Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

He really is that stupid.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Consistently wrong since 2002

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

The revolution will be supervised.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

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

People are complicated. Love is not.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

In my day, never was longer.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Second rate reporter says what?

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

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Never Change, New Hampshire (As If You Could)

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Never Change, New Hampshire (As If You Could)

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116Comments

  6. 6.

    Princess

    @Baud: The word I’d use begins with an R.

    This was a terrible result for Bernie. He barely beats a guy no one had ever heard of a year ago in his best next-door state where last time he got 60% of the vote?

  7. 7.

    debbie

    @Betty Cracker:

    The way I was feeling last night, it definitely will not be a good thing.

    The only good thing I saw last night was the tweet from the NH GOP chair (who doesn’t like Trump) pointing out that registered Republicans in NH have dropped by 20,000 since 2016. Sounds to me like a drop in Trump support. //

  11. 11.

    MJS

    I simply do not understand the appeal of Bernie. At all. And I don’t understand why those who vote for him believe the country as a whole will vote for him. If he wins the nomination, we’ll have a 70-whatever- year-old Democratic socialist with a sketchy medical history who isn’t even inspiring the people he inspired in 2016. Great.

  12. 12.

    Chyron HR

    So if the African-American vote switches to Bloomberg, does that mean it will suddenly become racist to support Biden in the primary?  Or will it retroactively have been racist not to support Bloomberg all along–despite him being a well-documented racist himself?

  15. 15.

    satby

    @Baud: I’d use fucked up, but then I bet money that mr. liberal isn’t actually a liberal. It would be nice to get some reporters who have an IQ above the level of a kumquat reporting.

    Good morning ? @rikyrah: 

    @Betty Cracker: a very long slog. But I’m not going to get upset until we see who’s where after Super Tuesday.

  18. 18.

    satby

    And that picture up top makes Bernie look like an old geezer who just was told that there’s tapioca pudding for dessert after lunch in the assisted living facility.

  20. 20.

    ThresherK

    Who hijacked Maggie Haberman’s Twitter to tell us that there are fewer R’s than before? I mean, that’s the truth, but it’s one of those truths which never is to be acknowledged by our media betters.

  22. 22.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I read this piece this AM (NYT): Meet the Unlikely Hero Saving California’s Oldest Weekly Paper
    High in the Sierra, Downieville, Calif., was about to become the latest American community to lose its newspaper. In stepped Carl Butz, a 71-year-old retiree.

    As always when reading about a place, I felt the need to place it on a map. I googled it and has become my habit clicked on both the google map and the Wikipage for Downieville CA. I have learned to expect no more than 2 or 3 paragraphs about such small towns, but every now and again I am pleasantly surprised by a colorful history or engaging present. Such is the case with Downieville, including one particular character from it’s gold rush days, Josefa Segovia, “known to be the first woman to be executed by hanging in California.”

    Josefa was probably not married to José, but she did live with him. Therefore, she received a bad reputation.[4] According to one account, Juanita (read Josefa) was slender and barely five feet (1.5 m) tall.[5] The same account states that Josefa was beautiful, vivacious and intelligent. Some say that she was not at all disliked in the mining camp in Downieville.[5]

    Downie relates the story in the following fashion. Juanita had accompanied her partner to Downieville from Mexico and both lived in an adobe house. Downie states, “Whether she was his wife or not makes no difference in this story.” He further describes her figure as “richly developed and in strict proportions.” Only her temper was “not well balanced.” Celebrating the Fourth of July, Cannon and companions were returning from the dram shop at a late hour, with Cannon staggering from the influence of liquor. Along the way, he stumbled through the door of the adobe hut. His friends quickly pulled him back outside and they proceeded home. Mortified the next morning of his embarrassing blunder, he proceeded to the hut to offer an apology in Spanish. This did not go well with the Mexican couple, and Juanita grew angry. In a rage, she drew a knife and stabbed Cannon. Soon a “mob of infuriated men” gathered, ready to invoke the “miner’s law” of a “Life for Life”. Only a Mr. Thayer came to her defense, but to no avail as she was quickly tried and found guilty.
    ……………………
    For the lynching, a scaffold was constructed on the bridge over the Yuba River.[9] The town came to stand on the banks of the river and watch her execution. It was an important event to lessen the anger of the townspeople over Cannon’s death. Josefa was hanged immediately following the trial, and some accounts say that her last words before she was executed were “Adiós Señores”.[17] She is widely known to be the first woman to be executed by hanging in California [9] Mr. Manly wrote, “Juanita went calmly to her death. She wore a Panama hat, and after mounting the platform she removed it, tossed it to a friend in the crowd, whose nickname was ‘Oregon,’ with the remark, ‘Adios, amigo.’ Then she adjusted the noose to her own neck, raising her long, loose tresses carefully in order to fix the rope firmly in its place; and then, with a smile and wave of her hand to the bloodthirsty crowd present, she stepped calmly from the plank into eternity. Singularly enough, her body rests side by side, in the cemetery on the hill, with that of the man whose life she had taken.” Mr. Manly’s book is generally a first person account of his experiences migrating to California to mine for gold. Although he did mine for gold near Downieville in 1851, he, by his own account, was not in Downieville on the dates in question. He does not cite the source for his version of the events though it seems conceivable he heard eye-witness accounts.

