No offense to Iowans reading, but, boy, do I fucking hate your state. Reason 1 million:
DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Monday signed into law a Republican-backed bill that makes it harder to vote early, potentially eroding a key aspect of Democratic campaigns.
Republicans in the House and Senate quickly approved the voting changes over the opposition of all Democratic legislators. Republicans said the new rules were needed to guard against voting fraud, though they noted Iowa has no history of election irregularities and that November’s election saw record turnout with no hint of problems in the state.
There’s really no reason for Democrats to continue to tolerate the Iowa caucuses. Find some other small state that actually wants Democrats to vote, and hold it there. And, how about letting voters cast a ballot rather than showing up in a high school gym on some random winter night? While we’re at it, Democrats should just abolish caucuses in general. We’re the democracy party — let’s act like it.
I like the way the AP framed that story, btw.
Dorothy A. Winsor
This is sad. When we moved from Michigan to Iowa twenty-some years ago, we found it much easier to vote in Iowa.
Baud
Agreed. All the caucuses need to go.
Served
After the past year, I do not understand how eliminating the caucuses isn’t a given.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Sadly, old guard east coast blue states are some of the worst. But at least their restrictions are specifically designed to hurt the other party or minorities.
trollhattan
Didn’t Iowa recently have three Dem and one Rep reps? Now it’s 3-1 R to D.
Going in the wrong direction, Hawkeye state.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: Our problems in Michigan came mostly when we lived in Detroit. We were shocked when we moved to a suburb and didn’t have to wait in long lines.
TaMara (HFG)
Agree with all of this.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
The long lines are inexcusable. We can deal with neutral restrictive rules by educating our voters. Can’t do anything about inadequate polling stations.
Martin
HR1 is going to become law. Manchin says to pass it under reconciliation if necessary.
And here’s a simple idea: Have the DNC rank states in terms of ease to vote and gerrymandering. Hire the Brennan Center to do it. That’s the order of primary states. You want to go first – be a better democracy.
JMG
I don’t get it. Record high turnout helped the Republicans in Iowa. They won almost every race and by big margins. These restrictions will hurt them more than their opponents. For them, voter suppression is an assumption stemming from the delusion that “we are the real oppressed minority. Our enemies are everywhere and they outnumber us.”
If by some chance Democrats make gains in Iowa in 2022, will the Republicans RESTORE easier voting?
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
Why do you hate conga lines?
BGinCHI
@Martin:
SPOT ON.
Cameron
Don’t know what will happen here in Florida. There are noises about restricting mail-in ballots, though I can’t see a way they can do that without screwing a bunch of Republican seniors. I’m sure they have a few other tricks up their sleeves, too.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud: I keep coming back to the push in GA to crack down on distributing food and water to people lined up to vote. Before you even get to the question of “How does pizza and bottled water lead to voter fraud?” comes, “Why do you have to stand in line to vote long enough to get thirsty, much less hungry?”
NPR interviewed Gabriel Sterling today, and among other questions I had, this one didn’t come up.
(I thought this was going to be a post on the environmental dangers of factory farming. I caught one of the TV doctors (Sanjay Gupta?) saying recently that the next pandemic will come from factory farms. Not “may” or “might”, “will”. Scared the crap out of me. )
mrmoshpotato
Schedule now.
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GRRR!!
Kathy
I’m an Iowan and am disgusted and ashamed. The Iowa GOP will not be content until absolutely no Democrats win elected office here. We have had a pretty good system – reliable voting machines with traceable paper ballots, long hours for voting, no excuse absentee ballots, long early voting period, nonpartisan redistricting system, same day voter registration. The Legislature has left a few elements intact FOR NOW, but they’ll be back to do more and worse. And yes, the caucuses need to go. It’s been a fun run for us political junkies, meeting so many candidates and getting so much attention, but the caucuses are fundamentally undemocratic and Iowa doesn’t deserve its first-in-the-nation status anyway. It’s time for the NPVIC.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Martin:
What about when the Conservative Six on the SCOTUS strike it down as unconstitutional? Do you think Manchin, Sienma will vote to pack the Court? Because otherwise, we’re looking at a one party state here in America. The GOP won’t be satisfied even to allow an opposition party in a few regional strongholds like the Northeast or the West Coast
rikyrah
Just some ?????
https://twitter.com/ElizMcQuern/status/1369339972579434500?s=20
The Moar You Know
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): that’s…quite a leap, even for you. I suggest Xanax. Not in the mood for your doomposting horseshit today.
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah: Clever horse.
debbie
@Kathy:
Never too soon for a lawsuit.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
They’re already killing us with their use of antibiotics in feed, creating more resistant bacteria. No need for a pandemic.
Brachiator
What does this have to do with voter suppression laws?
JPL
@rikyrah: Thanks!
Redshift
@JMG:
It helped them in a lot of places, but apparently they’re high on their own supply, i.e., they trust their propaganda, not the facts.
Ruckus
@JMG:
Never a-tribute malice when stupidity is the better answer.
pacem appellant
@JMG: I thought this as well. Counter argument: Repubs did well in Iowa in 2020 b/c the Former Guy was on the ballot. Without the rabid deplorables crawling over broken glass to prostrate themselves before their god, it is possible the Iowa GOP is banking on lower GOP turnout, so they’re trying to handicap the Dems as well. Counter counter point, mail-in voting historically benefits older, whiter voters (the GOP base), so it might be a net negative after all.
A Ghost to Most
There sure are a lot of fascist run states.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@The Moar You Know:
“Doomposting horseshit”?
“Even for me”?
What are you talking about? It’s a legitimate question. The Supreme Court has already indicated it plans on allowing the Arizona voting restrictions. Barrett in the past has written about how only “virtuous citizens” should be allowed to vote. These people are incredibly reactionary and hostile to voting rights because they’re authoritarians. I’m not doom and grooming. I’m discussing a very real possibility of a bad outcome and the likelihood of a potential work around to that bad outcome.
ETA: maybe they won’t stamp out regional parties, perhaps that was hyperbolic. But they’re definitely aiming for a “permanent Republican” majority at the national level
pacem appellant
@Brachiator: The logic, I think, is that the states get to decide their own election laws. But they can be pressured by national parties to change their behavior by introducing negative consequences to anti-democratic laws. Counterpoint, the GOP controls IA at all levels of government, so this is an ineffectual stick to threaten IA with.
