/vote for state/local level candidates who will change the system.

    This is not voter suppression like voter id laws.

  151. 151.

    Mike J

    @Elizabelle:

    Actually, if you were a previously registered voter, there is a six-month deadline to register as a party member

    No. There was no six month deadline. The deadline was 25 days. But it was 25 days before the last general election. Which is what I said before. You are a member of whatever party you were in for the last general election.

  153. 153.

    Iowa Old Lady

    Not only is there an autoplay ad, but also it’s about being fired from your job so your employer can bring in cheaper foreign labor, and it runs with maddening frequency. I had to turn my sound off.

  154. 154.

    Botsplainer, Cryptofascist Tool of the Oppressor Class

    Guardianship Court. Short motion with regard to changing placement of the residence of a ward.

    Been here nearly two hours as the blithering fucking incompetent in a robe spins her head through this docket and has about 30 hearings mixing pro se fiduciaries with lawyer cases, explaining REPEATEDLY to the pro se jackals what their duties are to their wards and how they are failing as the jackal families argue, emote and act cluelessly.

    I’ve ground my teeth to a bloody nub. My solution would be to summarily remove about the first five fiduciaries on dockets where there is conflict, and dare anybody else to come up and start running their mouths.

    And fuck me, I actually watched someone with an oxygen tank and a cane say that she could look after mama (who is invalid, 90 and in a nursing home), and that all her siblings were wrong.

  155. 155.

    Origuy

    I keep a pair of headphones plugged in to the computer at work. Not just for here; too many sites have autoplay. Even YouTube was running their ads for live-streaming Coachella with autoplay.

  157. 157.

    Miss Bianca

    @Hal: As far as I’m concerned, Robert Reich is descending the ladder from “person whose opinions and judgement I respect” to “person who passed the Sanders Electic Kool-Aid Acid Test and is now starting to hallucinate”.

  158. 158.

    A Ghost To Most

    @D58826:

    Either way, these have been the rules since 1911. It’s not like the HRC folks made a last minute change just to screw Bernie. The solution – register/organize/vote for state/local level candidates who will change the system.

    This is not voter suppression like voter id laws.

    Agreed. The Sanders camp should have been making noise about this 6 months ago, not whining and filing lawsuits now. Another example of the dog catching the car, and not knowing what to do with it. These people were not prepared to deal with success, like most revolutions.

  161. 161.

    quakerinabasement

    While I have read some ugliness from a few conservatives about putting Tubman on the $20, I see a few others have found a silver lining: an image of a gun-toting Republican will replace that of one of the founders of the Democratic Party.

    May this line of thinking prevail.

  163. 163.

    Calouste

    @Miss Bianca: Sanders Derangement Syndrome. People unwilling to admit that Sanders is indeed a lying, incompetent bumblefuck, and that therefore the reason he doesn’t win is because he is being cheated.

  166. 166.

    Bob In Portland

    @Aimai: I like this. The bastion of neoliberalism announces, “Tough shit” regarding the ways that voter delegitimization is doled out by the Democratic Party. A true and honest reflection of the deep democratic roots of the BJ community. I’m guessing most of those voters hadn’t paid a quarter million to hear Her Hillaryness speak.

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