This is to say nothing of Bloomberg. He might get some Yang voters, though, all 3.
Anyway people will actively avoid learning how the caucus works and Monday night will be a very confusing time
— Canadian Bread Price Fixing (@MenshevikM) January 30, 2020
This is no way to run a democratic election!
It's actually just completely shameful that we went through a whole big push about reforming the system to make primaries 'more democratic' & there was almost nothing about eliminating caucuses, which are inherently undemocratic.. https://t.co/kZWNKKeio1
— Centrism Fan Acct ?? (@Wilson__Valdez) January 27, 2020
I am going to be caucusing with a 7 year old, so the stupidity of a crucial political January in-person event starting at 7 pm has been in the front of my brain lately as I think about the stories of doorknockers being turned away by husbands as they ask to speak to the wives too https://t.co/YmaKTwXWhn
— Louise Seamster (@louise_seamster) January 29, 2020
They were certainly bad for my late mother who has been a Democrat longer than most people have been alive but couldn't attend the caucuses anymore when she was in her 90s cuz she couldn't hang around in cold rooms for hours.
— Equanimity (@shunyata2000) January 29, 2020
And the glimpses I’m seeing on twitter of ‘mock caucus’ training to bring in The Youngs are… not inspirational:
In a mock caucus right now. First round, Biden, Tulsi, and Amy were not viable. Yang was viable, and we just grew in size by 26% after a number of them moved to us. Bernie, Warren, and Pete are the only ones left besides us and each remaining group is similar in size. #YangGang pic.twitter.com/TdFyv60Hk4
— Scott Santens?? (@scottsantens) January 28, 2020
Warren supporters attempt to convince Sanders supporters. Almost none have budged. As an unviable group – if they don’t realign, they’re effectively going home. pic.twitter.com/A2Wwd25qwt
— Ben Pu (@BenPu_nbc) January 28, 2020
debbie
Sorry to be so repetitive but this is something we all should do:
I can’t link on my iPad, but there’s more than a few people on Twitter suggesting that Adam Schiff be nominated for a Profile in Courage Award. You can nominate him at the JFK Library’s website and it only takes a second or two. Aside from the fact he truly deserves it, it would be one more thing that Trump would not win! Share widely!
pat
Hey! First!
If Bernie is the nominee I will probably not be going out knocking on doors.
Because the democratic party is dead and our democracy is dead.
(I’m just a bit depressed these days…..)
edt, well second or maybe third or fourth by now.
The Dangerman
Caucusadoodie.
/Misery
ETA: Caucus and Doobie
/Better
Jim, Foolish Literalist
a perhaps unsurprising but interesting thread about Lamar(!) and other lame ducks who are still lapdogs, from a very well-sourced Republican writer
and from the replies:
and Lamar (!) just announced he’s a no on more witnesses and information. cowardly fuck
SiubhanDuinne
Just announced, Lamar! is a no on witnesses.
Fuck him with all the rusted farm implements.
I’m phonebanking for SPW for a couple of hours tomorrow.
opiejeanne
@debbie: Thank you for the great suggestion.
Trump at today’s rally, among other inanities said that Obama was impeached.
Steeplejack (phone)
@debbie:
Just put in a naked URL. If you press and hold the URL in your browser you should get a pop-up menu that allows you to copy it to the clipboard.
Mnemosyne
I have been snickering all day at the pleas from the Sandernistas that we look at the CONTEXT, the CONTEXT, not the words.
Turns out that if you insist that your guy has been consistent and had the same views for the past 50 years, and then a quote from 40 years ago shows up of him feeling sympathetic towards George Wallace’s racist white voters, just like his sympathy towards Joe Rogan’s racist fan base, you’ve got kind of a problem on your hands. ?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Really surprised to see Bernie supported segregationist George Wallace.
Kent
In case you needed a reminder that Bernie is REALLY fucking old
Bernie Sanders Is Still Sad About the Brooklyn Dodgers – And he knows how to nurse a grudge
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/30/us/politics/bernie-sanders-baseball.htm
Kent
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: What they aren’t accounting for because they are stupid is the Streisand Effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
Jeffro
trumpublicans are under estimating the white-hot fury that an impeachment aquittal will inspire in the Ds
good
dmsilev
@Mnemosyne: Aren’t these the same group of people who perpetually argue that, when it comes to other candidates, context is irrelevant and one must take words at their literal meaning, and hence Biden mocking Paul Ryan is proof that Biden essentially is Paul Ryan?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Ruckus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
When you’ve spent your whole life sucking hind tit you aren’t going to stop just because you are 80 yrs old. You have no value to the world, only to yourself. The gig is to make as much money as you can get away with and do as little as possible to get there.
hitchhiker
Just checking in to tell you all a secret … when things in politics-world are in that terrible moment just before news is going to break (witness vote, IA caucus, etc), I look away from everyplace except here.
