Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

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

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

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

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Republicans in disarray!

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

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Saturday Morning Open Thread

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If Fitzpatrick is your rep, you might want to send him a thank-you message.

===========

And a long read, because it’s Saturday morning and worth the effort:

… Harry Reid, who retired in 2017 after representing Nevada for 30 years in the U.S. Senate—a dozen of them as chair of the Democratic caucus, eight of them as Senate majority leader—was supposed to be dead already; his pancreatic cancer was forecasted to prove fatal within weeks. But he’s still here, which is how I came to be talking with him, not long before Thanksgiving, in a conference room at the Bellagio, asking him why he remains the person to whom many of the Democratic presidential candidates come for advice and anointment.

Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren have both stopped by for meetings and checked in via phone. Pete Buttigieg made a special pilgrimage to see him. Bernie Sanders welcomed Reid to his hospital room after his recent heart attack. Before Mike Bloomberg started filing the paperwork to enter the primaries, he didn’t alert many Democratic Party figures—but he did call Reid…

If defeating Donald Trump rests on the Democratic Party unifying early and strong around a nominee, then the current state of things looks ominous. Polling suggests a scenario in which four different candidates could each win each Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina—with a fifth candidate, Bloomberg, the one with the deepest pockets, only then entering the primaries. Not a recipe for rapid coalescence—and conceivably a situation in which the Democratic convention arrives next July with candidates still scrambling for delegates and no one in possession of a majority. In that case, who could play the role of party elder to mediate among the various factions?

Barack Obama would seem to be the natural choice; he’s not only the last Democratic president, and the only one since Franklin Roosevelt to be elected twice with majorities of the electorate, but he remains the most popular figure, by far, in the Democratic Party. Yet it would be hard for him to appear to remain neutral. He’s good friends with one top-tier candidate, Joe Biden, his vice president for eight years; he’s expressed public doubts and private annoyance about the socialism-inflected movement inspired by another, Bernie Sanders; he’s had an uneasy relationship with a third, Elizabeth Warren, since she briefly worked for him setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; and Buttigieg has explicitly tried to position himself as the next Obama. (Obama actually has deeper roots and a closer friendship with a fifth candidate, Deval Patrick, than with any of these four.) But beyond this, Obama doesn’t want to be the party mediator or convention broker. Part of why he’s retreated from the public is because he’s hoping the party will move past him, and he doesn’t think that his being seen to have handpicked Trump’s opponent would be good for Democrats’ odds in the general election. There’s also the more self-interested worry about his legacy: What would it say about him if he couldn’t get a deal done, or if his handpicked candidate loses to Trump?

So if not Obama, then who? Not Bill or Hillary Clinton—they’re too loathed by some of the very factions they’d be trying to soothe. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is the de facto leader of the party, and people close to her hope and expect that she might be asked to mediate, based on her skill at steering the party toward the center-left. But she doesn’t have much of a relationship with any of the candidates or their campaigns aside from Biden, so she wouldn’t be able to exert personal suasion effectively.

That leaves the man, hairless due to chemotherapy, sitting across from me. Reid knows all the candidates who are within range of contention for the nomination; his former aides populate their campaign staffs. Perhaps most important, given the intransigent nature of Bernie Sanders and his supporters—who were notoriously reluctant to yield to Hillary Clinton last time around—Reid may be the only politician in America other than Sanders himself who’s trusted by Jane O’Meara Sanders, the senator’s wife and possibly most fight-hungry defender…

Reid said he agrees with Obama’s warning two weeks ago that the electorate was not as into progressive revolution as some candidates and Democrats on Twitter want to believe—but he also assured me that the party isn’t on a self-destructive bender. “You can go back and look at presidential primaries for as long as you want to go back, and candidates are always criticized in the primary for being too far to the left. But as time moves on, you wind up being more center. It’s going to happen this time, just like it always has,” he said.

Moreover, opposition to Trump will unite Democrats, he predicted, and heal the rifts among them. “We know that to say four more years of Trump will not be good for the country is a gross, gross understatement.”…

If the selection of the Democratic nominee does come down to Reid brokering a compromise, whom might he back? He won’t say, of course, and has promised not to make any endorsement until at least after Nevada’s primary, at the end of February. But he’s been talking up Warren since the 2016 election ended, and she was the candidate he was decidedly the most effusive about, calling her “one of the finest people I’ve ever worked with.” And many former Reid staffers occupy prominent roles on the Warren and Sanders campaigns and on lefty Twitter.

Does all this mean that you’re a secret liberal, or you’re more progressive than people thought? I asked Reid.

“I’m glad you think it’s a secret,” he told me…

Reader Interactions

172Comments

  2. 2.

    Steeplejack

    [. . .] Biden saying he’ll be able to make deals with Senate Republicans.

    I’m still waiting for someone to ask him why he couldn’t have done some of that when he was veep.

  8. 8.

    satby

    I think it’s just a losing strategy for a politician to publicly say what most of us here know: the Republicans can’t be “worked with”. Too many voters are low info ones and just wish there was an end to the vicious partisanship, and the media supports the myth that “both sides” are to blame. We may want a bare knuckle brawler to beat the crap out of the Republicans, but most people just want to be able to get back to ignoring the minutiae of what’s happening in D.C. daily. They have enough to do managing their own lives, and the connection between the policies of the parties and how it affects people’s lives has been deliberately obscured in a lot of news sources. Molly Ivins used to write about this problem all the time (miss her still).

  15. 15.

    Baud

    This represents a shift in how analysts, and the campaigns themselves, see the Democratic race. Many have spent months describing a leftist “lane” and a centrist one, but the competition between Warren and Buttigieg suggests it’s more complicated.

    While Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former vice president Joe Biden both have a certain appeal for working-class Democrats, despite their different platforms, Warren and Buttigieg both appeal to more educated voters.

  17. 17.

    Quinerly

    @OzarkHillbilly: I feel funny posting it here. I’m still stuck in NC and knew you weren’t on FB, plus Red messaged me so upset. Did you know Miles Long? Shorty’s son. (Liquid Gold) Maybe give Red a call. Heartbreaking.

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Quinerly:  No I didn’t. Anybody who wasn’t around 17 years ago, I don’t know. I may have met him briefly in the years since, but I wouldn’t remember.

    Of course, some of the folks who were around back then I don’t quite remember either.

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Your Daily Outrage:

    “Hey Mom, am so mad the jail had to strip me with all of my clothes off this doesn’t make no [sense]” the girl messaged, according to texts obtained by the Virginian-Pilot.

    Her mother responded by telling the girl to call her, but then asking her is they had made her take her pants off.

    Yes, the girl clarified, “all of my clothes off”.

    The media has not identified the mother, in order to protect the identity of the minor.

    The child visits her incarcerated father every weekend and was with the father’s girlfriend, Diamond Peerman, during the trip on 24 November. When they reached the facility, the pair joined a line to wait their turn to enter, Peerman said.

