Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

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

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Trump makes a mockery of the legal system and cowardly judges just sit back and let him.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Jack Smith: “Why did you start campaigning in the middle of my investigation?!”

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

The choice is between normal and crazy.

Never forget that he train is barreling down on Trump, even as he dances on the tracks.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

When we show up, we win.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Fighting On All Fronts, For America!

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Fighting On All Fronts, For America!

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Meanwhile…

NRO‘s Angry Baseball is angry… at us perfidious Democrats:

Reader Interactions

159Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    Haha. That photo is the bomb.

    If you want to make Dems really happy, get all the GOP candidates to drop out.

  6. 6.

    NotMax

    Oh my stars and garters, why oh why did no one tell me about Schmigadoon?   Cavalcade of homages. :)

    Sample from season 1.
    And from season 2.
    .
    Apple TV+ recently announced there will not be a season 3. (Still planning to cancel before three month trial is up; its almost endless chain of technical annoyances and glitches ain’t worth shelling out mazumas for.)

  7. 7.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    Secretary Pete, my recently former boss…okay, boss in that he heads the Department and was about a gazillion levels above me.

    But having seen 27+ years of Transportation secretaries that basically were there for no good reason (other than in Moscow Mitch’s wife’s case, to help ease thru regulatory capture efforts), Pete’s, by far, the best public face of the Department.

  8. 8.

    Manyakitty

    @NotMax: oh, do they share a terrible platform with Paramount Plus? I love the Star Treks and some of the other shows (Geddy Lee and bass players) but it’s become unusable. They’re going to kill everything on it if they don’t get it together.

  9. 9.

    Soprano2

    Some of these right-wingers behave the same way many members of the press do – as if they have no agency in anything. It’s not that they created and want TFG, they are forced by Democrats to support TFG because Democrats don’t like him. They’re forced to support him because he has been indicted for multiple crimes! People like TFG aren’t supposed to be held accountable for the things they did, it’s so unfair that TFG has been indicted. Same as the press – they can’t help the stories they write, they are forced by “circumstances” to write the things they do. They had to go to hundreds of diners over the past 7 years to try to understand his voters, but it totally wasn’t necessary to write any stories about Democratic voters. They have to clean up what TFG says, don’t cha know, it’s the “polite” thing to do. I agree with that one tweet that says TFG’s people want Haley to drop out so he can quit doing events until July. NPR played some audio from an event this morning, and even though none of it was the worst stuff it still sounded unhinged.

  10. 10.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: ​If you want to make Dems really happy, get all the GOP candidates to drop out. trump to self-immolate on national TV.

  11. 11.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Manyakitty: can’t believe I’m caught up enough to participate in the morning threads!

    Blech.

    Would not do to keep you from participating in the morning Blechings.

  12. 12.

    New Deal democrat

    In case you haven’t already seen it, here is a link to a post by Digby with a collection of videos of Trump either losing his train of thought, or mistaking one political figure for another:

     https://digbysblog.net/2024/01/22/hes-losing-it/

    None of them are that dispositive individually (for example, clearly he has a fixation on Obama), but together they paint a striking picture of an old man whose mind is fading.

    And now the Biden-Harris campaign is picking up on the theme, posting a video of Trump losing his train of thought in mid-paragraph, veering from “America is going to hell” to “we have a great death penalty” with no connection whatsoever (shown above).

    As I wrote yesterday, this isn’t going to stop happening, and between now and the election 9 months from now, it is almost certainly going to get worse. It will have no effect whatsoever on MAGAts, but it will on other uncommitted potential voters.

  14. 14.

    Scout211

    I didn’t watch the California Senate debate last night but I guess Steve Garvey (R-Dodgers) didn’t do so well, even for a famous retired baseball player, according to this morning reporting.

    Politico has a review:

    Over the course of the 90-minute debate at the University of Southern California, Garvey struggled to provide details of his policy ideas, was repeatedly laughed at by people in the audience and saw himself ganged up on by his Democratic rivals: Democratic Reps. Katie Porter, Barbara Lee and Adam Schiff.

    One of the tensest exchanges of the night came when the three Democrats all pressed Garvey to say whether he’ll vote for former President Donald Trump a third time.

    Garvey repeatedly refused to answer, saying he would decide before election day. “At that time, I will make my choice.”

    Porter retorted with a zinger: “What they say is true: Once a Dodger, always a Dodger,” she said as the audience howled. “This is not the minor leagues. Who will you vote for?”

  15. 15.

    Baud

    @Scout211:

    Porter retorted with a zinger: “What they say is true: Once a Dodger, always a Dodger,” she said as the audience howled. “This is not the minor leagues. Who will you vote for?”

     
    Ok, that’s good.

  17. 17.

    Another Scott

    @Manyakitty: Axios had a report recently that P+ and other streaming services looking for merger partners. I saw a report somewhere that lots of these conglomerates were setting billions on fire with their subscription streaming channels, but they always do that.

    Expect prices to keep going up…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  21. 21.

    Matt McIrvin

    @NotMax: That’s a pity, given that Season 3 of Shmigadoon would almost write itself (the era of the mega-musical!) I thought S2 was hilarious.

  23. 23.

