Wow. pic.twitter.com/4SxSRwM1lo
— Keith Edwards (@keithedwards) July 21, 2020
Great Biden campaign reply to Trump hedging on accepting the outcome of the election: “The American people will decide this election. And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House.”
— walter dellinger (@walterdellinger) July 20, 2020
Every day it becomes clearer: We are in a battle for the soul of this nation. Who we are. What we believe. Who we want to be. It’s all at stake.
We have to vote Donald Trump out this November.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 20, 2020
Just Chuck
Shouted out “WOW!” then read the tweet. So allow me to repeat:
WOW!
Ken
Reminds me of one of the classics.
lgerard
In other news
Anthony Fauci will be throwing at the first pitch at the Nationals home opener on Thursday
i wonder if Peter Navarro will be there
trollhattan
Gloves off. I approve this message.
dmsilev
The LA Times, as befits a newspaper in a city where TV is a main industry, took the right approach in describing the resumption of the White House coronavirus briefings:
Trump plans for second season of coronavirus briefings
Salty Sam
I am enjoying the increasing ferocity of these anti-Trump ads, and look forward to more of them.
Having said that, I also long for the day when Trump is NOT in the news 24/7. Sweet blessed relief cannot come too soon.
Puddinhead
@lgerard:
No, but expect Ron Vara to show up and file a scathing report
Ken
@lgerard: Why? Are you thinking Fauci might try to bean Navarro?
opiejeanne
@Just Chuck: It’s really good, isn’t it.
And I keep singing this song when people say, “What if he won’t leave?” : the White House is a building, it is not the Presidency. The Oval Office is a room, it is not the Presidency.
I would really love to see the Secret Service escort Trump off the premises the day of the inauguration, because I can’t believe that Trump will bother to show up for a polite hand-over. He will sulk, or maybe he’ll fly south to Florida before the inauguration, but I don’t expect him to show up in person.
Baud
@opiejeanne:
Poetic justice.
lgerard
Highlighting trumps incompetence is definitely the way to go after him,
The only quibble I have with all these ads is they leave off the last line
America deserves a President who doesn’t spend all day watching TV and playing with his phone
Baud
@lgerard:
Trump was booed at Nationals Park during the World Series. There won’t be any fans in the seats for Fauci, so the contrast won’t be as apparent.
zhena gogolia
Thank you, Anne Laurie, for keeping eyes on the prize.
Omnes Omnibus
@lgerard: Stop trying to exclude Baud.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s not my phone I play with all day.
piratedan
@Baud: and then serve him with multiple subpeonas…
Geoduck
@opiejeanne: Yeah, no way he’s showing up for Biden’s inaugural. But then, since COVID is still going to be raging, hopefully it will be held indoors and no one will show up for it except the people who need to be there.
opiejeanne
Can someone point me to an article, if there is one, where Kasich was being seriously considered as a speaker for the Democratic Convention? I only caught a little whiff of it, kind of like when you’re driving down the highway and there is a suggestion of skunk, but you don’t see the skunk or an ex-skunk, but it’s too faint to etc. Maybe it’s a bad analogy but it was fun.
bbleh
@Just Chuck: @trollhattan: Second (or third) this. And wow not just because it’s a good ad but also because it’s more like Lincoln Project stuff. More please!
zhena gogolia
@opiejeanne:
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/508088-report-john-kasich-to-speak-at-dnc-on-behalf-of-biden
Elizabelle
@opiejeanne: I want Trump escorted out by the Secret Service who hand him right over to US marshals. Who jail him in New York, no bail because what a flight risk, on numerous fraud and criminal counts.
He could plead diminished capacity, and there is documentary evidence of that, every day. But I do not want Trump to face a day without legal jeopardy, for the rest of his life.
opiejeanne
@Geoduck: I’m kind of hoping for an outdoor inauguration with lots of masks and social distancing. It might look even bigger than Trump’s.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@opiejeanne: Ex-Gov John Kasich slated to speak at the Democratic National Convention
The time stamp is 9:12 this morning. It mentions that there’s been a lot of backlash but hasn’t been updated to imply his speech was cancelled. Was it?
