Something attempted, something done:
Biden signs $1.2 trillion funding package after Senate's early-morning passage ended shutdown threat https://t.co/C216E7gAAu
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 24, 2024
President Joe Biden on Saturday signed a $1.2 trillion package of spending bills after Congress had passed the long overdue legislation just hours earlier, ending the threat of a partial government shutdown.
“This agreement represents a compromise, which means neither side got everything it wanted,” Biden said in a statement. “But it rejects extreme cuts from House Republicans and expands access to child care, invests in cancer research, funds mental health and substance use care, advances American leadership abroad, and provides resources to secure the border. … That’s good news for the American people.”…
What is Palm Sunday and how is it celebrated worldwide? https://t.co/4yWmjgWtK9
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 23, 2024
Another religious celebration of the Spring equinox:
… This year, Palm Sunday falls on March 24. Also known as Passion Sunday, it marks the start of Holy Week. The most sacred week of the Christian year includes the Good Friday re-enactment of Jesus’ crucifixion story and death, and their belief in his resurrection on Easter…
In the biblical Palm Sunday story, a cheering crowd greeted Jesus along the road. Some spread their garments on the ground; others threw down leafy branches they had cut from the fields. In the Gospel of John, they are branches from palms, a tree that symbolized victory and triumph…
The ritual or liturgy typically starts with a blessing of the palms by clergy. It’s followed by a reading of the Passion of Christ, meaning an account of the final events of Jesus’ life…
Ashes can be purchased, but some churches make their own by burning the palms from prior years.
They’re used to make the ashes for Ash Wednesday, the solemn day of fasting and reflection that signals the start of Christianity’s most penitent season.
Palm-Out Sunday, and every day…
Per Politico, “It’s ‘brass tacks’ time for cash-strapped Trump campaign”:
Donald Trump doesn’t have the money to match what Democrats are expected to spend against him in the presidential campaign. He’s holding fewer of his expensive, signature rallies. He’s ramping up his fundraising — but trying to pay down his legal bills. And he’s about to get swamped on the airwaves.
Inside his constellation of donors, there is an acknowledgment that the campaign needs to begin building up its war chest — and quickly bring more backers on board.
“Make no mistake, it’s not going to be easy,” said former Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, a major donor. “There’s donor fatigue. And what we have to focus on is not just fundraising, but making sure that people understand the contrast between the two candidates.”…
Still, she said, it’s time to “get down to the brass tacks of having events and fundraisers,” which she said is underway. Republicans in the donor community “need to circle the wagons and support President Trump,” she added, without fear of “being silenced by the media and threats from other people in terms of being a Trump donor.”
Trump is running ahead of Biden in early general election polls, but not by much. And Republicans are already contending with an onslaught of spending by Biden’s campaign. Biden and the Democratic National Committee ended last month with $97.5 million cash on hand, more than double what Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee had together, not counting either side’s joint fundraising committees.
Trump, meanwhile, has been forced to divert tens of millions of dollars to pay for his legal expenses. And his campaign has taken steps in recent weeks to slash costs, starting the general election at a massive financial disadvantage. Since March 6, the day after Super Tuesday, Biden and his super PAC have spent nearly $6 million combined on ads, according to the ad tracking firm AdImpact, while Trump and his super PAC have spent just a fraction of that total — shy of $1.5 million.
Trump campaign officials say the operation has been cognizant of spending since the beginning. Top advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita have looked for ways to be operationally lean, according to aides. They’ve done fewer of Trump’s signature big stadium gatherings, favoring tele-rallies and smaller get-out-the-vote or policy events. They’re operating out of “typical” campaign headquarters instead of working out of a highrise like they did in 2020, and taking UberX instead of black car services.
On days he isn’t traveling or appearing in court, Trump is working the phone to drum up support or thank donors. He spent multiple days this week for “hours at a time” on the phone with donors, according to an aide granted anonymity to speak freely, and has next Wednesday and Thursday blocked off for fundraising calls where the former president makes a personalized pitch for support…
every day for nine years:
“has president baby brain become a ruthlessly disciplined political operator?”
