This is an amazing ad. Tough to watch, but important in terms of the issues it raises. It’s by Randy Bryce, who is running against Paul Ryan.
I’m trying to stay away from the catnip of raising money for marquee races, but fuck, this guy’s running against Paul Ryan and he’s put together one hell of an ad. I think he deserves some money.
Corner Stone
Wiscy likes him just fine, thanks.
Arclite
Fuck yeah, powerful stuff. Just one problem: think I saw some marble countertops in there, so he’s not a real working person.
amk
Didn’t zegs spend something 20 mil for his last ‘election’?
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: Just like all of Texas loves them some Gohmert, right?
JJ
@Corner Stone: What’s Wiscy’s take on David Yankovich?
ms_canadada
Hell, I’d vote for him! He’s singing my song! Oh,wait…I’m a Canadian…too bad. He reminds me of my Dad who was a WW2 Vet and worked at Atlas Steel in Welland, Ontario, for 45 years. We all don’t want much, just enough to keep our families healthy and secure. It shouldn’t be that hard.
ArchTeryx
And the sad part is that none of that will matter more then the “D” next to his name for most of the voters in that district. It’s important to run against people like the Zombie Eyed Granny Starver, but let’s be real: Most of his district loves what he’s doing and will vote him in just because of that “R”.
Blind tribalism is a hell of a drug, and it nullifies even the very best attempts to get the message out. And this one was a bloody good attempt.
Omnes Omnibus
@ArchTeryx: Have you ever been to Wisconsin?
Oxford Comma
Ryan’s district is purple, and he is vulnerable in exactly the same way that Tom Foley and Eric Cantor were.
Smiling Mortician
Props on the e.e. cummings, and also to Mr. Bryce on his ad. This is awesome.
Omnes Omnibus
@Oxford Comma: Ryan lost his hometown last time around. Bryce sounds and looks like the guys in the bars on Friday night in that part of the the state (hell, most of the state).
Paula
Love it.
ArchTeryx
@Omnes Omnibus: I have quite a lot, and know someone that lives around Milwaukee. Admittedly, I’m less familiar with Ryan’s district, though. I’d be overjoyed to be proven wrong about this. If there is one single Republican I want to see get kicked to the curb, it’s ZEGS. He’s a stone-cold wannabe serial killer, no matter how much he flashes those baby blues around and makes our wretched press swoon.
randy khan
it’s hard to count all the ways in which that title is perfect.
ArchTeryx
@Oxford Comma: Remember that Cantor lost to a Tea Partier. He was primaried from the right and lost because he didn’t give a shit about constituent services. That’s the kiss of death for a Congresscritter, even in gerrymandered districts. They may have nothing to fear from a D, but there’s always some hungry, slavering beast waiting in the right wing for them to screw up.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: Gohmert has one vote in the House. ZEGS controls all legislation that originates or comes through the House.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: Everyone in Texas loved then some Tom DeLay, right? Does that help?
Corner Stone
@JJ: Looks like no bueno.
Omnes Omnibus
@ArchTeryx:
Wow. I’ll defer to your expertise then. Golly.
Edited for dumb spelling error.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: He lost his seat after being indicted. Your turn.
Flanders' Former Neighbor
I worked at UPS in Janesville in college and grew up in afar-flung corner of Milwaukee County so many years ago. Randy may have to chip the R shell from some of the voters in the area, but if he’s the guy he says he is, it won’t take much effort. Pretty easy argument to make when what’s right is on your side and you’re one of the guys.
James Powell
The problem with the ad is that it requires the viewer to have humanity, the ability to feel empathy for others. Ryan gets his votes from the “Let him die!” voters that always show up at midterms.
ArchTeryx
@Corner Stone: And the Rs lost that seat for all of one cycle before the D (Nick Lampson) was voted out and replaced with another R. Gerrymandering is gerrymandering. It always seems to win in the end.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: Your suggestion that the state as a whole loves him is baseless. As were my statements about Texas politicians. But you knew that and were just being an ass.
ArchTeryx
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m not an expert, but I can read maps, voting histories, and just how ironclad Wisconsin is gerrymandered. That doesn’t take an expert in anything, as ZEGS himself proves over and over again. Wisconsin 1st was a swing district, but it hasn’t elected a D since 1993.
ETA: The district had no problem voting in Obama over McCain (by a few percentage points) but Ryan had no trouble winning re-election even in 2008. Lots of ticket-splitters in that district and they loved them some ZEGS.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Omnes Omnibus: but all of Texas, most of Oklahoma, and half of Louisiana loves them some Blake Farenthold.
Omnes Omnibus
@ArchTeryx: Like I said, I will defer to you.
Corner Stone
@ArchTeryx: It wasn’t gerrymandering. That’s my CD. It’s nuts ass red RWNJ. It may be drawn a little weird but trust me, the people in there mostly represent exactly what Tom DeLay was all about.
The only interesting thing about it was a bunch of people who worked at NASA ClearLake are also in that CD. Obama cut their funding which really, really, really helped.