    Staff drew Peerman aside for additional screening after a dog sniffed and singled her out. She would have to be strip-searched, they said. Peerman then asked if the young girl would have to be strip-searched, too, and though they were told no at first, the staff spoke with a captain. Soon, they returned to tell the pair the girl would have to be searched, too, the local report said.

    The eight-year-old would have to consent to a strip search and if she didn’t, she would not be able to visit her father that day after the two-and-a-half-hour drive to see him.

    “I told her, that means you have to take all of your clothes off or you’re not going to be able to see your dad,” Peerman told the Virginian-Pilot. “That’s when she started crying.”

  21. 21.

    Baud

    SCAN saves time, the site says. It saves money. Police can fax a questionnaire to a hundred people at once, the site says. Those hundred people can fax it back “and then, in less than an hour, the investigator will be able to review the questionnaires and solve the case.” “Past students … have reported a dramatic increase in the amount of information obtained from people,” the site says. “Thus, costly and time-consuming outside investigation was reduced to a minimum.”

  22. 22.

    WereBear

    @Baud: People will write things down when they won’t say them.

     

    On the other hand, follow-ups in person still seem essential to me. But narrowing the field? I can see that.

  23. 23.

    Quinerly

    @OzarkHillbilly: you probably knew his father, Shorty. Plays drums with Ferd and Higgins. Miles was 31. Dad is married to Jackie from Liquid Prairie/Liquid Gold. Still playing there every other Sat when Red works.

  24. 24.

    Steeplejack

    Off to the grocery for me. Stocked (or being stocked) shelves, not many other customers, in and out. Then home for Everton-Chelsea and probably an afternoon crash nap. The glamorous life.

  26. 26.

    MomSense

    Woo hoo we’re up to double digit temps this morning!  Not looking at the feels like temperature.  Maybe if they were a bit more descriptive like the tears around your eyeballs will freeze I might change my mind.  Normally I would stay close to the fireplace, but forking car manufacturers decided that it makes more sense to remove the engine in order to change a lightbulb.  Off to the garage!

     

    Happy Saturday, Jackals.

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud:   More forensic bullshit parading as science.

    I wonder what the cops do with someone who answers every question with, “I want my lawyer” or “Fuck you.”

  28. 28.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @satby: I think this is exactly right.

    I think it’s just a losing strategy for a politician to publicly say what most of us here know: the Republicans can’t be “worked with”. Too many voters are low info ones and just wish there was an end to the vicious partisanship, and the media supports the myth that “both sides” are to blame. We may want a bare knuckle brawler to beat the crap out of the Republicans, but most people just want to be able to get back to ignoring the minutiae of what’s happening in D.C. daily. They have enough to do managing their own lives, and the connection between the policies of the parties and how it affects people’s lives has been deliberately obscured in a lot of news sources. Molly Ivins used to write about this problem all the time (miss her still).

    Frankly, I’d be happy with being able to ignore the minutiae of what’s happening in D.C. daily.

    I’ve decided to be careful what I say about the candidates I like less. I think they will not be the presidential candidate, but if they are, I want to be able to back them. So I’ve tweeted that we need to know what Buttigieg did at McKinsey and said nothing about Bernie so far. I do dis the billionaires freely.

    A psychologist friend of mine said “Attitude follows behavior,” which I apply to the current situation as meaning that the harsher words I use, the more I will dislike the candidates. So I’m holding back.

  29. 29.

    Kay

    @Baud:

     

    That’s wild. I’ve never seen it, but I see this all the time, so much so that I tell people not to phrase the answer like this:

     

    When asked why the police should believe his answers, Joyner had written, “I have nothing to hide.”
    “This is not the same as stating I did not lie,” the detective wrote.

     

    There’s a lot of variants of it- I noticed Nunnes used it the other day. He was asked “did you call (some Trumpy criminal)” and he answered that he hadn’t gone thru his phone records. They would consider that deceptive. It’s a simple question- “did YOU….” They’re not asking if they can PROVE he called. I can’t decide it if matters, is consistent enough to matter. It seems to me to be an indicator that they’re lying as often as it’s not.

  31. 31.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Quinerly:   He does look familiar to me, so I may have met him or just seen him play more than a few times. Jackie of course, I knew well back in the day.

  32. 32.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Cheryl Rofer:   I try not to dis any DEM. I may disagree with them on this or that but it’s certain sure I have a hell of a lot more in common with them than I do any GOPer.

  33. 33.

    ThresherK

    I want to know when we start getting thinkpieces from, say, the NYT Sunday Magazine, about voters who just “want a change” in the White House.

  34. 34.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud:  

    In 1994, two years after Hernandez’s death, Rezutko was asked in a deposition to describe his training in SCAN.

    “Not great,” Rezutko said. “Been to two schools. At the time, I hadn’t done an awful lot, maybe 40 or 50 interpretations, but I had been to a weeklong school in Indianapolis under the guy who … developed the procedure.”

    Joyner’s lawyer asked whether a person’s ability to read and comprehend the English language could affect the results of the questionnaire.

    “Well … you struggle with the same questions I struggled with when I went through the school, went through the sessions,” Rezutko said. “I guess it’s kind of like two and two is four. Why is it four? It’s two and two is four all over the world. Why it is I have no idea.”

    Rezutko, like officers across the country, took it on faith that SCAN works, without really understanding how or why.

    Oh well, I feel better already.

  36. 36.

    WereBear

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Rezutko, like officers across the country, took it on faith that SCAN works, without really understanding how or why.

    Sadly common, even in the sciences, because people don’t know their own biases.

    The German physicist Max Planck said that science advances one funeral at a time. Or more precisely:

    “A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.”

    This is so true I think immortality would kill us by other means :)

  37. 37.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud:   I love this part:

    In 2009, in his first days in office, President Barack Obama signed Executive Order 13491, barring federal agents from using waterboarding and similar torture while gathering intelligence. The order also did something else: It created a special interagency task force to study the effectiveness of various approaches to interrogation.

    In short, the government wanted to know: Which techniques work? Which ones don’t? In 2010, the research began. A task force, given the unwieldy name of the High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group (acronym, HIG), contracted with “world-renowned, Ph.D.-level scientists” who specialized in interrogation.

    Three agencies make up the HIG: the FBI, CIA and the U.S. Department of Defense.

    The HIG’s research program conducted tests, canvassed the scholarship on interrogations and produced scores of peer-reviewed articles. In September 2016, the HIG produced a 93-page review of its findings.

    The review devoted just one paragraph to SCAN. Its synopsis was short but withering. SCAN “is widely employed in spite of a lack of supporting research,” the review said. Studies commonly cited in support of SCAN were scientifically flawed, the review said. “When all 12 SCAN criteria were used in a laboratory study, SCAN did not distinguish truth-tellers from liars above the level of chance,” the review said. The synopsis also specifically challenged two of those 12 criteria, noting: “Both gaps in memory and spontaneous corrections have been shown to be indicators of truth, contrary to what is claimed by SCAN.”

