"… one of the women who was on the bus said I got straight off the bus and got in my truck and went and took a friend to vote." https://t.co/E48ujbLvkm
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) October 21, 2018
NEW WSJ/NBC poll finds enthusiasm is up among core Democrats.
Share of voters showing a high level of interest in the election:
Blacks 68%, up from 57% in Jan-Sept.
Latinos: 71%, up from 47%
Young people: 51%, up from 35%
https://t.co/gjCw8wLLY5 via @WSJ— Janet Hook (@hookjan) October 21, 2018
Ignore the noise of hour-to-hour news. The factors that will determine who controls the House in 2019:
1) Trump's consistently low approval
2) gerrymandering (a handicap for D's)
3) voter turnout and mobilization#3 is up to you.https://t.co/8YSeXnJ4ch
— Sam Wang (@SamWangPhD) October 20, 2018
Being able to vote but choosing not to is immoral in 2018.
“Whether Democrats turn out broadly could make the difference between a fairly close fight for control of the House and sweeping Democratic gains of 40 or more seats.”
https://t.co/O9mlXmg2wv— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) October 20, 2018
The toxic Republican culture of cronyism, incompetence and corruption grows more and more brazen and destructive. The lies are skyrocketing. And the wave of fear they're stoking is intensifying.
The answer to all of this is you – your voice, your vote. 16 days out. -NP
— Nancy Pelosi (@TeamPelosi) October 21, 2018
This is your periodic reminder. There will be discouraging news, infighting, candidate gaffes, and, from Trump and the GOP, lies and scare tactics galore. Remember to keep your eyes on the prize. Vote and do whatever you can to help others do so as well. https://t.co/DkappJrpkr
— Lawrence Glickman (@LarryGlickman) October 21, 2018
To the apolitical people who voted for Trump just out of morbid curiosity to see what would happen: Now you know. Wouldn't it be fun to switch it up and see what would happen if Democrats had subpoena power over him?
— Schooley (@Rschooley) October 21, 2018
Republicans definitely have a chance to hold the House. But the data does not show that their position has improved; it's probably gotten a pinch worse. https://t.co/y2pcec33jo https://t.co/mnGlDG0RrJ
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) October 21, 2018
Dems are in stronger shape today to win the House than they have been since August, when @FiveThirtyEight first started its forecast.
But yes, let's keep organizing and voting like our lives depended on it…it does!
Ignore the WaPo clickbait rubbish.
— Russell Drew (@RussOnPolitics) October 21, 2018
NotMax
Several off the beaten path items for a Monday morn.
1) Wherein we learn that abysmal stupidity is apparently a prerequisite for godhood.
NotMax
Alain, if you’re testing the navigation thingies which have now appeared at the bottom of a front page post when viewed on a comment thread, they’re in reversed position. That is, the next thread up has arrows pointing back and the previous thread down has arrows pointing forward.
It’s akin to the Edsel tail light fiasco.
:)
OzarkHillbilly
Blech.
NotMax
On a much more serious note –
OzarkHillbilly
Schlemazel
I am sick to death of poll stories, they’re part of the horse race model of reporting and for us average voters useless. Really less than useless they can be damaging through despair or overconfidence. I wish we would stop talking about them.
Assume every race is a toss up and work your ass off to win, get out the vote & get out and vote.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Immanentize
@Schlemazel: I just read an article that said 43% of likely voters find polls useless or less than useless while only 27% said they vote based solely on polling.
Schlemazel
@OzarkHillbilly:
And a hearty blech back at ya!
@rikyrah:
Good morning to you too
Thanks for at least trying to make the place civil, I always admire losing battles!
Schlemazel
@Immanentize:
They say 65 percent of all statistics
Are made up right there on the spot
82.4 percent of people believe ’em
Whether they’re accurate statistics or not
I don’t know what you believe
But I do know there’s no doubt
I need another double-shot of something 90 proof
I got too much to think about
Todd Snider – Statistician’s Blues
Immanentize
@Schlemazel: perfect. At least I got a morning smile from this place….
Have an appropriate Monday, friends.
J R in WV
@OzarkHillbilly:
To which I offer a corrected “Belch” at this time of day.
@rikyrah:
Good Morning, sunshine! You are so cheerful with your Good Morning! Thanks for that golden ray of sweetness, even if it will be swamped by the machinations of the RWNJ conspiracies as soon as that/
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Also, too damn cold!
