When you cast your vote this election, it’s not just candidates on the ballot. Democracy itself is on the line and it’s up to us to defend it. pic.twitter.com/1mI6DO1R70
— Katie Hobbs (@katiehobbs) October 20, 2022
“When the fate of our democracy and a woman’s right to choose are on the line, I know John will fight for Pennsylvanians.”
Honored to have President Obama on this team 💯 pic.twitter.com/npSw6hXcxG
— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) October 21, 2022
It’s an honor and a privilege to receive the endorsement of @BarackObama.
We've come a long way in our efforts to protect abortion rights, strengthen education, and create an economy that works for everyone.
Thank you for being in this fight with me! pic.twitter.com/CP1Y8oB0Lh
— Steve Sisolak (@SteveSisolak) October 19, 2022
Enter J. Miles Coleman, “Associate Editor, Sabato’s Crystal Ball. ‘A political Dora the Explorer'”, to be schooled…
We need to have a level setting moment on the latter point: Obama is probably the most popular politician in America. Don’t let the distortion field of Twitter and two Dem primaries sway you away from that. https://t.co/q7zxp8ayj4
— Clean Observer (@Hammbear2024) October 22, 2022
Obama’s successor, still chugging along…
WATCH: A new poll shows President Biden's job approval is at 48%, the highest since October 2021. https://t.co/wxIA9f9G87 pic.twitter.com/B4BUjzz4LY
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) October 20, 2022
I mean they actually did quite a lot with a majority dependent on the votes of a literal coal baron and the world's biggest dipshit. https://t.co/NnyBS5du0F
— Leonid Baezhnev ?? (@rev_avocado) October 20, 2022
if the tipping vote on partisan legislation is not a coal baron from a trump +40 state, we accomplish more even without killing the filibuster
— a spooky archaeologist and enthusiast of The Queue (@merovingians) October 20, 2022
political reporters get to be Da Stars of Da News when republicans are in power so they want this.
— Michael Realman ???? (@trichesfaucons) October 20, 2022
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
Can’t really wrap my mind around how someone could look at the accomplishments of the last year and be dense enough to think Democrats got nothing done. But that’s the beltway pundit class for you.
Also it’s an honor to be first.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: It’s the Goebbels Big Lie strategy: yell it loud enough, for long enough, from enough directions, and people will start to believe it.
The GQP’s running the NSDAP playbook. Hell, they’ve already got their Brownshirts.
(eta: So what does the coveted second position get again? A laurel and hearty handshake? A set of steak knives? A boot to the head?)
Baud
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
I don’t know who that guy is, but it’s the type of intellectually vapid hot take that we’ve been subject to for a while.
I recall hearing Newt Gingrich described as a stupid person’s idea of what a smart person talks like. Cynical anti-Dem hot takes remind me of that.
NotMax
Whoa. Back up there a moment. There’s an election?
Why don’t people tell me these things?
:)
lowtechcyclist
This.
Lord knows I’ve spent the past few decades so often frustrated with the Democrats’ muddled messaging and inability to get things done. And it’s not like I’ve been quiet about it.
But this Congress has done big things, and the Democrats are being quite explicit on what they’re for and what they’re against. And it’s quite clear that they’ll do even more if they keep the House and get two or three more Dem Senators, they’ll accomplish a lot more.
So this James Ray @GoodVibePolitik person can STFU as far as I’m concerned. I’ve been where he is, but it makes no fucking sense whatsoever to still be there.
Baud
I love to see Biden’s approval creeping up. Goes against the media narrative.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: A certificate suitable for framing
satby
When it gets discouraging, reading Teri Kanefield helps me reset.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: It’s a good sign this close to the election, I think. It means that media narrative might have influenced people for a while, but it didn’t take hold
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
There’s a narrow window before an election when the normies pay attention. (Which is why Comey’s misfeasance was so devastating and why October surprises are a thing). So I hope the uptick in approval reflects that and is a good portent.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@satby: That’s a good article. Thanks for the link.
Ken
I envy you, my mailbox has been filled to overflowing for a month now with people reminding me there’s an election.
