Elizabeth Warren is very good at politics https://t.co/hsZ5O2B5rL
— Michael Cohen (@speechboy71) June 6, 2019
Well, “we” have gone about as far as we can in the opposite direction without, to paraphrase Molly Ivins, picking a President “who’ll have to be watered twice a day”. Elizabeth Warren originally wanted to be a special education teacher, and by Murphy the Trickster God, the American Media Village Idiots could use all the educational assistance available!
Of course, the GOP is appalled…
—Raise taxes on the 1% to cancel student debt
—Raise taxes on the 1% to fund gov't-run health care
—Raise taxes on the 1% to increase min. wageEveryday Americans can't afford Warren's agenda. That’s why we will raise taxes on the 1%.
There, fixed it for you.
— Markyjani (@Markyjani) June 6, 2019
Not to be pedantic but it’s *even* less. It’s like 75,000 people. Maybe 0.02%. So… especially infuriating when the GOP tries to conflate it to “everyday Americans” never mind “the 1%.”
— Gregory (@gregshum) June 6, 2019
Finally the GOP admits what we all suspected. That the “everyday Americans” it represents are the rich families who have accumulated over $50M in wealth.
— Adam Best (@adamcbest) June 6, 2019
And because “savvy” is orthogonal to “smart”, Politico‘s wary of the whole ‘intelligent voter’ demographic:
NEW: Warren vs. Buttigieg: Battle of the eggheads https://t.co/3UATei2vKq
— Daniel Strauss (@DanielStrauss4) June 5, 2019
… Of course, past Democratic presidential primaries are littered with failed candidates who appealed to liberal elites — Paul Tsongas in 1992, Bill Bradley in 2000 and Howard Dean in 2004. Swiss cheese-eating John Kerry managed to clinch the nomination in 2004, only to fall to regular guy George W. Bush in the general.
But in a crowded primary, winning the well-educated lane would be no minor feat. Indeed, behind the enthusiastic wonkery of Warren and Buttigieg is a clear-eyed political calculation. Highly educated voters tend to be more politically active and more likely to donate money to candidates. They also turn out to vote at higher rates than other constituencies.
Then there’s the sheer number of votes up for grabs: According to a CNN analysis of exit poll data from the 2016 Democratic primaries, 53 percent Democratic voters had college degrees, up from 46 percent in 2008.
“In a race with so many candidates, people are looking for what there is to distinguish one candidate from another,” Richard Cordray, the former Democratic nominee for governor in Ohio and an ally of Warren, said of the efforts by the two candidates to woo highly educated voters…
AND YET. Just imagine once again having a national representative who didn’t make us all cringe!
On the Road and In Your Backyard
germy
W was a regular guy? Well, he played one on TV.
satby
Though I like Warren, Harris, and Buttigeig, all whip smart people; a person with an average IQ who’s a decent human being would still be a huge improvement. But we need the really smart ones to repair the destruction of our society and system of government.
Baud
@germy:
I almost feel sorry for W. He had to pretend to be a rancher and clear brush once in a while. Trump proved none of that matters as long as you hate the right people.
Baud
@satby:
Can you come down just a little lower?
Baud! 2020!
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: He has the intellect of one.
Betty Cracker
I believe Cory Booker went to Stanford, Oxford and Yale! Plus, as a bald-by-choice guy, he has the most egg-like head of the bunch!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
What are the penalties for leaving a census question blank? Speculating on if we lose the battle of the citizenship question and instead there’s a mass movement to ignore it.
gene108
@germy:
Also didn’t realize Swiss cheese is elitist.
Mary G
It’s a first in my lifetime to have so many great Democratic candidates to choose from.
Baud
I watched the town hall last night. Some of the “regular people” they had on were frustrating to listen to.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@germy: For the record, W is not a guy I would have a beer with.
Is Swiss cheese considered elitist now? I thought Kerry’s Swiss cheese boo boo was that he ordered it on a cheesesteak but I’m surprised if anyone outside Philly remembered or cared.
Is a ham and Swiss sandwich now a thing only liberal elites eat?
Chyron HR
Well, I never! Education should only be controlled by Radical Evangelicals in Texas.
germy
@gene108:
Neither did I.
I read somewhere W spent time at his ranch clearing brush (for the cameras) because he was terrified of horses, and couldn’t stage a horseback photo op the way Reagan did.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
None. Was reading a week or 2 ago that the only question they really care about is the # of people who live at that address. Seeing as I’m a liberal living in trumpistan I almost see it as my patriotic duty to ignore the damn thing.
Boudica
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I don’t want to just leave it blank. I want to write that I’m not answering a racist question designed to suppress Democratic representation.
germy
@OzarkHillbilly: Do census takers still go door to door? I have a vague memory of that from my childhood.
tobie
Amy Klobuchar was valedictorian in her high school class, went to Yale, and wrote an undergraduate senior thesis that was so good it was published as a book. That she did this while dealing with an alcoholic father impresses me. Can we cut it with the competition for who is the smartest candidate and the ranking of their friggin’ educational pedigree? That Daniel Strauss tweet is among the most nauseating I’ve read in some time. There are many smart, qualified, and inspiring candidates running this time — a feast of riches really.
OzarkHillbilly
@germy: Only if they get a non-response. The gist of the article was that if the only question answered was the # of people in a home, they don’t send somebody out.
Baud
@tobie:
We’ve always had smart candidates. Agree that it’s nothing novel.
satby
@Betty Cracker: Cory Booker used to get dragged a lot here, and I never really saw why. I generally like him. But he’s not catching fire this time compared to the three I mentioned. I generally like Beto, but he’s already a non-entity, as are a lot of the rest of the field. We have a plethora of very good candidates. I just wish the primaries would start so we’d have a few officially winnowed out. There’s too damn many of them.
