???? pic.twitter.com/H7igEiwDJU
— Schinako Moriyama?????????? (@schinako) January 14, 2024
Don’t think this drawing is political, but given the past few days (both IRL & online) somehow it feels right for the moment.
Schools stay shut and flights are grounded as dangerously cold wind chills blast much of the US https://t.co/QNurZ798Wt
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 16, 2024
Somewhere in Mormon Heaven, Harry Reid is smiling. #WeMatter https://t.co/8AO95IecNO
— Eric Michael Garcia (@EricMGarcia) January 16, 2024
Advocates work to get Native American voters registered in the key state of Arizona https://t.co/EQZjjZEgfu pic.twitter.com/SnorEmLVJE
— ?? R Saddler (@Politics_PR) January 13, 2024
President @JoeBiden and I call on Congress to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to ensure that everyone can access the ballot box.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 14, 2024
The President’s large, enthusiastic (and growing) grassroots donor based is one of the untold stories of the election imo.
1 million donors, 130,000 of whom give every month — and we’re barely a few days into election year. https://t.co/5W2SMdPuoQ
— Rob Flaherty (@Rob_Flaherty) January 15, 2024
Trevor Noah is a good, and generous, man:
Trevor Noah remains hopeful for the U.S. election and points to the Daily Show team as the spot for "all of your satire that covers the news" in this Election year. "The Daily Show is still there, and you're looking at them," Noah said. pic.twitter.com/hZ0gD0l3D9
— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) January 16, 2024
Schadenfreude alert!
Ramaswamy told staff in a private meeting he will endorse Trump on stage tonight in Iowa, in minutes, sources told me.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) January 16, 2024
With Vivek suspending his campaign, Elon continues his unbroken streak of absolute dogshit, bargain basement, aged-like-milk-in-the-sun political predictions. pic.twitter.com/pWtGaT7xAV
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) January 16, 2024
On The Road – frosty – 8th Annual Snowbird Road Trip / 3rd Annual National Park/COVID Challenge Part 2 – Anza Borrego Desert State Park
gene108
I can work from home today, but I get so distracted at home I’ll probably go to the office in a bit.
I really wish I could retire, but I know that’s still 12 years away, at a minimum.
Baud
Oh sure, but what about Dean Philips’ haul from billionaires? Bias much, media.
Marmot
Trevor Noah really seems to be a good, generous person.
OzarkHillbilly
-2 here. Gonna get all the way up to 16!!! WoooHoooo, book da cruise!
Kay
Now we just need Joe Rogan to predict a Trump win. He predicted a massive red wave in 2022 and then never mentioned it again.
They’re bad at this.
Ohio Mom
Oh yes, Trevor Noah is a mensch. This became absolutely clear to me one week when both he and Stephen Colbert had the same Black author on their shows.
I don’t remember the author’s name or the book title — something to do with Black American history I think, and of course the book had just come out.
By his remarks and questions, you could tell Trevor had read the book and thought about it. In contrast, you could tell Colbert was winging it on the notes his staff had prepared.
Trevor showed respect, Colbert (and I enjoy Colbert) couldn’t really be bothered. Just another guest out of zillions.
Marmot
So I just heard Frank Luntz on NPR (I know) talking about how the Biden team “can’t message old,” and I’m just so eager for that time when, in the so-near future, a reporter/commentator/pundit says “hang on, is TFG old too?”
Adding: Any minute now!
JPL
Our winter advisory was a bust and not one flake in my city north of Atlanta. The temperatures are dropping and slippery roads are a real possibility.
The AJC had a devastating poll of team Biden. The only good news was that trump was under fifty. trump leads Biden 45-37. The GA economy is doing great, and the governor not the president is getting credit.
lowtechcyclist
Good morning, y’all! We’ve got a few inches of snow on the ground here in beautiful Calvert County. Looks mighty pretty. I’m leaving the outdoor Christmas lights on again today.
Kay
@JPL:
That’s too big an undetermined group to be meaningful. A poll with room for a 10 point swing in a race where one or the other is going to win by 1 or 2 is just click bait.
narya
Good morning from snowy PA . . . gonna spend the day cooking, to fill the freezer for Mom. Minestrone, bean soup (she saved a hambone), sausage and beans, pasta e fagioli, an orange upside down cake, some cookies . . . And she’s going to try to figure out how to get Dad’s hearing aids cleaned and/or fixed; they’re not working right. Won’t be able to do it today (see: snow), but maybe before next week when my cousin is visiting. (She was supposed to visit today, but we canceled because of the weather; I’m hoping we can sort the hearing aids so Dad can at least hear the conversation.)
mrmoshpotato
I don’t understand the comic up top. Someone wanna help my half asleep brain?
