If someone from the 1950's suddenly appeared… pic.twitter.com/v92BTxRIXj
— Swedish Canary ???? ???? ???? ?? (@SwedishCanary) February 22, 2014
U.S. economy slowing, but recession not inevitable, Yellen says https://t.co/NqPvu3pif8 pic.twitter.com/4FXVyuiCQB
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 24, 2022
One of few shared sentiments among U.S. voters right now is a desire for something new — and the possibility that the 2024 election could look like a 2020 rematch has some people on both sides wondering who else could carry their parties into the future. https://t.co/bUQA0VgnAu
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 24, 2022
Our Very Serious Media’s ever-anxious quest for novelty is going to be the death of democracy…
… In a nation faltering along seemingly every conceivable divide, there’s a shared desire among Democrats and Republicans for a new generation of political leadership. The conversation is most pronounced when it comes to the White House as Trump considers another campaign and President Joe Biden confronts skepticism about his ability to mount a reelection bid in 2024 when he is 82.
“There’s just a sense of like, that rematch between these two old guys seems ridiculous to people,” said Sarah Longwell, a Republican strategist who conducts almost weekly focus groups with voters across the country and political spectrum…
A new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll shows 83% of U.S. adults say the country is on the wrong track. Only 36% approve of Biden’s leadership overall, while 62% disapprove. Polling from AP-NORC in recent months captured deepening pessimism among members of his own Democratic Party about Biden, the direction of the country and the state of the economy. A January AP-NORC poll found just 28% of those surveyed and 48% of Democrats said they want Biden to run for reelection in 2024.
Julián Castro, a former Obama housing secretary and onetime presidential candidate, said there’s “no doubt” that members of his party are frustrated and that Democrats in Washington need to show a sense of urgency and produce results. In a telephone interview from the Texas Democratic Convention in Dallas, he said Democrats seemed energized.
“My immediate hope is that that angst and frustration is going to be channeled positively to turnout in November,” he said, referring to the midterm elections. “And then we’ll reckon with what’s beyond that when November happens.”…
Cameron
Personally I don’t believe Joe Biden will run in 2024, but he has to say that he plans to. Otherwise, news about him and the rest of the federal government will be erased from Our Liberal Media and replaced with horserace stories and speculation about potential Democratic presidential candidates. For a full two years.
CliosFanBoy
Our little dachshund Brandy passed away suddenly this morning at age 15. You can see her photo as one of September’s dogs on one of this year’s BJ Pet calendars. We think her heart gave out. We only had Brandy, and her sister Candy (who is on the same calendar this month), for a little over three years (they were rescues) but they have brought a lot of love into our house. Candy is doing fine and she, and our third dachshund, Spud, will be getting a LOT of hugs today.
Go hug your pets and give them some love right now!@
Baud
@Cameron:
Agreed that he can’t announce yet if he’s decided not to run.
But I agree with the article generally. I ready for a fresh face fascist.
Baud
@CliosFanBoy: I’m very sorry. My condolences.
O. Felix Culpa
@CliosFanBoy:
Condolences on the loss of Brandy, and thank you for adopting senior dogs!
Cameron
@Baud: Why, we just happen to have one right here in Florida. Tanned, fit, and full of shit.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@CliosFanBoy: I’m so sorry.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Cameron: So if not Biden, who? Because for damn sure, whoever it is has to win
Geminid
@Baud: I think a 2024 matchup of Biden and trump is in fact “absurd” because trump is absurd. There’s nothing absurd with Joe Biden running in 2024 if his health holds up. Framing a race between him and trump as “absurd” is just a sneaky way of offloading trump’s absurdity onto Biden.
Betty Cracker
@CliosFanBoy: I am sorry to hear that.
Cameron
@CliosFanBoy: I’m sorry to hear that. It’s hard.
Baud
@Geminid:
Completely agree. And the media has been playing this game for weeks. And based on my limited exposure to social media, it’s a concerted effort by a dark forces.
OTOH, you can blame them because it seems to be working with a lot of people who should know better.
