Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Found liable for massive fraud, is required to post a massive bond, gets a break, then files a *fraudulent* bond!

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

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

The new republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

In my day, never was longer.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Republicans would impeach Biden if he bit into a whole Kit Kat rather than breaking the sections apart.

The lights are all blinking red.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

Biden: Oh no. We’ve upset Big Pharma again.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

Days Since JD Vance Insulted Women Across America: Zero

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

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Repubs in Disarray!… Open Thread: Lee Atwater Wept

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The ‘smart’ ones don’t mind the racism, of course, but they wish the Oval Office Squatter could be a little more discreet in front of the media kiddies…


Reader Interactions

164Comments

  2. 2.

    Major Major Major Major

    CNN just did their stupid lottery whatever for the debates. God, every time I’ve opened Twitter today has been a mistake.

    In lighter news, I just finished a very solid draft of the first space opera story I’ve written since college!

  3. 3.

    Martin

    House GOP leaders raised the “send her back” chant at breakfast with VP Pence this morning & cautioned, “we cannot be defined by this,”

    Oh, honey, that ship sailed 3 years ago.

  4. 4.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Major Major Major Major: Yesterday, twitter surprised me with a new layout. I can get used to where things are, but it’s twitchy as all get out. I’ll be trying to read something and the whole feed will jerk.

    I realize many juicers already believe twitter is obnoxious. This is just more so.

  5. 5.

    hueyplong

    Name one republican officeholder who has acknowledged that so much as one white republican is racist.

    99% of the people ID’d as racists by white Republicans are non-white. The other 1% is Robert Byrd.

    It’s about time the media, Democrats and everybody else acknowledged this in a way that even the inattentive can grasp.

    Pretty much everyone I’ve seen ID’d as “not having a racist bone in his body” is racist as hell.

    Kind of sick of it.

  7. 7.

    Martin

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Harris v Biden again, Warren v Sanders. This doesn’t help voters.

    Oh, just noticed. It’s White Night 1 and non-White Night 2. Way to go CNN. Really stepped on your dick with that one.

  9. 9.

    Mary G

    Washington Examiner has an article about how some of the less crazy Republicans are trying to get the genie back in the bottle:

    But these same Republicans were so alarmed by the “send her back” chants, which Walker estimates were voiced by 35% of the 8,000-strong crowd at Trump’s Greenville, North Carolina, rally, they made a special plea to Vice President Mike Pence to stop it from happening again. Several made their concerns public.

    The president during the rally did not scold the engaged crowd after they responded to his mention of Omar with chants of “send her back” in a scene that one Republican operative likened to a “scary,” vigilante mob. Rather, Trump paused, as he typically does when his rally audiences chant, and then mentioned Omar by name again and continued.

    “It’s totally unacceptable,” Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said. First elected to Congress in 2002 and a professional political operative for years prior, Cole, 70, indicated that Trump could be in trouble with elements of his winning 2016 coalition that he has yet to lock down: swing voters, independents, women, and white college graduates in the suburbs.

    “I don’t think using that kind of rhetoric and expressing that kind of sentiment ever helps,” Cole said. “I see no political upside to it whatsoever and I see lots of downside.”

    Not gonna happen, boys. Twitler stopped for 13 seconds last night to bask in the chanting and he’s unable to lay off the adulation. I bet T-shirt vendors are printing up thousands with “Send them back” on them.

  10. 10.

    hueyplong

    @Mary G: Even more offensively, they don’t care about whether there is a moral upside and instead only care about whether there is a political upside.

  11. 11.

    germy

    Was the genie ever in the bottle?

    Remember, William F. Buckley wrote in his magazine that he suspected the Birmingham church bombing was the work of a “crazed negro.”

  13. 13.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Mary G: I thought that today too when he claimed he disapproved of the chant, and bunches of Rs fanned out to say he didn’t like it. He won’t be able to stop himself from doing it or something similar again. He doesn’t have enough self control.

  15. 15.

    Mary G

    I know it’s the Daily Mail, but this story is enraging:

    Heartbreaking picture emerges of Honduran father visiting his daughter, 13, on life support in NYC after she hanged herself because ICE rejected his asylum for FOURTH time – but he’s now allowed to switch off her machine

    He’s supposed to go back to detention in Texas by July 27th.

    ETA: words from their family attorney:

    Family lawyer Anibal Romero blamed the Trump administrations asylum stance as one of the main reasons why Heydi tried to end her life.

    ‘Words matter, tweets matter,’ Romero told DailyMail on Thursday.

    ‘When the president threatens to deport millions of people, it really causes anxiety, causes fear, especially in children who are afraid of losing their parents. Politicians should be very careful with the words that are used. It doesn’t matter that it’s on social networks. … Today it’s Heydi, tomorrow it will be someone else.’

