Two more seats flipped from red to blue in special elections this evening.
Tonight’s win comes in the New Hampshire House, where Democrat Philip Spagnuolo won a special election in House District Belknap-3, 54-46 percent. This marks a 19-point swing from Trump’s performance in this district in 2016; he won this district by a 54-41 margin. This is the fifth seat Democrats have flipped in the New Hampshire House this cycle, and it’s Democrats’ ninth win of the state’s 11 special elections.
Also:
And in Connecticut House District 120, Democrats just flipped their 39th state legislative seat of the cycle in Tuesday’s second red-to-blue flip (the first came in the New Hampshire House.) Democrat Phil Young won this seat 51-49 percent.
Let’s raise a little more money for the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which is doing a great job helping Democratic candidates in all these state races.
Omnes Omnibus
Though you say I’m unkind
I’m being as nice as I can
West of the Rockies (been a while)
I hope these stories are causing visceral misery to conservative politicians, pundits, and voters.
Mike J
The KY race had a 28 point swing to the Dems in a district Trump won by 62.
Doug!
@Omnes Omnibus:
Great song, right?
Omnes Omnibus
@Doug!: “Get Happy” is probably my favorite EC album.
Doug R
Politico is gaming a 9 point swing still allowing the Republicans to keep the house. Not gonna work with 21-28 point swings.
mad citizen
When pink turns to blue. Husker Du
Omnes Omnibus
@Doug R: Politico has become better since a couple of people left, but it still is stridently “Centrist.”
smike
OT, but in Ben Carson news, Raw Story just ran a piece about Ben Carson spending over $31,000 to spruce up the dining room of his office while trying to cut the budget for the homeless and elderly HUD program. His spokesperson was quoted: “In general, the secretary does want to be as fiscally prudent as possible with the taxpayers’ money,” Williams added.
Sounds like she wanted to add, “But, sometimes, you know, fuck a bunch of taxpayers.”
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
You said that and now I have an earworm of “Love for Tender.”
Mary G
The Guardian says Ben Carson has just begun to spend:
I guess the FTFNYT gets credit for breaking the table story, but WTF? Marie Antoinette has nothing on these people.
FlipYrWhig
All news like this is good news but FYI there are about as many members of the New Hampshire state house as there are members of Congress.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Listening to “King Horse” at this moment.
Mike J
I mentioned it earlier, but Cook has moved PA-18 from lean R to toss up.
John Revolta
@smike: @Mary G:
Okaaaayyyy, then………..
Mike J
Did the music people here see The 50 best southern rock albums list? Better than the name suggests.
dmsilev
@Mary G:
First off, apparently Fox News is breeding a new generation of shameless liars. Second, kudos to the Guardian for explicitly calling out the lies. Our domestic media should (but won’t) take this as an example. Third, the $165K for “lounge furniture” either is or is not egregious. If they’re in the middle of redecorating the entire (big) headquarters building, it’s not ridiculous. If, as is quite possible, this is just for Ben Carson’s office, then not so much. The story doesn’t say one way or the other.
Edit: Fourth, if your mentor in press-flack-dom is Sean Spicer, you should re-evaluate the life choices that brought you to this juncture.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: I see Molly Hatchet. I begin to worry.
ETA: Some real dreck, but some wonderful stuff too. Big Star should be higher.
John Revolta
@Omnes Omnibus: @Mnemosyne: I was sitting around my friend’s house back when this record came out, watching TV and burning one, when outta nowhere Elvis Costello was on the tube, on a local UHF station no less, dressed and acting like a used car salesman………………
“LOOK at these hits, ladies and gentlemen!! 20 Hits!! TWENTY!! You can’t go wrong with such a deal etc.etc.etc.”
Then, just as suddenly, he was gone. I never saw it again.
LurkerNoLonger
@Mary G: They’re making it all too easy for Dems to run (and win) on an anti-corruption platform. Keep it up guys.
Mnemosyne
@Mary G:
I know I’m not the only one to immediately think of this classic movie scene:
“Thirty grand for a fucking table?!?”
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: I love that movie. (No shit, right?)
GregB
@FlipYrWhig:
Republican hold a 216-173 advantage in the House, according to the latest update from the House speaker’s office.
WMUR.
This is the 5th Rep. to Dem. flip since the Trumpocalypse.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Tristram Shandy, by the same team, is also a terrific movie.
smike
@John Revolta: To be fair, they have to eat while sitting in those chairs. Their sensibilities will NOT be ravaged by crappy government standards. Imagine eating steak and lobster at a $5,000 dollar dining room set. What would people say?
