My two US senators, Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, are horrible in diverse ways. The former is a grotesque wannabe oligarch with a history of defrauding social programs and an unquenchable thirst to redirect any funds the government might spend on the common good into his own pockets. Rubio is an empty husk of deflated ambition and surrendered dignity.
But I wouldn’t trade either for JD Vance, the remote-controlled meat-sack operated by actual vampire squid Peter Thiel. The Ohio senator is evidently vying with a cadre of obsequious crackpots to land the VP slot on the Trump ticket, and he may have secured the gig with a deeply paranoid screed about the bipartisan senate bill to fund Ukraine, Taiwan and Israel.
Vance’s extremely dumb theory checks all the MAGA Cinematic Universe plot points, affirming Hair Furor’s benevolent view of Putin, amplifying his delusional claims he can instantly end Russia’s war against Ukraine and alleging certain Republicans are in league with Democrats to sandbag Trump. It was too much even for National Review hack Noah Rothman:
Vance sees (the bill) as a cleverly laid trap designed to compel a future president Trump to implement policies he doesn’t like. “Though few have noticed, buried in the bill’s text is a kill switch for the next Trump presidency…”
The crux of Vance’s claim rests on a mechanism in the bill that ensures the availability of the funds Congress appropriates through the fall of 2025. This fairly standard provision is unlikely to be necessary — those funds will almost certainly be under contract well before that date. After all, if Vance believes the funding horizon for Ukraine is too long and hamstrings future presidents, that was not a reservation he expressed in his support of a House-backed bill providing for Israel’s defense through September 2025. We’re fast running out of good-faith explanations for Vance’s latest claim.
Indeed, the senator’s enthusiastic effort to read malignancy into the attempt to take the issue of Ukraine off the agenda for the remainder of the calendar year could be construed as misplaced zeal if it didn’t contrast with Vance’s inability to see malice on the part of the country whose aggression made this initiative necessary.
The Ohio senator spent a good portion of a weekend he will never get back making excuses for the delusions under which Russian president Vladimir Putin operates, all while casting his domestic opponents as a threat to liberty akin to Putin’s regime.
I don’t know how Stefanik, Lake, et al., top that. For the sake of my own tenuous peace of mind, I’m telling myself an opportunistic fart-sack like JD Vance will rise no higher in US politics than the height to which he’s already preposterously ascended. But he’s ready for his MAGA close-up.
Open thread.
Quiltingfool Quilt Raffle for Ukraine (Open Thread)
Baud
Ohio could have had Tim Ryan, who seemed like he actually cared about the state.
Suzanne
Someone wants to be Vice President!
Yutsano
Shit. I was going to get into a screed about how Tim Ryan screwed up but Ohio had a choice and went with this overeducated fuckstick. And they’ll probably be stuck with him for decades. Ugh.
lowtechcyclist
I loathe Vance almost as much as I loathe TFG himself. He’s just across-the-board horrible.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
When I look at the Senate and see clowns like Vance who are even worse than clowns like (name more or less any GOP Senator), I really do hope for the asteroid strike.
A reboot is in order.
Betty Cracker
@Yutsano: Ron Howard was taken in by that self-aggrandizing putz, and I’ll never forgive him for involving Glenn Close and Amy Adams!
Raoul Paste
The only way Ohio gets rid of JD Vance is if they directly associate him with no-exceptions abortion-prohibition.
And then it’s still a maybe
bbleh
That Vance has come this far in the public “veepstakes” reduces his chances IMO. As others have observed, TIFG is 100% about dominance, and while public abasement no doubt meets with his approval, that they’re getting attention at all likely counts against them. Remember how much he likes to take credit for others’ success: he even tried wrt Taylor Swift by lying about the MMA. And it’s a historical truism that Dense Pence was a washed-up nothing and would have remained so if TIFG hadn’t pulled him out of the trash.
Also not sure to whom Vance would appeal that TIFG doesn’t. Pence at least had the God-botherers on his side, which was a bit of an issue for TIFG in ’16. Vance has … mouthy Ivy-League grads?
I’d be inclined to bet on someone more like a rigidly straight-laced and visibly religiostic prosecutor with NO current national public visibility, who’ll rant righteously about drug-muling Illegals and Hunter Biden’s you-know-what and in the next breath complain without the slightest awareness of irony about politicized prosecutors like Jack Smith and Fani Willis. But most importantly, a nonentity, whom TIFG can claim is his own creation that owes him everything.
And I wouldn’t be surprised if Vance, Stefanik et al. have similar thoughts and are just playing the VP game to boost their brands.
dmsilev
One thing about Trump is that he’s very good at attracting people who are like him, completely void of all morality and consumed with a desperate need for validation. It’s valuable for identifying those people.
Basically, we need to observe this public VP audition, gather up all of the candidates, stick them in a large rocket, point it somewhere roughly five galaxies over, and hit the ‘go’ button. Yes, yes, Elon, you can ride along.
Suzanne
@Raoul Paste: I’d like to associate JD Vance with an abortion. Can they do it in the 176th trimester?
Ocotillo
WTF Ohio? For gawds sake between you and Florida you used to be swing states and now…….
Jay
@bbleh:
Peter Thiel, noted vampire and actual Billionaire.
Baud
After Trump, I’ve given up on the idea of any sort of meritocracy when it comes to political leadership.
kindness
@dmsilev: The list of people being put on Elon Musk’s Mars rocket is going to be long.
