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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Friday Morning Open Thread: More Ads Like This Please

Friday Morning Open Thread: More Ads Like This Please

by TaMara|  March 18, 202211:11 am| 92 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics, Open Threads, Politics

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Seriously, they should all look like this coming up to the mid-terms:

When they take away voting rights, spread misinformation and use violence to grab power, Republicans are following Putin’s playbook. I’m running for Senate to take on Putin and his Republican apologists. Watch our new video here and RT! pic.twitter.com/7rhCCH22k2

— Scott Sifton (@ScottSifton) March 14, 2022

Someone is posting all the Dems running to overturn Rep seats:

When you have the urge to RT or reply to a Republican troll
?✋?STOP✋??
RT & follow one of these people instead

We need to make ??THESE?? people as Twitter popular as the Rs they’re trying to unseat#SaveDemocracy #MakeManchinIrrelevant#MakeSinemaIrrelevant#BlueWave2022

— ??Jackie S ????4️⃣☮️ (@KaysGramma) March 8, 2022

Here’s the threadreader link for all the candidates (so you don’t have to go to the dreaded twitter and I don’t have to embed the dreaded tweets):

Hi! the unroll you asked for: https://t.co/UzYMVi8mi8 Talk to you soon. ?

— Thread Reader App (@threadreaderapp) March 16, 2022

Open thread

 

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Previous Post: « Friday Morning Open Thread: Seeking Balance
Next Post: ‘Those responsible for canceling the people who have just been canceled have been canceled…’ »

Reader Interactions

92Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    March 18, 2022 at 11:14 am

    When you have the urge to RT or reply to a Republican troll STOP RT & follow one of these people instead We need to make THESE people as Twitter popular as the Rs they’re trying to unseat

    I want to marry this tweet.

  2. 2.

    NotMax

    March 18, 2022 at 11:18 am

    Confuddled. Only way am familiar with the abbreviation RT is it standing for Russia Today.

  3. 3.

    JanieM

    March 18, 2022 at 11:20 am

    @NotMax: RT=retweet

  4. 4.

    eclare

    March 18, 2022 at 11:20 am

    Good ad, I wonder if he has a chance in MO?

  5. 5.

    Leto

    March 18, 2022 at 11:22 am

    Busy week here, so haven’t had a chance to do much beside just read the front page but has this been covered?

    UPDATE: Unfortunately, in a 175-165 vote, the NH House passed HB1080, a bill that would literally allow a cashier to deny someone their birth control because of their own religious beliefs.

    Denying the power to vote, denying women autonomy, spreading misinformation, using violence to grab power…

  6. 6.

    Geminid

    March 18, 2022 at 11:25 am

    @eclare: Sifton has to get past gangly Marine lawyer Lucas Kuntz first. The primary is later this spring. May?

  7. 7.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 18, 2022 at 11:27 am

    @Leto:

    Denying the power to vote, denying women autonomy, spreading misinformation, using violence to grab power…

    … What could possibly go wrong?

  8. 8.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 18, 2022 at 11:29 am

    I follow twitter through Safari, I don’t have an account, but O’Bro Dan Pfeiffer says (I think I have this right) quote-tweet your friends, screen-shot your enemies, that way you can show the stupid without promoting it

  9. 9.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 18, 2022 at 11:30 am

    @Geminid:

    What should we know about Lucas Kuntz beyond the fact that he’s a gangly Marine with “Esq.” after his name? Is he a stronger/better candidate than Sifton?

  10. 10.

    MinuteMan

    March 18, 2022 at 11:30 am

    This ought to be one of several vote-the-GOPers-out ads to play nation wide as we get closer to the election.  It would also be complemented with several vote-dem ads touting what Dems have and will do for the country at all levels of government.

  11. 11.

    MinuteMan

    March 18, 2022 at 11:34 am

    @Leto: The GOP is rotten from the leaves to the roots and is wreaking havoc at all levels of government.

  12. 12.

