To echo something Doug said the other day, I receive email from folks through the blog’s drop-down menu from time to time, but never more so than over the course of the last week. It’s a measure of the scope of this cataclysmic event we’re all experiencing together.
Some of my mail has resembled primal scream therapy, and I completely understand and add my wails to my correspondents’ howls. But others had ideas about constructive things we can do while we gear up for the Trumpocalypse. Below are a few good ideas.
Elect Foster Campbell in Louisiana
Valued commenter DeliciousGuac points out that there’s a runoff in Louisiana on December 10 to replace Diaper Dave Vitter in the US Senate. The Democrat in that race, Foster Campbell, is an underdog. But DG says turnout is likely to be low, and “with enough volunteers and money, he’s got a shot.”
The Republicans have a razor-thin margin in the Senate, so this seat is important. If you’re not tapped out, make it rain, people — send Foster Campbell to help the other Democrats hold off the Orcs as much as possible.
The Farm Team
The Dems have a farm team problem since the GOP controls so many statehouses. If the shit-gibbon fails in spectacular fashion (best case scenario, IMO), we’ll need a new generation of rising star Democrats to take advantage of that.
Reader Joe suggested that we highlight local and state-level pols who could become players at the next level, and red state people are obviously an important part of addressing our Electoral College problem. His pick is Pete Buttigieg, the popular, young, gay mayor of South Bend, IN.
Do you know of any good farm team Dems to highlight in your local municipal offices or state legislatures? How about federal representatives who don’t get a lot of ink? If so, feel free to discuss them in comments.
We seem to be a pretty involved bunch here, so I suspect many of us are already active in local-level politics. If not, we need to be.
Good News for Democrats
Last week was obviously a catastrophe since we now have an unhinged, unprepared, racist, sexist man-baby taking an ad hoc “Presidentin’ for Dummies” course from the best president of our lifetimes. But I hear there were a few bright spots Tuesday night.
Charlie Pierce gives a rundown of some here, including the fact that the meatheads in Florida rejected an energy company scam disguised as a solar power ballot initiative. (So you were shrewd enough to see through that con but otherwise voted for a conman for the top job? Aaaarrrrgh, you stupid, stupid fucks!)
But I digress. Did anything good happen in your state? Let’s hear it, if so; dog knows we could use some good cheer.
And finally, some suggestions from valued commenter CarolDuhart2, who shares that she has donated to the NAACP, DNC, the ACLU, Free Speech TV and other worthy outlets. I donated to the ACLU myself, which reports that it has received record donations in the wake of the election. We’re going to need them.
Also, if you’d like to send a thank-you note to Hillary Clinton, here’s the address:
Hillary Clinton
P.O. Box 5256
New York, NY 10185-5256
She ran a brave and principled campaign. I’m going to thank her for that.
Anyhoo, that’s all I’ve got for now. Open thread!
schrodinger's cat
I was told by my not voting for HRC friend (she left the Presidential line blank) that I am responsible for Trump because I am a smug liberal.
clay
And medical marijuana passed by a large margin in Florida. I’ve lived in Florida most of my life, but I don’t get us sometimes.
NotMax
“So, any thoughts on who you’d like to hold the first State Dinner for?”
“I dunno. Alabama?”
schrodinger's cat
If you need a distraction, please list the DS9 episode you want me to review. I am going to put a poll up for that tomorrow. Let’s get onboard USS Defiant.
schrodinger's cat
@NotMax: Putin, of course.
Kryptik
@schrodinger’s cat:
I’m sure she felt ‘alienated’ by the ‘status quo’…
clay
@schrodinger’s cat:
So, “voting for the only other feasible alternative” = responsible, while “not doing the literal bare minimum to get in his way” = not responsible.
Wow.
SuzieC
Donated to Foster Campbell. The two D Senate candidates I donated to in the closing days of the campaign both won, so I’m feeling optimistic. That would be Hassan and Cortez-Masto.
Served
In Illinois, we kicked out our oligarch Governor’s Comptroller puppet (barely….), which hurts his ability to control funds in the budget fight.
We also have two very talented young Democrats:
Daniel Biss who is a real wonk, but also a great educator and speaker. He reminds me of Senator Warren in that way.
Raja Krishnamoorthi won a suburban House district, and is on a great track in the state as well. Anyone who meets the guy loves him, and he’s able to relay strong progressive policies to an audience that can be fairly swingy (suburbanites).
permafrost
@schrodinger’s cat: That might be a tell that they were actually a Trump voter.
Major Major Major Major
Scott Wiener, San Francisco’s new state senator, is an up-and-comer I like a lot: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Wiener
hovercraft
Here is a bright spot from an unlikely quarter.
Sarkozy proposes carbon tax on US goods if Trump scraps Paris climate pact
I’ll take any allies we can get to fight the Shitgibbon.
schrodinger's cat
@permafrost: She insists that she didn’t vote for him because she finds Pence creepy.
gex
@clay: It’s as though they are perfectly capable of voting their self interest and we just keep misstating what is their real interest in GOP policies.
WereBear
@schrodinger’s cat: Ah, smug! We just mentioned that on another thread.
But it doesn’t bother ME because I am just that good a person :)
WarMunchkin
I’m all in on PA’s John Fetterman, who we’ve heard of already from the McGinty-Sestak-Fetterman primary. He’s pretty hilarious with burns on Trump supporters on Twitter. White guy, yes, but doesn’t look like a typical politician at all, so in a mild way, his success on a national platform does add a little tiny bit to an idea of an America for more types of people, fwiw.
permafrost
@schrodinger’s cat: Seems like something a smug liberal would say ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
NotMax
@SuzieC
Wish Campbell the best but run-off races traditionally have abysmal turnout, and Duke voters likely to drift to Kennedy (former Democrat) solely because of the (R) next to his name. On the other hand, Kennedy’s track record of previous runs for the Senate is, to say the least, inauspicious.
Doug R
Reading that article linked here a few days ago about WWC resentment, apparently they hate people poorer than them getting help while they get left out.
Since I’ve spent my lifetime bouncing around the middle class with a few months on welfare, I can kinda see their point. This does not mean they can be utter assholes about it however.
Perhaps more Universal programs with clawbacks? Social security does this to some extent and some jurisdictions are experimenting with minimum income programs.
Ryan
Roy Cooper still holds the lead in NC. Glad to give him the boot.
Major Major Major Major
@hovercraft: now we just need Le Pen to agree ?
Pogonip
@schrodinger’s cat: Did you clear this w/Ben Cisco?
My son has the whole set of that show. Most of them were pretty good.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Bonus points for the use of Wiener and up-and-comer in the same sentence.
/inner 7th grader
Doug R
@schrodinger’s cat: The Ferengi Roswell episode.
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: he actually makes Wiener puns himself! He’s going places!
No but really!
Davis X. Machina
One of the effects — I doubt it’s unintended — of term limits is to stunt the growth of farm teams. If you can land a wingnut-welfare gig, it’s possible to bridge over the gaps between offices, much less so if you’re earning an honest living.
State legislatures are in 15 or so states are ghosts of their former selves as a result.