Manyakitty
He’s loathesome and I’m ashamed that my state inflicted him upon us all.
bbleh
@Jay: good point — divided loyalty! Strike two!
Manyakitty
@Betty Cracker: I never got around to watching that and now I’m glad about it.
Manyakitty
@Raoul Paste: I figured he had his post-senate job lined up already. Maybe something in hell.
mrmoshpotato
@kindness: Whoops! Left turn at Albuquerque – headed towards the Sun!
Betty Cracker
@Baud: True, but I’m hoping Vance is a squib like DeSantis and Hawley.
Beavis C Dawg
My wife and I live in Ashtabula county and we also work the polls for the last several years. This is a pretty red area, but we were surprised at the turnout percentage for the last election with issue 1 and issue 2 (abortion and marijuana legalization) passing easily here. There aren’t many running in the primary on March 19 according to our local ballot and in this county it is difficult to find candidate information and positions. Don’t know if this is a feature or a bug but it seems to affect turnout.
Ohio Mom
Believe me, it’s excruciating to have this asshole as my Senator. I try to console myself that while his predecessor, Rob Portman, had very nice manners, Republicans almost all vote the same way so it’s a wash.
It’s fun to think Vance would run with Trump and get trounced and somehow we Buckeyes would be freed of him but it’s also fun to think about coming into a personal fortune.
As I understand it, besides being gerrymandered, Ohio’s main issue is that our population skews old. The gerrymandering means our Statehouse is disproportionally Red and that we end up sending too many Republicans to the House.
The fact that our youngsters move away and other young adults are not attracted to move here (a reasonable decision) means that for Senate and statewide executive positions, we don’t have Blue youngsters balancing out the old conservatives coots.
Frankensteinbeck
A lot of the time I argue that no, they’re just like that, but I think Vance has an established history of adopting whatever persona he thinks will sell. Trying to wrangle VP is probably exactly what he’s doing.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: Yeah, who ran as “conservative lite,” ran away from Biden, ran nearly NO Black outreach and consequently a *shite* GOTV and thus lost to that wretched dilettante.
Tim Ryan is WHY we have that empty suit as an Ohio senator.
Professor Bigfoot
@Yutsano: No Democrat wins without the enthusiastic support of the Black electorate.
Tim Ryan *fucked up large,* and I’m still salty about it.
Betty Cracker
@Manyakitty: You didn’t miss a thing. For a more compelling and authentic tale about the drug-hollowed, honor-culture impaired white poor in the US, I highly recommend “Winter’s Bone,” which stars a very young Jennifer Lawrence. It doesn’t purport to be a true story, but the depiction was so visceral I could smell the cabin where the family lives.
BellyCat
@bbleh: Agreed. To receive attention is to disqualify oneself for Trump VP consideration. Some unknown god-botherer is almost certain.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: As long as Democrats try to pretend that the “white working class” vote is more important than getting out the Black vote, *they will lose.*
Democrats do not win without the enthusiastic support of the Black electorate, because they’re who the Republicans hate.
Tim Ryan ran after the “white working class” voter by casting himself as “conservative lite,” and running against the President and the Democratic Party.
And yes, I’m still salty about it.
Doug R
I thought Florida had 4 Senators. Or at least 4 Senators that lived there.
Although I think Tuberville thinks he represents St Petersburg, just it’s the one in Russia.
Another Scott
Brown and Vance worked together on a train safety bill after the Palestine, OH disaster.
MoJo says it was watered down in June 2023 to try to get it passed.
In that story, it points out that Vance is one of the folks trying to turn the GQP into a “party of the little guy”, but isn’t getting anywhere with it. Smart people on our side need to be aware of what he’s trying to do (remember that abortion was a wedge to divide natural Democratic constituencies, also too).
AFAIK, the bill still hasn’t gone anywhere. But, politics is slow.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
Well, I can’t speak to specifics about Tim Ryan, but Dems haven’t done well statewide in Ohio in a long time except for Obama. Ryan’s loss was not an outlier.
Betty Cracker
@Professor Bigfoot: All true, and the results suggest Ryan ran a lousy campaign. But any voter who has to be personally courted to show up and prevent a piggy fascist like Vance from taking office is no better than petulant Bernie Bro.
Geminid
@Professor Bigfoot: I thought Tim Ryan was going after white middle class and upper-middle class Republicans and Republican-voting Independents. Those were the likelier defectors.
In the event not many defected, but I don’t think Ryan would have won had he run a more overtly partisan campaign.
Professor Bigfoot
@Geminid: Like I said– they’re not going to pick “conservative lite” when they can get a real conservative.
Remember when Tim tried to mount an insurrection against Nancy SMASH?
Yeah, that guy is a fucking idiot.
Professor Bigfoot
@Betty Cracker: You’ve got to at least *show up* for the Black vote, and *ask* for it.
See, for example, Joe Biden. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Black folks know who like us and who don’t.
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: Because Ohio Democrats have not yet learned the lesson Joe Biden did: those white voters are NOT coming back.
You better get EVERYBODY ELSE, because the majority of white people are going to vote GOP, period full stop.
Baud
@Professor Bigfoot:
From what Kay says, Ohio is booming thanks to Joe. It would be awesome if the state swung blue this November.