Baud
@Cameron: Yep. Conservative forces know that Trump is getting to be old news.
artem1s
Honestly, we go thru this every 2 years whether it’s about the WH, speaker or whichever congresscritter the MSM has decided to generate a horse race narrative about. It’s politics version of Groundhog Day. Trot out the pundits, let them whisper in our ears and announce whomever they deem is too old, too black, too socialist, too divisive, too shrill, too fat, too Wall Street, too Pharma, and on and on and on.
evap
I wonder if the country is ready for Buttigieg? I think he would make a fantastic president. I’m thinking back to 2004 when I first became an Obama fan, I told my friends and family that he was going to be president someday. People scoffed and said that a black man with a weird name had no chance of becoming president. Maybe in 2022 the idea of a gay president is not ridiculous…
OzarkHillbilly
@CliosFanBoy: Sorry for your loss. My wife could never adopt a senior dog. Thank Dawg for those who have the required constitution.
OzarkHillbilly
@artem1s: Yep.
O. Felix Culpa
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Truth. The track record for the same party to retain the presidency for a second term after a hotly contested primary is not good. See: Carter/Kennedy, Bush the Elder/Buchanan.
Cameron
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I don’t have a clue. I would have thought Kamala Harris, because Biden has done the correct traditional thing in giving her major assignments for on-the-job presidential training. Unfortunately – and this is something I can’t recall seeing before – once the announcement is made, there is no follow up. It just vanishes. And then we get stories about how unqualified she is because “she doesn’t do anything.” I think she’s getting screwed.
O. Felix Culpa
@Cameron:
FIFY.
Baud
@O. Felix Culpa:
Those are both examples of challenging incumbents. Not sure how relevant that would be to an open primary situation.
O. Felix Culpa
@Baud:
LBJ/Humphrey?
ETA: While past performance is not indicative of future results, I think the Democratic Party would not be helped by a primary battle, especially with all the structural elements stacked against us, e.g., voter suppression and the Electoral College. Oh, yes, and the Supremes should it come to that
ETAx2: For raven, fuck LBJ.
satby
@CliosFanBoy: My condolences! It’s such a shock when that happens, but try to take some small comfort that it’s quick without much of the suffering of a slow decline, and the angst of having to decide if “it’s time”. You gave her a loving home, and that’s their heaven on earth.
Dorothy A. Winsor
While waiting to carry out dinner yesterday, I eavesdropped on a couple in their 80s sitting with a woman in her 60s, daughter visiting her parents, I’m guessing. The parents said they’d vote for Pence. The daughter said he didn’t do enough to try to get rid of Trump. They were arguing about that when my food was ready. They all assumed they’d vote R.
Soprano2
@Geminid: I swear that the press is trying to talk people into thinking that “younger=better”. This is nuts, and not necessarily true. Does anyone think DeSantis would be better? Part of me thinks that there is no way we can hold off the fascist wave forever; to keep it out the fever will have to break. How is that going to happen? I saw a Jonathan Swan tweet saying he got more responses from his story about TFG’s plans to eviscerate the civil service than any story he’s ever written, and a lot of them are TFG fans who are excited about Schedule F. They really want to take total control the federal government; the first time a Republican wins the presidency, I think they’ll try to do it. They think the employees should be loyal not to the United States, but to whoever is president at that moment. I also predict that if a Democrat did become president after they did this, some of them would go to court to argue that now there is no way the Democrat can replace all of those people, and there are even odds the courts would agree with them. It’s just how they think. Look at how they thought TFG could do anything with immigration policy through executive order, but once Biden was in they went to the courts arguing that Biden couldn’t make his own policies, and in many cases so far they are winning those arguments with the conservative courts.
I finally heard an economic person say on the radio this morning that all this speculation about a recession could become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Well duh! I also heard someone sounding almost gleeful about the prospect of unemployment taking a big uptick in the next few months. He said something like “The employment picture looks good now, but it won’t be that way in a few months”, and he didn’t sound sorry about it.
eclare
@CliosFanBoy: I am so sorry for your loss of Brandy. Looking at the calendar now, what a cute little doggo.
sdhays
Biden’s problem is not having a Congress that will implement his agenda. Full stop.
If the Democrats manage to hold onto the House and make Manchinema irrelevant, Biden will have a much better 2023 and 2024.
