Tired: Get in early to hire the best staffers.
Wired: Get in late to seem fresh and interesting once everyone is bored with everyone else.
Inspired: Hope nobody cares about anything in your record because they fondly remember Obama.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) March 13, 2019
I’m never sure, with Yglesias, when he’s deliberately tweaking the Church of the Savvy, and when he’s just moving through his environment with the efficiency of a fish in water. But, snark or not, there does seem to be a point approaching where both Beto and Biden need to either declare themselves candidates or pass…
feebog
I think Beto is in and will announce it tomorrow. Biden wants to be the last major player in. Don’t get the strategy, but maybe it will work.
BeuceFromOhio
Too soon for all this inside baseball crap. I’m one post away from shutting it all out entirely.
geg6
Rumor is he plans to announce tomorrow or Friday. Don’t know how reliable the rumor is. Beto, that is. Don’t have a clue about Biden.
Baud
Lots of buzz about both coming in soon.
HT Goller
Biden seems to be asking everybody in this life for permission to run for president. This really bothers me. I’m fine with people wanting to be president. In fact I prefer it. The job is difficult enough it. Let me know that you actually want to be there.
ruemara
I sincerely am so over MattY’s sarcastic know-it-all schtick since he definitely knows not much at all.
Baud
I heard a fairly serious rumor that Sen. Bennett of Colorado was going to jump in. Not sure who else is still on the table.
lamh36
A person I know who’s politcal saavy and followed Beto during his Senate run and keeps up w/all things Beto said months ago that Beto was gonna run.
So if he declares, I’m not surprised. There has also been some “big news” talk from Gillum and the talk of Abrams also thinking bout POTUS 2020. I’d still say Beto, Gillum and Abrams if any or all get in…are running for VP…and anyone of them have strengths that would make them both good choices.
I still don’t think Abrams or Gillum will run for Prez.
As I’ve said before…of the 3, Beto is most likely to lose a second Senate run that’s based alot on my time living in Texas, and still having family and friends there. Beto had to rely on the Hispanic voting bloc in Texas to come out for him (call me a cynic, but i think it’s likely they won’t) and for enough of the more conservative white folk to chose him over Corbyn, and the youth vote to come out (that may depend on who the top of the Dem ticket). Gillum and Abrams both came much closer than Beto and without the glaring election frauds and disenfranchisement going on in FL/GA. For Gillum in FL w/ex-cons now being able to vote and the bullshit investigation in Tallahassee that gillum was cleared of…and the Black vote in GA for Abrams along w/folks being more aware of efforts to disenfranchise their votes…means IMHO that Gilluma and Abrams are good bets for Senate seats.
I think in terms of VP choices, there is a better chance of Abrams or Gillum bringing their states over to the Dem ticket side than Beto’s…IMHO, Texas is farther from being in the Dem path than GA and FL has gone Dem before when the stars align.
I guess Beto could increase the Dem’s electoral college numbers, but so cold Abrams and Gillum in their respective states.
So based on that…I think Beto’s thinking he has a better chance for the Presidential ticket than against Corybn in Texas, who I just don’t believe Texans hate him as much as they do Ted…and Beto still lost to Ted
NotMax
Misfired: Matt Yglesias.
WaterGirl
Someone on BJ posted the vanity fair article — this afternoon — that announces he’s in.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/03/beto-orourke-cover-story?verso=true
lamh36
Hey Betty…
So…what do you guys think the big news is for Gillum?
Is their a Senate seat the Dems could try to win or retain in Florida?
Or maybe a Representative?
ETA: Oooh someone said he may challenge Rubio…is Rubio up in 2020 or 2022?
Baud
@NotMax: Perspired: Matthew Whitaker
Miss Bianca
@Baud: Oh, fuck no. Not Hickenlooper *and* Bennett! Come on, white guy Dems from Colorado! Get into the Senate and STAY in the Senate where you can actually do some good!
lamh36
Hmmm…what was the reason FB gave for being down?
trollhattan
@Baud:
Leave it to somebody from Colorado to leap in late and literally suck the oxygen out of the room!
#NotAllLungsEqual
Jay
“TPM found that Yang, through a Florida-based company called GY US Investments LLC, was also using proximity to Trump and his properties to peddle so-called investor visas. Under the EB-5 visa program, foreign citizens can get a conditional two-year U.S. green card in exchange for making certain investments. Mother Jones first reported the existence of GY US Investments.”
https://www.wonkette.com/mar-a-lago-massage-parlor-owner-flogging-golden-ticket-visas-like-a-common-kushner
“But who is she trying for? Is Mrs. Yang just a shameless grifter, or is she reporting to the Chinese government from the president’s private club, where he gives all guests a front row seat to international negotiations by conducting them on the lanai during dinner? Foreign Policy reports that Cindy Yang is a member of several civic groups used to promote Chinese Communist Party policies abroad:”
Baud
@lamh36: 2022, I believe. He was reelected in 2016.
Baud
ThinkProgress
lamh36
Samuel L Jackson is a NATURAL TREASURE!
The entire Esquire article is pretty great!
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a26454543/samuel-l-jackson-captain-marvel-interview-2019/?src=socialflowTW&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=socialflowTWESQ&utm_medium=social-media
Baud
@lamh36: That is perfect.
lamh36
@Baud: Ah..so would it be too early for Gillum to announce a run against Rubio?
KarenH
https://www.ktsm.com/news/politics/beto-o-rourke-is-running-for-president-in-2020-ktsm-confirms/1846804405
Official announcement tomorrow morning.
lamh36
@Baud: IKR…A NATIONAL FUQN’ TREASURE…lol
Miss Bianca
OK, whoever recommended this Brexit commentary in one of the previous threads did me a solid. I actually L’dOL at these lines:
NotMax
@KarenH
Personally think it’s a strategic mistake. Super high risk of being trounced early and ending up becoming a political footnote, possibly forever more.
lamh36
I don’t have HBO, but I am tempted to get it for a bit just to see this. I’m lab tech…to this was a BIG deal in the lab when it was all coming out…so this doc is DEF in my wheelhouse
The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley (2019) | Official Trailer … https://youtu.be/wtDaP18OGfw via @YouTube
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
One t, please. Like Elizabeth Darcy.
