Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

T R E 4 5 O N

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

Second rate reporter says what?

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

I wonder if trump will be tried as an adult.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

This fight is for everything.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Putting in the Work

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Putting in the Work

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They were saying replacing the Hudson Tunnel could never be done when I left New York City… in 1973!

… As Fetterman learns how to do his new job while struggling with lingering auditory processing issues resulting from the stroke, he’s relying on some extra tech. The new assistive technology installed in his workspaces requires some adjustment from colleagues in an institution known for its stagnancy. But in securing the devices that are helping him begin a new job during a very public recovery process, advocates say Fetterman is forging a path for people with disabilities and health challenges to make it in public office.

The auditory processing issues that sometimes make it difficult for Fetterman to communicate became a focus during his Senate campaign last fall. Opponents criticized the Pennsylvania Democrat’s October interview with NBC, during which he relied on closed-captioning technology to understand the reporter’s questions and sometimes mixed up words, and slammed his shaky debate performance. Though Fetterman provided some information from his doctor in the months leading up to the election, he would not release his full medical records, and critics questioned his ability to function in the Senate. Voters were less concerned: Fetterman handily beat Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz in one of the most competitive races in the country.

Soon after the election, the Office of Congressional Accessibility Services began talking with Fetterman about what accommodations he would need when he arrived. Primarily, he required the same sort of technology he used on the campaign trail, which allows him to read what people say in real time, much like the closed-captioning that TV viewers might use.

According to information shared exclusively with TIME, the Sergeant at Arms (SAA) has installed a permanent live caption display monitor at Fetterman’s desk in the Senate chamber that can be raised or lowered depending on whether he’s sitting or standing. There’s a similar monitor with a custom desk stand that can be placed on the dais when he takes shifts presiding over the Senate. Both wired screens will work without internet if needed, relying on the Senate Office of Captioning Services’ stenotype machines, caption encoding hardware, and staff in the Capitol itself. The SAA has further plans to improve the set-up at Fetterman’s desk with a monitor stand that blends better with the desk’s antique woodwork and can be electronically adjusted.

The SAA has also come up with a plan for Fetterman’s work during committee hearings and elsewhere around the Capitol. In those cases, Fetterman can read a live transcript of the proceedings that appears on his wireless tablet. All of the captions will be produced by professional broadcast captioners rather than artificial intelligence in order to improve accuracy. The work builds on a request from last Congress, when Senate leadership asked the SAA to move toward providing closed captioning for all Senate hearings. SAA plans to upgrade its capabilities to do so, starting with the committees Fetterman serves on. He will participate in his first committee hearings on Feb. 1…

Before desks got reshuffled, Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat, sat next to Fetterman on the Senate floor. She found it easy to converse with him. “He’s got his iPad and he just reads speech-to-text,” she says. “He’s been very engaged.”

Duckworth, who lost her legs while serving in the Army in Iraq and uses a wheelchair, became the first disabled woman elected to the Senate in 2016. She says accessibility has improved since she first arrived, with the addition of a lift in the chamber that lets her preside over the Senate and a new ramp into the cloakroom.

Disabled senators have gotten other accommodations in the past, as well. Then-Senator Tim Johnson was able to use an electric scooter and have his desk moved when he returned to the Senate floor in 2007 following a brain hemorrhage. Reporters were sensitive to then-Senator Tom Harkin’s request to speak into his “good ear” by the end of his tenure in 2015. In an institution where the average age is nearly 64 and the oldest members are nearing 90, some lawmakers get subtle accommodations for their needs as they age, others point out.

“We adjust,” says Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren. “This just means the Senate caucus looks a little more like the rest of American people who have different challenges, but who are out there doing their jobs every day.”…

Senator Ben Ray Luján, a New Mexico Democrat, just marked the one-year anniversary of his own stroke, which he sustained in office and caused him to spend a month away from the Capitol. Over the past several months, he says he and Fetterman have discussed their recoveries. “You always work to get better,” Luján says. “I’ve seen that with John… Every time I’ve spoken to him, he’s been stronger and stronger.”

Reader Interactions

145Comments

  3. 3.

    Baud

    Good thing the Dems are in charge of the Senate.  Who knows whether the Republicans would have helped Fetterman.

  4. 4.

    Kay

    Ron DeSantis/Chris Rufo agenda for schools rejected in Wisconsin:

    Rebuking far-right officials who last year gained control of their school board, concerned residents of Kiel clawed back political power by blocking the ouster of the popular Kiel Area School District superintendent. Two members subsequently resigned from the school board, returning the usually seven-member body to a moderate majority — at least temporarily. It’s the latest chapter in a saga that last spring erupted into bomb threats and left some feeling their northeastern Wisconsin community, population 4,000, had been “hijacked by something bigger.”

    The headline is “tired of turmoil” :)

    There’s an opening here for Democrats, especially because Trump just adopted the DeSantis/Rufo agenda for education which means all the other GOP’ers now have to go along.

    This is not as popular as political media and Ron DeSantis want us to believe. These people want these divisive, nasty nutjobs out of their school governance.

    Rufo said yesterday in Florida “we’re in charge now” – no, no overreach there at all! Christopher Rufo is now “in charge” of Florida public education.

  5. 5.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Turmoil is inevitable as long as the Republicans are a powerful force.  Their strategy is based upon their opponents getting tired and frustrated and giving up.