Dorothy A. Winsor
Our predicted high today is -1.
mrmoshpotato
@lowtechcyclist: Continue having a holly, jolly Christmas.
eclare
Love the tweet about Harry smiling down from Mormon heaven. Threatening to strike right before the Super Bowl, perfect! I hope hotel/culinary workers in other states take notice, this is what you get with unions.
New Deal democrat
Things are heating up a little more in the Middle East. While last night’s missile attacks by Iran into Kurdistan and Syria appear to be in retaliation for a terrorist attack last week in Iran at Soleimani’s grave, there has been direct hostile contact between the U.S. Navy and an Iranian vessel.
From CENTCOM:
Baud
@JPL:
And it would be the opposite if there were a Republican president and a Dem governor.
It is what it is.
Kay
Trump said he’s doing another massive tax cut for the rich if he gets back in. It got almost no coverage. I’m glad Biden is raising a lot of money. He’s going to need it since he’ll essentially have to replicate/create a national media company for a year or we’re not going to get any real coverage of Trump’s plans at all. How many real reporters can he hire for 10 million? A lot!
Attempted Chemistry
@Marmot: Luntz is wrong. You can message old. The word is ‘experienced’. “When Trump was defrauding MBAs, Biden was helping rebuild the economy from the W crash” or whatever.
Anyway
We don’t get MLK day off and I went in yesterday. Cleared out the driveway but will work from home for a couple of hours before going in. I live by a side road that sometimes doesn’t see snow plows until noon.
Glad Biden and the Dems have lots of cash in hand — hope they spend it effectively. Don’t know what works anymore …(that’s why I don’t get paid the big bucks)
NotMax
Happy happy joy joy. It’s National Nothing Day!
:)
JPL
@Kay: It worked! ☹
The AJC is pretty reliable though.
eclare
@mrmoshpotato:
Cute animals in front of a space heater?
mrmoshpotato
@Dorothy A. Winsor: A local weather station is reporting -5.
Nelle
@OzarkHillbilly: We’re supposed to get above zero! Schools are closed because of low temps, so our oldest granddaughter will spend the day here. We’ll watch a little Molly of Denali (PBS) because where else are you going to see the name of our village (Kaktovik, Alaska) in the opening song and see a little red plane like Grandpa used to fly? Some baking, some reading. She wants to write a story too.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
Ken
@mrmoshpotato: Looks like two rabbits, one possibly a toy, basking in front of a radiant heater. Which is in no way an explanation, but it’s all I’m getting out of it, so you’re not alone.
(I’m slightly reluctant to dig further, in case it’s the first panel of some Japanese tentacle-porn comic.)
mrmoshpotato
@eclare: Oh. I can see that.
Baud
@Baud:
In fairness to Republicans, their people know how to take credit for a good economy. Biden tried, but too many Dems want to follow the NYT.
eclare
@Nelle:
I just googled that tv show, it sounds adorable!
Layer8Problem
Twenty-seven (27) degrees F. here, with a light coating of snow draped on the giant ice wall erected a thousand years and more ago by our ancestors to keep the residents of Bergen County, NJ from pestering us. It’s ok, everybody’s friends these days; we built a very nice bridge to there.
And on day fourteen of my firstest bout of the biggest public health crisis in one hundred years, I finally get a clear test. One more good one and I’ll be a happy pup.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Kay
@JPL:
Oh, I’m not questioning the numbers. It’s just that a poll where only 80% of people make a choice just doesn’t mean anything. “Trump wins unless the remaining 20% of people vote for Biden!”
They’re tryng to create an inevitability, that he’s an unstoppable juggernaut. They have essentially already called the race. You can tell from the coverage.
Think how much fun it will be to beat them. Again :)
JPL
@Kay: You’re correct. In Iowa trump received 56,000 votes and they have already crowned him.
NotMax
@lowtechcyclist
Got lingerie?
:)
dmsilev
Re: Elon Musk’s political prognostication skills, he’s apparently touting Dean Philips now, so yeah that tracks. Has he boosted RFK Jr at any point over the last few months? Somehow, that also feels inevitable.
prostratedragon
I don’t recall a Chicago Public School weather day until I was halfway through high school (1967 snow). Glad the kids have today; some other character- building event is sure to come slong..
mrmoshpotato
@Layer8Problem:
Planning on a morning swim to cool down? 🥵
geg6
@gene108:
I texted the boss that I was coming in around 10 but am considering working from home. I, too, am not fond of WFH but between the snow, the terrible roads and the ridiculous cold, it’s probably my best option.
