The description of these remarks by President Biden doesn’t quite look like business as usual to me.
President Biden Delivers Remarks on his Plan to Fight Inflation and Lower Costs for Working Families, and Contrast his Approach with Congressional Republicans’ Ultra-MAGA Plan to Raise Taxes on 75 Million American Families and Threaten to Sunset Programs Like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Gloves off? These are not our fathers’ Republicans.
I love this so much that I might have to add it to every post for awhile.
— Lisa Is A Georgia Voter ? (@BamaFan135) May 9, 2022
h/t Ghost Cat
Open thread.
Baud
?
WaterGirl
Someone on the previous thread mentioned Nancy Pelosi saying we need a strong Republican party. Between that and this call-out of ultra-MAGA plans, I think the intention is to try to peel off the folks who always vote Republican by saying that these folks are not Republican, they are MAGA or ultra-MAGA.
sab
God I love that frog internet comment. Thankful he is a puppet so no one can actually kill him.
WaterGirl
It’s been a long time since I have literally giggled about something, so I am eternally grateful to Kermit for not only a giggle, but an extended giggle.
Alison Rose ???
I know Schmidt isn’t really on our side, but the pretender to the throne Meghan McCain is even less so, thus I am quite enjoying this whole thing.
debbie
Anyone have an idea of the total number of tweets Schmitt fired off? I wonder if MM has blocked him.
Doug R
I think Steve has officially run out of fucks to give.
Repatriated
@WaterGirl:
Quite possible. Don’t know if it’ll work, but President Biden is probably the only politician who could pull it off if it is possible.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
He might be heading our way, but he sure isn’t there yet.
Schmit is “You ruined my party” to Mehgan
Not “You know what, it was always your’ party, you really are the personification of the GOP. It I was in the wrong place.” to Mehgan
BellyCat
The Schmitt / McCain flap is devolving nicely into a circular firing squad. Well done.
Hive mind Q: Looking for a progressively aligned bank (if such a thing exists?!?!) with excellent online/mobile app features for a new checking account + etc.
Any recommendations?
TaMara
@Alison Rose ???: Hey, if he wants to burn it all down, I’m happy to hand him extra matches.
TaMara
@BellyCat: Check out your local credit union. Ours was spectacular during the pandemic and they are involved in all types of local issues and charities.
And most have good online/mobile presence.
TheTruffle
@WaterGirl: I know the comment got a lot of blowback on Twitter Hell, but I now can see your point. Nancy is not stupid and does not have blinders on.
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I thought I read somewhere that Schmidt is now a Dem?
WaterGirl
I started to put together a post yesterday on the Lend-Lease Act that was just passed, but never finished it. Instead, I think i’ll just include a little information about it here in this comment, in case anyone is interested.
Reuters
From the New Voice of Ukraine
debbie
@debbie:
Speaking of:
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: Pelosi has made that point before, and I think she meant it in the sense you described, i.e., “not your father’s GOP,” and is also saying that a strong democracy requires parties with a commitment to governance animated by competing visions on how to run the country.
She’s right, and we haven’t had that for a long time, and we’re constantly on the brink of catastrophe because of it. When one party in a two-party system loses its commitment and vision, it’s bad for everyone.
CaseyL
@BellyCat: See if there are any credit unions in your area. They’re generally more depositer-friendly than regular banks, which is about as “progressive” as a bank can be.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Biden talking about Scott’s plan to tax the poor to spare the rich of the indignity of actually paying taxes?
What’s next, the filthy prols thinking they have the right to chalk polite messages to Susan Collins on her front sidewalk? Oh the humanity.
WhatsMyNym
@BellyCat: Your local credit union?
mrmoshpotato
@TaMara:
A few Molotov cocktails too.
TaMara
@debbie: That entire thread is full of truth.
Frank Wilhoit
We must hope this is not too late. Pretty nearly everyone is always fighting the last war. Right now, for example, one sees many people having trouble adjusting to post-materialism.
@WaterGirl: There is nothing so difficult, or with so many side effects, as a realignment. Established parties, when threatened with a realignment, will drop everything else to focus on preventing it. (That is, for example, the whole story of British politics since the 1960s.)
