This woman is a god damned moron:
Ok, but my question is, do you think there’s a meaningful difference between Trump and Clinton? Is one not objectively scarier than the other?
I’m terrified of Donald Trump. I’m terrified of Hillary Clinton. And I’m most terrified of a political system and people who apologize for it. I’m terrified of people who tell us that we have two deadly choices and we must pick our weapon of self-destruction. We should not resign ourselves to a trajectory that is making a beeline for oblivion. The day of reckoning on climate is coming closer and closer, and I don’t regard Hillary Clinton as one iota safer than Donald Trump on the climate. She’s been promoting fracking around the world. Maybe she’s the most effective evil. She gets a lot of people to do what she wants. She’s got a whole Democratic Party system behind her, which has proven itself extremely effective and extremely dangerous.
I’m terrified of people this stupid.
Roger Moore
I’m more terrified of the people who are willing to vote for her.
Omnes Omnibus
Da fuq?
Kay
Someone in his campaign is going to get fired for admitting that :)
Renie
Palin said this? I thought she endorsed Trump?
HR Progressive
@Renie: He’s calling Jill Stein the “Vegan Sarah Palin”.
Also, yikes. I really don’t know why anyone would vote for her. Just wow.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
So, was this Susan Sarandon saying this? Oh, never mind. I clicked on the link: Jill Stein. Ugh.
cokane
@Renie: dude, read…
Mustang Bobby
Well, she’s supposed to be the new Bernie?
Epicurus
“Dr.” Stein also believes in homeopathy. She is a quack, in addition to having no idea as to how our political system functions. Feel free to ignore her.
Hunter Gathers
People like Jill Stien are the reason people keep punching hippies.
dmsilev
Maybe the Green Party should focus on electing at least one person to state-level office before targeting the Presidency. And I don’t mean state-wide office, I mean things like State Rep and State Senator, which typically would be a district of a few tens of thousands of people and of which there are precisely no Green Party exemplars. Elect somebody, anybody, to an office higher than town council and we can talk.
Jeffro
@Renie: No it was the esteemed *ahem* Dr. Jill Stein.
Ask her which candidate agrees with her on about 90% of the issues.
Then ask her if she wants someone who’s ‘dangerously effective’ advancing that 90% of her agenda, or someone who can’t even walk back his own dumb-a$$ comments denigrating a fallen US soldier and his family.
Once we’ve got Trump headed for a rout, Stein and her wackiness are next…she’s actually dumber than Johnson, and we all know what Johnson has been smoking…
dmsilev
@Mustang Bobby: Not Palin. A Palinesque lefty (Green Party’s Jill Stein MD PhD LLC ASAP BBQ, to be precise)
Gin & Tonic
@Kay: From the linked article:
Has there been a published analysis of the June FEC disclosures? Maybe I’m blind, but I can’t recall having seen anything. The May disclosures were all over the news and blogosphere pretty much the day they came out.
dr. bloor
@Kay: My money is on McIver.
Patricia Kayden
Speechless.
Jeffro
@HR Progressive: Btw “Vegan Sarah Palin” is extremely effective in cutting to the chase re: Dr. Stein. I’m sorry but it’s just so incredibly true. Especially with the anti-vaxxer stuff. What a frockin’ moron.
PigDog
is she the living embodiment of that old saw “the extreme left is indistinguishable from the extreme right?” I mean, the ignorance is identical…
SiubhanDuinne
There’s too much crazy going on. I have no idea how to stop it.
hilts
OT
Mark Cuban endorses Hillary Clinton, calls Donald Trump ‘bats— crazy’
In endorsing Clinton, Cuban said, “I am ready to vote for a true leader, I am ready to vote for the American Dream. I am ready to tell the world that I am here to endorse Hillary Clinton.”
Earlier in the evening, Cuban delivered multiple crowd-pleasing zingers at Trump, referring to the Republican presidential candidate as a “jagoff” in a colorful speech.
“You know what we call a person like that — the screamers, the yellers, the people that try to intimidate you? You know what we call a person like that in Pittsburgh? A jagoff,” said Cuban, a Pittsburgh native. “Is there any bigger jagoff in the world than Donald Trump?”
Jeffro
Trump has apparently attempted to walk back his anti-Khan statements with more BS in an ‘official’ statement…don’t let up, folks!!!
PhoenixRising
I did not know Marc Cuban was a pierogi eating yinzer. And Vegan Sarah Palin is Dr Jill Stein’s new name. Off to Twitter to make it so!
Jeffro
@SiubhanDuinne: Don’t try and stop it – just jump right in! Everyone else is swinging away, why not you?
M31
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!
—Donald Trump
msdc
“Vegan Sarah Palin”
I think we have a new tag here.
Kay
@dr. bloor:
I don’t know why they’d think Pence would be a plus in those states, particularly. Religious conservatives like him but other than that he’s really the ALEC candidate. He wants to privatize Social Security. He was never anything close to a “populist”
It’s like they said “Indiana is kind of close to some of these states we need!” Indiana is more like Missouri than it is like Pennsylvania . Also, I think Trump is going to Pittsburgh, Maine and NY next week so HE still thinks he can win NY.