Ruckus
@Cameron:
They don’t have tricks, they have desperation and stupid. They don’t want to be better, they want to be more racist and pathetic. They are working on both.
Redshift
@Baud:
The 2020 rules changes mostly did that. Only Iowa, Nevada, and Wyoming (plus the territories) still have them.
Jay
Ruckus
@Redshift:
Facts are a liberal concept. So they want to stay as far away from them as possible. Besides, lies and bullshit is all they have left. They know they can’t win on facts, that ship sailed decades ago.
matt the semi-reasonable
it has been interesting watching the Bern-outs cling to caucuses with their fingernails because Sanders did well in some. Other than keeping them from voting for Jill Stein, I don’t see any reason to allow caucuses to continue. Our idiot media likes them, but generally one should do the opposite of what they want because they’re so fucking dumb.
Cheryl from Maryland
For counties controlled by the GOP, signature crosscheck will be the way to eliminate “those people” from voting. See a nongeneric name that doesn’t code white, throw the ballot out for lack of a signature match. See a mismatch between a decades-old signature, signature from a pin-pad, noncursive writer, throw the ballot out, especially if it’s the voter is a registered Democrat in those areas which require party registration, throw the ballot out. That way the system will keep GOP voters and eliminate Democratic voters. The signature crosscheck requirement has to go.
cain
@Brachiator:
I was thinking the same thing. I guess it is a punishment for not being a good state. I must admit – I don’t see why Iowa should get any kind of priority if the state govt is enforcing only one party rule.
joel hanes
@JMG:
I don’t get it.
You’re making the mistake of thinking that the Iowa GOP is strategizing, aiming for favored outcomes.
Nope. Ever since they got the trifecta in Iowa, they’ve been all about “owning the libs” — Cleek’s Law. They have two objectives:
cain
They will still claim voter fraud and then get super pissed and want a do over when they find out it was their own laws that caused them to lose their own majority. They’ll refuse to certify the election and everything else claiming voter fraud.
We’ll have to take them to court for everything and make sure they make their claims under oath – let’s see if they are willing to lie.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Then the United States will become a much smaller and much poorer country.
mrmoshpotato
So true.
Also, the coal industry is going gangbusters and even improving air quality if more is burned!
Kent
Which is actually why Dems in a lot of areas shouldn’t be relying on mail-in voting. Much harder or impossible to toss out your ballot if you show up to the polls in person with a valid ID.
In states that actually support voting, like OR and WA then mail in voting is great. Not so much when you are at the mercy of racist local county officials.
Baud
@Redshift: That’s two caucuses of the first four states under the existing schedule.
hitless
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I don’t think it was doom-posting. There’s a significant probability that 4 years from now the United States will be a one party state going forward for years to come.
But I do think it’s important to understand that this is all a dynamic process. If HR 1 passes, SCOTUS can’t whack it immediately…it will take time and it will get people’s attention. Even if SCOTUS does whack it, maybe it still impacts the 2022 midterms before they can do so. After it is whacked, it’s a cause to try to bring voting rights back that we can hope a large number of people will rally around.
Just because something is unlikely to endure does not mean it isn’t worth doing. It does not mean that it won’t have a positive impact.
Jay
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@The Moar You Know:
Looking back, that does sound doom and gloomy. I didn’t mean that question about Manchin and Sinema to sound so skeptical. I was genuinely asking. I personally think they would vote to pack the Court if it tried to strike down the John Lewis Voting Rights Act/HR
@hitless:
That’s a good point.
Oh I agree. My comment was meant more in the sense of, “What will do to either prevent this or do in response if it does happen”
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
My original comment was worded poorly. Didn’t mean to imply it was pointless
matt the semi-reasonable
@Kent: That’s a great point. I think we know that ‘ethnic sounding’ names are going to be the only ones scrutinized in the 30 worst states.
Ksmiami
@Served:
Time to just abolish the Republican Party. What a waste of space…
Martin
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I doubt USSC would strike it down, TBH.
sdhays
I’ve taken to calling Iowa “East Dakota” since that seems to be what they aspire to be now.
trollhattan
Major chomp leads to Champ and Major being sent to
nice farm upstateback to Delaware. Clearly a lack of correct Liberal control of doggies.https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56331268
Twenty Quatloos on Fox leading with this presidential pet failure by tonight. Lord knows, we already had groominggate.
catclub
@trollhattan:
also Ohio. never trust those states with 4 letter names, mostly vowels.
utah? no worse than usual.
trollhattan
@sdhays:
Alta Missouri.
Ken
@Martin: I would think if any case were filed, the law’s defenders would quote Article I Section 4
early and often.
Brachiator
@pacem appellant:
I am not sure that I care whether Iowas has a caucus or a primary.
Didn’t Obama win the Iowa caucuses?
Ksmiami
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): we can eliminate the Supreme Court or expand it.. the more desperate the GOP becomes, the more hostile the backlash –
trollhattan
@Jay:
Libs well and properly owned. That’ll show ’em.
He should have tried selling HGH in the women’s locker room.
mrmoshpotato
@trollhattan: Fucker Carlson will be calling for impeachment of a dog.
Spanky
As someone who tolerated exactly 2 semesters of grad school at U of Iowa before fleeing, welcome to my hatefest.
scav
@trollhattan: oooo, that one will hurt. Rise of the lower tier!
catclub
At least until you find the number of voting machines at your precinct means it will take all day, and you still might not get to vote.
Martin
@JMG: They can see the demographic trends. Des Moines is getting more younger/non-white residents.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Ken:
Could they make hay with this bit?
@Martin:
Thanks for making feel better guys ^^
MattF
Piers Morgan has left his job at ITV, ITV has released this less-than-informative news brief on the subject.
polyorchnid octopunch
@mrmoshpotato: Cucker Farlson? I call him that because you just know he fantasizes about his wife taking it top pocket from a BBC.
Edmund Dantes
@hitless: just takes a National injunction from a federal judge in Texas and scotus not granting a temporary stay of it while it works through the courts.
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The Constitution is pretty clear that congress has the power over federal elections if the want it.
And Immantize said yesterday that some later amendments reinforce this power.
BruceFromOhio
Open thread, yay!
Lincoln Project won accolades, but I’ll be Gaia-damned as a mark if I gave them any money.
And always follow the money. This belongs in the previous post, I suppose. Democrats do a pretty good job with ActBlue getting small donations directly to candidates. Gotta step up that game as well.
