The New Yorker‘s Benjamin Wallace-Wells published a lengthyish profile on Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the political transformation of Michigan into a Democratic stronghold. But before we get to that, I have to share something unpleasant: Trump’s oft-touted plan to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours.
As you may know, ever since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Trump has bragged that the war would never have happened on his watch and that he alone could instantly end it. For many months, Trump refused to elaborate on his alleged plan but finally responded with a bit more detail when pressed by Maria Bartiromo on her Fox News program yesterday. Are you ready? Here it is:
“I know Zelenskyy very well, and I know Putin very well, even better. And I had a good relationship, very good with both of them. I would tell Zelenskyy, no more. You got to make a deal. I would tell Putin, if you don’t make a deal, we’re going to give him a lot. We’re going to [give Ukraine] more than they ever got if we have to. I will have the deal done in one day. One day,” Trump responded.
Jesus Fucking Christ. Fran Lebowitz was right: “You do not know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump.”
Okay, now on to the more pleasant topic of a state, Michigan, that went for Trump in 2016 and now has a Democratic trifecta in Lansing: the governorship and both legislative chambers. Wallace-Wells summarizes Whitmer’s approach as follows:
The Governor’s strategy for revitalizing her state has two parts: to grow, Michigan needs young people; to draw young people, it needs to have the social policies they want.
It appears to be the opposite of the DeSantis strategy for Florida, which is to chase the young folks out and lure the nation’s angriest seniors.
In Michigan, Democrats are protecting women’s reproductive healthcare, LGBTQ rights and investing Inflation Reduction Act funds in ways that are improving communities and creating jobs. But their pitch sounds more pragmatic than ideological, and it seems to be working. Whitmer contrasts that approach with the style of hyper-ideologues like Ron DeSantis and his war on Disney:
“I can’t imagine General Motors taking a stance on just about anything where I would go to war with General Motors,” Whitmer said. “It’s just wild to me to see that Democrats are now viewed as a little more pragmatic and business-friendly than maybe some Republicans. But I think that’s good. I think that’s important. And I would consider myself in that vein.”
Whitmer notes that Dems gained a trifecta with a “different kind of coalition than Democrats have relied on before,” and it’s clear Michigan Dems have benefited from meltdowns on the Repub side, which is a hot mess. That said, Dems aren’t taking anything for granted. If they don’t get everything they want, Democrats in the state understand the stakes:
So far, though, the spectre of a Republican comeback has largely kept everyone in line. “It’s such a huge part of what’s happening right now,” Christy McGillivray, a lobbyist in Lansing for the Sierra Club, told me. “Even when we talk about what’s happening legislatively, no one wants to say bad things about the people who are holding off the fascist Christian takeover.”
Anyhoo, the whole thing is worth a read. As we’ve discussed here, Dems at the national level seem to be settling on a message that sounds a bit like Whitmer’s in Michigan, i.e., individual freedom and shared prosperity. I think it can work in other places too.
Open thread.
Baud
It has the benefit of being true too.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Michigan somehow managed to ungerrymander their elections. That gave them a chance, and they took it.
patrick II
I am going to guess that Fran Leibowitz does not run in any social circles with Trump voters.
Omnes Omnibus
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Wisconsin should have at shot at that once Justice Janet is up and running.
patrick II
@Omnes Omnibus:
I hope so, but there has been the threat of a legislative supermajority impeaching her if she touches a gerrymandering case.
But Wisconsin is a wonderful state and deserves better than the gerrymandered political dystopia it is becoming. The fact they even have a supermajority to threaten with is an indicator of how much gerrymandering can effect a politically even state.
MattF
@patrick II: That’s easy to do in NYC. Trumpiness is confined to a few small groups. Every one else despises him.
dr. luba
@Dorothy A. Winsor: it was years of hard work, and voter initiatives.
Michigan has a long history of electing moderate, sane republicans (Romney Sr., Milliken). We seem to have run out of those….Snyder gave the appearance of being of one, but then poisoned Flint.
Old School
So Trump would both stop funding Ukraine and increase funding to Ukraine to incredibly high levels.
Sounds like a foolproof plan.
Alison Rose
“I know Zelenskyy very well … and I had a good relationship with [him].”
Don’t ask me why, but I have this odd feeling Zelenskyy would beg to differ on both counts.
waspuppet
Not only is Trump’s “idea” exactly as stupid as I thought, but he’s clearly extremely proud of it, because Bartiromo is such a committed lickspittle that she wouldn’t have asked him about his plan if he didn’t want her to.
Geminid
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I think that of all the “nonpartisan,” anti-gerrymandering plans passed before the 2021 redistricting, Michigan’s was the most successful. Colorado’s was ok, Virginia’s had a mixed result, while Republicans brazenly subverted Ohio’s plan.
MattF
@Old School: Needless to say, he’s lying. He’d roll over on his back and wave his paws in the air when Putin walks into the room.