I bet he denies this whole piece on Twitter.
scav
Damn. I’v made a habit of voting Green for local stuff, Water Board etc, Mostly because of the Germans etc. This level of loon (antivax ot helping whatsoever) makes it’s hard to do so even for relatively acephalous movements.
Mike J
Palin actually got elected to something once, even if she couldn’t cut it when it came time to do the job. What’s Stein ever done except tell people vaccines are bad for them?
Aleta
groan
Let us not resign ourselves to a world in which trajectories are making beelines.
Felonius Monk
Dr. Stein, Heal thyself.
Gin & Tonic
@Jeffro: Apparently, also today, Il Donaldo tweeted that the NFL had written to him to complain (as he did) about the proposed Presidential debate schedule. The NFL then issued a statement saying, “Um, no we didn’t.” He also tweeted that he’d turned down a meeting requested by the Koch brothers to which the Koch brothers’ flack issued a statement saying “Um, no we didn’t.”
SiubhanDuinne
@PhoenixRising:
Gives an entirely new, and fitting, meaning to the acronym VSP!
HR Progressive
@Jeffro: I actually kind of took her seriously as a candidate, even a fringe one, until this year when I actually started reading and hearing things she was saying.
She is out of her gourd. Period. She is not representative of liberalism, and is a poor substitute for Bernie Sanders or any other big-name liberal.
Those making the point about a small-level Green Party victory are absolutely right. Find me a Town Council, City Council, Mayor, State Delegate, something, somewhere, someone at these levels with a (G) next to their name. Then build on that.
But you won’t. So…yeah. The chief reason we won’t have a third party President is we can’t – in large enough numbers to matter – elect third party dog catchers.
EllenH
As someone who has spent the past 15 years holding EPA’s feet to the fire in enforcing the clean air act this kind of false equivalency makes me crazy. First, it is untrue, but from a strictly practical perspective it is the appointments in the executive branch that make the big difference IMHO. Not just at the cabinet level either. Yes, the EPA administrator is key, but so are the regional administrators. The change in enforcement/ emphasis from the Bush administration to the Obama administration was dramatically different. Just continuing the rules and regulations promulgated under Obama would be huge.
EBT
She has been courting the TERFs as well.
dmsilev
@Jeffro: I assume that translates to ‘his campaign is doing damage control, and in the mean time, someone managed again to steal his phone’.
Calouste
@dmsilev: The Green Party of England and Wales has one seat in Parliament (UK constituencies are around 90,000 people), in Brighton. The Green Party of the USA should easily be able to win a state rep seat in Portland or so. They don’t even have a seat in New Hampshire, where there is one rep per 3,300 residents.
Kay
@Gin & Tonic:
The surrogate gap will really start to come clear. Clinton has tons of people in all these states- Senators, House candidates, mayors. etc. Pence had one state rep, one former state rep and the state GOP chair at his Lima, OH rally.
A former state representative? They’re really scraping the bottom of the barrel with that one :)
Next up- a retired county commissioner! The clerk of courts! They just need MORE PEOPLE. There’s only so many times he can roll out Don Jr.
Patricia Kayden
@hilts: Good for Cuban. Another anti-Trump billionaire. That’s gotta hurt.
Mike J
@HR Progressive:
Salon (I know, I know) has an article entitled, “Jill Stein’s Ideas Are Terrible. She Is Not the Savior the Left Is Looking For.”
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
One of the things that really struck me about the convention was that Hillary seems to have dozens, if not hundreds, of people who are eager to speak up for her. Not just politicians, but ordinary people, too. Who does Trump have? The manager of his vineyard?
Omnes Omnibus
@EBT: Just googled. Learned something new.
dmsilev
@Mnemosyne: Well, his children support him.
divF
@Patricia Kayden: Cuban is from a Jewish working-class family – a self-made billionaire, so to speak. He probably has little patience for Trump’s pretensions of being a major business success.
ETA: I looked up Bloomberg – same kind of modest family background, same contempt for Trump. A pattern?
Trentrunner
l can’t put my hands on text version of Trump’s Khan walkback statement (only images on Twitter), but it’s a beauty.
He not only blames Hillary, by rebukes Mr. Khan “who has never met me” for saying “I’ve never read the Constitution (I have)”.
In. Fucking. Sane. He just cannot help himself, even mediated by handlers and a written statement.
SiubhanDuinne
@dmsilev:
This. The arrogance of the Greens (and the Naderites before them) is just breathtaking. Fuck local, county, district, state, regional issues, let’s just go for the FUCKING PRESIDENCY shall we??
Put up a candidate for city council, county commission, or school board, and I’ll give you a hearing. Start at the top of the ticket? I don’t think so.
different-church-lady
The thing I look for most in a president is a person who’s terrified of everything.
HR Progressive
@Mike J: “When even the liberal Salon…”
dmsilev
@Trentrunner: It’s going to get worse for Trump. ABC interviewed the Kahns and let’s just say that neither of them is overflowing with good thoughts about him:
Major Major Major Major
Fracking’s, uh, kind of a net positive if all you’re looking at is outlays. Why are we against it again?
different-church-lady
@hilts: Yeah, well what does he know about America? He’s Cuban!
