In 1987, newly-elected Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi participated in the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights
In 2022, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi signs the Respect for Marriage Act in one of her final acts as Speaker of the House
So grateful for her leadership! pic.twitter.com/zWYYiqwasG
— Anthony Close ?? (@AnthonyClose) December 8, 2022
First Senator Warnock won reelection, and now Nancy Pelosi gets to take a victory lap:
… In June, the Republican supermajority on the Supreme Court eviscerated long-standing precedent and the right to privacy with its disgraceful decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Justice Clarence Thomas took explicit aim at marriage equality: urging the court to reconsider Obergefell and upend the lives of countless families across the country. While his legal reasoning is twisted and unsound, we must take Justice Thomas — and the extremist movement behind him — at their word.
Our Respect for Marriage Act combats this threat by requiring states to recognize same-sex marriages, as long as they are valid in the state where they were performed. It also finally repeals the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act, so that no future MAGA majority in Congress or president in the White House can wield this policy as a weapon of bigotry.
We soon will send this vital legislation to President Biden for signature: a glorious triumph of love, of freedom and of dignity for all.
This action is the latest step forward in House Democrats’ longtime fight for full equality, waged alongside generations of fearless activists…
Just as I began my career fighting for LGBTQ communities, I am overjoyed that one of the final bills I will sign as speaker will be the Respect for Marriage Act: ensuring the federal government will never again stand in the way of marrying the person you love.
After the Obergefell decision was announced, Jim Obergefell declared to an ecstatic crowd outside the Supreme Court: “Today’s ruling from the Supreme Court affirms what millions across this country already know to be true in our hearts: Our love is equal.”
That is a truth that Democrats proudly honor this week as we carry on our mission to build a brighter, fairer future for generations to come.
I’m so glad my former Representative lived to celebrate this day, too:
“I was here for the birth of DOMA, so I am very grateful to be here for the funeral.”
Former Rep. Barney Frank, the first member of Congress to voluntarily come out as gay, attended the historic House vote to protect same-sex and interracial marriage. https://t.co/LjHBum1fQl
— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) December 8, 2022
Sarah Posner: The same-sex marriage bill proves Republicans are waking up to the religious right’s shell game. https://t.co/0M5Wui0BBv
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) December 8, 2022
TL;DR — Repubs outside of the safest Talibangelical precincts (mostly) know how to count:
Thursday’s final passage of the Respect for Marriage Act reveals a small but important fissure in the Republican Party’s long alliance with the Christian right. The GOP backers — 39 in the House and 12 in the Senate — recognize that nearly three-quarters of Americans support marriage equality, and only a narrow minority, primarily white evangelicals, opposes it. These 51 Republicans (though still less than a quarter of the caucus) rejected false and apocalyptic claims by influential Christian right leaders that the bill would abandon religious Americans to a “woke” agenda and eviscerate their religious freedom — claims they persisted in making even after senators added expansive religious liberty protections based on their demands…
Congress passed marriage equality today.
“Love is love” has always been the slogan.
But, legal marriage matters so much after a spouse’s death.
While I celebrate love, I am thinking about everyone who had to manage their spouse’s death without a marriage certificate’s power.
— [email protected] (@dataandpolitics) December 8, 2022
If you think this is hypothetical, some kind of worst-case thinking, I leave you with two stories.
The first is the facta for the titular Obergefell decision.
— [email protected] (@dataandpolitics) December 8, 2022
Second, and this happened to me and it happened last month in San Francisco.
Armed with a valid death certificate listing me as surviving spouse, an @ATT storage manager called the police on me rather than help me once she realized I was gay.
This happens and it’s real.
— [email protected] (@dataandpolitics) December 8, 2022
The legal power in those two documents — marriage certificates and death certificates — is indescribable.
I am heartbroken to imagine how many LGBTQ Americans were denied their power and how many LGBTQ people around the world continue to be denied their power.
— [email protected] (@dataandpolitics) December 8, 2022
JMS
Hmm.. speaking of one of the bill’s architects in the senate, how does Sinema’s next move play out?
Stacib
Sinema has left the Democratic party.
Betty Cracker
@JMS: I’ve gotta think that is 100% about avoiding a humiliating primary defeat. Maybe Suzanne can share some AZ electorate insights, but my take from afar is Sinema is handing the seat to whichever horror show the AZ GOP nominates because Dems need to be 100% unified to win in that state, and this pretty much guarantees they won’t be. Hopefully Sinema will approve Biden’s judicial nominees for two more years and then fade into well-earned obscurity.
O. Felix Culpa
@Betty Cracker:
I have to think this is (another) sign that she’s not running again and (still) doesn’t care who she fucks over on her way out. She’s a chaos agent and Arizona–and the rest of the country–deserve better.
Layer8Problem
I would pay good money for an Isaac Chotiner interview of Senator Kyrsten Sparkly Unicorn.
Suzanne
@Betty Cracker: I don’t know. I might have convinced myself that this is a good thing. Now the Dems can have a primary without her sorry ass in it. Gallego has already made some noise, I think Greg Stanton could also be good.
The party there has supported her due to inertia. Everyone there knows she sucks, but she put together a (surprisingly durable) winning coalition during years when that was a rare thing.
I think the GOP candidate will matter here. If they stop electing idiots like Blake Masters, who no one had ever heard of before, and get back to #TeamNormal typical GOP assholes, I think it will be tough.
I don’t think she’s running again, TBH.
Cmorenc
Krisen sinema just announced she is leaving the democratic party to register as an independent – fucking drama queen probably realizes she will lose the 2024 D primary, and so can’t help speculating her plan is to run as a 3p in 2024 to spoil the D hope of keeping the seat. Or else she has drunk the andrew yang third way bullshit, with the same end result.
Matt McIrvin
@O. Felix Culpa: The buzz is that it’s a sign she IS running again, realizes she can’t win a primary, and is opting instead to fuck over the Democrats by splitting the vote if they dare to run anybody.
JMG
There are any number of pols in Congress who have no interest in legislating and exist to do performance politics, but almost all of them have some allegedly ideological point to make when doing so. Sinema is just all performance. She’s the street mime of the Senate.
Anne Laurie
She starts collecting ‘reelection’ donations & speaking fees from the same ‘I am not a mere tool of any party’ Daddy Warbucks who’ve made the junior Senator from Vermont a millionaire.
Then — since she doesn’t seem to love hanging around the Senate floor haranguing her colleagues just for the sake of hearing her own voice — she jumps ship in 2024, to whichever think tank offers her the most visible sinecure.
Or — one can but hope — she announces, discovers that she’s no longer valuable to anti-Democratic moneybags, and slides out of public view like a hog on ice…
And I wish to Murphy we could celebrate the good things, instead of obsessing over drama addicts, but that’s one of the drawbacks to being a Democrat!