    Leto

    March 18, 2022 at 11:35 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: and apparently our neighbor’s to the north, their own conservative fuckwads are trying to privatize their healthcare:

    Doug Ford’s government is quietly privatizing health care; On the cusp of an election, Ford may play down plans for privatizing hospitals. But it is his record, not his words, that is important.

    They’re accelerating their full smash and grab

    Edit: Ontario Federation of Labour put out their own statement, in conjunction with other labour federations.

  13. 13.

    Tony Jay

    March 18, 2022 at 11:36 am

     

    The Tories are holding their annual conference in the run-down and dilapidated northern resort town of Blackpool (because Midwich and Summerisle were booked up, I suppose) and, to the surprise of literally no one who isn’t being vastly overpaid to opine about politics on TV, they’ve announced that from May onwards they will be doing absolutely nothing but campaigning for the May 2024 General Election. Policy can go swivel, they’ve got other priorities.

    And, once again, to the surprise of no one, their entire offering to the country they’ve so comprehensively trashed over the last four decades will consist of a multi-front war on worker’s rights, voting rights, environmental protections, freedom of information and anything else that they they think they can label as ‘Wokery’, up to and including referring to Peking as Beijing (because that’s just kowtowing to authoritarians, innit?) and demanding that people say Chairman rather than Chairperson. Transgender rights, BLM, the right to protest and deplatform bigots – anything and everything you can think of that might mildly irritate fat, white people with a chronic case of ‘economic anxiety’ – it’s all in their sights and they’re running against it.

    Nice of them to be so open about it. It’s just a pity the so-called Opposition is run by people who so despise their own Party’s base that they’ll follow the Tories rightwards in a desperate (and doomed) campaign to convince our own Wingnut Nation that they can be trusted to hate on all of those awful lefty things too. The next two years are going to be one black-comedy faceplant after another for anything vaguely ‘progressive’ in British culture regardless of who ends up leading the Tory Party, and I for one am going to spend it huffing like a bloodhound on the trail of a Shawshank escapee with a glue-filled plastic bag over my head.

    Still, there’s some good stuff streaming on TV.

  14. 14.

    Raoul Paste

    March 18, 2022 at 11:53 am

    I don’t care if he has a chance or not— I’m donating

  15. 15.

    Kay

    March 18, 2022 at 11:55 am

    The Ohio Supreme Court struck down the third set of state House and Senate maps late Wednesday, effectively ending any hope of a May 3rd primary with both legislative and statewide races.

    One thing that could happen (and might) is a federal court could step in- Republicans have set that in motion- but the federal court will have to stretch to reach the state races, because the Ohio constitution says those have to be done by the legislature.
    But Boards of elections are freaking out because they have to get the ballots printed. I was a pollworker last cycle and pollworkers got an email where we’re supposed to call them “immediately” so not sure what that’s about.

  16. 16.

    Eolirin

    March 18, 2022 at 11:58 am

    @Kay: Is there any possibility that the legislature will finally capitulate and provide legal maps before it escalates to the federal level? Or are they really banking on a favorable Supreme Court ruling?

  17. 17.

    Sebastian

    March 18, 2022 at 11:58 am

    The Sifton ad is good but it could have been great if there wasn’t this corny emotional break that’s in every Dem political ad.

    The punch and drive were already there, why switch gears? Bring it home.

  18. 18.

    Immanentize

    March 18, 2022 at 12:00 pm

    @Kay: So in Ohio the Supreme Court cannot mandate maps like in other states? What if they said, here are three fair maps, you choose?

  19. 19.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 18, 2022 at 12:01 pm

    @Leto:

    Holy wow! I have a low opinion of the Fords, but I truly didn’t expect this. Alberta, maybe. Not Ontario.

    Unfortunately, the Star article is behind a paywall ?

  20. 20.

    oatler

    March 18, 2022 at 12:01 pm

    @Leto:

    Hey! it’s like that TV show with the Gilmore Girl!

