Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

The lights are all blinking red.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

When we show up, we win.

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

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Republicans in disarray!

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

The revolution will be supervised.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2018 / Local Races: Okay, I’m On #TeamSharice!

Local Races: Okay, I’m On #TeamSharice!

by | 127 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

The Kansan commentors who responded to my post yesterday — all three of them — were uniformly positive, so I happily chipped in for her campaign.

I’ve asked DougJ to set up one of his patented Balloon Juice widgets for her, but until he can find the time in his busy life, here’s her ActBlue page.

One more Kansas native speaks up:

Reader Interactions

127Comments

  1. 1.

    geg6

    As for my local congressional race, latest polls have Conor Lamb up by double digits against GOP piece of garbage Keith Rothfus. And seeing PA lead the nation in percentage increase in 18-34 voter registration (up by 18%), I am feeling more hopeful than any time since 11/9/16.

  2. 2.

    trollhattan

    I cannot wait for the first high-profile Republican to tell her to “go back to where you came from.” You go, Sharice!

  3. 3.

    tobie

    Thanks, AL and geg6, for weighing in. The primary in my state is over and I’m still sore that I have to vote for a Democratic candidate for governor who I think is not up to the task. Would love to hear from readers in states with primaries still to come. Who are the interesting candidates for the House, the Senate, and the governor’s mansion? How much of an uphill battle do they have? I’ve contributed to Sharice Davids’ and Gretchen Whitmer’s campaigns thus far.

  4. 4.

    Chyron HR

    “Too many people have the odds stacked against them. I know what that’s like, because my primary opponent summoned an evil little gnome to sabotage my campaign.”

  5. 5.

    geg6

    @tobie:

    I am not sure how many states still have primaries to come. I wouldn’t think too many at this point. It’s been pretty exciting to see all these diverse candidates (especially among the women) for Dems at all levels. If we do half as well as I hope we will, Congress and several statehouses and governor’s mansions will look very different this time next year.

  7. 7.

    Betty Cracker

    @tobie: In FL, we’re hoping to put the first Democrat in the governor’s mansion in this century. Polls are kind of all over the place among the Democratic contenders (ETA: primary is 8/28). I’m torn on whom to support in the primary, but however it shakes out, I plan to work my ass off for the Democrat who prevails.

    IMO, the governor’s race is more consequential than the senate race, even though the senate race (Nelson vs. Scott) is critical in US politics. The reason I say that: the series of Republican governors we’ve had have disenfranchised so many people in Florida that they’ve directly swung at least two presidential elections.

  8. 8.

    West of the Cascades

    @geg6: actually, quite a few:

    Tennessee Aug. 2 (Thursday)
    Kansas Aug. 7
    Michigan Aug. 7
    Missouri Aug. 7
    Washington Aug. 7
    Hawaii Aug. 11 (Saturday)
    Connecticut Aug. 14
    Minnesota Aug. 14
    Vermont Aug. 14
    Wisconsin Aug. 14
    Alaska Aug. 21
    Wyoming Aug. 21
    Arizona Aug. 28
    Florida Aug. 28
    Massachusetts Sept. 4
    Delaware Sept. 6
    New Hampshire Sept. 11
    Rhode Island Sept. 12 (Wednesday)
    New York Sept. 13 (Thursday) **
    Louisiana Nov. 6 | Dec. 8*

    *Louisiana holds its primary for all parties on the same day the rest of the country holds the general election. If needed, a runoff is held in December.
    **New York holds its primary for federal offices on June 26, while the primary for state and local offices is September 13

  10. 10.

    zhena gogolia

    I can’t believe that CT can’t do any better than Joe Ganim or Ned Lamont. I guess I’ll hold my nose and vote for Lamont.

  13. 13.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @zhena gogolia: I guess I’ll hold my nose and vote for Lamont.

    So he is running? He’s been filling up my spam box lately and I was wondering if he was running now or building a list. Back in the great anti-Lieberman heyday I used to follow a couple of CT blogs– Colin McEnroe was an enjoyable writer, IIRC– and one constant of CT politics seems to be “unpopular governor”

  14. 14.

    burnspbesq

    I didn’t support her in the primary, but I’m starting to warm up to Katie Porter here in CA-45. Walters is so bad that even a mediocre Dem would be a vast improvement.

  16. 16.

    Barbara

    @trollhattan:

    I cannot wait for the first high-profile Republican to tell her to “go back to where you came from.”

    To which the response should be either, “You first,” or “You’ll have to move off my land first.”

  17. 17.

    Immanentize

    @geg6: I read yesterday that although a number of states still have primaries ahead of us (Mass. is one of them), all of the deadlines for filing ro be a candidate have passed. so, although we don’t know the final match ups, we do know who the final slates are. (absent late events like retirements, deaths or arrests….)

  18. 18.

    tobie

    @Betty Cracker: My folks live in Florida so I’ll ask them whom they’re leaning toward in the Democratic primary for governor. It’s true: Florida has been ground-zero for voter disenfranchisement and any and every Democratic candidate would be an improvement over the lot you’ve had. Fingers crossed.

  22. 22.

    Immanentize

    @trollhattan: I think this would be a GREAT campaign ad for her:

    I’ve heard some people today telling others that they should, “Go back to where they came from.” I did and I am running for Congress.
    And for all those other folks who did not come from here, I hope you will stay here and work with me to make this district a prosperous and kind place.

