Pet rescue update, from commentor Aleta:
A very nice guy drove up to our door this afternoon with a wonderful cat from Minnesota. (It was like that sweepstakes prize that they promised would knock on the door. Except this happened.) It happened because of this blog and because debit is outright amazing.
We had thought he would arrive tomorrow, but Steve the driver had to get up here and then quick out of state before a snowstorm tomorrow.
Infinite Kitty has been his code name, so now we’re calling him Finn and Finney. He spent 2 1/2 solid days in the crate. Steve’s report to me was: “He HATES really HATES HATES HATES crates.”
Finn’s been bouncing around the room with me here for hours now. He’s smart, social, polite, hungry, sweet, playful, determined, gorgeous.
It’s good to see him relax more and more with every half hour. I’ll send some pics to a FPer tomorrow and also put them at a link in case they are busy.
If I know from ginger boi-cats, she *will* be busy. Good luck to Finn and to his new Maine housemates!
More upbeat clips to start the week:
It’s not every night you get visitors like this! ???? It was an honor having @HillaryClinton visit us last night. pic.twitter.com/92BTrk3rEt
— Ain't Too Proud (@AintTooProud) April 6, 2019
.@staceyabrams: There's a false memory of what happened in 2016. Democrats did not lose the election because #Trump was a better candidate or even that he turned out more people. We lost because of a strategic error… We can win with the best candidate. #AMJoy pic.twitter.com/9W8xTejQll
— AM Joy w/Joy Reid (@amjoyshow) April 7, 2019
.@staceyabrams: I ran a race where we tripled Latino, Asian-Pacific Islander turnout, increased youth participation by 139%, increased black turnout by 40%… the highest share of white voters in a generation… Winning… is about building the largest coalition possible. #AMJoy pic.twitter.com/yghanusziX
— AM Joy w/Joy Reid (@amjoyshow) April 7, 2019
(And I’m dedicating a post later this morning to Speaker Pelosi, who won this year’s Profiles in Courage Award.)
TheMightyTrowel
FINN! Welcome to your new forever home!
When I brought my two home from RSPCA they were both excited and freaked out to be in a new place. They ran all over the place and sniffed everything, then, within about 30 minutes, they just… evaporated… no kitties anywhere. That was when I freaked out thinking somehow I’d ALREADY LOST MY NEW CATS… after a mild anxiety attack, a lot of searching and some wandering around the garden looking under bushes, Mr. Trowel called me into the guest bedroom where our two new kitties had snuggled together and fallen sound asleep in the impossibly small space under one of the bedside tables. It’s been 3 wonderful years of hilarious cat hijinx like that, but somehow they all end in a ball of snoozing, cuddly cats.
Patricia Kayden
Yay for Finn. And thank you Stacey for saying the obvious. Trump’s wins in PA, WI and MI are questionable. Given the outcome of the midterms, I doubt he’ll win those states next November.
OzarkHillbilly
Insomnia.
Blech.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
rikyrah
?????
Thank you, Stacey Abrams for bringing the truth about 2016
rikyrah
Oh Finn??????
rikyrah
@Patricia Kayden:
Once again..
The number of regular Democratic Party voters denied the franchise due to Voter Suppression in 2016, was 2-3 times the “margin of victory” for Dolt45 .??
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Cermet
Thanks for the proper and correct encouraging words. The orange fart cloud will not win come 2020 if dems turn out like they did in 2018 (percentage wise) AND proper effort is made to ensure those previously dem leaning states that barely went for the orange fart cloud – PA in particular – are won. Right now the battle in Florida is critical to prevent the typical voter suppression by the re-thug party.
NotMax
Repeated from being buried in another thread yesterday, mostly because she’s having such a good time singing it that it works as a nice early morn pick me up.
OzarkHillbilly
Speaking of cats, via Kevin Drum:
Nicholson’s Instagram page. Plenty of kitten touring pics there.
Immanentize
@rikyrah: I knew you would remind us +- I love this reminder. Thank you.
Immanentize
@NotMax: That’s a sweet number.
Immanentize
Little Finn makes me want a kitten to drop by and befriend Toast. Maybe next Fall….
JPL
Congrats to Finn for finding his forever home.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
@rikyrah: To be honest, I was disappointed hearing her blame “strategic error” rather than ratfucking for 2016.
Baud
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: The only surprise is that she didn’t win that sooner. Excellent choice.
rikyrah
Miriam Heddy‘s Tired Of Purity Politics? (@miri_iron) Tweeted:
@Bravewriting @saletan @washingtonpost Black ppl: The rising tide isn’t lifting all boats.
White ppl/GOP: You’re just not rowing hard enough!
White ppl: The rising tide isn’t lifting all OUR boats.
@PeteButtigieg/white journos: See, that’s why Trump voters blew up the system & burned down the house!