[nods]
Mike J
@dmsilev:
Not enough to register to vote.
SiubhanDuinne
@Gin & Tonic:
Apparently, also today, Il Donaldo tweeted that the NFL had written to him to complain (as he did) about the proposed Presidential debate schedule. The NFL then issued a statement saying,
“Um, no we didn’t.”“Fuck you, you’re full of shit.” He also tweeted that he’d turned down a meeting requested by the Koch brothers to which the Koch brothers’ flack issued a statement saying“Um, no we didn’t.”“Fuck you, you’re full of shit.”divF
@different-church-lady: Cuban was what was left of the original family name, Chabenisky, after they immigrated to the U.S.
burnspbesq
@Kay:
Are neighboring states ready to take in the refugees from Trump’s campaign of terror?
Villago Delenda Est
@dmsilev: The Green Party destroyed itself in 2000. It will be forever irrelevant in this country.
EBT
Absurd that people would see me as a bigger threat to feminism than Mike Pence or Donald Trump.
BR
I was talking with a local community college lecturer I know recently and she mentioned that while she tries not to bring up politics, she thinks most of her students don’t care about the election and don’t really see the differences between the candidates. Sort of Bush v. Gore reasoning, even though it’s so much more extreme than it even was then.
Homophobia is maybe the one thing that might cut through — it’s not an old battle, but a very recent and ongoing one, and one where there’s a huge age gap in perception. Pence is basically the most homophobic governor in the nation. I think this is an issue to bring up to (especially young) Bernie / apathetic voters in favor of Hillary, who from what I can tell is very popular in the LGBT community.
PsiFighter37
Jill Stein is a goddamn moron. That’s one hippie is be down to punch.
@SiubhanDuinne: The Kochs aren’t complete idiots – no reason to light any of their precious millions on fire when they know it’ll go down in flames. If I were them, I’d be begging Mitch McConnell to confirm Garland ASAP.
dmsilev
@Mike J: Well, OK, his kids at least pretend to support him. Wouldn’t want to get written out of the will, of course.
dogwood
@divF:
I saw the rally today. Cuban was pretty good. He talked more about his failures than his successes. Was clear that when he sold one company he created 300 millionaires, and that included people who had minimum wage jobs. Said it’s not enough to dream big, you have to try and be willing to fail.
Gin & Tonic
@dmsilev: From a NYT article about that mess: “Mr. Trump also told Maureen Dowd of The New York Times on Friday night, “I’d like to hear his wife say something.” ”
I have a feeling he will come to regret asking for that.
Dadadadadadada
@Mnemosyne: When they made the DNC convention schedule, the line of people looking for a speaking slot must have gone out the door and 5 miles down the street. Tell me there’s one Dem in elected office anywhere that wouldn’t have crawled over broken glass for a 2-minute slot at 3 in the afternoon. Trump had to go looking for people to speak, and most of them wouldn’t even pick up the phone. His whole slate was basically immediate family members, personal employees, and some random people with okay-sounding resumes. A large majority of the people who should be his strongest supporters aren’t even willing to talk ABOUT him, much less to him, and hardly anyone is willing to be seen working with him or for him. The battle for surrogate supremacy ended about a month ago, and Hillary won it in a historic rout.
Trump is toast.
burnspbesq
@HR Progressive:
A half million Bernie-or-Busters will be happy to whitesplain it for you.
Schlemazel Khan
@SiubhanDuinne:
It is hard to do the local thing though. First you have to get someone who wants to run for the state legislature and has the time to do it. You need to organize a team of people who can help in lots of different ways. Next you have to have actual positions you can articulate because races at this level are retail politics, you go door to door, you shake a lot of hands at the county fair, you listen to a lot of people whine about their particular issue & you better have a good response for them. Then there is the money. Sure it is only a few thousand but who is going to donate to you? Particularly without any sort of state or national org that is interested in helping. Then maybe you can win. Most of these candidates are ego runs and nobody with an ego wants to spend it on such an significant job.
But you know what? If one of these fringe groups could pull a handful of seats & prevent the big 2 from getting a full majority they would have more power than a Governor. But it is hard work & they are not interested in that
Gin & Tonic
@SiubhanDuinne: I bet they have people who wish they could have said that.
Dadadadadadada
@Major Major Major Major: It poisons the water supply.
BR
Stein seems far more cynical than Johnson. She was attacking Bernie back in the Fall of last year IIRC, about being a sellout for running in the Democratic primary, then towards then end, before he endorsed Clinton, she was constantly praising him and attacking Clinton, and now she is attacking both of them.
And I don’t get the sense she has any public accomplishments to speak of. Does she? At least Nader had a long and storied career as a consumer advocate.
Villago Delenda Est
@burnspbesq:
THIS
And mansplain it, I might add.
