I keep thinking about this interview between Nancy Pelosi and Rebecca @rtraister. More specifically, the very last part. https://t.co/ByX9GnuzHq pic.twitter.com/jT8w5Y9UfQ
— Robin Benway (@RobinBenway) November 22, 2018
Elections have consequences, per an op-ed in today’s Washington Post — “The Democratic majority’s first order of business: Restore democracy”, by Nancy Pelosi & John Sarbanes:
Earlier this month, Americans went to the polls and sent a powerful message: The election not only was a resounding verdict against Republicans’ assault on Americans’ health care and wages, but it also was a vote to rescue our broken democracy.
In the face of a torrent of special-interest dark money, partisan gerrymandering and devious vote-suppression schemes, voters elected a House Democratic majority determined to bring real change to restore our democracy.
During the campaign, Democrats declared unequivocally that we would clean up corruption to make Washington work for the people. We pledged to reduce the role of money in politics, to restore ethics and integrity to government, and to strengthen voting laws.
We now have our marching orders. The new Democratic House is ready to deliver with H.R. 1: a bold reform package to restore the promise of our democracy — a government of, by and for the people.
First, let’s end the dominance of money in politics…
Next, let’s make sure that when public servants get to Washington, they serve the public. Restoring the public’s trust means closing the revolving door between government and private industries, and imposing strong new ethics laws to stop officials from using their public office for personal gain…
Finally, let’s make it easier, not harder, to vote… We must renew the Voting Rights Act to protect every citizen’s access to the ballot box and restore the vital safeguard of pre-clearance requirements for areas with a history of voter suppression. We will promote national automatic voter registration, bolster our critical election infrastructure against foreign attackers, and put an end to partisan gerrymandering once and for all by establishing federal guidelines to outlaw the practice…
Read (& savor) the whole thing!
Most vampires say Buffy should not be a vampire slayer. https://t.co/rDfFF3eiUk
— Mat Johnson (@mat_johnson) November 23, 2018
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
rikyrah
Nancy from Baltimore rocks!????
rikyrah
We are in the middle of a blizzard.??
Haven’t gotten up yet to see how bad it is outside.??
Amir Khalid
I cannot think of a better description for Nancy Pelosi’s foes.
JPL
@rikyrah: It’s a tad early for you isn’t it?
good morning
Gvg
I think preclearance should apply to all states. My understanding is that the Roberts court gutted it with the argument it was unfair to apply it to some places and not others. Plus, the temptation to gerrymander and suppress voting comes whenever a group perceives it is losing power, which means the temptation moves around. Much of the suppression nowadays is in areas that were not Jim Crow areas.
There is also the problem of when it’s the Feds who have white supremists in charge, but that is another issue.
Betty Cracker
Got home yesterday afternoon from a weekend at my uncle’s place on the Suwannee River. We had a birthday party this weekend for my old gran, who would have turned 100 yesterday had she not died in June. The party was already long planned, so we decided to have it anyway and turn it into a memorial when she passed. We cooked her favorite foods (Low Country boil) and told funny stories about her. She was the last of her generation in our family and a fine old Southern lady. We miss her, but she had a good long life, so it wasn’t a weepy occasion — more laughter than tears for sure.
OzarkHillbilly
From the above NYMag link:
?BillinGlendaleCA
There’s an interesting video on the Astronomy Picture of the Day website today. It’s of a rocket launch viewed from the ISS. The interesting thing to me is that it shows the yellow color cast in the lower atmosphere.
ETA: If you don’t look at the Astronomy Pic of the Day, every day, you should do your self a favor and look at as part of your morning(or late night) routine.
Raven
@Betty Cracker: Thanksgiving I posted here that my good buddy was killed 50 years ago that day in Vietnam. I also posted it on my Facebook hometown page and it prompted quit I dedicated my dissertation to him some 20 years ago and had sent a copy to his parents. One person mentioned they were going to let his sister know about the post and, a few hours later, she contacted me. I dedicated my dissertation to him and I sent a copy to her folks 20 years ago. His sister remembered it and asked if I could send her a copy. We had some nice exchanges and I’m going to ship one off this morning. The reason I bring this up is that I looked at her FB and saw that she’s done very well and has two very accomplished children. This makes me very happy.
