Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

In my day, never was longer.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Trump makes a mockery of the legal system and cowardly judges just sit back and let him.

If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

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

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

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

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

“woke” is the new caravan.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

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

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Election Year Open Thread: Biden’s An Old Pro At This

Election Year Open Thread: Biden’s An Old Pro At This

by | 307 Comments

This post is in: , ,

I was looking for a less entendre-friendly title, but… Joe is what he is. And proud of it, bless the man.

It still feels to me like he’ll blow up his nomination, because that’s been his track record. But this is a brave new century, so maybe my cynicism is misplaced!

As long as he picks a decent younger candidate for his VP (psst: KAMALA HARRIS, Joe), I’ve steeled myself to cheer for President Biden. Joe 2020: YOUR CHOICE COULD BE SO MUCH WORSE

Politico, at the beginning of December — “Biden struts as his rivals bite the dust”:

… The chest-thumping two months before the Feb. 3 caucuses is a risky approach for Biden, given the fluidity of the race, especially in Iowa, where Biden has steadily lost ground in polling since January. And historically, Iowa voters have demonstrated their willingness to make last-minute shifts, falling away from a safe bet or getting behind a relative unknown, just before the caucuses.

But despite his wobbly debate performances, lackluster fundraising and verbal mishaps, Biden is still standing. And nationally, he’s still leading in the polls…

“Biden’s been in the race since April, and despite ups and downs, and many gaffes and missteps, and attacks by many of the other candidates, he’s still standing as the overall frontrunner,” said Garry South, a Democratic political consultant from California who long expressed doubts about his home state senator’s presidential bid. “So there’s something to crow about, I would say.”…

Biden’s confidence also rests on his position in South Carolina and a raft of Southern Super Tuesday states that include more diverse populations and more conservative Democrats. To that end, Biden said Monday, if he faltered in Iowa, he could still win the nomination. But if he won Iowa, Biden argued he’d be almost unstoppable.

And Biden said he doesn’t see anyone even close to him in South Carolina polling who could surge even if they won Iowa.

“There is no one else who is in a position to all of a sudden to do what Barack [Obama] was able to do,” he said. “I think even if we didn’t do well in Iowa, we’re still way in the game in terms of where we are on Super Tuesday and where we’ll be in South Carolina and Nevada. I feel confident about those two, and I don’t see something fundamentally shifting.”…


Reader Interactions

307Comments

  3. 3.

    Raoul

    Sorry to be OT, but Congressman John Lewis has indicated he has stage IV pancreatic cancer.

    Fuck 2019. Straight to hell.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    And Biden leaps from second-to-last to first place on my list simply by being the first candidate to acknowledge that Hillary Clinton is a real person. And it only took a year, and a month before the first primary.

  6. 6.

    lamh36

    @lamh36:

    Rep. John Lewis: “I have decided to do what I know to do and do what I have always done: I am going to fight it and keep fighting for the Beloved Community. We still have many bridges to cross.”

    “”I have been in some kind of fight — for freedom, equality, basic human rights — for nearly my entire life. I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have now.”

  10. 10.

    Another Scott

    Not to be that guy, but – Meh.

    RCP’s average has Uncle Joe at 28.3%. He’s been between 25 and 30% for the last year, except for the bump in April-June.

    It’s still early. Nobody’s voted yet.

    I really wish that political reporters would talk more about policy implications, the people they have working on their campaigns, who they would likely appoint, what they’re doing for local, state, and other national races, who have endorsed who and why, etc., etc. and spend much less time on the latest polling numbers.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  12. 12.

    John Revolta

    Joe seems to sense that confidence, and even a bit of chutzpah, are more important than the occasional foot in the mouth. I mean if there’s one thing 2016 showed us it’s surely that.

  13. 13.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    MSNBC played a clip of Wilmer campaigning in Lebanon NH and he looked really frail.  He wasn’t even shouting and wagging his finger, he was that weak.  No joke.

  16. 16.

    Baud

    @lamh36:

    I am going to fight it and keep fighting for the Beloved Community. We still have many bridges to cross.”

    Good. He’s not dead yet, peeps.

  17. 17.

    Anya

    As much as I want money to get out of politics, I don’t understand people who only focus on democrats. Why do they want us to disarm while the republicans are relying on so much dark money and the Russians?

  18. 18.

    NotMax

    Plumbing new depths in disappointment with the D centrist (read: center-right) electorate and their eternal pining for a ‘safe’ candidate. Solace taken in his being mired in the 20 – 30 range, meaning from 70 – 80 percent are not jumping onto that rattletrap of a train.

  19. 19.

    Baud

    @Another Scott:

    I kept waiting for one is the underpolling candidates to wrap themselves in Hillary’s mantle given how raw millions of her supporters still feel.  Never happened.  Now it’s too late.

  23. 23.

    Another Scott

    @lamh36:

    TheHill:

    “This month in a routine medical visit, and subsequent tests, doctors discovered Stage IV pancreatic cancer. This diagnosis has been reconfirmed,” he continued.

    He said that while he is “clear-eyed” about the prognosis, doctors have told him that recent medical advances have made the type of cancer he has been diagnosed with “treatable in many cases” and added that he has “a fighting chance.”

    Fingers crossed. Keep fighting John.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  28. 28.

    raven

    One of my best bud’s mom died at 95. When I broke my back in 74 he took the bus from San Francisco to Atlanta to lend support. When my dad died he was right there in Phoenix. I’ll head up to Chicago New Years Day for the service Thursday.

  32. 32.

    NotMax

    @Baud

    I think it’s more that nothing – nothing – has moved the needle, signalling that 70 – 80% are hungering for something else.

  33. 33.

    WaterGirl

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Bernie was so red at the last debate – not just his face, but also his hands – that it was horrifying.  I was afraid he might croak on the spot.

    Bernie HAS to be going against medical advice.

    Have a heart attack?  Sure, spend the next year on the campaign trail, so you can (god, I hope not!) take on the toughest job on the planet.  All stress all the time.  Yeah, that job, the one that ages even the youngest healthiest person.

    Bernie has to be so out of touch with reality, it’s frightening.

    edit: Not to mention that it’s irresponsible!  And not just for him, for all of us.

  34. 34.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @lamh36: John Lewis is a true American Hero, and a real fighter.

    God bless him, and grant even greater strength to him in this latest fight.

  38. 38.

    Kathleen

    @lamh36: Damn. I’m assuming he will have the best medical minds available and I know for a fact that diagnosis doesn’t have to be a death sentence. My friend’s mother was diagnosed with that and thanks to the staff at Ohio State she is doing well now. She had surgery and chemo, her last scan was clear and she’s living her best life. She told my friend she wanted a few more years to spend with her husband.

  40. 40.

    Baud

    @NotMax:

    I think it’s a bit unfair that Joe either has to be dominating or he’s a failure.  I’ve never preferred him before tonight, but he’s kept the polling lead longer than I would have predicted.

  41. 41.

