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No one could have predicted…

This really is a full service blog.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / We Asked, Joe Biden Delivers, Clear As A Bell (Open Thread)

We Asked, Joe Biden Delivers, Clear As A Bell (Open Thread)

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This post is in: ,

We have asked for clear Democratic messaging, and we’ve got it.

Now it’s our job to amplify it.

Betty Cracker posted this one in the comments of an earlier post today.

Holy shit, Pete is so good.

What other great messaging have you seen from Dems lately?

Tell us about it, and if you have links, share them in the comments.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

82Comments

  1. 1.

    oldster

    Edward Snowden, may he rot in hell, was granted Russian citizenship by Putin today.

    Unfortunately, he may not be eligible for conscription.

    When has that ever stopped a true patriot? Snowden should volunteer.

  3. 3.

    Scout211

    Governor Newsom is being loud right now.  Link

    He’s urging the Dems to be more vocal and more critical of the GOP.  I wish it didn’t sound so much like criticism of fellow Dems , but he’s not wrong

     

    CNN — 
    California Gov. Gavin Newsom warned members of his party Saturday that the GOP is “winning right now” as that party controls the national conversation – arguing that Democrats’ failure to offer a “compelling alternative narrative” has put the “entire rights agenda” of the last half-century at risk.

    Criticizing the GOP push for restrictive abortion laws, the assault on protections for the LGBTQ community, the attempts to ban certain books from schools and the busing of migrants to liberal cities and enclaves, Newsom charged that rivals like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott are attempting to wipe out “the rights revolution of the last century” with their “zest for demonization (and) humiliating people every single day.”

    “These guys are ruthless on the other side,” Newsom said, decrying the “propaganda machines” of Fox News’ primetime lineup, Newsmax and the “anger industry” that he said surrounds them. “They dominate the most important thing in American politics today and that’s the narrative – facts become secondary to narrative. They dominate with illusion. And we are getting crushed. We are on the defense over and over again.”

    . . .

    “Ron DeSantis sits there claiming this freedom gospel – and you can be an 11-year-old girl raped by your father, be forced to bear your own brother or sister, and he claims freedom in that state? What the hell is going on?” Newsom said. “I’m not going to allow them to have that mantle of freedom.”

    Newsom noted that former first lady Michelle Obama famously offered the mantra “when they go low, we go high,” but said Democrats don’t have that option right now. Abortion rights, voting rights, civil rights and same-sex marriage are all on “the chopping block,” he argued.

    “They want to bring us back to the pre-1960s,” Newsom said. “We have to wake up to it…. We have to meet this moment head on, and damn it, the Democratic Party has to assert itself much more aggressively than we have.”

  4. 4.

    Alison Rose 💙🌻💛

    “The problem is more useful to you than the solution.”

    BOOM. That crystallizes so much of Republican chicanery right there.

    I’m not saying I don’t want Biden to run for reelection, but IF he chooses not to (I know it’s a big if), I could see Harris picking Buttigieg as her running mate. That would be an amazing ticket. Even if a lot of babies would be scared of the pairing of a Black lady and a gay man .

  5. 5.

    PaulB

    @oldster:  So, does this mean that Snowden can now be mobilized to fight the war in Ukraine?

    (Yeah, I know that his lawyer has already said that he isn’t eligible, but I can hope.)

  6. 6.

    Alison Rose 💙🌻💛

    @Scout211: I appreciate his vehemence on these issues, and especially his willingness to try to shove the rest of the party onto the soapbox about it. I wonder if some of this is like “I’m not ready to run for President yet* so I’m gonna try to get some of the rest of you to do what I would do if I did run.”

    (*I’m sure he’s at least considering it for the future, but not 2024. He’ll be 55 next month, he’s young enough in a political sense that he could be thinking at least a couple election cycles ahead.)

  7. 7.

    HumboldtBlue

    @PaulB: ​ 

    He’s by far the best communicator in the cabinet, maybe in the party. He’s surgical and cool and sharp and informed, and it shows when he addresses the issues at hand.

  8. 8.