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Right there with you, and thinking the same thing as the trends are there, as well as recent behavior by the SCOTUS.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
No, the reason that clause is in there is Senators were originally not elected by popular vote, but by state legislatures. That was changed with the 17th Amendment and that clause is no longer relevant.
MattF
@BruceFromOhio: The LP videos were good, but I was never tempted to send them money. It seemed to me that their target audience was liberals on Twitter. Which is fine, but was not what they were saying.
mrmoshpotato
@polyorchnid octopunch: Well done.
VeniceRiley
I think removing the D caucuses would be a devastating financial and reputational blow to business Republicans there. Kick them right in the wallet.
Delk
Still hard to believe that Iowa allowed me to get married before a helluva other states.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ksmiami:
huh?
Uncle Cosmo
@polyorchnid octopunch: Try Fucker Churlson. In dire need of being whapped upside the head with the sharp edge of a Swanson TV dinner cooled down to Pfizer-vaccine storage temps.
Cameron
@Jay: He’s obviously an asshole. Is there anything else I should know about Steve Crowder?
JPL
@MattF: Murdoch will hire him.
Omnes Omnibus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): You guessed it. Democracy is doomed everywhere. We are all going to rounded up and put in camps. You win. Happy now?
@hitless: “Significant probability?”
You can fuck off too.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Omnes Omnibus:
If you look at my next comments, you’ll note I awknowledged it was poorly worded and not intended to come off so gloom and doomy. I was simply asking about a scenario and if there were solutions to it. Other commenters answered my question satisfactorily
gvg
Slightly off topic, Max Boot has a new WaPo op ed stating that the media and the GOP are hypocrites in attacking democrats and Andrew Cuomo etc, while ignoring the GOP’s far worse examples of the same both in treatment of women and handling Covid. Didn’t Boot used to be right wing? Anyway he said a lot of what we say here, with specific clear examples on a pretty big platform.
HumboldtBlue
@Martin:
Well said.
zhena gogolia
@gvg:
He still is right wing by any sane definition of the term. He’s just not insane right wing.
WaterGirl
@Brachiator: Did you miss the clusterfuck in Iowa in 2020, when it took Iowa weeks to clarify who came out on top?
Omnes Omnibus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I’ve told you before. I’ve quit trying to talk people off the ledge. Especially people who just keep going back there. It’s like you want to be there, so who am I to get in your way?
James E Powell
@MattF:
Are we to believe it has nothing to do with recent events?
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
Will it be like summer camp?
MattF
@James E Powell: Oh, no. Morgan walked off the Morning Program set after being called out for his commentary on the Royals by a co-host. News anchors are not supposed to do that.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Oh, good. Count me in for the arts & crafts. That and swimming we always my favorite parts.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus:
I get the top bunk, Omnes.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@MattF: Didn’t know he was a baseball fan.
M31
bbbuttt they had a app
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Omnes Omnibus:
What are you talking about? I didn’t ask you to do that. I was explaining that my comment was poorly worded, sounded more defeatist than I meant it, I corrected, and others gave me satisfactory explanations based on what I asked.
All I was trying to ask was, basically, what challenges an HR1 voting bill would face with the SCOTUS, and how we could get around that. That’s it
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: I suppose that depends on how your summers were.
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Will you bring the cocker spaniel?
MattF
@gvg: Boot’s a Never-Trumper. It does seem that the Never Trump crowd is rather more liberal on social issues than the R average. See, e.g., Ms. Rubin.
jonas
All primaries should be that — primaries. Were I an All Powerful Emperor and Lord, I would hold all primaries over the summer, when the weather’s decent and people have time off to vote, and shorten the campaign season overall. A huge problem with politics in this country is the years-long, never-ending campaign season that begins, effectively, 2 years before the goddamn election. It’s exhausting and it turns people off. A presidential campaign should be about 6 months long, tops. That’s plenty of time to barnstorm key states and let the electorate get to know you. These bullshit primaries, caucuses and other nonsense in tiny, rural white states in the dark of January or February have got to go.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: Only if she starts eating more.
Omnes Omnibus
@MattF: Boot, Rubin, and many of the other Never Trumpers are Neo Cons. They might have been willing to go along with retrograde social and domestic policy to get their foreign domination on but not if it comes with foreign humiliation.
Ksmiami
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I mean if certain governmental bodies become a nuisance then their own longevity comes into question- if the Roberts court becomes hostile to the majority of citizens, something else will replace it.
Ksmiami
@WaterGirl: I get dibs on the floating slide in the middle of the lake… everyone who went to camp knows the deal…
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ksmiami: The means to get there might have, issues.
MattF
@Omnes Omnibus: True enough. Also, neocon foreign policies haven’t aged well and look anomalous in the America First playbook.
cckids
I always thought their main focus was to get Trump foaming at the mouth with anger. They probably succeeded at that. At influencing the election, not so much.
Another Scott
Here’s hoping that HR1 rolls back most of these anti-equal-protection voting suppression rules.
In other news, …
Good, good. Get it done.
(via ssurovell)
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I believe that Omnes is speaking to a pattern in your comments.
When this sort of thing comes up, it’s pretty consistent that your reply speaks to the individual comment you made, and you often share a reason or excuse for having said what you said, or having asked the question you asked.
But that misses the mark of what people are trying to convey.
I believe you will have to think bigger than the individual comment in question in order to understand why you get responses like this.
Shorter: you want to talk about a particular instance, and others are speaking to a pattern.
MattF
@cckids: Yeah, but there’s the short-attention-span problem. Trump will get angry X, and then he’ll get angry at Y, and then he’ll get angry at…
Barry
@catclub: “At least until you find the number of voting machines at your precinct means it will take all day, and you still might not get to vote.”
And you were removed from the voter registration rolls, and found out on Election Day.
James E Powell
I know I shouldn’t, but I watched some cable news this morning.
Republicans seem to be going with: Democrats give your tax dollars to prisoners! and Biden created crisis at the border!!
Cable shows seem to believe Racist Royals is the bigger story.
Omnes Omnibus
@James E Powell: That’s actually good for us.
MattF
@James E Powell: The subjects of the R attacks change every day. I assume it’s lined up with Fox commentary.
Steve in the ATL
@Kent:
These reasons, plus DeJoy’s dismantling of USPS, are why my wife and I risked our health to vote in person.
