Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

I’m sure you banged some questionable people yourself.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Good lord, these people are nuts.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

I really should read my own blog.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2018 / Monday Morning Open Thread: Shana Tova!

Monday Morning Open Thread: Shana Tova!

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For those among us who celebrate Rosh Hashanah. And couldn’t a lot of us use a new year, right about now?

(Although I’ve always kept faith with the mantra of my people: Forgive, sometimes. Forget, never.)

That being said…

Remember: Sharing is caring…

Reader Interactions

86Comments

  2. 2.

    opiejeanne

    Good morning.

    and IT’S RAINING HERE!!!

    The PNW has had very little rain since early April. I should go to sleep now. Busy day on Monday.

  7. 7.

    Mai Naem mobile

    I’ve been wanting to write about this since our primary, a couple of weeks ago. I’ll be honest,I don’t pay a lot of attention to local races, partly because the Dems in AZ are weak and the primaries are really not worth voting in. Anyhow, we had a really well known pol run for Education Chief against somebody I’ve never heard of. He was a State Senator and had a big part in the RedforEd movement here(our version of the WV teachers strike.) My teevee viewing is limited to a few channels but I never saw a single teevee ad from him. His opponent ran a few teevee ads. Not like Bloomberg for NY mayor ads but a few ads. We also had a multicandidate race for Corporation Commission with 2 openings where there were two well known pols(one an incumbent) running against a total unknown and the unknown won. Same thing here. She ran a few teevee ads. I never saw an ad for the other two if they did. Keep in mind this is the primary not the general so I don’t know if you get the same results. Anyhow, my conclusion is that teevee ads must make a difference. BTW,the ads I saw weren’t spectacular. Just boilerplate brief bio and will fight for you kind of ad.
    BTW the GOP or their allies are running a couple of really nasty continual ads against Kyrsten Sinema and David Garcia,the Dem gubernatorial candidate.

  9. 9.

    NotMax

    So, all you The Great British Baking Show fans (I know you’re out there) – any of you watched Zumbo’s Just Desserts on Netflix? Thumbs up or down? Just beginning the first episode in the background.

  11. 11.

    JR

    @NotMax: Zumba is like a Food Network competition show. Nailed It! Is a better option. You won’t see good baking, though. But it is hilarious.

  16. 16.

    satby

    @rikyrah: Good morning ?!
    @OzarkHillbilly: ?

    And good morning to everyone else! @opiejeanne: Good to hear you’re getting some much needed rain, the rest of us east of the Mississippi wouldn’t mind sending more to the entire West coast.
    Hope everyone in the potential path is doing prep for Florence.

  17. 17.

    delk

    Good Morning
    I put I long pants on this morning for the first time in months. While I’m not too happy about it, I am glad they at least fit.

  18. 18.

    satby

    @delk: It’ll be back in the 80s in a few days, so more shorts days coming. I’m loving this cooler weather with so much less humidity, and so are the furry kids.

  19. 19.

    geg6

    Still sick, perhaps worse than over the weekend. Am thinking now this may not be a cold but perhaps a flu. Ugh, I’m miserable.

    Got awakened today around 5 am by a huge explosion and when I looked out the window, the entire sky was bright orange, which was weird because it’s pouring down rain. Seems the huge pipeline they are building about a mile down the road to service the new Shell cracker plant exploded. I’m just outside the evacuation area and our house is next door to the local fire station. Every truck went barreling out and you could hear the sirens from neighboring towns heading our way. Never heard so many since the USAir plane crash not far away back in 1994. Crazy.

  20. 20.

    Betty Cracker

    Here’s an app/site recommendation for hurricane watchers: Windy (windy.com and/or Windy app). I found it pretty useful during Irma. It consolidates data from multiple sources and projects storm movement over time. Like the forecasts it’s based on, it gets more accurate as the storm approaches. Good luck to all in the path.

  22. 22.

    debbie

    @Mai Naem mobile:

    The GOP is running really nasty ads against Cordray here in Ohio. They’re accusing him of doing nothing in regard to workplace abuse and discrimination while he was at the CFPB; of ignoring women in Ohio when he was AG; and, most recently, of compromising the personal information of hundreds of thousands of citizen while he was at the CFPB. Cordray’s attorneys have objected, but they haven’t done much more. This has me worried.

  24. 24.

    Tokyokie

    The clear path to recapturing the Senate does not include Beto knocking of the oleaginous Ted Cruz, and that’s going to happen.