Betty Cracker
@Alison Rose: Every picture tells a story… (Vanity Fair 2019)
Ken
@Old School: You’re missing a nuance. He would tell Zelenskyy he’s going to stop funding Ukraine, and he would tell Putin he’s going to hugely increase funding for Ukraine.
Then, because the two of them never communicate in either way, nor do they watch any of the media where Trump is already bragging about this plan, they will be completely deceived by this strategy and agree to… something in just one day.
geg6
I have become a huge admirer of Governor Whitmer and the Dems of MI. I could not believe my eyes when MI went for Cheetolini in 2016. But the majority of MI voters seems to have gained their sanity back and I’m happy to see it. And yes, of course this is the message we should be shouting as loudly as possible across the nation.
It’s the exact opposite of what MTG is screaming about all the time. She’s absolutely livid about all the New Deal/Civil Rights Era+/LBJ advances in racial equality and economic safety net programs that the vast majority of the voting public really like. She’s been extremely worked up about the economic safety net issues because, unlike so many MAGAts, she’s not so stupid that she doesn’t understand that Bidenomics is a very strong message. She screams New Deal like it’s a curse. Which, I guess, in some ways it is to the GOP.
Butch
I live in the Upper Peninsula and the efforts (by a group known as UPNorth) to attract high tech industries has been so successful that there’s actually a housing shortage in parts of the UP. Lots of IT and one company that specializes in “electrospray propulsion technology for nanosatellites.” I don’t know what it means but it compels me to believe it.
Geminid
@waspuppet:I’m sort of glad Trump put this out there. The “plan” for Ukraine to concede Russia’s gains is pretty clearly what appeasers like Trump, DeSantis and others are getting at, but none of them have admitted it. Now maybe DeSantis will have to take a stand on this question. This provide more ammunition for Christy, and for Biden later on.
Cameron
Now if you want to know the exact wrong way to do it, here’s a blast from the other side of the Universe:
https://www.mahablog.com/2023/07/15/desantis-is-breaking-florida/
Matt McIrvin
@patrick II: Gerrymandering seems to be intuitively unfair to non-politicians even if they are fairly right-wing (the semi-correct perception that both sides do it is probably a contributor). I think that does give our side an advantage on this, because at this moment in time Republicans benefit from it more.
oatler
@geg6:
“But the majority of MI voters seems to have gained their sanity back”
Oh…
Tony G
More brilliant “deal-making” by Donald Trump. One of my brothers-in-law has been a minor-league New York City real estate developer since the eighties. He never met Donald Trump, but he says that, back when Trump was a real estate guy, he had a reputation in the industry as someone to avoid at all costs.
Matt McIrvin
@Butch: Seems to be a specific type of very-low-thrust electric engine for tiny spacecraft:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colloid_thruster
Like an ion engine except that it’s accelerating electrically charged liquid droplets. The advantage of this type of engine is that it requires only very small amounts of propellant. You don’t use it if you need to get anywhere in a hurry.
Cameron
I guess I’m a bit surprised that Trump didn’t refer to it as his “cunning plan.”
Omnes Omnibus
@patrick II: Removal of a judge is a different procedure. I do not believe that they have the required numbers to do it. I don’t have the citations at my fingertips tips at the moment.
FastEdD
I used to look down on “Country Club Republicans” who only cared about taxes and the business climate. Now I yearn for them to return, compared to the whackos. At my advanced age I actually care about Congress passing a budget on time. I’ve been a D my whole life. Is merely paying the bills on time too much to ask?
Full disclosure: I actually care about lots of things other than just money.
frosty
@Omnes Omnibus: PA did the same before the last election. We have a statehouse with a D chamber now!!!
Betty Cracker
@Cameron: I hear Patronis — the smug shithead quoted in that column — is next in line for governor when DeMeatball’s term expires. It would be nice if people woke up to the fact that Repubs are utterly destroying the state, but I ain’t holding my breath. Wish we had a Whitmer!
Omnes Omnibus
@Omnes Omnibus: Also, I am pretty sure that this is fight the WI GOP will not want to have.
Alison Rose
@Betty Cracker: Some tell two stories!
Matt McIrvin
@Ken: He would have been better off to use the Nixon strategy and just say it’s a secret plan.
japa21
In other words, don’t complain because you don’t get everything you want right this minute because these folks are holding back a very dangerous flood of hate. And if the flood breaks through you will get absolutely nothing.
Unfortunately, not everybody on the left sees that.
WaterGirl
@Matt McIrvin: Oh, you mean like McCain’s secret plan to catch Bin Laden that he was going to share and implement, only if he got elected president?
What a patriot!!!
FastEdD
@japa21: I sure do, and I’ve got a couple friends who are purists and don’t get it. Your menu choices are hot dogs and broken glass. But I don’t like hot dogs! They’re bad for you! Tough shit.
Cameron
@Betty Cracker: It’s baffling to me (dumb Yankee transplant that I am) that Florida newspapers are willing to tell it like it is about these creatures, but Our Liberal Media never seem to pick up on them in anything other than the mildest of terms.