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Gonna hit 69 here today. Too damn warm!
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
That’s not making it over here. :(
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: We had our first hard freeze yestermorn. Killed the last stragglers in the garden so now it’s clean up time.
satby
@Schlemazel: right there with ya!
@OzarkHillbilly: ? how’s the shoulder?
@rikyrah: Good morning ?
@Immanentize: ? how’s your elbow?
satby
@debbie: going to be 55° here, but we’ve had a few hard frosts, so hoping to get a lot cleaned up today in the raised flower bed too. Plus finish planting bulbs I ordered. Plus take the car in for service in an hour.
I want to go back to bed…
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Blech.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Baud
@Immanentize: A poll about polls? And the 27% rule still applies? Amazing.
Tony Jay
@OzarkHillbilly:
I read that article in the Guardian this morning and I would be very interested to hear who these mythical non-Republicans are using anti-muslim bigotry in their campaigns. They must exist, right? If even Britain’s painfully-moderate paper of record has to make a point of noting that not all of the examples over the last two years come from the GOP side of the aisle.
Chances are either –
1) They don’t exist, but noting that would be ‘partisan’, and the article wouldn’t get picked up by US outlets.
2) They’re ‘Independents’ (i.e. Republicans who couldn’t win the Primary and are determined not to be “out-Muslimed” in the General.
3) They’re Democrats who touted their military service and Republican ratfuckers turned that into anti-Muslim bias.
Baud
I think I’ll quit today in anticipation of winning the lottery tomorrow.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tony Jay:
DINGDINGDING! We have a winner! No, they don’t say, but we can all read between the lines.
eta: it’s also a sure bet that 95-100% of the Muslims who are running for office are DEMs or Independents.
rikyrah
Millennial Georgians Get Their Obama Moment With Stacey Abrams https://www.theroot.com/millennial-georgians-get-their-obama-moment-with-stacey-1829875959
satby
@Schlemazel: that’s a good one.
Hope you’re doing ok also, too.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Tony Jay: 4) They live in Mississippi and call themselves D but haven’t voted for a D since the civil rights fight.
satby
@Baud: remember all your virtual campaign workers and supporters ?
rikyrah
I bet that he will think twice before trying that with another woman. She didn’t even break a sweat.
https://twitter.com/real_farmacist/status/1054101137173962752
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
I’m old enough to remember the 2006 campaign and how Dubya’s enablers in the Village insisted it was impossible for Dems to win the House, let alone the Senate.
To paraphrase MacArthur: Broderism never dies, it doesn’t even fade away.
Baud
@satby: The first thing I’ll do is buy Balloon Juice new code. Alain will have a whole team of monkeys working under him.
rikyrah
There was a Governor debate in Florida last night. Gillum was on fire. His closing statement
https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1054179436361383938
rikyrah
Gillum’s answer to if Dolt45 is a good role model for children. I could watch this on a loop ??
https://twitter.com/tommyxtopher/status/1054187265944117249
Matt McIrvin
@Tony Jay:
Dunno, is Tulsi Gabbard at it again?
satby
@rikyrah: yeah, and most of the replies to that are all about what limits women should put on their lives to avoid assault instead of setting an expectation that men be held to a baseline of “don’t assault people”.
OzarkHillbilly
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Karl Rove had THE math.
satby
@Baud: and we would love you and elect you benevolent dictator of the virtual Juicedom.
satby
Off to take the car in… dammit.
JPL
@rikyrah: DeSantis won the pouting contest though. His facial expressions can’t be matched. lol
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: Emergency room visit? $2,323. Video of beatdown? Priceless.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: He’s bringing it home.
Quinerly
Good Morning from Poco and his tribe. Sad news yesterday from “Stray Rescue” in St. Louis. Quentin, the Miracle Dog, has crossed the Rainbow Bridge. He lived to 17 after surviving the gas chamber at the St. Louis City Pound around age one. Randy is heartbroken. I’ve known Randy since 1994 (pre Stray Rescue) when he was my dog groomer. Poco was rescued by Stray Rescue in February, 2014. Site is acting up for me. Hope this Post Dispatch link works. If I recall correctly, Quentin got to meet Oprah some years back. ?https://bit.ly/2S7GkKH
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/quentin-the-dog-who-survived-the-gas-chamber-at-the/article_fd4ed5f6-6743-582f-b55c-e4a954ba15ee.html?utm_content=bufferb9fa3&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=LEEDCC#tracking-source=home-t
Kristine
@satby: We had our first <30 degree time period here in far NE Illinois early Saturday morning. The dragon's wing begonias, which had held their own against so many 32+ degree nights, finally succumbed. I will miss them–they were gorgeous.