John S.
@germy:
Yes, they do. And they are called “enumerators”.
I was actually a crew leader for the 2010 census with a team of 22 enumerators.
And as others have pointed out, there are no penalties for failing to answer the census – in whole or in part.
Enumerators are even prohibited from attempting to get a response more than 6 times. That’s all the form even allows for logging attempts to enumerate.
Baud
@satby:
Charter schools and connections to Wall Street.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ? ??
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
real America eats Velveeta
hells littlest angel
Compared to Trump, even Joe Biden is an egghead.
Also — egghead? Ninety-fifty called and wants its slang back.
rikyrah
@satby:
Charter Schools and the Manhattan Institute ???
JPL
@tobie: This
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
rikyrah
@germy:
Yep. Door to door.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: It’s like they trolled the Trump diner dregs for panelists to sit onstage with Warren. I hope that woman with the work boots and bedazzled jeans who voted for Obama for CHANGE and voted for Trump for CHANGE and wants to vote for CHANGE again falls into an uncovered manhole. What a fucking moron. I give Warren all kinds of credit for bearing up under an onslaught of such stupidity with a smile.
rikyrah
@gene108:
It is? Swiss cheese ??
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Haha. I had the worst reaction to her as well. Things like that make me really emphasize with our elected leaders.
germy
rikyrah
Hillary Clinton was smart as shyt. She was a grown up Tracy Flick…and, I found that very comforting. I want a smart as shyt President.
tobie
@Baud: I’m not sure why ‘who’s smartest’ has become a thing this cycle. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Kerry, Bill Clinton, and Al Gore were and are all brilliant individuals but they didn’t feel a need to showcase it and we didn’t feel a need to harp on it. It’s a weird development.
satby
@Baud: Booker has a lot of constituents who work on Wall Street. And charter schools were once eagerly sought by a lot of parents as a way to experiment with improvements to public education, before the con-artists got their mitts on the majority of them. Neither reason should have been a disqualification.
I seem to remember there was an aspect of the dislike that said Booker was inauthentic and a camera hog, but that seems to have evaporated.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: And the dude with the sunglasses on the back of his fucking head! Jesus Christ, I could never be a politician. The only “regular voter” onstage with Warren who wasn’t a drooling moron was the black lady; she alone seemed to comprehend that she was participating in a serious civic event and that the cameras weren’t there solely to record her thoughts on her personal disillusionment with politics. Fellow white people — do better!
Baud
@tobie:
People are searching for an edge for their favorite candidate in a crowded field full of good people. There’s always going to be something that’s the thing every one should focus on as the most important quality if you’re not a secret Trump supporter.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
To be fair, it WAS Indiana.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty Cracker:
She’s used to it, she was a professor at Harvard Law.
germy
MomSense
@germy:
I told her I preferred family detention in this case.
debbie
Listening to Trump’s remarks over the past week, it is painful to hear how limited his vocabulary is. It’s as if his brain stopped developing in third grade.
evodevo
@germy: Can she take Bush and Cheney with her? Wasn’t there some kind of story out for a while that they couldn’t go to Europe because some court there had a warrant out for them for war crimes or whatever? I’ve lost track of all that what with the Current Idiot…
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?!
@rikyrah: this might be before your time, but the era of grass-roots organizing that created the Chicago Local School Councils was also the time when people were organizing to try to get charter schools in many places where public education was failing (by design, but that’s a different discussion). Parents wanted more control and better educational outcomes for their kids.
I was on the inaugural council of my local school (Barnard), predominantly low-income and minority, and many of the parents wanted to convert it to a charter school within the system. Marva Collins was becoming well known, and people in Chicago wanted a chance to try to replicate her methods.
?BillinGlendaleCA
OT: I have a question; do y’all think the sky has too much of a blue tint in this picture?
Betty Cracker
@debbie: I’m convinced he’s got dementia in addition to the array of untreated personality disorders. Trump was never the sharpest tool in the shed, but in interviews a decade or more ago, he definitely had a larger vocabulary and an ability to formulate and articulate (stupid!) ideas extemporaneously that is clearly lacking today.
ETA: There’s not much that shocks me anymore about the mainstream media’s failure to cover Trump as his antics warrant, but the fact that there’s not more scrutiny of his health does surprise me. If it were anyone else…
Baud
@satby:
Yeah. I wasn’t criticizing. Just answering the question about the knock against him.
Charter schools is a thing because that’s policy, and policy is always relevant. I couldn’t care less about his connection to Wall Street.
germy
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
On my phone, and I probably wouldn’t have noticed if you hadn’t pointed it out, but I think less blue would be better.
debbie
@Baud:
Don’t leave out that fake Texas drawl. I remember listening to excerpts from the 2000 debates years later and was surprised he spoke drawllessly.
Betty Cracker
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I like it, but “Midnight Blue” was always my favorite color in the Crayola box, so I’m biased! ;-)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: Thanks, warmed it up a bit.
satby
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Did you add the tint in post processing? I like it.
NotMax
@John S.
Linked here to this a month ago, no less relevant to repeat it today. More people to count, fewer people to count them.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty Cracker: I like blue too(Go Bruins!) but the night sky shouldn’t be too blue.
laura
@germy: I was a door to door enumerator for the 2000 census. It ain’t easy. Not everyone welcomes a stranger from the government showing up. This next one will be a doozy just in light of armed and paranoid America.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: That sky definitely has too much black in it. ;-) Looks ok to me.
germy
@Betty Cracker:
Media had no problem scrutinizing HRC’s health during her campaign, though… I remember her coughing, and another time she became dehydrated (after refusing water because they’d shamed her for a bathroom break)
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
I’ll take your word for that. Listening to local (in NYC) coverage, I heard much more about Trump than directly from Trump.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Hey, at least they didn’t drag out the equivalent of the “He- he’s a Arab” lady.
