First up, Kemp making Stacey Abrams look cool as hell:
Celebrity Stacey Abrams is running her campaign to cater to liberal elites, but her radical agenda for more mandates, higher taxes, and slashed police funding is wrong for hardworking Georgians. pic.twitter.com/jfg1gAUuhC
— Brian Kemp (@BrianKempGA) September 26, 2022
Next, Oz continues his bad campaign decisions tour:
Dr. Oz took aim at John Fetterman’s clothing and said he was “stunned by” the “costume” and believes it contains a “deeper message.”
Oz: “When he dresses like that, he’s kicking authority in the balls.” pic.twitter.com/Mrne6ZEOGJ
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) September 26, 2022
I want this on a t-shirt.
And bonus Stacey Abrams meeting with someone awesome:
Avi, it's so nice to meet you. I hope the next time we meet, I'll be working as your governor. pic.twitter.com/xNmBWE8lsI
— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) September 26, 2022
So tomorrow is another J6 committee hearing, I’ll probably put the kindness post off a day. Also, I’m trying to put together a Jasper update, he’s doing so good and such a funny guy, smart, too. We’re glad he’s here.
These unforced errors are funny, but let’s not get cocky – still need to fight like hell for a blue wave
This is an open thread
ian
I just wanted to see that again. Go Fetterman!
Ken
In my screenplay treatment, Dr. Oz is secretly a serial killer and boasting of his victims in the campaign ads. This explains the use of
RUTH
LESS
Police will be searching for a missing woman named Ruth.
lollipopguild
These are people who create their own alternate reality/universe where they are always right and everyone else is always wrong.
NotMax
re: Oz
Patriarchal claptrap.
//
Baud
NotMax
is wrong for hardworking Georgians.
Underlying message: “as opposed to those lazy, shiftless n-clangs.”
Heidi Mom
@ian: Why yes, yes he is–on our behalf.
brendancalling
Authority deserves a good kick in the balls, almost as much as that Dr. Oz freak.
StringOnAStick
Oz must have seen some focus group results that told him people like the spicy language aspect to Fetterman and see it as “authenticity” , so he trotted out a video sawing “balls”. “See? I’m spicy too, elect ME you smelly proles!”. That should work, right? Idiot.
FelonyGovt
I fight authority, authority always wins… except when my “costume” kicks it in the balls
Memory Pallas
@Ken:
Is RUTH LESS actually a Pro-Forced-Birth meme celebrating the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg?
Baud
John Fetterman: Too Manly for Pennsylvania.
Paid for by the Oz for Senator campaign.
lowtechcyclist
@Ken:
Maybe that regnaD kciN dude can track her down.
Dangerman
Kicking Authority in the Nads is Rads.
Huh. Needs work.
WaterGirl
Chris Johnson
Indeed don’t get cocky, or at least have perspective: we can have a blue wave all we want but ALSO have to fight the Republicans, in their existential crisis, cheating and insurrecting and doing any damned thing they can to seize power anywhere they can.
And we don’t get to only have the blue wave and moral authority. We have to take power away from them like one takes the keys away from a recalcitrant drunk. Politely for as far as that gets us, and then aggressively because lives are at stake, and beyond that? Whatever’s necessary, or have the deaths on our conscience (and this drunk driver is wrecking into our whole country, and the planet Earth while they’re at it).
We take the keys away, and if we’re feeling charitable we hope they sober up. But we take the keys away. You don’t get cocky just because ‘ha ha, I’m sober and reasonable and you are sloppy drunk and still think you can drive’. You don’t go ‘look how better I am than you’. You fix the problem, which is acute and immediate.
Major Major Major Major
The Fetterman situation is so fucking upsetting to me. Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather have a Democrat with brain damage than Dr. Oz, but just… ugh. The only real structural fix for something like this is to mandate very short elections like they do in grown-up countries.
May he have a speedy recovery.
Kineslaw
There should be a fine or some sort of punishment every time an ad/publication/network darkens a black person’s skin, therefore trying to make them appear more threatening. Kemp does it in that ad, and I’d bet good money it’s not the only time this campaign. It’s disgusting and needs to stop.