Soprano2
We got two bits of good news and one bit of bad news re: my stepson’s death last week. The police finally came and looked at all of his stuff; they took an old phone and his official ID, and said they are now done with it. Also, all the paperwork finally cleared and his remains arrived here last Friday, so hubby can finally get that resolved (it’s so hard to have all this stuff just hanging there). The bad news is that it will be at least 4 (!) more weeks until we get a death certificate, so we won’t be able to go there for at least another month because I can’t see any reason to fly to Maui until we can resolve financial matters, and to do that you have to have a death certificate. I am glad that I finally got hubby to realize that he needs to go there to resolve things; his daughter can’t just go there and do it, plus we don’t want her to anyway.
gene108
Visited family in Baltimore. Reliably Democratic voters. They expressed concern at Biden’s age, plus a hint, in my opinion, that younger blood is needed.
The last time an incumbent President decided to not seek re-election was 1968. I don’t see how Biden stepping down will be inherently helpful. A chorus of “candidate ‘x’ will continue the disastrous Biden policies that were so bad Biden couldn’t run again on his record” will dominate the media.
If Biden runs, and a 40 or 50 something Republican emerges as the nominee, Biden’s age will become a cudgel against him.
I don’t have a good feeling about Democrats chances over the next few cycles. Inflation is rising faster than wage gains, so people are upset about it. Plus, the cost of housing has shot up considerably. COVID will continue to be disruptive.
The last few times the Fed brought inflation under control was to trigger a recession by increasing interest rates, which won’t help Democrats over the next couple of cycles.
Maybe the SCOTUS rulings and Republicans being unlikable will save Democrats? The unlikable part worked before.
Soprano2
@Geminid: I assume you saw how both the NY Post and WSJ threw TFG under the bus this weekend. They’re easing away from him and toward someone like DeSantis, unfortunately.
satby
Don’t know if anyone saw this clip from the Daily Show on Merrick Garland, but it’s great.
O. Felix Culpa
@Soprano2:
So glad you’re making progress, albeit piecemeal. What a nightmare for you and your family. I hope for the best possible resolution under the circumstances for all of you.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Soprano2: Sound like progress. Sad progress, but progress
eclare
@Soprano2: Baby steps, but still steps forward. Best wishes on getting the necessary paperwork done.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby:
Thanks for the link. Semi-related on the topic of Merrick Garland, are you one of the people who recommended Terry Kanefield? I’ve started reading her too. She’s good.
Starfish
@Cameron: Yeah, if he said he was not running, he would have two years of a lame duck presidency.
Immanentize
@CliosFanBoy: So sorry about Brandy. Dachshunds are such energetic positive pups. At least the ones I’ve known. I’m petting my cat as instructed (he is not a hugger).
Here is a sweet acapella for you:
Elliot Lurie Acapella.
satby
@O. Felix Culpa: yeah, she’s really a clear, concise writer on what can be difficult to understand legal issues. She and Heather Cox Richardson are my two can’t miss newsletters. Glad you’re enjoying her posts.
satby
@Soprano2: glad things are at least heading in the right direction now. Hoping for continued progress.
Baud
@sdhays: 100% correct.
Betty Cracker
I think Biden would beat Trump again but would have a much harder time defeating a younger fascist like DeSantis. Maybe Biden knows this and is waiting to see which path the GOP chooses.
If Biden decides not to run again, he could resign next year (when you’re 80, I think you can resign for health reasons without going into detail) so Harris can go into 2024 as an incumbent. It’s risky, but IMO, an open primary basically guarantees a GOP victory in 2024 because our coalition is fragile as hell.
satby
Ok, and another clip. Secretary Pete takes less than 90 seconds to both
humanizenormalize and advocate for marriage equality.Gin & Tonic
Today is the anniversary of the sinking of the Andrea Doria..
Baud
@Betty Cracker: I don’t think there’s any way Biden resigns unless he actually has health problems. He might not run out of concern he won’t be healthy enough at 86, however.
CliosFanBoy
@Immanentize: That was sweet. thank you.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Also, even if Harris is an incumbent, I still think there will be a contested primary.
O. Felix Culpa
@satby:
Heather Cox Richardson is another must-read for me too. I want to like Marcy Wheeler, but I find her prose impenetrable.
Cameron
@Gin & Tonic: My neighbors across the street from where I grew up were survivors from that.
Starfish
– Brian Schwartz
I am going to go ahead and apologize if Polis runs. It will be inspirational because he will be the first gay president. But yeah, all the Democrats who are thinking about it are white male governors sitting next to a giant pile of money. J. B. Pritzker also falls into the category of white dudes with a large pile of money.