Spanky
@Suzanne: She’s given the Arizona Democrats a chance to spend 2 years running against her. Will they do that?
Paul W.
@Cmorenc: I don’t think the electorate that picked Kelly is going to go independent instead of just going for the actual Dem on the ticket.
but then, I’ve never understood this woman.
Kay
@Stacib:
Guffaw. I love how she couldn’t concentrate on her ONE workplace contribution (her alleged immigration reform law) for more than a week.
She wasn’t getting enough attention.
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: I think the idea is that she’s threatening to throw the election to the Republicans if the Democrats run a candidate at all–so she can anoint herself as the de facto Democratic nominee without having to win a primary, through a mutual assured destruction threat.
SFAW
My question is: what’s Sinema going to do when this (figurative) 15 minutes of fame is over? She needs attention almost as much as TFG. OK, maybe not almost as much, but within spittin’ distance.
Matt McIrvin
@SFAW: Fox News.
OzarkHillbilly
Gee, couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of greedy cowards.
Anne Laurie
What have you got against Isaac Chotiner?
He’s the best at what he does, but interviewing her would be like trying to nail Marshmellow Fluff to the wall — tiring, sticky, and unproductive.
Steeplejack
@Layer8Problem:
God, yes, I would love that.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@O. Felix Culpa:
Good morning, how have you been?
zhena gogolia
The bliss of not being a political junkie: I muttered, “Sinema is becoming an Independent.” My husband said, “Who’s that?” HE HAD NO FUCKING IDEA. How I wish I were him.
Betty Cracker
@Suzanne: I was hoping you’d weigh in — thanks! I made the assumption she’d run again as an independent, but I hope you’re right. Our best shot at holding onto the seat is with her out, probably. I didn’t watch the whole interview with Tapper. The clips I’ve seen didn’t address 2024.
Layer8Problem
@Suzanne: I’m hoping no rich lunatic RWNJ decides that funding a Third Way/No Labels independent run for her is just the ticket to split off any woo-adjacent Democrats and independents and park a Republican in that seat.
I just read that she’s a BYU graduate. That’s some mavericking.
Scout211
That was my first thought when I read that she is registering as an independent. She needs all the media attention and the political power that she thinks she will continue to enjoy during Senate negotiations.
I am wrong most of the time, but I am thinking that she is in a two year employment negotiation with her next employer and may even leave the Senate early.
Cmorenc
@Spanky:
jumping to the gop won’t do her any good – she would lose to a RW MAGA candidate. Is she delusional enough to think she can beat both parties as an independent, or would she do it anyways just out of drama and spite ?
Kay
True for all the performative Independents, really
Can’t be THE superstar of your own show if you’re on a team or working with a group!
No one would hire these people outside the Senate, just FYI. They don’t know how to work with others.
MattF
Shopping mall in Moscow is ablaze.
Amir Khalid
@Betty Cracker:
I read a fair bit about Arizona Democratic voters’ unhappiness with Sinema — in particular, that they were expecting a more reliable D vote in the Senate than she’s turned out to be. And about how that has made her unpopular with Dem voters. If she runs for reelection as an independent to evade a Democratic primary defeat, would that diminish her ability to split the Democratic vote?
becca
I would really like to barf all over Senema’s trainers right now.
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: LOL! I envy my normie husband so often too. ;-)
Layer8Problem
@Anne Laurie: Pure exquisite entertainment and his background on how the hell we got here would be useful. And the quotes! “I have no there there? Really Isaac, I think actually having a there is overrated.”
Elizabelle
WRT Sinema:
I’m just hearing Roy Orbison: “Shitty woman, walking down the street. Shitty woman …”
Arizona has a Democratic governor now. FWIW
ETA: Well, Governor-Elect, anyway. Well done, Katie Hobbs.
Matt McIrvin
@Amir Khalid: She can’t win, but she only has to knock off a few percent of the vote to ratfuck the Democratic candidate and ensure a Republican win, which may be the actual goal here. The logic may be to force the Democrats to run nobody so she can win as an independent, under the reasoning that Sinema is better than a Republican (though I don’t think she’d actually win that way either).
Albatrossity
@Betty Cracker: That’s an optimistic take.
My (darker) take is that she hadn’t been seeing her name in the headlines as often as she wished, But now she will be there daily. She’s a narcissistic entitled troll.
I hope you are right.
Nicole
If she says she’s not caucusing with the Democrats I don’t think she gets to keep any Committee seats. Which, as I think she is congenitally lazy, is probably fine with her.
Technically we didn’t have 51 before; the Democrats get to count Sanders and King because they caucus with us. I think this is mostly, as O. Felix Culpa pointed out, either about her not running again and trying to get as much teevee time as she can before becoming a “liberal” commentator for Fox or she’s trying to avoid a humiliating primary defeat. Running as 3rd party might not be the spoiler for Dems we worry about; there are a number of Republicans who are desperate for another voting option that’s A) not batshit crazy and B) not a Democrat. As she’s yet to do any too-many-minutes-long video love letters to her gun collection (“It’s GERMAN, pant pant”) she might be good enough for them.
Kay
Have to love how this recent, on the ground evidence of what Arizona voters want did not sway her at all- she polled her donors who all told her everyone hates Democrats and she should be a fake Republican.
The “nonpartisan” cult is delusional. They ignore evidence.
Soprano2
@Betty Cracker: I agree, I think she believes this move will force the Democrats to clear the field for her. She knows that if she tried to run as a Democrat in 2024 she would lose the primary because of how she’s shit all over the party. I guess she thinks she can get the same kind of consideration Bernie and Angus King get.
sdhays
@Matt McIrvin: That’s my assumption. She could see she had no chance in hell of winning a Democratic primary again, so she opted out. Now Arizona Democrats have to either game-plan how to somehow defeat both her and a Republican or hold their noses again and just support her.
And 2024 is an election where the Democrats don’t have any good pick-up prospects, so the Arizona seat could be the seat that determines control of the Senate. I really hope she can be convinced to just cash out.
Quinerly
@O. Felix Culpa:
I thought if Warnock lost, she would switch to the Republican Party or register as an Independent and caucus with the Republicans. We dodged a bullet.
Agent of chaos is an excellent description. Attention seeker.
Kay
@Nicole:
She’s clearly devastated the Red Wave didn’t appear. There’s a lot of that going on. The public were supposed to reject the Democrats as “too woke” – the NYTimes told them this would happen! Now that it hasn’t they’re “acting out”.
Spanky
@MattF: I blame Brittney Griner.