I also can’t wait to retire. But it’s probably more like 2 years away for me. Wish it was right now because I’m pretty much done with my job. Talked to an old friend the other day and she retired and is working part-time at a library. That sounds wonderful to me.
Kay
I went to Republican Women Book Club last night. There’s only two of us (out of nine) who are Democrats. It used to be three of ten but one of the Democrats left Ohio and retired to Pennsylvania.
They all think Trump is a slam dunk to win. They’re absolutely smugly confident. They’re all college educated and regular consumers of (overhwelmingly anti Biden) mainstream media. I think Biden is going to win and these people are going to fucking riot when he does because they will have been told for a year Trump is an inevitability. It’s going to be bad when he loses. This coverage is irresponsible.
eclare
@JPL:
Morning Joe was saying this morning that TIFG’s showing in Iowa was not impressive. He’s basically the incumbent, and he got 51%. Sure, most of the DeSantis and Haley voters will “come home,” but it looks like some will not, and with small margins, that could matter.
Plus I have to believe Ossoff and Warnock will be very effective surrogates. Especially Warnock with his preacher background.
Kay
@JPL:
Biden will pick up D voters as it goes along. When the total is closer to 100% then you can worry :)
Jeffro
Vivek’s mission (provide distractions, promote trumpov as a surrogate, keep the non-trumpov candidates divided and fighting each other) has certainly been accomplished. Will our snooze media take note?
JPL
@eclare: If Kemp kisses his trump’s ass, it will help him in the state. I agree with you about our Senators, since both are awesome.
Betty Cracker
@dmsilev: I don’t know about the past few months, but Musk hosted RFK Jr. on his dumb chat channel at least a couple of times last year.
Layer8Problem
@mrmoshpotato: Mmm, 27 degrees is almost beach weather, compared to the Midwest. But I’m in recovery and am in a delicate state. I should lie around a whole lot and let my Distinguished Counsel on the couch here do the laundry.
Baud
Some random commenters on Reddit were surprised that Trump won Iowa. Assuming they were sincere, it suggests that there are some people out there who actually expected GOP voters to abandon Trump.
dmsilev
@Betty Cracker: I am so very not surprised.
mrmoshpotato
@Kay:
Are they also all deeply self-loathing and/or dumber than a bag of hammers?
Hope they happily record their crimes – again.
Kay
@Jeffro:
He’s not going anywhere big. He’s extraordinarily unlikeable. I read he would make the sign of a V with his hand when he raised his hand in college – like his ‘brand’, lol. I think this is just all you need to know about this person. No one outside of weird Right wing incel twenty somethings will like him.
rikyrah
@Nelle:
Awe 🥰 sounds like a great day ❤️
Baud
@mrmoshpotato:
The Book Club Brawl.
eclare
@Kay:
TIFG and the media are definitely priming the pump for riots and violence if he loses. I think TIFG will lose the popular vote by an even bigger margin than 2020, but the electoral college worries me.
rikyrah
@Layer8Problem:
27 degrees would mean that I would be wearing my winter gear.
This weather now?
Had to break out my Eskimo gear.
Kay
@mrmoshpotato:
No, they’re like bland news consumers and they’re reading and watching media tell them Trump is an inevitablity and all the savvy people know it. They were incredibly patronizing telling me Biden is toast, btw. “Eeveryone knows” Biden is going to lose.
The most fun campaigns are scrappy underdog campaigns. That brings people together. If all media companies and all Republicans are backing Trump we can be the subversive resistance. Our base will like that.
rikyrah
It’s so weird how you can hear the airplanes above when it gets this 🥶🥶🥶
OzarkHillbilly
@Nelle: Nice, enjoy the time with Granddaughter, soon enough she’ll be a teenager, and won’t have much time for MawMaw and Pawpaw..
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah:
I was going to ask “What about for this current -5?” but you answered.
Layer8Problem
@rikyrah: “Had to break out my Eskimo gear.”
Too. Damned. Cold. My hat’s off to folks who manage this stuff with good humor.
H.E.Wolf
https://www.npr.org/2024/01/11/1222500630/native-american-voter-access-registration-arizona
Thank you, Anne Laurie – that is a really interesting article. I was impressed that 3 of the 4 main interviewees seem to be in their 20s or 30s.
I’m back to work on GOTV postcards. Big push by PostcardsToVoters.org this month to get Tom Suozzi, the Democratic candidate, elected in the Feb. 13 special election for George Santos’s vacant seat.
