Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

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

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Bark louder, little dog.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Monday Morning Open Thread: Be of Strong Heart

Monday Morning Open Thread: Be of Strong Heart

by | 96 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

A year of hearing from the Democratic candidates who wish to replace Donald Trump in the White House has had an impact on Iowa voters, it seems. The recent Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom poll shows only 34% of registered Iowa voters would definitely vote to reelect Trump.

Another 44% is definitely set to vote for someone else, while 12% would consider a candidate other than Trump and 8% weren’t sure either way…

While the Register didn’t run head-to-head general election matchups among likely voters with Trump and a Democrat, the overall numbers here have to be concerning for Trump’s reelection prospects. The results also point to Iowa returning to its purple-state status after Trump’s nine-point victory here in 2016.

The movement would make sense given the barrage of TV ads run by Democrats in Iowa lambasting the President.

Although the Democratic candidates are aiming their message to caucus-goers in their own party, voters of all backgrounds are seeing the TV spots and even many of the online ads. As you can see in Starting Line’s latest caucus TV ad round-up, some candidates’ messaging has been focused mostly just on their own qualifications and policies, but many have taken direct aim at Trump…

And there’s this endorsement from Will Bunch, at the Philadelphia Inquirer:

… My perceptions about what’s wrong with America and how to fix it are different than they were in 2016. I’ve had four years to absorb what Trump’s presidency says about us as a nation — and who has resisted Trump, and why. I’m still committed to the exact same political revolution. But I believe the candidate who will get us there is Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

I plan to vote for Warren on April 28 for two reasons. One is simple, the other a bit more abstract. For starters, the two-term Massachusetts senator has run the best campaign, pure and simple. Her accidental rallying cry was handed to her by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who blocked Warren’s principled stand against the nomination of unqualified Attorney General Jeff Sessions on the Senate floor and added, “Nevertheless, she persisted.”

Since announcing her candidacy last year, persistence has been the hallmark of Warren’s campaign. She’s stuck to her plan and remained true to herself even as the Beltway crowd wrote her off again and again, and in doing so she’s remained a top contender in spite of those naysayers. Her decision to shun big donors for small contributions and play up personal voter contact — yes, including the now infamous “selfie line” — was ridiculed even as her money and support grew. Rather than ignore her biggest stumble — the Native American heritage missteps — she’s owned it through unprecedented outreach to indigenous voters…

Warren’s diagnosis of what ails the United States — massive political corruption and a rigged economic playing field against the middle and more struggling classes — is right on the money, pun intended. It’s why she was the first Democratic candidate to see the need for impeaching Trump, and why she’s had a forceful reaction to the president’s reckless actions toward Iran. But it’s also why her detailed plans — for a wealth tax on America’s kleptocracy to help fund universal health care and higher education and eliminate crippling college debt — are her centerpiece and biggest selling point…

In addition, while acknowledging there are some ways in which Sanders expands the electorate, I think a Warren nomination would ensure the most passion from the activists — primarily women — who led the Women’s March and the airport resistance to Trump’s travel ban in 2017 and knocked on millions of doors to get us a Democratic House in 2018. Although Warren isn’t yet winning among young voters or nonwhites, I believe she has a potential for growth that simply is not there for youth with Joe Biden or for both groups with Pete Buttigieg. Her stance as an ultraliberal, reform-minded capitalist is arguably a better place to be in November 2020 than Bernie’s lifetime socialism…

In 2020, electing the best and most qualified candidate would also mean electing the first woman president in American history — 100 years after women’s suffrage and, morally, ridiculously overdue. What a powerful statement! Instead of cowering in fear, Democrats should be counting their blessings in having two revolutionary candidates for president, and a dozen others who’d be 100 times better than the current occupant. But among that strong field, it’s Warren — and what she stands for — that offers the fierce urgency of now. Simply put, voting for her on April 28 is the change I want to see in the world.

Reader Interactions

96Comments

  2. 2.

    Betty Cracker

    Tomorrow’s debate is going to be fascinating — it’s make or break time. It’s a joint CNN-Des Moines Register gig. Just read that Wolf Blitzer and Abby Phillip are moderating from CNN. Blitzer is a known (meh) quantity, but has Phillip moderated a debate before? Can’t remember. I have positive impressions of her reporting for CNN but have formed no solid opinion.

  4. 4.

    Betty Cracker

    Other things on the political junkie radar this week: the House now has Lev Parnas’s iPhone. At the very least, I hope it contains enough info to expose Devin Nunes as the corrupt fraud he is.