    Betty Cracker

    Sorry your party sucks and are full of freaks, so you gotta keep making up dumb reasons why it’s the Dems fault but nope. You own him.

    Excellent response to the Angry Baseball Head!

    Repubs are taking a huge gamble nominating Trump, and the ones who aren’t cultists know it. They tell themselves they have no choice, but they’re wrong. They are cowards who lacked the guts to do the right thing in the many inflection points that demanded a tiny measure of courage and patriotism. Now they’ll reap the whirlwind. Couldn’t happen to a more craven bunch of sleazy, malevolent losers.

  24. 24.

    Memory Pallas

    Can we gather up the money that “Governor DeSantis is sending back unspent” and give it to Ukraine?

  26. 26.

    Caveatimperator

    @Soprano2:

    There’s a lot of right wingers who are too conservative to accept the Democrats, but are really ashamed of how fascist the Republicans have become. So they tie themselves in knots to believe the far right turn of the party is not because the party leadership wants it or the voters want it. It must be some nefarious outside force.

     

    And that’s assuming this Murc’s Law logic is honest in the first place. Which might not be true.

  27. 27.

    satby

    I subscribe to Dan Rather’s substack and today’s is very good. A sample:

    One Man

    DAN RATHER AND TEAM STEADY

    JAN 23, 2024

    Here it is January 2024, and we find ourselves reminded anew that we are in a difficult, dangerous, and deepening political reality. As the first primary ballots are being cast in New Hampshire, the country is forced again to face the fact that one man has fundamentally changed us. Simply stated, it’s as sobering and unsettling as that. 

    He has changed what was until recently considered unacceptable behavior for our leaders. He has normalized bigotry, misogyny, racism, ageism, ableism, sexism.

    He has changed our relationships with facts. Now there are phony “alternative facts.” And, lest we forget, wave after wave of outright lies. Scientific truths are scoffed at if they don’t fit his extremist narrative. Rational discourse is a thing of the past, because how can you argue with someone who, in effect, refuses to accept that two plus two makes four.

  29. 29.

    geg6

    OT: PSA to all people from FL who comes to Western PA in the middle of winter. Stay home. You don’t know how to drive in inclement weather and we don’t need you people creating issues for us.

    It’s drizzling and 36F here and the roads are neither snowy nor icy. Just slightly damp. Some dimwit with FL plates pulls out in front of me and then proceeds to go 15 mph the entire 3 miles to my place of employment. What usually takes me about 7 minutes to traverse took me 15 and made me late for work. Fucking asshole. I’m in a bad enough mood these days without this shit.

  31. 31.

    Shalimar

    Slogan for Republicans who recognize Trump’s danger but still aren’t sure whether to do anything: “Get your balls back from wherever Trump kicked them and vote against the malignant sociopath.”

  33. 33.

    Ohio Mom

    I don’t think there is a zero chance that Nikki Haley ends up as the candidate. There’s lots that could happen to Trump in the next few months.

    Which leaves me wondering if voting for a woman of color is so repulsive to enough Republicans that they stay home, or if beating Biden is so compelling they are able to vote for a woman of color.

    Do all of them even realize Nikki Haley isn’t white? Will those that do ironically feel proud of themselves for voting for a woman and a nonwhite?

    Who knows? I am confident Biden’s people are gaming this all out.

  34. 34.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: And likely written by someone else, and practiced repeatedly so the delivery could be natural.

    It’s awesome but I would be surprised if she came up with that on the fly.

  35. 35.

    Manyakitty

    @WaterGirl: when it doesn’t simply crash and take me back to my Amazon home screen, the stuff plays like slide shows. Halting, skipping, the audio and video don’t match, etc. I’ve made sure that the resolution matches across platforms, uninstalled and reinstalled the app, etc. Their customer service is so bad that it would be better if they just sent out a 💩 like twitter instead of the insulting “thanks for your patience” message. ARGH.

  36. 36.

    Matt McIrvin

    The unspoken thing here, and it’s not really that far under the surface, is that Dan knows he should vote for Joe Biden. This makes him feel trapped, as if Joe Biden has orchestrated this situation where he is morally conflicted.

    This probably is also a thing that’s going on with a lot of leftists. They don’t like Joe Biden. He wasn’t their preferred guy, and they feel railroaded into supporting him so they’re trying to find some reason that they’re morally obligated to abstain entirely.

    I see a lot of complaining on social media about Democrats hectoring progressives to vote for Biden. Many will say they are in fact planning to vote for Biden, but they’re upset that other people seem to be implying that they have to like it.

  37. 37.

    Ken

    @Ohio Mom: Do all of them even realize Nikki Haley isn’t white?

    Trump may have mentioned it once or twice.

    Although I can’t think of a plausible scenario for it, if she does become the nominee and he’s still capable of speech, I’m sure he’ll mention it again.

  38. 38.

    dmsilev

    @Ohio Mom: It would probably depend on what happened to Trump that he was no longer the nominee. Dead due to natural causes (one thousand too many Big Macs counts as “natural”, right?), probably there’s much wailing and rending of garments and then they pick a Chosen Successor and rally behind them. If he’s convicted in one or more of his court cases, and states start dropping him from the ballot, pretty much requiring the RNC to replace him on the ticket? The screams of “betrayal!”, “stabbed in the back!”, etc. will be loud enough to be heard on the Moon and no chosen replacement will be seen as legitimate.