TaMara
@Kineslaw: It’s not. I didn’t bookmark it but there was a tweet with several that had been manipulated that way – not all by the Kemp campaign, but also his allies.
Professor Bigfoot
Open thread, so I’m asking you guys to send us luck:
Our two-doors down neighbor had an Italian Mastiff; Mrs. B and I have watched them leave her stuck outside in the cold, on a lead in the back yard while they set off WWIII fireworks in the front yard… and always thought she deserved a better life than she had.
So we look up and there’s a moving truck in front of their house. When asked, they were moving, but couldn’t take the dog with them and so if they had to, they’d have her put down.
We already had four cats and two Yorkies, but we’ve taken this on.
She’s a good, sweet girl— but she’s also a very large and powerful animal. She’s taken Mrs. B down once and come close to getting me out of sheer excitement.
Today is the first day of our third week of trying to integrate her into our menagerie and it’s s l o w…
We want to keep her, but the Yorkies and the kittens come first.
Send us all the luck you can spare!
geg6
@StringOnAStick:
I live in a pretty Trumpy county and a township that is also sorta Trumpy (at least, there are houses that didn’t take down the Trump 2020 signs until this summer). And yes, I know lawn signs are not really a good measure of anything. But there are Fetterman and Shapiro and Deluzio signs all over the place. I’ve seen exactly one Oz sign and zero for Mastriano. I sure hope this is a good sign for November.
zhena gogolia
@Major Major Major Major: what, did he get sick again?
geg6
@Baud:
I literally LOLed. My staff assistant is looking at me like I’m a loon.
Starfish
Let me get this straight, Stacy Abrams was President of Earth on an episode of Star Trek Discovery, at a time when science fiction, comic books, and other nerd things are deeply popular. And Kemp thinks this takes away from her likability?
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Kineslaw: You saw that too, huh?
They are who we thought they were.
geg6
@Major Major Major Major:
He’s fine. There is nothing to worry about. Reports are that, after a few weeks now out on the trail, he’s having no problems with talking or anything. He’s lost a ton of weight and his doctors have taken all restrictions off. He’s good to go and in good fighting form.
Kristine
@Professor Bigfoot: 🍀🤞
PaulWartenberg
OF COURSE the House Committee on J6 is gonna be on the same day Hurricane Ian slams right into where I live.
People, if I live through it, save me the best clips so I can watch later when the power comes back on.
Ken
@Memory Pallas: Hmm, your theory is more plausible than my serial-killer plot, but somehow makes Oz morally worse.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Professor Bigfoot:
You two are saints. Keep us updated.
pacem appellant
Since 2008, polls have been pretty useless in general. The last ones I read from GA do not show Abrams doing great. While I can’t understand that, I also know that I live on the Left Coast and am not insane. I hope Google relocated enough squishy Dems to Atlanta to push Abrams over the top, and that they don’t answer their phones for telemarketers which is why polling looks bad.
geg6
@Professor Bigfoot:
Keep up the patience! Things will work out, I’m sure. You and your wife are doing the best of all possible things, IMHO. Saving an animal, if possible, is the most noble of all things.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Professor Bigfoot:
Your comment prompted me to search for “mastiff rescue” and there is indeed a Rescue organization. Looks like they have regional chapters. Perhaps they can help.
Albatrossity
When he dresses like that, he’s kicking authority in the balls.
Rotating tag nomination!
Starfish
@Kineslaw:
Even though it pains me to be giving the Kemp campaign the benefit of the doubt, it may be pointing to the larger problem with how Black folks are portrayed in media.
The portrayals of Black people in the white-dominated media in general are bad, so the original photo that they worked off of could have been terrible.
The person who created Good Black News said that she works hard to get nice photos of the people in the stories doing positive things. She said, even in positive stories about the achievements of Black people, you hardly have a smiling photo.
The screenshot of Abrams from Yahoo News is unusually dark.
When you look at the clip from the episode, the lighting is much better.
