Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

People are complicated. Love is not.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

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

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

No Justins, No Peace

Usually wrong but never in doubt

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

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

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

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

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

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

No one could have predicted…

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2018 / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: It’s Never Easy

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: It’s Never Easy

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  1. 1.

    Betty Cracker

    When I first read the Evans tweet, I assumed he was talking about Trump. Then I scrolled down and discovered he was reacting to another ignorant, vacuous, MAGA hat-wearing narcissist whose ubiquity in American culture irritates me.

  4. 4.

    Baud

    Captain America vs. Kanye was the third act that 2018 needed.

    More watchable than Superman v. Batman.

  9. 9.

    Kay

    I watched the gubernatorial debate last night. Cordray is a much better debater than DeWine, but what struck me was that 70% of the questions were on health care and education. Trump, Trumpism and the far Right simply weren’t part of it at all. The only real reference to Trumpism were the mentions of “divisiveness” and both candidates swore they weren’t that kind of politician. Donald Trump won Ohio but Mike DeWine isn’t imitating him- he’s running away from him. DeWine could adopt Trumpism! He literally has no principles and he will say anything, take any position, and he has taken every conceivable position in his 50 year career so this was a decision. This debate could have occurred in any cycle in the last 20 years, it was that “normal”.

  15. 15.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    It really was substantive. It’s nice when the candidate is smart because these are really softballs for Cordray. An Ohio mainstay is bringing up DeRolph. DeRolph is a series of state supreme court decisions that declared school funding so unequal it’s unconstitutional. He got a DeRolph question and I’m thinking “oh, he could do a 2 hour seminar on this”.

    If you were in Ohio and listened to the “Obamacare debate” by Republicans in 2010 (which was 100% bullshit) it is amazing to see how the basic frame of Obamacare is now the center position- the mainstream position. Obama moved the debate decisively Left. The questions now are on HOW the government can manage healthcare, not whether the government should manage healthcare. It went from ideological blathering on “liberty” to specific practicalities and that’s a much better place to be for Democrats.

  16. 16.

    Betty Cracker

    Saw a poll showing that Senator Menedez (D-NJ) is only leading his GOP opponent by 2 points. Hope that’s an outlier.

    I don’t think we’ll retake the senate, but it would be incredibly frustrating to overperform in red states, overcome an unfavorable calendar, etc., only to fall short because a selfish crook decided his personal ambitions were more important than saving America from Trump & Co.

    I know Menendez wasn’t found guilty, and if I were in NJ, I’d grudgingly vote for the sumbitch. But Bob McDonnell wasn’t found guilty either, and it wasn’t through his virtue but rather laws designed to legalize bribery.

    The Democrats have made it clear we don’t put up with sexual harassers in our ranks. We should draw a bright red line in the sand on corruption too, IMO.

  17. 17.

    low-tech cyclist

    @Baud: The first few times I heard Weezer’s cover on the radio, I thought it was Toto’s original version – I really couldn’t tell the difference. The only way I figured out it wasn’t Toto is that it was being played on a station that wouldn’t play Toto if you paid them. (They’d just play a nearly identical cover.)

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @rikyrah: Pretty sure Kavanaugh knew of allegations of sexual assault against him by Deborah Ramirez DECADES before they became public.

  19. 19.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    He didn’t address it, but Cordray kept asking him. DeWine moved again on Right to Work, though. Now he would “veto” it. The polling on it must be brutal. This is his third shift on it. He’s now with Cordray. If DeWine moves any further toward Cordray they can run on the same ticket.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Obama moved the debate decisively Left. 

    I knew this would happen in 2010. I shudder to think how good our health care system would be right now if our voters had a clue.

    @low-tech cyclist: Same here. I was wondering why the radio kept playing it.

  23. 23.

    Matt McIrvin

    What Weigel’s tweet is missing is that when you subtract about 7 points from the Democratic margin to account for all the fuckery we have to deal with, the boring graph turns into a desperate, uncertain struggle of inches for control of the House.