  7. 7.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    That’s what has been surprising to me about the public- that they put up with it. I thought they would both get tired of it sooner and many more would get tired of it.

    They don’t have to live like this, where crazy people are threatening to tank the economy, screaming and disrupting their schools, wasting millions and millions of dollars recounting elections and on and on.

    I completely got it when Obama said “the fever will break”. I believed that too. I just thought people would get (more) tired of the chaos and  turmoil and do something about stopping it at the source, which is Republicans.

  8. 8.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Kay:

    Trump just adopted the DeSantis/Rufo agenda for education which means all the other GOP’ers now have to go along.

    Trump does not rule the roost anymore, and in terms of setting policy he never really did.  Or did Infrastructure Week happen and I missed it?  But unfortunately, this one is an easy lift.  Everyone else hates this anti-education insanity, but a big, big chunk of the GOP base were bitching that public education is a liberal brainwashing program since desegregation.

  11. 11.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    They’re ruining their schools. Aren’t they just sick of it? It’s identical to Rufo too- same terms, identical language, it’s a national agenda which people are starting to figure out.

    Ebert remains in his job as partisan culture wars spur an exodus of the superintendents at public school districts in Wisconsin and elsewhere. In Hartland, 20 miles west of Milwaukee, Arrowhead Union High School District Superintendent Laura Myrah announced in December her plans to retire in August, citing the increasing politicization of schools. Less than 30 miles from Kiel, Manitowoc Public School District Superintendent Mark Holzman left his position last year after backlash to COVID-19 protocols and misperceptions that the school was teaching critical race theory led to efforts to remove him.

  17. 17.

    Jeffro

    @Kay:

    There’s an opening here for Democrats, especially because Trump just adopted the DeSantis/Rufo agenda for education which means all the other GOP’ers now have to go along.

    This is not as popular as political media and Ron DeSantis want us to believe. These people want these divisive, nasty nutjobs out of their school governance.

    HUGE opening for Ds.

    Here’s another: the GQP still wants to pretend that somehow, it was Democrats who “locked people in their homes” and “forced everyone to get vaccinated”.  (ie, trump did not fail us, no way no how).  Good luck with that, Rs.

    Here’s ANOTHER: the GQP (minus trump, who has already lambasted evangelicals for ‘focusing too much on the abortion issue’) apparently wants to double down on its attacks on women’s reproductive rights.  Good. Luck. With. That, Rs.

    And as if that isn’t enough of a platform for 2024, there is of course ELECTION FRAUD (ie, whenever a Republican loses).  Good luck, GOP!  The public never tires of hearing how some of y’all win on the same ballots that some of y’all lose.

    So, that’s the platform – lots to offer the American people, these Republicans!

  18. 18.

    eclare

    Ice storm warning that went into effect Monday at 6 pm now extended til tomorrow at 6 am here in Memphis.  I don’t really *need* to go anywhere, but the list of errands for Friday continues to grow.

    Note:  other people certainly are out driving, but besides risking my safety, with supply chain issues if my car were damaged, who knows how long it would take to repair.

  19. 19.

    Kay

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    IMO you minimize too much. I know I can put this within a 100 year context and say “they have opposed public education since integration” but that’s not really useful or relevant to a school board election in Wisconsin in 2023. To me stretching out the scale like that is “everythings FINE and we’re moving inexorably towards progress!”

    I don’t think that’s how progress, or power, works.

  20. 20.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: Just like most people don’t like political fights in their churches, they don’t like them in their schools either. They’re not happy about people creating problems that aren’t there. I think that’s part of the reason why Christian churches are hemorrhaging members – people go there to worship, not to be lectured to about their political beliefs.

  21. 21.

    Jeffro

    @Jeffro:

    1. Politicize the hell out of the schools.
    2. Blame the Dems for pandemic restrictions and vaccinations.
    3. Keep working hard to strip away women’s rights.
    4. Any time a Republican loses, it was election fraud.

    There you go, Ds.  Get out there and help those Rs campaign on that platform!

  22. 22.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    CRT panic isn’t working for R’s  in the states D’s need and did well in in 2020 and 2022, too. WI, MI, PA.

    R’s are going to run the same play in those states. Trump announced it and DeSantis is doing it right now in Florida. They have lost on it TWICE. It’s a good bet for Dems. Draw a real distinction. Sharp line.

    Because DeSantis won big in Florida they’re doubling down on the DeSantis/Rufo policy that lost everywhere else.

  24. 24.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    During the Tea Party fad, we got rid of a Tea Party school board member by running an engineer – our message was “he’s good at math so ACT scores…..anyway…good at math”.

    They would be good at math by osmosis :)

  26. 26.

    eclare

    @Soprano2:   When I was growing up in my local Methodist church, the attitude was that the Bible was a book of religion, not science.

    The largest Methodist church here just voted to leave whatever they call their “conference” over whether or not same sex marriages can be performed in a church (this church was against).  So I guess battles are back.  Glad I left decades ago.

  29. 29.

    gene108

    The Hudson River Tunnel project could’ve been originally funded by ARRA money, but Gov. Christie decided he didn’t want to support it, because Republicans – not just McConnell and the Senate ones – went all in on obstructing President Obama’s attempts at an economic recovery.

