Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

đŸŽ¶ Those boots were made for mockin’ đŸŽ”

Infrastructure week. at last.

The revolution will be supervised.

T R E 4 5 O N

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

Let there be snark.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

No one could have predicted…

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

“woke” is the new caravan.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

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

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Friday Morning Open Thread: Go Local

Friday Morning Open Thread: Go Local

by | 237 Comments

This post is in: , ,

ByeDon 2020 - Mike Luckovich

(Mike Luckovich via GoComics.com)

 
Murphy the Trickster God willing, by March 18th we’ll be able to focus on fighting Trump — and also on giving the new Democratic president a Senate that will back (sigh) him up.

Any bets on when Biden will announce his VP choice?

Reader Interactions

237Comments

  2. 2.

    SFAW

    Should probably throw Doug Jones some love, as well, although I expect he has a much tougher climb to retain his seat.

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    hilzoy Retweeted
    Lee Sova [email protected]_gsc
    Silver lining on today is that I can finally tweet this truly epic shot of Warren staff reacting to Jacob Wohl claiming our boss was having a BDSM affair with a young marine. #GoCougars

  5. 5.

    Derelict

    Flipping the Senate will make Moscow Mitch cry, and that is a good thing in and of itself.

  6. 6.

    WereBear

    Elizabeth Warren is too good to not support, in whatever way she wishes to keep going.

    It figures, doesn’t it, ladies? Campaign like a tiger, generate plans like a genius, and knock out the greatest threat in the primaries, Bloomberg and his gobs of money; and we get, “Thanks honey, would you get us coffee?”

  10. 10.

    Betty Cracker

    @Derelict: I saw an Amy McGrath ad the other day. In Florida! I stream TV, so maybe it was an ad-serving mishap. But maybe she really is nationalizing her campaign. McConnell has sure as hell nationalized the misery he wreaks on Americans, so it makes sense.

  15. 15.

    Quinerly

    @rikyrah: right back at you. A little more than 48 hrs before I get my paws back on JoJo Puppy. Tribe of 2 will be forming…. His first big road trip and true beginning of his new life. ?❀???

  18. 18.

    Chris Johnson

    @WereBear: Long as he IS out.

    I would like to see Biden remembering that he beat Bloomberg in several states where he spent NOTHING. I’m still worried Bloomberg will slime his way into the Dems again, but I guess that was always a concern post Citizens United.

  19. 19.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    “How dare you blackmail me with SCOTUS. My vote is my vote and I will send a message about how upset I am with neoliberal corporatism, warmongery and voting “yes” on the Iraq war along with 75% of all other senators….”

  22. 22.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Derelict:

    Flipping the Senate will make him retire if he manages to retain his seat, as he’ll be the scapegoat for it all.

  23. 23.

    JMG

    Sent $50 to Gideon just for her “if that’s her real name” comment on Susan Collins. Outstanding high tight fastball at chin level.

  25. 25.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @WereBear:Elizabeth Warren is too good to not support,

    And as promised I sent her another $50 last night. Originally I was not gonna donate any of my meager resources during the primaries but after she gutted Bloomberg on the national stage, how could I not reward her? So now I give her a bit more to help retire whatever debt she may have. I’ve been donating to her for years because even tho she’s not my senator, she’s fighting for me. Which is far more than my 2 useless god bothering pricks will ever do.

  26. 26.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    If you win, you have to deliver positive results that improve lives.

    That requires difficult governmenting.  Far better to lose and snipe from the sidelines.

  27. 27.

    Quinerly

    @Baud: speaking of exciting…. The 9 hr open air 1970’s era Pinzgauer tour of the canyons of Canyon de Chelly! Pretty wild! I got lucky… Only 5 of us in a vehicle that seats 12…great Navajo guide whose grandparents lived in the canyon when he was a child. He had great personal stories, plus the history. I’m still riding that high from Wednesday. Plus, I want a Pinzgauer. ?

  29. 29.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Glad to see that the White House is taking one of my suggestions from yesterday! That was fast!

  32. 32.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Quinerly, there’s nothing as sweet as puppy love. Go, JoJo!

    I’m annoyed. Mr DAW and I have a joint checking account and they won’t let me open online access with my own name and SSN. I have to use his. This complicates things like requesting a PIN reminder for my ATM card, which I tried to do this morning. They kept calling me Richard so I assume the reminder they send will have his PIN. Same thing happens with Paypal more or less. They won’t let two people open an account linked to the same bank account even though it’s a joint account. There I wound up linking my account to a credit card.

  35. 35.

    SFAW

    I’ve seen the idea floated that, IF we win back the Senate, that Warren become Majority Leader. Part of me would love to see that, but a larger part of me thinks that it would shift her focus from developing and putting forth excellent plans, to riding herd on Manchin etc. I think Schumer is nigh-on useless, so Warren would be a humongous step up. But I’m thinking that Durbin might be a better “fit.”

  42. 42.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    I wonder if he’s scared to go to the CDC on the grounds that there are scary diseases there! It’s right in the name.