;)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@satby: I do alot of stuff in post processing…first the sky portion is 20 images that were stacked and averaged(reduces noise), the foreground is from an image taken before it got completely dark and it was combined with a image with a car lighting up part of the foreground. Plus color adjustments in both the sky and the foreground. After all that, I changed the color temperature in Lightroom to make it cooler(more blue).
Kay
@satby:
Booker joined with DeVos at Manhattan Institute events up until 2012, when he abruptly stopped. It’s a problem because the entire D field are running against DeVos. Education isn’t a top tier issue but it’s much higher with D voters than it is with R voters and Democrats think they won state races (partly) on it. I think they did too- in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, which are states they need. They can win without Ohio. They can’t win without MI and PA. WI is smaller so they could theoretically replace it, but GA or NC are a huge lift. The D governor in Wisconsin’s whole campaign was that Scott Walker was ruining public education. Walker knew it too- he spent a lot of time rebutting it. The R governor of Ohio knows it too- the attacks on public schools stopped abruptly the minute Kasich headed back to New Hampshire, where he (really) lives. The R governor and R leg in Ohio are quietly undoing Kasich’s most radical school “reform”, which was a state takeover of three cities.
Booker himself has backed away from some of it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Yeah, that’s a night thing; then again, it’s really hard to photograph the Milky Way core when the sun’s up.
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
Agreed. Reminds me of Maxfield Parrish, one of my favorite illustrators.
Also, there is a moment just before the start of sunrise where the sky is that color.
Baud
I guess Trump already spoke at the D-Day ceremony and I haven’t heard a story of him being Trump-like, so that’s good.
eclare
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I’ve wondered that myself about the census question. Mass movement on the left for no one to respond.
Betty Cracker
@debbie: Yes! I love that moment when the sky is “Midnight Blue,” which should actually be called “Pre-Dawn Blue.” ;-)
Lapassionara
Today is the 75th Anniversary of D-Day. I don’t know when the Normandy Commemoration is scheduled, but it is past noon there and reports are that the weather is not good. How will Trump embarrass us today?
Good morning, everyone.
Baud
@Kay:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-ohio/in-ohio-republicans-leaving-nothing-to-chance-in-trump-re-election-bid-idUSKCN1T7164
eclare
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks! I will also leave it blank.
Kay
@laura:
I worry about that. I also worry about it with political canvassing. I think it’s a legit risk. I’m not talking about deliberate- “shoot the Democrat”. I’m talking about how these people seem to shoot first and ask questions later and they’re perpetually enraged. They’re dangerous and they’ve been coddled and kowtowed to no matter how recklessly they behave. “Ooops! No harm, no foul, that’s your right to wave your stupid gun around!”
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I was following news outlets on Twitter that relayed the text of the remarks. He was reading a speech, and he stuck to the prepared material, so no major embarrassments. (Yet.)
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Trivia: While Milky Way is a common, handy and accepted nickname for our galactic home, its official astronomical name is The Galaxy.
Plato
Don’t be so humble, John. Take credit for your role in turning your batshit crazy bigot party into even more batshit crazier bigot party.
debbie
@Kay:
Kasich popped up on my FB feed. He’s thinking about running in 2020. Great News. //
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: That’s because until the early 1920’s we didn’t think there were any other galaxies. We could see other galaxies, but we thought they were nebula in our galaxy.
Kay
@Baud:
I think Democrats have huge problems in Ohio and it has gone further Right, but I also think that article is garbage and was given to the media person to create an impression that they’re unbeatable. Democrats do the same thing, but it’s positioning, not news.
Here’s how you should look at Ohio, IMO. Look at it as a measure of the other states that are more D, but in the same general region. So if D’s are up 5 in PA, that means OH is lost and they should worry about PA. If they’re up 8 in Michigan, like O was in 2012, then OH is within reach. The states move in the same direction. Trump up so far in OH in 2016 should have been a bellweather, not of OH (which was lost) but of the other set of states that have some similarities in that geographic area.
eclare
@laura: My aunt was an enumerator in 2010 in rural Arkansas. She said in retrospect it was probably one of the most dangerous things she did, drive up to stranger’s houses representing the government.
Baud
@Kay:
Yeah, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania recovered in 2018. Ohio not so much.
rikyrah
@NotMax:
Will point out that this is because of GOP machinations in2014. They intended in 2014 to hurt an accurate counting of the Census ???
rikyrah
BlueSteelDC (@BlueSteelDC) Tweeted:
Elizabeth Warren recently said that when Barack Obama and Donald Trump won were they considers electable.
And that was pretty frickin disingenuous.
The manner of Trumps win is still under investigation and he lost popular metrics
Obama won because well.. https://twitter.com/BlueSteelDC/status/1136541262016913408?s=17
Kay
@Baud:
I don’t take Trump for granted but I’m also not falling for his bullshit. His whole thing is that he’s popular in these middle states- MI, PA, WI. He isn’t polling well in them and he won by a tiny little margin last time. He has to recreate that exact map because he sure as hell isn’t picking up any new voters. He NEEDS. His bullshit aside. He could do it again! But unless he pulls off exactly the same thing he’s in trouble. And they are worried about MI and PA and WI. They admit it.
Obama wasn’t worried about MI at this stage in 2011. They knew they would win it.
rikyrah
BlueSteelDC (@BlueSteelDC) Tweeted:
Obama was winning a coalition of young White progressives and he was a media darling … once he won Iowa.