    Or something like that….

  23. 23.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Immanentize: RI primaries are Sep 12, but the filing deadline was a couple of weeks ago. Our junior Senator, Sheldon Whitehouse, is being challenged by 81-year-old (yes) Patricia Fontes. She has no chance, of course, but is an interesting story – she attended a Whitehouse town hall in April, asked him some questions about military spending (she’s a long-time peace activist) and was dissatisfied with his answers. So she decided to challenge him in the Democratic primary.

  24. 24.

    Immanentize

    @rikyrah: I think that means this text sequence:
    Vlad: WTF! We agreed on Syria and Ukraine. Yet you do nothing. NOTHING! We need to meet IRL F2F.
    Trump: I am the most powerful man in the world, I needed to have some rallys
    Vlad: What I heard is that you need pills and that you never rally.
    Trump: Wha..?
    Vlad: On tape. (shows GIF)

  25. 25.

    gene108

    Don’t know enough about Kansas politics to pick a side in the a Democratic primary. I want the most electable Democrat to win.

    I wish Bernie hadn’t stumped for one of the candidates and gotten this primary national attention. There will be unnecessary hurt feelings, no matter who wins.

  26. 26.

    Immanentize

    @Gin & Tonic: Man, RI is just weird enough to like that moxy. Meanwhile, I am a big Whitehouse fan. I wish he would be more public as in ‘the face of the party.’ He and Harris are a formidable team.

  28. 28.

    Roger Moore

    @rikyrah:
    Thoughts on why they might need another meeting so soon:

    1) Trump/Russia revelations are coming so fast they need to work on Trump’s defense sooner than expected.
    2) They need to put the finishing touches on Election Interference, 2018 Edition
    3) Trump needs a place to stay that doesn’t have an extradition treaty.

    OK, 3 is obviously wishful thinking.

  34. 34.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: My sense from reading hot takes on Twitter (worth every penny!) is that this primary pits a white male Bernie supporter against a Native American woman, thus generating above average disgust.

  36. 36.

    Omnes Omnibus

    All politics is local. I am concerned about three races: the WI senate, the WI 1st (Ryan’s), and the WI 7th (my hometown). My Madison Rep. is a certainty for reelection, so no worries there.

  38. 38.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    @Betty Cracker:

    I suspect it’s because AOC was part of the entourage. She’s drawn a lot of attention since whipping Crowley in the primary.

  41. 41.

    tobie

    @schrodingers_cat: I think the best retort is, “Show me a detailed, workable plan.” I really do wonder how single-payer advocates explain how we will move–without a hitch!–the 55% of the population that gets its health insurance through its employer to a single payer system. I also wonder how doctors, hospitals, and clinics will be paid during the transition when soon-to-be-out-of-business-private insurers will have no incentive to do anything. I still remember Obama saying that if we were to design a system from scratch, we would go with single payer, but we’re not starting from scratch and major changes will create chaos for a large portion of the population and a large sector of the economy. I’m still left scratching my head why universal healthcare isn’t the mantra and why we don’t follow the easily implementable German and Swiss health systems.

  42. 42.

    Gin & Tonic

    Wow. Just saw one of the Tad Devine e-mails. His rate is $10k/day.

    As I’ve said, I know the prices of real estate on Block Island, but still…

  44. 44.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I saw that. Now we know why Tad dropped off the radar last year. He’s been cooperating with the Mueller investigation. It will be interesting to find out if he’s trying to keep himself out of jail or he actually cares about the country.

  45. 45.

    Gin & Tonic

    @schrodingers_cat: For his valuable expertise. If his expertise weren’t as valuable, he’d be charging less. I think that’s what Paul Samuelson taught, but Econ was a long time ago.

  46. 46.

    Aleta

    Cornell Law grad; former Dep. Director of CDC led by Oglala Lakota on Pine Ridge Reservation; a vet and a single mother — is the the kind of experience I want to see represented. And I think our government needs many more Native representatives and many more women of color. We don’t need more of the “Identity politics” brought by son-of-a-wealthy-connected-family; son-of-an-oil-business; or got-here-by-donations-and-threats. Those identities are narrow and they keep cloning themselves.

    ETA Must add, that I also know children-of-a-wealthy-connected-family; and two daughters-of-an-oil-business who do a lot more good in the world than I do. Not knocking the identity of anyone’s birth. Just my perspective on the negative use of ID politics.

  47. 47.

    MisterForkbeard

    @tobie: That’s where I am with it. As in: “I like single payer and I’d like to move forward with it. But the plans we have don’t work very well. If you can show me a workable plan with details I’m all in, but so far I haven’t seen one.”

  48. 48.

    Kay

    @geg6:

    As for my local congressional race, latest polls have Conor Lamb up by double digits against GOP piece of garbage Keith Rothfus.

    Oh, that is good news. I saw a good (bad) poll for Scott Walker in WI. I want him to lose.

  51. 51.

    J R in WV

    @gene108:

    Bernie Sanders IS NOT A DEMOCRAT!

    It is none of his business who we Democrats select to be our candidates!

    What about his TAXES???? He’s as bad as Trump hiding his tax returns.