Betty Cracker
@Raven: I’m glad you were able to make contact with her and that the family is doing well.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Interesting. It wasn’t until the 4th watch that I was sure I had caught everything.
JDM
Is Politico trying to be a waste of space? What possible market is there for a story about who Republicans want as a Democratic leader?
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
” … ’cause they best not miss.”
Raven
@Betty Cracker: Hey, we have a boat reserved in 10,000 Islands next week. It looks like trout, reds and snook!
SFAW
@JDM:
Economically-anxious WWC voters? Farmers who are still sticking with Shitgibbon despite teetering on the edge of insolvency? “Real” voters who are upset by the tone of Demon-rats? Nazis?
[Note: Not sure if the Venn diagram of the above groups is anything other than a circle.]
tobie
Nancy’s tough as nails. Good on her. I love that her first editorial post election is about the most fundamental pillar of democracy–voting rights. Glad to see she pens it with another Baltimorean, John Sarbanes.
Betty Cracker
@Raven: Excellent! Hope y’all have a great time and that the weather cooperates. I do not fish, but my husband does, and he likes the fishing in that area better than anywhere else in the state. He caught an enormous snook there a few years back. Also had a colossal tarpon on the line, but it broke free.
Raven
@Betty Cracker: Hope springs eternal!
Raven
@SFAW: Many of the small towns in Georgia’s southwest corner were struggling already, and “all you got left are farming, chemical dealers, tractor salesmen, car and truck dealers,” Lee said.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Betty Cracker:
Some lovely country, as am sure you well know. In aught-six, if memory serves, just before started spending alla my summers in the Gulf a Alaska, joined a buddy n his two fulla-beans boys onna houseboat excursion on the Suwannee R. Twere a magical experience. Course, usedta live in Florida, so notta newbie, but each Fla. place, like Tolstoi’s Anna Karenina opener, is unique in its own special way. The springs are fab, course, and the critters is bountiful, but what took me aback (even as a Fla. rez.) was the Gulf sturgeon that stack up and jump for joy abreast the limestone ledges they loves when they loves.
Am quite accustomed to tarpon rolling atop the surface (physiologically peculiar in that they can gulp n breathe atmospheric air), but seeing 6-foot-plus sturgeon gambol about like they’s in love n din’t care who knew it was an unexpected serendipity. If a body din’t see at least one sturgeon breach like a humpback whale inna hour, you just weren’t lookin.
‘Member my buddy’s boy, a precocious pre-teen, diving offa the toppa the houseboat at anchor n goading the old man to join in. N then a 10-foot gator were espied in close proximity, which give young Sam AquaMan-type abilities.
Patricia Kayden
And we’re supposed to care that Republicans don’t like Speaker Pelosi because…? Most Democrats probably hated Paul Ryan’s hits and yet that made absolutely no difference. I don’t even remember any polls on that.
Betty Cracker
@poleaxedbyboatwork: While speeding down the Suwannee in a pontoon boat, another of my uncles got hit in the face by a leaping sturgeon. He’s kind of an asshole, so we all thought it was hilarious! Both fish and man survived…
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Patricia Kayden: The Republicans fear mongered about a Speaker Pelosi in all their ads, little surprise they don’t like here. The kid had an interesting story about her sister in CA-45(soon to be Mimi Walters’ former district); she called to remind the kid to vote. The kid tells her sister, ‘I always vote, every election; you’re the one who never votes’.
MagdaInBlack
@rikyrah:
Looks like a snow day here NW of O’Hare. Still snowing and no one has cleared the condo lots.
Gosh darn it ?
Schlemazel
12 degrees in Rochester this AM but snow free. stayed in a hotel here overnight just in case there had been. This is the time of year when we can get some icey crap.
@Raven: I have to believe it means a lot to the family that you carry his memory this long after. That is a fine thing you are doing.
@Betty Cracker: That is the way I would want to be remembered, more laughter than tears. There is an old gospel song, don’t remember the name but the chorus is “When I’m on my journey don’t you grieve after me”
Steeplejack (phone)
@poleaxedbyboatwork:
Thank you for your authentic frontier gibberish.