Jeffg166
Sinema made it official she is a fraud. She would have been primaried and lost. She can try a third party but I expect she will get republican voters not democrats in the general election.
sdhays
@Kay: It couldn’t sway her because she had already shit that bed. Maybe she should have been more careful about totally pissing off everyone in her local party right after Biden was inaugurated so she could have left herself some options.
Quinerly
@Matt McIrvin: I totally believe this.
Spanky
WaPo headline:
I admit to being a bit dense, but I’m not seeing much of a “shake up” in the Senate.
sdhays
@Jeffg166: She can’t win in a 3-way election. I’m honestly not sure she can win in a 2-way election at this point – Democrats will be so pissed at her. But I wouldn’t bet on her pulling in more Republican votes than Democratic/independent votes, and all you need is a plurality to win in Arizona.
Kay
The state wins in Arizona still happened, despite the contrarian insistence that the public wants Republicans.
Sinema is out of touch with the public in her own state. She doesn’t listen to them. She can pretend the red wave happened if she wants but it didn’t and Arizona voters moved more towards Democrats, not less. She cant be this delusional and win statewide. She has the approach of a House member in a safe, gerrymandered seat.
Steeplejack
@Kay:
Katty Kay, whom I do not support, made a rare good point on Morning Joe just now: with the House under GQP control in the coming Congress, there probably won’t be any potentially significant legislation benefitting Sinema’s constituents (billionaires and large financial companies), so she can spend her time working on her “brand” or whatever. (Paraphrasing.)
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: She can’t win, but she can cause damage and create drama, which may be her actual goal. If she runs as an Independent and the Republican candidate wins, she can spin it as out-of-touch Democrats losing by rejecting her Third Wayism, and her career as a right-wing media figure starts there.
JMG
Sinema’s office told the Post she would continue with her committee assignments, meaning she will continue to caucus with the Democrats. She has always voted for Biden’s judges. She doesn’t vote with the party on one issue. She is a devout opponent of taxes on rich people. As someone whose name I didn’t recognize on Twitter said, “now private equity has its own Senator.” It has many more than one in practice of course.
Kay
@sdhays:
She bet on Biden failing and she’s not very bright so it was a bad bet. Most of the contrarians bet on Biden failing, which is fine, but to continue to behave as if the public has rejected Biden and the Democrats is now delusional. It didn’t happen. The antiwoke wave never materialized. I know they’re devasted by their midterm losses but they read the public wrong.
topclimber
Does AZ do runoffs? ETA sdhays says no.?
Jeffro
In my dreams, at his next presser, in response to a question about Sinema, Uncle Joe goes:
Suzanne
@Spanky:
I don’t know if they have to.
A lot of the party there hates her and has only tolerated her, for years. If I was a Dem there, I would advise that everyone just keep their powder dry and not rise to her bait. Don’t dive in and dogpile her right now, let the Republicans do that.
different-church-lady
@Stacib: This is stunning! Stunning! In it’s utter predictability!
OzarkHillbilly
@Spanky: I blame Obama.
Another Scott
Cheers,
Scott.
p.a.
A shame we don’t have a short, defined election season, otherwise there’s no reason the Arizona Dem Party could not imply that Sinema’s voting record over the next 2 years would greatly influence their decision to run a candidate in ’24. It would invert the pressure point. But, campaigns are continuous.
Suzanne
@topclimber: They do not do runoffs like Georgia does, you can win with just a plurality.
Albatrossity
Some excellent BJ-worthy snark here, re Senator Enema
beef
If Sinema were a plant, a paid spoiler who got lucky, like Tulsi Gabbard, what would she be doing differently?
Suzanne
@Layer8Problem:
Yeah, she’s an ex-Mormon (aka “Formon”). She acts like it…..the people who were raised in the church and leave as adults often have this LOOK AT MEEEEEEEEEE quality, and the women try being “glamorous” and “flashy”. She totally fits.
Arizona has a lot of Mormons and Formons. The Phoenix East Valley is the second-largest LDS community in the world. Sinema (and Jeff Flake before her) come from that community, that’s part of why they won.
janesays
@Paul W.: She doesn’t need to peel that much off to royally screw everything up. If she can snag just 5-8% of the vote, that will be enough to give the seat to a Republican.
We need to bribe the shit out of her to keep her from running as an indie spoiler in two years.
Paul in KY
@Suzanne: I would have preferred her to lose in the Democratic primary. This way, she can run in the general.
Paul in KY
@Matt McIrvin: The only way she can get re-elected (in that scenario) is if the Repubs are amicable and nominate a complete loser (even worse than Masters).
Kay
Boy, she better hope so. If Elon Musk gave three Right wing political operatives (Taibi, Weiss and a nutty Right wing anti-trans activist) access to Twitter users private information (as the political operatives claim) then Twitter is in a lot of trouble.
I personally would get off Twitter and try to delete any information Musk could gain access to if I were a prominent liberal. This is a political witch hunt and the “reporters” are completely dishonest Right wing hacks.
janesays
Option Three: Give her whatever the hell we need to in order to get her not to run in 2024.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: Arizona Democrats will “dare” to run somebody. This situation is not like that of Utah Democrats who, at their convention in April, endorsed Independent Evan McMullin for Senate.
And even if Sinema runs as an Independent- which is not at all a certainty- I would not count the Democratic candidate out.
Kay
Another question is what it means for Twitter in the EU, where they take privacy seriously and regulate. Musk’s cavalier disregard of his users and hiring of political operatives is one thing in the US where regulators are weak and often compromised/corrupted. What does Twitter do in a real regulatory environment given how reckless they are with private information of users?
Soprano2
It was funny, in the last “Real Time” podcast I listened to Maher admitted that he was wrong about how badly he thought the Democrats were going to lose, but he stubbornly refuses to admit that he was wrong about “wokeism”. I’m sure he’ll spend the next two years bellyaching about it and saying the Dems need to get away from those issues even after having that proven wrong in this election! These old “anti-woke” warriors are wedded to their narratives like members of a cult; no amount of evidence will ever convince him that he’s wrong about it.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: This was the most on-point comment I saw on the latest “Twitter Files” bullshit:
I’m not sure if it’s stupidity or hypocrisy, but I’m leaning toward the former.
Qrop Non Sequitur
Krysten Sinema read the room; saw everyone staring, aghast; and concluded “it’s all about me.”
Suzanne
@janesays:
I genuinely think that she is looking to get rich and famous. If that opportunity presents itself in the form of another job offer (on “The View”?)…..I think she’s looking to not run, and will only do so if she doesn’t get a better option. She’s not unlike Palin, also not unlike Elizabeth Holmes.
Nettoyeur
@O. Felix Culpa: She needs that second (maybe third) million in GOP grift so she can retire and spend a decade as a Fox “contributor” or on the wingnut welfare circuit. She and many other Americans arr more likely to be motivated by financial gain than principles or beliefs.
