Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

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

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

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

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

Shut up, hissy kitty!

Books are my comfort food!

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

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

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

We still have time to mess this up!

I did not have this on my fuck 2025 bingo card.

I like political parties that aren’t owned by foreign adversaries.

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

People are weird.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2020 / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Troll the Haterz

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Troll the Haterz

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Kudos to Senator Harris:


(That should be ‘run’, thanks for nothing twitter autocorrect… )


Dearborn has a huge Arab-American population — not all of it Muslim, but the girls in hijab will set Trumplodytes’ heads to explode. Not to mention picking out an Asian-American teacher in the second clip… under a sign in Spanish!

Meanwhile, my favorite Senator continues to impress:

And for the lulz…

Reader Interactions

141Comments

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    So @ewarren listed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as one of her children.

    As the adoptive parent, does that make Mick Mulvaney guilty of neglect and attempted filicide?

  6. 6.

    Baud

    @KamalaHarris asks the kids of Dearborn: Who’s gonna fun for President someday?

    Someday? They’ll probably announce for 2030 in the next couple of weeks.

  7. 7.

    NotMax

    @Baud

    i dunno, Prince Duke Earl has a certain ring to it.

    ;)

    Unseasonably hot days accompanied by equally unseasonably chilly nights for the past week.

  10. 10.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @OzarkHillbilly: We had rain yesterday, it’ll be cloudy the rest of the week with a possibility of more rain. While I like the extra rain late in the season, it’s putting a serious damper on my Milky Way shooting. Good thing I went to shoot last Friday.

  11. 11.

    David Fud

    I haven’t seen Florida Man for a while, and would like to recommend that he be joined by Florida Woman in notoriousness. They might be well matched for mayhem and could produce offspring with impressive Darwinian traits.

  13. 13.

    --bd

    So, as a fifty-something year old, the Kamala I remember was this WWE wrestler from 30 years ago, complete with Ooga Booga headhunter attire: htps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamala_(wrestler) . From the article I find out that his IRL surname was Harris! What was only a amusing cross reference in my brain is now forever fried. Kamala the Butcher in 2020! Perhaps she can run Detroit Mayor Mike “Hacksaw” Duggan.

  15. 15.

    Immanentize

    We also had one nice day yesterday, but today, after morning sun, we are back to rainy and cloudy. Although we do get up to the 70s today.

  20. 20.

    debbie

    It doesn’t matter what name they give the baby, there will be tons of racist tweets condemning it.

  21. 21.

    CliosFanboy

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: it’s putting a serious damper on my Milky Way shooting.

    huh, didn’t know it was in season. thought that was autumn, like with deer.

  22. 22.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Clerks is 25 years old. Kevin Smith:

    The main character – Dante, the slacker who is trapped but thinks he’s meant for something else – was based on me. Randal was Bryan Johnson, my friend who worked with me at Quick Stop Groceries and RST Video, where we shot the film. He didn’t give a fuck about what anyone thought. He would fight with people, make fun of them to their face. He was the guy I secretly wished to be. I was going to play Randal, then I realised I couldn’t memorise dialogue. So I took the role that had none – Silent Bob – and Brian O’Halloran played Dante.

    …………………

    When we screened it at the American Film Market, hardly anyone was there, and I watched my $27,575 playing up on the screen. That first 15 minutes was the only time I was worried, sad, broken, thinking: “What have I done?” Then I relaxed and thought: “You saw Slacker here in this same movie theatre. In a little over two years, you’ve gone from watching someone else’s movie to watching your own.”

    Luckily, one of the few people in the room not connected to the film was Bob Hawk, who worked with the selection committee at Sundance. He only went to see it because it had a crappy picture in the catalogue and he felt sorry for us. But he thought it was fantastic, and recommended we submit it to Sundance in 1994, where it was a breakout hit and Miramax bought it for $227,000. I can’t believe it has lasted for 25 years.

    Lasted? It’s only gotten better, Kevin.

  24. 24.

    satby

    Good morning everyone (especially our morning sunshine @rikyrah: )!

    Just had to race the garbage truck to the front curb with my trash can. Six-thirty, seriously? I won though. Now enjoying my victory coffee ?

  25. 25.

    Patricia Kayden

    @David Fud: Pulling a foot long alligator out of one’s pants is so Floridian that it’s probably not the craziest thing you’ll hear from that state. But she’s certainly a contender.