  28. 28.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Fun tweets. I especially like the quotes around “smooth running machine.”

    The GDP Rate (4.2%) is higher than the Unemployment Rate (3.9%) for the first time in over 100 years!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 10, 2018

    If the Democrats had won the Election in 2016, GDP, which was about 1% and going down, would have been minus 4% instead of up 4.2%. I opened up our beautiful economic engine with Regulation and Tax Cuts. Our system was choking and would have been made worse. Still plenty to do!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 10, 2018

    The Woodward book is a Joke – just another assault against me, in a barrage of assaults, using now disproven unnamed and anonymous sources. Many have already come forward to say the quotes by them, like the book, are fiction. Dems can’t stand losing. I’ll write the real book!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 10, 2018

    The White House is a “smooth running machine.” We are making some of the biggest and most important deals in our country’s history – with many more to come! The Dems are going crazy!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 10, 2018

  30. 30.

    Amir Khalid

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:
    I’m not at all surprised that Donald Trump lives in a fantasy universe where he is a successful and popular POTUS doing great things for America,But I still find it depressing.

  34. 34.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    The White House is a “smooth running machine.”

    Systems which act as “smooth running machines” (in my experience, referred to as “well-oiled machines”, but whatever) generally do not have to point that out. Just as really rich people don’t say “I’m really rich” or really smart people don’t say “I’m really smart.”

  38. 38.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Our new Governor is kind of an anti-Grietens, which to say the least is rather refreshing.

    From there, he has set about trying to reverse the often combative, confrontational course set by his predecessor. He removed the electronic lock that the notoriously media-averse Greitens had installed on the door to the governor’s press office. Now, on most days, the door is open to the public.

    “I really want to make an effort to be transparent. I really want to do that,” he said.

    Parson also has held numerous meetings with mayors, county officials and lawmakers, many of whom had felt largely shut out of the decision-making process under the former administration. And, he kept most of Greitens’ agency heads on board.

    In his first 100 days, Parson has spent a lot of time listening. He’s made treks to Kansas City and St. Louis, hoping to bridge the urban and rural divide in Missouri, and he’s promoted the idea of workforce development, a catch-all phrase for making sure young Missourians are ready for the jobs that await them.

    He’s also a bit of an old school Republican, not knee jerk anti tax:

    He’s also gotten solidly behind a proposed gas tax increase, pitching it as a way to improve the state’s highways and create construction industry jobs. In November, voters will be asked to weigh in on a phased-in 10-cent increase in the state’s 17-cent per gallon motor fuel tax. It would be the first boost since the Legislature approved a 6-cent increase in 1992.

    “That will change Missouri for the future, dramatically,” Parson said.

    Mind you, he’s a Republican, so I doubt there are many areas of agreement, but to have a Republican say that investing in our infrastructure with higher taxes is a good idea? Grover Norquist’s head must be near exploding. It’s almost like sanity has returned to Jeff City.

    Now if only we could say the same about D.C.

  40. 40.

    Kay

    @Amir Khalid:

    There’s kind of two ways to look at it. DeWine should be doing better. Trump won this state by a substantial margin and DeWine has been a politician for 100 years, so has all the name recognition, yet he’s even with Cordray. So there’s a group of people who think DeWine releasing this barrage of lies is an indication of his weakness. Those same people also think “rebutting” lies using traditional methods no longer works. So Cordray has a choice- he can respond with attacks on DeWine or he can just stay the course and keep the (general) positive theme. But “rebutting” lies is probably not in the cards- post-Trump no one believes that works. I tend to agree with them. There’s only X amount of time and X amount of energy. You can spend weeks correcting DeWine but is that a good use of time and energy? In an environment where lying doesn’t matter?

    They’re all going to have to rethink how they do things. Trump has really lowered the bar and the whole GOP are racing him to the bottom. No one knows how to do this now, but no one will admit that, partly because they’re paid to know what to do but partly because it’s frightening and new – how blatant lying is now the norm- and they want to deny it’s happening.

  44. 44.

    Kay

    @Amir Khalid:

    It’s hard because there’s this outrage “he’s lying!” – but there’s no good response to it. “Good” as in “effective”. If people don’t care that they are lying then they don’t care- you can’t make them care.

    It’s really bad for the country, etc. and we can discuss it endlessly – “does lying matter, is there TRUTH?” but that doesn’t help people who are dealing with this new reality in a new environment. They have to figure out if it’s worth rebutting or if there’s a more worthwhile use of limited time.