    Some witnesses recalled Juanita saying before she died: “‘I would do the same again if I was so provoked.'”

    She must have been one hell of a woman.

  25. 25.

    John S.

    @MJS: I did in 2016; I don’t in 2020.

    Back then, Bernie had a message that resonated and connected with people. But the longer he spoke and the more people got to know him, the less that was true — at least for most.

    All he really has left now are the folks in his personality cult, ratf*ckers, and a handful of people who like the other candidates less than him. He hasn’t really expanded his support at all.

    Unfortunately, he’s the kind of jerk that thinks it’s better to win by tearing others down rather than building himself up. And that appeals to some.

  26. 26.

    E

    Last time there were two people in the race, this time there was nine. And any time a 78 year old self proclaimed Democratic Socialist Jewish man from Brooklyn, who just had a heart attack 2 months, ago wins the New Hampshire Primary and becomes the Democratic front runner for the presidency, that’s not a terrible performance, it’s a remarkable performance.

  27. 27.

    sanjeevs

    @MJS: Sanders is certainly struggling to win over voters.

    But he put Biden and later Warren in the cross hairs of his social media army and in both cases inflicted huge damage.

  28. 28.

    satby

    @Baud: yeah, you guys like her, but I really don’t think the mean girl will play nationwide. And I’m a take no prisoners kind of fighter, but even my friends would skip that aspect of my personality of they could. So hoping that with bigger states Warren pulls ahead.

  29. 29.

    Baud

    @John S.:

    I think the disappointing thing for me is that this year there was Warren for people who liked Bernie for his policies, but she has been struggling.

  30. 30.

    Betty Cracker

    @satby: He looks awful these days. Hubby and I watched the debate last week, and there was an outdoor camera that caught a glimpse of Sanders arriving at the venue. He was panting and hunched over like he was about to drop. He held it together on stage, but it made me wonder what’s happening behind the scenes. Lucky for him he’s not Hillary Clinton.

  32. 32.

    germy

    Every media outlet condensed into one tweet… https://t.co/vtoGyx1zGB

    — howievermont (@howievermont) February 12, 2020

    Winning was a huge blow to Sanders tonight. Buttigieg lost, which is clearly a win for him, especially losing to Sanders, to whom he’s lost twice now, making Sanders’ win even more disappointing. Team Sanders needs a big loss to win next time

    — Brendan James (@deep_beige) February 12, 2020

  33. 33.

    Baud

    @E:

    Bernie is owed his due for establishing a loyal set of supporters and building a formidable fund raising machine.   But he’s definitely underperforming given where he left off 2016, especially in light of his own hype.

  34. 34.

    Emma from FL

    So two mostly Caucasian states vote for the Caucasian candidates and that’s all she wrote? Well then. This country is more f’cked up than Trump can take credit for.

  35. 35.

    JPL

    @Baud: Wait until the MSM points out that he’s older than Biden and is recovering from a heart attack.   Then his support will start to weaken.

    Nevermind .. Joe’s the old one.

  36. 36.

    Baud

    @satby: I would love to see a Warren comeback, but I’m at a loss to how she does it.

    Unless Biden can get it together and keep it together, I think Amy is preferable to Pete because she has more political experience.   Pete’s early run is amazing though.

