It ain’t lunchtime here, but it probably is somewhere. First up in items for consideration, several members of the Oath Keepers are on trial today for seditious conspiracy, including Stewart “You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out, Kid!” Rhodes. WaPo:
Rhodes and four co-defendants — Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrelson, Jessica Watkins and Thomas Caldwell — have pleaded not guilty to felony charges alleging that they conspired for weeks after the 2020 presidential election to unleash political violence to oppose the lawful transfer of power to Joe Biden.
The defendants came from Texas, Florida, Ohio and Virginia, and allegedly led a group that traveled to Washington and staged firearms nearby before forcing entry through the Capitol Rotunda doors in combat and tactical gear.
I’m particularly interested in the outcome for Kelly Meggs, local boy gone bad. Generally, I’m not in favor of throwing the book at people — I think we do that too often in this country. But I hope the fabled book wallops Meggs upside the head with great force and ricochets off to smacks his stupid wife Connie, a co-insurrectionist who is on house arrest awaiting trial next year.
The Meggs portrayed themselves as an innocent, hardworking meemaw and pawpaw who were ripped from the bosom of their family by an overzealous DOJ and outrageously incarcerated with common criminals. But their texts and social media bravado tell a different story — the two imagined themselves militia-ninjas out to avenge their Trumpy Bear.
IIRC, these two were also dumb enough to electronically communicate with fellow insurrectionists about their plans to get rid of evidence when it dawned on them that their actions might actually have consequences. In other words, they were taking notes on a fucking criminal conspiracy. I hope their idiotic comments take them down, as similar foolishness has so many other dumbass insurrectionists.
Shifting gears to politics by non-violent means, here’s an excerpt from a NYT newsletter by Nate Cohn on the Dems’ chances in the midterms. If you, like me, are masochistic enough to follow polling and political commentary fairly closely, you’ll know that after some post-Dobbs optimism, a lot of recent punditry is pouring cold water again on the likelihood that Dems might hold the House or even make gains in the Senate. Cohn says we should take Dems’ chances in the House seriously:
No, I’m not saying Democrats are favored. The likeliest scenario is still that Republicans will find the five seats they need to take control. And no one should be surprised if Republicans flip a lot more than that — especially with early signs that the political winds may be starting to shift in ways that might yield some Republican gains in key races (more on this tomorrow). But the idea that Democrats can hold the House is not as ridiculous, implausible or far-fetched as it seemed before the Dobbs ruling overturned Roe v. Wade. It is a real possibility — not some abstraction in the sense that anything can happen…
On paper, the Democratic disadvantage is fairly comparable to their disadvantage in the Senate — which most everyone agrees Democrats have a decent chance to hold this cycle. Of course, the reason we think Democrats might overcome their obstacles in the Senate is because we have dozens of polls in critical Senate races. Thanks to those polls, we know Democrats lead in Pennsylvania and Arizona, which we might have assumed were tossups otherwise. In contrast, we have no idea whether Democrats are leading in equivalent races for the House: There are almost no nonpartisan House polls at all, and they’re spread out across many more races.
But if Democrats can do what they appear to be doing in the Senate, there’s no reason to assume they couldn’t already be doing something similar in the House. If we had as many House polls as we do in the Senate, perhaps Democrats would appear to be ahead in the race for the House as well.
Okay. The conventional wisdom seems to be the Dems have a chance to hold the Senate in part because of candidate quality — even McConnell acknowledged that. Trump elevated a lot of morons, and that put Republicans behind the eight ball. But maybe there’s a lot more to it than the orange gift that keeps giving, at least in a less direct sense.
The Kansas referendum, voter registration numbers that show women outpacing men, and closer than expected outlooks in gubernatorial races in red states like Oklahoma are other divining rods. You’ll find plenty of neener neener-toned opinion pieces that say the Dems are setting themselves up for heartbreak yet again because polls are still undercounting the opposition defiant-disordered authoritarian/chaos fans.
And maybe they are — I have no fucking idea. Look to Brazil for an offshore example — their ridiculous Trumpkin figure was supposed to get blown out over the weekend but kept the election close enough for a runoff. Maybe we’ll fall short too.
But as for me, I’m going to try to remain optimistic that people are fed up with pinch-faced, belligerent blowhards who offer nothing to solve our very real and pressing problems and focus instead on giving their rabid base a steady supply of hate-boners. If I’m wrong, I’ll take another run at becoming a normie because this shit is driving me nuts. But until then, I’ll keep writing the damned postcards until my hand cramps up.
Open thread.
Jeffery
I am getting nervous about Fetterman in the PA senate race.
ian
Worst Saturday morning cartoon ever.
brendancalling
Even a grumpy pessimist like me has been out the past two weekends knocking on doors for Democrats in Philadelphia. In November my band is playing a fundraiser for the 6th Ward Democrats in Philly as well. Turnout and enthusiasm matter—and I’m doing my best to help. I’m even smiling at people.
Villago Delenda Est
I disagree, Betty. Throw the book, the bookcase, the entire library at these treasonous fucks.
Villago Delenda Est
Oh, no, not that? Not the dreaded smile! You monster!
NaijaGal
The message from Brazil is Bolsanaro, an incumbent, didn’t win outright and trailed Lula by several points. I think he’ll lose outright in the October rematch.
japa21
@NaijaGal:
Now you are being realistic. That’s not allowed.
Another Scott
How pundits can be confident of polling these days, while ignoring polling misses and Democratic waves in places like Kansas, is baffling to me. (Something something his salary depends on it. I guess.)
Elaine Luria in VA-2 supposedly is in a tight “competitive” race. As of June 30, OpenSecrets says she has $4.3M+ cash on hand, while her GQP opponent has $0.4M.
I like our chances. A lot.
But we have to be smart about how we fight for every seat.
Cheers,
Scott.
trollhattan
@NaijaGal: God, I hope so. Among many horrors, the Amazon rainforest’s fate hangs in the balance.
japa21
I have several reasons for feeling optimistic, despite the media’s best efforts at pulling the Dems down.
1. Polling this cycle is totally messed up. Turnout models based on past elections are not going to be accurate.
2. Unlike 2010, the Dems are not running away from what they have accomplished, but instead are out there bragging about it.
3. Inflation, a biggie, will definitely show signs of moderating. It already has to a great degree on a month to month basis and this will show up in the next 2 reports prior to the election.