FlipYrWhig
@LurkerNoLonger: And that’s the thing that not-particularly-political people really, really, REALLY hate. And it was what Trump, assisted by the media and the Russians and a big boost from the Sage of Burlington, successfully attached to Hillary Clinton like the world’s heaviest anchor: corruption. IMHO as a big-picture theme it tends to make a big difference, and could again.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Based on the novel?
FlipYrWhig
@Mnemosyne: The book, by Laurence Sterne in the 1750s and 1760s, is a brilliant Dada mindfuck in its own right.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Plus (as usual) they are hyping the horse-race aspect—“Seriously, it could be close!”—to keep reader interest up. More clicks than eight months of “Yep, they’re gonna get slaughtered.”
(Not that we should become complacent.)
efgoldman
@dmsilev:
Daddy Juan must be SO proud.
FlipYrWhig
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s “meta.” About trying to make a film of an unfilmable book.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yes and no. It’s somewhat similar to Charlie Kaufman’s Adaptation, except Winterbottom actually works some of the novel into the movie.
Omnes Omnibus
@FlipYrWhig: Ah. The book cannot be turned into a film, so they got that right. A Masterpiece or other series? Perhaps.
Mary G
@dmsilev: The fact that they refuse to give any details of the $165,000 contract makes me think it’s bad.
Mnemosyne
@FlipYrWhig:
It’s pretty much the only way to make a film of that book, and the style is similar to 24 Hour Party People, which is one of my favorite unreliable narrator movies. Those are very hard to do.
hitchhiker
I looked at that google doc the daily kos has been running about these off year races. By my rough count, the numbers so far are something like we’ve kept almost 90% of the seats we held and they’ve kept just over half of the ones they held.
I wish it were more, and I hate it that they have so many seats to begin with, but I’d rather be us than them right now.
I’m somehow on the R mailing list, so I get a lot of emails these days demanding $$$ to stop Nancy Pelosi. They’re going to run against her all year long.
Steeplejack
@Mary G:
I know I can’t really do my best work unless my workspace is just right.
Aleta
@Doug R: Almost blue
Flirting with this disaster became me
It named me as the fool who only aimed to be
Almost blue
chris
Via Daniel Dale, two FTNYT headlines on Ben Carson.
SiubhanDuinne
@dmsilev:
I’m about to go to bed and can’t be arsed to look for it, but I think this is almost word-for-word what Ivanka said to Teen Vogue a year or so ago when it dawned on her that the phone interview wasn’t going her way.
John Revolta
@smike: They must think they’re Greek tycoons……they have a mighty high opinion of their own asses
FlipYrWhig
@SiubhanDuinne: It calls to mind the dubbed Poochie voice saying “I have to go now, my planet needs me.”
Omnes Omnibus
The Costello theme of this post just brought to mind the perfect EC song for our time. How To Be Dumb.*
It is EC’s dis of his former bassist, Bruce Thomas, but it works, mate.
Steeplejack
@Mike J:
Those Paste guys are contrarian fucksticks. Too much dragging in of personal-favorite albums from other genres. But the list has a lot of good stuff on it, as well as some stuff I need to check out.
One from Wet Willie: “Everything That ’Cha Do (Will Come Back to You).”
Les Dudek didn’t make the list, but “Old Judge Jones” is a classic Southern rocker. He worked with the Allmans and some other Atlanta groups.
lgerard
NFL boots Papa John’s through the uprights
one more thing for the wingnuts to get butthurt about
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Note to self: never make EC mad at me.
(That is also one of my favorites of his.)
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: That album doesn’t get a lot of love.
Washburn
The Earth cannot sustain 8 or 10 billion people. It’s impossible.
Yes, it could if everyone was vegetarian and lived in high rise clusters in urban centers. But, guess, what, that is IMPOSSIBLE. You can’t change the behavior of 1/2 of the people with the best of intentions, and nobody else is going to change and there are far more assholes than people with the best of intentions. Hey, Balloon Juice folks, raise your hands: How many vegetarians who have given up air travel and live within walking distance of work? C’mon, how many. I am going to guess about 20 to 25% – tops.
So, with any luck, there will be some kind of plague or asteroid to get the human population down to a non-destructive level. Yeah, it would be “bad” for 5 billion people to die suddenly. You know what is worse, having 9 billion people live in straightened circumstances, and then panic and desperation as most of them dies slowly over a few years and the survivors get to live out the decades of their life in desperation.
What you are seeing now with the rocketing polar temps are the simple inevitable result of the billions of people living a conventional, industrial lifestyle that they will never give up. Never, never, never. If the population were 1/4 of what it is, people could all drive Escalades Would they be stupid and wasteful and killing the planet? Nope, they would not because their behavior wouldn’t be destroying the planet.