  26. 26.

    CliosFanboy

    @kd bart: They’re going to name the kid Benny Hill

    great. now I have that music running through my head. ARGH,.

  31. 31.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    “There has been a lot of conversation by pundits about “electability” and who can speak to the Midwest. But when they say that, they usually put the Midwest in a simplistic box and a narrow narrative. And too often their definition of the Midwest leaves people out. It leaves out people in this room who helped build cities like Detroit. It leaves out working women who are on their feet all day — many of them working without equal pay. And the conversation too often suggests certain voters will only vote for certain candidates regardless of whether their ideas will lift up all our families. It’s shortsighted. It’s wrong. And voters deserve better.”

    Good for her. But it isn’t just pundits who do this. Democratic voters themselves do this. It never made any sense. Democrats win Wisconsin by winning Milwaukee. They always have. The idea that they’re running in the midwest to attract “white working class voters” was wholly pundit-created and there’s no reason Democratic voters and activists should buy into it. It isn’t even numerically correct.

    We marginalize our own voters by accepting this frame that the only working people are white people.

  32. 32.

    plato

    Fmr. IRS criminal investigator: The Mazars USA subpoena is an existential threat to Trump's presidency. https://t.co/CyCtaKYDD0— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 7, 2019

    From the slate linky

    Nothing about Trump’s tax returns or audits can be shared with the media or anyone under pain of serious civil and criminal penalties. That explains, in part, why none of the 80,000 or so employees of the IRS have leaked Trump tax information. For longtime politicians, knowledge of Trump tax information can be somewhat akin to teenage angst with regard to maintaining secrets regarding their best friend or worst enemy.

    The Mazars subpoena would encompass more information than the tax returns covered by IRC 6103, including financial statements, tax returns, and accounting work papers. Only tax returns in the possession of the IRS are subject to the vagaries of IRC 6103.

    It should be noted that there is no accountant-client privilege equivalent to attorney-client privilege that could shield the secrecy of the financial documents maintained by Mazars for its client or that could provide a legal basis to delay compliance with the subpoena. The IRS does require tax preparers to obtain the client’s permission to release tax returns. However, should Mazars be in possession of 10 years’ worth of Trump business and personal tax returns, there is nothing in the law to prevent their ultimate disclosure to the public when Congress subpoenas them. A congressional “friendly” subpoena requested by Mazars effectively shields it from the normal disclosure constraints of tax preparers.

    The fact that the Trump legal team recently intervened in the subpoena process by filing suit seeking to quash the Mazars subpoena in court suggests they sense a serious vulnerability that will likely be telling in due time. When Mazars is allowed to finally respond, it is likely that its response will answer the Kevin Downing question as to whether Mazars had a fool for a client. Then the question will be if any Trump-directed foolishness found in the Mazars financial files will threaten Trump’s political life.

  33. 33.

    David Koch

    those poor kids running for president in 2032 and 2040, they’ll have to contend with Wilmer yelling at them on the campaign trail.

  35. 35.

    Kay

    I get it, I really do, the dog whistle has become “working people”. But think about that! Why would we accept that? It’s 1. not true, and 2. not the reality of the Democratic base in the midwest. It completely disappears a huge chunk of working people by twinning “working” with “white and male” AND ignores our actual voters.

    Reject the premise. It’s wrong and it helps Republican candidates and hurts Democratic candidates. Maybe Harris is the only one who can say it because she’s from California so hasn’t been brainwashed into this abstract, political science idiocy, and is instead looking at a map and seeing where her potential voters are.

  36. 36.

    Jerzy Russian

    @Baud:

    2030 = 2020

    Vote for Baud! He has his own math! Speaking of which, it is spelled “Baud!” but it is pronounced “Baud factorial”.

  37. 37.

    plato

    The eye-popping stat here that everybody needs to internalize and grapple with: in 2040, half the country will live in 8 states. Meaning half the country will have 16 senators, and half will have 84. https://t.co/M7x7g7ENGL— Ezra Levin (@ezralevin) May 5, 2019

  41. 41.

    Kay

    “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” is literally the worst thing to ever happen to Democrats. They internalized an argument that doesn’t reflect their actual voters in the midwest and, ridiculously and insultingly and insanely, equates “working” with “white male”. This theory doesn’t fit our actual electorate. It fits some imaginary Democratic electorate.

