Warnock supporters put on a drone show tonight to promote the Democrat in Piedmont Park #gapol #gasen pic.twitter.com/tdM4T6RkV0
— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) December 5, 2022
BIG NEWS: Sen. @ossoff's bipartisan bill to secure justice for victims of unsolved lynchings and murders in the Civil Rights era was just signed into law by @POTUS. pic.twitter.com/NMBwlQbq8I
— Ossoff's Office (@SenOssoff) December 5, 2022
Breaking news: our incredible @VP will swear in the first female and the second African-American mayor of Los Angeles @KarenBassLA this is going to be another historic moment! Don’t miss the inaugural ceremony on Sunday, December 11 in LA! #BlackGirlMagic on steroids! pic.twitter.com/4acdMrbcak
— Areva Martin, Esq. (@ArevaMartin) December 5, 2022
Zelenskyy has come to embody the courage and resilience of the Ukrainian people. His decision to remain in Kyiv rather than accept a US offer of evacuation was one of the most consequential moments in the war https://t.co/ytFRDsS8qP pic.twitter.com/DpbCFf8l7d
— Financial Times (@FinancialTimes) December 5, 2022
.@PressSec calls Musk/Twitter Files dump a “distraction” from rising amount of hate and antisemitism on platform pic.twitter.com/RYTgwJ0wrt
— Jordan Fabian (@Jordanfabian) December 5, 2022
The GOP’s captive media will not give up wishcasting TFG will just… go away:
"not end up running" is wishful thinking when it's about a candidate who has visited Iowa and NH a couple times; when it's a candidate who has formally declared, it's delusional. Sorry, Republicans, you're going to have to beat him. https://t.co/Pp8uAX1H3k
— Jonathan Bernstein (@jbview) December 6, 2022
Nagahappin, KKKomrades…
Presumptive House intel chair @MikeTurnerOH tells me that he recently spoke to DNI Haines & expects to soon receive the damage assessment requested by Congress regarding the Mar a Lago documents held by former President Trump https://t.co/wGRqQyP7Ex
— Margaret Brennan (@margbrennan) December 4, 2022
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
rikyrah
Dolt45 is Alex from Fatal Attraction…
I wonder when the GOP will realize that 🤣🤣🤣
James E Powell
@rikyrah:
Good morning. Looking forward to a great evening.
rikyrah
The drone show was 🤗🤗
Kay
I feel good about Warnock, but I have since Trump picked Walker. Warnock is a good Senator even among Democrats in the Senate. He’s just far superior to Walker.
lowtechcyclist
Republicans can ‘edge away’ from Trump, but until they actually stand up to him, it won’t mean a thing. And they won’t do that.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I genuinely can’t wrap my mind around the idea that voters would choose Walker over Warnock. It does not compute. But …Trump
Aussie Sheila
@Kay: Walker isn’t even in the same galaxy as Warnock. I am not usian obvs, but I have watched yt vids of them both and read about Warnock’s Senate performance. Christ, Walker is barely sentient-he can’t string two words together.
His candidacy is really revealing – it shows the absolute contempt in which repugs hold Black Americans. It is shocking to me that one of the only two major political parties in the US could preselect such an unsuitable, damaged and deranged person for the Senate, simply because they think Black citizens won’t notice. It is truly disgusting.
It is also scary. Australians elect duds of course, but I can confidently say that none of the three major Senate parties in Oz have ever, ever selected somebody like Walker to sit in the Senate.
I so hope Warnock wins. For everyone’s sake.
Fingers crossed.
Kay
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
The Trump candidate elections are useful though- they show how many Right-leaning or Right wing voters will ever vote for a Democrat under any circumstances. Not a lot.
They show the limits of outreach/persuasion.
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Some voters have no self respect, and I think you know which voters I am speaking of.
Kay
@Aussie Sheila:
I think Warnock may end up being a great Senator – one of the few who are remembered as great.
IMO, Obama is jokey and loose and expansive when he thinks the D he is campaigning for is going to win. He’s more strident and scoldy when it looks bad for the D.
Obama is an intensely political person and he’s competitive as hell– he was jokey and loose and expansive at Warnock rallies :)
japa21
Fingers crossed, toes crossed, arms crossed, legs crossed, eyes crossed. All that said, my fearless prediction is Warnock wins by 5%.
japa21
@Kay: Great observation.
Soprano2
@Aussie Sheila: R’s are always telling us that Black people will vote for just anyone as long as they’re Black. I guess they are testing that hypothesis with Walker’s candidacy. I think they believe his status as a football star will also get people to vote for him. None of that has anything to do with his suitability for office. Like a lot of people I think he has some kind of brain damage from being hit in the head so much; the people who encouraged him to run are monsters, because it’s obvious he’s not suited to be a senator, and instead needs the care of a doctor.
Kay
@Aussie Sheila:
It’s really simple for Trump though, right? Trump is a celebrity and Walker is one of the celebrities he knows and has known for decades. A huge part of Trump can be explained by just looking at shitty, petty, fake celebrity culture. That’s his cultural home.
Melania is a celebrity and she knew Dr. Oz. This is what they are.
Layer8Problem
Young Kornacki’s up with the sun this fine morning, but the amphetamines haven’t kicked in yet. I’m convinced his rolled-up sleeve shirts are tailored that way and they in fact don’t roll down at all.
p.a.
@Kay:
Our hope is that they just stay home
zhena gogolia
@Aussie Sheila: It’s the same cynicism that had the sainted GHWB nominate Clarence Thomas to succeed Thurgood Marshall, or (on the gender front) that had McCain choose Palin to woo women.
Kay
@japa21:
There’s an Obama documentary from ’06 where he’s happily watching returns – it was a D wave year- and he’s watching Sherrod Brown returns in particular and it’s like you can see the wheels turning “hmmmm- I wonder if I could…”
Geminid
@Aussie Sheila: Not to absolve Georgia Republicans of responsibility, but Walker is their Senate candidate because Trump insisted on him. Brian Kemp crushed Trump’s other candidate, David Perdue, in the primary almost 3 to 1. If Kemp had put his political operation behind State Agriculture Commissioner Black he likely would have beaten Walker.