    I don’t think, sadly, the second scenario is plausible. A real pity, because an out and out civil war inside the GOP is really what that party needs. Trump’s hold on the party is way too strong. If he’s convicted in the DC case in particular and states start to go all 14th Amendment on him, he will scream about Deep State Repression and so on and so forth, but nobody in the RNC would dare even think about replacing him on the ballot. He’s the nominee unless he dies before Election Day.

  40. 40.

    Elizabelle

    Meh.  They set their own house on fire, and now want to blame Democrats.  Waaah!

    As a palate cleanser:  gift link to wonderful WaPost story:
    How a Vietnamese bakery built a king cake empire in New Orleans

    NEW ORLEANS — It started with a handful of requests and 100 cardboard boxes.

    Over the years, Huong Tran’s bakery, Dong Phuong, had developed a reputation for making the best brioche and mooncakes in the neighborhood. So it was only natural that customers began to ask about king cakes each winter. …

    And, if you find yourself in Versailles LA before Mardi Gras (Tuesday, February 13) — although they do mail order as well:

    the bakery sets aside 400 to 500 cakes each day for walk-in purchases. Get up early, though: The cakes are usually gone by midmorning, as a line of would-be buyers snakes through the parking lot and out toward Chef Menteur Highway, the long, flat road that stretches through the dredged swamp back toward the heart of New Orleans.

  41. 41.

    Chris T.

    @dmsilev:

    A real pity, because an out and out civil war inside the GOP is really what that party needs.

    I know what you mean here, but I’d argue that what the GOP needs is to die off, like the Know-Nothings (with which they share a lot of traits these days). That leaves room for the Democratic party to split into LibDem and ConservaDem groups.

  42. 42.

    Elizabelle

    @Matt McIrvin:  Fuck those leftists.  Fuck ’em.  — ef goldman should come back and go medieval on  their privileged asses.

    I tire of even hearing of them.

  43. 43.

    WaterGirl

    @Manyakitty: Wow, that does sound awful.  Yikes.  Asking because I signed up for Paramount+ because there was some show I waned to watch on there, which I never watched, and I don’ t even recall what show it was!

    And of course it just renewed.  sigh.

  44. 44.

    Betty Cracker

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Many will say they are in fact planning to vote for Biden, but they’re upset that other people seem to be implying that they have to like it.

    Silly if true. Who gives a damn what they think of Biden as long as they agree voting for him is necessary?

  45. 45.

    Elizabelle

    Oppenheimer got 13 Oscar nominations.

    Excellent film.  Expecting it will be back in the theatres soon.

  46. 46.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Elizabelle: People who I like for other reasons, who are the most smart and compassionate and interesting people I know… seem to be like this. Over and over. They are really, really dissatisfied with liberalism and collaborate with it only grudgingly, because they regard the whole world we live in as fundamentally broken and want something radically different and some path beyond reactive harm reduction.

    I understand the feeling.

  49. 49.

    narya

    @Matt McIrvin: are the jokes understandable to those of us who don’t know Brigadoon? (I ask because I went to see PDQ Bach when he was at the Conservatory in Oberlin, and I was absolutely not understanding what was funny through most of it, while the rest of the audience laughed a lot.)

  50. 50.

    Yarrow

    @Betty Cracker:  The downside of them talking about how unhappy they are with Biden is that it might influence low info people they know to stay home and not vote.

  51. 51.

    ...now I try to be amused

    I approve of the Biden-Harris campaign quoting Trump WORD. FOR. EMBARRASSING. WORD. since the media won’t do it.

  52. 52.

    Matt McIrvin

    @narya: Yeah, “Brigadoon” was just one of the many old musicals they were parodying in the first season and the basis for the fantasy setup.

  53. 53.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Agree that votes, not feelings count, although if they’re actively advocating that others not vote for Biden, that might cancel out their votes.

    FWIW, I think many of them fear Biden will die in office early enough that Harris will go into 2028 as an incumbent.

  56. 56.

    Geminid

    @Chris T.: Why would the Democratic Party split? What important issues divide two wings so badly they would separate? Just looking at the House Democratic Caucus, they all seem to be on the same basic page policy-wise.

    Anyway, the Republican Party is not going to fade away. It will likely come out of whatever upheavals lie ahead of it with a core group of 35 or more Senators and 180 or more Representatives in Congress, plus control of most the state legislatures they control now.

  57. 57.

    Bruce K in ATH-GR

    Trump dropping dead is probably the best-case scenario from the GOP’s perspective, because it puts off their reckoning with the devil’s bargain that was the Southern Strategy, allowing the party to (attempt to) unite behind a non-Trump candidate. Absent that, the day of reckoning for the GOP will happen when Trump either goes to prison, loses the election, or crosses a red line in his second term. I can pretty much guarantee that one of those four things will happen fairly soon.

  59. 59.

    Elizabelle

    @Matt McIrvin: They need to read up on how the fascists came to power in Europe during the 1930s.  Who needs communists and trade unionists when you have major media whingeing about how old Biden is, and all these purity ponies who are so smart and compassionate and want to burn it all down.