    It occurs to me he’s more likely to be exposed to COVID-19 at Mar-a-lago than at his rallies where secret service agents keep folks away from him. The wealthy are far more likely to have traveled abroad recently, though I feel like an R when I blame the disease on foreigners.

    Hm. Do I sound like I’m wishing a disease on him? I don’t really. But I appreciate poetic justice.

  45. 45.

    Immanentize

    @satby: Why would Schumer ever step aside?  And the caucus will not challenge him.  He has done many favors for many people and if we win back the Senate, he will get the credit.  I suspect Schumer is there at the top until he decides not to be.

  52. 52.

    SFAW

    @Immanentize:

    And how many Mar a Lago guests (and caddies) are actually deep agents from afar who might be willing to deliver a little gift like that?

    Why would they? The Traitor-in-Chief is their best weapon to destroy America. Well, outside of Rupert Murdoch, Moscow Mitch, and the rest of the Rethugs, I guess.

  54. 54.

    artem1s

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: 

    I wonder if he’s scared to go to the CDC on the grounds that there are scary diseases there! It’s right in the name.

    My thoughts exactly. He’s terrible and terribly predictable.

  56. 56.

    Immanentize

    @artem1s: It is also possible that Azar, Secretary of Pharma Products, was making his trip difficult after yesterday’s big DIS.

  57. 57.

    Immanentize

    @Quinerly: you could certainly haul a lot of stuff.  Meanwhile, I am sure the gas milage is flipped — instead of MPG it will be GPM.  But, diesel.

  59. 59.

    Joe Falco

    @Immanentize: I agree. I’ve seen a lot of tweets wishing Sen Warren would become Majority Leader if Dems take back the Senate. If Schumer decides to stick around, he’s not going to gracefully step aside for someone else.

    I’m sure some of those same people think AOC should primary Schumer in 2022 for his seat, not that I would be opposed to seeing a stronger progressive woman make it to the Senate.

  60. 60.

    Quinerly

    @Baud: you sound as peculiar as I am. Mostly why I travel alone and off season. Short interactions with local strangers…..

    They tell me Ocelots prefer that. ?

  61. 61.

    Joe Falco

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I would appreciate Trump having to make the trip and me seeing all the color drain away from his face when a CDC employee holds up a vial in front of him as if it contains some deadly disease.

  62. 62.

    PAM Dirac

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: That requires difficult governmenting.  Far better to lose and snipe from the sidelines.

    Exactly. Good governmenting is difficult because you have to deal with reality. I think a pretty useful definition of privilege is the situation where you can ignore reality and expect, take for granted, or even demand that someone else deal with any problems that causes. Purity is only an option for the privileged

     

    ETA – and the privileged value their privilege above all else.

  68. 68.

    Phylllis

    Jaime Harrison is doing terrific GOTV efforts. I follow him on Facebook and it’s definitely a diverse crowd at his events, which makes me happy.

  69. 69.

    glory b

    @Chris Johnson: Yep. Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight.

    Really, if someone is shooting at you and a person passes you a gun, are you going to turn it down based on who’s doing the handoff?

    I listened this a.m. to someone talking about how faaaaar behind the Republicans we are in terms of spending on social media campaigns.

  70. 70.

    Barbara

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Nothing pisses me off more than joint accounts that only accept the husband’s information for security purposes.  I KNOW that what they are really doing is using the first person identified on the account but they are the ones who ALWAYS make sure that first person is the male in a male/female couple.  I have complained to multiple institutions about this practice to no avail.  My husband and I finally decided to mostly use separate credit cards issued individually, as it helps us better track expenses and detect suspect purchases, so at least that’s not a problem

    It bothers me as much as it does because in our household, I am the keeper of the electronic accounts.  I pay the bills electronically, whereas, if my husband pays, he just writes a check.  Same for following investment accounts.

  76. 76.

    Immanentize

    @glory b: I think I can translate.  I speak Sanders:, “neoliberal” means “doody head.”. “Corporatist” means “I know you are; but what am I?”

  79. 79.

    glory b

    @Joe Falco: But does she really have that kind of pull? I read somewhere that she won with about 20% of the Dems voting in the primary in her district. She didn’t inspire some huge turnout.

    I also saw that some of the locals who weren’t in her district were upset about her taking a victory lap about keeping Amazon out, they were looking forward to good, local jobs.

    I don’t think she’s dumb, just new, and I think she isn’t the superwoman they make her out to be.

  81. 81.

    Immanentize

    @Barbara: It’s funny that you say this because my wife was the ‘owner’ of all our joint accounts and the financial records keeper.  Sometimes I would have to ask for her info. to get something done. But almost exclusively I was just grateful!

  89. 89.

    mali muso

    @Quinerly: I am hoping/wishing/praying so hard for Kamala to be on the ticket as VP.  She was definitely my first choice.

  90. 90.

    Shalimar

    Dow Jones IA will open down more than 700 points since yesterday’s close.

    I am not an expert.  I have doubts about whether anyone is an expert.  But it seems like they are panicking before all the reasons for panic actually happen.  The next few months is going to be really bad for the economy.  This feels worse than 2008.

  91. 91.

