I am really enjoying these belly scritchees and my ladybug pacifier!
Open thread!
by Adam L Silverman| 76 Comments
This post is in: Faunasphere, Nature, Nature & Respite, Open Threads
I am really enjoying these belly scritchees and my ladybug pacifier!
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Flying Fox Rescue and Rehab (@wingspawsnclaws) on
Open thread!
by Adam L Silverman| 115 Comments
This post is in: 2020 Elections, America, Civil Rights, Climate Change, Criminal Justice, Domestic Politics, Economics, Environmental Rights, Foreign Affairs, Healthcare, Immigration, LGBTQ Rights, Military, Open Threads, Politics, Racial Justice, Silverman on Security
Those Who Seek to Control Others Know Power, Those Who Seek to Control Themselves Know the Way*
— Lao Tzu; The Tao Te Ching
There’s been a lot of sturm and drang in the comments recently, not just today, about all is lost, there’s no way out, we’re doomed. This has often been married to doom and gloom about the primary, the differences between the candidates, and whether idealism, incrementalism, or pragmatism is the way to win the 2020 election. How about we all just step back, take a deep breath, and focus on the actual fight that is the 2020 campaign. That fight has five components:
The fourth and fifth components are important to set the conditions for a more representative redistricting after the 2020 census. The first three are important for other reasons. Maintaining the Democratic majority in the House is a necessary, but not sufficient requirement to return the US back to a solid political and economic footing. Retaking both the presidency and the Senate are both necessary and sufficient requirements to actually being able to do so. If the Democrats retake the presidency, but don’t retake the Senate, the next president will be a lame duck before her or his hand ever comes off the bible at the inauguration. No one they nominate, for political or judicial or diplomatic appointments, will ever get a vote. Nor will any legislation that passes a Democratic majority House, other than, perhaps, continuing resolutions to keep the government running at a previous year’s top line budget number. Right now the only way to reverse the damage that has been done, and to ensure that we get good policy on the climate and the environment, on immigration, on healthcare, on the economy including trade, and on criminal justice is to not just be able to pass laws through both chambers of Congress, but to have a Democratic president to sign that legislation and her or his political appointees in place to administer the executive branch agencies and fill judicial vacancies.
The only good news out of Senator McConnell’s court packing scheme, and that’s what it was a decades long strategy to achieve a Republican majority in the Senate and a Republican president to fill the vacancies that McConnell abused the Senate to keep vacant, is that almost every judicial vacancy that McConnell has filled was a judgeship that was held by a judge appointed by a previous Republican president. Retaking the Senate stops this before McConnell can replace the last batch of Bush 41 judicial appointees still serving, as well as the older Clinton and Bush 43 judicial appointees who will begin to retire. And it also stops him from replacing the next three Supreme Court judicial vacancies, vacancies that are likely to come open over the next several years whether we’d like them to or not. And yes, I fully expect that even as I write this, McConnell and members of the White House Counsel’s Office and Leonard Leo are working on Justice Thomas to get him to retire next year to both prevent a potential Democratic president from being able to replace Thomas after 2021 and to once again put the Supreme Court majority in play as a successful campaign strategy to both reelect the President and maintain a Republican majority in the Senate.
That reality recognized, this is all in our hands. We have the ability, we have the power to elect a Democratic president in 2020 and a Democratic majority in the Senate, as well as maintain the Democratic majority in the House. This is what the 2020 election is all about. And yes, it is about healthcare, immigration, climate, environmental, economic, foreign, defense, criminal justice, and trade policy, but it isn’t actually about whether to take an incremental approach versus a revolutionary approach. Or something in between. It isn’t really about a choice between VP Biden or Senator Warren or Senator Harris or Senator Sanders or any of the other Democratic primary candidates. The simple reality we face as Americans is that nothing positive, not a single damn thing, is possible on healthcare, immigration, the climate, the environment, the economy, foreign policy, defense policy, criminal justice, and/or trade policy if the President is reelected and if the Senate remains in Republican hands. The real issue right now isn’t whether VP Biden’s healthcare plan is too incremental or whether Senator Sanders is too idealistic and therefore unrealistic and improbable. And that either of them have the ability to deactivate Democratic voters because they’re not having their ideological pleasure centers tickled. At the Federal level, the real issue is electing a Democrat president with a Democratic majority Senate and maintaining the Democratic House. That’s it. Almost any of the Democratic primary candidates is acceptable given this reality. And even a one seat Democratic majority in the Senate is as well.
This is all doable. It is within not just the realm of possibility, but also probability and plausibility. But it is only doable if we both recognize the actual strategic objectives we’re trying to achieve and don’t give in to despair. One of the ways that tyrannies are able to subvert democracies, regardless of whether it is a democratic-republic like the US or a parliamentary democracy or any of the variations in between, is by exhausting the citizenry. Exhaustion and despair are the means to that end. The President, Senator McConnell, their trusted agents, their surrogates, and their supporters want everyone strung out, worn out, and so stressed out they can’t respond effectively. Americans are tired, they’re upset, they’re angry. Even the President and his supporters are angry and they’re getting everything they claim to want. They are the sorest winners in history. How about we give them something to actually be sore about!
