Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

The revolution will be supervised.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

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

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Let’s finish the job.

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

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

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

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

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

T R E 4 5 O N

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

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

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2018 / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Soldiering On

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Soldiering On

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  5. 5.

    gene108

    The weather’s taken a turn to be cooler, and it is raining. Perfect day to stay cuddled up in bed and listen to the rain potter patter outside my window, whiile nursing a cop of coffee and reading Balloon-Juice.

    But I have to go to work.

    So, Blech.

  9. 9.

    satby

    I think McConnell’s tantrum was staged for Fox to carry, so that the deplorable set of voters could have a set of talking points to use. But wondering who dragged poor old Soros’s name into the mix again.

  11. 11.

    NotMax

    Postprandial naps are getting out of control. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

    Crawled on the belly deep underneath landlady’s house yesterday to drag out all the excess PVC pipe she has laying around in anticipation of plumber arriving at 8:30 this morning (to maybe save a few $$). More than respectable lengths of 1″ and 3/4″. Of course, the underground section, valve and standpipe connections which need to be replaced are 1/2″. Temp in the mid-nineties at the time and very humid; just that short stretch of exertion left me drenched from head to toe and pretty much wiped me out for the rest of the afternoon.

  12. 12.

    Bruce K

    Got my absentee ballot in the mail today, and was faced with an agonizing decision: should I hand it over to the American embassy, a few blocks from my apartment, or should I send it via Hellenic Post?

    (I decided I trusted the Greek post office more than the American federal bureaucracy this year.)

    The votes themselves were easy. One vote for Senator, one for Representative, ruling out cruel or evil people or people on party lines that have proven to be cruel and evil.

  13. 13.

    debbie

    @satby:

    Yeah, I guess so. I think people can disagree without undermining. If someone resorts to undermining, then it’s because they’ve got nothing else.

  14. 14.

    Kay

    Although Kavanaugh describes himself as a “textualist” who follows the text of statues, he sought to create out of whole cloth an exemption from safety regulation for “entertainment activities” even though the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970—passed by a bipartisan majority and signed by Richard Nixon, a Republican—states that the law applies to “each employer.” The act calls on every employer to “furnish to each of [its] employees” work that is “free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm.”
    Moreover, Kavanaugh disingenuously overlooks the fact that OSHA has a long history of regulating job safety in many entertainment industries, including circuses, zoos, water parks, carnivals, amusement parks and Broadway theaters—even Walt Disney parades and reenactments of Old West-style gunfights.
    In his SeaWorld opinion, Kavanaugh, who went to an elite prep school, college and law school, seemed out of touch with how workplaces function and how job safety laws work. He wrote that sports industries like the NFL and NASCAR are responsible for regulating their own safety situation, and he said the same should be true for SeaWorld. Kavanaugh showed little inkling or concern that at many companies, workers have hardly any say or power to improve safety.
    Kavanaugh also showed little understanding that OSHA was enacted because lawmakers saw a need for government involvement to help assure safety in all workplaces. Kavanaugh turns OSHA on his head, asking “when should we as a society paternalistically decide” that participants in entertainment activities “must be protected from themselves.” He forgets that Congress, in enacting the OSHA law, answered that question—and called on all employers to protect their employees. (The law doesn’t mention any exemption for entertainment industries.)

    That’s a great idea, huh? No worker safety regulations at amusement parks. More of that brilliance I’ve been hearing so much about.

    Also- note the judicial deference as he rewrites laws to make them more to his liking.

  16. 16.

    SFAW

    In a new Fox News poll, Kavanaugh is -10 in overall support, -21 among women, and -26 among political independents.

    That’s nice, but I doubt the Rethugs give enough of a shit. Various gun-control measures have had (I think) much better numbers, and the Rethugs have reliably kept anything from happening there.Maybe this time will be different.

    I would love to be wrong. I would especially love to read the words “former Majority Leader Sen. Traitor Turtle.”

  17. 17.

    debbie

    @satby:

    LOL. NPR interviewed the woman who authored the pro-Kavanaugh letter signed by 65 women (I missed the very beginning of the interview, so I didn’t catch her name). I could practically hear her spinning her index finger near her head as if Blasey Ford was a nut.