I am confident the Dems will hold on to the House and increase their majority in the Senate by at least 2, maybe 3 seats.
I will repeat, however, what OO always likes to say. Confidence is not the same as complacency.
Geminid
@Another Scott: I think that Republican PACs will pick up Jen Kiggan’s slack in her race againt Elaine Luria (VA-2nd). That’s one of their best pickup opportunities.
brantl
I think the Rowe decision, coupled with their ridiculous stance on abortion rights nationally, is going to get their asses kicked. But maybe that’s just me.
cain
@Another Scott: The press has a story and they are sticking with it! It’s historical, man! The party in power always loses power in the midterms – they got a whole bunch of shit articles all queued up about how Biden has to move to the right now that the public has spoken and you gotta work with Congress – bipartisanship – no more dark brandon.
The plot is so worn and boring – lazy motherfuckers. They will be very disappointed if we keep all branches.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
anecdote from the latest episode of the O’Bros Wilderness podcast: They put together a focus group of 20-something Biden voters in Orange County (Katie Porter’s district) who weren’t sure if they were going to vote in the mid-terms. Dobbs made them much more likely to turn out.
Like I said, and Favreau said: Anecdote, but consistent with a lot of news about polling and registration
cain
@brantl:
Most of these pundits tend to be middle aged, to old white males. They don’t have any experience with women issues or these laws effect families, children – and so on.
They think they are doing God’s work by applying pragmatic, serious, by the numbers nonsense – not realizing what horrors are going to be pushed on everyone – republicans too. Luckily, Dark Brandon isn’t going to sign any sweeping no abortion law but there will be plenty of theater, yesirree. The kind of theater that the media will be able to leverage and get some bucks.
MattF
I’m not going to spike my blood pressure by worrying about polls. We simply do not know. Random variation cannot be eliminated. Unknown systematic errors are unavoidable. Go away.
cain
We still have some more unhinged SCOTUS decisions coming down the pipe – so don’t worry – we’ll have more ammo. Roberts isn’t going to be able to control these assholes. ABL has been sounding the alarm about all this.
You know they also want to get rid of gay marriage and the states are bringing all those bills for them to bring it out. They aren’t going to waste that chance – I don’t think they are going to restrict themselves. They got plenty of life left to do more terrible things in the future.
Omnes Omnibus
@NaijaGal: My understanding is that Lula hit is polling numbers, but Bolsanaro beat his because a number of people who were expected to vote for the small party candidates plunked for Bolsanaro. Lula needs very little to get over 50%; I am pretty confident that he will do it.
Mike E
@cain: the tankie free press aren’t even bothering with articles about Biden needing to tack rightward, their narrative has always been that Dems are the only party with agency and they aren’t “doing it right”… whatever the “it” is at any given time.
Betty Cracker
@NaijaGal: I hope Brazil does kick the shithead out in the rematch, but my point was the polls were way off. At least, that’s what I read. Maybe that’s not accurate.
Shalimar
I’m not good at optimism, but at least i can keep from depressing others.
Betty Cracker
@Villago Delenda Est: We don’t disagree on this case. Maybe in general — as in the criminal justice system in the U.S. writ large — we do.
jonas
@Omnes Omnibus: I know nothing about Brazilian politics, but I am surprised at the number of people in that country who want an absolutely horrible fascist asshole as president. Not so different from here, I guess. Lots of “economic anxiety?”
Anonymous At Work
Part of the media coverage that gets overlooked is how much it has, possibly on purpose, divorced political outcomes from real-world consequences. Dobbs really screwed that aspect.
Geminid
@jonas: I think that issues of “economic anxiety” tend to work in Lula’s favor, but I read that some of Brazil’s poor and middle class voters are swayed more by culture war issues.
Central Planning
@jonas: John Oliver did a piece on the Brazil election last week (maybe two weeks ago). Bolsanaro is running his campaign like TFG and other authoritarians, especially the “integrity of the vote.” People believe him. Bolsanaro said he either wins, goes to jail, or dies.
Omnes Omnibus
@jonas: There are many stupid and/or shitty people in the world. I think that the rest of us actually outnumber them. Others’ MMV.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker: Lula was projected to win outright w/ no runoff. Heard this a.m. that while Lula’s polling #s were accurate those for Bolsonaro significantly undercounted his actual vote.
I wonder if it was like Trump voters not copping to their intentions when pollsters reached out to them. “Why yes, I’m voting for the proud rapist” doesn’t fall easily from the lips of the Karen army.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Jeffery:
Any particular reason? Has Oz said or done something not-stupid in the last week or so?
I’m realizing that my cautious optimism, which I still have, is mostly riding on the Kansas result and the other special election results of the last few months (the analysis showing big swings +Dem). Also the reports of huge numbers of women registering. I somehow don’t think they represent a MAGA surge.
Scout211
SCOTUS just allowed the defamation lawsuit against Mike Lindell to proceed. Link
trollhattan
@Central Planning: “Offers #2 and #3 are acceptable.”
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
Fuck yeah Poland
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Scout211: That’s great, but why was it at the Supreme Court in the first place. Do other random private citizens have the option of asking the Supreme Court to block lawsuits against them?
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
(If someone could please rescue my comment from whatever jail it’s in, thank you.
ETA or maybe I can just edit this one and you can trash the first one:
Jackie
Time to ignore the polls and double-down on GOTV. I’m putting my trust in women and the men who love them to show up in Roemember, and Roe, Roe, Roe the vote!
H.E.Wolf
Yes to this, and to playing music at fundraisers, and to all the other small, concrete actions that can be taken between now and Nov. 8th.
I saw this somewhere recently, in respect to doing the work of GOTV: “Fight like Ukrainians”. I took that to mean: everyone mobilizes, in whatever way they best can. (I’m in the hand-cramping postcard brigade.)
Omnes Omnibus
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Yes. And the Court usually declines to hear their cases just like it did here.
Betty Cracker
@Anonymous At Work: That’s a great point. In the morning thread, Kay commented on an AZ case where a girl with pediatric arthritis couldn’t get a prescription filled because of state’s anti-abortion law regulates that medication. So there’s a child in pain who can’t get relief because religious fanatics see her only as a potential vessel for a fetus.
Same with the horror stories we’re hearing all around the country about women with ectopic pregnancies, fetuses with fatal anomalies, partial miscarriages, etc. Real people, real world consequences.