    PenAndKey

    So apparently McConnell is already threatening that if he retains control of the senate that he’s going to be “the grim reaper” if Trump loses the white house. This tells us a couple of things: First, that he has gamed out the election and sees a realistic possibility that Trump gets the boot. Second, that he knows the Senate is in play. And Third, that he’s running the same playbook he’s used for years and trying to use his usual Tough Guyℱ bluster to drum up support. Hell, he can’t even manage a new threat so he’s just recycling the same one he’s been using since Obama won.

    And it might just work. As far as I’m concerned the second most important race in the entire election is for his seat. Hell, if I only had enough money to support two candidates it’d be for his opponent Amy McGrath and whoever ends up securing the Democratic nomination after Florida.

  92. 92.

    PAM Dirac

    @OzarkHillbilly: What’s the point of privilege if you can’t use it to assert your obvious superiority over everyone else?

    Obviously! It is quite a nuisance to have to keep reminding the unwashed how wrong they are. We really should have more sympathy for the great burden our betters bear /s.

  96. 96.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

     

    It isn’t so much about shame – its about shunning.  A horde of conservative “influencers” (lobbyists and staffers) have been running point for him with his caucus and with the House GOP for years on going all-in for Trump.

    They’ll suffer if the senate flips, and will shun him.

  98. 98.

    Joe Falco

    @glory b: Do I think she has that well of support to justify primary-ing Schumer? I don’t know for sure and probably don’t think so. She’d do well to strengthen herself as a Representative first, but I’ve read articles about her district might be eliminated after the Census district maps are redrawn. That might force her to make a decision anyway that will have her butting heads with her fellow Congress critters or making a play for higher office.

  99. 99.

    Geminid

    Schumer catches a lot of abuse, and I’m sure he deserves some of it. But as far as managing his caucus, he has kept them together, with occasional defections from Manchin, Sinema, and Jones. In the impeachment trial his skills as a tactician could never have brought about a conviction, but he made McConnell fight for every yard. And he is good at a certain kind of public communication. I frequently catch the hourly radio news, which along with tv network news is the main news source for many people. When there is a fight in the Senate, the networks give McConnell a soundbite, then Schumer gets a soundbite. Schumer’s are pithy and punchy.  I like how he works in “What are they trying to hide?” whenever possible.

  100. 100.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Shalimar: I read some Wall street expert saying that that the market was overdue for a correction. At this point I’m just assuming they were all primed for it and now they don’t know how to stop. Hopefully it is only a market correction and doesn’t pull the trigger on something else because we don’t have a whole lot of bullets left in the gun.

  103. 103.

    Marcopolo

    @Betty Cracker: I’ve seen a couple McGrath ads here in MO.  All it tells me is she has more money than she can figure out how to spend effectively. I would rather she put $ into opening more local D offices across KY or throwing hunks of it it at her fellow D Sen & House candidate’s.  Maybe she’s doing that as well but running ads for a KY Sen race in FL & MO (at least StL MO—guess there might be some KY coverage out of Cape Girardeau) is a waste of funds.

  104. 104.

    NotMax

    Running Harry in Your Pocket (on Prime) in the background. Even unto his twilight years, Walter Pidgeon was an ACTOR, in all caps, heads above the rest of the cast (who ain’t chopped liver).

  105. 105.

    joel hanes

    @SFAW: 

    Should probably throw Doug Jones some love, as well, although I expect he has a much tougher climb to retain his seat.

    The good news is that the Republicans are infighting :  Trump is determined to get revenge on Sessions, and has divided the GOP voters between Trump cultists and supporters of Sessions.

  106. 106.

    john b

    North Carolina is not in the Deep South. (Hell I’d argue, neither are Georgia and SC).

  109. 109.

    Barbara

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Being able to place your staffers in lobbying positions is a significant plus for politicians like McConnell. When you suffer really big losses, as the GOP did in 2018, you are faced with having a deluge of people suddenly in need of work, and if control has flipped, lobbyists don’t need as many people from that side of the house.  I don’t know exactly how any of this factors into McConnell’s statement, which at least to me doesn’t sound like a reason not to vote Democratic, but rather, to vote even more Democratic so McConnell loses his power to stonewall.  Maybe it’s intended to galvanize R voters who don’t want to vote for Trump to at least vote for someone like Thom Tillis or Martha McSalley.

  111. 111.

    Joe Falco

    @john b: If Georgia wasn’t as gerrymandered as it is right now, I’d agree. But it is in the Deep South geographically and politically (with always an exception here and there)

  112. 112.

    Anonymous At Work

    Not to go back to the original post for nothing but am I the only one that thinks this is a pretty good, real-life bumper-sticker???

  113. 113.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @WereBear: There’s no question in my mind that misogyny played a large role here. However, never forget this wise saying from a male version of Senator Warren from long, long ago:

    “Via ovicapitum dura est.”

  114. 114.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Shalimar:

    This panic has been long overdue.  Market’s been on a sugar high from improvident tax cuts and Trump puffery for the last three years; the values have not reflected actual earnings (call it “always soft landings for white slicksters in tailored suits”). The big money thought there was value in long term conservative governance and propped it up without spreading the wealth.