??♀️ #WhitePrivilege https://t.co/rrJXOQlaST https://twitter.com/miri_iron/status/1114576725164396544?s=17
debbie
@rikyrah:
The 2018 elections should have proven that to them.
rikyrah
ReclaimingMyTime (@MonieTalks_1) Tweeted:
Not only is erasure of Julian Castro’s time as mayor of San Antonio is utter bullshit, but Bill Maher’s wack ass questioned why he made immigration reform his top campaign issue
In an era where “rest of America” elected a trump who made anti-immigration central to his campaign. https://t.co/mIzYak6UgR https://twitter.com/MonieTalks_1/status/1114984422439256069?s=17
rikyrah
Lynn V (@lynnv378) Tweeted:
I’m done with 2020. Y’all gonna fuck around a nominate a White dude. Y’all got folk attacking Barack Obama, the first Black President, folk attacking Hillary Clinton, who 94% of Black Women & 82% of Black men voted for & folk chasing the mythical white voter. A fucking shitshow. https://twitter.com/lynnv378/status/1114947396482621441?s=17
Lynn V (@lynnv378) Tweeted:
Y’all gonna spend the next months ignoring Black & marginalized voters while chasing after these unicorn white voters who ain’t vote for Democrats in decades and who ain’t coming back. Then y’all gonna act surprised & wonder why Black & marginalized voters tune this shit out. https://twitter.com/lynnv378/status/1114948400880005124?s=17
rikyrah
ReclaimingMyTime (@MonieTalks_1) Tweeted:
Erasure is real. And media folks are at the forefront of pushing it.
Last I checked, Julian Castro served as mayor of San Antonio, as executive of a city in the red state of TX, a city far larger city than South Bend.
But only Buttigieg, huh…smh https://t.co/vL1EHjC87T https://twitter.com/MonieTalks_1/status/1114969732426412032?s=17
ReclaimingMyTime (@MonieTalks_1) Tweeted:
Aside from former SA mayor Julian Castro being erased….this is on par with “progressives” mocking Southern black voters as the Confederacy, dismissing their primaries as distorting reality & ignoring that PBO won the presidency TWICE without a plurality of the white vote. https://t.co/gg8Pu8UnGF https://twitter.com/MonieTalks_1/status/1114971517845164038?s=17
Baud
These numbers are understandable nationally, but not in her home state. I’d be curious if Harris has the same issue in California. (The Hill)
Kay
@Baud:
Can Bernie Sanders win the nomination, decline to accept it, and run as an independent? That’s what he does in Vermont. “Sore loser” state laws wouldn’t apply, because he would be the winner, not the loser.
The DNC passed a rule barring that, but how would they enforce it?
Kay
@Baud:
I think everyone knows if she doesn’t win early she’s out. She’s someone who I think might actually be running to influence policy. Elizabeth Warren is playing a long game :)
Baud
@Kay: He could probably get away with it if he wins the nomination. He and Trump would unify America in hatred of us. At least the parts of America they mutually care about.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Congrats to Finn and family. May everyone continue to thrive.
@Baud: Her trailing them in Mass. is discouraging. It’s hard to keep blaming name recognition.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Yes, but it’s still really early.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud:
And win the election too. I think turning down the nomination at the convention leaves him with the Sisyphean task of getting his name on all 50 state ballots in less than 3 months.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Right. He’ll probably just accept the nomination under protest.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I fully expect him to sign an executive order on his first day as President stating he is no longer a DEM.
rikyrah
Lying muthaphucka ??
Denise Oliver-Velez (@Deoliver47) Tweeted:
Romney falsely claims ACA “only applies to 25% of the population”; Chuck Todd fails to correct him. https://t.co/3k52rNmc07 https://twitter.com/Deoliver47/status/1114973104865009664?s=17
rikyrah
Gays For Julián ?️? (@gays4julian) Tweeted:
Fun fact: the 2008 Dem primary was super close, and each of the top two candidates had plausible claims for the nomination.
The 2016 Dem primary was not close by any measure.
Some people want to believe the opposite is true. Those people are very dumb. https://twitter.com/gays4julian/status/1114983643913441281?s=17
Immanentize
@Baud: @Baud:
Not really not that, but polling people who are not yet running is pretty lame. If Biden does not run, do his people immediately go to Sanders? I don’t think so. I live in Massachusetts and I really don’t see the huge Bernie contingent. I haven’t looked at the poll, but was it a traditional poll or an on line poll? There has been a lot of Sanders freeping. Or, maybe people really want him to be president.
rikyrah
skeptical brotha ? (@skepticalbrotha) Tweeted:
Forcing out #KirstjenNielsen is about turning the page and changing the subject from the #MuellerReport debacle engulfing cable news. Remember, chirren, Trump is a creature of the news cycle. https://twitter.com/skepticalbrotha/status/1115043458941706241?s=17
rikyrah
Chelsea Handler (@chelseahandler) Tweeted:
Best of luck to Kirstjen Nielsen. I’m not sure where you’ll get hired with a resume that includes “locking kids in cages.” I’m kidding, good luck at Fox News. https://twitter.com/chelseahandler/status/1115044487900741632?s=17
?BillinGlendaleCA
A happy news thread? I take pictures! Yesterday was “fun with focus stacking day”, morning at The Huntington, and afternoon with the poppies of the Antelope Valley.
ETA: I did attempt to get pics of the St. Francis Dam ruins(for JR in WV), but there was still a bit of water in the creek making it difficult to access.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: I know I would.
Baud
@Immanentize:
It’d be surprising if Biden doesn’t run at this point.
The poll was featured in the Hill, so it’s probably a crap poll.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Yes — how is this different from the Buttigieg comments that have sparked such outrage? I don’t get it. She seems to be saying Bernie woulda won.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: If Joe does run, he’ll flame out early, he always does.
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
We’re fighting fascism. We all have to be on board.
rikyrah
Answer:
To harm the Democratic Party ??
