Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

This really is a full service blog.

This blog will pay for itself.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Consistently wrong since 2002

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Monday Morning Open Thread: Hit the Ground Running

Monday Morning Open Thread: Hit the Ground Running

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154Comments

  1. 1.

    satby

    Good morning everyone! And it is. My own Lazarus is bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning, jumped up to go potty outside, enthusiastically gobbled his canned food hiding his medicines that he was refusing yesterday, and is again snoozing contentedly at my side. Just in case the new food was causing all his miserable symptoms he’s getting chicken and rice today.
    One day at a time.

  2. 2.

    satby

    And I pray that Jimmy Carter lives long and well enough to see a Democratic president elected again to begin the new American reconstruction we’ll need. I’m glad he’s getting the honors he’s long deserved.

  3. 3.

    Ruckus

    This may be the most important election since the founding. We have a pretty good idea what is necessary to run a democracy. Maybe not the minutia day to day but we know the big pieces. And we have nearly half the citizens wanting to destroy it all and thinking that will save it and make it back into something it never really was and never should be.

  5. 5.

    satby

    @JPL: yes, my birthday was nice, but in the evening my hospice dog seemed to take a turn for the worse and refused his medicine and food. All day yesterday I thought we were at the end, but he was just sleeping comfortably most of the day so I elected to wait to arrange to bring him to the vet. Last night he took a few bites of food so I snuck a bit of his medicine into him. He had a normal night, and now is acting as fine as can be. Could be a rally before the end, but now I’m glad I didn’t opt for the last ride yesterday, because the old geezer isn’t ready yet.

  7. 7.

    Patricia Kayden

    Doug Jones is missing the point that by voting for Republican legislative majorities, Alabamans are voting for forced birthers and anti-choice legislation. He only won because he was running against a pedophile and even then barely squeaked out a win.

  10. 10.

    Mary G

    I love that when Jimmy broke his hip it was on the way to go turkey hunting. What an Energizer bunny he is, living his best life.

  14. 14.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @rikyrah:

    Morehouse president David A Thomas told the AP Smith’s gift would have a profound effect.

    “Many of my students,” he said, “are interested in going into teaching, for example, but leave with an amount of student debt that makes that untenable. In some ways, it was a liberation gift for these young men that just opened up their choices.”

  18. 18.

    Immanentize

    Young red head Joe Kennedy spoke at our graduation last night. My friend on the faculty introduced him and before the event asked him, “So, did you hear about Morehouse? Any announcements?”

  23. 23.

    Anne Laurie

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Doug Jones is missing the point that by voting for Republican legislative majorities, Alabamans are voting for forced birthers and anti-choice legislation. He only won because he was running against a pedophile and even then barely squeaked out a win.

    … Aaaand the poor man is running again, already, because he won in a ‘special’ election. So, because he needs the votes, he’s gotta point out that lots of Alabamans who did not side with the Talibangelicals will suffer if the rest of us shun the state. He’s not entirely wrong — Stacey Abrams has said some of the same things about Georgia. I can sympathize, even if I don’t necessarily agree.

  24. 24.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: Being a gypsy carpenter, I was always working myself out of a job. The thing that made it not only tolerable but a pretty nice way to live, was a low debt load and the ability to save for the thinner months. I was fortunate

  25. 25.

    daveNYC

    The problem with asking people not to boycott the places with the draconian abortion laws is that those states basically now have a medical warning saying do not visit if you’re pregnant or might become pregnant. Sure people might still buy Coca-Cola or whatever it is that Alabama produces, but this is going to kill Georgia’s film industry and will probably wreak havoc with conventions, sporting events and the like.

  26. 26.

    Immanentize

    @Anne Laurie: Jones has to support his State — he is Alabama’s Senator; there truly but for the grace of God (in the Murphy trickster sense) he would not be. I think maybe we should give some room for both him and Abrams to choose their own paths trying to lead their own States. Everyone knows these laws will not become final enforceable law anytime soon, so the calculations are so confused because of that reality.