    In a footnote, the review identified three specific agencies that use SCAN: the FBI, CIA and U.S. Army military intelligence, which falls under the Department of Defense.

    Head? Meet desk.

  38. 38.

    Anne Laurie

    @Baud: That article’s got Annie Linskey’s name at the top, and Linskey was hired specifically to hate-stalk Warren (which she’d already been doing for the Boston Globe since the Scott Brown days).  Anything Linskey says about Warren has to be taken with at least a grinder’s worth of salt, FWIW.

  39. 39.

    Kay

    You really can’t believe how much contempt the NRA has for NRA members:

    School Shield isn’t the only program that Ackerman McQueen says was used as a shell for the NRA to raise more money. According to its counterclaim, the NRA also used its Carry Guard insurance program as a vehicle to bring in more cash without providing much benefit for its members. The program was unveiled in 2017, and offered members insurance-backed criminal and civil liability protection. It also offered three levels of concealed carry gun training before shutting down earlier this year.
    The counterclaim alleged that Josh Powell, the senior NRA official responsible for Carry Guard’s development, “seemed generally dismissive of the training component of the program and kept referring to Carry Guard as nothing but an ‘insurance scheme.’” The ad firm said it resisted promoting the program until the NRA could deliver on their promises to members, and expressed that it wanted nothing to do with the so-called “scheme.”

    What’s bad for the NRA is good for Democrats. The fact that they’re a completely corrupt grift operation that is mired in litigation and infighting is just plain good news, and the opposition didn’t have to spend a penny or lift a finger- they did it to themselves.

  40. 40.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Cheryl Rofer: “Attitude follows behavior” seems exactly right to me. That’s one reason it’s good to make people suppress their racism in public. They can come to believe it’s unacceptable. And of course, we see the opposite in Trumpism.

  43. 43.

    Betty Cracker

    @satby: & @Cheryl Rofer:

    I think it’s just a losing strategy for a politician to publicly say what most of us here know: the Republicans can’t be “worked with”. Too many voters are low info ones and just wish there was an end to the vicious partisanship, and the media supports the myth that “both sides” are to blame. We may want a bare knuckle brawler to beat the crap out of the Republicans, but most people just want to be able to get back to ignoring the minutiae of what’s happening in D.C. daily. They have enough to do managing their own lives, and the connection between the policies of the parties and how it affects people’s lives has been deliberately obscured in a lot of news sources.

    Maybe I have the political instincts of a concussed garden slug, but I take the opposite view. I think it’s imperative for our candidates to tell the truth about what’s going on. Moreover, IMO, there’s never been a better time than right now to do it because the Trump era has made it so clear that the Republican Party is focused on personal and/or political gain instead of national interests.

     

    Sure, it’s a risk to call the Republicans out. But the bipartisan blather contributes to the “both sides” lie. We can’t get the people’s business done without a wave election that sweeps Republicans from power. Our candidates should tell the truth about that, IMO.

  44. 44.

    Steeplejack

    @HalfAssedHomesteader:
    Exactly. “I want to run on my track record with Obama, but not the parts where, uh . . .”

    Doesn’t he realize that the Republicans will find something too objectionable to work with about Joe “Corn Pop” Biden? ?

  46. 46.

    Kay

    I thought this was really good:

    These women all know they’re being catapulted into the epistemological wood chipper.
    It is worth recalling that Karlan—like Fiona Hill before her, and Yovanovitch before her, and Thunberg, and Carroll, and Karen McDougal, and Christine Blasey Ford, and Debbie Ramirez, and Sandra Diaz, and Lisa Page, and all the other women who have subjected themselves to the raging Trump campaign of abuse—was simply speaking the truth. In the face of lies, imaginary conspiracies, smear campaigns, and disinformation, each was simply relating the facts as she knew them.

  47. 47.

    debbie

    @satby:
    It’s those same low-information voters who believe there’s been no legislating by the do-nothing Democrats, ignorant of the bills stacked up on Moscow Mitch’s desk.

     

    @satby:

  50. 50.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Five-year-old Michael Clark Jr sat facing a judge in a Michigan courthouse with his entire kindergarten class in the pews behind him in solidarity. Each one of them held up a pink or red paper heart, some of them barely able to see above the wooden barrier dividing the courtroom.

    “There is not a dry eye in Judge Patricia Gardner’s courtroom,” Kent county, Michigan, posted on its Facebook page on Thursday as Michael and 36 other children were officially adopted. Michael became a foster child to Andrea Melvin and Dave Eaton a year ago, according to local news station Woodtv.com, before formally being adopted by them this week.

    Where did all this dust come from?

  51. 51.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @WereBear: Iris Murdoch used this phrase about a character becoming good from the outside in. You change the behavior, and there’s an internal impact too. We see this most in its absence, when neighbors who have lived in peace for decades descend into tribal genocide for instance. You let that genie out of the bottle and it’s hard to put back.

    Which is one reason the Trumpists and the Republicans are so horrifying in their gleeful trampling of norms. It’s hard to step back from that.

  53. 53.

    Steeplejack

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Semi-related: Rachel Maddow had a horrific report Wednesday or Thursday about the torture of Abu Zubaydah, including drawings that he made of the “interrogation techniques” he suffered. Ghastly. (I don’t think this video has any of the drawings.)

     

    These are straight-up war crimes or crimes against humanity. I’m surprised the story hasn’t gotten more publicity.

     

    One thing that shocked me was that Zubaydah went through all of this because he was supposed to be No. in in Al Qaeda, but then it was decided that, eh, he wasn’t even in Al Qaeda. And his lawyer says that (so far) it is impossible to find out who or what tagged him as the No. 2 guy in the first place.

     

    Zubaydah is still being held at Guantánamo. He has been in U.S. custody since 2002.

  54. 54.

    zhena gogolia

    @satby:

     

    Spme people just can’t deal with the concept of political rhetoric. They want to take every word a politician says absolutely literally.

  56. 56.

    Ken

    @Kay:

    It seems to me to be an indicator that they’re lying as often as it’s not.

    Per the classic quip, with Nunes (and Trump, Issa, et cetera) there’s an easier way – their lips are moving.

    Alternately, take the statistical approach in this XKCD comic.  If you assume every statement is a lie, you’ll be right well over 50% of the time.

  58. 58.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Last link before I leave: Private border wall construction continues despite court order

    The construction of a private border wall partially funded by rightwing allies of Donald Trump continued with vigor in south Texas this week, seemingly in blatant violation of a court injunction ordering work to be suspended.

