Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

I was promised a recession.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / Don't Mourn, Organize / Thursday Morning Open Thread: The Joyful Battle

Thursday Morning Open Thread: The Joyful Battle

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Bobby Kennedy was neither a plaster saint nor the potential savior-president that some have fantasized about since his assassination. But he surely did leave a legacy worth preserving!

(Although, given the political climate fifty years ago, I suspect he’d be astonished that a Cuban-American activist might be a “leftist”, like him. Things do change, sometimes for the better.)

***********
Alain has scheduled today’s “On the Road” post for 9am EDT, so I’ll share some more snippets from Tuesday’s primaries…


Comments from yesterday morning’s Primaries Open Thread, on specific races:

NJeff:
NJ4 just picked a great candidate, Josh Welle, a Naval Officer and entrepreneur who has some big money backing. I actually preferred and voted for his more muckracking and progressive opponent, Jim Keady, but Welle is probably a better candidate for this Wall St worker heavy district.

Uber misogynist Chris Smith is on notice. He’s gonna need to find a new job for the first time in 40 years. When he files for unemployment, I at least hope he has the decency to do it in his state of residency, VIRGINIA! (Where his son gets in-state tuition).

Raven:
While I want to regale you jackals with tales from the deep I will demure for now to show you some great shots of our new city council person at her swearing in. Angela Davis would be proud!

“Mariah Parker takes her oath of office for County Commissioner District 2 with her hand on the autobiography of Malcolm X and her mother Mattie Parker by her side on the steps of City Hall in downtown Athens, Ga., Tuesday, June 5, 2018. Parker filled the county commissioner seat vacated by Harry Sims who left his seat to run for mayor. She won the election for District 2 by 13 votes.”

Reader Interactions

131Comments

  1. 1.

    OzarkHillbilly

    ““In a matter of three or four minutes the village disappeared,” Castillo said, smothered in what he described as a “sea” of muck that came crashing into homes, inundating people, pets and wildlife.

    The family holed up in a house that heated up “like a boiler” inside before making their way on to the roof and then to the upper story of another concrete home. After a cellphone call to Castillo’s brother, rescuers arrived and brought the family to safety. But the life they knew was gone.

    Nobody wants to go back there. My children say they would rather be in the streets … There are many people who are helping us, but we have absolutely nothing. We could not get anything out,” Castillo said. “For us, there is no tomorrow.”

    Count your blessings.

  2. 2.

    Schlemazel

    I love how the wingnuts are trying to tell their followers that California was a disaster for Dems. I give NPR a week before they are on board with that framing

  3. 3.

    Schlemazel

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Sadly, we have to wonder if any help will come from the richest nation on Earth. In normal times US aid would already be on its way. Today, maybe lord tinyhands will toss some paper towels at them

  6. 6.

    trnc

    @Schlemazel:

    I love how the wingnuts are trying to tell their followers that California was a disaster for Dems. I give NPR a week before they are on board with that framing

    I would have said 3 days, but it will take longer for the Kochs to write the stories with one of them drafting from a sickbed.

  7. 7.

    satby

    @Schlemazel: even more sadly, there’s a large chunk of voters who are absolutely fine with never sending another dime of foreign aid out of the country because they think it takes money away from them here. Despicable, not deplorable.

    Edit to fix Kindle fixes.

  8. 8.

    JPL

    It appears that the pres is complaining about the upcoming G-7 summit..

    Furthermore, he prefers visiting places where he is feted — such as on his trips last year to Beijing, Paris and the Saudi capital — over attending summits where the attending leaders are treated as equals.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-complains-about-traveling-to-canada-ahead-of-singapore-summit-with-kim/2018/06/06/651d8dd8-69be-11e8-9e38-24e693b38637_story.html?utm_term=.f4f7ee085d4e

  9. 9.

    germy

    "Hello computer, it is I, the Washington Post. How do I accurately describe the fact that Democrats did well in their primaries, while also feeding up an offering to the God of Both Sides, in which we must always privilege GOP spin?"

    Computer: pic.twitter.com/W5RqZIfxTx— Oliver Willis (@owillis) June 6, 2018

    WaPo headline: “Democrats strengthen hand in seeking control of House, even if odds of a blue wave are diminishing”

  11. 11.