    The Trump administration slow walked giving the project funding priority, despite the work the NJ and NY Congressional delegations did to bring the project back from the dead.

    I’m glad President Biden’s putting his weight behind moving this along.

  31. 31.

    eclare

    @JPL:   Thanks!  Yes.  I plan to tune in.  The church is at most ten minutes from me, it’s where I vote.  Mississippi Blvd is an institution here.

  32. 32.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    Exactly. That’s what set it off as a belief. But polling about schools has never reflected that people were enraged about COVID mitigations or that they are terrified of CRT.

    Just as many people think schools don’t teach enough about AA history as think schools teach too much which shouldn’t surprise anyone, because public schools are more diverse than the country as a whole (younger, obviously). The far Right “white people first!” agenda for public education in the US diverges more and more from the actual population of public schools.

  33. 33.

    Matt McIrvin

    I can still dream about a North-South Station Rail Link in Boston. I think it will be built someday but it might be 100 years from now–I guess Boston might be drowned by sea-level rise first. That is the kind of time scale we’re talking about.

  34. 34.

    NorthLeft

    I am not surprised by the polling regarding the difference between Deadbeat Donald and Biden as far as doing the right thing, I just don’t think that carries much weight with most Americans.
    Trump wanted to be feared and respected, he did not care about being trusted or liked. I feel that is exactly how a majority of the US feels too.

  35. 35.

    James E Powell

    @Kay:

    I completely got it when Obama said “the fever will break”. I believed that too. I just thought people would get (more) tired of the chaos and  turmoil and do something about stopping it at the source, which is Republicans.

    Same here. And I was familiar with the tenacity of white supremacy. I just greatly underestimated how widespread it is.

  39. 39.

    WereBear

    @eclare: with supply chain issues if my car were damaged, who knows how long it would take to repair

    Exactly. Last year we decided to take a deal on the extended warranty for our vehicle (inventory leftover from summer of 2019) because it’s more likely to have parts on this continent than a new model. though Ford has decided to drop the Ecosport.

    We drive so little now that it makes for a totally different equation than when I was a travel/event blogger.

    Which I never thought of as dangerous until lately.

  40. 40.

    narya

    LOVE how public Fetterman is being about the assistive technology. I think it’s a winning message–lots of us use assistive technologies that we don’t necessarily code as assistive, and foregrounding its use makes it clearer. I run into furniture w/o the assistive technology of glasses or contact lenses, for example.

  41. 41.

    Nelle

    @Matt McIrvin: i met a very wealthy woman from Cincinnati in the 1980s,  who was mourning the passage of time.  We were at their summer family compound in Maine and most of the “cottages” had 20 bedrooms.  “It’s not like it used to be.  We would take our private rail car to the South Station, then have a flying police escort to the North Station, where we would get our other private rail car to Maine.”   She also thought it bizarre that younger family members came only with a cook and nanny, maybe one maid, instead of the full staff.  Imagine how all of this sounded to me, a daughter of a destitute refugee!

  43. 43.

    WereBear

    @narya: Likewise, I am pleased he’s making this a Something. Other people can use this, too.

    So many accommodations that people ask for under the ADA benefit their coworkers like better lighting and less noise. Room enough to have a telephone conversation.

    Why are these things being treated as special when they’re necessary for doing your job? It’s like the businesses that expect you to bring your own pens from home.

  45. 45.

    zhena gogolia

    My WaPo tells me that a certain Ishaan Tharoor (Yale grad) thinks we should give up on Ukraine.

  46. 46.

    Geminid

    Kraven McCarthy’s effort to remove Representative Ihlan Omar from the House Foreign Relations Committee may come to a floor vote as early as today. A Politico story from last night said the Rules Committee had taken up a resolution submitted by freshman Max Miller (R-OH) yesterday would be voted on today, clearing the way for a vote by the House.

    An AP story indicates McCarthy may have the votes, with former holdout Rep. Spartz (IN) saying she may find the resolution acceptable. The announcement that George Santos (WTF!-NY) would not serve on committees might have eased Republican optical concerns.

    The Politico article is interesting. Democrats may present a united front, with former Omar critic Brad Schneider of Illinois saying his dispute with Ms. Omar “seems like forever ago.” Rep. Omar has tried to build bridges to her Democrat colleagues, and cites advice her father gave her: “It’s hard to hate up close.”

    As for her Republican opponents, Ms. Omar said:

        I would love this to be an actual debate. But it’s a smear, it is an attack, in many ways it seems like McCarthyism carried out by the new McCarthy.

  50. 50.

    Kay

    @James E Powell:

    I posted this downstairs, but take a look. Opinions on “gender, power and policy”. 75pages and a pdf so be warned.

    Americans are sexist and the further Right they are the more sexist they are, but honestly  the showing across the board is not great. LOTTA weird hatred and distrust of women. According to this survey, all the people who said pregnancy regulations were about “punishing the sluts” hit the nail on the head. It isn’t much more complicated than that.

    The vast majority of Republicans, including Republican women, think “white men are the most attacked group in the country right now”

    The more anti abortion you are, the more you believe that without tight state control women will terminate pregnancies “right up until the moment of birth” just sort of willy nilly, for kicks. It’s fucked up.