    I felt like we finally got past it with Obama but here we are again! Back to 1993! Voluntarily going along with media and Republicans and agreeing that “working” = “white and male”.

    I am pleased we have such a geographically diverse set of candidates and I was hoping Harris could give us a different perspective coming out of California. I bet when she ran in working class precincts in Los Angeles she didn’t define “working” as “white”, because while they are certainly “workers”, they aren’t white. She shouldn’t do that in Milwaukee or Dearborn either, because it’s not true there either, despite the fact that these are midwest cities.

  42. 42.

    Gin & Tonic

    Ron Paul appears on Russia Today to endorse Tulsi Gabbard, just in case anyone needs a scorecard.

  43. 43.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Jews and Islamophobia Lots of graphs, the downlow from Josh:

    It’s a fascinating study with lots of information worth absorbing on its own terms. But given recent events this was my big takeaway: A huge amount of our public debate in this country, a lot of it driven by the GOP and particularly white evangelicals, portrays Jews as locked in some sort of deep or even existential contest with American Muslims. That’s clearly just not true. Polling data demonstrates this clearly. Indeed, the generally positive attitudes Jews have toward Muslims are generally mutual.

    Most of this public narrative is – as some of us probably suspected – really about the hostility of white evangelicals and conservatives who use Jews as symbols or stalking horses or mascots to explain and advocate an antipathy Jews mainly don’t share.

  44. 44.

    catclub

    @plato: The next Trump is making sure that all the accountant stuff is run through lawyers to maintain client attorney privilege.

  45. 45.

    catclub

    @Kay: huh, The message I got from it was that Kansas voted against its own interests by voting for Republicans.

  47. 47.

    catclub

    @Gin & Tonic: I pointed that out when someone said the difference between Bernie and Ron Paul was Russian backing, assumes facts not in evidence.

  50. 50.

    Kay

    @catclub:

    that Kansas voted against its own interests by voting for Republicans.

    Kansas white people. Who are “the working class”, which just happens to exclude the actual Democratic working class in states like Michigan- that’s who Harris is speaking to. She’s asking “who decided the working class consists of white people?” which is a good question to ask in Dearborn, where there are lots of people who aren’t white but work.

    The idea that “working people” means “white people” is accepting a GOP and media premise. Why does it mean that? Because they said so? They’re wrong, she knows they’re wrong, and instead of going along with this lunacy she challenged the premise. She’s right too, numerically. If she brings out working class voters who are NOT white in Milwaukee she wins Wisconsin.

  53. 53.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Kay: Sing it, sister!

    You’re quite right. The professional pundits do this because they internalized the “Reagan Democrats” from 1980 and then spread that conventional wisdom far and wide. The wannabe-left does it too, because they have amassed a bunch of badly thought-out ideas about how burly guys in factories are virtuous by comparison to their bougie parents.

  55. 55.

    Kay

    @catclub:

    We have an actual example of the two approaches- Bernie Sanders v Kamala Harris. Bernie actually IS saying “working = white” – nearly overtly. She’s taking the other side of that.

    It’s one of the reasons the Bernie thing amazes me- Bernie Sanders is REALLY conventional. His argument is 50 years old in the Democratic Party. It doesn’t reflect reality. We need a more modern view, and Harris offers that.

  56. 56.

    Professor Bigfoot

    To me it’s that pining away for white voters that creates this definition of “working class.”

    Since Reagan pulled white people away from the Democratic Party, Democrats have wanted to get them back.

    IT AIN’T A GONNA HAPPEN. It just ain’t. The majority of white Americans is simply NOT going to vote for “the party of Negroes and Negro rights.”

    But if Democrats get those whites who are not outright hostile to non-white people along with EVERYBODY ELSE, *they win.*

  57. 57.

    Baud

    @Jerzy Russian:

    Baud factorial”.

    I’m kicking myself for not thinking of this. You’re my new Senior Policy Advisor.

    @Kay:

    I honestly think Hillary tried to do this. It hurt her because 2016 was the time where we were told we needed to apologize to white working class voters in the Midwest.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    @FlipYrWhig:

    I love that it’s led by the NYTimes. The city that produced America’s most powerful racist faction. Physician, heal thyself.