WereBear
Turns out Trump voters average $70k a year.
hovercraft
The GOS has a rundown of some progressive victories last Tuesday that may have been overlooked because of the Shitgibbons ascension to president elect status.
Click through to see some other bright spots in things like physician assisted suicide, the environment, and more like voting rights.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Based on your description, would be hard-pressed to deny he’s a stand up guy.
Jeffro
@Doug R:
I’m sure you mean well here, but…kind of…ya gotta be kidding me. The “help” poor people get in this country consists of a bit of unemployment insurance, some food stamps, and Medicaid. Let’s not buy into right-wing tropes that folks are getting t-bones and other such nonsense or will ever be so well off that it’d be appropriate to try and “claw back” any of the benefits.
What fuels their anger is “those” people getting benefits, and to that, they complainers will never have enough, while the folks on welfare will never be held down enough. It’s just that simple. They think everything should be charity and then they want to be stingy with the charity! That’s just not how a compassionate and relatively rich society should treat its citizens.
So instead of trying to kowtow to these folks, let’s make the well-off – the ones who’ve sucked up all the economic gains of the past 35 years, the ones who are vastly undertaxed by historical standards – pay their fair share of helping out their fellow Americans.
Jeffro
@WereBear:
That too. These people…
schrodinger's cat
@WereBear: You nailed it, its status anxiety not economic insecurity.
dedc79
In terms of good news that was understandably overlooked last Tuesday, the sane and competent Democrat Josh Gottheimer unseated 7-term nutjob Republican incumbent congressman Scott Garrett in New Jersey. Republicans are likely to target his seat in the midterms and he is going to need our support.
Matt McIrvin
Aside from President/VP, I think my entire Massachusetts ballot went the way I voted, including the ballot questions. No on 1 (another casino), no on 2 (more charter schools), yes on 3 (animal welfare), yes on 4 (pot).
jacy
Foster Campbell has the support of the Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards. Campbell is currently running by tying Kennedy to much-loathed-by-all-Louisianaians Bobby Jindal and to David Vitter. Anything you can do for Campbell will help. Baton Rouge also has a mayoral run-off with Democratic black woman Sharon Weston Broome running against old white Repbulican Bodi White.
I dunno what’s going to happen. Baton Rouge is a bright blue spot in a sea of red — EBR Parish voted for Hillary, as we had for Obama twice. The rest of the state, not so much. http://www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/news/politics/elections/article_dddbfba4-a842-11e6-8601-3b51d7a505a9.html
hovercraft
@schrodinger’s cat:
Please tell your “friend” that a middle aged black woman on the internet who has two kids aged 14 and 10, would like her to go fuck herself. I am a liberal, but with young black kids to raise two kids in a country where white people are so offended that we are offended because our young keep getting shot by the police for simply being black in public, I don’t have the luxury of being smug. Also she should STFU if she doesn’t know what the hell she’s talking about.
DeliciousGuac
@Major Major Major Major:
Scott Weiner was my district’s Supervisor (like a City Council) when I lived in SF. Got to know him a bit when he helped with a neighborhood issue. He’s a great guy, committed, smart.
Enhanced Voting Techinques
@Major Major Major Major: Yes, but that name. Everyone will mistake him for that NYC pervert.
D58826
add planned parenthood to that list
NotMax
Haven’t seen this mentioned yet. Charts of re-election of Congressional incumbents.
schrodinger's cat
@hovercraft: See now in addition to being smug you are causing hatred and division.
/(not my words but her likely response)
For my own sanity I have decided not to discuss politics with her anymore.
SenyorDave
@hovercraft: If hear one more person or pundit use Samantha Bee as an example of the smug liberals that cost the election I’m going to puke. A large part of Trump voters heard Mexican and rapist, and that sealed the deal for them from day one. I don’t believe that income had much to do with it, or economic fears. They finally found someone who didn’t do whistle and they loved him for it.
Major Major Major Major
@Enhanced Voting Techinques: eh, not for long.
@DeliciousGuac: me too! He’s gonna be a great state senator! Going places!
jacy
http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2016/11/grab_your_wallet_protest_shuns.html
I don’t know how much “boycotts” help in general. But part of not normalizing is to shop responsibly and to let companies know via contact that you will not support them if they yoke themselves to Trump.
trollhattan
@hovercraft:
California’s ammo bill is a good one and much beloved by the NRA of course. Kind of a trail balloon from Newsom eyeballing the governorship.
-Voters sniffed out two plastic bag Props from out-of-state bag manufacturers: one a public vote on a bill the Leg and Gov already passed and signed–you had to vote yes to keep and no to overturn, which is trickier than it first seems. It passed The second was a fuck you to retailers who’d have had to surrender the dime collected for each carry-out bag. It failed.
-Cigarette tax passed against huge contra spending.
-Keeping the highest bracket tax rate past its sunset passed.
-A K-12 + CC education bond measure passed.
Seventeen in all and I can’t remember half a week later. Y’all are getting a shiny new 2017 model Senator Harris and Jerry gets to appoint her replacement to an office that serves as a ginormous political springboard. Rooting for Nancy McFadden.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
a talking point, I have nothing else to offer right now
@SenyorDave: must thrill Ms Bee that her ratings are so high. I believe O’Reilly on a good day has about five million viewers. In order to have so enraged the heartland that elected Trump, and the millions of smug liberals wallowing in her smugness, Sam must have at least five, maybe ten times as many.
sukabi
@schrodinger’s cat: I hope you told her that her non-participation and that of her fellow non voting idiots, along with the trump voters are who got drumpf elected. Seems like she’s the one having the purity issues.
Adrift (formerly NJ Maine Coon Slave)
Totally from right field here but I have been wondering: Drumpf is trying to get top secret clearances for his kids and said kids are children of a Czech mother. My understanding of Czech citizenship law is that if you have one parent who is Czech you are a citizen of both the Czech Republic and the EU. Would this disqualify them from obtaining the clearances?
Barbara
Virginia defeated a right to work amendment to its state constitution. I listened in to the Obama phone call yesterday, and the introductory speaker was Josh Shapiro, the newly elected Pennsylvania AG, after the debacle that was Kathleen Kane. I thought he gave a terrific speech and I would not be surprised if he has higher aspirations.
schrodinger's cat
@jacy: Boycott of British made goods was the weapon of Indian nationalists too.
Enhanced Voting Techinques
@Jeffro: Minorities live in cities and most cities have turned around lot since the 70s with urban renewal programs, job training, infrastructure improvements and increased policing. There is no equivalent for the rural areas. OF course what these rural voters are ignoring is all the money and will to renew is in the cities and these very same voters keep on voting the same old do nothings into office because they have an R after their name.
schrodinger's cat
@sukabi: She is unreachable unfortunately. She was an Obot too, I don’t know what has happened to her.
Tractarian
Here in Texas, Hillary performed better than any Democratic presidential candidate since Bill, losing by only 9 percentage points.
She won more votes in Texas than Trump won in any other single state (aside from Florida).
Dems also gained four seats in the Texas House of Representatives. (Now the GOP majority is slightly less than 2:1! Yippee!)