  51. 51.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: Politico also had an article today about the impending Republican Senate primary race in Arizona, and I approve of the subtitle:

       Arizona Republicans fear they may blow it again.

    Sinema’s party switch may open the door. The fear is their candidate may walk into the frame

  53. 53.

    OzarkHillbilly

    ‘These women saved lives’: the film inspired by surviving Rwanda’s genocide

    As Jo Ingabire Moys lay wounded on the floor, surrounded by the bodies of her family, her 14-year-old neighbour, Arifa, came in to the house in Kigali to see if anyone was alive.

    Moments earlier, Ingabire Moys’s father had prayed before the bullets sprayed their home. He was killed, with two of his children and a cousin; Ingabire Moys, two other siblings and her mother survived.

    “Our family name was on the list and they lined everybody up and shot us with the purpose of extermination,” says Ingabire Moys. “We didn’t think anyone would survive.”
    …………………
    Arifa, a Hutu, was the only neighbour to check on the family. She brought them supplies until they could escape from the city and helped bury their dead.

    “We were the only Tutsi family on the street. No one came to see what happened or to help, except her,” says Ingabire Moys. “She saved our lives.”

    Almost 30 years later, Ingabire Moys’s experience, and all that followed, led her to make Bazigaga, a film about the Rwandan genocide, which has been nominated for a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award (Bafta). The winners will be announced on 19 February.

    The story follows a Tutsi pastor and his young daughter, who take shelter in the hut of a feared Hutu shaman, Bazigaga, and is inspired by the true story of Zura Karuhimbi, a Hutu woman believed to possess supernatural powers, who saved more than 100 people during the genocide.

    Gonna have to look for this one.

  54. 54.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    The vast majority of Republicans, including Republican women, think “white men are the most attacked group in the country right now”

    They have probably believed that since at least the 80s, if not sooner.

  55. 55.

    Nelle

    @Kay: I haven’t seen much here about Iowa’s red wave.  Nearly a complete sweep of all state offices and a complete sweep of federal offices.  When we moved here in 2019, 3 out of 4 Congressional reps were D’s.  Now none are.  The super R majority state legislature suspended usual rules and rammed through an extensive voucher program in the first few weeks of this session, which will strip millions from public schools and give it to private and religious schools, with no transparency or accountability.  My property taxes going to fund some evangelical school?

    The bill polls about 60% against in Iowa, but the R’s know better.  They insist that Iowans voted for this, but they ran on inflation and crime.  We’re only here for the grandchildren (surprising how many retired people I meet who move to help with grandchildren.  We recognize how hostile this culture is to family nurturance.)

  57. 57.

    WaterGirl

    @Kay:

    The vast majority of Republicans, including Republican women, think “white men are the most attacked group in the country right now”

    Oh. My. God.  How is that even possible?  (rhetorical question)

  58. 58.

    Baud

    @Nelle:

    The bill polls about 60% against in Iowa, but the R’s know better.  They insist that Iowans voted for this, but they ran on inflation and crime.

     

    I’m with the Republican Party here. I’m tired of people saying they don’t know what Republicans stand for and what their agenda is.

  60. 60.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Nelle: We’re only here for the grandchildren (surprising how many retired people I meet who move to help with grandchildren.

    We stayed here in Misery because of our grandchildren.

  62. 62.

    Jeffro

    Btw I love this take, by the usually interesting and accurate Thomas Edsall: The Democratic Coalition Could Crack At Any Moment.

    (not the actual title, but it’s the gist of what he has to say)

    Over the past four decades, the percentage of white Democrats who identify themselves as liberal has more than doubled, growing at a much faster pace than Black or Hispanic Democrats.
    In 1984, according to American National Election Studies data, 29.8 percent of white Democrats identified as liberal; by 2020, that percentage grew to 68.5 percent. Over the same period, the percentage of liberals among Black Democrats grew from 19.1 percent to 27.8 percent, and among Hispanic Democrats from 18 percent to 41 percent.
    This shift raises once again a question that people have been asking since the advent of Reagan Democrats in the 1980s: What does it mean for a party that was once the home of the white working class to become a coalition of relatively comfortable white liberals and less well off minority constituencies?
    The coalition of upper-middle-class liberals and minority voters, Galston wrote, “has been sustainable because the former believe in the active use of government to fight disadvantage of various kinds and are willing, within limits, to vote against their economic self-interest.”

    Here is a thought: the % of white Democrats who identify as liberals has been ticking up…because other, not-liberal whites have shifted to the GOP.  (and to Thomas’ credit, he notes that this is directly due to ‘racial animus’ as he puts it)

    I think this pushes my buttons because I have relatives who will on occasion remark that I’ve gotten more liberal or ask me how I became so liberal.  I’m like, “You’re kidding, right?  These have always been my values – it’s folks like you who have been embracing fascism sprinting to the right.”

    Anyway, I don’t see our Democratic coalition cracking any time soon, and certainly not before the GOP does.

  64. 64.

    sab

    @Kay: Around me most of the worst don’t actually have their kids in public schools. Theirs are in Christian academies, Catholic schools and private schools but they are still trying to interfere in the public schools.

  66. 66.

    Suzanne

    “We adjust,” says Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren.