    On Thursday and Friday, within three days of a temporary restraining order being issued, the Guardian found construction crews with at least 10 heavy machinery vehicles moving soil, digging trenches and positioning tall metal posts along the US bank of the Rio Grande in Hidalgo county, which forms the border with Mexico. A 3.5-mile, privately-funded concrete barrier is planned on the site, near Mission, Texas.

    The state court order was served to We Build the Wall (WBTW), an anti-migrant group founded by military veteran Brian Kolfage, and the landowners, Neuhaus and Sons LLC, whose land is situated between Trump’s proposed wall and the Mexican border.
    ……………….
    An employee of the construction company Fisher Industries, who identified himself as Sean, confirmed that work had continued uninterrupted – despite the injunction.

    “They [the construction workers] have told us they are not going to stop,” Sam Pena from the local sheriff’s office said on Thursday. The sheriff’s deputies filed reports documenting the ongoing construction work that appeared to be in violation of the court order.

    And, on December 5, the federal government launched separate legal action to stop the construction, on the grounds that it violated binational treaty obligations with Mexico. A temporary injunction was granted by the US District judge Randy Crane.

    That federal lawsuit, filed on behalf of the International Boundary and Water Commission (IWBC), states that required hydraulic studies proving that the wall would not worsen flooding on the river had not been completed, and scant detail about the planned work had been submitted.

    These are the same assholes who will scream longest and loudest about “law and order.” What they really mean is “only the laws I like and the orders against other people.”

  60. 60.

    senyordave

    Do I believe that the current GOP can be worked with?  Not for a second.  That being said I don’t see that it is a winning strategy for a Democratic presidential candidate to talk at length about how terrible the Republican party is.  You are implicitly telling those who vote Republican that they are terrible.  No matter how bad they are it doesn’t help to tell large groups of people that they are bad if you are trying to win an election.

    You can tell people who act or think a certain way that they are bad (i.e. “I don’t expect to get David Duke’s vote, and I am not going to try and get it”).  I think Biden calling out an individual on a lie was a very good move.  It reinforces his regular guy image, and projects a don’t fuck with me persona.

  61. 61.

    Betty Cracker

    @zhena gogolia: The idea that listeners have to sift through focus-grouped bullshit to figure out what the candidate really thinks might be one reason most people hate politics and distrust politicians.

  62. 62.

    Ken

    The elevators at work have screens with ads and news snippets.  Yesterday I noticed it showing “President Trump used an unsecured cell phone to place calls to world leaders”.  (Of course we BJ regulars learned that from Adam Silverman about six hours after Trump was sworn in.)

    Has anyone seen this getting play in other news channels?  If so, it is interesting to speculate why. My dream remains that someone is about to drop a tape of one of Trump’s calls, where he actually arranges a cash payment from some foreign leader in exchange for a change in US foreign policy.

  63. 63.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Kay: Yes, I came across that article last night. It’s well worth the long read. I’m so proud of the capable women (and men) who are bravely speaking the truth, oftentimes at great personal risk.

  67. 67.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Betty Cracker: I would go easier on the “work with Republicans” stuff than Biden is doing. Just kind of let people believe that is what will happen.

    I agree with you that Democrats need to tell the truth about policy. And to call out specific bad things the Repubs have done – so many to choose from! But each congressional district will have a different one that is meaningful to the people there.

    And bash Trump.

    But not a blanket condemnation of Republicans, even though they fully deserve it. senyordave has the reason why.

  69. 69.

    Steeplejack

    @senyordave:
    Some Twitter commenter said he misread the decision as Musk “not likable” rather than “not liable” and thought, “That’s fair.”

  70. 70.

    Betty Cracker

    @Cheryl Rofer: I don’t think it’s necessary to say everyone who voted for Republicans is an irredeemable shithead. Pin it on elected Republicans people already hate like Mitch McConnell and paint the party establishment as a hive of scum and villainy because that is the truth.

     

    IMO, we should underscore the fact that elected Republicans won’t stand up to Trump. We should point out that they are openly repeating debunked conspiracy theories that originated in Russia, turning a blind eye to blatant corruption and ignoring an ongoing and grave national security threat to appease Trump.  

  71. 71.

    danielx

    Spousal unit has informed me that the new washer requires a cheat sheet to operate, and has duly taped one to it. This is revenge for telling her to do what IT support people long to tell people every day – read the fuckin’ manual.

  73. 73.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @rikyrah: I saw this yesterday and it had me BAWLING!  I don’t know how any person could be unmoved by it, emotionally.  So sweet.  And so cool to see more and more of these sorts of scenarios showing and celebrating such key aspects of Blackness.  My wife works in animation IT and is friends with the guy who did the editing.

    As it happens, I just started listening to this excellent podcast Intersectionality Matters and the most recent episode was on Black hair and all the bullshit that Black women have to endure from our racist society.  Anyways, I’m a couple episodes in and I’m really enjoying the nuanced and in-depth discussions they have on the show.

  76. 76.

    zhena gogolia

    Somebody has grafted Trump’s head onto Jeff Bridges’ body in Dumb and Dumber as he makes his statement about flushing. It’s hilarious but I’m sure I’ll violate BJ standards if I embed it.

  77. 77.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:   The subhead on that Slate article:

     

    One used to speak truth to power. Now, one speaks truth to nonsense.

     

    This is a real problem, and politeness is not helping us greatly.  Which is not to say that Fiona Hill or Marie Yovanovitch went for politeness over accuracy.

  78. 78.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Betty Cracker: The Russia thing is hard to talk about. I’m preparing a post on why.

    On the whole, we don’t disagree on content, just intensity. Calling out specific Republicans on specific, carefully chosen issues, should be effective.

  79. 79.

    germy

    Yet another reminder of the negative consequences one-size-fits-all proposals like Medicare for All and Medicare for America would have. Under Medicare for America, the employer-provided coverage millions of Americans rely on would be at risk.— Partnership for America's Health Care Future (@P4AHCF) October 22, 2019

    Love reading replies to this kind of evil-front-group-sponsored post. In this case there are several variants of “my employer coverage blows.” https://t.co/yxBbTm6jPi— Roy Edroso (@edroso) December 7, 2019

  80. 80.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

     

    I’m generally in your camp, but I do think there’s a lot of opposition commentary on Trump so not every candidate has to say everything. A lot of it is being said. They can repeat it, or announce they’re in agreement, but they can let voters draw some of their own conclusions. They may not have to be led every step of the way and I think people are more comfortable having gotten there, to a certain extent, themselves. I keep thinking back to Bush 2004. It ended up like a bunch of chaotic yelling from the Left and Democrats. There were so many accusations and counter-accusations I’m afraid voters tuned it out.

     

    We can say “Trump is a liar”, or we can say “do you think Trump is a liar?” A lot of them do think he’s a liar and we didn’t have to tell them that. They got it the same way we did- from listening to him lie repeatedly.