Alison Rose
Betty, I snorted so hard at this, I startled the cat. A++
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Baud: It would be nice if a booming economy brought some of those educated young people back to Ohio. Then Team Blue might have a shot.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Betty Cracker:
I knew the area in Misery where it was filmed very well. In fact, before the film was widely released, it was shown at a very small festival in Columbia MO where we met and talked with the director and one of the producers.
I’ve always said that Hollywood could never get rurl ‘Murka accurate (it’s always too pretty). This movie nails it but then again, this movie wasn’t Hollywood.
Baud
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
Where are all the young people going? I always hear stories about states getting redder because either young people are moving out or old people are moving in. Shouldn’t the law of averages mean some states are getting bluer?
Professor Bigfoot
@Baud: It is definitely booming. You should see the Hall of Fame Village going up around the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
New buildings all over; new businesses (new and interesting restaurants– didn’t get taco trucks on every corner but, but I ain’t mad!)
One can only hope these lifted pickup driving goobers get a clue about why they can afford those lifted pickups.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: If super blue states get bluer it doesn’t help us at all, unless there’s so much population gain that they gain votes in the next census (unlikely).
The conventional wisdom is that the Big Sort helps Republicans because it concentrates Democrats where they get fewer electoral and Congressional votes.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Is that what’s happening though? California has lost population. Which blue state is getting bluer?
@Professor Bigfoot:
I don’t think I could get over the taco trucks.
BellyCat
@Matt McIrvin: Investing in futures for walled cities is the next bubble. //
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Baud: So, the young people I know have moved to places like Denver, Boston, Seattle, Austin, etc.
Betty Cracker
@Professor Bigfoot: So now Ohio is stuck with MAGA fascist JD Vance, and it may not work out as well for Ohio Dems as Marco Rubio’s reelection is working out for the 50% of registered FL Dems who couldn’t be arsed to support Val Demings. Good politicians never criticize voters. I’m not a politician.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Baud: California has lost population, but according to the people I know in Arizona, it’s been GOPers fleeing the state to move to Phoenix.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
My philosophy too.
Baud
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
Well, Austin helps.
Geminid
There is an important meeting in Cairo scheduled for tomorrow. Along with his Egyptian and Israeli counterparts, CIA Director William Burns will meet with Qatar Prime Minister al Thani to discuss the Qatari ceasefire plan.
Journalist Amichai Stein reported:
Reports are that Mossad chief David Barnea will lead the Israeli delegation. Barnea and Israel’s (Shin Bet) domestic security chief were at a similar meeting in Paris two weeks ago that developed the framework for this ceasefire deal.
I found this on Laura Rozen’s twitter feed. Rozen is a good aggregator of news in this area, and she also posted about the joint appearances by President Biden and Jordan’s King Abdullah today at the White House. The King emphasized the urgent need for an immediate ceasefire, while according to Nick Schifrin, “Biden puts details of hostage talks on record:
Ms. Rozen also reposted this from Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen:
Baud
Via reddit, German parade float.
glc
Testing the boundaries of the Balloon Juice comment policy.
Jupiter may have once been flat.
Hoppie
@Ohio Mom: When I was a kid there was a sign in a local store: “Rhodes for Vice-President – get him the hell out of Ohio!”
(Well, it was Yellow Springs, after all)
ColoradoGuy
@Baud: Well, Colorado for one. The same state that passed a gay discrimination initiative (legalized hate) in the late Nineties now has an openly gay governor. And legalized marijuana. And health clinics set up for women refugees from Texas.
Colorado used to be swing state. No more. Democrats control both State houses and the governor.
The Front Range cities have grown enormously in the last two decades, are high-tech, and have a population (from other states) that skews young. Would not be surprised if there are refugees from Ohio here … there are plenty from the Midwest that settle here.
Betsy
Every so often I forget that these guys are still senators. Like – what, really?!
This post hit my mind like a blast from ten years ago.
Baud
@ColoradoGuy:
Yeah, Colorado’s political transformation has been impressive.
Alison Rose
@Baud: Dang.
Brachiator
Ugh! The idea of Vance as the GOP VP pick is like The Omen Meets The Manchurian Candidate.
Jay
@Baud:
Here “kids” move to the cities from rural areas. Martin and Sam moved to first London, England, (last year of Uni), Victoria, (post grad), then Ottawa, (federal work), then Banff, (summer work, National Park Service, in Canada, the second F is not silent), then Montreal, now Toronto. About a year ago, Sam changed his name from Samantha. They are still a couple, and now we have to figure out a trip to Halifax for their wedding in July.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Baud:
A reminder that our fauxgressive governor has been characterized by another CO resident in here as 60 % glibertarian, 40% democrat. That’s being charitable.
The mass of newcomers are overwhelmingly white, entitled with a strong streak of the old 80s trope “socially liberal, fiscally conservative” without calling it that.
We’d be better off if at least half of them moved back to where they came from (like Iowa) and nominally try to turn those states blue. Their leaving is a reason why states like that have turned virulently red over the last dozen years.
Or if they moved to a Dakota or WY, they’d be “blue” as well.
Miss Bianca
Jesus Christ. Does Vance believe his own BS? If so, the question for me becomes: Do you have to be dumber than a bag of hammers to begin with to spout the MAGA line, or does MAGA itself make its followers/advocates dumber than a bag of hammers, however edumacated they may have been to start with?
Baud
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
There’s still work to do.
See also Boebert.