Aleta
They didn’t mention his lies in March about understanding COVID. (Maybe it’s in the next ad.)
I looked it up: March 6 2020, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, about COVID-19
“I like this stuff. I really get it. Every one of these doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’
“I understand that whole world. I do. I love that world”
““Anybody that needs a test gets a test. The tests are all perfect like the letter was perfect. The transcription was perfect. Right? This was not as perfect as that but pretty good.”
(If you can handle the videos: https://twitter.com/ddiamond/status/1236059773231079430)
Patricia Kayden
opiejeanne
@Elizabelle: Amen. That would be almost like Christmas and Santa Claus finally arriving in Narnia. Heh.
Patricia Kayden
gkoutnik
@opiejeanne: Look bigger? Hell, it’ll be the biggest. We’re all comin’.
Mallard Filmore
@Elizabelle:
Is there any chance this is an opening to invalidate all the Presidential Pardons he will pass out as he exits? He was, after all, not of sound mind.
Mike in NC
We’ll take a hard pass on watching Fat Bastard’s Five-O-Clock Follies live, but might catch the highlights (or lowlights) on the network news.
Patricia Kayden
@opiejeanne: If Kasich pushes a few Republican votes in Biden’s direction, I have no problem with him speaking at the Democratic National Convention. All hands on deck — even dirty hands like Kasich’s.
cmorenc
@opiejeanne:
If true, Kasich at the D convention in 2020 would be sort of like Lieberman appearing at the R convention in 2008 – except IMHO we get the better (or less bad) end of the deal. In the years after Lieberman ran as the VP nominee in 2000 for the Ds, he turned into a real snake in the Democratic henhouse, and was a wrench-throwing troublemaker when the Ds went about trying to pass Obamacare. Good riddance, Joe. I’m not crazy about Kasich, but if we have to have a trade of party mavericks/turncoats, I would gladly trade Kasich to our side for Lieberman to their side, because at least Kasich is knowingly coming over to the side of light rather than darkness.
The Moar You Know
@Salty Sam: Preach that. I am so tired of:
1. checking the news the very first thing in the morning to see if my state is getting nuked this afternoon
2. opening said news with a feeling of absolute terror.
opiejeanne
@Patricia Kayden: I feel the same, but I feel a little dirty about it. Kasich is just the same as the rest of them when it comes to policy, although he’s much more polite and comes across as very nice, but wasn’t he the first one to fold in the 2016 primaries because hardly any Republican wants a nice-sounding President? So, what fraction of a smidgen of a dozen votes will he push to Biden?
Ken
@opiejeanne: Maybe there are still a few old-school (Eisenhower) Republicans who are looking for an excuse to vote Democratic.
Kelly
I want the White House domestic staff to dump his stuff in pile on the street.
opiejeanne
@Ken: I think we’re all Democrats now.
Yutsano
Speaking of Republicans…
He seems nice. Rep. Yoho decided to level an attack on AOC. It didn’t end well.
PPCLI
The administration keeps citing the case fatality rate as a sign of the great success of Trump’s actions. I really want to hear someone ask the simple question:
“You’ve described the case fatality rate of 3.7% as a sign of the successful US response. The last seven days the US has averaged over 66 thousand cases a day. At that fatality rate, we should expect over two thousand, four hundred deaths. Would you regard two thousand, four hundred deaths a day as a success?”
MattF
WaPo reports that negotiations between Senate Republicans and the White House over the next round of pandemic aid are not going well.
trollhattan
Commitment to the selfie can be strong.
Ken
@PPCLI: Trump’s response: “Nasty man asking nasty question.”
Sphouch
I may easily be an outlier here, but I am somewhat dismayed at the questions of whether he will accept the outcome of the election if he loses. They played that single during the 2016 election and really seemed one-sided then. To me, this question is a distraction from what are real concerns (e.g. covid, bounties) and the concern needs to be about making said question relevant come inauguration day.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Saw a news alert that Fauci won’t be at the clown show at 2pm.
CaseyL
@opiejeanne: I think the DNC has in mind using someone who GOP voters think of as a “moderate*” – not crazy, not a Trumpist – as a signal it’s OK to vote for a Democrat. Not a pundit, not a celebrity, but someone who actually held elected office.
