Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Bark louder, little dog.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Republicans don’t trust women.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

The frogs are rarely mistaken.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

It could be worse. Vance could have said “post-menopausal sows.” Waiting for that audiotape to surface.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / Don't Agonize - Organize / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Take Heart, and Keep Fighting

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Take Heart, and Keep Fighting

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We can’t stop pushing for every single vote, but let’s not get discouraged by the Cult of the Savvy insisting that the GOP have the election in the bag. Peter Hamby, at Vanity Fair, “Get Over Your Election-Needle P.T.S.D.: The Blue Wave Is Real, and It’s a Monster”:

… National polling organizations have never really bothered to spend time or money polling House races, instead devoting their energy to sexier statewide Senate campaigns or approval ratings about the president. As a result, national pundits keep getting floored by the “shocking” success of insurgent Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York, Andrew Gillum in Florida, and Ayanna Pressley in Massachusetts. If they had paid attention to the yard signs and chatter, or the opinions of the people living and breathing in those states and districts, political journalists might not have been blindsided…

For any American with a pulse and even a whiff of political intelligence, two things are now self-evident with just two months until Election Day. Democrats everywhere in the country will walk over broken glass to vote in November, and Republicans are about to confront an unholy midterm bloodbath up and down the ballot. Every single piece of on-the-ground reporting suggests a wipeout on par with 2006 or 2010.

So why are the experts unwilling to say as much? Yes, the idea that Democrats will take over the House has congealed into conventional wisdom, and Republicans on Capitol Hill will privately tell you they’re bracing themselves for a turnover in the lower chamber. But few journalists or pundits are willing to step out further and declare what should be pretty obvious to any reporter who has covered campaigns in the past: the vaunted blue wave is coming. Not only will it buoy Democrats to retake the House, but it will also propel Democratic Senate candidates in red states and power down-ballot Democrats into state legislative seats in every corner of the country. That’s exactly what happened in Virginia’s elections last year, right? That’s how it feels right now, a total wipeout for Republicans, even ones we assumed were safe. But in politics, the heart and the head are always at war.

“There is some P.T.S.D. from 2016,” said Amy Walter, the editor of the Cook Political Report. “Nobody wants to go out and feel too confident because of the ‘what if’ factor. All of the indicators are, ‘Boy, this is going to be really bad for Republicans.’ If you’re the party in power, and your incumbents in districts that were easily held before are now only up within the margin of error, that’s not good. Or you can look at it and say, ‘Well in 2016, Hillary was up by the margin of error and look what happened!’”…

‘What happened’ — as we know now — was that a foreign power colluded with the leaders of the GOP (and a deeply supine media) to steal the Presidency for a grifting moron and the thieving phonies who’d support him. But if we keep our eyes on the prize, that’s a trick that can’t be repeated. Constantly proclaiming that we’re all doomed doyouheardoomed is just another trick to distract us.

Reader Interactions

114Comments

  1. 1.

    Betty Cracker

    If Carlson knocks off Spano in the Florida 15th, we definitely have a monster wave on our hands. The area is described as “outer Tampa burbs” above, but that’s only true for about a third of the district, which encompasses a lot of deeply red rural communities.

  2. 2.

    tybee

    waiting on the 5am update from NOAA. Wrightsville Beach still looks like ground zero. we’ll get some of it…

  4. 4.

    Quinerly

    Good morning! Florence watching. Keeping an eye on my areas of Carteret County (coast) and Pitt County (70 miles inland). We are safe in St. Louis. Looking forward to the Webster Groves Blues Fest this weekend. Have a great Thursday.

  6. 6.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Ah the irony. I have been glued to the Florence coverage and it wasn’t until I went to the Weather Channel site this morning that I discovered that we in the NW of England are going to be hit by the remnants of Helene this weekend. Guess I should have been paying attention. It is not going to be that bad though just increased wind and rain. Still keeping everyone in the path of Florence in my thoughts.

