My Facebook timeline just informed me that year ago today I wrote “Don’t mourn, organize”, which reminded me that a year ago today was the awful 2016 presidential election. That surprised me, I don’t know if I thought it was longer ago or more recent, but for some reason it just startled me.
In the spirit of organizing, not mourning, I’m still looking for political groups to support that will spend their intelligently and not just blow it on ads the last week of the campaign. This one sounds really interesting. This article is from Axios so the obvious caveats apply, but it sounds good:
Forward Majority ran ad campaigns in 16 races throughout Virginia. Democrats won 12 of those races.
What groups are you hearing about that sound promising?
In 2018, I hope to canvass for House and state elections again. I got too busy and slacked last year.
eclare
Let America Vote did well last night.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
The year since your “Don’t mourn; organize” post has felt like 10. It’s often hard for me to get my brain around the notion that it’s been such a short time.
Mike J
The Democratic Party.
O. Felix Culpa
I support the county and state Democratic Party and individual local & state candidates. That’s the best way to know where your money is going, IMHO.
Jeffro
Everybody be sure to ask your Republican friends and relatives what they feel the highlights of this past year under Trumpov have been.
Actually scratch that – save them a little time and add “besides Gorsuch”…
Variations on this include asking them for examples of how Trumpov has helped bring the country together ( as he promised on election night ) and when they expect Trumpov to be vindicated from the Russia allegations
MomSense
@eclare:
Kander’s video thank you to the volunteers last night was great.
BC in Illinois
Missouri 2nd District for Change is organizing, holding townhalls, and — tomorrow — will have a forum for four candidates to unseat Rep. Ann Wagner (R – Safe Republican Vote).
7pm, Nov 9, Machinist’s Hall, 12365 St Charles Rock Road, Bridgeton
Their previous meetings have been filled with hope, energy, and increasing numbers of people. We are working to bring democracy to the St Louis County suburbs.
Jeffro
And speaking of a year ago is there an anniversary women’s march being planned for January 21? My wife and daughter will kill me if we don’t all go down and march this time
Ian G.
I think when historians write about the election of 2016, they’ll cover two items of total professional malpractice by the media: 1) the total high school hatred of Hillary Clinton that induced them to run with any and every “scandal” they could find, and 2) allowing Trump to define himself as the successful businessman he plays on TV, rather than the pathetic incompetent man-child he actually is.
Now that Trump is actually running things (or is failing to in humiliating ways), people actually see what he is, and the “he’ll bring jobs back!” crowd who didn’t trust Hillary had ditched him, leaving behind the hardcore racist slime. And as we saw last night, that hardcore remnant isn’t close to enough to prevent a wave election.
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J:
Those… hacks?!
Jeffro
Btw NBC News reporting that Senate Dems have introduced a bill to ban assault weapons(!)
sheila in nc
I wonder if those changes
Have left a scar on you
Gotta say I sure hope so! Feeling cautiously optimistic after last night but there is still a LOT of work to be done. And since the Russia stuff is still out there, no guarantee it can’t happen again.
Saw an excellent article about the campaign to replace voting machines in the Atlantic this morning.
jl
What is the winning percentage of different groups? Anyone know of a place that keeps track?
Who can win elections? That is most important to me.
After the Democrats win back some legislatures and executives, the various factions can sort it out. I have confidence that the Democrats will do a better job of sorting things out than the current degraded edition of the GOP can ever even hope to do, or even want to do (edit: since for them it all boils down to ‘who’s my sugar daddy, who’s threatening to punch me in the face?’).
Major Major Major Major
@Jeffro: Y’know, I think that that’s a silly cause and the sort of thing where people declare victory and say “Well, we’ve done enough on gun control for now.” It’s like reinstating Glass-Steagall, it sounds good but won’t actually do anything (assuming it’s like the previous “assault weapons ban”).
In fact, if the gun-humpers were smart (ha), they would let Republicans support it (just like the NRA is fine with a bump stock ban) so that exactly this happens.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major: I am reliably informed that this kind of negativity and defeatism reflects poorly on this blog.
jl
@Major Major Major Major: I think Democrats should present a whole package, with priority to things that can build a consensus. I think that would include lifting ban on federal funding for gun safety and public health research, closing gun show loophole, increasing funding for reporting and enforcement. I hope some of that is in their assault weapon ban proposal.
Major Major Major Major
@jl: Sure, if calling it an “assault weapons ban” is what it takes to get the whole package through, whatever. And to be clear as raw policy banning “assault weapons” is fine, I’m just concerned that we would use our one-bite-at-the-apple on it. Obama was right to ignore Rahm’s piecemeal approach to healthcare reform and put it all into one package, IMO, and I don’t see how gun reform should be different.
@TenguPhule: I see neither negativity nor defeatism in my comment.
Jeffro
Man, there’s no end to the negativity here, I guess.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
That was kind of the point of the joke.
Thursday
It’s not gonna be easy. Apparently the Republican base has admitted they really don’t care about anything other than sticking it to liberals.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/08/donald-trump-johnstown-pennsylvania-supporters-215800
acallidryas
I like the look of Forward Majority based on your link. I’ve been following and volunteering with Flippable, which is also focusing on state and local elections. They’ve been good about connecting people with volunteers in almost every state special election held this year.
Chyron HR
@Thursday:
“They’re not deplorable. They’re not racist.” – Pope Bernard I
jl
@Major Major Major Major: ” I’m just concerned that we would use our one-bite-at-the-apple on it. Obama was right to ignore Rahm’s piecemeal approach to healthcare reform and put it all into one package, ”
I agree with that. I think anything that reminds people of what they perceive as SOP ‘establishment’ politics, will turn them off. I think the popular sentiment against how both Democrats and GOP have operated recently has to be recognized, even if (IMHO) that popular perception and distaste is very unfair to the Democrats.
So, offering a realistic and thoughtful big package and being open to wide ranging debate that can draw a lot of people into consensus on some provisions would be a good thing. That kind of ‘Democrats in disarray’ can work for us. Hacks like Joe Blowhard and Todd, and Dickerdick will get the vapors and galloping fantods over it, but who cares?
Just recycling a previous proposal and having a losing Congressional confrontation, would not be taking full advantage of the current popular mood.
Amaranthine RBG
NextGen America put a couple of million dollars into the Northam campaign and put some boots on the ground in VA for Northam and Tran. The group I canvassed with coordinated with them – but I confess I don’t know the nitty gritty of whether they ran GOTV or just provided some financial support/advice.
Anyway, they’re hiring: https://nextgenamerica.org/who-we-are/
Redshift
@eclare:
And they were quite active in recruiting people to do grassroots work, rather than fundraising/ads/online promotion kind of stuff. They supplied some of the volunteers for GOTV at one of my local canvassing locations, and Jason Kander was actually there on Sunday (but not when I was able to be there, sadly.)
Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense also got a lot of people to come out and volunteer.
Betty Cracker
@Thursday: The last few sentences of the piece on loyal Trump supporters you linked tells us everything we need to know about them:
They are exactly who we thought they were, and fuck them with every rusty farm implement in the barn. Now, if only the media would shut up about them forever. I hear there are some voters who turned out in droves yesterday, making stunning inroads into red-held territory. Perhaps we can pay attention to them now.
Roger Moore
@jl:
There’s a danger in looking only at raw winning percentage, because it rewards groups who back sure things. We need to see which groups were not just successful but successful in places where they weren’t expected to succeed, because we’re going to have to win a bunch of races that seem out of reach in order to get ahead.
Aleta
-Moscow Times
Betty Cracker
@Major Major Major Major: I think it’s a good first step. If I have time, I’ll do a post on that later.
Yutsano
@Thursday: We outnumber them. And where we don’t, we still showcase our ideas. There’s no giving up now and for those who refuse to see this country forward, in the immoral words of efgoldman, fuck ’em.
Chyron HR
@Aleta:
Burning to death? That’ll teach them to complain about radioactive tea and poisoned umbrellas.
Redshift
@jl:
I don’t see any evidence Democrats are backing off on any of those; I hear them talking about most of that list a lot. I don’t pretend to know enough about legislative strategy to know whether it’s better to do them together or separately.
different-church-lady
@Jeffro: Why? Just to see if they have the guts to say “Ni-CLANG no longer president!”?
Redshift
@Roger Moore:
Or alternatively, compare the vote to previous votes in the same district, like the special elections this year in Republican districts where we haven’t won, but we’ve done 10-15 points better than before.
Frankensteinbeck
@Thursday:
Why, yes, Republicans are viscerally angry at the idea that black lives matter.
And as repugnant as you and I find admitting to sexually assaulting women, Republicans see that as normal, inevitable, maybe admirable behavior.
different-church-lady
@Thursday: For years they longed for the Great White Asshole and finally found him in Trump. Every other thing was a cover story, and now they don’t even want the cover.