    I figure that looking at objective economic conditions, the values should be more in line with about 2012.

  117. 117.

    SWMBO

    In the Flip the Senate, they don’t have anyone running against Tom Cotton (R-AR- Asshole). They ratfucked over the Dem candidate just after closing date for filing for the office.  Is there someone running who hasn’t made the news?  Can the Dems write in a candidate?  That would be another race to try and unseat the RWNJ in office.

  122. 122.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Query – does Twitter survive with any value at all after the end of the Presidency of Donald J Trump?

  124. 124.

    joel hanes

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Hopefully it is only a market correction

    It  is not only a market correction.

    Travel and hospitality industries are about to implode.    No conventions, no business travel, few people willing to eat in restaurants (restaurant employees pretty much _must_ come to work sick, because they have no paid sick leave, and may get fired if they’re out very long).

    Second-order:  oil plummets, because no jets burning it.  Car sales fall, because of all the travel and hospitality and restaurant people who now will not be able to afford a better car.  All kinds of non-essential consumer goods ditto.

    This is going to be a deep recession, IMHO worse than 2008-2009.

  126. 126.

    Bruce K

    Stumbled across something interesting in the English-language version of a moderately right-leaning Greek newspaper, Kathimerini:

    Biden’s resurrection and the role of the Greek-American community

    Reads damned close to an endorsement of Biden in November, though its scope is somewhat limited. (And maybe colored by Trump’s toadying up to Erdogan; that nerve is still raw to the Greek public-at-large. I remember hearing grumbling among fellow Greek army conscripts back in 2008 about how the US and Turkey were in cahoots to step all over Greece.)

  128. 128.

    dogwood

    Do people who want Elizabeth Warren for Majority leader understand that that is basically a political and administrative job, not a policy job?   It would take her off all committees, where she does such great work.  Why would anyone want that?  Schumer has done a great job keeping the caucus together.  I doubt he’ll be challenged because most Senators understand what a shitty job it is.

  129. 129.

    Bruce K

    @joel hanes: And dollars to donuts the GOP is going to: a) prevent future Democrats from trying to mitigate the damage; and b) blame the Democrats for the whole shebang.

  130. 130.

    Geminid

    @SWMBO: Well, we still have very good chances in ME, NC, CO, and AZ. Real possibilities in IA. GA, KS, TX, KY, SC. And Bullock will be strong in MT if he runs. May do it, now that he knows he won’t be trying to win Montana with Sanders at the top of the ticket.

  132. 132.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @joel hanes:

    Agreed. Wife is a high-end luxury leisure travel consultant, and is nearly despondent.  New bookings have all but dried up, and she’s on an accelerated curve on canceling hundreds of thousands of dollars of booked, paid-for luxury travel all the way through the fall. Reasons for cancellation have now shifted – they’re not afraid of getting it, but are afraid of either getting stuck in a quarantine or blocked from returning to the United States due to some lurchingly ill-conceived policy decision.  Others are now leery of making $50,000-$100,000 travel commitment in a roiling financial downturn.

  134. 134.

    germy

    TRUMP on Elizabeth Warren: "I think lack of talent was her problem. She had a tremendous lack of talent … she is a very mean person and people don't like her. People don't want that. They like a person like me that isn't mean." pic.twitter.com/kZqCajHWrU

    — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 6, 2020

  136. 136.

    frosty

    @Baud: We’re roaming the Southwest, CA, UT and other places for the next couple of months, so there’s at least one pair of tourists you’ll have to avoid.

  138. 138.

    germy

    In 2012, I wore a hoodie on the House Floor to make a statement about the deadly consequences of racial profiling. On Wednesday, @RepMattGaetz wore a gas mask in the chamber, making light of an epidemic that has killed 14 Americans.

    Guess which one of us was forcibly removed. pic.twitter.com/nh2LHPeIFW

    — Bobby L. Rush (@RepBobbyRush) March 6, 2020

  140. 140.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @PenAndKey:

    This tells us a couple of things:

    I’m not sure if it tells us anything beyond he thinks Trump losing is realistic enough to at least answer questions.  McConnell would do this and do this gleefully no matter what.  ‘Fuck you, libs’ is his holy quest.  I don’t know why people doubt that he’s sincere about it.  He’s from a wealthy, aristocratic Alabama family, and moved to Kentucky.  He glows with pride when he discusses hurting people or just being an asshole.  Corruption is a pleasant side effect to following his moral obligation to make America pay dearly for forcing him to bend the knee to a black man.

  143. 143.

    mali muso

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I can concur with this assessment, working in the study abroad sector.  We’ve had to pull back on planned trips, not so much because of the risk of students getting sick but the level of uncertainty about travel restrictions and quarantines.   A lot of $$ not being spent in the travel industry right now.

  146. 146.

    chopper

    @joel hanes:

    i dunno how bad the slowdown is gonna get, but the fact that thanks to keeping rates in the dumper for years the fed doesn’t have nearly as many tools to deal with one is not going to help.

  147. 147.

    WaterGirl

    @Marcopolo: I wonder if the early national ads might be seed money.  Get her name out there, turn it into a national campaign, and get money from outside the state.