    “America’s Mayor” turns out to be more racist than any random county commissioner in Alabama and let’s not even get into the wildly sophisticated and tolerant Trump Family. Two southern states produced competitive governor’s race candidates who are black last cycle- Georgia and Florida, and Minnesota gave us the Muslim House member the entire GOP are attempting to hound out of office.

    We could use a Californian to call bullshit on this whole mess. It’s all wrong. Inaccurate.

  61. 61.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    Bernie Sanders is REALLY conventional. His argument is 50 years old in the Democratic Party.

    That is heresy Kay, just ask him.

  62. 62.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    As I have said, I have no problem with Hillary’s campaign OTHER than the fact that they were 5 behind in Ohio should have made them KNOW they were in peril in Michigan and Pennsylvania, because those states move together, with Ohio the furthest Right. So 5 back in Ohio should have been an emergency. Not for Ohio, which was gone. But for Michigan and Pennsylvania, which weren’t. For that I actually blame Robbie Mook, specifically :)

  63. 63.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Kay:

    Bernie Sanders is REALLY conventional. His argument is 50 years old in the Democratic Party.

    The association between Sanders and “the working class” is entirely theoretical anyway. He has fuck-all to do with the working class and never did anything for them. He only THINKS he resides there because of his warmed-over seminar-room cod Marxism. The whole phenomenon recalls how in the early 21st century Pabst Blue Ribbon became the hipster beer because it was down-market.

  64. 64.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    His campaign is really conventional too. They’re like “look at all these small donors! Revolution!” then they spend the money in exactly the same way everyone else spends it. They were all promoting this ad he made about Ohio and it is like “generic Ohio ad, closed factory in the background, gritty working class white people close-up”. I have seen this ad hundreds of times. It could be in the dictionary under “Democratic ad, Ohio”.

  65. 65.

    Immanentize

    @chopper: @OzarkHillbilly:
    Funny, I was just going to mention TP and suggest he read Josh’s post about putting your bias against Muslims away because you are just playing the night’s game.

  66. 66.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I’m waiting for the Democrat who does an ad with a closed retail outlet – “it’s tragic what is happening to our retail workers”

    They’re women so no one will. Apparently they work for the store discount to supplement the household allowance their husbands who work in the coal mine give them, because it’s still 1974.

  67. 67.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    As I was driving home from dropping off the Immp, I just saw the first Bernie bumper sticker I can support:
    Bernie has my Heart
    Hillary has my vote

    I thought — that’s reasonable

  68. 68.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    Kay says:
    May 7, 2019 at 7:48 am
    I get it, I really do, the dog whistle has become “working people”. But think about that! Why would we accept that? It’s 1. not true, and 2. not the reality of the Democratic base in the midwest. It completely disappears a huge chunk of working people by twinning “working” with “white and male” AND ignores our actual voters.

    Reject the premise. It’s wrong and it helps Republican candidates and hurts Democratic candidates. Maybe Harris is the only one who can say it because she’s from California so hasn’t been brainwashed into this abstract, political science idiocy, and is instead looking at a map and seeing where her potential voters are.

    CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP
    I wish we had the like button.

  69. 69.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Kay: “The left” doesn’t romanticize retail. As far as I can tell, they *demonize* retail because they see it as an outlet for soulless consumerism. Except for maybe record stores. That’s soulful consumerism.

  70. 70.

    Immanentize

    @Professor Bigfoot:

    Americans is simply NOT going to vote for “the party of Negroes and Negro rights.”

    LBJ understood this when he pushed through the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. He said the Dems lost “the south”* for a generation — looks more like two

    * Back then, this was the code word for racist whites. Now, it’s “worker”

  71. 71.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    I will say it once again, for those who have missed it…

    In November 2016, in those questionable states….

    OUR VOTERS…
    OUR RELIABLE DEMOCRATIC VOTERS….

    WERE DENIED THE FRANCHISE DUE TO VOTER SUPPRESSION.

    The NUMBER of those RELIABLE DEMOCRATIC VOTERS…
    In each of those states…
    Was TWO TO THREE TIMES THE MARGIN OF DOLT45’S ‘VICTORY’.

    We don’t have to chase after other voters….IF WE MAKE SURE THAT WE GET OUR VOTERS OUT….

  73. 73.

    Jeffro

    @plato: That’s terrifying to put it mildly.