Corner Stone
@Betty Cracker: I skimmed that piece earlier when I saw it linked off Stephanie Ruhle’s twit feed. If you want to kill some brain cells and read it you will see just about the most ignorantly racist shit people in America. Perfect example of Trump.
ruemara
Flippable.org, Let America Vote, Run For Something, NextGen America, Indivisible, Moms Demand Action, DCC, DNC. Look, this was a lot of orgs but there was some party effort too. I think I’ve sent funds off to Flip, LAV & Indivisible. Plus I put money in the Doug Jones race and will put more into the Ironstache.
@Betty Cracker: My sentiments exactly. Stop chasing these racist, evil, stupid people. I read that entire article and they don’t need to drop an n-bomb to announce how stupidly racist they are. Let them stay in misery and I hope an influx of brown skinned folk come in, buy their business, houses and everything else and make it damned successful in their old, greedy, stubborn, stupid faces. “I won’t train because I only want to mine.” GTFOH.
Corner Stone
Can some D please unseat Dave Brat R-VA?
Thanks
SatanicPanic
Our Revolution
Mike J
@Major Major Major Major: The previous assault weapons ban was effective. No, it did not end all gun violence in the United States, but it did have a positive impact, and would have had more had it remained in effect.
http://www.factcheck.org/2013/02/did-the-1994-assault-weapons-ban-work/
eclare
@Betty Cracker: Reaching out to ignorant racists is the most bone-headed thing I have ever heard, and yet I keep hearing it over and over again. Number one, it says “fuck you” to the most loyal base of the Democratic party, which does a lot of heavy lifting, and Number two, if we concentrate on turnout, we will win. Will we win every district in gerrymandered states? No. Will we win every governorship? No. But we can win a majority. And in a country where it is legal to be both mind-numbingly stupid and racist, that will have to do.
I’m ready to punch the next person in the neck through my tv who says we have to reach out. Fuck the deplorables and the media who thinks we should accommodate them. Wow, didn’t realize I was so upset about this!
Steeplejack
@Jeffro:
This reminds me of something I saw on some tweet thread after the shooting last week. Some ammosexual was trying to derail the conversation with: “There’s no such thing as an assault rifle!” Finally he “explained” by asking, “Do you mean a semi-automatic rifle?” The clip/magazine maneuver for the win again. Suck it, libtards! Unless you get your terminology absolutely correct there’s no point in even talking to you.
mai naem mobile
I think just plain having more candidates helped. If nothing else you have one person running their little circle of friends and the circles of friends of these people are more likely to show up and vote for the whole blue slate,up and down.
TooManyJens
If you follow @Pinboard on Twitter, he sometimes highlights groups that need early money to do the essential laying of groundwork for campaigns.
Mike in DC
One year from now the 2020 campaign begins. I’m hoping we go with a younger, fresher face with less baggage.
Lyrebird
@eclare: Very much agree.
Unless someone digs back and finds that big Republican push to win Mondale voters over to their side, and how productive it was, no way.
That Latino Victory ad spoke a truth.
I don’t canvass for liars but for truths.
Roger Moore
@Redshift:
Yes and no. Yes, that’s a good place to start, but part of what we’re looking for is groups that have shown good judgment about where to put their effort. It’s great to know that somebody was able to push a -40 district to -5, but that’s still a loss. We need to find the -10 and -15 districts we can push to be +1 and +2.
lamh36
Corner Stone
@eclare:
They don’t say it that way any longer. Now anytime you hear a pundit say, “What do the Democrats stand for?” or “What is the party’s message?”
What they are really saying is how will you connect with WWC voters???
germy
Aleta
Amaranthine RBG
@Mike J:
Your summary seems to overstate the article to which you linked:
The fact is that “assault weapons” account for two or three percent of gun homicides so they may not be the best place to focus one’s efforts if the goal is to reduce the total number of gun deaths.
Roger Moore
@Mike J:
This. The common thread to a distressingly large number of recent gun massacres is AR-15 style weapons. I don’t think an assault weapon ban will prevent people from wanting to kill as many people as possible, and it may not stop them from trying, but it should help to limit the damage when they do. That’s not everything, but it isn’t nothing, either.
FWIW, I think the single biggest thing that could help here is not so much an “assault weapon” ban as a removable magazine ban. There’s really not much advantage to a removable magazine for ordinary sporting or self-defense uses of a gun. The biggest thing it helps with is killing as many people as possible, and that doesn’t seem like something civilian guns should be designed to do.
SiubhanDuinne
@germy:
That seems impeachable on its face.
germy
At least they’re gracious in defeat.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Thursday: “We get to be assholes” isn’t much of a GOTV, is it?
Cacti
@Mike J:
The good guys won LD45! High five!
Villago Delenda Est
Donald is doing his part by saying, essentially, that Gillespie wasn’t enough of a racist asshole and didn’t embrace Trumpism fully.
eclare
@SiubhanDuinne: @germy: So does it go to the courts? Example a gazillion why you should never vote third party.
Ian G.
@eclare:
Thisthisthisthisthisthis. This.
Fuck those people. I don’t want them in my voting coalition. It shouldn’t be too hard to separate them from others who voted Obama twice and then fell for the Trump con in 2016. That’s who we want. The hardcore deplorables SHOULD be ignored and rejected by the Democratic coalition.
germy
@SiubhanDuinne: He says voters made “an expensive mistake.”
Lyrebird
I think Vote Vets has done some heavy lifting…
Here’s another Amy McGrath ad I like.
Cacti
@Lyrebird:
Yep. Hit dogs holler.
The Latino Victory Fund wasn’t afraid to make an ad about what core Trump supporters really stand for. Breitbart is whining impotently about it today.
They expect Dems to be polite, while they play gutter politics.
No more.
Villago Delenda Est
@germy: So much class in that tweet.
Villago Delenda Est
@germy: The “expensive mistake” was allowing LePage to be elected governor twice by splitting the sane people vote.
sheila in nc
@Aleta: Black women are the best. But I want to clarify about white women. White women as a whole may have voted for Gillespie (and Trump), but college educated white women voted for Northam (and Hillary).
randy khan
@O. Felix Culpa:
I agree. State and local groups are the best way to funnel money to grass roots efforts and GOTV.
Amaranthine RBG
@germy:
Wowza.
Guachi
:( Currently Dems are only ahead in 49 of the 100 seats in the VA House of Delegates.
randy khan
@Major Major Major Major:
So, for what it’s worth, I don’t see the assault weapons ban as the one bite at the apple. I see it as something that gets the public’s attention and could serve as a first step towards additional reforms. I also am 100% sure it won’t pass the current House or Senate, so it’s more in the nature of a stake in the ground anyway.
My personal strategy, though, would be to introduce a series of little gun control bills, all things that poll well, including assault weapons, but also better background checks, etc., and ideally propose them as amendments to other bills to get Republican votes against them.
Mnemosyne
@Major Major Major Major:
Imma disagree with you on that. The previous assault weapons ban worked, which is why the kind of massacres we’re seeing right now we’re pretty rare while the ban was in effect.
I think a new ban also needs to contain bans on large capacity magazines (or whatever the fucking things are called), and the “hunters” need to be told to STFU. If you need 30 bullets to take down a deer, you are a terrible shot and it’s a goddamned miracle you haven’t killed anyone yet.
Aleta
@germy: Not surprised at plastic mr. tough guy, but I hope this hurts the election chances of the next R candidate for governor, and the value of LeP’s endorsements, and support for his wife running for any office. And I hope the horse he rode in on runs off to a rescue org and goes on to a better life.
At this point LeP and supporters are hoping for private employ and would follow instructions to impale themselves on the spindly gold legs of fake French chairs as needed.
So much of Maine hates him, the founder of the ‘Kiss My Butt’ state.
low-tech cyclist
Yeah, a year ago. Boy, did that day suck.
My son’s school was closed so that it could be a polling place, so he and I were playing a board game in the living room that morning when he noticed that Charlotte, my 16 year old cat, was moving in a strange way. She’d lost the use of her rear legs, and was pitifully trying to drag herself around by her front legs, which wasn’t working very well at all for her. She’d been sick for most of the year already and had lost a lot of weight, but up until that morning she’d been able to climb up and down flights of stairs and otherwise get around. Now she couldn’t even drag herself more than a few feet across the living room floor. So we had to take her to the vet to be put to sleep.
And then there was the election.
Cacti
Of course, I agree with having our own positive message to offer as a contrast to the current ruling party.
But at the same time, under Trump, the GOP has managed to make itself the party explicitly in favor of tiki torch Nazis, confederate revanchism, and “thoughts and prayers” as a solution to mass shootings.
Tie that shit around their necks like an anchor and use it throw them overboard. If they complain about tone, that means it’s working.
Aleta
@sheila in nc: Thanks for adding that. Progressive WW also worked hard for these victories and I didn’t mean to imply any disrespect to their commitment.
lamh36
Another video…PBO reporting for Jury Duty…
Seriously though, is there anyway he ever be picked to be on a jury?
eclare
@low-tech cyclist: So sorry, what an awful day.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Steeplejack: Actually I think that’s an Army thinking now. One of my friends just got out and was lecturing us civilians that the Military doesn’t use assault rifles, just rifles. I gather it’s because the Military wants to distance themselves from the gun botherers, but of course the gun botherers follow them.