Kay
@Soprano2:
They should stop making their cranky middle aged conventional views the views of the public.
I too am older now and also quite conventional. I’m not an insane egomaniac though, so I don’t pretend that I represent “America” like these fucking clownish elites do.
Bari Weiss and Elon Musk want to lecture me about what people in “the heartland” think? What goddammned nerve. And to insist it’s true even after they lost big in MI and WI and PA! They lost in suburbs, they lost in cities, they even lost support in rural areas with the antiwoke panic. How long are they planning on basing careers on it?
Spanky
@janesays: Kyrsten, is that you?
Suzanne
@Soprano2:
White dudes often seem to think that the things that matter to them matter to us all.
Elizabelle
Sinema is I-Scorpion.
I have faith in Arizona Democratic voters. They are not going to get fooled again by her. They got played.
I hope we find another good topic to discuss today. Why give this attention whore so much of it?
Chaos agent is right. Which is why she will be unelectable to Democrats, going forward.
VeniceRiley
Relieved I got married in California.
Sinema is trash.
In England Green and pleasant
Only Rishi has cash.
Elizabelle
@Nettoyeur:
OMG. That might be a misspelling, but it is so perfect.
I do think such a thing exists, and now it has a name.
zhena gogolia
@Elizabelle: This wasn’t even the topic of the OP.
Kay
@Soprano2:
The middle aged antiwoke elites thought they would age out from being hipster urbanites and become the new conventional wisdom. The new wise men and women. But black people and young people came along and spoiled their natural ascension and promotions with “wokeism!”
They are OWED the right to set US norms and culture! Why, most of them inherited this right like a DEED from their parents. Black people writing about US history is not the natural, elite order. THEY say what US history is.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Yes, this. I was think Sinema would pull party switch when she couldn’t force every vote to be about her.
Anyway
@janesays:
Does she want to be an ambassador?
For me the fact that she started as a Green says it all. Greens are not Dem-allies.
Joe Falco
Democrats continue to do the good work of moving the country in the right direction, often cleaning up the messes left by the Disloyal Opposition. Despite showboats wanting to showboat, we gotta plenty to feel good about today and going forward. I’m going to focus on that good and not let the rest determine my mood for today.
Quinerly
@Kay: and continue to read the public wrong and continue to underestimate Biden.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
Suzanne
@Anyway:
I think she wants to be a celebrity.
H.E.Wolf
Look at us, giving an attention hog a whole lot of attention. That’s playing the hog’s game with them.
Why bother to sour our stomachs on that swill, when we have a victory to celebrate with our LGBTQIA+ friends and allies?
Felicitations to all whose lives will be happier and more secure with the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act.
Kay
@Soprano2:
I do have a cranky old person complaint about Zoomers though. It’s the disconcerting lack of response to my questions. I feel they have rejected the social rules that say you have to respond when someone speaks to you and tipping your head like a friendly Golde Retriever hearing a high noise and staring isnt a response. It’s not mean or unpleasant, it’s just not a response.
I almost envy them that they have decided they do not have to follow this social norm, they do not speak if they think the question isn’t worthy, but it’s also bizarre and probably not going to fly at work.
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: Open thread, so here’s an open thready question for a fellow viewer of The Crown: I heard a snippet of an interview with a royal correspondent yesterday in which she complained that The Crown insinuates Prince Philip had an affair with Penny Knatchbull. I thought the series went out of its way to suggest that there was no affair — they portrayed it as more like a platonic soulmate relationship. What is your take?
O. Felix Culpa
@Matt McIrvin:
The buzz would be wrong on the merits/effectiveness. How would that “strategy” work in real life? But then, Sinema might not be completely dialed into the world as it is.
Soprano2
@Suzanne: I really think with Maher it’s all about how young people don’t laugh at the jokes he told 30 years ago, so he thinks they have no sense of humor and is personally offended by it. He talks about it on almost every show, how “wokeism” is ruining America, how comedians can’t go onto college campuses anymore, etc. He rarely has any liberal on his show who will openly challenge him about “wokeism”.
OzarkHillbilly
When I was growing up, they were refferred to as “Jack Mormons”.
JanieM
Just got up, haven’t read the comments yet, but I love the headline. It could be a rotating tag: “Love is love, but paperwork matters.”
Soprano2
@Kay: Boy, you’re right about all of that!
Matt McIrvin
@O. Felix Culpa: I think Sinema loses no matter what, but she might be able to make the Republicans win and then blame it on the Democrats.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Stacib:
Yup, and now she can be opposed by a Democrat when she’s up to be replaced.
She just made it easier to replace her Green party ass.
Suzanne
@Elizabelle:
AZ Dems made a Devil’s bargain in supporting her. It sucks.
She does have a fan base of Mormon mom-types. She does have a reputation from when she was a Congresscritter of good constituent service, and there are people, fairly independent and/or swingy, who really like her. I don’t grok this, but it does exist.
There are lots of crazy people there.
Suzanne
@OzarkHillbilly: Jack Mormons are people who are still ostensibly Mormon but who drink and fuck. Different from people who actually leave the church.
stacib
@Matt McIrvin: Bingo! I think she’s all in on screwing the Democrats, and if I were of the conspiracy sort, I would also believe she’s also getting some financial gain out of this.
Soprano2
@Kay: What drives me crazy now is how people feel no obligation at all to listen to their voice mails and then call you back. I’ve left messages on business phones and never received a call back! How can these people get any new business if they never call people back? I told the realtor who I hired to sell my mother’s house how much I appreciated that she answered her phone when I called, because these days so many people don’t. She said she always answers unless it says potential spam.
Kay
@Quinerly:
The state-level wins to me are the real measure because most of the “antiwoke” bullshit is re: state law (really, despite what you hear in campaigns, US Senators have very little to do with police funding or public schools).
If there were going to be a giant pro-police, pro lock everyone up, anti-public education move Right like the antiwokesters were counting on among the public (not among the NYTimes/Substack writers) it would have happened at the state level elections, and it didn’t.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: I check out Stancil’s account from time to time. A few days ago I happened to see what happened when he lamented the fate of Twitter employees who had helped build the company only to be fired by the new owner.
There was an immediate dogpile, with a horde of Musk-bros hurling one-sentence jeers, taunts and insults. I felt some sympathy, but I also thought, “Well, Will, maybe the K-Hive wasn’t that bad after all!” (Stancil used to get swarmed by Democrats when he would make a particularly strident attack on less “progressive” leaders. He would posit that this was the “K-Hive,” orchestrated by Neera Tanden or by someone in Nancy Pelosi’s office).