Revenge politics is a dish best served cold. (@KAMALAMODE) Tweeted:
So @BernieSanders outright agrees with Donald Trump on immigration, refuses to release his tax returns, and has a voting record that benefits guns, Russia, and protectionism.
Why is he running for the Democratic nomination? https://twitter.com/KAMALAMODE/status/1115008105144676352?s=17
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
No, they’d just convert it to Independent. That’s literally what he does in Vermont.
rikyrah
Uh huh
Uh huh ?
Kamala Harris For President (Support Group) (@flywithkamala) Tweeted:
If a gay, married Black woman mayor of a small city shared the same platform/views as Pete Buttigieg, and ran for president, she would not receive the same level support and media favorabllity as him. He, too, reaps the benefits of white privilege. https://twitter.com/flywithkamala/status/1115003915513290753?s=17
OzarkHillbilly
@zhena gogolia: I think she’s saying the Hillary campaign made mistakes.
zhena gogolia
@OzarkHillbilly:
“We can win with the best candidate.” Or does she mean O’Malley woulda won?
rikyrah
Will Saletan (@saletan) Tweeted:
Adam Schiff on CNN, on Trump’s allegations of Democratic antisemitism: “It’s not the Democratic Party that believes that there are good people on both sides of a Nazi rally.” https://twitter.com/saletan/status/1114880083477630976?s=17
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
Oh, God, for a minute I thought it was Kamala Harris saying that and my heart stopped.
She’s too smart to say that, thank God.
rikyrah
Nope
Uh uh??
That is NOT the Democratic party lesson from 2016
https://twitter.com/SocialPowerOne1/status/1114878539139100672
Baud
@zhena gogolia: To be fair, I’m going by the tweet. I haven’t see her comments in context.
@?BillinGlendaleCA: We’ll see. Hard to get a handle on this primary and election.
rikyrah
What lie told?
Mr. Weeks ?? (@MrDane1982) Tweeted:
When Hillary Clinton was going undercover in Mississippi & Alabama to investigate educational segregation in the 1970s, risking her life bringing better education to Black people, Bernie Sanders a white man with a degree was unemployed, on welfare, happily being a dead beat dad. https://twitter.com/MrDane1982/status/1114677129633988616?s=17
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: I don’t know election laws in all 50 states but I’m pretty sure he can’t do that here in MO.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Buttigieg doesn’t seem to get that kind of fairness.
rikyrah
Jose Antonio Vargas (@joseiswriting) Tweeted:
Me: Why are you wearing a @JulianCastro for President shirt?
@Cristela9: Because I’m tired of the only Mexican-American candidate getting erased from the media. I will not have Latinos erased from this election. NOT ON MY WATCH.
#RepresentationMatters https://t.co/vXDDxrKdBF https://twitter.com/joseiswriting/status/1114638824376635392?s=17
Chyron HR
@rikyrah:
Democrats know they need to win without white male voters, who will literally vote for a sundowning Nazi rapist over a Democrat.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
It is very funny that Bernie Sanders and his supporters object to “rigging” when Sanders rigs his own races to clear both the Democratic lane and the Independent lane of competitors. If a Democrat challenges him in a primary Sanders just goes the Independent lane and vice versa. It’s anti-competitive. Bernie deliberately monopolizes three quarters of the ballot.
rikyrah
Tom Watson (@tomwatson) Tweeted:
The political media reflects our misogynist culture, folks. It’s why a less accomplished Sanders is promoted over Warren. It’s why a 37-year-old mayor gets more attention than four strong female Senators running. It’s why the white dude field keeps growing. Everyone knows it. https://twitter.com/tomwatson/status/1114872494165565440?s=17
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
I haven’t seen a case of winning and turning down the nom. I think that’s the distinction.
rikyrah
@Kay:
He is too lazy to do an Independent run. It takes work to get on the ballot in all 50 states m
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Well, to be fair again, he specifically called out her slogan and said 2016 was all about her. That’s more direct than “strategic errors.”
rikyrah
@Baud:
In the clip, she specifically mentions the 70 thousand margin of difference between WI, PA and MI.
Kay
@zhena gogolia:
Is clever. He’s managed to present himself as a “Democrat in Indiana” when he’s the mayor of a city in Indiana that always elects Democrats. I don’t have any objection to people manipulating these media categories of candidates in ways that benefit them, and he has done that. They all should do it. It’s a race. They want to win.
Whoever we get has to be good at this politics thing :)
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
Saw a tweet about this last week . I ??? Everytime I watch the video.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Elizabeth Warren is popular in the blogopshere because of her policy proposals appeal to high information voters.
Now she has to come up with something to appeal to low information voters. By definition, low information don’t vote on policy, rather their voting decision is based on emotion, excitement, feelings, charisma, slogans, etc.
If this was baseball, I would say Warren has a really good fastball, but now she has to develop a secondary and tertiary pitch to become a complete pitcher.
Kay
@zhena gogolia:
Castro should do it too- “I’m a Democrat who wins in Texas”. Texas! Wow. They bought it with South Bend/Indiana. They’ll probably buy it again.
gene108
@rikyrah:
The absolute lack of attention Sen. Booker, Sec. Castro, Sen. Warren, Sen. Harris, Sen. Gillibrand, and Sen. Klobuchar have gotten compared to Biden, who is not running officially, Mayor Buttigieg, and Sen. sanders, who was crushed by Hillary, in 2016, pretty much assures me the media will put their whole body on the scale to support Teump, because he is a white man.