  7. 7.

    J R in WV

    Blech~!! Too early, thank dawg for life on the innertuubes while the bed returns to normal. Some cold water in a minute, back to bed shortly, but nice to see people starting up a morning like it was any day now.

    Yesterday I got a big envelope with soft lumpy stuff in it. It was two WV Democrat with Blue Wave on them, and two baseball caps with a nice little embroidered Blue Wave over the cap’s bill. Will wear to phone bank or to canvass.

  9. 9.

    J R in WV

    @J R in WV:

    It was two WV Democrat [Tee Shirts] with Blue Wave on them, and two baseball caps with a nice little embroidered Blue Wave over the cap’s bill.

    It was supposed to say two WV Dem Tee Shirts — damm it! Too early inna morning to be talking/typing!!

  11. 11.

    Betty Cracker

    @tybee: You be careful, okay? Looks like it’s going to get pretty ugly on the northern Georgia coast this weekend. The spin should pull the water away from you for the worst of it, though, if the current track holds. I was just out in the yard a while ago and could see the stars with unusual clarity, as if Florence had sucked all the humidity out of the air here to dump on our neighbors to the north.

  12. 12.

    Phylllis

    We’re in the storm’s path. Having school today, closed tomorrow until further notice. I’m thinking further notice will be well into next week.

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    They called him the dine-and-dash dater, a charming, smooth-talking, handsome 45-year-old man who would allegedly chat women online, offer to treat them at upscale Los Angeles restaurants and then vanish without a word after shoveling down one, sometimes two, expensive entrees.

    As he failed to return from the toilet, or from a phone call he said he needed to take from one of his children, the women would quickly realise that he wasn’t interested in dating.

    He was in it for the free food.

    And maybe the thrill of it. And maybe also the flirtation with danger.

  19. 19.

    Raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: When I was in high school there was an all night diner called “Snacktime”. We’d eat all kinds of shit and pay for an order of fries. We had a hangout in my buddies vasement called “JImmy’s Place” where we had a “beat a check wall” where we post our ill gotten gains!

  21. 21.

    Chris Johnson

    @NotMax: That’s nice and gotta love Linda Ronstadt, but that’s not the message politically.

    Can’t be like ‘for shame, apologize and maybe we’ll forgive you’, that is no recipe for a blue wave.

    More like ‘Let’s you and me kick the SHIT out of Trump, ICE, etc etc’.

    Eyes on the prize.

  24. 24.

    Central Planning

    My dad lives on the island near Morehead City, NC (where one of the Weather Channel guys was reporting last night). He said they won’t evacuate because they are 17′ above the high tide and have a 3 story house so they can always stay away from potential flooding. They have lived there for almost 25 years and feel pretty confident they can ride out the storm just fine.

    In other news, the NRA is still batshit crazy (from USAToday):

    Using a jarring image to blast increased diversity on a children’s TV show, a National Rifle Association online show depicted characters from “Thomas & Friends” in white, Ku Klux Klan-style hoods on burning train tracks. 

  26. 26.

    Steeplejack (sky-high wi-fi)

    Steep checking in from high above the fruited plain—about halfway to Denver, then a plane change and on to Las Vegas.

    Hope FYWP remembers this nym. And i hope I got it right.

  27. 27.

    waratah

    Cruz bought adds on Stephen Colbert last night when Beto was on the show. They were for select areas and one of the areas was for Amarillo which really surprised me. They are very worried.

  28. 28.

    Cermet

    Not a good idea to ride out a storm on the coast; if anything goes wrong, there is no help and the water can’t be crossed because it is everywhere during the storm – including waves and the hurricane force winds! Also, power will be gone for some time after and there will be no potable water available nor stores. fema will most likely do a bad job and frankly, the storm may very well get stronger as it crosses all that warm gulf stream water so Cat II might be on the low side – it might grow into a a Cat III, and this is possible, even a Cat IV just before landfall and that level will destroy even strongest buildings when the surge engulfs the area. Not a good idea to stay.