Spanky
@stacib: I also detect some turtleprints in this move. Dunno what he could offer over the next 2 years, though.
Layer8Problem
@Suzanne:
“Kyrsten, I can promise, contractually promise, that you’ll be the most prominent person on the next Dancing with the Stars, as long as you don’t run.”
“Does that mean all the cameras will be on me?”
“We’ll write that into the contract, ‘All Synema, all the time’.”
Nelle
@stacib: from Republicans? From Putin via Republicans? We’re getting enough if these characters to have a type…Palin,Tulsa, and Sinema are the big ones.
OzarkHillbilly
@Nettoyeur: She’s already admitted she for sale, we’re just negotiating the price now.*
* shamelessly stolen from a movie I can’t quite put my finger on
Quinerly
@Kay: for sure.
Kay
@Soprano2:
We have a rule at the law office that we return calls by COB same day. Its worked really well for us. We have a Zomer parttimer now and she’s great but she can’t just decide not to respond to questions she deems unimportant. It’s fucking fascinating to me to watch. It’s like the opposite of what women our age do- the explaining. They do NO explaining :)
In their defense though (and it pains me to say this because I am an older person) it is mostly older people who leave voicemails :)
They’re sort of right that voicemails are probably going away.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Bit more than that. Academics pretty much rejected the whole Great Man theory that was making history a list of old white guys. That’s how WW2 went from Germany lost because Churchill made a speech to Germany never stood a chance because it didn’t have the food or oil to win the war.
Suzanne
@Soprano2: If ever there is an issue about which rugged common-sense Real American white men in Ohio diners care about, it’s comedians on college campuses getting laughs. I know this keeps me up at night.
Maher doesn’t get laughs because he isn’t funny.
“Wokeism” is just not a thing. “Anti-wokeism” is just a shorter term for “I did some shit in the past that I really hope doesn’t go viral because if it does, I’ll get fired”.
I watch comedy specials all the time. I really enjoy stand-up. There are plenty of people making me laugh without being cruel to marginalized people.
Ken
And another finger of the monkey’s paw uncurls…
Kay
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
The 1619 project cannot exist! The “free speech” defenders say so! Nothig they do or say hangs together at all coherently. They threw this crappy theory together out of their personal resentment and rigid bitterness and of course it fell apart.
Elon Musk, their free speech hero, hired three political operatives to monitor his social media company and his employees. Weiss’s job is to rat out Twitter employees for wokeness thought crimes. None of them see the slightest logical problem with this.
We have low quality elites, I think due to the fact that so many of inherited their positions thru the work of their parents and not their own work.
Layer8Problem
@Betty Cracker: I agree. She seemed a nice person with some intellectual curiosity, Prince Philip looked like someone weary of being married to a representation of Great Britain and desperate for some returned interest. There was not a hint of physical cheating, at the worst emotional cheating.
Ken
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s the plot of Indecent Proposal, but I don’t think the quote was used in the movie.
It’s attributed to Churchill, but isn’t everything…
Qrop Non Sequitur
Clown dons makeup, puts on a show. I don’t see what the news here is.
Sanjeevs
@Kay: The EU Data Protection Commisioner is Irish and may be tempted to go easy on FB and Google as they have their European HQ in Dublin.
Twitter just closed their European HQ – in Dublin.
Citizen Alan
OzarkHillbilly
@Suzanne: Hmmm… did not know that. We had a family friend who (I thought) had left the Mormon Church and she referred to herself as a jack mormon. The things I learn here.
Geminid
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Much is made of Sinema’s Green Party background. She began her elective career around 2004 as a Democrat, though, and when she won election to Congress she joined the Blue Dog Caucus.
Ironically, Sinema’s former House Blue Dog colleagues proved much more supportive of House leadership and Presedent Biden than she was in the Senate.
Layer8Problem
@Ken: I had seen it as a George Bernard Shaw.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
The only thing that really makes me shake my head at the BJ community is the fact we seem to consistently underestimate our enemies and in Sinema’s case, frenemies. She may not be a genius, but she’s not stupid. Independent is very on brand for her. It positions her to avoid a primary she would lose if she runs again and if not, it gives her plenty of options for think tank work. She’s bisexual. She could NEVER be a Republican. They don’t want her kind in the party.
I’ll add that it isn’t just the immigration reform bill that she’s put her stamp on. She also helped broker the compromise that got the Respect for Marriage Act the GOP votes it needed to pass. Frankly, it makes a lot of sense she would take up that issue.
And speaking of the Respect for Marriage Act, we celebrated last night. FU Supremes and the MO legislature. We were legally married in a different state, so our marriage is now protected by this new law. The haters can cry like Hartzler.
Spanky
@OzarkHillbilly: Maybe she was trying to tell you something.
Paul in KY
@Anyway: I would think there might be certain countries that she would enjoy being ambassador to. Unfortunately, most of them probably require a real diplomat.
Maybe ambassador to Monaco?
Omnes Omnibus
Exactly. Pick someplace vaguely glamorous but strategically unimportant. Monaco?
Elizabelle
@Ken: LOL. So true. Be careful what you wish for.
Happy Friday, jackals. I am going to be happy that Senator Raphael Warnock won his fourth (!) successive election, that Democrats passed the Respect for Marriage Act with some Republican support, that Brittney Griner is on US soil (San Antonio, specifically, at the moment), and that we have “dull” Joe Biden as President. Getting good stuff done.
Oh. And 17 felony convictions for TFG’s company. The renegade Florida judge getting slapped down, hard. And a Special Counsel with “resting conviction”/”resting executioner” face, working relentlessly in the shadows.
Last night’s thread on that was great.
Omnes Omnibus
@Paul in KY:
Great minds…. Or deranged minds…. You pick.
Spanky
@Paul in KY: I was thinking North Korea.
OzarkHillbilly
Texting is taking it’s place. Good thing I’ll be dead soon, because I don’t text.
zhena gogolia
@Joe Falco: Thank you!
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker: I guess they technically had him say, “I’ve done nothing wrong.” But they certainly played up their “chemistry.”
ETA: Have to go now but will think about it some more.
Qrop Non Sequitur
If this is actually an attempt to avoid a D primary and coerce the Ds to make her the de facto nominee without a challenge, that’s just profoundly unethical.
Ds need a real nominee.
rikyrah
@sdhays: She doesn’t want to be a Democrat. Fine. Then she can do the lifting of getting all her running materials ready.and prepped. There is a lot that goes into running for office that the Party takes care of. She has never seemed to me the kind that actually wants to work. She is lazy. So, let her lazy azz do all the work of getting her azz on a statewide ballot as an Independent.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Elizabelle: Mr DAW looked at that picture of Jack Smith and said, “Him? He looks like a hit man.”