    Maybe they should talk with some Black citizens and new citizens and actual Democrats too.  They will get hurt first and worse when these “compassionate and intelligent” people’s revolution arrives.

  60. 60.

    Elizabelle

    @raven:  Wonderful.  When did you take that photo?

    And I loved the WaPost story for the resourcefulness and connections in the Vietnamese American community.  Plus, Hurricane Katrina closed them for a few months.

  61. 61.

    mrmoshpotato

    Sec. @PeteButtigieg explains how President Biden’s infrastructure law is benefiting Americans nationwide: We’re going to continue investing in communities even though Republicans have sent money back unspent

    Sec Buttigieg: Take the money!  (And then deny that you got it because of Biden, of course!)

  63. 63.

    Betty Cracker

    @Yarrow: I’m trying to imagine a statistically significant number of real-life conversations that might lead to that result. Not really seeing it.

    If the point is the putative leftists are voting for Biden even though they strenuously oppose some of his policies, it seems like they’d go out of their way to explain to the hypothetical low-info voter why they think it’s important to sully their precious franchise with compromise.

    If anything, it seems like an explanation like that would be persuasive rather than depress turnout, assuming the low-info voter is sympathetic to the speakers’ misgivings. But lots of people are dumb, so who knows?

  65. 65.

    TriassicSands

    @Baud:

    Edited for accuracy:

    Alternate histories are the second-to-last refuge of the scoundrel. Phony patriotism still rules.

    And no group has ever been better at phony patriotism than the Republican Party in 2024. They’re also superb at alternate histories. What they can’t manage is simple truth.

  66. 66.

    Rusty

    I got myself to the New Hampshire primary on the way to work.  While briefly tempted vote for Paperboy Love Prince from Brooklyn, I happily wrote in Joe Biden.  Now that we are moving beyond polls, I am hoping that actual shows of support will shut up the pundits and nay-sayers.  Turnout for the primary was high with a steady stream of cars to the polling place at our town high school.  Lots of people wearing their Trump hats heading through the door, with a couple of people holding Haley signs and one guy holding a sign for writing in Joe.  A school org was selling cookies and the Lions Club was trolling for new members.  Overall a happy atmosphere. 

  67. 67.

    apocalipstick

    @WaterGirl: I watch P+ standalone through Roku and it works fine. I think it might have as much to do with Amazon as Paramount.

    A lot of streaming services will be going under anyway. The goose can’t lay golden eggs for everyone.

  68. 68.

    Elizabelle

    @raven: Silly question, but would you ever go back?  I hear such good things, and the Vietnamese people I have met are among the kindest ever.

  69. 69.

    Manyakitty

    @WaterGirl: it’s so frustrating, because I pay for commercial free with Showtime. And I can watch for maybe an hour or so before I want to throw my TV out the window.

    I know it’s just them because my other apps at least approach working, including Sling, where I watch live shows.

  72. 72.

    Baud

    @Rusty:

    Trumpers happy? That’s a first.

    🤞for a successful write in effort. If Joe doesn’t clear 90%, best to turn off the media until the SC primary.

  75. 75.

    Redshift

    When DeSantis near the end tried the “Democrats want to run against Trump” line, I just laughed. Dude, Democrats would love to run against you!

  78. 78.

    Suzanne

    Sorry your party sucks and are full of freaks

    Yeah, pretty much.
    I’m happy DeSantis dropped out because he’s a terrible person and would make a terrible president. I honestly don’t think Trump is uniquely dangerous. I think all Republicans are dangerous.

  79. 79.

    raven

    @Elizabelle: I’ve wanted to but these mobility issues are not encouraging. I’ve wanted to go back to Korea as well as Vietnam but I’m afraid that ship sailed.  I’m going to Costa Rica Sunday but have the fishing and ATV’s tours set soother is that!

  80. 80.

    Baud

    @Suzanne:

    I don’t know if a DeSantis would destroy NATO. He seems more concerned with domestic oppression.

    With Trump, I fear more for the international order and stability.

  81. 81.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ohio Mom:

    I don’t think there is a zero chance that Nikki Haley ends up as the candidate. There’s lots that could happen to Trump in the next few months.

    Which leaves me wondering if voting for a woman of color is so repulsive to enough Republicans that they stay home, or if beating Biden is so compelling they are able to vote for a woman of color.

    Do all of them even realize Nikki Haley isn’t white? Will those that do ironically feel proud of themselves for voting for a woman and a nonwhite.

    Who knows? I am confident Biden’s people are gaming this all out.

    So you think they’d vote for a white woman?

  82. 82.

    Baud

    @Redshift:

    There probably was a time when some Dems feared DeSantis more, but he is such a dweeb, I think most people would prefer him to Trump as an opponent.

  83. 83.

    Soprano2

    @New Deal democrat: As a person who is currently having personal experience with someone who has dementia, the thought that someone like that could become president is terrifying. He won’t be in control of himself; those who are around him will be in charge of things. Sometimes he might be lucid, other times not. It’ll be harder and harder to get him to do the things he needs to do as president, and if it gets bad enough they won’t be able to hide it. That’s not what we want.