I will say the Democrats in my area are all running on protecting choice, both at the state and national level. The Republicans… not so much. You’d think at least a few would mention their stunning success in overturning Roe.
Baud
@satby:
Great article. And perfect ending.
Dorothy A. Winsor
The National Archives people must wake up every day, surprised to find themselves accused of crimes. This was not in the job description.
NotMax
Recently encountered on a program originally in Italian. Someone in the control booth was asleep at the switch.
Closed captioning –
Clerk: May I help you?
Customer: Yes. I’d like some lip balm.
Clerk: What brand?
.
English dubbing –
Clerk: May I help you?
Customer: Yes. I’d like some Chapstick.
Clerk: What brand?
.
Baud
@Ken:
I hope people remember this whenever they hear someone call Dems weak and feckless when they tailor their message to the general electorate rather than the base. The GOP does the same thing, and for good reason.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
That’s what the trial is for.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: I blame Big Chapstick and their movie dubbing racket.
NotMax
@Baud
Crime goes in; crime goes out. No one can explain it.
//
mrmoshpotato
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Oh, it will be now.
Gin & Tonic
russian TV, ladies and gentlemen:
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Woefully underutilized character in The Sopranos.
:)
Kay
Wokedy, woke woke. It’s all they talk about at these conferences.
SiubhanDuinne
@Bruce K in ATH-GR:
Heh.
Geminid
@Baud: One thing I like about Twitter is how I can track down posters’ own timelines and get a sense of what they are about. In the case of James Ray, the little bio in the heading tells me his alma mater and one source of livelihood, as well as a couple other affiliations:
I think Ray is fairly representative of a loud but numerically small component of the political Left. I encounter them a lot on Twitter, mainly when Democrats and more responsible lefties push back on them.
These folks are predominately male, and to them “Liberal” is a dirty word. They have it in for the Democratic Party because any progress it achieves makes creating the powerful Left party they dream about that much harder.
I think it was one of these guys who dropped in here a couple days ago to explain how Democrats will be crushed in the midterms. When someone disagreed he insulted her as being too weak to handle the truth, which is typical behavior for that obnoxious crowd.
Baud
@Kay:
I hear some of these Woke people won’t even bomb Cambodia.
Soprano2
We’re back from Maui, sitting at O’Hare waiting for our flight to Springfield. It’s 7:50 am but my body thinks it’s 3:00 am. It’s going to be a long day.
You live in a beautiful place, Not Max. Wish we’d been there for fun. We did get to go to Ocean Vodka and watch the sun set.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: A focus on shortcomings of history caused by Henry Kissinger is particularly damaging to the legacy of Henry Kissinger.
Princess
Someone whose normal inclination is to skip voting in the midterm is not going to be persuaded to come out because “democracy itself is on the ballot.” Those 90 million or so who never or rarely vote aren’t that invested in democracy in the first place. Maybe some could be persuaded by the thought of losing Medicare and social security, or by default on the debt and a global economic crash. They can be reminded about high employment and about infrastructure investment. I’d really like to see democrats (and by that I mean people like us — Biden is doing fine) reclaim the economic message that the Press has ceded to the GOP. Dems are better on the economy, period.
Baud
@Geminid:
Thanks. I rarely leave the boat to investigate who these people are.
In fairness, us losing badly in the midterms is not an unreasonable prediction.
Saying electing more Dems won’t being more progress is an unreasonable take. The tweeter could say electing Dems won’t bring about Marxist Anti-imperialism, which would be accurate. But for some reason, he had to obscure his stance with naked cynicism, almost as if he understands that most people would reject his actual views.
NotMax
@Soprano2
Sorry about the circumstances. Get everything accomplished?
WaterGirl
Katie Hobbs, Steve Sisolak and others running for the same races in other key states can be supported through this thermometer. Click on customize amounts if you want to direct your donation to specific people on the list.
Donate
Soprano2
@Kay: God forbid we learn from our mistakes. 🙄🙄
Kay
@Baud:
The woke-neocon alliance is both naively idealistic and deeply cyclical.