  81. 81.

    germy

    The interesting thing I've always noted about Warren is that she won't share her tax returns and is reluctant to speak on her corporate past or history as a conservative. It's fair game. https://t.co/h03jSE3owG— Ameshia Cross (@AmeshiaCross) December 6, 2019

    This tweet from a Sinclair "journalist" has been up for 6 hours. If you google "Elizabeth Warren tax returns" the first result is a link to a page with the last 11 years of Warren's tax return. This tweet is a lie. https://t.co/pPYgZAswuu— Seth Cotlar (@SethCotlar) December 7, 2019

  83. 83.

    germy

    Nikki Haley also says, “The swastika was all about geometry, style, and trains arriving when expected – until my neighbor, Doris Glump, hijacked it last week and turned it into something vaguely sinister and, almost, anti-Jewish. Shame on Mrs. Glump!” https://t.co/H62w0NjHZ8— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) December 6, 2019

  84. 84.

    Steeplejack

    @germy:
    And then Cross hedged with this. (Not sure “hedged” is the right word.)

    Her tax returns as a corporate attny and in the private sector are what's at issue here. She hasn't released those.

    — Ameshia Cross (@AmeshiaCross) December 6, 2019

  85. 85.

    Ken

    @O. Felix Culpa: We don’t have standards, but the new ad provider does.  The obvious solution would be for every BJ regular to chip in twenty to fifty bucks a year to pay for the hosting services.

    (I am using “obvious” in the sense of, “for every problem there is a solution that is simple, obvious, and wrong”, although in this case it’s not so much wrong as vanishingly unlikely.)

  86. 86.

    Baud

    @Kay:

     

    It ended up like a bunch of chaotic yelling from the Left and Democrats.

    Thankfully, we’re much better now.

  87. 87.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    My You Tube feed dumped some video from one of these anti=Feminist mens right type. Curiously instead of harping on why girls have cooties like these twats do this Alpha Man Super Plus Plus was babbling on about how movies define masculinity.

     

    Dear god, so much idiocy words fail me.

     

    Being a California arsty type I have interacted with a lot of Hollywood people and it’s clear most of the time when they are depicting a macho man type they are doing it as parody or otherwise mocking the archetype. The conservative mind must be an amazing place were it hangs on to every product done by literal Left Coast Art F**s, the very people they claim to despise, like it’s the word of god.

     

    And then come on, go look at any social group or even politics. The respected senior males aren’t the over top movie macho types, the movie macho types are like Trump and viewed as some kind of buffoon. Yes, let’s all act like Crazy Uncle Larry, morons.

  89. 89.

    zhena gogolia

    I would like any of the people who are outraged by Biden saying he could work with Republicans to explain to me how Warren or Sanders plans to implement their ambitious programs without “working with Republicans.” They seem to be silent on that issue, so maybe one of their supporters could elucidate.

  90. 90.

    WereBear

    @UncleEbeneezer: I’m aware of it from black friends. It’s especially pernicious when there are corporate dress codes which exclude whole categories of hairstyles simply because they aren’t “white enough.”

  91. 91.

    JPL

    @Cheryl Rofer:  Thanks for preparing a post, but I don’t think it should be difficult to question the motive of the senators that spent the 4th of July with Putin.

  93. 93.

    Steeplejack

    @Ken:
    The obvious solution is to get a new ad provider, one that’s not apparently a subsidiary of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.

  96. 96.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker:

    Pin it on elected Republicans people already hate like Mitch McConnell and paint the party establishment as a hive of scum and villainy because that is the truth.

    I haven’t read every comment, but… this. There are a lot of (lean) Dem voters who really like that I-can-work-with-anybody stuff, but make McConnell the villain. And when you talk about the good old days and how you used to reach across the aisle, talk about John McCain* (or some fondly remembered local who can’t or won’t contradict you), not James Fucking Eastland.

     

    *and I’m the first to say that just about every aspect of John McCain’s reputation is wildly overrated, but that’s a fight for another time. His sanctified image could be useful.

  97. 97.

    Barbara

    @Steeplejack: Hedged is not the right word.  “Displayed her abject stupidity about tax returns” is how I would characterize it.  One doesn’t file “separate” returns for each source of one’s income, except in specific circumstances, like farm income, etc.

  98. 98.

    Betty Cracker

    @Cheryl Rofer: I look forward to that post on talking about Russia. IMO, our candidates are going to have to figure out how to talk about it, even though it’s difficult.

     

    Looks like Trump’s impeachment defense / reelection strategy will be to paint Biden as a corruption kingpin in Ukraine and accuse Democrats of complicity with foreign interference from that country. He has to muddy the water about his own corruption and complicity with meddling foreign powers.

     

    I think most gettable voters believe Trump is a liar, and the candidates routinely and righteously bash Trump. But what empowers Trump is the complicity of elected Republicans and the thoroughly corrupt Republican establishment — that’s the part we’re not emphasizing enough, IMO.

     

    Maybe after every single Republican in the House and Senate denounces Biden for a completely fake corruption story and calls his son a thief and a drug addict he’ll stop saying “I know these guys, and I can work with them — they’ll change when Trump is gone.”

  99. 99.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @WereBear: Yup.  This episode features an interview with Brittany Noble Jones, a Black newscaster who is suing her former employee for firing her for her hair not fitting their “professional” image.

  102. 102.

    Steeplejack

    @zhena gogolia:
    “Implementation” is off the table—for everybody—unless we take the Senate. It seems like everyone but Biden realizes that. They talk about their proposed plans without guaranteeing success and, in some cases, about things they could accomplish with Trumpian executive orders. Nobody is going to come right out and say, “Of course, we can’t get this done unless we take the Senate.” It’s a downer—not the upbeat motivation a candidate tries to project.

    Biden’s “The Republicans will come around and I’ll work across the aisle with them” doesn’t sound like upbeat motivation; it just sounds like so much bullshit, especially given his track record 2009-17. Why couldn’t he have used some of his stored-up Senate collegiality and credibility to get some stuff done? Rhetorical question.

    The answer can’t be just: “They hated Obama because he’s black.” The Republicans are still blocking everything right now, including anodyne bipartisan bills, and last I checked Nancy Pelosi is not a Negro. (Okay, she is a woman. ?) Biden is in for a rude awakening if he really believes this shtick.

    (I say all this as someone who will cheerfully vote for Biden, of course, and who actually likes him fairly well. But this issue really chafes me.)

  103. 103.

    Amir Khalid

    @senyordave:

    That Guardian story says the boys and their football coach were rescued by “a team of British divers”. It was reported at the time that the Royal Thai Navy (which, being the navy, is not short of divers) conducted the rescue operation, as one would expect; a Thai Navy diver who died during the rescue was eulogised, including in The Guardian, as a hero. Unsworth lives in the area and helped wth pertinent knowledge of the caves, which would be about the extent of any non-navy personnel’s participation.