But Georgia Republicans were intimidated; Trump might have told his supporters to stay home in November and cost Kemp his reelection. There was an informal boycott by Trump fanatics of the January 5, 2021 Senate runoffs, and that helped put Warnock and Ossoff in the Senate.
Aussie Sheila
@Kay:
I agree with you re Warnock, although I see him from afar, not close up like you. The interviews I have seen have been very impressive, and he is clearly thoughtful as well as being politically ‘savvy’ in a good way!
I hope and trust if he wins the Dems can get some good things going in the Senate, starting with f..king over Sinema. Manchin will probably be voted out next cycle? But she really stinks imo. She really is terrible.
I know US party politics is far less disciplined than Oz politics, but god almighty she deserves to be tossed by her party apparatus – a simply terrible performance replete with literally telling her supporters to F off. Unbelievable.
OzarkHillbilly
As Norman told Tommy Carcetti in The Wire, “Black folks have been voting for white folks ever since they got the vote.”
(or something along those lines, the google is not very friendly on that quote)
OzarkHillbilly
@p.a.: Why bother voting when the elections are rigged in DEMs favor? Or so say all the GOPers.
Kay
@Aussie Sheila:
The “Black Church” sort of interests me in a way religion usually doesn’t – I love how Warnock talks about it. It’s very approachable for non-religious white people, if I’m any measure of that.
sdhays
@Soprano2: It’s so true, even when it always blows up in their face. I still can’t get past Obama’s Senate race in 2004 – when their selected candidate imploded due to a sex scandal, the Illinois Republican Party went to Maryland and imported the super crazy Alan Keyes to run against Obama.
Keyes went on to establish the famous “crazification factor”. It still boggles the mind that Illinois Republicans couldn’t just nominate someone from their own state; no, they needed a black man and since the number of black Republicans nationwide can be counted on one hand, they had to go to Maryland and find someone even a lot of Illinois Republicans would find cray-cray.
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s the same thing with women, R’s think Democratic women will vote for anyone who is female, thus candidates like Palin. It’s deliberately insulting, implying that no one except white men care about the quality of the candidate. They never think about the fact that many R’s will vote for anyone who is a white male. LOL There are identity politics on the right, but the press rarely calls them out that way.
Soprano2
@sdhays: I think they honestly believe that if they run a minority candidate then no one can talk about their racism, or if they run a woman no one can talk about their misogyny.
ant
The thing with Republicans….. they fundamentally disagree with the equal… life, liberty, and pursuit part. They want a tilted playing field when it comes to that stuff, and they want the state to bolster the caste systems in American culture. This is what drives all their political policies.
The reason they’ll allow people like Walker/Thomas/ACB/Palin etc is because they trust these people not to change the cultural structure.
What they did with Harriet Miers shows what happens when they do not trust. ACB on the other hand submits to her husband/father/male authority just like the good book says, so they’ll allow her to have power. But not really cause she’ll do what the white men on the court want.
Same with Walker.
mrmoshpotato
@lowtechcyclist:
Dump is the party. The party is Dump. The GOP can’t get away from itself.
Geminid
@Aussie Sheila: The party apparatus cannot toss Sinema. In the U.S., that’s the prerogative of primary voters, which I think is a good thing. But I expect Arizona Democrats will toss Sinema in the 2024 primary, and select Congressman Ruben Gallego to take her place on the November ballot.
That is, if she runs for reelection My hunch is that she won’t.
NotMax
Ixnay on the andlescay. ;)
OzarkHillbilly
Talk about composure… Too funny.
Kay
It’s about how powerful, incumbent Republicans tricked their small donors – told them they were donating to Walker but instead 99% of the donation went to the GOP campaign arm and Rick Scott.
In the 2012 GOP post-mortem on why Obama beat them twice, Republicans spent some time on the truly gross number of grifters in the GOP. They never solved that problem. There are now many, many more than in 2012. Whole crowds of young white men who have no real job (and have NEVER had a job) other than living off small GOP donors. They’re mooching off GOPers Social Security checks. A whole generation of conservative leeches.
Aussie Sheila
@Soprano2:
All politics is ‘identity’ politics, even the most ideological. That is why political culture is important imo. Most people, to the extent they think about politics at all, go with ‘vibes’.
That is why actual political outcomes are very important. I know what my Party will deliver, broadly, when they are in power. But what I know, and what is said more broadly during elections often doesn’t match up. Not because lies are told, but because people generally don’t pay attention to detailed policies, and because most people don’t think ideologically.
The problem arises when the political structures and institutions prevent political parties from delivering for both their base, and a broader sympathetic electorate. I would ditch the filibuster in a heartbeat. So what if the repugs would do the same and enact bad stuff. Let people actually see what they are really like. Everything is so opaque in your system. I now follow it pretty closely and I still get flabbergasted.
How does a person who is busy working etc ever get to know who responsible for what in a divided system where the parties are an undisciplined mess and the media makes no effort to tell them who is responsible for what?
OzarkHillbilly
It’s always projection with them.
Skepticat
Fingers, toes, arms, legs, eyes, and wires crossed. I weep for a country in which it’s possible for such a sad excuse for a person and the current occupants of the Republicant clown car to be “in charge.”
cain
Evangelicals have put everything into Trump – I’m not sure how they plan on escaping him given that the nearly divine status they have given him and all the excuses of being an imperfect vessel. I’m wondering what their plan is going forward. There are still a lot of Trump people out there even though they aren’t going to rallies like they used to.
Soprano2
I’m listening to “The New Abnormal” podcast. I was hopeful that when Molly Jong-Fast left they would find a better co-host, but they didn’t. They picked a woman named Danielle Moodie, and she’s every bit as clueless about reality as Molly was. She and her co-host Andy Levy are talking about how it’s “horrific” that railroad workers don’t have any paid sick leave; I wonder if they realize there are literally millions of people who have jobs where they have no paid sick leave? They talk about it as if there are no other workers who don’t have sick leave, and it’s just horrible that Democrats averted a railroad strike that would literally paralyze the whole U.S. They also never mention that 8 of the 12 unions accepted the contract! Just awful, I may have to unsubscribe. It was better when they were trying out different people, but this is just as bad as it was before.
