Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

“But what about the lurkers?”

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

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

We still have time to mess this up!

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

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

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

“woke” is the new caravan.

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

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Monday Morning Open Thread: Go, Team Biden!

Monday Morning Open Thread: Go, Team Biden!

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Pete Buttigieg continues to be very good at communicating Democratic values.

New Hampshire, and its Republican governor, is taking this with all the grace you might expect from a state that counts on making bank from the Running of the Journos every four years. But this is a one-off, for-2024-only proposal, and I don’t think the Granite State will do itself any favors with exaggerated threats. (The Iowa planners, who get booted from the head of the primary parade entirely, seem to be making less noise — no doubt for reasons.)

ICYMI: Apparently the Permanent GOP Party decided that Arkansas lady was getting uppity, so they set her up for a Jindal-icious career killer…

And remember, those of you on Twitter: Caring is sharing!

Reader Interactions

325Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    I have supported Biden in the past, but that chart depicts Clinton’s higher number as lower than Carter’s lower one.

    That’s the final straw.  The party left me!

  2. 2.

    Baud

    The Iowa planners, who get booted from the head of the primary parade entirely, seem to be making less noise — no doubt for reasons.)

    Nothing they can do. The party runs a caucus. No state involvement.

  12. 12.

    Baud

    I’m afraid the economy is so good that white people will vote their race again.  Thanks, Biden!

  16. 16.

    M31

    @Baud:

    is he saying that in 2020 Biden was able to schmooze SC into voting for him because the other candidates were busy elsewhere?

  17. 17.

    Spanky

    The balloon payload looked like it dropped mostly intact, like a rock. The balloony part of the balloon sorta fluttered down. I can see where it could flutter 7 miles.

  18. 18.

    Princess

    I like that primary schedule.

    in other news my kid reminded me this morning that he was part of a scientific project  half a dozen years ago that involved a footbal field-sized high altitude balloon. It was folded into a NASA project precisely so no country would think it was spying and shoot it down. This makes him think that these spy balloons were being commonly used then and surely increasingly since then. So the question remains, why did this one become know to all of us when the others were kept under wraps?  Humiliating Biden? Ginning up war with China? Chance?

  19. 19.

    p.a.

    Is our normies learning?

    Or just poutrage-exhaustion?

    The poutrage issues the Reichpublicans throw out are just as ridiculous as formerly but the traction seems to be only with the true believers.  Maybe just because the opposition leader is a white grampy type, maybe because they’re finally becoming white noise to more voters.

  21. 21.

    Kay

    The rust belt is booming. Boring old-economy manufacturing is just smoking hot. They should make some of those diner visits they love so much. They’re out of touch with the demographic they (supposedly) love the most.

  24. 24.

    Suzanne

    Pete Buttigieg is a remarkably effective messenger of Biden’s accomplishments

    Yes. Because he’s a smart and talented dude.
    I hope he has a long and auspicious political career.

    There’s a lot of good Democrats. We talk a lot about fragments of the coalition, and that’s important. But when I take a 30,000-foot view of it, we have a lot of good people from different places and “positions”. Go us.

  26. 26.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    The rust belt is booming. Boring old-economy manufacturing is just smoking hot.

     
    Until the drag queens ruined everything!

  27. 27.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    The exclusive focus on the layoffs in the tech sector is telling, I think, as to whether media actually love rust belt denizens as much as they claim to, because everyone is hiring here.

    We’re doing great under Biden! They should come out and see us. Don’t be a stranger!

  28. 28.

    Baud

    @Kay: OMG, based on my feed, the media is literally interviewing every single person laid off from Google for their personal story.

  29. 29.

    JPL

    @Kay: Gov. Kemp received most of the credit for the booming economy in GA even though it was due to government spending.  Our Senators have been proactive in directing money and businesses to the state.

  30. 30.

    Another Scott

    @Princess: As I understand it, not many anti-aircraft systems can reach 50-60,000 feet.  MH-17 was at 30,000 feet, IIRC.  Powers’ U-2 was at 65,000 feet or so, and it being shot down was a huge shock at the time.  So, countries may not like balloon overflights, but only a few can do anything to bring them down.

    Corrections welcome.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  31. 31.

    Princess

    @Kay: this sense that midwestern ordinary working folks have that they’re despised is not wrong — but it’s the media that has contempt for them, not the Democrats.

  32. 32.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Open thread? Mr DAW has spent hours the last couple of days trying to change the beneficiary of a life-insurance policy that his father bought on him in 1946. Needless to say, the people he gets on the phone say they’ve never heard of a policy with a number like this one, and then they transfer him to someone else. I think we may need to give up, but Mr DAW is not one for letting $1000 go.

  34. 34.

    Kay

    @JPL:

    Right, governors generally do.

    But I thnk it’s fair that if they’re going to blame Biden for the parts of the economy that are bad they should credit him with the parts of the economy that are good and the rust belt is supposedly an area of the country that is ignored by elites like Joe Biden and treasured by working men like Donald Trump so they should visit us when we’re doing great. I’ve never seen it this good in my lifetime.

  35. 35.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: I’m not sure if what he’s saying is true, but I think his point is that SC will become less dispositive than it has been if it goes first. Candidates used to duke it out in IA, NH, etc., and then the SC vote would winnow the field (Clinton vs Obama in 2008, Clinton vs Sanders in 2016, Biden vs a handful of others in 2020).

  36. 36.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Don’t give up. I had a similiar issue (with NY Life – they deserve a plug) and I eventually got two very helpful employees who tracked it down diligently. They were great. A team effort :)

  39. 39.

    Another Scott

    @Kay: +1

    This is not uncommon.  I happened to check one of those “abandoned property” web sites and discovered my father had an old (like decades old) insurance policy in another state.  I sent him a note about it and her was able to get it without much trouble.  A few $xxx in free money.

    Just because it’s old doesn’t mean that it’s gone.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  40. 40.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Kay:

    The rust belt is booming. Boring old-economy manufacturing is just smoking hot. They should make some of those diner visits they love so much.

    But the people in those diners might not say bad things about the economy.  That’s why they’ve got to interview the people being laid off by Google.

  41. 41.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I’m having something similar.  My spouse died in October.  I’ve inherited his TSP (federal government 401K basically).  Because the TSP didn’t change every field in their database to say he is deceased, I can do NOTHING with his or mine.  I’ve already called 4 times.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    I guess that’s true.  The first states usually knock out the very low polling candidates, and SC followed by Super Tuesday tells you who the main players will be.  So SC’s role will be different assuming it stays first in an open primary.

  44. 44.

    Another Scott

    @Cheryl from Maryland: I’m sorry.  That sounds stressful.  I’m sure that it will get resolved once you find the right person to help.

    I’m reminded of the time my pay was garnished for child support, when I have never had kids.  An error by one digit in a social security number was all it took.  :⁠-⁠\. Fortunately, it wasn’t a hardship for me during the 6 months that it took to be resolved, but it did have me spending a lot of time on what-ifs…

    Good luck!!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  45. 45.

    jonas

    The news out of Turkey and Syria this morning is horrifying. 7.8 earthquake centered near Gaziantep in eastern Turkey near the Syrian border. Already more than 1600 confirmed dead — death toll climbing every hour. Years of civil war in Syria has left infrastructure in shambles. And then this.

  46. 46.

    Llelldorin

    @Spanky: How far would chunks of the missile itself spread as they fell? I don’t have a good sense of the energy involved, but I’d imagine that missile chunks would fall considerably faster than the balloon—they’d have a much higher terminal velocity—and since they’re the source of the explosion in the first place I’d think they’d get thrown all over the place.

  47. 47.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: If the new process follows established patterns, SC is the new IA, NH and NV are the new NH, and GA and MI are the new SC? If so, that might be a good thing. GA and MI reflect the party constituencies better than SC, and unlike SC, they are states Democrats can win.

  48. 48.

    Geminid

    @jonas: I read that Turkiye has the most refugees of any nation, 3.6 million. Most of them are Syrian, and many of these live near the border area that the earthquake hit.

  49. 49.

    Ken

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I think we may need to give up, but Mr DAW is not one for letting $1000 go.

    I noticed that after my parents retired, they were perfectly willing to spend hours on the phone to dispute a $3 charge on a bill. It occurred to me that retirees must be the bane of customer service representatives.

  51. 51.

    Soprano2

    @Baud: That absolutely drives me NUTS, when members of the press act like they have no agency, and have zero control over whether or not people have heard about stuff! I wish Pete could figure out a tactful way to call them on that when they start saying “Why doesn’t Biden get credit for all the things he’s done?” Perhaps he could say something like “Well, Chuck, if your network talked about his accomplishments more, rather than talking incessantly about things Republicans want you to talk about like Hunter Biden’s laptop and Chinese spy balloons, perhaps the American people would be more aware of what Biden and the last Congress have actually done”.

  52. 52.

    eclare

    @Ken:   I think my mother single handedly kept a branch of her bank open.  She would go at least once a week for some issue with her statement.

  53. 53.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I think the tell is how much they downplay the smoking hot employment numbers while doing the 250th story about “why are egg prices so high”. Good news doesn’t sell, and doesn’t get eyeballs, so they talk about it when they have to but don’t emphasize it.

  55. 55.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    You probably know this but get a first and last name of someone and send them a letter, then do phone calls as follow up. A written record holds them accountable in a way a phone call doesn’t – email is fine too but I’m old so I like to get out the ol quill pen and transcribe... :)

  57. 57.

    zhena gogolia

    @Baud: It’s so enraging!