  106. 106.

    Steeplejack

    @Barbara:
    From reading the thread I think Cross means “separate” chronologically. She’s dinging Warren for not releasing her returns from way back when she did work as an LLC and long before she was a public figure. It’s disingenous as hell at best. And of course she didn’t make that clear in her original tweet.

  108. 108.

    japa21

    The whole work or not work with Republicans in congress debate really boils down to what the electorate perceives.  I generally go with satby’s original comment.  People are tired of the bickering (mild) and want to believe that cooperation is possible. Yes, we enlightened jackals know that it isn’t possible, but aren’t even a big enough group to make this a top 9,000 political blog.

     

    Rather than calling out the Republican party as a whole I think it is more valuable for the candidates on the Dem side in the House and Senate races to call out their opponents for being unwilling to cooperate and being an obstacle to progress.

     

    BTW, from now on I am calling them the Republic Party.

  109. 109.

    Betty Cracker

    @zhena gogolia: Sanders and Warren aren’t completely silent on the issue, though I also wish they would be more explicit about calling out McConnell and elected and establishment Republicans for enabling Trump’s lawlessness and corruption. As for how they’d move their plans through Congress, I don’t find Sanders’ answer — hand-waving about “revolution” — persuasive, so I don’t support him. But that’s his answer: electing Sanders and other progressives to outnumber Republicans and steamroll the remainder. (Again, I don’t find this persuasive, but that’s Sanders’ answer.)

     

    Warren says her first priority if elected would be to take measures to get money out of politics and address DC corruption because she (correctly, IMO) identifies that as the chief obstacle to passing any legislation that puts the interests of regular people over that of donors and lobbyists. Implicitly, that would mean fewer Republicans, since they are mostly responsible for the problem. Warren’s site has a lot of details on this, including what could be done via executive order, etc., if you’re interested.

  111. 111.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @OzarkHillbilly: None of you political “sophisticates” seem to be able to grasp that Biden’s “work-across-the-aisle” shtick is mostly virtue signaling to what you might call the Rodney King caucus: That admittedly-politically-unsophisticated chunk of the electorate that gets upset with the current nastiness in DC & pines for a return to the days when a Ted Kennedy and a John McCain could occasionally find common cause for the good of the USA.

     

    Uncle Joe is no dummy – he knows this is a blue-unicorn fantasy – but it’s what those voters (a not inconsiderable percentage of the electorate) want. Joe is selling himself as the guy who can best manage it (& kick Trumpolini’s flunky-wiped arse on the way). IMO he is perfectly prepared to go on TV 6 months into the Biden presidency & say,

    Y’know, folks, we’ve tried & tried to work with our Republican colleagues, but – something awful has happened to people I once called friends. They’re just not thinking about what’s good for Americans.

     

    So it’s time  for this: [reaches under the Oval Office desk & produces a tire iron]

    Remember that an extra 8-10% in the popular vote can mean the difference between a solid victory & a thumping so epic that it could send our russophile fascisti slithering back under their rocks for a generation & give the sane folks time to scrub the snake tracks off the marble floors of government.

  112. 112.

    zhena gogolia

    @Betty Cracker:

     

    I have no doubt that if Warren is the nominee I will work for her, donate to her, and support her wholeheartedly and tell all my friends about how great she is. I’ll do the same about Biden if he’s the nominee. We’re fighting fascism, and the USA will be OVER if Drumpf gets another term, so I’m not that interested in the details. I feel Gabbard and Sanders are supported by Russia, so I cannot support them, but other than that, any of the candidates will get my complete and unadulterated support should they become the nominee.

    ETA: When I say I’m not that interested in the details, I mean FOR MYSELF. I just get upset when people start “canceling” candidates like Biden or Buttigieg because they say something political.

  116. 116.

    Fair Economist

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Frankly, I’d be happy with being able to ignore the minutiae of what’s happening in D.C. daily.

    Yeah, and from my experience in California the only way is total Democratic control. As long as the Republicans had a veto point we had chaos every year with the budget. Once the Democrats took over, poof, the urgent crises stopped. Chronic crises like the housing shortage have continued but now the legislature has at least been moving in the right direction.

  117. 117.

    Amir Khalid

    English Premier League Leaders Liverpool’s Alexander “Ox” Oxlade-Chamberlain scores against hosts Bournemouth off a wonderful 70-yard pass from his captain, Jordan “Hendo” Henderson.

    And Naby Keita scores a second after a beautiful backheeled assist from Mohamed “Mo” Salah. That it was Ox and Naby, who are not first-string players, who scored shows the immense depth of the squad under Jürgen Klopp.

    Meanwhile Everton, who on Wednesday lost the Merseyside derby at Anfield 5-2, have made up for it by beating Chelsea 3-1.

  118. 118.

    kindness

    I’m not going to fret about the race.  Super Tuesday will filter out the chaff, and that includes the billionaires.  And that comes relatively early so whom ever the Democrats nominate, they’ll have a half year at least to put out their message.  Now there will be [email protected] (see John, we listen).  Tulsi, maybe even Bloomberg if Wall Street really takes their own vapors to heart.  I expect not though.  Wall Street will vote for Trump even as he loses badly.  And Trump will lose badly.  America doesn’t want a mobster Don President.  Even Fox can’t hide that awfulness.

  119. 119.

    trnc

    @senyordave: That being said I don’t see that it is a winning strategy for a Democratic presidential candidate to talk at length about how terrible the Republican party is.  You are implicitly telling those who vote Republican that they are terrible.

    Thats why we should always say Professional Republicans. Also every dem candidate should eplicitly state that their policies will never be signed to hurt people who dont vote for them.

  120. 120.

    laura

    @danielx: two fine looking project managers overseeing infrastructure week, excuse me, breakfast, to make sure you’re doing it right and for industrial hygiene if you slip up seems prudent.

    also, too, Hair Love – All The Feels! So beautiful so tender so Oscar worthy, this obvious labor of love.

  121. 121.

    Amir Khalid

    I had a slight disappointment at the guitar shop today. They said that HQ in Singapore still hadn’t sent over the Squier Standard Telecaster I ordered two weeks ago. This coming week for sure, they promised. Meanwhile, I’m still accepting name suggestions.

  122. 122.

    J R in WV

     

    I am especially enraged by schools, usually all-white managed charter schools, who treat black girls like shit on photo day, or prom day, or just in general. Who on earth cares about someone else’s hair style? Unless it is literally (yes, literally!) crawling with lice or other tiny parasites not normally found on everyone, just stay away from people’s hair style.

     

    Then you don’t give them hell, you treat their parasitical infection appropriately … and don’t say a freaking word about it to anyone, HIPPA mutherfuqers !!

  123. 123.