That said, real party splits, i.e. into two fragments each of which is large enough to survive, are rare. Much more often, a splinter flakes off that is much too small to survive on its own, and eventually, very quietly, either merges with another party or slinks home. The story of 2010-16 was whether the “Tea Party”/”Freedom Caucus” represented a split or a splinter. Since 2016 they have turned the tables on the “Establishment” Republican Party and now *it* is the splinter. (Of course, lest any confusion, the only thing this has to do with Trump is that he — by a unique stroke of luck, without any planning or awareness — dragged them over to the distant and baffling place where their voters had always been.)
This is a story that needs to be told; but the real question is, who has credibility to tell it? And I don’t come back with any answer to that one.
Scamp Dog
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Look, that might lead to the proles chalking impolite messages on the sidewalk. When would it end? Best to nip it in the bud…
trollhattan
@WaterGirl: I’d settle for sane Republican Party. What are the odds?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@TheTruffle: I can see that, but it still feels like he hasn’t done the full John Cole yet.
Betty Cracker
The PA US Senate primary is a week from today, and it sure looks like Fetterman is going to win big — according to one recent poll, he’s over 50%. Can he win in the general? I have no idea, but I sure do like this quote from him on campaigning in rural PA:
So true it should be committed to needlepoint.
Frank Wilhoit
@TaMara: Some credit unions are quite good, but
A) they are all over the map, ideologically speaking
B) many of them are no longer independent — someone has been buying them up
C) they ultimately suffer, as much as any of their competitors, from the fact that banking is not understood to be a break-even business.
WaterGirl
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: That is such bullshit from Susan Collins. How I loathe her.
WaterGirl
@trollhattan:
Somewhere between slim and none?Somewhere between non and when hell freezes over.
edit: But the phrasing is a more polite to say that these MAGA and ultra-MAGA fuckers are not your father’s Republicans. Nancy SMASH may need to be polite, but we don’t.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: I have no dog in that primary fight. But I agree with that quote. Our job is to get to 50%+1 in every voting district, here, the state of PA. Sometimes we get too bogged down in winning different groups than we forget the overall math of elections.
WaterGirl
@Baud: I may be dense this morning. Without knowing where he was when he said that, I don’t know whether he’s talking about us losing or them losing.
JPL
@WaterGirl: Those Angry Days about the lead up to our involvement had a good description about the use of the act.
Baud
@WaterGirl: It’s a little confusing out of context. But he’s basically saying a Dem can’t win a rural area, but the margin of the loss matters when adding up the vote totals for the state as a whole.
It’s the same reason white voters still matter to Dems. We can’t win a majority of them, but we need to win enough of them to win elections.
JanieM
@WaterGirl:
I’m right there with you. Does she have a clue what a weak, whiny worm she looks like when she does this kind of shit?
RaflW
Movement from the Senate Dem caucus. It’s literally just Manchin who is isolated now.
Mike in NC
Rick Scott may be the shittiest GOP Senator to remind people of Lex Luthor.
Baud
@RaflW:
Wow.
frosty
@BellyCat: No idea if they’re progressive, but check out any credit unions you could join. Smaller and less driven by their stock price.
RaflW
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Sen. Scott (Reptile – FL) couldn’t defend his tax plan, so he went on an unhinged rant, making wild Fox-like assertions about Biden’s mental fitness.
But we won’t hear from the chalk-clutchers about how disgraceful Scott’s invective is.
Cameron
@Mike in NC: He does seem to fit the bill for a variety of bad actors, including Bat Boy and Nosferatu.
Jeffro
When Sen Scott denies that his plan will raise taxes on poor and working-class Americans, I hope President Biden calls him a lying asshole to his face. Talk about landslide.
Kay
@RaflW:
They would have been first time voters in ’18 and ’20.
They should invite them to White House. If that’s not an option, bring them to Congress.
WaterGirl
is anyone else having issues with the audio as Biden speaks? I guess it was just at the beginning.
Jeffro
@BellyCat: if you’re in NoVA, go with Apple Federal!
@TaMara: seconded!
WaterGirl
@Baud: Then I am totally with you and Betty Cracker on this!
Forget needlepoint, how about sky-writing?
Eunicecycle
@Baud: that’s exactly how Obama won Ohio twice. He drove down the Rs margins in red areas.
Ruckus ??
@Doug R:
He didn’t just run out.
He burned all his fucks right down to ashes, scattered them to the oceans, and has pronounced his lack of fucks to the world.