  5. 5.

    Perensejo

    I love my senator muchly.  I believe she would make a great president. (Especially if she picks Kamala as a running mate).

    But what do y’all think about losing a Democratic Senate seat in 2020?  Charlie Baker (R) would get to appoint her replacement.

  9. 9.

    montanareddog

    @Perensejo: In Iran, an authoritarian government egregiously lies to the people about the shooting down of the Ukrainian airliner, and the people are out protesting about it.

    In the US, an (allegedly-)democratic government lies to the people all the time and the people seem to be too apathetic to do anything. The behaviour of Trump in blocking witnesses and evidence in the House impeachment hearings, and McConnell in rigging the Senate trial, should have Americans on the streets.

    A long lead up to a response to your comment: Elizabeth Warren was re-elected in 2018 60-36%. If she were to be elected President, and the MA Governor appoints a Republican to replace her in the Senate, it is another data point on the entropy of American democracy, IMO

  10. 10.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    In other news:

    Bernie is who we thought he was.

    “Disappointed that Bernie would go negative on somebody that he’s known for a long time, and worked with, and whose character he must certainly know is good”

    ~ Julian Castro

    “Doesn’t surprise me about Bernie. He went straight to the gutter with Hillary. More of the same.”

    ~ Iowa State Sen. Claire Celsi

  14. 14.

    Anne Laurie

    @Perensejo: This has been exhaustively discussed for some months.  Sure, Chickenshit Charlie Baker could appoint a Repub to replace Warren… and I could win the Powerball drawing.  But I didn’t buy a ticket, and Baker intends to stay on the right side of our extremely Democratic legislature, because Charlie knows on which side his corner-office bread is buttered.

    Especially since, if Warren is elected President, it will indicate one of those ‘wave elections’ where being on good terms with Democratic legislators will be even more important to Baker’s future political ambitions.  He is not a man who’ll stand up for a ‘principle’ that doesn’t provide him an immediate benefit, and publicly disrespecting a new Democratic President would not interest him.

    (My personal bet, at the moment, would be that he’d appoint either Seth Moulton or Joe Kennedy III to the seat, depending on which one offers him the better deal.)

  17. 17.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Anne Laurie: This is much to do about nothing.  When a vacancy is created a special election must be held 145 days later.

    So if Warren was elected, she could resign the next day, creating a vacancy which would force a special election at the end of March.

    Very little time would be lost between the time she would be sworn in and the time an election would occur (approx 70 days).

  18. 18.

    Anne Laurie

    @Betty Cracker: Yup, Joe’s going for Markey’s seat right now.  But it’s nothing personal, he’d be just as happy to take Warren’s vacated seat.  And I don’t think Ed Markey would hold it against him… much.

  19. 19.

    Betty Cracker

    @Anne Laurie: Do you think Kennedy has a shot at dislodging Markey? I remember being mildly annoyed at Kennedy when I first read about the potential challenge. You kinda hate to see Dems spending a ton of money on races that won’t deliver much of a net benefit to constituents. But on the other hand, senators (reps too!) tend to stay in office until they’re a thousand years old, so I don’t blame Kennedy getting impatient.

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A group of US environmental activists engaged in non-violent civil disobedience targeting the oil industry have been listed in internal Department of Homeland Security documents as “extremists” and some of its members listed alongside white nationalists and mass killers, documents obtained by the Guardian reveal.

    The group have been dubbed the Valve Turners, after closing the valves on pipelines in four states carrying crude oil from Canada’s tar sands on 11 October, 2016, which accounted for about 15% of US daily consumption. It was described as the largest coordinated action of its kind and for a few hours the oil stopped flowing.

    The five climate activists, members of Climate Direct Action, cut their way through fencing and turned the valves. The activists notified the energy companies whose pipelines were being disrupted and posted videos of their protest online and waited patiently to be arrested.

    The horror….

    In a recent intelligence bulletin evaluating domestic terrorism threats between 2018 and 2020, the department included the Valve Turners and described the group as “suspected environmental rights extremists”.

    The document also listed two of the group’s members alongside violent white supremacists and other extremists who have engaged in mass killings, including the man behind the racist 2015 slaying of 9 black church-goers in Charleston, South Carolina.

    Sounds reasonable to me.

    The document also states that “racial and environmentally themed ideologies” were among the primary drivers of terrorist attacks in the United States during this time.