Kay
This would be great to win. Kobach is the lead on voter suppression in the GOP. They like to pretend it’s Trump but Kobach has been advising national leaders in the GOP for years- he was Mitt Romney’s adviser. The thing about it is, he’s not just spreading conspiracy theories about voting, he’s a moron. He made an absolute fool of himself on Trump’s dumb voting commission. Their national expert on voting is dumb as a rock.
It’s the low quality problem again- they hire and promote bad people, people who should never have gotten as far as they did.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Yeah but they hate all the right people.
gvg
Here in north Florida, it’s getting colder, ominously early. Yesterday morning it was below 55. Last night my sister and I discussed how early it seemed, and compared to Halloween’s of our childhood. I only remember 1 halloween where it was cold. This morning a coworker dropped by to complain about how cold it was. I feel the signs are we will have a cold winter (for us). At least the oranges are almost ripe. I had to wear a sweater to work already. Usually it stays warm at least till thanksgiving, though by Christmas we need coats.
Kay
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
With one notable exception (the Washington Post) the coverage is just bad. How did they miss health care, which is the most important issue in the country to voters? They discover 2 weeks out that people are talking about health care? Why do we have this billion dollar campaign coverage industry at all?
It’s SO GOP-driven. They didn’t cover health care because it’s a bad issue for Republicans and Republicans jiggled the keys and sent them running after what Trump wants to talk about. We’re having a health care debate despite them.
Baud
@Kay:
To help defeat Hillary.
chris
OT. This is a screenshot from the bottom of this post. https://i.imgur.com/A3EhxeK.png
Is anyone else seeing those arrow things? Are they supposed to be there?
Am I being paranoid? Yes.
TS (the original)
@Baud:
Always told my boss if I win the lottery tonight I won’t be in the office tomorrow. Never thought to do it the other way around. I like your way of thinking Baud. You should be President.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
The GOP’s national expert on voting process:
It was a rout. He didn’t prepare at all. Dumb AND lazy. It’s 3rd rate work. Low quality. It doesn’t matter. He’ll continue to be on panels and advising presidents and national leaders. Mitt Romney was supposed to be this great executive. He hired Kobach. Trump continued to give him political patronage work, but Romney mainstreamed him.
Kay
@Baud:
Trump said “go cover the caravan- that’s my new campaign tactic!” and they all OBLIGE. They don’t give a shit about migrants other than when Trump tells them go chase them.
They’re STILL doing the thing where they put Trump’s lie in the headline. I mean, Jesus. It’s been 2 years. Fix it. Try something else.
They missed this whole election. They covered some other election, the imaginary one in Donald Trump’s head.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: He is THE national expert on voter fraud.
OzarkHillbilly
@chris: They are at the bottom of all posts.
MazeDancer
PostCards – GOTV from your Armchair.
Effective.
Comfy.
Gotta do it.
Get addresses to write PostCards for BJ Candidates:
PostCardPatriots.com
Frankensteinbeck
@Kay:
You don’t have to be smart to succeed if you have a monopoly on something people desperately want. That’s the Republican Party and racism.
@Kay:
I believe the press has demonstrated that they are terrified of migrants.
satby
@Kristine: I normally have lousy luck with begonias, but Quinerly overwrites hers, so she inspired me to give it a try. I put mine in the basement with a grow light and just in case I also snipped a couple of sprigs to try to root in my plant cloner. It’s been a week, so far everything is alive at least.
Quinerly
@satby: ?
germy
As they all do.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: That was awesome!
Jeffro
@rikyrah: i AM watching it on a loop…:)
That’s how you deal with Trumpist nonsense, Dems. Just point it out, laugh, answer the question competently…NEXT!
Barbara
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Well, you don’t have to reach far back to 2017 when the chattering classes (including WaPo) reported that Ed Gillespie had the momentum and was closing the distance in the Virginia governor’s race. I was so spooked I left work early on Election Day and went and called people at county headquarters. Election was over by 8:00 pm (which means that they didn’t have to wait for marine blue Fairfax and midnight blue Arlington to report in to know what was going to happen).