Cameron
@satby: In hindsight, it’s a shame he lost out on heading the DNC. He would have been terrific.
Immanentize
@Baud: Yes, lots of candidates if Biden doesn’t run — open primaries are often any candidate’s best shot at a seat. Also, I expect Bernie will run again, if only to make Biden look like youth itself.
But really, why am I talking about this before the mid-terms? I am hereby vowing not to do so again until mid November.
geg6
@CliosFanBoy:
I’m so sorry. I’m off to hug my furry babies.
Immanentize
@O. Felix Culpa: Marcy knows a huge amount of very useful stuff, but she is really not good at conveying that knowledge. Number one on my list of complaints about her — the cutesy nicknames she used for everyone. You need a Lord of the Rings length index to keep up. And she keeps changing them! People have names, use them.
Wanderer
@CliosFanBoy: Very sad news. My condolences.
geg6
@Immanentize:
Thank you for being a voice of reason. 2024 is not here yet, no matter what the media and pundits want us to think. Let’s get through 2022 first and then assess the situation.
Kathleen
@CliosFanBoy: I am so sorry for your loss.
Gin & Tonic
@Cameron: One third as many people have died diving the wreck as actually died in the sinking.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Probably, but would it be a seriously contested primary with top-tier candidates like Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Newsom, etc., or a joke primary like when Vermin Supreme, et al., opposed Obama in 2012?
O. Felix Culpa
@Immanentize:
Yes and yes. She needs an editor and/or a plain language translator.
topclimber
@Betty Cracker: Who do you see challenging Harris? Not Bernie. If and when Biden steps down in favor of a new generation, Bernie is not going to be in that lane.
The Obama coalition that rallied around Joe will decide the Dem nominee. Add in a lot of women pissed over losing their bodily autonomy and you have a juggernaut for Harris, regardless of whether Joe remains neutral. Any challenge on the left from the fringiest of the fringe will only allow her to set herself apart from them in the mind of the average voter.
Of course, winning enough of Congress/Senate in 2024 to build on the Biden-Harris record is absolutely essential. We still have a good chance because any GQPer in 2024 is going to have to overcome the still strong TFG stench.
Geminid
@Soprano2: Republican elites have wanted to put trump in the rear view mirror for some time now. They’re hoping the J6 Commitee hearings make it easier and they are probably right. Trump can still do damage to the party in the midterms though, and Republican politicians want to mitigate this problem if they can.
Cameron
@Gin & Tonic: I did not know that. Ugh.
topclimber
@Immanentize: Valid point. I only started on this subject a couple of days ago to underscore our need to win in 2022.
Soprano2
@Immanentize: That’s why there are close to 20 Republican candidates for the MO Senate seat that Blunt is vacating. The R’s think whoever wins it will have a guaranteed seat for as long as they want.
Geminid
@O. Felix Culpa: I think I’d need to constantly take notes if I wanted to keep up with Marcy Wheeler. But I still like checking out her twitter feed.
One of my intellectual fantasies is for Wheeler and Magdi Semrau to team up. A “Mangy Wheeler” collaboration!
Gin & Tonic
@Cameron: It is deep, beyond the limits of recreational divers, but not inaccessible, so I think some people work beyond their capabilities. At ~160-180 feet down you have no room for error.
Soprano2
@Geminid: I know, but I think it’s hilarious that they think they have control of that. No one can control TFG and his rabid followers, you’d think they would understand that by now.
HinTN
@Soprano2: With headlines like this
FFS, the economy slowing, e.g. “inflation” coming down, is the goal. And since it’s not really inflation but price gouging (and another housing bubble) then the fundamentals are the same and the danger of recession is rather small. But, NO. Headlines insinuating bad news drive clicks…
dearmaizie
@CliosFanBoy: Sorry about your Brandy. I bet the years spent with you were the best of her life. Thanks for caring about senior dogs.
Betty Cracker
@topclimber: I wouldn’t put it past Sanders to run again, even though that would be ridiculous, but he might decide to endorse someone like Ro Khanna. Would top-tier Dems like Buttigieg, Whitmer, Klobuchar, Newsom, Pritzker, etc., all decline to run in the interest of party unity? Maybe, but I wouldn’t bet on that if it’s an open primary.
lowtechcyclist
I feel we’ve seen this story before. How did Obama look in 2010-11? How did Clinton look in 1994-95? Hell, how did Reagan look in 1982?