    Dems better act quick on all fronts here: admit new states from current territories, carve current ones into multiple states, amend the Constitution to abolish the EC/directly elect the president, perhaps even take away the Senate’s ability to delay/not vote on judges, etc. If the dead-enders stick with their nihilist approach (the Turtle is already saying he won’t allow votes on a single Dem initiative coming from the House if Dems win the WH next year) then we’ll stay screwed almost no matter what we do.

    And between McConnell and the next trumpov, we will continue to see Orwellian nonsense (“allowing more people to vote is undemocratic”, “ending gerrymandering is a Democratic power grab”, etc) on a grand scale. Hit it hard, Dem candidates!

  75. 75.

    Immanentize

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Pabst Blue Ribbon became the hipster beer because it was down-market.

    Or because of Blue Velvet — Frank’s preferred beverage.

  76. 76.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: I still have my Hillary sticker on my truck and will leave it there to remind everyone out here who now find themselves horrified after voting for trump (there are more than we know) that they had a choice, and it was a good choice.

  77. 77.

    Kay

    The thing I miss about Clinton (which makes her “unlikeable”) was how she would get disgusted with Bernie’s passive aggressive bullshit about how he had a revolution when he was running this conventional campaign like every other Democrat, ever, and just scowl at him. This is me at work, every day :)

    She really connected with me in her unlikeableness and, honestly, there are times one can’t be “likeable” and get the job done.

  78. 78.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Ron Paul appears on Russia Today to endorse Tulsi Gabbard, just in case anyone needs a scorecard.

    This is my surprised face. ?

  80. 80.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    there are times one can’t be “likeable” and get the job done.

    It is hard to get the job done without pissing off the person who has the One And Only Certain Sure Fix ™ for the problem.

  81. 81.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: I loved that about her. She was so obviously used to dealing at such a higher level. She crushed Bernie in the primaries, but he just kept running on his privilege. And her stink eye in the Bengazeeeee! hearings was also excellent

    I know I have no one’s ear that’s running, but I thought that in 2016, the Dems should have run on the promise to root out corruption. They sorta ran on some of that in 2018 and they should go all in in 2020. Both Harris and Warren have the backgrounds for that type of campaign.

  83. 83.

    Jerzy Russian

    @Baud:

    You’re my new Senior Policy Advisor.

    I am honored. I idea that comes to mind is that you should use more math jokes. For example,

    Reporter: What do you propose to do to stop the exponential rise of [insert some very bad thing here]?

    Baud!: We will hit it with a log.

    Also make your official announcement on March 14 at 3:14 universal time.

  84. 84.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Immanentize: I’d like them to translate “corruption” into more concrete, specific terms. Money buying influence. Special treatment for a few. Whatever. People hate “corruption” but think of it in vague terms.

  85. 85.

    Immanentize

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:
    I agree — someone has to say something like: “Just because it’s legal, doesn’t mean it’s not corrupt. Just look at who wrote those laws allowing payoffs.”

  87. 87.

    Immanentize

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:
    — Lobbyists writing legislation
    — Taking gifts from corporations
    — Writing laws just to help your rich friends
    — gerrymandering

  90. 90.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize:

    — Lobbyists writing legislation
    — Taking gifts from corporations
    — Writing laws just to help your rich friends
    — gerrymandering

    Stop beating around the bush, ban corporations.

  91. 91.

    Cacti

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Ron Paul appears on Russia Today to endorse Tulsi Gabbard, just in case anyone needs a scorecard.

    I guess the home office in Moskva decided it couldn’t drag her poll numbers down any lower than they already are.

  94. 94.

    schrodingers_cat

    @OzarkHillbilly: He is a fucking senator, the most conservative legislative body in this country. Some revolutionary he is. Yeah totally the second coming of Che and Bhagat Singh. A multimillionaire with at least two houses, truly a man of the people.

    ETA: He seems to believe that if he just voices incantations his wishes will come true.
    Democratic Socialist, M4A. Slogans are enough for BS.

  95. 95.

    Sab

    @Immanentize: In Ohio sort of squeaky clean Bob Taft resigned in disgrace for some minimally sort of not okay golf outing, and now we have folks carrying money out in virtual wheelbarrows and nobody seems to care.

    We thought we were clearing house, but instead we were getting rid of every Republican with any sort of moral sense, leaving the field wide open to those with none: Kasich, Rob Portman, Mary Taylor, Josh Mandel.

