I’m sure you’ll find this interview as disturbing as I did. Fuck this woman and the mystery donors she rode in on.
Local reporting does matter. One of the reporters at 9News spent so much time harassing XCEL Energy for answers to their pricing structure, the state legislators took up the issue, not only demanding answers but passing legislation.
Open thread
War for Ukraine Day 488: Zelenskyy Goes to Donetsk, Prigozhin Speaks, Putin Also Speaks
mrmoshpotato
Time for a reminder of Centrism Silver!
(Thank you, driftglass!)
Albatrossity
Flood the zone with bullshit is a tactic that works for them, alas
Maxim
I have a request to prove I’m not a bot where the video should be.
SpaceUnit
I’m in Colorado and I’m calling bullshit on the notion that Democrats here are going to be bamboozled by this. Republicans are more likely to split off IMO. Their ‘polls’ are rubbish.
If this ditz wants to waste her time and her donor’s money go right ahead.
NotMax
If you amble into your local coffee shop and find you can’t get to the counter because of cartons strewn over the floor and piled up close to the ceiling blocking your way, now you know why.
Whole thing doesn’t pass the smell test. Is the business owner or is Amazon responsible for damages if an employee on delivery injures persons or property while driving, especially if the employee does not carry collision insurance? Does it count for pay as overtime if the return to the store to clock out is delayed due to congestion, weather, etc.? Dozens more questions come to mind.
Jeffro
@SpaceUnit: agree – 99% of 2020 and 2022 Dem voters will not fall for this nonsense.
REGARDLESS
I’d still like this Holly person to let us know why the presidential race – and ONLY the presidential race – is worthy of such extreme efforts here. Surely if they’re serious about providing “moderate” choices to the “disaffected” of “both sides”…
…you get the idea.
TaMara
@SpaceUnit: Unfortunately it worked to oust Udall…
Ken
@Jeffro: Although, that is a failing of most third parties, even the ones that aren’t astroturfed spoilers. They don’t run people for alderman or county council; nothing less than the presidency will do.
SpaceUnit
@TaMara:
Udall didn’t bother to put up a fight. He basically curled up in a ball and hoped the red wave would somehow leave him untouched.
I think the circumstances are very different today.
TriassicSands
@SpaceUnit:
Were you in Colorado when No Labels-backed Republican Cory Gardner beat Mark Udall? I guess Colorado voters might not be as immune to deception, or simply making bad choices as you seem to think they are. I lived in Colorado for more than 20 years and I watched as Ben Nighthorse Campbell was elected only to switch parties after two years in office. I guess Colorado voters can be fooled repeatedly. In that, they are no different from voters in virtually every other state who have to operate in a corrupt system. The typical commenter on B-J is very different politically than the typical Democratic voter, not least of which is because I’ll bet the voter turnout among B-J folks is nothing like the turnout rate among more typical Democrats.
I don’t know how things will break in Colorado or across the country if No Labels (I like to think of them as No Scruples) has a significant present in key states. Joe Biden has done a good job, but there is no question that a lot of Democrats would prefer a different candidate at the top of the ticket, and that doesn’t seem to be Kamala Harris. I’ve spent my adult life discussing politics and policies with countless Democrats and my impression has never changed — most are decent people who are not especially interested or engaged in politics, are poorly informed, and can easily be misled.
TriassicSands
I wish I could agree. But I’m afraid your percentage is unrealistically high and in a race that comes down to a few states, that could spell the difference.
SpaceUnit
@TriassicSands:
Yes, I was here. Again, Udall ran a shit / non-existent campaign. I remember it feeling like an absolute chore to drag myself to the polls and vote for a guy who didn’t seem at all interested in fighting to keep his seat. Screw Mark Udall.
Colorado is currently far more blue than purple, and Gardner is likely the last Republican statewide candidate to win an election for the foreseeable future. We kicked his ass to the curb and we’ll do it to the next No Labels asshole.
Eolirin
@SpaceUnit: Yeah, Colorado is unlikely to go red in 2024, but this could tip the balance in Michigan, Wisconsin, and/or Pennsylvania and that could be a real problem. They can only credibly run a candidate if they can get on all or almost all 50 state ballots, so they need this to make the play there.
I don’t think it works if Trump is the candidate though.