ArchTeryx
@Corner Stone: Now you I’ll defer to, simply because I know next to nothing about Texas save for the mid-decade DeLay-driven gerrymander and that it’s full of RWNJs. You obviously know that district better then I do.
I still think it’s a crying shame that Lampson was almost instantly tossed out, but the same thing happened in MY old district in Ohio: The R retired, the D got the district for all of 2 years, was promptly voted out in favor of another R (a bankster at that!) and then the district was dissolved in the Ohio gerrymander.
DHD
Every time I go back to WIsconsin I get depressed thinking about how a state with such deep progressive history and strong public institutions got so thoroughly fucked up by white identity politics and Republican ratfuckery at the state house.
Corner Stone
Tom DeLay absolutely drove the disgusting redistricting in TX. He fucked TX by shoving out senior D politicians and TX lost a fuckton of power/negotiating strength. If any R voter was honest with themselves they would hate Tom DeLay’s guts for what he did to TX and to the TX congressional delegation.
But of course, honesty and R party…no wayno.
Omnes Omnibus
@DHD: It pisses me off every day.
efgoldman
@Corner Stone:
All by himself? Nobody on Capitol Hill had anything to do with it?
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s his core competency.
Corner Stone
@ArchTeryx: If Tom DeLay had done the “decent” thing and exited the race in time to get any other R politician’s name on the official ballot they would have crushed Nick Lampson in the race. As it was, he was so vain he stuck around so long they had to have a write in candidate who had a hyphenated name. That caused R’s to have to vote for her twice. Both on the write in and then again to write in during the official election. It was like asking them to decipher Sanskrit.
I joked with my R “friends” that if Tom had dropped out in time and they had nominated Pet Rock they would have crushed Nick L. And that is the damn truth. But since Tom was such a POS he set up the perfect test for me. All the people in this CD who always told me they voted for “the best person, not the party!!!”. I would ask them who they voted for, Nick or Shelley? Nick Lampson was a Blue Dog who was light years more qualified than his R challenger. It was not even close. Nick was about children’s education, NASA funding (BIG in this area) and about 6 other things he had spent his life proving he cared about.
But they all sheepishly could not tell me they voted for Nick. HMMMMMM. GUESS WHY?
Corner Stone
@efgoldman: That’s an interesting question, actually. If Tom DeLay had not fucked the entire TX Congressional delegation out of their seniority who knows what may have happened. As it was, guess who fucked NASA, Clear Lake, Webster, Galveston and ten other surrounding communities?
Corner Stone
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: At least I have one. I am not sure stalking girl’s hockey teams qualifies for anything. Well, anything non-skeevy I mean.
ArchTeryx
@Corner Stone: And that, in the end, is why I think Ryan’s challenger has no chance. Bryce is doing heroic work by challenging ZEGS in his own backyard, but the idea that W-1 is a swing Congressional district is a rose-colored illusion. It may not be purely his “R” that gets Ryan in time and time again, but he’s just about bulletproof in that district. If 2008 wasn’t enough to displace him, pretty much nothing short of redistricting is going to dislodge him from that seat.
mai naem mobile
@ArchTeryx: so we don’t try at all? Fifty state strategy means you run somebody in every seat so that 1/You are trying to compete 2/You grab a seat when a situation presents itself – scandal/economy/wave election. It doesn’t matter even if you have the person in for one term. I’ll take two years of Speaker Pelosi over none. You still push forward incrementely.
CaseyL
Entirely off topic: I love being this far north when summer solstice comes around. It’s 9:15 p.m. and still light outside.
Omnes Omnibus
@ArchTeryx: You two are the experts on Wisconsin. Hell, you even know someone from near Milwaukee.
Juju
@mai naem mobile: I was going to say the same thing. Now it’s not necessary.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: A good friend of mine was engaged to his fiance from WI for a bit. He even lived there for a while. And one of my old bosses grew up in MN but used the doucheprocity to attend Wiscy.
I’m pretty sure I understand what’s what, tyvm.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: I spent time in Oklahoma, so Texas totally makes sense to me.
Sandia Blanca
I put some in–would be so great to put someone like Bryce in instead of ZEGSy.
tobie
@mai naem mobile:
Yes! And on that note I’ll say: Good luck to Ossoff and Parnell tomorrow. I hope both Dems win.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: Nobody spends time in Oklahoma. It’s like Hotel California. Look what it did to Sooner.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: July through November. I even saw Dallas as a reprieve. Dallas was a cultural desert in 1988. But the female hair was big.
InternetDragons
Off-topic, but I have faith you’ll all understand why I wanted to post this. If you are interested in helping the Democrats #holdthefloor and resist GOP efforts to push through their secret version of AHCA, then check out the link below, and help Democrats ‘filibuster by amendment’.
Add your story about how repealing the ACA and imposing Trumpcare will impact you, and your story will be submitted as an amendment and included in the Congressional Record. The goal is to bury Trumpcare in amendments.