Old School
@Omnes Omnibus: Plus, if the WI GOP successfully impeached Judge Janet, my understanding is that Governor Evers would appoint a replacement.
So it would be a lot of work that would alienate voters and have no real benefit.
Sure Lurkalot
@Tony G:
Must be a couple of decades now when an architecture firm my spouse worked for was interviewing for a building renovation into a boutique hotel and Trump’s name was bandied about as the operator. Bandied about for about a week when a few people who had dealt with him said that he lied all the time and no one involved with the project could or would work with him.
Embir
From a profit maximizing perspective DeSantos’ strategy of luring angry seniors makes a lot of sense. They don’t have a lot of runway to worry about home equity (see insurance crisis) and by keeping them angry at animation characters the real bests in Tallahassee can do their evil thing. Their decision making event horizon isn’t 30 years, its lunch, which makes them perfect marks.
It all comes crashing down with the first mega hurricane – which the young’s who are interested in Michigan can see coming from a nautical mile off. But by then the FL GOP will have theirs so who gives Mickey Rat’s ass. Swim for it Boomers!
Michigans strategy is the exact opposite – they know they are a prime destination for climate change refugees – better to get the smart ones committed to the long haul there first. It gives you a fighting chance.
And Disney Ypsilanti will be awesome.
Chetan Murthy
I’m reminded that Big Gretch did the needful to protect her state from COVID. Even at some risk to her life. “Taking the hard decisions” is why we elect chief executives, and she passed that test. Held her nerve. She *and Gov. Lujan and Gov. Brown) showed she had the mettle to be President. I’d vote for her! [and yes, all the rest: saving MI from the christfascists and all that! All of it!]
Baud
@Embir:
Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.
Sure Lurkalot
@Betty Cracker: I love that picture. I get the idea that Zelenskyy is half acting and half not but 100% certain that the guy to his left is butt fuck nuts.
patrick II
@Omnes Omnibus:
There was a runoff far one last place in the legislature. The Republican candidate (and the general reporting at the time ) asserted that his election would assure a super majority capable of impeaching The Democratic judge if she was elected. She won and he won. Schizophrenic electorate. Any how, I don’t know the law, only what was said at the time. He might have been lying.
FastEdD
I’m all in favor of Big Gretch. I have a vintage Country Gentleman.
Cameron
@Baud: Agree – I’m really not up for doing my Aquaman imitation in the Gulf of Mexico.
HumboldtBlue
@Cameron:
From the piece:
Well, it can be both. His disastrous policies were primarily affecting only Floridians, so folks elsewhere weren’t involved or paying attention, but once he stepped into the national spotlight, and had to demonstrate the art of politics, of being worthy as a national candidate — for president no less — he failed as miserably as his policies are failing Floridians.
He has a personality, it’s just a distasteful, disdainful, sour, contemptuous one and it’s not a good look.
Villago Delenda Est
My cat knows more about foreign policy and the war in Ukraine than the PAB does. What an imbecile, what an ultra maroon he is.
Geminid
@patrick II: Despite electing Obama twice and having two Democratic Senators, Virginia Republicans managed to elect a 65-35 House of Delegates in 2011. But demographic change and political shifts broke that gerrymander down and in 2017, only a coin flip that decided a tied election prevented a 50-50 split. Democrats won a 55-45 majority in 2019 (a Voting Rights Act lawsuit led to 11 districts being redrawn and that accounted for two of the additional Democrstic seats).
Democrats also flipped 3 Congressional districts in 2018. That made a 7-4 Republican majority 7-4 Democratic. All that is to say that gerrymanders can break down over the course of a decade.
This can be countered some by interim redistricting. But voters just don’t like gerrymandering. In 2020 Virginia passed a plan to create an independent redistricting commission by a 2 to 1 margin, despite some obvious flaws un the scheme.
SiubhanDuinne
@Betty Cracker:
Wow! It’s so weird to see Zelenskyy wearing a suit and tie!
Cameron
@HumboldtBlue: Angry Aphid is not a persona that voters have been lusting for.
Omnes Omnibus
@patrick II: I am aware of that election. WI has a different legal process for removing judges. It has a lower conduct threshold for removal but a higher vote threshold. The GOP does not have the votes. Also, as I said, I doubt that this is a fight they really want to have.
twbrandt
@Embir:
That got an actual LOL from me.
Villago Delenda Est
@oatler: The insane ones are still there. It’s when the gerrymandering to give the insane ones localized majorities goes away, all the sudden the insane are put back in their proper place…on the margins.
sdhays
Re: Trump’s stupid “plan” to end the war in Ukraine – How is this more stupid than McCain’s “plan” to settle the conflict in Iraq by setting both sides down and telling them to “cut the bullshit”? I mean, it’s stupid, but it’s hardly novelly stupid for Republican foreign policy.
Miss Bianca
@Embir: I’ve been teased by thoughts of relocating back to my old home state for a few years now, watching what climate change is doing to the landscape out here in the desert West. Oddly, the genesis of these thoughts seems to have coincided with Gov. Whitmer’s election…
MattF
@sdhays: Well, yes, but Trump’s actual plan is to give Putin whatever he wants.