    Victor Matheson

    @Schlemazel: I think I largely disagree with you here. The good news for the dems is obviously that no races ended up with 2 republicans in the primary. However, there really are a couple of not terrible results for CA. First, the republicans got a candidate in for governor which will help turnout (as opposed to the potential nightmare of having no candidates on the top two tickets.) second, the increase in dems voting in the primaries was generally not as big as we have been seeing in some other states. Plus the dems lost a state senate seat, right?

    2018 still looks to be a wave, but you can’t cite primary voting data when it is really positive as a signal there is a blue wave coming and then ignore primary voter data when it isn’t as positive.

  12. 12.

    germy

    More cold water from WaPo:

    Democrats are hoping that as Election Day approaches, more Americans will see their congressional vote as an opportunity to put a check on unified Republican control in Washington. Yet the improving economic outlook appears to be having some effect on partisan sentiment, putting in question the depth of the Democratic advantage.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democrats-strengthen-hand-in-seeking-control-of-house-even-if-odds-of-a-blue-wave-are-diminishing/2018/06/06/cbabac66-68f5-11e8-9e38-24e693b38637_story.html?utm_term=.cbe5d5718bc5

  13. 13.

    Schlemazel

    @JPL:
    Well you can’t expect the media to have a lot of space left over for Guatemala when they are covering suck important topics as the FWOTUS mysterious disappearance. They have to focus on the important stuff!

  14. 14.

    Schlemazel

    @Victor Matheson:
    They out performed expectations and some of the results are because there were 32 candidates running for top two so a lot of people making protest votes. I believe a larger proportion of those will vote D in November than R based on past history. But it was hardly the disaster that was predicted or that the wingnuts now want to pretend it was. It tells me we need to continue to GOtV

  15. 15.

    satby

    @Schlemazel: Besides, no sense getting people all worked up with sympathy. We don’t take refugees any more and we would arrest this family at the border and take their kids away if they wanted asylum.

  16. 16.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Quinnipiac Poll — June 5th

    American voters say 47 – 40 percent, including 44 – 35 percent among independent voters, that they want to see the Democratic Party win control of the U.S. House of Representatives this year.

    Voters say 48 – 41 percent, including 45 – 38 percent among independent voters, that they want the Democratic Party to win control of the U.S. Senate in this year’s elections.

    We’re doooooooooooooooomed!

  21. 21.

    germy

    On April 11, I called Trump’s favorite architect to ask about jobs he did in Eastern Europe that recently drew Mueller’s eye.

    Within hours, John Fotiadis closed down his 10 yr old architecture firm, deleted his portfolio and left Twitter. He’s still MIA.https://t.co/1hSyqfbARP
    — Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) June 7, 2018

  22. 22.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Naturally, California is being misread

    1. Cal is a big absentee ballot state. A large chunk ballots have yet to be received, let alone counted.

    2. Cal is already the 3rd bluest state; behind Hawaii and Vermont. It’s bluer than Massachusetts. Which triggers the law of diminishing marginal returns (ie there’s little room for growth).

  23. 23.

    germy

    Fotiadis is an elite Internaional architect with Ukrainian billionaires and Eurasian oligarchs for clients, and offices in New York, Kiev & Tbilisi.

    But on April 11, Fotiadis announced he would join a small firm in NJ that designs storage units.

    No one will explain why. https://t.co/LvQGidN2wm

    — Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) June 7, 2018

  27. 27.

    satby

    @rikyrah: Good morning rikyrah ?!

    General comment: I have two different Farmers Markets today and I should already be at the first one. But I spent almost three hours at the Indiana DMV yesterday and after finally getting all the hoop-jumping bullshit documents they needed to register both me and my car in the state I was almost $1700 poorer. I had no proof of sales tax paid two years ago when I bought my car, so they charged me the whole tax as if it was a new sale. Even though they all conceded I had probably paid it to MI, and that the total on my bill of sale probably included the previous tax. So I paid a tax on the tax. I despise living in red states. The stupid is weaponized. And that the car was out of state for a year while my kid had it? They made me pay a late registration for that year, even though the car wasn’t in the state at all.

  29. 29.

    jonas

    @Victor Matheson: Fortunately for Gavin Newsom, the GOP gubernatorial candidate is a batshit insane Trump-humping businessman who isn’t even from California. Unlike Dems, California Republicans are brilliant at voting for *their* most extreme candidates.

  30. 30.

    MattF

    Unsurprisingly, there’s Republian pushback to the notion that a blue wave is coming. One only has to note how reports simply state R talking points as facts. And how the “but they’re all girls” meme keeps getting repeated as though it’s so weird and has never been noticed before. So, boys, how about some analysis of why and how that happened?