Because if I’m about to get my depressing news, or my satisfying news, it’s much better hearing it from you. I’ll be opening the blog a lot this year, I guess. Some shit’s gonna happen, for sure.
MisterForkbeard
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s even worse than that. He literally admits that Trump did it and that he broke the law. We know this, therefore no need for more embarrassing witnesses. Of course, he completely ignores that most of his republican colleagues say there’s not enough information to convict.
He also says it’s no biggie and therefore will vote to acquit so that “the people can decide” in November.
Because he’s a cowardly assclown. Romney and Collins are doing similar things – waiting until there’s no actual consequence to voting for witnesses before voting for witnesses.
Jamie
@MisterForkbeard: How did we get cursed with this lot of chickenshits?
Man, I’m no John McCain fan, but he wouldn’t have put up with this shit.
Auntie Anne
@debbie: Great idea! Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
Kent
The DNC could do away with these damn caucuses in a fucking heartbeat by simply deciding to allocate delegates based on votes. Not out of some set number of delegates apportioned to each state based on population, which is already too electoral-college-ish. But simply based on votes. Each candidate gets ONE delegate for each 10,000 votes (or whatever formula makes sense). So if Iowa wants to run its crazy caucus, fine, but their state-wide delegate haul is proportional to the number of voters they turn out. Their 170,000 voters on caucus night will entitle Iowa to about the same number of delegates as one of the smaller Dallas suburbs.
If Oregon manages to turn out 2x the number of Democratic primary voters than say Kentucky with a nearly identical population, then Oregon Democrats get 2-times the number of delegates as Kentucky. That is as it should be. This would incentivize each state’s party to maximize turnout for primaries.
The Dangerman
@MisterForkbeard:
Heaven forbid, if RBG should check out before November, this will be flushed so fast..
ETA: I need to go queue up some Samuel L. Jackson “motherfuckers” in a loop…
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
OT:
BBC: Coronavirus Declared Global Health Emergency by WHO
I’m getting the weirdest feeling I should head to Las Vegas right about now.
But in all seriousness, this is fairly concerning. As much as I dislike the PRC government and all that it stands for, I sincerely wish them the best with their efforts to contain this virus and research a vaccine
janesays
@SiubhanDuinne: I literally just got suspended from Twitter for 12 hours for telling that asshole I hope he gets run over by a bus.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
He literally should just leak the entire manuscript at that point just to fuck over the Trump admin
Jamie
I see what you did there.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@MisterForkbeard:
He’s not just admitting Trump did it either. The way he phrased it, Alexander is still trying to portray Trump in a good light by implying Trump was only trying investigate Biden out of concerns of corruption. Which is bs of course.
Kent
It’s Bolton. He is a bureaucratic samurai warrior and master ass-coverer. *HE* won’t leak it. His publisher will get “hacked” by the Chinese who will post it to some server in Iceland or something. Plausible deniability.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
thinking back to my college friend from Nashville who told me in the early nineties that the man who would become Lamar(!) was a different kind of Republican– she was a solid Democrat, but her Vanderbilt faculty parents liked Lamar. The same thing was said about Giuliani, of course. And that was when the Republican Party still included people like Jim Jeffords, old man Chaffee, William Roth and John Warner.
Charlie Sykes predicts Mitch McConnell is underestimating the backlash and may just have put the Senate more in play than he realizes. From his lips, etc
SiubhanDuinne
@janesays:
Oh, well done! Congratulations!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kent: a reporter tweeted out a picture of Bolton on her plane earlier today. “Excuse me, Miss, I believe you dropped this…”
Kent
I think McConnell is answering more to Trumps urgency to do a victory lap at the State of the Union rather than what is long-term most strategic for the Senate in fall 2020. In other words, he’s become Trump’s bitch too.
The Dems have to capitalize on this opening. Like time their enforcement of the subpoena of Bolton to testify before the House Intelligence Committee to occur right about August 24, the opening day of the GOP Convention.