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca: Why you hate drunk Jennifer Granholm?
patrick II
@Omnes Omnibus:
I should never have believed a Republican office seeker.
Alison Rose
@SiubhanDuinne: In one interview a few months or so ago, he joked that we would know the war was over when he wore a suit again.
Betty Cracker
@Cameron: Different incentive structures maybe? The local reporters aren’t rich celebrities.
Speaking of celebro-journalists, as much as I despise hearing our horrible gov’s mosquito-whine voice, I’m tempted to tune in tomorrow when Jake Tapper interviews him. DeSantis never does anything but Fox or Newsmax or OAN, so the CNN appearance is probably a signal of how desperate his campaign is.
Tapper is a mixed bag, so possibly he’ll question DeSantis about the extremism, cruelty, medical crackpottery, misuse of public funds, etc. But it’s just as likely Tapper will lob gentle softballs and slobber all over DeSantis for his (pretty cushy) military service, which might tempt me to hurl a martini at my TV.
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: No hate towards JG intended, I assure you!
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca: ::side-eye::
Ken
I thought his campaign advisors and his wife were working on that. Admittedly their joint plan was to hide him from the press and send her out instead.
Baud
“I would like them to do us a favor though.”
Old School
@patrick II:
They were correct in this instance. The WI GOP does have the numbers to impeach Protasiewicz. However, they’d have to make the case for “corrupt conduct”.
A judge could be removed for just “misconduct”, but the threshold is higher (2/3 in both the WI assembly and senate), and Republicans don’t have that.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Betty Cracker:
A waste of a good martini.
sdhays
@MattF: Well, yeah, to the extent he has a “plan” for anything.
Mai Naem mobileI
I’ve been really really impressed by Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan AG Dana Nessel. Really smart people with a good no nonsense no bs attitude. If a POTUS primary race came down to Kamala Harris and Whitmer I might go with Whitmer.
Mai Naem mobileI
When TFG has lost Maria Baritiromo he’s done at FOX and probably all Murdoch media properties.
rikyrah
Cat, Reigning Typo Queen![]()
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NO DMs (@typo_cat) tweeted at 2:35 AM on Mon, Jul 17, 2023:
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Republicans Were No Shows at Annual Nat’l Governors Association Meeting
Politico: “There are 26 Republican governors. Three of them showed up here this week at the annual summer meeting of the National Governors Association. And of …
1/2
Cat, Reigning Typo Queen![]()
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NO DMs (@typo_cat) tweeted at 2:35 AM on Mon, Jul 17, 2023:
2/ those three, one left after the first night, and another had little choice but to attend — his chairship of the group began at the conclusion of this year’s gathering.”
“After more than a century of bringing together the nation’s governors, the …
Cat, Reigning Typo Queen![]()
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NO DMs (@typo_cat) tweeted at 2:35 AM on Mon, Jul 17, 2023:
3/ NGA — long a wellspring of ideas, forum for best practices and platform for innovating policymaking — is at grave risk of falling victim to the silos plaguing most every other element of American politics.”
Gravenstone
@Old School: It’s sales goober word salad. Promise all parties everything under the sun and of course, why wouldn’t they be happy?
rikyrah
Katherine Faulders (@KFaulders) tweeted at 11:26 AM on Mon, Jul 17, 2023:
Special counsel has just reported a second handover of unclassified discovery in the docs case, including evidence obtained via subpoena and search warrants, witness interviews and other forms generated by the FBI.
(https://twitter.com/KFaulders/status/1680977190568046593?t=iqZ8l5GlgFAXKLKJvvNanw&s=03)
Matt McIrvin
@japa21:
Well, it’s a frustrating situation, isn’t it? If what you want is to the left of the party mainstream, there’s literally no time when it’s appropriate to exert any leverage to get that, because the campaign is unending and every election cycle is another Armageddon.
So it feels like the time when actual progress happens beyond whatever the Democratic Party leadership will countenance today is… never. I can actually understand why some progressives would go “burn it all down”.
Now, if they step back they’ll see that progress actually has happened–I think the party’s position on both economic and cultural issues is significantly to the left of where it was 20 years ago. But it doesn’t necessarily feel like it.
mrmoshpotato
@Cameron: Oh DeathSantis. Killing the people of Florida with COVID, and now killing the businesses of Florida with your bullshit.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
The left today is paying for the indulgences of the left of yesterday.
A fascist second party isn’t inevitable. But it’s what everyone who’s not a fascist has to accept and deal with. Maybe their grandchildren will have more opportunities to exercise leverage.
Kelly
Fire season in Oregon heating up. First big fire of the year on the Illinois river a few miles from the confluence with the Rogue. The Flat Fire started near the Oak Flat campground, probably a careless campfire. Blew up from nothing to 5,000 acres in 24 hours. The wind is blowing it into a very difficult to access, unsafe to work area of steep sided ridges adjacent to the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. It’s burning into the scar of the 2002 Biscuit fire, 2017 Chetco Bar fire, 2018 Klondike fire and maybe even 1987 Silver fire.