SiubhanDuinne
@PsiFighter37:
Absolutely. Let’s see what happens in the next few weeks. The proof of the pudding is in the eating….
schrodinger's cat
@different-church-lady: That could apply to either Trump or Stein.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Is it I am tired or did Stien just contradict herself constantly in those interviews? What the …? 0o
Mike J
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Like with Trump, it’s not really contradicting if nothing you say means anything.
dogwood
@SiubhanDuinne:
I don’t know. The “Garland is a moderate” meme seems to come from Internet progressives who judge someone’s liberal bona fides by how strident and loud they are. Most everything I read about him from serious people confirmed he is a liberal, perhaps a bit to the left of Kagan. What I like about Garland is how respected he is. People like that can have outsized influence on the Court. I hope he ends up being confirmed.
trollhattan
We’re having a Fvck Politiks weekend and instead of fretting over The Donald’s tax return [but seriously The Donald, WTF?] we added a family member: Rocco. Doggie, or jellyfish? Experts disagree.
Helen
OMG. Trump tried to walk back the Khan statement. MASSIVE FAIL. Without mentioning the mother at all he said:
“Captain Humayun Khan was a hero to our country and we should honor all who have made the ultimate sacrifice to keep our country safe. The real problems here are the radical Islamic terrorists who killed him, and the efforts of these radicals to enter our country to do us further harm. Given the state of the world today, we have to know everything about those looking to enter our country, and given the state of chaos in some of these countries, that is impossible. While I feel deeply for the loss of his son, Mr. Khan who has never met me, has no right to stand in front of millions of people and claim I have never read the Constitution, (which is false) and say many other inaccurate things. If I become president, I will make America safe again.”
Emphasis mine. He had to let us know about his hurt fee fees.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Gin & Tonic: Perhaps not so much of finical disadvantage for Trump with Russian money?
burnspbesq
Amir is probably enjoying his Sunday morning. After a mediocre first half, Liverpool woke up and shredded AC Milan.
dmsilev
Post convention polls starting to trickle out. Topline number is 50-45 Clinton-Trump (46-41 if 3rd parties are included), but then there’s also this:
hilts
@divF:
It’s refreshing to see some billionaires who are genuinely repelled by Trump’s overwhelming douchebaggery.
rikyrah
PublicPolicyPolling
@ppppolls
Our new national poll finds Hillary Clinton hitting 50%- leads Donald Trump 50-45 in the head to head:
burnspbesq
@trollhattan:
That’s one cute jellyfish you got there. Congrats!
PhoenixRising
@Helen: he has no right to say…?
Apparently he’s correct about The Donald’s lack of knowledge of the Constitution. It’s easy to find the very first amendment!
That’s what the team of monkeys with typewriters was able to produce given 36 hours to come up with a formal response? Jesus.
Mike J
@burnspbesq: And Fenway Sports Group’s other team is choking in LA. Bleh.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Mike J:
@HR Progressive:
Salon, Slate, meh, I’m a doctor, Jim, not a librarian!
Omnes Omnibus
@burnspbesq: Why do people care about Liverpool when Arsenal exists?
trollhattan
@burnspbesq:
Thanks. He’s a little rubbery delight. First puppeh, only adopted adults before. Level of effort is a wee bit increased, but what the hey?
Introduction to alfa dog still being plotted.
dogwood
@PhoenixRising:
We know Trump has read all 12 Articles of the Constitution, but he might be a bit behind on the Amendments.
burnspbesq
@Omnes Omnibus:
You’re asking the wrong guy. I’m an Everton supporter.
BR
@rikyrah:
Still too close for comfort for me. I’m shooting for Clinton 50, Trump 40, Johnson 8, Stein 2
dmsilev
@PhoenixRising: Hey, go easy on the team of monkeys. First, you have to know that Trump pays them peanuts. Secondly, they don’t really have much to work with here.
Omnes Omnibus
@burnspbesq: I am even more confused.
Jeffro
”Gin & Tonic:
Someone needs to tell him it’s a different age…word doesn’t spread by courier anymore…
Joel
The US/UK Greens are worthless. At least continental Greens have won things.
Anya
@Kay: they don’t seem to know what they’re doing. Trump is campaigning in New York and main. And he sent Uday to Mississippi. Why the hell are they campaigning in dark red states and blue states?
Mike J
Anoniminous
@dmsilev:
They try. They fail. Go to a Green Party meeting. All Will Become Clear.
dmsilev
@Mike J: Wait, is that that gorilla who was killed by zookeepers a couple of months ago?
Jeffro
@HR Progressive:
This is why “Vegan Sarah Palin” is genius. Also (more seriously) just ask any Dr. S supporter, “Who’s closer to your views?” “Is there any other way you can get your views aired without throwing an election to a person 110% opposed to those views?” “Have you every done anything in life but complain?” lol
I don’t think she’s going to get above 3% nationally and as long as she doesn’t impact swing states – as Nader did, intentionally, in 200 – I’m inclined to let stupid be stupid. But if she & her supporters really push it, I’m sure the Dems under HRC can walk and chew gum.
burnspbesq
And now for the last game of a long day of meaningless football: Paris Saint-Germain vs. Leicester.