  21. 21.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 18, 2022 at 12:04 pm

    @Sebastian:

    What do you mean, “corny emotional break”?

  22. 22.

    Miss Bianca

    March 18, 2022 at 12:07 pm

    @NotMax: Yeah, it took me a moment to recalibrate my brain to read “ReTweet” rather than “Russia Today”.

    That moment, however, was seriously befuddling.

  23. 23.

    Brachiator

    March 18, 2022 at 12:10 pm

    @Leto:

    the NH House passed HB1080, a bill that would literally allow a cashier to deny someone their birth control because of their own religious beliefs.

    I don’t understand why this should be limited to birth control. A cashier should be able to inspect the contents of my shopping cart for anything that might offend their religious sensibilities.

    That can of split pea and ham soup? Anathema!

    Of course, I should be granted immunity from any arrest if I should decide to give this busybody motherfucker an ass kicking.

  24. 24.

    Miss Bianca

    March 18, 2022 at 12:10 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yeah, I’m scratching my head over that one, too. I thought it was an amazingly tough ad – for a Democrat. ; )

  25. 25.

    Sebastian

    March 18, 2022 at 12:11 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Every single Democratic ad (and politician when conveying a scripted message) have this weird fake concerned tone. Nancy Pelosi, who I love to pieces for her monumental legislative work, is one of the worst offenders. Have you not noticed?

  26. 26.

    Kay

    March 18, 2022 at 12:13 pm

    @Eolirin:

    I don’t think they’ll capitulate. I don’t know what they’re banking on. The game of chicken is just amazing to watch though. It wasn’t as bad as predicted for US House but it’s still hugely skewed GOP.

    The state legislature in Ohio is really corrupt. At this point they’re frantically protecting themselves from investigations/prosecutions.

  27. 27.

    Geminid

    March 18, 2022 at 12:15 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I don’t know whether Kunce would be a better candidate. I know little about Sifton. I learned some about Kunce in a Politico Magazine article from last November, titled “The populist, millenial veteran who wants to turn Missouri blue.” Kunce first ran for office his third year of law school and lost to the local Republican state Senator (~2005). But they say, “if at first you don’t succeed, join the Marines,” and Kunce did. Now he’s back traveling Missouri in an old Taurus telling Missourians that he’ll stand up for them against the powerful interests.

    The article is a good one. The reporter is a Missourian, and she gives an overview of her state’s political changes since the 1970’s.

  28. 28.

    Eolirin

    March 18, 2022 at 12:16 pm

    @Kay: I don’t even have words. What happens if the Supreme Court punts on this and sends it back to the State Court? Do you guys just not get congressional maps?

  29. 29.

    Kay

    March 18, 2022 at 12:16 pm

    @Immanentize:

    I don’t think Republicans would accept that and I’m honestly not sure I would either. There’s no “you choose” provision :)

    Voters could take it back to a referendum and do it right this time. They might. The issue passed with 70%. I think there’s a growing recognition that this is an incumbent protection racket at the state level.

  30. 30.

    Soprano2

    March 18, 2022 at 12:17 pm

    @Geminid: The MO primary is August 2nd.

  31. 31.

    ian

    March 18, 2022 at 12:17 pm

    @Tony Jay:

    I for one am going to spend it huffing like a bloodhound on the trail of a Shawshank escapee with a glue-filled plastic bag over my head.

    Careful, remember to cut breathing holes in your bag!  We don’t want you to over glue!

  32. 32.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 18, 2022 at 12:17 pm

    @Sebastian:

    I hear genuine concern, not fake at all, in this ad. (I’ll grant you that Nancy SMASH!, although a wonderful Speaker, is not a gifted speaker.)

  33. 33.

    Soprano2

    March 18, 2022 at 12:19 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: The campaigns haven’t started in earnest here yet, so I don’t know much about the candidates, but my sense from what I do know is that if Greitens is the Republican candidate, which is possible because he’s in the lead and has a lot of money behind him, Lucas Kunce would be the best candidate to beat him because he understands rural areas better. In MO if you’re a Democrat you have to minimize your losses in the rural areas in order to win.