    On the other hand, I see Erik Erickson has invoked Moloch, so my mood’s improved.

  18. 18.

    SFAW

    @debbie:

    I could practically hear her spinning her index finger near her head as if Blasey Ford was a nut.

    It’s always projection with those motherfuckers

  23. 23.

    Balconesfault

    Is it believable that anyone who would vote against Heitkamp, Manchin, or Donnelly over their Kavanaugh vote … would possibly vote for Heitkamp, Manchin, or Donnelly in the first place?

  24. 24.

    JGabriel

    Dave Wasserman via Anne Laurie @ Top:

    The House polling we’ve seen – both public and private – was already pretty terrible for Republicans, but has gotten noticeably worse since Labor Day (with a few exceptions, mostly in substantially Hispanic districts)

    Where it couldn’t get any worse?

  25. 25.

    satby

    @Matt McIrvin: well, if they can nail down allegations of drugging a victim for a rape train, nope. But the woman they would like to nominate instead is well known around these parts as a hard core anti Roe vote: Amy Coney Barrett (no fucking relation, thank g-d)

  26. 26.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Matt McIrvin: Turtle is completely overrated. 35 years in Washington and he’s never passed any legislation.

    If Roy Moore Kavanaugh is confirmed it’s because the caucus fears being primaried by the American Taliban or being cut off from their fat cat contributors, not because of Turtle.

  28. 28.

    Jack the Second

    @Kay: The founding fathers couldn’t have imagined the existence of the entertainment industry when they wrote OSHA.

  29. 29.

    different-church-lady

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    If Roy Moore Kavanaugh is confirmed it’s because the caucus fears being primaried by the American Taliban or being cut off from their fat cat contributors, not because of Turtle “Fuck you, world, we’re setting ourselves on fire!”.

  30. 30.

    JGabriel

    I wonder where Leeann Tweeden is in all of this. I mean, you’d think she’d want to step up on Ford’s and Ramirez’s behalf to say that she believes them and that Kavan-ugh should resign just like Franken did.

    Seems odd that we haven’t heard from her at all.

  32. 32.

    low-tech cyclist

    @SFAW:

    In a new Fox News poll, Kavanaugh is -10 in overall support, -21 among women, and -26 among political independents.

    That’s nice, but I doubt the Rethugs give enough of a shit.

    I don’t expect the Pubbies to give a shit. OTOH, it might make a difference to Sens. Donnelly, Heitkamp, Tester, Manchin, and any other fence-sitting Dems.

  33. 33.

    Steve in the ATL

    @debbie: Ice Cube expressed a similar frustration in the NWA song “Fuck Tha [sic] Police”, lamenting that African-American police officers would treat African-American suspects poorly in an apparent effort to curry favor with their white partners.

  35. 35.

    mark

    Put some booze in his water glass when he is testifying. Bet he tells the truth when he get’s enough alcohol in him. Drunk and belligerent.

  36. 36.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: The theater, film and amusement industries have almost as many opportunities for mortal danger as factory work. Amusement-park rides are like large factory machines or combine harvesters–they’re designed to be safe for riders who follow the rules (if maintained properly), but if you go into restricted areas while they’re running, they’ll kill you. There have been many incidents of park employees getting killed by roller coasters when they go to retrieve someone’s dropped cell phone, or were mowing the lawn while someone else decided to do a test run.

  37. 37.

    Kay

    @Jack the Second:

    The founding fathers couldn’t have imagined the existence of the entertainment industry when they wrote OSHA.

    He says they can all sue for damages in state court – well, not this one- she’s dead- but someone on her behalf. The ferris wheel operator should contact his team of attorneys after he loses a limb.

    The point of OSHA is to prevent workplace injury. He’s apparently also completely unaware of workers’ comp
    The brilliance is overwhelming- not informed by anything real or existing, but it sure sounds good if you’re writing not for the vast, vast majority of people but instead treating every opinion like a job application for your next scheduled promotion.

    I go to Cedar Point in the summer sometimes. Nearly the entire staff are college students. They’re all about 19. He wouldn’t know that, of course, not having to work in the summers.

  38. 38.

    PenAndKey

    @sat by #21:

    I don’t know who first coined the phrase, but there’s a reason that NPR has the nickname “Nice Polite Republicans”.

