Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

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

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

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

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

This fight is for everything.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

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

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

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

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickle?”

You are here: Home / Open Threads / This Is How You Do It

This Is How You Do It

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This postcard arrived at our house the other day, addressed to my wife. It’s on behalf of a New York State Senate candidate, Jen Lunsford. She’s running against the execrable Rich Funke, a former TV sportscaster Republican. As many of you know, the New York Senate has been controlled by Republicans because of a combination of Republican-lite incumbents with deep community ties, gerrymandering, and a set of turncoat Democrats. Lunsford’s got a tough campaign in my gerrymandered district, but she’s a great candidate and obviously has a excellent volunteer in the author of this postcard, Sarah.

Our house has received probably a half-dozen Lunsford direct mail pieces. This is the only one that my wife noticed (she’d already voted for Lunsford absentee). Anything that shows that another human being cares about a candidate can make a difference. I am hoping for an upset, because we’ve already seen a couple in our small town, all of them powered by a set of energized suburban women.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

160Comments

  4. 4.

    cleek

    we’ve received a few handwritten postcards from local candidates. they do get your attention, the first time or two.

  5. 5.

    MazeDancer

    The Power of PostCards! Yay!

    PostCardPatriots.com did not do this very nice one. But we did help send 12,467 others in 27 days to support BJ Candidates.

    And hope to harness the Power of PostCards to “Change the World from Your Living Room” after the election.

    Congrats to someone on Jen Lunsford’s team for understanding that hand-written PostCards do not get tossed immediately, they get read.

    PostCarding is over for now. But there is texting and phonebanking info for BJ Candidates – which is every Dem, now – up on PostCardPatriots.com

    (Consider texting for Claire. She needs our help.)

  6. 6.

    Waynski

    GO JEN! That’s heavy R country. If she wins, that would be beautiful. I’m going to reach out to a friend up there.

  9. 9.

    Marcopolo

    Apologies in advance for this long post. Like most of you BJers I am over budget (for me well over) for 2018 campaign contributions. However, if you have a few more bucks and want to throw them into a final red zone effort here is the last “top congressional races funding list” put together by serious election data science folks using updated information as of yesterday.

    We are less than one week away from one of the most important elections of our lifetimes. You’ve registered, you’ve volunteered, you’ve harassed all of your friends to make sure they vote (right? you’ve done that, right?). Now you’re wondering: What else can I possibly do?

    Earlier this week, our friends at the data firm Civis Analytics provided us with a list of 20 races where you donations would have the most impact. Somehow, some way, you guys raised ONE MILLION DOLLARS for those candidates. Holy shit! Thank you!

    So we asked them to refresh the list so we could do it again and narrow our focus. According to Civis, contributions to these 10 districts will have the most impact in the final days before the election. Oh, we also added known-racist Rep. Steve King’s district because fuck that guy. Civis based their analysis on updated forecasts, updated spending, and how much it costs to run ads in respective media markets. SMART STUFF from COOL NERDS.

    If you’re wondering what your dollar actually does, here’s an example of how this breaks down. $15 helps a canvasser to knock on 15 doors in an hour, $25 helps a campaign remind 1,000 people to vote on Facebook, $50 can pay for water and snacks to help 10 volunteers get through a canvassing shift, and $100 can help pay for gas for 4 volunteers to drive dozens of voters to the polls.

    We’re in the home stretch. The red zone. The best sports metaphor for this moment.

    Anything you do now can have an outsized impact on what happens on November 6th. So thanks for doing your part.

    I promise I won’t post any more of these. Onward to victory on Tuesday!

    Oh, and thanks to Sarah for writing that postcard. I am mailing a last 30 for Cort VanOstran here in MO-2 in about an hour.

  10. 10.

    The Dangerman

    OK, way late for the “happy news” thread, but this happened the other night; Sunday, IIRC, the day after Pittsburgh. Jam sessions with some of these Folks are fairly regular, but something or someone brought out a large crowd of players (full disclosure, I don’t play an instrument, so I’m not in there … and I don’t think I’m in the video at all, though I haven’t watched it completely).

    Anyway, enjoy some Central Coast Magic and a lovely sunset.

    ETA: Not in there. Whew. Most peaceful environment I’ve seen in a while; it was far cooler than the video can show.

  11. 11.

    Gelfling 545

    I’m liking this post card initiative. People mostly hate getting political phone calls and hate texts only slightly less. A lot of people I know automatically delete political emails, mostly because there are so damn many. A post card like that one, though, is hard to miss.

    I got a text from my granddaughter today asking me to pick her up at the bus station Tuesday because she is making about a 4 hour round trip bus ride to come home from college and vote. Glad to know we’ve raised a diligent voter.

  13. 13.

    tobie

    Many of us on this site have been pounding the pavement knocking on doors for months and working our fingers and wrists to death writing postcards and texting and calling voters. Thanks goes to all of you. You know how it’s done. And, a special shout out is in order to @MazeDancer for organizing PostcardPatriots!

  17. 17.

    TenguPhule

    Trump’s top economic adviser: ‘A federal minimum wage is a terrible idea. A terrible idea.’

    The White House’s top economic adviser said Thursday that he opposes the federal minimum wage, arguing that the decades-old law is a “terrible idea” that drives up costs for small businesses across the country.

    Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, said that he would oppose any attempt to work with Democrats in Congress to lift the federal minimum wage should the party take back the House or Senate in the 2018 midterm elections.

    “My view is a federal minimum wage is a terrible idea. A terrible idea,” Kudlow said at a Washington Post live event, adding that raising it would “damage” small businesses by forcing them to face higher payroll costs. Kudlow later called the idea of hiking the federal minimum wage “silly.”

    If Democrats take the House. Shut it all down. Do not attempt to cooperate with Trump on ANYTHING.

    Everything Trump touches, dies. House Leader Nancy Pelosi, please learn from the previous victims.

  18. 18.

    trollhattan

    @Cheryl Rofer:
    Nothing signals Serious Professional quite like a Hawaiian shirt. “Hey everybody, it’s resort casual Friday! Mimosas on the lido deck at ten. Anyway, about this Mueller guy–Fake Gnus!”

  21. 21.

    Gravenstone

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Burkman’s fly is down. You can’t make these guys up.

    Apparently toilet paper on the shoe is only for the most elite of buffoons.

    re. the inflatable rat, is it also carrying a scale appropriate inflatable dildo? Because that would be all kinds of (insidery) awesome.