    Sixty Minutes had Rob Portman on last week blaming the Opioid crisis on the Post Office! I kid you not. He said that Fed Ex and UPS check their packages better. Of course they do. They charge $10 bucks for a letter when the post office charges cents.

    Rob Portman has spent his whole professional life trying to suck the life out of the post office by making them fund long term pension obligations now (because they hire unionized POC) and he hasn’t done squat on the opioid crisis. Yet there he was on 60 minutes.

    Mary Taylor threw her own kids under the bus, announcing to the world that they were heroin addicts, then running on a anti-Obamacare platform ( drug addiction is a pre-existing condition) and then blaming it all on Mexican cartels when everyone knows that heroin and fentanyl mostly come from China.

  96. 96.

    James E Powell

    I wonder what the Democrats’ are going to do about Trump’s tax returns. They had to know that they would not be turned over. I think everyone here knew that.

    I hope it’s not another stern letter.

  97. 97.

    glory b

    @Kay: I’ve said this before and will say it again now. I can’t speak for the other states, but something was fishy in PA. In the last FIVE elections, Dems won every statewide office except two, Trump and Pat Toomey (our Repub senator).

    You;d have to believe that the Pennsyltuckians voted for the two of them and then voted for Dems, straight down the line. Something’s not right.

  98. 98.

    schrodingers_cat

    Washington Post has been generally been pretty good about news coverage but its op-ed pages are pretty terrible. Today there is Steve Fucking Bannon on it. As if Theissen and Ed Rogers weren’t enough polishing the Orange one’s fake patina.

  99. 99.

    kd bart

    This time around, people are going to discover how awful a campaigner Wilmer really is and how he has surrounded himself with a staff full of incompetents. Hillary is not there to distract this time. No more free ride.

  100. 100.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    I think Harris is the one who speaks this truth because of who make up her campaign leadership. Her leadership team is women and mostly women of color. This is one of the reasons representation matters.

    BTW I just signed up for Camp Kamala. This is an online leadership training program that anyone can join. I’m excited to see what they are going to offer.

  101. 101.

    tobie

    @David Koch: Norah O’Donnell? Is this the woman who was incredibly rude to Valerie Jarrett on 60 Minutes? If so, this is terrible news. She has all the meanness and crassness of Megan Kelly.

  103. 103.

    rikyrah

    @Immanentize:

    I know I have no one’s ear that’s running, but I thought that in 2016, the Dems should have run on the promise to root out corruption. They sorta ran on some of that in 2018 and they should go all in in 2020. Both Harris and Warren have the backgrounds for that type of campaign.

    Someone just wrote this on another blog with reference to Harris:

    jds09 Miranda • 13 minutes ago
    Yep.

    Then she needs to introduce the concept of ‘claw back’ into the campaign. Going after all the money this gang of an administration has stolen. She’ll introduce that concept when she has the attention of the electorate.

    When America start to see the level of their thievery they’re gonna be pissed. She’s gonna speak to the need that PBO couldn’t, campaign and govern on putting these mofos in orange jumpsuits.

  104. 104.

    rikyrah

    Phuck Outta Here ? ?

    McConnell is speaking about how he thinks we should move on from the Mueller report, before we’ve even seen the full report and it’s underlying evidence. Let me be clear. We will NEVER move on from the Mueller report and it’s findings until EVERYONE is held accountable. EVERYONE.

    — Scott Dworkin (@funder) May 7, 2019

  105. 105.

    tobie

    @glory b: I always thought this was suspicious too since Pennsylvania allows straight party-line voting (one vote for the entire D or R slate). It could be that rural Pennsylvania turned out big and just voted for the top two offices (Pres and Senate) and left the others blank, but this should have been checked. Gov. Wolf seems like a total drip. PA’s a state with a Democratic governor and he did doodle-squat to verify the integrity of the election system. Has he even lobbied for paper ballots throughout the state? I gather rural PA mostly uses Diebold’s touch screen system.

  106. 106.

    tobie

    @rikyrah: They’ve got their new focus-group tested slogan: “Case closed.” Ours should be sunlight or transparency since ending corruption is going to have to be the Democratic slogan in 2020.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    @MomSense:

    I like Warren, Harris and Klobachur. In that order. I’m embracing identity politics, because let’s face it, everyone else does, including most white men so I’m limiting my primary to women.