*I know he isn’t; and you know he isn’t a moderate at all. But when GOP voters – and even some Democrats – think of a “good” Republican, Kasich is usually the one who comes to mind. He was originally a broadcaster, so he knows how to come across as reasonable.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@PPCLI: At the rate things are going, we’ll get a 9-11 per day soon.
Nicole
@cmorenc: Holy cow; I forgot about Lieberman at the 2008 convention. This announcement made me remember Zell Miller at the 2004 GOP convention.
I don’t think, in the end, it’ll make a bit of difference, but I don’t like it. I don’t like the Biden campaign reaching out to Republican politicians. Trump’s just a symptom; the party is the disease.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@MattF:
There seems to be a necessary party missing from these “negotiations”.
MattF
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Antifa?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Nicole:
Well, at least Lieberman didn’t challenge anyone to a duel.
Ken
@?BillinGlendaleCA: From the report, there’s already about eight different sides in the fight, so the Democrats couldn’t really accomplish anything even if they were in the room.
Besides, you just know no one in that room is masked, so best to keep away.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@MattF: Is that what the White House is calling the Speaker these days?
Elizabelle
It’s 5:00. *shudder*
Although, happily, that means wine o’clock.
I wonder if Cuomo will start up with Cuomo O’clock again, daily, to counter der Trump’s COVIDpaloozas. (Which might actually be bashBidenpaloozas. In which case, this is an excellent time for CNN and others to demonstrate they have learned not to give him an amplified microphone for that. A la 2016.)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ken:
True.
Jinchi
I agree. At least when they ask that question, the media should point out that the constitution doesn’t care whether he accepts it or not.
But they started asking him in 2016, because he repeatedly stated that the outcome would be illegitimate if he lost.
debbie
@Just Chuck:
Wow is right! Someone’s been drinking at the Fountain of the Lincoln Project!
Just Chuck
@Patricia Kayden: Honestly that would raise my opinion of T. Then at least a speck of his insanity would include whimsy rather than the murderous hatred and emptiness that makes up the rest.
Nicole
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Oh God, that’s right! Miller, one of the last of the Confederate Democrats. Man, they were nuts.
LuciaMia
At his Rose Garden speech last week CNN did cut away when he swerved into a campaign speech. Wonder if theyll be as careful today.
dmsilev
@?BillinGlendaleCA: To be fair to the Post, the article covers that. Right now, the clowns can’t even agree among themselves what they want, so the Amalgamated Anti-Clown Serious People League has to wait before they can join the fray.
narya
Okay, two of my favorite things: the naked woman in Portland, and the fact that the protestors apparently brought leaf blowers to blow tear gas back at the cops.
That is all. I still have a fkton of email through which to get, and I have to steel myself to go to a gathering tonight (for the first time since early March) that should be safe. (Coworkers, so they know what the risks are, wear masks, etc.; outside; hopefully not a lot of people.) I’ll see; it’s walking distance, so I can leave quickly if I”m uncomfortable.
mrmoshpotato
Biden For President
Loyal to America, Decades of Public Service, Not a Traitorous Soviet Shitpile Mobster Conman
debbie
@Patricia Kayden:
I may be overgaming this, but Kasich appearing at the Dem convention will seal his fate with the GOP. They will never, never entertain voting for him for president, and I think he’s still hoping to run for president.
Ken
@debbie: Putting on my eleven-dimensional chess cap, maybe Kasich thinks the GOP won’t exist in five years, and is positioning himself as the leader of the new Conservative Democratic Party.
Jinchi
Cuomo doesn’t have to start up his coronavirus briefings, because he beat it back weeks ago. Caseloads are down by more than 90% from their peak in New York.
Caseloads in the U.S. have doubled since Trump told us that the cure was to inject bleach. If you don’t count New York, caseloads in the US have gone up by about a factor of five.
Elizabelle
I love that ad at the top. Would be even more effective with someone at the PBS Snooze Hour doing the reporting. Some of the target audience can dismiss Rachel Maddow as being “partisan.” The Very Serious People at the Snooze Hour (and who knows who they are now??) ….
Life is not fair.