  34. 34.

    Kay

    March 18, 2022 at 12:20 pm

    @Eolirin:

    There’s a distinction between US House maps and state maps. They’ll have a US House map. I met with Marcy Kaptur’s campaign manager yesterday and they think her district is “90%” going to be what was in the last map. She goes from +15 Biden to + 3 Trump.

    They can only really fuck up state elections. Federal elections are not subject to Ohio’s veto on holding them.

  35. 35.

    Geminid

    March 18, 2022 at 12:20 pm

    @Raoul Paste: It is thought that a Missouri Democrat will have a decent chance at winning that Senate seat if scandal-tarred former Governor Eric Greitens wins the Republican primary. Greitens has consistently led polls so far against a large Republican field.

    Party leaders are alarmed at the prospect of losing what they think is otherwise a sure hold, but they can’t control their base. Rather, their base controls them.

  36. 36.

    Eolirin

    March 18, 2022 at 12:22 pm

    @Soprano2: Yeah, I think this is probably one thing we all have a pretty big blind spot around when it comes to political ads. It’s always great when we finally see someone making the connections we’ve been desperate to see people make, but that’s not necessarily what’s going to be the most effective at getting the numbers where they need to be in all the right places.

  37. 37.

    Eolirin

    March 18, 2022 at 12:23 pm

    @Kay: What does that do to your state legislature if there are no new maps? Do the old ones just stand instead? Or are there just no elections?

    This is pretty crazy land stuff to me.

  38. 38.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 18, 2022 at 12:24 pm

    @Geminid:

    Interesting, thanks. Not my state, and so far I’ve paid almost no attention to this race. But before long I’m probably going to want to make some strategic campaign donations, and this is a good time to start learning who’s out there playing for the Blue team.

  39. 39.

    Soprano2

    March 18, 2022 at 12:25 pm

    @Geminid: I got a hilarious mailer about our Republican AG Eric Schmitt, “huge liberal sellout”, from Team PAC which is the U-Line heirs backing Greitens. The primary on the Republican side is going to be brutal, because everyone except Greitens truly believe that if they win the primary the seat is theirs for as long as they want it.

  40. 40.

    Miss Bianca

    March 18, 2022 at 12:25 pm

    @Sebastian: What do you mean by “fake concern”? “Fake concern” for…what, precisely? Fake concern for voting rights? Fake concern for civil rights?

  41. 41.

    Oklahomo

    March 18, 2022 at 12:25 pm

    Living on the AR/OK border, I have witnessed the horror of the Sara Huckabee-Sanders ads (why she’s bothering who knows, since she will most likely be the next Governor of Arkansas). Also Senator Boozman of Arkansas is being primaried by some creature that can only be described as a Tom Cotton clone, but with even more NatSoc DNA. There is something surreal about all of this. A shame that Arkansas will do this to themselves, especially the Huckabee person.

  42. 42.

    Kay

    March 18, 2022 at 12:26 pm

    @Eolirin:

    The Republican justice who broke ranks with the GOP is term limited. Ohio (thankfully) has age limits for judges. She can’t run again, hence it was safe to do the right thing.

    But they have an absolute mandate from voters. They overwhelmingly voted for reform of redistricting. They keep returning to that in these orders and it’s true. DeWine and Co are just blatantly refusing to accept the will of the voters. People want this reformed, I think partly due to the just shameless corruption and self dealing in Columbus. Three huge public corruption cases in the last five years.

  43. 43.

    Leto

    March 18, 2022 at 12:26 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I found another article explaining it from the Ontario Health Coalition, not behind a paywall: Ford ramping up privatization of Ontario health care system

    @Brachiator: for a party that constantly preaches “small government”, they sure as fuck want their religious police to do all the work for them. We think they want the Taliban, when they’re more looking at Saudi Arabi as the example. If NH is a Stand Your Ground state, can the person cite SYG if the cashier tries to take their birth control? “I felt threatened and had to protect myself.” Which absolute right would win? (heavy snark there)

  44. 44.