And thank the wonderful folks involved with Indivisible for this strategy:
https://www.ouramendments.org/
ArchTeryx
@Omnes Omnibus: And of course we all should bow to your authority. You can snark all you like, but that’s what it comes down to, so let’s cut the bullshit. Tell me again why Ryan still has his seat after 2008, if you’re the world’s leading expert on W-1?
Temporarily Max McGee (Phase II)
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’ve been to The Brat Stop. I’ve been to traditional Wisconsin supper clubs for Friday night fish fries. I’ve had cheese curds while tailgating in the Stadium View parking lot on a Sunday morning. I have had Point Beer. I think Brice has got a good shot- but I’m leaving that call up to you when I’m here.
eemom
@Omnes Omnibus:
Just popping in to say that I for one defer to your opinion about Wisconsin politics. Because, you know, you live in the place and are a smart person and know whereof you speak.
And also as a matter of general principle in favor of that ever-dwindling minority of folks around here who limit their pious pontificating to topics as to which their level of comprehension exceeds jack shit.
Villago Delenda Est
Paul Ryan? Work the Iron?
It is to laugh. If he loses, he’ll become a K Street parasite.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@eemom:
Spoilsport.
joel hanes
I love Wisconsin, and have often vacationed in the Chippewa Flowage, and have friends or relatives in West Bend and Madison and Baraboo and Sheboygan and Adams and aquaintances in Zenda. I have canoed the Flambeau, and camped at Wyalusing in the late fall.
I don’t pretend to know jack shit about Wisconsin politics.
I chipped in even before I viewed the ad.
religious opinions : Miesfelds (Sheboygan) for brats; New Glarus beer, Nueske’s bacon, Carr Valley cheddars and blue cheeses and curd, Lost Land Lake Lodge for the Friday walleye fry.
Betty Cracker
Never been to Wisconsin, but I have several times enjoyed cordial neighborly tailgating activities with traveling Packers fans at Tampa Stadium. On the strength of that expertise, I’ll say Bryce seems like just the man to appeal to those brat-grilling, beer-swilling mofos.
Brilliant ad to subtly challenge pencil-necked faux-wonk Ryan’s manhood by offering to swap jobs. Imagine that pasty, soft-handed weenie in a hard hat, guiding a five-ton girder into place! It’s an absurd thought!
Weird shit happens that defies every political convention; if we’ve learned nothing else this last hellish year, we should know that. Gotta be ready when the wind changes. Godspeed, Mr. Bryce!
Mike J
@Betty Cracker: If voted out, I imagine Ryan will go back to driving the Weiner mobile.
He knew how the sausage was made and still went into politics.
Groucho48
Comparing Paul Ryan to Buffalo Bill is a huge insult to Buffalo Bill.
Yes, he fought in the Civil War…for the North, and, =yes, he was an “Indian Fighter”, But, through most of his boyhood he hung out with Native Americans, who taught him to ride and to scout and several Native American languages. He would invite them to large outdoor meals at the family farm, which was a pretty unusual thing to do back then.
Even as a boy, he was anti-slavery, in Bloody Kansas. His father was stabbed while giving an anti-slavery speech and had to leave his family and remain in hiding for several years. As for his adult life, as Wiki summarizes his philosophy…
Paul Ryan isn’t fit to lick his boots.
Temporarily Max McGee (Phase II)
@Betty Cracker:
My dad used to go down to those games every year. He worked the beer taps at the big America’s Pack party tent.
It was kind of shitty the way Packers (and Bears, Lions and Nikes) fans were treated by the locals once Raymond James Stadium opened. “Why are you here?! Why don’t you go home?!” Followed by beers being dumped over heads. After all those years of keeping the ticket sales up, and that’s the thanks they got.
I don’t blame you, but Florida Man and Florida Woman, they sure do know how to look a gift horse in the mouth, don’t they?
The Lodger
@Groucho48: I was thinking of another Buffalo Bill… too late for a link but we all remember our favorite 11-fingered doctor.
eemom
@Betty Cracker:
Post title in there.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@DHD: I’m from Michigan, and everything you said about WI applies there too. Sad! And not in an ironic Trump way.
Another Scott
@ArchTeryx:
Mostly because defeating incumbents is very, very difficult. In the gigantic wave of 2008, after the GOP blew up the world economy, which decimated the GOP, Democrats picked up all of 21 seats in the House. Twenty-one.
You don’t defeat incumbents unless you’re willing to run against them and work hard in spite of tough odds.
Stop being a Debbie Downer. We know it won’t be easy.
Cheers,
Scott.
blaireau93
I live in WI-1. Paul Ryan is safely gerrymandered into his seat. He is not going to get primaried from the right. The only way he loses is if the district gets redrawn. There are enough areas in play around the edges of WI-1 that a redrawn district becomes purple. Until then, he stays as long as he wants. That said, let’s support an alternative voice thats stands in opposition to Ryan’s screw the poors mentality.