*twenty minutes pass*
“BREAKING NEWS: president baby brain has endorsed the Oklahoma City bombing” https://t.co/zMH1swl5J2
— Will Stancil (@whstancil) March 21, 2024
Baud
I see the news has bought into the Trump soon that “bloodbath” is limited to the auto industry.
lowtechcyclist
Same con man, just not as good at it as he used to be. Too wrapped up in his own grievances, and less into channeling the grievances of his followers. And maybe, just maybe, the whole thing is wearing thin.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Wonder what industry it’ll supposedly be about the next time he says something like that. (Hard to believe there won’t be a next time.)
Geminid
@Baud: Trump knew what he was doing when he dropped those words in at the end of a riff on the auto industry. He’s practiced at delivering a vicious message with just enough ambiguous context to give plausible deniability, and that many journalists will go along.
hueyplong
“In referencing a bloodbath, Orange God was merely lamenting the tragedy of after-birth abortions that occur daily under the watch of the Democrat Party. So typical of the librul media to twist his comments into something misleading and threatening. And if they do it again, they’ll all be executed under the second Trump Administration.”
The Thin Black Duke
Every successful conman knows when it’s time to skip town. Trump waited too long and now there’s no place to go. Unable to hide under the radar anymore, everyone can see in real time how Trump managed to go bankrupt so many times. It’s guaranteed that he will make the stupidest decision every single time. He’s his own worse enemy.
Ken
Ah yes, the 2020 Georgia runoffs. What a cheerful reminder to start the day.
Baud
@Baud:
Soon = Spin
Geminid
@Ken: Senator Raphael Warnock is a featured guest on CBS’s Sunday news show (Face the Nation?) this morning. That should be good.
Rep. Michael McCaul (TX) is the other guest. McCaul is Foreign Relations Chairman and a big Ukraine hawk, so I expect prospects for the Ukraine aid package will be the main topic in his interview.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
If I could trust the news media to do their job, I’d just take it for granted that he’d be asked if he’s signed the discharge petition, and if not, why not.
A century or so ago, there used to be overtly partisan newspapers. Back in the 1960s, 70s, 80s, I used to hear about how our more allegedly impartial media was a big improvement. I’m ready to try the old way again.
Baud
@Geminid: He knows what he’s doing, and so does the media, and they play along.
@lowtechcyclist:
Correct. We’ve suffering from the lack of a real liberal media. There’s no balance.
JPL
Ronna will be on Meet The Press and will come across like the partisan hack she is. You heard it here first. She’ll have to wait a long time before going on MSNBC.
Chief Oshkosh
@Ken: I have never understood how this person ever ended up in politics. She has no useful experience, no skills, no charisma, and not many smarts.
Oh wait…
Jeffro
Since it is Palm Sunday, it’s my fervent hope that some cheeky reporter asks the orange moron about his plans to celebrate Jesus’ birthday next Sunday – Easter. 😁
Orange Morin’s response would probably only elicit a 1-day headline (at best) but it’d be soooo worth it!
”we plan on having cake – happy birthday, Jesus!” 🤣
Baud
@Jeffro:
And his base would respond by throwing Happy Birthday Jesus parties.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: McCaul probably won’t sign a discharge petition because he is in leadership, but I expect he will encourage rank-and-file members to sign it when the time comes.
There should be enough Republicans to make up for 10+ non-signing Democrats. But I don’t expect most of them to sign until the House comes back into session.
Rules Committee Chairman Tom Cole said that one way or another, the aid package was going to get a floor vote. He evidently believes the signatures will be there if neccesary.
Betty
@Chief Oshkosh: I had to check Ken’s comment because I thought you were describing Ronna.
Baud
@Chief Oshkosh:
Not to make Loeffler look better than she is, but most elected officials are just average.
Geminid
Turkish municipal elections are next Sunday. The big one is Istanbul, with 17 million citizens and patronage opportunities to match. Opposition CH Party member Imamoglu won the 2018 election by 12,000 votes, but served only 17 days before the federal election commission ordered a redo. Imamoglu won that one by over 600,000 votes.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I spent several hours yesterday trying to figure out how to make a tiktok video. My publisher wants me on there because a lot of YA readers are there. I hate doing stuff like that on my phone. It sucks battery and the interface is so small that I can’t read it. I am old. Anyway, I have to do the same thing again today because yesterday, I failed.