Central Planning
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: IANAL, but I’m pretty sure anyone can go to the SC if you don’t get the answer you want at local/state/district/whatever court level.
It sounds like the SC declined to even consider the case.
ETA – Beaten by someone who IAL.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: Tough crowd in Madison Saturday got tougher yesterday.
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: Are you talking about Paul Chryst? I was a little surprised by it.
The Moar You Know
@trollhattan: by over 15%. That’s not polling error; voters, especially of the Nazi persuasion, have figured out the weak spot in polling as a science. They are lying to pollsters.
Happening here too. The 2016 and 2020 presidential elections polled vs. actual numbers are, to this day, inexplicable. Unless you contemplate (and pollsters don’t, because it would mean the end of their profession) the possibility that those polled were deliberately lying.
mdblanche
@cain: Of course, if Democrats do defy history and win the midterms, they’ll just print those same articles anyway.
HumboldtBlue
My biggest concern is gerrymandering and the idea that red state legislatures and governors will simply produce the results they want regardless of how voters vote.
Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida…
Steeplejack
Live thread here if you want to follow the Oath Keepers trial.
Another Scott
@The Moar You Know: As I understand it, voting is mandatory in Brazil, so it’s different than in the USA. It’s hard to make comparisons between the two.
But polling depends on accurate estimates of the people who actually turn out to vote. Even if everyone will vote, you have to get a representative random sample of them (not just call people who are home during the normal working hours, etc.) for an accurate poll.
Maybe some significant fraction of people lie to pollsters. I suspect, though, that many more people just don’t bother to answer calls from numbers they don’t recognize.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus
A lot of these polls strike me as being 6 drunks at a bar at 3am talking smack. That doesn’t mean that work isn’t necessary, it always is. But while both sides are worked up and racism and hate are two big selling points for a lot of people, I believe that there are more people who have actual legit reasons to vote and to vote democratic. Roe is one big point and should be pushed. While it hasn’t all been roses and candy, it was a 50 yr old law that I’d bet most of the women under 50 (and child bearing age) never thought they would lose that right. And SFB’s shitty picks for the SC screwed all those women. How many do we think thought that was a good idea? How many does anyone think is going to decide that getting screwed that badly is a good thing? How many rethuglican candidates are worth the air they breathe? I can name 2. Nothing is ever a sure thing, yes we will have to sell this, but I think it’s very much worth doing, and the stories I’ve seen that aren’t trying to fuck everything up are saying the same. We are at a crisis point in our politics, as are many countries currently. That’s those rich assholes who actually are only rich in money but poor in every other aspect of humanity who don’t want that gravy train to derail and I say let’s derail those assholes and their sycophants.
Doug R
@Jeffery:
I’m a bit worried about an October surprise but we just spent 2 1/2 years on COVID and we’ve handled monkeypox AND the stunt with the refugees especially right before a hurricane SLAMMED Florida makes me think the SCARY CARAVAN thing won’t work as well this time.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Kind of on topic: I strongly recommend The Wilderness podcast I mentioned above. The focus is on young Democrats in CA, but I think there’s a lot to be gleaned about national politics, especially the number of them who said their biggest issue is housing. The rent (and down payment and mortgage rates) is too damn high.
They’re pissed about Dobbs, but it seems to me the housing crisis is an issue Dems should be getting out front on, especially at the state/local level.
also, blog favorite Katie Porter is featured prominently, and makes a lot of sense, and I say that as someone who has viewed her more skeptically in the past couple of years.
Geminid
@HumboldtBlue: At least Wisconsin and Pennsylvania have Democratic governors. So does Michigan, and they were three reasons I felt more confident about the 2020 election.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Geminid: from what I’ve read Shapiro and Whitmer seems to be in pretty good shape. I haven’t seen a lot of coverage of the Evers/Whackadoo race. Pretty sure that’s his opponent’s name, but I could be misspelling it
Martin
Oh, I disagree. I’ve been saying for quite a while now that polling models are fucking busted because pollsters have no reliable way to identify likely voters any more. You have young people voting in MUCH higher numbers than normal, you have women voting out of their normal range, etc. In previous elections you had fascists as a new voting population that never showed up before – they were just non-voters. Will they vote now?
The problem with building a polling sample is that if you build it wrong, your errors compound and they compound in ways that you are generally blind to detect.
I mean, all of the 2020 polling errors were just people pulling the lever that the pollsters had no idea were likely to show up. In 2016, it was a different group of people. The trajectory is that 2022 should be like 2020, but possibly more of a surprise toward dems. The unknown is whether infrequent voters on the left have gotten the message they need to be frequent voters.
Jeffery
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: It’s getting too close. Fetterman is only 2 point over Oz as of today. He had a very comfortable lead a month ago.
Betty Cracker
From what I’ve read, pollsters analyzed their epic flop in 2016 and saw that they’d failed to give education sufficient weight. At one time, it wasn’t as big of a political marker as it is now. IIRC, they gave it more weight in 2020 and were still off but not by as much.
ARoomWithAMoose
@Doug R: “the stunt with the refugees especially right before a hurricane SLAMMED Florida makes me think the SCARY CARAVAN thing won’t work as well this time.”
I think the refugee stunt WAS October surprise. My news and youtube suggestions the week following had some stories that disappeared quickly that must have been prepped as part of a national media campaign to riff off of “those hypocritical liberal elites deporting people, har har”.
Martin
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: At least in CA, Dems are getting in front of housing. At least, the NUMTOTs are getting the ideas they’ve been championing for some time, which is a good sign – they’re good ideas. The downside is that these aren’t fast-moving policies so relief will take a couple of years. The latest was the elimination of parking minimums within half a mile of transit which has a great long-term benefit, but even if you proposed a project today, you’re looking at 2025 before anyone is living there. But the larger problem of small cabal friction (NIMBYs, basically) is generally unsolved. But these laws at least remove some of the legal anvils these groups hammer against to stop progress.
Martin
@Betty Cracker: A lot of low education voters are very disaffected – they historically don’t vote. Trump activated them and they turned out in 2016. Similarly, the reality of a Trump president activated young people starting in 2018.
What’s unclear is the degree to which Trumps decline will cause those disaffected low education voters to return to being disaffected and start to stay home. My guess is that in races with non-bomb-throwing Republicans, they stay home, and with bomb-throwing Republicans they turn out, but can’t win races larger than a congressional district.