  30. 30.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: every time I read something like the Guardian, I remembered we used to have news media that included background info, historical and geographic context, and facts. I wish we still did.

  32. 32.

    SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal

    @NotMax:
    @Chris Johnson:

    In the original source, though, Mabel directs the “for shame” lines to her sisters because they had shunned the young pirate; “Poor wand’ring one” is addressed to Frederick.

  43. 43.

    Amir Khalid

    @satby:
    Like the print newspaper itself, the daily 7pm deadline of the newspaper age is a thing of the past. These days the deadline is NOW NOW NOW! You don’t have time to look up background info! People don’t have time to read it anyway! And before the thing is even over, the editor is already demanding, “Where is my story?”
    I don’t know how much longer the Guardian can hold back that tide.

  44. 44.

    Caracal

    Pence will be president by May or June. After D’s take over, they will begin real investigations, Orange-man will go ballistic one too many times and have a near fatal heart-attack and be forced to resign or maybe die in office. Dude is such a drama queen.

  46. 46.

    SFAW

    @Steeplejack (sky-high wi-fi):

    Steep checking in from high above the fruited plain—about halfway to Denver, then a plane change and on to Las Vegas.

    So are you going to change your nym/nom to “Steep in the DEN,” and then to “Steep in the LAS”?

    I guess that’s OK, as long as you don’t change it to “Steep in the ATL” — then you’ll transmogrify into a union-busting attorney.

    Not that that’s a bad thing, of course. [Waves to Steve.]

  47. 47.

    SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I heard about that early this morning on the BBC. Just out-of-control insane.

    Speaking of which…. The Twitter Target du jour is Jamie Dimon:

    The problem with banker Jamie Dimon running for Pres is that he doesn’t have the aptitude or “smarts” & is a poor public speaker & nervous mess – otherwise he is wonderful. I’ve made a lot of bankers, & others,look much smarter than they are with my great economic policy!

  51. 51.

    Aleta

    Last night I looked at surge maps for New England at W.Underground and freaked myself out a little, because I hadn’t thought about how much a big storm at high tide could affecting those waterways an hour’s drive inland or more. Used to thinking of the dangerous waves and swells, heavy winds, a high tide surge that in a blue moon might fill some homeowner’s swimming pool across the street from the ocean with rocks. Never thought about it coming that far up the riverfronts with the tide.

    The surge maps at Wund. for the Carolinas (for different levels of storm and tide) were shocking. (No TV reception atm so it’s my first look at that.) Wund. also showed the effect of the long stretch of shallow water on wave height because of the long (plateau?) just off shore there.

    Bayous in LA I understand as a somewhat dissipating force, maybe like the ponds behind some beaches up here.

    I didn’t really get it about the SC shoreline and inland waterways until now.

  53. 53.

    diffrent-church-lady

    If you let them vote on an app on their phones, young people would vote at a 100% rate. While jaywalking across busy streets.

  54. 54.

    Kathleen

    @SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal: Take hahahahahahahahahahahaha etc. I played Edith in HS production. Love Pirates.
    Belated Happy Birthday and Congrats on the jump! My idea of adrenaline rush is driving to KY on Brent Spence Bridge. You are much braver than I!

  56. 56.

    SFAW

    @rikyrah:

    No doubt the stalwarts of Elkhart will now, finally, realize that Shitgibbon created, not solved, problems, and that Republicans are NOT their friends.

    And, no doubt, those epiphanies will occur immediately after Shitgibbon demonstrates some humility. In other words: never.

    As they say: Fuckem.

  58. 58.

    SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal

    @Kathleen:

    Edith and Kate are great parts, with some terrific music, especially in “When the foeman bares his steel.” I’ve always really loved the soubrette roles — Lady Angela, Pitti-Sing, Phoebe, Tessa, etc.