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl:
I don’t think I ever heard about that hogwash.
NotMax
Like it’s within the U.S. purview to slice and dice the sovereign nation of Ukraine and hand out sections like Oprah did cars.
“You get a piece, and you get a piece, and…,”
Sheesh. As a certain wabbit said, “What a maroon.”
rikyrah
Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) tweeted at 6:46 AM on Mon, Jul 17, 2023:
Here’s a big reason Jim Jordan’s hearings are such a disaster: He’s investigating so many conspiracy theories about the persecution of conservatives that MAGA is drowning in its own propaganda.
In this piece I count at least half-dozen key storylines. 1/
Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) tweeted at 6:55 AM on Mon, Jul 17, 2023:
Welcome to the “MAGA persecution complex” — the vast right-wing info ecosystem that incentivizes GOP lawmakers to pander to conservative victimization and grievance.
It’s feasting on so many tales of persecution that it’s eating itself to death. 2/
https://t.co/kqIPk6Bzcy https://t.co/Wpg82qliaO
(https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1680909149503143936?t=-RFCda5HMUffxmG3xk4WEA&s=03)
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: Trump hates Zelenskyy. Just hates him.
wombat probability cloud
@Omnes Omnibus: I agree and think it would be a bridge too far, even for them.
Baud
@mrmoshpotato:
McCain’s plan worked, assuming his plan was to lose to Obama.
sdhays
@Matt McIrvin: “…but doesn’t necessarily feel like it”.
And it never will “feel like it” if people don’t compare where the party is now with where it was before. If you’re not comparing the present to the past, you have absolutely no measure of progress (or lack thereof). You’re just unhappy with the present, which is fine, but a different issue.
It’s a fact that the party has moved significantly left on just about any measure over the last 30 years. The problem is that Republicans have been winning (or at least “winning”) too many elections in the interim, so policy changes haven’t followed as much (and have gone backward, hard, in some areas). Democratic leadership isn’t the problem for just about any issue.
japa21
@Baud: Well, he did pick Palin, so it appears he did plan on losing.
Omnes Omnibus
@Matt McIrvin: That is how democracy works.
Ken
@Baud: @japa21: Clearly McCain’s 13-dimensional chess plan was to lose to Obama, then give Obama the secret plan for catching Osama bin Laden, which Obama carried out perfectly. McCain’s famous modesty prevented him from taking credit for the successful operation.
Anyway
@NotMax:
it’s not like we are Great Britain … zing!
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
I think this year’s Hurricane season
Along with the Insurance Industry collapsing in Florida
And, that there are no undocumented to clean up after the Hurricanes
Crops are rotting on the vine as we speak..
It’s all a perfect storm (pun intended)
He’s going to destroy the Florida economy right in time for 2024
rikyrah
@japa21:
Everyone but the Purity Pollyanna’s.
Tim Curtin
“Even when we talk about what’s happening legislatively, no one wants to say bad things about the people who are holding off the fascist Christian takeover.”
A lobbyist for the Sierra Club is openly pointing out the the GOP is the party of fascist X-tian takeover.
The psychos are so far gone they are causing lobbyists to acknowledge the truth…
Dan B
@twbrandt: Universal Kalamazoo will be lit. Universal Orlando is also having trouble. Attendance is down there as well.
rikyrah
Peanut asked me to buy her a graphic novel, and then she gave it to me once she finished it.
Title: The Black Mage
Synopsis: When St. Ivory Academy, a historically white wizarding school, opens its doors to its first-ever black student, everyone believes that the wizarding community is finally taking its first crucial steps toward inclusivity. Or is it? When Tom Token, the beneficiary of the school’s “Magical Minority Initiative,” begins uncovering weird clues and receiving creepy texts on his phone, he and his friend, Lindsay, stumble into a conspiracy that dates all the way back to the American Civil War, and could cost Tom his very soul.
It was WILD!
Baud
@Ken:
And that’s why Biden gave McCain the Medal of Freedom.
Ruckus
@Tony G:
he had a reputation in the industry as someone to avoid at all costs.
So, nothing has changed. I used to read Forbes magazine and they would have articles about people with MONEY and occasionally really strange people with Money. Guess which category SFB fit right into…..
CaseyL
@Matt McIrvin:
Here’s what the American Left has accomplished in the last 60 years:
1968: Humphrey is too “pro-war,” Bobby is dead; we’re not voting. Result: Nixon elected.
1980: Carter isn’t liberal enough; we’re voting for John Anderson.* Result: Reagan elected.
2000: Gore’s wife wants to censor music! Plus, he’s boring! Also, he picked Lieberman for Veep! We’re voting for Ralph Nader! Result: Bush II elected.
2016: Hillary is the most corrupt person ever! And not liberal enough! We’re voting for Jill Stein, or writing in Bernie, or not voting at all! Result: Trump elected.
*This was me, to my everlasting shame and regret.
Quite the record of accomplishment!