Old School
@Kineslaw: @BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️:
That was also done to Mandela Barnes in his race against Ron Johnson.
Omnes Omnibus
Confident is fine. Complacency is not. Knowing the difference is important.
Heidi Mom
@geg6: Hi Beaver County, from Cumberland! Our college-town county seat is bluer than the county as a whole, but FWIW I’m seeing the same. A few days ago I drove down a very upper-middle-class street (West South, past the law school, in case Adam’s reading this) and saw nothing but Fetterman and Shapiro (gov candidate) signs.
Ohio Mom
@PaulWartenberg: My go-to for curated clips is Aaron Rupar’s twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/atrupar
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Yes, always a good idea to look for expert help.
FelonyGovt
It’s his “costume”. Like he got ready for a fancy dress ball by putting on a hoodie.😀
evap
@pacem appellant: The polls aren’t looking great and we have the added problem of a voter suppression law passed since the last governor’s election. There’s a bit in the new law that makes it illegal to hand out water to voters waiting in line to vote!!!! Someone in my neighborhood did just that during the recent primary election and sent a video to the Sec of State asking if they were going to arrest him. I don’t think anything came of it…
Ladyraxterinok
Very interesting.
Just saw polls that have Republican governor of Oklahoma just four points ahead of the Democrat. Really wild
And Democrat running for superintendent of education is actually points ahead of the Republican incumbent. Some think it’s because the Republican has angered the public school teachers in Oklahoma with some of his statements and policies
Both Democrats are women
This is absolutely incredible info for Oklahoma!!!!
Major Major Major Major
@zhena gogolia: He has aphasia and is experiencing difficulty communicating. It is not knowable how much he will recover, or when.
@geg6: Has he scheduled a debate yet?
bjacques
You can’t s
@Ken: you can’t spell “Z-O-D-I-A-C” without “O-Z”. (TAPS NOSE))
C Stars
Would they portray a white candidate as an “alien”? It just seems so obvious to me. Abrams is from another planet. Obama wasn’t born here. Kemp’s just dancing around what he really means, and it’s repulsive.
But yeah, she does look boss in that image.
Open Thread complete randomness: I have been noticing a lack of birdsong this summer, but right now the birdies are going nuts, even here in my somewhat industrial neighborhood on the edge of the Bay. I can hear at least three or four feathered friends making themselves known to the world.
C Stars
@Ladyraxterinok: Fantastic!
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Old School: It’s tradition, they did it to PBO too.
I’m well past the point where I expect the absolute WORST from these useless bags of mostly water, yet they STILL manage to surprise me.
cain
@Professor Bigfoot: Wishing you the best of luck! At least get her to a stage where she’d make someone their dream animal – but hope you get to keep her!
geg6
@Major Major Major Major:
Not sure that they’ve agreed on dates yet, but last I heard, they’d settled on two debates.
Scout211
What time is the J6 hearing tomorrow? I haven’t been overly online as per my usual, so this is the first time I heard that one is scheduled. Is this the one that they called probably the last one?Nevermind. WaterGirl just posted it in a new thread.
Professor Bigfoot
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: the thing is, Sweetie (dumb name but absolutely applicable- she’s a ridiculously sweet doggo) is not the problem.
LT Ripley and Ser Cooper are, even now, watching me from behind the gate keeping Sweetie out of the kitchen. (It has a small gate inset that’s open, if they ever want to come out they can but so far they’re just not havin’ it).
I can’t blame ‘em, to a 10 pound Yorkie an 80 pound mastiff running towards you is like seeing a freight train and you’re stuck on the track; but all Sweetie actually WILL do is slobber all over ‘em.
(I always said I never wanted a slobbery dog because, well, yuck! but here I am with a heart stolen by the slobberiest big-headed ol’ girl I’ve ever met. Crimony. ❤️)
But we are making progress.
The Moar You Know
@Chris Johnson: Back when I was a young and dumb teenager, I had to punch a good friend of mine in the face, multiple times, because he was drunk as hell and wouldn’t give me the keys. The problem was twofold:
Old School
@Major Major Major Major:
There will be one Fetterman-Oz debate on October 25th.