Betsy
@kindness: During the first Covid year, I used to fantasize about an imaginary but rational policy option — to put all the Republicans and Covid deniers off onto their own separate planet to screw up?
Put all the people who really want their faces to be eaten by leopards into a place where their faces can be eaten by leopards, and stop bothering everyone else?
Could we call it the “putting them out of our misery” solution?
Soprano2
@bbleh: Wanna trade for Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt?
kindness
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Yup. Many of the people I know who moved out of CA were on the MAGA spectrum. Good riddance I say. California is too crowded. I’m happy they are leaving.
Mike in NC
A kill switch for Trump? I’ll settle for that.
Geminid
@Geminid: Mr. al Thani, the Qatari Prime Minister, has a lot of clout because his family runs the Qatari government. They also run Al Jazeera, so it’s a good source on Qatari foreign policy. Saudi policies are similarly expressed by Al Arabiya.
Qatar is the maverick of Arab Gulf States and pursues policies independent of the UAE and KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). The Qataris’ specialty is diplomatic brokering, and they were very helpful to the US during our evacuation of Afghanistan. The Qataris seem to be acting as Hamas’s attorney in this matter, but they are asserting their policy interests as well.
Soprano2
@Betty Cracker: I’ve never watched that movie. I need to, that’s my neck of the woods.
Miss Bianca
@Alison Rose: It’s a hell of an image, ain’t it? :)
Jay
@Miss Bianca:
Nope, as with “Hillbilly Elegy” he just tells his marks what he thinks they want to hear.
Fake Irishman
@Baud:
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
It’s generally a poor idea to argue with a nun with an automatic weapon and mellow expression on her face (especially if she’s standing next to a man without any trousers, but didn’t California gain population but lose representation during the last decade because it didn’t grow as quickly as other states
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Baud:
I realize that my more recent commentary might come across as some Leftier Than Thou, Purity Pony.
I’m too much of a staunch Dem to do that. I’ve had a lifetime of holding my nose for candidates, it’s simply another manifestation of that here with the likes of our governor.
Or the godawful mayor we have in Denver now. It was either him or the former president of the Chamber of Commerce.
Politics Be Complicated.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@kindness: My fear is they turn AZ pink again.
Miss Bianca
@Baud: Ouch.
Jackie
Hold the phone! According to this item, Tim Scott will be TIFG’s VP pick:
Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if all the VP speculations are a smoke screen for whom ever TIFG has decided on. Whoever it is will make Pence’s adulation look like nothing, IMO.
Baud
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Primaries are much more stressful for me than the general election because I have to think about what I’m going to do.
WaterGirl
@glc: Skating on thin ice! :-)
Fake Irishman
@Baud:
Ditto Virginia.
(and keep an eye on Georgia and *whispers* Texas)
brantl
@Geminid: I don’t see why it’s ever going to turn out well for decent people to have the CIA involved in any goddamn thing at all.
Baud
@Fake Irishman:
Texas would be a game changer. We’ve been waiting for a while though. It’s like watching molasses.
Ditto North Carolina.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Fake Irishman: My nym is based on the Unitarian Jihad. Since the pandemic, California has lost population. Were I to get in touch with my Catholic roots, however, it would be the ruler for you, young Irishman! My machine gun is for special circumstances.
artem1s
@Yutsano:
I doubt it. He’s always looking for the next stepping stone and is too stupid to understand the actual of the Senate. Of course that’s because he’s a real GOPer and doesn’t actually believe in legislating. So he’s likely to get bored with Congress pretty quickly. If only Ohio was a ‘resign to run’ state. I’d be fully on board with him getting the VP nomination if he had resign his seat to do it. But since that’s not going to rid us of his useless ass, we’ll have to wait for him to get an offer to be a lobbyist or Faux News pundit.
Fake Irishman
@Ohio Mom:
Portman was a clown and a faux-moderate, but he did deal in good faith on smaller ball stuff like district judge nominations: Ohio and PA (then w/Toomey) were two of the only states without two Dem senators to get any judges confirmed before 2023 (that Red state dam does appear to be breaking over the last six months)
Kay
@Baud:
Young people in Ohio can (and do) move to the bigger cities in Ohio for professional jobs, urban living and local progressive governance – the “three C’s”- so that limits some of the out of state migration. There was this magical window between like 2012 and 2020 where they could do really well as far as pay and promotion in Ohio cities while still enjoying affordable housing (rent or buy) but that is over- a desirable location in Columbus or Cincinnati is expensive now – Cleveland is still pretty affordable.
My middle son is staying in Toledo because he bought a house there and his IBEW Local is strong- he does really well financially. He’s working in Kokomo IN right now and he hates it – they have a much weaker local where they don’t recognize “chain of command” for skilled trades- he doesn’t think company managers should be giving him orders or really talking to him at all. His foreman gives him orders. He doesn’t work for the company that owns the facility he is building, he works on a contract.
Ohio will be like Texas- deep red state, big blue cities.
Geminid
@Baud: I used to sweat Democratic primaries, but I haven’t gotten stressed about one since August of 2021, when Shontelle Brown beat Nina Turner in the Cleveland area primary to replace Marcia Fudge. I still pick favorites, but the result does not worry me.
Fake Irishman
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
Ok, different time frame than what I was thinking. (after the predictions of the last census being off though, I do suspect some of the Census Bureau’s methodology though…)
Jay
@brantl:
C’mon, the Super Bowl worked out well.