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: I love the caption on that lead photograph:
I guess like Texas, everything’s bigger in S Georgia.
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Raven:
Ya, them, n, most like, lotsa jack crevalle n ladyfish.
Bluefish are a nice occasional bonus. Spanish macks. The odd black drum. Snapper. Grouper. Whiting. Tripletail.
Not sure how you fish, but I allus likes to use a jig — exploratory, fish any depth, catches big n small fish. Many moons ago (and I regret it deeply now, but the damage is long-since done, so i relate it here with no misgivings, fwiw), wrote a piece about Cayo Costa Island — mention it cuz it’sa purty special place. If you like a somewhat rustic camping experience with lotsa wonderful barefoot-walk-to fishing opps if yer willing to hoof it n explore, recommend it muchly.
Nota bene: You prolly know this, but just in case: lotta, lotta sharks round the campsites n chickees n all over 10K Islas, specially at night. Circle hook n bait’ll keep you up long as you want. Might even luck into a tarpon!
Am jealous. Enjoy!
(Din’t mean to try’n tell you your bidness, just excited cuz I love that country; least the part that ain’t been loved to death already.)
frosty
I’m in favor of HR 1, but I wonder how the House will get it enacted with both the Senate and President in Republican hands. Is it just a marker for the next election? If so, I worry that promising to restore democracy and failing will bring blowback and disillusionment.
What say you all?
Kay
Good. Corruption. Democrats didn’t get much traction with anti-corruption in the midterms (IMO) – or not as much as they did in ’06- but they must think it’s politically viable long term if they’re leading with it.
Republicans are really in an ideological box on corruption- they’ve taken such an extreme position with Citizens et al that they are completely hamstrung on any campaign finance reform. They’ve abandoned the whole “good government” area, much like they’ve abandoned trying to make any kind of offer on health care. More and more it’s that Republicans can’t do anything- the far Right ideological fealty allows no movement of any kind.
Raven
@poleaxedbyboatwork: Nah, I love it. Half the time I just talk to myself here!
debbie
“Make my day.” I love that!
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Steeplejack (phone): @Betty Cracker:
Ha! As Blanche DuBois sez: “Sometimes there is God so quick.”
Neglected to mention some similar during our stay. While we wuz there, airborne sturgeon launched n broke the leg onna obnxious speeding jetskier, which, to my mind, were as close to appropriate n divine justice as I’m ever like to see in this world.
Matt McIrvin
@frosty: The Republicans made this work for them during the Obama years with their huge number of votes to repeal the ACA. They knew none of those were going to pass (notice how much more reticent they got when they could have really made it happen). It’s the parliamentary “shadow government” idea: the message is “give us real power and this is what you’ll get”.
The difference is that ours aren’t going to be completely stupid.
OzarkHillbilly
@frosty: You worry too much. Nobody thinks the DEMs in the House can fix everything with trump in the WH and McConnell still running the Senate.
Kay
@frosty:
It’s consistent with the Pelosi-led House since at least 2006, the anti-corruption push. It’s a long term project at this point- it’s become part of the Democratic platform. Campaign finance deregulation has been a disaster and it’s a rolling disaster- it gets worse every cycle, so hopefully it will grow in relevancy and become urgent at some point. Democrats can own it the same way they own health care because Republicans have just dropped any pretense of caring about it.
Democrats have the Right, Center and Left position on health care all within their caucus – they’re the only ones offering anything at all. That could happen with “good government” too.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
debbie
@frosty:
It’s called “standing on principle.”
Dorothy A. Winsor
We apparently got a bunch of snow overnight. I’m waiting to see if the roads are good enough for me to make my 8 am rehab session.
OzarkHillbilly
Still reading that NYMag article, this from Sally Yates:
frosty
@Matt McIrvin: @OzarkHillbilly: @Kay: Thanks everyone, I’ll hope for the best. Win or lose it’s still the best position to take as the first bill from the new House.
Butch
@JDM: Trying and achieving, I’d say. Politico thinks that’s worth printing.