He started winning African Americans.
No it didn’t happen before Iowa.
Michelle Obama even made the very famous complaint – about why AA weren’t supporting her husband https://twitter.com/BlueSteelDC/status/1136542056904560640?s=17
arrieve
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I like the blue because I think it contrasts nicely with the bright foreground. Gorgeous picture.
rikyrah
BlueSteelDC (@BlueSteelDC) Tweeted:
African Americans are about 25% of the electorate in a primary. This made all the difference. HRC fun fact kept every one of her other coalitions of support.
Obama’s winning personality didn’t swing her other coalition’s over. And at the end of the day he won a close match https://twitter.com/BlueSteelDC/status/1136542783068692480?s=17
Betty Cracker
@Kay: That makes a lot of sense as a Midwest gauge.
I wish I could figure out a formula to understand Florida. Apparently no one else can either, which is why I rarely see the state mentioned in “swing state” talk these days. Trump’s approval/disapproval numbers are about even here now, but they’ve dropped a TON since 2016.
Maybe the fact that the blue wave mostly missed FL in 2018 prompted analysts to conclude, “fuck Florida.” Can’t say I blame them, but 29 electoral votes is a nothing to sneeze at, and surely we are a lighter lift than, say, Georgia or NC? Maybe they figure the cake is baked with the crooks in charge.
NotMax
@rikyrah
Betting there won’t be many sightings of either census forms or of enumerators at Dolt 45’s detention camps.
Baud
@Kay:
Do you think Biden has the best shot in the Midwest? That seems to be his main selling point.
Dorothy A. Winsor
After W, I read someone who said we’d just conducted an experiment on whether it mattered if the president was smart. We determined it did.
But then apparently we ignored the results and elected the imbecile who thinks the courts can stop congress from impeaching him.
Kay
@Baud:
MI recovered more than WI. But PA was a real bright spot. OH could move so far Right that it’s no longer a bellweather for the general region in the way I described. That’s possible too. Marcy Kaptur used to say this- she would say “we can go in one of two directions- north, more like the northern tier Great Lakes states, or south, more like Kentucky and West Virginia” She was saying “go north” :)
rikyrah
BlueSteelDC (@BlueSteelDC) Tweeted:
Do ppl forget despite how liberal and how progressive it is- and suppose momentum he was on- he lost some of the last contest – including California.
African Americans are less than 3% of that population so that was going to be harder win given his demonstrated demo strengths https://twitter.com/BlueSteelDC/status/1136543493537587200?s=17
NotMax
@Kay
bellwether
/Your morning moment of pedantry.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: I read yesterday that trump is way underwater in MI.
Kay
@Baud:
I don’t know. He’s popular in this county, but Democrats don’t carry this county. The goal here, or was in Obama’s runs, is “8k votes”. We eke out 8k votes. I had a funny conversation with a state D person- I like her personally and we’ve become friends, where she admitted she doesn’t like Biden. Too traditional, been there, done that. It was very quiet, our conversation, where I knew she wouldn’t say it publicly. As you know I think that’s wise. I think we have to pull together or we will lose. I will do that.
Kay
@NotMax:
Thanks! I don’t know another word for..what that is :)
rikyrah
BlueSteelDC (@BlueSteelDC) Tweeted:
What I am trying to say is after a few months of this – you can see sharply whose winning what demo and that consistency of their appeal becomes evident.
That dynamic sets in like cement after a short time. https://twitter.com/BlueSteelDC/status/1136544350094204929?s=17
rikyrah
BlueSteelDC (@BlueSteelDC) Tweeted:
Kamala Harris has that ability.
And if she could rally black voters to her – it’s like waking a sleeping giant and riding on its shoulders.
Right now she is actually a top choice of the same white college voters that boasted Obama.
Kamala has closer parallels to Obama but https://twitter.com/BlueSteelDC/status/1136547973536649216?s=17
Baud
@Kay:
I like that people are worried about Trump’s reelection because it puts the lie to the idea that Hillary was uniquely bad and that any other Dem would have won by 20 points.
I’ll say this for Trump. He knew what his race wanted to hear in 2016 in a way that few others did.
rikyrah
BlueSteelDC (@BlueSteelDC) Tweeted:
But Kamala is running a really different campaign. And black voters are more concerned about Trump to take a risk – so she is going to have to dominate in a way she isn’t- to convince POC.
The environment is tougher.
And Frankly she isn’t doing as well looking main stream https://twitter.com/BlueSteelDC/status/1136548579978465281?s=17
artem1s
@Kay: until Ohio enacts one of the three redistricting laws they have passed in the last decade, we have no chance. there are plenty of voters who are interested in moving Ohio back to center again. But we are all living in the only livable places in the state. Listening to AM radio outside of any major city feels like you are living in a Children of the Corn sequel. The rural areas and small towns that produced our scientists and astronauts has disappeared and has been filled with Know Nothings.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t understand Florida at all, but I agree, like Ohio I think the conventional wisdom is it’s gone to Trump. What’s wild to me is how much he needs to go right. He needs every single thing to go perfectly because he didn’t get any new supporters. In a way he actively repelled new supporters, like he was put out that they didn’t vote for him. Which is completely in keeping with his extreme pettiness and shitty world view.
satby
@Kay: everyone who isn’t a con artist has backed away from charter schools. The late 80s-early 90s are practically horse and buggy days to a lot of voters. Which can be a very good thing harnessed properly.
rikyrah
Cadet Bone Spurs ?
Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) Tweeted:
“The bell rang and Donald Trump was hiding,” Doug Brinkley tells @mffisher in this piece on Trump and Vietnam https://t.co/GIpfByIKVY https://twitter.com/PhilipRucker/status/1136449270700281857?s=17
Dorothy A. Winsor
@rikyrah: Caucusing for Obama in Iowa in 2008 was one of the times I knew I was participating in history.
satby
@eclare: one was killed in Kentucky in 2009. And the climate for it is worse now.
rikyrah
Da phuq ? ?
https://twitter.com/ABCWorldNews/status/1136586684437544960
rikyrah
Rep Ayanna Pressley (@RepPressley) Tweeted:
Yesterday, the FBI confirmed that the absurd “Black Identity Extremism” designation does NOT exist & that black people are NOT being surveyed as a credible threat to our nat’l security. If that’s not the case, why does the FBI continue spending resources monitoring black people? https://t.co/pgj7WTEzzj https://twitter.com/RepPressley/status/1136294154382827520?s=17
Kay
@artem1s:
Oh, I don’t know. This town is actually run by moderate Republicans. The lunatics are the voters and there’s pandering to them but at the end of the day the moderates run everything. The moderates are better educated and wealthier and they’ve always run things and they still do. I think there’s actually some frustration among the lunatics that they haven’t really cracked the code. The moderates live here. They don’t want to live in a smoking crater, so they support schools and parks and public employees because they want services. It helps that they turn out. My precinct is better off than the average, more moderate than the average (still R but not nuts) and we reguarly have 80% turnout.
Amir Khalid
@hells littlest angel:
9050 hasn’t happened yet, and there’s no way to know this far in advance what slang will be like then. Did you mean “nineteen fifty”?
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
I think the more plausible explanation is that he’s a time traveler.
rikyrah
The Full Zandar Report (@ZandarVTS) Tweeted:
When I say “white voters will vote for the GOP even if it hurts them personally as long as it hurts *those people* more” this is exactly what I mean.
Midwest farmers getting reamed by Trump tariffs, same thing. At most some will stay home. Not a one will vote Democratic. https://t.co/L1C0yps8Mw https://twitter.com/ZandarVTS/status/1136480264287412231?s=17
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I’ve seen some analysis on the Florida 2018 results that posits Venezuelan refugees are shoring up the GOP in the state just as Democrats were poised to benefit from the decline in the numbers of rabidly anti-Castro Cuban-Americans who voted Republican as an article of faith. Don’t know how much faith to put in that analysis. I still blame the influx of wingnut geezers from the Midwest into places like The Villages. That’s a time-limited menace too thanks to disappearing pensions. But for whatever reason, we’re stuck on red.
eclare
@satby: I vaguely remember that.
Kay
@artem1s:
There’s this moderating influence. It’s solid. So, for example, when the Tea Party took the city council (for only one cycle- they got booted quickly for fucking up a municipal project) the R power structure quietly switched most of the budgetary power to the Board of Public Affairs, which they held. They don’t shit where they eat, basically. They’ve been running things for 100 years and they don’t plan on turning it over to radicals.
Spanky
@OzarkHillbilly:
Sigh. If only you were referring to Lake Michigan.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Also, Texas.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/for-many-texas-republicans-trumps-threatened-tariffs-on-mexico-go-too-far/2019/06/05/c59c9982-87a5-11e9-a491-25df61c78dc4_story.html
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I agree about the transplanted midwesterners. I would be furious with them if I were a native and younger and they were so cheap and selfish, not funding anything younger people need . We’re not sending our best, Betty :)
Baud
@rikyrah:
Also, too, I miss Zandar.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I wish I could say the natives were better, but with few exceptions, they aren’t. Diverse South Florida and retirees from the Northeast are all that keep us from sliding in the Alabama abyss! ;-)
Sab
@Betty Cracker: Isn’t the key to understanding Florida the amazingly effective voter suppression? It doesn’t really matter what Floridians think politically since only a select demographic will be allowed to actually vote.
OzarkHillbilly
@Spanky: “Glub glub”
lahke
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Just a bit.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: @Kay:
I don’t think that, in 2016, it was so obvious that Trump plays footsie with Nazi anti-semites. Yes there is a pro-Israel faction in South Florida, but they also include people who remember what fascism can do.
Also, this heavy handed anti-cuba policy only appeals to a small sliver of living Cuban Americans. Opening up Cuba was hugely popular in S. FLA.
Booger
@eclare: I was an Enumerator in 2010, in a rural area when the Tea Party was still perceived as a grass-roots movement. I had the opportunity to walk uneasily up many long driveways, making all the noise in the world so as not to sneak up and surprise anyone.
Our team leader suggested we carry our Gov’t supplied shoulder bags in front of us so the Great Seal was visible. Some enumerators carried pocket Constitutions so they could show the TeaBaggers exactly where in their beloved but unread document the Census was mandated.
I don’t recall encountering any overt hostility, but was on edge for many of those walks and while knocking on doors. On the other hand, it was a wonderful opportunity to learn about my community and meet some nice folks I wouldn’t have met otherwise. I’d do it again in a heartbeat for 2020, but have a real job now and couldn’t afford the pittance they pay enumerators.
Immanentize
@satby:
Really, Satby?
rikyrah
Da phuq ? ?
ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) Tweeted:
Florida Sen. Rick Scott says his state should have less representation and federal funding https://t.co/Nq7gALyKvS https://t.co/3pdcbzRUkW https://twitter.com/thinkprogress/status/1136479258170277888?s=17
Another Scott
@Sab: I think most of the election results since November 2016 showed sensible people that they must get out and vote if at all possible – and that it makes a big difference. The 2016 results showed that there are forces out there that will do everything they can to make the results close enough to steal, so there has to be a large enough wave to keep that from happening. People see that now.