  22. 22.

    lgerard

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    I actually watched the whole thing and it was fabulous. Jack Burkman spent the whole time waving a coffee cup around and then brought down the house when he declared that Wohl was a child prodigy greater then Mozart.

    All that was missing was someone yelling out “Live from New York….”

  23. 23.

    Anonymous At Work

    Just heard a Florida radio ad for Cuerbello, the Cuban Republican in south Miami. Know what I didn’t hear in the ad? The word “Republican”. All about “independent”. The red-hats are running scared.

  24. 24.

    Dog Mom

    I would be in that zip code if the post office had not divvied up our little town. I will be voting for Jen – so sick of the other guy. His yardstick does come in handy for scooping up dog messes though. In the state assembly race I got a piece of “Red” lit – I directed me to vote on “Thursday, Nov 6” – Oops!

  27. 27.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Marcopolo: Bad link.

    I am looking for lists like that to guide my obsessive election-night results-watching. We got into this mess by not only losing the Congress and Senate, but perhaps more significantly by Republicans stacking the state houses and governorships. So I will be watching nationwide for good news from top to bottom on the ballots. I want to track:
    1. Governors races, especially GA and FL but any other potential Red to Blue races
    2. The candidates on DCCC’s Red to Blue list.
    3. Every Senate race.
    4. The PA congressional races (my state) and state legislature
    5. Looking for suggestions here: other races where Democrats are overcoming Republican strangleholds, other state houses that have a chance of flipping, candidates who have been highlighted in fund-rasiers like Marcopolo’s and DougJ’s.

    I want to find lots of schadenfreude to wallow in. I want, you’ll pardon the expression, so much winning I’ll be tired of winning.

  29. 29.

    Betty Cracker

    @Anonymous At Work: The rep for my old district (I voted right before I moved last week), Vern Buchanan, won by about 20 points in 2016. None of his campaign lit mentioned that he was a Republican, and it was full of lies about his alleged bipartisanship and independence (he voted the Trump position more than 95% of the time). He’ll probably win even though he’s a corrupt shit-stain because the district comprises a toxic combination of plutocrats, yahoos and retirees, but yeah, the fuckers are running scared, and that’s a good thing.

  30. 30.

    Wapiti

    I checked the county website (King County, WA) last night. My ballot had been received. So using names and birth dates, I checked to make sure my spouse, my dad, and my siblings had voted and confirmed that their ballots were also received. Good work, Wapiti extended family!

  31. 31.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Cheryl Rofer: Their star witness didn’t show! Love it!

    I’m guessing that we’re not going to see 72-point WaPo headlines about the Mueller scandal.

  34. 34.

    Kraux Pas

    @TenguPhule:

    If Democrats take the House. Shut it all down. Do not attempt to cooperate with Trump on ANYTHING.

    Everything Trump touches, dies. House Leader Nancy Pelosi, please learn from the previous victims.

    Disagree. If she can get a minimum wage increase or any net-beneficial legislation through that the Senate and Il Douche are willing to sign off on, I say go for it.

    Poison pills may become an issue, but they’ll be in the plain text of the law. So let’s decide based on what the laws actually accomplish rather than effectively shutting down the possibility of any legislation passing for 2 whole years.

  38. 38.

    cmorenc

    Postcards – fine.
    Just PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE candidates, however worthy – do NOT send me ANY more emails. Just because I donated to ActBlue 3x, my name (and more particularly, email address) are apparently on the list of at least 50 candidates, EACH sending me a dozen or more emails daily, and in ways that make it an impossible Sisyphean task to set up any effective filters (e.g. more than one “from” email address for many candidates, too much variance in subject lines to filter that way, and so on.)

    STOP! Dammit, I already voted and contributed. Several times.

  39. 39.

    WaterGirl

    @cmorenc: I donated here for the “46 candidates” thing and forgot to indicate that the money was just for one or two. The first time any candidate sends me the thanks, and can I have more money message, I simply unsubscribe. I get maybe 5 a day, unsubscribe, and they don’t write me anymore.

  40. 40.

    Roger Moore

    @cmorenc:
    Most candidates seem to be willing to abide by unsubscribe requests, though I agree it shouldn’t be necessary. I can understand sending a thank you email, and even an occasional update, but blasting out masses of emails every day just makes me less inclined to donate again.

    ETA: Act Blue should include a “please no emails” option when you donate, and candidates should be required to abide by it to be on the platform.

  41. 41.

    TenguPhule

    @Kraux Pas:

    So let’s decide based on what the laws actually accomplish rather than effectively shutting down the possibility of any legislation passing for 2 whole years.

    I can tell you the Republican playbook on this from memory.

    1. Insist that Republican amendments be added
    2. No Republican votes in support
    3. Blame the Democrats for the bill and complain Republicans were never consulted about it.

    And there are not going to be enough votes to override a veto. So the only way to get anything passed will be if Democrats agree to be fucked up the ass without lube.

    The only winning option is not to play.

  42. 42.

    Cermet

    You make them shut it down with real, progressive legislative bills that neither the senate nor the orange fart cloud will pass/sign. Have the blame land squarely where it belongs for the 2020 so the deplorables know exactly who fucked them over.

  43. 43.

    Wild Cat

    @Elizabelle: He a “Libertarian” (whatever that is anymore) who concern trolls Democrats and did support Cinton over Trump (who he loathes) in 2016 as the lesser of two evils.

  47. 47.

    Roger Moore

    @TenguPhule:
    I think the thing to do is the analog of what the Republicans did under Obama. Go ahead and pass all the progressive legislation on our wish list. Sure, it won’t make it past the Senate and Trump, but we can then use it as a credible promise about what kinds of legislation we’d pass if we did control both Houses and the presidency.

  48. 48.

    sheila in nc

    @Wild Cat: Also, he wrote compellingly about the civil rights abuses against black people by cops (Ferguson and many other cases). He was honest enough to recognize the huge disparity between how the same behavior was treated when the people involved are white compared to when they are black.

  49. 49.

    WaterGirl

    @Mandalay: Someone posted that in the last couple of weeks and it is good. I thought it might have been from 2016, but I am not sure. Still impressive, though!

  50. 50.

    FlyingToaster

    @cmorenc: I unsubscribed from each and every one, two days after donating. I don’t object to their e-mails, but with one exception, I’m over a thousand miles away and I’ve given all the money I’m gonna. Hence, unsubscribed.