They need to be pulling at every fucking string that the Senate covered up and do it methodically so that new shit keeps dripping out bit by bit all through the fall campaigns.
Hey, they could have actually put it all to rest back in January but no, they voted to cover it all up. Sorry, them’s the breaks.
debbie
@Steeplejack (phone):
Back on the laptop, so here’s the link to nominate Schiff for the Profile in Courage Award.
Gretchen D
@Kent: The DNC has no such power. The States make their own election laws.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jamie:
Thanks ; )
I wasn’t sure if I anyone was going to get the reference or not
PJ
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: This is how Pelosi has played it. There was never any real hope that enough Republicans would do the right thing and remove Trump – try to imagine 20 Republicans agreeing that Trump had abused the power of the office and had obstructed justice! It was never going to happen. The best she, and the rest of the Democrats, could do, is to paint as clear a picture of the extent of the wrongdoing, and hang it around the neck of the Republicans come election time.
Kent
@Gretchen D: The states run their own elections, but the DNC allocates delegates to the convention and can do it however they damn well please. State’s do not control the disposition of delegates to the national convention. The DNC can’t really force Iowa to do anything, but they can decide how many delegates to give Iowa.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kent:
Suggested soundbite for the “assassin*” Pelosi: “The McConnell Senators refused to do their job, now I have to do it for them”
* the way Steve Bannon saw Nancy Pelosi from her first meeting with trump after the inauguration, per the new Stable Genius book. He meant it as a compliment. He also compared her to Katharine Hepburn in The Lion In Winter, which I think is a little silly, but a compliment
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kent:
Probably. Is Bolton really just motivated by anger at Trump for fucking up his chance at war with Iran and being fired? Or is it the money? Or does Bolton recognize the dangers that Trump and the GOP truly pose to American democracy and the rest of the world? Or at the very least of the potential dangers to himself posed by a nearly unrestrained executive branch?
Kent
That didn’t take long. I got my first Hinkenlooper Senate ad on Facebook capitalizing on the Senate vote that hasn’t even happened yet. And I don’t even live anywhere near Colorado.
Mary G
@janesays: I just tweeted “Traitor” to Lamar.
Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah, but in a fight between Barr, Bolton and Trump, I’m really just rooting for injuries.
West of the Rockies
I must be sleepy. I don’t get the comic atop this thread.
OT question. Has anyone ever seen Last Man Standing? Is it just Tim Allen slinging witticisms at his “libtard” family? Does he ever get any meaningful return fire?
Also, on the defunct Roseanne reboot… Is John Goodman a wingnut? Did he not know Barr was a bigoted moron? Why did he sign on?
Kent
Bolton is playing the long game. He isn’t *that* old. He will get to be the GOP voice of conscience on all the wingnut networks for the next 4 years and be in line for a very senior position like Secretary of State in the next GOP administration.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Don’t forget about “Moscow Mitch”. McConnell hates being called that
SFAW
It has occurred to me that all the towering pillars of courage — Flake, Corker, Alexander, and others who decided to retire, rather than get primaried — may have been threatened with bodily harm by various agents of the Mobster-in-Chief, and that’s what caused them to wimp out after all their big talk.
No, I don’t really think that’s what happened, I think they’re all just quislings and traitors. But given that the Senate would almost certainly not convict the Mobster-in-Chief for ordering a “hit” on a political rival, I do not find that concept as ridiculous as I used to. Adam Schiff was saying something similar last week, in his closing — except without the implication of overt violence.
Kent
@SFAW: They are a bunch of whipped dogs. They just reflexively cringe when Trump raises his phone. They are all looking to fund their lavish retirements on the wingnut welfare circuit which won’t happen if by chance Trump wins in 2020* and patrols Fox news to make sure none of them ever appear there. Remember, these Senators might be worth $10 million or so in the case of Alexander. But they spend their lives hob-nobbing with MUCH MUCH wealthier set. $10 million isn’t going to go far if you are trying to keep up with generational wealth and the Private Equity and Hedge Fund types.
*There is a non-zero chance of that happening.
JWR
I think that tomorrow morning would be a great time for another, (preferably devastating to Trump), audio drop from Parnas’s lawyer.
IA Caucuses. Yawn. (No offense intended.)
SFAW
@Kent:
I wonder how Traitor Turtle “convinced” Alexander to wimp out. Maybe he reminded Lamar of “Party before Country.”