  37. 37.

    germy

    @EthanObama

    MSNBC programming schedule

    6am – 4pm: Dems in Disarray
    4pm – 5pm: #DeadlineWH
    5pm – 9pm: Dems in Disarray
    9pm – 10pm: #Maddow
    10pm – 11pm: #Lastword
    11pm – 12am: Dems in Disarray

    Weekends
    6am – 10am: Dems in Disarray
    10am – 12pm: #AMJoy
    12pm – 8pm: Dems in Disarray

  39. 39.

    Anne Laurie

    @Betty Cracker: Nah, you don’t need to know about him any more.  Small blessing!

    (He’s a nice man, but he had no more business in this particular race than Tom Thteyer, who should also drop out already.)

  40. 40.

    satby

    @Betty Cracker: I’ve had several friends who’ve had heart attacks and besides medicine they need cardiac rehab and very often at least a stent or (more usually) bypass surgery. Often the person has to do rehab to get strong enough for bypass surgery. Bernie is clearly not doing any of that, by his own admission. So he’s shortening his life and jeopardizing this country on the alter of his ego.

  42. 42.

    JMG

    Now it can be told. My son worked on both of Deval Patrick’s campaigns for Governor here. Last week, he was cold called and asked if he would come aboard as National Digital Director of Patrick’s campaign. He declined on the sensible grounds that a job that might last a week was unappealing (actually he told them he didn’t want to move, but that’s what he told me). He’s a smart person.

  43. 43.

    Llelldorin

    @MJS: From what I’ve seen, Bernie seems to appeal to two groups:

    (1) Economically liberal white guys who become furious the moment anyone mentions an issue that isn’t immediately relevant to them. These are the guys who immediately start sneering about identity politics the moment someone brings up women or minorities.

    (2) Younger millennials and generation Z, who are largely entering the economy in an almost hopeless starting position—huge student loans, very high housing prices, and few obvious non-gig entry-level positions. For them, forgiveness of college debt would instantly make their lives absurdly more livable.

  47. 47.

    satby

    @Baud: I think character counts. But we’ll see. Those Atlantic articles from last April on her abusive treatment of her staff just got recirculated yesterday on social media. I assume by the Berners (initially).

    Edit full disclosure: I hadn’t read them before tbh, and shared them with friends.

  52. 52.

    germy

    @satby:

     I assume by the Berners

    She knows what’s up.  I saw a clip of her being heckled.  She turned around and told them “Hi, Bernie people!”

  53. 53.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: I’m a big Warren fan but she seems to be lacking something with DEM voters. Damned if I know what it is, other than a “Y” chromosome, and I hate to think that might be it.

  56. 56.

    Princess

    @satby: I don’t have the illusion I know the character of any of the candidates running. What we as voters see as character is a careful projection created by their media teams. I wan to know what are you going to do for me, and for the vulnerable people in this country. That’s all.

  58. 58.

    Shalimar

    A negligible number of delegates have been decided, and both states were split all over the place.  No one is done before Super Tuesday unless they run out of money.  People are over-reacting to 2 very small states just because they went first.  Even if your favorite candidate is down right now, it could be totally different in a few weeks.

  59. 59.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @satby:

    As I understand it, Sanders had pretty much the same thing I did. One of the blood vessels in his heart was blocked and the docs went in through a vein (probably in his groin), used a balloon to open the blocked place, and then inserted stents to keep it open. In his case, as in mine, they inserted two, end-to-end. They send you home the next day. I immediately felt better.

    BUT, even when I left the hospital, my heart was still not expelling enough blood, a sign it was weak. I had to wait about a month and then do 12 weeks of rehab consisting of supervised exercise three times a week for an hour each. Near the end of that, my expulsion rate was well up into normal territory.

    Sanders is taking a terrible risk. And he’s risking the Democratic hopes in the election too. He’s 78. I conclude he thinks he alone can fix things.

  60. 60.

    satby

    @Princess: yeah, actually I live in South Bend and I do know one candidate’s character, not just from meeting him and his husband but also from the many people I’ve become friends with here who are all in for him.

  61. 61.

    Shalimar

    @Baud: She does it by winning a handful of states on Super Tuesday and picking up delegates from there.  Buttigieg had very little support outside of Iowa and New Hampshire.  That could change now that he has done well twice, or he could fade away.  And Bernie is Bernie, people either love him or hate him, and it looks like under 30% love him.  You don’t win with those numbers.  Even Biden isn’t done yet if he supporters in future states stay with him.