Kathleen
@OzarkHillbilly: Or banning Democratic Party.
Dorothy A. Winsor
We saw the 2018 Robin Hood last night. The critics hated this movie, but we both enjoyed it. I even liked the deliberate anachronisms. They kept me entertained.
Two of my neighbors were upset they weren’t showing the Errol Flynn version. LOL. I live in old people land.
gene108
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Warren has a compelling personal story, but she’s been a public figure for around 10 years, from she worked at the White House for Obama, and I think the media is bored with her.
She talks about policy, which makes their brains hurt. She should be more fun and have a cook out for them on Martha’s Vineyard, with a big sign saying “Alan Dershowitz NOT INVITED”, with tire swings, a cook out with hot dogs and burgers, a pool, and some water pistols, so they can have water gun fights, like they were kids.
Kay
@gene108:
Is it good attention for Sanders and Biden though? We’ve talked about Bernie dodging releasing his taxes and Biden groping people. Also- Biden’s inability to make a decision. The flip side of “attention” is they’re not getting any criticism either.
rikyrah
Comey Is The Reason Trump Is President (@Bravewriting) Tweeted:
Why do Trump voters deserve more empathy than Hillary voters?
They got what they asked for.
We’re resisting and opposing the world that they created.
Have some empathy for us Red State Hillary voters who were trying to save you from the fresh hell we’ve lived in for years. https://twitter.com/Bravewriting/status/1115079330118242304?s=17
snoey
@Kay: Buttigieg does have some serious skills, or he would be listed with Hickenlooper and Inslee instead of Harris and Warren
rikyrah
Marcus H. Johnson (@marcushjohnson) Tweeted:
I’m supposed to cheer for candidates who prop up Trump voters and the economic anxiety narrative at the expense of people who look like me? No thanks. I’m a no on Buttigieg and Bernie for their white working class first focus https://t.co/WYxHmwWPfH https://twitter.com/marcushjohnson/status/1115034442408525824?s=17
MomSense
@Baud:
No, my son and I were watching in real time. There’s no additional context. My son said it upset him that she didn’t at least talk about voter suppression because of what Kemp did to her campaign in Georgia.
rikyrah
Harold Itzkowitz (@HaroldItz) Tweeted:
If this were a TWILIGHT ZONE episode, Kirstjen Nielsen would wake up in a small cage with Latin American children on the outside watching her. https://twitter.com/HaroldItz/status/1115019346298982401?s=17
O. Felix Culpa
@Kay:
And it sure helps if they’re good at being a white male. ;)
Nelle
@rikyrah: I value what you bring here. Thank you. Even I am forgetting Castro at tome and he’s the only one I’ve contributed to (to make sure he gets on the debate stage at this point). I’ll plead for mercy on that one, having just sold a house and moved from one state to another but the imbalance of media attention is jaw dropping and once again controlling the framing.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
3 months? Less than that. Ballots are printed well before election day to accommodate absentee and early voting. Republican convention scheduled to end on August 27, so the wheels aren’t set into motion to finish creating and print ballots, voter guides, etc. until after that. AFAIK, in most states those tasks are stamped finished by end of September.
Kay
@O. Felix Culpa:
I don’t agree that Harris is being ignored. In many ways I think she’s the front runner right now and is being treated as such. Bernie is his own category and I complained that they gave no negative attention to Sanders and now he is getting some, so I don’t see it as a net positive for him.
IMO they haven’t even scratched the surface of Biden’s vulnerabilities- IMO the handseyness is the least of his problems, so Harris supporters should welcome a focus on Biden.
tobie
@zhena gogolia: I wrote to the Washington Post this weekend to ask about their election coverage. On Saturday night their website had not one, not two but three front-page articles on Buttigieg, all fawning. On Sunday they added an op ed by Jennifer Rubin that was ostensibly about all the candidates but which made little effort to hide the fact that it was plugging Buttigieg’s candidacy. Was there any reporting on Kamala Harris, Jay Inslee, Julian Castro, Kirsten Gillibrand, Cory Booker in that time? No. The post appeared to put up a front-page article on Warren but if you clicked on it you got the message, “This file has been posted in error.” Buttigieg was of course interviewed on Sunday on Good Morning, America where he once again managed to insert some digs against the Democratic Party (according to him the party has been unable to define itself as anything but not-Republican) and praise Trump voters, who are good people but whose party was hijacked by thugs. Buttigieg is getting some scrutiny in the twitterverse and blogosphere because he’s being plugged like no one’s business in the media. It’s fair. He’s running on his rhetoric so he’s being analyzed for his rhetoric. It’s really that simple.
plato
In a way, I am enjoying how the scummy thug treats his underlings. The asskissers totally deserve it.
tobie
On another note entirely: the video AL posted of HRC at Ain’t Too Proud is a sheer delight. She looks so happy–and she’s so real in letting the cast know how happy they have made her. This made by morning.
Major Major Major Major
So we’re okay with Abrams saying Hillary made mistakes (or possibly was a mistake)? Just keeping track of which candidates are allowed to say things like that.
NotMax
Line worthy of a spit take just now overheard in a 1929 movie running on TCM.