I hat all of those motherfuckers.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@West of the Rockies:
That’s a question I’ve been asking asking myself for a long time. ABC, Goodman, Sykes, Gilbert, MacDonald, etc had to have known what she was like. She’s been a horrifying racist for years and had Twitter meltdowns before. What made them think she’d somehow be able keep it under control this time? And frankly, why would they want to work with someone so terrible?
To me, the Roseanne reboot was a disgusting attempt to profit off the 2016 election and in effect normalize Trump and his supporters as a television demographic to appeal to, if only to make money.
My impression of both the Roseanne reboot and Last Man Standing to a greater extent, is that they’re shows designed to mock liberal strawmen, like a Bizzaro World version of All in the Family, not portray a nuanced comedy about generational/political divides
I admit I haven’t watched a whole bunch of either shows, just snippets, but I feel I’ve watched enough to know what they are
With Roseanne, I’ve read the biggest problem with it is that Roseanne the character would never act anything like she does in the reboot. Reboot Roseanne is more like her actress and is a mouthpiece for wingnutism. The original Roseanne was a working class feminist.
Just overall a poorly conceived reboot that lots of people watched for reasons I can’t fathom (well, I can…) that shit all over the original show (Dan is alive, hello?) and was produced by people who should’ve known better
Kent
@SFAW: greed. He wants to cash in after November.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kent:
That’s assuming of course the Wingnutosphere doesn’t blacklist him for speaking against Dear Leader and Trump-like politicians don’t become the norm in the GOP
Jim, Foolish Literalist
from twitter trends
janesays
@Gretchen D: The DNC has the power to strip a state that doesn’t play by its rules of all of its delegates voting rights. And they have done so in the past – Michigan and Florida were both stripped of their delegate votes in 2008 for holding their primaries in January (both states ultimately had their delegate votes restored, but not until the convention, and the restoration was of no meaningful consequence to the outcome).
Kent
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): There is the wingnut welfare circuit controlled by Fox, and the swamp lobbying circuit controlled by McConnell, as long as the GOP keeps the Senate. Betraying McConnell is not going to put you on the top of the list for big Pharma or the financial industry lobbying shops if they want to be in the room with McConnell in 2021.
West of the Rockies
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I’d have thought Goodman in particular could have said no and been just fine financially. Sara Gilbert seems to have a more limited number of film/TV offers, but Goodman?
I know nothing about Nancy Travis (Allen’s TV wife), but why take a role where you are the butt of jokes in 25 episodes and then do it for 7 or 8 years? Fuck Tim Allen.
JCJ
@Kent:
that free agency crap
Wait, the savior of the working class doesn’t like free agency? Baseball players are hardly underpaid for their labor, but he disagrees with the Curt Flood ruling?
(Wasn’t someone recently complaining on this blog about trading labor for wages? Is this all part of that argument? )
janesays
@Kent: Lamar Alexander is going to be 80 years old in June, and his net worth is probably closer to $15 million (it was $14.2 million in 2016).
https://www.opensecrets.org/personal-finances/net-worth?cid=N00009888
It’s not as if not being able to make even more money would in any way worsen his quality of life after he retires. The dude’s probably gonna be dead within 10 years.
Kent
@JCJ: Well, it was an old quote. But still. The Dodgers moved to LA 63 years ago. Anyone who is still pissed about that is really fucking old.
Juju
Am I the only one who hears Beaker meeping “Feelings” every time Susan Collins opens her mouth?
Also, I’m making my first donation to Cal Cunningham today. Tootles human badger Thom Tillis.
janesays
@Kent: John Bolton is 71 years old. There’s a strong chance there won’t be another GOP administration until January 2029 or later, when he’ll be 80 years old.
He’s not Lamar Alexander old, but he’s not really young, either.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): @West of the Rockies: I never brought myself to watch it even though I think Goodman and Laurie Metcalfe are worth watching in almost anything, IMO, and I was curious about Wanda Sykes being involved. I was struck by the clip I saw where Roseanne explains to the HRC-supporting Metcalfe why she voted for trump: “He talked about jobs, he said he was gonna shake things up”. That was the best explanation that a group of writers could put in the script
Kent
That is how normal people think. These people are not normal. Charles Koch is 84 and worth $60+ billion. Yet he is still hell-bent on fucking the country up even more for profit. That is who people like Lamar Alexander are used to being around.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Kent
Henry Kissinger is 96 or 25 years older than Bolton. That’s the model of senior statesman. Bolton has a lot of years of Senior Statesmen left. I guarantee you these folks are not planning to be out of power for 8 years.