    The only thing about my taxes that would surprise anyone is how much we pay!!! Because when we first hired the CPA who does our taxes the first this we said was “Our taxes have to be unassailable!” because wife was a reporter and I was a manager in state government.

    Our careers depended upon our complete honesty. SO DOES SANDERS, but he isn’t showing us any honesty. If I ran for Senate, you can rest assured I would show you the tax returns.

    We can’t trust Sanders as far as we can throw him.

    Just my opinion — supported by all the available evidence.

  52. 52.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @tobie:
    And the response is always that “campaigns are aspirational and plans at this stage don’t need to be 100% worked out”.

  54. 54.

    Roger Moore

    @tobie:

    I’m still left scratching my head why universal healthcare isn’t the mantra and why we don’t follow the easily implementable German and Swiss health systems.

    I think there are at least two related things going on:

    1) Single payer has become a shibboleth. Leftier-than-thou types use it as a way of seeing who’s with them and who’s against them. The practical difference between different forms of delivering useful care are much less important to them than being able to tell who is sufficiently loyal to their program.
    2) An important goal of the single-payer advocates is the destruction of insurance companies. Listen to their rhetoric on the topic; they genuinely see insurance companies as blood sucking leeches who must be destroyed for the good of the country.

    Naturally, the belief that insurance companies are parasites is what drives the utility of single payer as a shibboleth. If you support the continued existence of private insurance companies, it can only be because you’re a neoliberal sellout.

    From a practical standpoint, I can see why moving to single payer would be extremely desirable politically. On the one hand, it makes people deeply dependent on the government, which makes voting for a political party dedicated to destroying government much less attractive. I don’t think that would actually stop die-hard Republicans from continuing to vote Republican- they’ve already proven themselves willing to believe that the destruction of government would somehow exempt their healthcare- but it might make people who are on the fence turn against the Republicans.

    On the other hand, single payer would make it much harder in practical terms to revert to the pre-2010 model. Because Obamacare is built around preserving as much of the old system as possible, it’s relatively straightforward to undo; all the parts of the pre-2010 system are still there waiting to revert to their old roles. With single payer, though, it’s much harder to revert to the old system. Once the insurance companies are destroyed, reverting to private insurance would involve recreating them from scratch, which is obviously a big lift.

  55. 55.

    L85NJGT

    @The Ancient Randonneur:

    No, really, small donors…

    He, Weaver and Jane clearly didn’t give a crap where the money was coming from. AOCs sudden promotion to voice and face of the movement is, as they say, interesting traffic.

  57. 57.

    gene108

    @tobie:

    I’m still left scratching my head why universal healthcare isn’t the mantra and why we don’t follow the easily implementable German and Swiss health systems.

    From being on DailyKos, when the ACA was being constructed, there seems to be a subset of liberals, who want to end for profit entities. Period.

    For profit private health insurers seem to be the first target they think they can take down. And they feel single-payer will let them dismantle for profit health insurance companies and usher in their socialist utopia.

  58. 58.

    Roger Moore

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    And the response is always that “campaigns are aspirational and don’t need to be 100% worked out”.

    Maybe you don’t need to have everything 100% worked out, but that doesn’t mean 1% worked out is just as good 90%. I want to see some serious plans because I need to know that your aspirations are plausible before I vote for them.

  59. 59.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @geg6: Oops. My bad. Yes, he is on the ballot. Brain fart on my part. I’ve been thinking too much about the federal candidates.

  60. 60.

    Josie

    @J R in WV:

    The two political parties could easily solve the tax problem by requiring all candidates to release tax information before being put in contention. If done by the parties, it would probably not be a constitutional issue. That fact that they don’t do it makes me suspicious of how clean they want candidates to be.

  61. 61.

    Gretchen

    @Betty Cracker: There are also a couple of other guys and another woman in the primary. My fear is that we will split the vote among the good candidates and then the Bernie-bro will slip in and lose – they’ll tar him with the socialism brush, and he’s just not that good a candidate. He can yell slogans like Medicare for all, but doesn’t explain how that will work. Nothing like having Bernie weigh in to help us lose a winnable race. I’m still torn between Sharice and Tom Nierman. I think I’m going to go with Nierman, just because I think he has a better chance in the general, but I’ll enthusiastically support Sharice if she wins. I just don’t want another 2 years of constituent-avoiding, wall-loving, right to lifer Yoder.

  62. 62.

    Shell

    Roseanne Barr wants to rehabilitate her image and explain how she’s not a racist….so she goes on Sean Hannity!?! Yup, I think that pretty much explains it all, Rosie.

  64. 64.

    Roger Moore

    @Mnemosyne:

    In California, we had to choose between Gavin Newsom and Antonio Villaraigosa, so I feel your pain.

    We could have had John Chiang, but nobody wanted boring but competent Asian guy. They demanded colorful, ineffective philanderers instead.

  66. 66.

    But Her Emails!!!

    @Mnemosyne:

    In California, we had to choose between Gavin Newsom and Antonio Villaraigosa, so I feel your pain.

    I remember there being more names on the list to choose from. California Democrats just decided to vote for the philanderers.

  67. 67.

    Aleta

    You’re right, they don’t want it. Not only that, but they are trying to change the norm, the expectation, that the public should know their entanglements, stability and conflicts of interest. May be another piece of the ‘changing role of money in politics’ as the magazines call it.