    Mnemosyne

    @Another Scott:

    Pancreatic cancer is a true crapshoot because most forms are deadly very quickly, but one or two of them are survivable, or at least treatable.

    Keeping my fingers crossed that Rep. Lewis has one of the latter forms.

  44. 44.

    Kathleen

    @Baud: I know. Pundinistas never talk about the importance of primary candidates getting the Hillary voters. The candidate that got over 65 million votes is treated like she doesn’t exist. I’ve decided that since I’m a Democrat voting in a Democratic primary I will vote only for the candidate that supports the party, Clinton, and the Obama coalition. That brings it down to 2 candidates – Biden and Kloubacher. Harris was also in that category but she is no longer running. I’m sick of this crap.

  45. 45.

    Mnemosyne

    Happy holidays, all! I haven’t been around much because I’ve been hypnotized by the dumpster fire that is the RWA right now. Not sure if anyone here has been paying attention since it broke out into national news, but it’s a giant pile of shit that needs to be shoveled, stat.

  47. 47.

    NotMax

    @Baud

    Don’t get me wrong I like that the overwhelming majority remain steadfastly willing to sample unfamiliar offerings on the buffet.

  49. 49.

    Mnemosyne

    @raven:

    Steve Jobs was a stupid asshole who had one of the more treatable forms but chose “alternative” treatment instead of the chemo his doctors recommended. By the time he finally agreed to chemo, it was too late.

  51. 51.

    Ruckus

    @Another Scott:

    Polling numbers are easy. Can sit at their desk and write it up in moments. And that time is IMPORTANT so that they can be the first to say – the same damn thing as everyone else.

    Most don’t get paid to do in depth stories that take more than a couple of hours to write and almost not time to research, a word that seems to have lost almost all meaning in journalism.

  53. 53.

    Kathleen

    @raven:  I don’t know much about his story. My friend is a doctor and her mother lives in West Virginia. Her family first took her to to a hospital in her home town. My friend was very uneasy about the treatment path the doctor was outlining. It didn’t make sense to her. She contacted a doctor friend who told her to take her mother to Ohio State immediately and so far she’s had a good outcome. My friend commented that she thinks pancreatic cancer is a death sentence mostly because most doctors really don’t understand how to treat it.

  54. 54.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @NotMax:

    I think it’s more that nothing – nothing – has moved the needle

    The problem is, by that logic, nothing – nothing – has stopped Biden from being the leader.  Nothing – nothing – has given anyone an edge over him.  That sword cuts both ways.

  58. 58.

    raven

    @Kathleen: Yea, it’s been a struggle. He got no support from his brother and wasn’t really crazy about his mom. He did the right thing and hung with her and I intend to be there regardless.

  59. 59.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Mnemosyne:

    I read a long twitter thread laying out the events. I got to the point where a person was suspended and had to go back and read again because it was totally not the person I expected to be penalized. It’s not my organization, so I’ve stayed out of it, but man. RWA is important to romance writers. This looks bad.

  60. 60.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Mnemosyne:

    Not sure if anyone here has been paying attention

    I have.  What.  A.  Self-own.  Did they think siding with racists so nakedly wouldn’t get massive fallout?  And none of the people who are leaving will come back because of that “Oops, we’ll reconsider.”  The RWA is toast.

    I’m reminded of Tumblr banning pornography.

  61. 61.

    Mnemosyne

    @raven:

    Oh, it’s a fucking mess at Romance Writers of America. It appears that racists are being coddled because they’ve declared themselves publishers. The incoming President put his sticky fingers all over the mess to protect them, and now the membership is calling for his resignation. I have met and liked the incoming President, but let’s say that I don’t find it inconceivable that he would make these bad decisions.

    If you have any interest, here’s a good blog post about it. Neil Gaiman weighed in today. This shit is HUGE in author circles, though only a freak show for everyone else.

    https://www.claireryanauthor.com/blog/2019/12/27/the-implosion-of-the-rwa

  63. 63.

    Gin & Tonic

    @WaterGirl: My father had pancreatic. When they opened him up to diagnose, they closed him right up, said “8 weeks.” It was 8 weeks to the day.

    Some treatment options have changed, but it’s still 95% mortality. I hope he’s in the 5%.

  65. 65.

    geg6

    My heart, the news about John Lewis.  But if anyone can fight it and win, it would be this man, a true American hero.  Damn, damn, damn.

    As for Uncle Joe, he’s not my first, second or third choice, but I’m beginning to think I need to start feeling good about him real quick, as I don’t see my state’s late primary giving me much of a choice. And I do have to say, his media criticism during the last two days has me pretty willing to forgive a bunch of so-called gaffes.  As did his clap back at Bernie.  And then I saw he was reaching out directly to Hillary voters and, since no one else has, that tells me someone pretty savvy finally has his ear.

  67. 67.

    Baud

    For the ignorant, like me.

     Romance novels are generally thought of as happy — so it’s ironic that during the holidays, the genre got into an online war. It all started when an organization called Romance Writers of America (RWA) suspended former board member Courtney Milan, a best-selling novelist.

    The reason?

    Milan, who is of Chinese-American descent, had Tweeted concerns about a “f - - king racist mess” in the industry, sparking fellow romance novelists Kathryn Lynn Davis and Suzan Tisdale to file formal complaints with the RWA.

    Instead of engaging with her comments, the organization punished her for violating its code of ethics with her “negativity,” according to the Wrap.

  70. 70.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: Many years ago a buddy of mine’s father died quite unexpectedly. He felt…. lost. I have always hated visitations to the point where now I refuse to go, but he needed somebody then and I took 3 days off to be there for him. He still remembers.

  72. 72.

    Ken

    @WaterGirl:

    Romance Writers of America

    Apparently.  I suspect the story has been edged aside by impeachment, elections, burning koalas, and other topics.

  73. 73.

    NotMax

    @Frankensteinbeck

    Except that, and while no one report is definitive, there are polls at this point where he’s been in 2nd or even 3rd place. “Leader” is an ephemeral title at this point.

    I don’t much care how well he does in deep southern state primaries – no one with a D after the name is going to win those states in the general.

  76. 76.

    Mnemosyne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    There are some rumblings that the true problem is with the executive staff, not the board of directors. I’m withholding judgment for now. Nora Roberts just did a really good blog post about why she ended her membership several years ago.

    @Frankensteinbeck

    I don’t think the organization is totally done, but we are certainly in a steep dive with no engines right now. The remaining rank and file is REALLY pissed that we’re being ignored when we push for more than lip service to diversity and inclusion.

    If the national leadership continues to ignore the members, then they’re going to have no one left to lead.

  78. 78.

    ruemara

    We coulda had a bad bitch, but here’s to undealt with bias on the left. Biden will most likely be the nominee but – DAMN – the left needs a come to Jesus moment after we fight back the right & the cosplay socialists.

  79. 79.

    lamh36

    damnit we’re losing so many of our icons to sickness.   But that orange buffoon still chugging along…ugh!

    Life truly is not always fair sometimes…smh.

    IJS

    Hoping for the best possible outcome for Congressman Lewis!