Soprano2
@The Moar You Know: Yep, my mother the extreme conservative boasted to me about lying to pollsters when she talked to them. She thought it was funny to make their results bad. I think a lot of conservative voters do that.
Betty Cracker
@Jeffery: Josh Marshall wrote about the Fetterman – Oz (PA) and Johnson – Barnes (WI) senate races today. Article here and paywalled unless you’re a subscriber, I think.
Marshall thinks Fetterman’s stroke is why that race is getting tight. He makes the point that if you’re a partisan Dem, you don’t give a crap if Fetterman still has a way to go to get back to 100% or not — he’s obviously a thousand times better than Oz. But if you’re unaffiliated, Fetterman’s health is probably a factor, and Oz has successfully made it an issue for those voters. Sounds plausible to me.
He also says Ron Johnson has moved ahead of Barnes in Wisconsin thru scaremongering over crime. From Marshall’s description, it sounds like Johnson’s campaign is basically a Willie Horton ad-style attack now. I hope it blows up in his face.
Chief Oshkosh
@Central Planning:
Given the polling and current voting, to paraphrase a bug, “His proposal is acceptable.
ETA: trollhatten (and maybe others) beat me to it!
cain
@mdblanche:
It will be considered some fluke and Biden needs to move to the middle to sooth the flaming butts of MAGA people.
Betty
@Jeffery: I find that poll hard to believe. I would like to know what area of the state or demographic changed that much so quickly. I do understand that Oz has blanketed the airwaves with ugly, misleading ads.
Mike in NC
Every Republican who loses in November is going to echo their Orange Messiah: “This election was rigged and stolen!!!”
ian
@Martin: Please don’t use cabal to describe small insider groups. Unless you are talking about small groups of rabbis, cabal is a widely inaccurate word to use. Using it as a negative pejorative to describe the actions of people you dislike reinforces anti-Semitic framing and rhetoric. There is a reason Q-anon uses cabal so frequently.
It is incredibly frustrating to see this word mainstreamed to mean ‘small groups of people we don’t like’
This is from Merriam-Webster
Cameron
I’m hoping that Val Demings will loudly and continuously refer to Scooter’s taking a powder during the Florida hurricane relief vote. Though I know so little of Florida voters, I’ve probably misjudged the reaction and he’ll gain 10 points in the polls.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Some political analysts assign actual polling little weight and base their election models more on past performance and demographic makeup of individual districts. That’s how Rachel Bitecofer derived her model that predicted a 42 seat Democratic pickup in 2018. In the event, Democrats picked up 40 but Bitecofer said that Democrats left a few under resourced Texas districts in the table.
One demographic factor Bitecofer weighted was education level. Many of the districts Democrats flipped were in suburban areas with relatively large numbers of college educated voters. Fifty years ago a majority of the college educated voted Republican but that has changed in the decades since.
Bitecofer was somewhat of an upstart, and many people said she was just lucky in 2018. Lucky or not, that prediction gave her the reputation and confidence to strike out on her own when Christopher Newport University denied her a tenure track position in April, 2020.
Now Bitecofer puts her social science knowledge to use as a political engineer, consulting for campaigns mainly in western states including Arizona. She seems to be having a great time and has moved back to Oregon and watches her beloved Oregon football Ducks in person. Bitecofer also maintains a lively Twitter account.
Matt McIrvin
@japa21: The bear stock market seems to be losing a lot of professional centrist money types and thereby affecting the media atmosphere. Starting to see “why won’t he do something?” when of course the somethings he did to fix the COVID economic disruptions got knocked for being inflationary and rewarding the lazy.
mrstealyour
@Betty:
Fet campaign gonna lean on the “Oz killed 329 dogs with his mad scientist ways” to knock Mehmet out for good.
https://jezebel.com/dr-oz-s-scientific-experiments-killed-over-300-dogs-e-1849609272
trollhattan
And in climate news, what about when “renewable” energy instead proves to be one-time?
The clearcut pictures are reminiscent of flying up the West Coast, where the checkerboard federal/private forest ownership pattern is especially jarring.
Matt McIrvin
@Geminid:
Yeah, but those were the kinds of models that predicted that Mitt Romney would clobber Obama in 2012, when the strictly polling-based ones all won the day (and went on to predict a Hillary Clinton win in 2016). I don’t think anyone has the secret sauce.
Nelle
@ian: And I learned something today. Thank you.
Burnspbesq
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
Dominion sued Lindell in federal court. Lindell moved to dismiss. The district court denied the motion. Lindell tried to appeal. The court of appeals told him to GTFO, because denial of a motion to dismiss isn’t an appealable final order (something every first year needs to know if they have any hope of passing Civil Procedure). He tried to get the Supreme Court to step in. Again, GTFO. I imagine Lindell’s next move will be to file an obviously fraudulent bankruptcy petition, which will hopefully attract the attention of the local U.S. Attorney’s office (play stupid games, win stupid prizes).
and yes, you could do all of this. Not that I’d recommend it.
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@Jeffery: Me too. I’m seeing an ad on local TV (WGAL in Lancaster PA) that talks about Fetterman not paying his taxes 67 times and saying it was an oversight. I’m assuming it’s mostly garbage flinging, but that kind of thing can stick with normies. He’s also being accused of wanting to release murderers from jail (He’s on the state parole board) that “even Democrats didn’t want released”. Also saying Fetterman is dodging debates because he doesn’t want to talk about these things.
Geminid
@Martin: Disaffected trump voters seemed to have been a factor in the Georgia Senate runoffs. The Republican vote dropoff from the general election to the runoff was more than twice as great as the Democratic. Historically it was the opposite. I think that is one reason McConnell has not taken trump’s bait and gotten into a public fight with him.
My Atlanta friend thinks many of the voters trump activated will drift away from politics. He believes that most of them were not very civic-minded to begin with. I guess we’ll find out if this is the case.
zhena gogolia
@Burnspbesq: So why do all TFG’s delay tactics work for him? Isn’t there any recourse? What normal citizen would be allowed to have top-secret documents lying around their house? Not Reality Winner, I guess.
Burnspbesq
Rhodes’ defense theory is interesting, to say the least. He’s apparently going to claim that the Oath Keepers are (or are part of) the “well-regulated militia” of which the Second Amendment speaks, and they were on scene ready to swing into action when Trump invoked the Insurrection Act. Ergo, the seditious conspiracy statute can’t be applied.