  32. 32.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: What was the penalty for not crossing all the “T”s or dotting all the “I”s? Was it a “per infraction” penalty or just a “improperly filled out” aggregate penalty?

  34. 34.

    satby

    @satby: rant includes typo, it was $1170. That’s essentially what I get from SS for the month. I pulled it from my savings, but was steaming the entire time about how they do shit like this just to screw poor people… Because they know people have to use their vehicles and so will drive unregistered, get tickets and burdensome fines, won’t have all the documents for a driver’s license (my passport wasn’t enough, I needed it, my old license, my original SS card or other SS proof, two utility bills to show residence… Half of the documents they required would require having a license in the state already). So clearly designed to be burdensome, at least 1/2 of the people there while I was didn’t have all the documents needed including me. I had to go home and get another utility bill because one was “too old” (over 60 days). I was nearly homicidal by the time I left.

  35. 35.

    Dorothy Winsor

    The US continues to make a good impression on the Germans. According to Rachel Maddow, the ambassador’s spokesperson apparently cited D-Day as part of her claim that the US and Germany had a strong bond.

  36. 36.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @germy:

    Fotiadis did not respond to a call or an email. But eight hours later, he announced on Twitter that he was closing his firm, John Fotiadis Architect, or JFA, after 10 years in business. A few days later, Fotiadis closed the Twitter account he had used to announce he was closing down his firm.

    By the end of the week, all the content from Fotiadis’ professional website, including his portfolio, had been removed, leaving only a note saying he planned to join a New Jersey-based engineering company.

    Gone was Fotiadis’ impressive portfolio of 30 projects (some of which are pictured below), including villas, schools and office buildings he has designed for clients around the world. Also gone was any reference to the two overseas branches of JFA that he had opened — in Tbilisi and Kiev, Ukraine.

    The closure of JFA appears to mark an abrupt end to the solo career of an architect who counted some of the richest men in the world among his clients. Fotiadis has not answered repeated calls, emails and text messages from CNBC with questions about his work in Eurasia or why he shuttered his company. He also declined to comment on whether he had been contacted by anyone from Mueller’s office. Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel, also declined to comment.

    A half-dozen of Fotiadis’ former colleagues and associates in the U.S. and Ukraine have likewise not responded to inquiries about the architect. Nor have his former clients.

    Fotiadis was not always so press shy. Archived versions of his website on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, as well as news reports and real estate industry records, reveal that until this spring, Fotidias was frequently in the spotlight.

    I’ll take a wild guess and say he’s guilty. Of exactly what I am unsure, but I would not be in the least surprised if he has taken up residence in a Russian airport.

  37. 37.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    When Bill Clinton took off in 1993, unemployment was 7.1%. By June 1994, it had fallen to 6.1%. By election day 1994, it fell even further to 5.6%. GDP grew at a whopping 4% in 1994. The deficit fell 35%. All that great economic improvement and Dems still lost 54 seats.

    So the Village can go fuck themselves with their latest pro gop meme

  39. 39.

    Frankensteinbeck

    I am told there is no good statistical link between primary turnout and general election results. Fair enough, I’m ignoring that aspect of the news we’ve been having. However, the actual special election we just had, we crushed with the same 20 point swing we’ve been observing in earlier elections, California has a great ballot for the Fall, and it looks more and more like people are abandoning the Sanders Revolution and are becoming Democrats instead. I am pleased.

  43. 43.

    Gin & Tonic

    @OzarkHillbilly: I read that entire story last night, in between watching the Cleveland Cavaliers’ wake. It’s fascinating. I’d love to see what the IRS thinks about Mr. Fotiadis.

  44. 44.

    Platonailedit

    The alleged Eagles fans who were attending Trump's 'Celebration of America' were apparently RNC staffers.

    An RNC intern tells @phillydotcom that she received a mass email from the White House earlier in the day, inviting her to attend the event.

    https://t.co/O1Eiiq6EVr— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 7, 2018

    Fake, fake, fake.

  45. 45.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A few years ago, Exequiel Soltero wanted to rent two soccer fields in a well-to-do Seattle suburb. Finding places for his Latino immigrant soccer league to play matches had become quite a challenge: the area’s soccer fields were always snatched up by wealthy, mostly white clubs who had the money and expertise to navigate the city’s leasing process. It was a complaint he often heard from other clubs in Seattle’s lower income communities.