    I’m still subscribed to Senator Professor Warren, because she’s local, and she stopped asking for money for herself a while ago.

  51. 51.

    Kraux Pas

    @TenguPhule:

    I can tell you the Republican playbook on this from memory.

    1. Insist that Republican amendments be added
    2. No Republican votes in support
    3. Blame the Democrats for the bill and complain Republicans were never consulted about it.

    Well, we’re looking at a likely Republican Senate and Presidency for the next two years. I think making meaningful concessions that can help advance the national interest is better than simply abdicating responsibility for anything for two years.

    You won’t need to bring many Republicans on in the Senate to reach a majority, assuming they’ll bring any such measures up for a vote at all (if they don’t, hang them with the obstructionist label rather than handing it to them on a silver platter to use on us). And if this election goes as well as I hope it will, the group up for reelection in 2020 will be running scared. Some will be looking for any opportunity to appear reasonable and sign off on legislation that legitimately helps people.

  52. 52.

    MazeDancer

    @lamh36:

    Oprah is on fire. campaigning for Stacey Abrams!!

    And the interview afterward was incredible. Had never heard “real” Stacey Abrams. She is brilliant, funny, passionate, practical, focused.

    Sure, Gillum and Beto are smart and exciting. (And, handsome.) But after that interview, Stacey for POTUS. After she saves Georgia.

  53. 53.

    Butter Emails!!!

    @TenguPhule:

    This is not correct. The correct thing is to pass simple, single issue legislation through the House and hold firm against adding crap to it.
    1. Write a clean bill covering a popular single issue (example, raising the minimum wage)
    2. Don’t let the Republicans add anything to it unless it’s actually constructive. Pass it on a party line vote, and excoriate the bastards mercilessly for voting against it
    3. When it gets to the Senate, point out every poison pill they try to add. Run week long national add buys on the most egregious of them, if you can’t get the media to cover it.

  56. 56.

    banditqueen

    I sent out 60 postcards last week. Thank you for letting us know that the postcard gets attention!

  59. 59.

    TenguPhule

    Advice For US Troops Sent To The Mexican Border In An Age Of Terrible Leaders

    Reposted Cheryl’s link earlier this morning because it hits home and really should be FP and stickied for when, not if, the shit hits the fan.

    Senior commanders are smart enough to avoid putting unlawful and morally ambiguous orders in writing — that’s how they got to be senior commanders.

    The best you can do is to document every action in writing and transmit it to your commanders via email. When you get that order to “not let those @$$h0le$ cross the river,” your detailed operational report should follow. It should include your clarifying questions to the chain of command and the JAG, the guidance you received, the actions you took and the judgment you exercised.

    Word documents aren’t enough — like true love, hard drives fade with time. Email is better — unlike true love, email lasts forever. Be sure to use SIPR or NIPR as appropriate, as the same commanders who issued unlawful orders will cover their tracks by jamming you up on classification violations.

    Please let the troops get this one right.

    Even (especially?) if you do everything right, morally corrupt leaders will do all they can to cover their tracks with your bones.

    Intimidation is the preferred method for deterring pesky questions, and selective memory loss is the go-to technique when the scandal finally breaks. You may face the untenable choice of ending your career as a captain for asking hard questions or ending your career in Leavenworth for failing to do so. There is no easy way out of this dilemma, but you would do well to take the long view.

    Perhaps you are part of a faith tradition in which you know that one day you and you alone will have to account for your choices. You are certainly part of a human family and a civic community that reject “just following orders” as a defense for criminal behavior. Maybe one day you will have grandchildren. If so, spare them the indignity of laying a coward’s bones in your grave.

  62. 62.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @TenguPhule:
    A) This Republican playbook no longer works. The system is now too divided. Everyone either believes Republicans are saving the white race, has gotten used to the fact that Republicans are obstructionists, or listens to the media Both Side things. Republican poison pill efforts affect none of these things, since the media pretty much makes up whatever narrative they feel like regardless of facts. Together, those things are a big part of why Republican strategy has drifted to ‘Blatantly lie.’

    B) I wouldn’t bet on Trump vetoing anything. The man is a coward of unbelievable proportions, and has signed Republican legislation that was not merely against his policies, but a middle finger to him personally.

  63. 63.

    Kraux Pas

    @TenguPhule: Well, attempting to govern is not only better than holding one’s breath until turning blue in the face, but it will also come across better to voters as well.

    ETA: Well, our voters.

  64. 64.

    Marcopolo

    Reposting with a link that works I hope. Sorry about that, I went out for my walk. And for people who want to contribute through Actblue like this in the future, please do what I did: create a separate Gmail account strictly for political donations. All my spammy campaign donation request emails I get sent to an address I can look at if I want to but since all it contains is that I pretty much ignore it. And never ever give a campaign your phone number.

    Apologies in advance for this long post. Like most of you BJers I am over budget (for me well over) for 2018 campaign contributions. However, if you have a few more bucks and want to throw them into a final red zone effort here is the last “top congressional races funding list” put together by serious election data science folks using updated information as of yesterday.

    We are less than one week away from one of the most important elections of our lifetimes. You’ve registered, you’ve volunteered, you’ve harassed all of your friends to make sure they vote (right? you’ve done that, right?). Now you’re wondering: What else can I possibly do?

    Earlier this week, our friends at the data firm Civis Analytics provided us with a list of 20 races where you donations would have the most impact. Somehow, some way, you guys raised ONE MILLION DOLLARS for those candidates. Holy shit! Thank you!

    So we asked them to refresh the list so we could do it again and narrow our focus. According to Civis, contributions to these 10 districts will have the most impact in the final days before the election. Oh, we also added known-racist Rep. Steve King’s district because fuck that guy. Civis based their analysis on updated forecasts, updated spending, and how much it costs to run ads in respective media markets. SMART STUFF from COOL NERDS.

    If you’re wondering what your dollar actually does, here’s an example of how this breaks down. $15 helps a canvasser to knock on 15 doors in an hour, $25 helps a campaign remind 1,000 people to vote on Facebook, $50 can pay for water and snacks to help 10 volunteers get through a canvassing shift, and $100 can help pay for gas for 4 volunteers to drive dozens of voters to the polls.

    We’re in the home stretch. The red zone. The best sports metaphor for this moment.

    Anything you do now can have an outsized impact on what happens on November 6th. So thanks for doing your part.

    I promise I won’t post any more of these. Onward to victory on Tuesday!