Martin
@James E Powell: Mr Potato Head doesn’t have the staying power to carry to 2022.
Feathers
@MattF: Here’s a link to the clip: Piers Storms Off. Walk off at 1:40, the good stuff at 1:20
The backstory here is that Piers Morgan used to tweet at Meghan while she was an actress on the show Suits. She never interacted with him publicly. After she started dating Harry, Piers said that they knew each other an had had coffee together. She has never mentioned or acknowledged him. Apparently he expected to get invited to the wedding. He was not. Afterwards, he became one of her worst critics, going on absolutely unhinged rants about her.One of the other people on the show called him out about this history, saying that Meghan was entitled to cut him off if she wanted to, that she had said nothing about him, but Morgan continually trashed her. At that point Piers said he didn’t have to take this, pulled off his mike and walked off set, leaving everybody else just sitting there.He’s the host. Yeah, probably a firing offense. From what I understand, Alex Beresford, the guy who called him out does the weather, so we’ll see what happens to him. #TeamAlex Edit – fixing broken link
Gravenstone
@JMG: I remember something about noses and spiting of faces…
Jim Appleton
@hitless: Yes.
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus:
And the world misses your top notch interpersonal skills and legendary empathy!
Barry
@Ksmiami: “I mean if certain governmental bodies become a nuisance then their own longevity comes into question- if the Roberts court becomes hostile to the majority of citizens, something else will replace it.”
The whole point of the right’s sh@t is the opposite of that, to rule with a minority through a mess of crap which stops as many people from voting as they need.
sab
@James E Powell: Racist royals seems to be smear job of wrong royals.
Don’t follow it much, but yay Megan. Sucides in my family. Shouldn’t be ignored. Brave of her to go public a year after palace had chance to avert the p.r. problems. Staying silent after a while is condoning their behavior. My guess, with English press, is anyone they point their finger at is innocent and they know it.
Sort of OT: Piers Morgan got the easiest gig in America, Larry King’s show established after 25 years. His thing was being nice to celebrities so they would come and talk. Also to other people. He was just kind and curious.
Piers, being himself, had to be an asshole. Couldn’t bring himself to be nice. Hardbiting but factless. Almost inevitably, that ends up racist.
I saw him early in his tenure interviewing a doctor after Hurricane Sandy that flooded hospital basements New York, which killed their generators.
The doctor came on expecting to celebrate his doctors and nurses who had climbed down multiple stairs hand pumping respirators to save patients during evacuation.
Piers Morgan wanted to know why the generators were on the first floor. Any minimal reporting would have found zoning and other constraints. He couldn’t be bothered because he is a pricey foreign celebrity not a reporter.
Ugliest thing I have ever seen on TV. Months later Piers was back to UK. I have assumed he hates America now because we weren’t quite as horrible (hence lucrative) as he dreamed we would be.
danielx
@Omnes Omnibus:
Unless they serve drinks with little umbrellas in them, I must decline.
Seanly
If you’re a politician and you don’t want people to vote, you are one of following:
And another group of miserable assholes are the idiots who continue to act like both parties are equivalent.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MattF: I didn’t read his book on his conversion, but I heard a couple of longer interviews with Boot when it was released, and he’s quite frank about the role of racism in his Republican Party, pretty much Reagan-Bush (he was born in ’69). He’s said he’s particularly embarrassed (I typed ashamed, but I don’t know if he went that far) that he didn’t recognize it as a Jew whose family was driven out of the the USSR by anti-Semitism
cckids
@MattF: Yes. That’s why, for as amusing and fun as many people (including me) found the LP videos, what actual purpose did they achieve? Mainly, draining lots of $$ into LP founder’s pockets.
Immanentize
@Steve in the ATL: laughing now
hope you will have a job after Biden forces everyone into BLM LGBTQ+ Union negotiations led by caravan plague monsters from Kenya.
I will wear that Union label!
Benw
Just cobble Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri into one state and make them vote last.
IOWEBRASKANSASSOURI
James E Powell
@Omnes Omnibus:
Agreed. It’s actually pretty funny.
Steve in the ATL
@Immanentize: in that scenario, management and its lawyers will be the ones beaten by Pinkerton’s guards?
SFBayAreaGal
This comment on Lawyers Guns and Money has me laughing out loud
“By my math, Meghan took down the whole monarchy, Piers and that preposterous tabloid with a single rifle shot.”
Ruckus
@cain:
If they are willing to lie?
They are not just willing, they enjoy it, revel in it.
trollhattan
@Benw:
+1. With but two senators among them.
Immanentize
@Steve in the ATL: Everyone must take a turn in the Pinkerton barrel!
MattF
@SFBayAreaGal: And Oprah.
Gravenstone
@Uncle Cosmo: If you cool his head down to -70 C, the TV dinner tray will have a much more satisfying effect. Not that it will really be needed at that point.
Ksmiami
@Barry: but the Republicans have been exposed in a way that wasn’t possible without cell phones etc… I mean the GOP used to hide its ugly underbelly but now they debate Cat in the Hat while Democratic Party members pass relief- I mean yes we all know what they are trying to do wrt to voting , but we all still have enough agency to crush these fuckers like the roaches they are
sab
@Steve in the ATL: Does Pinkerton still have guards? Which side in GoFund me? Life is complicated. Turned my timesheet in March 1. Still no paycheck. Post office? Boss? Who knows. Not incentivized to put their work ahead of housework or my kids’ needs.
Gravenstone
@Feathers: So, an unrequited crush and he went nuts when called on it. How…dignified.
cain
@mrmoshpotato:
It would not surprise me if the right wing start claiming that the dog is a danger and push for euthanasia. They are that fucking evil.
Baud
LGM
I don’t agree with every bit of that analysis, but the laundry list of items in the bill is impressive.
cain
Seems like we are one animal way from “Weekend at Bernies”
cain
@Another Scott:
And I would like to also extend an extra long middle finger to John Roberts who believes we live in a post-racial society. Fucker.
cain
@Feathers:
I saw a clip of Piers taking the piss of the weather girl, saying it was summer because the woman was wearing a short skirt. They showed her attire which was a knee length skirt – certainly not some kind of kinky number or anything. But he’s sitting there lambasting her and I could tell she was getting pissed off.
In fact a lot of those people you tell on the telly with him were holding it in. Glad they don’t have hernias. Good riddance.