  84. 84.

    Suzanne

    @Baud: I think anyone who depends on the worst people in the country for their political career is dangerous. Anyone the Republicans would nominate is, definitionally, a lunatic at this point.

  89. 89.

    Jeffro

    @Shalimar:“Get your balls back from wherever Trump kicked them and vote against the malignant sociopath.”

    Yeah but is there a nicer way to say that?

    ‘Cause I don’t want to hurt their fee-fees or anything….   =)

  91. 91.

    Jeffro

    @…now I try to be amused:I approve of the Biden-Harris campaign quoting Trump WORD. FOR. EMBARRASSING. WORD. since the media won’t do it.

    Have to agree completely.

    Last week I noted it looked like the Biden/Harris campaign’s ads were going to be about 75% just straight-up clips of trumpov (bragging about ending Roe, babbling his hateful nonsense, etc)

    I’d like to up that prediction to 85-90%

  92. 92.

    Ohio Mom

    @mrmoshpotato: That’s my question, what is the balance between hating Biden/any Democrat and their misogyny and racism.? Which one will tip the scale?

    Look, I’ve voted for some absolute losers just because they were Democrats — thinking here especially of the Democrat who ran for governor of Ohio caught without valid driver’s license — forget his name. He was a totally incompetent clown but I reasoned I wanted to show my overall support of the Democratic Party.

    So maybe loyalty to the GOP will rule.

  93. 93.

    Citizen Alan

    @mrmoshpotato: If she were christian enough. And made it clear enough to the Republican electorate that she would defer to her husband and her preacher on most important decisions. No one in the GOP objects to Amy Coathanger Barrett having.a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.

  94. 94.

    Elizabelle

    @twbrandt:

    Aaron Rupar’s interview with BJ’s own DougJ is no longer paywalled.

    That’s great news.  I wish the majors would do that too, after a spell.  FTF NY Times and WaPost.

    All the news that’s fit to be paywalled.  Democracy dies behind a paywall.

  95. 95.

    Elizabelle

    @raven:  Enjoy Costa Rica!

    Bummer about the mobility issues.  And there are some places that are just very hard with that.  Petra.  Vietnam; a lot of worthwhile places.

  96. 96.

    geg6

    @Elizabelle:

    Actually, I’m going to be the Debbie Downer on Oppenheimer.  I thought it was the most boring movie I’ve seen in years and that’s saying something because I didn’t think superhero movies could be outdone for boring.  I turned it off and cursed myself for plunking down $$ to watch it when I could have spent that cash on an entertaining movie, Barbie, that I’ve already seen and would see another ten times.  YMMV, but ugh!  I hated it!

  97. 97.

    Jeffro

    Betty, did you see Eugene Robinson’s take on DeSantis dropping out?

    The nation’s gain is Florida’s loss.  OUCH!

     

    All [of DeSantis’] posturing has real-world impacts. Florida school districts are having trouble hiring and retaining teachers, and Florida’s state colleges, including the flagship University of Florida, are losing prized faculty members. Ultimately, it is Florida’s students who suffer for DeSantis’s ambition.

    On abortion, DeSantis apparently decided not to let any potential GOP candidate outflank him on the right. Having already signed a 15-week ban into law, he went further and had the legislature pass a pitiless six week ban with no exceptions for rape or incest. That law, too, is the subject of a court fight, which the state Supreme Court is expected to eventually decide in DeSantis’s favor

    The good news is that Florida voters might have the final word in November.  Activists now say they have enough signatures to place a measure enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution on the ballot. If the DeSantis administration fails to torpedo the ballot initiative, and if Florida follows the pattern of other states, having abortion at issue will likely boost Democratic turnout and cause problems for Republicans up and down the ballot. DeSantis’s effort to leverage reproductive rights for political gain will have been counterproductive.

    Just like his whole campaign.

    It is hard to see what DeSantis might have gained from his presidential run and easy to see what he has lost. His appeal, in theory, was as someone who could deliver on Trump’s MAGA policy agenda without all of Trump’s baggage. But DeSantis proved to be an awkward, wooden candidate who struggled to connect. His best weapons in Florida had been his bluster and belligerence, but he was too timid to use them against Trump. As all the failed GOP candidates have learned, primary voters don’t want New Trump — not while Trump Classic is still available.

    The nation’s gain is Florida’s loss, sadly. I fear DeSantis will continue using the state as a stage to boost his MAGA profile — just like those awfully high heels on his cowboy boots(!)

  98. 98.

    Elizabelle

    @geg6: I liked it so much more than I was expecting.

    And:  Greta Gerwig did not get a Best Director Oscar nomination for Barbie.  FWIW.  I think that sucks.

  99. 99.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @Suzanne:

    I think anyone who depends on the worst people in the country for their political career is dangerous.

    Yep. Perversely, they tend to be worse than the worst people in the country because they’re pandering to them, and competing with other panderers.

  100. 100.

    Soprano2

    @Matt McIrvin: I suspect they want something that goes against human nature, some kind of utopia. I would like for these people to tell me if there was ever a time the world was the way they’d like it to be, because I suspect it never has been. What makes them think it could ever be like that? The theory of communism is great, but the actual practice of it is terrible. There’s a reason for that – human nature.