  63. 63.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Princess:
    I don’t have the illusion I know the character of any of the candidates running.

    One can get a pretty good idea of their character by looking at their personal histories.

  66. 66.

    Baud

    @Shalimar:

    I understand the numbers. There are plenty of delegates left, and she could theoretically win all of them. What I don’t understand is how she will actually get more voters to vote for her.  I don’t expect her to dislose her strategy to me, but I also don’t see where she gets more votes from.  I would be thrilled if she can do it.

  67. 67.

    Hoodie

    @OzarkHillbilly: 
    I suspect that the misogyny at play is more subtle than the traditional “how could anyone think a woman could do a man’s job!” and has a lot to do with patterns of attraction and aversion that are more pronounced for women, i.e., there is an initial appeal, but then flaws get manufactured/magnified because they reflect negatively on your self image. We’ll see what happens to Klobuchar now that she has a turn in the barrel. I would not be surprised if she’s eventually dismissed as a mean girl.

  68. 68.

    satby

    @OzarkHillbilly: I don’t think it’s that she’s female. I think that elections have morphed into “mood ring plebiscites” where how candidates make people feel has more to do with how they vote than their policies do. We saw it all the way back in Bush v. Gore and it’s only gotten much worse, with a media that wants to heighten that aspect of reporting and not to the hard analysis of policies.

  69. 69.

    gvg

    @Baud: I’d call that voter a liar. Either he is lying to the interviewer, or lying to himself. If he thinks Fox new is ever more honest, he isn’t a liberal.

  70. 70.

    Shalimar

    @Baud: The one thing I have seen that is hopeful is that she has staff in 30 states, and all the staff in Iowa and New Hampshire already had assignments to move on to other states once those votes were done.  So she still has more infrastructure than anyone other than Bloomberg.  Will those staff do any better convincing people than they did in Iowa?  We will see.  But she at least has the people to compete.

  72. 72.

    gene108

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I conclude he thinks he alone can fix things.

    I think he sees this as America’s last shot to elect a socialist to the Presidency.

    I think he uses the Scandinavian democratic socialist now, because it’s an easier sell. Deep down, he’s still the mayor of Burlington, who is on video saying he’s a socialist.

  76. 76.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: I think that elections have morphed into “mood ring plebiscites” where how candidates make people feel has more to do with how they vote than their policies do.

    TBH, I don’t think there has been any morphing, I think the avg voter has always been that way and as @Hoodie: notes,

    I suspect that the misogyny at play is more subtle…. and has a lot to do with patterns of attraction and aversion that are more pronounced for women, i.e., there is an initial appeal, but then flaws get manufactured/magnified because they reflect negatively on your self image.

    I would have liked to think that after Hillary, DEMs would have mostly grown beyond that, but the pendulum does swing and maybe we aren’t really.

    Anecdotally, in my conversations with fellow Miserian DEMs I have heard their reasons for not favoring her and time and again my reaction has been, “Say what? That’s important to you?”

  77. 77.

    Immanentize

    I had a great adventure yesterday.  I drove the Immp up to Derby Line, Vermont from Boston so he could get his Global Entry interview.  CBP has stopped allowing applicants from New York as we all know.  But they also have stopped interviewing in a big number of previously available sites.  Massachusetts no longer has any place you can get a Global Entry interview by appointment.

    So. We drove up to the Canadian border.  The interview, fingerprinting, picture, and lecture only took 15 mins.  But the 6 1/2 hours of driving through windswept snowy mountains and near-tundra with the Immp was great (although he was listening to a book 1/2 the time).

  78. 78.

    Quinerly

    Good morning! Late the thread. One of my very best well meaning friends out here in New Mexico has “found” me a dog. He’s a very handsome Australian Cattledog (Blue Heeler) who has retired from the show circuit. His name is Gambler, he’s 6 years old and conveniently located in Oklahoma right where I pass by on my way back to St Louis eventually. The people have a farm/cattle. The woman who showed him showed and raised these dogs with her father (who raised them 55 years). The father has died and the woman is overwhelmed with stuff and wants to rehome Gambler in his retirement. She isn’t in a huge hurry but wants to find him a special home. He seems pretty perfect in temperament and gets along with dogs, people, chaotic situations. I don’t do puppies. Have loved and missed Leo and Poco, but it would be nice to have a dog that was a bit better behaved and could get along with other dogs. Both Leo and Poco were rescue dogs who did carry with them some “damage.” Both could be difficult and very “needy.” Thoughts?