hilts
@SFAW:
I read somewhere that Lamar Alexander and McConnell are close personal friends, but in any case Alexander is still a gutless prick and I wish the both of them could spend eternity in Hell.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@West of the Rockies:
Yeah I don’t get it either. Allen even had the gall the whine about his show getting canceled for poor ratings after 6. fucking. seasons. He blamed Liberal Hollywood, of course. Tim Allen has a huge victim complex, like most conservatives
hilts
h/t https://www.mediaite.com/politics/pro-trump-evangelical-pastor-says-jesus-would-beat-the-crap-out-of-bolton/
janesays
@Kent: Kissinger hasn’t had a regular day job in nearly 40 years. He hasn’t worked officially in ANY administration since Nixon’s (occasionally making an appearance in the Oval Office for a photo op and a brief consult doesn’t really count). There’s a huge difference between being an “elder statesman” like Kissinger and being lined up to be a future Secretary of State. He’s going to be way too old for the job the next time it’s available.
I’m with Rick Wilson on this – I think Bolton is completely fucked. The only person whose opinion matters in GOP circles for the foreseeable is Donald Trump, and John Bolton is 100% on his enemies list. I kind of expect Bolton to be getting investigated by Bill Barr and the DOJ within a month. As for a potential future with Fox – Sean Hannity and Lou Dobbs now openly despise him, so that ain’t happening. OAN being even more Trump-worshipping than Fox sure as hell isn’t going to hire him, either.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Wow. That’s…pretty bad. And perpetuates the falsehood that Trump supporters are mostly poor downtrodden workers, rather than mostly well-off morally bankrupt racist authoritarians.
There’s also a gender non-conforming character, Mark (Roseanne’s grandson), who likes to wear dresses and yet still claim he’s a boy. Which would be fine in any other context, but Barr is a notorious transphobe; a TERF. The character was being used to destroy the validity of gender identity and trans people themselves
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kent:
Maybe. I guess we’ll see
rikyrah
Don’t like the caucus system.
They could do it on the weekend.
Why they doing.it on a MONDAY?!?
Kent
@janesays: He might have retired from government service in 1977 but he never went away and has had plenty of day jobs since: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Kissinger
West of the Rockies
@janesays:
Well, Johnny B could have done the right thing any day of the last several months. He chose money instead (his piggy shit book). He is a war mongerer. If he goes down in flames, boo-fucking-hoo.
Jay
@West of the Rockies:
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
White Man Standing was just an Ok Boomer attempt to sitcom not only “both sides” but also “issues”, while basically encouraging TV Nepotism and shallowism, and inside jokes.
other than a few minor episodes, it was all in all, pretty pathetic, living off sterotypes and predictable formulae.
Kent
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): If Trump loses in 2020 he will be forgotten like yesterday’s news and Fox will instantly pivot to creating the next 2024 frontrunner, whoever that will be. All the never-Trumpers and the rest will all be remediated. Look how fast Bush was forgotten.
Citizen Alan
@The Dangerman:
“Heaven forbid, if RBG should check out befor
e NovemberJanuary 2021 (since we all know perfectly well that that fucking pig McConnell would not hesitate to ram through an other Opus Dei rapist even during the lame duck period).Kent
@janesays: Kissinger is still earning millions every year to this day through Kissinger Associates and all the corporate boards he has sat on for the past 30 years. He might have left government service in 1977 but he has been cashing in full time ever since.
Citizen Alan
@janesays: I got suspended last week for saying that I was praying for a Bernie heart attack. No regrets.
mrmoshpotato
This so late at night? – nope!
The Good Place final was great. I’ll stay there.
FlipYrWhig
@JCJ: I noticed that too. Add it to the list of things that if another candidate had said them would occasion at least a momentary Twitterpile over their neoliberal wrongthink but that will go entirely without mention because spoken by Wilmer.
Citizen Alan
@hilts: Evangelical Christianity is a Satan-worshiping cult. I have taken to saying this to Evangelical Christians to their faces.
Mnemosyne
@dmsilev:
Yup. And now they are arguing that what’s sauce for the goose is not, in fact, sauce for the gander, so therefore their candidate should get a special dispensation that no other candidate should get.
And that claim is getting the mockery it deserves.