    My NYT front page tells me, “Frustrated Harris Struggles To Define Her Role. Pressured to make her mark while still in Biden’s shadow.”

    She is the first VP in history to be in the POTUS’s shadow.

  58. 58.

    Soprano2

    @M31: True, but I still think it’s about how people are more likely to watch bad news. I think if inflation was low but unemployment was high, they’d be talking about unemployment and completely ignoring inflation. Bad news sells, and they’re all about the bottom line.

  60. 60.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I think he’s trying to say this:

    South Carolina going first isn’t as *scary as it might seem.  Because SC is first, they can’t do what they did last time – deliver the state overwhelmingly to one candidate, like they did for Joe Biden.

    *What I don’t understand, since people are speaking to their own followers on twitter, is why he would feel the need to reassure people about SC going first.

  62. 62.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Cheryl from Maryland: Take heart. Right after I commented here, Mr DAW came into my office and said he’d made progress. He has to send a letter changing his address, but at least someone had heard of his policy. So maybe other commenters are right and persistence pays off

  63. 63.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    I’m interviewing people and last week was a 2nd year law student who my wingnut decoder sense picked up as conservative. Great personable kid with kind of a low GPA but I don’t put an excessive amount of weight on that espcially if they work while in school and he does. It doesn’t matter that much for good lawyering.  I won’t discriminate on the basis of his ideology but he told me the economy is really bad and, sorry, he can’t be delusional. I’m acquainted with both of his parents who both work locally and it is fucking booming here. Maybe not in wingnutland in his head but, again, we need reality-based lawyers.

  65. 65.

    Baud

    @WaterGirl:

    Because SC is first, they can’t do what they did last time – deliver the state overwhelmingly to one candidate, like they did for Joe Biden.

    I don’t see why not.  It’s less likely to happen since the first state when there is an open primary has more candidates to choose from, but it’s certainly possible for one candidate to run away with it.

  66. 66.

    jonas

    @Soprano2: ​
     

    Good news doesn’t sell, and doesn’t get eyeballs, so they talk about it when they have to but don’t emphasize it.

    That’s exactly right, I think. For many in the media, what makes something newsworthy is its propensity to make people upset — scandals, communists, egg prices, etc. Unemployment going down? Inflation going down? Infrastructure getting built? That’s not getting anyone’s dander up. “Snooze” not news.

  68. 68.

    Geminid

    @Llelldorin: The missile fragments probably sprayed out in a fan shape. Navy divers won’t be too concerned about the missile fragments though. They will go after the balloon’s payload first.

    Authorities still want to keep the missile parts out of third party hands, even if it’s just souvenir hunters. So the navy will likely sweep for them next. It’s good training, and convenient too since the Norfolk Navy Base is fairly close by.

  69. 69.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: Over the past two years, many of these stories kept asking “where is Kamala Harris?” when the simple answer was “repeatedly rushing back to the Senate to cast tie-breaking votes”. It was a large part of her job. I haven’t gotten a sense of how much the new Senate composition has freed her from that.

  70. 70.

    Ken

    @Soprano2: the 250th story about “why are egg prices so high”

    You would think “tens of millions of laying hens culled because of bird flu” would get boring — both to report and to hear — after the 4th or 5th time.

    Unless they’re saying there’s some other cause, in which case the real story is about journalistic malpractice.

  72. 72.

    Nicole

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Mr DAW has spent hours the last couple of days trying to change the beneficiary of a life-insurance policy that his father bought on him in 1946.

    Oh wow- when my aunt died in 2015 there was a life insurance policy, also for $1000, that her parents bought when she born in 1951.  When she was in her early 20s, she listed her best friend as the beneficiary and then they had a huge falling out and never spoke again, but she never got around to changing the policy.  I gave the insurance company the info for the ex-friend, as she was still beneficiary and that’s the law, but I think the friend felt bad about collecting the money because I got contacted quite awhile later by the insurance company asking for help getting in touch and I was like… yeah… no.  I don’t do volunteer work for you.

    So, while it may end up being impossible, I understand Mr. DAW’s feelings on this.  My aunt would have HATED knowing that policy went to this ex-friend, but that was on her; she could have changed it but didn’t.  Good lesson to me to keep my stuff updated.

  74. 74.

    Brit in Chicago

    @Kay: Most of this is surely wingnuttery, but I think part of it is teh way people—and especially news outlets—talk about “the economy” as if it were a thing distinct from human beings and their actions. Lots of people have jobs, and their wages are going up (on average), but the poor economy is languishing….

    (This falls under what Marx calls “ideology”.)

  75. 75.

    Baud

    Speaking of Harris, I wonder how much of the anti-SC view is based on a concern that it will give her a leg up in 2028.

  77. 77.

    WaterGirl

    @Soprano2: Pete Buttigieg could say that in a way that wasn’t quite so direct at pointing the finger.

    Well, Chuck with a show of your own, you’re in a position to help change that, because of your influence.

  79. 79.

    Betty Cracker

    @WaterGirl: I think there are legit reasons to worry about SC going first. It’s an overwhelmingly rural and conservative state where Dems aren’t competitive in the general election. It’s more diverse than IA, so that fixes one primary calendar problem, but Dems rely on urban centers for votes, and SC lacks big cities.

  81. 81.

    Suzanne

    @Betty Cracker: Agreed. If we are trying to be more representative of the diverse Dem electorate with the first state — a worthy goal — I would have preferred to see Illinois, Nevada, or New Mexico go first.

  82. 82.

    JMG

    Bloomberg columnist and political scientist Jonathan Bernstein has written repeatedly that the most extreme and prevalent American media bias is that all economic news is bad news. He’s right. It’s also aimed almost exclusively at people for whom the word “portfolio” is more important than the word “wages.”

  83. 83.

    Baud

    @Suzanne: We’re trying to be more representative than IA and NH were, but it’s not the only goal. A lot of people want the first state to be small, which removes Illinois, and NV and NM in terms of geography at least.  I’m also not sure how big the AA population is in NV and NM, so they might not be good first states either.

    Starting off small really limits our options.

  84. 84.

    MomSense

    @Baud:

    Typically the incumbent runs away with the nomination in a second term primary process.

    I really don’t get the belly aching about SC going first.  They’ve been one of the four early states for a long time.
    Of the four long term early states, Iowa hasn’t made sense since it hasn’t been in play since 2010. NH is highly rural, white, conservative and a fucking pain in the ass.  I am personally sick of it but only because I’ve campaigned there so much. Nevada is still a swing state and is a diverse state.  Probably helps to be able to poll the various constituencies.

  86. 86.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: I’ve sparred with people claiming that VP Harris is “invisible,” “does nothing” etc. I’ll point out that if one actually tries, they can see she is doing important work every day, at home and abroad. This is a good example a common phenomenon: people ostensibly caring about something they’re not really interested in.

    Part of the problem is that many people are passive in their news consumption, and if they don’t  see a story on their favorite national news sites it may as well not have happened.

    I think a larger problem though, is bad faith arguements. A lot of people still resent the outcome of the 2020 nomination process, and have an anti-establishment axe to grind. So they’ll tear down Harris and Buttegieg at every opportunity.

    And others want the excitement that a fight over a new VP choice would bring. That’s just not going to happen, and if they paid attention to the close partnership President Biden has with Ms. Harris they would know that. But they only pay attention to each other.

  87. 87.

    jonas

    @JMG: ​
     

    It’s also aimed almost exclusively at people for whom the word “portfolio” is more important than the word “wages.”

    That’s a really good point. There is no cable news network dedicated to reporting on economic news for working people. It’s all business/stockmarket reporting and if there is anything about wage earners at all, it’s how they’re costing too much and driving down profits, thus impacting stock prices.

  88. 88.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: Point taken.  Except that Chuckles was saying “Biden is doing all these great things, why don’t people know about them?”

    In which case, I think Pete could still gently point out that Chuckles is part of the answer to “why”, though of course his wording would be better than mine.

  89. 89.

    Suzanne

    @Baud: Not exactly true. Nevada is smaller than South Carolina, by a lot, but most of the population is piled into urban areas. I think the difficult thing about states with urban areas is the cost of the media market.

  90. 90.

    WaterGirl

    @Suzanne: I live in Illinois, and I think it would be a disaster.  There is quite a bit of tension between downstate and Chicago.  So I can see that everybody would be pissed off that the candidate was spending too much time in the “other” part of the state.

    Not me, of course, because I’m reasonable. :-)

  92. 92.

    Suzanne

    @Baud:

    I’m also not sure how big the AA population is in NV and NM, so they might not be good first states either. 

    Well, the AA population is not large in either of those places, but they are racially diverse and more heavily urbanized. New Mexico is the first (and I think only) majority-minority state. Dramatically fewer people than SC. So it depends on what you mean by size. A small population or a small geographic area? The western states have larger urban areas and a lot of empty space.

  94. 94.

    Baud

    @Suzanne: NV is probably the best option after SC. (DE would be a good option, but no one mentions it.)  But NV would be all about Vegas and Reno.

  97. 97.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: South Carolina justh has small and medium sized cities, but I think its urban/suburban/rural mix is pretty normal. It’s white population probably skews more conservative than average, but I don’t think that will be a consequential factor in a Democratic primary.