“I can’t love Kate the way a husband should, Ruth, not since you polished my wrench.”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Major Major Major Major:
I’m not.
Kathleen
@Major Major Major Major: I’m not OK with what she said.
Immanentize
Question for the beloved hive mind — any sign of Satby lately? I miss her something awful…
Kay
@plato:
I am too. They’re learning from it, too. He’s training them in subservience. The new batch are even bigger asskissers and bootlickers than the last batch.
There’s a lot of rungs of “low quality”- we haven’t near hit bottom yet. The only reason he hasn’t appointed an actual Fox personality is they make millions of dollars on Fox, so staying on the payroll at Fox and working for Trump makes more sense than changing their location.
jeffreyw
@rikyrah: Chuck Todd is the Don Jr of Sunday hosts. He is both stupid and an asshole.
Kay
Ohio (state) Republicans have been quietly and consistently moving to the middle. It’s interesting in light of the constant claims that Trump is wildly popular in the rust belt. Something’s going on with this- he’s weaker than they’re letting on.
Mike DeWine went from True Trumpster to compassionate conservative about 15 minutes after he was elected. DeWine has absolutely no ethical standards. If he’s sneaking away from Trumpism he’s doing it because he’s believes it’s politically beneficial to him.
Chyron HR
@Major Major Major Major:
“NO FAIR, HOW COME THE BLACK LADY GETS TO SAY IT?”
Gosh, you’re a charming person, aren’t you?
plato
Immanentize
@Kay:
So, in some ways, has Kemp in Georgia. But that was post-racist George Wallace’s trick. Run right, govern center, blame it on the federal government.
ETA. I do hope you are right about their vulnerabilities.
Kathleen
@Kay: Any theories in why Pelosi is coming to Ohio? I’m still debating about going.
karen marie
@Kay: I am baffled that Warren is not taken more seriously as a candidate. I am equally baffled that Sanders is.
Major Major Major Major
@Chyron HR:
I suppose that’s a possible interpretation of what I said if you’re an idiot.
oclday
@rikyrah:
I understand the desire to condense what went wrong in 2016 to something that will be catchy on Twitter. But that is a miss remembering too. Part of it was a strategic error, sure, but, it was also Comey, the Russians, a third Democratic term, following the first African American president, misogyny, the Clinton baggage and on and on. Stop blaming Clinton and place the blame where it belongs, the American people, we failed her.
O. Felix Culpa
@Kay: Kamala isn’t being ignored, but she isn’t getting the level of coverage Biden, Beto, and Mayor Pete are getting. And you could play where’s Waldo (Waldette?) with Gillibrand, Klobuchar, and Castro. See tobie’s comment at #81. It’s a matter of empirical data. They’re not getting the same amount of coverage. Neither did HRC, for the things that mattered. Fact.
ETA: Although (maybe because of tobie!) WaPo has a front-page article on Warren: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/elizabeth-warren-bets-that-slew-of-policy-ideas-will-win-over-trump-weary-voters/2019/04/07/24a78926-4509-11e9-8aab-95b8d80a1e4f_story.html?utm_term=.4f1bc1364570&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1
Spanky
@rikyrah: Which is why he tried to hijack the Democratic Party machine.
Bernie Sanders is not now, has never been, nor never will be a Democrat. He should be thrown off the Democratic ballot.
Kay
@Immanentize:
Right, but that’s Georgia. We were all told that Trumpism ruled Ohio. State Republicans aren’t so confident, apparently.
They’re actually doing a bipartisan public school funding bill that is the opposite of Betsy DeVos. They’re way more centrist than Kasich, who was and is far Right economically. They just raised the gas tax because Kasich left them with a 6 billion dollar budget hole with his sleazy fake budget numbers. Quietly, this is happening. Gym Jordan may be screeching about the border but the state contingent are all about kumbaya. It’s interesting, and really contradicts the national narrative.
gene108
@Kay:
I honestly thought, I could tune out the Dem primary, but the lack of attention does impact fund raising and polling results, which can keep otherwise acceptable candidates out of early debates and killing their chances to succeed.
I didn’t think I would have to care about the fundraising ability of Warren, Castro, Booker, etc. until close to Iowa and NH, when more info is out about all the candidates, and I can determine who to support, but it seems some candidates better qualified and more in tune with the modern Democratic Party, than Buttigieg, Biden, or Bernie, will lose due to lack of fundraising and name recognition.
As long as this Presidential primary “season” has become, I think the media wants to accelerate it and narrow down the field, before voters get to decide.
Major Major Major Major
@Baud: @Kay: @karen marie: given that she is a senator there, can we not discount this poll as mere name recognition in favor of Biden/Bernie, like we’ve been doing for other polls? Can we allow that, for whatever reason, a large number of democrats are in fact stating a preference for those two candidates? I don’t get it either, but given their numbers it suggests I’m the one who’s out of touch. I know a few Bernie people but mostly my friends (and I) are waiting to see how things shake out. (If pressed, I would pick Warren)
plato
@Kay: So, we flip OH in 2020 and the thug loses?