ETA: Apparently the best way to fight an out of context quote is by citing another out of context quote about a different candidate and screaming BUTWHATABOUT!?!?!?11?
janesays
@West of the Rockies: To be clear, if Trump decides to exact revenge on Bolton by abusing his power (yet again) and unleashing the full power of the corrupt DOJ to make Bolton’s life a living hell… I’ve got the world’s tiniest violin ready to play for John Bolton.
janesays
@Kent: Dubya was never worshipped to the degree that Trump is. The sycophancy for Trump is on a whole other level.
Mnemosyne
@mrmoshpotato:
I loved all of the fan service Easter eggs. They worked them in so well and so cleverly.
Amir Khalid
@Citizen Alan:
Bernie has already had a heart attack. Quite recently, too.
Redshift
On Preet Bharara’s podcast, they were explaining that submitting a manuscript for review is a courtesy, and “blocking” it is really just saying “if you publish without fixing it, we may try to prosecute you.” And the process is identifying what has to be removed, not just saying “classified, you can’t publish!” Since Bolton is almost certainly smart enough not to have anything classified in it, his publisher could sue over it, or could just publish and make the administration sue them. At which point Barr can harass them like the goon he is, but the damage is already done.
Redshift
This is absolutely false. The rules were changed to encourage wider participation, and favor primaries over caucuses. As a result, only three states are holding Democratic caucuses this year, Iowa, Nevada, and Wyoming (plus some or most of the island territories), as compared to 14 states in 2016.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Just saw my first TV ad that wasn’t from Steyer or Bloomie, it was a Bernie ad. Health care for all and 20 million green jobs.
Viva BrisVegas
He’ll put his cult up for sale to the highest bidder.
The point of running in 2016 was to widen the appeal of his brand, not to actually win. After 2020 that brand is going to worth billions no matter what the result.
Think Kardashians, but with even less class and more grift.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Viva BrisVegas: Trump will start his own network if he looses, his cult thinks Fox is too “fair and balanced”.
James E Powell
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Sounds great! I’m sold.
JAFD
Apologies for my utter ignorance of modern culture, but I did not get the ‘Las Vegas’ reference. If someone might explain, I’d be thankful. (I do now have the Steely Dan song as an earworm…)
(Edit: This was meant as reply to Goku at #35. Somehow the ‘reply button’ not linking to original comment…)
Anne Laurie
TBH, I never actually got around to watching the reboot, pre- or post-Barr. But unless you’re old, like me, you might not remember how radical the original Roseanne show was, back in the Reagan era. A lot of people who were not, and are not, at all right-leaning had fond memories.
And that, I get the feeling, includes the original cast. Goodman, Metcalf, and Gilbert didn’t need the money / exposure. But they all spoke well of Barr, and seemed frankly protective of her, until the final Valerie Jarrat meltdown made it impossible to keep defending her.
Barr’s been upfront about her mental health issues. She won’t be the only person who’s alienated her most caring friends by pushing the boundaries of civilized behavior until they snap. But a lot of us can attest that it’s very hard not to keep defending an old friend even as they deteriorate.
bjacques
@JAFD: Stephen King’s “The Stand” I reckon. A superflu, nicknamed “Captain Trips” kills off 99.94% of the world’s population, clearing the way for the literal Apocalypse. Survivors inclined toward goodness gravitate toward Boulder, guided by dreams of a kindly African-American grandma. The baddies make for Las Vegas, drawn there by Randall Flagg, The Walkin’ Dude.
opiejeanne
@JAFD: I didn’t really get it either, and the only thing I can think of is a Stephen King story that was made into a miniseries for tv. I think it was called The Stand. A lot of the story was based in Vegas, especially the ending.
opiejeanne
@bjacques: Thanks. I only have vague memories of the story. We watched some of the miniseries but missed at least one episode early in the series.
Kathleen
@debbie: Thank you so much Debbie. I just completed my nomination of Schiff at the site.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Kent:
I’m no Sanders fan, but you are completely misrepresenting or misunderstanding the quotation. Here’s the excerpt from the article:
It is clear that the “free agency crap” is a joke line from Sanders’s character in the movie. How you got from that to dinging Sanders personally I have no idea.