  27. 27.

    satby

    @Anne Laurie: I can sympathize with them too. They live there, the people whose support they need will be hurt by boycotts and those of us who support boycotting states like that aren’t (usually) their voters. We need to give them room to make statements that support their constituents even if the greater good is achieved by an action like a boycott. Or we potentially lose them as members of a Democratic government. We need all hands on deck.
    @Immanentize: great minds etc.

  28. 28.

    Immanentize

    @satby: It’s such a hard thing — the best way to fight bad speech IMHO is good speech and passing those bills in Georgia, Florida, Ohio, etc. are all bad speech. And boycotting is a good speech response. But perhaps not the only good speech response.

  29. 29.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: I look at people my age who are just now figuring out that buying their dream house 10 years ago and continuing to spend on “stuff” now means that they have to keep working when they’d rather retire. Of course lots of people around my age have had setbacks that require them to play catch up (I’m one), but more people I know just basically pissed their money away on junk and oversize houses. And are stuck now.

  30. 30.

    debbie

    @satby:

    That is great news!

    Last night watching the finale of Call the Midwife, I felt like I was watching both the past and the future. This fascist anti-abortion movement must be stopped.

  31. 31.

    satby

    @Immanentize: boycotting is a powerful tool and I’m all for it. I just recognize that it’s impossible and unfair to expect the elected officials in the targeted area to support it when it hurts their constituents as much or more than the targets.

  34. 34.

    Raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: I did a project at Ga Tech that looked at combining adult literacy education with CNC woodworking machine operator training. I concluded it was not feasible and, shortly thereafter, was part of a RIF

  38. 38.

    Immanentize

    I know this is minor, but it was happy news for me — just now I saw the first black squirrel on my fence in like 7 years. Small things still help.

  39. 39.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Raven: Our SIL recently worked himself out of his 6 figure job by fixing everything wrong with his companies computers and then spent most of his days twiddling his thumbs in between tweaks here and there that even a moron such as I could manage (ok, maybe not that much of a moron). He could see it coming a mile away and was depressed as all get out while searching for a new job on the down low.

    He found one of course, a man with his talents can always find a home. Put in his 2 weeks and at the end of week one they said, “Don’t come back.” So he got a paid weeks vacation as a parting gift.

  42. 42.

    Princess

    A boycott is not going to solve tis particular issue. There are too many states involved. You’re going to have to target basically all the red states and that is not going to happen. You’d be better off working to register voters in those places.

  46. 46.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: I detest that in the richest country in the world, this is what it takes. In his speech he said it was a challenge to the alumni, that the class of 2019 was his and the ones that follow were theirs. Not that long ago it wasn’t necessary at all. My parents managed to put all 3 of my sisters thru college on a middle class salary without ever taking out a loan.

  47. 47.

    JAFD

    Greetings from New Jersey!

    High temp has gone from 59 F last Monday to 88 predicted today. Last August was warmest in NJ history, I’m usually a ‘summer person’, but looking forward now with some dread.

    In good news, was at the Portugese supermarket in the Ironbound last week. Bin full of new apple variety, ‘Kanzi’. ‘Twere very good-looking, and cheaper that the Red Delicious or Gala in next bin, so tried a couple. Pleasantly surprised. They taste very good (well, not as good as Stayman or Winesap), sweet but not too sweet, tart but not too tart, crunchy but not too crunchy.

    If you like apples, and you see ‘Kanzi’ at local store at reasonable price, try them, you should.

  50. 50.

    Kay

    Now that these laws have passed and we’re headed for overturning Roe, Republicans need to be asked if they plan a federal law banning abortion, or if they would vote for one if it came up.

    Because it will come up. Religious zealots aren’t going to be satisfied with 25 states. They can’t redefine “a person” in half the country and not the other half.

    We need a whole new discussion of abortion – one that includes the reality of what has happened- the profound changes these laws bring about- and what is now likely to happen. A federal law is next.

  51. 51.