Corner Stone
Oh goodie! More news reports about how much Trump supporters still support Trump!
Thanks, MSNBC!
Mnemosyne
@Amaranthine RBG:
Yeah, the people who got shot at a concert in Las Vegas and a church in Texas are such a small percentage of gun deaths, why even try to prevent similar massacres in public places from happening? Those people in Texas who lost three generations of the same family should just get in line and accept that we have to reduce all gun deaths equally.
tobie
@Guachi: As far as I know, absentee ballots still have to be counted and in one case that might push the Dem candidate over the top. Hope this happens.
Chip Daniels
@Aleta:
A fire in Russia’s Intelligence Bureau?
Save the pee pee tape!
The Moar You Know
@Mnemosyne: Old ban had this. It was not 100% effective nor written well (you could still buy old ones, just couldn’t import or make new ones, and you would not believe how many old ones are sitting around – literally millions) but every little thing helps. You never know which stumbling block is going to make a murderer say “fuck this, I don’t feel like dealing with this bullshit right now”.
I have been a shooter my entire life and I tell people, you want to put a stop to this gun slaughter and make it courtproof? Just like cars, require license, registration and insurance. Draconian penalties for non-compliance. The carrot: drop all equipment restrictions. Machine guns, silencers, all good. The NRA and worse (GOA, etc) goons will howl regardless, but they howl at everything. Fuck their feelings. The insurance costs will take care of the loonies faster than you’d imagine. 5 bucks a year for a single-shot .22, five hundred for your skeet shooting shotgun, fifty thousand a year for a AR-15, 5 million a year for a Thompson machine pistol. What, only criminals will have guns with these kinds of laws? Great, then I’ll throw every one of them in jail for non-compliance for twenty years at a stretch, they’re criminals, right?
Nothing changes. Second Amendment still in effect, just like Scalia wanted.
eclare
@lamh36: Love it!
jl
@Thursday: Base was actually 3 million down in presidential 2016 contest, and it is dwindling. So, just get the turnout up and beat them.
Aleta
@germy: Bo Dietl takes credit for the plot of The Bad Lieutenant, and for acting in it, and for producing and acting in Goodfellas, Carlito’s Way, and The Wolf of Wall Street.
And for being friends with the NYC mob, and working with the Cosa Nostra to solve at least one case.
What a guy.
jl
@Redshift: That sounds good. If there are places trying to figure that out, would be nice to know.
Yutsano
@The Moar You Know:
You already hit the first stumbling block. Nothing makes the gun humpers more paranoid than the government knowing what kind and how many guns they have.
This I am 2000% behind. Want a gun? Fine, but you have to have insurance or it gets confiscated upon lack of proof. And agree steep fines for lack of compliance. I wonder why no one has seriously suggested this yet.
Bonus: a private company holds the info so no need for the worry about “MAH FREEDUMBS” being taken by the government.
bemused
@Jeffro:
Ha, They’d say T could bring the country together if only women, brown people, muslims, most immigrants, scientists, ecologists, poor people, knee benders, Christians not evangelical, LGBT’s, gun control supporters, all liberals and Democrats would just shut up and cooperate.
Suzanne
Has everyone read this piece in Politico about some deplorables?
This completely underscores my viewpoint that we need to completely forget about these people altogether and not try to do anything to help them in an effort to win their votes. We need to make a new coalition. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t help people in the working class, but that a good chunk of these people are gone forever and we need to form a coalition without them. Their interests should not matter even slightly.
TenguPhule
@Yutsano:
Which is odd, since they make a point of bragging about their guns almost everywhere else.
Its almost as if they plan to use those guns in ways the government would not approve, doesn’t it?
The Moar You Know
@Yutsano: Jesus, tell me about it. Then they post pics of their entire arsenals on Failbook. When I tell them that the government now has a nice inventory of their guns, they don’t believe me. People are fucking stupid. Gunhumpers more than most. It’s a faith-based religion to them more than anything else.
I don’t know. I’ve been suggesting it for twenty plus years. There’s not a constitutional argument to be made; you are not deprived of your rights in any way.
TenguPhule
@Yutsano:
Like Equifax?
eclare
@Yutsano: I know. If someone hits my car and causes my injury, their insurance picks up the medical tab. If they don’t have insurance, they get charged. I’m thinking insurance on an AR-15 would be astronomical. I just wonder how many people in LV or TX are depending on GoFundMe pages for their medical bills, to say nothing of lost wages, emotional stress to themselves, family, and friends.
eclare
@Suzanne: Several comments upthread say exactly this. Mine says to fuckem, as efgoldman would say.
trollhattan
O/T humor: fake Joel Osteen “God-bless-yous” his way into Joel Osteen event in LA. This guy is good.
TenguPhule
@Corner Stone:
All the better to round them up and put them into labor camps, my dear.
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J: @Mnemosyne: From Mike’s link
trollhattan
@The Moar You Know:
Yeah, and dollars to
donutsbullets those photos are mostly geo-tagged.“How did you know what I have and where I have it?!?”
“You told me.”
Mike J
@Roger Moore:
I agree, but rather than focus on the features of a gun, which can be designed around, focus on the outcome.Make it illegal to own a gun or any accessory that could produce a rate of fire over say, five per minute? Even ten per minute?
And insurance should be mandatory, just like with a car. If guns keep you safe, insurance companies should even today already have lower rates for gun owners. They want to avoid paying out. The free market is telling us how safe or unsafe guns are through price signals for insurance. Ask every gun humper you know how much money they save on homeowner’s insurance because of their AR-15.
catclub
@The Moar You Know:
this. It almost sounds like what a well-regulated militia would have to have.
sam
Voting rights has been my big bugaboo, so I’ve been focused on groups (including ostensibly* nonpartisan ones) that help people vote. Let America Vote was mentioned above, but there’s also Election Protection (which I volunteer for during presidential elections – you need to be a lawyer or law student to volunteer for them, they’re an outgrowth of the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights), and I’ve been wanting to get more involved with VoteRiders, which helps people register and/or get the necessary documentation in order to register to vote (with all the new voter ID laws).
*I say ostensibly, because while some of these groups are absolutely nonpartisan, and it is in their mission statement to help anyone and everyone, regardless of political affiliation, we all know that only one political party is going out of its way to put up roadblocks to people voting and to depress election turnouts.
Amaranthine RBG
@The Moar You Know:
I agree with you in theory but it seems that the current atmosphere is just too poisoned to fashion any kind of grand bargain.
We can’t even get the current gun laws enforced as the recent Texas shooting demonstrated.
@Yutsano:
You’re right, but I have never understood that argument at all. Given the current consumer profile information out there, there’s a pretty good chance that anyone willing to spend a little money can find out what kind of car you drive and what toothpaste you buy. The idea that people with firearms are somehow flying under the radar is just silly.
lamh36
TenguPhule
@Suzanne:
No, we don’t need to forget about them. We need to keep them in mind while we work to suppress their votes.
Its commonly accepted now that Republicans will suppress as many Democratic votes as they can and we have to work extra hard to overcome that.
This is not right.
Its long past time to start putting the same kind of hurt against Republican voters. Reduce their voting machines, make their polls constantly changing and hard to find, challenge their eligibility, whatever it takes.
The Moar You Know
@Suzanne: I believe this religiously: not one person who voted for Trump thought he would be a good, or even minimally competent president, nor did they think he’d do anything to better their lives at all. The chance to tell all the niggers and faggots that their lives didn’t matter at all was the only motivation they had, and the only one they’ll ever need.
I read that article or one so similar to it a few days ago that it might as well be the same. Those people are depressing as hell. I frankly wish they’d all kill themselves. God knows they have no reason left to live.
Humboldtblue
You know what would really help if we got this smooth, smart, experienced fella back on the front lines.
Obama reports for jury duty in Chicago.
Suzanne
@eclare: Yes yes YES YES YES YES YES.
We need to leave the deplorables behind. I know that we used to be the party of the white working class, close to exclusively. But we are finding out that some of them are terrible. BYE. Hasta luego. Arrivederci. I am not willing to do what it takes to have them stay in our coalition.
We really need to get more Dems in office EVERYWHERE and then fix these structural issues with the electoral college and districting that underrepresent Dems in urban areas.
jl
@Suzanne: Thanks. I read of few of the interviews. For God’s sake, what losers.
But I agree with you, No reason to do any loser cultural catering to people who, from how they describe their own thinking, appear to be crazy. Democrats should put together a policy package that objectively helps poor, working, and middle class (including these poor lost souls in Johnstown) and win with that. If better, Democratic, state and federal governments provide Johnstown a chance with something (probably not ‘bringing the steel mills back’) and they turn it down because the policies are not sponsored by a toxic white bigot, then, well, we did what we could, and too bad for them.