  80. 80.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’ve done eulogies for friends and I try to go when I can. I don’t much like it but it definitely falls in that “it’s for the living” category. I was at one her in Georgia for a guy that was part of a vets group I’m in. The preacher was a reserve air force chaplain and he started ranting about gays and drought’s and shit and the guys son stood up and told him to stop that shit.

  83. 83.

    Mnemosyne

    @WaterGirl:

    Yup. It’s a major dumpster fire.

    The executive management is trying to walk a line where they can make the bigots and the non-bigots equally happy, but that never works. They’re going to have to choose whether they want to have a large and inclusive organization or a small, bigoted one. So far, they seem to be choosing the latter, unfortunately.

  84. 84.

    raven

    @Kathleen: When he came to see me in the hospital in Atlanta we were dead broke and living on the edge. He got off the bus somewhere in New Mexico and found 20 $20’s wrapped in a rubber band lying on the ground. He would have given it up if someone had claimed it but damn if he was going to hold it up and volunteer. He gave my and my wife half and was able to fly back to Cali after his visit.

  85. 85.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: I will never do a eulogy. I’ve been asked and refused. Kudos to you for having the strength. For me, it’s too personal. I bear witness. It’s the best I can do.

  86. 86.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @NotMax:

    I don’t much care how well he does in deep southern state primaries – no one with a D after the name is going to win those states in the general.

    The demographic that dominates those primaries are the Democratic Party’s most loyal voters and reliable activists.  I care very much what they think.  They’re also going to decide the primary, because of the above voting and activist thing.

  87. 87.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: Dunno.

    Jonathan Allen at NBC News in September:

    […]

    As she seeks to blend her movement-based progressive campaign with a Democratic establishment long wary of her populist brand of politics, Warren has been maintaining and creating relationships with a wide array of Democratic establishment figures. And if the race for nomination goes long — as many Democrats now predict — Clinton could become pivotal as an ally, an adversary or a neutral observer.

    More immediately, Warren would no doubt like to win over support from Clinton voters, particularly women — and women of color — as she battles Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, former Vice President Joe Biden and the rest of a field that trails the top-tier triumvirate.

    But Warren has made little effort to publicly highlight ties to Clinton, who is perceived by many on the left as too centrist and who was defeated in an election Clinton and her allies believe was heavily colored by President Donald Trump waging a misogynistic campaign. To the extent that Democratic primary voters fear a repeat scenario in 2020 — and to the extent that she’s competing with Sanders for the votes of progressives — there may be good reason for Warren to keep her distance from Clinton publicly.

    At the same time, people who know and like both women say there are more similarities between them than some of their partisans would like to admit. Each is a policy powerhouse with an uncommon command of details, and possess the ability to master new material quickly with a deep intellectual curiosity. Like Clinton, Warren focused the early part of her campaign on developing a raft of policy proposals and rolling them out.

    More important, an explicit or implicit blessing from Clinton could help Warren if she finds herself battling for delegates and superdelegates at a contested Democratic convention next summer.

    […]

    True? Important? Who knows.

    I could be wrong, but I don’t think any of the other candidates disagree with Joe’s comments about Hillary and the press coverage. It is kinda obvious. I don’t think it, by itself, will doom anyone else or change any votes.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  88. 88.

    jk

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    Sanders and Biden are equally frail and over the hill.

    Also too, Biden is a gaffe gushering moron who never knows when to shut the hell up.  It would be a fucking disaster if this clueless, uninspiring horse’s ass wins the nomination.

    # Biden Sucks

  90. 90.

    Baud

    @Another Scott:

    It’s affecting my vote.  I like Warren but this

    But Warren has made little effort to publicly highlight ties to Clinton

    is an own goal as far as I’m concerned.  We’ll see if chasing Bernie works out for her.

  91. 91.

    raven

    @OzarkHillbilly: His widow called right after he died and said “I’d like to ask you to do something”. I said “anything”. That was it. At our conference last year I got to say “a few words” for my friend, colleague and boss. I was short and sweet and ended with “she always wanted to have a party before she died so people could tell her how great she was. This is your chance.” What I heard was chuckles but, later, people said it really broke them up.

  93. 93.

    Anya

    Does anyone know why does Glen Greenwald hate Rachel Maddow so much? He takes every opportunity to attack her. And if he’s against propaganda and conspiracy theories, why does he appear on Fox News?

  94. 94.

    WaterGirl

    @Gin & Tonic: I’m sorry to hear that.  For you and your dad, but also for the statistics.

    Not pancreatic cancer, but they gave her 6 months and she lasted for 18, which she most emphatically said was NOT a blessing.

    John Lewis is one tough cookie, so if anybody can beat this, it’s him.

  96. 96.

    Jinchi

    @johnnybuck: Well I guess it’s good for Handsome Joe that barack aint running in 2020!

    Except the same thing happened on the the Republican side in 2008, (Rudy was leading at this point, Huckabee and McCain tied for second). Santorum had a slight edge over Romney in December 2012.

    You might also remember this from December 2003:

    Dean has the backing of 23 percent of likely primary voters, the same as he did in the days just prior to Saddam’s capture, and up from 14 percent in November. His nearest rivals today are Wesley Clark and Joe Lieberman, both at 10 percent.

    Note who’s missing in that paragraph. Point being, Obama’s last minute surge was hardly an unusual event. Joe’s in a strong position for the nomination, but he hasn’t wrapped this election up by a long shot.

  97. 97.

    raven

    @raven: Years ago I went to Southwest Missouri State to teach a two week summer seminar. I was still a grad student and these were all working professionals in the area of adult literacy. My advisor had gotten me the gig and, when he saw how nervous I was, he said “that’s ego man, why do you care what people think, you’re an asshole anyway”. I did great and worried less about speaking after that.

  100. 100.

    Baud

    @Jinchi:

    Has anyone really ever said the primary is locked up?  What happens is that someone says that Joe can’t win, and then someone else responds that he’s in a good position to win, and then it just goes round and round.

  102. 102.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: I wish I could do the same, but I can’t. I feel the need to write one for myself. It would be something like, “What the fuck is wrong with you people? I’m dead. Get the fuck out of here and get on with living.”

    It’s a complete contradiction in terms, I think they are a total waste of time, and yet…. I bear witness.

  103. 103.

    Brachiator

    @lamh36:

    Sooo OT…but breaking news about Congressman John Lewis!

    Prayers up (or whatever you believe) for Congressman John Lewis as he battles stage 4 pancreatic cancer!

    I only recently saw this news.  Wishes for comfort and strength to him and to his family.

  109. 109.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: I don’t have a problem with public speaking. I can get up there and insult a crowd with the best of them. It’s just that some topics strike to close to home.

  111. 111.

    Jinchi

    @Baud: Has anyone really ever said the primary is locked up?

    That was my interpretation of Biden’s quote:

    “we’re still way in the game in terms of where we are on Super Tuesday and where we’ll be in South Carolina and Nevada. I feel confident about those two, and I don’t see something fundamentally shifting.”