  80. 80.

    Soprano2

    I’m afraid that a Wilmer win would mean a 40 state Electoral College loss after the Trump machine gets done chewing him up.  I swear, the centrists better start going after his record soon, or that’s what we’re going to get.  I don’t care how much the Wilmer supporters post that one article from Salon claiming that a centrist can’t win but Wilmer can (they posted it at least 4 times on FB yesterday in response to my questions), the label “socialist” is poison to many people in the states the Democratic candidate needs to win in order to win the presidency.  The brutal truth is that it doesn’t matter how many votes the Democratic candidate gets in CA or NY or NJ; we all know the states that will really matter, and it’s going to be close in those states. Look at how Bloomberg carpet bombing the airwaves has boosted his support – what will happen to Wilmer’s support once the Trump people start carpet-bombing the swing states with ads claiming he’s a communist who wants to turn the U.S. into Venezuela.  It doesn’t have to be true, either – I think we all know that.  Add in his very real health issues that the press is mostly ignoring because he’s a man, and it’s not a good situation. Hoping that people will learn to love Wilmer once they get to know him isn’t a plan.  Trump doesn’t have to get people to vote for him – all he has to do is get people who would normally vote for the Democratic candidate to stay home.

    Also, I hate that the press is drawing so many conclusions about the race after only 2 small, white states have voted.  They can create a self-fulfilling prophecy, and they know it.  I hate to say it but we have the same problem Republicans had in 2016 – no one candidate to band behind against Wilmer.

    Oh, and fuck open primaries – people who aren’t Democrats shouldn’t have a voice in deciding who the Democratic nominee is! The press should mention this every time they talk about the results, and say that Trump was encouraging Republicans to vote in the Democratic primary.

  81. 81.

    Immanentize

    @Quinerly: ?. You have already decided, I think?
    Gambler sounds like a fine pup for the road. You need a head poking up in the rear view.
    (But one Q, Q, blue healers shed a lot when they shed, don’t they? Or am I thinking of other blues?)

  83. 83.

    Quinerly

    @Baud: thanks. I’m surrounded by people who adore this breed, and I have had much interaction with this breed over the years. They are generally wonderful and brilliant dogs. I just always grew up with mixed breeds and last 3 dogs since 1993 were from shelters. It’s just a new experience. At least when I met him and if we hit it off, no mystery in what I’m getting. Plus, he travels well and doesn’t pick fights with other dogs. Huge problem for both Leo and Poco. No amount of training would get that out of them. Especially with Leo.

  85. 85.

    mrmoshpotato

    cementing his status as a frontrunner. But his narrow margins in the first two states and the fractured field only underscore the volatile nature of the race

    Can someone with a Twitter account point out the contradiction here to Jonathan Martin?

    Nevermind.  It’s the NYT.  It would go over their heads anyway.

  86. 86.

    Quinerly

    @Immanentize: shedding is shedding. This dog certainly has my coloring as I started on my “salt and pepper” early. They have some undercoat but are shorter haired than my last three blonde/brown dogs who were Akita/Chow (Buddy, a dog of a lifetime, never to be replaced) Chow/Golden R (Leo), and Golded R/Lab/Pit (Poco). Just a very different looking dog for me, plus smaller… I have been moving in the direction of smaller. These 70-90 lbs dogs can be difficult, so I had hoped to get one in 40-60lb range.

  87. 87.

    chopper

    From the start of the campaign, Sanders has been arguing that he can expand his base of support. He has, in some important ways. But these numbers—like the numbers out of Iowa—mean a lot of people who voted for him in 2016 chose not to vote for him again this year.

    as NH makes clear, his support last time was rooted in anti-clintonism (with some ‘i’ll vote for a woman, just not this one’-ism). since clinton isn’t in the primary this time his support has been cut in half.

  91. 91.

    Anya

    @Baud: exactly. This is like saying Trump supporters have economic anxiety or when NYT calls Trump’s racism racially charged. Anyone who thinks Tucker Carlson is honest is not a liberal, maybe on issues that doesn’t threaten white supremacy but really not a liberal.