Ohio Mom
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: In my extended family, the younger generation have moved to Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, Denver and Athens, GA, or stayed put in Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio and New York City.
So when they move, they move to Blue states just like the young people you know (okay, maybe Georgia is purplish).
Baud
@Jay:
Haha.
Hoppie
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: About to go back to slow growth, according to projections. And 27% foreign-born, as well.
Betty Cracker
@Jackie: I don’t know a single MAGA dope who isn’t painfully butthurt by the accusation that supporting Trump is tantamount to endorsing an overtly racist political agenda. In their eyes, voting for Scott as Trump’s subordinate would exonerate them forever.
Fake Irishman
@Geminid:
As a native Clevelander, allow me to congratulate you on that choice. (I remember when Stephanie Tubbs Jones was the local DA and visited my middle school.)
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: There are state-by-state presidential election trends here:
https://www.270towin.com/states/
It looks to me like the general pattern in recent cycles has been: the West is getting bluer, including the Southwest. That includes deep blue, deep red and swing states. Only in the swing states does it look like something dramatic is happening (Arizona, Colorado).
Also, Georgia. But it doesn’t look like a huge regional trend. Just Georgia.
The Northeast had a dramatic shift toward the Democrats around 1992 or so but it’s been kind of constant in recent cycles, like it hit some kind of ceiling. A lot of the Midwest got much redder.
Elizabelle
@Soprano2: Winter’s Bone was phenomenal. Went to see it twice in the theater when it came out (2010).
Betty is right about the setting. It’s like they plopped the actors down into someone’s rural home. While someone was out doing something else at the moment.
Director is Debra Granik. It was nominated for four big Oscars**; did not win any, but wow for a “little” film. John Hawkes was mesmerizing. Wikipedia entry.
** The Oscar nominations were: Best Picture (!); Best Actress (20 year old Jennifer Lawrence), Best Supporting Actor (John Hawkes), Best Adapted Screenplay (from the novel of the same name).
Geminid
@brantl: Yes, a lot of people have prejudicices about the CIA. Many people similarly despise the other participants in this meeting. But if Joe Biden trusts William Burns to negotiate this ceasefire with these actors, that’s good enough for me.
Kay
Some young people like the midwest too, so they stay. My youngest graduates college next year and he and his GF say they are moving to the Twin Cities (she’s from Wisconsin).
Scout211
Yeah, the media has declared a three-way race in the Trump “veepstakes.” (What a stupid word).
Nancy Mace, J.D. Vance and Tim Scott are neck and neck, rounding the bend and racing their hearts out! Who will be crowned the champion?! It’s a horse race, folks! 🙄
We dropped our ballots in the drop box today for the California primary. We voted for Joseph R. Biden and we voted twice for Adam Schiff. 😊
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
A second Trump presidency probably would destroy the Republican party, but it would take the country with it.
And of course, the Dem that followed would have to fix everything perfectly within two years.
Baud
@Kay:
The Midwest is supposed to be a good area with climate change.
Alison Rose
@Jackie: If he is the pick, it’ll be painfully obvious why. “Look, they have a Black person and so do we!” Amazing how little dignity Scott has, to allow himself to be tokenized like that.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
Watching the Rethuglican party yelling flat out “We are fascist shitstains who suck Kremlin ass!” has been impressive in a “Fuck these traitorous piles of shit!” way.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Elizabelle:
Granik plopped down in two Ozark counties for a long time. She filmed everything there, did all the wardrobe from second-hand stores there. Almost everybody who wasn’t cast (like Lawrence) were locals. It was basically an immersively filmed movie and shows.
artem1s
@Betty Cracker:
agreed. Winter’s Bone was scary realistic. It looked like so many rural Ohio river towns I had PTSD watching it. Sincere ‘there but for the grace of god go I’ vibes.
different-church-lady
Vance is very much like Trump in that he will just say anything he thinks will get him ahead.
Geminid
@Scout211: And trailing in the backstretch but running easy, it’s Katie Britt!
different-church-lady
@Scout211:
I hope he picks all three and it terminates their careers.
Kay
@Baud:
Right. I think about that. I used to get this email newsletter of undeveloped property for sale in Canada – middle o nowhere property- and it was like 2k an acre. It’s not even available now. I wonder about that- who purchased it.
Fake Irishman
@Baud:
NC still has white rural areas bleeding Democratic votes. In Texas, those areas aren’t quite topped out, but they are already voting 80 percent plus GOP. Meanwhile the big counties with burbs are steadily drifting pink (Bell) and purple ( Collin and Denton) and sometimes light blue (Fort Bend, Williamson, Hayes) which is only partially balanced by erosion among Hispanics in the border region.
cmorenc
@Baud: north carolina turning purple then blue is like soccer in the US: the trend/sport of the future since 1976.
piratedan
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: we shall see, I’m not saying it couldn’t happen, but the state party is low on cash, Kari Lake, while a candidate, STILL has to win the GOP primary and that’s not a given. The taste of the cyber ninjas is still in place, as is the extremely partisan divide between the MAGAnaughts and the old line AZ GOP crew. Even if Ms. Lake prevails in the primary, she’s still very much the face of 9 failed lawsuits regarding the Governor’s office and a full embrace of Trump, which isn’t what it used to be.
Betty
@Jackie: Tim Scott has already publicly declared his love for Trump. He even got a fiancee just to please Trump.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: @brantl:
I don’t recall the specifics, but Burns has a background that makes him a good choice for this role – he’s there for his personal skillset and experience.