  98. 98.

    tobie

    I haven’t been around these parts much of late. My father passed away last Tuesday and while he was not well, no one thought he was going to die imminently. He saw a doctor just the day before he died who was talking about the dangers of the next infection, not the one he was recovering from. I’m still wrestling with all of this, and I guess this will continue for a while.

    For the first three days, all someone had to do was look at me with a mournful expression and the floodgates would open. I’m no longer quite so weepy and sitting shiva has helped. I did’t realize my father had so many friends. I guess he made a home for himself in this god-awful state.

  99. 99.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: True. I understand the lore behind the retail politicking in small states, but I’m not sure how valuable it is on the only metric I care about: the ability to produce a candidate who can win the general election. Small states are a mixed bag there, IIRC.

  102. 102.

    NotMax

    @Dorothy A. Winsor

    True story. One grandmother applied for a visa for a trip to Brazil. This was still pre-internet days, when one had to appear in person.

    As the computerized system then at the embassy accepted only the last two digits for the year of birth and she was born in the 19th century, it rejected her as non-existent, interpreting the data entered as her being negative five years old.

    Embassy had to schedule another appointment for her, that time finding and bringing in someone who had retired and knew how to process applications manually.

  109. 109.

    Emmyelle

    The only thing positive to say about Chuck Todd is that at least with Pete, he sits quietly and lets him talk before asking the question/making the statement that he was going to do anyway regardless of what Pete says.

    that’s way more than he can bring him self to do for the wimmenz.

  112. 112.

    Emmyelle

    @Baud: also shorter Chuck Todd: But none of these accomplishments are helping Biden (against our constant caterwauling that he’s old and senile and not doing anything and the vaccines didn’t end COVID in February 2021 and also wokeism).

  113. 113.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @Baud: Personally, I see the value of having one small state up front.  It gives candidates an opportunity to grow.  The inability to draw tens of millions of dollars shouldn’t be an immediate barrier.  If a lesser-known candidate starts to succeed, the money will follow.

    I see some issues with this, too, like candidates winning by moving to a state for two years and personally shaking hands with every voter.  But I think the good outweighs the bad here with one small primary to start.

    After that my bigger concerns are regional and demographic balance.  I also don’t like the idea that the same state should be up front every time.  I also like when there’s still a live primary by the time I’m able to vote

    So, I’m fully onboard with moving South Carolina up front; my white, leftist sensibilities notwithstanding.

  114. 114.

    Geminid

    @Emmyelle: Your point about Chuck Todd and women is well taken and can be applied generally.

    Another factor, I think is that Buttegieg is such a good communicator and is very fast on his feet. Interviewers may find him intimidating. They know he can show them up.

  115. 115.

    Suzanne

    @schrodingers_cat:

    So called progressives who mostly only appeal to white college grads will now have to appeal to a predominantly black electorate and that distresses them and their amen chorus. 

    Jesus H. Christ. This is such a dumbass analysis, and everyone keeps telling you so, but it doesn’t stop you from banging this drum.

    If the progressive wing of the party is predominantly anything, it is predominantly young. The younger generations in this country are much less white.

  117. 117.

    sab

    OT New thing I learned today. I am finally reading Marie Yovanovitch’s book, and I learned that “trump” in British slang means fart, and that predated our orange guy by decades.

  119. 119.

    Betty Cracker

    @Geminid: I wouldn’t assume it’s only white voters who skew right in states like SC. I can’t recall seeing data on the question, so maybe I’m off base, but black people in the Deep South and/or rural areas are probably more small-c conservative than they are in urban areas. There are scenarios where that could be a factor if your party’s fortunes rely heavily on urban voter turnout.

  120. 120.

    Suzanne

    @WaterGirl:

    There is quite a bit of tension between downstate and Chicago. 

    That, to me, is a feature and not a bug. The overwhelming pattern in this country is “blue dots”. I really want to see Dem politicians going to heavily urban areas.

  121. 121.

    Redshift

    @tobie: I’m very sorry to hear that. It’s tough, the only advice I can give is whatever time grieving takes us right for you, you’re on no one else’s schedule.

  123. 123.

    The Moar You Know

    All respect to those with the grit to live there – I could not do it – but Iowa should not be determining anything about how America works or is governed.

  125. 125.

    Redshift

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: i had a life insurance policy from my late mother in law, who worked at an insurance company. The only clue we had about it was a number (maybe an account number) on an automatic withdrawal from their bank about, which we were trying to close out. The company has gone through a chain of four acquisitions, so the first thing we had to figure out was what company to call!

    We started with “we have no idea what kind of account number that is,” but we did eventually track it down. Good luck!

  127. 127.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @Betty Cracker: but black people in the Deep South and/or rural areas are probably more small-c conservative than they are in urban areas.

    That’s why they have a home with the Democrats. National Republicans gave up on small-c conservatism when I was but a wee babe of the Reagan er(ror).

    It’s probably a big piece of why a lot of people here on Balloon-Juice are supporting Democrats, whether it is acknowledged or not because of right-wing appropriation and perversion of the term conservative.

    @NotMax:Thankfully, not yet expressed as Hispanx.

    Very comfortable to wear when dancing the samba.

  128. 128.

    Redshift

    I suspect part of the reason for South Carolina rather than other diverse states is part of Biden is delivering on his promise to help Black voters have influence in the party commensurate with being it’s staunchest supporters. And I’m good with that.

  131. 131.

    Another Scott

    @Soprano2: +1

    It’s the old battle of:

    Things are going pretty well, carry on

    vs

    Here’s the EXCLUSIVE Latest DOOM and GLOOM you MUST SEE or you will DIE FRIENDLESS AND ALONE IN A GUTTER!!1

    Instantaneous, for-profit, “news” is a cancer on the body politic.

    Grr…,
    Scott.

  132. 132.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @schrodingers_cat: But go ahead call me names because you can’t disagree without spewing bile.

    Well if that isn’t the ruptured gall bladder saying others are spewing bile…

    I am speaking of the supporters of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in 2020 and they were predominantly white.

    You seem determined to erase their minority and immigrant supporters.

  133. 133.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Geminid: There’s also this hall-of-mirrors aspect to the news coverage in that so much of it seems to be these meta-analyses of the news coverage itself. “Why can’t Kamala Harris shake the media perceptions of blah blah blah?” I don’t know, folks, maybe it’s your fault. There’s no actual substance they’re reporting on; they’re just reporting on themselves.

  134. 134.

    Geminid

    @Betty Cracker: Rural Black people inthe South may be more “small c” conservative than their counterparts in say, Atlanta. This may be generational in part. Some of South Carolina’s younger generation are living in Atlanta now.

    I expect the two groups agree on most important issues though, so I do not see a practical problem here.

  135. 135.

    RaflW

    @Baud: It looked to me like the missile hit the payload, and that shrapnel from the payload punctured the balloon.
    So, messy.

  136. 136.

    Tazj

    @Brit in Chicago: Every time there is a positive story about the economy like the low unemployment rate,the local news has to make a commentary about how not everyone feels like this is a good economy because of inflation. I think it’s fair in most ways. We don’t want to be dismissive about people having to spend more money and certainly things are harder for those on a fixed income.

    However, because the unemployment rate only comes out once a month,they don’t cover positive Biden news that much, they talk about inflation and the price of eggs practically every day, things seem worse than they are.

    When people are saying they’re worse off now than they were 2 years ago it’s hard for me to take their opinions seriously. Wasn’t everyone complaining then about too many things being shut down because of COVID and people losing jobs because of that?

    Of course, there were checks and a child tax credit but who do we have to thank for shutting that down? Republicans, Manchin and Sinema who thought people were getting too lazy. But the best you’ll get out of the press is Congress ended it.

  138. 138.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Baud:

    That’s a consequence of people wanting a small state to go first.  Hard to both start off small and have urban areas go early.

    Rhode Island.

  139. 139.

    Suzanne

    @schrodingers_cat: Yes, the progressive left is still majority white — as is the country. So that isn’t disproportionate. The part of your analysis that is totally off-base is this idea that Sanders and Warren voters are crying into their cornflakes is not accurate. There is no evidence that college-educated white Dems are at odds with Black or Latino voters. Good Lord. Let it go.

    From Pew Research:

    Although they are one of the smallest political typology groups, Progressive Left are the most politically engaged group in the Democratic coalition. No other group turned out to vote at a higher rate in the 2020 general election, and those who did nearly unanimously voted for Joe Biden. They donated money to campaigns in 2020 at a higher rate than any other Democratic-oriented group.

    —-

    In the days leading up to the start of the 2020 Democratic primaries, 35% of Progressive Left Democratic voters supported Sen. Bernie Sanders, while nearly as many (28%)  supported Sen. Elizabeth Warren; far fewer backed Biden (15%). They were more likely to support Warren than those in any other political typology group and expressed support for Sanders at a level similar to the Outsider Left (38% of whom favored Sanders).

    While Progressive Left largely backed candidates other than Biden during the 2020 Democratic primaries, they overwhelmingly voted for him in the general election and now solidly support him. A September survey found a large majority approves of Biden’s job performance (82%), and majorities express confidence in his handling of most issues.

     

    That’s why your analysis is dumb: it has nothing to do with actual evidence.

  140. 140.

    Geminid

    @RaflW: This will be good practice for the Navy’s recovery units, and the shallow water will make for a low risk operation.

    They’re probably glad for the opportunity. I expect they usually have to throw crap in the water so divers can train to recover it. Now that Raptor pilot has done the job for them.

  141. 141.

