Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

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

People are weird.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

You are here: Home / Organizing & Resistance / Don't Agonize - Organize / Friday Morning Open Thread: Still More Reasons to GOTV

Friday Morning Open Thread: Still More Reasons to GOTV

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Newt Gingrich is a two-bit hustler, but then, so is the Oval Office Squatter, so…

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Also, too: At the first threat of actual oversight, the people actually carrying out Trump’s worst ideas will scurry for the exits…

Reader Interactions

177Comments

  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A white man with a history of violence fatally shot two African American customers at a grocery store in Kentucky and was swiftly arrested as he tried to flee, police said Thursday. They said it was too soon to say what prompted Wednesday’s shooting, responding to an earlier account from a witness that when confronted with another white man during the incident, the suspect said: “Whites don’t shoot whites.”

    The Jeffersontown police chief, Sam Rogers, said: “I can’t speculate on motive at this time.” He said surveillance video showed the suspect tried unsuccessfully to enter the First Baptist church in Jeffersontown before he went to the Kroger grocery store. The church is headed by a black pastor and has a large African American membership.

    The FBI announced that it “is evaluating the evidence to determine if there were any violations of federal law”.

    Rogers also said the suspect, 51-year-old Gregory Alan Bush, apparently had a history of mental illness, as local news outlets have reported.

    They can’t even wait a day or 2.

  3. 3.

    JGabriel

    Ari Melber via Anne Laurie @ Top:

    The FBI found Hillary Clinton’s email server was *not* hacked by foreign governments.

    That was obvious when Podesta’s emails were released. If the hackers had Clinton’s emails, they would have released those instead.

    I mean, seriously, who gives a damn about John Podesta? Podesta’s emails were released because Podesta was the highest person in the Clinton campaign hierarchy that the hackers were able to hack – which is to say, Hillary wasn’t hacked, and that should have been obvious to everyone the day Podesta’s emails were published.

  4. 4.

    NotMax

    Open thread, so –

    Mentioned because there are some who are into it as a cultish, campy thing.

    TCM showing both contemporaneous Dark Shadows movies this weekend, one at 1:30 a.m. Sunday, the other at 3:30 a.m. Being generous, all shall venture to say is that production values were not a high priority.

    The real gem of the weekend is on at 12:01 a.m. Monday, the documentary Baby Peggy, The Elephant in the Room, about the first child superstar of the cinema, who is still among us at age 99 and is reputed to be the last still living silent film star.

  6. 6.

    NotMax

    A bit of less oppressive reportage with which to begin a weekend, the amazing Mr. Xu.

    At the end of a street of newly built high-rises in the northern Chinese city of Yanji stands an exposed cliff face, where paleontologists scrape away 100 million-year-old rock in search of prehistoric bones.

    Like many fossil excavation sites in China, this one was discovered by accident.

    China’s rapid city building has churned up a motherlode of dinosaur fossils. While bulldozers have unearthed prehistoric sites in many countries, the scale and speed of China’s urbanization is unprecedented, according to the United Nations Development Program.

    Perhaps no one has seized the scientific opportunity more than Xu Xing, a diligent and unassuming standard-bearer for China’s new prominence in paleontology. The energetic researcher has named more dinosaur species than any living paleontologist, racing between dig sites to collect specimens and further scientists’ understanding of how birds evolved from dinosaurs. Source

  7. 7.

    Debbie(Aussie)

    If the shitgibbon should run in 2020 and he is not on the ballot in some states, can people who wish to vote for him write in his name?
    I’m hoping that he is either in prison or on the run/ exiled to Russia.

  11. 11.

    Cermet

    Amazing that if someone is a follower of Islam and commits violence resulting in a targeted murder they are instantly labeled a terrorist.
    Certainly white violence against blacks over the years here in the u s of amerika is, by the very definition of the word, terrorism but the media won’t say that.

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    US lawmakers call on Trump to investigate human rights in Honduras

    More than 50 US lawmakers have called on Donald Trump’s administration to investigate a string of threats against journalists and human rights activists in Honduras, and asked the state department to reassess its certification of the country’s human rights conditions.

    Led by Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Representative Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, the lawmakers wrote to Trump expressing concern over death threats and intimidation campaigns targeting journalists and activists documenting human rights violations in Honduras.

    “By supporting the corrupt and repressive regime of Juan Orlando Hernández, the US is tacitly approving state-sanctioned violence and the complete disregard for worker rights, indigenous rights, and individual freedoms,” Schakowsky said in a statement.

    “The Trump administration can’t be in the business of permitting impunity,” said Markey. “Continued support of Juan Orlando Hernández’s government without continued checks on its behavior will only fuel the destruction of the rule of law, cripple an already devastated economy, and allow for a pervasive fear among the Honduran people.”

    The letter, which appeared to be signed only by Democrats, comes as Trump has stoked fears after a caravan of more than 5,000 migrants left Honduras for the US-Mexico border.

    Hernández has been seen as a key regional ally by Washington, which was quick to recognize his re-election in December despite widespread allegations of fraud.

    Good luck with that.

  15. 15.

    Aleta

    It’s not 6 am and the news has set my hair on fire twice already. I have to have a bucket of water with me at all times. Don’t have a dry pair of shoes left. The cats run past as fast as they can.

  20. 20.

    bjacques

    If Dems win the House but not the Senate this November 6, it will be a farcical replay of Dolle Dinsdag (Crazy Tuesday), September 19, 1944, when the incomplete success of Operation Market Garden on the Rhine delayed liberation of the northern part of the Netherlands. A lot of collaborators (“moffen”) north of the Rhine fled to Germany, expecting complete liberation to occur shortly, not in the 7-1/2 more months that it actually took.