Mike J
@Mike J:
Helen
@PhoenixRising: Josh Barro bolded the same sentence on his Twitter and says he thinks the statement was written by the staff and the bolded sentence was added by Trump. The proof (besides the obvious) is that the comma is misplaced.
Anya
@divF: While I enjoy Cuban constantly trolling Trump, fuck him. He said he was open to be Trump’s running mate and he was willing to support Trump over Hillary if she picked Elizabeth Warran as her VP.
Dmbeaster
@Gin & Tonic: Trunp had normal fund raising numbers though less than Clinton, and filed the papers forgiving his loans. Boring, so no chatter about it.
Jeffro
@Patricia Kayden:
He and Bloomberg can join the D Justice League (Obama, Biden, Warren, etc) campaigning for HRC this fall…I guess this would make them something like Firestorm and Black Lightning…very cool to have on board, a little unpredictable, yet clearly high-powered and helpful in their own rights.
Lizzy L
@dmsilev: I appreciate your posting that final paragraph. But no one on Clinton’s campaign staff expects the folks who already identify as Trump voters to change their minds because of something they saw at the DNC. 98% of them didn’t watch it, and the 2% who did only did so because they forgot what they wanted to do that night. 13.4 million people voted for Trump in the Republican primaries. None of them will change their votes. So what? We’re talking to the rest of the country. Trump, on the other hand, is still talking to those 13.4 million.
Don’t know who Jill Stein is talking to. She’s a nitwit.
Jeffro
@Mnemosyne:
Yeah I think Alexandra Petri of the WaPo noted that if it weren’t for his kids and people on his payroll, the endorsement list was pretty thin.
(She put it much funnier than that, of course)
Omnes Omnibus
@Anoniminous: I see nothing from them in Madison, WI; it is a perfect environment for them to start. Some Dem’s get elected unopposed here.
eclare
@trollhattan: Awwww!
Omnes Omnibus
@burnspbesq: PSG!
Anoniminous
@dmsilev:
Proof that 67% of Trump voters should not be allowed to operate anything more complicated than a paint brush. And then only/maybe.
sukabi
@Gin & Tonic: also, the kochs WON’T be backing drumpf, going to concentrate on keeping their stoolies in the senate and house.
rikyrah
@BR:
I feel you. I want Hillary at 55-60%
Jeffro
@PsiFighter37:
Or when they can redirect those tens/hundreds of millions into carpet-bombing Senate and House races, the better to hamstring President Clinton (45).
If I were them, you’re right, I’d give McConnell the signal to confirm Garland ASAP. If I were Obama, I’d also signal that the Garland nom expires on Election Eve.
Jeffro
@BR: It’s not possible to satisfy Dr. Stein – you can’t be left enough or pure enough to make her feel she’s gotten enough attention and let the adults govern.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anoniminous: Lucifer opposed autocracy. Just saying.
BR
@Anya:
The Mississippi trip is not a strategic error. It’s a dogwhisle (rare that his campaign dogwhisles, but they did here) — he sent the wastrel son to a historic Klan stronghold. (Check out the history of the city.)
Jeffro
@rikyrah:
And so begins the Long Slog…HRC between 50-53% tops, DJT never clearing 45% nationally…the EV count showing a blowout for HRC…much handwringing on the left…thank goodness we only have 100 days to go!
rikyrah
LOL
Jeffro
@Omnes Omnibus:
Hello, Tottenham’s there, just waiting for you to acknowledge its greatness…go Spurs!!
hellslittlestangel
That’s DOCTOR Moron to you, neo-liberal.
Anoniminous
@Omnes Omnibus:
To give an idea of their political acumen, Greenies get all warm fuzzies when they talk a city into making it illegal to detonate nuclear weapons within city limits.
Bill E Pilgrim
@dmsilev:
Talk about getting things backwards. These deluded souls don’t realize that if Trump wins there’ll be the Devil toupee.
ThresherK (GPad)
@Anoniminous: Is that real? What kind of good liberal am I to not have seen it before?
Tim C.
@Calouste: Even in Portland there’s a hell of a lot of Self-sorting that goes on. Here, Team Blue tends to fill up with people who have a desire to do things, and Team Green tends to get distracted by ridiculous self-satire, drug addiction and terminal lack of self-awareness (Google Tre-Arrow) Team Red was last seen in 2002 and now hides out in the hills of Eastern Oregon mumbling about the BLM and demanding Portland pay for everything.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jeffro: Daft. That’s what you are.
BR
@Anoniminous:
I’m not quite sure what you’re referring to, and I’m in no mood to be fair to the Greens (even though my real policy views are to the left of them), but I think usually the whole nuclear-free-zone thing is about nuclear waste transport. The original idea, if there was one, was to create enough locations that prevent the transport of waste at all, hampering the nuclear industry. But it would require a huge swath of cities to make that happen.
NickM
When Trump is locking up and harassing dissenters, or encouraging his brownshirts to do so, do you think Jill Stein or her supporters are going to be on the front lines, standing up to tyranny like the guy in front of the tank at Tienamen [sp] Square (be Donald sided with the tank)? Fat fucking chance. Real revolutionaries are willing to die for the cause; these people aren’t willing to miss a fucking meal for the revolution.