Which doesn’t speak well of the value of a degree from Yale Law School (which Rhodes has).
Ohio Mom
@Betty Cracker: I don’t take that med for my rheumatoid arthritis but I pretty sure that little girl takes what she does not so much for pain relief but to slow the progression of her disease to as much as a standstill as possible.
Once RA destroys your joints, there is no going back. We are talking life-long impairment for a child that has a lot of life ahead of her.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: You know what? I did not say anyone had any secret sauce. I was just commenting on different election modeling tecniques, and I think in a neutral way.
Martin
@ian: Ah, thank you. I had no idea. I was searching for a particular word and dropped ‘cabal’ in out of frustration. I’ll strike that from my general lexicon.
Starfish
@HumboldtBlue: Yes. I am concerned about this too.
The gerrymander affects the House in a way that it does not affect the Senate. It sounds like Ohio is going to an election with a map that has been acknowledged to be an illegal gerrymander.
prostratedragon
Voting is officially mandatory in Brazil, but failure to do so is just a fairly small fine. Turnout has become an issue lately.
Bill Arnold
@ian:
Sadly, no.
https://www.theguardian.com/global/video/2018/nov/14/trumpy-bear-the-cuddly-toy-that-is-definitely-not-fake-news-video
(There was a Jewish cable TV channel that I’d occasionally watch even though it was (polite) conservative, until they started running Trumpy Bear adverts.)
I expect that their sales database is very very valuable.
Burnspbesq
@zhena gogolia:
Because the judicial system’s inherent bias in favor of fairness can be exploited by bad-faith actors. See, e.g., Alex Jones. Eventually, though, the avalanche comes. And when it comes, Trump is going to be well and truly fucked.
Starfish
@Doug R: The caravan as well as Mississippi’s starve the poor efforts by rejecting most people who apply for TANF need to be framed as the misuse of taxpayer dollars that they are.
Geminid
@Burnspbesq: Marcy Wheeler commented that this defense might actually work for Rhodes. His problem here is that while he stayed back from the storming of the Capitol, many of the Oafkeepers Rhodes conspired with did assault the Capitol in at least one organized formation. This will be an interesting trial.
Martin
@zhena gogolia: TFG has enough money to hire lawyers who will exploit every legal opportunity. Normal defendants can’t afford to lose on such a large scale.
This is also how NIMBY groups work – wealthy homeowners can pour money down the legal well faster than a non-profit or city trying to get low-income housing built.
Betty Cracker
@ian: Interesting backstory on the word, and I’m glad you shared it. However, though I’m sure no one here wants to reinforce anti-Semitic framing and rhetoric, it may be too late to prevent “mainstreaming” the use of that word that way since it’s been widely used in a non-secular way to describe a small group involved in a sinister plot for ages now. It can be un-mainstreamed, perhaps, but mainstream it already is, IMO. Same with “pariah,” which I’ve seen people raise similar objections to.
zhena gogolia
@Burnspbesq: I hope you’re right.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker: Yeah, I was going to say that about “pariah.”
suzanne
@brendancalling:
That’s good. You look prettier when you smile.
ian
@Martin: Thank you :) They wouldn’t call words like that ‘dog-whistles’ if most people could hear them.
ian
@Betty Cracker: good points. Pandora and the box are probably opened. I certainly wasn’t trying to imply the commenter felt that way himself.
geg6
@Another Scott:
I feel similarly. Know that the pollsters have all changed to a “likely voter” frame, so that distorts what results might be. With the massive increase in women and youngs registering to vote, none of them would show up in any “likely voter” screens. I suspect, though I am in no way sure, that the reason that Oz and Fetterman seem to be much closer than we’ve been led to believe is that all those new or only occasional voters are not being counted. If we can turn these people out, it will be a big night for Dems.
Amir Khalid
@Burnspbesq:
A gang of armed randos surely falls outside any definition of a well-regulated militia.
Betty Cracker
@ian: I’m glad you mentioned it because I didn’t realize it was perceived that way and will try to avoid using it. (I don’t think I regularly do, but it’s still good to know!) Words are such a minefield. Always have been. Always will be. ;-)
prostratedragon
@trollhattan:
Silly woman.
(Really just the first few seconds should be all that’s needed, in a thinking world.)
Suzanne
@Jeffery:
Me too. I heard his interview on Pod Save, and he didn’t sound good to me. I think that stroke is affecting him more than he lets on.
I accidentally ran afoul of his stans on social media this weekend. I made what (I thought) was an obviously snarky comment about how my children need pants-wearing role models. Holy shit, the wrath is significant. His white-working-class cosplay schtick really seems to work with a lot of people.
Whatever. Fetterman is totally fine. He is a totally adequate choice and I will be pleased to vote for him.
Paul in KY
@Burnspbesq: In my reading of 2nd Amendment, the ‘well regulated militia’ part is just the setup for why firearm ownership is permitted for regular folks.
Baud
@Suzanne:
Nothing compared to my wrath!
Baud
@Suzanne:
Nothing compared to my wrath!
Baud
@Suzanne:
Nothing compared to my wrath!
ETA: Third time’s a charm after mistyping my email address.
Omnes Omnibus
@trollhattan: Drax? Didn’t Bond already beat him in Moonraker?
prostratedragon
@Ohio Mom: So, maybe even worse than immediate pain. I can’t even…
Another Scott
@Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!): I assume PA voters knew about these things when he won the nomination and the race for Lt Gov. IOW, it should be old news.
Not that it isn’t disconcerting, but PA voters know who he is and how he governs. Oz has never been elected to anything…
It should be an easy choice…
(sigh)
Forward!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus
@Burnspbesq:
Hasn’t SFB also stepped in bigger and bigger piles as he gotten older? At some point his BS is going to not be enough and as he doesn’t have the chops, money or brains to get through all of it, he’s going to have to pay in ways that he’s really, really not prepared for, which is the normal path for those who chose themselves to be god like.
Geminid
@Starfish: Ohio Republicans may have cut their gerrymander too fine. They tried to make the northeastern 9th and 13th CD’s Republican by single digit margins. Now Majewski, their 9th district candidate, may have blown himself up by lying about his military service. Marcy Kaptur is now favored to win the 9th, and Emilia Sykes still has a fighting chance in the 13th (especially now that the influential Balloon Juice blog as thrown its weight behind her). Meanwhile at the other corner of the state, Republican Steve Chabot faces a tough reelection in his southeast Ohio 1st CD.