    Searcher

    You know, Jimmy Carter is eligible for another term as President.

    Just sayin’.

  52. 52.

    satby

    @JAFD: hi JAFD! Hope you’ve continued your recovery! I’ll keep that apple variety in mind, I don’t like the overly sweet ones.

  54. 54.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Raven: Heh. All I ever got was my layoff check. Cracked me up that on my last job where I got laid off for being old, they had to call me back 2 weeks later because they didn’t have anyone on the jobsite who was qualified to operate the Lull. Their laborer was a far better operator than I but he wasn’t certified. I was. So I got another weeks work out of them taking care of the roofer’s shit.

  55. 55.

    Kay

    If Democrats were pushing state law like they would be asked if they plan a federal law. Why does the questioning of Republicans stop at “states rights”? That’s silly and naive and not at all consistent with their track record. It protects their national incumbents and is not fair to voters, who may not have considered what happens when a federal law banning abortion is deemed constitutional.

  58. 58.

    Kay

    The national Democrats already responded to this question- they would codify Roe in federal law. Now the Republicans need to be asked for a real response. Roe protected national Republicans in swing and D states. They could claim they were kicking it to the states. Now that the states have acted and we’re on the way to legal, total bans they should have to respond to the whole range of possible outcomes.

  60. 60.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @rikyrah:

    “Yet he is the only candidate willing to address black issues.”

    Let me guess, you’re white, aren’t you Red Eye?

  61. 61.

    MomSense

    Yesterday morning when my dad went to church I decided to take a long walk. It was really lovely until just before the end when a pedestrian was struck by a car crossing the other street at the same intersection. It looked really bad and sounded worse. I checked the paper today and her injuries are minor so that’s hopeful. Before it happened I was thinking that the sidewalk and street work the town was doing wasn’t being planned very well. Parts of the sidewalk were torn up so you had to walk on the street. You couldn’t access crosswalks because the sidewalks weren’t walkable in those places. My dad tries to walk to the downtown every day and now I’m worrying about him. He is so frail now that all his bones would break if he fell or was hit by a car. Ugh.

  62. 62.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @MomSense: Wow. I once saw a pedestrian struck too. The sound was terrible. Brakes and a thud. The guy went down and then propped himself on one arm and called help. Someone else called “stay there” and ran to him. We were on the campus of Wayne State University and they have a med school, so I’ve always hoped the guy running to help him was at least a med student. I don’t know how that all came out. It shook me though, and I wasn’t the one who was hit.

  63. 63.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: Sweet. I get nearly a year toward my retirement (at 2% of may salary) from my vast accumulated sick leave so that helps. I have a coupole of months of vacation but the conventional wisdom is to pack it into a 403b becuase of taxes.

  64. 64.

    dimmsdale

    @Princess: I suppose it depends on what you mean by “work.” I think it remains true that you don’t necessarily need to boycott companies; what you need to do is TELL THEM you’re boycotting, and why. This puts the onus on corporate boards to make decisions about where their political contributions go and to whom; and on (I would guess) mostly republican small-business owners in these localities, who presumably voted for the talking anus in the White House and his minions on the state level, and who happily make their money providing goods and services to subsids of major corporations and/or film production companies. Also, the amount of political contributions are peanuts; it’d be easy (one would think) for corps. to stop contributing these paltry amounts in the face of public pressure.

    Here’s a handy list of the companies and amounts involved.

    https://bit.ly/2JS20c8

  69. 69.

    MomSense

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Shook is the perfect description. She had people with her immediately and there were more cars trying to turn that way so I just started waving the
    cars to stop until the responders got there. There was a frightened looking student driver behind the accident. The instructor took over the traffic duty for me.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    The Georgia zealots are going to allow a Georgia woman to go to Florida for an abortion, or the Ohio zealots allow a woman to go to Michigan for an abortion? Like hell they are. They said any abortion is murder and a pregnancy at any stage is a “person”. Murder is illegal in the whole country.
    People are already asking how the new definition of “person” impacts existing federal law. We’ve already seen the Trump Administration intervene to effectively ban abortion re: pregnant refugees who are in the US. They didn’t consider state law at all. We have a whole new set of possibilities so need a new set of questions for GOP lawmakers. How will they resist calls from their fundamentalist religious base to bar abortion at the federal level?