  59. 59.

    Quinerly

    @Central Planning: was thinking about you and your father yesterday. If you are on FB, there are several Pine Knoll Shores groups. I was looking at some pictures posted this morning from the “situm.” My librarian friends secured the library with their regular routine of wrapping the stacks and computers on Tues. One librarian lives in Havelock (she went home and collapsed for 12 hours). The librarian who lives there in PKS went to Atlanta. The third one who lives Down East went to Raleigh. You might like those FB PKS groups. Lots of residents on the Bogue Sound side seem to be staying. Good luck to your family/dad. Stay in touch.

  60. 60.

    Matt McIrvin

    Every single piece of on-the-ground reporting suggests a wipeout on par with 2006 or 2010.

    This is just not true. They suggest a popular-vote wipeout, but also that the deck is usually so stacked against us that this only barely gets us the functional majority, if at all. So I think some anxiety is justified.

  63. 63.

    Leto

    @satby: @Amir Khalid:

    If they had paid attention to the yard signs and chatter, or the opinions of the people living and breathing in those states and districts, political journalists might not have been blindsided…

    This also speaks to the death of local/hometown journalism, as well as the journalists who kept track of what was going on at the state house. There’s so much focus (money) on national level politics that all the good/bad at the local level is basically unreported, yet it’s the local level that has the greatest impact on most people’s lives. I still don’t have a good answer on how to fix that.

  64. 64.

    Cermet

    @Caracal: Dying in office, while a relief and rather nice, means the orange fart cloud low life escapes jail after he either leaves or is forced to resign.

  65. 65.

    Quinerly

    @Central Planning: meant to add that my Newport friend was at El’s Drive Inn in MHC the other night. Jim Cantore of the Weather Channel was getting shrimp burgers. He had been spotted in Beaufort earlier in the afternoon.

  71. 71.

    SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal

    @NotMax:

    Wasn’t out of line at all. But G&S is nearly the only category in which I feel fully confident in letting my pedantry flag fly high*, and I couldn’t resist!

    *(Not that I’m shy about weighing in on other topics.)

  72. 72.

    Aleta

    @rikyrah: Hard to believe but horribly believable. In a couple of his written answers about other biased phrases he’s written, he tried to whitewash by saying he was merely using the language of one party in the suit.

    Somehow, every time, it happens to be the language of the party he expected to reward him with

    He also explained away his closeness to the Trump admin right after the election. Pointed out that they’d mentioned giving him the solicitor general post, but he turned it down because he “liked being a judge.” So no corruption there …

  76. 76.

    Another Scott

    ‘morning all. I’m still getting caught up after the Great B-J Outage.

    Dean Baker at CEPR this morning, on Robert Samuelson’s column at WaPo:

    If we have another Great Depression it will be because governments and central banks refuse to act aggressively to get us out of the Great Depression. Keynes taught us the secret of getting out of a depression. It’s called “spending money.”

    The problem is that people with political power, and the news outlets they own (e.g. the Washington Post), often don’t care about tens of millions of people being out of work and losing their homes. (They do care about saving the banks — see Samuelson’s lesson # 3.) They will therefore rant about budget deficits and government debt, and the burdens we are putting on our kids, even when the most obvious burden we are putting on our kids is keeping their parents from having jobs. Samuelson of course is a main promulgator of this line.

    (Emphasis added.)

    That’s the bottom line when it comes to economic policies in the USA.

    Organize, donate, call, write, talk to people, keep up the energy for the November elections. Work as if your life and your kids’ lives depend on it. Because it does.

    54 days to go!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  78. 78.

    germy

    Something’s happening.

    One of my local TV news stations is sinclair-owned. They’ve been spinning news stories about PEETUS and his appointees very favorably. Whenever there’s a story about the investigation, or a controversial appointment, they always frame the story by giving the administration the last word.