OMG, Moodie just said Democrats told railroad workers “they can never take time off”! Just absolutely clueless. I already don’t like stridency, and combining it with cluelessness about the actual issues and situation just makes it worse. They want the whole U.S. economy to come to a halt because 4 unions didn’t accept a contract that took 3 years to finalize.
rikyrah
@Aussie Sheila:
The pure, unadulterated racism in putting forth that unqualified 2022 version of Stepin-fetchit is enraging. But, it’s who the GOP is, and I mean, GOP, from top to bottom.
Betty Cracker
There’s a piece in The Atlantic about MT Greene and why she’s Like That, and it’s kind of interesting as a character study. Greene didn’t cooperate on the article, but the reporter talked to a lot of people, and it sounds like Greene was mostly normal until she got caught up in the Trump cult and fell down the Qanon rabbit hole. Reading between the lines, I think Greene is attracted to Trump in part because her father was a self-aggrandizing, narcissistic jerk on a smaller scale. Greene’s father once “wrote” a book with a co-author, whom the reporter tracked down:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Soprano2: I didn’t even make it to the new co-host. Andy Levy really absorbed Molly J-F’s half-informed-by-tweets ethos
rikyrah
@Kay:
It’s who they are, Kay.
NotMax
@Soprano2
And such small portions!
(/couldn’t resist)
gene108
@Aussie Sheila:
There is no actual way for a Party in the U.S. to discipline an elected member. If Party members in a particular executive or legislative assembly want to discipline someone, it will be by the rules of that branch of government, not by any rules of the Party.
Parties used to have more power in controlling who could run for different positions, but the U.S. public has pushed to totally take the power out of the Party’s hands and shift it to voters.
There are trade offs. Obama would not have stood as the nominee for president, in 2008, in a Party controlled system because he hadn’t put the time in. On the other hand, we sometimes end up with people like Walker running.
jonas
@cain: I think that’s right. Plus, Trump will run no matter what because 1. the grift — campaign donations are a great cash flow stream and 2. he thinks he can deflect indictments and investigations if he’s a presidential candidate. He’s definitely right on the first point. His marks seem to have deep pockets and the dead-eyed cultist’s willingness to cash in their 401k to help Trump restore America and bring Jesus and JFK Jr. back. He’s sorely mistaken on the second point, but being able to portray himself as an endlessly persecuted victim is a great hook for Nr. 1.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
OzarkHillbilly
More of this please.
Geminid
@OzarkHillbilly: That’s what looney Lin Wood told Georgia Republicans about the last Senate runoffs. I think some of them listened to him, because there was a big dropoff in Republican votes from November to January.
Then Wood packed his carpet bag, moved to South Carolina, and ran for Republican Party Chairman there. He was unsuccessful.
I remember Dennis Praeger exhorting Georgians in his radio audience to come out for Perdue and Loefler in the runoffs. One guy called in and said no way, the RINO establishment wouldn’t “stop the steal” and they could all go to hell. Praeger tried to talk the guy down, but after five minutes he gave up.
raven
It’s cold, rainy and nasty. I guess that helps us?
OzarkHillbilly
Here’s the deal. They have to schedule any PTO time weeks in advance. Consequently, if they break a leg, and take a day off so a Doc can set it, they can (and all too often do) get fired. Never mind the time they will need to heal.
evap
The early voting in Dekalb and Fulton counties, which are mostly urban and heavily Democrat, has been through the roof. Even higher than early voting in the runoff two years ago, and higher than early voting for the general election. Warnock almost got to 50% in the general, so I am cautiously optimistic.
jonas
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Thinking you’re pwning the libs. It’s a hell of a drug….
rikyrah
Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) tweeted at 6:00 AM on Tue, Dec 06, 2022:
NBC News: In the Georgia Senate runoff early vote, Democrats had a 13-point edge — larger than the party’s 8-point lead in November’s early vote. @MSNBC
(https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1600097733271990273?t=5333a1wO17F-mLNLLYkEzw&s=03)
Soprano2
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah, some of the other co-hosts they tried out weren’t half bad, but instead of going for “interesting and informed” they went for “uninformed and bombastic”. I wanted to give it a chance, but I think I’m going to unsubscribe because I don’t feel like I’m learning anything!
rikyrah
Like we didn’t know this…
Eugene Scott (@Eugene_Scott) tweeted at 6:14 AM on Tue, Dec 06, 2022:
Georgia’s runoff system was created in 1964 after the urging of Denmark Groover, who blamed Black voters for a reelection loss and proposed runoffs. Groover later acknowledged the runoff system was intended to suppress Black political representation. https://t.co/IPYjklOL3F
(https://twitter.com/Eugene_Scott/status/1600101326565818368?t=V6s1Dia4pLHg9ppSPFT4dA&s=03)
rikyrah
Hungry and Hopeful In DFW (@Kennymack1971) tweeted at 7:25 AM on Tue, Dec 06, 2022:
The Beltway Media practically tried to will a recession into existence on this President’s watch.
They’re sick right now.
(https://twitter.com/Kennymack1971/status/1600119255059423234?t=CxjPCo6akmFFeG1R-mlLxw&s=03)
Soprano2
@Geminid: Republicans have been promoting the idea that all elections are massively fraudulent for two years and then they wonder why some of their supporters aren’t voting! *rolleyes
OzarkHillbilly
@Geminid: I bring it up every chance I get. Especially when I am talking to Repub voters.
rikyrah
Where is the lie?
Brian McBride (@BrianDMcBride) tweeted at 9:39 AM on Mon, Dec 05, 2022:
NYT and WaPo reporters expressed more outrage about not attending Naomi Biden’s wedding then they were about the leader of the Republican party wanting to “terminate” the Constitution.
(https://twitter.com/BrianDMcBride/status/1599790636559142912?t=nbescqQOPgNW-AJhK2tu4g&s=03)
MomSense
@rikyrah:
We really need ranked choice voting. There were enough close elections with 3rd party candidates who were spoilers that it would have made the difference. Plus it’s a lot cheaper to then go to the second and third choices than it is to hold a new election.