  71. 71.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @MomSense: @Dorothy A. Winsor: I saw an old woman get run over by a jacked up 3/4 ton pick up. It’s a horribly unique sound. I’ll never forget the look of terror on the driver’s face just before he sped off. I couldn’t get the license # and the guy who took off after him only managed the first 3 digits. The poor old gal was just laying in the middle of the street knocked silly, some cars who couldn’t see us zipping by at 30-40 mph, and she’s wondering why her arm looks so funny.

    From what the ambo guys said, the broken arm was all she got, but of course who knows?

  76. 76.

    donnah

    I live in Dayton, Ohio. This coming Saturday, a KKK group is coming from Indiana to host a rally in our downtown Courthouse Square. City officials debated allowing them to come, but decided in favor of First Amendment rights and issued a permit, with caveats about weapons and masks, and tried to minimize the potential aggression.

    Fortunately, citizens have decided to host three separate rallies for peace downtown for everyone who wants to protest but not engage in the KKK rally. One group will host a rally with music, singing, and speeches for peace, and they will be just outside of downtown. There is another one across from Courthouse Square, and a third at a city park. Our local newspaper listed times and locations of the counter-protests as well as printing a full page color sign that we can put up in our windows to express support for peace.

    After the event is over on Saturday, which is limited to three hours, on Sunday there will be a “cleansing” of Courthouse Square, with literal sweeping and cleaning and also speeches and prayers by leading city officials.

    I hope there is no violence and no confrontation. A lot of time and effort has been spent to make it work and I hope it does.

  77. 77.

    SiubhanDuinne

    And, especially for beloved commentor SiubhanDuinne:

    What a lovely and unexpected way to start the day! Nice article. Thanks, Anne Laurie, and good morning, everyone!

  78. 78.

    MomSense

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Yup, the sound is terrible. She was on the ground holding her head which is why I was so relieved to hear that her injuries are minor.

  79. 79.

    NotMax

    Haven’t seen it in many years, so was pleased to find The Coca-Cola Kid listed on Prime. A piquantly original bon-bon of a film. Greta Scacchi charmingly manages to pull off winsome and offbeat all at once, without missing a beat or becoming cloying.

  80. 80.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I’m seeing a lot of “well, it’s ALABAMA and GEORGIA” commentary online. That’s bullshit. Donald Trump is a NYC real estate developer and conman and Kavanaugh is an elite east coast lawyer. This attempt to paint this as these stupid hicks in the south protects GOP incumbents and is naive and delusional.

  81. 81.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: My ’72 Chevy was yellow, so I painted this on the back of it. A guy I knew designed it as a fundraiser for the conservation project of a local cave. Cavers adopted it as the national “caver” symbol. Earl probably could have gotten rich off it but he just gave the design away.

  82. 82.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @donnah: Sounds like Dayton is handling it in a principled way. Good for them. Good for the newspaper for cooperation. I especially like the “cleansing.”

    @raven: I didn’t know there was a JD Blitz Black. That green is actually copyrighted, I believe.

  83. 83.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Americas most expensive law firms and elite colleges are churning out these Right wing reactionaries. This isn’t an Alabama problem. Jimmy Carter was way more enlightened than Donald Trump.

  85. 85.

    Immanentize

    @Kay:
    What is so frustrating to me is that all those State legislators who voted for these bills are counting on the courts to stop them. If they could, they probably are praying to their gods to stop these bills. They basically say as much. Which means that they feel no compulsion to deal with the many ramifications seriously. Can I now violate the ancient rule against perpetuities and will my estate to my child’s fetus? Or to that fetus’ eventual progeny? They have no clue because the courts will save them from their assholery. Until they don’t.