    Betty Cracker

    From TPM:

    “Democrats in disarray” became such a staple of political journalism for a while that it eventually became a meme and enough of a source of ridicule that reporters began to become self-conscious about trotting out the stale plot device.

    But “Democrats worry …” remains unfazed by the ridicule. The angsty, always fretting, pearl-clutching Democrats are a staple of vague political reporting that tries to capture a political dynamic but usually falls short of any real insights.

    Sounds about right to me. I’ll admit to being a Democrat who worries a lot — there’s so much at stake, and we’ve seen how badly everything can spin out of control over stupid shit like emails. But are Democrats generally more fretful than Republicans, who fall for outlandish conspiracy theories and see commies in their bowl of Froot Loops? I’m gonna say no.

  143. 143.

    Another Scott

    @jonas: Kai Ryssdal on Marketplace used to be pretty bad about downplaying high unemployment, or the benefits of actually enforcing the Fed’s “dual mandate” (both maximum employment and stable prices).  But something seems to have changed for the better with him since the Pandemic (and maybe before).  He actually talks quite a bit about how the economy is real people doing real things.  There’s still too much reporting on the latest clickbait-y thing, like “high inflation”, with the reporter’s last sentence kinda negating the whole point (and returning us to reality), but they don’t make me want to throw things all the time any more.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  145. 145.

    Redshift

    I’m old enough to remember when VPs did almost nothing but go to state funerals (and I’m not that old!)

    It’s entirely determined by the president. Giving the VP a real role has become the norm for Democrats, but has there ever been a Republican VP who was allowed to have “accomplishments,” other than Cheney?

  147. 147.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Tazj:

    However, because the unemployment rate only comes out once a month,they don’t cover positive Biden news that much, they talk about inflation and the price of eggs practically every day, things seem worse than they are.

    They had an avian flu epidemic that meant they had to kill a metric ton of chickens, so egg prices are high because fewer chickens => fewer eggs.

    I don’t get how that’s a multi-day story.  After you do the one-day story, any mention of high egg prices just gets that line tagged on: because avian flu killed the chickens.

    Which encapsulates the fact that it’s a temporary condition, unrelated to inflation in general.  And lets the viewer know that maybe for the next few months, they might want to switch to other breakfast foods if their budgets are tight.

    Also, the inflation figures only come out once a month.  So they can talk about inflation all the time anyway, but they can only talk about jobs that one day a month?

  151. 151.

    Suzanne

    @lowtechcyclist:

    And lets the viewer know that maybe for the next few months, they might want to switch to other breakfast foods if their budgets are tight. 

    Is it just me, or does anyone else love omelets for dinner?! GOD. The best. Eggs and toast, man.

    FYI, I have not seen an increase in egg prices where I shop (Trader Joe’s near my house). I have noticed that there are far fewer varieties and supply is usually low….but the price has held steady. Anyone else notice that?

  152. 152.

    lowtechcyclist

    @NotMax:

    There’s such a thing as too small.

    RI has the same number of electoral votes as NH does, and NH has been the first primary state longer than I’ve been alive.

    Plus they were saddled for such a long time with that “Plantations” nomenclature.

    Like more than a few people knew about that.

  153. 153.

    CaseyL

    @tobie: My condolences.  It’s good your Dad had a lot of friends there to sit shiva for him.  Did you get a chance to chat with them?

  154. 154.

    Another Scott

    @WaterGirl: The GQP has to attack powerful Democratic women.  It’s chapter one of their playbook.  With Hillary and Nancy gone from power, Kamala is the obvious target.

    It explains the (literal) attacks on Whitmer, also too.

    They know that if Democratic women politicians are regarded and treated as normal leaders, then the arguments that they should stay home and make cookies and be ready with a martini for John when he comes home after a hard day at the office lose their power.   The lose control and lose relative status and lose power over others.

    Women as human beings!  Oh the humanity!!11

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  158. 158.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Plus they were saddled for such a long time with that “Plantations” nomenclature.

    Like more than a few people knew about that.

    I’ve been living in a neighboring state my whole life and only learned about this recently.

  159. 159.

    Sturgeonmouth

    I can’t believe John Cole didn’t seize on the balloon story to build the Balloon Juice brand. A once in a lifetime opportunity, and not even a banner graphic change. Sad.

  160. 160.

    Redshift

    @Betty Cracker: i call it the “Some Democrats Party,” as in “some Democrats worry. So it’s not the Democrats who think that, it’s the Some Democrats.

    A lot of it is just lazy writing, selection bias. Who’s going to call up a reporter and give them juicy quotes? Someone who doesn’t like how things are going. If someone calls and says things are great, you have to figure out if the really know something, or they’re just a loyal cheerleader. Then add to that the “kids chasing the soccer ball” effect, and here we are.

  162. 162.

    The Lodger

    @Kay: If the diner customers don’t bitch about Democrats, reporters won’t put their names in the papers. I predict no changes.

  163. 163.

    WaterGirl

    @Geminid: @Emmyelle:

    I also think that Pete knows how to control his breathing, and therefore his pauses, so there’s not a good jumping-in to interrupt point.

    Another factor is that he’s so quick on his feet that he doesn’t need to pause to collect his thoughts, which eliminates another good jumping-in to interrupt point.

    Pete is so good.  Boo on the people in 2020 who dismissed him without getting to know him.

  165. 165.

    Kent

    @Baud:I didn’t realize the balloon debris field was over seven miles.

    It isn’t that they blew it 7 miles apart with a missile.

    When it broke apart some heavy objects and parts fell immediately while the fragments of the balloon envelope itself drifted on the wind as far as 7 more miles before finally coming down

    The parts that they are actually interested in inspecting/analyzing are probably much closer together.  And they no doubt had military boats on chasing debris as it came down.

  167. 167.

    The Moar You Know

     It looked to me like the missile hit the payload, and that shrapnel from the payload punctured the balloon.
    So, messy.

    @RaflW: Saw the same thing.  Problem is, our missiles are either of the heat-seeking (no heat from a balloon) or the radar (no radar from a balloon) variety.  So what it was going to lock onto was the payload, which did have a radar reflection.

    I do not understand why they simply didn’t have the F22 driver empty his guns into the actual balloon.  Would have bought the thing down without blowing the payload to bits.  Although I suspect they know what was on the structure and have pics of every part of it.

  169. 169.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Suzanne:

    Is it just me, or does anyone else love omelets for dinner?! GOD. The best. Eggs and toast, man.

    And bacon. Gotta have bacon. I’ll do eggs, bacon, and toast any old time.

    FYI, I have not seen an increase in egg prices where I shop (Trader Joe’s near my house). I have noticed that there are far fewer varieties and supply is usually low….but the price has held steady. Anyone else notice that?

    Since the nearest TJ’s is 35-40 minutes from me, I generally just buy TJ-specific stuff there.  At the local store, eggs are about $5/dozen.  I couldn’t tell you what they were a year ago, though – I just grab a dozen or two whenever we get low on them.

  170. 170.

    Kent

    @The Moar You Know:do not understand why they simply didn’t have the F22 driver empty his guns into the actual balloon.  Would have bought the thing down without blowing the payload to bits.  Although I suspect they know what was on the structure and have pics of every part of it.

    There were reports some years ago of a Canadian weather balloon that they tried to shoot down.  And even with hundreds of rounds fired into it there wasn’t much effect.  Tiny bullet holes in a giant balloon do not do much to deflate it.  You need some sort of explosive to rip the balloon envelope apart apparently.

  171. 171.

    Geminid

    @MomSense: I read that Turkiye’s  Education Minister has close schools across the nation for a week. Turkiye has a population  of 85 million, so that’s a lot of kids.

    I guess they are worried about more quakes. A second earthquake hit nine hours after the first, 25 miles north and registering 7.5 on the Richter scale. The first earthquake registered 7.8, and struck near a provincial capital at 4:17am local time.

  172. 172.

    Suzanne

    @WaterGirl:

    Pete is so good.  Boo on the people in 2020 who dismissed him without getting to know him. 

    Agree. He is incredibly impressive.

    Honestly, we have so much political talent. I remember thinking, during the 2020 primaries, that I definitely had candidates I preferred…. but was completely okay with any of an array of outcomes on our side. Achieving consensus — DEMS IN ARRAY! — is far more important for our success than the specific nuances of individual candidates’ positions. This shit is a team sport.

  174. 174.

    sixthdoctor

    This article is infuriating and made me wish Biden waited for the balloon to float over the Villages before shooting it down.

    The last line, in particular, made me donate to Oren Miller’s GoFundMe.

    This @ryangrim story is insane. I have a cameo because I happened to interview Oren Miller in 2018, total straight arrow, cared only about good government, now a political prisoner for daring to challenge the creepy Villages-Republican-industrial complex. https://t.co/cUvlbsYsTh
    — Michael Grunwald (@MikeGrunwald) February 6, 2023

  175. 175.

    NotMax

    @lowtechcyclist

    And the local Costco now increased the size of the package of mainland eggs they have for sale from 1½ dozen to 2 dozen.

    Depends on the locale and the individual shop. Mom reporting she saw a dozen priced at 10 spondulicks when she last traveled to purchase groceries (crime there is no longer a chain supermarket of any flavor in her tony town on Long Island).

  176. 176.

    Kent

    @Suzanne:Well, the AA population is not large in either of those places, but they are racially diverse and more heavily urbanized. New Mexico is the first (and I think only) majority-minority state. Dramatically fewer people than SC. So it depends on what you mean by size. A small population or a small geographic area? The western states have larger urban areas and a lot of empty space.