    Sebastian

    March 18, 2022 at 12:26 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I am not saying he is not concerned but I am hearing in (almost) all Dem ads a certain coached tone, which I don’t hear in all non-canned statements

  45. 45.

    Soprano2

    March 18, 2022 at 12:27 pm

    @Eolirin: In rural MO going against big Ag helps candidates, because a lot of people there are pretty resentful of huge corporations buying up all the best farmland and plopping huge CAFO’s in the middle of the county. The MO legislature has made it really hard for local people to do anything about CAFO’s. Especially going with the “don’t let China buy Missouri” angle is good. The Republicans in the state legislature have helped foreign governments buy farmland by changing the law.

  46. 46.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 18, 2022 at 12:28 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    (I’ll grant you that Nancy SMASH!, although a wonderful Speaker, is not a gifted speaker.)

    It’s often said of Pelosi that she’s better than anyone you’ve ever seen at the parts of the job nobody sees, and really bad at the parts people see. I think that’s overkill, and she got much better at public speaking during the trump years, especially when she got mad, but if she’s not naturally charismatic, or whatever you call that thing Obama and Bill Clinton had, I don’t think she’s insincere at all

  47. 47.

    Baud

    March 18, 2022 at 12:29 pm

    @Leto:

    Unfortunately, in a 175-165 vote, the NH House passed HB1080, a bill that would literally allow a cashier to deny someone their birth control because of their own religious beliefs

     

    Coincidentally, it’s against my religious belief to pay for things.

  48. 48.

    Baud

    March 18, 2022 at 12:29 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Agreed.

  49. 49.

    Eolirin

    March 18, 2022 at 12:30 pm

    @Kay: It’d be nice if outrage over this gives us some coattails with the House and Senate races. I don’t know if someone can still get a better redistricting resolution on the ballot this year, but that might help drive some turnout too?

    Still in awe at how broken these people make everything.

  50. 50.

    neabinorb

    March 18, 2022 at 12:31 pm

    When you put this twitter content on the front page it slows *everything* down!

  51. 51.

    Kay

    March 18, 2022 at 12:32 pm

    @Eolirin:

    I don’t know but I think it’s important to the credibilty of the court that they stick. They’re defying a court order hoping to run out the clock. That’s a real breakdown. If the lawmakers themselves can ignore or evade a court order why can’t everyone else? To me, what’s in the background of all these fights is “what if everyone did that?”

  52. 52.

    Baud

    March 18, 2022 at 12:32 pm

    @Soprano2:

    And people like to pretend the Dems hate their base.  Rural areas are the GOP’s powerhouse.  Hard to have sympathy for them (except for the few that vote the right way).

  53. 53.

    Kay

    March 18, 2022 at 12:37 pm

    @Eolirin:

    Karen Kasler
    @karenkasler
    · 43m
    Republican state Rep Scott Wiggam tweeting out what others are saying quietly regarding the Ohio Supreme Court’s Republican Chief Justice, who’s sided w the three Democratic justices in the redistricting cases

    They’re calling for the renegade Republican justice to be impeached. As I said- it’s an incumbent protection racket. They’re terrified of even slightly competitive races for these state leg seats. They get some oversight in there there might be investigations into the hundreds of millions of dollars they robbed from the state’s citizens.

  54. 54.

    zhena gogolia

    March 18, 2022 at 12:43 pm

    Love the ad.

  55. 55.

    Eolirin

    March 18, 2022 at 12:47 pm

    @Baud: They get away with spiting them economically by accurately understanding that no matter what they do their base will never vote for the n*clang*-lovers in the other party and will keep showing up and voting for them as long as they keep pushing policy that attacks their enemies. Hurting them just makes them more spiteful, which loops back into their need to hurt other people, and they keep participating in elections. You can spiral up hate pretty much forever and making people’s lives worse only helps you. Both by driving out people who would be inclined to try to fight you on it and by spinning up more and more hate that you can then direct.