Frank Wilhoit
Vance is trying to pass for peasant. He will never be able to live down his (albeit pseudo-)intellectual past. Trump has enough trouble trying to keep up with his audience; everybody else is behind the sprinkling machines.
Hoodie
@Matt McIrvin:
@Kay:
Common denominator is two states with diverse and economically dynamic cities (ATL and MSP) that dominate the state. States with smaller, more distributed urban areas and/or very large rural and exurban populations are easier for wingnuts to control. Power in the urban areas that are geographically separated gets diluted because of regional differences. The difference between NC and GA is that Charlotte and the Research Triangle collectively don’t have the weight in NC that Atlanta has in GA because the Triangle and Charlotte are not that connected socially. I would imagine OH is similar.
Baud
@Fake Irishman:
@cmorenc:
NC has an exciting young new Dem chair. Plus Cooper. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it’ll turn blue soon.
Chetan Murthy
@Baud:
IIRC Kevin Drum had a post a few months ago about this: CA has lost population, but its population mix has also changed: more well-educated people, fewer people with high school or less. Which tracks with “well-educated young folk from Ohio gettin’ the hell outta Dodge”.
WaterGirl
@Baud: She’s good! A real go getter!
Betty Cracker
@artem1s: Same. It’s an underrated gem of a movie.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Texas has been trending blue at a good clip, it’s just that the trend started with it so Republican that it’s still a long way off. Dreams of flipping it have been premature for a long time.
Kay
@Hoodie:
Oh, that’s interesting. Rings true. It’s sad because the rural parts of Ohio just get poorer and poorer:
7 counties have all the lawyers. And physicians. And most of the high paying jobs.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: Burns helped negotiate the December ceasefire, and the other players know him and know he has Biden’s trust.
Secretary Blinken is also trusted but he has all the other problems in the region and the world to deal with.
David 🏈 Mahomes! 🏈 Koch
@Geminid:
now that the Super Bowl is over, maybe the CIA can send Taylor Swift to negotiate/finalize the Qatari ceasefire plan
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
Seconded on Winter’s Bone. 👍
Elizabelle
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Was just reading Wiki on Debra Granik. Yes indeed. No sets were built for Winter’s Bone. They used existing homes.
Kay
@Chetan Murthy:
I love California. If I had to do it over again I would move there. There’s even a contingent of my extended family there – less trashy than my group so they might not have wanted me :)
Geminid
@Baud: The Biden campaign intends to win North Carolina this year. They came up 80,000 votes short in 2020, and that was without the resources they are devoting to the state this time around.
Kathleen
@Baud: I think Ryan ran a horrible campaign. I get he had to tread a fine line running as Dem in red state but he did nothing to engage Black voters other than run back to back canned radio ads that didn’t address one concern about voting rights, health care or education on Black owned radio stations. Greg Landsman (my rep on OH#1) has purple district and never said the word “Democrat” but he said words like reproductive rights, voting rights, health care etc. Through his work on City Council he had already engaged the local Black community through educational programs he helped to implement. There are smart ways to straddle that line and Ryan either know or care.
Baud
@David 🏈 Mahomes! 🏈 Koch:
“Ok. First we’re going to stop playing the blame game. Everyone repeat after me: Hi. I’m the problem, it’s me.”
Kathleen
@Yutsano: You made my point much more cogently and succinctly LOL! I just ranted.
Jay
@Scout211:
Isn’t that voter fraud, arn’t you only supposed to vote once? ; )
Chetan Murthy
@Kay: My eldest sister moved here in 1989; my other sibs came along a decade later, and I moved here in 2007. We cannot understand why our parents moved to Texas instead of California, back in the 70s. Just mind-boggling.
Scout211
Oh no! Were we doing it wrong? 😱
Bupalos
@Professor Bigfoot: biden got a larger share of the white vote than Clinton did. Trump got a larger share of the black vote in 20 than 16. Whenever you say “never,” history laughs at you
What Ryan did wrong was overemphasize a particular demographic when he really didn’t need to, and totally undersell Biden/Democratic initiatives for Ohio.
Kathleen
@Ohio Mom: David Pepper and BlueOhio.org fund and support Dem candidates to run for every open seat in the State/County elections. That’s a good start.
Kay
@Kathleen:
Sab says the same thing. I thought it was a good campaign but I’m in a 75 per cent Trump county
If it was good for here it was probably horrible for the counties with people in them.
Jay
@Betty:
“He even got a fiancee just to please Trump.”
Canadian girlfriend, supposedly. Only seen once IRL.
I know every hot girl in Canada, she ain’t Canadian.
Word is she’s an Only Fans performer.
Kathleen
@Professor Bigfoot: You and I both. I ranted and screeded in #128
Betty Cracker
@Hoodie: There’s a similar dynamic in FL except that the largest urban area has already been captured by hard-right immigrant blocs, and in-state oligarchs have are focused on attracting angry MAGA retirees and driving out the young by dismantling public education and enacting oppressive culture war-bullshit laws. It won’t be easy to fix.
HinTN
@Betty Cracker: The book is amazing! Excellent writing, chills-down-your-spine story.