    Oh, and thanks to Sarah for writing that postcard. I am mailing a last 30 for Cort VanOstran here in MO-2 in about an hour.

  65. 65.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @cmorenc: The problem with your entreaty is that the email addresses most likely to generate additional contributions are those that belong to people who have already donated to the campaign. (Or so all campaigns believe.)

    There ought to be a way for folks like us in a single operation to contribute to a campaign, unsubscribe from any further solicitations from it, & require that your e-mail address NOT be used for any other purpose (e.g., for cold mailings from other campaigns). But we ain’t there yet.

  66. 66.

    TenguPhule

    @Kraux Pas:

    I think making meaningful concessions that can help advance the national interest is better than simply abdicating responsibility for anything for two years.

    That did not work out well for us with Bush Jr.

    I can tell you right now that attempting to do this with Donald Trump and McConnell is fucking suicide.

    We can’t compromise with the fucking Nazis. Have people here learned NOTHING from the last two years of horror?

    They don’t care about norms, rules or the fucking law. Any agreements will only compromise the clear moral lines between D and R. And we are going to very badly need that distinction when shit starts breaking down.

  67. 67.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @TenguPhule: No governance is what one gets with Republicans. If people are going to get the same same from DEMs, why bother voting? There are things that are just plain no shit necessary, DEMs have to deliver on them.

  68. 68.

    Kelly

    @Butter Emails!!!:

    The correct thing is to pass simple, single issue legislation through the House and hold firm against adding crap to it.

    This.
    We use the votes to highlight 2020 issues. I’d put a comprehensive right to vote at the top of the list. Send it to the Senate and Trump 68 times.

  69. 69.

    TenguPhule

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    and has signed Republican legislation that was not merely against his policies, but a middle finger to him personally.

    But in practical terms the Russian sanctions are not being enforced and nobody is calling him or his Depts out on it. All the benefits of having vetoed the bill while also advancing into Congress’s authority by demonstrating he can ignore whatever the hell we wants from Congress.

  71. 71.

    TenguPhule

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    If people are going to get the same same from DEMs, why bother voting?

    I’ll throw this back at you.

    If our voters see a Democratic House having to go along to get along with a Republican Senate and Donald Trump and a Fascist lite Supreme Court, why should they bother voting R-lite when the Real thing is available and both sides are obviously the same?

    Who gets thrown away as an “acceptable” tradeaway?

    Transgenders? Immigrants? Gays and Lesbians? Poor people? Muslims?

    We’re not voting for getting budgets passed here. We’re voting for not-Nazis to stop the fucking Nazis.

  73. 73.

    Corner Stone

    @Kraux Pas:

    I think making meaningful concessions that can help advance the national interest is better than simply abdicating responsibility for anything for two years.

    You won’t need to bring many Republicans on in the Senate to reach a majority, assuming they’ll bring any such measures up for a vote at all (if they don’t, hang them with the obstructionist label rather than handing it to them on a silver platter to use on us).

    These two sentences tell me all I need to know about your political commentary.

  74. 74.

    Kraux Pas

    @TenguPhule:

    That did not work out well for us with Bush Jr.

    I said concessions that advance the national interest. Also, Medicare Part D didn’t turn out so bad. The ACA improved it. And the President is looking for ways to bring down drug costs so we may have a chance to improve it further.

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    No governance is what one gets with Republicans. If people are going to get the same same from DEMs, why bother voting?

    Quoted for additional emphasis.

  75. 75.

    Corner Stone

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    There are things that are just plain no shit necessary, DEMs have to deliver on them.

    There is nothing to deliver. I am not sure what you expect to happen, even if D’s capture a slim Senate majority as well as the House?

  77. 77.

    Marcopolo

    I’m with Roger, OzarkHillbilly, and Butter Emails on what a Dem House should do. First, Dems run for office because we believe gov’t can have an important role in making peoples lives better so we need to show what we would do if we had the chance. Second, since we don’t have that chance with an R president & probably R senate, pass clean versions (like the utopian opposite of all those R House votes to abolish the ACA) of what we propose & use it to campaign on in 2020.

    And if for some reason there is a way to do a great immigration reform bill or great infrastructure act (that isn’t loaded down with R crap) pass that as well. Though I think we can pretty much agree that the chance of that happening is about as likely as me winning the next 1 billion dollar lottery.

  78. 78.

    TenguPhule

    @Kraux Pas:

    I said concessions that advance the national interest. Also, Medicare Part D didn’t turn out so bad.

    So which part of our voting base do you want to sacrifice to appease the Republicans?

    Because that is what will happen. And once you pay the Danegeld, you will still be stuck with the Danes.

  80. 80.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @TenguPhule:

    We’re not voting for getting budgets passed here.

    Yes we are. Even if you don’t like it. There will be a thousand and one opportunities to heighten the differences between DEMs and GOP, but nobody is going to give a rats ass if they don’t get their SS check, or can’t get a passport renewed in time for an important business trip, or get their tax return into their bank account etc etc etc ad nauseum.

  82. 82.

    TenguPhule

    @Corner Stone:

    I am not sure what you expect to happen, even if D’s capture a slim Senate majority as well as the House?

    Bipartisan unicorns will spring up around the land shitting Krispy Kreme and pissing Starbucks lattes.

  83. 83.

    Kraux Pas

    @TenguPhule:

    Who gets thrown away as an “acceptable” tradeaway?

    Well, without any particular compromises in front of us to judge, this is just an exercise in hypotheticals.

    But I can think of one that may come up. Money for practices that legitimately secure the border (hint: not a wall) for more orderly and transparent legal immigration and humane handling of undocumented persons.

    Note: In this proposal, no one gets hurt and concerns of both sides are allayed.

  84. 84.

    Roger Moore

    @Kelly:

    I’d put a comprehensive right to vote at the top of the list.

    Hell yes. And let’s start working on a 28th Amendment that enshrines those voting rights in the Constitution.

  85. 85.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Corner Stone: These two sentences tell me all I need to know about your political commentary.

    This single sentence told me all I needed to know about Bleaty McBerniebot just about two years ago.
    “If I can’t have Bernie, let it all burn”

  87. 87.

    Corner Stone

    @Marcopolo: I agree. Jam the pipeline with clean D priorities. Let them die in the Senate, which they will, and mark each one of them for future ads in 2020. But don’t think any halfway, half-ass “negotiation” with Trump is going to work for the people’s benefit. Because it won’t.

  88. 88.