  92. 92.

    Betty

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: This hasn’t come up much in this election cycle, but I have the impression that Bernie’s wife is pushing him. She seems to be looking to get power. Ryan Grim in his book, We’ve Got People has a bit on the couple and is pretty unflattering, especially about her and how she treated staff.

  93. 93.

    Quinerly

    @Just One More Canuck: apparently goes with the breed. My other good gal pal out here will only have cattledogs. Has gotten them from the craziest situations. She has a red one now named Tularosa. ? who is older and cranky. My friend said she would drop what she was doing to drive to Oklahoma to meet and take Gambler but Tula couldn’t deal with new dog in her twilight. Friend is insistent that this is like once in a lifetime opportunity. I guess I don’t understand giving away a dog you have had 6 years. Apparently it is common in the show circuit to rehome dogs when they retire.

  94. 94.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Shalimar:

    Here in OK (Super Tuesday) have gotten 2 texts (how did they get my cell number??,) inviting me to a get together to canvass for Bloomberg. When I replied no and not interested they asked what they could do to change my mind

  96. 96.

    Chris Johnson

    @Baud:

    I think the disappointing thing for me is that this year there was Warren for people who liked Bernie for his policies, but she has been struggling.

    You didn’t look at the ‘dirtbag left’ (i.e. ‘subject to intense propagandizing by Russia).

    They have been trying to TRASH her, real directly and aggressively, for I don’t know how long, with the resources of the Russian government propaganda networks behind them full blast. There can be no second leftist: that’s not the real game being played here. Warren has been getting a full-court press by Russia while simultaneously having multiple billionaires joining the race just to make sure she doesn’t get anywhere. She’s doing amazingly well, it’s just that this is no longer democracy. It’s a war fought by alternate means, and there’s no telling, really, whether or when actual voting will even enter the picture. Right now it’s still all about ‘control of process and the systems’, and both Putin and the homegrown oligarch camp have a striking amount of control of the process.

  99. 99.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Quinerly: Heelers, as herding dogs, are nippers and protective/territorial. My experience with them bears that out. As always, every dog is different but ask the present owner.

  100. 100.

    NotMax

    @Immanentize

    Heck, could have driven to Dixville Notch. I understand the crowds were so thick they had to put out a second bowl of pretzels on the snack table.

    :)

  101. 101.

    satby

    @Betty: if anyone really cared for Bernie the man as opposed to Bernie the path to power, they’d try to prevail on him to step back and maybe throw his support to someone else (hi Liz!) So that he can recover as much as possible from his health issues. OTOH, he’s not a listener, so who knows if anyone even bothered to try?

  104. 104.

    Miss Bianca

    @Ladyraxterinok: I got a text, too, asking if I would “support Bloomberg.” I texted back, and I quote: “Sure, if he manages to win the primaries. Will I vote for him in the primary? No fucking way.”

    Strangely, I have yet to hear back.

  105. 105.

    Elizabelle

    @Quinerly:   Gambler sounds perfect.

    And you could rename him “Rambler”, and that will describe his upcoming travels.  He sounds like a sweet pup.

  106. 106.

    Immanentize

    @NotMax: We actually thought of doing that, but going east/west at the border is not so easy.  It would have added hours to the trip and our crazy up and back was enough for me in one day.

  107. 107.

    Quinerly

    @frosty: both Leo and Poco traveled well. The unprovoked fights re Leo was a huge problem. Poco not so much a fight picker but unpredictable and very jealous of me. It would be nice to not be on guard every moment when in public.

  108. 108.

    Quinerly

    @frosty: both Leo and Poco traveled well. The unprovoked fights re Leo was a huge problem. Poco not so much a fight picker but unpredictable and very jealous of me. It would be nice to not be on guard every moment when in public.

     

    @Elizabelle: I like “Rambler”

  109. 109.

    Quinerly

    @OzarkHillbilly: they are nippers! I’m thinking he probably isn’t because of his show dog life. My friend who knows the owner is in the middle of this which is great. I’m thinking it all thru before I actually talk to the owner in Oklahoma. Have a list of questions and that’s my first.

  110. 110.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty:

    Ryan Grim in his book, We’ve Got People has a bit on the couple and is pretty unflattering, especially about her and how she treated staff.