    Alternately, Cordray could just attack DeWine from here to November. That’s maybe the safe approach.

    The lying is a problem. It changes everything.

  49. 49.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: Actually Kay, I think @Baud: might be on to something. Forget directly responding to as debbie said

    They’re accusing him of doing nothing in regard to workplace abuse and discrimination while he was at the CFPB; of ignoring women in Ohio when he was AG; and, most recently, of compromising the personal information of hundreds of thousands of citizen while he was at the CFPB

    Instead make an ad with an accusation about DeWine that is so outrageous people can only laugh:

    “Mike DeWine wants to kill 2 birds with one stone, solving the problem of disposable diapers in our landfills by using them to pave our roads with. Driving will be a little stinkier but just roll up your windows. Besides, what price progress?”

    People will vote for Cordray just to keep the jokes coming

  50. 50.

    Jeffro

    Hmmm…Monday…let’s weight the pluses and minuses…

    Plus side:
    – got in a great swim this morning!
    – should be a pretty productive day
    – this is now common knowledge across our fair land (even if BJ was onto it 2+ years ago): The Urgent Question of Trumpov and Money Laundering

    …[Trumpov] could make his life easier if only he treated Vladimir Putin the way he treats most people who cause problems — and cast Putin aside. Yet Trump can’t bring himself to do so.

    This odd refusal is arguably the biggest reason to believe that Putin really does have leverage over Trump. Maybe it’s something shocking, like a sex tape or evidence of campaign collusion by Trump himself. Or maybe it’s the scandal that’s been staring us in the face all along: Illicit financial dealings — money laundering — between Trump’s business and Russia.

    The latest reason to be suspicious is Trump’s attacks on a formerly obscure Justice Department official named Bruce Ohr. Trump has repeatedly criticized Ohr and called for him to be fired. Ohr’s sin is that he appears to have been marginally involved in inquiries into Trump’s Russian links. But Ohr fits a larger pattern. In his highly respected three-decade career in law enforcement, he has specialized in going after Russian organized crime.

    It just so happens that most of the once-obscure bureaucrats whom Trump has tried to discredit also are experts in some combination of Russia, organized crime and money laundering.

    It’s true of Andrew McCabe (the former deputy F.B.I. director whose firing Trump successfully lobbied for), Andrew Weissmann (the only official working for Robert Mueller whom Trump singles out publicly) and others. They are all Trump bogeymen — and all among “the Kremlin’s biggest adversaries in the U.S. government,” as Natasha Bertrand wrote in The Atlantic. Trump, she explained, seems to be trying to rid the government of experts in Russian organized crime.

    Hundreds of charges against dozens of people: let’s have it, Mr. Mueller!

    Minus side:
    – idiots like Megan McCardle are still writing for the Post
    – I had to cancel out of my FL conference thanks to Hurricane Florence (yes I know it’s heading for the Carolinas…still not going to put myself out there for something so easily avoidable)
    – Ted Cruz’s defeat is not yet a sure thing…I haz a sad there…but I dunno, maybe this one belongs in the ‘plus’ column

    Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is pulling in the big guns, from PACs to President Donald Trump, to help him shore up his reelection bid in a race that’s looking increasingly uncertain thanks to the robust challenge by Democrat Beto O’Rourke.

    According to a Sunday Politico report, the Republican powers-that-be were getting concerned about the former GOP stronghold two months ago, sending Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to lobby the White House on Cruz’s behalf. Soon after, Trump announced an October rally for Cruz.

    This is part of a larger push within the GOP to divert resources to Cruz’s campaign, considered a safe Republican hold before O’Rourke’s challenge and notable fundraising success.

    Come on Beto, you can do it! I’m-a gonna send you another $50 today just because almost nothing would make me happier than seeing “former Senator Ted Cruz (R-douchebag)” on chyrons everywhere November 7th. Almost nothing.

    Be happy warriors, peeps!

  52. 52.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Kay: It’s more than lying. It’s a total lack of good faith on the Republican side. They will say and do anything to win. And I don’t know how to deal with it either, especially with Faux News reinforcing it for the faithful.

  55. 55.

    Kristine

    @satby: Yup–my Gaby is loving the cooler weather, and I’m loving being able to open the windows.

    I’m farther north than you, and on the lake, so we could be looking at solid highs in the 70s for the next week. Maybe even the 60s beyond that. I will miss the flowers and the greenery, but I confess I am looking forward to cooler, drier weather.