    That would make sense to me as a strategy, because you know the Rs will throw obscene amounts at that race in order to keep McConnell in there.

  149. 149.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    they’re not afraid of getting it, but are afraid of either getting stuck in a quarantine or blocked from returning to the United States due to some lurchingly ill-conceived policy decision.

    That’s me. I was about to book a trip for May when all hell broke loose, and this consideration was the final straw, thinking that the Beast would see something on TV and get me stuck in some kind of airport dormitory in Paris or London

  150. 150.

    Joe Falco

    @Marcopolo: No, you can’t. I only understood john b’s comment as a general observation about Georgia politics.

    But if gerrymandering can’t apply, placing hurdles to voting can.

    @Immanentize

    From what I have heard of upstate NY politics, I don’t think anyone with a D after their name would.

  152. 152.

    trollhattan

    @chopper:

    Think this is an underappreciated point and Trump’s hectoring the Fed to not raise and ultimately, drop rates to micromanage “his” economy has put “baby in a corner.”

    I 100% guarantee Trump will at some point demand the Fed drop rates to negative.

  155. 155.

    trollhattan

    @germy:

    That’s the stuff. Gaslighting perfected, as if delivered by PG&E. Trump says what is figuratively and literally the opposite of reality to an adoring audience of…morons.

  156. 156.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    let’s hope video trumps tweets. Get on it, Dems

    Sam Stein @samstein
    Clean up from last night

    Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump

    · 20m

    I will protect your Social Security and Medicare, just as I have for the past 3 years. Sleepy Joe Biden will destroy both in very short order, and he won’t even know he’s doing it!

  157. 157.

    MCA1

    @Marcopolo: I saw one of her ads in the Chicago market the other night, too.  Don’t quite grok what the strategy might be behind taking a Senate race national.  I mean, I loathe McConnell as much as the next guy, but I can’t vote for McGrath.

  158. 158.

    joel hanes

    @chopper:

    As we should have learned by now, interest rate cuts don’t have much effect on an economy with plenty of supply but inadequate demand.   They’re all about stimulating supply.

    To a first approximation, supply-side economic theory is simply false.   It is an enormous tragedy that, forty years ago, one of our political parties adopted it as dogma.

    In my opinion, Reagan did nearly as much damage to the US as Rupert Murdoch.

  160. 160.

    catclub

    Trump Abruptly Cancels Trip To CDC As Coronavirus Death Toll In US Rises

    Headline on TPM. I figure he is afraid he will catch it there.

  161. 161.

    mali muso

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: This is the real problem with an administration that doesn’t follow regular protocol.  It’s one thing to know that the overall situation is uncertain but that science and reason will be guiding the response and one can expect governmental actors to respond in a predictable way.  We have to try to predict possibilities within a completely irrational landscape.

  162. 162.

    joel hanes

    @germy:

    how did this end up on tv?

    I know a fair number of journalists, and people who majored in journalism  but went on to other careers.

    Wonderful people, really fun to drink with, but all but two of them are math phobic, and a couple are outright innumerate.

  164. 164.

    joel hanes

    @MCA1:

    Don’t quite grok what the strategy might be behind taking a Senate race national.

    fundraising.   I’ve contributed to McGrath, and I live in California.   Name recognition helps with donations.

  167. 167.

    Marcopolo

    @WaterGirl: Honestly, I do think there is a limit to how much value additional money has in a Senate race in KY.  There is only so much airtime to buy before you start pissing folks off (and KY is not an expensive media market state).  There is a limit to the effectiveness of the nth mailer that someone gets at their door.

    McGrath has raised more money already than either Mark Kelly or Sarah Gideon, both candidates who have a much better chance of flipping their seats.  Gary Peters, the D incumbent on the ballot in MI has had problems raising $ (he isn’t very charismatic) and he could use funds more than McGrath.

    There is definitely a utility to having money in a campaign.  There is also a marginal rate of return on too much money past a certain level.  I think McGrath has reached that level.

    I am telling my friends who want to give money to flip the senate to pick one of the D senate majority funds that spreads the contributions out over a pool of candidates.  ActBlue is getting contributions like a house on fire but it is best if that money is spread out to as many D candidates (at the national, state, and local levels) as possible.

  168. 168.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @mali muso: Just heard an American college student in Rome who’s going home, not because he’s worried about getting sick, but because he’s afraid trump will shut the borders down for a year

  170. 170.

    Marcopolo

    @joel hanes:Yeah, except putting something on the air is not quite so straightforward as cutting and pasting a tweet to a blog. A number of folks had to have looked at that before it became part of the segment. So it wasn’t just these two but probably more like 5-10 folks who just overlooked fairly basic arithmetic.

  172. 172.

    catclub

    @chopper: but the fact that thanks to keeping rates in the dumper for years the fed doesn’t have nearly as many tools to deal with one is not going to help.

     
    This is true, but all the evidence is that they SHOULD have kept rates low even longer. Before they raised rates, the economy did not blossom, and inflation was not rising. After they raised rates, it slowed down – which just happened to be in 2016 – an election year.