  25. 25.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    The problem for conservatives is people actually love Medicaid and Medicare. The fights in Ohio aren’t about whether there should be government-run health care. The fights are about people who have it being afraid other people will take it. Republicans didn’t run against government health care- they ran on saying Obama was taking it from one group of recipients and giving it to another. Which led directly to “then give it to everyone”.

  26. 26.

    Derelict

    I can only guess that Kanye figures he’d still be rich and famous if slavery weren’t abolished by the 13th Amendment.

    Much more likely is that his singing career would be confined to “that sweet low singing in the fields” as he picked cotton as a slave himself.

    It’s like those past lives some people have had–the ones where they’re always royalty who led lives of amazing intrigue, instead of peasant who lived in filth and died young.

  27. 27.

    arrieve

    @Betty Cracker: I’ve yet to see a single ad for Menendez (and I’ve been pretty sick since I came back from Africa so I’ve been watching a LOT of tv), but Bob Hugin is saturating the airwaves with testimonials from people who credit his company for the fact that they survived cancer and claiming this means he’ll make a wonderful senator. I don’t know what Menendez is saving his campaign for. He should be running anti-Trump ads and trying to ride the blue wave 24-7.

  28. 28.

    Betty Cracker

    @Amir Khalid: I’ve perhaps given West more credit than he deserves by assuming the persona he cultivates is performance art. If it is an act, it’s certainly a profitable one. But sucking up to Trump has more serious implications than staging dumb spats with pop stars. Maybe he really is as narcissistic and ignorant as he appears, and he sucks up to Trump in part because he resents that crack President Obama made all those years ago. He wouldn’t even be the first “West” to do something like that (i.e., Cornell West’s endless and destructive butt-hurt over not getting VIP inauguration seats).

  29. 29.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SFAW: I thought he was famous for marrying Kim Kardashian, making the sacrifice so that some other poor slob didn’t have to.

  31. 31.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Derelict: The reference to prisons suggests that West is probably referring to the “punishment for a crime” loophole in the 13th, which turns out to be enough to support an entire system of modern-day slavery. But it’s too illucid to be sure.

  32. 32.

    NonyNony

    @Kay:

    The problem for conservatives is people actually love Medicaid and Medicare. The fights in Ohio aren’t about whether there should be government-run health care. The fights are about people who have it being afraid other people will take it. Republicans didn’t run against government health care- they ran on saying Obama was taking it from one group of recipients and giving it to another. Which led directly to “then give it to everyone”.

    QFT. Steve Stivers here in Columbus is running ads about how he’ll “protect Medicare” from the rapacious Dems who want to destroy it by giving it to everyone.

    It’ll probably work too. His district is full of people who put up yard signs about saying NO to school levies right next to signs that want levy increases to “Protect our Senior Services”. (He’s not my rep – mine was Tiberi, is currently Balderson for the momem at least – but his district is right next door and his ad buys cover columbus. I can’t even get away from them on Hulu…)

  33. 33.

    satby

    Ugh and blech! Morning for off to a poor start when the utility appliance recycling guys couldn’t get the old upright freezer out of the house even after they took off my back door. No idea how the previous owner got it down to the basement in the first place. They tried hard though. Now I’m late for the market and I still have that piece of junk when I would have gotten a $40 bounty for it. POOP!!
    And the woodwork is all gouged too ?

  34. 34.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Right. And they do hate our people. DeWine only did one sleazy thing last night- he merged DeRolph (inequity in school funding) with “urban”. DeRolph the actual plaintiff was a rural kid. He had to sit on the floor in an underfunded rural school – the lawyers probably chose a rural kid as the lead plaintiff because if it has been an “urban” kid the subtext would have been “black kid”. DeWine wants this to be about black v white rather than rich v poor.

  37. 37.