  69. 69.

    rikyrah

    Cohen reportedly willing to say Trump knew about infamous Russia meeting
    07/27/18 08:00 AM
    By Steve Benen

    For those following Donald Trump’s Russia scandal, last night’s reporting came as quite a surprise.

    Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, asserts that Trump knew in advance about a meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016 between his son Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer, in contradiction to Trump Jr.’s congressional testimony in May 2017, a knowledgeable source told NBC News on Thursday night.

    The source told NBC News that Cohen is willing to inform Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign, that Trump Jr. told his father about the meeting. Cohen’s assertion was first reported by CNN.

    There’s quite a bit to this, so let’s unpack what we’ve learned through a Q&A.

    Why is this a big deal?

    The June 2016 meeting, in which top members of Trump’s team met with Russians in the hopes of obtaining campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton, is one of the key moments in the overall scandal. If the future president knew about the meeting in advance, and then lied about it, it would bolster collusion allegations while raising related questions about why Trump felt compelled to deceive the public.

    Indeed, let’s not forget that after we first learned about the Trump Tower meeting, Donald Trump Jr. issued a highly misleading statement about the purpose of the meeting, and the president himself reportedly helped draft the statement, possibly implicating him in a cover-up.

  72. 72.

    burnspbesq

    @Baud:

    I don’t know why this primary caused such a stir.

    Because Bernie showed his (and a big chunk of his base’s) true racist, misogynistic colors by gunning for a clearly qualified woman of color, and somehow conned Ocasio-Cortez into going along for the ride, damaging her in the eyes of many.

  73. 73.

    TenguPhule

    The CBS board of directors said on Friday that it would investigate allegations of misconduct against the company’s chief executive, Leslie Moonves, the subject of a forthcoming article in The New Yorker focused on claims about his behavior toward women.

    The statement, which did not specifically identify Mr. Moonves, was released after The Hollywood Reporter posted an article online saying that The New Yorker was poised to publish an article that detailed allegations of sexual misconduct against him. CBS shares fell by more than 6 percent after the report.


    Les Moonves, CBS C.E.O., Faces Inquiry Over Misconduct Allegations

    Warning, FYNYT link.

  74. 74.

    TenguPhule

    @rikyrah: Trump is already issuing new denials about it. They’re about as believable as his old denials about it, which is to stay not at all.

  76. 76.

    Yutsano

    @TenguPhule: His cult members will believe him. But those that aren’t so far gone will start to drift away slowly. Not enough to vote Democrat but possibly enough to not bother voting.

  77. 77.

    Mary G

    Josh Marshall at TPM has an item on his editor’s blog, which I think is paywalled, calling back to that tape recording in June 2016 of Kevin McCarthy saying that Trump and Rohrabacher were the only people Russia paid, and Paul Ryan told him to shut it and keep it in the family, which doesn’t sound like mob talk at all, no.

    A source emailed him and I am intrigued:On June 14 2016, the day before the audio tape (which was on June 15), the House Foreign Affairs Committee hosted a hearing on Russia. This is the hearing Amb. McFaul testified at where the Russian government lawyer Natalia Vesilnitskaya attended, she’s front row.

    But what’s important here is that the whole reason they held a full committee hearing on Russia (in the midst of the election) was because they needed to stop Rohrabacher from holding a pro-Kremlin subcommittee hearing, for the Europe sub-committee which he chairs.

    Remember that Rohrabacher had wanted to show an anti-Magnitsky act movie (the director Andrei Nekrasov is the man with long gray hair over Vesilnitskaya’s right shoulder) and essentially use the hearing as a “show trial” of Bill Browder. According to the Daily Beast, “Ultimately, the hearing was canceled when senior Republicans intervened and agreed to allow a hearing on Russia at the full committee level with a Moscow-sympathetic witness, according to multiple congressional aides.” That’s why Jack Matlock, someone with pro-Russia views, was there as a GOP witness … House aides conceded that he did so, in part, to avoid Rohrabacher staging an event that could have embarrassed the Republican Party—and Congress.”

    We also know that Rohrabacher met with Vesilnitskaya in April 2016 and was given “the film by the Prosecutor General’s office in Moscow, which is run by Yuri Chaika.”

    So, to quote the great Rikyrah, Traitors All.

  78. 78.

    TenguPhule

    In separate ballrooms at the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Friday morning, shareholders of the Walt Disney Company and 21st Century Fox agreed to a $71.3 billion purchase plan that gives Disney the bulk of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, substantially altering the entertainment landscape.

    Regulators in more than a dozen countries must still give their approval. But the shareholder votes brought to a close a six-month corporate showdown, waged across two continents by Disney and Comcast, for supremacy in the rapidly changing media business. Mr. Murdoch’s trove represented a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gain the bulk needed as a counterattack against the tech giants that have aggressively moved into Hollywood.

    Via FYNYT.

    Big Mouse eating Big Vermin.

    Disney really is taking over the world.

  79. 79.

    Amir Khalid

    @Gin & Tonic:
    He charges ten grand a day; his clients pay it because of his reputation, but do they actually get their ten grand worth?

  80. 80.