    Recent history has shown that things can shift by 15-20 points relative to the polls on the day of the election.

  116. 116.

    dr. bloor

    @Anya: 

    Glen Greenwald’s agenda is more less as follows:

    1. The personal aggrandizement and demonstration of the moral and intellectual superiority of Glen Greenwald.
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    Everything else.

  118. 118.

    Dan B

    It’s sad scary news about John Lewis.  He, MLK, and others paved the way for civil rights that paved the way for rights struggles for other minorities like me.  Almost everyone in early Gay Liberation had worked in the Civil Rights movement.

    I had a great conversation with a Cuban gay guy who is a professor at Western Washington U.  I came of age in the Joe McCarthy era.  He came of age in Cuba when gays were being sent to concentration camps.  We feel that many young people do not have the visceral fear of the GOP that people like us do.  And there is no understanding of how to effectively build and sustain a movement.

    John Lewis knows.  We need the knowledge and the stories.

  120. 120.

    WaterGirl

    @Gin & Tonic: I understand that.  But damn, how does anyone wrap wrap their head around that?  I was apparently entirely unsuccessful in expressing that I am sorry that you all had to go through that.  That anyone has to go through that.

  124. 124.

    Bill Arnold

    @Mnemosyne:

    Oh, it’s a fucking mess at Romance Writers of America. It appears that racists are being coddled because they’ve declared themselves publishers.

    Yeah, been seeing this on writer twitter. Ugly, stupid.

  126. 126.

    Brachiator

    @Another Scott:

    But Warren has made little effort to publicly highlight ties to Clinton, who is perceived by many on the left as too centrist…

    The people who write this kind of crap don’t understand a fundamental truth.  Voters don’t necessarily care who is centrist, or progressive, or neoliberal.  They care about who is going to help them.  They care about who they can trust.

    … and who was defeated in an election Clinton and her allies believe was heavily colored by President Donald Trump waging a misogynistic campaign.

    How is Warren going to hide the fact that she is, you know, a woman, from the electorate or from Trump?

    Damn, this stuff is stupid.

    To the extent that Democratic primary voters fear a repeat scenario in 2020 — and to the extent that she’s competing with Sanders for the votes of progressives — there may be good reason for Warren to keep her distance from Clinton publicly.

    There’s an old joke about heaven with the punchline, “Shhh! The Baptists think that they are the only ones here.”

    Similarly, some progressives foolishly believe that they are the only people in the Democratic Party.

     

    ETA: one thing that resonates from the crushing Labour defeat in the recent UK general election is Corbyn’s insistence that he “won the argument.” Some, obviously not all, progressives have this belief that now is the time to push forward with all their pet policies.  This is fine, but there is insufficient evidence that they have convinced anyone besides themselves that anyone wants them to come riding to the rescue.

  127. 127.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    The RWA is toast.

    And it’s a damned shame, because they’ve been such a model for how to support your up-and-comers for so long.

  129. 129.

    ruemara

    @Mnemosyne: I was thinking of you as I’ve kept abreast of that fuckery. Wow.

     

    @Anya: Interesting how they want us to fight millions of dollars with 2 nickles, some dust balls and a stick of gum.

  130. 130.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A few minutes ago we got a phone call from the 4 children (ages 10-4) of some friends who are as close to us as our own grandchildren. They called to say thankyou for the Xmas cards my wife made and the $20 bills inserted in them that I searched high and low to find just the right ones for each and every one of them. I have no idea what any of them did with the money as they all were talking over each other but I will wear this smile long after I fall asleep tonight.

  133. 133.

    lamh36

    @Mnemosyne: oof.  I follow a lot of writers on my FB pages and in some author’s groups, as a reader, not a writer.

    So I had heard some things about DSP but not this RWA news.  I saw maybe a bit about it, but didn’t pay much attention to it, but after reading one of ur links (along w/Nora Roberts blog post), I’m realizing just how much of a cluster….this really is…

  135. 135.

    Gin & Tonic

    @WaterGirl: It was mostly a blessing. He had time at home, he was able to wind down his business affairs, take care of his wife (who lived for another 25 years,) say goodbye to the few people he cared about. The last week sucked, and it was a relief when he died, but it was still better, IMO, than the sudden heart attack or stroke.

  137. 137.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Baud: Agreed. I think if Kamala had basically been “more liberal Hillary Clinton with no fucks to give” she would have done much better.

    Don’t think anyone else can do it now that there’s only a few months left. Klo Kuchar could try for Hillary, but I don’t think she gets enough oxygen to succeed.

  138. 138.

    WaterGirl

    @Gin & Tonic: My mom believed you should have the time you need to wrap your head around it and get your affairs in order, and not a day longer.  Her extra time was hell on earth.

    Glad your dad had the time he needed to do that.

  139. 139.

    Scott Alloway

    @lamh36: My thoughts are all toward Congressman  Lewis.  My mother died in 2015 from pancreatic cancer, five weeks after her diagnosis. His illness saddens me to no end.

  143. 143.

    Ruckus

    @Jinchi:

    My closest guess to who would play HRC in the up coming election suspended her run – Kamala Harris. So it’s not exactly the same race as it was 8 yrs ago.

  145. 145.

    WaterGirl

    John Dingell.

    Elijah Cummings.

    Now John Lewis facing this.

    The statesmen are dying, while Republicans are destroying our democracy and betraying their country at every turn, and Trump is so busy lying that it’s amazing that he even has time to shove cheeseburgers into his mouth.

    Something is very wrong.

  147. 147.

    Mary G

    @Mnemosyne: I don’t know all the ins and outs, but what I see on Twitter makes me think that like the Republican Party, the RWA was hijacked by a bunch of undemocratic racists. It’s a worldwide epidemic.

  149. 149.

    Ruckus

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Depends on so many things. In this case the strain, amount and staging. And this is usually caught so late because of not a lot of noticeable side effects. If he’s just into stage IV and it’s the “better” strain and it hasn’t grown significantly, current outcomes can be good. They are treating so I’m considering that this is at least a “better” case scenario.

  150. 150.

    zhena gogolia

    Wow, watching that clip where he talks about HRC makes me a hell of a lot more enthusiastic about him. Watch that and then watch any minute and a half of Trump (or Sanders, for that matter). GO JOE.

  151. 151.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Scott Alloway: My mother died of congestive heart disease after 3 months in and out of ICU and rehab. My father died 4 years later of Alzheimers long after he had forgotten the love of his life and had stopped praying for Jesus to come and take him.

    I think my mother was right when a decade before she hoped that she and my father could die together driving over a cliff like their neighbors had.

  152. 152.

    WaterGirl

    I have never watched or read Harry Potter, but every holiday I catch part of a Harry Potter movie or two in the background at my nieces.

    Would now be a  good time to watch the Harry Potter movies?  Might I find encouragement in the triumph of good over evil, in the same way that a mystery can be satisfying when they catch the person in the end and justice is served?  Or is Harry Potter much less simplistic than that?