    Kay

    @NonyNony:

    Right but if you look at this like a pincher they now have Medicaid on one side and Medicare on the other – if it keeps expanding they won’t be able to run on “taking” from one and “giving” to the other- most people will be covered. They’re losing. Slowly but decisively. Democrats already won the policy argument. Republicans can only run on protecting our programs.

  38. 38.

    NotMax

    @satby

    Did they try taking the door off the freezer? Taking the doors off the ancient spare refrigerator in the windowless basement of Mom’s house was the only way to get it up the narrow stairs.

  41. 41.

    low-tech cyclist

    @Matt McIrvin: I’m sure you’re right, but it’s not like prisoners were never forced to work before the 13th was ratified; it just left that existing circumstance in place. Repealing the 13th wouldn’t make it illegal to force prisoners to work, it would just remove the Constitutional prohibition of slavery. Even Kanye should be able to figure that out.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    The most disturbing part to me about Kavanaugh is how he got this far. Something is horribly broken in our promotion system – it’s corrupted. Democrats really did try to stop him in ’06 – the biggest lie about this whole thing is “it came out of nowhere”. They knew he was vulnerable. They didn’t know about the sexual assault allegations but they knew damn well he had character and fitness problems. The lying. Yet. The elite legal conservative community put him up anyway.

    These people shouldn’t be reaching consideration, yet they are. Something’s broken in the pipeline- the quality control is shut off.

  47. 47.

    Ocotillo

    @Kay: I really enjoy reading your take on Ohio politics. Ms. O’s son lives in Dayton and he and his wife are active in Democratic politics. We also have a beautiful, bright granddaughter there with them.

  50. 50.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    I’ll never forget the conference call OFA volunteers had with President Obama after the healthcare vote. He thanked all of us of course but then he said that healthcare as a right was now enshrined in law. He knew that once it took effect, people would expect access to healthcare and wouldn’t want to go back. He also knew people would want to improve it. Republican officials and members of Congress also knew this which is why they tried every damn trick to prevent the law from taking effect.

    Can we all just offer one last fuck you to the kill the bill progressiver than thou idiots? I’m sick of them pretending their lack of knowledge about the history of progressive achievement is virtue. If they weren’t predominantly white no one would pay any attention to their low information BS.

    The Republicans were organizing against health care when Truman was proposing a national health insurance plan. Ronald Reagan was hired by the American Medical Association under the name “Operation Coffee Cup” to record an album
    warning that our children and grandchildren would view Medicare as the day American freedoms died.
    The amount of drama we have to deal with over just providing the basics in a modern society is astonishing.

  51. 51.

    Dave

    I follow Chria Evans and have somehow missed the fact that it was that Chris Evans until today.

  52. 52.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ocotillo: It’s a couple hours away. Beautiful. Home to the Irish Wilderness. Greer Spring is astounding. The Eleven Point River is one of my favorites. Lots of caves.

  55. 55.

    JGabriel

    @rikyrah:

    80% of black voters believe Dr. Ford over Kavanaugh, as do 66% of hispanic voters. Only 40% of white voters do.

    Jesus H. Christ, what the fuck is wrong with white people?

    I swear, these people – the 60% who don’t believe Dr. Ford – make me ashamed to be white.

  56. 56.

    SFAW

    @Dave:

    I follow Chria Evans and have somehow missed the fact that it was that Chris Evans until today

    I don’t know if it helps, but: there’s another Chris Evans on Twitter, he sometimes tweets stuff similar to the actor. I think he goes by “@notCapnAmerica” or something similar.

    At least, I think it’s a different Chris Evans.

  58. 58.

    MomSense

    I bet Satby’s freezer door is leaning against Cole’s willow tree which is still too damn close to his house!

  60. 60.

    J R in WV

    @Amir Khalid:

    I actually looked up the amendment to make sure. This black guy is actually talking about striking out the amendment that abolished slavery of black Africans in America. How ignorant do you have to be, on top of stupid? I was amazed at first, then realized that it lines up with his behavior all along.

    Stupid? Check!

    Ignorant? Check!

    Loves Trump? Check!