Of course, Dems also gained seats in both houses of the U.S. Congress. And 20% of Americans now live in jurisdictions were cannabis is legal for recreational use under state law.
So there’s my list of good things that happened last week.
DeliciousGuac
Thank you, Betty, for giving these ideas more visibility!
trollhattan
@hovercraft:
What you said [speaking as a finely aged white guy]
Barbara
@jacy: Campbell should be tying his opponent to the Trump/Ryan plan to eliminate Medicare and asking him point blank on tv ads and in debate if he pledges to support the continuation of Medicare.
Kay
@schrodinger’s cat:
Well, they got an incompetent lunatic at the top and a one Party far Right government across the board, so tell your friend to enjoy that. I bow to the will of the (electoral) majority. They wanted a far Right government and they’re getting one.
I’m baffled why Bernie Sanders and Michael Moore are taking victory laps. As long as we’re creating chaos and disruption, can we get new liberal leaders too along with new Democrats? The current crop suck. Out with the old and in with the new!
Chris
@SenyorDave:
Oh, Samantha Bee.
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert were the only thing that got a whole bunch of people through the Bush years. With what we’re in for, we’re sure as hell going to need Samantha Bee and John Oliver to play the same role.
trollhattan
@schrodinger’s cat:
Female misogyny; it’s a thing. Was utterly clueless to its reach until this last year.
jacy
Here’s something else you can do in your personal sphere: take a personal accounting of who you deal with. Determine who you can continue to deal with, on a personal and professional level. I’ve cut ties with some people and told them why. This has been empowering for me, and has also had an impact on people I know. I’ve actually started a positive dialogue with some people I know who voted for Trump. I’m making new alliances, and making it clear to other people that I will not normalize the unacceptable. It’s helping me cope, and it’s waking some people up.
NotMax
@jacy
Two-edged sword as it can negatively impact the workers, some of whom probably rely on a holiday bonus.
That said, though, brands with flagship stores or major presence in Trump Tower:
Gucci
Nike
Avon
Not meant to be a comprehensive list. Have never set a toe inside the place and managed to find those via the ‘net.
schrodinger's cat
@trollhattan: Yes, she hates HRC with a passion of a 1000 suns.
Barbara
@Kay: It would be great if Vermont realizes that Sanders has reached his sell-by date. I think Al Giordano has the right idea. Deep down, Sanders is a gadfly who can’t be counted on.
The Moar You Know
The Colonel Applegate fellow who ran against Issa made the best showing of anyone who’s taken on the Great Car Burner. He’s worth looking into if he wants to take this further. I don’t know that he does.
Chris
@Barbara:
Not that deep.
WaterGirl
@schrodinger’s cat: I wrote a long letter to my family, and I have received two replies. One, from someone who voted for Hillary said we have to advocate for things we are passionate about. The other reply is from my right wing christian sister who wrote back about how she didn’t like Obama either and WE ARE KILLING BABIES.
:: sigh ::
We may as well all make up our own languages, because the ones we have don’t seem to be doing the job.
jacy
@NotMax:
At least one of the companies on the list has removed Trump products from it’s online store. I’ll take any victory, not matter how small.
Dog Dawg Damn
I’m seeing a lot of people on twitter proclaim “BUT MIKE PENCE WOULD BE WORSE”.
Strikes me as foolhardy. They haven’t yet confronted what this truly is.
FWIW, I think there is a fairly good chance Trump could be impeached with GOP splinter and Dem opposition. No, a Mike Pence presidency would not be worse than having an authoritarian demagogue.
mdblanche
@NotMax: So even in wave years it’s only slightly lower.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@The Moar You Know: I don’t know much about him, or CA Dem politics, but I’m sure it’s a pretty crowded field looking to take Feinstein’s seat. She’s in till 2020?
trollhattan
Tally as of today (15th) California:
Hillary Clinton: 6,239,463/61.7%
Donald Trump: 3,329,682/32.9%
Matt McIrvin
@Barbara: Sanders’ movement isn’t going away, and we still need its cooperation. If something happens to him now, his followers will just regard him as a martyr shanked by evil Hillary loyalists.
Kay
@Barbara:
It’s baffling. He seems to believe he won something. I’ve been to Vermont. It doesn’t strike me as a center of US manufacturing. He gets that Trump only kissed his ass because it worked with attacking Clinton, right? He’s no longer useful. Duh.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: Yeah, well let’s just give up then, I guess?
If they are low turnout traditionally, this appears to be an opportunity! Though I do have to challenge the thought that any senate run-off would be low turnout on Dec 10.
hovercraft
@schrodinger’s cat: She sounds like a waste of time period, the ones that are family we have to keep. Yesterday my aunt, Dad sister, who is a bible thumper told my Mom that Hillary lost because Obama embraced gay marriage. Like I said, she’s my aunt, the only one I have left, so I have to keep her, your “friend” on the other hand is your friend by choice. If these people believe this type of shit, what does that say about who they really are? Personally I try to avoid poison period, I find it’s helpful for my health, physically and mentally, hell i”ll even throw in mentally.
@SenyorDave:
The media always blames the democrats, remember Clinton got impeached because he was mean to Gingrich, he made him go out of the back of the plane. Obama was blocked at every turn because he was mean to the GOP, he wouldn’t let them implement a GOP agenda, and then he made it worse by beating them a second time. So America, Real America, has fought back to show us that there are more of them than us, and they are still in charge. Except there aren’t more of them, there are more of us, and if we can only get our shit together, we can beat them back into the closet where they have to once again whisper about everyone they hate. Which by the way is everyone who doesn’t look like and think like them.
WereBear
@jacy: Great idea. If the corporate media is going to lie, we have to keep telling the truth, one on one.
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
She’s up in ’18 and between that and the governorship, mid-term turnout should NOT be an issue. She hasn’t retired, though, even if she’s about a hundred.
Matt McIrvin
@Dog Dawg Damn: The Senate supermajority to convict is probably hard to get to. (Not even the 1990s Republicans could manage that. For that matter, not even the 1860s Republicans could manage that.)
I agree, though, that while Pence may be worse than Trump in terms of his positions, a Pence who takes office as a result of a Trump impeachment/conviction isn’t a guy who has a huge amount of political capital, and he’s probably less erratic/rage-prone than Trump.
WaterGirl
@jacy: I gave $25 last night. I hope people keep posting about this race.
NotMax
@jacy
Baby steps are still steps.
On the other hand, Donald Trump’s fragrance back on shelves after previous ban .
trollhattan
@The Moar You Know:
As a first run he kinda jumped into the business end of the wood chipper. Wouldn’t wish a do-over like that on anybody (but at least Issa has to look over his shoulder now).
Barbara
@Matt McIrvin: Sanders can keep his movement. He doesn’t need to be elected to keep scratching his ego. I just want fresh leadership wherever it can be had. Harry Reid helped to give Nevada a great young senator.
WereBear
I don’t know about you, but I lost my last shred of understanding and compassion for these folks. They are starting to equate birth control with killing the baybees (of the future!) and I am DONE.