Joe Falco
@Baud:
Completely expected that a lawsuit happened. Laughable that the schmuck wants to argue that this voluntary option would do more harm to him IF he took it (again something he would have to apply for!) than if he didn’t. Any court would throw the lawsuit (and him) out and would be expected to do so if it wasn’t for the fact judges like Cannon exist and sit on the bench. I guess my only surprise from this is that it’s not Judicial Watch that’s spearheading this case but some other right-wing crank organization.
Major Major Major Major
@Old School: Oh good! Last I saw he was being cagey about a date. He must be feeling a lot better.
geg6
@Old School:
Guess I’m out of the loop. It’s just the one. Regardless, I’m not worried. I have heard him speak multiple times the last couple of weeks. He’s fine.
Betty Cracker
@Professor Bigfoot: People who save animals are the best sort of people. Best of luck with the doggo! In my experience, once you get the basics squared away (don’t jump on people, etc.), the size of the dog doesn’t matter that much.
Betty
@Major Major Major Major: He has recovered very well and has a debate scheduled.
trollhattan
Check this out.
Bonus points for standing on the Russia flag while raising Ukraine’s.
Betty Cracker
Regarding political ads that “darken” black candidates, Marco Rubio and/or associated PACs are all over that strategy in Florida with some really gross and childish ads on the streaming channels. I haven’t noticed whether Rubio makes himself look whiter. It’s a real insight into what they think of voters.
Tony G
I’m old enough to remember right-wing rhetoric when I was a teenager in the early seventies. It was nonsense then, but it appealed to some people who had grown up in the forties and fifties. But they’re still at it with this stuff a half-century later? It’s a movement that seems to be incapable of learning.
Amir Khalid
@Professor Bigfoot:
If she’s willing to learn to be gentle around smaller creatures, I believe there’s a good chance of her eventually fitting in well. Good luck to all of you.
Jay
@Professor Bigfoot:
Rambo and Rusty, our best friend’s dear departed Tea Cup Yorkies, loved our dear departed Casey, (PitX) and Digger(Belgian ShepX). They would compete in fetch, zoomies and would push their way into having space on Casey and Diggers dog mats.
Because they would sleep with Bun at night, at the crack of dawn they would whine until she let them out to hang with the big dogs. Once, when Digger took off chasing a deer, Rambo decided he could do it to.
Sometimes it takes a little time for the “pack” to form.
Paul in KY
@Professor Bigfoot: Best of luck! You are a kind soul.
Anonymous At Work
@StringOnAStick: I keep saying that Oz flunk the Mitt Romney course in “How to Human Being”.
cain
@Tony G: It’s always the same messaging – raises taxes, even though I don’t remember when taxes were raised. When they were – they specifically targeted to fix something. In Oregon, we’re trying to fund schools.
Raising taxes is ok, especially if it makes things that are important to society like education cheaper. It’s how we compete with the rest of the globe.
These idiots are only interested in their stuff, while also swooning about God and the ten commandments while adhering to nothing. Performative assholes.
Paul in KY
@bjacques: Whoa!!!!
zhena gogolia
@PaulWartenberg: Will do!
kalakal
@Professor Bigfoot: Heh, Glad it’s going the right way. She sounds wonderful. Good for you for taking her in when she was abandoned.
topclimber
Fetterman is more likely to punch a nut in the face, man to man, than kick one in his sack.
Professor Bigfoot
@Betty Cracker: it’s rubbing it into my face that we’ve let the Yorkies get away with things that no one would let a big ol’ dog like Sweetie.
Got me rethinking my life choices. 😉
frosty
@Heidi Mom: @geg6: Hi Cumberland and Beaver counties from York, just north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Mastriano and Oz here. No Fetterman anywhere around me.
sigh. Outvote us please!