Freaking out about the coming global inferno is absolutely pointless. You cannot change it. It’s like complaining about the rain. Nothing you can do will change it.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
That album one of my favorites. “Couldn’t Call It Unexpected” is a surprisingly good road trip song to belt out.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: You are different.
Mnemosyne
@Washburn:
You know what would work to get the population to manageable levels? Women having equal rights, with full access to abortion and birth control that they decide on.
It’s been proven over and over again that if women are allowed to decide for themselves how many children to have, the vast majority will choose 2 or fewer, and many women will choose to have none at all.
Your best bet for population control is women’s rights. So hop to it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: A new type of troll?
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
He’s been here before. More of a one-note crank than a true troll.
But it is true that anyone who’s serious about population control needs to support full equality for all women worldwide. Women in developing countries aren’t having 6 or 8 kids because they want that many. They don’t have any other choice.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: “No glove, no love. Don’t drink and drive.” The best safety briefing I ever got from a senior officer.
MobiusKlein
@Washburn: can I bike to work? Or is that wrong think?
Washburn
@Mnemosyne:
Sure that’s true. It would also solve global warming if every industrialized country devoted most of their budgets to carbon sequestration. Oh, and giving everybody cupcakes, too.
About the same chance of those two things happening.
They’re both very laudable goals, though, from the perspective of doing what is morally right.
Washburn
@MobiusKlein:
Knock yourself out.
Look, here is the thing. You are going to die. Everybody is going to die. The planet is going to undergo cataclysmic changes and nothing will stop that. The earth will survive Life, in some form will carry on. Humans just probably won’t be part of it. That’s fine, too.
Nothing you can do is going to change that. Some things – like biking to work – don’t increase the load on the earth and more importantly here make you feel better. That is an undiluted good.
Omnes Omnibus
Trying again.
Glenn
It is so weird to see my home district in a post like this. There hasn’t been a Dem in the CT state house in my district since ten years before I was born, and the guy who won today did it by fifty votes.
Washburn
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m sorry, I was talking to that other guy. You are going to go live at Grandma’s place in the country where the bacon is so pure that it doesn’t hurt your heart and the bourbon doesn’t hurt your liver. Say a prayer for those other folks though.
Omnes Omnibus
@Washburn: You are a very cheerful person. I shall mention to everyone else that we are going to die. I ask you how we should handle this?
Mnemosyne
@Washburn:
Well, let’s see — you can sit around and wait for the meteor strike you dream of to magically occur, or you can get up off your ass and actually take action towards mitigating the upcoming catastrophe.
Not surprisingly, you’re choosing to sit on your ass and lecture other people rather than working towards an end result that would actually make a difference.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
I especially love the part where solving the problem by making billions of people’s lives better is actually less attractive to him than mass genocide.
He’s actively unwilling to take steps to change the things he’s complaining about but thinks he’s morally superior because he’d rather stroke off to the thought of mass extinctions than take effective action.
Mnemosyne
Funny how the troll just up and vanishes as soon as I point out that there is an actual, real-world way to solve his pet issue that he refuses to take action on. ?
frosty
@Washburn: One of the commenters on the now-defunct Oil Drum blog had a sig that stuck with me: “Is mankind smarter than yeast?”
My take:
Beer: yeast consume all the sugar, die. Peak Oil.
Wine: yeast consume all the sugar they can, die in their own waste alcohol. Climate Change.
Answer: No.
frosty
@frosty: Hmm. Probably shouldn’t have responded to the troll. Nevertheless, I’ve always thought the yeast comparison was useful. Run out of fuel or poison ourselves in our own waste?
Or hey, porque no los dos?
M. Bouffant
@John Revolta: Hope you’re as ready as you were in 1980. https://youtu.be/ztG3zQhEyKs
Chet Murthy
@Mnemosyne: Well, to be fair to him, the argument that change is useless, is a great one, if you’re trying to prevent change. It’s a great rhetorical tactic, eh?
Booger
@Steeplejack: boy, that brings back 1977 memories, dunnit?
Dave
@Mnemosyne: What gets me about that type is why waste time with the doomsaying and whining. If we are inevitably screwed unless there is mass die off catastrophe (which is kinda a form of being screwed) why waste anyone’s time on it? What’s the point?
MobiusKlein
@Dave: Because if we are doomed, no point in trying to stave it off. So long as the meteor hits when I’m already 6 feet under, no skin off my back.
Lalophobia
@Washburn: Well everybody’s going to die regardless of global warming. That’s just a fact.