    Wapiti

    @TenguPhule: I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of the soldiers in this boondoggle never deploy to Texas.

    On the other hand, the 82nd Airborne spends enough time in real deployments and hard core training exercises that they probably view the boondoggle as a vacation.

  89. 89.

    TenguPhule

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Yes we are.

    No, we’re really not. We saw EXACTLY what will happen back in the Obama years. Republicans will not vote for a budget that Democrats support. No ifs, ands or buts about it.

    This vote is about stopping Nazis. And if Democrats in office don’t step up to stop the Nazis, forget 2020. Forget civilized non-violent methods of changing government.

    Some of us want to be able to look at ourselves in a mirror.

  90. 90.

    Kraux Pas

    @Corner Stone:

    No Child Left Behind , asshole. Learn something about recent history before you try your fucking snark on me.

    I’ll see your NCLB and raise you a CHIP with a little side action of “mind your tone.”

  91. 91.

    Corner Stone

    @OzarkHillbilly: I disagree slightly on that approach but get what you’re saying. I think I was addressing something else like new legislation, and you may have meant ongoing items like keeping the lights on. However, I still argue we have to cram this down their fucking throats this time and make them own it. They will still most likely have the Senate, and even if we take both they will have the WH. Ultimately, we have to make that fact matter for 2020 voting.

  92. 92.

    TenguPhule

    @Wapiti:

    I wouldn’t be surprised if the majority of the soldiers in this boondoggle never deploy to Texas.

    Mattis is a Nazi in training. He’s already capitulated to Trump on this.

  93. 93.

    The Moar You Know

    Have people here learned NOTHING from the last two years of horror?

    @TenguPhule: You’ve been posting here during that time. The answer is self-evident.

    Nobody has learned jack shit, and that’s not just at this blog.

    If Dems/libs play their cards the way I’m thinking they will, we’ll hand the House back in 2020 and get to live 2016 and 2017 all over again, but this time with a firmly conservative Supreme Court, a shattered economy, and desperate citizenry. Could go all kinds of crazy from there.

  95. 95.

    Kraux Pas

    @TenguPhule:

    No, we’re really not. We saw EXACTLY what will happen back in the Obama years. Republicans will not vote for a budget that Democrats support. No ifs, ands or buts about it.

    So let’s not support ANY budget or make ANY effort to find common ground so that voters won’t have ANY opportunity to compare the leadership styles of the two parties. GENIUS!!!

  97. 97.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @TenguPhule:

    “My view is a federal minimum wage is a terrible idea. A terrible idea,” Kudlow said at a Washington Post live event, adding that raising it would “damage” small businesses by forcing them to face higher payroll costs. Kudlow later called the idea of hiking the federal minimum wage “silly.”

    Yeah, the damaging fed minimum wage that hasn’t been indexed to inflation (or even the CPI) in most states and has stayed at $7.25/hr for like 10 years sure is hurting the mom and pops. Yeah.

  98. 98.

    catclub

    @Gelfling 545:

    I’m liking this post card initiative.

    I found an interesting parallel. Douglas Hofstadter wrote Metamagical Themas ( The book) about 1984, and the last section of it was obsessed with
    nuclear annihilation. We have pretty much forgotten that time. [Remember “The Day After”?, How about the first time you heard about the doomsday clock of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists? ] But he described a town that improves its chances of survival by writing postcards.
    15 minutes a day, for every citizen in the town. I guess it was also a column in Scientific American, so maybe you could look it up.

  99. 99.

    StringOnAStick

    @lgerard:

    I actually watched the whole thing and it was fabulous. Jack Burkman spent the whole time waving a coffee cup around and then brought down the house when he declared that Wohl was a child prodigy greater then Mozart.

    All that was missing was someone yelling out “Live from New York….”

    As Burkman said that about Wohl, a heckler yelled “he can’t even open an Etrade account!” Wohl is the youngest person ever to receive a lifetime ban from securities trading for his hedge fund/ponzi scheme adventure.

  100. 100.

    WaterGirl

    @Marcopolo: From your previous description, I thought it might be the Vote Save America folks because they talked about this data group on one of their recent podcasts.

    I had thought about suggesting their races to DougJ, but hadn’t done it.

  101. 101.

    Wapiti

    @TenguPhule:

    We’re not voting for getting budgets passed here. We’re voting for not-Nazis to stop the fucking Nazis.

    Speaking of which, any budget for the Department of Homeland Security (Heimatsicherheitdienst in the original German) should bar the Secretary from transferring any funds from other divisions to CBP or ICE without Congressional approval.

  102. 102.

    Kraux Pas

    @Corner Stone: Yet every time CHIP has passed it has done so with SOME Republican support. If they want to underfund it, that’s a debate to be had. But at least it’s present to be underfunded.

    Also, two years ago I seem to remember some holding this program up as a proof of HRC’s ability to work across partisan lines. What happened?

  103. 103.

    Marcopolo

    While we debate what a D House should do, let me add one more lovely midterm GOtV tool that folks can use these next few days to maximize our vote: VoteWithMe

    VoteWithMe is a mobile app that uses your personal network to help you get out the vote. VoteWithMe gives you a list of the highest-impact potential voters in your phone’s address book. Then, it’s up to you to remind each of your contacts to vote. Do your part to advance progressive goals and help get out the vote!

    With your permission, VoteWithMe syncs your phone’s address book with the voter database to find people you know who may be eligible to vote in upcoming elections. The app ranks your contacts by who is most in need of a nudge in order to show up on Election Day. Then, all you have to do is call or text to remind them.

    Don’t worry, you’ll be the one reaching out to your friends. We won’t ever contact them for you

    We believe that higher participation leads to a stronger democracy. VoteWithMe is committed to maximizing voter turnout, and it’s built on the idea that personal networks play a more critical role in organizing than ever before. We think VoteWithMe can help.

    We need your help to get out the vote. So download VoteWithMe today and get started!

    I am off to the post office & beyond. Everyone have a lovely day.

  104. 104.

    TenguPhule

    @Kraux Pas:

    Well, without any particular compromises in front of us to judge, this is just an exercise in hypotheticals.

    No, its really not. We’ve seen who Republicans want to target in every negotiation over the last 8 years.

    Poor people, gays, transgender, Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, Immigrants. I am not being hyperbolic about the Nazi part, they are going there and its incumbent that Democrats are not dragged along down that same slippery slope.

    A clear line has to be drawn between us and them.

  105. 105.