    This means Trump (2017-2019) was correct. Naturally,
    in 2015 he was saying that rates should rise. There is always a Trump tweet.

  174. 174.

    Wakeshift

    @NotMax:

     

    I think *WE* should do this!

    Fundraise off the MAGAs fear.

    Launder it through a Balloon Juice superPAC, and use it to flip Senate seats.
    Anyone know how to do this?

  176. 176.

    joel hanes

    @Marcopolo:

    probably more like 5-10 folks who just overlooked fairly basic arithmetic.

    Any guess what fraction of those folks were Communications majors ?

    Ever look at the Communications curriculum ?

  177. 177.

    Geoboy

    @catclub: “Trump Abruptly Cancels Trip To CDC As Coronavirus Death Toll In US Rises”  Somebody told him what the “D” stands for.

  178. 178.

    Marcopolo

    So Maddow had EW on last night for an extended interview. I’ve been trying to find the full thing on the intertoobs but to no avail. Here are two longish clips that are worth watching:

    Warren on the challenge of COVID-19 to the economy:

    “Then there’s the third problem: an incompetent administration. An incompetent administration is like its own natural disaster.” -Elizabeth Warren outlining the factors involved in the coronavirus damaging the economy pic.twitter.com/MNp2xzWW3G— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) March 6, 2020

    Warren on her relationship with Sanders & Biden & the ugliness of some of Sanders supporters.

  179. 179.

    germy

    Tonight on the air we quoted a tweet that relied on bad math. We corrected the error after the next commercial break and have removed it from later editions of tonight’s program. We apologize for the error.

    — 11th Hour (@11thHour) March 6, 2020

    Putting it all on the random tweeter is a cop out. https://t.co/nPxZ4b6mHU

    — southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) March 6, 2020

    If I had $1 for every time I’ve seen a Bloomberg ad, that statistic would probably be true.

    — Swamp Lizard (@DiscoTempoJazz) March 6, 2020

  180. 180.

    Immanentize

    Do I see Bloomberg’s fingerprints on this front page NYTimes article?:

    Soviet Papers Recount Ties With Sanders

  181. 181.

    Aziz, light!

    @MCA1: I mean, I loathe McConnell as much as the next guy, but I can’t vote for McGrath.

    So, the next guy supports McConnell?

    If you can’t vote to remove him, then whose side are you on?

    ETA: sorry, reading comprehension error. Haven’t had my coffee.

  183. 183.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    latest update: trump will now go to the CDC after the “high-level patient” he made up earlier has now been found clear of corona

  184. 184.

    Mary Ellen Sandahl

    @WereBear:

     Yes they are. I call my grey fellow Monsieur Crepuscule sometimes. He loves going out at dusk, becoming totally invisible. (His actual name is Jingle, after the succession of belled collars he refused to wear as a youth.)

  186. 186.

    germy

    To fight the coronavirus, South Korea is testing hundreds of thousands of people everywhere, from clinics to drive-through stations. It appears to be paying off. https://t.co/LBN6WIxfy7— Bloomberg (@business) March 5, 2020

    American Exceptionalism: “We’d like to do the right thing, except we can’t.”

  192. 192.

    Served

    I early voted yesterday, now that is a one-on-one contest, for Biden.

    For me, the worst-case of a Sanders administration is worse than the worst-case scenario of a Biden administration. On the other side, the likely best case of both is the same (public option, some desperately reforms), but much much more likely to occur under Biden’s watch than Sanders’.

    The poor coronavirus response by our government is sickening and criminal. I hate to be one of those people, but it feels imperative for Democrats to be banging the drums, pots, and pans over this. Not just to point out the incompetence, but to save lives.

  193. 193.

    Chyron HR

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    he won’t even know he’s doing it!

    Wow. What an amazing coincidence that Trump is using the hot new Berniebrat meme. It’s almost like they’re a bunch of gullible little assholes that the GOP is wrapping around its finger.

  194. 194.

    SFAW

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    what does Meghan McArdle drink?

    A wingnut margarita (Corona virus beer instead of tequila, whine instead of triple sec, sour grapes juice instead of lime juice), with pink Himalayan salt around the rim

  195. 195.

    trnc

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I wonder if he’s scared to go to the CDC on the grounds that there are scary diseases there! It’s right in the name.

    Maybe he realized he doesn’t own a hotel that he can use to overcharge the secret service/taxpayers for.

  197. 197.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Josh Kraushaar @HotlineJosh
    Cook Political Report moves #NCSEN to a tossup. Big picture: the battle for the Senate majority now looks like it’s close to a tossup as well.

  198. 198.

    Marcopolo

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:Yeah, she laid out the effects of a pandemic very clearly. “You’re making something that has 127 parts, a few of those parts come from China, China doesn’t send them, you just can’t make it.”

    It just kills me that we don’t seem to be able to have a president who can, off the top of her head, clearly & succinctly describe a complex situation. I hope that possibility exists in some alternate reality.

  199. 199.

    MCA1

    @joel hanes: Does the accounting work, though?  Buying ad time in a major media market isn’t more expensive than the contributions they’ll get out of that market?

  201. 201.