Betty Cracker
@plato: That’s really the only upside to this ongoing horror show, watching Trump humiliate the horrible people who groveled for a job with his hideous administration. Of course, the schadenfreude is tempered by the knowledge that the outgoing awful person will probably be replaced by someone even worse. The quality of Trump’s hires started low and only moves in one direction.
gene108
@Kay:
Wonder what Shine’s angle is then?
tobie
@O. Felix Culpa: You’re too sweet! I doubt my letter made a damn bit of difference. Presumably the Post had an article planned but not finished when they put up the headline which didn’t lead to an article but to an error message. Glad to see that’s changed now. Whatever it’s use, I’ll still keep writing when I think the coverage has gotten as skewed as it was this weekend.
Major Major Major Major
FWIW, from 538 about news coverage, this is for the last week in March:
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/which-2020-democrat-got-the-most-cable-news-attention-last-week/
Aleta
@NotMax:
Ella Fitzgerald – Accentuate The Positive
(Someone here posted a version three weeks ago. (Thanks, I needed that!!) I sent it out to a friend. He sent right back Johnny Mercer doing it and this Ella one. )
O. Felix Culpa
@Major Major Major Major: Thanks. An actual count is helpful. That said, it doesn’t include print or network coverage, nor does it include Biden, presumably because he hasn’t declared yet.
tobie
@Major Major Major Major: This makes sense to me for the last week of March. O’Rourke got a ton of free coverage on cable news for his campaign launch. I’ll be curious to see what the statistics for this first week of April look like. My gut sense is that Biden and Buttigieg will be the most covered candidates but I could be wrong. Thanks for the empirical evidence!
Kay
@karen marie:
I absolutely love Warren, we’re ideological twins, but I think there have been long standing concerns about her ability to get elected. I think people believe she should be stronger in a blue state like Massachusetts and that worries them, because she’ll have to carry places that are a lot less D. If she were the Senator from Oklahoma people would be more confident.
The reasons liberals who get elected in red or purple states get so much attention is national candidates have to be competitive in those states. That’s real. It’s more difficult than getting elected in a blue state. Abrams is a phenom partly because Georgia, and Beto because Texas.
rikyrah
Another evil wretch departs the regime
Kay
@plato:
No, because Republicans will be seen more favorably now :)
Look, I’m not a magician. They’re doing this because it’s popular, which will make them more popular, not less.
The school funding plan is good! I’m amazed.
zhena gogolia
@Major Major Major Major:
This is the point I’m trying to make.
WE HAVE TO DEFEAT TRUMP THIS TIME. I don’t care how we do it. Sanders is not the answer. Those are my rock-bottom truths. The rest is froth.
bemused
@plato:
His voter base will never figure out they are also shark bait for trump.
Cheryl Rofer
@oclday: Or we could just stop arguing about the 2016 election and move ahead with a (mostly) great slate of candidates.
I honestly can’t figure out why otherwise good candidates have to take these gratuitous slaps at Hillary. Whatever “credibility” they may confer with the Hillary-haters, they do far more damage to the Democratic base.
snoey
@Kay: Warren ran 6 or 7 points behind Obama here.
Miss Bianca
@OzarkHillbilly: I think I saw that on FB. Wee kitty Nala! Love how this guy’s journey stopped being about himself and started being about his relationship with his cat.
Major Major Major Major
@O. Felix Culpa: @tobie: yeah, it’s not an exhaustive study by the CJR or anything, and it doesn’t differentiate positive and negative coverage… but this is one area where it’s super easy to let our biases determine our perception (who watches all the news channels all day?), so I figured I’d look it up.
I’m going to check out that archive they link to. If it’s easy to work with (or already has this feature) I might make and front-page a tool to explore these figures in an ongoing way.
Kay
@Cheryl Rofer:
I think it’s a mistake too, but I don’t think it’s malicious or even strategic. I think they are political people and they cannot resist weighing in. They all did the same thing to John Kerry and Al Gore. Democrats absolutely suck at playing for a team.
bemused
@rikyrah:
This!
O. Felix Culpa
@Major Major Major Major: And here’s empirical analysis on HRC coverage: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2017/08/25/studies-agree-media-gorged-on-hillary-clinton-email-coverage/?utm_term=.bf9a2fe908d5.
And a sociological study: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2378023117732441
Cheryl Rofer
@Kay: It’s not that hard to program one’s mind to simply avoid all references to 2016 or Clinton. Just answer all such questions with “We’ve got a great slate of candidates, and we’re going to win in 2020.” Focus on defeating Trump.
You are correct. No sense of teamwork.
Kay
@snoey:
Right. It’s concerning. It matters where they are and looking at it thru the lens of “appealing to white Trump voters in the midwest” is way too narrow. Correct me if I’m wrong but our latest domestic terrorist came out of NY.
Major Major Major Major
@zhena gogolia: I’m …fine?… with Hillary-bashing if that’s what it takes. She can handle it, after all. But I’m not sure that’s what it takes. Mostly I just get upset at selective outrage based on who does it.
zhena gogolia
@Major Major Major Major:
My feelings exactly. It’s politics. If you’re going to faint every time somebody says something you might not have said, BECAUSE LIKE THEY’RE THE POLITICIAN TRYING TO GET ELECTED, then we’re doomed.
Kay
@Cheryl Rofer:
I would actually go the other way. I think Clinton voters felt they were unfairly treated by the media and they would interpret a strong defense as sticking up for them. They’re not political pundits. They don’t have any obligation to do 2016 election analysis. Be an advocate.
rikyrah
@Kathleen:
I would go just to see Nancy Smash…but, I do believe Ohio is a lost cause.