    TenguPhule

    @Kraux Pas:

    or make ANY effort to find common ground

    If you can find an acceptable compromise between Italian and Tire rims with anthrax, by all means please proceed.

  106. 106.

    The Moar You Know

    If our voters see a Democratic House having to go along to get along with a Republican Senate and Donald Trump and a Fascist lite Supreme Court, why should they bother voting R-lite when the Real thing is available and both sides are obviously the same?

    Who gets thrown away as an “acceptable” tradeaway?

    Transgenders? Immigrants? Gays and Lesbians? Poor people? Muslims?

    We’re not voting for getting budgets passed here. We’re voting for not-Nazis to stop the fucking Nazis.

    @TenguPhule: Nailed it. If you’re going to initiate business with these people they will make the cost of doing so utterly unaaceptable. So don’t. Take the House majority, do nothing but investigations, and wait for the Republicans to get desperate enough for their precious military funding and all the other shit they feed at the trough for, and make the Senate submit bills that will pass the House. Government might get shut down a long time; that’s OK. A lot of people will get hurt; they would have anyway. McConnell stopped the Dems from getting anything done for six years. We can do the same. That’s a hell of a sword to wield, if we can prove we’re serious about using it.

  107. 107.

    TenguPhule

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    You don’t seem to understand how govt works and how much people depend on it daily.

    You don’t seem to understand Republicans don’t care about government working if it means non-whites might benefit. They will demand that Democrats be complicit in more and more cuts to federally funded programs that are important to Democratic voters.

  108. 108.

    Marcopolo

    @WaterGirl: Yep, there are these folks & the folks from Data for Progress who have been putting out fairly fine-tuned candidate list fundraising appeals over these last two weeks. Data for Progress (go to their blog if you want to see the lists they have put together–I think 5 or 6 now with the last one micro-targeted to NY state) has been focused on the state race end of things & how to identify specific state house & senate races to flip entire legislatures. As a politics nerd I’ve been very pleased to see how “big data analytics” can be used for good.

    I have emailed Doug about these but understood why doing BJ themed fundraisers was great too.

  109. 109.

    Kraux Pas

    @TenguPhule:

    No, its really not. We’ve seen who Republicans want to target in every negotiation over the last 8 years.

    Poor people, gays, transgender, Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims, Immigrants.

    Your list is way too short. I am not, however, suggesting the Democrats accept any compromise that hurts one group over another or leaves the body politic worse off as a whole.

  110. 110.

    Roger Moore

    @Marcopolo:

    Second, since we don’t have that chance with an R president & probably R senate, pass clean versions (like the utopian opposite of all those R House votes to abolish the ACA) of what we propose & use it to campaign on in 2020.

    I think we should make sure those aren’t just utopian dream bills. They should be a serious attempt to legislate, complete with hearings and the whole nine yards. That has two advantages. From a PR perspective, it shows the Democrats are serious about good government. We aren’t just passing pie-in-the-sky stuff secure in the knowledge that it’s never going to become law but real bills that would work if we had control of all the levers of power. From a practical standpoint, it means that if/when we do retake the Senate and the presidency, we would have a running start. There would be a bunch of practical, well thought out legislation ready to pass.

    I think the experience of the Republicans in 2017 and the Democrats in 2009 should serve as a warning about how important the second part is. In both cases, they had controlled both houses of Congress under the previous presidency but had spent most of their time trying to win the next election rather than trying to legislate. When they did win the presidency, they didn’t have their ducks in a row and spent a lot of time on internal fights that slowed down their legislative program. We need to avoid that as much as possible, and doing serious legislative work in the next Congress would be a good place to start.

  111. 111.

    TenguPhule

    @Butter Emails!!!:

    The correct thing is to pass simple, single issue legislation through the House and hold firm against adding crap to it.

    I see the fatal flaw in your optimistic theory.

  112. 112.

    Jay

    @Wapiti:

    My favorite part of the Pentagon announcement:

    From the papers, the military is preparing to defend against an “estimated 200 unregulated armed militia members currently operating along the [Southwest Border]. Reported Incidents of unregulated militias stealing National Guard equipment during deployments. They operate under the guise of citizen patrols supporting [Customs and Border Patrol] primarily between [Points of Entry].”

  114. 114.

    catclub

    1MDB! Where is Amir Khalid when his viewpoint is even better informed than the average Juicer, than it usually is.

  115. 115.

    TenguPhule

    @Kraux Pas:

    I am not, however, suggesting the Democrats accept any compromise that hurts one group over another or leaves the body politic worse off as a whole.

    And what makes you think Republicans are going to offer anything besides that?

  116. 116.

    Corner Stone

    @Kraux Pas: You are unbelievably dense and amazingly ignorant at the same time. Kudos to you. Do you even know how (s)CHIP came into being? Do you know what compromise was reached to get the needed votes? Hint: think bribes for Real Merkins (tm) . Point being, in the modern era, maybe ever, there has been no significant legislation that required bipartisan votes that the R’s did not ratfuck. Either before, during or after. That is the SOP.

  117. 117.

    Kay

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??:

    raising it would “damage” small businesses by forcing them to face higher payroll costs

    They’re just so ridiculous. He makes it sound like “higher payroll costs” is some fee we’re tacking on. Of course it makes them face “higher costs”- it’s a higher wage.

    BTW, increasing the minimum wage polls really well – it’s always like high 60’s, 70’s. That’s why they bypass legislatures and put it on the ballot in states. For the federal minimum it’s 71%.

  118. 118.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Corner Stone:

    I think I was addressing something else like new legislation,

    It would all depend on what was in the new legislation. Over the years DEMs have rolled the GOP in Negotiations on a number of occasions. I remember one last year in which Nancy and Chuck managed to get rump to cut the ground out from underneath McTurtle and ZEGs (I don’t remember which issue it was, a budget?). I can see an immigration bill coming up where Senate Repubs and House DEMs can come to a reasonable compromise that gets families reunified and asylum applications into the pipeline with something for the Repubs. And by something I don’t mean the wall that Mexico will never pay for. trump had 2 years to ram it thru an R House and R Senate and couldn’t get it done, mainly because Repubs don’t want it either. What DEMs might give them I don’t know. Another issue they could work together on is DACA. A recent poll showed majorities of both DEMs and GOPs in favor of a DACA fix.

    I am not saying sell out any of our core issues. But if we could get a DACA fix in exchange for a brand new surveillance system in say… McAllen TX and new booths at the Pharr Bridge? What’s not to like?