    This applies to thousands of children and it makes me sick too see it happening here in my name.

  17. 17.

    jimmiraybob

    Does anybody have August 15 in the pool on when they’ll drop all pretense and start screaming “String her up!”?

  19. 19.

    germy

    The horror is that even if drumpf resigned tomorrow or stroked out or choked on a chicken bone, the folks who line up for his rallies will be ready to vote for the next lunatic.

  20. 20.

    TenguPhule

    Trump to nominate Eugene Scalia, the son of the late Supreme Court justice, as his next secretary of Labor

    Fucking small world of assholes.

  21. 21.

    dmsilev

    @Martin: The threshold for the third debate is much higher (2 percent polling AND 130K donors, vs. 1 percent polling OR 65K now), so hopefully that will thin the herd far enough that everyone will fit on one stage. Though, maybe two nights each with 4 or 5 people wouldn’t be too bad.

  23. 23.

    Jeffro

    Keep it up.

    Keep banging on GOP officials about everything trumpov says, about everything criminal about him that comes out. Make them clarify exactly what it was he ‘said wrong’.

    Keep banging on the media to do their jobs and bang on GOP officeholders.

    I know it feels like they’re wearing us down, but it works both ways…and we’re gonna win. He depresses his own ‘independent’ and ‘swing voter’ turnout with every hate-tweet and hate rally.

  26. 26.

    AThornton

    Does the little box labeled “Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment” have a function or is it there just for shits & giggles?

  28. 28.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @germy:

    Monica Crowley, Fox promoter of bigoted conspiracy theories, named to top Treasury post.

    WHUT.

  31. 31.

    Kraux Pas

    @dmsilev: I actually dont mind some of the future also-rans being on stage for now. Prettymuch everyone has put forward some solid ideas and arguments that the eventual nominee may adopt.

    I even enjoyed seeing Marianne Williamson up there. No way should she be president. But i liked hearing from her.

  32. 32.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @AThornton:

    Does the little box labeled “Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment” have a function or is it there just for shits & giggles?

    It’s good for about 20 minutes, near as I can tell.

  33. 33.

    Jeffro

    @germy:

    The horror is that even if drumpf resigned tomorrow or stroked out or choked on a chicken bone, the folks who line up for his rallies will be ready to vote for the next lunatic.

    True enough, but I kinda think they will come across as less of an authentic racist/faux evangelist asshole than trumpov himself. Too ‘calculating’, perhaps? What does the next GOP nut do to prove he’s just. like. trumpov., only even MORE so, to the tea party base? LOLOL. Good luck with that. They are already mainlining the hard stuff. Good luck with the methadone program, Repubs!

    Ain’t nothing like the real thing, baby. Ain’t nothing like the real thing…

  34. 34.

    dmsilev

    @AThornton:

    Does the little box labeled “Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment” have a function or is it there just for shits & giggles?

    Leading theory is that it’s part of some twisted psychology experiment.

  36. 36.

    jl

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: As a Warren supporter, the first night line-up is OK with me. I think Warren and Sanders will be civil to each other. Hickenlooper will be there to call Sanders a death camp commie, and Delaney to call him a kooky socialist dreamer, which will draw his ire. Warren will come off better than a tape loop of the progressive 2016 pitch. Klobuchar might stand out as the (IMHO) best centrist, at least on policy. Against Warren, O’Rourke and Buttigieg will look like weak tea.

    I double checked that twitter account for the second night. Poor Joe will get mauled by Harris again. I think Harris is a smart enough politician to not do a rerun of the bus issue, and I doubt Biden will be prepared for a new line of attack from Harris, but I could be wrong.

  37. 37.

    Brachiator

    @TenguPhule:

    A bit on Scalia the Lesser

    The younger Scalia served as Solicitor of the Labor Department from 2002 to 2003 after his appointment by former President George W. Bush.

    He represented Bush in 2000 in the Supreme Court’s Bush v. Gore case over the Florida election recount. He also represented Wal-Mart in 2006 against a law in Maryland that would have required large companies – those with more than 10,000 employees – to spend more of their health care money on employees.

  38. 38.

    germy

    @dmsilev:

    Leading theory is that it’s part of some twisted psychology experiment.

    It’s a placebo button, like the button at the crosswalk. (Most of the crosswalk buttons in my town do nothing. There’s one or two new ones that actually affect the traffic lights, but the rest are just theater)

  42. 42.

    Gin & Tonic

    Having spent this week in the company of our 2-year-old grandson while his sister and mother are away and his father is at a conference, I can safely say I’ve made some bad choices in life. Should have skipped the kids part and just gone straight to grandchildren – they’re way better in every way.

  43. 43.

    Mary G

    @jl: I’m not sure Bernie will be able to lay off Warren given the way she’s sped past him in the polls, leaving him in the dust.

