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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

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

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Let there be snark.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

I really should read my own blog.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

T R E 4 5 O N

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Second rate reporter says what?

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

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

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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Whitmer’s Pitch (Open Thread)

Whitmer’s Pitch (Open Thread)

by Betty Cracker|  July 17, 20232:13 pm| 159 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics, Foreign Affairs, Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity

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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.

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Previous Post: « Open Thread & Announcing Tuesday Evening Legal Zoom with Immanentize (7 pm ET)
Next Post: War for Ukraine Day 509: The Kerch Bridge spy v. spy flyouts»

Reader Interactions

159Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    July 17, 2023 at 2:16 pm

    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.

    It has the benefit of being true too.

  2. 2.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    July 17, 2023 at 2:17 pm

    Michigan somehow managed to ungerrymander their elections. That gave them a chance, and they took it.

  3. 3.

    patrick II

    July 17, 2023 at 2:18 pm

    I am going to guess that Fran Leibowitz does not run in any social circles with Trump voters.

  4. 4.

    Omnes Omnibus

    July 17, 2023 at 2:23 pm

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Wisconsin should have at shot at that once Justice Janet is up and running.

  5. 5.

    patrick II

    July 17, 2023 at 2:25 pm

    @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.

  6. 6.

    MattF

    July 17, 2023 at 2:28 pm

    @patrick II: That’s easy to do in NYC. Trumpiness is confined to a few small groups. Every one else despises him.

  7. 7.

    dr. luba

    July 17, 2023 at 2:30 pm

    @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.

  8. 8.

    Old School

    July 17, 2023 at 2:31 pm

    So Trump would both stop funding Ukraine and increase funding to Ukraine to incredibly high levels.

    Sounds like a foolproof plan.

  9. 9.

    Alison Rose

    July 17, 2023 at 2:31 pm

    “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.

  10. 10.

    waspuppet

    July 17, 2023 at 2:33 pm

    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.

  11. 11.

    Geminid

    July 17, 2023 at 2:35 pm

    @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.

  12. 12.

    MattF

    July 17, 2023 at 2:35 pm

    @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.

  13. 13.

    Betty Cracker

    July 17, 2023 at 2:35 pm

    @Alison Rose: Every picture tells a story… (Vanity Fair 2019)

  14. 14.

    Ken

    July 17, 2023 at 2:37 pm

    @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.

  15. 15.

    geg6

    July 17, 2023 at 2:39 pm

    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.

  16. 16.

    Butch

    July 17, 2023 at 2:39 pm

    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.

  17. 17.

    Geminid

    July 17, 2023 at 2:43 pm

    @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.

  18. 18.

    Cameron

    July 17, 2023 at 2:47 pm

    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/

  19. 19.

    Matt McIrvin

    July 17, 2023 at 2:49 pm

    @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.

  20. 20.

    oatler

    July 17, 2023 at 2:50 pm

    @geg6:

    “But the majority of MI voters seems to have gained their sanity back”

    Oh…

  21. 21.

    Tony G

    July 17, 2023 at 2:50 pm

    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.

  22. 22.

    Matt McIrvin

    July 17, 2023 at 2:52 pm

    @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.

  23. 23.

    Cameron

    July 17, 2023 at 2:54 pm

    I guess I’m a bit surprised that Trump didn’t refer to it as his “cunning plan.”

  24. 24.

    Omnes Omnibus

    July 17, 2023 at 2:57 pm

    @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.

  25. 25.

    FastEdD

    July 17, 2023 at 3:02 pm

    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.

  26. 26.

    frosty

    July 17, 2023 at 3:04 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: PA did the same before the last election.  We have a statehouse with a D chamber now!!!

  27. 27.

    Betty Cracker

    July 17, 2023 at 3:05 pm

    @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!

  28. 28.

    Omnes Omnibus

    July 17, 2023 at 3:07 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Also, I am pretty sure that this is fight the  WI GOP will not want to have.

  29. 29.

    Alison Rose

    July 17, 2023 at 3:07 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Some tell two stories!

  30. 30.

    Matt McIrvin

    July 17, 2023 at 3:07 pm

    @Ken: He would have been better off to use the Nixon strategy and just say it’s a secret plan.

  31. 31.

    japa21

    July 17, 2023 at 3:10 pm

    “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.”

    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.

  32. 32.

    WaterGirl

    July 17, 2023 at 3:11 pm

    @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!!!

  33. 33.