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne:
What makes you think they didn’t?
Hunting accidents rarely get prosecuted.
The Moar You Know
@TenguPhule: Preach that to the skies. Nothing will get people here angrier, but it needs to keep being said. If we continue “playing fair” while getting torpedoed at every turn, we’ll keep losing. As simple as that. So quit throwing water balloons at the guys with guns and pick up your fucking gun and shoot back.
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
He’s pretty much a prosecutor’s nightmare, so I’m not surprised.
Roger Moore
@lamh36:
The sitting Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court wound up on a jury several years back, so just holding high office isn’t necessarily a bar to serving. OTOH, he wasn’t black, which might make Obama serving a bit less likely.
FWIW, it turned out that having the Chief Justice serve on a jury was a very good thing. He was mightily pissed off at how badly jurors were treated by the system and made reforming jury duty service to make it less obnoxious a major point for the rest of his term. My impression was that he thought the way jurors were treated wasn’t just bad for the jurors but was undermining the ability to get fair trials because so many people who would have made good jurors were doing everything they could to avoid serving.
bemused
@Thursday:
I had vowed not to read anymore articles about trump supporters. That’s the most depressing piece. They could all be characters in Idiocracy but worse. I don’t think they would be able to thrive even if tons of money came raining down from the sky on them.
Matt McIrvin
@Mnemosyne: Looking at the statistics on big spree killings, I think you could read them either way. It doesn’t appear to me that the rate of these things went down significantly during the ban period relative to the status quo ante… but, just eyeballing them, it does seem that the rate jumped up right after the ban was lifted. My understanding is that the tests of statistical significance don’t conclusively find an effect.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Assault_Weapons_Ban#/media/File:Total_deaths_in_US_mass_shootings.png
Part of the problem is the problem of analyzing these things in general: the really, really big spree killings that these bans are really intended to get at were, at the time, rare enough events that you wouldn’t have expected many anyway during the entire period the ban was in effect–it’s noisy small-number statistics. There were two really bad ones in 1999 (Columbine, and one in Atlanta), and they dominated the statistics for the whole period. Without those, you could say definitely that the ban worked… but that doesn’t mean anything–remove one or two events outside the interval and it’d look like it definitely didn’t work.
Major Major Major Major
@Mike J:
Good idea. Especially when you look at the history of the 1994 assault weapon ban, part of which was a list of features (you can have a pistol grip OR a bayonet mount OR a grenade launcher…) that can all be kitted out.
Again, I’m fine with even the 1994 ban as policy, but, assuming we only get one shot at this, I don’t like it as our signature legislation if it distracts from magazine size or background checks or the gun show loophole or the other things that would have larger effects but aren’t as shiny.
Phoebes
@lamh36: Have you ever noticed how people just smile when Obama’s around?
Yutsano
@The Moar You Know: It’s really just sound fiscal policy. Gun owners get all the reward but the law bends over backwards (sometimes in ridiculous fashion) to reduce their risk. It’s time for that equation to go back into balance. You want your penile replacement pieces fine. But you also need to pony up when those things go wrong.
I also want a theft liability law. Requirement to report a theft of a gun in 48 hours or you bear responsibility if that gun gets used in a crime or accidental shooting.
Gravenstone
@Steeplejack: That seems like an opportune moment to turn to the cretin and say, in all seriousness – “You need to be quiet, little boy.The adults are having a discussion”. Let them fume and rant at being recognized as nothing more than spoiled brats up past their bedtime.
rikyrah
NBC NewsVerified account @NBCNews
JUST IN: Former advisor to President Trump, Carl Icahn, has been subpoenaed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, NBC News confirms
11:24 AM – 8 Nov 2017
https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/928342460304166913
Suzanne
@jl: The piece goes into some detail about how retraining was offered but the miners don’t want to learn anything new, and how jobs are going unfilled in the town because they can’t get minimally skilled workers there who can pass a drug test. Anybody who’s sober and even slightly employable is saying PEACE OUT.
Zero sympathy for this kind of laziness.
bemused
@Corner Stone:
Evidently all the people who wanted to do something to get a better life left town and the fools stayed behind to stew in their bitterness.
FlipYrWhig
I like the way
SnrubThe Moar You Know thinks.Amaranthine RBG
@Major Major Major Major:
Exactly right. The “assault weapons ban” is largely political theatre and it’s stupid to waste much political capital on it when “assault weapons” are a relatively minuscule part of the problem.
It would be nice if people were actually concerned about how to save lives instead of how to posture.
jl
@Betty Cracker: @ruemara:
I don’t mind chasing the bigots with good policy proposals to make clear that Democrats will try to help them, just as they try to help everyone else. We just need to not worry at all if they react to that with insane bullshit.
My hunch is that if they have to endure the horror of better times produced by policies that are not exclusively sponsored by bitter old ignorant white bigots, a substantial proportion will change their minds. But if not, too bad, We did what we could.
As I typed above, not one reason in the world to try to any special and exclusive BS catering to whatever weirdo loser special cultural bigot heritage that they think they have.
Citizen Alan
@Suzanne:
Agreed. Disgusting people. Let them starve. Just let them f****** starve.
rikyrah
Kyle GriffinVerified account @kylegriffin1
NYT: Trump’s DOJ wants Time Warner to sell CNN before it will approve the AT&T merger.
FlipYrWhig
@jl:
They’ve been putting together and running on said package for 50 years, during which time a lot of the people it’s aimed at have responded by spitting in their collective face. It’s not for lack of beneficial policy packages that people vote for Republicans instead. They vote for Republicans because they are assholes.
TenguPhule
@Suzanne: They’re fucking nuts.
The level of double think racism necessary to believe that bullshit makes me think the whole town needs to be destroyed with all of them in it to keep the taint from spreading.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: wow, that quote.
Yes, I refuse to read the piece and expend mental energy thinking about these people.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major: As long as they’re allowed to vote, we can’t stop thinking about them. They’re the enemy.
Gravenstone
@rikyrah: Because AT&T has what exactly as a comparable media presence? Guidance like that is intended (under normal circumstances) to reduce potential for monopoly. But in this case, it’s clearly Trump (through Sessions and on down the chain) that want’s to punish CNN. Charming, even if entirely expected.
jl
@rikyrah: I think this could go two ways. Makan Delrahim seems to have a record of some honest work under GW, though maybe a lawyer here with more detailed knowledge can say I am wrong on that.
If Delrahim is an honest broker, and continuing something resembling honest work, and this is coming from him, it might be a good decision. I think less concentration in media conglomerates is a good thing, and this might open that possibility.
If he is operating as a Trump flunky, then I suspect one of two things. It is really a bargaining chip. It turns out that, well, if ATT is willing to make some changes in CNN, then maybe they don’t have to sell. Or, Trumpsters try to steer sale of CNN towards specific companies with intention to destroy it as an independent news organization. Then we can add another item to the bill of impeachment.
Gin & Tonic
That moron ex-sheriff Clarke from Milwaukee posted a pic on Twitter of himself and Donna Brazile in what looks suspiciously like Trump tower yesterday or today.
In case anyone was still wondering about Donna Brazile.
Yutsano
@Major Major Major Major: I read it. Pretty much everyone goes out of their way to leave Dolt45 blameless but will point fingers at virtually everyone else. The mental gymnastics they achieve to do so would be impressive if it wasn’t so pathetic. They bought what he was selling hard.
But the article saves the kicker til the end. Then their full racism flag flies high.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: here’s the thing, though. I already know they’re the enemy. I’ve cached that information. I don’t need to keep evaluating it anymore.
FlipYrWhig
@TenguPhule: That is ASTOUNDING. Holy shit. Ho. Ly. Shee. It.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: that article was no less depressing for being completely unsurprising. The “Obama slept till noon” thing is a new on me.
Aleta
@Mnemosyne: The political leadership of the NRA doesn’t even care that much about the tradition of hunting. (Long rant about local story they have manipulated deleted.)
Amaranthine RBG
Timely: Just got an email from DNC CEO O’Connell crowing about last night’s victory and asking for money.
Great.
Then I searched and have not received an email from them in the last 6 months except for one from Perez asking for $3 to enter sweepstakes to meet Obama.
The organization and fundraising apparatus needs a little work, to say the least.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
I don’t give a flying fuck what Trump voters feel or want. If they want to fit into the best programs we can devise, fine. If not, they’ve taught me there’s nothing I can do but let them destroy themselves.
Roger Moore
@jl:
+eleventy. Democrats should stand for something, and a big part of that something should be policies that help as many people as possible, even people who disdain our help. We shouldn’t suck up to people who hate us in a vain attempt to win their votes, but we shouldn’t leave them out just because they won’t vote for us.
TenguPhule
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
I can get behind assisted suicide if it will protect the rest of the country from them.
Suzanne
@FlipYrWhig: It gets worse. Much worse.
Seriously. All of these people are absolutely terrible.