  46. 46.

    TenguPhule

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Should have skipped the kids part and just gone straight to grandchildren – they’re way better in every way

    You say that now, come 15 years later….

  48. 48.

    Jeffro

    @Jeffro: Side note on ‘authentic racist/faux evangelist’: isn’t that weird how that’s the combo that wins the day in the GOP these days? It used to be ‘faux racist/faux evangelist’ (or at least ‘hint at racism, and be mostly evangelical’). Now the evangelicals are so desperate and so willfully blind, they sign on with the antithesis of their savior’s values just ’cause he mouths the words So. Hard. But the racism sure does – gag me – trump everything.

    Anyway…if we do our jobs right, win this election, and then unwind as much of the institutional advantages that are currently propping up this minority-of-a-minority, the GOP will never again hold the WH or a majority in either house. Let’s get to work!

  50. 50.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Ordinarily I wouldn’t mention either of these guys, but I just saw a twitter clip in which a bug crawls into Ted Cruz’s mouth while he’s talking to Hannity. It was awesome.

  51. 51.

    Brachiator

    A sobering commentary from CNN

    The silence from other world leaders in condemning US President Donald Trump’s most recent racist comments has been deafening. There have been remarks from Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, who said: “That’s not how we do things in Canada,” and that a “Canadian is a Canadian.” The outgoing British Prime Minister, Theresa May, said that Trump’s comments were “completely unacceptable.”

    Otherwise, the world, it seems, is turning a blind eye to the most powerful office in the world being used to make overtly racist statements.

    Trump appears to have intimidated other world leaders. Or, for now, they just don’t want to have to deal with him.

  55. 55.

    germy

    “He’s now trying to destroy me and destroy my reputation, destroy my economic situation, destroy everything,” Mr. Dershowitz said of Mr. Boies. “I would put my sexual probity up against David Boies’s any day of the week.” https://t.co/rMpbeSJqw5— Matt Murray (@murraymatt) July 18, 2019

  56. 56.

    jl

    On the fascist hate party front, Trump, and his Trumpster flunkies, and the GOP, will just not be able to contain themselves. No way they can contain the hate to scary other people (and even that did not work in 2018). Found this at Paul Krugman’s twitter:

    @BennettJonah
    Sen. Josh Hawley tonight: “It’s time we ended this cosmopolitan experiment and recovered the promise of our republic. Let’s start with this: America is not going to become the rest of the world, and the rest of the world is not going to become America.”
    https://twitter.com/BennettJonah/status/1151278921649987584

    As Paul Krugman notes, the word “cosmopolitan” should scare anyone familiar with European anti-Semitism. The word has been code for anti-Semitism since its origin in Czarist Russia, and had a rebirth in Soviet Communism. Closely related phrasing has a history in pre-WWII European conservative monarchists, and with the Nazis. And the concept is pervasive in general European anti-Semitism, see the Dreyfus Affair.

    These authoritarians are like the old Soviet KGB saying “Give me the man and I’ll give you the case”. Their hate speech and vilification will always start with dark people and immigrants, and undocumented resident. But they can’t help but let it spread to any group that tends to oppose them on anything. The Jews will be swept in somehow at every opportunity, while the Trumpsters parade their fealty to Netanyahu as the real test of a real Jew. Elderly and disabled who protest about GOP lies on health care will be called unfit and parasites. Young people will be vilified when they protest about student debt and global warming.

    So I revise my prediction. It will start with Trump’s own instincts that tell him to re-run the failed 2018 strategy of smearing brown people and immigrants, and calling every Democrat a commie. But it will inevitably spread to a general vicious hate and smear fest against any community that has a policy disagreement and voices it.

  57. 57.

    Brachiator

    @germy:
    Oooh, I like this one. I was thinking about it the other day.

    It’s a placebo button, like the button at the crosswalk. (Most of the crosswalk buttons in my town do nothing. There’s one or two new ones that actually affect the traffic lights, but the rest are just theater)

    I’ve been told by people in the know that the button doesn’t call a green light faster. It gives pedestrians a little more time to cross the street. Otherwise the lights are timed for cars.

    But all these years people misunderstand the purpose of the button.

    Note that I will happily stand corrected if it turns out that I have been lied to.

  58. 58.

    BrianM

    Since it’s an open thread. Old-timers might remember Jim Henley of the Unqualified Offerings blog and his gradual transition from libertarianism to liberalism around the time of the Iraq war.

    I wanted today to link to his “my-sister libertarianism” blog post (the one where, via a nice story, he said he wouldn’t want to apply a rule to anyone that he wouldn’t want to apply to his own sister. The site is gone (since he had cancer at a point, I expect that means the worst), but it’s preserved via the Wayback Machine. I don’t know how to navigate through the preserved site to find an essay. Does anyone know how? Does anyone have a link? It was a useful essay, and it’s a shame for it to disappear forever. I’d like to preserve it.