  101. 101.

    Yarrow

    @Betty Cracker: 

    If the point is the putative leftists are voting for Biden even though they strenuously oppose some of his policies, it seems like they’d go out of their way to explain to the hypothetical low-info voter why they think it’s important to sully their precious franchise with compromise.

    I don’t know about that. My impression of those kinds of leftists is they like to tell everyone why Whatever Democrat isn’t living up to their expectations. I’d expect lots of talking about why Biden has disappointed them and how Certain Left Candidates would be so much better. Maybe eventually they’d get around to saying their holding their nose and voting for Biden but I can also imagine the low info voter would have tuned out by then. There’s a reason their low info. They’d hear the complaining about Biden and not the, “but I’m voting for him anyway” part. But as you say, all this is hypothetical so who knows.

    Lots of complaining on the left might get picked up and elevated by the media who aren’t getting their dopamine hits from TFG. “Democrats unhappy with Biden” might get a few clicks. So there’s that angle too.

  103. 103.

    artem1s

    I can understand the ‘celebration’ around DeathSantis dropping out. But I think it was a dumb move on his part and isn’t going to help in the war against putting the Orange back in the White House. The GOP primary was always going to be about who could amass enough delegates to be an influence on the Party if/when TIFG either 1) doesn’t have the majority of delegates in July for the convention 2) drops out because health, lawsuits, or dies, and/or 3) isn’t eligible to run in the GE or hold office because 14th or various other reasons. At which point the Party is going to have to make some hard decisions. And who has control over delegates is going to come into play come July. If he and Haley together held more than 20-40% of the delegates, they could have formed a coalition or done some serious negotiating at convention time. But now it’s just Haley and that will severely diminish the power of the delegates she might be able amass.
    Now TIFG gets to crawl back in his hole, never appear in a GOP debate and the MAGAt nation and MSM will forget just how awful he was, never mind having to face how demented he’s become. And it lets the GOP save all their money for the GE rather than having to waste it on a long drawn out primary. I just wish he had held on at least thru Super Tuesday. I think Haley will hold on until the convention because she understands that it’s the only way she can amass power within the Party structure. She’s looking at the long picture and eyeballing that power vacuum which could happen at any moment. Worse case scenario for Dems is TIFG Void happens in late summer or early fall. And Haley and Darth Jr. form some ‘Reasonable Republican’ coalition and then all GOPers who might have stayed at home for the GE, suddenly bring the EC and a GOPer held House back into play.
    Just was hoping the internecine GOPer wars could have lasted at least until the convention. :-(

  104. 104.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jeffro: Yeah, we’re all wondering how it’s going to play out. There are signs at least some statehouse Repubs realize they got out over their skis in enacting his campaign agenda and may be looking at a backlash. (Brief discussion of it in the morning thread — a new bill to make it harder for cranks to remove school library books.)

    OTOH, DeSantis and/or wife still harbors big ambitions, so he may try to MAGA-fy the state further. My hope is the tension between his ambitions and statehouse Repubs’ desire to hang onto their jobs blows up in an ugly way. We’ll see! ;-)

  105. 105.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @geg6: Agreed. Christopher Nolan has fallen into the same creative rabbit hole that consumed Stanley Kubrick: the cold triumph of technique over emotional resonance. Oppenheimer is gorgeous to look at but the actors have been replaced by meat puppets.

  107. 107.

    catclub

    Trump seems to have a speech impediment:  besides ‘sollest’ for smallest

    it was ‘institiv’  for institute.

  108. 108.

    TBone

    @WaterGirl: I once had to cancel a new credit card (I rarely use credit anyhow) because a membership fee for Prime was fraudulenly charged to the new card number right off the bat.  I said, when reporting the fraud to the skeptical agent, “Do you see ANY Amazon purchases in my card history with your company?” Fuck Jeff Bezos and Amazon.

  110. 110.

    Jackie

    @Citizen Alan:

    No one in the GOP objects to Amy Coathanger Barrett having.alifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.

    The GQP is plenty pissed off for her voting to remove the razor wire in Texas. She’s a traitor to MAGA, per MTG.

    Sorry Marge, you and TIFG can’t do a damned thing about it! 😂

  111. 111.

    wjca

    @Citizen Alan: No one in the GOP objects to Amy Coathanger Barrett having.a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court.

    After her vote to let Border Patrol do their jobs (or, if you prefer, to have the Federal government be superior to state government) I’d bet the governor of Texas does.

    EDT Jackie got there first

  114. 114.

    wjca

    @Yarrow: I’d expect lots of talking about why Biden has disappointed them and how Certain Left Candidates would be so much better.

    Except for the detail of not making it thru the General election.  Think McGovern.

  115. 115.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @geg6: Glad to hear some critical feedback (beyond just: do we really wanna celebrate this horrible historical event?) since we are still on the fence about watching Oppenheimer.  I’m still bewildered by the pretty muted response in my social circle to Barbie.  I suspect it’s because a lot of my friends work in Hollywood and fancy themselves experts of cinema so they are giving Barbie the Marvel treatment where they don’t treat it seriously because it was too much fun, made too much money and doesn’t have the typical look/feel of an Oscar-worthy film, even though Barbie is absolutely Oscar-worthy in every way.  So many of them put up snobby posts like “Sure Barbie was fun but Oppenheimer (or Killers of the Flower Moon) is the real cinematic masterpiece.”  Basically, industry/film-school posturing…eyeroll…

  117. 117.