LeftMass
I would hope that Foster Campbell could make an issue about Republican plans to destroy Medicare. It’s a popular program, and the GOP did not actually run their campaign with a highlight on Medicare destruction.
Time to highlight is now. It’s a better issue for Dems than for GOP.
The Moar You Know
@trollhattan: Not with my vote. I lived in SF while he was plowing his way through Vicodin and female city employees. I’d rather write in Hitler than cast a vote for that gold-plated sack of crap.
gex
@Doug R: So, we’re supposed to feel bad because they don’t understand that by giving aid to the poor, the economy grows. And in a system with reasonable worker organization growing economies lead to wage increases which is how they “get theirs.”
And we’re supposed to see that they aren’t really opposed to handouts like they say, they just resent that other people get them and they don’t, even though the Republican politicians they keep electing try to cut these programs and the first thing that happens is means testing.
Sure, why not. I feel way more sympathetic now.
Iowa Old Lady
@Dog Dawg Damn: Do I recall correctly that if Trump goes and Pence becomes president, the Speaker of the House is VP? Ryan has been trying to get there for a while. What is it they say? Republicans will do anything to get elected except get the most votes?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
OTOH, they don’t seem to go anywhere.
Tenar Arha (same Tenar, more Nameless Ones)
@Doug R: Yesterday, I was talking the ear off a salesperson in the empty department store. Topics covered included a long explanation of how the ACA was supposed to work, a defense of unions including teacher, the greater likelyhood of white people carrying contraband, and finally a brief point about how without TANF & food stamps police would be arresting people for stealing bread and how no one wants to do that. Yeah not sure how we got there exactly.
hovercraft
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: @trollhattan: My understanding was that Loretta Sanchez knew she wasn’t going to be able to beat Harris this year, she ran to get her name ID up state wide, so that she can run for the other seat when Feinstein retires, who I believe is actually 80.
SatanicPanic
@Barbara: I will be donating to Giordano’s campaign. My own mother was a Bernie supporter. Days before the election she was posting about how Hillary is corrupt, and posting links to some garbage doc called Clinton Cash. I was like, “mom, that’s produced by Breitbart”. No response. They got my own Mexican-American liberal mom, FFS. That was the last straw.
WereBear
@Dog Dawg Damn: There’s a case that could be made that separation of church and state might protect us from Pence.
We got nothing in the code about grandiose maniac fake-billionaires. We shoulda seen this coming.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Iowa Old Lady: don’t think so, didn’t Ford just pick Rockefeller?
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Jeez Louise, didn’t come within shouting distance of saying give up. Ignoring the obstacles doesn’t make them disappear.
Knowledge is power and all that.
Kay
@Barbara:
Absolutely. Good job!
Matt McIrvin
@WereBear:
Oh, that’s actually been going on for quite a while.
SiubhanDuinne
@schrodinger’s cat:
You’ve got to admit, she makes a good point.
SatanicPanic
@The Moar You Know: consensually or are we talking about Filner behavior?
SiubhanDuinne
@WereBear:
?
The Moar You Know
@Matt McIrvin: It’s already gone away, and no, we don’t need the cooperation of any of the few dozen people who still think he was the best idea.
The sooner you get rid of an infection, the sooner it heals.
SenyorDave
I spent Saturday with my two brothers. They live in northern Jersey, one’s a doctor the other an accounts manager. Both have HH incomes upwards of $500k. They were shocked how many people they know voted for the rapist. I keep thinking how people like them will certainly not be hurt, and possibly helped in the short run. The sainted WWC in the rust belt, not so much. Sometimes I think there’s not a lot of hope for this country. We now have a president who has every negative characteristic I can think of in spades. Racist, sexist, lazy, anti-intellectual, uncurious, petty, vindictive, shallow. That is why in the final analysis I hope he doesn’t last the term even though we get Pence. Trump will end up doing pretty much the same as Pence, plus he can do a lot more damage internationally.
Matt McIrvin
@Iowa Old Lady: No, if the VP becomes President, he appoints a new VP and both houses of Congress vote to confirm (as in any vacancy in Vice-Presidency). That’s the rule according to the 25th Amendment, which first came into play when Spiro Agnew resigned and then when Nixon resigned (so neither Gerald Ford nor Nelson Rockefeller were ever elected President/VP).
Chris
@Kay:
Honestly, I could see this guy single-handedly fucking up a 2020 election. Doubling down on the Nadering, as it were.
I didn’t actually hate him, or his supporters (few loud idiots aside), during the primary – I barely even picked a side in that contest. Then he started to piss me off towards the end, but then finally endorsed. Then those of his supporters who couldn’t STFU and go with the party for the rest of the season started to piss me off more and more. Now, in the last week, with him and those guys both treating this as a shining vindication, I can’t stand the sight of any of them.
Jacel
@trollhattan: There are several million more to tally in California. By the time the whole nation’s votes sift out, Hillary might have a higher popular vote margin than GWB did over Kerry in 2004 — the only time in the past seven elections that a Republican obtained the highest popular vote.
NotMax
@Iowa Old Lady
Was never the case that the Speaker (or the President pro tem of the Senate back when that position was in line ahead of the Speaker) advances to V.P. In case of a veep vacancy, the office was left empty until the ratification of the 25th amendment in 1967.
Since then, the Prez nominates a candidate as V.P. who must be approved by majority vote of both chambers of Congress.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Chris: When he took the Wall Street Speeches ball from Chuck Todd and ran with it, and ran, and ran, and ran… I figured out two things: 1) The old fool drank his own Kool-Ade and came to believe he could win and 2) he was a real asshole.
Gin & Tonic
@Jacel: She already has received more votes than any white man who has ever run for the Presidency.
jacy
And for anybody who hasn’t done so yet, there are two things you can do today:
Call and write your congresscritters about Medicare and Steve Bannon. These are winning issues. Start hammering them now. The more our representatives in government hear about them between now and then, the better. So start hammering them now, and continue to hammer them — you ain’t going to get satisfaction overnight. It’s going to be a long fucking haul.
gogol's wife
@WaterGirl:
My husband keeps saying, “Everything makes a difference, even if it doesn’t seem like it at first.”
The Moar You Know
@SatanicPanic: from what I understand, both. The man is an irredeemable sleaze and gross opportunist. If I wanted that in our next governor, I’d simply write in Trump.
Or Schwarzenegger, lol. Both would be appropriate company for Newsom.
gogol's wife
@Dog Dawg Damn:
That’s my feeling. Bad but not worse.
CarolDuhart2
Bernie is 74 and has no clear successor and no body of ideas that would survive him and no interest in doing either. He also doesn’t want to resign and work full-time trying to create them either, which given the actuarial odds would be the best thing he could do. But if he’s not in the Senate, his wife, who is facing at least lawsuits for crashing her school, might have a bit less immunity in obscurity.
Essential he’s this decade’s Eugene McCarthy: electorally impotent except for derailing the best Democratic President for Civil Rights we had. Yes, Vietnam was crap, but a second-term LBJ might have scaled back a bit.
It’s not impossible to believe however, that he just retires and takes his victory lap and goes away, once it’s clear that the Trump Administration has no more use for him or interest in him.
gogol's wife
@Kay:
I was shocked by the poor roads/infrastructure in Vermont when I visited there a few years ago. I thought, don’t they pay any taxes?