  59. 59.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Earlier today, don’t remember which thread, there was some discussion of Trump’s telling use of “Sir” In self-serving anecdotes.

    In addition to the “Sir” tell, which Daniel Dale has so ably parsed, there’s another bit of Trumpian rhetoric I’ve only recently paid real attention to, though he’s been using it for at least a couple of years.

    “Blah blah, as you probably know…”

    “As you know better than anyone…”

    “Blah blah blah, and you all know this…”

    As with “Sir,” I’m sure this signals something significant. Haven’t spent much time thinking about it, but now that I’m attuned to it I’ll pay attention and see if a pattern emerges.

    Note: This is qualitatively different than the similar “Not everybody knows…[that Lincoln was a Republican]” or “More and more people are learning about blah blah [Frederick Douglass was a great man]…”

    Those are simply tells that Trump himself has learned a piece of common knowledge for the first time in his sorry life.

  61. 61.

    germy

    @Brachiator: CNN is the station that interviewed those republican activists and tried to pass them off as just everyday citizens who happen to like drumpf.

  62. 62.

    TenguPhule

    @jl:

    But it will inevitably spread to a general vicious hate and smear fest against any community that has a policy disagreement and voices it.

    And then it will get much worse.

  63. 63.

    Mandalay

    @Kraux Pas:

    I actually dont mind some of the future also-rans being on stage for now. Pretty much everyone has put forward some solid ideas and arguments that the eventual nominee may adopt.

    Agreed. Swalwell had no chance of being president, but I welcomed his focus on guns. Ditto for Inslee on the environment.

    But there are also good reasons why these folks can’t get above 1%:

    In remarks made at a conference this past Saturday, Gov. Jay Inslee said that if elected, he would ask soccer star and Seattle local Megan Rapinoe to serve as his secretary of state.

    He said at the progressive Netroots Nation conference that one of his first acts as president would be to get a secretary of state “who has asked us to embrace more unity across the world and more love rather than hate.”

    “My first act will be to ask Megan Rapinoe to be my secretary of state,” Inslee said to a chorus of cheers. “I haven’t asked her yet, so this could be a surprise to her.”

  65. 65.

    germy

    @Brachiator: There is a brand new crosswalk button a few blocks from our house. I’ve tested it during early morning walks (no traffic) and it seems to almost immediately give me the right of way whenever I press it. Also emits a satisfying little “beep!”

    The older ones, as I have said, do nothing. One of the older ones doesn’t even press. It’s frozen. What a society.

  66. 66.

    chris

    @jl:

    It’s time we ended this cosmopolitan experiment and recovered the promise of our republic.

    Xeni Jardin pointed out the word count. It’s an updated 14 words.

  68. 68.

    Gvg

    @AThornton: it used to work. Then the site broke for about the third time and after the experts tried a bunch of things that didn’t work, it was declared the owner was going to have a complete rebuild by experts. We had some fund raising and there have been announcements etc. testing soon. In the mean time annoying little broke things like the names not sticking are not getting touched anymore. I think some of the attempts to fix just made things worse.

  69. 69.

    jl

    @Mary G: ” I’m not sure Bernie will be able to lay off Warren given the way she’s sped past him in the polls, leaving him in the dust. ”

    Warren has not sped past Sanders leaving him the dust (though I wish that were true). Warren has caught up with Sanders and the have recently been moving in tandem in a rough tie, both continuing to rise slowly (Warren on her steady upward climb, and Sanders recovering from a slump). I think this is the case in both the national and early caucus and primary state polls.

    The reason I think Harris will gun for Biden again is that her big boost from the first debate has faltered and she is dropping, while Biden, like Sanders, is recovering from his big slump. Harris doesn’t want to risk losing the big separation the top four (Biden, Harris, Sanders and Warren) have with the others, who will become nobodies pretty soon if they can’t change things.

    With all due respect, I don’t know where commenters here are getting their info on relative movements in the polls. If it is from the electioneering crap put out in twitter and the media by the various campaign operatives and lamebrain innumerate pundits and news actors, it isn’t worth anything. They just say stuff that is, as far as I can gell, 100 percent self interest and zero percent evidence they actually look at the data.

  71. 71.

    Kraux Pas

    @Mandalay: Yeah, i wanted to like Inslee at first because of his strict focus on climate and energy. But he dodnt impress too much on stage and there was much groaning to be heard when he tried to portray himself as the principle leader for female bodily autonomy and the only one who cares about the climate. Overstepping.

  73. 73.

    Steeplejack

    I’m fine with Scaramucci being disinvited everywhere. If it has to start with racist Republicans, fine. Maybe it’ll work its way up to CNN and MSNBC.