    From what I have gleaned in the background, a lot of bad stuff does happen in those movies, so I am wondering whether they would be more stressful or more comforting?  Or neither, just stories to be told that have no bearing on anything?

  159. 159.

    burnspbesq

    @NotMax:

    raises both hands high and conspicuously waves them about

    you may be decidedly in the minority. I don’t prefer Biden—he has the Thomas confirmation hearing and “the Senator from MBNA” to live down—but if he is the nominee I know what to do.

  161. 161.

    JanieM

    @WaterGirl:  @MomSense:  Agree with MomSense: read the books.

    JKR did something much more subtle than I would have credited after trying (and failing) to read the first book when it came out.

    Later I read books 1-5, sort of in parallel with my kids, and was so bogged down in #5 that I didn’t finish the series.  Then my movie-loving daughter dragged me to the first of the 2 book 7 movies, and I liked it so much that I had to go back and finish reading the books.  And I’ve read them again since then.

  162. 162.

    MomSense

    @WaterGirl:

     

    The audio versions of all the books are excellent.  They are read by one actor.  They are very well done and you can probably borrow them through your local library.

  165. 165.

    Ruckus

    @lamh36:

    I don’t feel life is every fair. We have a racist asshole, blankety, blank, blank, blank that cheated his way to president, who supporters such as moscow mitch will probably back to his dying day, John Lewis has cancer, etc, etc, etc…….

    Life doesn’t error on the side of good or bad it just is. Good people get cancer, bad people get cancer, everyone dies.

    No life isn’t fair. But we can live and make the best of it, or give up in desperation.

    Making the best of it is my take.

  166. 166.

    NotMax

    @burnspbesq

    Still perfectly capable of holding my nose with one hand while voting with the other.

    Aside from the execrable record, it’s what strikes me as the contrived folksiness that rankles. Reeks of rank inauthenticity.

  170. 170.

    WaterGirl

    @ruemara: I could use a bright light in the darkness!

    Exactly 5 minutes ago, I found the stash of mail that the pet sitter (unintentionally) hid from me.  And there was my little Christmas package from you.  What a lovely treat!  Thank you so much!

    I had just brushed my teeth so I will wait until tomorrow. :-)  I have no idea when they arrived or how long they aged while I was gone and then back without finding them, but they look and feel like the kind of thing that might age just fine!

  171. 171.

    Another Scott

    @joel hanes: I may be crazy, but I really like the idea of Kamala for head of the FBI.  She could get a lot of good done there in a 10 year term – more than she could as AG, I think.

    Or, given the timing, maybe head of the FBI after she’s had 8 years as AG.  ;-)

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  172. 172.

    OzarkHillbilly

    My wife just asked me what I’d like for dinner, “Red beans and rice or shrimp?”

    I said, “Shrimp I guess.”

    Siri asks, “Do you want shrimp?”

    I reply, “Fuck you, you computerized c*nt!”

    Siri shuts up. My wife laughs.

  174. 174.

    WaterGirl

    @joel hanes:

    Stacey Abrams for VP

    That is the one thing I hope for, that keeps me going now that everyone I liked is either out of the race or not what I hoped.  Everyone gets their cake (feeling of safety) but we get to eat it too (a brilliant thinker, progressive action, and a breath of fresh air).

    And, quite possibly, our first woman president.

  176. 176.

    Mary G

    @WaterGirl: I didn’t love any of the movies except for the third one, “Prisoner of Azkaban,” directed by Alfonso Cuaron. The books are a joy and a blessing and I endorse everyone who’s said to read them.

  178. 178.

    Amir Khalid

    @WaterGirl:

    Yes, read the books AND see the movies. They are not just entertaining stories unattached to real life. There is a real connection between Harry Potter and the activism of young people who grew up on the books — like the Parkland survivors, to name just one example. “Dumbledore’s Army” has inspired a lot of kids to fight the darkness.

  182. 182.

    lamh36

    @AdamSerwer1h1 hour ago

    More

    I don’t think we are prepared as a society for what happens to public memory when the generations that lived through Jim Crow leave us
    https://twitter.com/AdamSerwer/status/1211438190311153664

    Lord it’s too worrisome to even think about.

    Hell, we already got folks actually trying to claim that the writers of the constitution didn’t “know” slavery was wrong when they wrote the constitution…

    No really…this is what seems to be implied here by none other than Mayor Pete: https://twitter.com/notcapnamerica/status/1211326320325603329
    And already supporters of his are defending it by trying to make the argument that it’s true the Founding Fathers had no idea slavery was wrong…

    @notcapnamerica

    More

    I cannot believe that in 2019 where access to information is available freely at your fingertips— There are white people in my mentions arguing that the founding fathers didn’t know slavery was wrong at the time they wrote the constitution. What happened to basic U.S. history?
    https://twitter.com/notcapnamerica/status/1211426815551660033

  183. 183.

    WaterGirl

    So far, I am hearing more “books” than “movies”.  How does one listen to books on tape these days?  I used to get them on DVD, important them into iTunes and listen to them on my iPod.  I liked that because I listen as I fall asleep, and I could restart each chapter (or section) as many times as I wanted.

    How do books come from the library these days?  Flash drive?  I definitely want something I can listen to as slowly or quickly as I want, without only being able to have it for a few weeks.  Is that even possible now?

  184. 184.

    WaterGirl

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: What format?  I don’t even have an external DVD drive at this point, I don’t think.  It’s been years since I used it, so maybe it’s still here somewhere and functional.  Or not.

  185. 185.

    NotMax

    @WaterGirl

    Call me old fashioned but if we end up with a nominee from an east coast state I’d much prefer the second name on the ballot be from the west of the Appalachians.

  186. 186.

    Ruckus

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I’ve done it a couple of times, for me it was a bit cathartic for the loss of the person, that saying goodby. You can’t bring them back  but you can highlight their life and the good. That isn’t all that and a box of cheerios but it is what there is and it helps some.

    I will say that a Quaker circle is about the best way to close that chapter that I’ve ever found. Everyone can speak, there is nothing off limits nor any time factor. No one has to get up, you can speak if you want to and present any thing you like, who they were, their sense of humor, or lack of, their work, their art, their life, how you felt about them and you do so when you feel like it and no one else is speaking. It’s respectful of the person not there and of those who are. It’s from the heart, not from a book.

  188. 188.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Mary G: I could not get thru the first book, but today my wife had the Goblet of Fire on audio in her car and I found myself entranced (which is very difficult as my mind wanders when listening). I think maybe I should skip the first 1 ore 2 and come back to them after I read the rest.

  190. 190.

    WaterGirl

    @NotMax: I think she would really help with Electoral College votes.  Which I think are bullshit, but that’s our current reality.

    I think personal characteristics and suitability for office are way more important than geography.

  192. 192.

    lamh36

    @lamh36: what Pete should have said was “they knew but didn’t really care” at the time.

    But middle of the road Pete woldn’t want to insult middle of road whtie voters I guess?