  56. 56.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Andrew Gillum has a similar problem here in FL in the race for governor. DeSantis (the embarrassing Trump clone) is flat-out lying about Gillum. Should he respond to it? Try to keep the campaign positive? I don’t know the answer.

  58. 58.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Jeffro: time wimp—I came to Florida anyway! Hope Flo goes north; would hate to cut short an exciting week of bargaining.

    Steve in the 407

  59. 59.

    sdhays

    @El Caganer:

    Is there anything this man can’t do?

    Feel empathy? Read and write above a third-grade level? Comprehend the existence of other people outside the context of himself?

  62. 62.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Jeffro:

    This is part of a larger push within the GOP to divert resources to Cruz’s campaign, considered a safe Republican hold before O’Rourke’s challenge and notable fundraising success.

    Definitely on the plus side. Texas is supposed to be scarlet red. If they have to put resources there, they can’t put them into NV or IA or VA or….

  64. 64.

    Ajabu

    Since it’s an Open Thread::
    My Mentor, Hero & Best Friend RANDY WESTON – the last remaining genius of jazz piano – died Saturday, Sept. 1st
    at the age of 92 (still performing on a regular basis).
    His funeral is today in New York. If you don’t know who he was, please google his name and find out why he is the most important Black jazz musician of the last half of the 20th Century & beyond.
    Here’s the NYT Obit.
    Later I’ll discuss Randy & Institutional racism. Not now.
    Rest in Power, RW. I Love You, Brother.

  67. 67.

    Cheryl Rofer

    PSA: If you are on Twitter, you should follow this account. They guy came home one day to find a mother cat giving birth under his bed. He was not an animal lover before, but he fell in love with his cat family. Here’s the latest in his thread about them.

  68. 68.

    Jeffro

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Texas is supposed to be scarlet red. If they have to put resources there, they can’t put them into NV or IA or VA or….

    True and a very good point. VA, however, is so thoroughly locked up for Kaine that he is spending his time and money campaigning for other Dems around the state. I mean, they’re technically co-campaigning but Corey Stewart’s polling is so bad that Kaine’s like, “eh, lemme go help out my fellow Dems and see if we can’t run Dave Brat and Barbara Comstock out on a rail.”

    Virginia’s a pretty blue state at this point and you know, thank goodness for that. The GOP here is about as bad as it gets.

  69. 69.

    Heidi Mom

    @geg6: Sending good thoughts to Beaver Countians, whether they’re affected by the flu or the pipeline explosion. I lived in Beaver (the town) from 8/87 to 10/95 and remember well the airplane crash. My boss’s son was almost on that flight but gave up his seat because it was overbooked. He was reading a good book and didn’t mind waiting around for the next flight.

  70. 70.

    NotMax

    Pungent in Ms Cracker’s neighborhood.

    The toxic algae bloom that has carved a trail of dead animals and triggered a putrid stench along western Florida’s coastline has drifted further north, killing hundreds of thousands of fish in the Tampa Bay region.

    The legions of dead fish were reported in a 20-mile stretch of coastline from Clearwater to St. Petersburg, environmental officials with Pinellas County told the Tampa Bay Times on Saturday. Source

  71. 71.

    NotMax

    Wow.

    “Up until now, we’ve had a better map of Mars than we’ve had of Antarctica. Now it is the best-mapped continent,” said Ian Howat, professor of earth sciences and director of the Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center at The Ohio State University. “If you’re someone that needs glasses to see, it’s a bit like being almost blind and putting on glasses for the first time and seeing 20/20.”

    This new high resolution terrain map of Earth’s frozen continent will help researchers better track changes on the ice as the planet warms. The new map has a resolution of 2 to 8 meters, compared to 1,000 meters, which was typical for previous maps.
    [snip]
    How detailed is the map? Well, the total file size is more than 150 terabytes, or 150,000 gigabytes.… Source

  73. 73.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Jeffro: I was thinking along the lines of rural congressional races more than Senate. I am not hopeful that the Senate is really in play, tho I’ll be very happy if I am wrong.

  74. 74.

    Kathleen

    @Kay: Chabot is also running vile, nasty campaign against Pureval who is also not responding except to say “Chabot said this but we can do better”. Between DeWine slime and this crap I’m on constant outrage overload.

  75. 75.