    When we break promises with our base, it’s an existential crisis. Our (white) voters are happy to stay home, we need to convince them to turn out most of the time. So of course every slight deviation and betrayal gets amplified on our side, we’ve got a media all too happy to help demoralize our voters. And highlighting how the party isn’t doing things for the base, rather than just hurting the right, is an effective way to reduce our success. We don’t have strong enough tribalism on our side to make reflexively blocking Republican objectives a viable get out the vote approach. So we have to deliver and then keep delivering in increasingly big ways. All of our successes get normalized rapidly. And it’s always “what have you done for me recently?” And the process of politics is messy, slow, and leads to imperfect outcomes so we’re always fighting to keep people motivated.

    It’s a huge asymmetry.

  56. 56.

    Ohio Mom

    March 18, 2022 at 12:54 pm

    Nancy Pelosi has all the charisma and public speaking skills she needs, as shown by the fact that she is consistently re-elected. If she was charmless and tiresome, she’d never would have gotten this far.

  57. 57.

    Ruckus

    March 18, 2022 at 12:58 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    A very good take on Nancy. As a democrat and resident of CA I get emails from her on a daily basis. They all scream at me, the world is going to hell in a handbasket. But the message is always good under that facade of “We Have To Do Something Now!” She knows her job better than most, she seems to have zero fucks left to give and she is a democrat’s democrat. In my book everything else is just the paint, the building is strong as possible.

  58. 58.

    Ruckus

    March 18, 2022 at 1:02 pm

    @Baud:

    Coincidentally, it’s against my religious belief to pay for things. Especially to people who have their heads up their exhaust orifice.

  59. 59.

    Kattails

    March 18, 2022 at 1:04 pm

    @Leto: I just spotted that, and called my state senator instantly, although he’s surely a safe vote.  I am appalled that someone any random religious nut could deny any woman medical service and keep their job/not get sued up the ass. I’m appalled that this is happening in my state.

  60. 60.

    Mike in NC

    March 18, 2022 at 1:05 pm

    Just caught a mention on MSNBC that Putin was holding a rally to “support the troops”. Maybe he’ll next declare that he will build a great wall and make Ukraine pay for it.

  61. 61.

    SiubhanDuinne

    March 18, 2022 at 1:07 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Nor do I, and I apologise that my phrasing was ambiguous enough to give that impression. I’m a huge admirer of Speaker SMASH! and I can’t think of anyone who would be better or more effective in the position right now.

  62. 62.

    Ruckus

    March 18, 2022 at 1:09 pm

    @Eolirin:

    Still in awe at how broken these people make everything.

    They want to go back to when everything was broken – in their perceived direction. My entire life I’ve watched Dem politics attempt to make things better and rethuglican politics work to make everything go backwards to something that was always broken, but broken in their perceived direction. That it doesn’t help the vast majority of voters is irrelevant to them, it helps the wealthy grifters be wealthier. They are all cheering for Scrooge McDuck. If they only knew he was a cartoon character who didn’t give a damn about anyone else – including them.

  63. 63.

    zhena gogolia

    March 18, 2022 at 1:11 pm

    @Mike in NC: He’s supporting the troops by sending them to be slaughtered.

  64. 64.

    sdhays

    March 18, 2022 at 1:11 pm

    @Ohio Mom: Charmless and tiresome has worked ok for Mitch McConnell.

    (This is not intended as any comment on Speaker Pelosi.)

  65. 65.

    Sure Lurkalot

    March 18, 2022 at 1:12 pm

    @Geminid:

    Party leaders are alarmed at the prospect of losing what they think is otherwise a sure hold, but they can’t control their base. Rather, their base controls them.

    Imagine that. They gerrymander the maps to pick their voters, alarm and frighten them will all things imagined and then lament when those voters pick the craziest of the bunch. ‘Tis a goddamn shame.