    Mike German, a former FBI agent who is now a fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice, wrote in an email that

    the DHS framing is “highly misleading because white supremacists are responsible for the bulk of this violence and almost all of the fatalities that result,” German said in an email. “There is little evidence,” he added, “that environmentalists have engaged in the types of deadly violence that would meet the statutory definition of domestic terrorism, as codified by Congress”.

    Ya think?

    Jessup, a 34-year-old who had served as a driver and videographer live streaming the action in North Dakota. Michael Foster, a former family therapist who lives in Seattle, turned the valve.
    ………………
    Both he and Jessup were convicted on felony conspiracy charges and Foster spent six months in jail. During closing arguments the prosecutor compared Foster to the Unabomber and the 9/11 hijackers. He’s now on probation and barred from engaging in direct action protest for another two years.

    In the more than three years since the action , several states have passed legislation making it a crime to trespass on property containing critical infrastructure.The Trump administration has advocated for stiffer penalties against activists who engage in non-violent direct action targeting fossil fuel infrastructure.

    Carl Williams, executive director of the Water Protector Legal Collective, which has defended a number of DAPL protesters, says the push to criminalize dissent is part of a larger right wing strategy that has also targeted the BDS movement and Black Lives Matter.

    “I think there is a strategy that right wing forces are using to criminalize dissent,” Williams said. “This bulletin shows that dirty hand.”

  21. 21.

    Anne Laurie

    @Betty Cracker: Do you think Kennedy has a shot at dislodging Markey?

    I wouldn’t bet on it, especially if our presidential candidate is one who’ll encourage every last Dem to show up on Election Day.  However, while I’d be sad to lose Markey (who was my rep before he was my Senator), it’s not as though JKIII is liable to vote much differently than Ed would!

    Worst that could happen, IMO, is that the lifers in the legislature might resent the new kid for jumping the queue.  But young Joe *is* “the last Kennedy”, so it’s just as likely the hardshell sentimentalists would cut him extra slack.  (insert shrug emoji here)

  22. 22.

    Patricia Kayden

    But but but Hunter Biden.

    Meet Robert Trump, Donald’s 72 year old, younger brother. Retired from the Trump Org. in 2016, yet awarded a $33 million contract for his investment co. CertiPath. Providing security for federal courthouses & cellblocks. A rival bidder filed a DOJ complaint. But, Hunter Biden. pic.twitter.com/dLrX37uoM9— Hoodlum ?? (@HoodlumRIP) January 13, 2020

  24. 24.

    daveNYC

    The idea that Warren could be a unity candidate seems to rely on the idea that Biden’s support is coming from people who like him because he’s Biden, and not because of his policies or the fact he’s promising a return to the ‘before time’ when Republicans and Democrats were all lovey-dovey and the Senate wasn’t such an obvious shitshow of obstruction by the minority.  I don’t think that’s the case, and one way or another either the moderates or the progressives are going to be very unhappy with whoever ends up going into the general.

  25. 25.

    JPL

    @daveNYC: Some of Warren’s policies are to far left for me, but I certainly won’t be unhappy if she’s the nominee.    This year I think democrats are motivated no matter who the nominee is.

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    An overwhelming majority of women who get an abortion do not regret the decision to undergo the procedure, according to a new study published in the academic journal Social Science & Medicine on Sunday.

    Researchers surveyed 667 women across 21 states in the US multiple times over a five-year period, tracking each woman’s emotions around their decision to get an abortion. About 95% of women indicated they believe that going through an abortion was the right decision over the course of the study.

    The study asked participants if they had any emotions of sadness, guilt, relief, regret, anger or happiness over their decision. Relief was the most common emotion throughout the five years of the study.

    “For years … there has been a belief promulgated or a claim made that we really need to protect women from the emotional harm that many of them will suffer from when having an abortion,” said Corinne Rocca, lead author of the study and a professor at the University of California at San Francisco. “There was no evidence ever to say that was actually true.”

    Rocca noted that the claim that going through an abortion is a taxing decision has been used by anti-abortion advocates to justify restricting access to abortion.

    Whhhaaaat? You mean they lied to me? That this decision really is best left up to the woman involved? I am shocked, shocked I tell you.

  28. 28.

    Chyron HR

    @daveNYC:

    If the “moderates” support Biden because he promises to make Senate Republicans stop being obstructionist assholes, I think they’re going to be unhappy no matter what happens.

  29. 29.

    debbie

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    About 95% of women indicated they believe that going through an abortion was the right decision

    This should be required signage on the front of every Planned Parenthood office. The protesters’ heads would explode.

  30. 30.