TriassicSands
@NotMax:
I have no idea if that is workable or a good idea or just ridiculous, but one has to admit that Amazon, for good or ill, never stops coming up with new ideas. The word “voracious” is hardly sufficient.
SpaceUnit
@Eolirin:
Yeah, and if they only run their candidate in what they see as swing states the more obvious it becomes that they are merely trying to be spoilers.
Maybe I’m being overly optimistic, but I think Dems have become a good deal more aware of these sorts of electoral monkeyshines.
Wag
@SpaceUnit: Lifelong Colorado native here. I was here in 2014, and I agree the Mark ran a shit campaign and lost to a lying sack of feces in Cory Gardner. Would have been interesting if Mark had signed the pledge and taken it off the table.
and Kyle Clark is an excellent and hard-nosed interviewer
TriassicSands
Which, again, speaks to one of the weaknesses of the Democratic Party — we/it too often nominate less than stellar candidates. (I won’t bother to comment on what the GOP comes up with.)
As has been pointed out, even if it doesn’t change the outcome in CO, it could in more fragile states. I don’t think most people realize that if the Libertarian Party hadn’t run candidates in a number of key states in 2020, Biden would probably have lost the presidency, because the number of Libertarian votes, which would almost certainly never have gone to Biden, was significantly greater than Biden’s margin of victory. As long as the EC is in place, the popular vote is irrelevant and there are a number of key states that are very fragile for Democrats.
In a sense, CO is an anomaly. To the west, Utah. To the north Wyoming. To the east, Nebraska and Kansas. As in WA, where I live now, it is the Front Range (Puget Sound east of the Cascades in WA) in CO that makes it a Blue state. The vibrancy of the Front Range economies will, I hope, make the state increasingly Blue as the western, southern, and eastern parts of the state — ranching and agriculture — don’t grow at anywhere near the same rate. Unsurprisingly, however, CO has some of the craziest Wing Nuts in the country. It will be a truly wonderful sign if Boebert loses in 2024. It’s the perennial question — do the old style Republicans hate the “socialists” enough to continue to support a mindless clown. We’ll see.
TriassicSands
I fear you are, though not necessarily about Colorado. I spend a lot of time “interviewing” voters and talking to most Democrats is not a great way to become more optimistic. Lots of nice people, but having to depend on them on election day is nervewracking. (Of course, the Electoral College makes things so much worse. Republicans don’t have to “win” a presidential election to “win” a presidential election. (See Donald Trump and George WMD Bush.)
Where do you live in Colorado?
SpaceUnit
@TriassicSands:
I live just a bit west of Denver, Green Mountain neighborhood.
Optimism is hardly my defining trait, politically speaking, but I don’t see the point of going Full Metal Eeyore in June of 2023.
AJ of the Mustard Search and Rescue Team
Kyle is awesome! I love his Twitter https://twitter.com/KyleClark
William D
would it be a worthwhile or feasible pursuit to get involved with no labels and get on their mailing list etc with the goal of getting Biden on the ballot?
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
One thing I want somebody to ask one of these tools is what they think happens if their shitbag candidate were somehow to win? Who exactly in Congress would be at all willing to work with somebody who doesn’t belong to either party? Do they think everybody in Congress would just bow down and work with such a person, who doesn’t belong to either party, and who ran, presumably, against both parties’ platforms?
There’s little that pisses me off more than political ignorance. I do get that a lot of people in this country don’t have the time to learn how the government works. I get that a lot of people–too many–never learned this in school growing up, and that’s a whole other problem. But these people claim to be running a fucking presidential candidate. How can anybody doing that seriously not understand how any of this shit works? These people suck.
Shalimar
Stephanie Ruhle on MSNBC just said she has an open invitation out to Laura Jacobson to come on 11th Hour and talk about No Label’s funding sources. From the disdain in her voice, it is clear she knows it is rightwing billionaire astroturf money and also that there is no way Jacobson is ever going to accept that invitation.
SpaceUnit
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.):
Um, they would pretty much be Republicans.
Worse than Manchin or Sinema.
TriassicSands
rikyrah
@SpaceUnit:
They want to repeat 2016, and it’s important that we call it out for the bullshyt that it is😠
SpaceUnit
@rikyrah:
Truth, my friend. And I’m up way past my bedtime. Peace.