It’s possible for gerrymanderers to overreach, and Ohio Republicans may have. And gerrymanders can cause resentment among Independents and not just Democrats, particularly when Republicans try to sneak around a popular ballot measure as they did in Ohio.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Since when have you aspired to be a role model? Oh wait, not all role models are positive.
JoyceH
@ian:
It’s also a term from British history, when it was applied to Charles II’s privy counselors – Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley and Lauderdale. It was an anagram, and considering the time frame, 1668, I doubt if any of the originators knew doodlysquat about ‘esoteric Jewish mysticism’. I find it more likely that the term entered American usage from British history. The original Charles II era CABAL was unpopular, which would give the term negative connotations.
cain
@suzanne:
I had to chuckle at this comment – since some men will tell random women on the street when they aren’t smiling or something to smile – and might make the above misogynistic comment instead of minding their own goddam business.
Bill Arnold
@Martin:
Polls are, however, useful for detecting significant shifts in sentiment, particularly if the questions and methodology don’t change. The accuracy for the magnitude of the shifts is degraded a bit, but they are still useful for that purpose.
cain
@JoyceH:
Maybe we can just repurpose ‘murder’ – I dont think the crows will mind.
Burnspbesq
@Geminid:
I think she’s wrong. Seditious conspiracy is still a conspiracy, and IIRC, an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy by any of the co-conspirators is imputed to all. If that’s right, it doesn’t matter where Rhodes was on 1/6. In fact, what happened on 1/6 might be irrelevant; stockpiling weapons in advance would be the overt act.
JoyceH
@Burnspbesq:
What I want to know is if investigators are going to be able to prove that Trump knew in advance that the militias gathered for the 6th were planning to enter and occupy the Capitol. Because it seems to me that proving the advance knowledge would be the slam-dunk for conviction.
Personally, I think he did know. The militia types were milling about the Willard, along with the Trumpist ‘war room’. One of his cronies there must have briefed him – Giuliani or Stone or Meadows (who ‘phoned in’).
And honestly, why ELSE would Trump have been so all-fired determined to be taken to the Capitol? To give a speech? With a bullhorn on the steps, when he’d already given a speech with all the comforts of home, including teleprompter and jumbotron? No, he saw himself sweeping into the Capitol with his victorious mob, to be there on the scene to be triumphantly proclaimed winner and rightful president. But – can they prove it?
JoyceH
@Bill Arnold:
The main problem with polls is their modeling of ‘likely voters’. One of the factors that makes a person a likely voter is a track record of voting, so when there’s an outside event (Dobbs, anyone?) that galvanizes voters without a history of consistent voting, they don’t show up in the model as a likely voter.
JMG
@Betty Cracker: The last poll I saw had it Lula 51-41. Actual vote was 48-43. That’s not THAT big a miss.
Gin & Tonic
@cain: It just made me wonder if suzanne and Suzanne are the same person.
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
That it would go to a runoff, and who the names in that runoff would be, was never in question and universally expected.
As for the polls, while I did not track them intently, those I periodically did see (mostly in the month or two prior to election day) were an accurate indicator of the outcome. Not to say there may have been some other polling which was not, as I said I was not assiduously following the situation.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@The Moar You Know: In the US, Trumpers have stopped participating in polls. They no longer trust them, so they no longer answer. That isn’t the same as lying, but it has the same effect of undercounting their vote.
Geminid
@Suzanne: I would also be pleased to vote for Fetterman. There is somewhat of a cult of personality around him though. Some people are really impressed with his working class persona, and there are some who see him as a progressive champion, a very large, hypermasculine version of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez.
This last view may be overdrawn. It’s true that Fetterman supported Bernie Sanders twice, but he then campaigned wholeheartedly for Clinton and Biden. The more left “progressives” may end up disappointed at Fetterman’s basically orthodox Democratic policy positions.
I saw this a couple of days after the Pennsylvania primary, when exultant lefties celebrating Fetterman’s win over the establishment got word that he had just cheerfully accepted the endorsement of the group Democratic Majority For Israel. It was like, “Ah, I love the smell of K-Hive tears in the morning….Wait, what!? Nooooooo!”
StringOnAStick
@Ohio Mom: The drug they are denying to that 14 year old girl is Methotrexate, a cheap drug and the first line of treatment for RA when first diagnosed; it’s commonly used for Lupus as well. It suppresses an overactive immune system, and in the case of both of those diseases, they are autoimmune conditions where your immune system is attacking itself. As you said, in RA the joints are being attacked, and once they are gone, they are not coming back. Once Methotrexate isn’t working well enough anymore to suppress the RA or the side effects have become an issue, then the next drugs are the biologics like Remicade which are both expensive and once you start using them, you can’t stop without causing serious progression of the disease.
So, bottom line they are forcing this child to suffer, and because her disease is severe and at a young age, she needs to preserve as much time as she can where Methotrexate is effective for her before she progresses to using a much, much more expensive drug with more side effects and that she’ll not be able to ever stop taking. Its the very definition of cruel. I suppose they figure she’s too unhealthy to ever become a parent, so their next step is to figure out how to deny her the very expensive drug too, you know, just to be sure.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Baud, I hate to break it to you, but I did extensive research, and the only American political party that’s historically been on board with your no-pants policy is the Bloom County Meadow Party. The fact that they’re also the only ones to routinely poll below zero percent may or may not be related.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
LOL
trump is now calling everyone’s favorite NYT reporter “Maggot Haberman”
a quick glance at twitter suggests his faithful have already adopted it
Geminid
@Burnspbesq: Wheeler said that defense might work. She wasn’t saying that she bought the defense, just that a jury or jury members might.
There go two miscreants
@Shalimar: That should be a rotating tag!
NotMax
@Bruce K in ATH-GR
Used to be a frequent commenter hereabouts who went by the nym of sans culottes.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Geminid: as our mutual admiree Magdi Semrau put it a while back, among her central PA Dem acquaintance, opinion is pretty much evenly divided that Fetterman’s a Bill Clinton Dem and Bernie Sanders outsider
prostratedragon
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Oh, the ingratitude!
cain
Duplicate comment deleted.
cain
@StringOnAStick: These idiots will still consider it a good enough trade for them. They should be confronted about it and asked why.