Ken
@Nicole: Pistols at dawn, or wrestling Gym Jordan. The mechanics change but there are still loons in Congress challenging people to duels.
CaseyL
@Ken: I think the Democratic Party was already on the verge of splitting up during the Obama era, when the leftier-than-thou wing really took off.
The only reason there isn’t open warfare between centrist and leftmost Dems is because they’re (somewhat) united against T* and the GOP.
If the Dems really do get a Blue Tidal Wave, I expect the fissures to open up fast – like, the minute Biden presents his legislative agenda.
Jinchi
@Ken: I’m all for Kasich and the Lincoln Project team starting up a new Conservative party. I’m even more in favor of the Republican party not existing 5 years from now.
Elizabelle
@Jinchi: Oh yeah. NYS definitely responded well to Covid.
But I love Cuomo’s briefings, because he beats back the GOP idiocy du jour. Maybe he does daily briefings all the time … will tune in tomorrow and find out. ny.gov
Calouste
@Kelly: I want the Secret Service to take him for an “inspection” of the nuke-proof bunker, and lock the door behind him.
MattF
@debbie: I think it’s simpler. Kasich, like many self-styled conservatives, wants Trump to lose to Biden. Endorsing Biden will get a few more votes, and that’s a good thing in his view. I’m not against that.
Baud
@CaseyL: I agree with that risk. And if it happens again, the GOP will have been given yet another opportunity to rise from the dead. And I for one will stop looking for external causes for why it keeps happening.
Danielx
@Ken:
How dare you impugn mah honah, suh?!??
Calouste
@CaseyL: Two-party systems suck.
Nicole
Yeah, but at least it’s pretty much confined to the other side now.
JPL
The local nbc station is not carrying trump trying to read a speech about how every life is precious, in case anyone in the ATL area is trying to find something to watch.
zhena gogolia
@bbleh:
Boy, a lot of the replies are complaining that Maddow appears in it. People are nuts.
Mary G
@MattF: I never thought we would see the actual term in a headline:
zhena gogolia
@Nicole:
We need to win Ohio.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Kelly:
Come cheat social distancing guidelines with me.
*swoon
Ken
@JPL: The station is not carrying, or is now carrying?
In any case, I’ve got some Chopped episodes on the DVR. I’d much rather watch someone try to figure out how to make a dessert out of cold nachos, kidneys, and squid ink, than watch Trump give a presser. They’ll both be horrifying disasters but at least the chefs are creative.
Jinchi
I don’t know why you guys are always looking for a fight that doesn’t exist. The Democrats are a diverse party, they’re going to have disagreements, some people are going to act like idiots. But it’s a sign of strength in the party not a sign that it’s splitting apart.
LuciaMia
Im rewatching the first season of the Great Brit Baking Show. Its Pudding Week!
Baud
@Jinchi: I’m not looking for a fight. But the Obama years were wasted because of stupid internecine warfare, and Trump’s election was likely aided by that as well. It’s a valid risk worth noting.
rikyrah
This poor woman :(
Florida mother is left planning two funerals after her 20-year-old son and daughter, 22, die from coronavirus within 11 days of each other
Monete Hicks lost her son, Bryon, 20, and daughter, Mychaela, 22, to COVID-19
She said her son started breathing poorly on June 27, the same day he died
Her daughter Mychaela became sick seven days later and had to be hospitalized
Mychaela stayed in the hospital for four days before she passed away on July 8
Byron and Mychaela had underlying conditions, including obesity and asthma
Since early July, Florida’s coronavirus cases have continued to surge with at least 10,000 cases per day reported for six out of the last seven days
Florida’s skyrocketing coronavirus death rate is now higher than any other state
By VALERIE EDWARDS FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and ASSOCIATED PRESS
PUBLISHED: 15:55 EDT, 21 July 2020 | UPDATED: 15:56 EDT, 21 July 2020
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8546017/Florida-mother-lost-son-20-daughter-22-COVID-19-11-days.html?ito=push-notification&ci=24099&si=733427
MisterForkbeard
@CaseyL: I think you’re partially right.