    L85NJGT

    @Roger Moore:

    Good summation. Gaming the system to achieve a politicized workforce. It runs afoul of the same problems of the industrial tariff left – we no longer work that way. The vast industrial estates employing thousands are gone to history, as are offices full of clerk-typists. It’s Claude Shannon’s world, and back office functions are profoundly different then they were sixty years ago.

    As a practical matter, I never saw much difference in discussions (for example) of capitation issues from public and private payors.

    Don’t underestimate the allure of “FREE” – folks will jump through hoops to get a piece of promotional retail garbage. They can’t seem to differentiate between cost and value.

  81. 81.

    Mary G

    @Mary G: Whoops, blockquote failed and even though I am on my PC and have an edit window to open, it tells me I am not authorized to edit.

  82. 82.

    DemJayhawks

    @Gretchen: I’m going with Davids. I think if she wins the primary she will be attacked for who she is rather than what she’ll do in Congress, but I don’t think the district is ready to go all in on hate. I base this hope on Hillary winning this district in 16.

  83. 83.

    TenguPhule

    @Yutsano: Speaking of which, I have bad news from Hawaii on that front.

    Fucking Ed Case looks to be taking Hanabusa’s House seat, He’s a Blue Dog Republican lite asshole. And he’s currently polling here over 70%. Sorry folks, we’re not going to be sending our best from my district to the House, it seems. Only a miracle or a really juicy scandal about Case can save us now.

  84. 84.

    Brachiator

    @Roger Moore:

    In California, we had to choose between Gavin Newsom and Antonio Villaraigosa, so I feel your pain.

    We could have had John Chiang, but nobody wanted boring but competent Asian guy. They demanded colorful, ineffective philanderers instead.

    I liked Chiang and voted for him. This was despite reading that he came across as not in command of the issues in various discussions with newspaper editorial boards. He did not gain much in the way of endorsements.

    OTOH, we have a boring but competent governor in Jerry Brown. But he is Zen Master boring. He knows how to get things done, and how to maneuver through the political thickets of Sacramento. It has been a pleasure watching him during his political career, and how he seems to be able to blend idealism and political maturity.

    ETA: There is a kind of glass ceiling with respect to Asian American candidates in California. For the past few years, in terms of statewide office, treasurer, Secretary of State, and Comptroller often are held by Asian Americans. Asian Americans are about 15 percent of California, but this is a very diverse group, so an Asian American candidate has to make significant alliances outside his or her “base.”

    ETA ETA: Gavin Newsom has a significant lead in the recent polls over … what’s this name. Generic Republican Nobody. OK. John Cox. In the poll, 45 percent said they back Newsom, vs 28 percent for Cox. A strange 27 percent are undecided, or waiting for the drugs to wear off.

  86. 86.

    Kay

    A large part of the DSA’s surge in membership can be attributed to young people—70 to 80 percent of the 24,000 who have joined DSA since November 2016 are under 35. According to Michelle Fisher, co-chair of DSA’s youth wing, Young Democratic Socialists of America, some of this new membership is still in high school: There are four official chartered chapters of the YDSA in high schools across America. Since Ocasio-Cortez’s win, Fisher says, members from 21 different high schools have expressed interest in organizing chapters at their schools.

    I’ll be thrilled if the youngs become radicals. I’m comfortable with this! I’ll be the stodgy “establishment” and they can be reckless, which is almost their right as youngs. This will work out FINE.

    Come on- who’s with me! :)

  87. 87.

    Fair Economist

    @L85NJGT: The wishful thinking of the BernieBro types helped destroy an attempt at single payer in California. To satisfy them, the plan proposed was a super gold-plated plan, and even CA couldn’t figure out how to pay for it. If the plan had been a basic plan with supplental insurance, like Medicare, we could have done it, but it wasn’t acceptable to allow private insurance to exist.

  90. 90.

    TenguPhule

    US interior secretary Ryan Zinke has prompted puzzlement by meeting with a group that seeks to dismantle a dam providing San Francisco’s water, as experts wonder whether he is taking the fringe proposal seriously or trolling the city.

    Zinke’s Sunday discussion with Restore Hetch Hetchy concerned the dam at Hetch Hetchy reservoir in California’s Yosemite national park. Removing it would restore the valley, which was once so beautiful that the environmentalist John Muir called it “one of nature’s rarest and most precious mountain temples”, to its natural state – and force San Francisco to figure out where else to store 90% of its water supply.

    Is Zinke trolling San Francisco with plan to dismantle city’s reservoir?

    The proposed course of action seems so stupid that nobody sane would attempt it.

    Therefore its plausible. Gods, I miss the Obama Administration where we didn’t have to actually wonder about things like this.

  91. 91.

    Oklahomo

    As a former Kansas who remembers the late 80s/early 90s and all the bullshit that Operation Rescue pulled in Wichita, I hope she wins and all of the assholes like those shitcreeps spontaneously combust.

  93. 93.