Mary G
Feathers
@Gravenstone: I just checked my email and there was a newsletter with a bunch of links to really awful clips of him talking about her. Apparently she met him for a few drinks, they talked about the charities she worked with. Piers thought it went great, he put her into an Uber and never heard from her again. In another interview he blamed it on Harry being afraid of her having contacts with the media. Instead of the fact that Piers himself is kinda gross.
Don’t think I’ll link, just imagine Piers insulted at the thought that anyone might think he would have been a real catch for the then single Megan Markle.
Spanky
Wake up sheeple! They’re rounding us up to send us to band camp!
debbie
@James E Powell:
The Queen issued a statement earlier today. I’m thinking she wasn’t in on the racist banter.
germy
Feathers
@cain: I mixed it up then, I thought the dude was a weatherman. On the blog I was reading, someone said their mother loved Good Morning Britain, but only watched it on the days he didn’t host because she found him so loathsome.
Good Morning Britain has rotating hosts with a different lineup every day. Dumping Piers shouldn’t hurt them. Nobody should have to put up with that shit.
cain
I see my rate of posting has outpaced everyone elses. #ADHDLife
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: To be fair, they often jumped.
cain
@Feathers:
It would not surprise me that the man was knackered. (I’m not sure why I’m using British idioms in this conversation)
I’m waiting for our very own Tony Jay to weigh in. :-)
gwangung
@cain: That would be John Roberts and the 45% of America society that agrees with him.
debbie
What kind of participation trophy is this asshole expecting?
Brachiator
@debbie:
This is close to something you might read in The Onion.
Ken
@Gravenstone: To me the description of his behavior read more like “stalker” than “unrequited crush”, but without actually seeing the tweets I can’t be sure.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ken: Is there really a difference?
Ken
@cain: Is that “knackered” as in “exhausted”, or as in “hit on the head with a sledgehammer at the slaughterhouse”?
Mary G
Any North LA County jackals over 65 who need a vaccine:
I’m sure this is because a lot of right wingers and survivalists and general nutcases live up there, but it still makes me happy to see there are spares available. Also, good on the theme parks for giving their spaces instead of emptying their pockets of every last penny. I had major sticker shock when I looked at Disneyland tickets.
Ken
@Omnes Omnibus: Generally comes down to whether there’s a restraining order.
cain
@gwangung:
Then I shall extend my middle finger to that 45% – assholes.
Ken
The Republicans are going to have to learn to stagger their potty breaks better.
Major Major Major Major
Say what you will about the hawkeye state, it’s got great congressional districts.
cain
@Ken:
Hit on the head – I should have gone with ‘pissed’ that would have been clearer.
debbie
@Brachiator:
If you can’t stop yourself from saying something after one year and eight months, you might as well cut your own tongue out.
cain
@Ken:
While Goku is thinking “doom”, I’m thinking “Dhoom” as “Dhoom Machale!” (Rock the Party) :) I’m liking this. Biden’s Midichlorian is high.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ken: So, just a matter of timing then…
Ken
@Omnes Omnibus: Had to check if you were referring to the restraining order comment, or the potty break comment.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ken: If the foo shits….
Bill Arnold
@cckids:
They were trying to get Mr Former Guy to make political mistakes (S. Schmidt has said this IIRC). There certainly were a lot of apparently unforced errors by [nameless one]’s campaign. In the end the Democrats won the Presidency, gained control over the Senate, and held the House. Historians will be arguing about causality re Trump’s/R’s losses (causal nexuses for future computational historians) for the next 10 decades, but LP absolutely had effects.
Ksmiami
@cain: Get in line, get in line. There are millions of us ahead of you
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@WaterGirl:
I guess I just need to stop commenting when I’m in a rush with my immediate reaction to somethin
All I can say is I apologize and I’ll try to not repeat that pattern
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
I know him from countless documentaries that include his contemporaneous reports during the 60s and 70s on seemly every subject – he was everywhere.
RIP and thanks for the contributions to the first draft of history.
Ken
The kind OANN gives out. I wonder if that means even Fox said no.
mrmoshpotato
@Ksmiami: Now now. We can all flip off Roberts at the same time, including Freaky Fingers cain over there.
Another Scott
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: His name was Mudd!
I’ve always thought he was a good guy on TV, and thought that CBS did him wrong by picking Rather over him to succeed Cronkite, but TV’s a rough business.
RIP.
Cheers,
Scott.
Feathers
@Ken: Here are the two tweets with links I saw where Piers Morgan is bitching about being ghosted by Meghan Markle after she met Prince Harry. In the second one he talks about how she owed him an invitation to the wedding for cutting him dead:
https://twitter.com/thaunfriendly1/status/1369271047833456649?s=20
https://twitter.com/DLZOfficial/status/1369301920029020161?s=20
The newsletter is Today in Tabs, which I am enjoying.
Betty Cracker
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Just my two cents as a fellow commenter: you’re fine. This isn’t a peer-reviewed journal; it’s an electronic water cooler for cranky-ass liberals. People often make off-the-cuff, poorly worded comments, including me for sure. It’s only a blog, and if people don’t like your comments, they can damn well skip them. There’s even a handy tool to facilitate that.
Steeplejack (phone)
@trollhattan:
Comments:
Another Scott
Warning – Politico:
Joey M is a secret Balloon-Juice reader??
(via LOLGOP)
Cheers,
Scott.
Mary G
Look out, Nelle:
Giving up that first in the nation position might be a pretty good idea if this lying POS is going to be underfoot for three years. Even the Republicans are prolly ticked off, “We did fine in 2020 without your butting in asshole, take it to New Hampshire.”
J R in WV
@Baud:
TomatoQueen
@Another Scott: He certainly was a good tv news guy of that era. His reputation re: women, especially in the newsroom, wasn’t the best.
CBS News has been a hot mess since Cronkite retired.
Another Scott
@TomatoQueen: If I knew that, I forgot it. Thanks for the addendum.
Cheers,
Scott.
The Moar You Know
@Omnes Omnibus: Fuck yeah I love camping!
Cameron
@debbie: WTF? Some kind of racist Tourette?
Brachiator
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
I recall watching some of his work on TV, when I was in high school. I remember thinking that he seemed to be a really good journalist. Solid. Explained things very well.
WaterGirl
@Another Scott: I was just yelling at Uncle Joe for being so naive.