  66. 66.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 18, 2022 at 1:17 pm

    @Mike in NC: in which he name-checked an imperial admiral who is literally– and I know Steve in the WTF is out there– the patron saint of the Russian nuke fleet (Seddon is a good follow, if you follow)

    max seddon @maxseddon

    Turns out state TV cut out just before Putin finished the speech. He quoted Fyodor Ushakov, the legendary Tsarist-era admiral who is now the patron saint of Russia’s strategic nuclear bomber fleet, and left.

    the cut out was apparently a technical issue, in want of further evidence

  67. 67.

    Sebastian

    March 18, 2022 at 1:18 pm

    @Miss Bianca:

    I am talking purely about the speaking style and coaching.

  68. 68.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 18, 2022 at 1:21 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: no argument here, just adding to the conversation in my meandering, wool-gathering-and-typing way

    Also:

    interesting if not terribly reassuring thread on the Putin speech and rally

    Emma Burrows @EJ_Burrows 4h

    Under slogans of ‘Russia, Donbas, Crimea’ & ‘For a world without Nazism’ Russia’s Olympic champions have been wheeled out for anniversary rally for Crimea’s annexation. Some don’t look too happy. State employees reportedly were bussed in & told they’d be fired if they didn’t go.

    some are calling the rhetorical retreat to Donbas a climb-down. I’ll be optimistic when I see more.

    This is the end of Putin’s speech. It’s quite oddly phrased in Russian. Translation is mine. Putin quotes 18th C naval commander and says, Ushakov ‘once said terrible storms just lead to the glory of Russia, so it was then, so it is today and so it will always be!’

    RosAilithir @Oenbennach

    Could be regarded as another rattle of the nuclear sabre. Ushakov became a monk & is patron saint of the Ru nuclear bomber fleet. Although the words aren’t connected, thunderstorm is groza in Russian & the nuclear exercises are grom (thunder).

  69. 69.

    zhena gogolia

    March 18, 2022 at 1:23 pm

    People in Moscow are leaving the pro-war rally at Luzhniki Stadium already. Before the event has even started. (They got their tickets punched, so they can split now.) pic.twitter.com/Nsu5U5ZEcf— Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) March 18, 2022 

    The couple in the tweet are wearing blue and yellow puffer coats. ETA: This last line isn’t supposed to be in the blockquote.

  70. 70.

    Anyway

    March 18, 2022 at 1:25 pm

    Love the ad. Call out the Rethug traitors for what they are.

  71. 71.

    Calouste

    March 18, 2022 at 1:26 pm

    @Mike in NC: Will Vernon of the BBC reported on twitter that some attendees didn’t want to speak to him and others said they were forced to attend because they are government employees.

  72. 72.

    Sebastian

    March 18, 2022 at 1:27 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    Telling. Good.

  73. 73.

    zhena gogolia

    March 18, 2022 at 1:28 pm

    @Sebastian: Unfortunately, there are a hell of a lot of cheering people listening to Putin. Depressing.

  74. 74.

    Cacti

    March 18, 2022 at 1:34 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Didn’t you say recently that the Russian people weren’t to blame, and saying that they were was monstrous or something like that?

    That aged well.

  75. 75.

    UncleEbeneezer

    March 18, 2022 at 1:38 pm

    Personally, I think that the tried and true message of “Republicans are going after your SS, Medicare and Healthcare” might be the best approach for 2022.  Especially with GOP memos saying precisely that that is what they intend to do if elected.  With some “book banning” language thrown in for good measure.  I don’t have much faith in swing voters actually caring about Ukraine or threats to democracy enough to support Dems.  I don’t think swing voters actually care about the laundry list of good things that Dems do for them (recent polling shows they just hand wave away all of that).  But we know that they do care about Medicare, SS and Healthcare.  I just want us to win and I think that we can tell a good, positive story about the Dem Party (and whichever candidate) but we also need to create the same boogie man of the GOP (that will cut your Medicare!) just like they do to us

    That said, I do really like this ad.  It totally appeals to me, and I hope that it appeals to the swing voters needed in states like MO, but I’m not sure if it will.  I’m pretty cynical about states like that (and their voters) at the moment.  Would love to see some polling/evidence on its’ efficacy.