    While cruel, stupid and expensive legislation would no longer be possible starting next January, Trump would unfortunately still have free rein to pack the judiciary for another two years.

  22. 22.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @bjacques: Get used to it. The chances of DEMs taking the Senate have always been low. Blue wave or no the Senate and it’s electoral calendar is somewhat inoculated against it this year. The fact that there is a chance of DEMs taking it at all this cycle is near miraculous.

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I have to disagree with Cole when he said, “In the history of political stunts, this is by far the dumbest, and will probably be the most expensive”, about the deployment of 800 US troops to our southern border. The Iraq war was a FAR more expensive political stunt.

  28. 28.

    Immanentize

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Bigly. In 2020 there will be 21 Republican seats and 11 Democratic seats (plus one or two for races that will be rerum from this year). And some of those are in blue or purpley places like — COLLINS in Maine.

  30. 30.

    Matt McIrvin

    This idea of Trump not being the Republican nominee in 2020 is such a fantasy. They’re solidly behind him! All of the scandals that have been revealed so far, his constant lying, all the indictments Mueller has already handed down–this has no effect on them. Why would Republicans abandon him?

  31. 31.

    NotMax

    @OzarkHillbilly

    Yup. 33 regular cycle elections plus 2 special elections to fill term remainders.

    26 currently D-held seats up for election this year, 9 currently R-held seats. Dems would have to win 28 of the 35 contests in order to have a majority.

  32. 32.

    Kay

    More than 1,400 current or former education workers are contesting state seats in Nov. 6 elections, according to the National Education Association, the largest U.S. union. More than 1,000 of them are Democrats –- accounting for 19 percent of the party’s candidates in state elections.

    It comes directly out of the strikes. That’s where they organized and became politically active.

    IMO the state races are the real story this election. A lot is going on! Maybe it’s good it stays under the radar. Once it’s identified nationally that probably means it’s over.

  33. 33.

    rm

    @Debbie(Aussie): If states require tax records for ballot access alone, not only could people write in shitgibbon’s name, the Republicans could put a placeholder on the ballot who is not a crook, and then have the electors vote for Trump in the Electoral College if the R candidate wins.

    I hope these state lawmakers have thought about how thoroughly the Rs cheat, and forbid the electors from voting for someone who wasn’t eligible for the ballot.

    There’s also a movement to pass laws requiring the electors to vote for the winner of the national popular vote, which go into effect as soon as that law is in enough states that it makes the EC irrelevant. Another reason to get Dem state legislatures and governors.

  35. 35.

    Butch

    Of course obvious to everyone on this site but “don’t have any intention RIGHT NOW” to shoot at people seeking asylum? What kind of ghoul is she?

  36. 36.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It’ll be just such a different viewpoint in state legislatures. Ohio is like “lawyer, lawyer, lawyer, businessperson, lobbyist/lawyer, insurance salesperson, lawyer”. Bust that up, by all means.

  38. 38.

    Kay

    @Butch:

    She’s a ghoul who knows who she works for and has decided it’s easier and more profitable to fall in line.

    I still think the bombs in the mail are going to bite her in the ass, though. She might want to stay off tv if she isn’t planning on doing her job. We know where she was when she wasn’t doing it. It’s like calling in sick and your boss sees you on tv at the baseball game.

  41. 41.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Goatlanta: why exactly are there so many goats here anyway?

    Romeo would not take his eyes off me. This was flattering to begin with but then he kept trying to rub his head against my leg. Which would also have been cute except for the fact he stank. “He’s in rut and wants to breed,” his owner informs me. “Don’t get too close. When goats are in rut they urinate all over themselves and you really don’t want to get that smell on you.”

    I hadn’t expected to meet a horny goat called Romeo during my visit to Atlanta. I hadn’t expect to meet any goats at all. Atlanta is, after all, famous for things like hip-hop and Coca-Cola, not cloven-hoofed mammals. But that may be changing. Atlanta is intent on transforming itself into a truly sustainable city and a rapidly growing city farms movement is afoot in the southern metropolis. “By 2025, we want to develop a resilient local food system and institutionalize urban agriculture,” says Amol Naik, Atlanta’s chief resilience officer. Goats, it turns out, are playing an important part in helping Atlanta achieve these goals.

    Women have to be especially careful around rutting goats.

  42. 42.

    rikyrah

    Now we know that BC has been occupied with moving. But, how come Silverman hasn’t posted on the Florida Governor race?
    I was looking forward to seeing it from a Floridian point of view.

  43. 43.

    bjacques

    What Kay said. We Dems have been neglecting state and local races for decades. Flipping a number of states would make up a lot of ground and help blunt whatever damage Trump and his Imperial Roman Senate can do in the next two years. If we only flip one or two states, that at least puts to rest any prospect, bruited about awhile back, of lousy Constitutional Amendments being pushed through.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    We had this letter to the editor in the local paper last week- no one recognized the name of the writer (we often recognize the Righties because it’s the same people over and over). Anyway it was why you should “never” vote for a Democrat- all guns and abortion. It got a lot of attention- the local Democrats were freaking out last night because they want a rebuttal, which I’m tasked with writing, which I agreed to do. Today we have same letter writer and it’s why “Aryans” are superior. I’m pleased. They let him dig his own grave.

    I’m not going to “rebut” guns and abortion. Instead I’ll just do economic issues- I thought I’d add the deficit spending because I know it drives mainstream Republicans crazy.

  48. 48.