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: What I’m commenting on is their total ignorance of the true situation. I want information like what you said in your comment, not performative outrage where they act like it’s outrageous that there is a job in the U.S. that doesn’t have sick leave!
jonas
@sdhays:
Not only was Keyes a relative unknown (to people not on the staff of National Review) from out of state, his political ideas make Clarence Thomas look like a goddamn hippie.
rikyrah
Manu Raju (@mkraju) tweeted at 5:40 AM on Tue, Dec 06, 2022:
New – House Rs ratchet up demands to raise the debt ceiling — from deep spending cuts to immigration policy — and number of them say they’ll vote NO no matter what. Some pressing McCarthy to more fully explain his plans before speaker’s vote. w/@MZanona https://t.co/bzWtTRk5Dn
(https://twitter.com/mkraju/status/1600092781954977792?t=cjZb9e-nURpprMjCmY6Flw&s=03)
MomSense
@rikyrah:
They are failing our democracy. Those motherfuckers are turning themselves into contortionists in order to minimize that mango monster.
Geminid
@raven: My Atlanta friend told me last night that he thought bad weather would help Warnock. For one thing, Warren thought Walker’s voters were less motivated than Warnock’s. Also, he saw data showing that party registrations of early voters skewed strongly Democratic, so Warnock has banked a lot of votes already.
Ken
@Kay: I saw some screenshots of sites that were raising money for Walker for the runoff. They had two, sometimes more, slots to enter percentages for the distribution, one for Walker and one for the grifter’s* own fund. The slots were pre-populated, often with Walker getting 10% or less, so unless the donor scrolled** and changed the numbers, it mostly went to the grifter.
* I say “grifter” but most of these were from established politicians, including a couple of Republican senators. Doesn’t mean they aren’t still grifting, of course.
** Scrolled, because these slots were located at the bottom of the forms, and well below the “Confirm” button. A masterpiece of UI design.
raven
@Geminid: That’s the conventional wisdom.
Qrop Non Sequitur
Try “at least since Kennedy.” They’ve been running this scam a long time.
rikyrah
That 51st vote in the Senate means Biden Judge picks can go through without any delay.
2 years more of not just judges, but, the GOP with NO SAY whatsoever with the judges.
Isaiah Martin (@isaiahrmartin) tweeted at 8:45 PM on Mon, Dec 05, 2022:
Your vote for Raphael Warnock in 2020 put Ketanji Brown Jackson on the Supreme Court. Your vote created progress; your vote tomorrow will continue it.
(https://twitter.com/isaiahrmartin/status/1599958218632880128?t=NCKU9aXe6sdBqoK7Qg1qyQ&s=03)
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I don’t hate her tweets or long-form writing, but MJF’s voice is like nails on a chalkboard. That doesn’t seem to be disqualifying in podcasting though. Wingnut Ben Shapiro sounds like an angry, helium-huffing squirrel, and he makes bank from what I read. I have an older lady’s impulse to mutter, “Back in MY day, you had to have a pleasant voice to make it in radio…”
rikyrah
Isn’t that obvious? This is the path they’re going down?
Covie (@covie_93) tweeted at 9:44 AM on Mon, Dec 05, 2022:
If SCOTUS sides with the web designer who said creating websites for same-sex couples’ weddings violates her free speech rights, how long before other business owners start refusing to serve Black people, immigrants, or any other minority group using that same argument?
(https://twitter.com/covie_93/status/1599791870431100928?t=iLrEbT_GlNqZkeIsWlrTCA&s=03)
raven
@Qrop Non Sequitur: Exactly, my republican family KNOWS Kennedy stole the election in Chicago!
Geminid
@cain: The Pentacostals are enthusiasts, so they may hang with Trump. The Baptist leaders, both clergy and laypeople, are more cold blooded and calculating, and far as they are concerned they owe Trump nothing. He’s looking more and more like a loser, and they need a winner if they are to maintain their temporal power. So I think that is one component of the Republican coalition that will migrate to other candidates in the 2024 primary cycle.
rikyrah
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HAH A
Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) tweeted at 9:25 AM on Mon, Dec 05, 2022:
Need I remind you: Bernie Sanders and his top surrogates had a huge influence on the changes in the 2020 Democratic primary process. Bernie’s camp did everything they could to grease the skids for his second presidential run.
And he still lost in a landslide. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
(https://twitter.com/eclecticbrotha/status/1599786925925498880?s=02)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: That boy sets off my that-boy-ain’t-right meter.
Soprano2
@Betty Cracker: Glad to hear I’m not the only one who cannot stand the sound of MJF’s voice. This new woman’s voice isn’t much better. It’s not that they’re women, either – there are lots of women whose voices on radio or TV don’t bother me at all. Molly always sounded whiny, and this new woman is too strident – it’s unpleasant. When people are going to be on radio or TV they need to train their voice, because microphones can do bad things to people’s voices. I had a friend who had to go to training sessions to learn how to say “s” on a microphone.
Geminid
@raven: And Walker would be a crappy candidate even on a sunny day.
Do you think his attraction as a football hero has held up over the campaign?
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Exactly. It should be enough to discredit the notion that there are legions of ultra leftie folks out there, just waiting for the right Messiah before they vote D
As for the Old Yeller from Vt, he couldn’t even win the deep blue neighboring MA even once when he ran for the nomination as D.
Ken
Football hero and vampire hunter.
Or was he on Team Edward? I didn’t really understand what he was saying.
jonas
@Ken:
I forget who was covering this the other day, but one email sent out by Rick Scott’s senate campaign committee recently on behalf of Walker had a default setting where 99% of your donation went to…wait for it…Rick Scott’s slush fund, er, I mean Senate fund, and 1% actually to Walker. It was hilarious.
Miss Bianca
@Aussie Sheila: I’m not so sure the GOP is calculating that *Black* citizens won’t notice or care about the difference between Warnock and Walker. Pretty sure all their calculations rest on the premise that *white* citizens won’t notice or care. That it’s even a contest at this point makes me afraid they might be right. Not a good look for my fellow whities, at all.