Major Major Major Major
@O. Felix Culpa: yeah, the 2016 coverage was empirically garbage.
Miss Bianca
@Major Major Major Major: And I’m not fine with Hillary-bashing at all, at all, under any circumstances, because that’s *not* “what it takes”. It’s what our fucked-up, misogynistic culture and media are *demanding*, and I will think ill of any Democratic candidate who doesn’t recognize that part of his/her/their mandate is to starve that fucking beast. Questions about Hillary and the 2016 election?: “Next question”.
Betty Cracker
I wonder how much of the Buttigieg coverage is driven by the historic nature of having an openly gay candidate on the trail with his spouse and also by Buttigieg’s age. We’ve never had a president in his 30s nor an openly gay president.
Kay
No, she did a terrible job, even in the context of the horrible and inhumane policy she supported. She handled those kids incompetently. They never should have snatched them because they were too fucking incompetent to track and place and then reunite them, because child placement is not now and never should have been a federal role.
So really she was terrible across the board. The next one will be even lower quality, though.
rikyrah
@NotMax:
Military and Overseas ballots, by law, are sent out 45 days before the election.
Which means that they have to be designed, QC’d and printed before that.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Saw some speculation on Twitter that maybe Nielsen would spill the beans on Trump now that he shit-canned her in humiliating fashion. I wish I knew where these folks get their optimism because I sure could use some. If Nielsen was a decent person, she wouldn’t have gone to work for Trump in the first place, and the fact that she went out and told bald-faced lies about the horrifying policies is all the evidence I need that she’s no better than Trump.
rikyrah
@Kay:
And, routinely lied to Congress when she wasn’t being flippant about not knowing how many children’s lives they were destroying.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Maybe, but I think they love him because he’s so happy to spend so much time on things like “narrative” and how the Democratic Party should position themselves, and that’s what they prefer over policy. I myself think it’s a mistake for him- we’re not hiring a political science analyst. He’s smart but he’s also young and I hate to tell him but I have heard the same things he’s saying in every gathering of Democrats I have ever been in- he didn’t invent this criticism. It’s almost boilerplate in the Party.
I’m a little disappointed he’s going this route. It’s boring.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I love how they pretend they do a bad job because they’re so morally conflicted and anguished over the work.
Do it or don’t do it. Spare us this bullshit handwringing, which looks exactly like incompetence. They told her to JAIL the children, and she followed that order. No one ordered her to LOSE them. “Misplacing” 6 year olds was all her.
zhena gogolia
@Kay:
Me too. Gag.
tobie
@Kay: I get that the President is not the Legislator-in-Chief and that candidates do need to talk about their vision for the country generally. But broad statements about governing philosophy and how the Democratic Party is perceived are not ideas about the future direction of the country. They’re platitudes. I actually find Andrew Yang’s wake-up call on automation and his proposal for UBI incredibly refreshing, though I would never vote for someone who has not held public office or worked in the public sector.
plato
@Kay: Eeyore :)
eric
If you have to use surrogates to say you were troubled about what you were doing (after the fact, of course), then you should have (1) said so at the time when asked by a co-equal branch of government or (2) perhaps not fucking done it under your authority in the first fucking place.
Tenar Arha
@Baud: @Dorothy A. Winsor: @Major Major Major Major: Did you guys know that “liberal” Massachusetts is one of those states that has never elected a woman as governor? I just double checked & Jane Swift was only elected as Lt. Governor, then filled in as acting-Governor for a couple years. Also there’s just a requirement to be registered to vote, there’s no requirement to pick a party. As long as I registered 6 weeks or so beforehand, I can be unenrolled on primary day & walk in and request a ballot for any participating parties.
Hillary Clinton won the primary here, while Bernie didn’t in 2016. He had a ceiling on his support.
Basically, wo Biden on the ticket, & the obvious smart plans Warren has plus having paid her dues to the state, it’s possible for her to win here. Because though we-as-a-state are more than a little sexist about who we pick to lead, we’re also way more conservative (in the form of planning & risk aversion) than anybody ever expects.
ETA The biggest problem I can see this year is cross party voters. Bc if Bill Weld isn’t running in the GOP primaries by then, GOP’ers will vote on the Democratic ticket for the Democrats they’re most comfortable with, & their voters are more conservative than the Dems’.
Tazj
@Baud: Rachel Bitecofer, who does political polling from a Democratic perspective wrote that the Emerson poll was useless because of its small sample size. Here she is criticizing journalists and pundits who pushed the results of this poll.
Rachel “The Doc” Bitecofer @ Rachel Bitecofer -16h
Dear Everyone PLEASE take note that election surveys with NS like this are statistically useless. And you keep incentivizing them to put them out because they’re getting massive hits.
The sample size in this survey is 371.
Kathleen
@Cheryl Rofer: Excellent point.
J R in WV
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Regarding Senator Warren coming behind Sanders and Biden in MA:
How about blaming white male misogyny on top of name recognition? Or just plain ol’ misogyny, even by women, which is unbelievably a thing.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Maybe that’s it, at least for the media types. For supporters, both factors seem to be part of the appeal, and seeing him dismissed as yet another white dude might be perceived as its own brand of erasure.
I get way too much of my exposure to Dem candidates from the Obama Bro’s podcast (Pod Save America)! That’s where Buttigieg first came to my attention.