Wokesters are both not interventionist enough (Kissinger and the Right wingers ar Education Next) and also so interventionist that they are now “neocons”.
All day, every day this nonsense is peddled as some kind of “thought”. I wonder how much the market can possibly reward “anti-wokeness” before it is so completely saturated with this junk that no one can make money on it.
Baud
@Kay:
How long did they milk political correctness?
ETA: Bill Mahar had that show “Politically Incorrect.”. Maybe his next show will be entitled “Sound Asleep.”
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Soprano2: I wave to you in the distance in O’Hare
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: That makes it pretty hard to argue that people in Russia don’t know what’s really happening in Ukraine.
Kay
@Baud:
Oh, God it seems like a long time. This is like that on steroids though. Kissinger was not asked about wokeness. He brought it up himself as a “threat to national security”.
I have no idea what the liberal/Democratic support of Ukraine v Russia has to do with “wokeness” either.
The theory and thinking was always junk. That’s how they’re able to endlessly twist it like this and contour it to fit anything or anyone they don’t like. It was always weak and poorly thought through.
Soprano2
@NotMax: Pretty much. Didn’t get a death certificate because that sounded like something where we could have spent half a day and still gotten nothing. We’ll have to wait for the funeral home and state of HI to do their thing. I can’t believe how much stuff he had in a room that is about 8 x 8 ft. I also can’t believe he was paying $750/mo for that room and it wasn’t air conditioned!
Kay
@Baud:
I don’t think he’s funny but then I hate pile ons and that seems to be his whole approach to humor. It has a bullying, sneering edge that turns me right off. No self deprecation or self examination
Another Scott
@satby: Thanks for the pointer. She’s very good and level-headed.
Cheers,
Scott.
Soprano2
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m waving back. We’re boarding soon, I’m ready to go home where we can eat out for less than $40.
Geminid
@Kay: Conservatives especially like “woke” because the term comes out of American Black vernacular and sounds like it too. A not-so-subtle racist dog whistle.
Baud
@Kay:
Politically incorrect was basically what edgy people had to make themselves feel smart before the political Internet became a thing.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Ken:
Some wag at the local hardware store one year put a sign on the trash cans, “Holds 30 gallons of campaign literature!”
We filled out our ballots last night. Then read the fine print and found we can’t drop them off till the 24th.
Soprano2
@Kay: He prides himself on knowing conservative middle America because he does shows there. I agree you can’t hate them all, but he doesn’t know them like we do because he lives in CA. He believes the right-wing definition of “woke”, which is why he doesn’t like it. He could be smarter about it but that doesn’t make him any money.
Geminid
@Baud: Projecting that Democrats will lose badly in the midterms is not neccesarily an unreasonable prediction. These folk are trying to make it happen by sowing doubt, though, because they hope it happens. They want to “own the libs” every bit as badly as do the conservatives.
Kay
I started getting this newspaper in the mail – it’s a weekly. Definitely liberal-leaning. I didn’t request it and don’t pay for it, I assume they bought a “liberal list” from somewhere.
Just interesting, that someone is backing a liberal-ish Ohio paper. I subscribe to the Toledo Blade which used to be a good, solid newspaper but the zillionaire owners (the Block Family) went hard Right so now it’s just Right wing propoganda.
Baud
@Kay:
Oh wow. That’s encouraging.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay:
That comes straight from Putin–one of the central elements of his domestic propaganda particularly is that the West is trying to turn everyone’s children gay and/or trans, and Russia is the only thing standing in the way, and supporting Ukraine is about dismembering Russia so the LGBT menace can conquer the world.
Kay
I recently spent some extended time in Cleveland – I love Cleveland before everyone makes a joke about it- and I was pleased to see so many pro-Ukraine and anti-Putin bumperstickers and homemade signs in yards. I know Cleveland has a large-ish Ukrainian group but amusing to see “Fuck Putin” bumpstickers on big, new American sedans – not the sort of people one would expect to display “fuck” :)
Baud
@Kay:
I don’t know if they are large enough to make a difference in Ohio, but I hope so.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
MazeDancer
PostCards!