But hey, marijuana was just legalized in Michigan, and if you turn on the TV, you will see commercials by John F-ing Boehner inviting you to a seminar on how to enter and succeed in the marijuana industry. Seriously. That John Boehner.
Patricia Kayden
It’s a good day. Papadopoulos will be spending 14 days in jail starting today (should have been a much longer sentence). And Mueller is planning to release a report on Manafort shortly. Trump is going down. And he knows it.
Patricia Kayden
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Running against Pelosi didn’t work out so well for Republicans in the midterms given the blue wave we’ve just had in Congress. Why would my vote be determined by Republicans and who they like or dislike? I don’t understand that logic at all.
danielx
Temperature is down by twenty from last night, and I am not looking forward to winter at all.
NotMax
@Raven
Snook, you say?
;)
(And the video compilation linked doesn’t even mention her winning the Jock-Off 2000.)
rikyrah
I missed my early train. The snow is blowing sideways, the wind is blowing hard.
rikyrah
@Patricia Kayden:
Don’t drop the soap, George.
Hoping for a Manafort leak.
rikyrah
@Raven:
I am glad that you got contact.
rikyrah
Victoria Brownworth (@VABVOX) Tweeted:
Thousands of Jews fled Germany and crossed borders illegally as anyone with even the most cursory knowledge of the #Holocaust knows.
Those who fled here were turned away–among them Anne Frank’s family.
The abandonment of the Jews is well-documented. This is revisionism.
https://t.co/TPxdLN9n3c https://twitter.com/VABVOX/status/1066952014557523969?s=17
daveNYC
Basically everything the House produces in the next two years will be auditioning for 2020. The Democrats will try and do X, the Republicans will shoot it down, and those votes will be tallied up and worked into campaign ads.
Some stuff might make it through in certain areas, maybe, if the money is good enough to get the Senators on board, but generally it’ll all be theater and prepping legislation for when (hopefully) the Democrats win big in two years.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I’m hoping it’s also a marker for planned House investigations into Trump admin corruption. My dawg, what a target-rich environment!
rikyrah
@frosty:
I don’t believe that anyone believes that the Turtle will pick it up. That is not the point. The point is to put it out there. The point is to tell the Democratic party voter-
We know that your vote is under attack, and we will protect it. Look at who won’t.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks. That was an interesting read, and good for Yates.
NotMax
Space Force will be tasked to prove Pelosi was born on Betelgeuse VII.
JPL
@Patricia Kayden: Insight is landing on Mars today. It’s gonna be a good day!
Baud
@Patricia Kayden: Demonization works. Ask Hillary.
NotMax
@JPL
Until it’s attacked by hordes of little green men all wearing Make Mars Great Again hats.
;)
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker:
My nomination for understatement of the year.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I agree but what’s interesting about it to me is how it’s not Trump-focused.
Citizens and gutting the VRA are the work of the Roberts court. They’re keeping it broad, and about Republicans rather than just Donald Trump. That worked for them this last cycle and it’s a better long term plan- these GOP policies predated Trump. They gutted voting rights protections and campaign finance regulation well prior to Trump. It’s GOP orthodoxy Pelosi is attacking, not just Trump.
It seems like some of them know the box they’re in. Did you see Sasse casting around for something to say on climate change? They have NOTHING. Nothing on climate change, nothing on health care, nothing on corruption. They can’t DO anything because of their donors and their ideology. He used the all-purpose filler for bullshitters- “innovate!”
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning rikyrah!
I do a thing when people charge a purchase at the market. After they sign their name (always an illegible scrawl) I say something about how the election in Florida was being decided by people comparing signatures and the person in front of me probably wouldn’t have a match and have their vote counted (ok, the conversation flows better than my recap does).
Believe me, nobody likes the idea of that, even conservatives.