Matt McIrvin
@Iowa Old Lady: …What you’re thinking of is that the Speaker of the House is “third in line” in the sense that if both the President and VP are somehow both eliminated at once, the Speaker becomes President. And the succession line goes through a bunch of other offices from there.
That was more relevant before the 25th Amendment, when there was no provision for replacing a vacant Vice-President. But the amendment was put in as part of the overhaul of the succession rules after Kennedy was killed, and it became relevant remarkably soon with the scandals of the Nixon administration.
gogol's wife
@WereBear:
It’s perfectly fine to take health care away from already-born children.
trollhattan
@The Moar You Know:
Time and distance polish many a turd so don’t rule him out. (A buddy’s brother was on his staff in SF and yeah, stories.) This was an actual win against America’s most evil organization, so I do thank him for that.
WereBear
@gogol’s wife: Yes. If I were to make a list… I’d break the site.
NotMax
@gogol’s wife
Thing is, you know who is 70; a second term is at least questionable.
Pence is 57.
Origuy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Ford nominated Rockefeller, and was approved by a majority of the House and Senate. Until the 25th Amendment, there wasn’t a procedure for replacing a Vice President, the office was just left vacant.
I don’t expect Trump to be impeached and convicted by Congress, but he could stroke out or resign.
Kay
I’m still working thru this -obviously not doing that well (!) but I think voting rights are a bit of an emergency.
I don’t really know what to do about it, though. It’s so fragmented because of the state law issue and the gutting of the Voting Rights Act. I think we need a national voting rights group that is focused and large, with resources. It’s like the ACLU and the League of Women Voters and the NAACP and state Dem Parties and none of it is coordinated or targeted-it’s all reactive- they’re on defense- and it’s all right before a Presidential election.
The assumption should be there will be no federal voting rights protections in a Trump Administration and probably a lot of flat-out assaults on voting rights. “Voter fraud” was a big part of Trump’s campaign. It’s scary not for sheer number of voters who can be knocked out but because they can target voters in key states- we just saw that happen in Wisconsin and North Carolina. We need a similarly targeted national group to match the one that will be formed inside Trump Inc.
SatanicPanic
@The Moar You Know: Who would you like to win? Garcetti? I don’t know if any other quality person is going to take on Newsom.
Iowa Old Lady
@Matt McIrvin: Thank you! I was groping around trying to figure out where I gotten the notion that the Speaker became VP. You’re right. That’s what I was thinking of.
Chris
@CarolDuhart2:
I’ve been hoping, or maybe praying would be a better word at this point, that Elizabeth Warren can capture the attention of the bulk of his supporters. She’s a vastly better voice for the economic left than he ever was.
gogol's wife
@Chris:
And a far better person.
trollhattan
@Jacel:
You’re right. Just looked and after a week of counting we have 4,356,357 to go!
geg6
Personally, I am a big fan of the current mayor of Pittsburgh, Bill Peduto. He’s not big on the charisma front, but he’s an excellent executive, a good government type and really seems to want to reform the city police. Pittsburgh is lucky to have him after the adolescent-turned-mayor we got after Bob O’Connor died in office.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Peduto
I am also a huge fan of John Fetterman. This guy, I swear, is going places. He’s got all the policy and passion of Bernie, but much more honest, less of that grifting smell around him and he’s just super cool.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fetterman_(politician)
trollhattan
@Origuy:
May I request the entire trifecta please? Thanks!
InternetDragons
Actions taken so far: I’ve stopped getting into discussions on social media with (a) Trump voters or (b) people who try to re-hash either the election or Clinton-versus-Bernie. I pass no judgment on others who want to keep up those discussions, but for me, they just result in drama with no results. So far it feels great. I have been much more centered and focused.
I’m reaching out to like-minded friends and acquaintances, and taking a very close look at what I can do locally. In my case it may be work around access to health care and/or activities I can take on to protect my state’s sanctuary cities.
I’ve contacted my Congresscritters about Bannon, and have put regular calls to them on my calendar, as I have no doubt there will be plenty of reasons to encourage them to take a stand.
I re-arranged my budget in order to accommodate monthly donations to Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and subscriptions to a newspaper and a magazine (gogo free press! I just haven’t decided which to subscribe to yet).
This isn’t a lot, I know – but it’s something. Finally, please read this brief and powerful article: ‘What to do about Trump? The same thing my grandfather did in 1930s Vienna’, by Liel Liebovitz:
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/217831/what-to-do-about-trump
I hung this quote from the article in my office today:
“So forgive me if for these next four years I’m not inclined to be smart. When it comes to the work ahead, I’ve no interest in shades of grey or deep dives or mea culpas. Like my grandfather, I’m a simple Jew, and like him, I take danger at face value. When the levers of power are seized by the small hands of hateful men, you work hard, you stand with those who are most vulnerable, and you don’t give up until it’s morning again. The rest is commentary.”
SiubhanDuinne
@Iowa Old Lady:
No. The SotH is next in line, so would become President if something were to remove both the President and VP, but there’s no automatic promotion.
Jacel
I’m very happy with my congressional district representative, Jackie Speier. I don’t know if there’s anywhere for her to go as far as another office, but I’d like to see Jackie work higher up in the house leadership.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@NotMax: If Trump dies or gets bored and walks away– both more likely than impeachment, I think, but that’s not impossible– I think Pence gets swamped by (at least) Cruz, Rubio, Haley, Sasse, maybe Ryan and… somebody more obviously from the Trump wing than I can think of right now… Ernst? Kasich? an old man’s last gasp?
@Chris: I don’t think Warren would ever bring the over-promising and over-simplification that were key to Sanders’ success
ThresherK
This may have been mentioned before, but Massachusetts knocked down a charter school referendum by 62%-38%.
I don’t know the details, except (R)Gov Charlie Baker was in favor of it. All the caveats apply: Public money, private oversight, vague promises to not cherry-pick students, “we’ll figure it out”, the biggest thing was getting rid of life-long educators in favor of Seeing What Works!
Am I a “smug liberal” by saying, The next time a good charter school referendum gets on the ballot will be the first time?
trollhattan
@SatanicPanic:
Gets really complicated if DiFi’s seat is up, because not only are you splitting Dems by forcing them to choose, the top-two primary probably has FOUR California Dems competing for just two jerbs. I’m hoping for a well-versed CA political type to walk me through this.
meander
@The Moar You Know: ballots are still being counted in the Issa/Applegate race. Many in California vote by mail and receipt deadline was Monday the 14th (postmarked no later than 11/8). Tweet link: Check out @Redistrict’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/Redistrict/status/798381620323643392?s=09
NotMax
@Kay
Not donning tinfoil, just musing.
So much of you know who’s campaign was about projection. Yet everyone dances gingerly around the idea that the accusations of vote rigging could have been as well. Because of the tenor of the rest of the campaign, the idea cannot be readily dismissed as hyperbole.
jacy
@InternetDragons:
Yay!
Aleta
Perhaps this has been covered, but I’m wondering if this is viable.