Biden is already doing things like introducing a MASSIVE program to help with childcare and eldercare – lots of funding, less bureaucracy, more protections for consumers. It’s a huge and positive step forward.
It didn’t stop a vocal minority from screaming “this wouldn’t be needed with medicare for all!” which… actually isn’t true anyway. But some people are determined to cause problems.
JPL
@Ken: NOT CBS46 and WSB are.
debbie
@MattF:
The local Fox station runs nightly polls of its viewers. Last night, the question was about their reaction to Kasich’s speaking at the Democrat convention. Results were that 67% said they had less respect for him. Doubt they’ll be forgetting this for quite a while.
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
Odds of that may be improving, what with the brouhaha erupting in the Ohio GOP over the arrest of the crookedest House Speaker ever!
Bill Arnold
Woot! My easy-to-guess gmail address (back from when gmail was invitation-only) payed off, again. I got this ludicrous fundraising email just now:
That is not true. I have contributed a substantial (undisclosed) amount to the defeat of Donald J. Trump, i.e. I contributed a negative amount to his campaign. This email has inspired more negative contributions to the DJT compaign! I am so looking forward to various (incorrectly) arrogant people squirming under oath in the witness chair for the Truth and Retribution commission and a national television audience. ( /s ? You decide.)
All the links in the email are trackers (large random strings) so I will not be connecting to them, and letting them know the email address is live.
opiejeanne
@narya: At least one guy in Portland brought a hockey stick and lobbed the tear gas canister right back at the “cops”.
CaseyL
@debbie: The other 23% may be gettable. We don’t need all that many.
Hell, we don’t WANT all that many.
I’m happy to get as many GOP votes for Biden as possible, but I do not want them to become any part of the Democratic Party.
Ken
@Bill Arnold: I’m guessing your email fits the pattern in this xkcd. I’m also wondering if they’ve got a program that’s generating all email addresses of that form. Spamming is a great way to get people on your side.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@LuciaMia: We ran through the GBBO and were debating rewatching episodes.
But then we figured out how to watch the various spin-offs, starting with Irish and Australian. The contrast in judging and personalities with the Brits is quite fun.
There are also some episodes of the French series on YouTube, but we have to work up our courage to watch that one, since it doesn’t have subtitles. Not even French ones.
On a recently-watchd Aussie one, they had the contestants building burgers (with the bun being the baking component), and they were talking about Aussie burgers with all the toppings. This caused my wife to search out an Aussie Burger with The Lot.
Which she then made for dinner, on her homemade multigrain. I love this woman.
Mallard Filmore
@Bill Arnold:
You can copy the link address and paste it into a new tab, then remove the tracker before hitting SEND.
Or, alternatively, change some of the numbers in the tracker.
opiejeanne
@Calouste: The alternative is worse.
opiejeanne
@zhena gogolia: Was Kasich really popular in Ohio?
dmsilev
So, I skimmed TPM’s liveblog of the 2nd-season premier of the Trump coronashow. Surprising no-one, keeping on subject is not his strong suit:
artem1s
@Patricia Kayden:
NONONONONONONONONONONONO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
what do you not get about this? Kasich was at Lehman Brothers during the crash. He is the worst possible GOPer to do this with. He is tied up with the just announced scandal in Ohio! He is a supply side, privatizer who tried to make it legal for oil companies to frack in the middle of cities and in state owned public parks. He tried to sell the state to the highest bidder and was only thwarted because he couldn’t bust the unions. He is a walking, talking Ohio version of Darth Cheney. He is a vile, repugnant excuse for a human being.
It would be tantamount to offering a speaking spot to Jeff Sessions or Paul Ryan, FFS. Letting him speak at the Democratic convention would incredibly insensitive, thick and stupid stunt to pull. Clint Eastwood talking to a chair stupid. It is a slap in the face to the Democratic base. Evidently, unless you are a rich, connected, white guy your vote doesn’t matter – that’s the message Biden will send to the Democratic base.