    FastEdD

    July 17, 2023 at 3:15 pm

    @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.

  34. 34.

    Cameron

    July 17, 2023 at 3:17 pm

    @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.

  35. 35.

    Old School

    July 17, 2023 at 3:17 pm

    @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.

  36. 36.

    Sure Lurkalot

    July 17, 2023 at 3:18 pm

    @Tony G:

    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.

    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.

  37. 37.

    Embir

    July 17, 2023 at 3:19 pm

    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.

  38. 38.

    Chetan Murthy

    July 17, 2023 at 3:19 pm

    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!]

  39. 39.

    Baud

    July 17, 2023 at 3:20 pm

    @Embir:

    It all comes crashing down with the first mega hurricane

     
    Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.

  40. 40.

    Sure Lurkalot

    July 17, 2023 at 3:21 pm

    @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.

  41. 41.

    patrick II

    July 17, 2023 at 3:21 pm

    @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.

  42. 42.

    FastEdD

    July 17, 2023 at 3:22 pm

    I’m all in favor of Big Gretch. I have a vintage Country Gentleman.

  43. 43.

    Cameron

    July 17, 2023 at 3:23 pm

    @Baud: Agree – I’m really not up for doing my Aquaman imitation in the Gulf of Mexico.

  44. 44.

    HumboldtBlue

    July 17, 2023 at 3:24 pm

    @Cameron:

    From the piece:

    The political press is writing that DeSantis is losing the nomination campaign because he has no personality. How about because he can’t govern his way out of a wet paper bag?

    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.

  45. 45.

    Villago Delenda Est

    July 17, 2023 at 3:24 pm

    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.

  46. 46.

    Geminid

    July 17, 2023 at 3:24 pm

    @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.

  47. 47.

    SiubhanDuinne

    July 17, 2023 at 3:25 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Wow! It’s so weird to see Zelenskyy wearing a suit and tie!

  48. 48.

    Cameron

    July 17, 2023 at 3:26 pm

    @HumboldtBlue: Angry Aphid is not a persona that voters have been lusting for.

  49. 49.

    Omnes Omnibus

    July 17, 2023 at 3:26 pm

    @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.

  50. 50.

    twbrandt

    July 17, 2023 at 3:26 pm

    @Embir:

    And Disney Ypsilanti will be awesome.

    That got an actual LOL from me.

  51. 51.

    Villago Delenda Est

    July 17, 2023 at 3:27 pm

    @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.

  52. 52.

    sdhays

    July 17, 2023 at 3:30 pm

    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.

  53. 53.

    Miss Bianca

    July 17, 2023 at 3:31 pm

    @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…

  54. 54.

    MattF

    July 17, 2023 at 3:35 pm

    @sdhays: Well, yes, but Trump’s actual plan is to give Putin whatever he wants.

  55. 55.

    Omnes Omnibus

    July 17, 2023 at 3:35 pm

    @Miss Bianca: Why you hate drunk Jennifer Granholm?

  56. 56.

    patrick II

    July 17, 2023 at 3:36 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

     I should never have believed a Republican office seeker.

  57. 57.

    Alison Rose

    July 17, 2023 at 3:36 pm

    @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.

  58. 58.

    Betty Cracker

    July 17, 2023 at 3:38 pm

    @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.

  59. 59.

    Miss Bianca

    July 17, 2023 at 3:39 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: No hate towards JG intended, I assure you!

  60. 60.

    Omnes Omnibus

    July 17, 2023 at 3:41 pm

    @Miss Bianca: ::side-eye::

  61. 61.

    Ken

    July 17, 2023 at 3:43 pm

    @HumboldtBlue: He has a personality, it’s just a distasteful, disdainful, sour, contemptuous one and it’s not a good look.

    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.

  62. 62.

    Baud

    July 17, 2023 at 3:43 pm

    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 would like them to do us a favor though.”

  63. 63.

    Old School

    July 17, 2023 at 3:48 pm

    @patrick II:

     I should never have believed a Republican office seeker.

    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.

  64. 64.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    July 17, 2023 at 3:49 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    which might tempt me to hurl a martini at my TV

    A waste of a good martini.

  65. 65.

    sdhays

    July 17, 2023 at 3:55 pm

    @MattF: Well, yeah, to the extent he has a “plan” for anything.

  66. 66.

    Mai Naem mobileI

    July 17, 2023 at 3:56 pm

    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.

  67. 67.