A lot of people can’t imagine that things would apply to them until it’s shown to them.
rikyrah
Evan Smith (@evanasmith) Tweeted:
.@jmartNYT says @BetoORourke performed worse in rural Texas than @barackobama did in 2012. I was skeptical. Couldn’t be true — Beto visited all 254 counties. Fact-checked it. Jmart’s right. Never bet against JMart
https://t.co/PwXC5SGXpB #txsen #tx2018 https://twitter.com/evanasmith/status/1066728974565474304?s=17
rikyrah
Marcus H. Johnson (@marcushjohnson) Tweeted:
Throwing tons of $$$ at rural areas or the white working class is a misalignment of resources. Turnout Black/Latino/Asian voters. Work with college educated whites in the suburbs. That’s where the Dem Party money and interest should go
https://twitter.com/marcushjohnson/status/1066772402233843712?s=17
Baud
@Kay: Everyone knows the heat from the caravan causes global warming.
rikyrah
Payback is a muthaphucka ? ?
The Hill (@thehill) Tweeted:
Expected Dem Oversight chair says he won’t give subpoena power to Republicans
https://t.co/CeUnvhYqxi https://t.co/pE1aBjvOB4 https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1066724448672329731?s=17
Baud
I don’t care for these people, but others here might.
rikyrah
The creativity of American journalism to creat ways to NOT call racist muthaphuckas, well… racist muthaphuckas…is something that the Dolt45 era has brought us.
David Simon (@AoDespair) Tweeted:
What the fuck is “racially conservative”?
https://t.co/euLV87nxaa https://twitter.com/AoDespair/status/1066635314263937024?s=17
tobie
@rikyrah: My sentiments exactly. Rural America already rakes in significant federal and state aid. Can’t we invest in cities for a change?
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
Prison rape jokes not funny even from a woke black woman.
rikyrah
Schiff’s palpable rage at this Administration has been right there beneath the surface these past two years.
Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) Tweeted:
Adam Schiff: “The President is not being honest with the country about the murder of Jamal Khashoggi … Is his personal financial interest driving U.S. policy in the gulf? … We don’t know but it would be irresponsible not to find out.” (via CNN)
https://t.co/dFxcDWm7wL https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1066738734517927937?s=17
Baud
CNN
I hope we are ready to fight the long fight.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
To me, one of the big arguments is whether Trump is a one-off or the natural and inevitable result of what the GOP has become. Pelosi has an up-close longer institutional view so she probably sees it as a long term problem. I do too. Trump isn’t a one-off. He’s where they were headed. Citizens and the gutting of the VRA led to Trump. The GOP Establishment created Donald Trump and that’s why they’re helpless to stop him. They tied their own hands. They can’t regulate him because they can’t regulate, period.
She doesn’t have to tie the GOP to Trump. They did that themselves. She can hit him while aiming at the larger target.
rikyrah
@Steeplejack:
I have no sympathy for these people
None.
I want all of them in jail, and for the worst things that can happen in jail to happen to them. All of them, right up the ladder.
rikyrah
@Baud:
Absolutely, Baud.
Absolutely.
Let them tie themselves to him even more.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Do we have a choice?
montanareddog
@Kay:
Hah! One of the main sticking points in Brexit was Theresa May’s redline that the UK must leave the Single Market and the Customs Union, but this would impose a hard border with customs checks etc. between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland which is also a redline. Mrs May’s proposal…
Not just US right-wingers trapped in an ideological box and hoping to “innovate” their way out.
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: Mars probe faces daunting challenge to land safely
This drives me nuts. “Oh noooooes…. If anything goes wrong it will be a disaster!” Yes, sending a probe to Mars is very difficult and executing a successful landing is particularly difficult. But take a look at this map. Notice anything?
NASA has been singularly successful at landing spacecraft on Mars.
rikyrah
Man,
It looks horrible outside. Just bad. Snow blowing everywhere. It should stop in a couple of hours. Hopefully it will all be cleaned up by the time I leave work.
Baud
@rikyrah: The worst things that happen in jail happen to people who are not as privileged as them. I understand why prison rape references are off the table for us.
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah, we can become unwoke like what happened after Obama was elected.
JPL
@NotMax: Better that they wear mmga hats rather than the stupid maga hats.
Kay
@rikyrah:
We just got your weather. It rained all night and then temp dropped and it’s snow and sleet- a real mess.