OzarkHillbilly
@Ken: I’ve never seen Indecent Proposal but I’m certain I heard it in a movie. This is gonna drive me nuts all day.
As to Churchill saying it first (if he did) I can only quote another line somebody far more famous than I once uttered: “Plagiarism is the sincerest form of flattery.”
rikyrah
@Qrop Non Sequitur:
Indeed we do. We actually need a Democratic Party candidate
And, they should be announcing right now
Suzanne
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
Agreed.
Arizona is still the place that, up until half an hour ago, elected John McCain and Jon Kyl 500 times in a row.
Kyrsten Sinema put together a winning coalition in very purple places, multiple times, when many other good candidates tried and were not successful. She won multiple primaries against candidates who would have been far superior to her. Stop underestimating her.
I do think a Democrat — a real one — can win. I do think some stars need to align for that to happen.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker:
Not z_g, but I think they play it as a friendship that is perceived by the press as an affair. Then again, I have been more friendly to Philip as played in The Crown than most people.
Nicole
@Kay:
Yah, this. I’m cranky and middle-aged now, too, and the Gen Z and the one after (Alpha?) really have their heads on better than we did/do. I really think it’s due to social-emotional learning becoming a part of curriculums in a lot of schools. Who woulda thunk it, that playing well with others is a skill that can be TAUGHT, not just something some people are instinctively good at and some aren’t?
Spanky
I heard one of the talking heads on Morning Joe discussing Brittney Griner’s release refer to Paul Whelen as a “retired” Marine.
I do not think the Marines would agree to that characterization. In fact, it causes me to wonder why MSNBC would use such a term so opposite to how he was drummed out.
Elizabelle
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Hit man. Indeed.
As a jackal pointed out last night, that image will not be lost on TFG.
Soprano2
@Kay: Maybe, but what am I supposed to do when someone doesn’t answer the phone? Text them, so they can ignore my text too? The last one I knew I was calling a cell phone, and I actually asked her to text me or call me, and I got NOTHING. I’m not sure what these people think is going to happen when they don’t contact people who want to do business with them.
Geminid
@Qrop Non Sequitur: I do not think Arizona Democrats will be “coerced” in this matter. They will nominate a “real” Democrat for Senate in 2024, and he will be a strong and well funded candidate.
And like I and others have said, there is a good possibility that Sinema will not run again.
Cameron
@janesays: Isn’t she supposedly interested in wine? If some sugar daddy set her up with a vineyard and fermentation/bottling op, maybe she’d go away. Whole thing located in another country, preferably.
OzarkHillbilly
@Spanky: I was 10, maybe 11 yo and had yet to fully embrace my own awakening from Catholic dogma.
Betty Cracker
@Layer8Problem: Okay, thank you! I was wondering if I was being too gullible. :-) (In real life I have no idea what happened nor any particular interest, but I am hooked on the series.)
Another Scott
@Spanky: It’s one of those “clip / magazine” things that some people get upset about (because they don’t have enough drama in their lives or something).
Quora.com:
Whelan is in one of those “other than honorable” categories, but the press usually ignores nuance – especially the political press…
Cheers,
Scott.
Mousebumples
@Betty Cracker: only a few episodes in, but I definitely get a friendship/bonding over shared loss vibe from their relationship to this point, fwiw.
Nicole
@Betty Cracker:
@zhena gogolia:
I enjoy the show, too, so I’m happy to chime in- I thought it was clear it was platonic, also. I thought it was more the writers trying to show emotional distance between Elizabeth and Philip; that as they’ve grown older, they have their separate lives. Which, for older couples, I think can make for more dramatic weight than physical fidelity.
I enjoy the show a lot, but I look at it as a fictionalized dramatization, so I don’t take anything on it as gospel. I mean, not that I spend a lot of time thinking about the British royals anyway; as I’ve said before, it scratches my Dallas itch like nothing else. ;)
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: I don’t follow Stancil, but he gets retweeted into my timeline occasionally, and IIRC, he seems right more often than wrong, but that’s probably selective retweeting by mutuals. That said, there is a fringe K-Hive element that is obnoxious as fuck, IMO, so I can see where anyone might find them annoying. But orchestrated by Tanden or Pelosi staffers? That’s deranged.
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: I think a lot about how many old liberals who grew up in the first half of the 20th century, including some who were humorists or satirists in some way, were utterly baffled by the 1960s counterculture, and some swung hard right because of it. I think this kind of thing is part of the lifecycle of comedy–the stuff you specialized in in your prime ages out and you simply don’t understand what is funny today, and you get cranky.
It was particularly striking when Chris Rock got on the “you can’t make jokes any more!” bandwagon.
Kay
@Soprano2:
Maybe it’s like a “correction” to our generations (female) problem of endlessly explaining and apologizing for everything. I had to train myself out of it. I was definitely raised, as a girl, to defend everything I said or did and explain everything. It’s why I kind of admire the Zoomer women- they’re like “explain why your’e talking to me at all” :)
The “respond by COB” works as customer service but it also works for the employee. It means you start fresh the next day, you’re not DRAGGING tasks week after week. They will end up liking it or I wil tell them they should like it – same thing! :)
Ken
@OzarkHillbilly: It sounds very Groucho Marx, but there’s no way the censors of his era would have let that pass. Though imagining him saying it to Margaret Dumont…
Steeplejack
Here’s an alternate topic for those tired of Kyrsten Sinema: “Louise Penny shares five books that inspired her.”
James E Powell
I hold voters in Ohio and Wisconsin responsible for this mishegas.
rikyrah
@Kay:
you ain’t never lied, Kay.
Matt McIrvin
@Another Scott: I guess he got a “bad conduct discharge,” which is one step less bad than “dishonorable” in severity but is actually the result of a court-martial.
Spanky
@Another Scott: Yeah, but this “nuance” is subtle as a baseball bat.
rikyrah
@Matt McIrvin:
Phuck that shyt.
An actual Democrat can be in that slot. Period.
Cameron
@Kay: Don’t speak to them directly. Call them on their phones, even if you’re standing right next to them. That’s communication they can recognize.
Gin & Tonic
No World Cup thread?
Mo Salad
@Ken:
My favorite “got it past the censors” joke is Curly Howard’s “At first if you don’t succeed, keep on sucking ’til do suck seed.”
Omnes Omnibus
@James E Powell:
Just come out and say it. You blame me. Bastard.
Another Scott
Yet more good news in Wonkette’s Friday Tabs dump:
I’m having a flashback to those days years ago when Groklaw would devote a mountain of hours and calories to transcribe stuff on Pacer from the SCO Unix / Linux / IBM court battles. PJ probably could have generated a few Bitcoin all by herself with all the work she did on that – just because Pacer was behind a paywall…
And it cuts Teh Deficit?? OMG, the GQP will be all over that. Right? Right??!!ONE
Cheers,
Scott.