Peale
@Yutsano: a gun tax to offset the cost of security the rest of us have to pay to weed out the guns from airports and concerts.
Villago Delenda Est
@Amaranthine RBG: No civilian needs a semiautomatic rifle.
Period.
Mnemosyne
@Matt McIrvin:
That does seem to be the problem: these large-scale events were rare before the assault weapons ban, but have become increasingly less rare after the ban was lifted.
I don’t actually disagree with M^4 that we need a gun bill as comprehensive as the PPACA was, but banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines needs to be part of that comprehensive bill.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: the opioid manufacturers are here to help!
catclub
@TenguPhule: I think the key words in that quote are: “Everyone I talk to”
Major Major Major Major
@Mnemosyne:
There’s no ‘but’, I’ve belabored that I agree it’s good policy. It’s just small potatoes. These mass shootings with AR-15-like guns and other AW’s are a very small percentage of gun deaths in America. We have a handgun problem too.
Amaranthine RBG
@Major Major Major Major:
Yep, 2 or 3 West Virginians die from overdoses every day.
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
If you can regulate the rifles, you can regulate the handguns.
Rifles may be a smaller percentage, but they’re the more publicized flashy percentage that its easier to get traction with.
catclub
@FlipYrWhig: straight out of the worst internet comment section bad mangos
trollhattan
@Villago Delenda Est:
+1. And if the focus is on eliminating civilian editions of military weapons (“assault rifles”) I’m for that as well. 10-round magazine limit? How about half?
I can feel my freedumbs melting away, already.
Yutsano
@Peale: It’s time to start enforcing the first 13 words of the Second Amendment. You can have your penile size replacements, but there will be strict rules around them.
ruemara
@jl: You’re not that familiar with Democratic policy proposals, I guess. This has been happening since I was a kid. I don’t see these paragons of white working class actually saying they’d support Dems. Jeez, read the article. it’s not that they’re getting things to improve their lives, it’s that they want to see the quality of the lives of others be destroyed more. Let them burn in their own fires.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Jeffro:
If there is, I know who should be at the head of the march: Ashley Bennett, who just kicked sexist ass in New Jersey.
US politician who mocked Women’s March defeated by woman he inspired to run
Mnemosyne
@Jeffro:
I’ve already started seeing ads from the Los Angeles organizers. Don’t know about D.C.
debit
@rikyrah: Mine is an evil laugh.
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule:
I don’t see how that’s true other than in a narrow technical “they’re both guns” sense. The political reality of regulating a weapon nobody is outraged over vs regulating one everybody is outraged over is pretty different.
TenguPhule
Her main disqualification for the position is that Kelly wanted her to take over for him.
Yarrow
@Gin & Tonic: She says it’s not Trump Tower, but wtf is she doing posing for a photo with that evil traitor? She’s done as a Dem. Done.
rikyrah
PlaybillVerified account @playbill
JUST IN: @Lin_Manuel will return as Alexander Hamilton when @HamiltonMusical plays Puerto Rico in January 2019! http://bit.ly/Lin-Manuel-Hamilton-Puerto-Rico …
TenguPhule
@Major Major Major Major:
Having an example of a law in force on one type of firearm that isn’t the boogeyman the NRA promised it would be would make it easier to get one on the others. Rules and regulations are easier to pass when there are rules and regulations preceding them of a similar nature.
randy khan
@Guachi:
If you’d offered me 49 seats in the House of Delegates on Monday afternoon, I’d have taken it in a heartbeat.
TenguPhule
@Gin & Tonic:
Russian traitor or Republicans found out her asking price?
Gravenstone
@debit: I’ll admit that I chuckled when I read that was well. And to think, these cockroaches came willingly into the light that embracing Trump shined on them…
rikyrah
Shaun KingVerified account @ShaunKing
Wow. Meet the first black mayor in the ENTIRE HISTORY of Montana.
Wilmot Collins, who arrived in the US as a refugee from civil war in Liberia, was elected Mayor in Helena, Montana. PROGRESS!
https://twitter.com/ShaunKing/status/928268933748142080
Yarrow
@TenguPhule: Perhaps a useful idiot for a Russians, like we’re going to be finding out a lot of elected officials are.
Yutsano
@Yarrow: I couldn’t care less about the location. Stop answering the wrong question Donna. You’re starting to look slimy as fuck here.
Major Major Major Major
@Gin & Tonic: @TenguPhule: @Yarrow: Guh. The last I read, the thinking was that she tried to burn her bridges as an establishment dem and cozy up to the Berniecrats, but then sucked at that and sort of walked it back, and now everybody hates her. A photo with Clarke, though??
SatanicPanic
@Amaranthine RBG: I hadn’t really paid attention that until just the other day. Honestly, I admit it. Anyway, 60K people every year. That’s insane. I remember hearing about it a few years ago when Hillary was going on that listening tour (who says she never listens!) and her remarking that it was the #1 issue so they made it a campaign centerpiece. I guess I live in a bubble because I don’t know anyone injecting fentanyl.
p.a.
@TenguPhule: fellow traveler
rikyrah
THREAD
THREAD: Fellow Democrats. We won big last night. Huge. It wasn’t close. It was a blowout. Here’s what our next steps should be.
1/ This election taught us that one big thing matters: contest EVERY state and local seat. Even hard right ones. Because you’ll always win at least a few. If we do that in 2018, the House is ours.
2/ By that same token: a good ground game and a powerful message of resistance is needed. When we all work together to turn out the vote, great things happen.
3/ We should now take #ALSen seriously. If just tied up the 5th-most gerrymandered state legislature in the country, we can bring it for Doug Jones.
4/ As Maine shows, we also win big when it’s our agenda rather than our people on the ballot. So let’s push more referenda. Starting with the felon enfranchisement initiative in Florida.
5/ (Sidenote, we should have learned that lesson LONG ago. We actually won pretty big on referenda in 2014 and 2016, which were otherwise nightmare years).
6/ Governors, Governors, Governors. Last night’s vote ended partisan gerrymandering in VA. We can end it in WI, MI, OH, and FL by electing a Dem governor, and in PA by re-electing the one we already have.
7/ We picked up two new Democratic state trifectas: NJ and WA. Let’s use them. We can run real progressive legislation in these states now.
8/ On another note: let’s protect Bob Mueller. Trump is furious from last night, and he’ll only get angrier as more indictments come. No telling what he’ll do.
9/ And let’s also burn this tax bill to ashes. We sent the GOP a message to listen to us — not to spoiled brat billionaire donors.
10/ Basically, let’s learn from our winners last night, and leverage their newfound state and local power to resist…into 2018 and beyond. END
jl
@rikyrah: I read some articles about Collins last night, and some of his statements from before he was a candidate. Very impressive person who can make very appealing and convincing arguments. I hope he hits a home run as the mayor.
JR
@Betty Cracker: At least this year we aren’t going out like the Arizona Cardinals did (that provoked that infamous Denny Green rant).
TenguPhule
debit
@Gravenstone: I’m pretty sure everyone thought it was going to be utterly lawless with no consequences whatsoever. They were the smartest guys in the world, and even if they weren’t, who was going to take them to task? They were in control!
I’ll say it again, our system isn’t perfect, but it does work, despite the GOP’s best efforts to utterly break it.
ruemara
@Major Major Major Major: Maybe she needs to take mental health break and think about things.
Yarrow
@rikyrah: He sounds like an amazing man. He and his wife went through a lot. Link.
He also talks about the racism he experienced. People wrote KKK on the side of his house, tried to burn his car, told him to go home to Africa. Awful stuff. Really amazing he is now Mayor-elect.
guachi
@rikyrah:
Given the minuscule black population in Montana I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the first black person to run for office in Montana.
jl
@TenguPhule: Medical examiners office and forensic squad will thank him when they have to untangle a bunch of dead due to a bad buy and multiple panicked heroes shooting away at each other and everyone else.
Yarrow
@Yutsano: I think I read she’s going to be on Tucker Carlson’s show to promote her book. She’s got to be out of her mind at this point. Is she ill? Is she being paid by Murdoch or Russia or both? WTF?
rikyrah
Ali VelshiVerified account @AliVelshi
BREAKING: Fmr Boston news anchor Heather Unruh says Kevin Spacey sexually assaulted her son, who was 18, in July 2016
8:44 AM – 8 Nov 2017
guachi
@Yarrow: It’s less amazing when you include the paragraph right before it.
or
I lived in Montana for 15 years. That’s the Montana I know.
marcopolo
@BC in Illinois: Thanks for that info. Since I tend to abhor social media & don’t participate in it, I seem to be out of their loop. But I will now go to the forum since I plan on knocking a lot of doors (thinking of setting a goal of 1000–roughly 20 walk packets) for whoever wins the nomination. Alas, I can’t vote for any of them as I live next door in MO1, which is a safe D seat, but I do have friends I can sway.
trollhattan
@guachi:
Or to move there.