I was listening to the Jen Psaki briefings from yesterday and today, and she repeated multiple times that Joe not only doesn’t want to get rid of the filibuster, he also doesn’t want to tweak the filibuster rules in any way. Not even a Manchin rule where they could pass voting rights or civil rights bills with a simple majority. She said he believes that the Rs and Ds can work together on this legislation.
Joe has to know the the Rs are working overtime to eliminate voting rights in a whole boatload of states. He can’t really believe that they would vote for a bill that would extend the right to vote and make voting easier.
Is this 3-dimensional chess where he says no, no, no and then finally when the Rs have obstructed a whole bunch of things… then he says, wow, I really thought they would work with us for the good of the country… I guess we really do need to get rid of the filibuster.
And then we bang out a bunch of bills with simple majority rule.
Otherwise, I cannot understand why he would be taking this position.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Benw: Better still, cobble Idaho, the Dakotas, and Wyoming into one state. Idahotaming finally might have enough people in it to be worth 2 Senators.
cckids
At my part-time grocery cashier gig, there’s a regular customer, who has what seems to be obvious Tourettes; the verbal tic does consist of the N-word, over & over. How he goes out in public at all is just beyond me.
TomatoQueen
Here’s a link to WaPo’s Roger Mudd obit, which I hope is not paywalled, but if it is, some highlights are his deep connection to the Washington region (local boy, went to W & L) and a mini history of tv news, in which he was tangled up with all the other big guns and kept getting shoved aside. Also talks about what a BFD his “The Selling of the Pentagon” was–he did some good. Roger Mudd, probing TV journalist and network news anchor, dies at 93 – The Washington Post
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: If it is done this way, Biden doesn’t have his fingerprints on the filibuster changes. Manchin can say that he reached out and reached out and was rebuffed again and again. Then, more in sorrow than anger, he must overcome his love of tradition and comity because he loves his country more. If it needs to play out that way, it don’t bother me none.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl:
I think that must be it.
1) Biden’s been around a long time. He knows how stuff works and how to play the long game. (It’s still been less than 50 days that he’s been President.)
I think, like Obama, that he wants to give the GOP to break their fever and actually work with him. Obama waited a very long time. Biden won’t wait so long, but since they haven’t actually blocked anything/anyone (except Neera Tanden) yet, he can still be patient.
For a little while.
2) It’s a no-win for him to demand publicly that the Senate change its rules. He’s got no power over them. Any persuasion should be in the background (with hammers and cookies) with plausible deniability.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@J R in WV:
I was unclear. I meant we can’t do anything on the ground. I agree we can pass federal laws that fix the problem.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@WaterGirl: These are Senate rules that Biden has no control over anyway. He can preach comity and unity and be above it all, without it actually impacting what happens because its not like it will make it to his desk. At the end of the day, only the Senators get to decide this.
Tony Jay
@Feathers:
I will be thunderously unsurprised if and when it comes out that Morgan has already been headhunted by one of the Fox News style 24 Hour pukefunnels due to start spreading hate and division across the nation this year, and his stroppy little walk-off was a spur of the moment decision to escape the backlash from his Markle-bashing and generate a little “Cancel Culture” heat for his move to a Tucker Carlson role.
Yes, after decades of seeing the gaping wounds Fox has torn in the American body politic become septic and necrotic, the British Media establishment has concluded that the UK can only benefit from having two of them.
We’re fucked. Someone just pull the plug and sink the whole thing.
Major Major Major Major
@WaterGirl:
Transparently so IMO.
Bill Arnold
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
You’re fine. In the question at hand (“conservative” supreme court vs voting rights) it’s right to be concerned, It will certainly be in play but the outcome can be affected.
Much of the focus needs to be on viability of conservative arguments against elements of HR-1, and on marginalizing said arguments. Most of us are not lawyers but we can certainly e.g. “ask questions” (sea lion) in conservative venues, etc. The Supreme Court majority is partisan, which is bad, but it also means that it will be less likely to do things that will obviously cause political damage to Republicans. Get those potential political costs inserted into the narratives that Republicans (specifically R Supreme Court justices and their assistants) see.
Also, work to maximize voter tunout in 2021 as a warmup for 2022. Georgia gave us solid glimpses of the potential for turnout of people who have not regularly voted in the past. Democratic voter turnout can be (is!) one of the political costs of voter suppression.
Mary G
@WaterGirl: My feeling is that it’s some of that 11-dimensional chess or Kabuki theater and that he is just not wanting any credit or blame at the moment.
He’s done very well by playing the role of a senior politician who’s uneasy about the radical things these young ‘uns are proposing. It got him elected, after all, and his approval rating is high. I would think that getting his nominations approved and working and beginning to spend all that lovely $1.9 trillion dollars is probably a higher priority.
Then after the Republicans have refused to even debate on voting rights, etc., he’ll reluctantly agree, more in sorrow than in anger, and laugh about it with Jill at dinner
ETA: Omnes beat me to more in sorrow than in anger. Dagnabit.
Patricia Kayden
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: If it plays out that way, I don’t have a problem with it, either. But if that’s not what’s going on, I am totally perplexed as to Biden can possibly think the Rs are going to work with him on anything.
WaterGirl
@Major Major Major Major:
So it’s the aw, shucks, look what you made me do, move?
trollhattan
@Mary G:
Pompeo REALLY thinks he deserves to be president. Just ask him.
rikyrah
If this doesn’t make you ????
https://twitter.com/JessicaShaw/status/1369287139368767488?s=20
WaterGirl
@Mary G:
Dagnabit is such a great word.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
I’m watching the confirmation votes on CSPAN and Baby Doc is walking around on the Senate floor in sneakers. I’m old enough to remember when they freaked out over Kyrsten Sinema’s attractive knee high boots.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: How much effort has Biden spent on persuading the GOP? Virtually none.
Another Scott
@Tony Jay: I like to think that (like other bad cycles) this stuff will burn itself out, and maybe soon.
Relatedly, perhaps – AlJazeera:
I have no idea if Lula’s a petit crook, and if he is to what extent it matters. But I do know that it’s bad to imprison hugely popular politicians who make things better and replace them with RWNJs (or LWNJs) who make things much worse.
Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
Bill Arnold
@trollhattan:
Pompeo is an arrogant a-hole, and his twitter brag-a-thon at the end of the Trump presidency was pathetic and full of falsehoods.