Beto’s on the next cover of Vanity Fair.
I’m still for Harris.
Miss Bianca
@lamh36: Oh, that is righteous! The best thing is, I could hear it in my head, as I read it, in Samuel L’s voice – which made it all the sweeter.
zhena gogolia
@lamh36:
I agree with him 100%.
chris
@Miss Bianca:
kindness
I like both Beto & Bidden, but not for president this time. Beto, msybe another year. Bidden, you done good my man. Retire with pride.
Pogonip
https://mobile.twitter.com/ECMcLaughlin/status/1102349459747270656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1102349459747270656&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nakedcapitalism.com%2F2019%2F03%2F200pm-water-cooler-3-13-2019.html
I think Americans of all persuasions should set all other issues aside for now and unite on this one. Battle plan needs to include some provision for the thousands of people who would lose their jobs if a sane medical system were instituted, and it’s not just the employees of insurance companies. My doctor needs two extra people in his small practice to deal with insurance companies and my pharmacist estimates she spends an average of about 30 hoursca week on same.
I’m going to put this up everywhere I can and I will come up with a plan as a starter point and put that up everywhere I can too. Adam, in case I get banned, what’s your e-mail? You would be a great person to begin to revise my starter plan when it doesn’t survive contact with the enemy. ?
This particular series of tweets is a powerful weapon against insurance companies and the politicians they own because people from many different countries weighed in with eye-opening facts. (Many Americans have no idea what goes on elsewhere). I suggest putting it out everywhere you can. Allons, mes enfants!
Mnemosyne
Meh. I’m not getting too wound up about anyone running just yet. There were at least 8 major candidates in the 2008 primary, and not everyone making an announcement is going to make it all the way to an actual primary or caucus. ?♀️
KarenH
@NotMax: I agree. I worked hard on his Senate campaign, but I’m not committing yet on the presidential campaign.
PsiFighter37
@lamh36: Sam’s the man. Hardest-working man in show biz and tells it like it is.
As for Beto / Biden…sure, why not? What worries / annoys me, if social media is an accurate indicator (and it may not be, since the Bernie bros seem to have been loudly reactivated), is that any ‘sin’ against liberalism is going to be dissected to the core. Corey Booker is being crucified by voting against Bernie’s stupid pharma amendment many years ago that was clearly not going to pass but was a trap set for a moment like this. Anyone but Wilmer or Tulsi Gabbard, thank you very much. I’m not going to get too bogged down / attached to a particular candidate at this point, since some of them are undoubtedly going to be long gone by the time New York gets to vote, whenever that is.
It may also be a sign that I’m in middle age now – none of these candidates have really lit me up. Just give me the person who is most likely going to beat the asshole sitting in the White House right now. Realistically – and I hate to say it – but Biden, by far, is the candidate who fits that bill the best.
Plato
@Miss Bianca:
That’s some scathing writing.
Gin & Tonic
@NotMax: People who look in the mirror in the morning and see a POTUS looking back at them are different than you and me.
Betty Cracker
@lamh36: I don’t know what Gillum will announce next week, but I don’t think it’ll be a presidential bid. He’s talked a lot about flipping the state blue and how Democrats, including himself, haven’t been able to win the top job statewide for 20-plus years. Maybe he plans to launch an organization to fight voter suppression and do voter outreach for Florida Democrats. God knows we could use the help, and if he does decide to take a run at Rubio or seek a rematch with DeSantis in 2022, that sort of effort could pay off.
BTW, Gillum still has an ethics hearing to face; I think it’s scheduled for next month. He was cleared of soliciting gifts (conveniently for the GOP, not until after the 2018 election), but he wasn’t cleared of accepting gifts, and honestly, it looks like maybe he did? The charges are kind of small potatoes in the scheme of things, but it looks bad. I’d be surprised if he announces a run for anything until that mess is cleared up.
John Revolta
@zhena gogolia: Por que no los dos?
I think Kamala /Beto is a very strong ticket.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
from the O’Bros newsletter
Word a couple of weeks ago was that Biden had already started hiring. I guess he can always pay them off and say thanks, but I’ll be really surprised if he doesn’t run
As several others have said, I’m pretty much on the sidelines.
Gin & Tonic
@chris:
That sounds like it could be fun, if you’re in the right mood.
Gin & Tonic
@Pogonip:
The self-pitying bullshit is winning no friends.
Miss Bianca
@Plato: Oh, it just gets better and better. Or worse and worse, depending on your perspective.
Jay
@Pogonip:
When posting 2nd hand tweets, everything after the question mark, the “ref_src=“ stuff, is unneeded, it just references the 2nd hand source for the tweet. Deleting it from the link is “cleaner”.
Because a lot of people don’t follow links, or want to waste data, it’s a good idea to copy the full tweet in the tweet thread, so that people can decide if they want to go there.
schrodingers_cat
@John Revolta: Me too.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think that’s a clue.
Pogonip
@Jay: Thank you!
Miss Bianca
@Gin & Tonic: I agree. A commenter I usually find both sensible and agreeable going off the rails and spewing a creamy and delicious blend of reverse-snobbery classist/sexist bile *and* self-pity, is a spectacle I find rather nauseous, to be honest.
schrodingers_cat
@Miss Bianca: How are you holding up? Did they figure out what happened to your Luna? {{ }}
lamh36
lol…let’s hope this isn’t a bad omen for Beto.
It’s even the same writer!
LOL…the political world is too small aint’ it.
lamh36
Yeah…I’m thinking Beto’s a bigger threat to Bernie than Biden.
Black folk know Biden.
Young folk like Beto.
The only one with Bernie overlap is Beto..
feebog
Beto just texted an El Paso newspaper that he is in.
Ohio Mom
@ruemara: Years ago, I used to wonder where pundits came from. How did George Will get to be George Will? Who decided David Brooks would be David Brooks?
But then I watched as Matt Y became Matt Y. And Ezra became Ezra and McMegan become McMegan…etc., etc.