    Amir Khalid

    Tottenham Hotspur, who managed to lose to Manchester United on Wednesday, lead Burnley 4-0 today. Asia’s Best player Son Heung-Min scored after a solo run that started just outside Spurs’ penalty area, and it’s being called a goal-of-the-season candidate. Spurs and England captain Harry Kane has scored two today.

  124. 124.

    J R in WV

    @Amir Khalid:

     

    the Squier Standard Telecaster I ordered two weeks ago. This coming week for sure, they promised. Meanwhile, I’m still accepting name suggestions.

    There’s a great old blues tune about “Queen Bee” — do you have a Queen Bee yet?

  128. 128.

    Amir Khalid

    Tottenham Hotspur lead visitors Burnley 5-0 with 15 minutes to go, and there’s a good chance they win today.

     

     

    @J R in WV:

    Listening right now to Taj Mahal doing that song. That name is definitely under consideration.

  129. 129.

    Jinchi

    Obama actually has deeper roots and a closer friendship with a fifth candidate, Deval Patrick, than with any of these four.

    Wow, I forgot Deval Patrick was even in the race. It’s probably a bad sign for him that everyone talks about Cory Booker as the last black candidate remaining.

  130. 130.

    Amir Khalid

    Fulltime Bournemouth 0-3 Liverpool. Liverpool go 11 points* clear at the top of the table. Next up, the Manchester derby with City hosting. Will it be the erratic City that prevails, or the erratic United?

     

    *Leicester play tomorrow and will probably cut that lead back to 8 points.

  131. 131.

    Jinchi

    @senyordave: That being said I don’t see that it is a winning strategy for a Democratic presidential candidate to talk at length about how terrible the Republican party is.  You are implicitly telling those who vote Republican that they are terrible.

    Funny how nobody ever sees it as a losing proposition when Republican presidential candidates slam the Democratic party.

  133. 133.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Cheryl Rofer: I have been doing that for a while.  I also have been pushing back on some of the narratives that I see as distorted and damaging.  I was supporting Harris, but now that she is out I am going to refrain from joining any camp for a while.  I didn’t know who my next choice will be, but I am not going to find myself having to eat my words or say “Yeah, but…” in the future.

  134. 134.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Jinchi:

    Funny how nobody ever sees it as a losing proposition when Republican presidential candidates slam the Democratic party.

    Different electorate.  Without the hate freaks, Republicans have nothing.  Republican voters stated eloquently what they want in 2016 – raging, idiotic white supremacy.

  136. 136.

    patrick II

    @satby:

    Then you are just letting the Repblicans set the agenda once again, because when you won’t be able to  work with them (and you won’t)  ol’ Mitch gets  up there  and says  that once again Democrats have been unable to come to a reasonable compromise on this  — the reasonable compromise being whatever Mitch wants and the democrats are just too partisan. I would rather brand the Republican party for the  crazies they are.

    It’s going on right now on the impeachment vote, the Republicans have been stating  how partisan it is because only democrats will vote forit — as if every Republican vote against impeachment was a  matter of conscience.

    Please, some  Democrat,  call them the partisan hacks they are, and when a partisan hack like Turley testifies with complete dishonesty, call him for the hack by asking tough follow-up questions rather than avoid cross-examining him and only ask democratic witness questions.  By backing away from the perfidy of the republicans, the democrats just make the he-said, she-said case easier for the republicans and stronger to the voters.

  137. 137.

    Brachiator

    @UncleEbeneezer:

     

    @WereBear: Yup.  This episode features an interview with Brittany Noble Jones, a Black newscaster who is suing her former employee for firing her for her hair not fitting their “professional” image.

     

    This also intersects with the recent firing of actress Gabrielle Union from the tv show America’s Got Talent.  Supposedly, one of the reasons she was let go was because the show’s producers thought that her hairstyles were “too black” for the show.  This is insane and insulting on so many levels.

  138. 138.

    Jay

    In 2006, the VRA “repassed” with 33 of 55 ReThugs voting yes, 22 no’s,

    In 2019, one Republican yes, 52 ReThug No’s.

    So much for bipartizanship.

  141. 141.

    germy

    @Jay:

    NEW signs #Russia‘s relentless info ops targeting US troops are paying off-almost half (46%) of armed services households now say they see #Moscow as an ally

    Aww, maybe Russia just wants to be friends.

  142. 142.

    opiejeanne

    @Omnes Omnibus: Harris’s supporters (mostly black ones) are being pressured on Twitter to consider X candidate. It’s rude.

    I finally told one Yang supporter  who was harassing me, Ms Whitey, to knock it off because a lot of us are in mourning and this is like asking the widow at her husband’s funeral who she’s going to date next.

    We also aren’t interested right now in the consolation prize of Harris as VP or AG.

    This will take some time for most of us, and for me especially because I don’t see anyone I’m happy to back just yet.

  143. 143.

    Jinchi

    @Frankensteinbeck: Republican voters stated eloquently what they want in 2016 – raging, idiotic white supremacy.

    Sure, but you can’t argue that while also arguing @senyordave: ‘s  point.  He was worried about Democrats implicitly branding Republican voters as terrible people.  Your argument literally calls them out for it.

     

    Personally, I think shame is a strong motivator. If Republican voters don’t want to be branded raging, idiotic, white nationalists, they have to draw the line at voting for a racist, raging, Nazi-sympathizer for president.

  144. 144.

    Another Scott

    @Anne Laurie: I haven’t read the piece, but the excerpt rubbed me the wrong way in all kinds of ways, including being far too much horse-racy.  I’m not surprised that the writer has a history of axe-grinding.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  145. 145.

    Brachiator

    @satby:

     

    I think it’s just a losing strategy for a politician to publicly say what most of us here know: the Republicans can’t be “worked with”. Too many voters are low info ones and just wish there was an end to the vicious partisanship, and the media supports the myth that “both sides” are to blame.

     

    I take your point and agree that the average voter doesn’t care about the political in fighting in Congress and just wants things to get done.

     

    However, the Democrats seem often to miss easy opportunities to nail the GOP for its lies and failures, especially when voters can quickly confirm this.

     

    Early on even conservative voters were angry with mainly Republican politicians who lied about improving health care options.  You had politicians hiding from people, avoiding town hall meetings, etc.

     

    It should be simple for the Democrats to point out GOP lies and failures.  Democrats talk about how the Trump tax cuts only benefit the wealthy.  But they need to hit home the fact that all Democrats and the few moderate Republicans left were excluded from participating in drafting the legislation.

     

    It’s not just that Republicans can’t be worked with.  It’s that the Republicans consistently exclude Democrats and then push legislation that hurts everyone, including their own supporters. The only people the GOP cares about are the plutocrats who throw money at them.

     

    The GOP is fulfilling the dream of government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich,

  146. 146.