    Baud

    @JPL:

    Most far reaching lefty ideas require Congress, so less risk there with Warren, who won’t tear down the party if she doesn’t get everything she wants.

  32. 32.

    OzarkHillbilly

    “People were begging for their lives as they were stabbed,” said Kelly Mallett, as his gaze drifted. “There were fires being set. Trash everywhere. Rats. Roaches. It was just total chaos.”

    The 44-year-old is a former inmate at Mississippi’s crumbling state penitentiary at Parchman, part of a sprawling, century-old prison farm complex in the north of the state. He had only been free for two days and was the first eyewitness to speak freely in public about the days of bloody rioting inside Parchman over the new year, a facility that remains shrouded in the legacy of Jim Crow, marked by decaying conditions and its culture of brutality.

    In a single week, five inmates in the Mississippi correctional system were killed, three in Parchman, during violence state officials tied to a bitter gang rivalry that dominates prisons in the state. But the bloodshed has also drawn attention to what lawmakers say are routine constitutional violations, as well as the chronic underfunding of a system that incarcerates people at a rate almost twice the American average.

    “For 48 hours it was just violence,” said Mallett, who served an eight-year sentence for a non-violent drug crime. “Nothing but violence, before any help.”

    Still wearing an electronic ankle bracelet, the former inmate said highway patrol officers eventually stormed his unit and retook it, an event he believed occurred on 3 January. Mallett said he was locked in his cell throughout the rioting and was not involved in the violence, but also openly declared his gang affiliation.

    He claimed to have been escorted by armed state officers when he was released on 8 January, due to ongoing safety concerns. “It is pure hell there,” he said. “Inside you have no rights.”
    …………………………..
    In interviews with six people who had family or partners inside the facility, three said they had not heard from them since the violence began. Those who had contacted their loved ones had done so via contraband cellphones, which are widely used in Parchman. None had any formal confirmation from MDOC, despite making calls.
    …………………………………….
    Paloma Wu, a senior staff attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC), said a client she visited at Parchman on Thursday had been held in “Unit 32” for around five days. The client, who did not wish to be named, told his attorney there had been no running water for four days, meaning inmates had to defecate into empty toilets that soon overflowed. The client had not showered and had slept on a concrete floor. Food had been as little as a slice of bread. The Guardian reviewed photographic evidence as well as video which supported this description of conditions.

    “We have been treating these people like animals for decades,” Wu said. “Worse than animals, in fact.”
    ……………………………..
    Thompson cited severe staff shortages: 670 staff positions across the three state prisons are unfilled, causing some prisons to be held in lockdown throughout 2019. Although Mississippi has the third-highest rate of incarceration in the US, last month its budget committee recommended reducing spending on state facilities by up to 6.6%. Mississippi pays the lowest salaries for prison staff anywhere in the US.

    The crisis is expected to dominate the next legislative session, which begins this month. The outgoing governor, Phil Bryant, has acknowledged the fiscal problems but blamed inmates for the January violence.

    “The inmates are the ones that take each other’s lives,” he told reporters. “The inmates are the ones that fashion weapons out of metal. So, I would say look to the inmates.”

  33. 33.

    Betty Cracker

    @daveNYC: I think the unity argument is that Warren is 1) a Democrat, 2) not as far left as Sanders, and 3) acceptable to most Democrats, at least according to the polls cited. She’s also a woman, which means something to millions of women who still feel like they got robbed in 2016 and are chafing under the misrule of the stone-cold misogynist in the White House.

    IMO, it’s not an ironclad argument, but it’s not crazy talk either. Nominating Sanders is going to be a problem for a lot of Democrats; no explanation needed around here. Nominating Biden brings its own set of problems.

    You could say that about any of the candidates, I guess, but arguably Warren is sort of a compromise candidate as far as the party’s ideological poles go.

  37. 37.

    Immanentize

    @Anne Laurie: I don’t think Kennedy will beat Markey (who was also my rep, neighbor!) but he might.  I think Joe was making a bet that if Warren won, he would certainly be the presumptive favorite for her seat when it opened.  We’ll see….

  38. 38.

    montanareddog

    @Baud: And neither will the American people be able to vote freely if the Republicans get no serious pushback for rigging elections by

    1. gerrymandering
    2. voter suppression of Democratic-leaning populations
    3. gutting the VRA
    4. blocking security measures against foreign interference
    5. functionally disabling the Elections Commission
    6. extorting foreign countries into smearing political opponents
    7. denying evidence for Congressional oversight
    8. ignoring overwhelming evidence of impeachable offences
    9. using the DOJ to target political opponents
    10. ginning up foreign wars for domestic political benefit
    11. laundering foreign money into Republican campaigns
    12. stacking the courts with young, unqualified idealogues
  40. 40.