Pogonip
@Gin & Tonic: Actually, other than that Cole has a good-sized audience, I would not care if I were banned, but people like Adam need to be lending their expertise to this life-and-death battle, so I do want to be able to reach him in the unlikely event I have a good idea he hasn’t already thought of. None of which would need to be explained to you if you had an IQ larger than my bra size. However, all Americans, even Idiot- Americans such as yourself, will be needed, so stop wasting time on Mean Girl nonsense and do your best to write a grown- up letter to your Congresscritter, referencing that series of tweets. I am now finished with you—and the rest of the Mean Girls—there being more important things afoot.
lamh36
@feebog: pretty sure that was a mess up. they were gonna do it tomorrow…but then someone message home paper and bloop home paper let cat out of the bag tonight
Betty Cracker
@Pogonip:No one has threatened to ban your silly ass, and several commenters explained the rules in response to your many crybaby comments about it in yesterday’s thread. Lying about what people write and vindictive concern-trolling about fellow commenters’ mental health or social status may result in folks concluding that you are a liar and an asshole, but it won’t get you banned, at least not by me. So, carry on, lying asshole!
chris
@Gin & Tonic: No doubt PM May agrees.
Pogonip
@Ohio Mom: I think they look for people who look good on TV and will keep talking NO MATTER WHAT.
I know you’ve been writing your reps frantically about The Issue for years, as I have. If We The People unite, we can win. No more type 1 diabetics dying for lack of a medicine discovered decades ago. If we unite, we can do it.
Gin & Tonic
@Pogonip:
Very clever. You’ve been working on that line for a while, no?
Pogonip
@Pogonip: @Betty Cracker: Please join us in the medical crusade, thanks!
tobie
I just checked and it looks like Super Tuesday will host primaries in a bunch of states with hometown candidates: California (Harris), Massachusetts (Warren), Oklahoma (Warren), Texas (Castro, O’Rourke), Minnesota (Klobuchar), and Vermont (Sanders). This should be interesting. The full primary schedule is here.
Pogonip
@Gin & Tonic: Please join us in the American medical crusade, thanks!
Another Scott
@Pogonip: Agreed it’s powerful. I thought the same when I posted a pointer to that twitter thread here a few days/weeks ago. I think I saw it on LOLGOP.
Please stop with the “when I’m banned stuff”. It makes you look like a crank. ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@PsiFighter37:
You’re not.
Pogonip
Preliminary suggestions: Write, write, write.
Get those insurance-company atrocity stories out to everyone you can think of, especially your rep.
Hang onto that series of tweets, and when you see misinformation about the government rationing medical care, share it. Many Americans have no idea what life is like elsewhere. I guess Farcebook is a hotbed of such misinformation.
Neurologist Dr. Grumpy once wrote an article about how there’s a lot of rationing of medical care in America, not by the government but by insurance companies. Maybe retired medical personnel can be persuaded to weigh in on this as well.
nick macGuffin
Beto made a Texas Senate race interesting for a few months, but his resume is far too thin compared to the other declared candidates. He needs more experience in elective before I’d consider him ready to be President or Vice President. As for Biden, first and foremost he’s far too old for the job. Compared to the other declared candidates, I find uncle Joe profoundly uninspiring. He has 0% gravitas and I can’t take 4 years of verbal gaffes from him. He should do the nation a favor and stay out of this race.
Pogonip
@Another Scott: I got it off Naked Capitalism.
Of course I’m cranky! I live or die at the whim of some megacorp! ?
WhatsMyNym
@tobie: Washington State will move their primary to March 10 if the Governor signs the Bill (Gov. Inslee) . The Democratic Party is going to decide in April whether to start using the primary results or caucus to allocate delegates to the conventions. They will still have to caucus to select the delegates.
Ohio Mom
@lamh36: Ouch! But that is funny in a way.
I remember when I was *so* impressed with John Edwards. Makes me embarrassed to recall.
Baud
@WhatsMyNym: I hope they fix that. In 2016, the difference between the caucus and primary turnout and results was an embarrassment to democracy.
lamh36
This is an example of the twitter/social media bubble –>
https://twitter.com/ReignOfApril/status/1105988369459359744
I think it’s a bad take.
but Ima need some of ya’ll SM “stars” to get out of ur twitter/SM bubble and actually talk to folks who DON’T have a twitter or instagram & who are more likely to vote than many who do, when it comes to Biden
Yes, Biden has issues (I’d consider them vaild ones or sure), but there is something to be said for name recognition and known quantities when it comes to those who vote REGULARLY. Joe Biden to those folks, is someone they know already…or at least someone they might feel they arleady know and have good feeling
At the very least, and especially if Biden joins the race, the Obamas will do their best to show no preference for any one candidate. But Biden, was PBOs loyal an trustiful VP for 8 years, so Biden will start with the “assumed” Obama approved banner along w/maybe Kamala Harris since he actively campaigned for her during her Senate run
IJS…I don’t assume cause SM activist have issue w/Biden, that those who you can count on to vote in the primaries or even the gneral do…time will tell of course
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I thoroughly disagree with his description of Iowa, but other than that
Gabbard’s a crank, Schultz is goofy, a few others I think are kidding themselves, or us, but Eric Swalwell doesn’t strike me as dumb or kooky. What the hell is he doing?
Fair Economist
It’s the middle of March. It’s certainly not too late to announce. Neither Clinton nor Trump announced until summer. Pretty sure they are both in and are trying to time their annoucements for max effect, which is their perogative.
Dan B
@Pogonip: The first rule of organizing is to find ways to value people and for people to like you. Ideas don’t create change on their own. To catch fire they have to stir souls.
Baud
@lamh36: Yeah, we’ll see. Name recognition certainly helps in a crowded field if voters are having a tough time deciding.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
This fuckin’ guy
I suspect there’s a couple of shots of Tito’s in his morning (and afternoon, and evening, and two a.m.) frappucinos
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s not even workable even if someone were dumb enough to commit to it.
Ohio Mom
@Pogonip: The only way the health care coverage mess in this country is going to get completely sorted out is if we Democrats own the presidency and both houses. Unfortunately, the path to that isn’t all that clear at the moment.