    Marcopolo

    My two cents on local races w/ primaries: First, I am all in favor of having well-contested primaries. I don’t buy the line that it leaves candidates beaten and battered ahead of the general. I think, instead, it forces candidates to hone their message to the voters and to work hard to put together a great campaign. The DCCC or state or local party folks should not try to stack the deck for favored candidates. Second, I like to leave it up to the locals to decide who they want to send into the general. I know who I would vote for in the D CD primary race next door (the district line is about 6 blocks from my house) but I haven’t volunteered for that campaign. Third, if I don’t really see a serious difference between two primary candidates I don’t spend much of my time or energy in that race. I have two Dems running to be my state rep this year–the first time the seat has been open in 8 years. The D will win the general handily. Both of them hold pretty much the same position on all the issues. One is a labor lawyer, the other a lawyer who teaches. One is in his 30’s, the other his 40’s. Both tout their rescue dogs in their campaign lit. Both are married. One is gay, the other is a veteran. That is the only major difference between them. But having spoken to both I can’t say one or the other struck me as an “I have got to elect this guy candidate.” I literally will be flipping a coin as to for whom I will be voting in two weeks. Btw this isn’t complaining. There are a lot of other places in this state that I would not even have a D to vote for.

    Good luck to whomever prevails in KS-03. I’ll send them some dough after the primary.

  94. 94.

    germy

    WTF

    Kimberly Guilfoyle did not leave Fox News voluntarily, HuffPost reported Friday.

    According to interviews with 21 sources that HuffPost reporter Yashar Ali conducted over the course of a year, Guilfoyle was pushed out of the network after the human resources department conducted an investigation into allegations of abusive behavior and sexual misconduct.

    Guilfoyle — who said she left the network to join an organization that advocates for her boyfriend’s (Donald Trump Jr.) father’s (President Trump) agenda — reportedly was resistant to leaving and tried to stay past her July exit deadline. She even attempted to appeal to Rupert Murdoch, a longtime friend of President Trump, to keep her on the air. But Murdoch ultimately signed off on her ouster because he was “not interested in allowing” her behavior to continue, in Ali’s words.

    Sources who spoke to HuffPost said Guilfoyle was emotionally abusive toward hair and makeup artists; regularly talked about sexual matters with an assistant who was uninterested in having those conversations; and showed colleagues pictures of male genitalia at work, often identifying whose genitalia she was showing them.

    Guilfoyle also reportedly had a history of bad mouthing her female colleagues and attempted to pit coworkers who supported Roger Ailes against those who supported former host Gretchen Carlson when she came forward with allegations of harassment and sexual misconduct against Ailes in 2016.

    talking points memo

  95. 95.

    Brachiator

    @TenguPhule:

    Fucking Ed Case looks to be taking Hanabusa’s House seat, He’s a Blue Dog Republican lite asshole. And he’s currently polling here over 70%.

    Why is he polling so well?

  100. 100.

    Brachiator

    @gene108:

    From being on DailyKos, when the ACA was being constructed, there seems to be a subset of liberals, who want to end for profit entities. Period.

    For profit private health insurers seem to be the first target they think they can take down. And they feel single-payer will let them dismantle for profit health insurance companies and usher in their socialist utopia.

    Good points. I was talking to some friends about this the other day and reached similar conclusions.

    One thing I think I’ve learned from reading the health insurance posts here is that the insurance industry implemented ACA fairly well, and understood its costs and how to make it work. Things are not perfect, and GOP assaults on ACA have done much to weaken it, but it is still in place and doing what it was designed to do.

    Purity ponies, OTOH, envision a vat of money into which citizens will scoop for health care without regard to any realities or priorities.

  101. 101.

    TenguPhule

    @Brachiator:

    Why is he polling so well?

    I’m guessing name recognition is partly to blame. He’s been running and running and running for quite awhile. We kept him away from the Senate with Brian Schatz. But as soon as Hanabusa stepped down, there he was again with a fuckton of money in his campaign. Which would be the other problem. Its so expensive to campaign here (relatively speaking) that the candidates able to mount a full force media blitz tend to win.

    Also, we do have our share of jerks who fall for the “I’m a bipartisan moderate who will let the wolves lie with the lambs and bring Good Republicans together with Acceptable Democrats to bring a new age of lower taxes and get rid of “those homeless people” who are ruining our paradise.” A lot of people who’d be Republicans in other states have no choice but to stick with the Democratic Party here since the GOP is considered a rare endangered species hovering on the brink of extinction here. So we’re stuck with a lot of unhappy conservatives in the big tent and they don’t care where they’re pissing.

  105. 105.

    TenguPhule

    Prepare to be fucking depressed.

    Because they’re already U.S. citizens, Puerto Ricans are eligible to vote as soon as they move to the mainland. The thinking last fall was that they’d be so angry at Trump that they’d be champing at the bit to vote against Republicans in the midterms. Operatives from both parties said that this could prove decisive in a perennial battleground like Florida where elections are always close.

    Once again, the conventional wisdom turns out to have been wrong. Trump appears to be defying the old rules of politics. In this case, it’s because most of the Puerto Ricans who have come to Florida are not registering to vote or otherwise getting involved in politics. At least for now.

    The freshest data reveals that there has been no surge in new Puerto Rican voters. During the nine months before the hurricane — January through September of 2017 — there were 343,000 people who registered to vote in Florida, and 18 percent were Hispanic, according to Daniel Smith, the chairman of the political science department at the University of Florida. During the nine months after the hurricane — from last October through the end of June — there were 326,000 new registered voters. Just 21 percent were Hispanic. That’s a pretty small uptick — and not necessarily explained by Puerto Rican registration at all.