    Hawaii, California, Maryland, Nevada and Texas are majority minority states too.

  177. 177.

    Geminid

    @The Moar You Know: It was better optics to take the balloon down with one missile. One shot, one kill. The balloon might have limped along for miles with a bunch of 20 millimeter holes in it.

  178. 178.

    Nicole

    @tobie: I’m so, so sorry.  My dad (also in bad health, but also not, we thought, in imminent danger) died suddenly in 2016, and that first year especially was very, very hard.  I’m glad you’ve had the chance to see how many friends your dad had; you’re right; it does bring some comfort during a very difficult time.

  179. 179.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Asking the important question: What in SC is going to replace endless pictures of candidates trying to eat corn dogs without looking idiotic? Barbecue? Will they be forced to take positions on wet vs dry, thereby automatically enraging half the voters?

  180. 180.

    Betty Cracker

    @lowtechcyclist: I noticed egg prices yesterday for the first time in a while. The locally sourced brand I usually buy was just under $6, and some brands were as high as $8 and change. Usually the local eggs are more expensive than the store brand, but not now. This was at Publix. I’m guessing they’re cheaper at Walmart or Winn-Dixie.

  184. 184.

    RaflW

    @Soprano2: Wasn’t there a study done a while back that tabulated the guests of the Sunday morning shows, and it was like 3:1 conservative:liberal.

    But why do you guys have a hard time getting your message out?

  186. 186.

    Tazj

    @lowtechcyclist: The impression I get from watching my local news is stories about the prices at the groceries stores are more numerous than stories about the unemployment rate, and the economic recovery. The news on the local radio stations seem to be the same. I remember hearing about how much more your Thanksgiving dinner was going to cost for weeks.

    When Biden gave a speech recently about the economic recovery right afterwards they (the news anchor)made a statement about how many people aren’t experiencing the economy in the same way and are struggling with inflation.

    Again, these are my impressions. I think there is more negative economic coverage. It doesn’t have to be this way but it is. Every positive statement by a Democrat has to be followed up a statement by a Republican or by the anchors themselves to be fair.

  188. 188.

    Suzanne

    @Kent: Thanks for the update. I knew I had seen statistics about this but they are obviously old!

    Maryland would be an interesting choice for first.

    I know Arizona is also majority-minority in the under-18 population. It’s a change that’s going to be coming everywhere.

  189. 189.

    trollhattan

    @The Moar You Know: I had to nerd up on the Sidewinder variants and “Block II” carried by F-22 and F-35 can be directed from the cockpit after firing, so not dependent on a heat signature.

    I suspect spraying the balloon with ammo does not have the desired effect. Read yesterday aboot a runaway Canadian balloon that their AF ventilated as it went over the Atlantic and it nevertheless made it to Ireland.

  190. 190.

    topclimber

    @Suzanne: I noticed a 50% increase over a few months, but somehow missed the story of the chicken massacre until seeing it here.

    I don’t do MSM except AP news once a week or so. Without the pressure of current events tests at school I have become a slacker on such matters over a mere matter of decades. Now I just hang out in a few echo chambers.

  193. 193.

    lowtechcyclist

    @WaterGirl:

    Pete is so good.  Boo on the people in 2020 who dismissed him without getting to know him.

    I stand by my 2020 comment that someone whose top experience has been mayor of a large town has no business running for President of the United States.  I continue to believe that his doing so reflected poorly on him, and I will continue to regard him with a fair degree of skepticism.

    I’m glad he’s a talented communicator, but there’s a bit more to being President than that.

  194. 194.

    RaflW

    @Geminid: Was just in touch with a friend who works for an international human rights org. She was able to whatsapp her colleagues in Gaziantep this morning and they’re safe. But wow what a massive humanitarian crisis this is likely to be.

    The org works with refugees, and there are so many Syrians who’ve fled to that part of the country.

  197. 197.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @Ksmiami: Republican nihilism and radicalism is a mortal threat to all of us.

    It’s because the old order is faltering and they see themselves as beneficiaries.

    We need to establish a new order based on respect and human dignity

    @NotMax: Candidates euphoric over no longer needing to eat deep-fried butter. Film at 11.

    I’m the sort who would like to try everything once.  I suspect this will be a “just once” when I get around to it.

    @MisterDancer: Is there a metric in this I’m missing?

    State propensity for voting for Democrats. I get why it’s important to some people.  If the whole calendar were front-loaded with SE US states, I’d begin to see it as a problem too.  But as long as relative regional balance is reflected in subsequent contents, that’s fine by me.

  198. 198.

    trollhattan

    @NotMax: ​You might want to meet more “kids these days.” They are not fooled, not even a little.

    The same cohort marched to the Capitol after Trump’s inauguration and marched for George Floyd (which had dad chewing his fingernails until they got home). Mine went on to try and start a pro-choice group on campus after learning there were not one, but two pro-life groups. Being a Catholic college, that was politely declined.

  199. 199.

    MisterDancer

    @tobie: My father passed away last Tuesday

    My condolences. I’ve been in a similar place, and it’s a hard road. I wish you and yours the best.

  200. 200.

    lowtechcyclist

    @PJ:

    Delaware, which is 20% black.  (One of the reasons why Biden was a more effective politician nationwide than some other candidates.)

    Tru dat – good choice!  Small, urban, and a good-sized Black population.  Seems like it checks all the boxes.

  201. 201.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @tobie: I’m sorry to hear about your father…it’s much harder when it’s a surprise. My sister went into hospice 3 years ago with a 6 month time frame and she died in a week.

    I hope meeting and being with your father’s friends brought some solace. My dad died when I was 31 and many people he mentored in his business career made a point to tell me at his memorial how much he meant to them and how he changed their lives. I learned things I never knew.

  202. 202.

    trollhattan

    @lowtechcyclist: ​Had that response when my state senator termed out and the two competing for his seat last fall were a state assemblyman and a city councilcritter. I felt the councilcritter needed some relevant experience, but she got a TON of money and is now my senator.

  203. 203.

    Suzanne

    @topclimber: We’ll, if you need to save some, well, Washingtons, maybe go to Trader Joe’s? They’re holding at $4/dozen here.

    They used to have probably ten varieties, tho, and right now only have the one. So anyone who likes organic or brown eggs or free-range is SOL.

  208. 208.

    different-church-lady

    So I was just reading the tail-end of the movie roles thread and I have learned that when we chat mindlessly about pop culture we don’t do it insightfully enough.

  209. 209.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @Suzanne: Much of Rhode Island is really Boston suburbs.

    I’m solidly in Massachusetts about halfway from Boston to Providence and I don’t even consider myself as within a Boston suburb, but rather a suburb of one of the myriad small cities dotting the space between.

    More saliently, Rhode Island has its own media market distinct from Boston. I don’t have numbers, but it sure looks cheaper.

    @different-church-lady: So I was just reading the tail-end of the movie roles thread and I have learned that when we chat mindlessly about pop culture we don’t do it insightfully enough.

    What good is an art education if you can’t use it to flex on normies?

  214. 214.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Another Scott: Interesting map.

    Checked my birth state of NY: “Garbage plate”? No idea what that is. Maybe an omelet with everything but the kitchen sink in it? I’ve had that, but it was called “the kitchen sink”.

    My second state of MD where I lived for 17 years? “Stuffed Ham”. Again, never heard of it. I guess the blue crabs that you eat by tearing them apart with your bare hands don’t count, nor does the soft crab that you eat whole, legs and all? Or the raw oysters?

    My current state of PA shows “scrapple”. I’ve heard of that one at least, but never to my knowledge eaten it. Nor do I plan to.

    Edit: I see Vermont lists “sugar on snow”. I actually have had that. We would go outside to gather up bowls of snow after blizzards and then enjoy “snow ice cream”.

  215. 215.

    Redshift

    @Suzanne:

    Is it just me, or does anyone else love omelets for dinner?! GOD. The best. Eggs and toast, man.

    Any time I go to a diner, whatever time of day (but usually dinner), I always get an omelette. Yum!

  217. 217.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @Geminid: Auchincloss was my rep for two years.  I just got redistricted (back) to Lynch.

    Auchincloss slid through in something like a 10-way primary with 20 percent of the vote.  He runs on the palest of boilerplate, I’ve never seen a new idea out of him.

    He is the most active rep I’ve ever seen as far as soliciting feedback.  That speaks well for him, but I’d be itching for a primary opponent if I were still in his district.

  218. 218.

    Suzanne

    @Qrop Non Sequitur: That’s fair. I kinda consider the big urban/suburban stripe from Boston to DC to be really one big cultural thing with different flavor notes along the way as the street signs and the state lines change.

    It’s so different from the west, where you get outside an urban area, and then don’t see any sign of civilization for, like, fifty miles.

  219. 219.

    Redshift

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Checked my birth state of NY: “Garbage plate”? No idea what that is. Maybe an omelet with everything but the kitchen sink in it? I’ve had that, but it was called “the kitchen sink”.

    It’s a Rochester thing. I have a friend from there, it’s the only reason I know. You’ll have to look it up, I couldn’t describe it properly.

  220. 220.

    Spanky

    @Suzanne: What are your prices? Highest I’ve seen here is $8.25/doz for the hoity-toity organic, free-range, chicken masseuse on call variety. More common brown egg vsrieties run $5-$6/doz.