    Mai Naem mobileI

    July 17, 2023 at 3:58 pm

    When TFG has lost Maria Baritiromo he’s done at FOX and probably all Murdoch media properties.

  68. 68.

    rikyrah

    July 17, 2023 at 3:58 pm

     

     

    Cat, Reigning Typo QueenNO DMs (@typo_cat) tweeted at 2:35 AM on Mon, Jul 17, 2023:
    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 QueenNO 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 QueenNO 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.”

  69. 69.

    Gravenstone

    July 17, 2023 at 4:00 pm

    @Old School: It’s sales goober word salad. Promise all parties everything under the sun and of course, why wouldn’t they be happy?

  70. 70.

    rikyrah

    July 17, 2023 at 4:02 pm

    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)

  71. 71.

    Matt McIrvin

    July 17, 2023 at 4:04 pm

    @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.

    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.

  72. 72.

    mrmoshpotato

    July 17, 2023 at 4:07 pm

    @Cameron: Oh DeathSantis.  Killing the people of Florida with COVID, and now killing the businesses of Florida with your bullshit.

  73. 73.

    Baud

    July 17, 2023 at 4:09 pm

    @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.

  74. 74.

    Kelly

    July 17, 2023 at 4:10 pm

    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.

  75. 75.

    mrmoshpotato

    July 17, 2023 at 4:10 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    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? 

    I don’t think I ever heard about that hogwash.

  76. 76.

    NotMax

    July 17, 2023 at 4:11 pm

    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.”

  77. 77.

    rikyrah

    July 17, 2023 at 4:14 pm

     

    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)

  78. 78.

    zhena gogolia

    July 17, 2023 at 4:15 pm

    @NotMax: Trump hates Zelenskyy. Just hates him.

  79. 79.

    wombat probability cloud

    July 17, 2023 at 4:15 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: I agree and think it would be a bridge too far, even for them.

  80. 80.

    Baud

    July 17, 2023 at 4:18 pm

    @mrmoshpotato:

    McCain’s plan worked, assuming his plan was to lose to Obama.

  81. 81.

    sdhays

    July 17, 2023 at 4:20 pm

    @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.

  82. 82.

    japa21

    July 17, 2023 at 4:20 pm

    @Baud: Well, he did pick Palin, so it appears he did plan on losing.

  83. 83.

    Omnes Omnibus

    July 17, 2023 at 4:22 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: That is how democracy works.

  84. 84.

    Ken

    July 17, 2023 at 4:23 pm

    @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.

  85. 85.

    Anyway

    July 17, 2023 at 4:24 pm

    @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…,”

    it’s not like we are Great Britain … zing!

  86. 86.

    rikyrah

    July 17, 2023 at 4:25 pm

    @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

  87. 87.

    rikyrah

    July 17, 2023 at 4:26 pm

    @japa21:

    Unfortunately, not everybody on the left sees that

     

    Everyone but the Purity Pollyanna’s.

  88. 88.

    Tim Curtin

    July 17, 2023 at 4:27 pm

    “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…

  89. 89.

    Dan B

    July 17, 2023 at 4:27 pm

    @twbrandt: Universal Kalamazoo will be lit.  Universal Orlando is also having trouble.  Attendance is down there as well.

  90. 90.

    rikyrah

    July 17, 2023 at 4:29 pm

    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!

  91. 91.

    Baud

    July 17, 2023 at 4:29 pm

    @Ken:

    And that’s why Biden gave McCain the Medal of Freedom.

  92. 92.

    Ruckus

    July 17, 2023 at 4:29 pm

    @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…..

  93. 93.

    CaseyL

    July 17, 2023 at 4:31 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:

     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.

    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?

  94. 94.

    Kelly

    July 17, 2023 at 4:31 pm

    @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.

  95. 95.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    July 17, 2023 at 4:32 pm

    @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.

  96. 96.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    July 17, 2023 at 4:33 pm

    @rikyrah: Holy crap. I love it!

  97. 97.

    MattF

    July 17, 2023 at 4:34 pm

    OT. Acronymy.net is a dictionary in which every word is defined as an acronym. This is their definition for acronym.

  98. 98.

    OzarkHillbilly

    July 17, 2023 at 4:34 pm

    “You do not know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump.”

    There are legions of people even more stupid than trump.

  99. 99.

    zhena gogolia

    July 17, 2023 at 4:34 pm

    @CaseyL: Good summary. I THINK I resisted Anderson, but I’m not sure! Hope so.