But I get your panic. Every time I hear noises about Medicaid cuts (via instituting block granting to the states or through another mechanism), my blood pressure shoots straight up.
That’s the source of Ohio Son’s health coverage, and also the funding for the agencies that keep him busy and productive during the day. Hopefully, Medicaid will also be the source of the funding that will provide him with supervised living when his dad and I are too old and frail to do so, or dead.
As you probably know, every state administers Medicaid a little differently. I had to give up my dream of moving to Massachusetts when I learned that autistics without Intellectual Disability (the condition formally known as mental retardation) don’t qualify there.
Where do you live?
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
Cannot (and would not) speak for you but hell’s bells, people who look in the mirror in the morning – period – are different than I.
;)
lamh36
@Baud: heres the thing…Biden DEF has issues, but I’m telling ya’ll Biden still has that “PBO” adjacent glow for some folks.
I promise you, outside of the blogosphere and political social media…Biden is liked by folks who are consistent voters…so yah…he starts at higher place by virtue of being Obama adjacent…other folks will have to do what they can to bring Biden down a peg, WITHOUT seeming to also seem to be also dinging agaisnt Obama.
I think it’s def a harder thing for some of the folks to do…(Bernie Sanders) than others…
ETA: I also expect the Obamas to no say anything or obviously campaign for any Presidential candidate until after the primaries…but even before that…but the Obamas complete silence during the primaries may say something to some folks for sure
Pogonip
@Dan B: Oh, someone younger and much more photogenic than I will lead the movement. Also, a bout of pneumonia at 15 stripped my vocal cords from nonstop coughing, ruining my voice. I can’t imagine anyone being able to tolerate listening to me croak out a speech or an interview.
MY goal is to help get those tweets wide exposure in hope of making it cool to be against rapacious insurance companies and their rationing of medical care, and to make it cool to know how things are elsewhere. Americans get very little truthful international news. Many people genuinely believe that life-saving treatment is rationed out everywhere but here. And when they find out otherwise, it’s too late.
I think that, with wide enough exposure, those tweets from foreigners can be the Rosa Parks of the American Medical Care movement. And then, if it gets that far, the movement’s Reverend King will come along in due time.
SiubhanDuinne
@Ohio Mom:
What a terrible indictment of the entire health care system in this country! That you and your son are constrained in your mobility based solely on care services available … it really does break the heart. I’m very glad you ended up in a place that offers you good services, but I hate that you have to calculate your entire life around those considerations.
Betty Cracker
@lamh36: Fair point. A lot of folks who follow politics closely dismiss Biden right off the bat because his prior history as a presidential candidate is frankly embarrassing. But the difference now is that he’s running on the record of being a strong VP to a successful president for eight years. That’s a huge difference.
Ohio Mom
@lamh36: I’m not happy agreeing with you because I’m of the group that thinks Biden should want to retire on his current high note, but I think you are right about lots of people feeling comfortable about recognizing his name.
Add to that the people who still aren’t comfortable with the idea of a woman president or who are still not comfortable with the idea of a POC being president (maybe they like Obama but think that was a lucky fluke), or anybody else who is too different from the stereotype… I’m not saying I endorse these viewpoints, just that they are out there. I guess we’ll see how strong these feelings are soon enough.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
The bells of hell go ting-a-ling-a-ling
For you but not for me….
Jeffro
We interrupt the Democratic hand-wringing to bring you the following, from the USA Today I picked up in the hotel lobby just now:
Iowa GOP voters give trumpov an 81% approval rating…90% want him to run a positive (LOL) re-election (LOLOL) campaign…but get this: 40% of them want trumpov to have a primary, 41% don’t, and 19% are unsure.
That’s just fucking insane. That is SUPER-weak. That’s a GOP that is sick and tired of this guy and his tweets and corruption and all of it. 3/5 of his own party aren’t in his corner. Meanwhile, yeah we have a gazillion Dems running but just like 2018, we are going to be motivated as all get-out as the corruption and scandals and investigations and the sheer stupidity drags out for another 20 months.
JGabriel
lamh36:
I don’t have any connections in TX, but that sums up my impression of Beto too.
If Beto couldn’t beat an unpopular, nauseating, weasel-faced asshole like Cruz in a Senate race, then I don’t see him beating Trump or Cornyn either.
Baud
@lamh36:
I’ll feel a little bad for Hillary because I think the main difference between her and Biden is misogyny, but if he’s the best candidate to take on Trump, so be it.
Steeplejack
Okay, I can (barely) deal with Archer’s voice being used in the Arby’s commercials, but I just cannot cope with Archer’s voice coming out of the non-Archerness that is H. Jon Benjamin.
ETA: Yet I’m okay with Judy Greer (Cheryl) in the Hilton ads.
Pogonip
@Ohio Mom: I’m in the U. S. too. We can do it. We just need to organize. I suggest not putting all your faith in one party. It was a Democrat—either Hillary or Pelosi, if I remember right—who said single-payer, i. e. real reform was “off the table.” I say work with Democrats, Republicans, Mean Girls, Mean Guys, anyone who will join the cause. Even a former insurance-company executive, Wendell Potter, is now on the side of righteousness.
Baud
@Jeffro: Don’t matter. They’ll come home. We just have to come out stronger.
Roger Moore
@lamh36:
Maybe so, but a big chunk of that is that he was allowed to play the lovable sidekick for 8 years rather than the leading role. If he runs, all of his personal foibles and flaws that people were willing to overlook will be on display. It’s the same thing that really hurt Hillary. When she was working as Obama’s subordinate, people liked her because they could focus on her competence doing her job. Once she was running for office, they focused on all the stuff they disliked about her and she didn’t have any contemporary work to balance it out. Biden will suffer the same fate.
chris
Sanity break. a wild Manul (Pallas cat) and her four kittens. Beyond cute.
Omnes Omnibus
@Pogonip: Do you want universal coverage or do you want single payer?
B.B.A.
@Steeplejack: to me, he’ll always be Coach McGuirk.
schrodingers_cat
PSA: Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism is a known crank.