    VFX Lurker

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    I suspect it’s because a lot of my friends work in Hollywood and fancy themselves experts of cinema so they are giving Barbie the Marvel treatment where they don’t treat it seriously because it was too much fun, made too much money and doesn’t have the typical look/feel of an Oscar-worthy film, even though Barbie is absolutely Oscar-worthy in every way. 

    Barbie might also get snubbed because women made it for women. Women make up only one-third of Academy voters.

  118. 118.

    Spanky

    @Baud:

    You don’t have to tell me. I’ve got that tattooed on my ass cheeks.

    I would pay good money not to see that as a rotating tag.

  119. 119.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Elizabelle: So ridiculous.  The film made $1.5 BILLION and was critically acclaimed.  Gerwig managed to thread the needle of making a super-blockbuster film, that was incredibly fun but also moving and making a statement on a major social issue (Patriarchy) while also delivering excellence in every area of film craft that the Academy focusses on.

    As I wrote above, I suspect a lot of it is film-school/industry snobbery of the sort that also makes them overlook Marvel movies and other hugely popular films.  The Academy likes a certain type of film.  They will make exceptions sometimes (like Top Gun: Maverick), but usually anything that is hugely successful gets very little love from the Academy unless it features one of their darlings.  Had Everything, Everywhere, All At Once not featured Jamie Lee Curtis, I bet it would have gotten way less nominations.  Likewise, if Barbie somehow found a way to include someone like Meryl Streep, I bet Gerwig would’ve gotten a Best Director nod, even with the exact same film.  Hollywood is very much a cool kids club.

  122. 122.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @VFX Lurker: Oh absolutely.  And while Hollywood is okay with that for an artsy/Indie film, I think a lot of Academy voters resent the fact that it made literally three times as much $ as Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon etc.  Barbie intruded on their film space the way Taylor Swift has invaded football games.  I think there are some sad parallels in male responses to both.

  124. 124.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Manyakitty: My wife just told me she just heard a film critic on NPR (a woman, no less) say that “Oppenheimer is a movie about a great scientist, Barbie is a movie about a doll…”  Talk about proving the point that Gerwig was making…

  125. 125.

    Elizabelle

    @Manyakitty:  Yep.

    @UncleEbeneezer:  I think you would find Oppenheimer interesting for how it depicts the 1940s and 1950s.  Also fun to figure out who’s in the cast.  “Hey.  I know that face. But who…”

    Sickened about the exclusion of Gerwig.  Suspect Oppenheimer will win big (and Cillian Murphy was astonishing), but I am now over this year’s Oscars.

    How many times do those fuckers have to nominate Martin Scorsese?  For fuck’s sake.

  126. 126.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud:

    FWIW, I think many of them fear Biden will die in office early enough that Harris will go into 2028 as an incumbent.

    Personally, I don’t understand why that’s a fear at all. One of the reasons I am relatively chill about Biden’s age is that Harris seems fine to take over at any point. I guess they want someone more to their liking to get the nomination in ’28.

    Historically, it’s very hard for any party to hang onto the White House for three elections in a row, regardless. (Though the more time passes, the less likely it is that the Republican we have to deal with as a result is Donald Trump.) Incumbency might help, who knows.

  128. 128.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Elizabelle: It’s definitely on my list as I generally like that type of movie and Nolan’s work too.

    Speaking of “I know that face”, we were watching Feud: Betty and Joan and realized that the actor who plays Frank Sinatra is the Dad from Dickinson.  He was great, but totally different, in both.  We were also watching the mystery series Death, An Other Details and realized a main character is the same actor who played the ad-writer turned Hare Krishna on Mad Men.

  129. 129.

    Matt McIrvin

    @UncleEbeneezer: Everyone in my social circle thought Barbie was terrific. My daughter was the first of us to see it, was raving about it to everyone she met, specifically as a political allegory (she was never much of a fan of Barbie the toy).

    The movie I’m actually most bummed about missing during the short time it was in theaters was, of all things, The Marvels, because I have the impression from those who saw it that it was actually quite good on its own merits (but suffered from some combination of MCU exhaustion, excessive dependence on TV content, and an active campaign to tank it by chuds who hate Brie Larson). Well, it’ll come around on streaming soon enough.

    And Godzilla Minus One was robbed in the Oscar nominations, getting only a nom for visual effects. Japan submitted something else as their Best International Picture candidate. Should be in the running for at least some of Best Picture, Best Director and multiple of the acting awards–I particularly think Sakura Ando needs to be up for Best Supporting Actress.

  130. 130.

    Elizabelle

    @Matt McIrvin: Hard to hang on because of the execrable Electoral College.  Without that slavemaster relic institution, you have the Democrats winning the popular vote in every election since 2008.

    Two terms of Obama, and Hillary Clinton in 2016.

    The Electoral College gotta go.