Gvg
@Professor Bigfoot: I am not so sure now Roe is repealed and the Republican male party has shown that it is unable to understand the biological reasons that exceptions have to be made even if the voters are sincerely antiabortion. They keep making it clear that they don’t really believe women are equal. A lot of anti abortion voters used to be women who were sincere and tender hearted about the poor babies. Abortion is kind of icky really. They said they were single issue voters. That didn’t mean they intended to die or have their daughters die. They knew what they meant, and it was not this cruel. It’s going to take awhile for it to sink in for some. They really did not see the anti women part of their movement. That includes some male voters too.
I wonder when a church leaders wife will die of a mistreated miscarriage? Everyone is at risk. It is not really true that the wealthier people are safe from this risk because these events are a surprise and their is not an infinite amount of time to react medically.
Manyakitty
@Betty Cracker: excellent, thanks for the recommendation. I’ve seen it as a suggestion on one of my streamers.
Taken4Granite
@Betsy:
Shades of the Golgafrincham B Ark, just with people even less useful than telephone sanitizers.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: Right. It’s my understanding that Burns was chosen to help with the cease fire for the reasons i listed above.
Kathleen
@Scout211: Trump will announce his vp candidate by biting the heads off of the losers. Mark Burnett will produce it. It will be lit.
Alison Rose
@Kathleen: I like David Pepper just for this old campaign slogan/image he used. One time, must have been close to a decade ago, I saw this on a bumper sticker in the grocery store parking lot out here in NorCal, and I was so chuffed by it that I took out my phone to take a picture…and the car owner walked up right as I was doing so. I promised her I wasn’t a weirdo, I just liked the bumper sticker. She laughed and said that was why she hadn’t removed it when she moved to CA.
Kathleen
@Baud: Mayor of Cincinnati said he expects that people from Southern coasts will move to Ohio/Cincinnati. We’re the only city that saw an increase in population growth,
Chetan Murthy
@Scout211: obviously I don’t know anything, but if I were betting money, i would be putting it on someone close to him personally. There was lots of talk about who would replace Ronna Romney McDaniel, but in the end it seems it’s going to be his daughter-in-law. Personalist regimes distribute power to close personal allies, people who can be counted on to be loyal for personal and not nearly political or economic reasons.
But I’m just spitballing here.
mrmoshpotato
@Kathleen: What? He’s not going to shoot the losers in the middle of fifth avenue?
Chris T.
I have some vague memory of the Orange Failure saying something about how he knows who his VP pick will be but won’t tell us yet. If that’s what he said, we can be sure he has no idea who his VP pick will be…
Manyakitty
@Geminid: that’s my district! We elected Emilia Sykes most recently. Shontel Brown is in another district now. I’m very glad both of them are in the House.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: If free and fair elections are eliminated in the US, none of these trends matter any more unless/until we can pull off some kind of revolution. That’s a much harder lift.
The fact that elections are administered by states, of course, cuts both ways.
Another Scott
@Chetan Murthy: Maybe they were fans of Dallas??
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
As long as there’s Taylor Swift, there’s hope.
Matt McIrvin
@Gvg:
That’s why we have QAnon/Pizzagate etc.–keeping it about gross and horrifying stories of child murder, even if they have to be completely made up. Now it’s babies being harvested for adrenochrome.
The QAnoner I personally know best got in as a single-issue anti-abortion voter. She is through the event horizon now and in a land completely unmoored from reality.
Kathleen
@Alison Rose: That might be his father, John Pepper, who was CEO of P&G and Nina Turner (gag) whom Pepper endorsed against Shontel Brown.
Fake Irishman
@cmorenc:
Looking at statewide elections, NC has been purple a long time usually within 5 points either way. It just seems like the Dems always check in with 48 percent of the two party vote….
Kathleen
@mrmoshpotato: Wimpy Weathermen in Florida shoot hurricanes. According to NYT Trump is a manly man who exudes overpowering physicality so he’s gotta ratchet up the crazy crazy if you know what I mean.
Another Scott
@Jackie: Made me look…
In that clip of Scott saying “I just love you!” it looks like he’s at most 2″ shorter than TIFG.
Google tells me that Sen. Scott is 5’11” tall.
So, ipso facto, quamquam, simulatque, TIFG is around 6′ 1″ or so.
That’s a strike against Scott. Too tall.
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@WaterGirl: You were correct and I was expanding on what you said.
The Ukrainian leadeship respects Burns for the briefings he gave them immediately prior to the Russian invasion, and his steadfast support afterwards. Perhaps because of this, Biden elevated the CIA Director to Cabinet rank early last year.
The Gaza War is now the US’s most serious foreign policy challenge, and Biden has made his intelligence chief his point man in these critical ceasefire negotiations, as the Egyptians and Israelis have made theirs. They and Qatar are using the ~10 day ceasefire of last December as the pattern for this one, but with an extended time frame.
Two other major players, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, are working closely with Egypt on a common policy for ending this war. Reports on its general framework make me think it’s a practical one and could be the template for a durable ceasefire.
Kathleen
@Manyakitty: Sykes is absolutely amazing. She was featured on video in a Blue Ohio Zoom meeting and her story of how she won her seat was riveting. She said she wanted to do an ad with her doing a back flip (she was state champion gymnast in school) to differentiate herself from her opponent. All the pros and media experts told her not to but she listened to her instincts, did the ad and she said it got the desired result. So smart and talented. Didn’t she flip that seat? She said she was the underdog going in.
Hoppie
@Matt McIrvin:
Paging Peter Thiel.