Mnemosyne
@dogwood:
They’re pissed because Garland was on the wrong side in a Guantanamo case. Basically, it’s civil libertarians arguing that their civil liberties concerns are way more important than concerns about abortion rights, labor rights, women’s rights, racial discrimination, etc. and if you don’t share their exact opinion about civil liberties (not civil rights, mind you, civil liberties), then you’re not a real liberal.
eric
@BR: the city cannot have a racist history, reagan spoke there….started a presidential run even……gotta be a typo somewhere
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
Dan Savage: How Green is her BS:
I’m going to give the punch-line, but only because I know you’re going to read the whole thing, right? You promise?
Now go read the whole thing like you promised.
Cheers,
Scott.
Anoniminous
@ThresherK (GPad):
For real
“Look upon their works … and despair”
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Step off. The majority of people who are civil libertarians are social liberals as well.
RJM
“She had nothing to say. She probably, maybe she wasn’t allowed to have anything to say. You tell me.”
Ivana, Marla…. How many voices has Trump gagged with his non-disparagement agreements.
Anoniminous
@BR:
Except that the Feds use highways, not city streets, to transport nuclear waste and municipal law doesn’t apply.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
And the liberal reason to oppose Merrick Garland is … ?
(Note: IIRC, you do not oppose his nomination, so it’s a mostly hypothetical question.)
I think that believing in civil liberties and being a liberal are totally compatible, but there are definitely people purportedly on the left who think civil liberties are more important than civil rights. If someone can make a liberal case for opposing Merrick Garland that is not about his Guantanamo opinion or other criminal justice concerns, I would be interested to see it.
Dadadadadadada
@Anya: Due to Trump’s awfulness and anticipated huge AA turnout, Mississippi is actually in play. Trump has to play defense there.
New York, though…he’s a New Yorker, and delusional enough to think that that’s enough to make him competitive. Against a Democrat who was NY’s Senator.
BR
@Anoniminous:
Yeah, like I said, I’m not sure there was a solid idea behind it to begin with.
BR
@Dadadadadadada:
Really? I am really skeptical that Mississippi is in play — is there polling to suggest it’s even close, like Arizona?
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@dogwood: I think I read somewhere that Garland was #2 on Obama’s list for a previous spot on the SCOTUS. To be that high on his list, and to remain there, he has to be very, very good. I have no doubt he
wouldwill be a credit to the court.Cheers,
Scott.
Dadadadadadada
@BR: A poll from April had Trump up 3. Considering how inept Trump’s GOTV is bound to be, and how steel-tight the Clinton operation is and will be, I think a whole lot of red states are going to be terrifyingly close, and Trump will lose some. Mississippi is very poor and has a large black population, so there will be opportunities for Clinton to do some damage.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Anya: Big crowds are important to Donnie. If he can’t get big crowds, he loses one of his talking points and looks like a weak baby-man. Gotta keep up appearances, even if it is against conventional wisdom about how to win elections. Donnie’s gonna win big because he gets yoooge crowds!!!
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Fair Economist
@BR:
Dogwhistles to white supremacists are quite common from the Trump campaign. It’s garden-variety racists that they appeal to openly.
Prescott Cactus
@Fair Economist: The white union worker who thought, Ron is gonna take care of us.
Ask the Air Traffic Control Union how that went. . .
dogwood
@Mnemosyne:
I know a lot of people think that if Hillary wins, Obama should withdraw Garland and let her make the choice, but essentially that is acquiescing to the Republican’s argument that in the last year of a presidency POTUS can’t even get a vote on a SCOTUS justice. That is a dangerous president to set. I hope to hell Obama doesn’t back down on this.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@BR: Jill said Hillary should prosecuted over her e-mails. That should tell Democrats enough about where she stands.
How a reasonable person could think she is qualified to be President and worth a vote when her electoral success consists of:
Truly a giant!
(roll-eyes)
Cheers,
Scott.
Mnemosyne
@dogwood:
I guess another way to put my argument is that I suspect that the “liberals” who said they were opposing Merrick Garland’s appointment from the left are the same ones who were trying to boo every speaker at the DNC. IOW, leftists, not liberals.
From everything I’ve read about him, Garland would make a fine and liberal justice, and I get very frustrated with people (not Omnes) who claim to oppose him from a “liberal” perspective but can’t name anything specific except that one Guantanamo decision.
ruemara
@dogwood: They are only going to hold that standard when a negro is president.
Yes, I said it. Liberal, conservative, whatever, suddenly presidents can’t do things other presidents have done. There’s only one good reason why and it isn’t being in the lame duck phase makes you only 3/5th president.
Face
@BR: It aint close, never will be close. I want what y’all are smoking. Republicans will NEVER stay home or vote opposing party. Full stop. About the reddish state the Dems have a prayer to get would be NC, or in a crazy blowout election, MO. Otherwise, the olds never miss an election and never vote Democrat. To think MS is in play is some serious insanity.
dogwood
@ruemara:
All the more reason for Obama not to back down. And as this President finishes his final months of service, I’d like to see the Democrats rally around him on this issue.