Princess
This quotation from Loeffler is pretty damning about the state of their campaign:
Still, she said, it’s time to “get down to the brass tacks of having events and fundraisers,” which she said is underway. Republicans in the donor community “need to circle the wagons and support President Trump,” she added, without fear of “being silenced by the media and threats from other people in terms of being a Trump donor.”
It looks like (from polls) they’ve secured their base while Biden has not, yet. But Biden has his donors onside and they do not. It’s really really late in the cycle to be starting to corral donors. And the reasons their donors are giving for not donating are eye-opening. Parts of our base won’t pay any attention until August and never do.
stinger
@Betty:
So did I!
stinger
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Then TikTok gets banned….
catclub
nanoseconds.
ever heard of morning Joe? also a partisan hack.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@stinger: That thought occurred to me.
Frankensteinbeck
The strategic omissions in the news are impressive, and they still sound bad. The most glaring omission to me in the OP is implying Trump is phone banking regular donors when he’s spending hours a day begging the wealthy to pay his legal bills for him. In the context of real life this doesn’t sound like a campaign having to trim sails and be efficient. It sounds like Trump’s personal finances are supremely fucked and he is in a desperate panic, squeezing every political source to keep himself afloat.
No attempt at media covering is going to convince normies that ‘bloodbath’ is anything but a threat, either. By their very low-info nature they will pass judgement only on the word and how it makes them feel.
hueyplong
@Princess: That Loeffler quote could be translated into “Trump is so toxic that any donor ID’d as such would be instantly shunned. Thank God the Supreme Court made secret donations a constitutional right, but the donors nevertheless worry that Trump himself may out them as he desperately seeks to convince other potential donors that someone, somewhere, thinks he should be saved.”
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
You’ll be the final straw!
catclub
I doubt it. At some point Trump tells them not to. And they always obey him.
TBone
I hope Tish takes his plane as well as his liquid assets. Grounded. Pounded. Astounded.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Baud: No such thing as bad publicity!
Geminid
@catclub: Tom Cole likely knows the dynamics of his caucus as well as you do, maybe even better.
satby
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Your publisher should get a few young readers of your book to do some TikTok reviews for it. That would probably be more effective. Have any young relatives that could do that for you?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@satby: That does sound better than me doing it. I’ll have to think about that.
zhena gogolia
@Jeffro: Uh, it’s Jesus’s resurrection, not birthday.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@zhena gogolia: I think that’s the joke.
sab
@catclub: Didn’t Mornimg Joe first make his name by defending an abortion clinic bomber (when he didn’t have the legal experience to defend anyone with competence.)
zhena gogolia
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’ve heard the joke with reference to Christmas, but it doesn’t really work for Easter. No one claims it’s Jesus’s birthday.
RevRick
Palm Sunday is one of the movable feasts of the Christian calendar linked to the dating of Easter, which falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Which means Easter can be as early as March 22 or as late as April 26 (as I recall), depending on how that sequence occurs.
The AP story is correct in interpreting Jesus’ entry as a self-conscious act of humility, but it was intended as a deliberate contrast to another entry taking place that day: that of Pontius Pilate, who was leading a cohort of Roman troops. Their arrival was meant as a show of force to prevent any outbreaks of rebellion in Jerusalem, which was beginning to throng with pilgrims for the upcoming Passover festival. So while the king entering Jerusalem on a donkey referenced in Zechariah is making a magnanimous gesture, Jesus is deliberately contrasting what he is about to the whole imperialist system and ideology. Jesus was making a political statement, which he immediately followed up by entering the Temple and attacking its local expression of exploitation (exchanging coins and selling sacrificial animals). In doing so, he handed down his own death sentence under Roman law.
In entering Jerusalem as he did, Jesus was not saying “be humble”. He was saying, “Challenge the imperialism that exists in the world!” And he would have us begin by looking at our own captivity to it, the way it shapes how we think.