You can judge for yourself in this Politico piece or go to her blog instead.
She was anti-HRC in the last election and thanks to leftier-than-thou people like her we have the President we currently do.
lamh36
@JGabriel: damn…I kept saying Corybn…when I know I meant to say Cornyn…lol
I know folks in Texas really can’t stand Ted Cruz, but they are still red voters, so likely to just vote straight GOP regardless. Beto needed more of those who split votes and IDK that the split vote phenomenon happens much in a red state like Texas, but if there was one pol who could make it happen Cruz was the best bet.
I just don’t have the same feel that folks dislike Cornyn the way they did Cruz…and that why I wasn’t as bully on Beto winning agaist Cornyn
Ohio Mom
@SiubhanDuinne: A special needs family I know from Ohio Son’s school days moved here from Texas. It took the mom several years to stop repeating, “There are so many services here, it’s nothing like Texas.”
Another special needs mom I know who is divorced was considering moving to another state with her out-of-state beau who is also a special needs parent. She could rattle off which states have Medicaid waiting lists and which don’t, because that was one of their main considerations along with where they could find jobs.
Eventually, he moved here and bought a house in our neighborhood. Their long-range plan is to leave one of the houses to one of the typical kids, with the stipulation that they keep an eye on the goings on in the other house, which will go to the two autistic kids, who will be looked after by Medicaid-funded aides. There aren’t a lot of group homes, so many families DIY it.
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Perhaps my favorite song from Oh, What A Lovely War!.
Ohio Mom
@Pogonip: Well I know you are in the US. Just wondered what state but you don’t have to say.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: and the Marblehead from Marblehead joins the ranks of the deluded
I would suggest he try the pork tenderloin sandwich at the Marriott (or was it a Sheraton? ETA) in West Des Moines, where at about this point in the ’08 cycle I looked across the lobby as I was checking out and saw one Willard “Mitt” Romney in the flesh, getting ready to talk to people in the ballroom. No reason to waste his trip.
lamh36
@Roger Moore: we’ll see…as I said…it will be up to the other candidates to take Biden down a peg…sure the media may help…but there’s no telling.
But I can tell ya…folks outside the internets…no of Biden’s foilbles…they just happen to like him…and other than the one who watch Fox News (the folks who are not likely to care for Biden anyway), not many of them see Biden’s “gaffes” as gaffes…heck…they don’t want a gaffe is.
Again, I can only go by my own extended circle outside my social media circle, and that circle is Black women (27+), young/older white women (27-60), and Black men (mostly older than 30).
I freely admit, my social circle has a shortage of white males…most of the white males I know w/any type of interaction is on social media…and that group on SM is a trainwreck…
no offense.
Again, I’m no expert
germy
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/03/bill-de-blasio-my-new-plan-to-climate-proof-lower-manhattan.html
Dan B
@Pogonip: Your angry personal attacks here are hurting your cause, with me for certain. There are many critical causes that will determine life or death for many people. The ones that grab peoples’ hearts have a better chance of advancing. It’s hard when you feel terrified to look for allies. You’ve lost me but you may have a chance with others here if you exercise some restraint and demonstrate humility and listen before responding with anger. I keep getting bumped off Medicare because of financial insecurity but I’ll continue to work for renewable energy because that affects me and billions of others, especially people with financial or political insecurity.
Betty Cracker
@schrodingers_cat: God, what an asshole.
Pogonip
@SiubhanDuinne: There are a lot of us. Join us! Get those tweets out! Educate! Our Reverend King will be along. I have a feeling that that person will be a bereaved , photogenic, articulate relative of a type 1 diabetic. Our job is to begin to make a path ahead of us and our as yet unknown leader.
Of the big independent blogs, Naked Capitalism for sure and Daily Kos, I believe, are with us. I think corporate blogs —Fox News, ABC, NBC, those types—will have to be phase 2–though by all means try them and, I hope, prove me wrong— although I have seen NBC slide skittishly up to the issue. They’ve run a few no-insulin-for-you-you-type-1- peasant stories, I know. Good on them.
I’ve done Cole’s medium-size blog and will look for others. Religious blogs are also likely places to get those tweets out. I will try Rod Dreher if I can catch him between current enthusiasms. (I remember leaving him a note during his Dante phase in which I sympathized with Mrs. Dreher. He was quite amused and I hope she was too.). Mark Shea, who was widely read, kind of went over the edge. I think Dwight Longenecker is still pretty widely read, I’ll try him. Don’t know about bloggers from the other religions.
Ohio Mom
@germy: That’s an ambitious plan — worth noting that the contour of lower Manhattan has been changed over the years, with land area added, so there is a precedent. But the added height will be a new feature.
Pogonip
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes. Pkease join us in getting those tweets out, thanks!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Like Fair Economist, I’m a bit baffled by all the it’s too late talk. An observation about O’Rourke’s roll out, from an actual campaign expert, explains something about it
so those numbers will be a signal to donors and bundlers, organizers and the leaders of big groups like unions and activist umbrellas, people will either show momentum or start to fade away.
Pogonip
@Pogonip: Er, pLease, sorry.
Pogonip
@Dan B: Please join us in getting thise tweets the widest exposure possible, thanks! We gotta start somewhere! HElping Americans hear from people who don’t have to fear insurance companies is a good first step!
B.B.A.
Dear DNC: There are too many candidates nowadays. Please eliminate three. I am not a crackpot.
Omnes Omnibus
@Pogonip: You don’t seem to be reading anything anyone is putting in replies to you. You won’t get banned, but you sure as hell are going to find yourself being ignored. Cheers.
SiubhanDuinne
@@Pogonip:
I’m afraid I don’t tweet, nor have I any plans to do so.
Pogonip
@Ohio Mom: We shouldn’t have to live like this. No one in the other industrialized countries has to live like this. Step 1, I think, is to get those tweets out, step 1a to do the same with any other educational material we run across. Eli Lilly has already retreated a step and no one’s even organized us yet. I think we’ll win.
lamh36
Anyway, as I’ve said already…Kamala’s my guy :-)
But if Beto wants to come in and hopefully drain support from Bernie Sanders…I’m all for it. I don’t think that Beto support and Kamala’s support overlap enough for Beto to drain any support from her, the other candidates…well he could.
zhena gogolia
@Ohio Mom:
Me too. One of the many things that makes me mistrust my own judgment.