  193. 193.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ruckus: I’m just not made that way. When somebody I loved has died, nothing I say can do anything but diminish them. Because words are inadequate. Or maybe I am. What difference.

  194. 194.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Looks like Libby is not for Mac.  I may have to call my library because from what I saw online just now I could only have access for a couple of weeks at a time.

  195. 195.

    NotMax

    @WaterGirl

    If your public library subscribes to Hoopla and/or Kanopy, you can probably listen to them via those apps, for free, using your library card.

  196. 196.

    Ruckus

    @Anya:

    Glenn is for Glenn. He talks a lot, fights a lot if questioned but at the end of the day, every single thing is about Glenn. How whatever affects him, how he thinks about any issue. He’s probably a narcissistic asshole like trump, and he thinks he can dictate policy and how you and I live from thousands of miles away. Because even if he isn’t a narcissist like trump, he is a fucking asshole of the first order.

  199. 199.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ruckus:

    Because even if he isn’t a narcissist like trump, he is a fucking asshole of the first order.

    But then, you repeat yourself.

  205. 205.

    WaterGirl

    @lamh36: I think I remember that one, taken on the bridge during the anniversary event.

    It’s a great one.  I like to think of John Lewis dancing to “Happy”.

  206. 206.

    Baud

    @WaterGirl:

    Whoa. Cole pays better than I thought.

    Download the Overdrive or Libby app (same company, Libby is newer) from the app store and connect to your local library to download audio or ebooks directly to your phone.

  208. 208.

    phdesmond

    @Brachiator: Corbyn sounds like Henry Clay’s “i’d rather be right than be president.”   not, perhaps, an effective attitude for a candidate.

  210. 210.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @WaterGirl: The movies are fine. The books are excellent page turners for all ages. I strongly recommend reading the books. ?

  213. 213.

    J R in WV

    @raven:

    I thought when Steve Jobs couldn’t beat it that it couldn’t be beat. (Just in terms of the money he had to spend on treatment)

    I think he spent too much time on Woo treatments, rather than jumping into state of the art high-tech treatments right off. In other words, he blew it by delaying immediate best known treatment while he tried kale smoothies, etc.

    Smart about money and smart about medical treatment are not the same thing at all.

  214. 214.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @OzarkHillbilly: Book 1 is truly a children’s book. Not  YA, which tends to crossover to adults well, but children. I read it and didn’t start on the next books for years because it was clearly for children. the others age as the characters do.

    Just a pet peeve of mine: young adult is not a euphemism for children. There’s nothing wrong with being a child so it doesn’t need euphemisms. YA is a book category for teens and up, usually sold on shelves that are on the opposite side of the bookstore from the children’s section.

  217. 217.

    Jean

    You can download books on an iPad or iPhone.  It’s an app called BOOKS already installed, at least I think it was.

  218. 218.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Not so much. The new phone is fucking expensive!  But when you get a new phone every 5 years, it’s best to get the latest model. :-)

    Tax-wise, it is better for me to have that expense on 2019, so I had to take the money from my line of credit. With the hope of paying it back by the 31st, but that is most definitely not going to happen. Oh well.

  219. 219.

    PST

    I spent much of the weekend with Bernie supporters, some of whom say that they will not vote for Biden if he is the nominee. They will sit out the election. He is a proven misogynist, they say, whose appointments to the Supreme Court would be as bad as Trump’s, and a tool of the insurance industry who will block the adoption of Medicare for All. In their view, if Biden wins the nomination, all is lost. The worst part is that these people live in Michigan. There was no reasoning with them. The most virulent of them is a labor organizer (of sorts) who seems incapable of understanding that many unions that have fought hard for their medical plans are especially reluctant to let those be swept away in favor of a national plan they don’t have faith in. I’m glad family get-togethers are over for awhile.

  220. 220.

    Mary G

    @WaterGirl: If you can afford to buy them, get the Audible app and just download them onto any device. Same with Overdrive or Libby apps for library books/audiobooks. No physical objects required.

     

    @OzarkHillbilly: I read books one and two and thought they were cute & OK but too juvenile for me. Then one day I found a used copy of book 3, devoured it, bought a paperback of Goblet of Fire at WalMart, read it for eight hours in my car in the parking lot, and preordered the rest from Amazon, very possibly the first newly-issued hardcover books I’ve ever bought. They do get more mature as the kids do, which is one of their strengths.

  222. 222.

    Baud

    @WaterGirl: I was shopping for iphones this holiday season for other people, and I remember why I end up staying with Android.  iphones are expensive and they never have much of a sale.  But you did it the right way because they are maintained longer than Android phones are.

  224. 224.

    Ruckus

    @WaterGirl:

    They could but they’d have just over zero presence because the RWA has been there so long. How long would it take for them to duplicate the good parts and how much would it cost?

    It’s never an easy answer to start a new venture or even harder, replace an older one. And probably the vast majority of that 90% is writers, not managers who can do or even know/understand the effort required.

    I worked at a new for profit sub of a non profit company. So many of the non profit people thought that they got to run the new company and that it was run just like the non profit, IOW nothing changed. But everything changed. And the non profit side won that war and the company I worked for no longer exists. If it was easy anyone, everyone could do it.

  225. 225.

    WaterGirl

    @lamh36: I love John Lewis so much.  Not like I love this movie or I love that famous person.  But truly love, and this breaks my heart.  I can only imagine how the people who know him personally fee.

    edit: He is the epitome of what is GOOD in people. Passion, integrity, courage, fearless, standing up for what is right, working to make the world better.

  233. 233.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Thank you, thank you, thank you.  I am such a visual person, that was exactly what I needed.  I can see that it’s broken out into chapters and everything!  :-) ❤️

  234. 234.

    WaterGirl

    @raven: Just guessing from afar, I would guess she is not crazy about it.  If I’m right, it’s so gracious of her to say that she likes it, no doubt because you like it.

  235. 235.

    WaterGirl

    @raven:  Apparently that flew right over my head.  Was “rice” a reference to Steve Jobs eating rice instead of getting treatment?

  236. 236.

    Barbara

    @J R in WV: Steve Jobs had a different version of pancreatic cancer, known as Islet Cell cancer.  It has a much higher survival rate, but Jobs lowered his odds by waiting to have surgery, which, I am told, he regretted.  My father and two close colleagues died of the more common type, and the one who was “lucky” lived 3 years.  It is an incredibly tough diagnosis.

  238. 238.

    Ruckus

    @lamh36:

    I like on my twitter timeline people are pushing back hard on that crap. Quotes from people of the time saying exactly that, slavery is wrong. For a well learned scholar who speaks what 5 languages, sometimes he’s not very smart. And almost always doubles down to prove it.

  240. 240.

    raven

    @WaterGirl: Well I’ve teased her and told her I thought she was pullin a Becky Thatcher but she says no. I’m letting my hair grow too and maybe it looks different than when I let my beard grow after fuck face got elected.

  242. 242.

    WaterGirl

    @Jean: I am set up with iBooks, but I don’t think it does audio books.  Looks like there is a good audiobook app that will work with my library.  I will check that out this week.