Mnemosyne
@ruemara:
To be fair, I think they’re going to come up with some new rules as soon as a chick is president, too. Because they never know where she might be bleeding out of or whatever.
Prescott Cactus
@dogwood: if Hillary wins and we retake the senate, go far left. I know PBO nominated a guy who could get thru, but if we win the Senate, withdraw Garland and go left young woman, go left.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@burnspbesq: At least your team is still in the Premier League this season.
Prescott Cactus
@Mnemosyne: Paid manstration leave.
Mnemosyne
@Prescott Cactus:
I disagree. I think Hillary should re-nominate Garland (assuming it’s allowed — I remember there being some weird rule about the same person being re-nominated between sessions). Garland is very liberal and would be a great choice, which are two good reasons why he should be confirmed.
Once he’s safely in there, than the Notorious RGB can announce her retirement and we can really have some fun.
seaboogie
Had a semi-inadvertent twitter war with some BoB’s the other night, and got an education in white-priviledge lefty vitriol right quick – these guys (and the wimmins on that side might be slightly worse) are the opposite side of the same coin as the right wing white supremacists. No reason, and over-weaning righteousness…every fucking comment is a mic-drop….
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
This. The more money Trump has to spend in places like MS, the less he has for swing states. I honestly don’t see Hillary ending up short of cash anytime soon, so I think she’ll be able to afford to spend a few hundred thousand more in MS just to make Trump spend even more.
Fair Economist
The new Senate will have about two weeks to confirm Garland before Hillary becomes President. If they haven’t by then, she should appoint whomever she chooses (which could be Garland, but I’d expect somebody younger).
eemom
@Mike J:
Wait a minute….who the fuck is that?
Punchy
@Mnemosyne: Except that we aint gunna have a filly-proof Senate, and the Republicans can be counted on to filly pretty much any nominee she suggys.
Now, if Majority Leader Warren would decide to nuke the SCOTUS filibuster, prob solved, but thats a big “if”…
dogwood
@Prescott Cactus:
He nominated a guy they wouldn’t even talk to. The constitutional issue here is much more important than getting some far left justice to please the segment of the party that will never be satisfied anyway. I’m sick and tired of the government being held hostage by the right wingers who don’t give a shit about the Constitution or respect the principles of self government. I don’t want my party to start doing the same thing. Garland is a liberal, being a nice humble public servant doesn’t negate that. Some leftist version of Anthony Scalia, isn’t worth subverting the intent of the Constitution, and would probably have little effect on overall decisions given the make-up of the court. Some far left judge isn’t likely to vote any differently than Garland anyway. Ginsberg is to the left of the other liberals on the Court and they all end up voting together in the end, so what is really gained by giving into the Republicans on this issue?
Fair Economist
@Punchy:
If the Republicans filibuster a SC nominee, the filibuster will be gone. If the Republicans don’t even confirm Garland in the lame duck, I suspect the filibuster won’t even be in the Senate rules for that session to start with.
Fair Economist
@efgoldman:
You’re probably right. Obama could reappoint but he wouldn’t.
dogwood
@efgoldman:
Oh I don’t expect Congress to do anything about Garland. What I don’t want is for Obama to withdraw his name. That should never happen.
Prescott Cactus
@Mnemosyne:
When Hillary sweeps in she may want to pay a few debts… Who was the real swing voters , that got her the election; Hispanics come in at 85% and hand her the presidency, it’s one choice. White ladies 50 to 69 break hard left, well we readjust. PBO helps with 90%+ black turnout and it”s a different story..
You go home who with who brought you to the dance.
Mnemosyne
@Prescott Cactus:
Yes, but if you actually look at Garland’s record and not the caricature that a small number of online “liberals” have painted of him, Garland would make all of those groups happy, especially since he was Obama’s choice to begin with.
Plus, as dogwood said, I really don’t want to knuckle under to the expectation that Republicans should be allowed to just ignore a sitting president’s nominee. To me, substituting in a different nominee for no reason is basically letting them win.
ETA: I think the groups you listed would see Garland’s appointment as more proof that Hillary is planning to keep her promise to be Obama’s third term, not an opportunity to get a scalp for “their” side.
dogwood
@efgoldman:
It doesn’t appear that people who actually know care either. Any democratic appointed Justice who wants to retire better understand that they’ll have to do it before the 2018 midterms.
redshirt
I wonder if Justice Roberts thinks the Senate is fulfilling their dedicated purpose in regards Garland. If the Senate is acting consistently and fairly.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@dogwood: This.
Well said.
And he’s not even that old. Hillary will have plenty of time and opportunities to appoint other justices, too. It’s hard to imagine the court not swinging left for the next 20+ years even with Garland on the Court.
Cheers,
Scott.
dogwood
@Mnemosyne:
Leftists, and a good share of progressives, care much more about “winning” than governing.