Biden might as well stand up and declare that he won’t hold the GOP accountable for all their actions over the last 4 years. He will blow any real chance we might have of holding this administration accountable for their blatant corruption – all for an unwinnable state. Biden CANNOT WIN OHIO. He shouldn’t be wasting his time or our money on Ohio. This will in no way sway a single voter in Ohio to vote for Biden. It could however blow up the fragile trust he’s spent the last 9 months building with those who preferred other candidates who weren’t focused on the elusive Cletus vote. This would be as stupid as rescinding his promise and giving the VP spot to mayor Pete, FFS.
Baud
@artem1s:
I’m the Democratic base, and I’m not offended.
trollhattan
re. Kasich: I do not trust him as far as I could throw him, even with great force, but I’ll give Kay my proxy as to whether she thinks he’ll behave himself and be useful. Do NOT give him an administration position under penalty of harsh stares.
Elizabelle
WaPost: a roundup of cartoonists’ tributes to John Lewis.
Jinchi
@Baud: I disagree that the Obama years were wasted, but I remember most of the chaos of that era was willful sabotage by Mitch McConnell, Bill Frist and the Republican party. The biggest example of “internecine warfare” was conserva-Dems like Joe Lieberman threatening to blow up Obamacare if they didn’t get their way. The left was focused on not shredding the social safety net.
Elizabelle
@artem1s:
Calm thyself, Artemis.
Baud
@Jinchi:
Your memory was different than mine. Let’s just leave it there.
ETA: Obviously, not completely “wasted,” but far less than it could have been had we stuck together.
Jinchi
@opiejeanne: That one guy was shot in the head with a “non-lethal” round for tossing a can of tear gas back towards the federal police after it landed at his feet.
Jinchi
That was my original point.
Baud
Baud
@Jinchi:
No, your original point was to pretend the risk doesn’t exist.
Sab
@rikyrah: As you know, not everyone who gets coronavirus is a covidiot. Some 4re essential workers. Others were misinformed. Others are idiots. They all leave devasted familiies.
I am so grateful for my sensible stepkids. But on the other hand, my grand-daughter who lives next door does not understand why she cannot visit. We wave at her through windows. Thanksgiving will not happen this year.
How can we make up their lost childhoods? Just another common trauma. Most kids have this. Very few countries have smooth histories.
J R in WV
@Bill Arnold:
I too have NEVER contributed to the Trump campaign, nor to any of his minions. Never voted for a Republican, never supported any Republican for any office.
Do contribute to congressional candidates, state legislative candidates in multiple states, worked for several candidates for President, including Hillary back in 2016. I knew several days before election day that she didn’t have much room, never thought it would turn out the way it did.
Jinchi
@Baud: I feel like you’re the one who doesn’t want to drop it.
Baud
@Jinchi:
Consider it dropped.
opiejeanne
@Jinchi: Oh no, I didn’t know about that. I only saw a short clip of him using the hockey stick and the canister flying through the air.
J R in WV
Last?
;-)
you never know around here…
opiejeanne
@J R in WV: LOL!
piratedan
@CaseyL: quite possible but as far as his agenda goes, its looking a helluva lot like Liz Warren’s position points have been cribbed and taken under his umbrella as a starting point. IF that is indeed the case, a lot of progressives who were not part of the cult of Bern are gonna be happy.
Matt McIrvin
@CaseyL: The real leftier-than-thou wing, the ones that spend 100% of their time bashing Democrats on Twitter, is tiny and some of them like Taibbi are themselves in the process of going over to the Republicans wholesale because they think the party’s problem is that it’s too anti-racist.
Kasich is to the right of 98% of the Democratic Party; he wouldn’t be the leader of what’s left after that wing splits off. I could see a split between centrists and progressives eventually, but if there are to be any substantial numbers it’d be between, say, the Biden and Warren Democrats. And right now there’s not really much enmity there.
JustRuss
Never thought I’d see a Biden ad kicking Trump in the nuts like that. More please.
Ken
@Jinchi: @Baud: Well I’m glad that’s over, and not being dragged out forever.
Baud
@JustRuss: Not an official Biden ad. Some super Pac maybe?
J R in WV
Trump is such an easy, soft target. Stupid often on camera, cruel always, ugly fat piggy face, vacancy of ideas, easy to put down for legitimate reasons.
Keep up the good work, anti-Trump ad builders!
catclub
@Just Chuck: yeah, that is a great ad, wow.