  221. 221.

    Mike in NC

    The cats let us sleep in this morning, so I’m way behind on everything this Monday morning. Looks like the earthquakes in the Middle East temporarily blew Baloongate off the news cycle. Republicans were hoping this ridiculous little episode would be Biden’s Katrina.

    As many of you probably know, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the GOP — led mainly by that fucker Nixon — spent the next 50 years trying to prove that it was an inside job just to demonize Democrats. They never change.

  222. 222.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @different-church-lady: Haha, you remember.  It’s good down here. I hear good things about the schools.

    Still a lot of media fretting about violence I’ve managed to avoid lo my 40 years here. It’s almost as though the city isn’t violent, there are just individuals who need a system equipped to help with societal problems.

  224. 224.

    different-church-lady

    Ugh. Just when I was thinking, “I haven’t had a good diner breakfast in quite a while…”

  225. 225.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: in fairness, it does say “Weirdest food”.

    Now I need to go lie down for a few minutes after reading the word “livermush” (though I’d guess it may be just a regional variant on liverwurst, which I grew up with because my father loved it)

  228. 228.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @Suzanne:That’s fair. I kinda consider the big urban/suburban stripe from Boston to DC to be really one big cultural thing with different flavor notes along the way as the street signs and the state lines change.

    One thing about Massachusetts, town culture is huge, even these days. For one small example, driving culture and strictness of traffic enforcement varies wildly town to town.

  230. 230.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @lowtechcyclist:

    At the local store, eggs are about $5/dozen.  I couldn’t tell you what they were a year ago, though – I just grab a dozen or two whenever we get low on them.

    Before the shortage, Kroger would send me a coupon for a free dozen every 6 weeks or so. Sometimes they had 18 for a buck.

    At $5 for the store brand, I’ve been grabbing the premium ones like Happy Egg or Vital Farms…they are IMHO far more delicious and not much more expensive than the factory farm ones now.

  232. 232.

    lowtechcyclist

    @different-church-lady:

    Said it before, I’ll say it again: the only thing Biden is failing at is convincing people he’s not a failure.

    Tru dat, and he wouldn’t be failing at that if it weren’t for the media doing their best to try to take him down.  I don’t expect them to be boosters, but it would be nice if they were even close to being evenhanded.

  233. 233.

    Geminid

    @Qrop Non Sequitur: I remember a lot of people complaining about Auchingloss’s plurality primary win in 2020 (I think he got high 20s). People complained that he was the more moderate candidate in the race, an unsuitable candidate for a state as liberal as Massachusetts.

    He was more or less unopposed in last year’s primary. The runner up in 2020 said family medical problems would keep her out of the race. I noticed that Auchingloss co-sponsored a bill with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, and that could have served to shore up his left flank.

  234. 234.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @different-church-lady: **cough cough**Swansea**cough cough

    Not to harsh on them, I’ve known some lovely people from Swansea.  Very distinct way of speaking.

    @Geminid: He was more or less unopposed in last year’s primary. The runner up in 2020 said family medical problems would keep her out of the race. I noticed that Auchingloss co-sponsored a bill with Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, and that could have served to shore up his left flank.

    I’d like to see the bill.  While I prefer more leftist positioning, I’m far more concerned with whether Reps are contributing new ideas and what those are.  So I will look this up.

    But my impression was of a man with currently nothing to say who, in an indiscrete youth, has previously had some awful things to say.

  235. 235.

    mrmoshpotato

    Pete Buttigieg continues to be very good at communicating Democratic values.

    And slapping the Sunday show morons in the face with facts.

  236. 236.

    NotMax

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist

    One of the talked about but never heard characters on a popular old time radio show was the “brick mush man” who went door to door selling boxes of whatever it was (and made a darn good living at it). Never any further explanation as to what may have been actually inside the boxes. Ditto for the “beef punkles” which the family loved but took hours upon hours in the pot to cook on the stove top.
    :)

  237. 237.

    artem1s

    @schrodingers_cat: ​
     

    @Baud: A lot. MSM and BS bro contingent in the media is trying to Hillary her.

    The contingencies that keep screaming Biden is too old and shouldn’t run are a factor here too. They want him AND Harris gone from the 2024 ticket. The closer we get to 2024, the more you will see demands that the party reject Biden as the presumptive nominee and/or replace Harris on the ticket. They will float Pete, Warren, Wilmer, or some Rainbow Pony TBD as acceptable alts. The point is to throw the nominating process into chaos and weaken the eventual nominee in the general. They aren’t waiting for 2028. They’ve already started casting doubt in voter’s minds. They have also lost the Iowa caucus as a tool to sow chaos. That’s why they are screeching about SC.

  239. 239.

    Suzanne

    @Spanky: I just paid $4 for a dozen (conventional white) last week. Normally, that’s what I pay for free-range brown eggs, but they haven’t had them. So this is probably a small price increase for that product.

  242. 242.

    Brachiator

    @NotMax:

    And the local Costco now increased the size of the package of mainland eggs they have for sale from 1½ dozen to 2 dozen.

    Recently reminded my sister of this old joke. George Burns, I think

    Guy1. My uncle thinks he’s a chicken.

    Guy 2. That’s terrible! Did you take him to the doctor?

    Guy 1. No. We need the eggs.

  244. 244.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

     

    I won’t discriminate on the basis of his ideology but he told me the economy is really bad and, sorry, he can’t be delusional. I’m acquainted with both of his parents who both work locally and it is fucking booming here. Maybe not in wingnutland in his head but, again, we need reality-based lawyers.

     

    Reality-based lawyers would help.

  247. 247.

    Nicole

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    @NotMax:

    As a born-and-raised Keystoner, I agree; scrapple is pretty tasty.  Eating scrapple was the test my OKC born-and-raised boyfriend (now husband) had to pass the first time he visited my family.  He immediately appreciated its deliciousness, so he got high marks.

    I used to joke you could tell roughly where in PA someone was from by what they put on top of their scrapple.  My grandfather was all about the horseradish and apple butter on his.

  248. 248.

    topclimber

    @Suzanne: ​
    I pay an extra $2 per dozen for what is supposed to be certified humane raised chickens. This avoids the dodge of some free range suppliers who just swap small cages for a big barnyard without allowing much more room between birds.

    Sadly, PETA has filed a suit against the supplier, which I only just learned in the course of a CYA move regarding this post. Since Certified Humane farms are supposedly audited by this group, I will wait and see. It could be real, or could be the problem is vegan fundamentalism.

    ANYHOW, the original point was to be that the $2 differential vs. store brand has not changed. Which seemed important at the time.

  249. 249.

    Ruckus

    @Another Scott:

    The balloon cost and time to launch from inception to flight is likely dramatically less than a satellite. It’s only real drawback is that it is likely to be shot down much easier.

    They were looking for something, or, just looking. Sure they are going to yell and pout for a bit at having their balloon shot down, but now the entire world knows that they are doing this, if they didn’t know prior and the cost of spying likely just went back up.

  250. 250.

    tobie

     

    @Sure Lurkalot: Thanks for sharing your experience. In many ways medicine is still an inexact science. I am beginning to understand what it means when people say he was spared suffering. I know I’ll take comfort in that at some point and just need to be patient in the interim.

     

    Thank you, lovely Jackals, for all your kind words. They were balm to the soul.

  251. 251.

    NotMax

    @Nicole

    Horseradish is a new one on me. Can’t hardly throw a stone in Amish country without beaning somebody eating something with schmierkase and apple butter spread on it.

    At one time had a housemate who scarfed down hot dogs that way.
    ;)

  252. 252.

    gvg

    @Kent: On thinking about it, I thing the height that it was at might have something to do with the size of the debris field. They said it was higher than fighter planes usually go right? So that means I think, when it gets blown up, there is more time and air currents to spread out all the little bits, and big bits too. At least that is the way I am picturing it to understand.

  255. 255.

    trollhattan

    @gvg: ​Theory I heard offered on BBC was PLA hardliners were behind it because they do not want the talks between Biden admin and Xi to take place. Seems possible, as Xi does not have singular control over every little thing. Yet.

  257. 257.

    Ruckus

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    That policy likely sits in a file cabinet in a basement someplace and has never been entered into a computer, so until someone with actual power whatsoever in the company hears about this it’s likely going nowhere. The number of people in the US 75-85 yrs old is minuscule, only 16 million people in the US are in that age group……. seriously, there are only 6.6 million older than 85 yrs. What is a life insurance company to do?

    BTW best of luck getting this taken care of. Call the company president…..

  258. 258.

    Elizabelle

    The Turkey/Syria earthquake.  What a tragedy. All those pancaked buildings.

    Russia (!) has offered aid to Turkey.  I wonder if Chef Jose Andres and World Kitchen will deploy as well.

    And it’s winter.  Bitterly cold.

  261. 261.

    Geminid

    @Qrop Non Sequitur: So I looked up “Auchingloss Ocasio-Cortez” and found that Alamy will sell me a photo of the two Representatives for $19.99. It’s a good picture of Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, but all you see of Auchingloss is the back of his head. I think he may lack star-power.

  263. 263.

    J R in WV

    @tobie: ​
    Sorry for your loss, I know it can be a shock.

    My father died after several months of home hospice care. My brother called me to say I should be in TX if I wanted to be with dad, and I got to spend a couple of weeks sitting beside him as he napped.