Now if he would only see that he helped get us where we are with the crappy fucks he used to cherish…..
WaterGirl
@Baud: But it still takes 60 to pass, right? Still, a big deal.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
Oh, it’ll fail. But I always thought of Casey as the last of the old school Dem anti-choicers. That he’s supporting this is amazing. Good strong message about the differences between the parties.
Brantl
@Baud: We can’t win a majority of white people, as long as we campaign the wrong way for them. “White voters” can be shown that they are getting pinched by the GQP too, only not as much to start with, and just as much to end with.
WaterGirl
Gosh, whoever is in charge of sound for this may or may not lose his job, but is surely having a very bad day.
RaflW
@Baud: Indirectly, he also connects to a strategy former House member and current MN A.G. Keith Ellison has long championed: In safe seats, we need to turn out everyone and run up the score. It can be fundamental to winning statewide races like governor or A.G.
Ruckus ??
@TheTruffle:
I thought I read somewhere that Schmidt is now a Dem?
Only in the eyes of those who he is slaying. His political views don’t seem to have changed, just his concept of how to get there. He wants to go there he just doesn’t want to kill everyone that disagrees with him. He wants to change your mind, not bury your corpse.
Baud
@Brantl:
As long as we are committed to civil rights, we will be campaigning the wrong way for them.
WaterGirl
“oil companies sitting on 9,000 unused oil leases”
Fact checker prediction: FALSE. It’s really 8,999 unused leases
Kay
It’s a mystery.
Baud
@RaflW:
I’m surprised we haven’t been trying that already. (Not necessarily succeeding, but trying).
Baud
@Kay:
Time for another Thomas speech.
RaflW
@Kay: I blame the emanations and penumbras.
BellyCat
Thanks to all for the “credit union” suggestions!
Looked into this a few years ago (in the Before Times) and their online/mobile development was not strong, but the pandemic may have changed all that.
Will look into Apple Federal, as well.
Ruckus ??
@BellyCat:
Check out the FDIC ratings of banks. It isn’t a political list but it does show the ones that are out to screw you. And those that are not.
https://www.fdic.gov/regulations/examinations/ratings/
MisterForkbeard
@Kay: Still too high.
Kropacetic
Democrats want to make things better for everyone. Some people need to be made to understand that improving everyone’s lot in life doesn’t make things bad for those who were already on top. They’ll still likely be on top, just not as much control of their underlings.
Reagan took a situation where he claimed the government had too much power (maybe, I don’t know, was a baby) and created a cult of people dedicated to letting industry have, for sure, far too much power. Power over their employees, power to destroy the environment we all have to live in, power to protect their power…
WaterGirl
5-year Sunset on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. In the same week they are trying to take birth control away from women.
Holy fucking shit.
frosty
@WaterGirl: One of our County Dems told me if we get our County to 34% D we win PA for the Presidential election. I checked the results back to the 80s and he was right. Fetterman is saying the same thing.
Then I thought: 34%!!! That’s sad!
Baud
@Kropacetic:
I think a lot of people see those two sentences as mutually inconsistent.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Might be better messages, like “Remember, these rights are everyone’s right, including if you are white and male”
Kropacetic
@Baud: Sorry, but those people can fuck right off and go to hell. They’re precisely the problem.
Baud
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
The best evidence is to find where it works and try to replicate it.
Baud
@Kropacetic:
Well, yes. But they are large in number.
Kropacetic
@Baud: Are they? District managers must necessarily be far fewer in number than branch staff.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: Also just speaking from state-level experience, single party rule is an invitation to corruption
Ruckus ??
@RaflW:
Just a thought. Manchin made his money in the coal industry and I’d bet there are very few to no female coal miners. Which mean there are extremely few or no women who have helped make him wealthy. Therefore they have no value to him.
Greed does strange things to some people but mostly it just makes them bigger assholes.
Baud
@Kropacetic:
Branch staff is larger in number than the janitorial staff. It’s all about who the middle tier relates to.
Spanky
@Baud:
This time it’ll be Ginni
ETA – After a few mimosas.
germy
This is incredibly naive of “factcheck” because when Republicans say they want to “fix” or “review” programs they usually mean they want to starve them to death.
Kropacetic
@Baud: I don’t think the branch staff in most places would typically agree with district management that janitorial staff should be compensated in parsnips and well wishes any more than they should.