    This morning they did a story about those unused water bottles in Puerto Rico. Showed the photo and everything. I braced myself: “How are they going to frame this one to try to make the administration look good?”

    They didn’t. They did a straight report, and then during the small talk at the end of the segment, the two anchors said how horrible it was that some people were seen trying to drink from hoses, and how some people died from lack of fresh water.

    Is Sinclair silently decoupling from Trump? My local anchors aren’t that brave (two of them read the famous prepared statement a few months ago) so I suspect they’ve received the OK from the home office.

  79. 79.

    bemused

    I tried to calm down my 95 year old relative watching hurricane news who is very worried about her grandson and family in Raleigh, NC and thinks they should evacuate. Explaining that Raleigh isn’t on the coast, that the hurricane strength and direction changes so no telling how much rain will dump on her family and for how long doesn’t seem to help.

  80. 80.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Leto: Yard signs and chatter were what convinced Peggy Noonan of building Romney fever in 2012. I don’t think there’s any magic formula.

  81. 81.

    germy

    I saw a man on the news who said he refused to evacuate. He’s a small store owner. “I’m more afraid of looters, frankly, than I am of the storm,” he told the reporter.

  83. 83.

    Aleta

    Kavanaugh is a hard clear view of the poor quality of the liars they are appointing to our courts. Not even bothering to pick someone who can hide his record. Just how did he get to the front of the pack anyway?

    The SC as reward for demonstrated extreme loyalty. (And $ contribution I bet.) So loyal, and (going by pattern) neck deep in corruption by now, that they’re positive he’ll obey whatever.

    It’s so ugly that they believe his shallow shabby record doesn’t matter because of their majority I’m pretty sure they made Collins think her approval was of great concern to them, so they could ask for her word in exchange.

    As they did with the tax plan: a few ‘working lunches’ and limo rides with Ivanka as needed. And some big jobs for the consulting company her husband started. (He left it awhile ago to work on her staff.)

    (I’m not saying she was ever worthy of her moderate shtick. She adopted that to get elected and performed it if Olympia was taking the very occasional stand. She had a very good media office from he beginning, and a partly inherited organization. Her media office is shifting up two gears now, with eds and letters about ‘vulgarities and threats,’ making her the victim of principle.

  87. 87.

    BC in Illinois

    @rikyrah:
    That link, from Ronald Alexander, needs as much emphasis as we can give it. He links to an article in Salon by Lucian K. Truscott IV, “They’re not white nationalists, they’re white supremacists.” Truscott notes that white supremacists have been around for years, but they didn’t used to be prominent spokesmen and candidates of a prominent national party.

    Truscott is a descendant of Thomas Jefferson. In 1999, he started the process of bringing the descendants of Sally Hemmings into the Jefferson family reunion and the Monticello Society. For this, he has received 19 years of death threats and abusive letters, emails, and phone calls, calling him a RACE TRAITOR! His article is calm, positive, and heartening. The underlying message, however, is that the conflict with white supremacists is going to be a long haul.

    When this particular administration is overcome, we still have to struggle — as a nation — to deal with the white supremacist attack on the American idea:

    All created equal, equal justice under the law,
    a nation indivisible, liberty and justice for all, *e pluribus unum*

    We’re certainly not there yet — “America never was America” for many of us (as Langston Hughes said) — but fighting the people whose ideal life is to “sit on a rock and be white,” is a fight that we can invite anyone to join in.

    Follow the tweet. Read the article. It was actually a bright spot of my morning.

  88. 88.

    Aleta

    (NYer I think) In Myrtle Beach:

    Tonya Eclebery was also taking one last look at the beach as she walked her 1-year-old Yorkie, Chloe, by the water. She said she and her husband plan to ride out the storm, hunkered down at Holiday Sands North hotel, right off the beach, where her husband works as a maintenance employee and where they have a supply of canned food and water. They live in a trailer nearby but decided the concrete hotel overlooking the beach is safer.
    “We don’t want to be stuck out of the area for two weeks,” said Eclebery, a housekeeping supervisor. “We got to go to work.”