    Immanentize

    @Betty Cracker: I said this yesterday at some point.  Sanders has a floor and he has a ceiling.  The difference between the two seems to be about 5-7 points.  He will stay in this race only until others start to drop off because he is already pushing his limit.  I really, as you hint, don’t see very many Hillary voters choosing Sanders over, say, Biden.  Or Warren.  He has deep structural problems in the primary because of his past behaviors.  Which he seems like he is inclined to repeat.  Sanders attacking Warren will not make me vote for Sanders.

  42. 42.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I had a nice experience yesterday. A friend here invited me and three other women for wine and cheese. We sat around having a normal conversation about vacations and Jeopardy and pressures on kids-these-days. It felt like forever since I’d done that. I had trouble joining in at first. It felt like I’d forgotten how to talk about anything except politics and writing.

    ETA: Also, a “violent” sword fight in a Wal Mart in Texas.

     

    Someone notify the authorities. Two people missing from #Florida were reportedly seen near the Walmart off I-35 in Buda, Texas. https://t.co/iVgjWe3Lv2
    — Doctrine Man (@Doctrine_Man) January 13, 2020

  45. 45.

    Immanentize

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: March 12, I think.  I need a break.  I mentioned to the Immp, as you said, that there will be a lot of Olds on the cruise.  He said he didn’t mind as long as he didn’t have to speak to anyone.  I told him some will take care of that end, “Young man! Come help with this bag!”. Then I realized I could just live out a Poirot fantasy trip and explain to everyone that my son was “convalescing.”. I’m excited!

  48. 48.

    joel hanes

    @Betty Cracker:

    Blitzer is a known (meh) quantity

    This is far too kind to Mr. Blitzer, who has been weakly pretending  to be a journalist since 1990.

    He’s faking it

    Not really making it

  49. 49.

    Kay

    Grandbaby is a girl – she took forever to get here but she is as calm as her mother so takes her time :)

  50. 50.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Immanentize: You can do all the talking for both of you. LOL. I’m sure Immp will love that.

    That’s coming up soon. Here’s my one travel hack: Throughout the year, I save the clothes I’d wear one more time and then throw away–the socks with a little hole in the heel, the shorts with the raggedy hem. Then I pack them for the trip and throw them away as we go.

  56. 56.

    Immanentize

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: The Immp used to hate when I would chat up strangers.  But then he figured out I was learning helpful stuff doing so.  Now, he is resigned and slightly amused when I do that.

  62. 62.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    Yeah, she’s lovely. I’m much more jittery than my daughter is so now we have a (total) of two serene people in this family. Unflappable. I was having a nervous breakdown because it took so long but the two patients were fine.

  67. 67.

    Immanentize

    @Nicole: To Venice.  But then, I guess you need to also know where it’s from??. San Juan.  I guess the line (Viking) has to get its ships back to the Med. from the Caribbean and S. America for the summer rush.  So, we get that ride too.

  70. 70.

    daveNYC

    @Betty Cracker: I think point 2 is the sticky bit.  Sanders’ policies are to the left of Warren’s, but I’m not sure that “The rates on Warren’s wealth tax are less than those of Sanders’s.” is going to be a compelling argument to a number of moderate type voters.  The gap between what Warren and Biden are proposing is gargantuan.

    Booker or Klobuchar would be much more of a viable compromise between the left and center, but they can’t seem to break 5%, so baring something crazy in the early states they’re non-starters.

  74. 74.

    Citizen Alan

    @joel hanes:  It’s amazing to think that Wolf blitzer has  built a 30 year career as a “reliable and respected journalist” entirely out of that brief month long period when he managed to give live reports out of Baghdad while bombs were falling around him without pissing himself.

  75. 75.

    Nelle

    @Kay: Congratulations, Kay!  As I may have mentioned, we moved to Des Moines in April to be near our two granddaughters, now 11 months and 2 1/2.  We take care of them two days a week and it was the only way I could get my husband to retire.  He’s 75.

    He’s rather overqualified to work.  At 70, he was recruited by a law firm in KC to be a scientific advisor to their environmental division, which brought us back to the US.  When I met him, he was a bush pilot in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Alaska’s North Slope in summers and working on his PhD in the academic year.  He was a Rickover boy out of the Naval Academy, did 3 years in Vietnam (got stop lossed), and ended up as a hydrogeologist.  All of that us to say he has worked long and hard his whole life and fully intended to keep doing so until he dropped.