It is within our power to turn this around. And to do so at the ballot box, which is the easiest way to do it. Trust me, you don’t want me to have to write the post about how to deal with this the hard way! The ways and means to do this are registering voters and getting out the vote and staying as calm and focused as possible. This means that the Democrats in Florida need to get their acts together and mobilize the Puerto Rican community in Florida. Both those who have been there for a long time and those who have arrived since Maria devastated the island. Do actual, real outreach. Get them registered. Get them motivated. Stay in regular contact. Remind them who has their back, who recognizes them as fellow Americans, and who doesn’t. Similar efforts need to take place, tailored to the demographic realities of each state, in each state to ensure the broad, multi-generational, ethnically and religiously diverse coalition that is the Democratic Party turns out to vote in such large numbers than no amount of shenanigans, no matter who is behind them, can thwart the will of the majority.
The fight right now is to elect a Democratic president, a Democratic majority in the Senate, maintain a Democratic majority in the House, maintain all the Democratic governors and state legislatures, and flip as many to the Democrats as possible. And the battlespace for the presidential election is the Electoral College, no matter how much we’d all like to see it placed in the dustbin of history.
We can do this. We can save ourselves. No one else will. But to do so we must stay focused, we must pace ourselves, we must not give in to despair and frustration and infighting. Because the alternative is simply unacceptable.
Open thread!
* Also translated as “Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power” and “He who knows others is learned, He who knows himself is wise”, as well as several other variants depending on which translation one is referencing.
This post is in: 2020 Elections, Climate Change, Open Threads, Looks Like I Picked the Wrong Week to Stop Sniffing Glue
DETAILS for our seven-hour @CNN Climate Crisis Town Hall event on Sept. 4:
5pm – Castro
5:40pm – Yang
6:20pm – Harris
7pm – Klobuchar
8pm – Biden
8:40pm – Sanders
9:20pm – Warren
10pm – Buttigieg
10:40pm – O’Rourke
11:20pm – Bookerhttps://t.co/RkDJzddz3j— Liz Stark (@stark_talk) August 27, 2019
Every interested party will watch their candidate, and only their candidate; every campaign (plus the RNC and all its dark-money donors) will assign intern(s) to watch all the other candidates’ interviews, looking for soundbites to take out of context. Joy.
… Ten Democratic presidential hopefuls will appear in New York at back-to-back town halls on Wednesday, September 4, taking audience questions about their climate plans as scientists sound the alarm about global warming.
Along with the candidates, the network also announced the CNN journalists and the approximate appearance times for the presidential hopefuls during the seven-hour, live event…
CNN previously announced that Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir will join in the questioning throughout the evening.
A CNN poll conducted in late April showed that 96% of Democrats favored taking aggressive action to slow the effects of climate change. And Democratic activists in recent weeks have sought to elevate the issue, urging candidates to make climate change a priority…
Or then again, one or more candidates will provide answers so stunning in their brilliance that all existing rankings will be overturned, and the Sunshine Movement will focus their attention on getting that candidate elected. (Now *you* tell one.)
Election 2020 Open Thread: Be Careful What You Wish For, Climate Debate EditionPost + Comments (95)
This post is in: Don't Agonize - Organize, Open Threads, Vote Like Your Country Depends On It, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Ever Get The Feeling You've Been Cheated?
President’s campaign just sent this text message to supporters re @AOC
Let us not forget the President is from New York, has a tall building with his name on it on 5th Avenue and owns a luxe club on the coast!
Also 10 of the 20 largest cities by population aren’t on the coast pic.twitter.com/qSG4zSiDTi
— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) August 27, 2019
It’s now part of the official GOP program for keeping “America” in the hands of the rich, white, and Republican. Once again, Trump says the quiet parts out loud.
No it wouldn't. Eliminating the Electoral College would free the majority, multiracial Americans who live in our urban and suburban centers from minority rule. #onepersononevote https://t.co/dxBn5wUQ5z
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) August 21, 2019
"Silence our voices" Iowa has less than 1% of the total U.S. Population and even in a popular vote system they'd still have 2% of the total voting power in the U.S. Senate. And Iowa would still be a trove of hundreds of thousands of votes for either candidate. https://t.co/QgxuFOuCCz
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) August 22, 2019
For what it's worth, there are 4.7 million Republicans in California — which, taken together, would make them the 25th most populous state in the nation, about six spots above Iowa — and no president will come campaign for their votes, because there is no point. https://t.co/7RVn8PcPh7
— Matt Pearce ?? (@mattdpearce) August 21, 2019
The Electoral College is basically exhibit A of why we are technically a constitutional republic, not a majoritarian democracy. Which is fine! But defending it in the name of "democracy" is gibberish. https://t.co/jUc3FpLGtR
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) August 22, 2019
Open Thread: A Reminder That the Electoral College Needs to GoPost + Comments (108)
by $8 blue check mistermix| 104 Comments
This post is in: Our Failed Media Experiment
John has already posted about Bret Stephens, and Atrios has been all over it today, but I wanted to add a couple thoughts on this relatively unimportant topic.