    Jay

    The Public Universal Friend[note 1] (born Jemima Wilkinson;[note 2] November 29, 1752 – July 1, 1819)[2] was an American preacher born in Cumberland, Rhode Island, to Quaker parents. The Friend suffered a severe illness in 1776 and reported having died and been reanimated as a genderless evangelist named the Public Universal Friend, and afterwards shunned both birth name and gendered pronouns. In androgynous clothes, the Friend preached throughout the northeastern United States, attracting many followers who became the Society of Universal Friends.[3]

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Universal_Friend

  147. 147.

    Another Scott

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I just finished reading Eleanor Gordon-Smith’s “Stop Being Reasonable”.  It’s a good read about how difficult it is to know what we know, how people think about who they are, skepticism, and free speech.  It’s all complicated and there are no easy answers.  It’s inconvenient that there is no vaccine against harmful propaganda (yet), but such is life.

    Recommended.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  148. 148.

    dww44

    @kindness: I can only hope that your prediction proves to be the actual outcome.  It’s long past time that the GOP was actually delivered a full scale electoral whomping. Probably won’t happen though, as there are still many around me who should know better who are fully invested in white male GOP land with the occasional attractive and wealthy blonde thrown into the mix.  Gotta keep those suburban white women on board.

  150. 150.

    Jay

    @Brachiator:

     

    it’s tough out there for a Democratic person. There isn’t a cable/online propaganda network that caters to their every need. There is a MSM so fair and ballanced that Nazi vs. Habitat for Humanity volenteer gets bothsided, life and death issues get horseraced, civillity is prized when punching up, ignored when punching down, and living off the clicks and outrage as much as Facebook.

     

    And in all this, you get 30 seconds of editted camera time to try to make a point,

     

    so, Fight for 15 vs. 400 bills sitting unconsidered in Yurtle the Turtle’s intray, ( if they havn’t been round filed)?

     

    keep in mind, “this” is for the “low informed voter”, which in this day and age, is someone who often chooses to remain “low informed”.

  153. 153.

    Jay

    @Brachiator

    and the Media Environment doesn’t just exist in the US, it is through out the Western World, backed by a handful of billionaires and millionaires,

    The Sun has published a network map of "hard-left extremists" in the Labour Party, made by "former British intelligence officers". Its sources include the neo-Nazi website Aryan Unity (h/t @johnedenuk) and the antisemitic conspiracy site The Millennium Report. pic.twitter.com/wUnBIyNfvt— Daniel Trilling (@trillingual) December 7, 2019

    And “national” Media, have been either coopted by control of the purse, or intimidated into milktoast reporting by “working of the Refs” and other forms of pushback,

  155. 155.

    Jay

    A rocket fired from a drone targeted the home of populist Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf on Saturday, lawmakers from his Saeroon party said, following one of the bloodiest nights in recent weeks in Baghdad.

    The drone attack, which caused little damage and left no casualties, followed a deadly attack by armed men near Baghdad’s main protest site on Friday night, which left at least 23 dead, police and medical sources said.

    https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5388303

  158. 158.

    Amir Khalid

    @Baud:

    What, if anything, will the Space Force actually do? It’s been my impression so far that what Trump has in mind is like the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, but, you know, American.

  159. 159.

    Bill Arnold

    @Baud:

    It’s still not a civilized amount of parental leave, and f-in Ivanka appears to be taking some credit, but I’m still LOL-ing.  (Something something something side effect.)

  162. 162.

    Bill Arnold

    @Amir Khalid:

    What, if anything, will the Space Force actually do? It’s been my impression so far that what Trump has in mind is like the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, but, you know, American.

    It’s for defending American Supremacy against aliens space pirates.
    It will be a vehicle for expensive R&D into exotic weaponry and active&passive sensors, some of which might look out, which is a overall probably good thing (e.g. asteroids are real). Almost all space telescopes look down. Probably some ASAT stuff too, which is more practical but also more dangerous. Threats to global navigation satellites (GPS, etc) are particularly worrying.

  163. 163.

    chopper

    @Baud:

     

    i’m sure the orange menace will use it as an excuse to try to spike the expected federal employee raise next year.

  164. 164.

    Amir Khalid

    United win the Manchester derby 1-2. At the start of the season, City were tipped to hold off Liverpool and claim their third Premier League title in a row. It’s an major upset for City to lose at home to anyone, let alone United. City are now 14 points behind Liverpool’s tally of 46. And not even in second place: That’s Leicester City, a mere eight points behind before today.

  165. 165.

    Bill Arnold

    @chopper:

    i’m sure the orange menace will use it as an excuse to try to spike the expected federal employee raise next year.

    That’s M. Mulvaney’s domain. D.J. Trump doesn’t much care.

  166. 166.

    Brachiator

    @Jay: 

    it’s tough out there for a Democratic person. There isn’t a cable/online propaganda network that caters to their every need. There is a MSM so fair and ballanced that Nazi vs. Habitat for Humanity volenteer gets bothsided, life and death issues get horseraced, civillity is prized when punching up, ignored when punching down, and living off the clicks and outrage as much as Facebook.

    The media, or what’s left of it, is not going to change any time soon. But this does not absolve the Democratic Party from their need to develop and to communicate a coherent message.

    And BTW, the MSM is not a monolith, and the larger problem is the ongoing disintegration of the journalism industry. More and more newspapers are simply dying, leaving nothing more than well-funded right wing outlets. And yet, someone like Bernie Sanders has little trouble finding true believers to carry his message on social media and the remnants of traditional media.

    keep in mind, “this” is for the “low informed voter”, which in this day and age, is someone who often chooses to remain “low informed”.

    I don’t really believe in the idea of the low information voter. There are plenty of people, supposedly well-informed or ill-informed who stubbornly cling to their biases and beliefs. And the bottom line is that the idea is to get through to as many people as possible, no matter what. It doesn’t matter how wise we are if we can’t prevail come election time.

  169. 169.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:

    I seem to recall that lie detectors are unreliable and no longer used in a court of law. And I notice that neither is SCAN used in courts of law. But cops pay for it, to be used to “confirm” that a person is innocent or guilty. With no concept of tester’s biases, known or unknown.

    Seems like a load of crap because a lot of people do not write the same style or words in any specific situation, or even know/understand the proper use of many words/grammar. Most of us do misuse grammar often, or at least use it outside of common expected usage.

    SCAN seems like a load of crap. A very huge load.

  172. 172.

    Amir Khalid

    @Mo MacArbie:

    The collection, in order of acquisition:

    1. The Girl, Squier Affinity Telecaster in Butterscotch Blonde with maple fretboard
    2. Sister, Epiphone Les Paul Studio in black
    3. Lady, Squier California Stratocaster in Olympic White with maple fretboard
    4. Missy, Yamaha F-310 dreadnought-size acoustic in natural

    I have on order a Squier Standard Telecaster in Vintage Blonde with Indian laurel fretboard, name TBD. I plan to have this Tele in standard tuning; The Girl will be in Keef tuning.

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