Wapiti
So they’re basically a second set of preachers. And like many preachers, they keep themselves fed by telling their listeners what they want to hear.
jonas
@Betty Cracker: Isn’t Shapiro the one who boasted about remaining a virgin until he got married at 30 or something? Maybe it did something to his voice.
cope
@Betty Cracker: Although it took me a couple of tries on my phone, I read that article too. My first take was that it is a good example of how a fragile person (her personal life was apparently somewhat precarious already) can be totally remade, essentially through social media. Scary.
I wonder where the counter-examples of this are: a shitty person turned into a good one by their online activity. I’m sure there are many out there, it’s just that they aren’t as compelling in the telling.
rikyrah
No lie told
Banquo’s Not Giving Elon $8 (@BanquoDyar) tweeted at 3:20 PM on Mon, Dec 05, 2022:
Matt Taibbi is a trust fund accelerationist who wakes up everyday and asks ‘How can I hurt the Democratic party?” — Elon Musk is a trust fund baby upset that Biden didn’t give Tesla preferential treatment in the EV market.
(https://twitter.com/BanquoDyar/status/1599876421496999936?t=aOnqwpeKzYXHHpmDZwYCxg&s=03)
MomSense
@Miss Bianca:
Not sure about that. I kind of think it could be the new crazification factor example.
jonas
@Miss Bianca:
Walker was absolutely picked as a big F-U to Warnock and Black voters in Georgia. I don’t know if there’s an expression in Black English equivalent to “a shanda fur die goyim” in Yiddish, but that’s what Walker is and that’s why Republicans are running him.
lowtechcyclist
@Soprano2:
Yeah, I think this is it, much more than their thinking Blacks will vote for a Black Republican, or that women will vote in droves for a Republican woman.
But unlike with Black Dem candidates, the Black Republicans are so obviously and blatantly…well, tokens. And while the same isn’t always true of GOP women candidates, it very often is, with Palin being the sterling example.
lowtechcyclist
[duplicate deleted]
gene108
@rikyrah:
If Republicans aren’t checked, it’s only a matter of time before religious beliefs can be used as an excuse to openly discriminate against anyone, at anytime.
artem1s
Portman is an idiot. The GOP is desperately hoping the Democrats take TFG out so they don’t have to. But it won’t matter whether he goes to jail or is even legally not allowed to hold office. He’s going to run as long as he’s alive no matter what the polls say or happens with the 1/6 investigation. The GOP gave him their donor lists and he’s never ever going to stop grifting them. His MAGAt deplorables will send him money first and only support candidates he is paid to endorse (see Vance, JD). Liz and Karl Rove are never going to get that part of the base back and they know it.
Geminid
@gene108: There are passages in Paul’s New Testament letters that some evangelicals use to justify barring women from church leadership. They could easily be applied to hiring and promotion in secular institutions.
Kristine
@Aussie Sheila:
It’s a thing with that party. They’re hung up on the physical. I remember Bush 1 saying something like “isn’t he handsome, ladies?” about Dan Quayle. Much was made of Sarah Palin’s appearance. They like mocking feminists as ‘ugly.’
And if their standard bearer isn’t handsome, they paint ridiculous portraits and pretend. All POCs are the same, so they can’t see past the physical appearance, and they don’t believe anything else matters to anyone else because of how it matters to them.
raven
@Geminid: I think there are plenty of racist motherfuckers here, and everywhere else in this country, who would love to have another house niclang.
Betty Cracker
@gene108: Yep. I read an op-ed about the case somewhere this morning, and the writer suggested the corrupt SCOTUS six are looking at the question as whether you can force someone to perform a creative service, even if it goes against their religious beliefs — as if creative service is the salient point rather than public accommodation, which should be controlling.
The definition of “creative service” can be stretched all kinds of ways. Nail technicians, hair stylists, tattoo artists, etc. A bad ruling will probably open up a floodgate.
OzarkHillbilly
@Miss Bianca:I find it more than a little funny that they think no white man (from the superior race doncha know) can beat the affirmative action beneficiary black man in an election.
raven
@jonas: Samuel L Jackson has some thoughts.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: I haven’t followed the case that closely, but what blew my mind yesterday was, as I understand, the plaintiff hasn’t been asked to a website for a same-sex wedding, she’s suing because someday she might be asked to do it. She made it to the freaking Supreme Court on a hypothetical “what if?”
Miss Bianca
@OzarkHillbilly: I can’t decide whether they are underestimating their base, or overestimating it. Either way, bad look.
OzarkHillbilly
@Miss Bianca: Por que, no los dos?
If anyone can hold 2 completely contradictory assumptions in their heads, it’s the GOP.
Miss Bianca
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: And it’s that “what if?” situation that makes me deeply suspicious. How does this plaintiff have *any* standing *at all*? And who the hell is financing her to get this all the way to SCOTUS?
OzarkHillbilly
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: So having standing is no longer required in courts?
Brachiator
In the Georgia November Senate election, a total of about 3.9 million people voted.
Georgia law prevented registration of new voters after November. But some people who sat out the midterm might decide to vote in the runoff.
A CNN report noted the following.
I hope that there is a strong turnout for Warnock. This would be best for Georgia and for the country.
Jackie
@raven: I hope it persuades older voters – who sway Rep.
GenZ voters won’t let a little rain and cold stop them! And, they are enthused! A lot of them skipped the Nov election; assuming Warnock would win easily. They’re making up for it this Runoff election 😁
opiejeanne
My Twitter account is currently suspended for abuse because I posed the following about Jeanne Shaheen not going to the Congressional Ball in protest of Biden’s proposal to change the order of primaries. It’s a 12 hour suspension and i have protested. This is what I wrote that got me in trouble:
lowtechcyclist
@OzarkHillbilly:
Still, that’s the sort of thing that should be addressed by Federal law that would apply to everybody, not just RR workers.
I believe in unions, but sick leave is something that shouldn’t be up to whether you have a strong union. One reason you need unions is because not every industry or workplace is alike, and unions can respond to issues specific to given situations much better than the Federal government can. But if you break a leg, you need sick leave right then, regardless of whether you’re working for the railroad or a MickeyD’s.