Each time The Left flounces out, not only does that increase the risk of a RW President enacting the completely wrong policies, it also means that when a Democrat is elected, they can spend most of their term in office undoing those completely wrong policies and repairing damage, never mind making any net progress.
Maybe vote for Democrats even when it’s NOT an apocalyptic choice, so we can make some actual progress rather than having to forever be putting out fires, h’mm?
ETA: And I haven’t even gotten to how the American Left votes, or doesn’t vote, for the downballot races, like Senator or Representative or even state-wide races. Here’s an idea: maybe they could hold their noses long enough to vote in a Congress a Democratic President can work with?
Kelly
@Ken: Well, yeah. If McCain had been elected Bin Laden would have been on guard and the plan couldn’t have worked. McCain threw the election for our greater good.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Dan B: I know this is joking, but who knows what’s possible in the future? People in Florida have to stay inside during the summer so the heat doesn’t kill them, just as I stay inside in the winter so the cold doesn’t kill me. Maybe summer vacationers will want to go north to places like Disney or Universal.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@rikyrah: Holy crap. I love it!
MattF
OT. Acronymy.net is a dictionary in which every word is defined as an acronym. This is their definition for acronym.
OzarkHillbilly
There are legions of people even more stupid than trump.
zhena gogolia
@CaseyL: Good summary. I THINK I resisted Anderson, but I’m not sure! Hope so.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
I don’t get why it doesn’t feel like it, but then I think the party’s position on both economic and cultural issues is significantly to the left of where it was five years ago, if even that. This not only isn’t your father’s Democratic Party, it’s not even 2019’s Democratic Party. I’m still pretty much amazed at the changes and how fast they’ve occurred. I’d been used to being disappointed by Democrats for so long, and now I’m not anymore.
Ken
I see from nhc.noaa.gov that Depression Don is circling aimlessly, far off to the right of the map. Seems almost too on the nose.
NotMax
@MattF
Could not resist sampling.
temperamental rude unpredictable misinformed president
CaseyL
@zhena gogolia: Every fucking 20 years, more or less. It makes me crazy to think about.
Dan B
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Maybe South of Olympia where there is real summer like the one were having in Seattle – high 80’s and low 90’s with sun and no rain. The PNW is too far from the population centers of the eastern US and too close to Anaheim.
Betty Cracker
@Matt McIrvin: I think a big part of the frustration stems from a constitutional system and arcane legislative rules that disconnect votes from results. This undermines faith in democracy, not just on the left but across the spectrum, IMO.
rikyrah
Houston Chronicle (@HoustonChron) tweeted at 4:45 PM on Sun, Jul 16, 2023:
This is the first year Texas has ranked dead last for quality of life, along with dropping out of the top five states for business for the first time. https://t.co/RToXrmNMcG
(https://twitter.com/HoustonChron/status/1680695074382913536?t=Qfa26x_myFuO6Wh8y63Wog&s=03)
sab
I lived in western Michigan in the early 1980s, I canot believe it has improved so much, so I will hold my breathe for at least a decade until I believe. It was so toxic then. What did they do to fix it? Drown all the children? I cannot see them doing that. Or anyone rethinking..
jackmac
I like the idea of an Upper Midwest blue electoral vote stronghold with Illinois (20), Michigan (15) and Minnesota and Wisconsin (10 apiece) adding up to 55 electoral votes. While Wisconsin may yet be a very close state, breaking the gerrymander fever there will help it return to sanity.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I agree. Those things are frustrating. Maybe a series of deadlocked parliaments with no majority would be equally frustrating. I don’t know.
ETA: I’m more sympathetic to people who drop out than those that stay in the game but actively hurt out ability to win.
Geminid
@CaseyL: I would add that some lefties probably voted for Gary Johnson in 2016. Libertarians are often seen as being to the right of Republicans, and they generally are.
Libertarian voters are a different story though, especially the 2 million who voted for Johnson in 2016 but didn’t vote for Johnson in 2012 or Jorgenson in 2020.
bbleh
@Embir: @Baud: @rikyrah: as someone born and bred in the Caribbean, and having tracked every season for decades, I fear the issue is not whether but when, and therefore what preparations will have been made.
Hurricanes are mega-scary. And a powerful one over low elevation can do almost inconceivable damage. See Barbuda after Irma, for example.
lowtechcyclist
@zhena gogolia:
I didn’t, but then I left the Republican Party with Anderson.
I’ll note that (a) Reagan’s popular-vote margin over Carter was by 1.5 times as many votes as Anderson got, (b) pollsters at the time concluded that the partisan breakdown of Anderson voters was an even split, or close enough to make no never mind; and (c) Reagan won an absolute majority (50.75%) of the 1980 voters.
Maybe Carter lost because of Carter.
Yarrow
@Dorothy A. Winsor: People who live in places where it gets unbearably hot in the summer have a long history of leaving for the summer. Anyone who can afford it gets out and goes to Colorado, Montana, Canada, wherever it’s cooler. Rich people own cabins or homes in those places. It’s nothing new. The heat is so oppressive that even a week long break can make the rest of the summer seem less awful.