    I left the TV on to ESPN with the sound off, had a book, held his hand, from time to time he would wake, smile at me, I would tell him I loved him, he would fall back asleep. Morphine really worked to relieve his stress and pain. Then he was gone, and it was really a relief because he was so miserable being a bedfast invalid.

    Still, it was also hard, even though it was totally expected — Bam! he was gone forever.

    Take care, and keep in touch with us as you are able. B-J has been my main source of positive social intercourse since Covid hit the world. For which I am truly grateful.

  265. 265.

    Elizabelle

    @Betty Cracker:   Don’t want to make light of it, but Turkey/Syrian border is going to be a region of Surfside condo collapses.  To put it in perspective.  One, in a temperate zone (Miami area), was hard enough.

  266. 266.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @Geminid: Throw the word “bill” in there and you got it.  They introduced a sort of housekeeping bill to restore legal authority to the EPA to regulate CO2.  A good act to be sure, necessitated by our overly ideological Supreme Court.

    A valid concern, to be sure. Doesn’t fit my selection criteria of “providing new ideas.”

  267. 267.

    Elizabelle

    @WaterGirl:  Quick tech question:  on BJ, at least for me, the URL info does not come up when I hover over a link.  Like to know what I am clicking on.

    Is that something I have messed up on my own laptop, or is it happening with others here? It has just been happening for a few days now …

  268. 268.

    Citizen Alan

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: We had to open a probate estate for my mother just to get the $19000 from an Ira that my father set up for her probably 20 years ago that she never knew existed.

  269. 269.

    Qrop Non Sequitur

    @Elizabelle: The URL displays on mine.  I’m on Google Chrome and it displays on the bottom left of the window.

    I’d consider the possibility it’s displaying somewhere you’re not expecting or there’s some action you can take to see it, like right clicking.

  271. 271.

    Citizen Alan

    @Betty Cracker: It is interesting to think that, had South Carolina gone 1st in 2008, Hillary might have one. As I recall, South Carolina did not start moving towards Obama until he won earlier primaries and made it clear that white people were willing to vote for him.

  272. 272.

    Elizabelle

    @WaterGirl:  OK.  I used to always have it; a little mystified as to why it’s changed.  Happy it’s not a site issue for others.

    Where do I enable?

  273. 273.

    Ruckus

    @ARoomWithAMoose:

    I’ve been in a few earthquakes, one did a good job of almost costing me my life. A very little bit here or there could have easily ended my life. I got hit head on by a truck because of one, and I wasn’t in a vehicle. It did cost one of my neighbors the entire bottom floor of their house. And it wasn’t a 7.8. That is a monster. It was somewhat close though, 6.7, but 7.8 is considerably worse.

  274. 274.

    Elizabelle

    @Qrop Non Sequitur:   Yes.  Bottom left.  That is exactly where it used to appear for me, too.  (Safari user.)

    If nothing else, maybe I will reboot and the link info will appear again.  Thanks.

  275. 275.

    WaterGirl

    @Elizabelle:

    @Elizabelle:  It’s been a long time since I changed that setting, so I don’t recall details.

    Google says this:

    In the Safari app on your Mac, hold the pointer over a link. The website’s URL appears in the status bar at the bottom of the window. If you don’t see the status bar, choose View > Show Status Bar. If your trackpad supports it, force click the link to preview the content.

  277. 277.

    CarolPW

    @trollhattan: ​ My niece is in Adana, and had been scheduled to go to Gazientep today (canceled obviously). She and her people seem to all be OK, but it will be another few hours before I find out more. The photos are heartbreaking.​

  278. 278.

    Geminid

    @Elizabelle: Russia needs to stay on Turkiye’s good side. These days, Turkiye is one of the few states that would accept their help.

    But I think this is one disaster where a lot of countries will offer to help. I read that Pakistan said they were loading two cargo planes with rescuers and gear and would fly them in as soon as Turkiye gives them the green light. There will probably be more offers of rescue resources than Turkiye can accept.

    Turkiye will be happily accept pledges of rebuilding aid, though.. Their economy has been in bad shape lately. That’s one reason President Erdogan and his Foreign Minister have been busy lately patching up relations with all neighbors Erdogan pissed off the last decade.

  280. 280.

    Elizabelle

    @WaterGirl:   3 cheers!  Are not sufficient!  Thank you for figuring that out so quickly.

    It is indeed View > show status bar.  No idea why that changed, but it’s back now.  (No more hitting The Atlantic paywalls, thank dog.)

    Many thanks.  And pats to Henry.

  282. 282.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Rightwing twitter (Gateway Pundit, Charlie Kirk and Lenny Dykstra) are up in arms over a report that Silent Jim Mattis didn’t tell trump about Chinese spy balloons because Mattis thought trump would over-react. Anybody seeing any actual reporting ?

  286. 286.

    Elizabelle

    @Geminid:  Tragic reason to bring people together, but work it.

    Reminders of that Thai area tsunami many Christmas weeks ago.  Planet Earth can deliver up some devastation.

  287. 287.

    Elizabelle

    @Kelly:   It has to be terrifying to be there right now.

    And the new quakes may be resettling and shifting the debris.  They’re certainly interrupting the rescue attempts.

  289. 289.

    Nicole

    @NotMax:

    Can’t hardly throw a stone in Amish country without beaning somebody eating something with schmierkase and apple butter spread on it.

    And I grew up less than hour from Lancaster, and have a lot of PA Dutch in the family tree. :)

    Horseradish might just have been my grandfather’s thing, now that I mull it over.  He ate it on EVERYTHING.  I like horseradish, too. Maybe it’s genetic. I will argue it gives a nice bite to the apple butter sweet and the savory of the scrapple itself.

    I was astounded, as an adult, to meet someone who only ever ate ketchup on their scrapple.  It had never occurred to me (though, of course, totally normal on a frankfurter).  But I guess, going back to your housemate and the hot dogs… they’re not really that dissimilar as foods, when you think about it.  So I guess the condiments can be interchangeable.

  291. 291.

    cain

    No comment on the ice storm in Texas once again fucking up the power grid? How does this governor stay in power when Texas residents are constantly having problems with power? People are literally throwing away stuff in the fridge because they’ve been without power for 3 days.

  293. 293.

    Groucho48

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Not to mention the only inflation number they use is the year over year inflation number, which is slow to come down and still includes numbers from the months that inflation peaked. Inflation, since November has been running at 2% or less. But you’ll rarely, if ever, see that mentioned by the MSM.

  295. 295.

    Soprano2

    @cain: To be fair, bad ice storms can take down power in the best power grid. In 2007 we were without power for 12 days, and we lived in the city. It looked like a war zone in my neighborhood; just thinking about it makes me shudder a little bit.

  296. 296.

    Ruckus

    @Elizabelle:

    Have you updated your computer lately? Apple has been making quite a few changes in how their system works because all their products now run on Apple chips other than the Mac Pro, and their software has gotten more in line, in at least appearance, with all their products. My iMac now looks and runs like my iPhone, other than not making phone calls.

    My point is that a few of my settings are different than they were before the last upgrade, some items don’t come up or show up the same way/place they have for a very long time. Not a problem, just an adjustment.

  297. 297.

    Ruckus

    @trollhattan:

    It took me almost 10 months to recover from the Northridge earthquake in 1994. And that was with earthquake resistant building codes, and a considerably less violent earthquake, a 6.7 vs a 7.8.

  298. 298.

    Geminid

    @Soprano2: The Texas Tribune put up an article about the power outages yesterday. They did not attribute them to deficiencies in state’s grid, but rather to an exceptionally bad ice storm. The city of Austin was hit especially hard on account of its many trees.

  299. 299.

    Marc

    @trollhattan:I had to nerd up on the Sidewinder variants and “Block II” carried by F-22 and F-35 can be directed from the cockpit after firing, so not dependent on a heat signature.

    They use infrared imaging sensors, so the target likely has to have a different infrared signature than the background sky.  The balloon envelope would be pretty close to ambient temperature, so the target would likely have to be the payload hanging underneath.

    My father spent much of his career developing guidance systems for various missiles.  When I was a child he once mentioned that the work he did related back to Project Pigeon with the pigeon replaced by a spinning off-center radar reflector and a fixed receiver antenna which with some simple electronics (tubes early on) steered the missile towards the target.  The original 1950s Sidewinder similarly used a spinning off-axis lens and fixed cryogenically cooled infrared sensor.  Both worked like the pigeon, but didn’t need to be trained or fed birdseed.  /nerd.

  300. 300.

    Martin

    @Geminid: That’s fair. The only power infrastructure that won’t get utterly fucked up by an ice storm are cities that have buried it – which they should all do, but it’s expensive and not many have. It doesn’t matter what your ‘grid resiliency’ is if the wire on your street is laying on the ground due to 100 pounds of ice on it. Nobody fares well in ice storms.

  302. 302.

    Martin

    @Ruckus: Yeah, 12x stronger in an area with much worse infrastructure.

    I don’t get worked up about these things any longer. I think I’ve internalized that the state of the world is now simply in constant disaster. It’s pretty clear we aren’t interested in actually doing anything about that at the societal level so make sure you’re prepared for the worst and then work outward with your neighbors. I’ve been trying to get my 4 neighbors into a mutual support arrangement and they aren’t having it.

  303. 303.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Suzanne: Here in Bawlmer-Merlin-Hon I saw a dozen large eggs top $5 in recent weeks. Saturday at the Save-A-Lot the price was $3.29, which suggests the egg producers have gotten a handle on the bird flu and are starting to replenish their stocks of layers…at least let’s hope so.