UncleEbeneezer
@cope: Most of my 20 year transition from a barely-pays-attention, BothSides™ Libertarian, Nader-voter to being a loyal Democrat, and active anti-racist, Feminist, LGBTQ ally/organizer was a result of online activity. Sure some of it was from conversations with people IRL (friends and girlfriends) but the vast majority was from hanging out places like BJ/LGM with woke me up to the evil of Conservatism/GOP and various online spaces centered around Social Justice that finally got me to really start listening to marginalized voices and centering them in my worldview.
That’s more of a slow, long-term change but I’m sure there are people who have had pretty quick turnarounds from the influence of social and political stuff they’ve read or communities they’ve participated in, online. Things like the 1619 Project, the work of Ibram X Kendi, Intersectional Feminists and Trans Activists etc., can really change people’s perspectives drastically. I think this is one of the reasons that the GOP is going so hard on demonizing CRT/Wokeness. They know that those things actually do have the power move people to reevaluate and change their views and behavior towards our values and away from theirs. Especially with young people.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: One of the people that she was having an affair with comes from a very democratic family. He mentioned that she never talked about politics, so the analysis could be right.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@opiejeanne: amazing what can trigger a suspension in Elmo’s world
as to Shaheen, that’s disappointing. I really have a hard time imagining the Democratic Club of Dixon’s Notch (or wherever) gathering around the pot-bellied to stove to admire her flinty Yankee independence in not going to a party they probably didn’t know was happening.
JPL
Sorry if this has been mentioned
Greg Bluestein
@bluestein
·
2h
In a rare and brief scrum with reporters Walker is asked if he has any regrets about his campaign. “I don’t regret anything that Rev. Warnock has done …”
lowtechcyclist
@rikyrah:
No lie at all.
I’m hopeful that we’ll succeed in fighting off the fascists, but if our democracy were to go down the tubes, the MSM would be a big part of the reason.
JPL
btw While running a few errands, I went by two polls. Both were light. It’s cool and drizzly.
schrodingers_cat
@opiejeanne: That put you in Twitmo? Seems rather mild compared to the absolute haterade posted by Modi’s bhakts.
Matt McIrvin
@UncleEbeneezer: Online interactions specifically moved me far, far away from giving any credence to Moynihan-style white liberalism that gave a significant share of blame to some internal pathology of Black culture for Black people’s problems. Mainstream political media had gotten me to entertain it in the first place.
Low Key Swagger
Watch Troup County.
JPL
@Brachiator: Around 70,000 people who did not vote in the first election, voted in the second. Apparently, there is reason to believe they are mainly Warnock voters.
Citizen Alan
@cain: White Evangelical Christianity is dead as a moral force. Donald Trump was a test God sent for them and they failed it so utterly that no moral person should ever set foot in a Southern Baptist Church again.
OzarkHillbilly
Technically Casper is not a sheepdog but a guardian dog bred for the specific purpose of protecting his livestock. His horrific wounds are probably why most goat and sheep folks around here have 2 guardian dogs. My buddy has an Akbash and a mutt of indeterminate heritage that is very protective.
James E Powell
@Kay:
This is a factor we have to consider when we are judging campaigns in purple to red areas. Too often we criticize the candidate, the campaign, or media coverage. These voters are not affected by those things. They hate the rest of us & they vote to express that hatred.
I know that it was only after Biden over Trump was not a blowout that I realized the forces of evil that Hillary Clinton was up against.
trollhattan
Nonsense-spouting, Trump-loving, child-sowing dude from Texas who has never held office, or this nice reverend-senator fellow? I’m paralyzed trying to make a choice here.
Be best, Georgia.
Citizen Alan
@rikyrah: I said the day Justice Serena Joy was nominated that within 10 years tops, Brown v Board of Ed would be on the chopping block. I absolutely think that there are at least 5 votes for separate but equal. And Fucking Thomas is one of them.
sab
@OzarkHillbilly: That’s shocking that coyotes were in that big a pack. A Great Pyrennees would have no problem with just a couple of them.
Do you suppose Georgia now has those coyote/wolf hybrid eastern coyotes?
Betty Cracker
@opiejeanne: That’s such bullshit! Maybe there’s a crappy AI content moderation system that hasn’t been fed English language idioms, and it flagged “cut off your nose” to review as a possible violent threat. If the content moderation people have mostly been fired, maybe Twitter just suspends people for dumb shit like that these days.
trollhattan
@Kay: Seems the central requirement is for them to stay home. As you note, REAL Trumpers will never vote for someone with a (D) next to their name. In 2022 I’m the same WRT (R), frankly. The last sane one left/was thrown from the building.
NaijaGal
I am nervous but hopeful. Fingers crossed for a good outcome for the country, not just Georgia.
WereBear
@Kristine: It is always astonishing to glimpse how truly shallow their lives and ambitions are.
It’s like a two dimensional being not being able to grasp three.
JPL
@sab: A pack attacked a dog near me. Early morning Finch is always on a leash, and one time we heard the familiar howling. We quickly came in. Cayotes are losing their natural habitat.
trollhattan
@opiejeanne: ”Idiom, schmidion, this is violence!”
What would they say to “Let them eat cake” or “More than one way to skin a cat”?
frosty
@Jackie: I hope you’re right about Gen Z.
OzarkHillbilly
@sab: Not many wolves in the Southeast (none afaik), so probably not.
Gin & Tonic
Funny story. The “independent” russian TV channel called TV Rain (“dozhd” in russian) – supposedly “liberal” by russian standards – had an administrative hearing in Latvia after their broadcast privileges were revoked due to their support of the war on Ukraine. They showed up to the hearing with no interpreter and no Latvian-speakers, assuming everyone would speak russian. The hearing was canceled.
These are “good russians?”