    And this is why extreme gerrymandering is so bad — it really prevents Democratic representation as the vast majority of people in any of those states do not want to have pregnancy police everywhere.

  87. 87.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @MomSense: I once heard a kid, sorry, young man, hit the ground after falling 30 feet and just missing a chain link fence. That too is a unique and truly sickening sound, like a sack of wet meal. He kept trying to sit up and we had to make him lay there until the ambo came. He ended up walking away from it.

  89. 89.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    The idea that national religious fundamentalists are going to stop at the Alabama line out of some imaginary conservative deference to “states rights” is naive. Most of the Trump radicals are east coast, northern, urban and have fancy educations yet they’re as racist and reactionary as any random Alabama county commissioner. The only difference is they have WAY more power. Guiliani would back a federal ban on abortion if doing so got him one more lobbying commission, and so would Bannon and Kelly and the rest of the low quality hires. Clinton was an Arkansas prosecutor and governor and he was much less racist than this NYC crew. It’s not geography and it’s not a lack of “education”.

  90. 90.

    satby

    @rikyrah: got into an argument with a young Bernie bro sis who complained that Warren was pandering to someone but that Wilmer was just so authentic. It’s a cult.

  91. 91.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Indiana is next. You’ll be able to paint the whole upper middle tier as “bans abortion” or “does not ban abortion” based solely on whether the governor is a D or an R. Flip Michigan from D to R and they’re gone too.

  92. 92.

    raven

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I can’t remember what it sounded like when I broke my leg in half but my cousin ran into one of the girls that was there. 35 years later and that was the first thing she asked, “how did he come out with that leg”? It must have been awful for them.

  93. 93.

    DAVE

    Local leaders have a responsibility to advocate for their locality. The rest of us don’t. No weapon should be left off the table so damage those animals with whatever’s available and a boycott divestment and sanctions policy directed at those states is legal and may be partially useful.

  95. 95.

    Immanentize

    @Kay:
    Again, gerrymandering is key to Republican power. Ohio could not pass such a miscarriage bill if there were not the now-unconstitutional gerrymander that allowed Republicans to push this unpopular position without fear of electoral retribution.

  97. 97.

    Raven

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: The guys at the John Deere dealership didn’t either, they had to look it up on their computer. They paint the inside of the wheel wells with it.

    John Deere Blitz Black is a suede/satin black enamel paint manufactured by Valspar. It’s manufactured for use on their farm equipment. It’s durability, look and low cost (around $25 a gallon) have
    become popular with custom car builders and hot rodders to give their car the old “hot rod” look that won’t fade away and is very durable to the elements.

    This paint can be applied anywhere including high heat areas.

    According to John Deere, you CAN paint over John Deere Blitz Black with another coat of Enamel paint.

    Here she is right out of the booth.

  98. 98.

    Immanentize

    @raven: OT from broken bones. Thank you for mentioning Operation DC III. I was just a pre-teen kid, but I vividly remember the medal throwing — that was dinner table conversation!

    But I went this morning and read a number of reports and perspectives. Wow. Thanks for pointing me that way.

  100. 100.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @OzarkHillbilly: Kindasorta layoff story from 4 decades back:

    They said in September, “You need to find another job by Thanksgiving.” This after the two PhD’s I was doing programming & stats for had shivved me – the one by stealing my work & publishing it without so much as a “grateful acknowledgement” (when I confronted him he said “It doesn’t count for you, you don’t have a doctorate”), the other by claiming all the creative analysis I’d done for him was his idea & I was just his drone.

    So I looked – & found a position with 50% higher pay. Physically rather awkward walking out on Turkey Day Eve carrying one’s personal possessions whilst thumbing one’s nose, but I managed. Seven years later I went to the first guy’s memorial service (dead in his mid-40s). And I understand the second guy’s much younger, better-looking & nicer wife pitched his wuthless butt out in the meantime. On such rare occasions is justice served.

  101. 101.