J R in WV
@catclub:
And THIS is what we need to make illegal voter suppression, post haste. Every precinct needs to have the same number of machines, clerks, ballot boxes, everything, per voter in the precinct as all the other precincts.
We know the numbers here, just make imbalance past 5% (or a number like that) illegal with a stiff penalty involving jail time for those making decisions about staffing and equipping voting precincts.
If people are standing in line when the polls close, that’s all the needed evidence of criminal voter suppression right there.
This isn’t rocket science, people!
karen marie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I don’t know how things are done in Georgia but in Massachusetts politicians often deliver food to election workers in polling places. When I worked the polls in Fall River, Mass. I was absolutely horrified, because the politician would come into where people were voting, loudly presenting their coffee and donuts – effectively campaigning right next to people voting. I complained to the election department but was told to shut up.
Brachiator
@WaterGirl:
I suppose that Biden could just say “Fuck You” to the GOP, but that would not be statesmanlike.
For the past decade or more, the GOP has become more narrow, existing for the benefit of evangelicals and a small group of plutocrats, while pretending to care about the American people.
It looks as though the GOP has no intention of changing. Too bad for them.
This appears to be putting more power in the hands of center-right Democrats as representatives of conservative voters.
Ken
How else shall the LORD’s cleansing fire rain down from the heavens and usher in the Kingdom of God
(And I wish I were joking…)
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus:
@Another Scott:
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
@Major Major Major Major:
@Mary G:
Seems like everyone is in agreement that this is the right move for Biden! I’m sure it’s true that if he said anything else, the press would spend a week making it about Biden, and that would do no one any good.
I listen to Jen Psaki every day, and every single fucking day they practically beg her to call what’s happening at the border a “crisis”. It’s downright embarrassing. Even as they ask the same dumb question that has been asked and answered a zillion times before, they verbally acknowledge that she’s been asked and answered, and they still ask. It must be in their contract.
Some of these people embarrass and humiliate themselves daily. At least she gives them the weekend off. After all, she is not a monster. :-)
Omnes Omnibus
Only Sith deal in absolutes. What about a power failure? Weather issues? A bunch of people who decide to vote at the last minute?
J R in WV
@WaterGirl:
I liked canoeing a lot, the pond was pretty cool so I just focused on making the test complete. It was a YMCA camp at around 1960…
And target shooting, I was one of the best at that also too. My grandma taught me how!
Benw
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: good idea. Better check with mistermix, tho. He lives there.
Also, replace Teddy with Obama. Just putting it out there
WaterGirl
Mr. Bear often gently paws my arm or my face – or whatever upper body part he can get to – in the morning to tell me it really is time to get up. Can we get up now? How about now?
It’s a sweet gentle paw. Yesterday he decided to paw my eyeball, while my eye was open. Thankfully it was gentle, but I could still feel his nails going across my eyeball. (ick)
So while the eye doctor says I have a scratch on my cornea, today it stings much less when I put the antibiotic drops in my eyes than it did yesterday, so I think I got off pretty easy. I am truly grateful.
Steve in the ATL
@Mary G:
Is this your first time hitting rock bottom?
WaterGirl
@Steve in the ATL: It’s appalling that Omnes would do such a thing!
Baud
NYT
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: Never without consent.
cmorenc
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
No, the GOP will still want for a viable Democratic Party in every state, in the same way the Harlem Globetrotters want a viable Washington Generals team to play against at every show across the land, with the same result every game, um… election.
Tony Jay
@Another Scott: It would be nice to think so, but the sheer weight and number of incredibly awful things happening to the UK are probably irrecoverable. Punch yourself in the nuts long enough and hard enough and you – will – be half the man you used to be.
And man, we’ve being hammering away at the poor things for a while now. It’s like pâté down there.
trollhattan
@WaterGirl:
Have they at least knocked off with the “Americans are saying” preambles to their fancypants gotcha questions?
Coach: “Okay, fellas, for the last time, do not throw across the middle of the plate when this Ruth guy is at bat.”
In case I’m being ambiguous, Psaki = Ruth. IDK if she drinks like a fish but if she does, I’m buying.
Omnes Omnibus
@trollhattan:
I thought her name was Jen?
J R in WV
@WaterGirl:
Right up there with Malarkey~!!~ Dabnabit~~!!~~
StringOnAStick
@Tony Jay: I have a friend who seriously contemplated moving to England because she was afraid Turnip would win in 2020 and job/language made England her best choice she thought. I made a sincere effort to show her that was most definitely not an ideal plan. Thankfully she didn’t do it.
It’s incredibly disappointing to read about British politics. It seems like too many years of being a target for Russian money is toxic no matter where.
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: No “Americans are saying” today, but we did almost have another “oh, this is the plane of today!” moment. But she caught herself. :-)
“Oh, another question about the dog!”
The second or third dog question asked her to confirm for the public that Major was NOT going to be euthanized for his transgression.
She said Major is a member of the family, so of course that was not going to happen. The pups are in Delaware with friends while Dr. JIll is on her 3-day trip, but the dogs will be back in the White House soon.
karen marie
Is this an open thread? I’ll pretend it is.
I was googling something else for work and came across this interesting article about the duties of the president’s valet. It’s a huge operation!
If I’m understanding this correctly, it would have been the responsibility of the valets to have thrown Individual-1 out onto the sidewalk had he not absconded on January 20th.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker:
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I agree with Betty 100%. I’ve been wanting to say something similar, but she did it better.
Jeffro
@Another Scott: the Thiessen op-ed up in the WaPo is just…glorious…in its sad attempt to take down Manchin.
L to the OL, uber-hack Marc T!
And here he is at the wrap-up, with not a hint of irony:
the mind, it boggles; the Thiessen, it cashes RWNJ hack checks
ETA: had to go back and highlight the…the…the ASTONISHING hypocrisy here
J R in WV
@Omnes Omnibus:
OK, you got me. Lots of reasons people might be standing in line when the polls close. Those reasons, if legit, will get the people who may have underfunded those precincts out of their criminal trials without being convicted, right?
debbie
@WaterGirl:
Eyeballs heal very quickly, maybe even more quickly than any other body part.
Baud
Clyburn doing a good job on CNN.
Ken
@debbie: Do I want to know why you know that?
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl:
Ooh — that is scary. My Louis was getting close to doing that in his last months. I took to wearing a knit cap to bed because it seemed to discourage him.