    Everyone has been really helpful.  I really appreciate it.

  245. 245.

    WaterGirl

    @Mary G: With the sleep timer, are you talking about Audible or Overdrive?  Or both?

    I just love being read to as I fall asleep.  :-)

  246. 246.

    Ruckus

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Everyone is different, no judgement here. You do what you can, how you can, when you can.

    I’ve had to get up in front of an award banquet and give an unpracticed speech, that I had to make up because my boss flaked out completely. I just said fuck it and did it, like raven. Worst thing that can happen is people laugh at you. OK worst thing is they can throw stuff but we were all in tuxes so that was somewhat unlikely.

    I also had to do a live TV interview in my 3rd week of my new job in pro sports. And only found out about 5 minutes before hand. And I’m still alive…..

  249. 249.

    lamh36

    @Ruckus: he’s young and his world view even having been in the military seems to be small in terms of African American hisory as it pertains to US history.

    As a gay man, he knows about discrimination, but I don’t know that he’s ever had to think about racism discrimination as he has had to think about homophobia.

    That narrow domestic history view shows at times like these.

  253. 253.

    mrmoshpotato

    @WaterGirl: Does your library system have a website?  I reserve stuff online and go pick it up at my local branch.  Public library websites tend to have their complete catalogs online.

  254. 254.

    lamh36

    This may be a dead thread, so I’ll post in the next open thread, but I ain’t mad at ole Joe for this one.

     

    @DaxBoom

    More

    Heckler asks Biden, how much money he made in Ukraine? Biden says, I released 21 years of taxes, your guy released none. What’s Trump Hiding? Crowd cheers! #Biden2020 #Biden

    The Hill

    https://twitter.com/DaxBoom/status/1211448727900082177

    better than trying to challenge them to a arm wrestling match or calling them a liar?

  255. 255.

    raven

    @Ruckus: I was asked to give a “success story” speech to a conference banquet for 1000 adult literacy teachers in Atlanta. Zell Miller’s wife, Shirley, had adult ed as her pet project so he was scheduled to be there and present some awards. They asked for 15 minutes, a good long time for something like that. I prepared and practiced this whole spiel about being a dropout earning a doctorate and how my old man had come home form WW2 and the GI Bill gave him the opportunity to get a college education. Five minutes before I went on the state director came over and said the governor was in a hurry and could I cut it to three minutes. I didn’t like the punk ass motherfucking peace time marine before that. It didn’t get better. When my wife did the 450 photo display for my retirement/70th I made her take the picture of Zig Zag Zell and m edown.

  256. 256.

    opiejeanne

    @WaterGirl: I think the first movie is better than the first book, so I’d start there. It was the first book she wrote and she improved a lot by the second book.

    The first three movies had the same director so the style is consistent. The next director is good too, but it appears that they moved Hagrid’s hut for the 4th movie.

    A couple of the latter books are so filled with teenage angst that you might find them tedious, but the story does move.

  257. 257.

    Miss Bianca

    @raven: Steve Jobs, iirc, scorned conventional medical advice/treatment and went on a more woo-woo path. Which wasn’t successful, unless he actually wanted to die.

    I have to hope that John Lewis not only has the best in medical care and advice at his disposal, but sense enough to fucking TAKE ADVANTAGE of it.

  259. 259.

    Miss Bianca

    @Mnemosyne: Damn. Sounds like some fucked-up bullshit. Wasn’t it the RWA convention that was the basis for the Denver meet-up last year? (Or was it this year?)

    Shit. My sense of time is so warped since a certain traumatic event took place in ’16…

     

    @raven: Yeah, I probably should have read down the thread first…

  260. 260.

    MisterForkbeard

    @lamh36: He’s getting much better at this.

    He can’t have long involved explanations. He just needs to point out that it’s bullshit and have a quick one-liner about Trump. It asserts confidence and makes Trump look weak and corrupt.

  261. 261.

    Dog Dawg Damn

    Hey fellow pet lovers…me and the husband adopted a dog today.  He’s a 9yo chihuahua / terrier mix (we think) rescued from a hoarding house, and despite that, he’s quite pleasant and adorable.

    you can check out pics and follow him at https://www.instagram.com/rescuerufus/

    And if anyone has tips on leash training a senior stray….we’re all ears.

  264. 264.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @WaterGirl: What Ruckus said. With an organization as large and complex as the RWA, it’s not just finding people for the board and officers. It’s also recreating all the local chapters.

    The RWA is intertwined with the romance publishers in ways that I’ve seen nowhere else. It would be years before the new organization would manage to throw anything like the RWA Conference just from a publisher participation standpoint.

    But at the moment, it’s looking like someone is going to have to try, because the implosion was quite spectacular.

  266. 266.

    J R in WV

    @Brachiator:

    …… and who was defeated in an election Clinton and her allies believe was heavily colored by President Donald Trump waging a misogynistic campaign….

    My biggest problem with this point is that Clinton didn’t lose the free election at all. She won by millions of votes, actually! She lost in an antique electoral process set up centuries ago to protect the interests of slave owners in the south. Fuck anyone who doesn’t get this essential fact about the “election” (actually selection, not election!) of Donald Trump. He lost the election itself, by a lot.

    Without the interference by the FBI and the Russian GRU we would have had a very different political timeline.

    Regarding the interesting RWA affair, it appears that people who loved the Sad Puppies and their attempt to take over the SFWA some years ago are now attempting to take over a different author’s group. Shame on those bigots for screwing with their by-laws, short-circuiting ethics rules, etc, etc.

    I’m glad they got caught, that most of their membership won’t put up with the slight of hand the bigots and Trumpistas are attempting to use. Maybe the organization will over come the efforts of the bigots and recover their original purpose! The SFWA managed to run the bigoted Sad Puppies off, so it can be done.

  267. 267.

    WaterGirl

    Hey everybody,

    I am working with the developer as we speak, and I’m asking for your help in sending the site into the 502/524 mode.

    If you’re game, please read the post I set up and comment there, as requested.  I will also make another 2 posts so we can have 3 active threads going at once.  Chime in in the next thread if you’re willing to help.

    Thanks  WG

    For anyone who doesn’t want to participate, you can continue to post real comments in this thread.  Just be aware that the site might have the issue.

  268. 268.

    Miss Bianca

    @ruemara:

    DAMN – the left needs a come to Jesus moment after we fight back the right & the cosplay socialists.

     

    I’m with you. Not that I think they’ll see the need for it, but some of the rest of us need to start clapping back on both the pernicious narratives of “Americans are pining for the one true Socialist Savior and if the Democrats don’t get that, it they’re just too steeped in false consciousness to accept it” and the “OMG OMG, we’re DOOMED and a Trump re-election is a sure thing, because the one thing every American can agree on it’s that everything is the Democrats’ fault!” I have started, in a modest way, and it pains me that I have lost friends over it (I’m too “abrasive”. Plus I hate FDR and the New Deal, apparently. I swear to Chicken-Fried Christ that white liberals are just as knee-jerk snowflaky as white reactionaries.)