Likn to Wapo opinion article in April by Gregory L. Diskan that suggests Obama should do this.
NotMax
@Jim, Foolish Literalist
Don’t necessarily disagree, however primarying an incumbent is a whole ‘nother ball game.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@Major Major Major Major: I know this makes no sense, but I never, ever, want to hear of another politician named Wiener again.
acallidryas
A friend in LA shared with us on facebook that you can also sign up for digital phone banking for Foster Campbell. I signed up: http://www.fostercampbell2016.com/volunteer/
Matt McIrvin
@NotMax: There’s some historical evidence that a Vice-President who becomes President as a result of a giant scandal is under something of a cloud, politically.
Cindy Millican
@trollhattan: May I add that the 49th Congressional District votes are still being counted. We could still oust Shit-for-Brains Issa. Doug Applegate needs your help to fund phone banking and vote counting observers.
schrodinger's cat
@hovercraft: Right now she does, yes. We have been friends for over a decade. She was there for me at a very difficult time in my life. She moved to be near her mother, who spurned her. They never reconciled, the mother passed away recently. She has not been in a good place emotionally. I am not going to discuss politics with her, she knows where I stand. I am giving her time.
Matt McIrvin
…though I guess Calvin Coolidge did get reelected, and that was almost the same thing (President died in the early phases of a giant scandal, but I guess it didn’t hurt Coolidge that much).
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@Aleta: I’d pay a lot of money to see President Obama drop that bomb in Republicans’ laps on his way out the door. I don’t know why this idea hasn’t taken stronger hold in the last nine months, that if the Senate just sits on its collective ass and does nothing, it kind of gives up any right to say no to a nominee. It would be worthwhile to test this and see how far it goes.
WereBear
@Aleta: If anyone is going to figure that out, it would be a Constitutional Scholar like President Obama.
Roger Moore
@trollhattan:
Here in LA County, we approved a tax to pay for parks and a 0.5% sales tax (in perpetuity!) to pay for transportation, with most targeting rail construction that should give us a functional county-wide system. It’s a big deal, because both needed 2/3 votes to pass and cleared that with room to spare.
cosima
I have sent a Democrats Abroad link about the LA voting to my cousin — she’s recently moved to LA (following her boyfriend, argh!), but does say that she’s managed to find a few like-minded folk to mingle with. I hope that she’ll take it seriously and GOTV with those people.
I also shared it on my FB page, as I have a couple of LA friends who are very low-key about their politics, but I suspect (and hope) that they are sane, given the things that I post that they share….
Crossing fingers, every little bit helps.
Juice Box
Former assembly speaker and new state senator Toni Atkins would be a good one to throw at Darrell Issa this time, if magic doesn’t happen this time (we’re still counting votes and it’s close). Since Doug Applegate was so close, he might be interested in Toni Atkins’ seat.
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
@Matt McIrvin: That’s why he’s already broken the left in this country, people don’t see it yet.
Iowa Old Lady
Mr IOL finally decided to retire at the end of this month, so as of December 1, we will be on Medicare as our primary insurer.
Or not, I guess.
Chris
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I read that as “Haile Selassie” the first time, which is a commentary on just what a massive history nerd level my brain works on.
I take your point. But Warren was very popular including among the younger generation and those with economic populist inclinations long before Trump, so I like to think her word will carry weight all the same. (It would carry further if Sanders would just shut the fuck up and sit the fuck down, but then if my aunt had balls she’d be my uncle).
MomSense
@clay:
Do you think the Russians hacking the Florida Elections Systems Vendor had anything to do with the results?
NotMax
@Matt McIrvin
Thinking more of the case of ascension to the presidency due to death or (untested) resignation or removal due to illness/incapacitation. (Or, in you know who’s case, loss of interest or petulance.)
MomSense
@hovercraft:
I like that, too!
Tom65
Is anyone else thinking that Trump may actually quit before he takes the oath? It’s clear he had no idea that he’d actually have to do the job.
Just a feeling.
JMG
Mass. Attorney General Maura Healey has a future. Mass. will be very interesting in 2018. Warren’s on the ballot, and Republican Governor Baker, who’s very popular is no longer bulletproof because of Trump, who he did not support. If Obamacare is repealed in Congress, I’ll bet the Democratic legislature passes Romneycare again. If Baker signs, he’s got budget trouble. If not, he’s got national GOP guilt by association.
Roger Moore
@trollhattan:
Good. We need high turnout in the gubernatorial election if for nothing else because it sets the target for ballot initiatives. Who would vote for a constitutional amendment to raise the needed number of signatures from 5% to 10% for an initiative and from 8% to 15% for a constitutional amendment?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Tom65: only if he can hand off to Ivanka. Is she thirty-five? has anyone seen her birth certificate? How do we know she wasn’t born in Brno and smuggled back in disguised as a giant cheese?
NotMax
@NotMax
Bad fingers. Bad.
Make that:
the rhetoric cannot be readily dismissed as hyperbole.
Inmourning
What Jacy said! Save Medicare! Tell your rep than Bannon has called himself a Leninist. So, headline, there is a Leninist advising Trump in the WH! That is not hyperbole.
FlipYrWhig
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Does Elizabeth Warren know about anything besides banking and finance, though? I feel like she coasts on everything else. Foreign policy? Civil liberties? She seems like she’s gotten away with being a blank slate.
Mnemosyne
Yeah, sorry I had a meltdown about the Supreme Court, but I woke up mad about it. Venting made me feel better.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
My recollection is that at the time of Boehner’s obnoxious stunt with BiBi, she attended the speech and made from pretty Dem-banal comments about support for Israel, voted for the Iran deal… that’s as much as I know about her foreign policy.
WTF
My money is on Kamala. She just went from AG here in CA to the Senate.
Kamala Harris
Chris
@FlipYrWhig:
Her main shtick is economics, and I don’t think she’s ever pretended otherwise. She’s certainly not who I’d turn to for foreign policy or civil rights. But for what she is, she’s pretty good at what she does.
Iowa Old Lady
@FlipYrWhig: One thing I do believe about Warren is that she’s a smart, hard worker who’ll study her brains out on any area for which she’s responsible.
OTOH, I like her where she is.
trollhattan
@Cindy Millican:
The report has 616k San Diego votes left uncounted at CoB yesterday, but no way of knowing how many for the district. SoS office lists three “close contests“: House districts 7 and 44 and Prop 66.
Pogonip
@Tenar Arha (same Tenar, more Nameless Ones): *chortle* i can imagine the scene. The Deplorable clerk was probably glad to see you go.
I wonder if either party will ever discover those of us who were born Deplorable, work Deplorable jobs, but are far better educated than the modern college graduate. There are a lot more of us than either party believes, and many more coming along . Maybe we need a catchy name. Maybe “Disgruntleds,” as most of us are.
This problem of educated fools is not new, by the way; 25 years ago, as a secretary, I was correcting the spelling, grammar, punctuation, and syntax of light colonels and full birds who had !Degrees! What is relatively new is that educated fools get paid to report reality to the rest of us. Mike Royko must be turning in his grave.