    Luthe

    I hadn’t realized how much the Euro has dropped against the dollar. Tickets for ballet school demonstrations at the Opera Garnier(!!) go on sale tomorrow and I can get really good seats for less than $25. This is going to be awesome.

  76. 76.

    ellie

    @debbie: When I was home visiting family in Ohio I saw those ads, which in effect said, “Mike DeWine cares about women and will authorize money to fix the backlog in rape kits.” I laughed so hard that I almost pulled a muscle.

  77. 77.

    Ksmiami

    @Jeffro: tbh I’m sick of positivity- we need to shut the jack asses in the gop down and explain their vision for America means more poverty, forced birth, homelessness, war and division- a very bleak future. I’d say go for the throat.

  78. 78.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Should he respond to it? Try to keep the campaign positive? I don’t know the answer.

    That’s not an either/or. My guess would be “don’t respond, instead just attack the other guy”

    This whole “response” thing is just not going anywhere – there’s no shame- forget it and try something else :)

    Kavanaugh is a good example. Okay- they are defending a Supreme Court nominee based on this standard : “did he violate the law”

    That’s a REALLY low standard! So LYING is a-ok as long as it’s not specifically actionable as perjury?

    That’s the environment we’re in. NOT breaking the law means “you’re hired!”

    There’s two kinds of people. The people who think Trump is a blip and the people who think Trump has changed things so we need a new approach. I’m in that second group. More than that, really. I think the people who believe Trump is a blip are deluding themselves because they’re scared.

    What to do? Try some new things and just keep going. That’s all I got.

  79. 79.

    Capri

    @OzarkHillbilly: This reminds me of Holcombe, Indiana’s GOP governor. He was appointed, so he didn’t have to appeal to nutjobs to get his seat. He has raised taxes to support infrastructure and says he’ll do it again.

    The first thing out of his mouth as governor is that he wasn’t going to concern himself with the identity politics, which earned the wrath of many GOP pols who expected him to pick up the anti-woman, anti-gay mantle left for him by Pence.

    When he did have to run for his seat, he had a track record of not being insane.

  80. 80.

    Jay C

    @Spanky:

    Sen. Ben Sasse: I think about leaving the GOP ‘every morning’

    Yeah, right: like so many other GOP “mavericks” he leaves his house every morning as a clear-thinking independent, and arrives at his office a party-line hack. Every day.

  81. 81.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Jay C: “I think about leaving the GOP and then decide to continue my 100% voting-with-Trump streak every day”, I assume he meant to say.

  82. 82.

    J R in WV

    Well, the open details of politics can be disgusting. I once spent two consecutive legislative sessions pointing a camera at legislative committee hearings full time M-F… it was interesting in the sense that a slow-moving train wreck is fascinating. Horrific in every sense.

    I have a couple of questions. First, what was Mueller’s team doing in Grand Jury all day Friday? I don’t expect an answer, necessarily, but am way interested. Going to hit another contribution to Beto too.

    Second, regarding the US Open women’s championship…

    What the hell was a guy name of Luis Ruiz doing in the umpire’s (referee’s ? I don’t do tennis so I dunno) chair for Serena and Naomi’s final match on Saturday?

    What do men have to do with Women’s Tennis at all? This guy seemed both misogynist and racist to me, and I don’t think the women need to put up with that crap AT ALL!!!

    They should all get together and tell the men now in charge that they won’t play for them like good little girls, won’t play for them at all, ever again, they need to bring in women interested in tennis to take over the sport for the women. Fuck that shit working for Da Man!!!

    Start a really Women’s league, offer to appear in the events, but managed by female tennis people, not these misogynist and racist assholes!!!

  83. 83.

    J R in WV

    @Luthe:

    In Britain it’s still Pounds, not Euros, but Pounds are probably lower than Euros from Brexit. Have fun, I admire your traveling around while you’re young!

  85. 85.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    I know everyone’s long gone (sigh), but I dispute this:

    My guess would be “don’t respond, instead just attack the other guy”

    You can do both at once. For instance, “Mike DeWine says Richard Cordray refused to process rape kits, when in fact, rape kits were the purview of local police departments, not the Attorney General’s office.” You’re not attacking DeWine; you’re setting the record straight.

  86. 86.

    TomatoQueen

    @J R in WV: Men run tennis. It’s changing slowly, ever so slowly, but that’s how the big game is. I am not at all inclined to segregate the two, as resources will not be devoted equally to both. (see women’s soccer for many many similarities) There was a woman in the official’s chair for the men’s final. This is progress.

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