The idea is to focus on the fact we want to provide better resources and protections and services for everyone.
Kropacetic
@germy: It is stunning how long Republicans have been at this and “fact checkers” not catching on to their semantic games.
WaterGirl
@frosty: When I worked for the Obama campaign in Iowa before the Jan 2008 caucus, every single precinct had a distinct goal for what we needed in that precinct, even if there was no chance of a win in a particular precinct.
They were really good at math, and we need to be good at math, too, in every election. In every state.
Spanky
@germy: If by “naive” you mean “in on the steal”, then I would agree with you.
Kay
@MisterForkbeard:
Lesson learned. Don’t go for ordinary health care in Texas if a miscarriage is involved. She was interrogated. Bring legal counsel!
germy
@Kropacetic:
I’m not sure they’re equipped to understand what the GOP has become.
Baud
@germy:
It’s a bad fact check because by definition, a sunset means you presumptively want the program to end. If you wanted to fix it with legislation, you could fix it with legislation without sunsetting it.
Spanky
@Kropacetic: “Fact checkers” were invented during the Bush Administration to launder Republican lies. Everything springs from that.
RandyG
@BellyCat: Look into Beneficial State Bank, co-founded by Tom Steyer. https://beneficialstatebank.com/
Don’t know offhand whether it has the banking features you’re looking for.
jonas
@TheTruffle: Schmitt and Rick Wilson, Tom Nichols and other Lincoln Project Never Trumpers have left the Republican Party and said they will vote for Dems until the MAGA rot is gone from the GOP, but have not, to my knowledge, formally switched affiliation. YMMV on what that means.
I would say the one who’s gone the farthest and pretty much said he will never be a Republican again is former strategist Stuart Stevens. He’s absolutely finished with movement conservatism.
Kropacetic
@Spanky: I just attribute it to the same sort of “both-siderism” endemic to all our media. If Republicans and Democrats were called on legit lies in proportion to making them, it would appear partisan.
germy
@jonas:
Schmidt is a Democrat now, but he’s the sort of guy who goes to work for the presidential campaign of union buster Howard Schultz.
Ruckus ??
@trollhattan:
¿Sane republican party?
Sorry, but this old remembers the republican party of my youth and has read about them before then and sanity is not in their dictionary/medical books/charter/anywhere at all, and never has been. Their ideals have always been the same, only their openness of them has changed. And that only recently as they started to lose steam. The only thing that changed was faux news being an openly political reprograming venue, the US version of the Russian news service.
Spanky
@germy: Yeah, Schmidt has made it pretty clear over the years that his loyalties unwaveringly lie with Steve Schmidt.
cain
@WaterGirl: So the Younger Boomers, Gen Xers and Millennials are going to get shafted – while these assholes continue to have govt healthcare. I don’t think that’s going to go down well. Do we get our money back – or does it just disappear?
They should vote to get rid of their health care too..
germy
@Baud:
I sort of resent how they try to make Democrats out to be exaggerating liars.
Baud
@germy:
It’s what they are paid to do.
Sherparick
@Frank Wilhoit: I think it is definitely close to be no earlier than 1931 in Weimar Germany. Hopefully, President Biden does not have his name associated with having a similar fate as Heinrich Bruening nor make similar policy and political mistakes.
The loyalty to a Party name is very strong. Basically, it took the generation born in early 20th century to die out in the 1970s & 80s for the White South to vote Republican (down ballot) even 20 years after the Civil Rights Act was enacted by a Democratic President & Congress (with some Republican votes in 1964).
The realignment of the Republican Party from regional coalition of non-Southern, pro-business factions, to ideological neo-Confederate & proto-fascist party of today was not a good thing for the country. It would probably been better for Neo-Confederates to stay in the Democratic Party & have the internal conflicts on equality & civil rights split the party on national election or two.
Kropacetic
Also re: sunset provisions, how is that in any way conservative? A conservative supposedly prizes stability and predictability. Sunset provisions do the opposite, creating a situation where any government program could be ended at any time through inaction. A two term Republican presidency would see humanity move back into caves. That’s right, everyone, don’t think the Republicans wouldn’t try to take the rest of the world back with us? With nukes, if need be.
debbie
@germy:
That way lies chaos. What an idiot.