Last Sunday.
Do 5. Do 50. But do something.
It will make you feel so much better.
PostCardPatriots.com. Or click on my nym.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Baud
If supporting Ukraine is woke, I don’t want to be asleep.
Geminid
Thursday’s Washington Post Style Section had a good article titled “Gisele Fetterman, navigating a whirlwind.” It covers some of the challenges she has faced helping her husband’s Pennsylvania Senate campaign, as well as some personal history.
There are interesting comments by Pullitzer prize winning columnist Connie Schultz of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, who happens to be married to Senator Sherrod Brown.
Kay
@Baud:
The Toledo Blade won a Pulitzer for uncovering “coingate” which was a GOP scandal in 2006. It was about workers comp funds and where they were invested. People went to prison. For years.
Now we have this massive nearly one billion dollar GOP scandal over First Energy and there’s almost no coverage of it.
Baud
@Kay:
Lesson learned.
2liberal
a high quality post. much better than my #1 post for the day (yesterday) “good morning. blech. frist?”
sab
@Kay: You know all the best newspapers.
Ohio Mom
@Kay: Did the Toledo Blade change ownership? Even if they didn’t, like most papers, they probably don’t have enough reporters left to do any investigation.
I remember Coingate. It was so unavoidable even the Cincinnati paper covered it.
ETA: oops, should have read further down the thread
justinb
@MazeDancer: Personal favor to *everybody*. I’ve been writing postcards, but my son’s prognosis and condition has gotten much more severe, and I can’t do it anymore. TAKE UP MY SLACK.
Kay
@Ohio Mom:
No, they’re owned by the same family- the Blocks. The latest generation of the Blocks are the worst though- scandal ridden, decadent rich people who are rabid Right wingers. They have amusing scandals, like extremely nasty divorces that involve Block spouses and ex spouses screaming at one another in the actual Blade workplace.
I don’t think the Blade should cover labor unions at all, in the same way I don’t think the NYTimes can credibly cover the Clintons. They’re so insanely and ideologically anti-union it’s a clear conflict of interest. I still subscribe because it’s a business expense for the law office – we actually need the probate and property transfer notices- but it’s a shame. It used to be a good solid newspaper.
Salty Sam
@satby: Thank you for that link! Her writing is now part of my regular reading.
I have several friends/family who get wrapped up in “rage merchandising”, I’ll forward to them as well.
Geminid
@Kay: This morning the Washington Post put up an article titled “In Ohio, Vance faces backlash in Ukrainian community over war stance.” The article is based on interviews with 15 Republican voters and officials in Parma, Ohio, a city of 80,000 near Cleveland.
One of the voters was 73 year old Irene Stolar, who said she planned to vote for a Democrat for the first time when she votes forTim Ryan. Stolar cited JD Vance’s statement just before the Russian invasion:
Vance said this on a podcast but the statement was widely circulated in Ms. Stolar’s community. Vance tried to walk the statement back but Stolar doesn’t care.
The article cites census figures that say Ohio has 41,000 residents of Ukrainian heritage, but their circle of influence could be wider. Also, voters with ties to other Eastern European countries might share Stolar’s animus towards Vance. When asked by the reporter Tim Ryan said as much: “It’s going to be much broader than just the Ukrainian vote.”
WaterGirl
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
I love that so much!
WaterGirl
@justinb: I am so sorry to hear that about your son. What a nightmare this is for all of you.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: I read that whole thing as being about Tim Ryan, and all I could think of was WTF? and why would he say anything so stupid and awful?
Then I saw that it was about Vance and then it all made perfect sense.
schrodingers_cat
@satby: Agreed 💯 about Kanefield. And also BTW your rant about coconut 🥥 oil. The people who have just Columbused it are beyond tiresome.
– someone who has been using coconut oil and coconut in all its form since childhood.
And now I am going to make coconut filled karanjis for Diwali.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: Even when I was a kid and the Soviet Union was still a going concern, I noticed that Ukrainian-Americans were some of the most passionate people about their ancestral identity around. I can’t imagine that’s abated any.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
@Geminid:
Why isn’t it? The polling has been wrong before in the last few election cycles, after all
Another Scott
@MazeDancer: Thanks for the reminders.