    Thinks an amendment abolishing slavery is bad for Black People? Check!!

    Screw that asshole!

  62. 62.

    But her emails!!!

    @J R in WV:

    Kanye’s just a moron. He’s probably focused on the part that permits the enslavement of prisoners and doesn’t really give much thought to the impact of repealing the other 90% which bars all other types of slavery. The amendment doesn’t need to be abolished, it just needs to be amended to remove the language allowing the enslavement of prisoners.

  63. 63.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Derelict

    : I can only guess that Kanye figures he’d still be rich and famous if slavery weren’t abolished by the 13th Amendment.

    13h only finalized the vedict of the Civil War. What dummy butt is ignoring is without the civil rights movement while he would have a signing career, because the arts are one of those jobs for the underclass, it would suck a lot more. Back of the bus for him and all of that. Then again the way he sucking up to white racists I can’t imagine his career is doing that well.

    Why in the frak is anyone wasting time debating a signer anyone? I though people got the point that the ignorant aren’t entitled to their opinion?

  64. 64.

    debit

    @JGabriel: My younger sister is one of them, another actual victim of sexual violence. I don’t speak with her beyond family gatherings, so I don’t know her reasoning. It could simply be an attempt to win our wingnut father’s approval.

    My theory, in general, about why otherwise potentially reasonable white people are so blind and stupid about these issues: they want to believe that everything’s okay. That the police are really here to protect us, that the people in charge make decisions based on things we don’t know and couldn’t comprehend and that in the end they will have been right, that nothing is so bad that they need to get off the couch and actually do something or worry. Everything’s fine, just fine.

  65. 65.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @gbbalto: When we were looking for a place to die in (our present Ozark nirvana) I went to check another place just a few miles down the road. This was in 2010 when a lot of seized properties were being put up for sale by banks. So I pulled up to the drive and got out at the locked gate (not unusual) and thru the trees I could barely see a structure I assumed was the house. Looking at it I just got a feeling that not only was the place still occupied, but that I would not be welcomed. Decided to listen to my 6th sense and left without investigating further.

    Later, I was talking to a RE agent and that property came up. She mentioned that the previous owner was still there, refusing to leave and that several people had been “shot at.” I have always had a very good “things are getting hinky” radar. I may not know what it is that is tickling my instinct for self preservation but I have always listened to it, and more than once it has saved my ass.

  69. 69.

    JGabriel

    Amir Khalid:

    Remember when Barack Obama called Kanye a jackass? Obama got that one right.

    Y’know, I’d actually forgotten about that. It’s probably why West supports Combover Caligula.

  71. 71.

    waratah

    We had Nancy Pelosi in Texas last weekend and other Democrats from DC have been here.
    I was really pleased they stayed clear of Beto not even talk about him. I think they do not want to mess up his chance of winning the Texas senate.

  73. 73.

    JGabriel

    Derelict:

    I can only guess that Kanye figures he’d still be rich and famous if slavery weren’t abolished by the 13th Amendment.

    Right? What a jackass.

    That said, my guess is that West doesn’t even know what the 13th Amendment says or does. He probably thinks it’s the one that says all people naturally born in the US are citizens (Section 1. of the 14th Amendment, which does a lot of other things too). Conservatives have a bug up their ass about it, and West is clearly courting the MAGAt demographic.

  74. 74.

    gene108

    @Betty Cracker:

    In any other year, Menendez would be toast. His challenger, Bob Hugins, has kept hammering him on TV ads, not just on the indictment, but on things outside Menendez’s control, such as NJ getting less back from the government than we pay in taxes. Hugins has also run good ads about his time as CEO of a pharma company, by painting it as providing life saving cancer treatments to patients, as well as his time in the military.

    I haven’t seen much by the way of response from Menendez. He really needs to get his campaign into gear.

    Biggest hope is people are so fed up with Republicans they vote straight ticket for Democrats.