ETA: yeah, I know, “make”
germy
@Ohio Mom: Something has to be done. Each year there’s more flooding.
Bill Arnold
@germy:
I like it. It hits the (current – will shift with time) sweet spot between is-it-snark and horrifying reality. Since he mentions the Green New Deal, and somebody quipped about the Soylent Green New Deal in a recent thread, and Yves was mentioned upthread, month-old piece:
A Serious Green New Deal Would Take Up One-Third of the Economy—Are We Ready for That? (February 2, 2019, Yves Smith). (Soylent Green New Deal mentioned in a comment.)
I disagree a bit; there is a role for greed, in accelerating innovation and associated new industries in non-carbon energy and related technologies; I care very little whether or not some of those involved become filthy rich, temporarily. Gotta break the carbon lock-in, forge new sensible path dependencies.
schrodingers_cat
@lamh36: I like them both!
Pogonip
@SiubhanDuinne: You don’t have to. There’s a link above to those tweets. E-mail that link widely!
I don’t tweet, either. And no Farcebook, either. However, they can be valuable weapons in our fight. Get that link into the hands of American Facebook and Twitter users. Some will post it.
hedgehog mobile
@Miss Bianca: Seconded. We need a Democratic Senate.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@germy: The only flood protection Trump is interested in is around Mar-a-Loco.
Pogonip
@Omnes Omnibus</a Join the medical crusade, thanks!
NotMax
@germy
Recharging the Battery?
lamh36
@schrodingers_cat: i like Beto fine, but I do not like his as possible President. Who needs another inexperienced White male as President…no matter how charismatic.
We’ll see where we are after the primaries
Steeplejack
@B.B.A.:
Never saw that show (Home Movies, right?).
?BillinGlendaleCA
@lamh36: I have my doubts that a 1/3 of this field will make it to Iowa.
germy
@?BillinGlendaleCA: And his properties overseas. Scotland.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@germy: I believe his Scottish properties are on bluffs like his place in PV.
lamh36
Sab
@Ohio Mom: I wish you weren’t on the other end of my state, 4 hours away.
Anyway, I have an autistic granddaughter who just turned five, which I gather is an important watershed for whether she’d regress or not. Apparently not.
I remember a couple of years ago when we didn’t know if she would ever talk. A year later she babbled incessantly, but it was all echolalia (mimicking sounds she hears without understanding, like a parrot.)
Now she’s sort of cracking jokes. She was over last week visiting. She decided she wanted to poke the radioactive cat. We said no because he’s old and ill and blind and doesn’t like small children. She was adamant , so her mother hauled her home in squawking disgrace. About ten minutes later my husband got a phone call: “Grandpa, Mommy is scary.” Then we hear her mother in the background ” You borrowed my phone to rat me out to Grandpa about the CAT!” Giggles from granddaughter.
Two years ago we didn’t know if she would ever talk.
My stepdaughter is an amazing (and amazingly ferocious) woman surrounded by a lot of people in a good city. There are a lot of good people working their butts off helping this kid and others like her. It’s really hard for all of them but they are plugging away.
What drives me absolutely nuts is that help really does help these kids.If it’s provided many of them will be able to function in the world pretty well. I see them working around town all the time. But it needs government. My stepdaughter is stretched to limit taking care of this kid, and she has a lot of support as far as helpful relatives jumping in in a bind. But we can’t afford to pay for speech or occupational therapy. My city does. I don’t know why others don’t . But they don’t
germy
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2017-12-22/trump-resort-in-ireland-will-build-seawalls-to-protect-against-climate-change
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Guffaw. I hate read him, I admit that :)
Gin & Tonic
Changing it up from arguing. Booker Little Quartet, Minor Sweet.
Relaxing with a nice glass of wine in honor of my son’s having been awarded a significant fellowship for next academic year. No details, sorry, don’t want to leave too many breadcrumbs.
You know, several threads about college admissions over the last two days – he was a very good but not great student, applied to a number of very good schools and got rejected everywhere. That was a rough year. Went someplace he wasn’t enthusiastic about, after two years transferred to someplace he liked better, but still not the kind of place you bribe people for. Graduated, traveled, knocked around, did this or that, got one job that didn’t work out, got another, traveled some more (all on his own dime, BTW), did a few things that got some notice, got and lost another job, then thought – fuck it, maybe I should go to grad school. Applied to three of the four top schools in his desired field, got into every one. Now two months away from his Master’s, meeting and working with important people. Sometimes these things take time.
NotMax
@germy
“Big, beautiful WALLS.”
:)
ola azul
@lamh36:
Just finisht reading the Carreyou book “Bad Blood”. Couldn’t help divining a strong microcosmic parallel in the Elizabeth Holmes/Sunny Balwani shit-show with many aspects of the Trump admin. A fake-it-till-you-make-it greed-fueled ethos; repeated, deliberate lying to cover gross incompetence and failure; malignant unconcern for the welfare of those whose lives are entrusted to your decisions; and a rampant self-justifyng unaccountable ass-covering culture of eradicating anyone who displays a glimmer of conscience in favor of kiss-up, kick-down ass-kissing apologists and those willing and/or eager to lie on your behalf.
It’s an infuriating book, but wholly representative of the zeitgeist of the New Gilded Age.
fwiw
Bill Arnold
@chris:
Yeah, C. Stross’s Brexit commentary has long been pithy both on twitter and in his blog. An earlier longer draft of that (if i’m reading UK vs Twitter timestamps correctly) (via here) (bold mine, what caught this geek’s eye):
dexwood
@Gin & Tonic:
Not all paths are straight and narrow, nor should they be. Your pride in him shines.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Pogonip: What the fuck happened to you? It’s very weird that you’ve become so obsessed with how you believe this community is lame – as Betty Cracker observed,
is most likely only going to persuade people you’re an asshole not worth reading.