In general, putting your life in the hands of right wing pharmacists who speak their conscience seems like a very bad thing. They don’t understand any of the context of the medication or why it was given. Essentially, war on women’s health for any woman or girl between 12 – 25 I bet.
cain
Duplicate comment deleted.
Jeffro
I cannot imagine being a PA, OH, WI, or GA voter and feeling like I had even remotely equal reservations about my choices for Senator. I mean, SERIOUSLY?
Ah well, they will work it out.
In the meantime, I hope at least some of you have had the opportunity to see MI governor candidate Tudor Dixon’s latest ad, with a bunch of elderly bikers standing around venting their spleens (when they aren’t outright lying about Gov Gretchen Whitmer) and emoting badly. BEYOND badly. It’s hysterical.
StringOnAStick
@Another Scott: I wonder if its one thing to hear about someone having had a stroke, as opposed to seeing the effects long after. I think Oz is trying to bait Fetterman into a debate, and when Fetterman shows any aphasia or slowness in answering, Oz’s campaign will beat that crap to death and the non-political voters will see one ad where Fetterman seems less than normal and that will be very, very bad for Fetterman.
Many people have strokes and have some difficulty with verbal communication for awhile, but are processing just fine under that overlay, and communicate better in writing or just do better when not under stress, not unlike Biden and his stutter. Oz would love to exploit that so the Fetterman campaign is having to walk a real tightrope about being a tough guy but avoiding having debates. It’s tricky.
germy shoemangler
I saw an episode of Family Guy last night.
I won’t go into plot details but the family takes a long cross-country road trip. They find themselves in the “heartland” (Oregon) and Peter is excited to finally meet the real Americans he’s heard so much about.
They walk into a crowded diner and Peter announces loudly “We’re from the northeast!”
We see that every single customer is wearing a red MAGA cap. Everyone stops eating and stares with hostility. The family gets up and walks back to their car and it’s like the last scene in Hitchcock’s The Birds, with the parking lot full of red-capped citizens who stare at them. Some of them even make bird sounds.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
one of the alleged “good Republicans”— I was always skeptical given that his father is a nasty, racist piece of work
he’s sending 164 people from New England to border for a year. Unreal
JPL
@Geminid: Today was the first time that I saw Herschel signs, and they are tied together with a person running for City Council. Yup I know the folks involved and it makes me ill. I think you’re right that the runoff will favor Warnock. They moved up the date, but I don’t think that helps.
StringOnAStick
@cain: I read about a woman who is 60 in TX (I think) and the RW pharmacist refused to fill her prescription because Methotrexate can be used to cause an abortion. The woman is well past childbearing age, and an effective and a very commonly used drug for many diseases is being denied based on what the pharmacist thinks, not the prescribing doctor. It is beyond nuts.
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@Amir Khalid: Exactly, they will need to say who was regulating them. and if they have texts, emails phone calls from TFG. Well then we’ve got a bigger fish ready to fry!
StringOnAStick
@germy shoemangler: I heard that part of the Family Guy trip is to Bend, OR to rent at the last Blockbuster store. Yes, there is a Blockbuster here. It’s funny that they MAGA’d it up though, Bend is a very blue and well off city in the middle of rural red wingnut eastern OR. Every plan the wingnuts have for joining Idaho or creating the state of Jefferson all draw the boundaries to specifically exclude Bend.
rikyrah
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
beside the fact that Fetterman hasn’t been campaigning. That he’s been ignoring Philadelphia.
and, that yet another incident from his past, which is was ignored by certain folks has been brought up.
germy shoemangler
@StringOnAStick:
Interesting detail I didn’t know about.
I guess the writers wanted to combine the last blockbuster with the demographics of the surrounding areas.
James E Powell
@Jeffery:
I’m nervous about every Democrat everywhere. After 2016, I will always be nervous. And considering the widespread Republican voter suppression, I am terrified.
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
@StringOnAStick: I have read/heard that Fetterman and Oz are having one debate. I have heard where or how soon yet. It’s probably out there somewhere on the interwebs.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
that’s kind of hilarious. I think we should start talking about making Austin or Fulton County the new state of Obamia, just to piss them off.
on a more serious note: Are you in Oregon? Is there reason to be worried about the governor’s race? I read somewhere this weekend that the third party candidate– an ‘anti-crime’ ex-Democrat, I believe?– could be a spoiler
StringOnAStick
@germy shoemangler: Maybe the diner they stopped in was in Burns, OR. That place is MAGAland, rural, poor, declining and angry. Its the town closest to the Malheur Wildlife area.
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Hope that book was really worth it for her.
Judith Miller much, Mags?
germy shoemangler
Charles Krauthammer was complaining about the Berenstain Bears back in 1989.
rikyrah
@Geminid:
Aren’t you voting on a fraudulent map in Ohio?
germy shoemangler
@StringOnAStick:
Quite possibly. I don’t remember how close the diner was to the blockbuster, they stopped to eat along the way.
Peter (when the family decided it was best to leave the diner): “We’ll have 150 pancakes to go!”
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
We stayed over in Bend last June and walking around downtown in the evening, with a roar a big pickup arrives and circles for awhile with two giant Trump flags poking out of the bed. Nobody seemed bothered.
Tried to draw no conclusions but hey.
Geminid
@JoyceH: I have no doubt that Trump knew about the assault on the Capitol. I believe he orchestrated it through Roger Stone. The Proud Boys, Oafkeepers, and others knew implicitly that Stone was trump’s man and spoke on his behalf.
This was the “hard” coup that complemented the “soft coup,” where Meadows, Trump’s other executive branch henchmen and his Congressional adherents tried to overturn the regular counting of electoral votes. Both efforts were part of a common plan, and a declaration of martial law may have been part of it too.
Trump’s a career criminal, though. He learned early on to do his criming through a very few loyal henchment, and as much as possible avoid giving explicit instructions. Roger Stone may be the only good link between trump and the Insurrectionists. There was a certain amount of improvisation, so trump may have been sloppy and let others in on the plan.
If not, prosecutors will need to break Stone. Mueller’s team could not break him so as to establish that Trump colluded with the Russians. But then, Stone had the prospect of a pardon. Still, Stone is a freak and could remain silent now.