I’m sure that most people hearing the word “repent” assume it has to do with behavior, but the Greek word that is so translated is metanoia, which literally means: change of mind. So, I would invite all of us to question ourselves about all the imperialisms which govern our lives, and especially those around the social constructs of race, class and gender.
satby
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s been pretty well established for eons that the target age group doesn’t listen to old people like us but is heavily influenced by peers. But, I’m not a publisher nor am I in marketing, so grain of salt time.
sab
Catholics rolled Passion Sunday into Palm Sunday, but I think everybody else in the mainline Protestant world ( Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians and Anglicans) still had Passion Sunday last week and Palm Sunday today.
ETA and Orthodox Palm Sunday is at the end of April this year
UCC combines them.
Nelle
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Is there a young person who can run the program for you? I’m thinking about doing some of the “Grandma wants you to get out and vote for the world you want” sort, aimed at young people, but if I d o, I have my eye on some young people I want to guide me.
Robin Goodfellow
@hueyplong:
@Geminid:
Trump knew what he was doing when he dropped those words in at the end of a riff on the auto industry. He’s practiced at delivering a vicious message with just enough ambiguous context to give plausible deniability, and that many journalists will go along.
Or it could be case of Occam’s razor, the simplest solution is the correct one. Trump is not smart, he says stupid things, he is used to sycophants willing to overlook his idiotic buffoonery.
He is genuinely surprised when people don’t parse out the bullcrap and discern the gist of what he says. He really wasn’t calling for a “bloodbath” he is just a foolish man who is very loose and careless with his words. Like an overgrown child who isn’t aware of his own strength. Sad and pathetic.
Geminid
@sab: Scarborough represented the murderer in a couple of early court appearences before a qualified criminal defense attorney was found to take the case.
RevRick
@zhena gogolia: It’s his re-birthday!
BTW, during much of the Middle Ages it was not uncommon for priests to tell jokes (even bawdy ones) on Easter Sunday, symbolizing the cosmic joke God played on the Devil. Similarly, peasants would engage in ribald mockery of priests and nobles that day.
Ken
With the slight twist that it’s a calculated moon, with a good but not exact match to the astronomical one. For that matter the Easter equinox is taken as March 21, but the astronomical one can be anywhere from the 19th to the 21st. (UTC, that is — stupid round planet….)
sab
@Geminid: You are always there to correct my garbled memory.
Nelle
@RevRick: Thank you.
RevRick
@sab: Passion Sunday was created by the Church in recognition of the fact that participation in Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services have cratered. There’s a temptation to convert Palm Sunday into a happy little Easter, skipping over the ugly part of the story.
Nelle
@RevRick: i thought it was a trap to expose Trump not knowing the difference between Christmas and Easter.
Geminid
@Robin Goodfellow: Like you point out, Trump is not especially intelligent. But he has the low cunning of a career criminal and successful demagogue, and I judge the “bloodbath” remark in that light.
Jim Appleton
@zhena gogolia:
That’s the joke.
iDJT is dumb enough to answer the trick question, revealing he doesn’t know it’s not a birthday.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Nelle: I don’t think I have anyone to do that. But your idea for GOTV sounds great to me.
SFAW
@Jeffro:
Well, libtard, he was RE-born on that day, just as the Talibangelicals — who see TFG as their own, personal Jeebus — have been re-born.
Of course, if someone tried that with Good Friday, tougher to weasel out of.
ETA: And I see others got there before me. You’re still a libtard, however.
Geminid
@sab: Well, I had to dig it out of Wikipedia since I was unfamiliar with the incident. The story is that Scarborough’s in-laws knew the murderer’s family and he agreed to stand in until the family could hire a qualified defense attorney.
Kay
She’s always been so much better than Susan Collins – someone who actually thinks for herself. Political media are such poor judges of character- they always elevate the phonies over the authentic people.
Kristine
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I have yet to venture onto TikTok. Not sure if it’s a good fit for SF. Hope this recording attempt goes well.
trnc
Did he even have to come up with that explanation before the media jumped in, or did they save him even that bit of work?