And this:
to Gin & Tonic is not nearly as clever an insult as you might believe, aimed at a person with more insight into the world in general than many could hope to gain in a lifetime.
If you want to flounce, go the hell away already. The drama about possibly getting banned has become tiresome. Shut the fuck up and enjoy pi day tomorrow.
NotMax
@Bill Arnold
Churn, no bull.
;)
eemom
@schrodingers_cat:
Thank you. With pogo stick sucking all the asshole oxygen out of the room I was afraid nobody was gonna think to point that out.
She was also a Wall Street whore herself before she found Jesus. Or maybe she just got fired.
cokane
Don’t agree and I think this is a vapid point this far out. The first primary is still a year away. There’s no reason to be setting deadlines on any candidates just yet, especially those not currently holding elected office.
Obama declared on Feb 10, 2007, for what it’s worth.
Sab
@eemom: Wow. Here you are. The question is why?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho:
Mmmmmm, pi.
VividBlueDotty
@zhena gogolia: Me too.
Amir Khalid
@HT Goller: –
If Joe Biden is that uncertain whether he should run, it’s a sign that he shouldn’t.
Steeplejack
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I think “everybody” is jumping into the race because they see a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to run against a uniquely vulnerable incumbent—someone who is so loathsome that it’s actually better than running against “generic Republican.” And they’re all thinking, “Hey, why not me?”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Steeplejack:
Yup, that’s what Baud said.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: If only Joe were perceptive enough to see that sign.
Bill Arnold
@germy:
Eric Levitz at NYMag is getting close to writing a piece on how part of the agendas of the emerging Fascist movements worldwide is to set up a political climate where it is more acceptable to block climate refugees even though they’ll die otherwise. (We’re talking more like several billion fewer humans, BTW.) I think with some serious evidence, e.g. receipts (or leaked internal position papers, or …), he and many others would go there.
Far-Right Climate Denial Is Scary. Far-Right Climate Acceptance Might Be Scarier. (Eric Levitz, MAR. 6, 2019)
hilts
@lamh36:
A sampling of Biden’s gaffes / foibles:
h/t https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2008/08/why-biden-s-plagiarims-shouldn-t-be-forgotten.html
These Biden gaffes are old but Republicans will have a field day digging up other flubs, mistakes, exaggerations or lies. Democrats can do much better than a tone deaf windbag like Joe Biden.
Gin & Tonic
@Bill Arnold: That latter was Snyder’s essential premise in Black Earth.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
“Black cat or white cat, as long as it can catch mice, it is a good cat.”
– Deng Xiaoping
;)
Ohio Mom
@germy: I’m not disagreeing. I grew up in NYC. I remember as a child the downtown section of the FDR being a deep, deep puddle after just an everyday rain storm, and now we’ve all seen what a hurricane will do.
chris
@Bill Arnold: Yup, I’m waiting for him to do a full write-up.
Sab
@Steeplejack: He’s not that invunerable. He still has 40 % of the country. Sad but true. The guys (I’m midwestern: guys are also girls) who want to run had better be serious. This is going to be a tough, ugly fight because a significant minority of our country is appalling. Kind of like every other country in the world. We aren’t as exceptional as we want to be. We are still a sigificant democracy, so what we do or don’t do does possibly matter beyond us.
cokane
@Steeplejack: Not just that, but whoever actually does beat Trump will be immortalized in the annals of progressive politics of this country (so long as they don’t fuck up big time in office, obviously). That’s the kind of ego-boosting legacy politicians live for. Not trying to knock any of the current candidates with that, but it’s just a fact about who runs for office.
As well, there’s an outside shot at coming into office with a House and narrow Senate majority, so you might even get something done.
dexwood
@NotMax:
Recently, I read “what does it matter if the cat is black or white if it catches the mice”, attributed to a Korean saying. From a novel called The Plotters.
Pogonip
By God, you may not believe this, and I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t—I dropped my dentures myself—but on the late news I just heard a couple of state-level politicians saying that insurance companies should NOT be allowed to deny anyone medication!!! And one said that “ we hope to be able to resolve this without legislation.” Which is Politician for “Insurance companies, restrain your rapacious greed on your own before our constituents force us to restrain it for you.” I didn’t catch their names, but they’re flirting with the idea of siding with us!
Allons! Americans, write Rep, write Rep, write Rep, and Educate, Educate, Educate! And remember—any politician who sides with his constituents will be the target of ads with ominous music and a mean voiceover talking about how he is in favor of “socialized medicine” and “rationed care”. (Before you vote against such a politician because you don’t like any or all of his other positions, consider carefully whether you want to send him the message that siding with the peasantry will result in being sent home to Podunk.)
Yves of Naked Capitalism has been hammering on the medical issue for years. She says, and, from typical comments I’d tend to agree, that her readership is disproportionately rich, old, male, well-colleged, and highly sophisticated financially and socially. These guys are the kind of people who get politicians’s attention—and they are also disproportionately on the right side of the medical issue. If even THEY are scared, they just may have been putting a few bugs in politicians’s ears on the golf course. After tonight’s news, I wonder…
Steeplejack
@Sab:
I’m not saying Trump will be a pushover. He’s got his hard-core base, and the vote will probably come down, as always, to that weird 10% of voters in the middle. But Trump has more baggage than any other Republican. If he keeled over tomorrow and the 2020 race was against, say, Mike Pence, you know there would be a shitload of “never Trumpers,” “former Republicans” and “independent voters” who would go scurrying back to vote for the GOP now that the Trump taint was gone.
lamh36
@hilts: Republicans have always had a field day with Biden’s gaffes/foibles…show me where that has made any dent in Dem voters who feelings about Biden.
Republicans also make hay out of Liz Warren’s, same as they did for HRC, same as they’ll do for ANY of the Dem candidates. ..that’s what they do.
Doesn’t mean Dem voters will let that effect how they feel about a Dem candidate
ETA: Oh and that Slade article is fro 2008…so it’s old to Repubicans and to the same Dems voters I’m talking about
Amir Khalid
@dexwood:
I remember Deng Xiaoping quoting that.