  269. 269.

    sgrAstar

    Just want to weigh in on Harry Potter. Those books played such a big role in our family- we really bonded over them, from seniors to elementary schoolers. And the movies are swell. The Goblet of Fire is my favorite, fwiw.

    ?

  270. 270.

    Bill Arnold

    @lamh36:
    The three-fifths compromise was proof (in addition to debate at the time) that some of the founders knew slavery was wrong. Some thought it was OK, though, and their ideological descendants are still active.
    But Buttigieg was just weirdly factually wrong in that video.
    And fuck founder James Wilson‘s skeleton for proposing the compromise in exchange for a larger country. (I haven’t dived into the history TBH so maybe there were others.)

  272. 272.

    Bill Arnold

    @PST:

    I spent much of the weekend with Bernie supporters, some of whom say that they will not vote for Biden if he is the nominee. They will sit out the election.

    Were you polite? Did you call them Republicans?

  273. 273.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:

    I had a great android phone. But it hit the end of being upgraded or having fixes done. And that was only after 4 yrs. I kept it for another year but it started to flake out and so I bought an iPhone for exactly why you said, they are expensive but they stay in service for a long time. Mine is now almost a year old and the 11 or 11pro are “better” because they are new. But my phone runs the same op sys and all the same apps. And will for some time because the chips have gotten faster, etc but apple makes the chips so it’s compatible and will be that way for a long time.

  276. 276.

    Steeplejack

    I haven’t read the comments yet, but I was taken aback by the Twitter comments on that Robillard tweet at the top about Biden’s bundlers. It is practically wall-to-wall negging on Biden as “DemStablishment scum,” “tool of the oligarchy,” etc., etc. “Is anyone else terrified by the thought of him making executive decisions?” “People with brains don’t take Biden seriously.”

    WTF?! I know we’re still (somewhat) in the early days of whizzing on candidates we don’t like, but this is way beyond “I prefer X to Biden.” And it’s like people think the opponent next year is Dwight Eisenhower, not Donald Trump. I do not get the level of finicky carping.

    I’ll tell you what I’m terrified by: the thought of Donald Trump continuing to make executive decisions if he gets reëlected.

  277. 277.

    Miss Bianca

    @WaterGirl: I too am wondering about e/audio book delivery systems, since I used to listen to audiobooks on CDs in the car. Then my CD player died and I stopped.

    Now I miss audiobooks, and “Harry Potter” would be wonderful fun that way.

  279. 279.

    Mnemosyne

    @ruemara:

    In case you had any doubt whatsoever, I stand with Courtney and all of the BIPOC authors.

    Our incoming chapter President is one of the Black women you met this summer. She had to do a couple of days of soul-searching before she decided that the haters could go fuck themselves and she wasn’t going to let them drive her away.

  287. 287.

    WaterGirl

    Big thanks also for all the Harry Potter and audiobook responses.  I won’t respond to each as I normally would be cause of the whole interruption for testing thing.

  289. 289.

    dnfree

    @Ruckus: I bought a very expensive Samsung android tablet some years back. Turned out I only got software upgrades for two years, and I couldn’t get anyone at Verizon or Samsung to explain why. So I couldn’t run newer apps. That was the end of android for me. I just had an iPhone 6 that I traded for an 11. The 6 kept being upgraded and usable.

  293. 293.

    Ruckus

    @dnfree:

    I bought an XR about 6-8 months ago. The 11 was out, the 11 pro just came out recently. The XR is now $150 cheaper. My timing is excellent. Always has been, I’m sure it always will be. But the XR works and works well so I’m happy with it. For the most part. Some of the apps that I think should work in the same way don’t, like deleting a call or a message, the process is quite different and I don’t see any reason for it.

  294. 294.

    tomtofa

    @raven:

    I haven’t shaved since August and my beard is getting back to 70’s style!

    I envy you. Mine comes out grey – not at all my 70’s look.

    Same when I tell the hair on the top of my head to come out of hiding – nothing.

  297. 297.

    tomtofa

    As we’ve seen from T, it’s who the POTUS appoints to his advisory roles, cabinet, agencies, etc. that matters (along with the judges, of course).

    Can’t imagine Biden or Warren would do worse than T. Not sure if Sanders has thought about it.

  299. 299.

    Ruckus

    @tomtofa:

    Started my beard on July 7, 1973, the day I was discharged from the navy. It’s changed color, it’s been longer, it’s been shorter but it’s still there. Now the hair on top my head….. it’s getting awfully shinny and so short it’s impossible to find.

  302. 302.

    Citizen Alan

    @raven: IIRC, Jobs would have had a decent shot had he not squandered millions of dollars and months of time on charlatans.

  303. 303.

    Citizen Alan

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I have argued for years that the biggest problem with the Harry Potter series is the tonal shift that occurs in Goblet of Fire with three simple words: “Kill the spare.” That was the moment the series abruptly transitioned from Children’s Fantasy to YA Fantasy.

    The problem is that there are fundamental tonal differences between the genres. Most importantly, in children’s fantasy, the kids have to do everything because the adults are foolish. In YA fantasy, the kids have to do everything because the adults are malicious if not evil. And when readers started reading back over the earlier books, things that seemed to point to (for example) Dumbledore being a silly old grandfather figure now suddenly point to him being a somewhat sinister manipulator who may have intentionally left Harry in an abusive home in order to hone him into a weapon. YMMV

  304. 304.

    tomtofa

    @Citizen Alan:

    I felt a certain desolation and unraveling at the end of the books, and the movies too, I guess.  Not a bad thing, any more than growing up is a bad thing. Perhaps just the progression of C to YA to A of the characters.

    A very good series.

  305. 305.

    Brachiator

    @Citizen Alan:

    I have argued for years that the biggest problem with the Harry Potter series is the tonal shift that occurs in Goblet of Fire with three simple words: “Kill the spare.” That was the moment the series abruptly transitioned from Children’s Fantasy to YA Fantasy.

    The problem is that there are fundamental tonal differences between the genres.

    In the books, the Harry and his friends were growing up.  Rowling was writing not only for younger readers who would be encountering the books as an entire set, but for readers who were also growing up with the characters.  Whether she carried this off successfully, dealing with the issues you raise and other narrative hurdles, is an interesting question.

  306. 306.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @Citizen Alan: Dumbledore deliberately left Harry in an abusive home because of the tie of blood with his aunt, which was necessary for certain protections to hold over the years. Given the state of the wizarding world at the time and the connection between Harry and Voldemort, I can’t say it was a bad decision.

    Switching to my Doylist hat, it was also a necessary parallel to the Matter of Britain.

  307. 307.

    evodevo

    @zhena gogolia: Well, you have to remember…Hitler didn’t die until millions of others had, as a direct result of his policies, and he did it himself in a bunker with the Russians at his door…so, karma doesn’t necessarily take care of the evil ones in what would be a reasonable amount of time…

Comments are closed.