  74. 74.

    JanieM

    As to crosswalk buttons: I spend a lot of time in Boston and Cambridge, and at least half the time when I see people press the crosswalk button, they not only don’t wait for a walk light, they barely break stride. So why the hell do they press it, stopping or delaying all the people who have to just sit there and wait for the light to turn green, with no pedestrians in sight?

    I never drive in Boston myself (I walk or take the T), so it’s not that I identify with the drivers. It’s just that the stupid, selfish inefficiency of pressing the button when you have no intention of using it irritates me.

    I suppose this is the pedestrian version of the Boston driver….

    /grrrrrrr

  75. 75.

    jl

    @chris: We have to hope that an ideology and vocabulary that combines the joys of decaying fin de siecle European monarchies and democracies, and empires, and the Nazis, and Soviet communism, is not a winning formula.

  77. 77.

    Millard Filmore

    @jl:

    Elderly and disabled who protest about GOP lies on health care will be called unfit and parasites.

    If you are not working hard to make me rich, you are just an evil, lazy, moocher.

  78. 78.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kraux Pas:

    I even enjoyed seeing Marianne Williamson up there. No way should she be president. But i liked hearing from her.

    Cannot agree with you there. The sooner that embarrassing anti-science charlatan is booted from the stage the better, IMO.

  79. 79.

    germy

    @JanieM: I haven’t lived in Boston in forty years. Is there still a large homeless population? I remember homeless everywhere in ’79. In the park, the library, the streets. Lots of men who talked to themselves; people who I imagined had been abandoned by the mental health care industry.

  80. 80.

    Mandalay

    @germy:

    CNN is the station that interviewed those republican activists and tried to pass them off as just everyday citizens who happen to like drumpf.

    CNN is also the station that pays pundits to give their opinions on Trump when they are secretly bound by non-disparagement agreements.

    None of them are going to publicly criticize Trump for anything if they know that they will be getting a certified delivery letter from Trump’s lawyers the following day.

    CNN thinks that their viewers should not know this.

  82. 82.

    JanieM

    @germy: No, they press the button when there’s no need for it because traffic is light enough so that they can and do just go ahead and cross, or cross in a gap even when the light is green. Sometimes this isn’t possible, of course, but very often it is.

    And some of these are intersections where there isn’t an automatic walk light in the cycle unless someone presses the button. E.g. :

    At intersections with actuated signal controls, the button functions as a human detector, alerting the system to the presence of a pedestrian and requesting a “WALK” signal as soon as possible. In some cases, you may have to push the button to cross; otherwise, the system doesn’t know there’s a pedestrian waiting and will proceed through its cycles without ever displaying a “WALK” signal. In other cases, pushing the button simply reduces your wait time.

    From here.

  84. 84.

    Jay

    @Brachiator:

    There is a long global history of other nations not speaking to matters of US Domestic Politics.

    Both May and Trudeau opined on the subject in their own manner because the same poison is being injected into British and Canadian politics by the same Financiers, the same “Consultants” and amplified by social media hordes and robots, foreign and domestic.

  85. 85.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Brachiator:

    The silence from other world leaders in condemning US President Donald Trump’s most recent racist comments has been deafening.

    And then the article literally follows up with other world leaders condemning Trump’s words.

  87. 87.

    chris

    @jl: Interesting, for certain values of interesting, that none of this is new, it’s all been done before. Those who do not learn from history…etc.

  89. 89.

    Martin

    @Brachiator: Actually, that varies a lot. Local city engineers make the decisions on how to operate the lights. Some cities do it on demand (the button counts as a car would plus extends the time). Some cities time the lights, so it doesn’t call it faster, but it does ensure the light lasts for a given period). Some cities do combinations.

    In my city none of the lights are timed. They all use loop sensors in the road to measure traffic. That’s combined with a general schedule for how long to cycle for. After 10 or 11PM, it’s purely on demand. During busier hours it’s a combination – sometimes the left turn light won’t fire if there is no car in the turn pocket. In all cases in my city, the pedestrian light and timer will NEVER activate unless the button is pressed. The button performs the function of counting as if another car arrived, as well as setting the pedestrian timer.

    Next city over, entirely different set of rules.

  90. 90.

    jl

    @Betty Cracker: I agree. I hope Warren and Sanders strong policy talk drowns out her very sub-par New Age nonsense. Sometimes she sounds like a damned cult leader.

    If the top four keep their separation from the others for next month or two, time for the DNC to winnow out most of the others. Corporate interests will want to set the bar low enough to keep the people they’be been giving big money too, though. I think Harris was in that group a while back, but, like Klobuchar, I think she is too independent for the corporate funders’ tastes. I do have questions about Harris’ artful waffling and convenient misunderstandings of some important policy questions, though.