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: Coyotes are one of the few animals to have expanded their territories. In their case, massively expanded. They are very adaptable.
gvg
@Soprano2: It often reflects them. They tend to vote only for white males so they think we only vote for…
They did not understand why women and blacks supported Bill Clinton who voted and vetoed in ways that protected our interests as best he could when he didn’t always have the votes for ideal laws. His own behavior wasn’t perfect, but the way he voted was what we wanted then. Republicans were getting superficial even then. I thought they were, but I hadn’t seen anything yet.
opiejeanne
@NotMax: We sat next to a couple at lunch in a very crowded Chinese restaurant who embodied that entire gag. They bitched about everything they ate as they inhaled every bit of food they were served, and would have licked their plates if they thought they could get away with it. We had trouble not laughing.
Geminid
I’m finally geting around to reading the Sunday Washington Post I bought two nights ago. There is a long op-ed by Ruth Marcus that is a thorough critique of Originalism.
There is also a short review of the press conference Hakeem Jeffries held last week by Dana Milbank, who fancies himself a humorist:
Upon checking the transcript Milbank decided…
I’ve been a Jeffries fan for a while now, and I took the last as a positive, much like I viewed a New York journalist’s comparison of interviewing Jeffries to “speaking with a very handsome robot.”
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Technically there are no sheep farms in Decatur. It’s a highly dense city inside the 285 perimeter. I hit the dude’s Facebook page and we have a mutual friend so I’m going to check with him on this.
opiejeanne
I can’t tell if that’s unintentional snark, and accidentally witty, or just his usual stupidity.
opiejeanne
@schrodingers_cat: It’s a fairly common idiom and completely innocent of abusive behavior. It pales in comparison to some of the things I’ve said over there using the f word for emphasis.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Betty Cracker:
Thanks for sharing. That makes a lot of sense. I am going to have to read that article.
prostratedragon
@Soprano2: Terry Gross sometimes does radio shows and talks in person on the subject of women’s voices, and how she trained her own voice. Here’s an interview with voice coach Patsy Rodenburg from about 20 years ago (I heard this one back then). Here’s more recent round table, with transcript, among people with various viewpoints. I haven’t heard it, but as one might guess, I’ve the same problem with the squeaky or scratchy voices which I seem to hear more of lately. Yet another summons to greatness, I guess.
trollhattan
@OzarkHillbilly: The first coyote I ever saw was inside LA city boundaries. They, and crows, thrive around hoomans.
karen marie
People aren’t standing in long lines to vote because there are so many voters but because the Georgia legislature wants to discourage voting.
I can only imagine how many more people would be voting but for the ridiculous and time-consuming maze they’ve set up to slow the process of casting a ballot.
Joe Falco
@evap: Turnout for early voting around this time of year has been higher, but that’s because Georgia Republicans that control the state legislature shortened the voting window by five weeks. That meant a lot of people who intended to vote anyway had to vote sooner than expected or otherwise submit an absentee ballot. That really put college students (our growing demographic that came out strong for Georgia D’s) in a bind if they wanted to cast ballot. Also there’s no way the overall number of votes for this run‐off are going to get close to the 2021 run-off numbers because no new voters that didn’t register to vote earlier this election cycle couldn’t register in time for this run-off like they could when there were 9 weeks in the 2021 run-off. Georgia Repukes can dress it up however they like but they expected to suppress the vote to make it in favor for them.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Well, it looks like the guy is the owner of “Ewe Can Do It Naturally” a landscape company that uses “Ewe’s” to clear kudzu!
J R in WV
@japa21:
I agree that Sen Rev Warnock wins, and by 5% sounds like a good margin. Could be higher, in fact, as I doubt the racist Christo-Fascists will turn out on an unpleasant late fall day to vote for a strange black guy.
OzarkHillbilly
@trollhattan: I have seen a number of them in STL suburbs inside the 270 loop. I remember seeing one pair in my parents Des Peres backyard. One appeared to have intestines coming out his rear end. Very strange to see, and couldn’t figure what else it might have been. Drainage ditches/creeks are wildlife corridors and all manner of critters use them.
opiejeanne
@OzarkHillbilly: Wow! That dog is definitely a hero.
On a trip with my cousins, heading to Grand Teton NP from Salt Lake City (not sure which state we were in half the time) we were in some very deep canyons and encountered sheep being herded by several Puli dogs and had to wait for the animals to clear off the road. We never did see the shepherd, but those dogs had control of the flock.
My cousin who insisted on driving did not have a map, was navigating by memory, and one of her memories was that there used to be a big pile of sand or gravel at a particular intersection, 20 years prior. And of course there was almost no reception so the GPS on my phone was useless. It was an interesting trip. I sat in the back seat and tried to ignore the authoritative lecture I was getting on various subjects including whether pronghorns are actually antelopes (do I care?) because I am a couple of years younger than they, so must not know anything. I shut them down finally when the subject changed to Arts & Crafts houses. It gave me a brief moment of triumph before reverting to despair that we were lost, possibly in Wyoming.
Geminid
@OzarkHillbilly: I’ve heard about “coywolf” hybrids. But I think eastern coyotes are bigger because the habitat allows for larger coyotes to thrive whereas their southwestern habitat does not. But that might be a matter of some genetic material from wolves that can now be expressed succesfully.
I saw a map of the original habitats for coyotes and wolves. There was no overlap. I guess that wherever the wolves could live they kept the coyotes out.
Once they exterminated the Eastern wolves, the hunters probably kept the coyotes out for a while. Coyotes are all over the East now, though.
That makes me wonder: have the armadillos made it up to your area yet? Maybe you will see possumdillos some day.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Like our backyard.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: I can’t speak to the particulars of Decatur, but I have a Sullivan MO address, even tho my place is 11 miles outside the city limit. I assumed this guy was in a similar situation. Let me know what you find out.
opiejeanne
@Betty Cracker: I filed a protest, but the way Musty has fired the vast majority of the staff makes me think that the suspension will expire before the protest is resolved.
I wondered if it was the algorithm or if someone reported me. It wouldn’t be the first time for something so inconsequential, when I actually use pretty salty language and insults that never get reported.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Heh, a booming field of business then.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The “what if” quality of it allows them to operate without any facts whatever.
Low Key Swagger
We call our place Coyote Creek. We’ve seen very large packs, but pack of 3-4 are the norm. I actually have video of one of my dogs (who you will meet in the calendar) playing grab-ass with a couple of coyote pups while momma was just lounging mere yards away. I love hearing them howl at night, but now I’m ever watchful as we have rescued a toy pom and she would be easy pickins.