Kelly
Republicans only want to stand athwart history yelling STOP! Sunset provisions plug up the legislative calendar and keep Democrats from getting anything done. Also holds all Democratic priorities hostage to Republican priorities. Won’t work both ways. Assholes will continue to cheat when they have a majority.
cain
@Kropacetic: They aren’t conservative – there is nothing conservative about them and haven’t been since the 70s. They are neo-liberals. They want to revert back to a time that white men were ascendant.
cain
Republicans are so dumb, that they’d consider writing a bill to outlaw menopause – if they found out what menopause is. (I posted about this on twitter. :-)
TaMara
Just an FYI, CSPAN feed sound is w/o issues. That youtube feed was…problematic.
Geminid
@Sherparick: Lyndon Johnson was a shrewd politician who knew Southern white people well. He was correct when he said that the Civil Rights bill would set the Democratic party in the south back for a generation. Although it was for more than a generation.
You are right in part when you say an older generation had to die out before southern whites became majority Republican. This was more the case I think in some rural areas. But in Virginia the realignment happened in one decade, the 1970s. Mills Godwin won the Governorship as a Democrat in 1973. Eight years later he won as a Republican and the rest of the business establishment went with him. That’s when the Richmond area 7th CD went Republican for the first time in that century. It took 40 years for Abigail Spanberger to win the seat back for Democrats in 2018.
In the more rural 5th District “Dan Daniel of Danville” held on as a Democrat Representative for another ten years. He mostly voted like a Republican though.
lowtechcyclist
@RaflW: Holy cow, I really wasn’t expecting that!
Kudos to Sen. Casey!
oatler
You put a question mark after ‘fights back’. What is this, ABC?
rikyrah
Good Afternoon, Everyone ???
rikyrah
46, at his core, is a scrappy Irish fighter.????
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good afternoon.
rikyrah
@WaterGirl:
Come sit by me ?
Baud
@oatler:
The title was published before the speech.
geg6
@Betty Cracker:
From my vantage point, Fetterman has run an outstanding campaign—honest, respectful of his opponents and just telling who he is and what he plans to do. It’s been refreshing to have a politician who is not out to smear his fellow Democrats in any way. He’ll go to town on Oz, though. And considering that Oz was booed at his rally with TFG Friday, it shouldn’t be hard for Fetterman to tear him to pieces.
Baud
@geg6:
Why was Oz booed? I thought TFG endorsed him.
Geminid
@geg6: I think Mehmet Oz’s dual Turkish and American citizenship will be a weakness. Fetterman won’t have to raise the question himself, but independent PACs will do it for him.
Although, Oz might not make it past the primary. Polls show him, Kathy Barnett and David McCormick in a bunch.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: They booed nevertheless.
Jesse
@Baud: this is something I’ve come to appreciate from Martin Longman of the Washington Monthly. When you’re at 60-40 in a rural area, that’s good because it means it’s not totally socially bizarre to be a Dem. When you’re in 70-30 territory, or worse, then you’re a kind of outcast. Going from one to the other should be considered progress.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
1973 was the ‘eight years later.’ With Linwood Holton, who was a New South sort of Republican, winning in 1969. (Chuck Robb beat Marshall Coleman in 1981.)
I figure you knew this, but just had a brief mental slip-up. I almost hate to correct you because your knowledge of Virginia political history is so damn good.
frosty
@WaterGirl: The Obama campaign was amazing. We went to rural doors that had never seen a canvasser before. That’s what happens when you have a community organizer in charge.
And as usual, we scrapped it all and started all over again on the next campaign. PA Dems may be better than Florida but I’m not impressed.
Betty Cracker
@geg6: How is Fetterman’s pot legalization pitch playing in the state? Seems like a winner to me, but I hear that strategy denigrated a lot.
frosty
@Betty Cracker: I don’t know how it’s playing but I loved his comment on our neighbor’s legalization:
”55 million Pennsylvanians live less than an hour away from the Candyland od New Jersey.”
Candyland? LOL
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Who has denigrated it? The most I have heard is that it may not be a slam dunk issue as a general matter (don’t know about PA)? Just curious as to who actually opposes it.
Martin
@Frank Wilhoit: I do not see a path through this that doesn’t involve violence. You cannot lead the electorate down a path they actively resist going down. We’re already a million dead due to this active resistance. I don’t see why they would care if there’s another million.