Kay
Imagine if more GOP senators and governors had endorsed Nikki Haley. No one cares about House members, especially GOP House members- clowns. She might have won or he would at least have had a fight on his hands. They once again missed a chance to get rid of Donald Trump.
TBone
@RevRick: excellent commentary, Rev.
yellowdog
@TBone: If she takes his bank accounts he won’t be able to buy jet fuel. Same result.
TBone
2024: Premature Insurrection
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Kristine: I’m not happy about showing my face in this because I’m old, but the publicist says go ahead. This will be just introducing myself. Oh well. At least I’ll learn something.
TBone
@yellowdog: yah but I still want him to cry about his plane, also too. I want her to completely dominate him.
WaterGirl
@Geminid: I agree with that. I also think that it was a threat and also a call to arms to MAGA peeps. It’s going to be a bloodbath. (stand by, hint-hint)
RevRick
@Nelle: You’re welcome.
Kay
@trnc:
Oh, I don’t know. I think Trump and the GOP know that manufacturing workers are doing well. Wages have gone up, there’s a labor union resurgence, they’re all working as much as they want to …
Media hasn’t figured it out, but it’s true. So they have to come up with a threat, so hit on a future blood bath in the auto industry. It works either way for him.
Sure Lurkalot
@Kay: Murkowski voted with Trump over 70% of the time which I guess passes for raging independent. Better than Liz, though. I also don’t remember Lisa saying Democrats kill babies after they’re born, so there’s that.
But she has said she won’t vote for Biden.
mrmoshpotato
Palm Sunday? Whole lotta dunkin’ goin’ on?
Go ‘Cats!
Baud
@Kay:
It’s the same future recession argument the media push for two years, using more graphic but ambiguous language that appeals to the base.
RevRick
@Nelle: Of course it was. Trump knows nothing about the faith. There was a hilarious attempt to portray him praying in church, but it failed, because in the image he has six fingers on each hand.
RevRick
@TBone: Thank you
Frank Wilhoit
@The Thin Black Duke: I always remember back to — when was it? I want to say 1978, but can it really have been that long ago? more likely some time in the 1980s — Trump’s first bankruptcy. Prior to that time (whenever it was) I had been only vaguely aware of him as a subject of celebrity pseudo-news, occasional glimpses of his face on magazine covers or waiting-room televisions. Even from those pinpricks, it was clear that he was someone who had neither knowledge, nor sense, nor judgement, nor insight, nor decency, nor any other kind of claim on a split second of any productive person’s attention. Then the next bit of news was that he had gone bankrupt: and I thought, well, good, that is the last we’ll ever hear of him.
Somehow it didn’t turn out that way.
mrmoshpotato
Maybe Axios no longer enjoys sucking Dump’s fat, orange, fascist ass.
Geminid
@Kay: Murkowski’s term ends in Janusry, 2029, and I think she will not run for another. Murkowski and Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola seem to have an alliance, so maybe Murkowski will endores Peltola as her successor.
Alaska is a very Republican state, but its open primary, ranked-choice runoff system could help put Peltola in the Senate– assuming she can win her House races this year and in 2026.
Kay
@Baud:
Agree. I wonder if they aren’t getting the traction they hoped to get on “the economy” (political media version of the economy) because hourly people are doing quite well. It isn’t just the upper midwest either- California has a huge manufacturing sector.
sdhays
@Geminid: Yeah, I long ago realized that it’s a fool’s errand trying to parse “what Trump really means/intended”. If he wants to talk like that, we should assume the worst and force him and his minions and “allies” to explain what he really meant, and everyone can decide for themselves if the explanations congenital liars are convincing.
Trump dreams of being a dictator, crushing his enemies and bathed in the adoration of his bloodthirsty cult. He’s got one half of that (although his adoration baths may not be as fulfilling as they once were), and he’s sincere about wanting the other half, especially now that he’s experiencing consequences he’s never really faced before.
Kay
@Geminid:
She wouldn’t “rule out” leaving the GOP, so maybe.