    SFAW

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    the “high-level patient” he made up earlier

    Let me take a shot in the dark here: the “high-level patient” is/was a big guy, tears in his eyes, called the Moron-in-Chief “sir”?

  203. 203.

    Gravenstone

    @Cheryl Rofer: Just because he wouldn’t need it doesn’t mean they couldn’t force it on him. And I can speak from experience that Tyvek/Saranex coveralls are not flattering to the ‘larger framed’. It would be a most exquisite photo op.

  204. 204.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Gravenstone: I’m sure Kellyanne is in the back of the limo holding his hand (both of theirs freshly purelled) and assuring him he won’t have to go anywhere icky. The photo-op, I’m sure held either in front of the building or in the head magoo’s office, will be interesting to watch, if the people in white coats have been told to remain at least three feet away from the president while he does that point thing. I don’t think he’ll be able gin up a smile. Too scared.

  205. 205.

    PenAndKey

    @Frankensteinbeck: I’m not sure if it tells us anything beyond he thinks Trump losing is realistic enough to at least answer questions.  McConnell would do this and do this gleefully no matter what.  ‘Fuck you, libs’ is his holy quest.  I don’t know why people doubt that he’s sincere about it.

    Adam did an excellent job describing McConnell’s profile back in January of 2019 and June of 2018:

    Rather than view him as a politician, it is more appropriate to understand Senator McConnell as an insurgent, albeit a non-violent one. He recognizes no legitimacy but his own. When out of power he’ll do whatever is necessary using asymmetric, irregular, and/or unconventional means to achieve power. And once he achieves power he will do whatever he can to achieve his objectives to consolidate his gains as quickly as possible using any means necessary as he believes his actions are self justifying – that his achievement of power justifies his by any means necessary strategy. This is, by the way, the basic argument of the premier Italian fascist (national-syndicalist) theorist Sergio Panunzio, who delineated the fascist theories for the use of political violence and low intensity warfare in the 1920s. As a result, there is no law, rule, tradition, norm, ethic, promise, and/or deal he won’t violate or renege on. This also makes him an unreliable interlocutor and makes it impossible to negotiate with him in good faith as he doesn’t believe in good faith negotiations.

    The guy isn’t a standard politician. He’s a revanchist insurrectionist spearheading a second wave cold civil war against the United States. He’s not just a rich southern good ol’ boy who likes to hurt people.

  206. 206.

    MCA1

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Is it just me, or is Cook Political Report always a step, or a couple weeks, behind?  Maybe they’re just deliberate and conservative by design.

    I mean, Gideon’s been ahead in polling in Maine for a couple weeks now; Gardner is seemingly toast in Colorado; Kelly’s got a healthy lead on McSally, who didn’t even win an election to get her seat.  Those are three seemingly >50% flips that should have been baked into the assumptions at this point, right?  Shouldn’t those have made it a tossup already?

    Doug Jones will have a hard time winning again, for sure.  But Ernst and Tillis will, too, and now Bullock’s in the race and will probably become favored in Montana.  I saw polling yesterday that indicated Lindsay Graham might even be in a competitive race this fall, and we’ve all seen that McGrath appears capable of running a legit race against McConnell.  Dems are starting to pour resources into both GA Senate races.  The only other Democrat that seems to be on difficult footing is Gary Peters, who’s probably begging for Biden to secure the D nomination and stabilize things downballot.

    Is this just blue-tinted glasses?  ‘Cause to me, that looks like Leans D, no?

  207. 207.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @MCA1:

    Maybe they’re just deliberate and conservative by design.

    I think so, whether you mean politically conservative or professionally cautious, I think the answer is yes. I haven’t seen Charlie Cook on TV much in recent years, but as I recall he was always pretty R-friendly

  208. 208.

    SFAW

    @PenAndKey:

    Thanks for that info re: Panunzio. It’s not a name I recognize(d), but I can envision hanging that around Traitor Turtle’s neck during the campaign. Yeah, most people would go “Who?? What??” but I bet a decent anti-fascist message could be crafted, without getting Antifa (which a lot of RWMFs seem to put in a class with Jeffrey Dahmer and the Demon-rat Party) involved.

  209. 209.

    Jinchi

    @OzarkHillbilly: Does Is Warren have campaign debt? She was fundraising pretty strongly at the end there. Of course if she’s flush she might just redirect any contributions to defeating Susan Collins that would be a win either way.

  211. 211.

    Kelly

    @germy:

    American Exceptionalism: “We’d like to do the right thing, except we can’t.”

    W Churchill “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing, after they’ve tried everything else.”

  212. 212.

    MCA1

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Thanks for that context.  Didn’t know anything about him, but that makes sense.  FWIW, I meant small “c” conservative as in professionally cautious – should have used your wording; much clearer!

  213. 213.

    Joe Falco

    @Immanentize: Good to know. The only thing I’ve had to base my knowledge on were stories from NPR that made the area out to be a place that could fit in the reddest counties of Georgia. The last I heard involved gun rights and local officials were riling the populace up with talk of secession and ignoring state and federal laws if they interfered with their God-given right to arm themselves with the helicopter gun Jesse Ventura used in Predator.