I don’t see how anyone can read the words ‘domestic supply of infants‘ from the highest court in the land and think this is going to be civilly resolved. The majority of USSC with a shit-ton of legislative support around the country is actively calling for a campaign of eugenics. It’s manifesting differently than previous eugenics campaigns, but that’s very clearly what it is and Dems need to start calling it as such. Forced breeding is still eugenics.
Starfish
@TheTruffle: The problem with Republicans who are now Dems is that they get whiny if they are not allowed to be as high up in leadership of Democrats as they were of Republicans.
Kelly
I’m not exactly an outcast but shit oh dear it took some adjusting when I retired and moved from the Portland metro area back to the beautiful rural Oregon countryside I grew up in. This is 70-30 Trump country. Always lived in the Willamette Valley and remained in touch with many high school buddies but did not realize how crazy the ones that stayed in the old home town are.
Baud
OT: To no one’s surprise, Elon Musk will allow Trump back on Twitter.
Martin
Fetterman’s got this. Pot legalization is a no-brainer. 60% of Republicans think it should be legal. Every Dem in the country should be running on this.
Hell, look at Nikki Fried in FL. That’s a wild wedge issue she’s thrown into the race.
Bobby Thomson
In the general Republicans will be running the Vigilante Fetterman story on black radio 24-7. He could cause Shapiro to lose.
Betty
@Betty Cracker: Whatever else you can say about the guy, he has covered every nook and cranny of a very large state. Voters feel like they know the guy. He has stated progressive positions without apology.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: No, it wasn’t just a slip. I was in a rush though.
Knowing Godwin won as a Republican in 1973 would have supported what I was saying about the realignment. I was trying to make the point that in some places it happened fast. In Virginia, there was a “Byrd Machine” that Godwin was part of. Those people went over all at once in the cities and suburbs. White rural Democrats realigned a little more slowly. Most of them have been Republican for a while now.
ian
@frosty:
Either we have misquoted Fetterman, or else the man has some serious numeracy issues
Martin
@Baud: I decided long ago that his return to Twitter would be my exit. Oh well. They deserve what’s coming to them.
I would ask the FPers to adopt a policy of not linking to Twitter at all should Trumps account be reinstated.
debbie
@Baud:
They probably blamed him for the weather.
debbie
@Martin:
Awfully high-minded of you. Why not just shield your eyes from the sight of them?
Betty
@Baud: His first act as Lieutenant Governor was to hold a town hall in all 67 counties on marijuana. The majority support legalization. The Republican legislature wouldn’t pass it as long as a Dem Governor might benefit from the passage.
Betty
@Bobby Thomson: Everyone knows that story by now. Dem opponents have been hitting him on it. Not sure how that outweighs what Republicans are offering, especially for Governor. McCormick seems to me to have the best chance of a win among the top 2 seats.
Geminid
@Baud: There are some people who are very anti-Fetterman. Their rap on Fetterman and legalization is that he uses that and his pardoning of Black prison inmates as a substitute for more meaningful outreach to the Black community.
Personally I’m all for legalized weed, but I think it’s better kept as a second tier issue, and not centered.
frosty
@ian: Oops. Maybe 5 million?
Geminid
@Betty: Every one does know that story by now. I’ll be looking at Fetterman’s performance among Black Democrats next Tuesday to get an idea if it may be problematic. Republicans certainly will try to exploit the jogger incident. They don’t need to flip voters, just persuade them to stay home.
Fetterman will have another chance to address this issue if he wins next Tuesday. He’s said he was done talking about it, so he might not. Fetterman’s a stubborn guy, which is a positive for some people.
artem1s
seconded
gene108
@germy:
In Scott’s 11 point plan, it states:
That’s it. That’s their plan to address long term issues with Social Security and Medicare, issue a report.
No commitment to making the programs financially solvent.
https://rescueamerica.com/steps/6-government-reform-debt/
marcopolo
@Betty Cracker: As I’m in MO I don’t have a dog in the fight and will give some bucks to whomever wins the primary, but I guess I’m a little shocked that Lamb hasn’t made a bigger splash. I would have thought he’d be the consensus safe D pick. I do find it funny though that I have given both Lamb (his first congressional run) and Kenyatta (like 2 years ago) campaign contributions but never to Fetterman.