OzarkHillbilly
@Ken: It does sound like Groucho, and now that you mention it I did just rewatch a Night at the Opera and Duck Soup recently. I’ll bet it was NatO.
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack: Thank you! And it’s a CBC link.
Grateful to you for the Word Master link. Got me through yesterday. Got to a 45-game streak. (My personal best is 63 in a row. I love that Word Master lets you binge.)
Who else has not since clicked on the FTF NY Times?
I am going for a second day in a row. Trying to make this habit-forming, for some period of time. Suspect management is watching clicks and engagement. Not getting any from me.
Wonder if others are doing the same?
Matt McIrvin
@OzarkHillbilly: It’s an old joke–I think there was a period when it showed up in many movies almost simultaneously.
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: & @Mousebumples: Sounds like we agree.
@Nicole: Good point about emotional distance as couples age. Years ago, a younger relative declared she LOVED her husband but didn’t LIKE him, and I thought to myself, they’ll never make it. And they didn’t — after divorcing and remarrying and divorcing again. IMO, the secret to a happy marriage is you have to LIKE the other person!
Suzanne
@Matt McIrvin: The thing that just astounds me about the old cranky whiners complaining about cancel culture…..there has literally never been more humor. Netflix has tons of comedy specials! There’s memes, and Twitter, and an entire internet subculture around laughter. The people who kind of crafted their self-concept about being edgy are the ones who are struggling, because the edge does move.
I mean, they could move with it. Or they could get a new schtick.
UncleEbeneezer
@Matt McIrvin: Agreed.
Betty Cracker
@Gin & Tonic: Anne Laurie scheduled it, but the sucky WP scheduling system failed. It’s there now.
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: Thanks.
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
Have you tried Waffle? Different kind of game but equally addictive (to me).
I found it surprisingly easy to stay off the NYT site yesterday, after admittedly doing the Wordle at 12:01 a.m. Someone’s got to be the last one across the picket line, right?
I got back on today to do the Wordle and the crossword, but so far nothing else. I did give the Washington Post site more of a workout yesterday.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
I agree that she would likely lose that way: the flip side of the reality that she’d only need to take a few percent away from a Dem to kill the Dem nominee is that it would take only a few percent reduced Dem turnout to doom her chances as an independent without a Dem in the race.
In the meantime, though, assuming she continues to caucus with the Dems, the caucus will have 48 Dems and 3 independents instead of 49 and 2. BFD.
lowtechcyclist
@Quinerly:
I’m just gonna go with ‘dipshit.’
MisterForkbeard
@rikyrah: She says she’s caucusing with Dems, so I guess this really does three things (all of them nihilistic or narcissistic):
1) Gets her headlines and attention, makes her a “special” independent person
2) Boxes Dems in for 2024: If they run a Dem primary, she splits the vote and guarantees the Republicans a win
3) Makes it easier to move to Republican in 2024 if Dems do badly.
Exactly what we’d expect from the last 4 years of her behavior.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Betty Cracker:
What’s the difference? Is it like having a deeper friendship with your spouse?
Omnes Omnibus
@lowtechcyclist: I agree that it is a bigger deal for 2024 than now. I would guess her legislative behavior will remain virtually unchanged. This is, of course, the big difference between Manchin and Sinema. Manchin has always seen himself as a Democrat but one who doesn’t always agree with his leadership. Sinema was a Democrat for convenience.
MisterForkbeard
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): That’s part of it, isn’t it?
If you just stick with your spouse because you find them attractive and you’re together and used to each other, that won’t last. You need to like each other and actively enjoy each other’s company or things eventually go sideways.
Not least because at least one partner will eventually check out. If you’re not interested in the day-to-day of your spouse, you’ll eventually get that interested in someone else. And that’s “emotional” cheating – not caring what happens to your spouse much and not engaging with them, but spending your time and effort on someone else, even if you never technically ‘cheat’. It just means your relationship won’t last.
rikyrah
@Kay:
You actually believe that? I don’t. They are that irresponsible. I bet they did, and they need to be sued.
Paul in KY
@Omnes Omnibus: Both! :-)
Paul in KY
@Spanky: A fella can dream…
Paul in KY
@Qrop Non Sequitur: She really needs the Repubs to put up some craptoid that she’s better than (for Repubs). Democrats will put up a nominee and that’s who she will be fighting it out against (in her gambit).
Paul in KY
@Spanky: The person who referred to him like that either has an agenda or is woefully unprepared about Mr. Whelan.
rikyrah
@MisterForkbeard:
We won with a Democrat in 2022.
2024 will be a Presidential year.
I’m willing to take a chance on an actual Democrat in 2024.
Like I said..there’s a lot that goes into running for office. A lot that the party helps with.
Even phucking Bernie uses the Democrats to run and then does that independent shyt.
This ain’t Utah.
There is no reason why the Democratic Party can’t find an actual Democrat in Arizona. A Democrat – not a leftist, that can’t go out, say that I represent Democrats in Arizona, and keep it moving.
M31
I read there is a requirement for signatures to get on the ballot as an I in AZ — not that many, 40K?
But you do need at least a bit of an organization that isn’t a shitshow to make that happen, so I’m saying 50/50 she fucks it up. Outsources it to some typical grifters and they end up with 3/4 of the signatures being Mickey Mouse, Hugh G. Rection, and WeedLord BonerHitler
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: I agree with you.
Sinema is not trustworthy, and 2024 is a presidential election year.
Plus, GOP might be even more radioactive once the actual prosecution of misdeeds by TFG and his allies/codependents begins.
Not going to be predisappointed here. I like our chances.
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack: I’ll try Waffle again, now. Tried it yesterday; didn’t totally get the rules. Will play around with it.
Am also addicted to The New Yorker crossword, and its Name Drop game (guess the famous person, dead or alive, in 6 clues and 90 seconds).
Elizabelle
New thread up. Mistermix. About the Arizona scorpion.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Matt McIrvin:
A whole lot of comedy is based on shared assumptions about the world. That is why someone like Ann Coulter was considered witty by right wingers back in the day, while people like me were scratching their heads. Right wingers have whole lot of assumptions about the world and liberals in particular that are ridiculously inaccurate. In addition, as generations change, so do assumptions about the world and cultural references. Suddenly, the material these comedians have is only funny to old timers like them.
Soprano2
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Those tears were probably real, too. People like Hartzler honestly believe that gay people becoming full citizens with full rights threaten them somehow, I guess by keeping their conservative Christian viewpoint from dominating our culture.
Soprano2
@Elizabelle: And that Republican jerk in FL who sponsored the “Don’t Say Gay” bill resigned after he was indicted for several crimes.