    Immanentize

    @satby: That’s what I think will make a difference. More democracy. We have reduced voter input to a nub.

  105. 105.

    Immanentize

    @satby: I sometimes want to tell students who are surprised by (and complain about) a low grade after completely goofing off all semester —
    You should be proud, you worked hard to deserve it.

  107. 107.

    Immanentize

    Another funny grading story — when I was teaching in San Antonio, TX, there was a famous professor, Dr. Yao, who pre-dated me. By some trick of the grading system rules, and how numerial GPA was calculated, the lowest grade a student could get was a 59 (total fail). A student is said to have gone to Dr. Yao to complain about his grade: “How could you give me a 59?” Prof. Yao replied, “I gave you a 42, the Dean gave you the 59.”

  109. 109.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Immanentize: My brother once spent a couple of years teaching high school. At the end of one semester, a student who’d goofed off all term begged for a passing grade. My bro told him if he passed the final, he’d give him a C. The kid then said, “Huh. What do I have to do to get a B?”

  110. 110.

    NotMax

    @OzarkHillbilly

    Was in a play once which included a scene in which I was required to fall, shot dead, about eight feet from atop a wall onto the stage. One night of rehearsals, the director was having problems with the scene (not with anything involving me, thank FSM) and had the cast run the scene over and over and over.

    After the sixth (or maybe it was the eighth) run through, I marched off the stage and plopped myself down next to where he was seated, fourth row center. “You can run through this scene until the cows come home but you’re going to have to do it without me anymore tonight. I’ll be right here when needed for anything else.”

  111. 111.

    Immanentize

    @Raven: It looks like one of your comrades is sending a little Hitler salute in Nixon’s direction. Well done!

    I can’t figure out which image is more enduring — you as shirtless Hippie? Or the little girl and the big fish? Who can say?

  113. 113.

    Raven

    @NotMax: Reminds me of Howard Hughes and “Hells Angels”. There was a scene of Germans jumping to their death from a zepplin yelling “for Kaiser the fatherland” and he made them keep re-shooting because he liked the sentiment.

  114. 114.

    Raven

    @Immanentize: Art is not eternal. I never noticed the hand but the dude in the shades on the fence is a fed, she shows up a bunch in the pics.

  115. 115.

    schrodingers_cat (HectoringBully)

    @Kay: We also need to ask the R legislators how they plan to enforce these laws? T appointees were keeping files on girls and women in immigration detention tracking their periods. Those detention camps like the Nazi concentration camps are their testing grounds for these odious policies.

  117. 117.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Raven: I’ve still got the bowtie from that truck. Someday I’ll do something with it.

    eta: and that is a good looking truck.

  118. 118.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @OzarkHillbilly: If one is fated to run over someone with a 3/4T pickup, a sufficiently jacked-up model might limit the charges to attempted vehicular homicide.

  121. 121.

    Raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: It’s faded a bit. I scrubbed part of the hood with windex and it looked better but I don’t have the gas to do the whole thing. The drive train and mill are all less than 15 years old and with very little mileage.

  124. 124.

    Steve in the ATL

    Many of us are big Jimmy Carter fans, you know! I suppose Subaru Diane gets special mention because she is his great aunt?

  126. 126.

    germy

    Has anyone here seen the amazing work of Ruth Miller?

    My name is Ruth Miller. In childhood, I developed a love of making art and doing needlework. Later, I combined the two and began to create embroidered art as an alternative to painting. Gradually, I leaned toward making portraits of actual individuals. This site exhibits the type of work I currently do and explains how and why I do it. I hope you enjoy it.

    http://www.ruthmillerembroidery.com/

  129. 129.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Kathleen: from the dead thread:

    @Kathleen: just overnight, unfortunately. Got in at 10 pm Sunday night, leaving Monday at 6 pm. If I had been able to stay Monday night I would have suggested we meet. There will be a next time, though!

  131. 131.