As for the idea of keeping rural areas as close as possible, Claire McCaskill would have some thoughts on that. Decent rural margins helped her hold her seat in 2012 and the collapse of those margins lost her the seat in 2018.
Nutmeg again
@TaMara: Yes! I’ve been credit union for about 10 years, and it’s by far the best banking experience I’ve ever had. I’ve noticed however that there is a wide difference between them in terms of services they offer, and online presence, etc. But it’s been great for me.
geg6
@Baud:
Yes, he has TFG’s endorsement, but they don’t trust him AT ALL. Too many clips of him endorsing abortion, birth control, gender identity, etc. on his show. And then there’s the whole Oprah thing…
geg6
@Betty Cracker:
As far as I can tell, people love it. It would be a money maker for rural PA and, of course, really cool for the rest of us.
He got really great press for that and the rural areas, especially, liked that someone came and talked to them and took their ideas seriously. This is why I think he has a great chance to win.
Gravenstone
It was mighty nice of Rick Scott to commit all that stupidity to paper. And to make it public! Makes a fine cudgel with which to beat him and his metaphorically about the head and shoulders. More of this, please.
Gravenstone
@germy: Or re-write the legislation in the most adversarial form possible so they can either optimize skimming off the funds or excluding groups of people who they don’t support (or both).
Gravenstone
@Baud: And to less surprise, Trump will jump at the chance and let his “homegrown” alternative further wither on the vine.
Sandia Blanca
@Kay: Yes, this group (led by Santiago Mayer, very active on Twitter @santiagomayer_) is very focused and full of passion.
geg6
@Bobby Thomson:
This is an insane take. Just insane. First, no (or very, very few) Black person is going to vote for a Republican. Second, this was publicly litigated a long time ago during his campaign for Lt. Governor. It was a crazy thing to do then and it’s even crazier now. He was the mayor of a majority Black town. They re-elected him over and over. Only people from the outside and who know nothing about what he’s done think this is a winning strategy. I may not be his biggest fan in the world, but this is bullshit.
geg6
@artem1s:
Thirded.
schrodingers_cat
@Bobby Thomson: Vigilante Shrek has fans here. They will swarm you now
BTW Braddock is teeny tiny town of less than 2000 people, being a mayor of a town of less than 2000 people. I don’t think political success there can be necessarily generalized to the whole state.
schrodingers_cat
@Betty Cracker: Pot legalization does not bring new voters. VA tried it. Youngkin is the governor there.
Geminid
@geg6: An “insane take”? You are trying to handwave away something that is of real concern to some Democratic voters. This issue was not thoroughly litigated in the 2018 primary, and in any event Fetterman won a plurality against four eastern Pennsylvania candidates.
And if you want to use Fetterman’s electoral success in Braddock as a proof of his appeal to Black voters you should give the numbers to support the argument. My understanding is that Fetterman won his first mayoral election with 158 votes. Not by 158 votes, but with 158 votes. The second place finisher had 157 votes. I believe he won his last election, unopposed, with 250 or so votes. This proves little about Fetterman’s appeal to Black Democrats.
This primary looks like a done deal. I just hope Fetterman is not so dismissive of his critics regarding the jogger incident as some of his supporters are.
Kirk Spencer
@gene108:
When. Uh-huh. That group’s been predicting the SS/MC bankruptcy since the program started, and it’s just always just a few more years.
Liars and thieves, all of them.
schrodingers_cat
@Geminid: Polls are notoriously unreliable for statewide races, especially primaries. And like Obama said there is only one poll that matters. Among the R crazies there is RWNJ black woman if she wins and Fetterman is the Democratic nominee we are going to be in trouble. I don’t think black PA voters are going to vote for her but they could stay at home if F is on the ballot.
Susan Collins and Graham are still in the senate, polls had them losing.
Geminid
@schrodingers_cat: I don’t know if the jogger incident, and Fetterman’s justifications of it, will be a problem for him in November. But I don’t know how his supporters can be so certain it won’t be.
Chief Oshkosh
@WaterGirl: Yes, it was all over the place. C’mon man! Get the basics right!
/s (well, only half snark – they really should have the audio down pat for a presidential address)
schrodingers_cat
@Geminid: IDK either. Many politically astute black women I follow on Twitter think it will be and I have developed a respect for their judgement.