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: But they won’t text you, either!
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@UncleEbeneezer: This looks right. And we need every vote we can get after our challenging Senate cycle in ‘24. If we can handle caucus members Sanders and King as Indies, we can handle one more.
So AZ, get ready to hold your noses and vote Simena in ‘24!
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@MisterForkbeard:
She’ll never be a Republican. The GOP redline is homosexuality. They will work with her, but she will never be welcome as a member of the party. She isn’t conservative, white, male Manchin.
Matt McIrvin
@Omnes Omnibus: Manchin is also a relic of an older Democratic Party in a state that is now so red that the only viable alternative to him would be a full-bore MAGA Republican. The strategic situation is kind of unambiguous.
Sinema is in a purple state whose other Senator actually is a proper Democrat. So she seems much more expendible–unless she can maneuver in such a way as to shank the Democratic Party if they dump her.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Soprano2:
Yes, they were. They think accepting gay people turns America further from God and God’s special blessing. Plus, if it is more accepted, then their kids won’t have a straight marriage and kids before coming out and traumatizing everyone. Christian white people have a duty to reproduce according to these people.
Betty Cracker
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): For long-haul relationship happiness, I think it’s really important to enjoy each other’s company and have some common interests. You don’t need any of that to fall in love though! I’ve known people in durable marriages that don’t seem to enjoy hanging out with each other, but I wouldn’t really call them happy. It seems more like they stick it out due to habit, religion, for the sake of the children, etc.
Elizabelle
@Soprano2: yes indeed.
frosty
@Elizabelle: Re: Resting Executioner face. I realized last night that I got the era right: US 1800s, but the character wrong. It wasn’t a movie actor. It was Sherman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tecumseh_Sherman
(Apologies to Aussie Sheila for bringing this up again)
Elizabelle
@frosty: Yes. And Smith will have been a student of history.
Captain C
@Albatrossity: The first ad when I pulled up that article was for a toxic couples horoscope test (whatever data mining thing that is).
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Mr. Stancil is a late-thirties or 40ish man who works at the University of Minnesota as a metro policy researcher and is a prolific Tweeter, mainly as a critic of Democratic Party leadership.
My introduction to him was through sources different than yours. Ragnarok Lobster used to dump on him a lot but now seems to sink his claw into Stancill less often. But the combative Michael Paulauski and Stancil clashed a lot before the midterms in the Great Democratic Messaging Melee. Stancil got very worked up at how Democrats did not see things as he did, finally typing out a few days before the midterms:
I believe Stancil sincerely wants the party to succeed but I my experience with his sycophants makes me believe that he is more or less unknowingly running interference for dirtbag lefties who want the party to fail. I’ve told him so, but he’s not going to respond to this small potato. He concentrates his fire on Matt Yglesias, who looms large in Stancil’s mind as a Democratic strategist but seems pretty inconsequential to me.
The funny thing is, when I do see Stancil saying something intelligent about campaign strategy and tactics it’s almost always something I saw his contemporary, Rachel Bitecofer say a year or more ago.
And while Stancil could learn a lot about analysis and argument from Magdi Jacobs (Mangy Jay), a few months ago he parachuted into her timeline to call her “a dumb shill.” As you can imagine, this got a very fierce response. I remember Jacobs’s mentor at The Editorial Board, John Stoehr, stepping in to tell Stancil “You’re better than this.” I thought that Stoerr might be right on that point.
Soprano2
How did you train yourself to quit doing this, because I do it all the time and it drives my husband crazy! I’m not even aware I’m doing it unless he points it out to me. I thought it was because my mother was a perfectionist.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: I follow Bitecofer and Jacobs — both are extremely worthwhile, IMO. It’s one of the reasons I’ll be sorry if Musk succeeds in ruining Twitter for good.
Geminid
@Elizabelle: I follow @(((BuffaloMeg))) some (not for word games because I don’t play them). She’s always putting up her results for Nerdle, Antiwordle, Waffle and other such tools of the Devil.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Bitecofer has transitioned from political scientist to hands-on campaign professional. Since the midterms she’s had time to do some podcasts that sound interesting, especially one with Tom Bonier, the guy who was reporting this summer on the flood of voter registrations by young people, especially women.
Like word games, though I do not do podcasts. That’s becouse my phone and I are not on speaking terms (I think it’s my fault).
rikyrah
@M31:
If the requirement is 40k, then you need at least 80k, cause I know damn well, the Democrats will be challenging her petitions.
rikyrah
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
Hell phucking no.
Dadadadadadada
@Suzanne: I would not rule out the AZ GOP renominating Masters and thus losing a seat they could very easily win.
Miss Bianca
@JMG:
Ooh, ouch! That would leave a shameful mark, if Sinema had any shame.
And to think she squandered all the good will we were willing to grant her as a woman who managed to get elected from AZ as a Democrat! For what reason, only God knows – I’m not sure even Sinema does, to be honest.
J R in WV
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
In the photos of Special Counsel Smith wearing his Hague International Court robes, with purple sash down each front side, he looks a little like an ecclesiastical prosecutor. I wish he could wear those robes on duty here in the states! \
Powerful look there!
Puts international monsters in jail forever, under a corner of the prison.
Miss Bianca
@Soprano2: Emails too – I’ve been sending emails to rescue groups and also some breeders about dogs – even filled out an application with one place – and I’ve been blown away by how few of them have *actually responded*. I’m like, “wait – don’t you *want* to place this dog?!”
So the ones who *do* respond, of course, are the ones I am working with. The free market at work, I suppose – you’re free to ignore me, and I’m free to take my business elsewhere.
Miss Bianca
@Nicole:
Why do you think the right wing is now suddenly attacking social-emotional learning curricula? Saying that it LEADS to CRT and “wokeism”, oh noes! Coincidence? I think not.
I see it in my school system with the right-wing cranks who fulminated against SEL. They just cannot STAND that kids are taught to learn the skills to be nice to each other! It seems to make them lose their fucking shit.
Miss Bianca
@OzarkHillbilly:
Sounds to me like a paraphrase of a quote I first heard attributed to George Bernard Shaw.
Another Scott
@Miss Bianca: I think she’s convinced herself that she has the Secret Sauce to succeed outside of party politics.
She’s single-minded about her approach, and it served her well in 2018. Her Senate campaign kickoff video (3:20) was kinda masterful, if you’re not paying attention and want to put your own interpretation on what she’s insinuating rather than what she’s actually saying. She never says she’s running as a Democrat… Maybe that’s what it took to win in Arizona in 2018. I guess we’ll find out if that’s what it takes for non-astronaut Democrats to win in Arizona in 2024…
Forward!!
Cheers,
Scott.