  132. 132.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Juju: Yeah but Mirren didn’t get any screen time.  And I think Academy voters don’t view narration as anywhere near the same level of acting.

    @Matt McIrvin: Oh I just assumed GM1 was released too late to make the cut for 2023 awards.  We loved it!

  133. 133.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: The “she’s a cop” business had a lot of people convinced that Kamala Harris is some kind of authoritarian extremist. Some of the associations with Hillary Clinton on both the right and the further left seemed to automatically transfer to her.

  134. 134.

    Matt McIrvin

    @UncleEbeneezer: Nope, it’s a 2023 movie. But apparently the black-and-white “…Minus Color” version is going to get a one-week US release starting Friday, so we have one last chance to see it on the big screen.

    I wonder what kind of business an English dub of Godzilla Minus One would do. I heard that it was released dubbed in some other countries (Germany at least). On the one hand, there are still people who don’t like to watch subtitled movies for whatever reason. On the other hand, Godzilla specifically has this decades-old American association with comically bad dubs that probably means an import in the series needs subtitles to get critical respect.

  135. 135.

    Soprano2

    @Citizen Alan: They couldn’t wait to vote for Sarah Palin, either. I think they like the idea that the first female president could be a Republican, as long as it’s the right one.

  136. 136.

    wjca

    @Soprano2: I think they like the idea that the first female president could be a Republican

    It would definitely be seen as a way to “own the lubs”.

  138. 138.

    Soprano2

    @Jackie: It’s insane, do they honestly think it would be better if every state had their own immigration policy? I think their brains are well and truly broken by their abject fear of what they see as strange brown-skinned people.

  141. 141.

    Soprano2

    @UncleEbeneezer: They think that if the average person likes it, then it’s not good enough for an award. I belong to an e-mail list with some TV people on it; they all love Dave Letterman and Conan O’Brien, and couldn’t stand Leno and constantly criticize Colbert and Fallon and Kimmel. They complain that Colbert “constantly interrupts” his guests, but I’ve watched for that and don’t see any evidence of it. I think they liked how Letterman made his guests supremely uncomfortable, but most of us don’t want to watch that. I think they watch so  much TV that anything that’s unusual or different seems great to them.

  142. 142.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Soprano2: For many years it was conventional wisdom that the first Black President would have to be a Republican, possibly Colin Powell or someone like him. That didn’t happen. I don’t even think there’s space for a Colin Powell type in the current party.

    They said the same thing about the first woman President (possibly Elizabeth Dole or someone like her!) That hasn’t happened either.

  143. 143.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Soprano2: I think there are Americans who probably find the idea of internal passports pretty cool. Keep the wrong kind of people from even crossing state lines!

  145. 145.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Soprano2: Totally.  They need to feel like they somehow have elevated (better) tastes than the masses.  But sometimes the hugely successful blockbuster can also be incredibly good from an artistic/craft standpoint too.  I think it definitely got punished for being too pink, too girly and Academy voters (men especially) thinking that means it can’t be taken seriously.

  146. 146.

    Paul in KY

    @Matt McIrvin: Agree on incumbency. Wish Pres. Clinton had stepped back & let VP Gore take over in 98 or so. That might have been the thing to get him over the top.  All hindsight, of course.

  147. 147.

    Paul in KY

    @Baud: If you’re a ‘leftist’ and get a Black Female to run for Pres on Dem ticket, you gotta be OK with that.

  148. 148.

    Geminid

    @Matt McIrvin: When Abigail Spanberger put the word out this summer that she would run for Governor, there were some predictable responses on Twitter. Spanberger’s ex-CIA, so people complained that she is a sort of World Cop, an agent of Hegemonic Oppression.

    It’s not a very big cohort of Virginia voters who think this way, though. Most are like, “There used to be a CIA person in the neighborhood, and they kept their lawn mowed just right. The Homeland Security people cut theirs too short.”

  150. 150.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Geminid:

    It’s not a very big cohort of Virginia voters who think this way, though. Most are like, “There used to be a CIA person in the neighborhood, and they kept their lawn mowed just right. The Homeland Security people cut theirs too short.”

    Yeah, I remember Virginia well…

  151. 151.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Paul in KY:

    Wish Pres. Clinton had stepped back & let VP Gore take over in 98 or so. That might have been the thing to get him over the top.

    That’s one of those Aaron Sorkin plot device type things that pundits always fantasize about happening but it never happens–the popular President voluntarily resigning just to give the VP a leg up. There was even talk of Obama doing it.

  153. 153.

    Paul in KY

    @Matt McIrvin: I knew (back then) it would not happen. Pres. Clinton’s ego would not permit it. Putting country over self is very hard for some (generally very good) people to do.

    Edit: There was no plausible reason for Pres. Obama doing that. Mrs. Clinton had a candidate she should have whupped bad. She ran a bad campaign & never figured out what people would give him a pass for and what they would hold against him.

  158. 158.

    Citizen Alan

    @Paul in KY:  I disagree. I think if Gore had given Clinton free reign to campaign on his behalf and not picked moralizing scold Joe Lieberman as his running mate instead of tacitly agreeing with the GOP critique of Clinton, he would have won handily.

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