Anyway, there was snow in the Laurel Highlands yesterday afternoon as I drove east from Pittsburgh. It hovered between 30 and 33F.
Jeffro
@Kay
he’s busy tweeting this morning that the blessed caravan has “criminals and assorted middle easterners mixed in…a national emergy” (his typo not mine)
Jesus, what a raving lunatic. Stroke out, you racist asshole!
Kathleen
@OzarkHillbilly: Someone painted the word Bleh on the side of a box in Chocago. I thought of you when I saw it.
Tony Jay
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yes, and that’s the thing. They know that all of the anti-Muslim bigotry is coming from one side of the aisle and had been turned up to deafening levels since The Pustule burst onto the GOP scene, but even in an article that’s – about – that very thing, they still can’t bear to make “Republicans are in full ‘Putting on the Reich’ mode” their lede. It’s this is in the bloody Guardian. It’s madness. They’re pathological.
satby
@satby: @Quinerly: of course, I meant overwinters
hueyplong
I defy anyone to watch the Gillum response and fail to watch it at least one more time.
My favorite part is how he handles the absurd DeSantis non-response. I’d vote for him on those 30 seconds alone.
It’s amazing that anyone can watch that and think the GOPer is the better choice. [I know, I know, black person talking.]
Heidi Dog
@Quinerly: Randy Grim is one of my heroes. He’s an incredible example of one person making a huge difference in the world around him.
Quinerly
@Heidi Dog: ?
You’ll appreciate this: https://www.strayrescue.org/quentin
Tony Jay
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Oh it’s worse than that. These aren’t ‘economically anxious’ voters they’re talking about, these are actual nominees and their campaigns. So who are they? I’m sure people here would – love – to know details about these mythical non-Republicans who’ve been inspired by The Pustule to go Full Metal Islamophobe, if only so they can send money to their Primary opponents. So who are they? Where? What have they said?
Nothing. Tumbleweed. It’s just put out there that ‘candidates’ are doing it and they’re mostly BUT NOT ALL Republican and left at that, all insinuation and zero evidence. It’s infuriating.
Marcopolo
@patrick II:
I was catching up on BJ threads and saw this in a now dead thread from early this morning. I had this same experience canvassing on Saturday. I had quite a few addresses where only a single woman’s name was listed. There were at least a couple doors where instead of the woman, a man answered, said the woman was home but that no I could not talk to her. It was pretty strange. I think I also encountered some middle-aged parents of women in their 20’s who in one case would not call their daughter to the door and in the other basically said go away we are not passing your candidate’s information along to them. First time I had really experienced that this cycle & I have knocked on a lot of doors. I assumed it was because I was in a mostly red area where they were targeting younger & college educated women to the exclusion of everyone else. One of the strangest was a woman who asked me why her daughter’s name was on my canvass list because “we (assuming from context she meant the entire family) don’t vote.”
TomatoQueen
Good morning from Alexandria. Good thoughts for Leto and Avalune and their doggie(whose name is? and can we have a pic maybe?). Blech, blech, and a thousand more blech to bastardAetna and other entities.
Tony Jay
@Matt McIrvin:
That’s a fair question. But if the Revolutionary Front of Greater Vermont had been pandering that hard to WWC sensibilities on behalf of their forcefully adopted candidates, I’d have expected to have heard – something – about it here.
Luthe
@Kay: My eternal pessimist of a father* is convinced the Dems are not talking about threats to SS and Medicare enough and will lose if they do not start doing so. I asked for his source on this and he said he saw it on TV (MSNBC). I told him they weren’t covering every single race and he replied if it was a national trend the media would cover it. I told him the media didn’t cover everything that was happening, only what they wanted to cover.
*I sent him a link to Postcard Patriots and told him to start writing some because I refuse to listen to his bitching if he’s not doing anything about it. If he won’t canvass or call, he can damn well write postcards.
chris
@OzarkHillbilly: Ah, OK. I turned off my antivirus and they popped up. Weird but OK. Thank you.
zhena gogolia
@hueyplong:
He is fantastic.
SFAW
@germy:
I learned a new thing from that Tweet: specifically, that (too much) salt can be really harmful to kitties. (I expect a bunch of jackals here already knew that.)