    They felt shut out.

    So Soltero was thrilled when he found two fields that were clean, well-maintained and available at the times he needed. But when he called the local recreation scheduler, he was told the fields had been rented. Suspicious, he drove to the park on the day he had requested – and found the fields empty. They were available. Just not, it seemed, to Mexican immigrants.

    “I went to his office and confronted him,” Soltero says. “I said: I went by the fields and I stayed there for over an hour and nobody was there.” The official eventually leased Soltero the field, but only after demanding he pay the rental fee upfront. Soltero says he was also asked to provide a list of the players along with their home addresses to prove they were “local”.

    Sitting at a table in the Mexican restaurant he owns in the mostly African-American and immigrant Seattle neighbourhood of Dunlap, Soltero still seethes. “If you were a white team they wouldn’t ask you for addresses,” he says. “I don’t think the white teams have to pay upfront.”

    By now, he knows the stereotypes of immigrant soccer leagues: that they won’t pay; that players bring their families and stay all day with coolers of food; that they leave the fields a mess. It doesn’t matter that Soltero has lived in the US for four decades, his restaurant becoming a Seattle institution with a fleet of catering trucks. Or that he demands his teams clean the fields before leaving.

    Too often, he says, he is judged by his accent.

    ……………………….

    “You want to be part of an organisation that has money to get the fields,” says Courtney Brown, the athletic scheduling manager for Seattle Parks and Recreation, speaking generally about American soccer today. “Soccer is pretty organised. If you aren’t part of [a big club] you aren’t getting in.”

    Seattle wants to change this. A few years ago, officials and soccer supporters began discussing the inequality in their city. While they weren’t blocking black and immigrant teams from their fields like the suburban community Soltero described, officials feared they weren’t doing enough to help underserved kids get on to the city’s fields. With a push from Doug Andreassen, a former president of Washington Youth Soccer and head a panel examining diversity issues for the US Soccer Federation, the city started to look for ways to even up access to fields.

    In July, Brown did something revolutionary. He started telling the big soccer clubs that he would be leasing them fewer hours on the city’s fields. He would offer those hours to leagues in underserved neighbourhoods. He explained that he was doing this to be fair, that this would become the city’s parks policy starting this year. And that he hoped, this being Seattle, that everyone would understand. It was a bold move. Brown knows of only one other US city that is trying something similar. Most other parks officials he has spoken to have no interest in enforcing greater equality, fearful of upsetting the wealthy leagues that provide guaranteed income.

  46. 46.

    MomSense

    @satby:

    That’s crazy. Can you get a refund if you can get the sales tax document from
    MI? Is there someone higher up you can talk to about not having to register a car if the car isn’t in state?

  47. 47.

    Amir Khalid

    @Dorothy Winsor:
    A functioning State Department would have recalled this walking embarrassment to America when he opened his yap about interfering in Germany’s domestic politics.

  48. 48.

    JGabriel

    @JPL:

    It appears that the pres is complaining about the upcoming G-7 summit.

    Personally, I think Canada should bar the Tariff Trump from entering the summit.

  52. 52.

    rikyrah

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
    Watch Chris Hayes’ last segment from yesterday’s show. The lady with the black hair named Goldberg was talking about all the women who have become engaged in politics since Dolt45 was ‘elected’. As she spoke about their anger, all I could do was nod in agreement.

  54. 54.

    Leto

    @satby: Red states: where life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness go to die. Hope you had a tall beverage of your choice after all of that.

  56. 56.

    NJeff

    Oh wow, thanks for the quote. Making a long time lurker blush a little.

    As for NJ4, most people don’t view it as competitive, but I disagree. There is a Democratic message focused on taxes, infrastructure, education and health care that will resonate. Also, environmental issues play well because of the large stretch of the Jersey Shore that the district covers.

    Chris Smith is an absentee lord. Welle, as a white male 40-something (maybe 30 something? He’s young looking) retired Naval Officer will play up in the district. I plan to contact his campaign this weekend to volunteer.

  59. 59.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @rikyrah:
    That’s what I’m seeing. A lot of women who were barely aware of politics saw Hillary lose, saw why, and decided they’re not going to take it anymore. The ACA repeal attempt drove home how their actual lives are on the line. Most importantly, a year and a half later, they’re still just as pissed off and determined. No one has calmed down. No one has forgiven. No one has forgotten. They’ve had it with this shit.