    This is a very nice and simple way of saying this, and I appreciate it. It’s true…. I think everybody knows what it’s like when you have someone in your life who just needs something. You just adjust, it’s not a big deal. It’s not a crisis. You solve the problem, you get them what they need, and move on.

  69. 69.

    Baud

    @Jeffro: I don’t get it. The two parties realign all the time, sometimes at a faster pace than at other times.  I’m not sure what cracking is supposed to mean here.  Is he predicting the GOP will become  a dominant?

  72. 72.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Nelle: Wow. And here I was lamenting the fact that it’s about the same length of time to make that trip by subway, by bus or on foot (20-30 minutes to go a mile and a quarter, should be a couple minutes by train).

    That gap turns out to have all kinds of terrible knock-on effects–it severs all of Amtrak north of Boston from the Northeast Corridor, makes NEC train travel from anywhere on the North Shore a pain in the butt, and even limits the frequency with which the commuter rail can run, since all Amtrak and MBTA trains have to terminate and reverse on a platform at North or South Station (which are in limited supply) instead of blowing through in a few minutes. It’s the reason that when I start going back to the office later this week I’m probably going to be riding a bus.

  73. 73.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Glass Half-Empty Department: I looked at that Trump/Biden approval chart and asked myself whether the variation in the TFG-approval told any kind of interesting story. Australia is at 23%? OK I guess I knew there was a certain crazy right-wing element in Australia. Murdoch started there after all.

    But Japan at 25%? Japan, I am disappointed in you.

  74. 74.

    Baud

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I would love it if these GOP policies fostered the growth of more liberal private schools in red states. Call it CRT Academy. If red state taxpayers are footing the bill, there’s no reason our side can’t feed from the trough.

  75. 75.

    Kay

    @WaterGirl:

    Oh. My. God.

    Yup. It;s worse than I thought. The idea that women have to be tightly controlled or they will revert to their (natural) evil state is ancient though. It’s just kind of shocking that 70% of conservatives believe it in 2023.

  78. 78.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @narya: I also like that assistive technology no longer needs wires.  A boon for historic buildings avoiding construction costs.

  79. 79.

    gene108

    @Baud:

    What I got from the excerpt is white liberals are more liberal on some issues than the minority members of the Democratic coalition. The excerpt doesn’t mention what those issues are.

    Maybe minorities aren’t as caught up in things like transgender people’s rights versus upper middle class white liberals? I don’t know. Just speculation.

  80. 80.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: It was more than exhausting. I could not visit my  family in India nor could they come and visit. And I was one of the lucky ones. There have been cases of children and spouses being separated for each other for months and sometimes years because of visa woes. Visa processing an already onerous process was made pointlessly cruel  by the Orange Error’s administration.

  85. 85.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    The views of anti-abortion voters diverge sharply from the (expressed) views of the professional anti-abortion lobbyists who appear in media.

    The vast majority of anti-abortion voters want women punished with criminal sanctions for any pregnancy regulation violations. The vast majority of anti abortion voters believe women are “irresponsible” and will eagerly terminate a pregnancy up until birth as birth control.

    Much different than the soft focus mommy and baby Hallmark card we get from the professionals. This is a punishing, harsh view that assumes women are incapable of making ethical decisions.

  86. 86.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Jeffro:

    Here is a thought: the % of white Democrats who identify as liberals has been ticking up…because other, not-liberal whites have shifted to the GOP.  (and to Thomas’ credit, he notes that this is directly due to ‘racial animus’ as he puts it)

    Yeah, I think the problem is that the old coalition already cracked. In part because of advances in communication that make minority voices more heard than they used to be, the white liberals who are still in the Democratic Party are far more aware of the plight of Black Americans and other minority Americans than they used to be… and that FREAKS OUT 100% of other white people. We’re never getting them back.

  87. 87.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    I notice the GOP talking point about the Dems abortion policies always state “up till the moment of birth.” You can tell that it has been field tested.

  88. 88.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Eric Kleefeld (becoming a parody of myself)  @EricKleefeld Jan 31
    And yet we haven’t seen DeSantis send any voting police raids to The Villages.

    Florida Man @FloridaMan__ Jan 31

    4th Florida Man resident of The Villages admits to voting twice in the 2020 election 

    Interesting insight into Florida law in the article

    Rider indicated in court papers that he plans to “buy out” his requirement of completing 50 hours of community service at a cost of $10 per hour.

  89. 89.

    Kay

    @schrodingers_cat:

    100% agree. So, so sick of the pining away over men with “lunch buckets”. They’re mostly conservative. That’s why they vote for Republicans. We can peel some off for labor unions and what-not but the basic views are conservative.

    The only way the analysis makes sense to me is on a county basis – see if the D can lose 35/65 rather than 25/75 and then swamp them in urban counties. That was Obama’s approach and no one has ever come up with a better one.

  90. 90.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Jeffro: ​to vote against their economic self-interest.

    Everyone who uses that phrase has a very blinkered view of life on at least two levels. First, I would say that the idea that providing more equal opportunities for all is economically harmful is wrong. Second, the idea that everyone’s behavior is controlled entirely by their narrow economic self-interest is even more wrong.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    They love “abortion on demand” too – (corrupt) Justice Scalia would launch that missile at women on the regular. They DEMAND abortion. They should ask him nicely– the answer is “no” but they may request an audience and petition His Majesty.

  93. 93.