OzarkHillbilly
@Geminid: Oh yeah, we have armadillos. They litter the roadsides. So far I haven’t had any get into my garden, a little surprised at that fact.
@raven: Very much.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Decatur is highly populated and there are contiguous municipalities but not like your situation. There are wooded areas so this all appears to be true. He’s involved with a Lantern Ridge School project and you can see that on this map.
Josie
@OzarkHillbilly:
The guardian dogs usually work in pairs or threes. My oldest son had several that guarded his goats and they were phenomenal. Three of them (2 akbash and a kangal) killed a mountain lion. The kangal came to live with me for a while to recover from her wounds. The sweetest animal ever.
raven
We just had our tenants move out after a year when they were here for fewer that ten days total. It was a bit strange, they were artists from LA with family here and wanted a long term rental when they visited family here. One of them was from a famous show biz family and it turned out to be a great deal for us but a pregnancy changed their plans. Now were going to make it an air bn b or traveling nurses house.
karen marie
@Soprano2: There is not an honest bone in any Republican’s body.
sdhays
@jonas: He had run for President before, so he wasn’t completely unknown, but like you said, he was totally batshit crazy, especially considering that Illinois Republicans at the time were a fairly moderate bunch – the previous two Republican governors had been pro-choice, for example.
Obama broke the Republican leadership’s brains. At the time it was funny, but from the perspective of late 2022 it was an early ominous indicator of the nasty backlash we saw from 2010 onward.
Matt McIrvin
@Citizen Alan: Not like there hadn’t been plenty of earlier tests to examine.
Matt McIrvin
@Low Key Swagger: I’ve seen what I think was a young one nonchalantly scratching itself in our front yard. I now know that what we were supposed to do was bang on some pots and yell to scare it off–no good letting them get habituated to hanging around humans.
It had been making its weird coyote noise earlier, something halfway between a bark and a screaming human.
Matt McIrvin
@karen marie: What appalled me was the governor citing the long lines as evidence that they weren’t suppressing the vote. See–all these people turned out; no suppression at all!
Geminid
@raven: My friend Joan rents out 2/5s of her house as an Abnb unit. It actually used to be two houses built in the 1890s; one was moved and attached to the other around 1920.
It’s in a big tourist town and she does quite well. It’s also a college town, and Joan really cashes in on graduation weekends. She charges a whopping premium for that weekend and gets booked a year in advance.
Joan’s only problems are the turnarounds. She has to put in a couple hours on those transition days cleaning and preparing the unit. Joan likes to travel, but she has found a reliable backup cleaner she trusts enough that she was able to spend three weeks in South Africa last month.
karen marie
@OzarkHillbilly: Thiel was successful buying one senate seat. That’s all he needs for now. He and his money are already getting ready for the next push when he can increase ownership to 20%. In the meantime, he can rent a few already in place and make them wholly-owned subsidiaries in the next cycle.
We’re looking down the road to a fully captured senate.
Jackie
@frosty: Several were interviewed yesterday and vowed to be at the polls today. Senator Warnock represents them and their values. I hope they are the *news* tonight when Warnock is announced the winner!
Geminid
@Geminid: Joan ould always decline to rent out the unit when she’s traveling, but she likes the steady income. She tells me that she makes more money now than she did when she worked full time as a carpenter and then a painting contractor.
opiejeanne
@Matt McIrvin: That screeching is usually following a kill. They’re saying grace over whatever they’re devouring.
Gives me the shivers.
karen marie
@Ken: Democrats are doing split fundraising as well but at least in the case of Eliz Warren, it’s reasonably up front that the donation is split 50-50. Campaigns are ever more expensive, so I am not offended at the donation coat-tailing for her to build a war chest. I’d like Warren to remain a senator.
karen marie
@Miss Bianca: I saw a post on mastodon describing a personal interaction with a 50-year-old black woman who was in line to vote for Walker “because he can be relied on to uphold conservative values.” Insane.
Anyone here in Georgia? Has the media there done reporting on Walker’s chaotic lifestyle?
karen marie
@Betty Cracker: Bartending could easily be described as a “creative service,” as can cooking. Will we see segregated bars and restaurants again in my lifetime? I would not bet against it.
Uncle Cosmo
Reminiscent of the typical outrage of progressives when they first discover that Ayn Rand took (and cashed!) Social Security checks. Oooh, what hypocrisy! they seethe. And the Randies reply, Not at all! If you soft-hearts are stupid enough to give us money for free, we’re smart enough to take it, and fuck you very much!
Who was it who said, It is morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money – ?
raven
@Geminid: Yea, I’m totally against is but it doesn’t matter.
the pollyanna from hell
I voted early for Warnock. Rome is for him; Summerville against. I’m betting on Rome, GA.
Uncle Cosmo
@jonas: I’ve been getting e-mails for days now in which Warnock panhandles for cash via Tim Ryan’s website. A few paragraphs down, the e-mails explain that only half of the take goes to Warnock – the rest goes to Ryan (who ICYMI lost in Ohio 4 weeks ago). Not as dishonest as the Thuglican grifters like Skeletor Scott, but still sharp practice IMO – if Ryan wants help paying off his campaign debt, he should come out and ask for it, not piggyback on the Warnock race.
Geminid
@karen marie: E. Warren may need the money. Scott Brown moved back to Massachusetts and I have a hunch he’s planning a rematch. Brown will be the underdog, but he will not lack for money I think.
Uncle Cosmo
FTR it appears to be W. C. Fields.
Geminid
@Geminid: Correction: Scott Brown has not moved back to Massachusetts. He lives in Rye, New Hampshire, south of Portsmouth.
Brown does have a Massachusetts connection now: he’s head women’s basketball coach at Amesbury High School, in northeast Massachusetts. Brown was a player in high school and college, and told reporters that being a head coach had always been on his bucket list.
Brown was Ambassador to New Zealand during the Trump administration. Now, he sometimes speaks to Massachusetts reporters about that state’s politics, and endorses select local and state Republican candidates. He is 63 years old.