    The Puerto Ricans emigres have mostly gravitated toward the Orlando area, mainly because so many other Puerto Ricans already lived there. The number of people of Puerto Rican origin living in Florida surpassed 1 million in 2015, which is more than double what it was in 2000. The sprawling settlement of expats outside Orlando is in the heart of the Interstate 4 corridor, which bisects Florida. This swingiest region of the swingiest state in America has determined the outcome of multiple presidential elections.

    But in the two Orlando-area counties with the highest concentration of Puerto Ricans, there has not been any meaningful increase in Democratic registration. In fact, because inactive voters are removed from the rolls, there are 12,315 fewer registered voters in Orange County today than on Election Day in 2016. In Osceola County, there are 3,400 more Democrats, 800 more Republicans and 9,200 more independents than the last election. For context, there are more than 200,000 registered voters in Osceola.

    Steve Schale, a Tallahassee-based Democratic strategist who directed Barack Obama’s 2008 victory in Florida and was a senior adviser on his 2012 reelection campaign, has been closely tracking these numbers in Excel spreadsheets, which he shared Thursday.

    “The concern I’ve had for a while is that … the Maria impact was probably not going to be as significant as people initially thought,” he said. “We’ve got two-and-a-half months left for voter registration. But these numbers show it’s not going to happen organically. … This is a warning flare that there’s real work to be done. … Dems need to be registering around the clock, which they clearly aren’t doing.”

    He’s not alone. Many of the savviest Democrats in Florida are growing anxious that a blue wave might sweep across America in November but bypass their state. Outgoing Gov. Rick Scott (R) is challenging Sen. Bill Nelson (D) in what will surely be one of 2018’s most expensive contests. Republicans and Democrats both have competitive primaries Aug. 28 to pick their nominees for the open governor’s race, which will likely remain a toss-up until the end.

    State Rep. Amy Mercado (D), who is of Puerto Rican descent and represents Orlando, said that many of the folks who came last fall have been struggling to find affordable housing and jobs. “Their main focus obviously is going to be survival,” she said. “They have to contend with trying to figure out their day-to-day lives. So, honestly, the last thing they’re thinking about is politics.”

    Fuck.

    /Bring on the accusations of doom and gloom! Now tell me this article is wrong.

  106. 106.

    Major Major Major Major

    @schrodingers_cat:

    BS bros are hounding Davids about single payer in her twitter feed. Its like a magic incantation for these doofuses.

    No ‘like’ about it–it is a magical incantation, or at least a shibboleth.

    @zhena gogolia:

    If someone says “single payer” or “free college” now, I just scratch them off my list.

    Free college in particular bothers me, not because we shouldn’t have it, but because Sanders’s proposal (which is almost always what people mean) gives most of its benefits to the better-off. People don’t engage with this issue at even a basic level of complexity. (Hillary, that monster, suggested targeted financial aid, IMO much more sensible, not to mention affordable.)

  107. 107.

    geg6

    @TenguPhule:

    Well, I don’t know much about Florida politics and what it’s like on the ground, but it would seem to me that the idea that these new Puerto Rican mainlanders are more concerned with getting their lives together makes perfect sense. And, again because I have no idea, I would think, however, that there is still time to get them registered and fire them up. I know that FL is one of the states that has been seeing a large uptick in voter registrations among the young. Obviously, a lot of that has been spurred by the Parkland kids. Maybe someone should get them on this?

  108. 108.

    trollhattan

    @germy:
    Somebody too awful for Fox. The mind cannot comprehend but then the mind observes she’s on her way into the Trump fold and suddenly understands.

    She’ll also totally get an NRA gig. They have a thing for brunettes.

  109. 109.

    TenguPhule

    @geg6: By all accounts the local Florida Democratic party has been trying for months. Unfortunately so are the local Republicans. But the number on the needle still isn’t budging much.

  110. 110.

    geg6

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Free college in particular bothers me, not because we shouldn’t have it, but because Sanders’s proposal (which is almost always what people mean) gives most of its benefits to the better-off. People don’t engage with this issue at even a basic level of complexity. (Hillary, that monster, suggested targeted financial aid, IMO much more sensible, not to mention affordable.)

    As a 20-year veteran in financial aid (finally as a director now), I could not possibly agree more with this comment. Targeted financial aid is the best way to go. You could even add in some performance-based aid, too. I’d like to see all federal loans, Parent PLUS and Stafford alike, be subsidized loans and completely scrap the unsubsidized loan. I’d like for Pell eligibility to be expanded to an EFC in the five figures. I’d like to see loan forgiveness programs expanded massively. But I see no reason wealthy kids should get a free college education. So I’m all for expanding federal grants well into the middle class, to subsidize all student and parent loans while the student is in school (and during the six-month grace period before repayment kicks in) and expand the loan forgiveness programs. But I’m not a fan of free college for everyone. That only gives another hand up to those who don’t need it.

  111. 111.

    Brachiator

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Free college in particular bothers me, not because we shouldn’t have it

    I probably would support “free college” only in return for at least 2 years of government service.

    @schrodingers_cat:

    BS bros are hounding Davids about single payer in her twitter feed. Its like a magic incantation for these doofuses.

    I still remember an old, old episode of Bill Moyer’s Journal, where every guest wailed about the failure of the US to implement “single payer,” but no one ever defined what single payer would consist of or consider any other universal health insurance plan. The program was a total waste of time, but an early insight into the purity pony mindset.