    And thank goodness, because my demographic has only gotten more determined to kill everyone in our temper tantrum, including ourselves.

  60. 60.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JGabriel: Arrest him at the border for illegal entry, separate him from his children (who are then kept in small cages), hold him at a deportation facility for months, and then unceremoniously dump him at the border.

    His children? They will be “lost” by then.

  61. 61.

    Platonailedit

    I've never seen anything quite like it: so far in 2018 Dem primaries w/ at least one woman, one man & no incumbent on the ballot, women have won the most votes 59/84 times (70%).— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) June 6, 2018

  67. 67.

    germy

    So Jerry Maren passed away. The last munchkin from the Wizard of Oz. Dues-paying member of the Lollipop Guild.

    He was also Little Professor Atom in the 1939 Marx bros. film “At The Circus”

  68. 68.

    jonas

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    people are abandoning the Sanders Revolution and are becoming Democrats instead.

    I think the “Sanders Revolution” was mainly a creation of 1. Sanders and 2. the MSM in order so they could have a horse race to cover rather than a primary. Most Democratic primary voters turned out to be Democratic primary voters, which is why Sanders lost.

  69. 69.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A close aide to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned Monday, the Atlantic reported Wednesday citing an unnamed source briefed on the matter. EPA scheduling and advance director Millan Hupp’s last day is Friday, the outlet said.

    EPA spokesperson Jahan Wilcox did not comment on the story aside from telling the Atlantic’s Elaina Plott, who has reported extensively on the scandals at Pruitt’s EPA: “You have a great day, you’re a piece of trash.”

    When you confuse trash with the person who takes the trash out, it’s no wonder you can’t clean up the environment..

  70. 70.

    Raven

    The junegrass moved in so, after extending or stay 2 days, I’m fishing the really nice bay bridge fishing area. The bonus is shade and the bohdi is with me.

  71. 71.

    Leto

    @Platonailedit: The answer to that tweet is what Frankensteinbeck said at 59:

    They’ve had it with this shit.

    They’re actively demonstrating the old saying of, “Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way”.

  73. 73.

    Chyron HR

    @jonas:

    “Sanders Revolution”

    I believe his official position is that: “It’s not my revolution! It’s their revolution! I have no responsibility for the actions of this revolution!”

  75. 75.

    OzarkHillbilly

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…. gasp…. wheeze….

    Kansas has a problem: It has a law allowing teachers to carry guns in the classroom, but almost no schools are using it because insurance companies refuse to provide coverage if they do. As EMC Insurance, the largest insurer of schools in Kansas, explained in a letter to its agents, the company “has concluded that concealed handguns on school premises poses a heightened liability risk.”

    Then came the Parkland, Florida, school shooting in February, leading frustrated Republican legislators in Kansas to try forcing the issue with a bill banning “unfair, discriminatory” rates for schools that arm staff. The insurance industry held firm. Last month, the bill failed.

    “I don’t think insurance companies are notorious anti-gun liberals,” said Mark Tallman, associate executive director for the Kansas Association of School Boards, “so we think they’ve got good reasons for not doing it.”

    As proposals to arm teachers sweep across the nation, insurance companies are being forced to weigh the risks of these controversial plans. Some insurers are balking. Some are agreeing to provide policies but lamenting the lack of evidence about whether it makes schools safer – or increases the chances of people getting shot. Others are raising rates.

    “There’s not a lot of carriers that want to insure that risk,” Nate Walker, a senior vice president at insurer AmWINS Group.

    Whocouldaknowed???

    via Doug Mataconis at OTB

  77. 77.

    chopper

    @germy:

    the fact that the economy was strong in 2016 didn’t seem to help the incumbent party, and trump’s sub-40% approval goes to show the same here. the economy ain’t what this election is about.

  78. 78.

    Quinerly

    @OzarkHillbilly: I had a friend who tried this on Laclede’s Landing after a night at Boomer’s. He ended up in the Mighty Mississippi. He also failed out of law school a semester later. Keep missing you on threads…”Our” Red did some amazing mosaic work here in my eventual Air BnB rental while I was in NC. The kitchen is going to be gorgeous. I have just turned her loose here for the last 21 years and she creates magic. Love to be surprised. Have a great day! Sweating copper today!

  79. 79.