  214. 214.

    glory b

    @Joe Falco: I also heard that she is refusing to pay her dues to the DCCC (I think). Instead, she’s using her cash to create a fund to help Justice Dems primary her coworkers, including CBC members. I think she was looking at a primary challenger against Hakeem Jeffries, but this was before the impeachment proceedings. He’s probably too popular now, if I were her, I’d have quietly shelved that plan. Won’t make her very popular.

    She was also making noises about leaving the party and declaring herself an independent.

    I’ll admit, that was a while ago, I haven’t heard anything since. My recollection is that the DCCC money is used to help the members with their fundraising.

    It was looking like she was going to be Bernie Sanders 2.0.

  215. 215.

    Geminid

    Barbara Boullier has good chance to win the open Kansas Senate seat. In 2018 Laura Kelly won the governor’s seat, the first Democratic governor since Kathleen Sebelius. And Sharice Davids flipped the the Congressional district centered  on Kansas City KS. Boulier’s website describes her as “a doctor, not a politician, who is running to fix the mess in Washington.”

  218. 218.

    joel hanes

    @Marcopolo:

    I agree that CA 1 is a long shot.

    I think that by the time that the federal government’s botched response to the coronavirus has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans, McGrath will not be a long shot.   She’s already polling strongly.

    And I think it’s high time the Democrats took the fight to the enemy by strongly contesting the re-election of every GOP leader.

  219. 219.

    Ksmiami

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: honestly with all his girth and stupidity he’d put it on wrong and become a carrier in no time- hey wait can we make sure he goes to the CDC office like rn?

  221. 221.

    JoeyJoeJoe

    @MCA1: he is very conservative when it comes to making predictions.  The joke about him on DK Elections is that Cook would rate every congressional race as a toss up if he could.

  222. 222.

    sdhays

    @germy: You don’t mean that Mr. Show-Us-the-Transcripts is getting a tiny taste of what it’s like to be Hillary Clinton or Corporate Sellout best friend Barack Obama? Inconceivable!

  223. 223.

    KSinMA

    @Served:  I would love to see Democrats literally banging on pots and pans every night. It sure worked in Puerto Rico!

  225. 225.

    PenAndKey

    @Ksmiami: You and me both. An honorable conservative would have followed decorum during the Obama years and, if we still ended up with Trump, woul dhave put the muzzle on Trump’s Napoleonic dreams in year 1. Instead we’re stuck with McConnell, who… doesn’t.

  226. 226.

    cokane

    Biden will announce the VP pick just prior to the convention. This is what they always do. Nobody announces their VP during the primary.

  227. 227.

    Bex

    @satby: Thanks for posting the Bruni article.  Pete’s first post-campaign interviews will be on Morning Joe and the Today Show on Monday.  I want a PB&J shirt.

  229. 229.

    PenAndKey

    @cokane: Which is a shame. Given the concerns with his age one of the strongest things Biden could do right now would be to not only announce his VP choice, but also his cabinet choices. Contingent, of course, on having them lined up and ready to publicly join his team.

  234. 234.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @WaterGirl: Could they be targeted to run in areas with high concentrations of KY snowbirds or retirees? I know it’s not a rich state but there’s probably a few folks down Say-owth with a few bucks they could throw her. (Or were, before the Recent Unpleasantness On Wall St.)

  235. 235.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @cokane: No reason to announce it before that. Keeps more potential running mates on the hook & in the news.

    FWIW I’m going to make a real stretch of a prediction here:

    Uncle Joe’s running mate will be a white male 39-55.

    My reasoning is that the Orangecandyass campaign will run against Biden with a two-tiered strategy: They’ll hammer him over Burisma & Hunter, with minimal success; but they’ll have better luck trying to scare voters about his VP nominee (“Old Man Joe’s gonna die in office & America won’t survive PRESIDENT {insert name}!!”)

    Therefore Biden’s ideal running mate is a younger pol free from the characteristics (race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.) that can be used to frighten large segments of the electorate. Even Rep. Clyburn will (with great sadness) come to realize that the stakes are too high to play it otherwise.

    (And, as always, I’m absolutely prepared to chow down on a bucket of Kamala/Klobuchar Fried Crow once proven wrong.)

  236. 236.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @PenAndKey: Given the concerns with his age one of the strongest things Biden could do right now would be to not only announce his VP choice, but also his cabinet choices.

    You are absolutely wrong.That just hands the GOP a whole slew of targets to attack.

    IMO your statement betrays a political naivete that would be stunning anywhere but on a blog where an astounding number of intelligent and articulate posters (including some with acknowledged expertise in non-political fields of endeavor) have spent the entire campaign season demonstrating that they don’t understand jack shit about American politics.

  237. 237.

    DB11

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    IMO your statement betrays a political naivete that would be stunning anywhere but on a blog where an astounding number of intelligent and articulate posters (including some with acknowledged expertise in non-political fields of endeavor) have spent the entire campaign season demonstrating that they don’t understand jack shit about American politics.

    Good thing that you do — and nice that you refuse to condescend when respectfully disagreeing with a political ally.

Comments are closed.