  112. 112.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Free college is appearing in small ways that need to spread and grow. I’m thinking about the ability of HS students to get college credit while still in HS, and also about CA’s effort to provide two years of community college tuition free if the student goes directly from HS.

  113. 113.

    Chyron HR

    @Kay:

    the 24,000 who have joined DSA

    HA HA HA HOLY SHIT

    So if each one of them can kill 2,750 of the neoliberal shills who voted for the wall street whore Clinton, then they’ll purge the country of us and create a socialist paradise? Good luck, kids!

  115. 115.

    geg6

    @Brachiator:

    I probably would support “free college” only in return for at least 2 years of government service.

    This is what the loan forgiveness programs are about. The current loan forgiveness programs target education and government service. For example, if you, a recent secondary education graduate, commit to a five-year stint in a poor school district (urban or rural, makes no difference), you make 48 loan payments and the rest are forgiven. About 7-10 years ago, it was nurses of all kinds in all places. We could expand that program to many other careers/professions where people are needed.

    ETA: I was able to take advantage of loan forgiveness for my MEd. My position at my major research state university is considered government service for the purpose of the loan forgiveness program. I paid four years and was forgiven the rest.

  116. 116.

    Jay

    Booman has a must read up today:

    “fast now, with emoluments reaching the charts for the first time yesterday, his former fixer looking to reprise John Dean’s role, his former campaign manager about to begin the first of two doomed trials, and the Southern District of New York hauling his finance chief before a grand jury. He’s getting caught in his big lies on an almost daily basis now, with his feigned ignorance of hush payments to ex-girlfriends and foreknowledge of collusion-rich meetings with Kremlin emissaries turning to ash in his mouth.

    At least when Nixon went to China he didn’t tell the world that all our differences were due to stupid Americans and that Mao Zedong was far more credible than CIA director Richard Helms and the rest of the Deep State goons working in our intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Tricky Dick was a paranoid thug but half the country wasn’t convinced with good reason that he was a helpless agent of a foreign power.

    Deep Throat aside, most of the establishment was reluctant to think the worst of Nixon. At this point, you can almost pick any former high-ranking intelligence officer you want and find them quoted as suspecting Trump of treason. Even Fox News generals are quitting while accusing the president of being “a slave to Putin.”

    http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2018/7/27/114142/762

  118. 118.

    Doug R

    @Baud:

    He’s stumped for others though. I don’t know why this primary caused such a stir.

    The candidate he’s supporting is a white guy who parachuted in who happened to work on Bernie’s campaign. Vs a LGBT indigenous woman who served in the Obama white house.

  119. 119.

    ruemara

    @The Ancient Randonneur: Caring about the country has a day rate of $2k. Any more and care goes out the window.

    @TenguPhule: It’s not wrong and it’s not up to us to keep telling people their lives depend on their vote. I’m pretty much at the “here’s your fuckery you earned” stage. You can’t rescue people who can’t help rescue themselves.

    @Doug R: He’s also using AOC as a useful idiot to hide behind this perfect example of white male focused liberalism. Which has done yeoman’s work disillusioning me of having a smart savvy WOC start a progressive wave in very blue districts.

  121. 121.

    Brachiator

    @geg6:

    This is what the loan forgiveness programs are about.

    Thanks very much for filling in the details on how these programs can work. Makes a lot of sense.

  123. 123.

    Jay

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Donno, I just read Booman, not the comments. Not part of the community in any way.

    This is one of the few commentariats where the moron ratio is extremely low.

    All out of fucks to give for morons and trolls.

  124. 124.

    jonas

    @tobie: In NY-22, state Assemblyman Anthony Brindisi is running to unseat the awful Claudia Tenney, who, since riding in on Trump’s coattails in 2016 (by a slim margin), has 1. done ass-all as a Congresswoman, and 2. when she can be assed to do something, it’s always to fall right in line behind Trump and Ryan. This is a solidly purple district — lots of rural areas, with a couple of small cities (Utica, Binghamton, Cortland) — that tends to go back and forth between D and R control. I think Brindisi has a good shot.

  125. 125.

    Gretchen

    Free college leaves out the kids who have already got mortgage-sized student loans. One of my kids owes more than $100,000, and they hiked the interest rates. I know a young MD who owes more than a quarter million. This is before they buy houses or cars or have kids or anything. Daughter is in the 10-year loan forgiveness program, and is making income-based payments. She’s thinking she shouldn’t marry her boyfriend for 8 more years so she doesn’t have his income considered too.

  126. 126.

    tobie

    @Gretchen: Hillary proposed debt-free college which would cancel college debt once you reach a certain age so you’re not saddled with debt well into your adult years while you yourself are saving for your kids to go to college. The thinking behind the proposal was pretty straightforward: no one would acquire a mountain of debt if they could already afford to go to college. It wouldn’t be worth it for them to get saddled with loan payments for ten years, whereas the truly needy would take out loans and at some point the loans ought to be forgiven. I think she was trying to avoid the transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy that often goes with ‘free college.’ Interestingly this is one of HRC’s policy ideas that’s been adopted by progressive candidates. Both Ben Jealous and AOC have it in their platform.

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