    I looked for a picture of that hotel. I guess it may depend on the construction, and hopefully it’s been super reinforced. I could imagine the management wanting maintenance people to stay so they can get going with cleanup and repair as soon as possible.

    I can definitely understand how workers who might be without a job for weeks if they leave, or believe they might not be allowed to return, or might get replaced, would decide to stay for work and a promise of safe shelter and even loyalty.

  89. 89.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @SFAW:

    No doubt the stalwarts of Elkhart will now, finally, realize that Shitgibbon created, not solved, problems, and that Republicans are NOT their friends.

    Haha, you’re so funny.

    Nothing shakes Trump supporters. Nothing. In the Party of Personal Responsibility, nothing is ever the fault of the Party or its members.

  90. 90.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    On the ground in DEN. Smooth landing. Next flight leaves in about an hour, then touchdown in Vegas a little after 9:00 PDT.

  91. 91.

    Shakti

    @Betty Cracker: I hope that kind of Blue Wave means that Nelson keeps his seat. It’s a pity Rubio doesn’t have to defend his; and Rick Scott shouldn’t be anywhere near the Senate.

  92. 92.

    TS (the original)

    @Aleta:

    I can definitely understand how workers who might be without a job for weeks if they leave, or believe they might not be allowed to return, or might get replaced, would decide to stay for work and a promise of safe shelter and even loyalty.

    In a country with labor laws supporting workers – no way could they be replaced if the evacuated because of a major major storm. It is so wrong that they have to put their lives below their work obligations.

    If my googling has found the right hotel – it is right on the beachfront. Sure hope it is well reinforced – as well they left the caravan.

  94. 94.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Aleta: They live in a trailer. Safe to say they can’t afford to lose a week or 2 of wages. In all likelihood they will be homeless when this is over.

  95. 95.

    schrodingers_cat

    @BC in Illinois: That’s right. They are white supremacists, there has been no such thing as a white nation. European history of the past 500 (from the reformation to WWII) years has been bloody and vicious. The peace of the past 70 years only came about after two devastating world wars. The lack of melanin was not enough to keep the peace.

  96. 96.

    satby

    @Amir Khalid: I was especially impressed that they did the overlay of the size of the hurricane in England and in Europe, so that those readers could grasp the scale. Just excellent reporting.
    I miss that here in this country.

  97. 97.

    SFAW

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Nothing shakes Trump supporters.

    I disagree, at least in a theoretical sense: were Shitgibbon to announce some sort of program to help The Coloreds (or other non-white groups), his base might flee him.

    But since the likelihood of that is on a par with the likelihood of the Mets winning this year’s World Series, it’s only, as I said, theoretical.

  99. 99.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SFAW:

    were Shitgibbon to announce some sort of program to help The Coloreds (or other non-white groups), his base might flee him.

    Nope. They’d just call it fake news.

  100. 100.

    Aleta

    @TS (the original):

    In a country with labor laws supporting workers – no way could they be replaced if the evacuated because of a major major storm. It is so wrong that they have to put their lives below their work obligations.

    That gets right to the point of it.

    Years of fighting for worker safety laws and OSHA. If there’s a strong union, a chance to apply for a few paid days off in (a very few) cases of workplace hazard- or stess-related illness. But unless the company owner chooses to, I’m guessing no guaranteed pay if the entire area has been declared an unsafe disaster zone.

    You’d think a hotel in a chain could offer a bus and rooms for workers to evacuate to — but that would hurt profits. (But does a hotel’s insurance pay for lost room rents at an affected location? In that case they wouldn’t lose money supplying rooms to workers? )

    I wonder if the notoriously unsupportive Marriott does anything like that.

    even no support for them if the

  101. 101.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @bemused: I’m IN Raleigh, and I’m about to check the current position once more before deciding there’s no point to any major last-minute prep like filling the bathtub with water.