Geminid
@Kathleen: A lot of good Democrats endorsed Nina Turner in that special election, including Jaime Raskin. I wonder if they were relieved when she lost. Not so many endorsed Turner when she ran against Brown the next time..
cain
@Kay: As a former Hoosier, can confirm Kokomo is a shithole. :-)
cain
@Ohio Mom: Oddly, moving to places where cannabis is legal. :)
Scout211
So it sounds like Trump’s lawyers are making the case that as long as we run for the presidency, we can avoid facing charges in a court of law. Sweet. I’m filing my papers soon.
Never mind the criminal charges, won’t the Supreme Court justices think of the voters?! Tens of millions of them?!
Geminid
@Geminid: I probably should have said the Gaza war is the US’s most acute foreign policy challenge. Ukraine is also critical.
cain
@Chetan Murthy: So they are bleeding rednecks who are heading to red states or I suppose Texas since they still want big city stuff.
Of course, they should be prepared to go into Texas and get accused of not being a real conservative with those cailfornia license plates. I think some of the folks from California showed up for that border mob thing and got their ass fried.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: It makes me crazy that people think President Biden and his administration aren’t doing everything they possibly can for Ukraine.
Bibi could give a shit about human beings; he is fighting for his political life and cares not at all what the US says.
WaterGirl
@Kathleen: My spreadsheet for candidates we donated to had her as “win!” but not “flip”.
Either way, I am so glad we supported her, and others!
Alison Rose
@cain: So The Beach Boys lied to us?
Albatrossity
Late to the party per usual, but yes, the GOP is full of worthless mofos, and Vance is worth less than almost all of them
WaterGirl
@Geminid: I don’t know. Both are bleeding out; I would be hard-pressed to rate one over the other. If I really had to, I guess I would choose Ukraine. We have the ability to help Ukraine win against Russia, and dammit, Ukraine is fighting our war, too, against Russia.
And all the innocent Palestinians dying every single day in Gaza because they didn’t have the foresight to be born in some other location on the planet.
Jackie
@Betty:
Will they (ever) marry in time for Crazy Season? I, myself think it’s an engagement of convenience to appease the MAGA doubters of his lifelong bachelorhood.
cain
@Alison Rose: It’s an act of cruelty to Kokomo beach to name that town in Indiana after a beach in Curaçao. I wonder if the city knows that Curaçao is 85% black. :D
Steve in the ATL
@Alison Rose: what did you expect from that asshole Mike Love?
Geminid
@WaterGirl: Both situations are critical. Aid to Ukraine is an acute problem to be sure, but my sense is that Congress will authorize it before the month is over.
The urgency of the problem in Gaza is three-fold. First, it is an ongoing humanitarian crisis that must be relieved. Second, there is still the danger of it developing into wider regional war. And third, it is a serious wedge issue for the Democratic coalition.
A ceasefire cannot come too soon. As President Biden says, we can build on that. But we have to get a ceasefire first and it won’t be easy.
HinTN
@Kay: Three of our 4, the big three, are so blue the the deep red leg is actively meddling in local governance, especially in Nashville where they have to see it.
cain
@WaterGirl:
Every Palestinian I’ve met seems to have a raging hatred of Israel for good reason. But there is never going to be peace until they can cool that rage and figure out what they want to be going forward. It’s not very likely that Israel is going to go away.
Hamas and others have a one track mind. They’re only play is to provoke Israel so that the world will get all pissed off specifically the muslim world. Unfortunately for them, global politics are changing – just look at SA and Israel coming to terms. That would have been unthinkable 30 years ago.
Eric S.
@Jay: Here in the Windy City we get to vote twice.
Thrice if you’re dead.
Manyakitty
@Kay: wow, that’s awful. I hope there’s lots of outreach to all the law schools in the state. It’s been a while since I checked, but there were a surprising number of programs.
Manyakitty
@Kathleen: no she replaced Shontel Brown, who got redistricted away from us. Time to send the fabulous Rep Sykes some money. Been meaning to!
Princess
@Matt McIrvin: Illinois got a lot bluer over the last twenty years. Democratic reps in places where republicans had dominated. It’s hard for me to imagine a Republican governor there again any time soon. The party has collapsed.
Scout211
@Eric S.:
Wow. Chicago is a cool city.
Eric S.
@Princess: Lifelong IL resident. I agree with this. The Chicago suburbs trended purple/blue over the past 20 years. The downstate areas are still deep red but are out votes by Chicago and the St. Louis suburbs.
Geminid
@cain: Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states have even assented to Israel’s participation in CENTCOM exercises. For decades, the Arab members of CENTCOM were like, “That bounder shall never be a member of this club!” Now they’re like, “He’s not such a bad fellow after all.”
I am being humorous here, but this change among the Gulf countries is a seriously big deal. They can play a constructive role in stopping this war and creating conditions for a resolution of the larger conflict. They’ve lived with this problem for decades, they know it well, and they have the resources and the incentives to help resolve it.
Soprano2
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I believe Meredith Cisco had a small part in it. I remember when the movie came out, I wanted to see it but never did.
karen marie
@dmsilev: Although it could easily be paid for by confiscation of the passengers’ assets, I’d be willing to contribute to that project to ensure its successful liftoff.
Origuy
@cain: Other way around; the city in Indiana is supposedly named after a son of a chief of the Miami tribe. I don’t know why there’s a beach named after the city.