I’ve got a bunch of “fanciful flowers” post cards with forever stamps that I didn’t use last time. Gotta get them out there!
I’ll be over shortly.
Cheers,
Scott
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Because it’s within the realm of possibility based on the nature of our electorate for several years now.
ETA: Victory is also within the realm of possibility.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Baud:
What about the effect of Dobbs? Omnes has been saying he suspects that the pollsters are underestimating it
ETA: Saw your ETA, good point
Geminid
So far Hawaiian huckster Tulsi Gabbard has made campaign appearances with Republicans Kari Lake in Arizona and Dan Bolduc in New Hampshire, and next week she is scheduled to appear with Tudor Dixon in Michigan. Yesterday Gabbard visited Virginia to boost the campaign of 7th Congressional District candidate Yesli Vega.
Gabbard spoke against the Democratic Party’s “endless wars” and believe it or not, its “wokeness.” Vega is running against Representative Abigail Spanberger, an ex-CIA agent who is pretty much “woke”-free.
oatler
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
ABC has guest Kari Lake and other AZ Republicans on this election and the roundtable’s verdict is that it’s really a referendum against Biden and the GOP will return to power nationally.
Bill Arnold
@Geminid:
Nym? I loath these operatives, even if they are laughably talentless and politically clueless.
Baud
@oatler:
“Independent voters explain vote for GOP.”
Geminid
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I was being open minded about the subject and agreeing with the commenter to make another point.
Personally, I think control of the House is close to a 50-50 proposition. It will come down to ~15 very close races, I believe, and its possible we won’t know for sure which party comes out on top for a day or two after the election.
Bill Arnold
@Geminid:
Their problem is that when fascists win, in part due to their help, the fascists are in power, not the marxists.
zhena gogolia
@Bill Arnold: Right.
Geminid
@Bill Arnold: I’m not going to say because I’m not sure and he’s not here to defend himself. A couple people called him a Republican agent, but based on the times before when I’ve tangled with this commenter I believe he’s a lefty.
Sure Lurkalot
@Geminid:
I’d say it was likely as there are a majority of Republicans running for office that won’t concede if they lose, and not even just close races. There’s an article in Rolling Stone today about how the tangerine fuckwad is planning to contest in PA (based on brouhaha about counting undated ballots…on the assumption I guess that no Republicans will mail in vote and/or fail to date their ballots).
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@SiubhanDuinne: Credit Mel Brooks for the “laurel and hearty handshake”.
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The real question is: is the certificate suitable for wrapping fish?
:)
Geminid
@Sure Lurkalot: Republican candidates will blow a lot of smoke, but the AP and others will call the races at the usual point. That’s not to say there won’t be disputed elections, lawsuits over them, and even the possibility of successful election theft.
Redshift
@Baud:
I guess it’s too much to ask that they mention there were only five months in his entire term that TFG’s approval was equal to or higher than this “low” Biden approval, and was only ever one point higher…
I guess it’s up to us.
Kay
@Geminid:
Tim Ryan would know – “voters with ties to other Eastern European countries” would be right in Ryan’s (and Marcy Kaptur’s) wheelhouse.
The Appalachian part of Ohio that Vance is pretending to be part of is a whole different world. One can see the division even where I live – rural NW Ohio. There are predominently two groups- the German, Polish and Scandinavian immigrants (farmers, landowners) and then the southern Ohio Appalachian folks who came north for industrial work. They kind of brought a Confederate sensibility and culture with them, unfortunately.
Gin & Tonic
@Geminid: I know those people well. They have been reliable Republican voters since Nixon. Once Vance poisoned the well there, there’s no going back.
Eyeroller
@Baud: The Sunday Morning Political Shows (I think it was cartoonist Keith Knight who called them that) are abominable, but have been for decades.