Gonna put on some music this evening and imagine I’m at Postcard Tuesday with Balloon Juice. :-)
mrmoshpotato
@Kay:
I’d like to meet Everyone someday to tell them what an arrogant, narcissistic ass they are.
Kay
Just astonishing to watch all of the Right wing and all of media measure the curtains. The campaign hasn’t even started yet and they are publishing think pieces on Trump’s second term foreign policy. It’s like the day after a general election.
I guess the word went out to the lemmings that the race has been called. This is the conventional view. Don’t listen to it. They’re not smart or original or creative people and they’re wrong all the goddamned time.
Gin & Tonic
Fuck Ben & Jerry’s (sorry, you’ll have to click on the embedded Tweet)
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah: You don’t hear them otherwise? Do you even live near Chicago? 😁
H.E.Wolf
YES. Subversive resister here. Subversive is a lot of fun! And as always, I admire your gift of succinct and witty summing-up.
Gin & Tonic
@Kay: One of my unhealthy fantasies is seeing one of those videos like a Ukrainian drone taking out a russian tank, but with the object being Ramasmarmy’s campaign bus.
I honestly can’t recall a more aggressively unlikeable figure on the national political scene.
gene108
@Baud:
There’s a pessimistic streak in Democratic voters. We tend to focus on flaws. The economy is good, but homelessness is high, housing prices and rent are high, etc.
It is what it is.
New Deal democrat
@Attempted Chemistry:
“I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience,” – Ronald Reagan .
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
I wish I ate their ice cream so I could stop.
eclare
@Gin & Tonic:
What? I don’t normally eat Ben & Jerry’s, but I sure won’t even consider it now.
Jeffro
@Kay: I agree with you – I meant ‘take note’ as in, “will any of them figure out that distraction and trumpov surrogacy were all that Vivek was really there to do?”
gene108
@Layer8Problem:
Please explain this to me. I don’t get it. Bergen County and NYC were basically the southern edge of the glaciers in the last ice age. The effects of glaciation are pretty minimal on the overall area.
RevRick
@narya: Also, hello, from snowy Pennsylvania, but not as snowy as was predicted. (I’m in Allentown).
The results out of Iowa were as predictable as the sunrise. The race will come down as one incumbent versus another, which only happened before in 1892 with Cleveland versus Harrison. I doubt the press knows how to deal with these dynamics.
Soprano2
@Marmot: Heard that, thought exactly the same thing!
sab
@New Deal democrat: He is not wrong. He is lying.
I like that Trevor Noah is optimistic. In 2016 he was probably the first major media guy to predict Trump winning. He said it was because he had much more experience than Americans with watching autocrats do politics.
JML
Frozen here, got a late start for the university, so I get the morning. Not sad about it, because my work environment has been garbage for months. Feeling the need for a new job…but getting sick and tired of fundraising.
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic: Never ate it, never will!
Thor Heyerdahl
Layer8Problem
@gene108: It’s a humorous reference to Game of Thrones, comparing their magically constructed ice wall, built to keep out the White Walkers, metaphorically to New Jersey’s famed Palisades, a pile of igneous rock actually formed 200 million years ago. A thousand years ago the only people living here were the Lenape. 18,000 years ago the ice around here was still pretty damned deep. The terminal moraine on Staten Island and Long Island is at least ten miles south.
catclub
@Attempted Chemistry: Excellent.
While Trump was failing to sell ‘Trump Steaks’ Biden was working
on passing the ACA.
catclub
The economy is Excellent! and that means high demand for workers and high demand and high prices for the good things it produces.
MisterForkbeard
@gene108: I hear you. I wish I could retire, but I’m 25+ years away from that. :/
catclub
CNN:
Doesn’t that show the party is only half his?
Tenar Arha
Boston suburbs, so it’s trying to get to 30’. OTOH town plow just came through, snow coming down at a good enough clip that it’s already hiding the pavement.,
Marmot
@Attempted Chemistry: Oh, absolutely. And all it takes is the real truth—Biden’s wisdom and experience turned a long-predicted recession into a long-lasting boom. It passed big, important legislation when everyone seemed to have given up. And next term, it’ll do even more.
Kosh III
Here in Warren county Tennessee(70 miles SE of Nashville) it was 9 at 6am with a high of maybe 20 today. It started snowing Sunday around 8pm and ended Monday around 8pm. 4-6 inches in most of the county.
I’m able to work from home daily so I can look out the window at the snow covered tree farm behind our house.
prostratedragon
@Layer8Problem: It really is doable with that Arctic gear, i.e. my parka and hat that cannot be worn above about 20°F. But admittedly I have yet to identify a reason to go out in Chicago this week.