    MomSense

    @jonas:

    I think the “Sanders Revolution” was mainly a creation of 1. Sanders and 2. the MSM

    I’m going with 1. Sanders 2. Russian active measures 3. MSM

  81. 81.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Trump Has Weighed Golfing With Kim Jong Un if Singapore Summit Goes Well
    Step one: Avoid nuclear armageddon. Step two: Avoid the water hazard.
    Trump has floated hitting the links with his counterpart as he considers a secondary charm offensive to complement the diplomatic tête-à-tête. The president has already told those close to him and advisers that he is open to inviting Kim to a follow-up summit at Trump’s famous Mar-a-Lago estate and private club in Palm Beach, Florida, as Bloomberg first reported this week.

  82. 82.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    When you confuse trash with the person who takes the trash out, it’s no wonder you can’t clean up the environment..

    That right there is poetry.

  85. 85.

    Groucho48

    Top headlines on the Google news page about the primaries…

    Crisis averted: How the Democrats avoided disaster in California
    It was painful getting there, but the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s strategy to intervene in the contentious and complicated primaries in …

    CNN
    today
    California primary election 2018: results suggest a Democratic majority
    Tuesday night’s California primary election results confirm that, as best we can tell, Democrats are on track to secure a narrow House majority in the 2018 …

    Vox.com
    today
    Democrats dodge bullet in California congressional races
    Democratic candidates for Congress are well on their way to advancing to the general election in three Republican districts in California the party most feared …

    The Sacramento Bee
    today
    A Strong Economy Presents Democrats with a Challenge in the Midterms
    John Cassidy writes that Democrats have performed well in elections this year, but, with November approaching, Republicans are taking comfort in a number of …

    The New Yorker
    today
    Doug Schoen: Democrats California Dreamin’ of a big blue wave watch as it crashes up against reality
    Senior Capitol Hill producer Chad Pergram joins ‘Fox News @ Night’ to explain the Golden State’s significance to November’s midterms. The blue wave failed to …

    Fox News
    today

    You’d almost think Tuesday was a bad day for Dems…

  86. 86.

    Quinerly

    @OzarkHillbilly: ?
    I have probably had more say so about this, our 4th project here. I firmly said, “no…” And before I could say “blue” she said, “no blue.” Didn’t even ask how she knew. We kept a lot of the 140 year old limestone walls so her work is all “organic” materials that goes with that look. We are doing a penny floor in the bathroom, though. ? Have template!

  90. 90.

    NotMax

    When you lose the pig castrater…

    “He’s [Pruitt] hiding behind a very cheap version of faith, in the form of chicken,” said Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on a House subcommittee on Government Operations. “This is somebody who is profoundly ethically challenged, who’s self-dealing. He’s in the trough with all four paws and snout. … We’re dealing with a real pattern here, and frankly it’s disgusting.”

    GOP members of Congress have largely followed Trump’s lead in sticking by Pruitt, though there were increasing signs cracks are developing in that support.

    Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst suggested this week that it might be time for Trump to tell Pruitt to go.

    Pruitt “is about as swampy as you get here in Washington, D.C. And if the president wants to drain the swamp, he needs to take a look at his own Cabinet,” Ernst said Tuesday at an energy policy forum. Source

    Of course, one must keep in mind she voted to approve Pruitt for the position (Collins of Maine was the only R to vote nay).

  91. 91.

    bemused

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Reality rudely intrudes into gun nut fantasy world. Bummer for NRA that they can’t stop the insurance industry from compiling data of gun injuries and deaths and actuaries calculating risk. Easy, peasy to corrupt the GOP.

  93. 93.

    rikyrah

    Trump Not Consulting Officials Ahead of Summit

    After two months on the job, Trump’s new national security adviser has not called a single top-level National Security Council meeting on North Korea.

    National Security Adviser John Bolton has yet to convene a Cabinet-level meeting to discuss President Donald Trump’s upcoming summit with North Korea next week, a striking break from past practice that suggests the Trump White House is largely improvising its approach to the unprecedented nuclear talks.

    For decades, top presidential advisers have used a methodical process to hash out national security issues before offering the president a menu of options for key decisions. On an issue like North Korea, that would mean White House Situation Room gatherings of the secretaries of state and defense along with top intelligence officials, the United Nations ambassador, and even the treasury secretary, who oversees economic sanctions.

    But since Trump agreed on a whim to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un on March 8, the White House’s summit planning has been unstructured, according to a half-dozen administration officials. Trump himself has driven the preparation almost exclusively on his own, consulting little with his national security team outside of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

  94. 94.

    Seanly

    @Schlemazel:
    A week? You are too generous. I fully expect to hear this morning from the withered crone that is Cokie Robert’s about how bad this was for the Democratic Party.