    That they say they don’t use “identity” politics just means they believe they are the standard identity. I am not bound by this, so, therefore and hereto, I may define it myself.

  108. 108.

    rikyrah

    ???
    Mitch McConnell, who told the Obama administration it should not go more public with warnings that Russia was trying to tilt the 2016 election, is now saying that focus on Mueller is distracting from where the real focus should be: Russia’s interference in elections.

    — Sam Stein (@samstein) May 7, 2019

  109. 109.

    James E Powell

    Rather than type a long comment, I’m just gonna say that I agree with everything Kay has written in this thread.

  110. 110.

    Michael Cain

    Rain this morning, thunder forecast for this afternoon, chance of snow Wednesday night. As always in Front Range Colorado: Never set out plants, or put away your show shovel, before Mother’s Day.

  112. 112.

    Kay

    Nate Silver
    ‏
    Verified account

    @NateSilver538
    55m55 minutes ago
    More
    The big mistake everyone made was to overestimate what share of Bernie’s vote in 2016 (43%) reflected people on the left rather than some combination of i) the left, ii) the #NeverHillary vote, and iii) people behind him for personality, identity or other nonideological reasons.

    I’m glad the political professionals figured this out, but the only “people” who said this were 1. them and 2. Bernie Sanders.

    It was discussed in Democratic circles. We all pretty much landed where they are now, 2 years ago. They must have missed the giant “Hillary is evil” movement they all promoted in 2016. I guess it’s our fault for nominating their nemesis, but we didn’t know the level of (irrational) hatred at the time :)

  113. 113.

    zhena gogolia

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Commenters are not happy about it. I’m mystified. Why would they do that???? No one has any better wisdom on China and the economy than him?

    I’m not canceling my subscription because their political coverage is light years better than NYT.

  116. 116.

    pat

    @rikyrah:

    OUR VOTERS…
    OUR RELIABLE DEMOCRATIC VOTERS….

    WERE DENIED THE FRANCHISE DUE TO VOTER SUPPRESSION.

    The NUMBER of those RELIABLE DEMOCRATIC VOTERS…
    In each of those states…
    Was TWO TO THREE TIMES THE MARGIN OF DOLT45’S ‘VICTORY’.

    Right on. And never forget that the repubs know that if everyone is allowed to vote, they are a permanent minority party. Except in the Senate, of course, which is going to be a huge problem going forward. Why is no dem going after Mitch in Kentucky, BTW??

  117. 117.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Kay: Welcome to the party, Nate. I’ve been saying this for 4 damn years.

    I’m amused that the logic behind “the left’s” perception that they were at near-parity and about to take over the party is congruent to Mitt Romney’s “47%” remark.

    I have long maintained that a reasonable proxy for the actual number of “leftists” participating in American politics is the number that tells pollsters Obama wasn’t liberal *enough*. I forget what was the last version of that number I saw but it was… small. It sure as hell wasn’t half of the Democratic Party. And yet that’s one of the Sanders crowd’s cardinal axioms.

  120. 120.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    I guess it’s our fault for nominating their nemesis, 

    One of the things I liked about Hillary was her enemies. But I didn’t realize at the time that enough marginal Dems shared her enemies’ point of view.

  121. 121.

    glory b

    @tobie: ” I gather rural PA mostly uses Diebold’s touch screen system.”

    That’s my understanding too.

  122. 122.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Baud: I still think a larger factor than disaffected marginal Democrats was the ebb of Obama-specific support that had surged in 2008 and to a lesser degree in 2012. IMHO there turned out to be a lot of people who cared a hell of a lot more about having Barack Obama as president than having anyone else be president, or holding any other office, before or since. That’s actually the group I worry about most when I’m feeling fretful about the 2020 election cycle.

    ETA: Hmm, in retrospect, we may be talking about the same people. If so, nevermind.

  124. 124.

    chopper

    @James E Powell:

    given how clear the law is in this regard, and the fact that the law was upheld as to nixon’s tax returns, i’d say a writ of mandamus would be in order. i would assume it would be more expeditious as well.

  125. 125.

    James E Powell

    @chopper:

    Is the law as clear as section 2 of the fifteenth amendment? Because RW hacks on the supreme court don’t really give a shit about clear language.

  126. 126.