My middle son drives far for work out of Toledo so I really fret about him. He insists on buying crap cars for cash and he drives hundreds of miles! He casually mentioned Sunday that he had his tire “patched” which means he also has shit tires. He has the money. He just refuses to spend it. He is taking years off my life. I have literally been worrying about this particular kid since his birth- it just never ends. He’s 25 and it’s as bad as when he was an insanely reckless toddler. I’m hoping he got to work before the roads froze.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Barsoom or bust!
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay:
I thought the all purpose filler for Republicans was “Tax cuts!”
NotMax
@JPL
Extremely truncated version of an extremely old joke about interviewing the first Martians to visit Earth.
“Do you all have four arms?”
“Yes.”
“You all have those little antennae?”
“Yes, we do.”
“And you all wear those little caps?”
“Only the orthodox.”
poleaxedbyboatwork
@Kay:
It *is* an inneresting questions, and for all me, I come down on the side of the latter, i.e. Trump ain’t no anomaly, Trump is the culmination, the apothe-fucking-osis, of halfa-century’s wortha movement conservatism. ‘Member the days when alla the trickle-down horseshit pumpers were foisting their nitwittery with a knowing wink n a nod? (Even good ol’ George “voodoo econ” H.Dub n Reagan’s economist Dave “Trojan Horse” Stockman knew trickle-down was not only snakewater but a bait-n-switch.)
So where’re we now? Dumbshits like Louis Gohmert *be-fucking-lieve* this shit like it’s the goddamn prosperity gospel. There’s an entire generation of goopers too doctrinaire and inflexibly rigid to realize most a what they believe is transparently, demonstrably horseshit.
That seems like a problem.
Enter Donald “Escalator of Doom” Trump to feed the confirmation bias of an entire generation of know-nothing reactionary passionately stupid cretins.
That, too, seems like a problem.
Patricia Kayden
@Baud: We are. What do we have to lose by going after a sleazy and unpopular President? If the tables were turned, we know that Republicans would be ready for a long fight. We can do the same.
Kathleen
@Patricia Kayden: It’s first shot fired in the “Dems Don’t Stand For Anything They Ran On Anti Trump Platform Which Will Be Big Problem In 2020” Campaign.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
That’s the other good thing that happened in 2018- “tax cuts!” didn’t work. They were a drag on Republicans. Amazing.
JPL
@NotMax: That was new to me. lol
Patricia Kayden
@JDM: And you know they’d never flip the script on how Democrats feel about Republican Congressional leaders.
Ladyraxterinok
@Baud: National Archives?? To become part of history!?!? And Cummings?
Schlemazel
@Baud:
Ragged on the Clinton’s, ignored the pussy grabber in Chief while they were fucking and married to other people.
They should die from an STD
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud:
facepalm That is more than a little over the top.
Patricia Kayden
@Kathleen: Democrats going after a very corrupt Trump is a good thing. I don’t want them to work with Trump. I want them to spend every second working against him and his destructive, bigoted agenda.
The MSM be damned for their pandering coverage of this President.
Raven
@NotMax: I have no idea who or what that is?
NotMax
@Raven
Olive Snook, a character played by Kristin Chenoweth on Pushing Daisies.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Great points. Focusing exclusively on Trump and his minions would allow phony shit-stains like Sasse to slither back into the fold once the Trump admin implodes. Hang it on them all. They’ve earned it.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
May have changed over the years but the room where those documents are displayed was beyond uncomfortable to spend more than a scant few minutes in when I visited many a moon ago, kept at something like 105 degrees and 99% humidity.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: I have always been the same. “Why by a new car so I can wear it out in 2 years time when I can by a junker and keep it going for 2 years and save myself a bunch of money?” Of course, I spent a lot of wkends working on it.
The problem with that is that that’s the halfway point. He still has to get home. After hitting some black ice on my way home from work in a truly horrific storm and rolling my van at 50 mph and somehow miraculously not hitting anyone or getting a circular saw up the backside of my head, I said never again. No job is worth risking my life over.
And they never offered to compensate me for the loss of my vehicle either.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly:
I have a feeling that the Archives is not open to us proles if we wanted to wed there
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: About damn time too.