  119. 119.

    TenguPhule

    @Kraux Pas:

    Also, two years ago I seem to remember some holding this program up as a proof of HRC’s ability to work across partisan lines. What happened?

    Republicans decided that Cleek’s law is an actual law and let the funding expire. This was covered on this very blog as one of the things that Republicans were going off the rails on.

  120. 120.

    TenguPhule

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    But if we could get a DACA fix in exchange for a brand new surveillance system in say… McAllen TX and new booths at the Pharr Bridge? What’s not to like?

    And the funding for those booths turns out to be actually funding weapon sales to Drug lords in exchange for murdering immigrants on the Mexican side of the border.

    Because Trump and Republicans will not honor any agreements before the ink even has time to dry.

  121. 121.

    Kraux Pas

    @TenguPhule:

    And what makes you think Republicans are going to offer anything besides that?

    I don’t. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make an effort. Making an effort would help highlight their intransigence.

    @Corner Stone:

    Point being, in the modern era, maybe ever, there has been no significant legislation that required bipartisan votes that the R’s did not ratfuck.

    Well, they are stakeholders in the process and I don’t want our government to get to the point where nothing is done except under one-party rule (which seems pretty damn close to what you propose). I trust elected Democrats to have the judgment to discern between a good compromise and harming their own constituents. I wish you would afford them the same consideration.

  122. 122.

    TenguPhule

    @Kraux Pas:

    and I don’t want our government to get to the point where nothing is done except under one-party rule

    Way too late for that. The train left in 2008 and it is never coming back until the last Republican is strangled with the entrails of the last libertarian.

  123. 123.

    TenguPhule

    @Kraux Pas:

    I trust elected Democrats to have the judgment to discern between a good compromise and harming their own constituents.

    Manchin.

  125. 125.

    Kelly

    @Roger Moore:

    They should be a serious attempt to legislate, complete with hearings and the whole nine yards.

    Exactly. Use the House to get a running start on 2021 legislative session. We need to plan for victory and for defeat.

  126. 126.

    Kraux Pas

    @TenguPhule:

    Because Trump and Republicans will not honor any agreements before the ink even has time to dry.

    And if they violate the law, well, if they do it again; just add it to the pile of legitimate investigations to undertake while in control of Congress.

    Way too late for that. The train left in 2008 and it is never coming back until the last Republican is strangled with the entrails of the last libertarian.

    That’s…horrifying.

  127. 127.

    Kay

    CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin excoriated Kansas Secretary of State and GOP gubernatorial nominee Kris Kobach Wednesday night, saying to his face that he has worked his whole life to disenfranchise poor and minority voters.

    This was good. Toobin did a good job. I wonder if they finally realize Kobach isn’t very bright. He’s really not. It’s appalling that he got this far in life. He should have topped out as a city manager for some tiny town. I would just like to remind everyone that Mitt Romney made Kobach nationally prominent. Romney plucked him out of fringe Right circles and promoted him.

  130. 130.

    Corner Stone

    @OzarkHillbilly: IMO, the only thing Schumer has managed to do is make a deal to rapidly confirm a shitload of Trump’s judges.
    I think Nancy has been one of the most skilled leaders of our time and I could only wish she had an equal in the D Senate. I used to disagree with Harry Reid’s decisions on occasion but he had the R’s number. ISTM that Chuck still thinks there’s a rational party on the other end of the line.

  132. 132.

    TenguPhule

    @Kraux Pas:

    And if they violate the law, well, if they do it again; just add it to the pile of legitimate investigations to undertake while in control of Congress.

    How many divisions does the House Leader command?

    We saw exactly what happened the last time. Karl Rove and company gave Congress the middle finger and got away with it.

  133. 133.

    piratedan

    can we finish voting for our Blue Tsunami before you purity ponies begin to tell us how a hypothetical majority should be voting on any/every fucking thing just yet?

    #1) Nancy Smash is likely to be the next speaker, but that’s not a done deal yet as the elections have yet to have been completed
    #2) we think we know what’s going to happen but until we get some actual clarity regarding who is going to be sent to the House/Senate we can’t be sure what it will look like, did the Dems get a Veto-proof majority, did they get a majority? Do they want to return Nancy Smash to the Gavel? Did the Dems take the Senate?

    all of that has to play out, so to speculate about legislatively what can be done and will be done is essentially twisting your undergarments into a fucking wad…. so BREATHE and stop all of this bullshit.

    None of this is even known about the ongoing constitutional crisis that is the Mueller investigation is going to bring, nor does any of this take into account what a likely Dem victory is going to bring to the change in committee chairs that govern stuff like Education, foreign policy, treasury, HHS, Judiciary and the likely abandonment of the sinking ship that is the GOP once the indictments start to fall.

    So before we decry what our legislative strategy is likely to be… lets first win the elections, see who emerges in power and see what happens before bemoaning that the elections of the Democrats to a Congressional Majority isn’t going to be your personal happily ever after….

    There’s a shitpotfull of unfucking that has to be done and based on how quickly Nancy Smash handled the gavel the last time I am loathe to write her off until proven otherwise.

  134. 134.

    TenguPhule

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    According to you Republicans are supermen who nothing can stop. Got it.

    I keep telling you cooperating with Nazis is a bad idea and you keep insisting that that we can find common ground with them somewhere.

    One of us is wrong here and its not me.

  136. 136.

    The Moar You Know

    I used to disagree with Harry Reid’s decisions on occasion but he had the R’s number. ISTM that Chuck still thinks there’s a rational party on the other end of the line.

    @Corner Stone: Schumer is going to be a fucking disaster. He is Charlie Brown with a learning disorder who believes as an article of religious faith that the football is going to stay on the ground, every time.

    The shame of it is doubled by the fact that his opposite in the House, Pelosi, is the best House leader since Rayburn. You can easily tell this to be the case by the hundreds of millions the GOP has spent slandering her.

    They haven’t bothered to spend a dime on doing so to Schumer. That should tell you everything you need to know about his abilities.

  137. 137.

    Kraux Pas

    @The Moar You Know:

    They haven’t bothered to spend a dime on doing so to Schumer. That should tell you everything you need to know about his abilities.

    Surely his status as a white man has nothing to do with it.

  139. 139.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??

    @Kay:
    The hilarious part about that poll is that it was made in part by Frank Luntz. It was the National Resturant Association’s own poll and they couldn’t get the results they wanted. Raising the minimum wage is a no brainer. Most people will be willing to pay higher prices for services and goods. There would also be a stimulative effect with employees who are paid more.