    SFAW

    @Matt McIrvin:

    This idea of Trump not being the Republican nominee in 2020 is such a fantasy. They’re solidly behind him!

    Yeah, no shit. I’m ceaselessly amazed at the leaps of faith people make, i.e., that the Rethugs will do something non-horrible.

    Re: Dana Houle’s idea that various states make releasing tax returns a condition to being on the ballot: please get back to us when that actually happens. I won’t be waiting by the ‘phone, however. Although, based on how he’s dealing with DeRacist, I could see Andrew Gillum pushing for something like that.

  49. 49.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: Teachers spend every day of their working lives investing themselves in the future of our country. Something that has become politically problematic since Reagan. 47% of the electorate want nothing more than to get theirs and fuck everyone else.

  53. 53.

    SFAW

    @rikyrah:

    Melissa McEwan (@Shakestweetz) Tweeted:
    “The FBI arrested a man in Town of Madison, Wisconsin, on Wednesday for ‘trying to buy radioactive material with the intent to kill someone.’” That man is Jeremy Ryan, losing GOP candidate for Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District.

    Too bad it wasn’t his brother Paul.
    (No, I have no idea if they’re related. Just go with it.)

  54. 54.

    debbie

    I’ve only been awake about an hour, but I’ve already changed my mind at least four times about voting today vs. voting on Election Day. To borrow a phrase from someone somewhere, blech.

  55. 55.

    Kay

    @bjacques:

    There are structural and ideological reasons Democrats ignore state races- they have traditionally focused on issues where national laws are better. Civil rights is one, but so are environmental laws and regulations on industry with teeth and enforcement heft. So it’s not all political. Some of it is bedrock values and those are important. It makes sense that we’d get teachers in state races because 90% of K-12 public education is state or local. National education laws are really civil rights laws. That’s their realm – they enforce civil rights in public schools, because civil rights can’t be a patchwork. You’ll never get “Democrats” to focus on state law like Republicans do because the two ideological frameworks are different, and we should value ours. It’s better :)

  60. 60.

    Tazj

    @JGabriel: The press identifies the hacked emails as Clinton’s in headlines. In the past few days when there were articles concerning Roger Stone’s knowledge of the release of the emails the headlines read that they were Clinton’s emails. It’s understandable because it was Clinton’s campaign and not many people know who John Podesta is but I think many people assumed during the campaign and probably still believe her email account was hacked.

  62. 62.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Too, they’re collaborative, right, in their work? That’s a different way of approaching the world. Fewer zero sum people would be a very different power structure. So many of them running is itself a collective action. It’s 1400 people running in the same direction instead of every which way. There’s power in that.

    I’m ready to hire fewer assholes. The worst people running things is not a good long term plan. If we actually believed in cooperation and collaboration we’d hire fewer assholes, because you can’t get THERE with THEM. It just isn’t in them.

  64. 64.

    Chyron HR

    @rm:

    Republicans could put a placeholder on the ballot who is not a crook, and then have the electors vote for Trump in the Electoral College if the R candidate wins.

    That plan would require both Donald Trump and his supporters to be smart enough to understand it.

  65. 65.

    OzarkHillbilly

    “I probably lost my temper a bit and ordered her to get up,” he said, adding that he “absolutely” regrets his behaviour.

    “I’m not a racist person by any means and it’s just a fit of temper at the time, I think,” he said. “I apologise for all the distress you’ve had there and since.”

    But Gayle and her daughter, Carol Gayle, rejected the apology over the language used on the plane from Barcelona to London on 19 October.

    Asked if she accepted the apology, Delsie Gayle said: “I don’t think so. You must forget and forgive but it’s going to take a long time for me to get over what he has done to me.”

    Her daughter added: “He says he wasn’t racist. He wouldn’t be saying words like that if he wasn’t racist.”

  66. 66.

    Kay

    @NotMax:

    Oh, I won’t. This is a low income county. Obama’s Medicaid expansion is literally the best thing that has happened to these people in my adult life. They no longer come in with judgments that are on their way to garnishment and they didn’t even know there was a court date. They bring it in and I have to tell them “that’s a judgment- it’s over- you lost”. I couldn’t have done anything for them anyway. They owe the money, they don’t have it- they will NEVER have it- and providers have to get paid.

    Providers have gotten smarter too. They reduce the bill to an amount that won’t justify discharging it in bankruptcy, so they can garnish. If they’re working they’re going to pay that bill, which means they can’t pay their rent.

  69. 69.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    I’m pleased. They let him dig his own grave.

    Those guys always overplay their hand. Have fun with the letter!

  73. 73.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: Collaborative, yes, a very good word to describe how they approach their work. And for so many the “work” doesn’t end with a school bell. One Spanish teacher friend of mine used to take a couple dozen of her students on a 2 week trip to Spain every summer. This was not something she had to do, she wanted to do this so they could know a little bit of the wider world.

    Her wake and funeral were amazing. Literally thousands of her former students came to pay their respects to her daughters. The line went around the block, and it was a loooonnnnggggg block

  76. 76.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    I’m thinking I won’t. Everyone around here is convinced that Democrats always vote early. Republicans calibrate their last-minute efforts based on that turnout. I like the idea of swooping in like a stealth fighter and voting straight Democrat on Election Day. Let them know they are never safe. I also like the bake sale at my polling place. A homemade chocolate chip cookie at the end of the day is very satisfying.

  77. 77.

    debbie

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Ashcroft would be jealous:

    Christian TV host Rick Wiles warns viewers that if Democrats win power they will slaughter “tens of thousands of Christians.”