Kraux Pas
@rikyrah:
Dancing around right-wingers’ feelings while explaining why you disagree with their policies is a true art form. I don’t think journalists should be playing that game. But since they are, it can provide some helpful insight on how to deal with snowflake Republican language police in your own life.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: I was just thinking about that. For the right amount of money I’ll bet a dog could marry a pony there and have it all video taped for a Youtube release.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: I heard that’s legal in dawgless D.C….
NotMax
All right. Managed to stay up until cigar purveyor on the east coast (in Florida, oddly enough) opened at 9 to place a reorder and still get it in under the wire to apply their Black Friday discount coupon.
Now off to attempt anything resembling sleep.
rikyrah
@Gvg:
I have absolutely no problem with pre-clearance for all states.
satby
@Raven: We hang on every word. Sometimes we even nod to ourselves.
Brachiator
RE: Most Republican voters say Nancy Pelosi should not be House speaker next year: Just 11% support her candidacy, while 61% oppose it, according to our latest poll
The Fox News propaganda machine is amazing. Do Republicans think that they have veto power over the Democrats’ choice?
Have Democrats ever been polled about a Republican speaker? I would not have paid any attention because I know that any opinions would be irrelevant.
rikyrah
@Kay:
I mean…they didn’t bring them up….AT ALL…
rikyrah
I made it to work…and EErrrrbody who is part of the early crew on my side…isn’t here yet.
rikyrah
@Patricia Kayden:
The insulting part is that they think that nobody notices it. That they put out bullshyt like that poll, and we’re supposed to what, take them seriously?
That the Democrats are supposed to care what Republicans think about Democratic Leadership?
PHUCK.OUTTA.HERE.
rikyrah
@Patricia Kayden:
Amen.Amen.Amen.
And, not just Dolt45.
But, all the wretched and corrupt people working for him.
ALL OF THEM.
Immanentize
@rikyrah:
Section 5 pre-clearance applied to all elections, even, potentially, dog catcher. I think a new better and unassailable statute would require pre clearance for all federal elections and governor races.
Immanentize
@satby: I even have a favorite Raven post ever:
“What’s yet problem, got crabs?”
Ken
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yes, it looks like we’re avoiding the Tharsis region. The Martians must have agents embedded in NASA.
Ken
@Kay:
Probably because by then most people had realized they weren’t getting a cut. Doing away with the property tax deduction was a Republican own goal.
Kathleen
@Kay: The older my daughter in Tampa gets (she’s 45) the more I worry about her. I hope your son stays safe!
Kathleen
@Schlemazel: I love you in a Platonic way of course! I wish you the best at Mayo so that you can enjoy well earned relief.
Kathleen
@Patricia Kayden: I totally am with you on all points. Broadcast Media for most part are loathsome as is NYT political reporting.
JGabriel
Hit save before I was done. See next post.
JGabriel
Nancy Pelosi and John Sarbanes @ WaPo via Anne Laurie @ Top:
The sections of the VRA regarding pre-clearance supposedly got tossed by SCOTUS because of their seemingly arbitrary selectiveness, now that racism was gone (at least, that’s what Roberts argued).
Instead of giving SCOTUS the same grounds to vote against a new VRA, I have a suggestion – let’s make pre-clearance apply to all states, at least initially:
1) Put all states on pre-clearance for 50 years (or 20 or 100). Hell, we could even skip this step, or make it just 5 years, because;
2) After the specified time, any state that hasn’t lost a voting rights case, and doesn’t have a case pending, shall no longer need to get pre-clearance before changing their voting laws, but;
3) The state goes right back on the pre-clearance list again if they lose a voting rights case, and can’t get off the list until it maintains a clean voting rights record for 80 years- i.e., until it goes another 80 years without losing a voting rights case.
This way it applies to ALL states, which is probably a good thing – given that discrimination against minority and other disenfranchised voters is no longer relegated just to former slave/confederate states.
JGabriel
CNN via Baud:
Our response should, “We were elected to put a check on, and investigate, this president – among other priorities. And we know we’re doing the will of the American people on this, because unlike Senate Republicans as a whole, unlike our colleagues across the aisle, and unlike Donald Trump: we won the popular vote.