    Until he held his granddaughter.  And then the next one.  He’s a very quiet, serious guy.  He’s smiled more in the last nine months than in decades.

  77. 77.

    germy

    Shaun D. Mullen, 72, a blogger and author whose journalism career included two decades at the Philadelphia Daily News, was found dead Thursday, Dec. 12, at his home in East Stroudsburg, Pa. He died of natural causes, relatives said.

    Mr. Mullen covered the Vietnam War, the O.J. Simpson trials, the Clinton impeachment, and 12 presidential campaigns including posts on his politics blog, Kiko’s House. Mr. Mullen joked on the blog that the 2020 presidential campaign would be his “unlucky 13th.”

    The day before he died, Mr. Mullen, known for a sharp, no-nonsense political voice, put up a blog post about Attorney General William Barr, headlined: “Barr Keeps Covering for Trump’s Crimes. The Time Has Come to Impeach Him.”

  78. 78.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Nelle:

    He’s smiled more in the last nine months than in decades.

    When my older sis was expecting her first, I told her grandchildren are better than children. About a year later she told me I was right.

  84. 84.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @montanareddog:

    In Iran, an authoritarian government egregiously lies to the people about the shooting down of the Ukrainian airliner, and the people are out protesting about it.

    In the US, an (allegedly-)democratic government lies to the people all the time and the people seem to be too apathetic to do anything.

    It depends on how you define “doing anything.” Lots of people are organizing, registering voters, campaigning for their preferred primary candidate(s), and preparing to Get Out The Vote in large numbers. That counts as significant work in my book, and ultimately more effective in our democratic system (tenuous though it may be) than demonstrations.

    We haven’t forgotten the supplemental value of demonstrations either. The Women’s March is this weekend.

  87. 87.

    Zzyzx

    @Anne Laurie: when people are making a case against Biden that he is trusting Republicans, it seems odd to make the pro-Warren argument that THIS Republican is fine. That article you posted in your support specifically said that they expected a Republican to be posted as a replacement, but that it would potentially be a moderate one. It’s not a deal breaker per se (since I don’t think we’re flipping the Senate) but it’s not to be ignored either.

    Also claiming that Warren only wins in a wave election both contradicts that she’s the most electable candidate and also sounds too much like Sanders’ “there will be a magic revolution if I win and that’s how everything gets passed“ argument for my tastes

  88. 88.

    Josie

    @Kay: 
    Congratulations, Kay. I raised three boys, so my two granddaughters are a constant delight and a blessing. You will enjoy her so much.

  89. 89.

    Josie

    @Nelle:

    Agree about the grands.  Also, I need to answer your question about the cough.  The thread was long dead by the time I saw it.  Mine lasted about six weeks.  I thought it would never end, but it finally did.  I have my stamina back and restarted my exercise program with no ill effects.  Hang in there and take care of yourself.

  90. 90.

    Shalimar

    @JPL: On the bright side, Warren is never going to get enough votes to pass any of the policies that are too far to the left of you, so it’s not like you’re going to be unhappy with the results.

  91. 91.

    Butter Emails

    @Zzyzx:

    Erm. You’re missing the point regarding Massachusetts. If Warren wins the nomination, she can submit her resignation letter to the Governor kicking off the 145 to 160 day period to hold a special election, but delay her actual resignation. That ultimately means you would end up with a Republican appointed Senator for as little as 45 days. There’s strong Democratic contenders looking for a Senate seat but no Republicans outside of Baker himself that pose much of a challenge. That means a Scott Brown situation is extremely unlikely as Baker is probably eyeing a post Trump presidential run, not a spot in the US Senate.

  93. 93.

    Zzyzx

    @Butter Emails: I get that. My point though is that during that period of time, the Senate elects a majority leader and the rules for the session. I can picture the Republicans using that window to create rules that would hamper a Democratic majority from doing anything. Only tradition is stopping them, and recent events in states where they’ve lost show that they prioritize power

  94. 94.

    Eolirin

    @Zzyzx: Democrats have amended those rules after session start before iirc. If they have a majority I’m pretty sure they can do whatever they want. Especially if it’s undoing bullshit McConnell tried to pull. But I really don’t think us getting to exactly 50 seats is the most likely outcome. And it doesn’t matter outside of that.

Comments are closed.