    Wiles, host of TruNews, a television “news” program produced for conservative Christians, explained to his audience that it was important to get out and vote Republican because if the Democrats get power “they’re going to slaughter tens of thousands of pastors, tens of thousands of Christians.”

  79. 79.

    Baud

    @debbie:

    they’re going to slaughter tens of thousands of pastors, tens of thousands of Christians.”

    It’s worse than that. We’re also not going to let them eat out in peace.

  81. 81.

    Kay

    @NotMax:

    One of the things that really disappoints me about Lefties is they don’t give Obama credit for Medicaid expansion. It is life-changing for millions of people. It is the single biggest expansion of the safety net in my lifetime and they consider it a failure. That’s just wrong and oddly…clueless. I would go so far as to say it’s elitist.

    They can’t have know how bad things were for working class without health care access and not credit Obama with this. I used to see people who had to go to work with their faces all puffed up with dental infections. I met a carpet installer who set his own broken hand. I imagine hands are complicated so unsurprisingly he fucked it up and it was a claw. It was horrifying. Real suffering. Undiagnosed cancer, then weirdly and suddenly gravely ill at 40 or 50 years old, then they DIE. They could not afford medical care and now they can. Obama did that and he did it for people who wouldn’t vote for a black guy if you paid them. Kasich became a believer and he should be- it worked. There is measurably less suffering in the world as a result of that law. To not even mention it? You can’t say you care about working class people then. You don’t.

  83. 83.

    gene108

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Rogers also said the suspect, 51-year-old Gregory Alan Bush, apparently had a history of mental illness, as local news outlets have reported.

    I have a history of mental illness, and even at my worst, when I was actively psychotic and having auditory hallucinations, I was still able to work out shooting people is bad.

    Mental illness is not a catch all fucking excuse to remove blame for bad behavior. Millions of people have mental health issues and are not shooting people in grocery stores.

  84. 84.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: ‘Our faith compels us’: Christian resistance to Trump gathers steam

    In a church parking lot in Greensboro, North Carolina, the Rev Vince Anderson was pouring sweat as he pounded his keyboard and belted out his “dirty gospel” anthems. Taking aim at a string of Donald Trump’s policies, Anderson repeatedly roared: “I don’t think Jesus woulda done it that way.”

    The crowd enthusiastically echoed the refrain. But they weren’t there just for Anderson’s stirring music; the afternoon rally was part of a 30-city tour organised by Vote Common Good, urging Christians to use their votes in next month’s midterm elections to flip control of Congress to the Democrats.

    The message is the most politically explicit of a number of progressive Christian groups seeking to push back against conservative evangelical support for Trump. Whereas most focus on Jesus’s teaching to protect the poor and vulnerable, Vote Common Good is honing in on places that voted in Republican representatives in 2016. Exercise your democratic right to get them out, is the essence of its campaign.

    “We have been really dumbfounded and dismayed by the level of support that evangelical leaders have given to Trump,” said executive director Doug Pagitt. “We have a moral obligation and a religious obligation to offer a different voice. Our faith compels us to speak out.”

    In the 2016 presidential election, 81% of white evangelical Christians voted for Trump. Two years on, Pagitt estimates that between five and 20% of those voters are “moveable”.

    He said: “They may have voted for Trump, but they are not supportive. Many of them had no idea it could be this bad. They’ve watched the rhetoric turn into horrible life implications for people, such as separating children and parents at the border, and they see it as contrary to human decency.

    “They are generally silent, and most feel alone and isolated. We want to stand with them, look them in the eye and tell them their faith calls them to do something different in the polling booth this time.”

    The resistance of progressive Christians to Trump and his policies is gathering momentum. In May, some two dozen faith leaders including Michael Curry, the Anglican bishop who shot to global stardom after preaching at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding, launched a manifesto, Reclaiming Jesus.

    Warning of a “dangerous crisis of moral and political leadership at the highest levels of our government and in our churches”, it rejected specific hallmarks of the Trump administration. Among them were the resurgence of white nationalism and the use of racial bigotry for political gain; misogyny, sexual misconduct and abuse; growing attacks on immigrants and refugees; reducing programs for the poor while cutting taxes for the rich; the normalisation of lying by the nation’s highest leaders; xenophobia; and environmental mismanagement.

    The manifesto was the product of deep concern about “the cultural, political, spiritual and religious climate of this country, and also concern that the moderate religious voice was not being heard in the public square,” Curry, the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, told the Guardian.

    “Representatives of Christianity were buying into political agendas that very often do not reflect the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth,” he added. Those that did not follow the example of the Good Samaritan, or biblical commands to protect the poor and vulnerable, “cannot claim to be Christian,” he said.

    It’s nice to see this, and long overdue, but I question their ability to influence Christian voters. Repubs and Evangelical leaders have been demonizing DEMs for even longer than they have Hillary.

  85. 85.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Kay: Good point about Medicaid.

    @gene108: Good point about stigmatizing mental illness by using it to excuse violence.

    BJ is educating me, as usual.

    My FBI friend speculates it will be only days before the person sending the bombs is identified. Friend is madly jealous of colleagues working on the case. Friend lives for this kind of thing.

  86. 86.

    Jeffro

    @Matt McIrvin:

    This idea of Trump not being the Republican nominee in 2020 is such a fantasy. They’re solidly behind him! All of the scandals that have been revealed so far, his constant lying, all the indictments Mueller has already handed down–this has no effect on them. Why would Republicans abandon him?