I don’t think that the country suddenly got more “conservative” after Obama. I think that too many people got complacent in 2016, and I don’t think that that is going to happen again in 2020. Too many women are furious. Too many first-time voters are pissed-off and determined to make a difference. Too many immigrants and marginal groups see that the GOP wants to drag the country back to the 1850s. Too many Democrats have been pushed well beyond treating GOP opposition as “just reasonable policy disagreements”. They’re not going to stand for it.
“Fired up, ready to go” isn’t just a catch phrase.
It’s not going to be easy, but we still have the wind at our backs. We have to take advantage of it, and not wring our hands. In such an environment, there’s only so much that the history of post-war elections can teach us. “We’re off the map!” – A. Silverman.
Cheers,
Scott.
bemused
@germy:
Laura Bush “joked” about George on the ranch at White House Correspondence Dinner, “He learned about the ranch the first year when he tried to milk the horse, What’s worse, it was a male horse”. I was actually shocked at the time hearing Laura say this and puzzled why Laura or the White House didn’t question if that joke might be a little too risque for the image of conservative, religious, moralistic Republicans want to portray. Also imagining if Michelle Obama had told a joke like that.
rikyrah
Demons ?? ?
Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) Tweeted:
Border Patrol is confiscating migrant kids’ medicine, U.S. doctors tell Yahoo News. https://t.co/5SuTzI2UET https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1136407581277282305?s=17
Betty Cracker
@Sab: Voter suppression is definitely a factor, especially since the margins are typically razor-thin, and Republicans are doing everything they can to dilute the rights restoration initiative that passed by a huge margin.
@Immanentize: South Florida isn’t the problem; it’s the rest of the state, with the exception of the two big college towns and Tampa and Orlando. Trump won with less than 50% of the vote, but he was able to run up the score in the yahoo counties because they found his brand of open racism, misogyny and xenophobia so darned refreshing. I hope whichever Democrat prevails will harp on the corruption. It won’t turn red counties blue, but it might keep some of the Trumpers home.
Sab
@Kay: This is so true. My brother moved from Ohio to a blue area in another state years ago. He used to be a raving RWNJ although he comes from a family of very moderate Republicans.
Somehow he got himself elected to his little town’s City Council, and he has reverted back to moderate Republican because he actually has to get along with people if things are going to work. He even likes the firemen and police in spite of their union membership because he finally realizes how hard their jobs are.
It has been weird to watch his transition back to sanity.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Not Kay and not from the Midwest but my opinion is that Biden is not the right person for the moment. Nor is anyone else who wants to win by being R lite. It did not work for INC and Rahul Gandhi when they ran as BJP lite, running away from the Muslim citizens, afraid to take up the beef bans, sending Rahul Gandhi to every temple they could think of and stressed his Brahmin identity. It didn’t appeal to the folks who are attracted by Hindutva but it turned off a lot of people who expected them to stand up for what is right.
With all these abortion bans coming up and a conservative Catholic supreme court we don’t need someone who is wishy washy on choice.
Major Major Major Major
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
It would be hard for me to since neither of us drink.
Was it not public knowledge that W doesn’t drink back then? And/or is everybody involved just that dumb?
Kay
@Sab:
I work fairly well with them on a school committee. The person I am most aligned with is a farmer (a real one) and he held a fundraiser for Kasich at his house. I love him for standing up for Michelle Obama’s school nutrition initiative. He was disgusted that they didn’t see the plain benefit of healthier lunches. He’s smart. But he’s part of the old guard here. His grandfather was a judge and they go to college, etc. so in national politics I guess he would be part of the “establishment”. It’s complicated.
To stand up to them one has to be confident, and part of the reason they’re confident is they have been in charge so long, which is a kind of privilege, right? But it’s privilege used in a responsible way, not a self-serving way. He doesn’t benefit from standing up for healthy lunches. He just doesn’t give a shit that they think it means he’s a Michelle Obama lover.
germy
This interview with Preacher Copeland is illuminating:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LtF34MrsfI
They really see us all as “demons”
He is a frightening individual
Stephanie Luke
@?BillinGlendaleCA: The sky is nice; it’s the too much green in the rest of the picture.
bemused
@Betty Cracker:
I think a lot of trumpers happily voted for trump because he is even more ignorant and mean than they are.
schrodingers_cat
@Major Major Major Major: I just replied to you and my reply vanished in the WP dungeon, poof!
Sister Golden Bear
I know Cheryl touched on Pence and the “nature law” stalking horse, but it would be much appreciated if a FPer could do a round-up of the various anti-LGBTQ, especially anti-trans, actions that have been implemented but the administration in recent weeks, since they’re being studiously ignored by the MSM (four networks had literally zero seconds of coverage).
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2019/06/mainstream-media-ignoring-trumps-attacks-lgbtq-rights-weeks/
Canaries, coal mines…
mrmoshpotato
*sigh*
“I want a moron for President, not one of these smarty pants eggheads!”
“Ok. We’re going to start picking your surgeons from a pool of reality TV stars. Congrats!”
schrodingers_cat
@Sister Golden Bear: Its funny and scary at the same time how the T admin’s targets line up perfectly parallel to the Nazi ones.
bemused
@Plato:
They happily aided and abetted the crazy tea party crowd to get more votes and then were shocked that they couldn’t control the monsters they empowered.
schrodingers_cat
As for AL’s question, American voters already have voted twice for a smart President in the recent past. It was the MSM that was butt hurt about his election because they are stupider than the average American or are Rs.