SFAW
@hueyplong:
I think it would be better if Gillum did not let MS-13 and the Black Panthers take over Tallahassee. Now he wants to turn the entire state into Venzuleelah? And Iran? And maybe New Jersey? And give away free drugs to six-year-olds!!!!
And don’t forget Benghaziiiiiiiiii!!!!!!
Sorry. My meds haven’t kicked in yet.
SFAW
@Luthe:
I hope he is following your wishes/instructions. Good job!
Mike in NC
The next two weeks will include a media-backed tidal wave of bullshit that all boil down to “good news for conservatives”. Same as every other election since Nixon.
zhena gogolia
@SFAW:
And he’s being funded by George Soros, Maxine Waters, and Nancy Pelosi!!!!!
zhena gogolia
I asked this the other day and no one answered, so I’ll ask again: Why isn’t George Soros allowed to throw his money around the way the Koch Brothers and Adelson and the Mercers do?
zhena gogolia
@SFAW:
I did not know that, but then I don’t keep a lighted salt lick in my living room.
germy
@SFAW:
True.
I always see sodium listed as a cat food ingredient. I hope the manufacturers don’t overdo it.
Mike in NC
Also, too: a neighbor sent a Facebook link critical of a group of self-loathing women waving Trump signs at one of his hate rallies. Oddly enough, every single one of them was a white blonde. Or maybe they were paid $50 each.
Jeffro
@hueyplong: @zhena gogolia: Gillium/Spanberger 2020!
No wait…Abrams/Sinema 2020!
No wait…=)
Fresh faces are comin’ for you, GOP!
germy
Tazj
@Marcopolo: Hillary said after the election that some women were in a way bullied by their husbands and partners into not voting or voting for 45, and of course, the media thought she was wrong and purely making excuses for herself.
I know that men sometimes do this from people who worked on the census. The men didn’t want their wives to answer questions. My husband will sometimes answer the phone for me because he thinks I’m too nice, and that drives me crazy.
Brachiator
@zhena gogolia:
Soros is not as wealthy as the Koch Brothers. And he has better things to do with his money.
The Koch brothers are two of the richest men in the world. “Charles and David Koch each have a net worth of $53.7 billion, according to Forbes.”
Also, Soros donated a chunk of his wealth to philanthropy instead of to politics.
Even though Soros gets demonized, it is the Koch and the Mercers and their conservative ilk who want to impose their will on American society and culture.
Kristine
@satby: I saved some mums a few years ago–a friend suggested taking them out of the planter and putting them in the ground before the first freeze. 3 of 5 survived, and have bloomed every year since. The dragon’s wing get so big–I didn’t have room. My dining area looks like a greenhouse. I do have a basement, though–maybe next year….
Kristine
@satby: A friend of mine renamed spellchecker “spellwrecker,”
Brachiator
@Jeffro:
I keep hearing talk show hosts and others insist that Trump is not a racist. Maybe so, but it sure is strange how he hires so many bigots to work for him.
Butter Emails!!!
@Kay:
The Press is beginning to lose its credibility with the liberal part of the political spectrum. Given that the “conservative” part of the spectrum already considers them enemies of the Republic, they’re in danger of having their credibility disappear up their own rectums. I wonder if they’ll scream at liberals about civility when it’s their butts being tossed into cages and not the children of asylum seakers.
Skepticat
@Schlemazel: Spot on
Dan B
@gvg: It’s, guess what?, climate change! Ta da! At least partly. The west coast all the way to Alaska has been warm and dry. Cold air ftom the arctic has been pushed far north due to a warm NE Pacific Ocean/ El Nino. In the eastern US the arctic air has been pushed far to the south (an encursion of arctic cold). Its a combo El Nino and wildly perturbed Jet Stream. This pattern may continue for months or change depending upon the El Nino strengthening ir weakening.
The Arctic has warmed 5 degrees while the average got the planet so far has been 1 degree. This is altering weather dynamics in ways that climate scientists are still exploring (debating).
Yutsano
I’m going with Tom Perez here:
“When they go low, we vote.”
Dan B
@Kay: The slap on the wrist that Kobach receives is infuriating. A black woman gets 8 years behind bars for voting before her probation was completed while Kobach gets a small fine for mass voter obstruction.
American Justice, a disgrace!
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
And have stolen more than enough money to do so easily.