As the overall climate warms people who live in those places will become climate refugees by necessity. Whoever it was who commented that Michigan is going to be one of the most attractive states for climate refugees is absolutely right. Water wars will be a real things and sitting right next to huge bodies of fresh water will make them destination number one. Smart people will be moving there now.
sab
@sab: I cannot believe an old experienced lawyer like Kay is so naive. Probably wishful thinking. Writing off her own horrible state. Hoping her new one is better. ( Their beaches are better than Ohio’s. Huge high bar there ////.)
Geminid
@sab: The hows and whys of Democrat Hilary Scholten’s election may be instructive as to political change in western Michigan. Although the district has shifted some, I think she was the first Democrat to win that seat in a century. Her reelection race should be very interesting.
Ed. One likely factor in Scholten’s win was a Republican lurch to the right. The incumbent, Peter Meijer, might have beaten Scholten. But Meijer was one of ten Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, and he was primaried out by a radical.
Of the ten Republican Impeachers, four retired and four lost primaries. David Valdeo (CA) and Dan Newhouse (WA) made it back to this Congress, probably because California and Washington are open, “jungle” primary states.
Martin
Right. I mean, the leaders of the US economy know damn well that 70% of the nations GDP comes from counties that voted for Biden. The Democratic coalition is where their sales come from, and it’s sufficiently lopsided that advertisers are openly mocking conservatives in their ad campaigns. It’s one thing to tailor your ad campaign to white people, it’s a WHOLE other thing to drop n bombs in your Cheerios ad, and well, that the kind of energy advertisers now have – not just appealing to liberals, but openly antagonizing conservatives.
Democrats can just lean straight into that, as we have done in California and as Whitmer is openly advocating for in Michigan. It’s smart. The problem is that Biden can’t jump on board because it’s zero-sum for the nation – advocating for it is basically cheerleading for Alabama to turn into a shithole. And because of the same dynamic, Republicans need it to be a national policy because then California doesn’t have a quality of life argument over Texas, our new worst state to live and work in.
Yarrow
@rikyrah: Can’t wait to see Gov. Abbott try to defend his record. Quality of life is one thing but when business drops off, that’s a real problem in Texas.
bbleh
OT: when is Smithmas? What’s going on with all those grand juries? I wanna indictment! I wanna indictment nooooowwwwww!
The Lodger
@Ken: If I didn’t know you were referring to the NOAA map, I would have said that was right in character. “Depression Don.” Perfect.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
I agree that Reagan probably wins no matter what. But a bad strategy that’s ends up being irrelevant is still a bad strategy.
Martin
@Yarrow: That takes a while to play out. You get a nice window where you can eat your cake and have it too. They’re still in that window.
Eolirin
@sab: Migration is a thing. They’re not all the same people.
Michigan has some strong universities and a lot of tech sector investment. It’s been bringing in people that weren’t born there, and an entire generation of people that were just being or hadn’t yet been born when you were there now make up a sizable part of the population; urban growth swamps rural decay as long as the state isn’t allowed to be gerrymandered to hell.
El Muneco
@Matt McIrvin: Their equivalents on the right aren’t getting everything they want, either. But they have been aggressive for 50 years at steering the GOP slightly further to the right every year.
If the Very Left had done the same thing, they still wouldn’t have rainbows and unicorns, but they’d have school boards immune to the book burning, their IUDs would be safe, there would be a Democratic Party that was legitimately scared of being primaried by progressives.
Baud
Via Reddit, we’re not always the worst.
Not sure why EU law doesn’t bar this.
Geminid
@bbleh: “We want eight, and we won’t wait!”
-A pre-WWI English music hall ditty. It was about battleship construction.
Eolirin
@El Muneco: The left is rooted in revolutionary thinking, the right is rooted in authoritarianism. There are asymmetric preferences for participation in systems that don’t immediately do what they want.
Revolutionaries check out if there’s no revolution to be had, or at least just yell impotently about the need to burn everything down. They want an end to the current social structure so they won’t participate in it. Authoritarians are good little soldiers until they eventually win. They want to dominate the existing social structure, so they’ll do whatever it takes to accomplish that, for as long as it takes.
Eolirin
@Baud: Just give it time, the red states will catch up. ><
twbrandt
@zhena gogolia: I voted for Anderson. Last 3rd party candidate I voted for.
Geminid
@Eolirin: There also may be a form of internal migration in states that has political consequences. The child of Republican working class parents may earn a college degree and take a different view of politics than their parents did.
Yarrow
@Martin: Texas dropping out of the top 5 states for business is making news in Texas. It’s a big deal.
zhena gogolia
@twbrandt: I was voting in Kansas, so it doesn’t really matter what I did.
Redshift
For me the funniest part of the idiotic “plan” is this:
Besides the general stupidity of considering it a great deal for Ukraine if they only have to give some of their territory to Vlad, I’m sure, if anyone was allowed to ask, he’d insist that “giving a lot” to Ukraine wouldn’t involve any US military force or threats.