    I haven’t seen much about that book, but Ryan Grim being unflattering about Sanders raises my eyebrows a bit. I always liked him, but he’s taken on a bit of the True Believer thing since joining the intercept

  111. 111.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @E:

    And any time a 78 year old self proclaimed Democratic Socialist Jewish man from Brooklyn, who just had a heart attack 2 months, ago wins the New Hampshire Primary and becomes the Democratic front runner for the presidency, that’s not a terrible performance, it’s a remarkable performance.

    if the ultimate goal was winning the Democratic primaries in overwhelmingly white states, I might get excited for him

  112. 112.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

     

     

    @Quinerly: Sounds like a great dog.  Having been on the show circuit he sounds like he would have a pretty chill temperament.  Which is awesome if you want to take him with you on trips.

     

    @Immanentize:   Heelers “blow” their undercoat, twice a year.  Like Malamutes, their undercoat all sheds at once in about a week or two.

  114. 114.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    He said, “I have to be honest: sometimes I find Fox News to be more honest than MSNBC. I especially think that Tucker Carlson is smart.”

    That is, alas, the problem of propaganda news media, and Very Serious People. This all came to a head to me during the run up to Iraq, where I read a lot of different news sources, and was puzzled at how a lot of news sources failed to report things (like “the IAEA says the aluminum tubes can’t be used for centrifuges”) that were clearly and obviously part of the story, or reported other things (“that the aluminum tubes are for rockets doesn’t pass the sniff test”) that had absolutely no source, or basis.

    In point of fact, the IAEA only concluded they were for rockets due to the documentation showing the reverse  engineering of the rockets failed with higher tolerances, so they got them with lower tolerances. They concluded they weren’t for centrifuges, because they wouldn’t have worked as centrifuge parts.

    And I felt I had to be going crazy, because how could so many news outlets be flubbing it *this* badly.

    I wasn’t crazy, of course. It’s important to realize that, to the GOP, the truth simply DOES NOT MATTER. Winning the news cycle matters. That’s how those who scoff at the “reality based community” feel they can generate their own reality.

    And they’re so used to that, they simply don’t think about anything else. For example, it was always a boneheaded-stupid move to withdraw from the Iran deal. The Iran deal was agreed to, by Iran, reluctantly. They gave *everything* the multi-national negotiators wanted, in return for what they were offered. Only the most idiotic of dotards would say “we can just walk away from a deal we agreed to, and they’ll make more concessions” because they’d already maximized their concessions.

    Trump either needed the support of everyone (but Iran), or needed to offer something, to make his threat to withdraw from the deal anything other than the most indescribably bad case of stupid-bargaining ever.   But who dare so much as suggest it wasn’t optimal, much less admit it was stone-cold stupid, a clear Trump-move? (Oh, wait, totally idiotic moves aren’t called Trump-moves yet? Sorry.)

    I truly don’t understand how anyone in the political reporting community believes that the GOP…

    Never mind. I just realized that’s a perfect sentence if I remove one word:

    I truly don’t understand how anyone in the political reporting community believes the GOP.

    Much better.

  115. 115.

    Mayur

    @Chris Johnson: Assholes like Taibbi are also simultaneously trying to trash claims of Russian influence by turning it into reds-under-the-bed paranoia. Conspiracy-ish as it may be, you’re not exactly wrong.

  116. 116.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    @E:  I do agree, this country has proven that anyone who can win any election is a “stable genius”.

    No burn to Bernie intended. I’ll grant “not terrible”, but it’s really not all that remarkable. He’s got higher name recognition, and his name is naturally associated with “could he have beaten Trump?” If he’s the nominee, well, good for him, but I honest to goodness don’t think he can pull it off. I support his push to move Dems towards progressive goals, but I couldn’t pin my hopes on his Presidency, because I honestly don’t think he can do it.

     

    @Betty Cracker:

    Lucky for him he’s not Hillary Clinton.

    Ah, Betty, you misspelled “he’s not yet the Democratic nominee” – being Hillary Clinton had nothing to do with it, in that context. Right now, he’s seen as the chaos factor – the most damaging candidate. (Bernie supporters, I’m not dissing him even here, but if you really think the GOP isn’t hoping Bernie will damage the eventual nominee, you don’t understand why Trump was trying to hurt *Biden*, not Bernie.)

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