  91. 91.

    Kraux Pas

    @germy: It sounded to ke like theyre pressing it, crossing tge street badly before the light changes, then leaving cars to languish at the lengthened red light.

    @Betty Cracker: Eh, im not too familiar with her body of work, so all i know i saw in the debate. Aside from her admonition against plans, which i disagree with, i didnt see any sort of anti-science position up there.

    Im way on board with campaigning on love, though. Albeit framed in a more election-friendly way than Williamson could seem to muster.

  94. 94.

    KithKanan

    @germy: To me I read it as they’re pressing the button and then jaywalking, so they’ve already crossed by the time the light changes to respond to their request.

    FWIW all the buttons around here work, though whether they near-immediately change the light or whether they just give the requested direction a longer cycle and illuminate the walk symbol depends. The completely timer-driven lights in my small town’s downtown area don’t have buttons since they don’t need them.

  95. 95.

    Martin

    @jl:

    Sanders strong policy talk

    Wait, what’s that? Sanders has no policy talk. He has slogans, with nothing behind it – an old white guy yelling about political revolutions is not a policy. Warren, that’s policy talk…

  96. 96.

    jl

    @chris: We have to hope that the vicious ugliness of throwing hate grenades at in every direction outside the circle of Trump’s hard core base will work for those who won’t or can’t learn the history.

    An articulate and forceful Democratic presidential candidate willing and able to explain it clearly to people will be very helpful.

  97. 97.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @jl: “If you can’t take their money, drink their booze and screw their women, you have no business in this place”
    Jess “Big Daddy” Unruh*

    *Long time Speaker of the State Assembly and State Treasurer(for the non-CA folk).

  98. 98.

    Mandalay

    @PsiFighter37:

    I have to imagine Inslee was joking.

    I’m certain he was joking. But it is such a lame thing to do. He knows he has no chance of progressing, and he feels free to say something cute/stupid. I’m sure it went over well with the crowd, but how is that going to increase his support? He’s never going to get the nomination, but he should be doing all he can to be taken seriously and make the next debates.

    The same with Joe Biden challenging Trump to a push up contest.

    I don’t see Harris and Warren engaging in this dumb shit, and I don’t want to either.

  99. 99.

    jl

    @Martin: With about a minute or less to answer each question, it sounds the same.

    Sorry to sound cranky, but I have no interest in obsessive candidate bashing, whether it is Sanders, or Biden or the supposed crazy boos Klobuchar, or the Franken-felling Gillibrand or anyone else.

  103. 103.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @jl: at some point he’ll start attacking her. he has no choice. he doesn’t have her intellect to out flank her on policy and now he can’t outspend her as she has ample funds to go the distance.

  104. 104.

    Another Scott

    @BrianM: The search box on the archived site in the Wayback Machine machine doesn’t work, so you’d have to just poke around if that’s all you had.

    Fortunately, though, a Google search for “jim henley my-sister libertarianism” turns up this which lists a link:

    http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2002/01/15/263

    Going to the Wayback Machine with that date (via the comb like thing at the top of the page) gets me to here:

    http://www.highclearing.com/uoarchives/2002_01.html

    but that particular post doesn’t seem to be there. Poke around and look for later captures.

    HTH a little.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  106. 106.

    chris

    @Betty Cracker:

    The sooner that embarrassing anti-science charlatan is booted from the stage the better, IMO.

    Yes, please! I’ve despised her for reasons for the last 30 years. Charlatan grifter.

  108. 108.

    jl

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: I think if Sanders is smart, he’ll team up with Warren to boost the joint cred of progressive policies and put a hurt on the underlings at the debate.

    You might have a point about Sanders’ smarts though. We’ll see.

    Edit: My reading of the poll movements is that centrists draw or give up support to both Sanders and Warren. Best bet is to put a hurt on centrist policy in general.

  111. 111.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Martin: he was on Rachel last week and he said he’s the only candidate willing to use the word “revolution”. Sad. He might as well said he’s the only candidate willing to say “Rumpelstiltskin”

  113. 113.

    JanieM

    @germy: I admittedly spend a lot more time in Cambridge than in Boston, but my sense is that there are fewer than there were. Someone who actually works in downtown Boston might have a better sense of it, or even some local knowledge of what has gone on in terms of shelters etc., which I do not have.

  114. 114.

    Jay

    @jl:

    The Grand Old Pedo’s are trying to pull back from last weeks racist mess and this weeks White Nationalist Nazi mess because it doesn’t poll well and will end their party for a generation.

    But Dolt45 believes he won the 2018 Midterms on racism and will double down, and probably “go there” soon enough. (N-word)

    For most Rethugs, it’s a tough call because Dolt45’s base is their base now. Anyplace they could win a primary election by going all Justin Amash, is gonna go Democratic in the General.