    I hear you, but I think there’s other things to consider:
    – Trumpov’s base hasn’t abandoned him, but it’s clear that some small percentage of Rs have become “reluctant, gotta-vote-D-until-Trumpov’s-out” D voters. An even bigger percentage of independents has already swung towards the Ds.
    – eventually, the Mueller investigation will conclude and bring charges (against Stone, Page, Jared, Don Jr, Trumpov himself)
    – other financial crimes investigations about Trumpov and the Trumpov Org are going to continue to roll on, and on, and on…
    – the GOP powers-that-be/donors surely know that the 2020 election will have a major, major impact on redistricting, and they’ll want the strongest possible candidate in there
    – Kasich is, I think, going to take a shot at primarying Trumpov. Not that he’ll win, but that should weaken the party even further

    I don’t think he’ll be on the GOP ticket come 2020 – truly, the possibilities are endless – but at this point I almost hope he limps to their nomination.

  87. 87.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @gene108: Most people have mental health issues and most people just deal with them in whatever ways get them thru the day.

  88. 88.

    montanareddog

    @OzarkHillbilly: Great to see the Guardian visiting a “red” state (I hate the term “Cletus safari”, so sneery) and showing that it is not wall-to-wall knuckledraggers. It is so obvious that urban areas are not 100% Dem and rural areas are not monolithic Gooper but you would not get that impression from the usual MSM narrative.

  89. 89.

    Ken Shabby

    @Baud:

    I believe 2022 also. We have to keep the energy going.

    Sure do. For more than a decade, I believe. First, 2018, from whom all blessings flow. Without that it is, as they say – mute.

  90. 90.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    It seems politically dumb to bash Obamacare too. if it were me and I wanted universal coverage I would point to the people who have it and say “you could have this too” instead of saying “the government health care plan sucks”. I feel like it’s ego- like they can’t give it to him because then they wouldn’t own the issue. It’s turf protecting. It comes from a bad place.

  91. 91.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    Mail bombs sent to James Clapper and Cory Booker where just intercepted.

  94. 94.

    Kay

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    The DHS head is going to regret choosing to promote Donald Trump’s racist fantasies rather than working on this. Bad call on her part. She should have stuck with doing her job- you really can’t go wrong doing that. She has priorities problems at work. Maybe they should replace her with someone competent.

  97. 97.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    One of my sisters sometimes reads the site (she’s a committed lurker in all things) and she loves your Florida pictures. The frogs and birds and flowers- so different from ours.

  100. 100.

    ET

    I somehow won’t be surprised if the reports about the pipe bomber operating out of Florida end up being true.

  101. 101.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @debbie: Some of them commented on their reluctance to getting involved in politics. I am sympathetic. I too feel politics should be separate from religion. Too bad those on the right don’t agree.

  102. 102.

    dmsilev

    @Betty Cracker: So, if we ever need to dispose of a body we should come visit you?

    (no particular immediate need, but I always like to know what my options are. Just in case.)

  104. 104.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    12 bombs.

    Have to think MSNBC personalities and Jeff Bezos (owner of WaPo) will be next.

  105. 105.

    montanareddog

    @ET:

    I somehow won’t be surprised if the reports about the pipe bomber operating out of Florida end up being true.

    If only they could link it to Roger Stone or one of his acolytes.

  106. 106.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: My NOLA son lives across the street from a canal. When I was down there helping him deal with all the issues after his accident, I would get up before the sun and take his dogs for their morning walks. He warned me to watch out for gators. While most of the time I was there it was pretty cold for NO and I did not see any, during a walk one warm morning, sure enough, I spotted one.

  107. 107.

    Ken Shabby

    @Kay:

    You can’t say you care about working class people then. You don’t.

    Started out in the trades as a carpenter and, after a career having nothing to do with that and clean clothes in bargain, ended up there, as a house painter. Five years ago, during initial consultation for hernia surgery, I was informed that I could do something about it at my age whereas the 45 year old Mexican man prior to my visit was without resources.
    It was the way it was said. >shrug< he’s a Mexican laborer and, anyway, what can you do.

    I can see where healthcare professionals are worn out after decades of this trainwreck but listening to any person’s future be written off or referred to vaguely as some kind of destiny and, by a highly skilled, educated physician was ….well, yes, it didn’t surprise but it still shocked.

    Inferred: we’re both white so, I can casually suggest that.

    I’ve never been around any trades folk who are not some patchwork of compensators, Aleve, other, stronger drugs, wraps, back braces. And little to any healthcare.

    That’s just the way it is. And, dental care? Forget it.

    At lunch, radio? Limbaugh. It’s Fun.

  109. 109.

    NotMax

    @Betty Cracker

    “Fun facts.”

    Alligators have around 74 to 80 teeth in their jaws at any given time, and as they wear down or fall out they are replaced. An alligator can go through as many as 2,000 teeth or more in its lifetime!

  111. 111.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @dmsilev: I know of some holes in the ground that are guaranteed to never get visited. I hold them in reserve just in case.

  112. 112.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: The general identification of “Obamacare” with the exchanges was a huge propaganda coup for the right, especially when the exchange website launched in a broken form. I often see even liberals talking this way. But the Medicaid expansion was really the most important part, and the hole that SCOTUS blew in it by allowing states to opt out was the cause of its biggest failures to cover people.

  113. 113.

    Baud

    @Kay: I’ll never forgive people who kept Obamacare polling red while Obama was in office and who switched to supporting it only when it was at risk.

  117. 117.

    Matt McIrvin

    @debbie: My mother has said she doesn’t want to vote early because there are a bunch of under-covered local races on her ballot, and she wants to go to the candidate forums that are being held in order to hear what they have to say before voting. This kind of thing can be particularly important for officially nonpartisan races without a primary, which city and town races often are.