    Kay

    @schrodingers_cat (HectoringBully):

    T appointees were keeping files on girls and women in immigration detention tracking their periods

    Gross. They couldn’t even keep track of the children they seized- they lost 2000 of them. Maybe they should stick to just the basics. They can track a car title thru 9 states but they somehow misplaced 2000 children.

  132. 132.

    Kay

    @schrodingers_cat (HectoringBully):

    Yes, Trump voters are so uneducated and they live in those icky states. However. The Georgetown Prep crowd will be the people overturning Roe. Bannon is the toast of the NYTimes political team and he’s a stone cold racist, along with America’s Mayor. I think I prefer my reactionary Right wingers local – like a sheriff. At least he’s not powerful outside his county. They’re worse when they have college degrees.

  133. 133.

    Steve in the ATL

    @schrodingers_cat (HectoringBully): I did, and it was delicious! Overall, though, I was disappointed with Egyptian food. Was generally boring.

    I am thankful, however, that we weren’t anywhere near Cairo when the bomb went off at the great pyramid.

  134. 134.

    Kay

    I know this is controversial on this website and I myself am a Warren supporter (who refused to appear on Fox, which I respect) BUT Pete Buttigieg did a bang up job in that interview – just excellent. It really doesn’t get any better than that, as far as political advocacy.

    He’s talented and Democrats should be thrilled he’s part of their bench. I know he won’t be President but he is an absolute asset if you care about the general Democratic policy agenda.

    Not the only or the the most talented, but for a small city mayor to handle himself that well is something special and it should be recognized and valued.

  135. 135.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Kay: Agreed. I don’t want him for president and don’t think he’s qualified (yet), but he did a great job.

  136. 136.

    schrodingers_cat (HectoringBully)

    @Kay: @O. Felix Culpa: He has great political skills like a young Bill Clinton. What I am worried about is which constituencies will be considered expendable in this twenty first century version of third way politics. Where we join hands and sing songs of bipartisanship with a party that wants many of the D constituencies completely subservient or dead.
    ETA: That said I prefer him to BS of Vt.

  137. 137.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: @O. Felix Culpa: I’m with O. here re: P.B. on his candidacy. But he put in a good turn yesterday.

    At the very least, Buttigieg is positioning Democrats as a whole in a better place. Demystifying the brand and making it palatable. Biden does this too. Not my cup of tea, but I certainly do not represent the core of the party.

  138. 138.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Kay: omg why do you hate the Democratic Party? You are clearly a Wilmerite/Russian stooge/troll/Markos Moulitsas!

    Seriously, though, there are good arguments on both sides of the fox town hall debate. I lean no, but your point is why I’m not a hard no at this point. Some people are good at this type of hostile forum, as Pete clearly is, while others would be disasters.

  140. 140.

    Steve in the ATL

    @SWMBO:slightly better, thanks for asking. Still not out of the woods but feeling less pain. Still working on the nausea and vomiting, though.

  141. 141.

    SWMBO

    My daughter works at the main branch of the local library. One of the elderly volunteers was walking into do their turn and she was hit by a car. My daughter saw the commotion outside and didn’t realize who it was. It was one of her favorite volunteers and she was messed up by it for quite a while.
    I have seen/heard several dogs get hit by a car in front of my house. The sickening thud, the dog running screaming and howling, and the distraught owners trying to catch them. Our fair city enacted serious leash laws after this.

  144. 144.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @schrodingers_cat (HectoringBully): Aaaaaaand why is this? Because they figure they can always (as they always have) buy, buddy, or bamboozle their way out of the consequences of the straitjacket of cultural restrictions. Laws are for the little people, everywhere in the world, donchaknow.

    @Steve in the ATL: After the 2004 debacle, DNC Chairman Howard Dean was asked how the party could recover. Two things, he replied:

    Show up.
    Tell the truth.

    “Show up” at community events & identify as Democrats – because the root of GOP lockstep is demonization of their opponents, & the revelation that those nice folks across the street or down the block vote Democratic & don’t have horns & a tail can get (some) people to reevaluate their prejudices.