I want Biden to run for re-election. If he feels it’s time for him to move on, the best time would be soon after being re-elected: he could step down then, and let Kamala take over. She’d have a better shot at being elected to a full term in 2028 after 3+ years on the job, than if she ran in 2024.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I think it would seriously contested if the top-tier candidates think they have a shot at winning. If Harris became president after January, she theoretically could be president for a whole decade.
Elizabelle
I hope we have another administration of President Joe Biden. If he wants to step down in 2026 for President Kamala Harris, that would be fine with me.
The MSM are bullshit artists, and they salivate at anything the GOP throws at them. Most of them are too stupid to realize how helpful they are being to intending fascists and vote suppressors.
Another topic: do you think we might get some surprise August J6 Committee hearings? I do; am hoping so. Lots moving swiftly behind the scenes.
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: When I think about this stuff I can’t really come to any rational, helpful solution; I just end up having this very “Republican gun nut with the sign flipped” fantasy about an apocalyptic civil war and dying in a bloody last stand with a mob of armed MAGA freaks.
I think making us throw up this kind of mental chaff for ourselves is part of the point of conservatives airing their totalitarian fantasies. They’re trying to create an aura of hopelessness. But it can be hard to find the way through.
AliceBlue
I read an interesting tidbit a few days ago. Someone interviewed a group of 14 swing voters in Michigan or Wisconsin–can’t remember. They’re all unhappy with Biden, none of them want Trump to run again (even the 10 people who voted for him) and they don’t like DeSantis.
jnfr
@CliosFanBoy:
I’m so sorry for your loss. One of our cats died suddenly of a cardiac myopathy and it was an utter shock.
Take care of yourself today.
Kristine
@CliosFanBoy: My Gaby is 15+, so feeling what you’re going through. So sorry.
You gave her three years during which she was safe and loved. Those are the best gifts.
Kathleen
@O. Felix Culpa: Not to mention coordinated and funded attacks from “The Left”, the Right and the media.
The Moar You Know
@HinTN: the problem with this reasoning is that the fundamentals are NOT the same, not even from two months ago, and if we are LUCKY we won’t enter a recession until after the November elections.
I agree with you that most of the “inflation” is actually price gouging, but there is no question that the economy is slowing down pretty rapidly.
VOR
@Immanentize: I wish Biden was 20 years younger, but I will crawl over broken glass to vote for him if the alternative is TFG, DeSantis, or any like-minded Republican. I really don’t want Bernie to run again but I could see him trying to play kingmaker in a contested field.
Elizabelle
@AliceBlue: 14 swing voters = 14 low information voters
Kathleen
@satby: With you 100%. Those two help me keep my sanity.
Omnes Omnibus
@Immanentize: Yes, for fuck’s sake, people, could we not fall into the trap of worrying about 2024 prior to the 2022 elections?
topclimber
@Betty Cracker: I would take that bet for the ENTIRE stack of quarters in my piggybank (c. $11.50).
I just don’t see any woman candidate eager to take on Harris. As for the men, the only ones with national name recognition are Buttigieg and Newsom (to a far lesser extent).
Several candidates may run to build name recognition or support for a particular issue. Outside of Bernie and the bros, I doubt any would make it the kind of personal, “the establishment is out to screw us” kind of campaign that would hurt Harris or any other nominee.
With that, I follow the sage wisdom of the IM-man: Let’s focus on 2022.
J R in WV
@CliosFanBoy:
So Sorry for your sudden loss. They are mostly all great pups, and we miss them so much!
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: …also, I recall Newt Gingrich talking excitedly about the prospect of gutting the civil service during the Trump transition period back at the end of 2016. I think Giuliani was keen on it too. This is something Gingrich and other conservatives have been on for a long time. Maybe they can do it this time around but it’s not new.
Soprano2
@Matt McIrvin: I don’t feel that way most days, but sometimes it feels like it’s inevitable that they are going to take control of the government at least for a little while. They already control the governments of FL and TX at the very least. There are way too many white people who are terrified to their very bones at the thought that they won’t be running everything forever.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: That’s true, but if Harris were running as the incumbent, any challengers would have to weigh their chances of beating a sitting president of their own party for the nomination and then winning the general election after a bruising fight. My guess is they’d be less likely to challenge Harris if she were the incumbent.