  118. 118.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ken Shabby:

    he’s a Mexican laborer and, anyway, what can you do.

    Was working with an electrician from Texas on one job. He told me a story of coming into work on a Monday morn and finding the Mexican they had left there on Friday to do “just one more thing” fried to a crisp with his hands in the main panel. His foreman said only, “Get this fucking wetback off my jobsite!” They dumped the body somewhere.

    And yeah, it was a “funny” story.

  120. 120.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Matt McIrvin: Has anyone here used the Ballot Ready site? I found it hard to figure out what to click on, but once I was there, they gave a list of candidates tailored to my district, each one linked to things like ABA ratings for judges. It’s good for all those local races with candidate you never heard of.

  122. 122.

    geg6

    So now it’s Booker and Clapper targeted. I sure hope every Dem and former federal law enforcement/CIA officer/administrator is checking their mail.

  123. 123.

    Ken Shabby

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Yep.

    This is years ago now, mid 80s. Went out to help a buddy with his and partner’s business. We were remodeling a restaurant. This was truly a L.A. crew: partner was from then-West Germany, hiding from officials and successful at it, one carpenter was Israeli, another finish carpenter was from Montana (that poor soul…good guy), another laborer was from Denmark and, the rest of the crew was Mexican laborers. He paid them $20/hr, cash, every Friday. Going rate then – far less now – I asked him about that. A good crew.

    “Almost all these guys are Illegal. Most contractors promise $8/hr, pay when entire job is complete, either pay sporadically or stiff them full amount, at conclusion.”

    This shit is *decades* old and, in office work, is referred to as Intern. In colonial times, Indentured Servitude. I hate saying this but, when I leave room in my brain for this shit, yes – I hate these people.

    This, on a better note: helped for a week, and two of us borrowed Günther’s truck/camper and split for Yosemite, for a week in April. Had the place to ourselves. Camped in a meadow high above the Merced, among other things.

  124. 124.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Kay:

    IMO the state races are the real story this election. A lot is going on! Maybe it’s good it stays under the radar. Once it’s identified nationally that probably means it’s over.

    Too late. Got a postcard yesterday on my local state senate race–postmarked San Francisco. Pelosi’s tentacles are everywhere!

  125. 125.

    Barbara

    I don’t think the first thing trifecta Dem legislatures should do is impose conditions for getting on the presidential ballot. I think the first thing they should do is rationalize and facilitate voter registration and voting rights. Requiring release of tax returns will stop basically one man, whereas, facilitating voting rights will be paying dividends for years and years for all kinds of candidates at all levels. Yes, they could do both, but what I am saying is, spend political capital on voting rights not stopping Trump after the horse has already left the barn.

  126. 126.

    Barbara

    @Steve in the ATL: I have been unwilling to dive into state level races because I am not sure how people receiving postcards will view an effort to influence the election from out of state. Postcards just telling you to vote and which elections are being held and how important they are would be okay.

  128. 128.

    Ken Shabby

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Stopped by to add:

    Guess who showed up early every goddamn day and worked late? Available Saturday? If I’m not working my other job, yes.

    What a concept. If you treat some people right, they act right. I think it’s in the Bible somewhere …

  129. 129.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    The general identification of “Obamacare” with the exchanges was a huge propaganda coup for the right, especially when the exchange website launched in a broken form. I often see even liberals talking this way. But the Medicaid expansion was really the most important part, and the hole that SCOTUS blew in it by allowing states to opt out was the cause of its biggest failures to cover people.

    That’s why I think it was elitist though. One could never make that identification if one were on Medicaid. People who got Medicaid weren’t confused at all- they knew two things- they didn’t have any coverage and then they had full coverage. I don’t know how they’re warriors for the downtrodden working class and conflating Medicaid with the rest of the law. It was pretty damn clear to people who benefited.

    I feel like there was some ick factor- only icky poor people use Medicaid so that must be less valuable and worthwhile. Like Medicare is the premium product and they can’t be bothered with the lesser brand.

  132. 132.

    Barbara

    @Kay: Regarding Medicaid Expansion: On the one hand, I agree with you totally, Obama deserves credit especially for Medicaid expansion, which is actually the much more consequential piece of the ACA that “nobody” talks about. A generation of demonizing poor people with Medicaid has made politicians reluctant to claim any kind of victory over Medicaid as something to crow about. On the other hand, its “on the down low” status has meant that millions of people are getting access to health care without being turned into political footballs. I am convinced that the sleeper aspect of Medicaid is why many Republicans were so surprised at the ferocity of the resistance to ACA repeal. They really didn’t know (shame on them) how many working people had Medicaid coverage through the ACA. Not exchange coverage, Medicaid coverage. My brother was receiving expanded Medicaid when he died. He spent close to two weeks in total as a hospital inpatient. And, of course, many of the most rabid repeal voices come from those in non-expansion states. E.g., Paul Ryan in Wisconsin.

  134. 134.

    WaterGirl

    @rikyrah: Holy shit. My eyes got wide when I read that, and wider still when I went back again and realized that I had not misread it.

    Honestly did not know my eyes could open that wide.

    Just when you think you can’t be shocked anymore — only disgusted, appalled and enraged — they do it again.

  135. 135.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: There will definitely be more pictures from my new digs! I have to keep reminding myself I’m supposed to be working and to stop looking out the window and leave my camera alone! :)

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’m definitely conscious of the danger gators pose to the doggos. We have a sturdy fence and gates that are firmly latched between them and the river. Neither are water dogs, so they don’t bolt for the river, but still, I don’t want them any where near it unless they’re leashed. I learned as a child to always be on the lookout for gators and snakes. Even when I lived in Massachusetts, I couldn’t break the habit of approaching any body of water cautiously.