Eolirin
@Geminid: Yeah, though there’s a very high probability they want to be living in the cities, not the rural areas. It all fuels the urban growth and the urban rural divide that’s dominating our politics right now.
sab
@Eolirin: Western Michigan has no strong universities, and state government for the last two generations has done everything imaginable to weaken the eastern formerly world class universities because their idiot kids couldn’t get in while their standards were high.
Baud
Geminid
@Eolirin: Fifty years ago, a majority of the college-educated demographic voted Republican. One of the changes we’ve seen in this century is that this group has become majority Democratic.
That shift has a greater effect in economically dynamic states. I think that is one reason why Virginia and Ohio have moved in opposite directions politically over the last 20 years.
Economic growth also tends to attract foreign immigrants, and first and second generation immigrants are another group that tends to vote for Democrats.
VFX Lurker
@rikyrah:
Thank you for mentioning this! I just borrowed the Kindle version from my library’s Overdrive system.
Geminid
@Baud: An attorney friend read that filing and said he thought it was marginal in terms of legal craftsmanship. Then I read that they filed it with the wrong court and had to refile it with the right one. More low-quality hires by the Orange Churl.
CaseyL
@Geminid: Was the Court that dismissed the suit the one they had erroneously filed in? Were those the grounds for dismissal, procedural rather than substantive?
The case (such as it is) might still be alive then, in the other Court.
Baud
@CaseyL:
Yeah I can’t find any verification yet.
Baud
Geminid
@CaseyL: I think Trump’s attorneys refiled in the proper court just in time. Marcy Wheeler gleefully covered the process.
Kayla Rudbek
@rikyrah: and I think that it’s on Kindle Unlimited…
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: That was baby Zelensky trying to figure out how to handle the mad dog who was holding his country, Ukraine, by the balls.
Now we have fully grown Zelensky.
mrmoshpotato
@Embir:
What?
WaterGirl
@Kelly: oh, no. It seemed like last year was pretty good compared to the hellish year before.
Uncle Cosmo
FWIW when I was touring in Scandinavia in late summer 2001 the region was overrun with Italians. The couple seated across from me at the buffet supper on the Viking Line Stockholm-Helsinki ferry dropped their jaws when I addressed them in rudimentary but adequate italiano.
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah:
These miserable, gullible, fascist piles of shit.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: Maybe. Maybe John “Bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran” wanted to lose to Obama.
Kelly
@WaterGirl: Last year was pretty good. The southwest corner of Oregon has been the highest wildfire hazard region for a long time. Wet winters to encourage the brush and hot summers to dry brush out.
Wildfire history map
https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=42.44322,-124.02878&z=10&b=mbt&a=fire%2Cmodis_mp
CaseyL
@Geminid:
I read the Court’s (very short) decision. It actually does some substantive issues, such as that the cases cited in support of the motion don’t, in fact, support it. That Trump offered no evidence or law to support his petition. I’m not sure if that counts as a definitive smackdown on the merits…
But: someone on Twitter noted that the GA Supreme Court decision might be enough for the Superior Court (which actually has jurisdiction) to decide to dismiss as well for reasons of mootness.
I have no idea if that would be the case, but it would look a little funny for the Superior Court to approve a motion that the Supreme Court said was without legal merit.
NotMax
There’s no “i” in whoops.
Dan B
@Martin: Friends of ours moved to Austin because Seattle was something mumble mumble something. After having lived in the “friendly” bless your heart south I felt sick. Haven’t heard from them for a while.
WaterGirl
@Kelly: Fervently hoping we don’t have to have any “people on fire please check in” posts!
Geminid
@CaseyL: If the judge is McBurney, the one who has presided over the grand jury, the motion will all but certainly be dismissed. My attorney friend who critiqued the filing sat on a jury for a civil trial before McBurney and was very impressed. McBurney’s conduct in Fulton County Attorney Willis’ investigation has confirmed Warren’s opinion.
bbleh
@Geminid: from what I’ve seen, he’s done superbly. No tolerating BS, but also no rising to the bait, and no visible hesitations.
Y’know, come to think of it, he and “Jack Smith” have a sorta passing resemblance. You don’t suppose …
Geminid
@bbleh: I’ve wondered the same about James Coburn and Beto O’Rourke. But these secrets are best left alone.
Sure Lurkalot
My nephew and family are moving to Michigan soon. They’re closing on a home there this week.
They currently live in St. Louis… near my sister and BIL, who are quite sad about their adorable grandchildren moving away. But just the other day, my sister opined “good for them” getting out of Missouri. I told her it made me sad that she felt this way about where she has lived for a half century, but true that.
Kay
@sab:
lol
I spent the morning hunting down No On Issue 1 signs – I could only get 25, but now everyone’s fighting over why we didn’t order more. I think that’s good! That there’s unmet demand. Also that they’re fighting :)
OTOH, one of our spies (sorry! congregants!) in the Catholic Church says the priests are campaigning against us in church. The least they could do is register as a PAC. .