  76. 76.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 18, 2022 at 1:42 pm

    well, the upside of a week of obsessive doom-scrolling on twitter is that I aced the Slate weekly news quiz

  77. 77.

    Kevin

    March 18, 2022 at 1:48 pm

    Wow. Great ad. Finally someone to be excited about in MO. Our other choices are all horrible – disgraced former governor, corrupt attorney general fundraising at Trumps house and suing school districts over masks.  Maybe just maybe people will give non-Trumpers a chance here in MO.

  78. 78.

    smedley the uncertain

    March 18, 2022 at 1:52 pm

    @Soprano2: CAFO ???

  79. 79.

    Brachiator

    March 18, 2022 at 1:54 pm

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    That said, I do really like this ad.  It totally appeals to me, and I hope that it appeals to the swing voters needed in states like MO, but I’m not sure if it will.

    Yeah, it’s a good ad, and I presume that they will switch it up with more state specific ads.

  80. 80.

    JoyceH

    March 18, 2022 at 1:56 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I came over here right after reading an article about the Putin rally. It struck me as very un-Russian. Leader gives speech to cheering crowd, venue adorned with slogany signs? Did they always do this and it just never got reported, or did he borrow this from Trump?

  81. 81.

    Geminid

    March 18, 2022 at 1:59 pm

    @Cacti:  You are talking about a few thousand people in a large metropolis. Not all of them are there because they want to be.

    A petty and puerile rejoinder.

  82. 82.

    Jinchi

    March 18, 2022 at 2:16 pm

    @Kay: ​
      I don’t think they’ll capitulate. I don’t know what they’re banking on.

    Probably banking on the SC coming in to save them by overriding the state court .

  83. 83.

    Steeplejack

    March 18, 2022 at 2:23 pm

    @smedley the uncertain:

    CAFO = “concentrated animal feeding operation.” I had to look it up.

  84. 84.

    zhena gogolia

    March 18, 2022 at 2:27 pm

    @Cacti: Fuck you.

  85. 85.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    March 18, 2022 at 3:03 pm

    @Tony Jay: up to and including referring to Peking as Beijing (because that’s just kowtowing to authoritarians, innit?)

    I haven’t heard the worked “Peking” since the late ’70s. So ever the bleeding edge with the Tories.

  86. 86.

    Sebastian

    March 18, 2022 at 3:18 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    There always are. Every nation has a core demographic that dreams of Great <Nation Name>. Great Bolivia, Great Venezuela, MAGA, and so on. It’s probably easier to count those that aren’t.

  87. 87.

    SFAW

    March 18, 2022 at 3:27 pm

    @Baud:

    I want to marry this tweet.

    Just make sure the tweet won’t demand you wear pants to the wedding.

  88. 88.

    Geminid

    March 18, 2022 at 3:31 pm

    @SFAW: That’s what kilts are for.

  89. 89.

    O. Felix Culpa

    March 18, 2022 at 3:39 pm

    @Steeplejack: CAFOs are a nasty, inhumane way to treat animals for the sake of cheap meat. They also stink and emit pollutants into the air and water. Sierra Club on why CAFOs are bad.

  90. 90.

    Tony Jay

    March 18, 2022 at 4:23 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    That was Jakobivs Rhesus Moggius, of course. References coined after the Baroque Era are like futuristic hyper-math to him.

  91. 91.

    The Lodger

    March 18, 2022 at 4:58 pm

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Peking Duck is not Beijing Duck.

    Coincidentally, Chicken Kiev is not Chicken Kyiv.

  92. 92.

    debbie

    March 18, 2022 at 6:21 pm

    @Kay:

    Last reporting I heard, LaRose is telling counties to prepare for two separate primaries.

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