Yarrow
@guachi: Sorry, why is that less amazing?
rikyrah
The HillVerified account @thehill
#BREAKING: CBO: GOP tax bill would add $1.7 trillion to national debt http://hill.cm/V7DuiIe
Ian G.
@Suzanne:
Reading this makes it clear as day how little different we are (or some of us are) from North Koreans who worship the Kim dynasty, or more chillingly, from the people who operated the gas chambers at Auschwitz, or picked up machetes in Rwanda.
Let’s be honest here, these people see Trump as a god-king. Is there any doubt that if he had the kind of power a dictator had, that these people would make up his death squads?
lethargytartare
@Corner Stone:
I actually think it’s a pretty effective, if subtle, rebuttal of the “economic anxiety” thing NPR has been trying to sell for the past year. The writer essentially gets every one of these crackers to admit that 1. they don’t care if Trump fulfills any of his promises and 2. they mostly never believed any of those promises in the first place. The closing lines are, I think, meant to reveal what was really motivating them all along, and they do so devastatingly.
I’m still not sure I believe any of these motherfvckers were ever “reliable” democratic votes. I’m pretty sure the Schilling’s never voted for Obama.
Amaranthine RBG
@SatanicPanic:
My sister is still in WV and she runs a non-profit that does outreach/education/treatment diversion, etc. (thanks Obamacare!) and it is just triage at this point.
There is a whole subgenre of films/documentaries about opoid addiction and death in Appalachia (Oxyana, Heroin(e), etc.) if you want to be really depressed. The only bright spot is that Narcan/Naloxone is very effective in preventing some overdose deaths and is becoming more widely available – I mean, it’s in schools, libraries, police cars, etc. But this has has also lessened the chance of death so many addicts are not as concerned about ODs now b/c they are confident they will be saved. I have seen some surveillance footage that is just fucking heartbreaking. Some guy collapses on the floor of a convenience store and paramedics rush there to inject the guy while people just continue to buy their doritos and cigarettes and so forth. It is that common. Just a broken society.
jl
@Yarrow: What struck me is that, when he could have responded in an understandably bitter and angry way, he instead crafted calm, informed, broadly appealing and humane arguments that brought the vast majority of the community around to his side. Could weave together his background in Liberia, his experience as a refugee, and values of US and emphasize common humanity. He really knew how to zero in on crucial lies and myths used the other side, and very effectively and specifically target them and shoot them down with facts from his own life experience. Almost like he can sense the perfect way to line up their BS bullet points and shoot them down in flames very concisely with facts he knew very well from his own experience.
Would be fun to see how he operates in a debate. Very impressive public presence.
rikyrah
David FrumVerified account @davidfrum
Trump White House staff will study last night results, shake heads ruefully, & conclude, “Time to get serious about voter suppression”
6:09 AM – 8 Nov 2017
thalarctosMaritimus
@low-tech cyclist: Man, I am so sorry. What a terrible day that was.
Yutsano
@Yarrow:
WHISKY
TANGO
FOXTROT
OVER????
KS in MA
@Roger Moore: @Yutsano: I’m for repealing the whole damn Second Amendment, myself, though yes, I do realize that’s not likely to happen.
TenguPhule
@rikyrah: Where’d the extra $200 billion go to?
eclare
@rikyrah: Agree 1000%.
rikyrah
Brian StelterVerified account @brianstelter
NEW: The Justice Dept claims that AT&T privately offered to sell CNN. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson DENIES that: “Throughout this process, I have never offered to sell CNN and have no intention of doing so.”
12:41 PM – 8 Nov 2017
randy khan
@Gravenstone:
There’s a fair amount of discussion in the communications trade press about the possibility that AT&T will tell the Justice Department to go ahead and sue if it thinks it can win. (The way this review works is that if the Justice Department thinks a merger is bad and can’t come to an agreement with the parties about how to fix it, the Justice Department has to sue to stop it.) That would be fascinating, because under current merger review standards there’s no good reason to stop the merger. (There might be other good reasons to stop it, but that’s a different story.)
Major Major Major Major
@TenguPhule: @rikyrah: Their reconciliation instructions say $1.5t so it’s back to the drawing board.
TenguPhule
@Ian G.:
Worse, these sickos would enjoy it more.
guachi
@Yarrow:
It’s not amazing that people in Montana would vote for a black candidate because Montana is a pretty accepting place. What’s amazing is that a there actually was a black candidate running for office. Montana is 0.6% black.
You conveniently highlighted the bigotry and conveniently left out the two instances in the article where the people were accepting and had started washing off racist remarks before the police had even arrived on scene.
Having actually lived in Montana, I repeat that it’s not amazing they would vote for a black candidate. What’s amazing is there even being a black candidate.
MisterForkbeard
@Major Major Major Major: Good news, I suppose.
trollhattan
@Yutsano:
She’s their trifecta and I’ll bet every wingnut booker is dialing the hell out of her agent to get her on the air in order to take shots at Democrats. “Even the liberal Donna B….”
randy khan
@Roger Moore:
My view always has been that I want everyone to vote for Democrats (even people I don’t like or who I think are odious), but I don’t want the Democrats to bend on their principles to get those votes. So go ahead and publicize policies that will help the deplorables, but only if they are policies Dems would support in the first place.
jl
@randy khan: ” That would be fascinating, because under current merger review standards there’s no good reason to stop the merger. ”
If you have a link on the background for that, I’d appreciate it and will read it. Opinion in my comment was based on my two cents, which is that there are reasons to believe such mergers are a bad idea. But I forgot what counts in determining what is going on, is the existing guidance, regardless of whether or not I think it is too permissive.
rikyrah
AsteadVerified account @AsteadWesley
Get this: six of 13 city councilors in Boston are now women. And just 8 years after electing the first nonwhite woman in the council’s history, Boston now has four black women in the group.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/11/07/several-tight-races-expected-city-council-election/mX5gYlKVl4SZkEnkNPe1xO/story.html …
TenguPhule
I want Betsy Devos to drown in a bathtub.
Chyron HR
@Amaranthine RBG:
So what’s Our Revolution’s plan to make Danica Roem “move past identity politics” and surrender her seat to one of B-dog’s white working class Republicans? Doxing and death threats like at the Nevada state convention last year?
rikyrah
Trump cracks down on U.S. business and travel to Cuba
9:42 a.m. ET Nov. 8, 2017
President Trump cracked down on the ability of U.S. citizens to travel and do business with Cuba on Wednesday, a major step toward rolling back another Obama-era policy.
Under new regulations that take effect Thursday, the Trump administration is banning Americans from doing business with dozens of entities with links to Cuba’s military. The move effects stores, hotels, tourist agencies and even two rum makers.
Obama ended more than 50 years of diplomatic isolation with its Cold War foe, reestablishing embassies in Havana and Washington and making it easier for Americans to visit their long-isolated Caribbean neighbors.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/11/08/trump-cracks-down-u-s-business-and-travel-cuba/843419001/
The Moar You Know
No shocker there.
Like a mass shooter. No.
Nope.
Yes.
@Yarrow: 2017. The year that keeps paying dividends.
zhena gogolia
@eclare:
Love it, but so sad that we went from the coolest, smartest, kindest, most competent POTUS to . . . .
well, you know the rest.
Major Major Major Major
@MisterForkbeard: Of course, it means they either need to cut back on the generosity to corporations and millionaires (ha) or find yet another way to fuck over everybody else…
rikyrah
Imraan SiddiqiVerified account @imraansiddiqi
Sudanese-American Muslim woman Mazahir Salih (who wears hijab) wins seat on Iowa City Council.
http://www.thegazette.com/newcomer-mazahir-salih-wins-iowa-city-council-seat-20171108 …
Ian G.
@TenguPhule:
Three pieces of good news:
1) their god-king is a hopelessly lazy, incompetent, half-wit. Hitler, Milosevic, the Rwandan military were not.
2) the rule of law in the US (aka the “deep state”) is a lot stronger than in Weimar Germany, Serbia, Rwanda, etc.
3) these people interviewed all have one foot in the grave. Where are the young people who would join the killing squads? Right, they don’t exist. They’ve all either fled for a better life in New York or San Francisco or even Pittsburgh, or they’re heroin addicts.
The Moar You Know
@Ian G.: Not a chance. They’re too fucking lazy. Death squad work is for the young and motivated.
These people would starve to death in front of a TV if the government weren’t paying for their food.
hueyplong
@zhena gogolia: It’s the inevitable backlash against good-natured competence.
TenguPhule
Inside Betsy DeVos’s efforts to shrink the Education Department
Gods, there goes my good mood.
The whole article is soul crushingly depressing.
rikyrah
See…what had happened was…..
Josh MarshallVerified account @joshtpm
After Page testimony, Lewandowski says his memory has been “refreshed”.
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/928259103297765378
West of the Rockies (been a while)
If we are not already doing so, can we start referring to the Governor of Maine as LePig?
hueyplong
@Ian G.: So the good news is that these guys can’t take their arsenals with them into assisted living?
jl
I hope someone notifies me when Fox News starts playing hours of patriotic band music and military parades.