Just heard the interview with Julian Castro over the weekend and was impressed with his proposals on immigration. I hope he gains more traction for that reason alone.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah:
I love that so much I had to see it again.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl:
, and again, it was much better than CATS.
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: I think the vitriol and the circular firing squads got to be too much. Life’s too short to watch the Democratic party do Trump’s work for him by eating their own.
edit: and not just the Democratic party, but here on BJ.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: I think he gets a lot of attention because he is the underdog, and the press loves an underdog story. I also believe he is a very good candidate, though obviously not perfect. There is no perfect candidate.
As Barack was fond of saying — we can’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I laughed out loud at that and it disturbed my kitty!
Footnote: I am possibly the only human in the US who has never seen the show CATS.
Immanentize
@WaterGirl: That’s too bad. I really don’t understand the rationale of Buttigieg’s run, but Satby convinced me to take him seriously.
J R in WV
@Kay:
You think so? Because I thought at the time it was a deliberate conspiracy to flush those innocent, kidnapped children into a Christianist adoption ring where they would be taught to be obedient little brown servants for Mom around the house…
While allowing Secretary of Stupidity DeVos to flush all the monies into her adoption for profit companies.
Maybe it was just incompetence, though.
Eta fix html
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: I’ve never seen Cats either!
Steve in the ATL
@WaterGirl: I suspect there are millions of straight men in that category
snoey
@Immanentize: My guess is that he’s mostly running to have the name recognition as a presidential candidate so that 8, 12 years out he’ll be sitting in the Biden seat.
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: Have you watched/listened to him in a town hall or in a public event? That’s where you get to see what he is really like and what he believes – when he is interacting with people. If you’re interested, I can give you the best 3 or 4 of those that might give you a window into his popularity.
I feel much less excited about him as a candidate when all I see are sound bites from the political shows, because in those he seems more politician than inspirational candidate.
Tenar Arha
@WaterGirl: Hello friend, I too am that rarity, never-seen-Cats person. ?
Wolvesvalley
@Tenar Arha: Me, too, and I was even in London when it premiered. Why spoil a good bunch of poems?
karen marie
@Spanky: A to the fucking men.
Miss Bianca
Just visited this thread again to look at Finn’s sweet face. I just want to boop his little pink nose with the tip of one little finger. Is it wrong?
karen marie
@Kay: What I find questionable – but so far the media doesn’t, apparently – is Trump is putting the guy in charge of border patrol, who is overseeing a so-called emergency, in as “acting” director of DHS. Another thing I’ve not seen reported on is the administration not bringing in people to fill vacant positions but instead playing musical chairs. Unlike the traditional game though, where a chair is removed in each round, people are removed, resulting in more chairs than people. Pretty fucked up game. You’d think it would raise questions.
Uncle Cosmo
@J R in WV:
And it scares the hell out of me, because if this blog is any indication, there’s a whole passle of committed, active Democrats who – while pledging to vote for the eventual nominee – insist that said nominee must satisfy one or more of their chosen qualifications.
Kids, Job One is to sweep the Emperor Tang & the maximum number of his Global Oligarchy Putschists out of office come January 2021. Other things being equal, I’d be happy to have as President a solid Democrat committed to bringing this nation back to (relative) sanity who is also a woman/POC/Latinx/gay/etc. But other things may not be equal.
Progressives tend to deal in existential & programmatic intersections: if a candidate doesn’t check off all the boxes, s/he’s kicked to the curb in our minds. Our opponents are “unionists” – they gather together everyone who has even one reason to oppose (usually to hate) our nominee.
I worry we’re going to insist our way into another loss. I would infinitely prefer a nominee who is less than ideal in personal history &/or beliefs who will win over one who satisfies all our yearnings for justice & progress who will not.
And beyond that, we need to keep in mind that even if we win – even if we win in a landslide – Trump voters will still be there on the morning of 4 Nov 2020. And there will be a lot of them; even if turnout is no better than 2016 & Orangemandyas’s shrinks to the crazyfication factor (27%), that’s nearly 40 million.
Does the new POTUS take a victory lap? “We outvoted you assholes, so suck it – it’s our turn now!” Send them scuttling back under their rocks to seethe in silence & oil up their home arsenals & plot revenge?
We desperately need to work out an ending that reconciles as many of those voters as possible to the restored order. We may not like what that entails. Otherwise we’d have to maintain vigilance over 40-million-plus people in the next county or the next town or across the street or down the block, with a significant presence in the police & the military. And when the vigilance eventually flags, the explosion of the stored anger bids fair to be horrific.
Lincoln was elected on inaugurated on 6 Nov 1860; SC seceded from the Union on 20 Dec. Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861; the first shots were fired at Fort Sumter SC on 12 April. Right now it feels to me like 1859 reloaded.. JMO of course.
Tazj
@Miss Bianca: No, he’s very cute.
@Tazj: Just correcting what I wrote earlier to say I believe she analyses polling, I don’t think she does any polling herself.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Add in another to the never seen it column.
JustRuss
@Baud: This. We lost because of an electoral system skewed to mollify slave owners, and voter suppression. I’m so tired of the “Hilary campaigned wrong!” meme.
WaterGirl
I am shocked by the number of people (besides me) that have not seen CATS. I am not alone!
@Miss Bianca: If booping that little nose is wrong, then I don’t want to be right. I would, however, have spelled it “bopping” which is my made-up word for that.