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: It’s the nature of a democratic government with a two-party system that the people you don’t like will control the government sooner or later. You can’t keep them out forever without becoming a totalitarian yourself. The question is just, can they rig it so that sticks forever and we have a Putinist or Orbanist one-party state? Can they break the machinery of government sufficiently that it’s not possible to dislodge them?
And I think they’re openly bragging about it in part because they’re sadists, in part because of their increasingly naked worship of power and brute force, and in part because they want to prod us into abandoning electoralism and turning to violent or other doomed revolutionary solutions, which a lot of the further left is already itching to do. One of the ways I keep my worst self down is to remember that that’s more or less what they want from me.
Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog
@Kathleen:
Not sure that isn’t mulitply-redundant.
PJ
Biden will defeat any Republican who can get the GOP nomination. The media loves DeSantis because he’s a more presentable Trump, but he hasn’t been on TV for the last 30 years, and without massive voter suppression, he can’t win a popular presidential election. Biden’s current unpopularity is down to two things: the media hates him and tears him down at every chance, and the price of gas. The former isn’t going away (and would probably be there for any Democratic candidate) but the latter is already declining and will most likely not be a factor in 2024. Biden was attacked for being too old and senile in 2020 by Republicans and Democrats (surely one reason that Julian Castro is not in his administration, which is why Castro attacks him whenever he can), and that will not change in 2024. Will the base of the Democratic Party (black people) decide not to support Joe because of this? I don’t see it.
But all the anti-Biden rhetoric from Republicans and the media is working, just as it worked against Hilary Clinton, and we can see the results on this here blog, where many commenters love to talk about who should replace Biden, because of course he’s failed and of course he can’t win in 2024. And this is from people who should know better! There is no Democratic candidate who could have gotten more legislation passed than Biden has, given the current Senate, and I bet most would have gotten less done. And don’t even start on foreign policy – how many Democrats would have successfully pulled us out of Afghanistan and united Europe to support Ukraine?
Betty Cracker
@Matt McIrvin:
That is indeed the question. I think Trump was too dim and focused on himself to put a serious plot like that in motion. He never really gave a shit about policy and doesn’t care what happens to the Republican Party except as a vehicle to further his personal interests.
But DeSantis is a disciplined ideologue , which is why it’s so important to keep him out.
SteveinPHX
@CliosFanBoy:
Very sorry about your loss. The missus & I are hugging kitties this morning. Wish you the best.
kindness
What is getting me really frustrated wrt Joe Biden running again or not, is that within my circle of peoples and what I see elsewhere on the intertubes, the contingent that is loudest about dumping Joe (for some yet un-named Johnny Unbeatable) are filled with unhappy Bernie folk. Some of whom still are pissed Bernie wasn’t nominated last time. What really is pissing me off is those same folk beat the Republican anti-Joe memes to death and sound just like Republicans and repeating these memes is all the MSM needs to say Joe is toast even with Democrats.
I like what Joe has done considering he only has 48 votes in the Senate. It isn’t Joe’s fault that he hasn’t been able to pass most of his agenda.
linnen
What I would have difficulty in explaining to a timetraveller from the 1950’s would be that not be that the nativist, populist part of the political spectrum occupied by the John Birchers and Lydon LaRouche groups of the ’50’s made it to the top levels of all three branches of the Federal government, but that the modern version is cheering for Putin of the KGB and modern-era Stalinist Russia.
Miss Bianca
Biden can and should run again if his health permits it in 2024. And all the “ohh, he’s so old” meepers and bleaters can fuck the fuck off, thank you very much.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Geminid:
Heh, given her research and explanatory skills, Mangy Jay would be a good candidate for the Wheeler-To-Normie translator we need.
Gin & Tonic
@Matt McIrvin:
Nothing is forever in politics.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s not Mangy Jay, its magi_jay. No N to be seen.
zhena gogolia
@Geminid: Bingo.
Soprano2
@Gin & Tonic: This is true. However, the USSR lasted over 70 years, so it could last for a long time.
Paul in KY
@CliosFanBoy: Very sorry to hear that. I know Brandy was so loved and had a great life with you!