Peale
@Tom65: That would be bad. I know it will suck for a lot of people, but he needs to be inaugurated. I really don’t have a stake in remaining a world power anyway. If he’s out, then the voters are off the hook. Republicans can sigh a relief and still do all the granny starver things the were elected to do.
Enhanced Voting Techinques
@Mnemosyne: Kind of didn’t matter what the hard left wanted since it was clear the Republicans would fight any Obama nomine to the death in the face of all precedence. I was told the real reason those conservative justices were there is to protect corporate personhood, that the rest of it was just BS. Personally I think the screaming horror from the Republicans is they knew a constitutional lawyer like Obama had that in mind in his appointee choice.
SenyorDave
If anyone wants to get disgusted, read this:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/11/15/im-the-trump-supporter-pollsters-missed/#comments
Truly sickening, but the highlight is when he says that we need to return government to sane, responsible adults. Which is why he voted for Donald Trump for president! Its a real person who is on LinkedIn, I actually tried to contact him and thank him on behalf of wife, stepdaughter, granddaughter, two SIL and other women in my life for voting to put a sexual predator in the White House. Not sure if that is possible with standard LinkedIn.
Pogonip
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Cheddargate!
trollhattan
@Roger Moore:
Sac County had pretty much the same measure (0.5% for transportation) but it didn’t sneak past the 2/3 requirement. Those are HARD to approve.
NotoriousJRT
@schrodinger’s cat:
Well, Pence IS creepy.
Matt McIrvin
@Tom65: There’s no way Trump skips out on his inauguration. It’s the ultimate rush of validation, the thing he did this for. He wants to keep doing rallies once he’s in office! This is like the biggest rally.
The job afterward can go hang, maybe.
gene108
@WarMunchkin:
Fetterman was a big time Bernie supporter, but got nothing back for his efforts campaigning for Sanders. Says more about Bernie’s unwillingness to actual build on his appeal than anything else.
He’s an interesting guy. 6’8″ tall, weighing at least 300 lbs and plenty of tattoos and has a master’s degree from Harvard.
I’d like to see him take a stab at something higher up in state politics. He seems to have a core set of liberal principles.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I suspect this will get to him more than anything said by anyone in Congress today.
bemused
@WaterGirl:
Meanwhile, Republicans keep cutting food stamps. Too bad the kids get less food but that’s the breaks when they pick “lazy moocher” parents.
schrodinger's cat
@NotoriousJRT: You will get no argument from there.
Monala
Finally, an article about the rural WWC that lays the blame where it belongs. Author is from the rural WWC, and writes,
Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap
@SenyorDave: Americans are mean and stupid.
Emerald
@The Moar You Know:
Sadly, the local Democratic party simply will not support anyone who loses. We’ve had good candidates before, although I think Applegate is the best, but the Dems think that if you lose you’re a loser and can’t ever win.
So we’re always running new people with zero name recognition. Can’t convince the Dems otherwise. However, I will say that if we could get a good Latino candidate with some environmental cred, that might be a chance.
Mary G would know more than me, though.
SiubhanDuinne
@SenyorDave:
I couldn’t get past this:
I mean, what the everloving blue-eyed fuck?
gogol's wife
@InternetDragons:
That’s a great piece.
Ben Cisco
@Pogonip: I have seen it and I approve :^)
bemused
@Monala:
This! These are the folks that I’ve known for 65 years. Not all but too damn many.
InternetDragons
@SatanicPanic:
I would have supported Giordano’s campaign against Sanders too, but Giordano is not going to be running. He’s recently learned he is facing a serious diagnosis which he wrote his subscribers about, and which I don’t want to talk about here too much – I’m not sure why I feel that way, as he has announced the situation. But he is also a very private person in some ways, who has requested that folks not contact him directly about his health issues.
But the upshot is that he will have to focus his energy and dollars on treatment and recovery right now, so he will not be running for office.
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
The Aristocrats!
Tenar Arha (same Tenar, more Nameless Ones)
@Pogonip: oh, they weren’t deplorable, just deplorable adjacent (boyfriend & his friends..,)
bemused
@Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap:
Willfully mean and stupid.
SenyorDave
@SiubhanDuinne: I missed that part as I paged down. Was he trolling the Post? Hard to believe he is on the l;evel.
Redshift
@Barbara:
Good thing, too. It was even worse than it seems — it was an amendment that enshrined all of the so-called right-to-work law in the state constitution, except the part guaranteeing the right to join a union.
I’m guessing the plan if they’d succeeded, in addition to making RtW even harder to overturn, would have been to follow up by repealing the RtW law, which would have had the effect of only eliminating that one right. These people are just evil.
WTF
@Monala:
It’s simple really. Kept in the dark and fed a steady diet of bullshit, you’re a toadstool.
If you do that to people, of course they will be batshit crazy when they come out to vote.
DmanLurker
@jacy: I called my Congressman and Senators today stating I had their back and they needed to go after Bannon.
Sorry for double post. Fixed typos.
WarMunchkin
@Redshift: Wait why are we using the Right to Work messaging? More like Left to Toil.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@jacy: Also, ask for your Senators and Congressmen to investigate Trump’s financial conflicts of interest, as I did this morning.
JPL
@InternetDragons: Thank you so much for sharing the piece.
Ben Cisco
@schrodinger’s cat: So many choices…
“A Time To Stand,” “Tears of the Prophets,” or “Once More Into the Breach.”
hovercraft
@Monala:
AMEN.
They don’t want to be reached, so trying is a waste of time.
3Jane Tessier-Ashpool (a/k/a Lorinda Pike)
@gogol’s wife: Sort of my thought. Trump / Pence is being in a car accident and getting a slashed femoral artery, plus a compound fracture of the femur. You hope the medics staunch the bleeding before you bleed out right there, then get you to the hospital to fix your compound fracture.
Trump is the slashed femoral artery (getting us into nuclear war) whereas Pence might just be the compound fracture (attempting to remove basic rights) but that can be handled through legislative channels.
Both are bad, but one has to be dealt with immediately, while the other can be done later, without everyone dying at the scene.
WTF
@Inmourning:
My comment got eaten. But this is nothing new. They envision their anarcho-capitalist and parasitic FIRE Economy and they will achieve it one way or another.
As I was saying, this was their plan to privatize Social Security back in 1980 something
Achieving a “Leninist” Strategy
Monala
@schrodinger’s cat: “Hippocratic Oath,” “Take Me Out to the Holosuite,” “Distant Voices,” and one of the best, but understandably hard to watch right now, “Far Beyond the Stars.” (Sisko is a 1950s sci-fi writer fighting discrimination; DS9 is one of his stories–and he pays a heavy price for imagining people of color and women in leadership in outerspace).
hovercraft
@SiubhanDuinne:
We are not part of the same reality, they live in a world created by FOX and talk radio, and we live out here in the real world. Always remember that facts and things have a liberal bias, so it’s best to ignore them and pretend they don’t exist.
Chris
@Monala:
Thank you. There’s also an article from a Midwesterner-turned-East-Coaster who similarly argues that it’s not the coasts that live in a bubble: it’s the “heartland.”