Bill Arnold
@Ken:
Yeah, that pattern, and guessing is likely; not completely sure though. I normally don’t bother with misdirected emails. There was once somebody who emailed a passport scan by accident, that I corrected ’cause it seemed urgent. A few other exceptions, including one very long and extremely [weird] exchange. A few right wing mailing lists are a good window into the right-wing. Mailing list for PM Modi of India (a day after I criticized elsewhere in detail the Pakistani nuclear weapons program/command and control; that was annoying.)
catclub
@Jinchi: I hope there is a Democratic senate majority that ditches the filibuster.
in 2009 with both house and senate, they did not fix the post office, they did not fix the VRA (because Roberts had not eviscerated it, yet) They certainly did not pass card check. With a ditched filibuster those things can get fixed. also re-write laws on ‘acting’ officers in Senate confirmed positions.
Calouste
@opiejeanne: There are multiple alternatives.
RSA
@PPCLI:
Deer in headlights. “I was told there would be no math.”
Unfortunately, this applies to most reporters as well as administration spokespersons.
Omnes Omnibus
@artem1s: He isn’t going to be a part of the administration. He might give suburban leaners permission to vote for Biden. Let’s give him some room to maneuver, shall we?
Formica
Call me a concern troll. I might deserve it. But I must ask: With the elimination of the filibuster, what stops a 51 vote evil majority from gutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA, Head Start, SCHIP, the VRA (even more) or any progressive reforms accomplished with 51 votes? Yea, some of those are third rails, but consider how popular the Zombie Eyed Granny Starver’s “Path to Prosperity” destruction of Medicare proposal was on the right. Consider how close they came to repealing the ACA using reconciliation chicanery. Kavanagh.
Believe me, I hunger for progress, and I have been politically aware long enough to understand that what has happened since 1994 represents a fundamental shift in the two party system, and that we can’t count on compromise and negotiation to achieve progress anymore. But eliminating the filibuster cuts both ways. Am I overly concerned about this? Genuinely asking. (And yes, for the love of dog, save the USPS!!!)
Brachiator
@Ken:
I disagree. The standard operating procedure for major bills, especially those that involve spending or taxes, is to exclude Democrats, craft a bill and then make Democrats respond to it knowing as little as possible.
And of course, Democrats are accused of not co-operating or agreeing to “compromise.”
rikyrah
?????
opiejeanne
@Calouste: And they all suck because at some point you have to make a deal with the devil in order to get a majority.
opiejeanne
@Formica: I don’t think you’re being alarmist. I feel the same way about losing the filibuster.
gbbalto
@Formica: If we don’t, McConnell will laugh and block everything as before. We will get nothing done, then the Repubs will run on that platform in 2022. Do you want that?
The risk is one we have to take. If the Repubs get the Senate back this year, what is to stop them from eliminating the filibuster anyway?
ETA – This is probably our last chance to GET THINGS DONE. If we don’t eliminate the filibuster, I will conclude that our Senate delegation is not serious about getting anything useful done, vs whining about how the Rules get in our way.
Subsole
@Kelly:
A flaming pile, ideally.
Jeffro
@zhena gogolia: If Ohio goes, we are talking 400+ EV territory. Ep-ic.
Subsole
@CaseyL:
See, I think it is aimed squarely at the burbling demiwitted haircuts in the national media. They want some reassurance that a Republican will still talk to them if they start acknowledging the basic humanity of Democrats. Kasich is there to provide that.
It’s really the only group I can think of hungering for bipartisanship.
God knows I ain’t.
But then, I’m not exactly standard-issue. Maybe there’s a vast untapped market I don’t see.
Jeffro
The whole “I wish her well” statement from trumpov re: Ghislane Maxwell is just (sorry, I know I’m being redundant here) EPIC. His aides have got to be like “oh we were SO CLOSE to suckering the media into the boss’ new tone and taking the virus seriously and all that other BS…and he blew it!”
On another note: $5 to the first reporter to ask trumpov to his face exactly a) how voting by mail works, in detail, and b) if it’s so corrupt and rigged and all, how come his lying press secretary has used it 11 times?
WaterGirl
@Jeffro: Trump even voted by mail!