Brit in Chicago
@cain: The cost of stuff and services that we can, over time, do/make more efficiently goes down relative to overall costs; the cost of stuff and services that we cannot goes up. (Cf. Baumol.) Unfortunately, almost all the things that state and local governments falls in the latter category. (Education, law enforcement, health care.) So state and local taxes need to go up over time. But voters are very reluctant to have their taxes raised, and many politicians pander to them (rather than explaining why it’s necessary). It is, I think, particularly unfortunate that education is mostly funded locally, rather than federally.
JDM
Yes, Kemp, reminding people (or informing people) that Stacey is so cool she had a cameo on Star Trek as President of United Earth, now that’s a dig!
geg6
@frosty:
I have to say that I’m surprised at all the signs here in Beaver and Cumberland. All Trumpy areas, I believe. Although we are kinda purple here, depending on how you look at things (congressional districts, municipalities, etc.), I’m hoping that we go a nice blue this year. There is yard I saw (when I was at another local campus of my employer last week) that has OZ yard signs. but had turned them so they said NO instead. I thought it was clever. They had 3 signs, so it said NO OZ NO.
Gravenstone
@ian: The dude is 6’10” and built big (even if he’s lost weight). There is a rather limited sartorial palette from which he can work.
Betty Cracker
@Professor Bigfoot: We were (metaphorically!) bitten on the ass like that when we downsized to smaller dogs, so I know exactly what you mean! ;-)
rikyrah
@Baud:
how does working for those azzholes count as Public Service?
Geminid
@Gravenstone: I think Fetterman looks pretty sharp in a nice pair of jeans. He’s a stubborn guy, though, and that’s part of his appeal I think.
I’m not a big fan, but I think Fetterman will make a good Senator. I was a little worried that McCormick would win the Republican primary, but a certain stable genius succeeded in sticking Pennsylvania Republicans with the godawful Oz.
Skepticat
@Professor Bigfoot: Sending much luck—and much love to the dog and to the people kind enough to rescue her. For your sake, I’m glad you’re rid of those neighbors (must have been Rethuglicans). I’m pretty certain the doggo is happy to see the last of them too.
Chief Oshkosh
@pacem appellant: According to folks I know on the ground in GA, Abrams has been focusing on non-urban areas. I’m worried about her campaign. I have no idea why they think this is a winning strategy; those people will never, ever vote for a black woman or a Democrat.
OTOH, I didn’t think Ossoff would win, so WTF do I know?
topclimber
@Chief Oshkosh: The idea is to cut down on GQP margins in their home turf. I don’t see how the reverse strategy works for Republicans in blue areas. Advantage Abrams.
JustRuss
Jeez Doc, tell me you want to lose the election without telling me you want to lose the election. At least you’ll get George Will’s vote.
TaMara
@Professor Bigfoot: I’m late to this post and if I see you in another thread I’ll let you know I replied.
I’m an email away if you have any questions. Giant breeds are different – in temperament and mentally. So it may take different techniques than with your Yorkies. But well worth the effort. It’s just about understanding them and working with them from there.
Urban Suburbanite
The new attack on Fetterman is weird handwringing over his tattoos – Fetterman has the name and dates of multiple people who died violently in Braddock during his time, and a line from “Hurt”. According to noted expert on organized crime, Newton Leroy Gingrich, this shows Fetterman’s affiliation with the Crips, a West Coast gang.
Ksmiami
@Tony G: authoritarianism mixed w theocracy never learns… it just rehashes the old hatreds
PaulWartenberg
“How Are They So Bad At This?”
The Republican campaign gameplan is all the same: Whatever it is the Democrat does, make it seem like what they’re doing is the most insane and embarrassing thing in the world, so that when the Republican candidate does something stupid and/or violent the media will shrug it off as “both sides are to blame.”
Essentially: Keep punching the Democrat for ANYTHING they do. Eventually they will feel shame, apologize to the media, and look weak before Election Day.
PaulWartenberg
Open thread: another school shooting, this time at a football practice that killed a 14-year-old.
https://www.cbsnews.com/philadelphia/news/roxborough-high-school-shooting/
sparks
@Major Major Major Major: An acquaintance of mine had a stroke when he was 44. He’s now 65 and had no problems since.