    Geminid

    @Jeffro: I think that number may be ticking up because more moderates are calling themselves “liberal.” There is also less distrust between the moderate and liberal wings of the Congressional Party, Senate and House, and a convergence on major policy questions.

    Also “Centrism” as an electoral strategy is seen as less necessary. An example would be how Joe Biden and Mark Kelly won Arizona in 2020 campaigning as standard moderate/liberal Democrats. In 2018, Blue Dog Caucus member Kyrsten Sinema became Arizona’s first Democratic Senator in decades. But two years later Biden and Kelly demonstrated that a Democrat did not need any special centrist sauce to win in that state.

    This speaks to the point you make about Republican radicalism. They have abandoned the center and refashioned their party as a Right Party. The polarization they’ve created is to the Democrats advantage, because their own shift to the left has been measured and not radical.

    I think we saw this in Virginia the last decade. The alliance of tea party cranks and bible thumpers that now calls the shots in the party repelled moderates away from the GOP and towards the Democrats, and Virginia has gone from purple to blue. Demographic change has played a large part, but Republican radicalism has also.

  95. 95.

    J R in WV

    @Kay: ​
     

    The vast majority of Republicans, including Republican women, think “white men are the most attacked group in the country right now”

    White patriarchal theocratic racist Christo-Fascist men are the most hated men in America, and thus the most attacked. Because they deserve it, being hateful and un-American monsters.

  96. 96.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: Remember the federal ban on what they called “partial-birth abortion”? It’s a misleading name, but the name was intended to evoke an idea that women were having doctors commit elective infanticide on a full-term baby during the birth process. That’s the image they want in everybody’s head. It bears no relation to reality but they want it to be the paradigmatic abortion.

  98. 98.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @James E Powell:

    I completely got it when Obama said “the fever will break”. I believed that too. I just thought people would get (more) tired of the chaos and  turmoil and do something about stopping it at the source, which is Republicans.

    After the 2012 election, Boehner said there would be no more votes to repeal the ACA. “Obamacare is the law of the land,” he said.

    “Like hell!” said the Tea Bagger Caucus.

  101. 101.

    Kay

    @J R in WV:

    Also women are too easily offended – that’s nearly a majority across the board.

    “Ladies against women”, as the feminists used to say, back when we had feminists.

  102. 102.

    frosty

    @Kay: That’s how it works in my South PA county. If the D breaks 34% we win statewide. It was Fetterman’s approach too: “Every county, every vote.”

    ETA: 34%. That’s so depressing.

  103. 103.

    The Moar You Know

    I don’t care if he did have a knife, how much of a threat can a man with stumps be? He’s certainly not going to get away.

    @OzarkHillbilly:  I am a bit surprised that the Guardian (I’m not surprised at all) failed to mention that a few yards from where stump guy with a butcher knife was, was another individual who had been cut up real nice and is in the hospital in critical condition.

    Do I think that shooting him was the right move?  Probably not.  Just step back a few, make sure the guy doesn’t go anywhere, and wait for him to get tired.  If those things are not possible, or if he’s more mobile than we think, well, then guns might have to come into play.

    Incidentally, bulletproof vests are not blade proof.  A knife will just go right through them.  This is the main reason cops freak out on guys with knives.  A more level playing field.

  106. 106.

    Kay

    @frosty:

    In my county Obama’s campaign said “we need 8k” – in that one county in the context of the other 87. I love that! We were like “okay!’

    Sherrod does the same thing.

  108. 108.

    Kay

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Staedtler. I still have the angles and the straight edge. I will never use them but I just like them. I wonder if they still have mechanical drawing. Probably not, with CAD.

  109. 109.

    sanjeevs

    That poll showing how people outside the US have a dim view of Trump is interesting.

    And I think it’s almost universal that these populist leaders are viewed as crazy and inept  outside their home country.

    They are the creation of modern propaganda machines and people outside the reach of the machine see them for what they are.

  110. 110.

    schrodingers_cat

    @OzarkHillbilly: I am talking from the POV of the visitor.

    Plus I hate that line, no the point was not cruelty, the point was to deter immigration and even visitors from the so-called shithole countries (non-European) countries. The cruelty was the cherry on the sundae.

  111. 111.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Kay: I love Staedtler. I have a lot of their stuff. I think it is still important, you can’t use CAD unless you know the principles like one pt perspective etc. I have their pencil set too from 2H to 10 B.

    CAD is like a calculator, it is tool which is useless if you don’t understand what you are doing.

  113. 113.

    The Moar You Know

    But Japan at 25%? Japan, I am disappointed in you.

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: you should read up on Japanese politics.  They have a right wing that must be studied to be believed.  Horrendous, shitty, murderous people.

    You wanna see a crazed debate about what gets taught in public schools, check out the Japanese right wing springing into action about anything to do with teaching Japanese responsibility for World War Two, or what they did to other peoples during World War Two. Holy shit.  America’s got nothing on these folks.

  114. 114.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Kay:

    The vast majority of anti abortion voters believe women are “irresponsible” and will eagerly terminate a pregnancy up until birth as birth control.

    And if men could get pregnant, we’d abort at the drop of a hat, regardless of ideology. Fuck this notion that women are irresponsible.

  116. 116.