    In my experience NPR, and my local state version, are basically a network entirely devoted to socially progressive, “I got mine, fuck you” libertarians trying to put on airs about how sophisticated and woke they are. That routine got stale during the Cheney administration and I’ve refused to see them as anything else since.

  39. 39.

    Balconesfault

    @Kay: I ran into similar problems with Libertarians anytime I try to talk about environmental regulations. They tried to claim that the tort system provides deterrent to bad acting, without even considering that many of the environmental problems caused by bad waste disposal practices manifest themselves a decade or more after said company shutters their doors and disappears.

  40. 40.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I agree! But he’s not concerned with these dull, mundane realities. That’s for the lowly state court judges to sort thru, after the injured 19 year old brings his hypothetical lawsuit by his hypothetical lawyer.

    It was an opportunity to showcase his Right wing bona fides and opine on “paternalism”. The actual worker in the real job? Not even a consideration.

  41. 41.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: The argument that OSHA wouldn’t regulate this industry, so it’s inconsistent and arbitrary for them to regulate that one, sounds like an argument for eliminating OSHA entirely by rolling it out of every industry in turn, and I’m sure that’s exactly what it is.

    (I remember howling about the absurd nanny-state excesses of OSHA being a major trope back in the early conservative-movement days of the 1970s. Based on five minutes of Googling, the libertarian-website line seems to be that workplace accidents were declining anyway before OSHA so it didn’t really do anything.)

  42. 42.

    Kay

    @Balconesfault:

    On environmental matters it’s absolute bullshit. Right wing lawmakers thought of that. They’ve set up circles in state law where it’s almost impossible to sue bad actors. They looked at case law and designed state statutes to overturn it with a code section or get around it, making it impossible for an individual to even get into court.

    It’s a great theory though. I hope for their sakes they never need to actually rely on it because it won’t work.

    Tell them ground and water polluters reduce the value of THEIR property. They usually turn into flaming liberals when they find that out.

  43. 43.

    SFAW

    @low-tech cyclist:

    OTOH, it might make a difference to Sens. Donnelly, Heitkamp, Tester, Manchin, and any other fence-sitting Dems.

    Good point. I’ve been taking it for granted that the Dems would stick together, but Schumer is not in the same league of cat-herding as Nancy Pelosi, so perhaps that wasn’t justified.

  44. 44.

    MomSense

    Ba ba baba, baba ba baba, I wanna be sedated.

    I’m feeling blech with a better beat. I think I’m at the point where I wish I weren’t a news junkie. If ever there were a time to tune it all out, this is it.

    The Republicans in government, at every damned level, are all corrupt monsters. Anyone who still votes Republican is a monster. Ailes, the vast right wing conspiracy, the media who treated them so uncritically all helped to make the party the horror show it is now.

  45. 45.

    Jeffro

    Watching TV this am at the doctors office, and according to Barbara Comstock, she’s an “independent fighter for Virginia”

    Say WHAT now??!?!

    Man they just lie and lie and lie, don’t they?

  46. 46.

    Zelma

    I loved the title of Michelle Goldberg’s column this AM. (Yes, I haven’t canceled my NYT subscription yet, but I’ve thought of it.) “Pigs All the Way Down.” She was mostly talking about sexual matters but I think the “pig” label can apply not only to the sexual behavior described but also to the privileged’s ability to “hog” both money and power. I am struck by the fact that if Kavanaugh is confirmed all but one of the members of the Supreme Court will have graduated from Harvard and/or Yale. (And Ginsberg transferred from Harvard to Columbia.) This is, to put it mildly, bizarre and creates a Supreme Court with a limited world view. Are there no good law schools west of New Haven?

  48. 48.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jeffro: My horrid House rep, Vern Buchanan, has been bombarding my mailbox with campaign collateral that describes him as “independent” and “bipartisan.” All big fat lies, of course; he votes with Trump over 95% of the time. Interesting that he’s running away from the Republican label in a district that is 20+ Republican.

  49. 49.