Pogonip
@dexwood: I heard it from a Korean relative (in English—I don’t speak Korean).
Kay
Well, one thing all these Democrats running have done is allowed people to see someone OTHER than Donald Trump and the various felons and incompetents he hires, and I think that has overall been a positive thing for the country.
My God, for two years all we heard was the president bellowing lies. At least now there’s some other people to listen to. Elizabeth Warren alone has produced more substance in 6 weeks than the entire Trump Administration has in 3 years.
So for all the people saying “it’s too long” or “there’s too many” do you want to go back to analyzing the moron’s tweets 24/7? Because that’s what you’re getting without them.
hilts
@lamh36:
I’ve always found Biden uniquely uninspiring and I believe many of the already declared candidates are far more impressive on both style and substance. To me, Biden is a huge windbag. He’s not a sexual predator like Trump, but I’ve always cringed at his very creepy behavior around women he finds attractive.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/joe-biden-2020-harvey-weinstein_us_5a0a0ba8e4b00a6eece3a13e
Ohio Mom
@Sab: It’s wonderful to hear how much progress your granddaughter is making. And I can tell your stepdaughter is a great mom the way she picked up your granddaughter and took her home after she was still going after the cat. Autistic kids generally need very clear lines to be drawn.
Early intervention is so important and SO expensive. We lucked out when Ohio Dad’s stepgrandmother died and left two year old Ohio Son a chunk of change. It was supposed to be a college fund but it was a speech, OT and ABA fund instead.
Now it’s imortant to remember that autism is extremely heterogeneous. Some kids are able to make a lot of progress with very little intervention, others get intensive therapies and make very little progress, and then there are the ones who might not have made much progress without extra help, get it, and then take off, like your granddaughter.
There isn’t any way of knowing where any one kid may end up, and there are late bloomers who surprise everyone. Still, it is criminal that all children who need extra help and attention aren’t getting it. We are wasting lives.
Sab
@Steeplejack: Hope and pray you are right.
dexwood
@Amir Khalid: @Pogonip:
Might be a widely used saying in that part of the world everyone would like to take credit for. I like it regardless.
ETA: The Plotters is written by Un-su Kim, a Korean novelist.
Bill Arnold
@Gin & Tonic:
What’s your opinion of Black Earth? (Timothy Snyder, 2015, just because google.)
I didn’t know of it; looks pretty interesting. Anyway, current receipts would be required to glue it to the current situation. I strongly suspect that they exist.
Sab
@Ohio Mom: I ‘ve seen that. I had a wonderful tax client, family of computer geniuses, whose autistic son aged about four, spent the entire interview licking our floormat because he found the texture to be intriguing. It’s a heartless condition. But we all know that many of the kids can be obviously reached, and many of the kids who we don’t think we are reaching are being reached, but we don’t se it yet. They hear, but they can’t speak yet.
O. Felix Culpa
@Ohio Mom:
Pogonip
@dexwood: Like Mr. Chekov on the old Star Trek show saying everything was invented in Russia. ?
If you are in the U.S., please join the American Medical Crusade, which— I am still stunned—has just picked up a couple of politicians in a very Red area! I think we should start with education and letters to politicians, but if anybody wanted to picket an insurance company, I wouldn’t say them Nay.
cokane
@Kay: well said. Yes, more primary coverage from now on. Only serves to get progressive policy ideas out there.
NotMax
@dexwood
The Plotters was first published in 2010. Deng’s statement dates from 1978.
Just FYI. As with Mao’s “Let a hundred flowers bloom” almost surely lifted from an even earlier source.
Pogonip
@Sab: Mine paid close attention—a family trait—and if somebody was saying “Where’s that widget?!?” would go get it, years before he could speak beyond echolalia. He also had an infallible sense of direction. I would say, “Bob, how do we get to the doctor?”, he’d point out the turns, and off we’d go.
Sab
@Ohio Mom: Lots of people think help, especially government help, doesn’t help, but actually it can be a godsend.
You are a parent with a problem child. Lots of reasons. Is your family realy rich enough to deal with this? This kid will live in this world and condition for his/her life span. Is this a family problem or a community problem?
Aleta
yes
Pogonip
@Ohio Mom: My kid got lucky because my dad turned out to have a knack for working with the autistic. He could get Bob to stop the ear-piercing screeching when no one else could.
Bob’s screeching dropped off sharply when Mom became too senile to watch Fox News. So he had a point. Cable news makes ME want to start screeching, too. ?
I’m so excited about the politicians in my Red area siding with Us The People I’m having a hard time getting sleepy! (See my remark #160 if you missed it.). When I got inspired to suggest We The People start an American Medical Crusade (or whatever it gets called by publicity pros), I anticipated Us The People slogging along like the Duke of Wellington: “Hard pounding this, gentlemen. Let us see who will pound the hardest.” And now I think the 2 Red politicians may be harbingers of things being not quite that hard.
And our area’s REALLY red. Red as red can be. It’s just amazing that those guys were willing to go on TV in OUR favor!
Well, goodnight!
Pogonip
@Amir Khalid: Hi, Amir! Salaam aleikum and goodnight!
sab
@Pogonip: @Pogonip: Could have been mine
Maybe weird kids, but often very bright kids,
Hope we keep them thinking and stretching, but mostly lets keep them safe.
.
eemom
@Sab:
Ah, my newest little personal troll. Go fuck yourself, k? Or go cross jerk with your mentor, Joke in WV, and his pie filter sex toy. You make a lovely couple.
janesays
@Sab: Agreed that Trump is going to be more formidable than some people are assuming, but I do think this is the best shot the Democrats have had at making someone a one-term president since GHWB in 1992. I don’t believe Cheetolini has expanded his base even slightly, and I can’t imagine he’ll pick up a single vote that he didn’t already have in 2016 (excluding the children of Trumplings who weren’t yet old enough to vote last time but will be this time). Bottom line, he barely won last time, and he can’t afford to lose almost any votes, especially in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Florida – all states where his margin of victory was under 1.5%. He’s easily the most beatable president we’ve had in nearly 30 years.
sab
@eemom: @eemom: What a weird damaged person you are.