Conn Carroll
@conncarroll
Fox News has nothing on Virginia this morning, instead they are replaying election night 2016 highlights.
https://twitter.com/conncarroll/status/928254727883771904
(Found via Josh Marshall’s twitter)
rikyrah
Joy ReidVerified account @JoyAnnReid
Joy Reid Retweeted Neal Carter
If only white men could vote, Gillespie would have won in a landslide. If only white women could vote, Gillespie would have won (tho narrowly). Just on an ROI basis, shouldn’t @TheDemocrats launch a massive voter registration campaign for POC?
Yarrow
@guachi: I actually highlighted the tough life he had before he came to the US. I mentioned the bigotry in summary only. It’s an article about his experiences and at that time refugees who were potentially coming to Montana, and he didn’t say it was easy.
I find him very impressive because he has been through a lot of tough things in his life, came to this country as a refugee, was able to thrive and has now been elected Mayor. The amazing part isn’t that people in Montana voted for a black man. The amazing part is how he was able to overcome the challenges he faced and thrive. No matter what the color of his skin, he sounds like an amazing guy and it’s impressive he’s been elected Mayor.
Trentrunner
@Steeplejack: Guarantee he doesn’t know the difference between a cervix and uterus.
rikyrah
Neal Carter @nealcarter
Black women delivered for Dems in the commonwealth of Virginia. Yet again another cycle and the white women vote was split. #ElectionDay #BlackWomenLead
Doug!
@sheila in nc:
Yeah, I love that song. Side 1, Track 1 of the first album I ever owned.
trollhattan
@TenguPhule: DeVos, Zinke, Pruitt, Sessions, they’re effectively destroying our government from the inside while breaking down our schools, environment, resources and constitution. Whatever Trump and congress do or do not accomplish, the goals of anti-government Republicans are being realized, in real time.
Anotherlurker
@Suzanne: I couldn’t agree with you more, Suzanne. The Deplorables need to help this country or get the “F” out of the way. The policies of the Democratic Party will help them, too.
Mike J
@Steeplejack: The correct response to the clip/magazine manoeuvre is, “triggered, snowflake?”
SatanicPanic
@Amaranthine RBG: That’s horrifying. I hope someone can help at the state level, seems like the federal level isn’t going to do much.
TenguPhule
@trollhattan:
I know. But trying to bring attention to this brings accusations of negativity and surrender.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@jl:
The only time I’ve ever seen someone DRAW a gun in real life, it was an undercover cop. It’s completely foreseeable that a plainclothes officer could be engaged in an action not instantly identifiable to onlookers, draw her/his weapon, and be shot by some wanna-be hero who jumped to conclusions about who was the bad guy.
randy khan
@jl:
I don’t have a handy link, but the basic idea is that it’s a vertical merger and there isn’t sufficient market power in the business being acquired for there to be any ability for AT&T to abuse that power to the detriment of its competitors in the distribution business. That was pretty much the unanimous view of the antitrust people when the deal was announced.
Marcopolo
@Yarrow: I’d add on to this that he embodies the “immigrants make America great” idea. And why the Trump anti-immigrant fetish is so wrong and bad for the country for so many reasons. I just heard him interviewed on NPR, and he recalled that soon after he arrived in MT he discovered racist/ xenophobic graffiti had been scrawled on the wall of his place. But what he focused on was the neighbors who came out of the blue to wash it off even as he was learning about the graffiti. How that is what makes Helena great, America great.
jl
@Trentrunner:
” Guarantee he doesn’t know the difference between a cervix and uterus. ”
Well, that kind of talk shows you don’t know the difference between a clip and a magazine, and you should try to talk about a cervix at all. The new Remington cervix is great, and very adaptable to different models.
eclare
@zhena gogolia: Get misty watching it. Someone said you ever notice how people just smile around him? So true.
Jeffro
Breaking: Carl Icahn has been subpoenaed by the US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York.
It’s not just the clowns from Trumpov’s campaign and administration who will be feeling the ill effects of Shit Midas’ touch…
different-church-lady
@rikyrah:
eclare
@rikyrah: As Kay preaches, that is where the money needs to go, not in traditional media. Big part of VA was boots on the ground.
jl
@randy khan: Thanks very much. I got carried away with my own take on the desirability, After I issued my IANAL comment, I did read short paragraph about administration’s reasoning, it was vague talk about it being ‘really big’, which I took as a sign my comment was off base. Trumpsters definitely up to no good, and whatever reasonable work he has done in the past, a sign that Delrahim is now a corrupt flunky.
Kay
@rikyrah:
They should but they’re bad with money. They’re not bad at raising money. They’re bad at spending money.
They are in desperate need of an ordinary good manager. Not a genius or an ideologically pure person, just an ordinary run of the mill competent manager. Their small donors should insist they re-examine every expenditure with a fresh set of eyes and no consultants or media managers permitted to attend. Stop buying so many ads. These political pundits hate them anyway- why are they feeding this beast? Pay some REGULAR PEOPLE to do ORDINARY WORK. It’s door to door sales. It’s not rocket science. Find someone who knows how to do that.
different-church-lady
@Kay:
Sounds like there’s some folks in Virginia that fit the bill.
rikyrah
Joy ReidVerified account @JoyAnnReid
If I’m @TheDemocrats one takeaway from Virginia is to register as many voters of color and college educated white voters as possible before 2018, then invest in turning them out.
6:18 PM – 7 Nov 2017
eclare
@Kay: Team up with Mary Kay and Avon salespeople, just throwing it out there.
ruemara
@Kay: I’m available any time they want to have some success.
debit
@Jeffro: He WAS part of Trump’s administration. He resigned suddenly, after making sure one particular law would make him even more wealthy, when that particular fact was exposed in a news article.
Roger Moore
@Major Major Major Major:
More like “time to come up with $200 billion in additional tax increases for middle class people”. They know what they want, and they aren’t going to give up on it easily.
Kay
@rikyrah:
It’s such a good problem to have! “I have a ton of money but I spend it poorly- can you help me spend it?”
Sure! There are people who live in these places who would be thrilled to do this as a job. They could hire a goddamned army for the price of one run of tv ads.
Amaranthine RBG
@Chyron HR:
I bet you have some lively and entertaining conversations with all of those voices shouting in your head!
rikyrah
Chris LuVerified account @ChrisLu44
Repudiation of Trumpian politics: The two Asian American candidates targeted in this mailer both won election tonight to the Edison, NJ school board 1/2
Chyron HR
@Amaranthine RBG:
You’ll have to speak up, I can’t hear you when you’re wearing a giant bird suit to commemorate the time a bird descended from heaven to mark your primary candidate as the Chosen One. Because that’s literally a thing you people do.
rikyrah
Oliver WillisVerified account @owillis
victorious candidate wins 80% of the nonwhite vote.
media: so about those white voters…
10:55 AM – 8 Nov 2017
Roger Moore
@Ian G.:
They were the goons on the ground in Charlottesville. Don’t fool yourself into thinking there aren’t a lot of younger whites who would be happy to kill all the minorities if given the chance.
Yarrow
Oh, this is funny:
The Trumptanic is the best, most amazing, classiest ship ever made. Doesn’t need any of those stupid lifeboats like other ships.
jl
@Kay: I think there is a careerist political consultant problem in both the ‘establishment’ Democratic and (what is left of it) Republican parties, that emphasizes ad buys and media messaging that worked one and two decades ago, and their value is less and less apparent. My understanding is that the DNC spent a lot of money on both expensive consultants and long established media marketing strategies.
And it is a problem for the BSbros too, since IIRC, there was a big fight between that old school consultant camp and the boots on the ground people in BS;s campaign too.
sheila in nc
@eclare: The only ones I know are Republicans.
bluefoot
@Steeplejack: One of the things I f*cking hate about that line of “argument” is the same jackasses think they can set policy for things they *really* have NO IDEA about. Using their argument, if they don’t call things by their proper medical terms, I don’t have to listen to them re health care, insurance reform, abortion, and contraception for instance. If they don’t use the right technical and scientific terms, they should shut the f*ck up about climate change, and NIH, NASA, and NOAA funding too.
Amaranthine RBG
@Chyron HR:
kook koo ka choo
But her emails!!!