    BC in Illinois

    John Yoo — whose work on the Bush Administration of Torture Brett Kavanaugh definitely did not see, hear, read, or know anything about (though the records are for some reason unavailable) — wrote a pro-Kavanaugh op-ed for the Washington Post today.
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/senators-you-are-not-running-a-criminal-trial/2018/09/24/9c8366a8-bf95-11e8-92f2-ac26fda68341_story.html?utm_term=.ffb677af6ca1

    For some reason, he did not propose the water torture of all witnesses, as a way of getting to the real truth.

  50. 50.

    MomSense

    @Jack the Second:

    Sometimes I make a quick list of all the things that didn’t exist when he founders wrote the constitution. Once you start making a list, you realize how absurd originalists are.

  51. 51.

    montanareddog

    @BC in Illinois:

    For some reason, he did not propose the water torture of all witnesses, as a way of getting to the real truth.

    Under Yoo’s “organ failure” threshold for torture, Kavanaugh could not be water-boarded due to the high risk of liver failure.

  52. 52.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker: that is interesting! I really think this is it – we either put the brakes on this omega-level shit show or the Republic is done

    Also: this horrendous Megyn Kelly version of the Today show (running in the doc’s office) – worse than actual Fox. It’s semi subtle, cheery/chirpy wingnuttery with a healthy dose of “both sides”, but worse.

  55. 55.

    But her emails!!!

    @Balconesfault:

    I ran into similar problems with Libertarians anytime I try to talk about environmental regulations. They tried to claim that the tort system provides deterrent to bad acting, without even considering that many of the environmental problems caused by bad waste disposal practices manifest themselves a decade or more after said company shutters their doors and disappears.

    They’re also largely incorrect about the tort system. Even in the event that the company still exists at the time the damage is incurred, there’s still issues.

    1. Oh, I’m sorry that that oil tanker was it’s own independent company. Too bad it only had that oil tanker as an asset and insufficient insurance to cover the cleanup costs
    2. How do you know it was our toxic chemical that caused your cancer or made your children sick. What about the toxic chemicals from all these other companies? Also sometimes this type of cancer just happens. You can’t prove that it was specifically our chemicals that cause harm. Here’s a few dozen industry hacks that say my chemical is harmless and you/your child got sick from the family dog
    3. We have lawyers on staff who are really bored. Let’s fight this for years and years and years until you give up and go bankrupt.

  56. 56.

    Luthe

    @PenAndKey: I continue to send $5/month to WNYC because their local work is top-notch, including investigations of shenanigans at the Trump Soho and the mysterious case of the NYC DA dropping charging against Ivanka and Jr. subsequent to a large donation from a local fixer.

    The rest of NPR might suck, but WNYC deserves their shekels.

  57. 57.

    tobie

    @JGabriel: I don’t get why the one area where Republicans seem to be doing about the same or better than expected is in Latino districts according to Wasserman. Is he referring to specific races or is this phenomenon across the country? It’s concerning because it matches what people have said about the lag in voter registration among Latinos in Orlando. Are people afraid to talk to strangers about politics (with good reason)? Are people reluctant to identify as Latinos when contacted by pollsters? Is it because when you’re struggling to survive, registering and voting is not a high priority? I don’t buy the line that Puerto Ricans don’t understand the two party system in the US. That’s bullshit. It’s the easiest system to understand. Something else is going on.

  58. 58.

    Tokyokie

    @MomSense:

    Sometimes I make a quick list of all the things that didn’t exist when he founders wrote the constitution. Once you start making a list, you realize how absurd originalists are.

    I liken constitutional “originalists” to fundies who claim to know what, exactly, the demented Revelation means. Only they are fluent in the code, and all others must accept their wisdom.

  61. 61.

    schrodingers_cat

    @tobie: People who feel they may be targets of hate or worse tend not to be forthcoming in interviews. Like that elderly Sikh gentleman who was attacked by white supremacists when he was putting up flyers for the local R candidate. He refused to lay the blame for his attack at T’s door.

  62. 62.

    James E Powell

    @satby:

    I think McConnell’s tantrum was staged for Fox to carry, so that the deplorable set of voters could have a set of talking points to use.

    This is pretty much the FOX mission statement.

  63. 63.

    Aleta

    @chris: A companion piece would have 18-24 year olds telling each other not to vote. “Whole system is corrupt– we’re better than that.” “They’re both the same.” “I don’t pay any attention to it.” “Why should we vote–It’s all rigged.”