    Ohio Mom

    @Nelle: As a Cincinnatian, I wish you remembered that woman’s name. Oh well.

    Like everywhere else, there is old money here from the (white) people who got here first, and who got in on the ground floor, as the saying goes, in various businesses.

  118. 118.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    So if you’re in the right group, the penalty for blatantly breaking the voting laws (voting multiple times is about as blatant as you can get) is a $500 fine.  But if you’re in the wrong group, the cops show up at your door and haul your ass off to jail.

    IOW, what Wilhoit said.

  119. 119.

    Geminid

    @Baud: I think that a lot of pundits and some Democrats imagine a polarized Democratic party, with two wings contending for dominance.

    When I look at the Democratic House Caucus, at least members of the Class of 2018, I just don’t see it. What are the differences between Texas New Democrat Caucus member Colin Allred and fellow Texan Verinica Escobar, member of the Progressive Caucus? Between two Colorado Reps Jason Crow, a New Democrat and Progressive Joe Neguse? There is very little on policy that I can think of.

    The big difference is the composition of their districts’ electorates. Allred and Crow flipped red seats while Neguse and Escobar succeeded Democrats in blue districts. In this respect, one could say their caucus affiliation is as much a matter of political branding as it is of ideology.

    People like Edsall may not see this, perhaps because they are adherents of one wing or another. I have noticed that it’s the partisans outside of Congress that push the the “moderate vs. liberal power struggle” narrative the hardest.

    Or maybe Edsall thinks that “Democrats in Array” stories are not interesting. He could be right, too.

  120. 120.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @The Moar You Know: This is what the guardian said about that:

    The circumstances preceding the killing are unclear, and officials have faced scrutiny as their narrative has appeared to shift. The Huntington Park police department said in a statement that officers were responding to reports of a stabbing allegedly committed by someone in a wheelchair at around 3.40pm on Thursday, and that they encountered Lowe, who was in a wheelchair and who they believed was the suspect.

    The department claimed that officers attempted to detain him, alleging he ignored commands and “threatened to advance or throw the knife at the officers”, although the limited witness footage did not capture this. The department further said that officers “deployed two separate Tasers in an attempt to subdue the suspect”, but when “the Tasers were ineffective”, they shot him. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

    The LA sheriff’s department, which is investigating the killing, said in an initial statement that Lowe attempted to “throw the knife at the officers”, but a spokesperson later told the LA Times that Lowe “did not throw the knife ultimately, but he made the motion multiple times over his head like he was going to throw the knife”. The spokesperson also said that two officers had fired roughly 10 rounds at Lowe, who was hit in the torso. The Huntington Park department does not use body cameras.

    Foggy enough that I chose to focus on the shooting of a man trying to escape on his 2 stumps. As far as him having a knife and how they can get thru a vest if they are hit at just the exactly right place and angle, there is no reason for them to take deadly force when his avenue of escape can be easily cut off and it’s easy enough to stay out of range. If he wants to throw it, go ahead and disarm yourself. I’d risk a few stitches, lord knows I’ve spent a life risking stitches.

    As to the condition of the “victim”, my first thought upon reading the article was maybe he wasn’t the victim but the assaulter. A double amputee man in a wheelchair screams “VICTIM IN WAITING” but I didn’t want to speculate about that either. Maybe I am wrong, wouldn’t be the first time, won’t be the last.

    So long story short, I see it as “cops kill man who didn’t need to be shot except that cops see anyone who doesn’t immediately comply with their orders as needing to be taught a lesson” which all to often is true.

  122. 122.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @schrodingers_cat: The cruelty was the cherry on the sundae.

    I have always thought of the cruelty as a tool they used and going with the old adage that if a hammer is the only tool you have every problem looks like a nail.

  123. 123.

    frosty

    @Kay: I still have those. And the set of Rapidograph pens, now hopelessly clogged.

    And the triangle scales. The engineering one I used in Virginia has a 1”=25’ scale because that’s what VDOT used. Everywhere else it’s 1”=20’.

  124. 124.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @schrodingers_cat: CAD is like a calculator, it is tool which is useless if you don’t understand what you are doing.

    Oh gawd… Truer words never spoken.

    I used to draft cave maps and when a couple of programs were developed for that express purpose, everyone started using them. I tried, but I am notoriously incompatible with most technology, after a while I gave up and went back to drafting them by hand.

  125. 125.

    Geminid

    @Kay: I found out about Number 1 pencils when I worked for for a furniture maker. We used Number 1 pencils for marking wood, or else special tools with small knives mounted on them..

  126. 126.

    Jeffro

    @Matt McIrvin:the white liberals who are still in the Democratic Party are far more aware of the plight of Black Americans and other minority Americans than they used to be… and that FREAKS OUT 100% of other white people. We’re never getting them back.

    True, but in most cases that’s because they’re taking dirt naps.

    Although unfortunately many of my fellow GenXers are just as racist as their parents if not more so.

  127. 127.

    Jeffro

    @Geminid:The alliance of tea party cranks and bible thumpers that now calls the shots in the party repelled moderates away from the GOP and towards the Democrats, and Virginia has gone from purple to blue. Demographic change has played a large part, but Republican radicalism has also.

    Very true.