  304. 304.

    smintheus

    New Hampshire, and its Republican governor, is taking this with all the grace you might expect from a state that counts on making bank from the Running of the Journos every four years. But this is a one-off, for-2024-only proposal, and I don’t think the Granite State will do itself any favors with exaggerated threats.

      This is ridiculously off base. The primary date is set by law, not by national parties or candidates. NH Dems cannot unilaterally change the law. The GOP has to agree to a changed date, as well as the state government, and there’s no obvious reason and never been any hint that they would. Going back more than a decade, the persistent hostility and sneering towards all things NH published on this blog is worse than embarrassing, it’s really quite pathetic.

  305. 305.

    lowtechcyclist

    @smintheus:

    The traditional means for a party that disagrees with the date of s state’s primary is to discount or disregard entirely the results of the primary.

    Unless things change drastically, that probably won’t matter a bit in 2024, since Biden will win renomination by acclamation, and the GOP primary will be the only competitive one.

    So one would think NH – especially the NH Republicans – would want to keep their powder dry and fight this battle for real four years from now, rather than getting pissed off now before an election year when this won’t meaningfully affect them.

  306. 306.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Ruckus: NB the recent Turkish quake was 10^(7.8-6.7) ~ 12.5 times as strong as the Northridge event. Log scales, dang!

    The 1999 quake near Istanbul caused ~18,000 deaths, many if not most in the collapse of multistory apartment blocks (which just FTR remains “the largest disaster since 1939,” something Erdogan should remember since he’d been mayor just the year prior).

    IIRC there was an Ottoman-era law on the books (in Istanbul at least) that any building that could be constructed overnight was exempt from the building codes. Also IIRC builders  got very adept at throwing up the skeletons of apartment blocks overnight to qualify for the exemption – and they did not lack for tenants in Istanbul’s permanent residential crunch. Many of the 1999 earthquake’s victims died when their hastily-erected gecekondu (“put up overnight”) buildings collapsed on top of them. Not sure if this was peculiar to Istanbul or if the continuation of the practice in the Gaziantep** area might have contributed to the death toll there.

    ** Whose name literally means “Muslim Warrior Pistachio.” Go figure.

  307. 307.

    lowtechcyclist

    @sixthdoctor: I really didn’t think anything could lower my opinion of DeSantis any further, but this story managed that trick.  I’d have thought that that local battle would have been beneath his notice, but I would have been wrong.

  310. 310.

    smintheus

    @lowtechcyclist: ​
      NH Republicans are happy with the primary being first in 2024, see no reason to change it, and will be more than happy if refusing to give in to Biden’s wishes causes friction for Democrats at the state and national level. This was an own-goal by Biden, completely foreseeable and foreseen.

  311. 311.

    Gravenstone

    @The Moar You Know: I do not understand why they simply didn’t have the F22 driver empty his guns into the actual balloon.

    At that elevation, I doubt the plane had much low speed capability. So a gun run probably had too high a rate of closure (guns have a far shorter effective range than missiles), the attack window would have been far shorter. Not that the pilot could not have made multiple runs, at least until the ammo ran dry.

  312. 312.

    Geminid

    @Uncle Cosmo: I see Poland’s sending their elite unit of 70 search and rescue people and six dogs to help. The Israeli Defense Force has a unit already in the disaster zone. Turkiye itself has the 2nd largest Army in NATO and they are probably pitching in.

    It’s night now in Turkiye and rescuers are likely working under flood lights. Tomorrow morning will start another race for time. One estimate is that the death toll will rise eightfold once once the missing are found.

  314. 314.

    Another Scott

    @smintheus:

    Change is hard, but change is necessary.

    Biden’s letter to the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee (from December):

    December 1, 2022
    JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR.

    Dear Rules and Bylaws Committee:

    I would like to commend you for the hard work you have put in over the course of the last two years. As I shared with your co-chairs, Jim Roosevelt, Jr. and Minyon Moore, earlier in the week, and as you gather to consider changes to the Democratic Party’s nominating calendar, I want to be clear about the principles I believe we as a party should allow to guide our process:

    1) We must ensure that voters of color have a voice in choosing our nominee much earlier in the process and throughout the entire early window. As I said in February 2020, you cannot be the Democratic nominee and win a general election unless you have overwhelming support from voters of color – and that includes Black, Brown and Asian American & Pacific Islander voters. You should not be the Democratic nominee and win a general election unless you show working class Americans that you will fight for them and their families.

    For decades, Black voters in particular have been the backbone of the Democratic Party but have been pushed to the back of the early primary process. We rely on these voters in elections but have not recognized their importance in our nominating calendar. It is time to stop taking these voters for granted, and time to give them a louder and earlier voice in the process.

    Too often over the past fifty years, candidates have dropped out or had their candidacies marginalized by the press and pundits because of poor performances in small states early in the process before voters of color cast a vote. As I said then, 99.9% of Black voters had not had the chance to vote at that point, and 99.8% of Latino voters had not had the opportunity. That is unacceptable in 2024 and it must change.

    2) Our party should no longer allow caucuses as part of our nominating process. We are a party dedicated to ensuring participation by all voters and for removing barriers to political participation. Caucuses – requiring voters to choose in public, to spend significant amounts of time to caucus, disadvantaging hourly workers and anyone who does not have the flexibility to go to a set location at a set time – are inherently anti-participatory. It should be our party’s goal to rid the nominating process of restrictive, anti-worker caucuses.

    3) Our early states must reflect the overall diversity of our party and our nation – economically, geographically, demographically. This means more diverse states earlier in the process and more diversity in the overall mix of early states. Working class families are the backbone of our economy. Union households must be represented in greater numbers than before. We need to include voters from many backgrounds, not to ratify the choice of the earliest states, but as full stakeholders in making the choice.

    4) There should continue to be strong representation from urban, suburban, and rural America, and from each region of the country, and states that prioritize making voting easier in both primary and general elections should represent their regions.

    5) The Rules and Bylaws Committee should review the calendar every four years, to ensure that it continues to reflect the values and diversity of our party and our country.

    I got into politics because of civil rights and the possibility to change our imperfect union into something better. I have made no secret of my conviction that diversity is a critical element for the Democratic Party to win elections AND to govern effectively. My commitment when I ran for president was that my Administration would look like America, and it does. My Administration has the most diverse Cabinet in history and the most diverse group of presidential appointees in history. My nominee to the Supreme Court was the first Black woman – and most qualified candidate – to ever be nominated.

    Just like my Administration, the Democratic Party has worked hard to reflect the diversity of America – but our nominating process does not. For fifty years, the first month of our presidential nominating process has been a treasured part of our democratic process, but it is time to update the process for the 21st century. I am committed to working with the DNC to get this done.

    Sincerely,
    Joe Biden

    That’s the reality.

    NH politicians throwing a fit that their votes won’t count much more than everyone else’s doesn’t change the reality. Change is coming.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  315. 315.

    Soprano2

    @Geminid: Oh man I feel so bad for them. You don’t realize how dependent you are on electricity until you don’t have it for a few days.

  316. 316.

    Soprano2

    @Martin: Burying utilities has its own problems. Ask me how much we like horizontal boring. It gets into sewer mains and sewer laterals and causes all kinds of problems. I agree that burying is a good idea, but when you’re doing it with existing infrastructure it’s problematic.

  317. 317.

    Soprano2

    @BobbyK: Oh good grief, I assume he thinks Bernie would be a better candidate for us in 2024. Biden is the most successful president I can remember who has a hard time getting credit for it.

  318. 318.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: It sounds like people on the Syrian side of the border have it really bad. They are more isolated and relief is slower to reach them. That area has been a war zone for years as well.

  320. 320.

    Kathleen

    @Baud: The problem people and media have with South Carolina is that there are a lot of Black voters who, Mainslime Media never hesitates to inform us, are, unlike white people, NOT REAL VOTERS!

  322. 322.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @schrodingers_cat:

    A lot. MSM and BS bro contingent in the media  is trying to Hillary her.

    That was a given. When she became VP, I figured it would be non-stop tearing her down. I just assumed the only way she would be president is if Biden died in office. It doesn’t matter, though. No matter how much the bros are howling, we have a woman as vice president for the first time in history. They can’t undo that. WHEN Biden gets re-elected, she will be a 2 term VP and they can cry more.

  323. 323.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Suzanne: Thanks for posting this info.  My husband and I are classic Boomer Progressive Left, who both supported Elizabeth Warren originally.  My husband also loves Bernie Sanders (I support his ideas, but he presents as too cranky old man for me).  We were both very pleased to vote for Joe in the general election and strongly support him now.  He has amazed me with his growth, I originally held the Anita Hill hearings against him, amongst other things, but he has really kept pace with the Dem party.  Go Joe!

  325. 325.

    PaulB

    @smintheus: Going back more than a decade, the persistent hostility and sneering towards all things NH published on this blog is worse than embarrassing, it’s really quite pathetic.

    Tell me, does randomly making up shit and lying work on the other blogs you frequent? ‘Cause it really doesn’t work here.

    You need to get a clue. And a life

    As for New Hampshire, they can run any kind of primary they like any time they like. They just can’t force the Democratic Party to be involved, nor can they force the party to accept any delegates that might result from such an event. If they want to host a straw poll before the first primary, they are welcome to do so. And the candidates are free to take part or ignore it as they see fit.

    Welcome to democracy in action.

Comments are closed.