Tony Jay
@StringOnAStick:
How fucked up is British politics? There was a high level report ordered on Russian interference in our elections. The current Government delayed it, delayed it, delayed it, then when it was released it revealed that our expensive security services didn’t bother do any investigations into Russian interference, so there was nothing to do a report on.
Media reaction? Oh well, nothing to see here, then. Never mind that the Tory Party is mainly funded by a few Russian money-men, that’s just an unrelated coincidence.
Beyond fucked. You gave your friend smart advice.
zhena gogolia
@karen marie:
I think Biden should hire Mr. Bates.
Ruckus
@Kathy:
I wonder what they think will happen after they piss off every single voter, because of all the restrictions and hassle?
zhena gogolia
@Tony Jay:
Sad, really sad.
Mike in NC
@Jeffro: I haven’t got the stomach to read any more of the insipid swill dispensed by Thiessen, Olsen, Hewett, or Abernathy in the Post.
Uncle Cosmo
I’ll see ya & raise ya:
A tad smaller than Brigham Young wanted, but hey. Two Senators and ~10 Reps, mostly LDS – a group whose, mmm, unusual beliefs are mostly on the starboard side of the aisle but well short of the QAnon qwazy.
rikyrah
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Keep on posting ????
Brachiator
@Tony Jay:
As far as I can see, Boris Johnson and his cronies are governing like its 1899.
StringOnAStick
@Tony Jay: It’s that much money, isn’t it? So much and so deeply infiltrated that they don’t dare dig any deeper. I’m sorry.
Tony Jay
@zhena gogolia:
Yeah. Never mind, though. The third series of Doom Patrol is shooting so I’ve got something to look forward to.
WaterGirl
@Jeffro:
As opposed to the Republicans?
StringOnAStick
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I appreciate your comments; hell, of everyone here, you’re going to be dealing with this shit much longer so no wonder it gets to you. It gets to me but luckily I’m usually on a Kindle which is an utter PITA to comment with and has a installed word changer system that has extremely odd logic, so that slows me down. I’m on my PC right now but with a cat fully occupying one arm.
WaterGirl
@debbie: Well, my sister got a scratch on her cornea from her dog one night, and she didn’t go in until the next morning. She ended up with scar tissue on her cornea.
So this probably happened to me at 7 or 8am and you better believe that I was at the eye by 9:30. :-)
Tony Jay
@Brachiator:
Man, the way these smirking goons are looting and burning it’s more like 899.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Uncle Cosmo:
Alright. You can have ID for Deseret. I’ll grab Montana and call it Montakotaming: Montana, the Dakotas, & Wyoming.
Jeffro
@Mike in NC: I do (well, not Hewitt, ugh!) but it’s almost like I’m trying to…study their hackishness? And maybe marvel at how they look at themselves in the mirror ever morning?
Olsen keeps trying to reallllllly finesse things (almost like Brooksie might, minus the sanctimonious ‘community’ and ‘ethics’ vibes that were such obvious BS)
Abernathy is a bit at sea these days…he’d like to knock trumpov right the heck out of the party but he knows he has to couch it carefully and damn. sure. ain’t. gonna. cede anything to libruls.
Thiessen is a marvel, though. He is clearly getting fed his talking points and themes, but – like today – is just so stupid and shameless that it almost makes you laugh. It’s just wild. “YES, Marc Thiessen, YESSSSSSS! It is the LIBRULS who only care about POW-ER!!! moo hoo ha ha ha!”
What a dimwit.
But no, god, no Hewitt.
Jeffro
@WaterGirl: apparently he typed it with a straight face? It boggles the mind.
karen marie
@Brachiator: I have no idea how they stay in business.
zhena gogolia
@Tony Jay:
With Frank Thring as Aella!
https://thelastblognameonearth.com/2020/02/14/52-before-62-45-the-vikings-958/
Ken
@WaterGirl: When Republicans are in power, chaos rules.
Uncle Cosmo
@J R in WV:
“Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda.
Here I am at Camp Antifada…”
Origuy
@Spanky: My friend’s father was a professor of theater. He spent one semester at Iowa State before taking his family back to Southern California.
Ken
The RNC and conservative “think tanks” buy thousands of the pizzas and hand them out as convention gifts. No, wait, that’s books.
Brachiator
@Tony Jay:
Nah. Alfred the Great and Æthelstan were smarter than BoJo and his goons.
James E Powell
@Omnes Omnibus:
And Biden, who was a senator’s senator, knows how members of that august body would respond to any president telling them what their rules should be.
JAFD
@karen marie: I worked for Board of Elections in Philadelphia, voting place was recreation center at corner of four precincts. Be there for a ‘hotly contested election’, you wouldn’t need to eat again till Friday ;-)
But – manning polling places, two states, three counties, three decades… can’t remember seeing a line over ten people, except 7 AM in Nov ’08, when the polls opened. Running elections ain’t rocket science, deliberately f*****g it up is disgusting.
Bob U
Ok, I’m an Iowan. I’m not going to be reactionary here, but would point out that this author boasts in this article a decent ignorance. The strongest argument for Iowa being first is twofold – that historically, we’ve been above-average in terms of education. And small IS beautiful: give even New Jersey first place and the initial Presidential momentum is generated by television, not people actually seeing candidates. Further, as one who has led a caucus four times, they’re not anti-democratic; that’s nonsense. And, just for fun: the one I led in 2016 had around 190 participants, 60 of whom were African-American. We registered over 120 of those folks. And I don’t understand what is happening here. We’re not the state that elected Tom Vilsack and went for Obama twice. Only in the last five years have we become more conservative than Texas – TWO years ago, three of four US House reps were Democrats, and I’m still proud of Tom Harkin’s decades in the US Senate. And the pig-defining of the state is just ignorant and needlessly slanderous. We’re not the Alabama of the Midwest: we’re still the first state in the US to have a mosque and to allow women to attend college, among the first five to allow African-American men to vote (in 1868), and have been progressive throughout our history in numerous ways. The legislation you write of sucks: but Repubs in state govt have been dominated by Koch Bros in ways that don’t reflect even all Republican voters, I’d say. In short – criticize this legislation, but don’t be a jerk about it.
Bob U
@Origuy: You have my favorite posting. Having lived in SoCal for nearly a decade, and married someone from Orange County, I KNOW California is always and everywhere more progressive than Ames, Iowa.