StringOnAStick
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yes, I’m in OR, two years as of the end of this month, and yes there is reason to be very nervous about the governors race. The D candidate (Koteck) is a liberal Portland woman who is out and married to her life long partner, and like a lot of rural areas, the name of your blue main city is spoken with derision by the non-city types. The R candidate is a MAGA idiot. The spoiler is Betsy Johnson, the former speaker of the senate who was passed by for the shot at running as a D for governor, so she’s launched an independent bid. She’s about as rightwing as you can be and still be a D, but she’s polling at 18% and the R is at 33%, Kotek the D at 31%. Johnson is obviously pulling a lot of the D vote and she could ensure that the R wins, which I think is actually her intention.
Portland is called “the City of Roses”, but Johnson was caught calling it “the City of Roaches” and she’s pro-gun, anti-homeless. The twitter guy Gonelikehellmachine is a Portland liberal and he depressed me greatly with a late night thread of all the Portland liberals he knows who he says are so sick of the out of control homeless crime and numbers, and who want to leave Portland, and he thinks this is why the R will win for governor. The state legislature is reliably D and will hopefully stay that way.
I’d love to hear what Kelly thinks, he’s a lifelong OR resident.
James E Powell
@Jeffro:
What always concerns me is that there are Democratic leaning people – and by that I mean where they are on issues generally – who are not motivated to prevent the Republican clowns in each of those states from becoming senators
We are plagued with stupid voters and they are not all Republicans. I am still struggling to explain to some [college educated] people why the failure to vote for Hillary Clinton produced a supreme court that overruled Roe v Wade. I can even draw diagrams, but they just don’t get the connection.
Baud
@StringOnAStick:
Another argument for ranked choice voting (or a runoff).
StringOnAStick
@trollhattan: Those truck idiots with the flags like to show them around the areas where the tourists hang out. Their numbers seem to be declining though. We drove to the coast 2 weeks ago and I didn’t see a single MAGA flag on any of the houses in the poor rural areas where they were earlier this spring. I haven’t seen anyone with the tRump flag rolling coal around town lately, now it’s just flags. Go 20 minutes north to Redmond and you’ll see that and the yard shrines though; that’s the working class town since Bend has such expensive housing now.
StringOnAStick
@Baud: Agreed. All the D’s I know here hate Betsy Johnson for this Independent run crap.
Baud
@StringOnAStick: As well they should.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@StringOnAStick: I was hoping it was just twitter-chatter. I think an R winning in OR will set off a round of Furrowed Brows in the good village of Bradenton– what lessons do Democrats need to learn…
@Baud: I’m more and more in favor of run-offs, but I think at this point any changes in elections anywhere would be very hard
Baud
@James E Powell:
Just curious. Left-wing idiots or centrist idiots?
RaflW
I just gave a hundred to Katie Darling for Congress, LA-01. Because this ad is fucking fantastic. I don’t care what her chances are (well, I do, but they’re irrelevant to the message) I want this ad on TV and popping up on people’s computers.
Geminid
@rikyrah: Well, I’m voting on the Virginia map put together by a couple special masters the state Supreme Court appointed after our new Redistricting Commission deadocked.
Ohioans are voting on a map the Republicans kept bringing back after their Supreme Court rejected it. Republicans basically ran out the clock. Ohio’s new redistricting law was flawed; it assumed good faith on the part of the commission and did not give the court power to impose a solution.
But I’m ready to buy Virginia’s special masters a beer any time! They took Greene County out of Bob No-Good’s 5th CD and put it in Abigail Spanberger’s 7th. They gave Elaine Luria a tough 2nd CD, though, so I’d buy them a Miller or a Bud.
geg6
@cain:
I cannot begin to tell you the number of times I’ve had this very thing said to me. By complete strangers.
Jeffro
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: AND leaving New Hampshire wide-open to invasion by the Canadians to boot! not smart, “Governor” 😤
Jeffro
@James E Powell: agreed about folks’ motivations (or lack thereof)
If Dr. Oz or Herschel Walker were even remotely likely to be my Senator, you’d better believe I would be doing my damndest, every day, to get their opponent elected.
But I guess that’s why the Rs and their donors like it when people tune out, don’t care, “both sides” this and “both sides” that. It helps them slide right by.
I saw a phrase recently (not sure if it was here or Twitter or what) to the effect of “you might not do politics, but you really ought to pay attention and vote thoughtfully in every election, because politics is most certainly doing you”
geg6
@rikyrah:
I have no idea who is pushing this bullshit, but that’s exactly what it is. Bullshit. He was just here in Beaver County the other day and in Pittsburgh proper. He was in Erie and all over Northeastern PA. He was even in rural Franklin, Indiana and Montgomery Counties. He was just in Philly and the Lehigh Valley on Saturday. He promised to campaign in all 67 counties and he’s been doing that. In this last stretch, he’s concentrating more on the Philly and ‘Burgh regions, as he should. But whoever is giving you this information is lying to you.
Kathleen
@Geminid: Ironically, the new map for OH#1 favors Landsman. Cook rates OH#1 a tossup. Landsman and Chabot debate tonight downtown. Landsman is focusing on Chabot, the out of touch election denier.
Here is link to excellent article which includes video of Landsman debunking Chabot’s lie that he voted to defund police:
https://www.wvxu.org/politics/2022-09-29/analysis-greg-landsman-gop-attack-ad
I would humbly request that Landsman be added to the list of Dem Congressional Candidates worthy of support. Thank you.
Here is some additional information from DCC Red to Blue Report
Suzanne
@Gin & Tonic: Yes, we are the same person….one comments from the tablet, one from the phone (where capitalization is far dicier a proposition).
Suzanne
@Geminid:
My interactions this weekend, as well as some others, lead me to agree with you. Like, IDGAF about his clothes, tattoos, whatever. He’s a standard left-of-center Democrat and that’s great. But I think his look/visual brand is more of his appeal than I initially realized. I think this is really gross in some ways, but it’s obviously important and if the party is smart, they’re paying attention.
InMyRoom
@Betty Cracker: If the child was male, the medication would be given. No questions asked.
Geminid
@Suzanne: I used to follow anti-Fetterman Twitter accounts in the months before the primary. Once the primary was over most of these people, like the late LynnV, said they would support Fetterman.
But it was fun for a while. The best zinger was when some wag said that Fetterman looked like the gas station attendant in a 70’s horror movie!
Paul in KY
@Baud: They must be willfully stupid or just fucking with you. Just say (which you probably have) Hillary would not have nominated the 3 asswipes Trump did. Her picks would not have overturned it.