Kay
@Sab:
Sometimes it’s nice. I had a retired R judge call me the day after O’s ’08 win. A moderate, so truly supported McCain. He said O’s win was really inspiring and made him proud to be American. I was just blown away by how generous it was. I am MUCH less generous when I lose. I vowed to be nicer – for the 100th time :)
Kathleen
@John S.: So was I. I had a blast. I was assigned to my own neighborhood.
mrmoshpotato
@Major Major Major Major:
Asked and answered.
schrodingers_cat
@Plato: What is your theory behind Stalin’s victory in TN. Why was it such a rout for AIADMK.
SRW1
@germy:
I can’t believe she’s handing herself in!
NotMax
@SRW1
First draft called it Dutchland.
;)
Eric U.
I’m sure Biden isn’t dumb, but he sure says a lot of dumb stuff. He could keep quiet or just attack Trump all the time and do pretty well.
Sister Golden Bear
@schrodingers_cat: Same as it ever was.
Remember that famous photo of a Nazi book burning? They were burning the entire archives of a scientific/medical institute that had lobbied for LGBTQ rights.
Uncle Cosmo
@hells littlest angel:
Um, not quite – the term originated (or at least gained wide exposure) during the 1952 Presidential election, when the Thugs used it against the Democratic candidate Adlai E. Stevenson II. In fact Stevenson had as much or more hair than his GOP opponent Dwight Eisenhower, but the resemblance of the shape of the former’s head to the product of a hen, coupled with Stevenson’s formidable intellect, gave the term credibility for decades.
NotMax
@Uncle Cosmo
May as well dust off a few Stevenson quotes.
“You can tell the size of a man by the size of the thing that makes him mad.”
“We travel together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent on it’s vulnerable reserves of air and soil, all committed, for our safety, to it’s security and peace. Preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work and the love we give our fragile craft.”
“In America, anyone can become president. That’s one of the risks you take.”
plato
Yup, the royalty sucking up to this corrupt thug and normalizing him is pathetic.
NotMax
@Uncle Cosmo
Although far from being a term for an intellectual, it dates back at least to 1930s Warner brothers cartoons.
Kathleen
@Baud: Translation: Expect more virulent voter suppression tactics from Thugs in Ohio.
Uncle Cosmo
@?BillinGlendaleCA: It’s kinda the other way around, folx: The Greek word for “milk” is γάλα (“gala”) & for the Milky Way is Γαλαξίας (“Galaksias”) – IOW “Galaxy” is nothing but a transliteration of the Greek word for “Milky Way.”
Kathleen
@Betty Cracker: I heard him whole I was getting ready for work. He did follow the script and refrained from claiming “both sides” at Normandy had “good people” so cue NYT headlines screaming “Pivot at last. Pivot at last. Thank God Almighty pivot at last.”
mrmoshpotato
OT: HELLO, I’LL BE YOUR TODDLER TOUR GUIDE FOR THIS TRIP OUT THE FRONT DOOR
From everyone’s favorite Internet tendency – McSweeney’s! Best read out loud.
zhena gogolia
My copy of the Mueller Report just arrived. I’m thinking of taking it on a flight with me. But I’m afraid it won’t be absorbing enough. Sounds as if Warren just told me everything I need to know.
Ruckus
@debbie:
There is no doubt about it.
He’s a third grade racist asshole.
There was always at least one of them. This one has risen to the bottom of his lack of class.
evodevo
@bemused: Yeah, me too….I was already familiar with the joke, but it didn’t make any sense, since it substituted “horse” for “bull” – which was the original joke – and seemed very forced, like it was something a city person who knows NOTHING about farming, ranching or livestock would come up with (Karl Rove? or one of his minions?) trying desperately to inject some HeeHaw humor into a speech. She seemed uncomfortable about it, too, so I assumed it was someone else’s idiot idea…
NotMax
@Kathleen
The scene: backstage
“‘Never have so many owed so much to me.’ You sure I can’t leave that in?” //
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
Isn’t that sort of the point?
Who needs to question his health when it’s on view for everyone.
The racists like him because the only flag he flies is racism.
The morons like him because they see themselves in him – anyone really can become president.
The rich like him because they can manipulate him to give them more of our money.
A racist, moron, with delusions of wealth, what’s not to like?
NotMax
@Ruckus
Third graders’ anti-defamation league on line 1.
;)
Uncle Cosmo
For all you upinarms types who are seriously considering leaving any “citizenship” question on the 2020 Census blank: Have you seriously considered the possibility that if Cheetoh Benito or another Gooper (dogforbid) gets a second term, the Census Bureau would be directed to reject any such form as incomplete, or to count only those forms which indicate 1 or more US citizens resides at that address, as valid for use in redistricting & reassigning Congressional seats?
After a bit of research I think this might be a sonofabridge too far even for these fascist-packed courts, but ya never know…
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Why don’t we do Democratic Candidate for President Townhalls with actual DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY VOTERS.
NotMax
@Uncle Cosmo
Modifying principle and/or behavior to assuage their flaws is a chump’s game.
@rikyrah
1) It was Indiana.
2) By showing up, they were at least Warren curious.
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah:
Horserace! Both sides! *punches Chuck Todd*
NotMax
@NotMax
And (3) constructing and operating solely within a bubble is what FOX does.
Kay
@rikyrah:
Because there is no Democratic base in political reporting. There is only the Republican base and “independents” who Democrats have to win. That’s why we have to go to all their media outlets and events and they never have to go to ours. We’re required to appear on Fox news but Republicans aren’t required to appear on MSNBC. They’re the standard. We’re the outliers, or sometimes “interest groups”. It doesn’t matter how many of us there are- we will never be the standard.
rikyrah
@Kay:
as well they should. The woman is a DEMON.
rikyrah
@Kay:
While we did well in PA, MI and WI in 2018…..Brown had no coattails in OH.