    As I’m sure you’re aware, Ohio passed an initiative to amend the state constitution to index the state minimum wage to the Consumer Price Index. The state wage is now $8 30/hr. Not a lot, but better than $7.25. I remember years ago when I first started working, the state minimum wage was only $7.85/hr in 2013 when I was working for a banquet center.

    Now, I make $8.80/hr and will make $9 in 4 months, but that’s only because of my union. It also helps working for a store that makes 2 million every week in sales.

  140. 140.

    The Moar You Know

    Surely his status as a white man has nothing to do with it.

    @Kraux Pas: Nope. They went after Reid hammer and tongs. Not a peep about Schumer. There’s a reason for that. It ain’t being a white male.

    You make shit arguments. About everything. Just shitty and incompetent. It’s too bad.

  141. 141.

    Kay

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??:

    I myself actually worked very hard for the Ohio minimum wage ballot issue. It was one of the more pleasant elections to work on because it had such wide support. “Well, SURE they should raise it!”. I love those kind of “us against them” things, where you really feel warm towards your fellow citizens. Rare.

  143. 143.

    Marcopolo

    @Corner Stone: I realize this is a dead thread but people who bring up the “judges beef” need to get educated. These judges would have been confirmed no matter what D’s did. With no agreement McConnell would have just kept the Senate in session & passed them through. At best, using all the tricks in the book, the D’s could delay their approvals so they finished up this coming Monday. In the meantime, a number of endangered D senators would have been stuck in DC & not campaigning to hold their seats. Remember there are twice as many D senators up fo re-election this cycle. So eff off with that stupid line. Schumer has his faults but negotiating those judges going through freed up folks we need to get re-elected to actually campaign.

  145. 145.

    catclub

    @Marcopolo: yes. In addition, the Majority or minority leader in the Senate is very clearly a creature of his party bloc, and not someone who can order the bloc to do something they do not want to do. Anything the leader does is only after there has been approval from the other senators in the party.

  147. 147.

    Corner Stone

    That’s not the point, amigo. Of course the R’s had the numbers to confirm. Don’t grab my tacklebox and tell me you’re checking my inseam length. But each time, on at least two different occasions, Schumer took an agreement that McConnell did not follow. What is bullshit, and a stupid effing line, is that Schumer made way for D Senators to go back home and campaign. Give me a fucking break with that naive bullshit. Heitkamp is 12 points down in ND. Her win or loss is not going to be as a result of whether she showed up in some small town the last week of election season. It’s going to be if she could work to legally restore voting rights to Native Americans. Nobody in MO doesn’t know by now where their vote is going.
    And a thread is only as dead as you allow it to be. If you keep it in your heart it will always be there for you.

  148. 148.

    Marcopolo

    @Corner Stone: I live in MO. McCaskill has been campaigning her ass off doing rallies across the state for the past month. At this point in time I am pretty sure no one, including myself, knows whether she will win re-election. You are full of shite, which apparently you do not realize. More’s the pity.

  149. 149.

    Corner Stone

    @Marcopolo: Which I didn’t predict either way, fuckbag. Those rallies were going to happen no matter what Schumer agreed to with McConnell. Stop blowing smoke up my ass.

  151. 151.

    Marcopolo

    @Corner Stone: Those rallies would not be happening if Claire McCaskill was in DC. Like the rally she held with Biden last night. Even by typical Senate rules the weekend only runs from Friday to Monday. Hell, I’m not even mentioning Donnelly being able to be in IN, who looks like he might win now but whose numbers have been all over the place. Or Tester being able to be in MT. Jeezuz fuck, there is no way I could possibly blow smoke up your ass, your head is in the way.

  152. 152.

    Corner Stone

    @Marcopolo: There is nothing Schumer could or would do if D Senators didn’t stay in DC for meaningless fucking votes. The voters that would vote against D Senators for missing votes at this late date were never going to vote for them in the first place. Get a fucking grip on yourself.

  153. 153.

    terry chay

    This was an interesting thread until it got derailed with “what a Democratic House is going to do to stick it to a Republican President.”

    I say, let’s see what the election looks like first. At the end of the day, these people we are voting for are all politicians — the size of the wave will determine the type of actions that will be done (on all sides). Let’s do all we can to make that wave as big as possible instead of calling our potential allies “dbags,” “fuckbags,” etc.

    I may have political differences with Bernie-or-busters, reluctant libertarians, Never Trumpers, or whatnot. But as long as they’re going to vote D, I couldn’t care less how they got there at this moment. It’s the ones not doing that or not voting at all and encouraging others to give up that bother me.

    As Indiana Jones said, “Nazi’s… I hate these guys” and I’m not stopping until the only place I see them are as villains in my favorite movies.

  155. 155.

    TenguPhule

    @terry chay:

    But as long as they’re going to vote D, I couldn’t care less how they got there at this moment.

    The problem is we need those fuckbags to keep voting on our side beyond this election, provided it isn’t the last free election of the USA. And inevitably, that’s gonna lead to conflict.

  156. 156.

    WaterGirl

    @TenguPhule:

    The problem is we need those fuckbags to keep voting on our side beyond this election…

    Maybe you could start by not thinking of them as fuckbags?

    What the hell is wrong with you?

  157. 157.

    TenguPhule

    @WaterGirl:

    Maybe you could start by not thinking of them as fuckbags?

    They voted for Bush, they voted for Trump. They voted for Jill Stein. Or they didn’t vote at all. They were happy with the dogwhistles until the leopards started to eat their faces.

    And just like in 2010, they can’t be counted on when the chips are down.

    Civility to the fuckbags was highly overrated.

  158. 158.

    J R in WV

    @??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)  ??:

    It also helps working for a store that makes 2 million every week in sales.

    This sentence is quite confused. A store with $2,000,000 in weekly revenue isn’t making 2 million, they would be lucky to be making 2% net profit (hint: that’s $40,000 a week). Gross revenue in retail is huge compared to the actual net profit margin. In grocery stores like Krogers (a union grocery chain we shop at) the national profit margin is a steady 2 to 3 % IIRC.

  160. 160.

    Corner Stone

    Even though J R in WV has commented here, it does not mean this thread has to die. It may simply be slowing down and he’s smelling the beginning of decay. But that doesn’t mean it’s dead yet! Live, thread! Live!

Comments are closed.