First, one of the things Fox News and the New York Times have in common is that neither respects their audience. Fox is not up front about it – they tell their lies to the rubes without being obvious that the joke’s on any Fox viewer who believes their bullshit. The Times is far more transparent about the contempt in which they hold anyone foolish enough to subscribe. Stephens is a prime example – his consistent anti-intellectual war on supposed campus political correctness, and his overall “I am Bret Stephens of the New York Times, bow before me” attitude, makes him the kind of asshole that the Times thinks its readers deserve. There are plenty of (well, maybe a few) conservatives who would have more than one or two hobby horses and perhaps have less of a jerk attitude. The Times could have hired any one of these. Instead they chose someone who has, and will continue, to get into pissing matches and throw around their Times credentials for the lamest reasons possible. (I’ll leave the question of why a liberal newspaper needs to have conservative columnists in a world where nobody lacks for choice in finding opinions for another post.)
Second, someone at the U of Chicago or the LSE (the two schools he attended) must have given him an intellectual whupping that he can’t forget. Clearly, Brett has a thin skin that causes him to have many sads. I’m guessing more than a few of the moments that he keeps secreted away in his hand-embroidered, tear-stained sad holder occurred during his undergraduate or graduate career. I think most of us have seen a big-mouthed, full-of-himself, entitled male get his comeuppance when he trotted out an ill-constructed argument for a position that a teacher didn’t agree with. It would be easy to blame that teacher’s liberalism for their lack of acceptance, but in most cases it’s probably the fact that the student did a poor job defending their argument that’s more important than the political persuasion of the faculty member. Stephens probably got his hide chapped a few times in class, can’t forgive it, and has continued his noble crusade against what he perceives as political correctness to this day.
My most memorable example of an entitled male getting his comeuppance was at the U of Chicago, back in the 80’s during a campus debate over divestment from South Africa between the leader of the divestment movement, who struck me as a poseur of the first order, and President Hanna Grey. He came ill prepared, with facile little arguments that probably went over well in late night sessions around a bong but were pretty weak in the harsh sober light of day. She handed him his ass, in a cool, calm and collected manner. Of course, he was right, but he couldn’t make his case. Bret is wrong, and can’t make his case. In the realms of politics and philosophy (Bret’s college majors) it’s the job of a college faculty to teach students to make their case well. Bret probably didn’t get that job done at either of his alma maters, he’s sad, and now we have to watch him cry in public. It would be a tiny tragedy if he weren’t so well compensated.
by John Cole| 59 Comments
This post is in: Gamer Dork
I have 45 minutes before I have to go do something, so I thought I would check out classic WoW since my old guild is getting back together. Blizzard has completely nailed the experience:
FFS, you had one fucking job and fifteen years to do it.
This post is in: 2020 Elections, Open Threads, Politics, Our Failed Media Experiment
Joe Biden launched a new campaign ad on healthcare:
This ad wasn’t easy for me to record.
Health care is personal to me. Deeply personal. pic.twitter.com/a8UNsnkLhI
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) August 27, 2019
Overall, I think it’s an effective ad because it drives home the personal stakes of the healthcare fight. It capitalizes on Biden’s strengths — the heart-on-the-sleeve political style and Obama-adjacent positioning.
Like every Democrat, Biden is calling out Trump for trying to yank the rug out from under people who access coverage under the ACA (and the tens of millions with employer-based coverage who are protected from insurance corporations reimposing preexisting conditions, etc.). The ad sort of implies that plans to replace the current system with single payer are just as bad as what Trump is doing, which isn’t true, but that’s where the primary battles will be fought, and Uncle Joe is drawing a line in the sand.
Bernie Sanders has an op-ed in the Columbia Journalism Review that’s worth reading, IMO. It outlines Sanders’ plan to save journalism. A snippet:
At precisely the moment when we need more reporters covering the healthcare crisis, the climate emergency, and economic inequality, we have television pundits paid tens of millions of dollars to pontificate about frivolous political gossip, as local news outlets are eviscerated…
WHEN I AM PRESIDENT, MY ADMINISTRATION will put in place policies that will reform the media industry and better protect independent journalism at both the local and national levels.
For example, we will reverse the Trump administration’s attempts to make corporate media mergers even more likely in the future. We are not going to rubber stamp proposals like the new plan to merge CBS and Viacom into a $30 billion colossus…
Sanders proposes a number of measures to counter media consolidation, empower unions, promote local media company ownership and beat back Facebook and Google’s choke-hold on digital advertising. I hope the eventual nominee adopts some of the concepts, if not the specific proposals, because it’s proving difficult to maintain a functioning democracy without an independent press.
Biden’s Healthcare Pitch and Sanders’ Journalism Op-EdPost + Comments (87)