    It’s also why we need to try and ‘pull back the mask’ harder in the future on congenial fascists like Youngkin.  So much of the coverage painted him as a moderate, mostly because he…smiled and had a pleasant affect (while not answering questions)

    PS while I will try many things, I will always pass on ‘special centrist sauce’, LOL.  =)

  128. 128.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: The vast majority of anti-abortion voters want women punished with criminal sanctions for any pregnancy regulation violations. The vast majority of anti abortion voters believe women are “irresponsible” and will eagerly terminate a pregnancy up until birth as birth control.

    Like I said in the other thread, the comment from the older woman I heard on NPR after the Dobbs decision where she said something like “Now those young women will have to be more careful who they open their legs for” is the common sentiment among anti-abortion voters. You should have heard the tone of her voice, too – she was sneering when she said it. They really believe almost all the women who get abortions are young sluts who sleep with hundreds of men without using birth control because they are using abortion as their only birth control. If they actually cared about the women who get abortions they’d take the trouble to learn about them, but they obviously have no idea who actually gets abortions. When TFG said in an interview that the woman who gets an abortion should be punished he was talking to these voters. It’s actually a more consistent view than the soft-focus crap we get from the anti-abortion activists – if you believe a women tried to murder her baby, of course you should want her to be punished! They deny it because they know it’s not a popular belief.

  130. 130.

    Jeffro

    @Baud: my most optimistic take is, he’s trying to look prescient and say, “if/when the Ds crack up, it will be because the white liberals were too far out on the left.”

    but no, he’s not predicting that the GOP will dominate.

  131. 131.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: So, so sick of the pining away over men with “lunch buckets”. They’re mostly conservative.

    The party lost white union men for the same reason we lost other white people – racism. As long as the Democratic Party indulged racists they were OK voting for Democrats. I’m sick of it too because I’m sick to death of the idea the press cannot give up that the white, male voter is the “normal” voter, so his views should be the ones that dominate. I think that’s why the older Democratic pundits pine for their votes so much.

  133. 133.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: That’s how McCaskill won in Missouri, too, and for that she got a lot of Dems sneering at her about not being liberal enough. I think there’s some misogyny at play there, because they didn’t sneer at Fetterman for that, or at Sherrod Brown.

  134. 134.

    Geminid

    @Soprano2: There was a real fascination with the “Obama to Trump” voters after the 2016 election, and that became like an obsession with many journalists.

    That is kind of an interesting group of voters, but so are a lot of others as or more important.

  136. 136.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    These stereotypical views are not rooted in reality (see next slide). Instead, attitudes are likely rooted in one’s beliefs about women.

    “I’m worried that women will make a habit out of having abortions”

    66% of anti-abortion people Make a habit

    77% of them believe “there are many irresponsible women who will decide to have an abortion up until the moment of birth”

    This is our US Supreme Court. Good Lord.

  137. 137.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    Well, but I think McCaskill is substantively more centrist than Sherrod. They don’t care how she runs. They care that she become something of a Left puncher. No Democrat cares that Sherrod submits articles to the local paper about how he works with Portman. They want him to win partly because they know he’s a reliable liberal and he adds a lot of value in that sense because he’s a liberal out of a red state.

  138. 138.

    StringOnAStick

    @Kay: I still have my angles and straight edge, and I still use them for various things.  My engineer’s scale gets used when I do the occasional landscape design because I don’t want to buy the software and deal with the learning curve.  The angles are great for craft work where you need a piece with accurate angles, or even just to draw a straight line.  I also think the tactile aspect helps me get deeper into what I’m trying to accomplish.  Too much mouse use for me triggers carpal tunnel syndrome and I use a PC too much as it is, and I think I must just like these tools.  I was working in consulting engineering when the transition from drafting tools to CAD happened and it is much more efficient; I just have a kink towards handmade I guess.

  141. 141.

    M31

    @frosty: I’ve resurrected ancient clogged Rapidograph pens with household ammonia (dilute it quite a bit and soak overnight or longer if necessary). Love them!

  142. 142.

    Suzanne

    @Kay:

    I wonder if they still have mechanical drawing. Probably not, with CAD. 

    When I was an teaching assistant, I had to teach technical drawing (lead holders, maylines, French curves, etc.) to freshmen. I’m pretty good at it, if I do say so myself. The logic was that they have to learn the nuances of line weights and how to convey information to graphic standard. (As well as to bore them to tears to get used to it.)

    What is mostly gone is….CAD. Most designers and engineers and planners have moved on to BIM (building information modeling). Most of the GCs and subs I work with have totally abandoned CAD for Revit and NavisWorks. (Civil engineers are still on CAD, which explains a lot.) Anyone who can use a BIM platform is a hot commodity, but CAD drafters are a dime a dozen at this point.

  143. 143.

    Suzanne

    LMAO CAD. I remember a few years ago, my firm at the time was hiring anybody they could find who had a good command of BIM, specifically Revit. So they hired a bunch of young recent grads who had all used BIM platforms and rendering engines in their schoolwork. They were mostly pretty good. But every once in a while, they had to open an old CAD drawing or import something, and they couldn’t do it. So they had to send a few of them to CAD training.

  145. 145.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @schrodingers_cat: Yeah, a buddy of mine built a program that did away with all that math and was very simple to use. I loved it and used it all the time for my hand drafted maps. I never got used to the drafting programs that followed. Too much of a luddite.

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