  64. 64.

    SenyorDave

    My lead story on Yahoo news is Avenatti warning Kavanaugh and his supporters that a new person is coming forward within 48 hours, and she is both a witness and a victim. Avenatti’s definitely a sideshow in many ways, but overall I think he is a net positive, he’s nasty and plays hardball. We need that occasionally.

  65. 65.

    chris

    @Aleta:

    “I don’t pay any attention to it.”

    “It doesn’t affect me.”

    I’m 63 and I try not to talk down or lecture but… I go ballistic on that one.

  66. 66.

    tobie

    @schrodingers_cat: I’m sure fear for personal safety is one reason why some Latinos are hesitant to answer polls, self-identify to strangers, or register to vote. And states like Florida have made it difficult to register, so that is an added factor. I’m just wondering if anything else is going on. In 2008, the McCain campaign had shout-outs not only to “Joe, the Plumber” but “Tito, the Builder.” What was the reason for this?

  67. 67.

    Gelfling 545

    I’m just thinking that if you’re actually an independent, maybe leaning GOP but with no particular interest in the party itself, you might be puzzling over why they don’t dump Kavanaugh and get somebody less inflammatory and feeling that it’s pretty stupid to continue with this fiasco. And disapproving.

  68. 68.

    Doug R

    @Jack the Second:

    The founding fathers couldn’t have imagined the existence of the entertainment industry when they wrote OSHA.

    This is the problem with living a lifetime in the wingnut conservative bubble and never having an honest job. This magical thinking that certain jobs are so dangerous that only crazy people with a death wish do them. Totally opposite to the way OSHA thinks in that there are risks EVERYWHERE, so take reasonable precautions. A job is a job.

  69. 69.

    Ksmiami

    @Kay: kavan ugh is literally the definition of a middling suck up political hack with good ole boy networking skills- he can be a Fox commentator not a Supreme

  70. 70.

    Doug R

    @Balconesfault:

    I ran into similar problems with Libertarians anytime I try to talk about environmental regulations. They tried to claim that the tort system provides deterrent to bad acting, without even considering that many of the environmental problems caused by bad waste disposal practices manifest themselves a decade or more after said company shutters their doors and disappears.

    Why do we all have to pay the price for their freedom? I know, let’s get together and force them to pay the true cost of business. Which is what we do when the EPA fines them.

  71. 71.

    Marcopolo

    @tobie: my 2 cents from a neighborhood coffee shop: 1) Hispanic voters have a historically low voter participation rate (this is the bedrock issue, all research into voting behavior is that it is learned/modeled); 2) the Hispanics have the youngest average population of any demographic group in the US—young people have the lowest voter participation rates; 3) a lot of the states w/ the highest Hispanic populations are also states that construct significant barriers to registering to vote/voting—due to youth, education level, income level, etc… the are particularly onerous for Hispanic voters; 4) now throw all the anti-immigrant/gov’t targeting of Hispanic populations on top of that. Imho, it is going to take a few decades of really dedicated efforts (ie a generational change) to improve Hispanic voter turnout. I hope I am being overly pessimistic. Now, back to writing GOtV postcards to low incidence D leaning primary voters—what i am actually doing atm.

  72. 72.

    Ksmiami

    @Tokyokie: I think all the originalists should be forced to wear heavy woolen clothes, Mercury tinged wigs and tights and they need to have their offices in primitive buildings without plumbing and a/c. Let’s see how long they last.

  74. 74.

    BlueGirlFromWyo

    @Jeffro: I started to see NoVA GOPers run away from the Republican label circa 2012. Gillespie didn’t use it much either. Neither did Trump initially, come to think of it. It’s like if Republicans don’t call themselves that, all the horrific things Republicans believe and do don’t count. According to party self-ID numbers, GOP voters apparently think the same.

  76. 76.

    Julia Grey

    Bet he tells the truth when he get’s enough alcohol in him. Drunk and belligerent.

    “You can’t handle the truth!”

  77. 77.

    PenAndKey

    @Luthe:

    Good to hear. That’s decidedly not the case with Wisconsin’s branch. Some programs may be okay, but the moment anything related to the economy, trade, or politics raises its head their bias is clear as day.

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