    J R in WV

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Pabst Blue Ribbon became the hipster beer because it was down-market.

    Down-market? Try terrible bilge-water! Better than Miller Light? OK, damning with faint praise! Terrible bilge-water PBR ~!!~

  127. 127.

    patrick II

    @Baud:

    My middle name was almost Prince. My grandfather was born on the ship “Prince” while coming over from Ireland and that was his middle name. My dad decided I would get beat up too often on the playground, (A boy named Prince, and my first and middle initials would be P.P.) so he went with William after my uncle instead.
    I have mixed emotions. I would have liked have been named after my grandfather, and I might have turned out like the boy named “Sue”, tough as nails, or alternatively a beaten down kid. One or the other I think, no middle ground.

  129. 129.

    Bill Arnold

    @Jeffro:

    Dems better act quick on all fronts here: admit new states from current territories, carve current ones into multiple states, amend the Constitution to abolish the EC/directly elect the president, perhaps even take away the Senate’s ability to delay/not vote on judges, etc.

    I played with the numbers last week. The 5 smallest states have a population total less than total population of Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. They are represented by 8R, 1D, 1I Senators, and 4R, 1D House members. (Numbers are fairly recent, didn’t write down the source in notes.)
    South Dakota,877790,RR/R
    North Dakota,755238,RR/R
    Alaska,738068,RR/R
    Vermont,623960,DI/D
    Wyoming,573720,RR/R
    States,3568776,8R1D1I/4R1D

  131. 131.

    J R in WV

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Stop beating around the bush, ban corporations.

    No, just enforce the death penalty for them when they kill someone. Boeing would be gone, for example. So would Murray Coal, Blankenship Coal, etc. duPont…

    And disperse the assets to all those harmed…

  132. 132.

    NotMax

    @J R in WV

    Better than Budweiser. But then so is storm drain runoff.

    Has been decades since drank any beer but do harbor a vague recollection that Pabst’s bock beer was okay. Was only available during a small window of time around Easter time, though.

  134. 134.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    BREAKING: Senator Jeanne Shaheen just asked FBI Director Christopher Wray if he has any evidence of illegal surveillance during the 2016 election campaign Christopher Wray replied, "I don’t think I personally have any evidence of that sort."— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) May 7, 2019

    That tweet is followed by comments saying Wray is part of the swamp and needs to be fired immediately.

    I have to go to B&N and make myself work. I hope the country is still standing when I come home.

  135. 135.

    J R in WV

    @glory b:

    @tobie: ” I gather rural PA mostly uses Diebold’s touch screen system.”

    That’s my understanding too.

    Those voting machines were specifically built without any running totals or other tracking mechanism so that there is no way to verify whether or not votes are recorded as cast. Unlike every ATM Diebold ever built. But money is important, and votes are not, right?

    And the CEO of Diebold promised that there would never again be a problem with Democrats being elected. Case Closed!!!

  136. 136.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Kay: Democrats still win Milwaukee by very lopsided numbers. The problem isn’t that Dems aren’t getting more than 70% of the vote there. It is that, absent voter suppression, Dems would be at 80-90% there.

    Dems know how to win Milwaukee; they just need make sure everyone there who wants to vote can do so. It is a different problem.

  137. 137.

    Plato

    Elizabeth Warren: "There is no political inconvenience exception to the United States constitution. If any other human being in this country had done what's documented in the Mueller report, they'd be arrested and put in jail."Via CSPAN pic.twitter.com/FvDbSH9WnT— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 7, 2019

  138. 138.

    Anotherlurker

    @NotMax: The first time I heard that expression, “Like making love in a canoe” I was tending bar at Cagney’s Pub, in Oyster Bay, NY. Old Man Cagney was refering to Coors Lite. The Old Man had quite a way with words.

  139. 139.

    Michael Cain

    @Bill Arnold: I was looking at some Census Bureau numbers the other day and 51% of the US population lives in the nine most-populous states. Of those 18 Senators, 10 are Republicans. It’s more complicated than bigs vs littles.

  140. 140.

    janesays

    @Baud: You mean Cheetolini’s actually gonna get the 2 year extension he’s been demanding, which will push the next presidential election to 2022, then 2026, then 2030?

  141. 141.

    Tim in SF

    “Welcome to the world, young Fuck Off, Piers Morgan. “

    I read that ten times and I still don’t know what the fuck it means.

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