  76. 76.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Kay: In T’s America a Supreme Court nominee gets less scrutiny than an applicant for an immigrant visa (the so called Green Card). Also lying on those forms can get you deported.

  78. 78.

    rikyrah

    The beginning of the end for impunity

    This tweet greeted me as I was eating my Cheerios this morning:

    EXCLUSIVE: @DonaldJTrumpJr tells us that the Kavanaugh he-said she-said case makes him more scared for his sons than for his daughters. His first joint TV interview with @kimguilfoyle airs today and tomorrow on @DailyMailTV https://t.co/HcLniegGmC

    — David Martosko (@dmartosko) October 1, 2018

    Yes. Donald J. (Fredo) Trump, Jr.’s takeaway from the Kavanaugh mess isn’t to be fearful for his daughters being sexually assaulted, but for his sons being “falsely accused.”

    What men like Fredo are really worried about is the end of impunity. They’re frightened that they will be held to account for their malfeasance. They will no longer get a free ride for every lechery they commit. Women and the men who support them will no longer tolerate a wink and a nod; they will be brought to the dock for their actions. Consequences feel like tyranny for those who’ve escaped them for so long.

    Fredo is telling his sons that the world is stacked against them due to evil feminists. And he’s telling his daughters that their testimonies are worthless. In other words, par for the course for the Trump family.

  79. 79.

    JGabriel

    Kay:

    These people shouldn’t be reaching consideration, yet they are. Something’s broken in the pipeline …

    I believe that something is called Republicans.

  80. 80.

    SFAW

    @rikyrah:

    Fredo is telling his sons that the world is stacked against them due to evil feminists. And he’s telling his daughters that their testimonies are worthless. In other words, par for the course for the Trump family.

    I am stunned — STUNNED I TELL YOU! — to find out that the Misogynistic Anti-Semitic Racist in Chief of the US (MASRICOTUS?) has a son who is a misogynistic, anti-Semitic racist.

  82. 82.

    satby

    @NotMax: @OzarkHillbilly: @Ocotillo: they probably would have done that next, but they had to move on to the next house. So I will have it rescheduled.
    They had cleared most of the stairs and were at the back door, so they took that off first. But it hung up on the could on the back.

  84. 84.

    Luthe

    @gene108: Menendez better have *excellent* GOTV going in NE Jersey, Camden, and AC if he wants to keep his seat. If Hugins gets enough rural and suburban NJers to come out for him, the Dems can kiss that seat goodbye.

    Help us, Jersey machine politics! You’re our only hope!

  85. 85.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @Luthe: If the Senate weren’t on the line, I’d be wishing for a loss. Too bad he didn’t get successfully primaried.

  86. 86.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Kay: Promotion system very inbred. Kav and Gorsuch went to same prep school, Kennedy picked Kav, Roberts worked for Kav’s dad who was a big lobbyist for cosmetics and perfume industry. All present justices but RBG got law degrees from ivy schools.

    Also wonder if any went K-12 somewhere else than in the East.

  87. 87.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    Kanye 2006: “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”

    Ye 2018: MAGA hat wearing asshole who decries prison slavery while supporting an administration where Jeff F’ing Sessions is Atty General, and kids are in cages. WTF?

    Dude’s gone off the deep end. But crazy keeps you in the press, if that’s your thing…

  90. 90.

    BruceFromOhio

    A selfie of that hat on your private jet while you rack about the 13th amendment is not just laughably unconvincing, it tells me you are just as wrong as the two-bit-ratfuck soulless criminals running my country into the ground. Please travel safe.

  92. 92.

    goblue72

    Kanye is the guy who just month produced and staged a livestream Virtual Reality PORN awards ceremony that included live rap/R&B performances by Kanye and Teyana Taylor, and at which all of the outfits works by the awards presenters (who were all porn actors/actresses) were designed by Kanye himself.

    https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/kanye-west-pornhub-awards-720366/

    Attempting to find the bottom of the rabbit hole that is Mr. Kim Kardashian and trying to find meaning is a lost cause.

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