Unfortunately, the political system and virtually every major institution in the country is set up specifically to preserve, reinforce, and cater to that bubble.
schrodinger's cat
@Ben Cisco: Thanks, Emissary!
rikyrah
@Kay:
Bernie is not a Democrat. He and Moore can go phuck themselves.
Monala
@schrodinger’s cat: reposting: “Hippocratic Oath,” “Take Me Out to the Holosuite,” “Distant Voices,” and one of the best, but understandably hard to watch right now, “Far Beyond the Stars.” (Sisko is a 1950s sci-fi writer fighting discrimination; DS9 is one of his stories–and he pays a heavy price for imagining people of color and women in leadership in outerspace).
Betty Cracker
@meander: Wow, according to that Twitter feed, looks like Issa really could get iced. That would be a bright spot in the drear for sure! I despise that sleazy jackhole.
JGabriel
@WereBear:
Average or median?
Median is the mid-point in a list of numbers. For income, that’s the amount where 50% earn less and 50% earn more. Average is a set of numbers added together and divided by the number of items in that set.
For example, here’s a list of 3 annual incomes:
$1
$50,000
$1,000,000
The Median Income in the that list is the mid-point: 50k/yr. The Average Income is ($1 + $50,000 + $1,000,000)/3 = 350,000.33/yr.
Median Income is about 53-54k/yr in the US, but Average Income is somewhere around the mid-70’s to low 80’s per year. So an average income of only 70k per year would be slightly on the low side.
I’m assuming you meant Median Income, since I’m pretty sure Trump’s voters skew higher than median income – but it’s important to get the terminology correct in order to avoid the kind of confusion Conservatives love to sow.
Mnemosyne
@Monala:
I suggested “Far Beyond the Stars” as well since that’s one of my husband’s favorites. He’s pretty woke for a middle-aged, middle-class white guy ;-)
(And, yes, he was an enthusiastic Hillary voter who is pretty pissed at the idiots who share his ethnic identity.)
joel hanes
@Kay:
can we get new liberal leaders too
What do you think of Franken?
MaxUtil
In light of the call for good, local officials to support – let me recommend Joe Bray-Ali running for city council in Los Angeles. http://joe4cd1.com/
Los Angeles city council is obviously safe Democratic territory, but this guy is the real deal and is running against a local party apparatchik mostly looking to keep power and line his pockets. Small amounts of support will make a big difference in this kind of race and we’re building a strong back bench for the future…
frosty
@geg6: I voted for Fetterman in the primary and he might have had a chance in the general. To me, McGinty was just a cipher.
And that’s good news about the Pittsburgh mayor. My son is on track to join the force there and I’m a bit worried about it.
bupalos
The thought that is gradually dawning on me, as I try to figure out what to do, is that partisan rancor from both sides is working almost solely to the benefit of the revanchists and Trumpists and Republicans. Not to their benefit, perhaps, but it is pushing the world in the direction they believe they want us all to go.
For all the talk of baiting in this election, we’re the ones who have been baited. We fell for it – are falling for it – hard. Trump is the biggest, stickiest, honey-slathered bait we’ve ever seen, and we fell for it. Because this particular tar baby is, frankly, fun as fuck to punch. I could read Betty Cracker on Donald Trump all day every day. But Dave Chapelle’s comment is incredibly apt. We elected an internet troll. We fed him, and they elected him, and now we’ll see how fat he grows, and hopefully observe the First Rule of Holes, before it’s a nuclear crater.
These people won’t listen. Treat them like they will. These people are not respectable. Respect them anyway, respect what they can be. They fixate on fake outrage stories about the college hippies. Talk only about real issues and how they connect to real lives. Ask where they heard about these hippies, do they know people like this themselves? Yes, this means we have to talk to Them. Be a Buddhist. Learn to shrug while your gut is on fire.
We’re in quicksand. We’re in a very funny position where the very strong majority of the country is disposed to agree with us issue by issue, almost across the board, when confronted with reality instead of noise and myth. But too much noise has too many convinced they believe in a single dealbreaker issue that makes them choose the Tribe of the Empty Set instead. And the Tribe of the Empty Set allows nothing in. Resistance of equal and opposite force to the toddler-tantrum Trump represents is far less than futile. In fact, it is the only thing that can hold them upright, prop up the tribalism that makes them manipulable, and sink us all further in the quicksand.
And none of that means we give an inch on policy. There is no policy problem.
Joy in FL
@InternetDragons: Thank you for that article about the man’s grandfather in Vienna. It helps me in multiple ways.
schrodinger's cat
@bupalos: I have no idea what this means. What exactly would you have us do?
Joy in FL
Betty Cracker, Thank you for this thread. I discovered a couple things that I can do, and that helps me deal with this horrible situation.
NW Phil
Good news from Washington state was –
By 57% passed Initiative 1433: raises state’s minimum wage from the current $9.47 to $13.50 by January 1, 2020. Thereafter, the minimum wage is tacked to increases in the cost-of-living. The measure also required employers to provide employees with paid sick leave. The measure was designed so that employees accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every forty hours worked.
By 70% passed initiative 1491: authorized courts to issue “extreme risk protection orders,” which prevent a person from possessing or accessing firearms. This measure would allow police, family, or household members to obtain court orders temporarily preventing firearms access by persons exhibiting mental illness, violent or other behavior indicating they may harm themselves or others.
Jeff
As a farm team prospect, Jason Morgan, recently elected to the Washtenaw County Commission in Michigan. Bright young man (I went to college a year or two ahead of him, but had the privilege of working together in some student organizations), currently director of government and community relations at a community college, and previously worked for John Dingell.
http://www.votejasonmorgan.com/about-jason.html
Aleta
@InternetDragons: Thanks much for the writing by Liel Liebovitz. Sent to my friends.
Dadadadadadada
@clay: My guess is a whole lot of people voted Trump and left the rest of the ballot blank. The filled-out ballots from informed people would have well outnumbered the filled-out ballots of stupid people.
Janet E Bernstein
@hovercraft: 0 good mive
Janet E Bernstein
Good move. (Loretta) glad to see my state PA’s Josh Shapiro got noticed, he is amazing, everyone loves him, very honest & organized & progressive
Please note also my 2nd year US Rep.Brendan Boyle,baby faced Irish catholic who is very knowledgeable & progressive and already a big voice for environment,economic justice,
Pro-immigrant, pro-gay rights &pro science!!
And his brother Kevin in PA state house is pretty good too
HelloRochester
Betty, I’ll save the ink and the stamp on thanking Hillary. I was unexcited about her candidacy primarily because I saw the huge risk in running her against ANYONE. I know she’s a good person and her faults were pure ratfckery, but pretending it wasn’t a huge risk was something the Very Serious People, even here (Ann Laurie) should have tempered a bit.
But you asked for something good that happened in your state: In PA, a ballot measure written in pure lawyerspeak for tricksies attempted to raise mandatory retirement age for judges from 70 to 75 (extending the terms of a couple of them past Gov Wolf) was defeated soundly. Considering it’s a second shot on goal by the state GOP, I’m sure it will come back in the midterms but for now the right thing happened.