I’ve told you…OH is a waste of time, and I’d rather put the money and energy into GA, AZ and NC.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
I still say the time and money should be spent registering those former felons. That’s a 1.4 million untapped voter pot.
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
How are they able to vote in American elections?
rikyrah
@Sister Golden Bear:
I would like to see this post too. They are very clear in their anti agenda.
NotMax
OT.
Camera just focused on a diner’s menu board during whatever is showing on TCM at the moment.
Pot roast with gravy 40¢
Sauerbraten with potato pancakes 35¢
Sirloin steak 50¢
Sadly, time machine in the shop for the foreseeable future.
J R in WV
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I don’t think so. There are blue stars in there naturally, ya know.
So did you walk around with a strobe while the stars were exposed, or do a different exposure for the foreground after shooting the stars? OH, never mind, I see it was two shots stacked now. I would have just walked around with a light or strobe for 10 mintes.
Ksmiami
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: my thoughts exactly my pen will suddenly leak on that question oops
Montanareddog
@plato:
I think that is very harsh. The UK is a constitutional monarchy. The Queen refusing to deal professionally with the head of another state formally invited by her duly elected government would be considered a gross dereliction of duty. And the Queen is dutiful to a fault. And the rest of “the Firm” has no choice but to go along.
Ksmiami
@bemused: exactly and that is why I don’t think we can right the ship without some massive denazification program or deportations. trump people do not deserve to live in the US.
J R in WV
@NotMax:
And guess which census offices will be cut? The same neighborhoods that have trouble getting their voting machine to work correctly, the same neighborhoods that have immigrants and people of color, neighborhoods that vote Democratic, ‘Cause we don’t deserve even the one congressman, let alone the majority that our constituency deserved.
Jail is where all these MoFo’s belong!!! They can all share a cell block with Pauly Manafort in NYC for 10 years.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@zhena gogolia: I would have a backup read. The Mueller report reads best in small bites. Also I find Volume 2 more interesting.
NotMax
@Dorothy A. Winsor
NotMax
Format fix.
@Dorothy A. Winsor
And just for sh*ts and grins, swap the dust jackets.
:)
bemused
@evodevo:
It’s also a tired old joke. Whoever was writing her routine just couldn’t come up with some original and actual funny bits. What was truly appalling was George Jr looking under rugs at the WH, nope, no wmds there.
NotMax
@bemused
Severely bruised my lower jaw when it hit the floor upon that travesty.
J R in WV
@NotMax:
@Kay:
More pedantry:
Bellwether the word came from goat herding (or perhaps sheep) when one animal in the herd has a bell, and when you find that critter by listening for the bell ringing, you find the whole flock. A wether is a castrated goat or sheep.
zhena gogolia
@Dorothy A. Winsor: @NotMax:
I realize I’d be dragging it through the airport mainly as a political statement, so that’s probably not a good idea.
So backed-up New Yorkers and puzzle books it is.
Brachiator
@Kay:
The electoral college rules. You need the swing states, and so you need a chunk of people who watch Fox News.
And some of these people are probably fearful or racist white and Hispanic Democrats who could be persuaded to vote for a Democrat in 2020.
Also, Democrats are not fixated on a single news source the way that Fox News viewers are, so you have to be more creative in trying to reach them.
This is just the political reality.
J R in WV
@Sister Golden Bear:
They really are fascist Nazis, would-be killers of everyone not willing to kowtow to their majesty and do as they are told. Some people still don’t believe that.
J R in WV
@NotMax:
Haw! That’s just possible enough to be really funny !!!
Dan B
@rikyrah: In case no one responded to your Pressley post on FBI surveillance of black people it seems obvious to me that racism is alive in the FBI. I hope it is ailing so that a good push will put it out of our misery.
Who am I kidding? But a guy can hope.
Tenar Arha
@zhena gogolia: If it isn’t going to weigh you down, it feels like a civic mitzvah to bring it to read in the small breaks.
You could think of it as worthwhile to lug like this: last day or two I read someone describing traveling with it. And they ended up informing at least one seat mate about the existence of a mostly complete report simply from the cover.
ETA TFW when I should have read further to see you’d already decided not to lug 400+ pages around.
Dan B
@rikyrah: Confiscating refugee children’s medications may be Stephen Miller’s doing. The WH insider comment that he enjoys the suffering, that it’s a result if his being bullied – Waffen SS.
Psychos in charge want to make it all look like the asylum.
Dan B
@Sister Golden Bear: Pence seems to be allied with Pompeo on the “Natural Law” push. The tie to putting women in their rightful role is significant if not the primary motivation. Demonizing, or at least diminishing the status, of LGBT people may simply be the leverage much like claiming disease is the motivation for restricting immigration.
It would be very valuable to have an investigative reporter documenting the crew that is supporting the “Natural Law” anti-trans effort. I bet there are some very twisted people involved with miles long trails.
Dan B
@Sister Golden Bear: Magnus Herschfeld was the director of the LGBT research institute. It’s not mentioned in the most prominent histories or on the internet. Most Americans and many Jews would have supported this first book burning had it been known. Start withe the most marginalized groups and surprise the rest later. There are plenty of gay men who believe we’re no longer on the bottom of the totem pole. Won’t we be surprised!
patrick II
@tobie:
It’s, in part, valuing intelligence is a reaction to Trump. We see what having a dumb guy as president is like, so now, for Democrats at least, you had better be smart. That is except for the 40% who like him cause “he talks like me”.
Sister Golden Bear
@Dan B: Herschfeld was an amazing guy. And, yes, sadly I agree too many people wouldn’t have thought the book burning was a bad thing, if it had been correctly identified in the history books.