@Kay:
Part of the reason they’re so bad at that part is that historically they’ve been able to rely on other organizations to provide and organize boots on the ground. They still can in part, but do to the weakening of unions and other Democratically aligned groups, the Democratic Party needs to add minimum build their own apparatus to supplement and support these efforts.
eclare
@sheila in nc: Didn’t know about the demographics, just occurred to me that these are women who know how to sell/persuade one on one.
rikyrah
Keith BoykinVerified account @keithboykin
Voters today chose
-2 new Democratic governors
-2 black lieutenant governors
-2 transgender officials
-A Black Lives Matter lawyer as DA in Philly
-A Sikh mayor in Hoboken
-A socialist in Virginia
-To oust GOP mayor in Atlantic City
-And to expand Medicaid in Maine
#280characters
8:33 PM – 7 Nov 2017
rikyrah
Peter DaouVerified account @peterdaou
IN LIGHT OF DEM VICTORIES, again I call on @BernieSanders and his leftist diehards to join the Democratic Party instead of obstructing us as we successfully fight Trump/GOP extremism. Sanders has spent his life openly trying to torpedo Democrats. ENOUGH.
rikyrah
Chris HayesVerified account @chrislhayes
Two people who should get a lot of credit for last night: @tomperriello and @TomPerez
4:35 AM – 8 Nov 2017
rikyrah
in moderation. please help.
rikyrah
Atima OmaraVerified account @atima_omara
Virginia Statewide Election vote by gender and race. Once again, Black women brought it home for Dems #ElectionDay #gameonva #BlackWomenLead
TriassicSands
@rikyrah:
There’s a third person who deserves a huge amount of credit — Donald Trump.
Roger Moore
@rikyrah:
Not just voter registration. These days, we also need a drive to make sure they all have acceptable ID.
J R in WV
@germy:
Don’t governors swear an oath to see that laws are faithfully executed? Couldn’t the legislature stick it to LePage and his massive giant incompetent ego? Isn’t it an impeachable offense to refuse to follow a law legally passed by majority vote?
Yes. YES! YES!!!
germy
This is excellent.
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/black-live-matter-activist-braxton-winston-wins-charlotte-city-council-seat/
germy
@J R in WV:
He needs to go.
Yesterday.
CarolDuhart2
I was thinking today: when I was a kid, the name “Herbert Hoover” was used as a sort of anvil around the necks of Republicans. It helped the Democrats keep Congress for nearly 60 years. And Herbert Hoover was a classy gentleman who was famous for providing famine relief for Europe in post WWI, helped Americans during the 1927 flood, and helped again with famine relief after WWII.
No one ever doubted his personal integrity, intelligence, or work effort. But his ham-handed treatment of the Depression made him very unpopular in 1932. If such a man like Herbert Hoover could be such an anvil, what about Trump, who apparently has none of the good qualities of Hoover, indeed none of the character? Would running against Trump be good for a whole century of progressive progress?
Kathleen
@Corner Stone: The Great White Wail.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Yarrow: lifeboats are for loooosers.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
And with easy access to semi-automatic rifles with high-capacity magazines, you don’t even need that many of them, numerically. You can physically control a large number of people if you have enough firepower.
lamh36
rikyrah
Joy ReidVerified account @JoyAnnReid
More good news: that constitutional amendment gambit by the right was defeated in New York.
10:11 PM – 7 Nov 2017
germy
ruemara
@Roger Moore: We also need a drive to ensure they have a drive. getting to the polls has become harder too.
rikyrah
(((Elliot E))) @ElliotE33
Ed Gillespie got more votes than any VA GOP nominee in the history of the commonwealth. D turnout was just bonkers
12:57 AM – Nov 8, 2017
MCA1
@Betty Cracker: Well, if the media would continue to rip Trumpian’s masks off unsympathetically as well as Michael Kruse did in that Politico piece, I’d happily mainline as much coverage of Cult 45 as they want to release into my bloodstream. I mean, that was a masterpiece. He fucking destroyed those people without once interjecting his own opinion.
That piece could have been subtitled “Economic Anxiety, My Fucking Ass. These Lazy, Ignorant White People Are As Horrible And Small As Their So-Called President. I’ll Let Them Prove It to You” or, alternately “Hillary Was More Right than You’d Ever Have Thought about That Whole ‘Deplorables’ Thing.”
eclare
Danica Roem after getting a call from Joe Biden.
DissidentFish
@rikyrah: Since the 1960’s, the number of Democrats who would have won statewide races without the support of black women is zero. Not just this election, every election, it is only with the engagement of minority and women voters that progress has ever been possible in the south.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@eclare: You can see by the look on her face that it was a BIG FUCKING DEAL
rikyrah
Ahmed Baba @AhmedBaba_
Living in Fairfax, Virginia myself, I can tell you that national Democrats need to take notes from Ralph Northam’s ground game.
They focused so heavily on turning out the base. It was relentless. What happened here should be a playbook for Democrats in 2018
7:13 PM – 7 Nov 2017
eclare
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Perfect!
geg6
@Amaranthine RBG:
I get emails from them all the time. And I really mean all the time.
eclare
@ruemara: I was able to do that for Kerry, drove two very nice older African American women to the polls.
J R in WV
@low-tech cyclist:
Oh, man, that was bad. I’m sorry you and your kid, everyone in your family had to go through that, including kitty.
I had a similar event in 2004, so I know that between a terrible election event and a personal tragedy, it is really hard.
Last night helped me heal a little bit from last year’s disaster. I hope it was a boost for you, too!
Ruckus
@The Moar You Know:
It might be possible to say that it’s similar to a poll tax. Unlike a car, which of course is not in the Constitution, insurance would add a cost to the perceived right to own a gun. Tell me how that’s different than a poll tax on the right to vote.
I see that a clarification is necessary to the second.
Don’t get me wrong I like the idea of insurance, I just see a possible problem.
And next do not change so that a rich cocksucker could afford a machine gun just because he has money.
Tilda Swintons Bald Cap
TenguPhule
@jl:
The expensive consultants tell them to spend all the money on ad buys and expensive consultants.
One could see the obvious solution here.
TenguPhule
@bluefoot:
I thought you were trying to make this sound appalling, not appealing.
J R in WV
@TenguPhule:
One of my first jobs after coming home from the military, I worked with an older guy who ran the printing press for the educational TV station. He was a standard good ole boy, looking forward to hunting season. One year he was in the woods, quite a way out really, and came across a hunter who had been shot and abandoned by the shooter.
He was at least in his late 50s or 60s, white haired, carried that wounded guy out of the woods, drive him to the nearest hospital, saved his F’in life. Left their rifles (like $2000) lying there in the woods. Quite a guy, a real hillbilly.
randy khan
@rikyrah:
This is deceptive. Gillespie got about the same number of votes as Cuccinelli and the Libertarian in 2013 (remembering that the Libertarian got a ton of votes from people unwilling to vote for the crazy guy, and this year the Libertarian got a negligible number of votes), and about 100,000 more votes than he got in his Senate run in 2014. His total also was almost the same as what McDonnell got in 2009 (10,000 more, give or take). In that time, total population has grown by more than 400,000, so basically the Republicans have steadily lost ground at the state level (which is consistent with the results since that time).
Still, Democratic turnout was up significantly, which is a very good thing.
randy khan
@Ruckus:
Poll taxes actually are prohibited by a specific amendment to the Constitution. Before that they were legal. So, in your analogy, there’d be no reason you couldn’t impose those obligations on gun ownership. (That said, I’m confident that there would be an effort to claim that such requirements would violate the 2nd Amendment because freedom.)
MCA1
@Roger Moore: I generally agree, although for the time being I think think this means first trolling them into questioning their abiding trust in the GOP, in order to suppress their enthusiasm back to where it used to be, for purely electoral politicking purposes.
I mean, I’d love for the national Democratic Party to roll out some easy talking points about ways they’ve actually attempted to help rural and post-industrial areas. But those people won’t hear it yet. There are several steps that need to be taken before any sort of actual support for the Democratic Party and its policies can be re-established with them, especially on the inclusive terms set by the Democratic Party, which absolutely should not be compromised to appeal to them. And I believe a necessary first step is to get them to buy that Republicans generally, and Trump specifically, have sold them out and despise them.
In other words, every Democrat in places like rural Ohio and Kansas, etc., should spend a lot more time than they currently are sending mailers with pictures of Trump’s gold-plated bathroom and him hanging out with hookers at Studio 54, and trying to find an episode of The Apprentice where he takes a figurative dump on some contestant from Appalachia. They hate blacks and they hate immigrants, but they also hate urban elites of any stripe. Why they were snookered by Trump, a total degenerate who ticks almost every box on their hater bingo card, we may never know, but it doesn’t matter. Democratic politicians should be working harder to break that spell. Somewhere deep down they know that he loathes them. They know he thinks they’re irredeemable losers. Getting some of them to stop suppressing that gut knowledge, just because he punches the people they’d like to punch, would be huge.
They are addicted to Haterade. I don’t know why only Republicans are pouring it into their cups.
J R in WV
@Peale:
Actually, if TSA misses 90% of test weapons, I think we should just shut them down. The difference in safety will by minimal, most of the guns confiscated are in the luggage because their owners forgot them. They aren’t going to be pulling them out, they don’t know there even in there.
Amaranthine RBG
@geg6:
Yeah, strange. I get dozens of emails every week from a bunch of different organizations (I’m looking especially at you Jason Kander) but never got anything from them before. The emails from Hillary Clinton have slowed to a drip unlike the firehose around the time of the election. Only thing I can guess is that NextGen America shared my email with the DNC after I recently canvassed with them.