Mnemosyne
@dogwood:
Interestingly, the “winning” that they seem to be obsessed with is blocking someone else’s plan, not getting their own plan through. Whenever I ask someone who says Garland is too “conservative” for them who should have been nominated instead, 9 times out of 10, they have no answer. It’s because they want the easy “win” of blocking someone else’s idea rather than the more satisfying win of proposing an idea, championing it, and seeing it get voted on.
dogwood
@efgoldman:
Republicans can make voters care about the Supreme Court, democrats sure as hell should at least try to put Grassley on the defensive with this issue.
redshirt
@efgoldman: Another reason why I hope Hillary runs on an explicit mission of supporting Senate and House races.
If she can make a difference in ANY local race, she should be there at some point in the campaign.
We need to take ALL the positions in Government. All levels of Government.
cthulhu
I think we have hit Peak Bernie-Bro-ness.
Ian
@burnspbesq:
You missed the plot there.
Elizabeth
@dmsilev: As long as it isn’t ratfucking from the Republicans. Out here in AZ they recruited a bunch of college kids and assholes I mean Republicans to run as Greens. In one district the two running as Dems for state house called and visited every Green to let them know what was going on. They won.
SRW1
@Omnes Omnibus:
Finally someone has realized that Hitler was all the fault of the Clintons. Hence Hitlery.
rikyrah
@efgoldman:
About Mississippi, I think that Barack Obama only received 10% of the White vote. If he had received just 16% of the White vote, he would have won the state . The question is whether there are enough White women who would vote for Hillary, to bring her over the top.
Terry chay
@dogwood: of course he won’t withdraw the nomination. The guy is a constitutional scholar and respects the responsibility of office and the institutions to play political football with the nomination.
The most likely scenario where Garland isn’t appointed is that the Republicans can’t even do that because it’d require the lame ducks who were betrayed by Mitch by being loyal and rewarded with the loss for it to be loyal enough to vote and/or enough safe republicans who worry about being primaried later for betraying the party to vote (both not likely). After that there is the possibility that Garland withdraws himself. That’s it though.
Terry chay
@Mnemosyne: it’s the hard Left version who looks at the Tea Party and thinks it is a how to guide.
Whatever the Republicans don’t want, updated daily.
Fortunately the very thing that makes the Democratic Party “unorganized” and disjointed protects it from the sort of takeover that happens on the Right.
Mustang Bobby
@dmsilev: Fixed it. Thanks.
Jeffro
@efgoldman: Superb – thanks for the link!
I think Sanders’ success in pushing Clinton/the Ds overall leftward is Point #1 for why voting Green or anything other than D is silly. The Ds are already covering Greens’ issues quite well. If they would commit to doing the work, they’d have tremendous influence within the party. But they’d rather just throw tantrums.
Percysowner
@dogwood: I wouldn’t be shocked that if the Senate decides to confirm Garland if Hillary is elected, that Garland may remove himself from contention. You know, “The Senate declared that the people should decide who gets this seat and I have to defer to that judgement”. Then Hillary could nominate someone younger, who would give us more years of service.
Matt McIrvin
@eemom: Public Policy Trolling is trolling again, putting a fake name into the question to see what would happen. They do this kind of thing all the time.
HinTN
@trollhattan: We had puppies with legs like that. Gonna be tall and gangly for a while. Also too, cute cute cute.
Matt McIrvin
@Anya: Maine splits two of its electoral votes between districts, and it’s conceivable that Trump could get one by winning the rural 2nd District. But it’s just one electoral vote, when he really can’t win without swinging Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida.
Matt McIrvin
@dogwood:
Many don’t even care about winning, just about expressing disapproval and washing their hands of anything they consider dirty.
FlipYrWhig
@Matt McIrvin: I think what they care about is headlines: they want decisions and appointments to occasion stories that say “in a nod to the party’s liberal wing,” etc. When they don’t get that they throw a fit. This is what happened to both Garland and Kaine.
Vhh
@hilts: Mark Cuban’s paternal grandfather immigrated from Russia and changed his last name from Chabenisky to Cuban. So I imagine that Mark grew up knowing something about pirozhki (the Russian word for what other Slavic speakers call pirogi).
Matt McIrvin
@Vhh: He assumed nobody would ever associate the word “Cuban” with Russians!
J R in WV
@Major Major Major Major:
Fracking releases methane ( a potent greenhouse gas, more powerful than CO2 by far ) into the atmosphere, and worse, it permanently poisons fresh water aquifers used for drinking water and irrigation.
In most rural areas drinking water wells are the only source of clean water, once that aquifer contains industrial contaminants they can never be removed. Literally poisoning the surface geology of the planet seems like a bad thing to me, who lives on that surface.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: It’s interesting to see them actually saying rational things about the race, though.
As discussed earlier, Trump actually has remaining paths to an incredibly marginal win where he loses PA or OH, but they involve sweeping 100% of the small states where he’s competitive, plus North Carolina. (If he loses Ohio, probably the best he can do is a 269-269 tie unless he can flip the rural district in Maine.) Probably not going to happen if he can’t sweep the big ones.
So effectively, Trump’s only realistic strategy is to win all three.
J R in WV
@BR:
Practically speaking, the federal government controls movement of commercial traffic. Local governments cannot interfere with interstate traffic, constitutionally.
stinger
@trollhattan: Jellyfish. Good work!