    @rikyrah:
    This is Trump’s entire career. Just riffing on actual work. Why do anything to figure out and plan things. Just act on whims. WTF is the point of strategy or knowledge? The King wants his pudding!

  95. 95.

    Gelfling 545

    I love and adore the Mariah Parker pictures. She is the image of what they always feared. Go ye forth and kick ass, Ms Parker!

  96. 96.

    rikyrah

    BREAKING: Colin Kaepernick’s legal team is going to subpoena Donald Trump in the @NFL collusion case.

    Donald Trump and NFL team owners have illegally colluded together to prevent Colin from ever entering the league. https://t.co/LufXmedJWa

    — Shaun King (@ShaunKing) June 7, 2018

  97. 97.

    SFAW

    @Groucho48:

    You’d almost think Tuesday was a bad day for Dems…

    Well, it WAS! Did they flip the House? NO!!!! Did they flip the Senate? NO and NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

    You libtard snowflakes, always complaining when the leftwing media calls BS on your something something.

  101. 101.

    Waynski

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I’ll take a wild guess and say he’s guilty. Of exactly what I am unsure, but I would not be in the least surprised if he has taken up residence in a Russian airport.

    Sounds like witness protection to me. I doubt he’s in NJ.

  103. 103.

    James Powell

    @jonas:

    I think the “Sanders Revolution” was mainly a creation of 1. Sanders and 2. the MSM in order so they could have a horse race to cover rather than a primary.

    And 3. The press/media really hate Hillary Clinton, so they promoted Sanders as a plausible rival. It was the same thing with Al Gore and Bill Bradley.

  104. 104.

    SFAW

    @rikyrah:

    Let’s hope Kaepernick gets some justice.

    What I’d REALLY like to see is the Jets picking him up as the experienced QB to help Darnold become a pro. Not as good an outcome as if Kap were the Jets number 1, but it’s better than the bullshit going on currently. That the Johnson’s (at least initially) flipped Lying Littledick the bird re: kneeling during the Anthem gives me some hope that they’ll also find a place for Kaepernick, but I realize that’s not very likely.

    Fuck the NFL owners — especially YOU, Bob Kraft. Everyone knows that if YOU showed any kind of accommodation for Kaepernick, most of the rest would follow.

  106. 106.

    Gelfling 545

    @satby: My nephew spent 4 years in Indiana working for a university whose name is well known. By the end of year 1 he was actively seeking other jobs. In that period he’d had a supervisor who sooo should have known better include in a written evaluation that his mannerisms were insufficiently masculine and an ER nurse insert without inquiring into his medical record that he was HIV positive ( he is not) based on her assumption that all gay men must be. He fought and won on both issues but, as he says, it’s exhausting.

  107. 107.

    SFAW

    @NotMax:

    Chances of California going red zoomed from nil to naught.

    Well, that’s something like a 1000-percent increase. Suck it, libtards!!

    You libtards, always lying about reality.

  108. 108.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I just saw the video of Rudi Giuliani ragging on Stormy Daniels and his very Rudi-ish attempts to stammer and babble between “Please, my pal Don would never go out with that skank” and sounding like he’s all about female empowerment. Given that I had to google her name a couple of weeks ago, I guess Donna Hanover keeps a low profile and/or has decided she doesn’t want to talk about her former husband (IANANYer), but how long before people start reminiscing about that whole fiasco. And Christine Lagetano (sp?) and god knows how many others

  109. 109.

    SoupCatcher

    @Victor Matheson: We won’t have good turnout numbers for at least a week, here in California.

    A useful exercise is to track the county reporting status page the SOS maintains. At this point in the last primary, there were tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands, and potentially a million votes still to count.

  110. 110.

    NotMax

    @SoupCatcher

    Outside of (maybe) a paragraph at the bottom of page 38, final numbers will never be mentioned. A week is a century in MSM time.

    They’re already into the “Pay no attention to the scads of print and pixels spent crying wolf last week, this week we’ve got a new wolf to yawp about.”

  111. 111.

    Brachiator

    @Victor Matheson:

    First, the republicans got a candidate in for governor which will help turnout (as opposed to the potential nightmare of having no candidates on the top two tickets.)