  100. 100.

    lowtechcyclist

    July 17, 2023 at 4:37 pm

    @Matt McIrvin:

    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.

    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.

  101. 101.

    Ken

    July 17, 2023 at 4:37 pm

    @rikyrah: I think this year’s Hurricane season

    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.

  102. 102.

    NotMax

    July 17, 2023 at 4:40 pm

    @MattF

    Could not resist sampling.

    temperamental rude unpredictable misinformed president

  103. 103.

    CaseyL

    July 17, 2023 at 4:40 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Every fucking 20 years, more or less.  It makes me crazy to think about.

  104. 104.

    Dan B

    July 17, 2023 at 4:45 pm

    @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.

  105. 105.

    Betty Cracker

    July 17, 2023 at 4:45 pm

    @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.

  106. 106.

    rikyrah

    July 17, 2023 at 4:46 pm

    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)

  107. 107.

    sab

    July 17, 2023 at 4:48 pm

    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..

  108. 108.

    jackmac

    July 17, 2023 at 4:48 pm

    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.

  109. 109.

    Baud

    July 17, 2023 at 4:48 pm

    @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.

  110. 110.

    Geminid

    July 17, 2023 at 4:50 pm

    @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.

  111. 111.

    bbleh

    July 17, 2023 at 4:54 pm

    @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.

  112. 112.

    lowtechcyclist

    July 17, 2023 at 4:54 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    Good summary. I THINK I resisted Anderson, but I’m not sure! Hope so.

    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.

  113. 113.

    Yarrow

    July 17, 2023 at 4:54 pm

    @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.

  114. 114.

    sab

    July 17, 2023 at 4:56 pm

    @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 ////.)

  115. 115.

    Geminid

    July 17, 2023 at 4:57 pm

    @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.

  116. 116.

    Martin

    July 17, 2023 at 4:57 pm

    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.

  117. 117.

    Yarrow

    July 17, 2023 at 4:57 pm

    @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.

  118. 118.

    bbleh

    July 17, 2023 at 4:59 pm

    OT: when is Smithmas?  What’s going on with all those grand juries?  I wanna indictment!  I wanna indictment nooooowwwwww!

  119. 119.

    The Lodger

    July 17, 2023 at 5:01 pm

    @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.

  120. 120.

    Baud

    July 17, 2023 at 5:02 pm

    @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.

  121. 121.

    Martin

    July 17, 2023 at 5:03 pm

    @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.

  122. 122.

    Eolirin

    July 17, 2023 at 5:05 pm

    @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.

  123. 123.

    El Muneco

    July 17, 2023 at 5:08 pm

    @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.

  124. 124.

    Baud

    July 17, 2023 at 5:11 pm

    Via Reddit, we’re not always the worst.

    Italy begins stripping lesbian mothers of their parental rights
    One mom said she cried for 10 days after hearing she was being removed from her daughter’s birth certificate.

    Not sure why EU law doesn’t bar this.

  125. 125.

    Geminid

    July 17, 2023 at 5:11 pm

    @bbleh: “We want eight, and we won’t wait!”

    -A pre-WWI English music hall ditty. It was about battleship construction.

  126. 126.

    Eolirin

    July 17, 2023 at 5:13 pm

    @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.

  127. 127.

    Eolirin

    July 17, 2023 at 5:14 pm

    @Baud: Just give it time, the red states will catch up. ><

  128. 128.

    twbrandt

    July 17, 2023 at 5:15 pm

    @zhena gogolia: I voted for Anderson. Last 3rd party candidate I voted for.

  129. 129.

    Geminid

    July 17, 2023 at 5:16 pm

    @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.

  130. 130.

    Yarrow

    July 17, 2023 at 5:16 pm

    @Martin:  Texas dropping out of the top 5 states for business is making news in Texas. It’s a big deal.

  131. 131.

    zhena gogolia

    July 17, 2023 at 5:17 pm

    @twbrandt: I was voting in Kansas, so it doesn’t really matter what I did.

  132. 132.

    Redshift

    July 17, 2023 at 5:19 pm

    For me the funniest part of the idiotic “plan” is this:

    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.

    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.

  133. 133.

    Eolirin

    July 17, 2023 at 5:20 pm

    @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.

  134. 134.

    sab

    July 17, 2023 at 5:33 pm

    @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.

  135. 135.

    Baud

    July 17, 2023 at 5:38 pm

    Laffy@[email protected]

    Womp womp.