    WaterGirl

    @PaulB: Like Putin cares about eligibility?  I think if you’re a Russian citizen, all bets are off.

    I wouldn’t be surprised if a non-Russian male who was visiting in Russia wouldn’t be pulled into the army.

    Rules are not made for Putin.

  9. 9.

    artem1s

    @Alison Rose 💙🌻💛: ​

    I’m gonna try to get some of the rest of you to do what I would do if I did run

    He’s the Transportation Secretary. Why would he wait until he runs for POTUS to do something about that stunt Abbott pulled? He has the authority to get the NTSB and FAA involved doesn’t he?​

  10. 10.

    bjacques

    Based on how the mobilisation is going, Snowden could get snatched off the street by an overzealous recruiting officer.

  11. 11.

    eversor

    No, Biden won’t.  Christianity will fuck this up as well.  Unless that horrid, vile, evil, ideology is gone, first through it’s “no true Scottsman” and “but I’m a good German” defenders being dealt with nothing is truly possible.   Biden won’t do it, so it doesn’t matter.   Give him 52 and others will find their religion because Christianity has poisoned everything on the plant.

    Just as, don’t get pissed at colonialism unless you are also going to condem Christianity!

  15. 15.

    narya

    @Scout211: And yet, according to Jorts the cat and a whole lot of farmworkers, Newsom (a.k.a. “Haircut”) won’t sign the bill helping to protect farmworkers.

  18. 18.

    Ken

    @PaulB: Yeah, I know that his lawyer has already said that he isn’t eligible, but I can hope.

    SNOWDEN AT RUSSIAN DRAFT BOARD:  “I have brought my lawyer, who says that I am not eligible for the draft.”

    DRAFT BOARD: “Excellent, both of you are now drafted.”

  19. 19.

    oldster

    @BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️:

    Very true. He stopped being useful to Putin just as soon as the NSA et al. figured out how to change the locks and update their servers.

    Not that he did not do a lot of damage — I think it’s significant, for instance, that after he defected in 2013, Russia took over Crimea and parts of the Donbas in 2014,  with an overwhelming advantage in cyber warfare.  Ukrainian blood is on his hands, as well as the blood of numerous American agents around the world.

    But things move fast in the cyber world, and this year’s advantage is next year’s old news. He would be wise to stay away from windows.

  20. 20.

    HumboldtBlue

    @narya:

    But in its statement Friday morning, Gov. Newsom expressed skepticism about the voting process the bill would implement. “Our goal is to establish a system for fair elections,” the governor’s office said in a press release. “However, we cannot support an untested mail-in election process that lacks critical provisions to protect the integrity of the election process.”

    Gov. Newsom vetoed similar legislation last year, claiming the bill “contained various inconsistencies and procedural issues related to the collection and review of ballot cards.”

  21. 21.

    Geminid

    @Scout211: Newsome has the perspective of a politician in a very blue state. Conditions are different for the Kellys, Hassans and Warnocks running in purple states. I’m not saying this makes Newsome wrong, just that I disount his advice some.

  22. 22.

    oldgold

    Pete Buttigieg has real political talent. Has the rare ability to be the smartest person in the room without seeming condescending and/or pedantic.

  30. 30.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Twitter Nixon used to say instead of running for president from South Bend, Buttigieg should’ve moved to New Jersey and run for Congress. I believe he recently established residency in Michigan, where his husband is from, which I found interesting.

  32. 32.

    Nelle

    @Alison Rose 💙🌻💛: I just finished Education of an Idealist, a memoir by Samantha Power.  She was often in “the room where it’s happening,” and I valued her perspectives, particularly on why Obama didn’t go, bombs dropping, into Syria.

    She noted that Obama would caution his staff not to “admire the problem.”  The other piece I noted was that when the problem seems to overwhelming, “shrink the problem” until there is at least something one can do for someone.  It may not shift the overall issue for everyone but for the person that you helped, it is the universe.

  33. 33.

    Hoodie

    Pete would be a great VP candidate.  To use a boxing analogy, he’s a very good counterpuncher and knows how to control the ring against a skilled competitor.   Contrast him with Ryan, who was a lite snack for an old pro like Biden at the VP debate.