    “Tell the truth” about what we want our society to become (or remain) because at worst, we get points for honesty, & at best we can again get those reliable R-voters to question their assumptions. Speak in terms as clear and non-threatening & bridge-building as possible, but never back off from our beliefs – & never bend over backwards to sound like the opposition, for, as Harry Truman famously said, “Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time.”

    That’s what got us Congress in 2006 & the Presidency two years later. And that’s what I saw in the clips of Mayor Pete on Faux. He bet the house on being able to handle the heat & represent, & AFAICT he delivered.

    I kinda wish Senator/Professor Warren could see her way clear to doing the same. She has a real knack for presenting issues & policies in ways that connect with typical voters – & I don’t think she’d be easy to rattle. JMO

  146. 146.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @rikyrah: Thank you so much for sharing! It’s gonna be one of my new daily reads!

    Because I’m so sick and tired of feeling depressed and hopeless about my country by only hearing about Donald Trump and the damn 2020 horserace I’ve been actively seeking out as much non-mainstream stuff to read as possible each day and stumbled on this really great post yesterday at Kos about reparations for slavery.

    We should be discussing reparations for slavery. Beware those with a right-wing agenda..

    It outlines some of the historical and present day ideas and issues currently in discussion, but also talks about a huge problem brewing within the Pro-Reparations Movement that is an exact mirror of what Russian trolls did to all of us in 2016 and continue to do right now: splitting black folks into opposing groups, right wing controlled social media entities are focusing their socially and politically divisive efforts on the AA community’s discussion about who is and isn’t deserving so that they turn on each other.

    Clever trick and, and yet, where have we seen this before?

    In any case, there has been some decent writing over at DKos lately for a change, which some of us may want to check out before it veers back into weirdness.

  147. 147.

    satby

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    And that’s what I saw in the clips of Mayor Pete on Faux. He bet the house on being able to handle the heat & represent, & AFAICT he delivered.

    He has both that talent and experience as a progressive Democratic mayor advocating for his city in a blood red state. Glad to see people acknowledge that. He’s an asset to the party.

  149. 149.

    Ruckus

    @WereBear:
    Nearly half the country voted for shit for brains. He made no secret about who he is or what he believes. Sure some were voting against having a competent woman leader because that would be just untenable and they figured anyone else would be better, but still, they voted for him. It does lend credence to the concept that a lot of people are fucking idiots.

  150. 150.

    Ruckus

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    I know of a Chinese family, mom and dad immigrants who never even learned english, put all 4 of their kids thru college, all 4 got professional degrees. Dad worked in a Chinese laundry, mom was a seamstress, their kids are successful. This was long enough ago that the cost of a good state education was doable for a family like this and now……. This is ruining the future of our country, the ability to stay in the forefront of business, no matter the profession, all in order to create a working class that is owned by the financial industry. Everyone loses in the short term and in the long term.

  151. 151.

    smintheus

    The nomination of Carter in ’76 was little short of a disaster for Democrats. I was already far from impressed with the judgment of the 3 candidates who made a pilgrimage to get his blessing.

  153. 153.

    rikyrah

    @schrodingers_cat (HectoringBully):

    What I am worried about is which constituencies will be considered expendable in this twenty first century version of third way politics. Where we join hands and sing songs of bipartisanship with a party that wants many of the D constituencies completely subservient or dead.

    This.

  154. 154.

    rikyrah

    @Ella in New Mexico:

    It outlines some of the historical and present day ideas and issues currently in discussion, but also talks about a huge problem brewing within the Pro-Reparations Movement that is an exact mirror of what Russian trolls did to all of us in 2016 and continue to do right now: splitting black folks into opposing groups, right wing controlled social media entities are focusing their socially and politically divisive efforts on the AA community’s discussion about who is and isn’t deserving so that they turn on each other.

    We have been nailing them. Calling them out.
    Also be weary of anyone who pushes ADOS (American Descendants of Slaves) . Nothing but scammers

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