Another Scott
@artem1s: He’s also a jerk.
In 2014, he and Ed FitzGerald, the Democratic candidate for governor, had a joint appearance/interview at the Cleveland newspaper. Kasich ignored him the whole time.
Agreed. Kasich is a monster, in policy and personally.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
wasn’t Kasich at something like 60% approval when he left office? I agree he’s a jerk, and like John McCain and Joe Lieberman before him, a lot of what’s motivating him is personal spite. And I don’t want him in any position anywhere near policy levers (if the price of his endorsement is a pleasant embassy, Portugal or Malta or wherever, I’m okay with that).
Another Scott
@Formica: Ultimately, the majority has to rule. They have the most votes, they are held responsible, so they must have the opportunity to enact their policies. Having a minority be a veto on every significant piece of legislation has been shown to be deadly for progress.
The idea of a thoughtful, deliberative body to slow down the passions of the too-close-to-the-people House sounds fine in the abstract. But the US Senate is not that body. Powerful committee chairs can bottle up legislation that the vast majority wants (immigration reform). Majority leaders can kill legislation that is desperately needed (COVID funding, voting rights). That’s anti-democratic.
Maybe when the Senate can actually pass legislation again, more people will realize that it’s vitally important to pick good Senators to represent them….
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Scott Alloway
@Baud: Yep. Take allies when you can. Think Stalin in WW2. Nasty SOB but…
Original Lee
Open thread, so: A friend of mine in Portland designed this shirt and is making it available for purchase to support the bail fund:
https://teespring.com/get-women-are-the-wall?pid=266
Matt McIrvin
@Formica: It is a real risk. It’s also a calculated risk.
As it is, the modern use of the filibuster has completely broken Congress. Until the 21st century, it wasn’t used as a universal obstruction such that all legislation takes 60 votes to pass. That is a modern aberration, the endpoint of extreme partisan polarization combined with constitutional hardball. It means that almost no significant legislation gets passed by anyone except in complete fluke situations. The result is that the executive gets more and more powerful in relation to Congress, which is itself a bad, ominous trend.
A Republican trifecta would indeed be able to do a lot of damage under these conditions. They would also be fully responsible for the results. One problem with modern politics is that the relationship between cause and effect gets broken–the people don’t understand who is responsible for a situation. The minority party in the Senate can just obstruct all legislation to deal with a bad situation, then let people blame the majority for doing nothing. Restoring majority rule to Congress would help with that.
Uncle Cosmo
In the spring of 1970, when Johns Hopkins undergraduates along with students all across Americ erupted in a student strike over the invasion of Cambodia[1], Baltimore City cops came onto the Homewood campus [2] & started lobbing tear gas canisters at the students assembled in front of the dorms.
Now JHU is well-known as a lacrosse-playing school[3], & a few of the guys[4] retreated to their rooms, retrieved their lax sticks, re-emerged, & quite calmly scooped up, cradled, and flung the canisters back at the cops. FTR a halfway-competent lacrosse player can lob a ball (or a canister) a lot farther than a human arm can throw it, and a lot harder.
Once the cans began bouncing off police-cruiser hoods & fenders, & the Men In Blue found themselves staggering through their own gas, The Law retreated in confusion.[5]
As it happened, Remsen Hall (the chemistry building) was only a short walk from the scene, & the eyewashes there did a brisk business that day.
“Bright college days, oh carefree days gone by,/ To thee we sing with our glasses raised on high…”
[1] NB we were already on strike over the issue of military recruiters being allowed on campus.
[2] The undergraduate & most of the graduate school. The medical and public health schools are ~5 miles to the SE.
[3] And for damn little else athletically – but one of the historic powerhouses, frequent NCAA champions.
[4] All male student body at the time – the first women (other than daughters of faculty) were admitted that fall.
[5] IIRC something similar happened at the University of MD College Park Campus a bit later, as the strikers spilled across US 1.
Uncle Cosmo
@opiejeanne: Cf. my post at #147 supra. Lacrosse sticks work best of all if you know how to use them, & are less obviously a potential weapon (you have to lose the webbing for that). But I gather not much lax gets played out on the Left Coast.