  34. 34.

    dm

    As I listened to Buttegieg’s remarks on Desantis, I thought: “Oh, yeah, he’s the father of twin two-year-olds, now.  Desantis’ antics must seem familiar.”

  37. 37.

    Calouste

    Clear messaging, although not big-D Democratic, from the UK:

    two mortgage lenders are temporarily suspending offering new mortgages because of the market instability caused by the Tories’ financial shitshow.

  38. 38.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Scout211:

    California Gov. Gavin Newsom warned members of his party Saturday that the GOP is “winning right now” as that party controls the national conversation – arguing that Democrats’ failure to offer a “compelling alternative narrative” has put the “entire rights agenda” of the last half-century at risk.

    Really? That’s not the impression I’ve gotten at all. Where is he getting this “The GOP are winning right now because they control the national conversation”? Is that why they’ve run away from being pro-abortion? Or that DeathSentence is currently facing a lot of scrutiny over the Migrant Flights?

    Seems to me they’re flailing

  40. 40.

    Gravenstone

    @WaterGirl: He’s a pasty white dude in Russia. If the press gangs catch him on the street, they won’t even look at an ID (other than maybe to toss it in the trash) before they chuck him in the back of the truck.

  46. 46.

    scav

    What I find (at least a little) intriguing about Newsom’s take is that criticizing Democrats is a wavelength that Republicans are hard-wired to.  The actual message that Republican actions and policies are shit might actually sneak in under cover of it.  The more nuanced constructive criticism take on his comments is still evident and available for other players.

  52. 52.

    Anyway

    @Geminid:

    Newsom.

    I am good with large Dem state governors being vocal about the Rethug party and highlighting differences between the two.
    The political media is already hard-wired to Rs and the miltiary-industrial complex around DC — make them report on perspectives outside the East coast. Dem governors generally don’t speak up much nationally – they are our bench (with executive experience) as much as Senators  and I like hearing from them (another good one is the Michigan governor).

  54. 54.

    cain

    You know, every time I listen to Pod Save America podcast and they keep talking about voters – it’s so incredibly frustrating. These people are still more worried about the economy not that a fascist movement is going to take over. Political unstability is also a bad thing – and in this case the media has managed to make fascism be on lower footing to the economy or taxes. Hell, even women’s rights are all lower tier compared to “OMG! Inflation!”

    Fuck these voters.

  55. 55.

    trollhattan

    We’re sending our best.

    A Northern California man accused of assaulting officers with bear spray at the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot in Washington, D.C., has rejected a plea deal from prosecutors and is headed to trial in April, meaning he will have spent nearly two years in custody when his trial on a 10-count indictment begins. Sean McHugh, an Auburn construction worker who is one of four Sacramento-area residents accused of crimes during the insurrection, appeared in court from jail by video Monday as his new attorney told U.S. District Judge John D. Bates that McHugh wants to face trial rather than take a deal. Bates set a trial date for April 17, and warned that he will not allow further delays after having postponed the trial twice before as McHugh sought dismissal of some counts and asked that his trial be moved out of Washington.

    “Understand this, that April trial date, unless something happens of an extreme nature … that date is not going to move,” Bates said. “I’m not going to continue this case again.” Allen, a Branson, Missouri, attorney retained by McHugh after he asked to replace his federal defender, said there would be no further delays of the trial, which is expected to last seven days.

    McHugh faces the most serious charges of the Sacramento-area defendants, with prosecutors describing his actions on Jan. 6 as pre-planned and deliberate. “McHugh brought to the Capitol a megaphone, bear spray, and a holster,” a prosecutor wrote in court papers last year.

    “The defendant came to D.C. prepared for conflict carrying chemical spray for offensive use. “As he marched with a large crowd to the Capitol he filmed himself with his phone saying: ‘Right now we’re storming the Capitol. We’re going to Congress and we’re gonna let them know that we don’t want them to accept the Electoral College votes’.”