This morning I saw a headline on my phone’s newsfeed “ticket splitting voters a factor in midterms.” Mentioned Oz/Shapiro and Warnock/Kemp voters. Didn’t read the article but I realized who most of those people almost certainly are–they would be Republican-voting “Independents” (most Independents vote consistently for one party or the other) who don’t like one of the Republican candidates.
MazeDancer
@justinb:
Hope your son is improving.
Even though your Luria addresses had already been redistributed, thank you for thinking of the election in the midst of it all.
And your appeal worked, had some new requests today.
Again, healing thoughts to your boy.
StringOnAStick
I read last night that the crazies of NV have driven the election works out of their jobs in the red counties, which is most of them; obviously this is not good because they have been replaced with crazies, including one Jan 6 rioter. The only reason NV goes blue is Clark County, which is Las Vegas so unless turnout there is enough to counter the rest of the state, we lose. Unfortunately, I have a bad feeling about what the results will be for NV; I hope I am wrong.
Geminid
@Kay: Ulysses Grant grew up in Georgetown, Ohio, just twenty miles from the Ohio River. There were a lot of Southerners living in Georgetown, Grant wrote in his Memoirs. Grant said that Jeff Davis would have won an election there any day of the Civil War, except maybe the day after Confederate raider John Hunt Morgan’s troops rode through.
The migration of white southerners has had an effect on California’s politics, or so I’ve read. Analysts have noted that the interior counties with a large proportion of “Okie” descendants are the most Republican in the state now.
gene108
@Baud:
Unless you’re a crazy MAGA person, President Biden’s a likable guy. He’s the guy I’d want to have a couple scoops of ice cream with.
There’s not an obvious reason to dislike him as a person. I think, like with President Obama, this eventually filters through the media noise.
artem1s
@Princess:
I’ve always felt it had more to do with having a casual sports fan attitude about politics. They only pay attention when the Super Bowl or World Series is on. And even then they get pissed when every game isn’t packed full of heart pounding action. Or the half time show is a dud.
James E Powell
@Baud:
LOL, but they’ll never change it.
Mike in NC
Read something about the Fat Bastard of Mar-A-Lago dreaming of having Empty Greene as his 2024 running mate. Two of the stupidest, ugliest, and most disgusting people in America. I cannot wait.
cain
Happy Diwali everyone – busy watching India vs Pakistan Cricket Match – how that happened on Diwali day, I dont’ know – but it’s like super duper superbowl sunday here as I am watcing the replay. India is probably having the best Diwali with that addition.
Watching it on TV, it’s amazing to see the racial differences between Pakistanis and Indians and even within their own teams. Really cool.
Geminid
@Mike in NC: That’s a nice ticket to contemplate with Halloween coming up: the Orange Churl and the Horrible Hoyden!
cain
@James E Powell:
The media narrative is always against Democrats. lol. After we win, we should definitely mock the media narrative which will again be all about bipartisanship. Pfft. Boring.
sab
Cleveland Plain Dealer had an article that things look bad for the Dems because early voting is down for them in Cuyahoga County compared to two years ago. I early voted two years ago hoping to avoid the crowds at the polls on elecrion day. It didn’t work. The lines were much longer at the Board of Election building during early voting.
Maybe other Democrats decided, same as me, that it is just easier to vote on election day, especially since we have a newer better vaccine now.
cain
@Kay:
Something to be aware of us that Ukrainians like the Russians generally vote GOP since like some of the latinos come from a communist country and can be affected by message about leftists.
We will be peeling away those GOP votes thanks to GOP’s pro russia stand. They might continue to support Dems going forward.
Geminid
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The projections of Republican gains are based on models like that of Cook’s Political Reports. To furnish an example (not that I endorse it), Cook’s Chief Maven Dave Wasserman recently tweeted out his current prediction.
He rates 211 districts as Lean R or Likely R, 193 as Lean D or Likely D, and 31 as “Tossup.”
21 Tossup districts are currently held by Democrats, although some are retiring and the seats are “Open”:
The 10 “Tossup” districts currently held by Republicans are:
Wasserman has 5 districts currently held by Democrats as Lean R:
The two Republican-held districts now rated as Lean D are IL-13, Open; and MI-3, Open.