    I’m OK with this. Two Democrats would not run a “it’s cool, vote for either of us” campaign, and I would not want to see two Democrats at the top of the ticket bashing each other. And Republicans know they don’t have a chance, so I don’t know that Cox on the ticket is an automatic turnout booster. GOP voters may be hot to keep some congressional districts Republican, but that is a separate matter.

    second, the increase in dems voting in the primaries was generally not as big as we have been seeing in some other states.

    Voter turnout in 2014 was 25 percent. Right now, turnout looks to be around 22 percent. Still, I read that turnout was so high in one county that they had to order more ballots.

    And the point is to get people to come out for the November election.

  112. 112.

    Brachiator

    @NotMax:

    Outside of (maybe) a paragraph at the bottom of page 38, final numbers will never be mentioned. A week is a century in MSM time.

    So what? Nobody in the history of newspapers revisits old news. And unless it changes some results, the final numbers won’t matter for anybody who is not a big political junkie.

    And in California we have about a million ballots still to count and a small mess of provisional ballots adding to the mix.

    Hell, even in San Francisco, where the vote is still going on because of the ranked voting system they are using, election interest is still local front page news, but irrelevant to national reporters (and no matter what a Democrat will win).

  115. 115.

    schrodingers_cat

    @rikyrah: FWIW I have never had problems with getting a driver’s license (I have lived in 4 states). Last time I renewed my license I could do it online and they sent the new license in the mail.

  117. 117.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @bemused: I’m not an expert on North Korea, but my sense from watching the last few weeks is that KJU is more willing and able to put his ego on hold bait the Beast into a trap in exchange for a photo-op

  118. 118.

    NotMax

    @schrodingers_cat.

    It’s become much more of a burdensome process since the Real ID regs came into force.

    Here’s what will affect the most people: Beginning in Oct. 1, 2020, a Real ID-compliant for[m] of identification will be required for boarding commercial flights. U.S. passports and passport cards remain acceptable for use instead of a driver’s license for air travel.…

    They’ll also be required to enter federal courthouses, military bases and other secure facilities (for those times you want to visit a nuclear power plant). Source

    In some jurisdictions one can still (up until 2020, anyway) opt for a non-Real ID complaint license, for which the qualifying material is less.

  120. 120.

    Brachiator

    @rikyrah:

    But since Trump agreed on a whim to meet with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un on March 8, the White House’s summit planning has been unstructured, according to a half-dozen administration officials. Trump himself has driven the preparation almost exclusively on his own, consulting little with his national security team outside of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

    That’s the way Trump likes it.

    And Trump supporters are getting exactly what they want. A top down government with a Big Leader who is pig ignorant, but wins because he goes by his instincts.

    Of course, this kind of crap rarely works out.

    ETA. There were also some stories suggesting that Bolton was losing favor. The plot thickens.

  122. 122.

    Brachiator

    @NotMax:

    Because it will more than likely conflict with the preconceived pabulum and therefore must be ignored.

    Again, not true, and not as big a deal as you are trying to make it.

    It might be cool if the media did a front page update months from now with all the latest results, but this has never happened in the history of the universe.

    If a good pundit digs in deeper, that person will be worth following and shouting about.

  123. 123.

    sheila in nc

    @schrodingers_cat: Perhaps it has something to do with the new REAL ID. it was a 2005 law requiring states to upgrade to a higher security driver’s licence. All states have to implement. By 2020, you will not be able to board a plane without one.

    ETA NotMax beat me to it.

  124. 124.

    NotMax

    @sheila in nc

    Yeah. The only birth certificate I had was an ancient, but official, photocopy (so old it was from the time Xerox machines spit out copies in negative). No longer acceptable. Went through some agita from 6000 miles away to get a new official copy, and that took 6 weeks to arrive.

  125. 125.

    sheila in nc

    @NotMax: Since I’m a federal employee, I’ve just been notified that we have a finite number of spots for processing a NC driver’s licence through our work’s security office. Haven’t been told yet what documents are needed, or even if my request for an appointment was granted. I’ve already had an augmented background check which was imposed on all Federal employees as a result of legislation passed after 9/11. What more do they need, FFS.

  127. 127.

    jonas

    @Brachiator:

    Trump himself has driven the preparation almost exclusively on his own, consulting little with his national security team outside of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

    Quite frankly, the less time Trump spends with Bolton, the better.

  131. 131.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    While I want to regale you jackals with tales from the deep I will demure for now to show you some great shots of our new city council person at her swearing in. Angela Davis would be proud!

    Goddamit, raven, don’t make me cry at work.

    The resistance lives.

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