    Via Anna Bower:

    In a unanimous decision, the #Georgia Supreme Court has DISMISSED Donald #Trump’s petition that asked the high court to scrap #FaniWillis’s investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia

  136. 136.

    Geminid

    July 17, 2023 at 5:38 pm

    @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.

  137. 137.

    VFX Lurker

    July 17, 2023 at 5:43 pm

    @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!

    Thank you for mentioning this! I just borrowed the Kindle version from my library’s Overdrive system.

  138. 138.

    Geminid

    July 17, 2023 at 5:46 pm

    @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.

  139. 139.

    CaseyL

    July 17, 2023 at 5:51 pm

    @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.

  140. 140.

    Baud

    July 17, 2023 at 5:54 pm

    @CaseyL:

    Yeah I can’t find any verification yet.

  141. 141.

    Baud

    July 17, 2023 at 6:04 pm

    Georgia Supreme Court denies Trump’s petition to remove DA, judge from election probe case

  142. 142.

    Geminid

    July 17, 2023 at 6:05 pm

    @CaseyL: I think Trump’s attorneys refiled in the proper court just in time. Marcy Wheeler gleefully covered the process.

  143. 143.

    Kayla Rudbek

    July 17, 2023 at 6:21 pm

    @rikyrah: and I think that it’s on Kindle Unlimited…

  144. 144.

    WaterGirl

    July 17, 2023 at 6:24 pm

    @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.

  145. 145.

    mrmoshpotato

    July 17, 2023 at 6:33 pm

    @Embir:

    And Disney Ypsilanti will be awesome. 

    What?

  146. 146.

    WaterGirl

    July 17, 2023 at 6:36 pm

    @Kelly: oh, no.  It seemed like last year was pretty good compared to the hellish year before.

  147. 147.

    Uncle Cosmo

    July 17, 2023 at 6:51 pm

    @Yarrow: People who live in places where it gets unbearably hot in the summer have a long history of leaving for the summer.

    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.

  148. 148.

    mrmoshpotato

    July 17, 2023 at 6:53 pm

    @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.

    These miserable, gullible, fascist piles of shit.

  149. 149.

    mrmoshpotato

    July 17, 2023 at 6:54 pm

    @Baud: Maybe.  Maybe John “Bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran” wanted to lose to Obama.

  150. 150.

    Kelly

    July 17, 2023 at 7:02 pm

    @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

  151. 151.

    CaseyL

    July 17, 2023 at 7:05 pm

    @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.

  152. 152.

    NotMax

    July 17, 2023 at 7:05 pm

    There’s no “i” in whoops.

    For over 10 years, millions of emails associated with the US military have been getting sent to Mali, a West African country allied with Russia, due to a typo, according to a report from the Financial Times. Instead of appending the military’s .MIL domain to their recipient’s email address, people frequently type .ML, the country identifier for Mali, by mistake.

    Johannes Zuurbier, a Dutch entrepreneur contracted to manage Mali’s domain, tells the Financial Times that this has been happening for over a decade despite his repeated attempts to warn the US government. When Zuurbier began noticing requests for nonexistent domains, like army.ml and navy.ml, he set up a system to catch these misdirected emails, which the Financial Times reports “was rapidly overwhelmed and stopped collecting messages.”

    Since January alone, Zuurbier has reportedly intercepted 117,000 misdirected emails, several of which contain sensitive information related to the US military. According to the Financial Times, many of the emails include medical records, identity document information, lists of staff at military bases, photos of military bases, naval inspection reports, ship crew lists, tax records, and more. Source

  153. 153.

    Dan B

    July 17, 2023 at 7:14 pm

    @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.

  154. 154.

    WaterGirl

    July 17, 2023 at 7:19 pm

    @Kelly: Fervently hoping we don’t have to have any “people on fire please check in” posts!

  155. 155.

    Geminid

    July 17, 2023 at 7:22 pm

    @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.

  156. 156.

    bbleh

    July 17, 2023 at 7:33 pm

    @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 …

  157. 157.

    Geminid

    July 17, 2023 at 7:44 pm

    @bbleh: I’ve wondered the same about James Coburn and Beto O’Rourke. But these secrets are best left alone.

  158. 158.

    Sure Lurkalot

    July 17, 2023 at 7:51 pm

    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.

  159. 159.

    Kay

    July 17, 2023 at 7:59 pm

    @sab:

    Probably wishful thinking. Writing off her own horrible state.

    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. .

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