Gvg
@Gretchen D: the DNC does too. They gave Florida and another state NO vote count for holding their primaries earlier than the DNC approved in 2008 in what was an attempt by Florida to move up in the election calander and count for more. Obama honored the rules and didn’t try for Florida’s delegates before the primary, Hillary campaigned anyway and won, and tried to get the ruling overturned when she was loading to Obama. Primary delegate counts are set by the party. The elections are run by the states and the two have to kind of negotiate with each other. Sometimes they don’t work it out. If the party is too heavy handed, the voters of that state may backlash against the whole party and lose all kinds of general election votes, so I would say the states have more of the upper hand but then the states are also competing with each other too. This is why none of our sensible suggestions about fixing our primaries/caucuses get enacted and always remember it’s about more than the presidency and it’s aimed at maxing the party wins in the general. It’s so complicated that inertia wins often.
Chris Johnson
@janesays: Anybody thinking Bolton is completely fucked is buying into some pretty sketchy Russian narratives about the irresistible power and deadly cunning of… fucking Donald Trump. I don’t buy it. Trump is not as GOOD at this as Bolton is. I can root for injuries and still have a feeling that Trump is playing games out of his class.
My own feeling about how the Russian treachery thing is going is like this: a lot is riding on Republican fears of mob-style vengeance. They semi-legitimately fear they’ll be picked off one by one by Putin’s assassins should they defect (to America, ironically) and Trump has nothing to do with it: the guy is just a wrecking ball, a joke, increasingly demented.
A lot is driven by that. Their fears don’t have to be driven by direct threats given in on-the-record letters delivered by registered mail: so much of this, they’re famously NOT supposed to talk about (see Paul Ryan’s specific instructions on the matter). They know they’re puppets but they’re trying to escape with their lives and believe there is nowhere they can possibly go, so they’re craven, they’re just giving up and trying to put the best face on it.
Bolton’s from a subset of Republicans, Red Dawn types, who’ve been looking for that kind of drama for a long time. Many power dynamics could flip in an interesting way here: they already see themselves as insurgents, they already are heavily armed, they already hold no respect for law that impedes them: if they want war with Russia, this could be enough to justify it. That’s the last thing Russia wants to see happening, so everything in the media and Putin-controlled propaganda will deny it: the narrative will always be that every Republican is aligned with Trump, whenever you’re looking at Russian-sourced narrative.
It ain’t true. Some of the gun humping wingnuts have been looking for their Red Dawn story for decades, and the funny thing is, thanks to the treachery of a New York real estate developer in deep with the russian mob, that’s literally what happened. They DID see the USA ‘conquered’ by Russia, and it was thanks to RINOs who crumbled and collaborated with their great enemy.
What rural wingnuts I know, are heavily heavily armed and pretty disciplined, but as an obvious lefty I’m rather shut out of their world on that level. I think it is not safe to assume they are all idiot fools worshiping Trump of all people. They like the ‘power’ of controlling the government, but the ‘not actually controlling it’ seems like a dealbreaker: surely a coup is planned. If they are any good, they’re planning well, and we’ll know what’s happening if a lot of Trump people get suddenly attacked. I don’t believe these people, the really dangerous ones, are the same kind of idiot Putin is taking advantage of in Trump and his family and staff. I count Bolton as one of those more-dangerous wingnuts, who can plan.
SFAW
@Kent:
Trigger/Brain bleach warning:
Actually, some intrepid reporter should ask if Moscow Mitch promised Lamar a “good time” with Suzie Q, in exchange for his vote, which gives her some cover for hers. Now that’s a quid pro quo Lamar could get into.
SFAW
@bjacques:
Sounds about right, although my memory might be going, since I read it before Goku was born. And I still think of Jamey Sheridan as Flagg, despite his other excellent work. [Didn’t watch it, but recall him in it. Also, not saying Sheridan did a lousy job, just annoyed that it’s his role as Satan (or whoever) for which I remember him.]
evodevo
@West of the Rockies: “Is it just Tim Allen slinging witticisms at his “libtard” family? Does he ever get any meaningful return fire? ”
Of course not.. he is a right winger, and this is his show – he controls the scripts, so not gonna happen lol
In an interview on Jimmy Kimmel, he likened working in Hollywood to being in Nazi Germany because you had to watch what you said …(being a Republican in Hollywood is) “like 1930s Germany. You gotta be real careful around here, you know. You’ll get beat up if you don’t believe what everybody believes”
No One You Know
@debbie: Done. And I hope others, better- informed than I, will also contribute!
Domestic short hair tabby
@debbie: thanks, done