Matt McIrvin
@kindness: Seeing the same thing. Only it’s not just the type of Bernie irredentists who refused to vote for Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden; it’s the sane ones too. There’s a lot of talk that Biden and Harris have been too passive or reactive.
Of course anyone who went for Bernie Sanders is the last person who should be complaining that Joe Biden is too damn old. But there’s always the need for a new hero.
Paul in KY
@O. Felix Culpa: LBJ was a complete shit to Humphrey. Because of VP Humphrey’s criticism of our Vietnam policy (a very valid critique), LBJ decided he would rather Nixon won & proceeded to help that along.
That is a shit thing to do & thus: Fuck LBJ! Mr. Humphrey would have made a fine president.
p.a.
@CliosFanBoy:
sorry for your loss.
Matt McIrvin
@Gin & Tonic:
But if the end of it is “the United States becomes a physically uninhabitable wasteland”, that’s not much of a win.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: I do think that if Pres. Clinton had manned up & resigned to let VP Gore run as an incumbent, that we’d have beat Batshit McChimpy & VP Gore would not have selected Liebersuck as his running mate.
Now, what they actually got on Pres. Clinton was not really ‘resignation level material’ (IMO), but politically, it would have been the play to help ensure another 4 years of Dem. control (and his agenda) as it was pretty obvious that Gore was going to need all the help he could get.
VOR
@Betty Cracker: Remember all that stuff Karl Rove (“Bush’s Brain”) and fellow travelers were pushing about the Permanent Republican Majority? I doubt that line of thinking has gone away.
Elizabelle
@zhena gogolia: Yes. Geminid’s comment (#9) was the best in this thread, IMHO.
It also irritates me that people won’t admit there’s a big chance TFG will be under indictment — maybe many counts, both sedition and financial — by 2024.
Geminid
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s true that Ms. Semrau’s Twitter account is @Magi_Jay. But I just type in Mangy Jay and her account pops right up.
I’ve liked using “Mangy Jay” ever since she explained the origin of that Twitter handle. Semrau’s maiden name was Magdeline Jacobs, and when she was teaching young grade schoolers they called her “Mangy Jay.”
UncleEbeneezer
@Geminid: And parroting the “OMG Biden is old!!1!” bullshit that Russia and the Dirtbag Left are trying to spread to harm Dem chances in 2022/4
Paul in KY
@linnen: Get your point & just want to quibble that Putin is a fascist & Russia is a right-wing fascist government, much closer to Nazi Germany than to Stalinist USSR.
Geminid
@Paul in KY: Al Gore never had to name Lieberman as his running mate. That was a dumbass move for someone who thought he was being smart. There were other, better choices, including (obviously) Senator Bob Graham of Florida.
Matt McIrvin
@VOR: The difference is that they’ve gone from “permanent Republican majority” to “permanent Republican rule even if it has to be by a minority”, and actually spinning moral justifications for the latter essentially because Republicans are our betters. The ideological preparations go back a long way–I was hearing that “republic, not a democracy” line from my teenage peers, who were probably parroting their Silent Generation parents, when Saint Ronnie was President–but it’s really brazen now. All that jonesing for a Dirty War out of South American history: the social-media fans going “we will drop liberals from helicopters”, etc.
Quiltingfool
Stonekettle Station (Jim Wright) has a new essay up. His take on Biden is that he was elected to be “Not Trump,” and Biden is succeeding admirably at that task. Wright is reminding voters that if they do to Biden what they did to Obama in 2010 (sit out the midterms, as Obama wasn’t “doing enough”), well, it ain’t going to be pretty.
We really need to get away from the “one person will save us” idea. People like that idea, because it means they don’t have to do anything. Like vote. Or donate. Or canvass. Or participate. And look where that gets us. There is no magic wand, no one weird trick, no easy fix.
Criticizing the President is okay, as long as it is a valid criticism. But if we don’t support him and other elected Democrats, we will have a party that hates us in charge.
UncleEbeneezer
@PJ: Yup. It’s the 2016 playbook all over again, and once again our side is taking the bait and helping to spread a bunch of shit that ultimately will work against us, at the worst possible time. The truth is, ongoing and contentious debate about Biden is exactly what Russia/GOP and shitty anti-Dem Progressives want right now. That alone is reason not to engage or add fuel to the fire.