  137. 137.

    Kay

    @Ken Shabby:

    Aleve, other, stronger drugs, wraps, back braces. And little to any healthcare.

    I think you could accurately track the income of an area by looking in the drug store and seeing how many OTC dental remedies there are.

    They’re gargling anbesol and clove oil to kill the pain. It can be really fucking depressing. You’re thinking “I live in a 3rd world country” – I mean, honestly. They can’t get antibiotics? They’ll just be working with a raging infection? The misery index dropped a few points with the Medicaid expansion. It’s 700k people in Ohio. That’s a lot of people.

  139. 139.

    WaterGirl

    @debbie: Vote today. The Dems can take you off their contact list AND there’s no chance that some unexpected emergency would keep you from voting on election day.

    I vote in EVERY election, except there was a work emergency and I didn’t get to vote for Barack Obama in the Illinois primaries when he was a candidate in the democratic primary for the senate.

    After that, I always voted early. There’s too much in life that we can’t control.

  140. 140.

    Kay

    @Barbara:

    The real sleeper in Ohio was not Medicaid patients, it was providers. They don’t want to have to collect. They don’t want to have to garnish and write off 40% in uncompensated care. They want to do what they do, which is provide medical care.

    Rural hospitals were going broke and they’re not optional- you can’t demand people drive 60 miles to a hospital. Medicaid expansion rescued rural health care providers. Sherrod Brown told us in ’12 that all the Ohio Republicans who were demonizing Obamacare were quietly lobbying for Medicaid expansion, because providers have to get paid. It was another bullshit game they played.

  142. 142.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker:

    I couldn’t break the habit of approaching any body of water cautiously.

    Wouldn’t surprise me in the least if I got eaten on my next visit to NOLA.

  144. 144.

    Barbara

    @Kay: It’s not always the case, but when their interests are aligned, providers can be a good proxy for amplifying the voice of patients in their influence over state legislators.

  145. 145.

    WaterGirl

    @geg6: One of my worries is that with the number of bombs in the mail, the chances of something accidentally exploding in transit seems pretty high — before it can even get to the places where they check for those things.

    And if that happens, anyone hurt will be considered “innocent” by the media. You know, as opposed to the intended recipients. :: screams with rage and frustration ::

  146. 146.

    Kay

    @Barbara:

    One of my big regrets with Hillary is she really did know health care. It’s a system. Changes have to be systemic. The conservative ideology won’t accommodate anything that will work. There’s not endless ways to do this- there’s like, oh, FIVE. We’ve debated all of them. We don’t have to go back over it every four years. Five. Pick one.

    Now I have to listen to them pretend they can cover preexisting conditions with a stand-alone law, which I already heard in 1994.

  147. 147.

    Chyron HR

    @Barbara:

    Requiring release of tax returns will stop basically one man

    No, it stops every Republican from now on, since all of them are going to run under the new Trump rules unless there’s an actual law against it.

  148. 148.

    Jinchi

    David Brooks March 2016:

    No Not Trump, Not Ever

    David Brooks Today:

    Yes, I’m an American Nationalist

    (but in a good way)

  149. 149.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It was a management fad and it’s passed, but manufacturers went to bonuses for attendance. The schemes were complicated so I think it probably collapsed under it’s own ridiculous weight, but they had “perfect” attendance and then “perfect -perfect” at one big employer here. So they would DRAG their asses in there close to death because it meant 4 or 5 or 6 thousand dollars and the ante upped as the calendar year passed. By Christmas they were going in there with open, weeping wounds. Don’t make people who are sick go to work to get their bonus. Bad idea.

  150. 150.

    Tenar Arha

    @Kay: Yep. Trying to play a 50 state defense doesn’t work when only the federal government might be big enough to fight the myriad multinational corporate or foundation lawsuits any state regulatory framework might cause. It’s duct tape kluge of last resort. (It’ll help a little, but at this point anything would).

  152. 152.

    Kay

    Newt Gingrich: ‘We’ll see whether or not the Kavanaugh fight was worth it’

    I get a weird kick out of this because I feel like I know the type of lawyer Kavanaugh is and his image is hugely important to him. That’s why we saw all that puffed-up offended “honor”. He sees himself as a briliant jurist and his fellow GOP hacks keep fucking that up for him by blurting out the truth. He wants them to shut up so bad but they won’t. Ever. Trump talks about him like he’s a servant. It’s fucking cringeworthy and I know in my heart that Mr. Georgetown Prep is cringing because image is everything to him.

  153. 153.

    catclub

    Seriously, remember how Rumsfeld skipped town immediately after Dems took Congress in 2006?

    actually, no. GWBush was planning on firing him, and waited until the midterms to do it.

  154. 154.

    Kay

    @Tenar Arha:

    Right, and if you really look at a lot of Democratic laws, on everything from education to immigration, what they are is civil rights laws. They’re about equity and equal access. That has to be federal. That to me is why there can’t be really be bipartisanship with modern Republicans. That’s a bright line. You either believe in uniform civil rights for the whole country or you don’t. They don’t. They won’t enforce federal civil rights laws, whether they’re in education or immigration or voting. This is a big difference! It’s not a disagreement. It’s a profound division and there can’t be compromise. So we can bitch about Democrats not working on taking states, but we have to recognize that they are prioritizing the right things- basic national civil rights, THEN state law.

  156. 156.