    McHugh is seen on video shouting that the officers were “protecting pedophiles” and “protecting communists,” and that he grabbed a metal sign and pushed it into officers, court papers say. Prosecutors also say he used bear spray he carried in a holster on his hip against officers near the Capitol’s West Terrace, something his attorneys have denied.

    Before the Jan. 6 riot, McHugh had accumulated a lengthy history of criminal cases in the Sacramento region dating back to 2006, court papers say. “His criminal history includes violent offenses ranging from vandalism, malicious destruction of private property, burglary, domestic violence, distribution of controlled substances, resisting arrest, and three prior rape offenses…,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing last year. “The vast majority of these offenses occurred while McHugh was on probation and being supervised (just like the instant offense).

    https://www.sacbee.com/article266368656.html#storylink=cpy

    Y’all don’t need to send him back, once you’re done with him.

  57. 57.

    ian

    @eversor:

    don’t get pissed at colonialism unless you are also going to condem Christianity!

    What about Japanese colonialism?  What about colonialism by Israel, or colonialism by Islamic societies?  Are they fair game to criticize?  What about China’s colonial and ethnic displacement in Xinjiang and Tibet?  Is that fair game for criticism?  How about Soviet colonization that expanded by the borders of Imperial Russia, do we stridently blame that on atheism or is that a holdover from older orthodox traditions?

    I feel like we have had this round and round debate several times, are you learning anything from these discussions, and do you feel you have convinced anyone here of your point of view?

  60. 60.

    oldgold

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: Yes. There are many different kinds of humor. To my ear, Baud is a great counter puncher.

    Shakespeare got it right when he said, “A jest’s prosperity lies in the ear of him that hears it, never in the tongue of him that makes it.”

  63. 63.

    kindness

    So much of the MSM is ignoring how hateful Republicans are and they keep running around proclaiming that Republicans are going to win the House and possibly the Senate come November.  Those Village Elders apparently have major epistemic closure issues and have not talked to anyone horrified at the Theocracy the Supreme Court is hurtling us towards.

  70. 70.

    oldgold

     

    @Omnes Omnibus: When someone says they have a good sense of humor, do you think they mean they are receptive to and appreciate humor?  Or, that they can produce humor?

  71. 71.

    geg6

    @oldster:

    @PaulB:

    I read that other dual citizens in Russia are definitely eligible for conscription.  I don’t know that I believe that Snowden won’t be eligible just because his lawyer says so.

  74. 74.

    oldster

    @geg6:

    I had not seen that, but it would not surprise me.

    If I were ES, I would not feel too confident about staying a civilian.

  77. 77.

    Citizen Alan

    @WaterGirl: God doesn’t love me nearly enough, but wouldn’t it be utterly poetic if Edward Snowden got drafted to fight in Ukraine

    EDIT: And bjacques beat me to it.

  79. 79.

    sab

    Went to see husband’s neurosurgeon this morning. Husband cleared to drive (yay, but I will miss having access to a car, since he will  now be out and about in it.)

    We then had breakfast at our local Ohio diner. Basic breakfast for two, plus coffees and one orange juice. $35 plus tip. Ohio diner diners are not economically challenged. I could feed a whole family breakfast for a week for that

    ETA Big breakfast, not just cereal. Toast, eggs, hashbrowns, bacon.

  80. 80.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    As you wrote, “A jest’s prosperity lies in the ear of him that hears it, never in the tongue of him that makes it.”

    Alas, my poor tongue.

  81. 81.

    cmorenc

    Since current SCOTUS declared in Dobbs that abortion does not exist as a constitutional right inherently embedded in any explicitly enumerated provision or Amendment, what constitutional basis exists in Congress’s constitutionally granted legislative powers to create such a right by statute?  At least one that the current version of SCOTUS won’t overturn 6-3 as illegitimately without basis in the powers granted Congress?

  82. 82.

    J R in WV

    @cmorenc:

    It is actually possible for Congress to include in its act a requirement that said act is not reviewable by the Supreme Court. It’s in the constitution, too lazy to look up details Probly Art 3 somewhere.

    Wouldn’t that create a firestorm?

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