    Unless they’re part of the several thousand that have been ordered to evacuate their homes because they live in flood-prone areas, or they decide to leave their shelter once the rains come, they’ll be fine. It may not even reach Fran levels here if it keeps to the last projected path I’ve seen.

  102. 102.

    Leto

    @SiubhanDuinne, Badass Jackal: Last night on Maddow, she reported that the Alaska Journals only DC correspondent was fired. Meaning that, basically, there’s no local person in DC asking Murkowski anything Alaska related, nor reporting how Murkowski’s votes are impacting her voters. Not exactly “local” in the sense I was talking about, but still not good.

    Of course you know what else isn’t helping NC and their response to climate change? North Carolina didn’t like science on sea levels … so passed a law against it – The Guardian

  103. 103.

    James E Powell

    When I read that “Indies favor Dems by 15” I’m thinking, really, only 15? What the fuck is the matter with you people?

    I don’t mean that to be like “we’re all doomed!” but I continue to be appalled by American voters.

  105. 105.

    satby

    @Aleta: the thing is, they’re out of a paid job either way of the hurricane comes in there. No electricity, no water, no cell or phone service, no food deliveries until electricity is restored to store it… No one who hasn’t been in a catastrophe understands how completely life is changed. And the damages bankrupt a lot of businesses, so no telling if their employers could even pay them. People risk their lives for nothing.

  108. 108.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Cermet: My devout hope is that whilst some of Mueller’s Marauders are homing in on Stone & other Greedy Oligarch Party slitherers, others are doing the duest of due diligence digging into the connections of former-SMOTHOR** Mikey Pence with Manafort & Vlad the Paler. The last thing this planet needs is for Agolf Twitler aka Needy Amin aka Trumpolini to be driven from office only to be replaces by a KKKamchatkan KKKandidate beloved of the fundanazis.

    —-
    ** Stupidest Member Of The House Of Representatives. Considering that Louis “Louwee Louweye” Gohmert was a member at the time, that is one fuck of an accomplishment!

  110. 110.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Matt McIrvin: Ah, but there IS a magic formula – it’s called “statistically sound polling.” The problem is that (ceteris paribus**) the margin of error in a survey varies as the square root of the sample size. To get a result for a Congressional district with an acceptable MoE (i.e., one that can reliably detect anything short of a rout) you still need several hundred respondents. Only campaigns flush with cash are willing to pony up for that – & they aren’t sharing the results. For a (allegedly) nonpartisan news or public-affairs operation, it’s waaaay too expensive.

    ** Look it up & be (a bit more) enlightened.

  111. 111.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @James E Powell: Be of good cheer. Whole passle of them that “indies” are recent Thuglicans who’ve shed the slithery snakeskin of party affiliation for whatever reason but are still devoted to the Grifters-&-Oligarchs Party’s goal of domination by the (while male) right, of the (white male) rich, and for the (white male) rich..The fact that so many are willing to vote to shitcan Twitler should be celebrated.

  113. 113.

    J R in WV

    @Schlemazel:

    @J R in WV:
    Can you tell me where I can get a few of those? I know they would go over big here!

    YES, I can:

    It was two WV Democrat [Tee Shirts] with Blue Wave on them, and two baseball caps with a nice little embroidered Blue Wave over the cap’s bill.

    For a donation at the WV Democratic Party Act Blue page.

    Hats are $25 and Tees are $20, but only up to XL… sadly!!

  114. 114.

    Origuy

    @OzarkHillbilly: A nationwide survey of favorite restaurants is going to favor nationwide chains. Taco Bell and Chevy’s are everywhere, so if only a few people vote for them in all areas, they’re going to get the most votes. The taqueria down the street is only going to get votes from people in the neighborhood. It’s a meaningless statistic.

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