    Steve in the ATL

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    all white people are crazy

    @Schlemazel:

    all people are crazy

    My family, white people all, is full of artists, so the truth of both these statements is deeply embedded in me, and my career as a lawyer has done nothing to diminish it.

  158. 158.

    Kay

    @bemused:

    @AdamSerwer
    53m53 minutes ago
    More
    In the past week, someone has tried to assassinate the leadership of the opposition party with bombs, a white supremacist terrorist killed two people, and the DHS secretary is on Fox News discussing whether or not the US government is gonna gun down unarmed Latino refugees.

    Does President Trump only hire bad people or is it self-selecting- only bad people would agree to work for President Trump?

    Doesn’t matter- same result. Let’s hope there’s some good career people!

  159. 159.

    Barbara

    @WaterGirl: They aren’t saying a whole lot about the bombs, other than people have to assume they are dangerous. They won’t say, for instance, whether any of the devices were active, or whether they only looked like they might be. It’s also the case that some but not others might be active and sending so many is a way of covering up your actual target. Believe it or not, the DC sniper’s plan was to kill a lot of people in order to cover up for the fact that his real intended victim was his ex-wife, who was somehow going to be killed in a similar manner at some point.

  161. 161.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: The lengths they will go to to prevent a “work loss injury” is unbelievable. I have spoken here of a laborer I used to know who *worked* for 6 months with a torn rotator cuff and bicep tendon. They had him operating an elevator and going to PT with their fingers crossed and prayers every morning hoping for a miracle.

  162. 162.

    tobie

    @debbie: Far be it from me to tell anyone how to exercise their franchise…but I think it would be better to vote today, so you’re free to help out the local Democratic party if they need it in the run-up to election day. I say this as someone who voted absentee this year and really missed the excitement of going to the polls for early voting but I also wanted to be able to hand out literature at the polls without having to worry about when I’d have time to cast my own ballot.

  167. 167.

    germy

    @OzarkHillbilly: I was in a restaurant in Saratoga once, and the waiter told me the employees were told by management “No sick days allowed during track season.”

    I made a mental note to myself NOT to visit during track season. I imagined chefs sneezing onto the dishes, waiters rubbing their noses while handling my cutlery.

  168. 168.

    tobie

    @Matt McIrvin: You’re absolutely right that Obamacare is so much more than the exchanges and so few people seem to recognize that. Only 16% of the public buys health insurance individually (and some of that is supplemental insurance for Medicare recipients). The remaining 84% are on Medicare, Medicaid or employer-provided insurance. For me, personally, the most important thing has been the essential health benefits. Annual exams, flu shots, etc. are now free. This ends up being a big cost saver.

  170. 170.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    My son’s doing a new electrical installation at a Ford plant. I don’t understand it, really, but they used to put these on the roof and now they run lines underground so it’s “new” in some way. He’s the apprentice so that means he’s digging, which is making him very unhappy :)

    He’s so young. He can dig. I felt indestructible at his age. I was surprised though because he was portraying this as so 21st century and it’s like “dig? with a shovel?” You’d think they’d have a steam shovel or something :)

  171. 171.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Kay:

    and I know in my heart that Mr. Georgetown Prep is cringing

    He can find solace in the bottle. He seems to have ample experience there.

  173. 173.

    bemused

    @Kay:

    It’s both. It’s two, two mints in one.

    No rational adult would want to work in that WH. You’d have to be just as amoral and corrupt to want the job or just give up any decent tendencies you may have had to stay there.

  174. 174.

    J R in WV

    On this health care thing — it still isn’t fixed, not at all for many people!

    Just the other day a local mega church that’s a little more practical held a weekend health care clinic with dental, vision medical clinic. They started at the crack of dawn, like 6 am, and people were lined up at midnight waiting in line. Dental problems can not only be agony from all the nerves in your face and mouth, they can be fatal.

    Plus glaucoma can blind a person quickly and with no treatment if left to progress, yet is simple and inexpensive to treat and prevent in most cases, just special eye-drops as prescribed. Without those drops your optic nerve is destroyed by over-pressure inside your eyeball, permanently.

    Or you could wait to hear about a free clinic somewhere, and go to stand and wait all night long to see if they could deal with your raging dental infection, and by the way, how come I have trouble seeing to drive at night?

    You know why so many people look odd in old time pictures from 150 years ago? Because they were in agony and it hurt a tiny bit less if they were motionless, but only a tiny bit — so still in agony. All the time, agony. And poor people still are, all the time, in agony. Just deal with it, right !!

  175. 175.

    J R in WV

    @Chyron HR:

    This whole “release your tax returns” thing worries me. Anyone can get the paperwork and rewrite their tax forms to be inoffensive, and release those edited forms. How would anyone disprove that information? It’s illegal for the tax services to release a single word from anyone’s tax return, ever.

    Why didn’t Sanders and Trump both have their captive accountants put together a tax return that would make the most bleeding heart liberal proud? Tis a puzzlement!!!

  177. 177.

    opiejeanne

    @OzarkHillbilly: We had a neighbor in SoCal, in an upper middle class neighborhood who was gargling hydrogen peroxide because of a rotting tooth. I don’t know if he couldn’t afford to see a dentist or was just too scared of the dentist to do so.
    My sister’s ex did the same thing after he lost his dental and health insurance that he had while he was working for Disney as a regular on the Suite Life of somebody or other. He was Norman the Doorman. He still works as an extra, he’s late 70s, and he lives in a trailer with no running water or electricity at the back of an abandoned estate in Pasadena. He’s mentally ill, no doubt about it, but he shouldn’t have to live like this.

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