Kristine
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
A whoppin’ 2F high up here near the Lake.
Over it. Even the juncos, which are usually ground feeders here, are pecking at the seed and suet feeders. I even saw one huddled inside the suet cage feeder (it keeps out the squirrels. Mostly). I think it was tired of dealing with the snow and wind.
Highs in the low teens tomorrow. It’ll feel like a heat wave.
prostratedragon
Happy 90th to Marilyn Horne!
Here she is in a duet with Leontyne Price, whose 97th comes in about a month:
catclub
@prostratedragon: and Levine’s hair!
Soprano2
@geg6: I am so glad I like my job. I’ve been where you are, it’s no fun.
narya
@RevRick: I’m in Easton!
Geminid
@gene108: I read of an interesting follow-on effect from those North Jersey glaciers. Cities in the Hampton Roads area are experiencing increased flooding.* Some of this is caused by higher tides, but a substantial portion is attributed to the ground subsiding. The glaciers were heavy enough to squeeze the earth’s mantle up in eastern Virginia, but now they’re gone.
* One of the many good things President Obama did was requiring the Pentagon to plan for the effects of global warming. As a result, the Navy has started the process of raising by one meter the height of the piers where Norfok-based aircraft carriers dock.
Soprano2
@Kay: I heard the “try” thing about the Biden campaign on NPR this morning. They use the word “try” a lot about Democrats, which implies failure. I don’t notice them using it about TFG or Republicans much at all.
Baud
@Soprano2:
Same. It’s a tell.
Soprano2
@rikyrah: I got out my “Nanook of the North” coat last Thursday. It’s a full-length real down coat. Everywhere I have the coat, I’m warm. All parts not covered by the coat – cold. I can’t wear it when the temps are above freezing, because it’s too warm. It was my sister’s coat, one of the few things she had that I could wear, and I snapped that puppy up in a second because those coats are expensive! I think she bought it for skiing.
moonbat
I thought Vivek was running on the Trump Electoral Theory that they can’t throw you in jail for financial crimes if you are running for president.
Just waiting now to see whether his defrauding catches up with him.
Geminid
@H.E.Wolf: The article about registering Arizona Natives reminded me of a picture I saw yesterday on Rep. Ruben Gallego’s Twitter account. It showed Gallego and Pascua Yaqui Tribal Chairman Peter Yucupicic. Both men had serious but happy faces, and the caption heading the picture read:
That was on Rep. Gallego’s official account, @RepRubenGallego. His personal, political account (@RubenGallego) featured a reposting of the picture tweet in the above post. That account is quite interesting, and showed some good social media game, I thought.
Betty
@Soprano2: Yes, one of my pet peeves. They do that all the time to the Democrats. The Republicans really aren’t trying to do much though when you think about it.
cain
We have an ice storm coming and weatherman seems confident we are going to have power outages. Ice storm also means I can’t leave the house and go somewhere else for my internet. It’s going to be a mess this week.
Soprano2
@Kay: They’re making the same mistake many Hillary supporters made in 2016. Let’s hope it has the same result.
Soprano2
@Gin & Tonic: Two words – Ted Cruz.
Soprano2
@sab: I cannot forget the bit he did where he showed that TFG was exactly like an African dictator, and said exactly the same things. He joked that if TFG started wearing a fake military uniform with a lot of fake medals on it, it’s time to get really scared. Isn’t it sad that a comedian had a better bead on TFG that most anyone in the press did?
Soprano2
@cain: Even reading the words “ice storm” makes me twitch with memories of the Great Ice Storm of 2007 we had here over the MLK holiday weekend. We were without power for almost two weeks, and we live in the city! I wish for you that the forecasted ice storm isn’t anywhere near as bad as they think it will be, and no power outages. I hope to never live through anything like that again, I found out things about myself that I hadn’t known.
H.E.Wolf
@Geminid:
Many thanks for the info, and for the pointer to Rep. Gallego’s social media account.
There are lots of good folks in the political arena! Glad to be reminded.
schrodingers_cat
@moonbat: It will catch up with him. Of the few Wall Street honchos that got prison sentences for the financial crisis were 2 guys of Indian and SriLankan origin respectively. Gupta and Rajratnam.
Paul in KY
@Gin & Tonic: Alan Keyes was pretty unlikable. In a crazed-wackaloon-religious-weirdo way
Another Scott
Made me look, and do some translation.
The bunnies are resting in front of an electric space heater.
[ belated-lightbulb ]
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.