    Any place that’s gonna go Democratic in the General and many that won’t, will see them lose their primaries to a Better Nazi if they come out against Dolt45.

    It’s the “Good German’s Dilemma”.

    Most ReThugs will be as quiet on Nazism, Racism and White Nationalism as they are on the Deficit.

    As Gwen Snider Is Uncivil has noted, when she started doxxing Nazi’s in Philly, far too many held junior positions in the local and State ReThugs Offices and Campaigns.

  115. 115.

    different-church-lady

    @Mary G:

    “It’s totally unacceptable,” Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., said.

    Yes, Tom, so unacceptable that you’ll be joining the calls for Trump’s removal, correct?

  116. 116.

    Kay

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    The headline (which I know the reporter doesn’t write) is a little deceptive. It looks like these employees aren’t paid 15 dollars an hour because they’re salaried, so it comes out to less if they work a lot of hours – which while it might still be unfair that they’re categorized that way (maybe they should be hourly- I don’t know- are they managers?- I don’t know why they’re exempt ) isn’t exactly the same as not paying them an hourly wage he promised.

    I’m suspicious of the timing of this story. D’s in the House passed 15 an hour minimum wage so I suspect it was released for maximum “hypocrisy!” value :)

  119. 119.

    Martin

    @jl: You give him an hour and he still has no answers.

    Don’t get me wrong – I’m glad he’s out there agitating. It’s working. His slogans are good, his intentions are good, but that’s not policy talk. Let the other people write the policy to achieve the slogan.

    FWIW, I’m a Harris backer, but I disagree with a number of her policies. I think her goals for housing are good, but her policies there are dumb. She’s stronger with other policy ideas. I think all of them are in dangerous territory on healthcare. I think it’s the only place I disagree with Warren on. Oh, I don’t think anyone’s climate policy makes any sense. I think Harris will get to the right policy by virtue of where she’s from.

  121. 121.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    He wants to play in the Democratic primary, he gets treated the same shitty way as other Democrats.

  122. 122.

    different-church-lady

    @AThornton: It has a function, but it’s been malfunctioning for a long time. It will keep your data in the fields for a period of time but it will time out eventually (within hours?). Supposed to be fixed when they roll out the rebuilt code they’ve been working on for a while.

  123. 123.

    chris

    @jl:

    An articulate and forceful Democratic presidential candidate willing and able to explain it clearly to people will be very helpful.

    Kamala! YMMV and I, of course, have no vote but I do like the hint of an iron fist in a velvet glove.

  124. 124.

    Another Scott

    @AThornton: It broke around the time the EU rolled out the GDPR. There was some commentary here that part of that was that FYWP made logins time out after ~ 30 min. And that’s roughly the time that the login entries ‘stick’ in the text boxes. But I don’t know if it’s really a FYWP change or something else. (Lots of other places I visit let me login for much longer.)

    We’ll see when the new code hits!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  125. 125.

    Peale

    @jl: I’m going to scream if either of those two makes busing an issue again. I know I know it’s about reinforcing his past, blah, blah, blah. But in 2019, it’s probably not a top of mind issue. People aren’t going to vote based on it. She’s got all the mileage out of the bus that she can.

  126. 126.

    Baud

    @Peale:

    I doubt it. The first debate was right after Biden had praised his working with segregationists. That’s well in the past now. If it’s brought up, it’ll probably be the moderators.

  127. 127.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    he gets treated the same shitty way as other Democrats.

    Guffaw.
    15 dollars an hour in the House is big. I don’t care what anyone says. Ted Kennedy pleaded for like 30 cents for 40 years. I was quite pleased to see that.

  128. 128.

    opiejeanne

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Thanks. I know where Essex is, didn’t know about Hole in the Wall.

    Have you been to the Mitchell Caverns? Oh damn! You drive right past on the way to Hole In The Wall. My memory is crap, but that’s more than 40 years ago.

  131. 131.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Martin:

    The problem now is that we got a revolution – it was Trump. Do we dare try for another one?

    Mais oui—une Révolution Française!

  132. 132.

    plato

    .@AOC presses acting DHS Sec'y McAleenan about that Facebook group: "Mr. Secretary, so you don’t think that 10,000 officers in a violent racist group sharing rape memes of members of congress points to any concern of a dehumanized culture?"Via WashExampic.twitter.com/7GNVfdLQaP— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 19, 2019

  133. 133.

    plato

    Twitter has suspended God account. Yet again. While the racist in chief still has his.

    There is no god.

  135. 135.

    Another Scott

    @Peale: There’s always bankruptcy, but that’s more Warren’s thing.