Matt McIrvin
@Quiltingfool: The process that infuriates me is grousing about “extortion” and “not voting with my/your vagina” whenever Democrats bring up the Supreme Court, resulting in reactionaries getting appointed to the Supreme Court, then when they overturn Roe, blaming the next Democratic President who could not possibly do anything about it and using that as justification for further not voting for Democrats. You literally do have to think 20 years ahead; at least some Republicans understand that and these people don’t.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
We could keep them out a hell of a lot longer and more easily if the MSM would routinely report on the differences in policy between the two parties.
I don’t think most Americans are at all clear on what the goals of the respective parties are, and with nobody remotely impartial explaining it to them, people are voting on the images of the two parties that they have in their heads.
lowtechcyclist
@Gin & Tonic:
That’s because global warming is still just clearing its throat.
Jackie
Are the 2022 elections over? A lot of folks seem to think so – based on all the 2024 predictions/hand wringing going on.
One election at a time is my motto. I’m focused on keeping the House and Senate BLUE this election.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: I think that many of these people understand what you say and are arguing in bad faith. They just have it in for the Democratic party and have an axe to grind whatever the issue. Some in their audience are newer to politics and these people make credulous targets for the anti-Dem propaganda.
Are you familiar with Michael Paulauski? He comes from a democratic socialist point of view, but his twitter account has a lot of ruthless pushback against those he calls the “dirtbag left.”
Torrey
@CliosFanBoy: I’m so sorry for your loss. Brandy was lucky to have you during her last three years. I have no doubt she had the best home a dog could have. As satby said, you gave her three years of heaven on earth. Good wishes and warm thoughts.
cmorenc
@Elizabelle:
The J6 hearings are essential to expose Trump as a latter-day Benedict Arnold dangerously betraying the country, NEVERTHELESS:
– in the “no good deed goes unpunished” category, the hearings are indeed getting through to a substantial portion Republicans – regarding their horse-race calculations for 2024. They recognize that the J6 hearings have turned off so much of the rest of the electorate to Trump that they think his chances are grim of beating Biden (or whomever the D nominee is). But the corollary is that the J6 hearings have vastly increased DeSantis’s (or Naomi’s) chances of being the R nominee in 2024, not that R voters wouldn’t vote for Trump in 2024 again if he was the nominee.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
rikyrah
@CliosFanBoy:
So sorry for your loss 😞😞😢
O. Felix Culpa
@cmorenc: Naomi?
Geminid
@rikyrah: Good morning! I hear it was a stormy weekend in Chicagoland. I trust you made it through ok.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Geminid
@cmorenc: I have a couple customers who are Republicans. I tell them that the J6 hearings may be bad for trump, but that’s good for their party in the medium and long term.
There go two miscreants
@Cameron: also songwriter Mike Stoller
different-church-lady
“We dropped the whole air-car idea, went for apartment buildings on wheels instead.”
different-church-lady
I’ll say it again: When the aliens land and wonder how our civilization collapsed, the answer will be, “The monkeys became too clever for their own good.”
Paul in KY
@Geminid: True dat! Bob Graham would have secured Florida. Sigh….
Matt McIrvin
@There go two miscreants: I automatically read that as Matt Stoller and became very confused.
J R in WV
@Miss Bianca:
THIS!
Joe Biden is the best president we’ve had since he was VP, and maybe better than President Obama, too early to tell. The media is mostly owned and operated by RWNJ fascists, and Russian influencers have lots of sway, obviously.
And Bernie isn’t qualified for the job he has now, let alone the top position. He’s never managed anything complicated, even his own Senate office. Never passed a serious bill, not qualified.
Kathleen
@Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog: Excellent point.
ColoradoGuy
I think Biden is already well ahead of Obama, at least on foreign policy. That was Obama’s weak point, and he was seriously out-maneuvered in the Mideast by our adversaries (which included Putin behind the scenes).
And of course it was a Blue Dog senator who came very close to sinking the ACA with many months of pretended negotiations with the GOP.
Considering the scale of the wreckage left GW Bush, Obama did a respectable job despite the undersized stimulus package, but he had a very long learning curve on how to deal with the GOP and a hostile press. Biden came into office knowing just how traitorous the GOP really is, and Putin’s machinations were out there for all to see.