    Biden has a whole warehouse of closets full of bad legislation/comments/etc. that can be mined. (“Mine that closet!!” Heh.) If he fumbles questions in the upcoming debate the way he did the last time, well, I would hope he’d realize that he’s not going to be the nominee even if he does have an $11M war chest…

    We’ll see.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  136. 136.

    opiejeanne

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I just looked. You drive right past the caverns on the way to the campground. It’s been 40 years since I was there. I don’t remember much about it.

  142. 142.

    jl

    @plato: Baud 2020! knows! What does he know? Beer!

    I think that is a great and winning slogan, In my very very humble opinion.
    Baud 2020! would be a great spoiler this election. Sweeping up the beer guzzler vote would put a big dent in Trump support.

  143. 143.

    Kay

    @plato:

    Minneapolis is a great place. I lived there for 2 years. Very nice. I didn’t have a garage and people were always helping me start my frozen-solid car. MmmmMmmmMmmm, click click click. Tall people in parkas. You can’t see their faces. Just figures thru the blinding snow.

  144. 144.

    plato

    @Kay: Didn’t the MTM show, considered to be a pioneering show on single independent women succeeding on their own ‘happen’ in Minneapolis even in early 70’s?

  145. 145.

    Steeplejack

    @germy:

    That Twitter stream has some hilarious comments:

    “Nobody wants to see their sexual probity.”

    “Especially up against each other’s.”

  146. 146.

    Jay

    The girls are age 9, 10, and 13. They are US Citizens. Customs & Border Protection had been holding them at O'Hare Airport since 3AM. Reports now that they were just released after protesters showed up at the terminal with signs: "Let the Children Go"https://t.co/53HZnbVscN— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) July 18, 2019

  148. 148.

    jl

    @Martin: I still think if Sanders is smart, he’ll team up with Warren in next debate and work with her to damage centrists, both the other lower polling runts in their night and indirectly Biden in the other night. Not saying that is best for general, just what I would do if I were him. As I said, the big moves that cause big swings in Sanders numbers, arithmetic says it can’t be mainly Warren. it is due to swings in support for other centrists, particularly Biden. That seems clear to me from the time trends in polling I see on the internet, and what I get if I download the data and put in my own smoothers.

    The real differences between Sanders and Warren will become apparent when both of them can debate in a format with just three or four candidates, Sanders task is survive until then. That would be the time to take on Warren directly. I think Warren will beat Sanders badly on ability to explain clearly and simply the reasons behind the policies and why her approaches are better; and connect with convince non-committed voters, and on flexibility and understanding not only of what needs to be done, but how to get it done. But if Sanders doesn’t even get that far, his chances of beating Warren in a head to head contest are zero.

    Edit: and if Harris decides to commit to an appealing and convincing blend of center-left and progressive policy and they both aim at Sanders, he is done I think. Probably they can do the same to Biden. But Harris has to quit tactical waffling on some big questions, like her approach to Medicare for All (I think, I’m much less sure what calibration of commitment consistency and clarity she needs politically).

  149. 149.

    Jay

    Family donates organs of Honduran immigrant, 13, who hung herself when her father was detained trying to join her in U.S., his third attempt. “She was so young, so healthy, maybe she can live on in another person,” said Manuel Gámez, the dad. Read here: https://t.co/f3Rt9kidle— Miriam Jordan (@mirjordan) July 18, 2019

  154. 154.

    plato

    @jl: Given the way the corrupt thug has treated the rest of the world, they don’t give jacksquat about helping murkkka.

  156. 156.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Um, close, but no cigarillo. You left out the most important part:

    On lobbyists: “If you can’t eat their food, drink their booze, screw their women and then vote against them you’ve got no business being up here.” Other versions exist, for instance “If you can’t eat their food, drink their booze, screw their women, take their money and then vote against them, you have no business being up here.”

    (from Wikipedia)

  158. 158.

    PersistentIllusion

    @jl: Hick was my governor and he was ok. Now he and Bennet are reaching above themselves.

  159. 159.

    TS (the original)

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Should have skipped the kids part and just gone straight to grandchildren

    Grandchildren are the reward we get for raising children.

  160. 160.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Mandalay: FFS, it’s a little bit of humorous pandering to his home state voters. Anyone with a functioning brain knows he wasn’t serious. I could easily see a Wisconsin politician do something similar with Aaron Rodgers or, if brave, Giannis Antetokounmpo.

  161. 161.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @jl:

    I still think if Sanders is smart, he’ll team up with Warren

    That requires Sanders to swallow his own pride and to work with a woman as an equal, two things he has made it clear he is neither able nor willing to do.

  163. 163.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @TS (the original): Grandchildren are some of the rewards you get for not having killed your kids when they pissed you off beyond endurance. Or so I am told.

    (Another significant if negative reward is that you aren’t serving life + 99 in a supermax for the crime[s].)

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