Frank Wilhoit
@Geminid: Cole, as a Republican, cannot be assumed to have any particular insight into anything. But quite apart from that, the key is, and has been, and will be, speed.
trnc
I don’t know, but I doubt it. He slammed the SC for overturning Roe v Wade.
I don’t pay a lot of attention to MJ, but he has also been railing against DT for a long time and is supporting Biden in the election, so I don’t think it’s fair to say he’s a partisan hack.
ETA: Re the abortion bomber comment, I can’t find anything about MJ saying that, so I suspect you’re thinking of someone else. I would respectfully request that accusations like that be verified before posting.
ETA 2: Just saw the followup about him briefly representing the bomber.
Frankensteinbeck
@Kay:
It’s definitely up for debate, but I don’t think the top people (including Trump) know, because I don’t think they care. Shove workers doing better in their faces and all they see is no one wants to work.
@Frank Wilhoit:
If only. In the finest example of how we need a lot more business regulations, one of his companies went bankrupt and he walked away with the money.
Now Trump himself is in trouble, but we won’t know if he’ll escape it until tomorrow.
Does anybody know – if he can’t put up the money, doesn’t that mean Trump can’t appeal? The fines are final? The bond is a condition of appeal, isn’t it?
Geminid
@Kay: I believe Murkowski campaigned alongside Peltola in 2022. They align on issues affecting Alaskans, and diverge some on national issues.
Ed. Rep. Peltola is a formidable politician, I think. One of her projects is a revision of the Magnuson-Stevens Act which regulates fishing in the ocean waters off Pacific Northwest coast. I won’t be surprised if Peltola pulls that off in the next Congress.
Gin & Tonic
Will not link, obvs, but russian police filmed themselves cutting off a suspect’s (in the concert attack) ear and forcing him to eat it. During Ramadan.
Jeffg166
@Dorothy A. Winsor: When it doubt go to YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NamVSMWHu0
Baud
@Kay:
I don’t know. The propaganda on Reddit about how terrible the economy is has really ramped up. I think they’re trying to convince young people to stay home.
PAM Dirac
@Frankensteinbeck:
The lawyers around here can give the details, but I am fairly sure that the bond is not a condition of appeal, but it is a condition of staying the enforcement of the fine until the appeal is heard. So no bond means the properties get seized even while the appeal is going on.
dmsilev
No, he _chose_ to divert tens of millions of dollars to pay his legal expenses. He could have avoided that, first of all by not criming so much, or by, you know, paying for his lawyers himself.
Or by simply stiffing the lawyers.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Jeffg166: Thanks. I’ll watch that. I’ve looked at other You Tubes but they presume a lot of knowledge and suddenly they’re doing something and I can’t see how they got to that scree
ETA: I hope that if I watch enough different ones and try it out, I’ll eventually accumulate enough details
Kay
@Baud:
That’s too bad. It’s a particular threat to Democrats because even though young people have low turnout they are essential in Michigan and Wisconsin. We will not win without them in those states.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Quick piece on Murkowski’s speech:
https://alaskapublic.org/2024/02/15/in-speech-to-alaska-legislature-murkowski-shows-shes-outside-trumps-grip-on-gop/
Note at the end:
Obviously that was before Less-Odious-Candidate-But-That’s-A-Low-Low-Bar dropped out. It signals that Murkowski is simply yet another Embarrassed Republican who, while she won’t vote for the Orange Far Cloud, she sure as hell won’t vote for Biden.
She’s always been a “bring home the bacon” type which is always been a massive selling point in Alaska. Sure, she’s no Susie Furrow Brows but she’ll never pull a Specter and change parties.
Princess
@Gin & Tonic: When I heard they had captured the suspects, I wondered whether they had actually captured actual suspects or just rounded up some usual suspects to torture and punish so they could put the whole thing behind them.
Kay
@Baud:
Trump needs turnout too, of course, and my sense is there’s real exhaustion on the Right so he has a problem too. Maybe it will be low turnout on both sides – I think we win that because our core voters have gotten better at showing up consistently. That isn’t true on the Right.
Baud
@Kay:
They know what they’re doing, despite how incompetent they seem.
I’m not saying our voters won’t come home or that we’ll lose, but this is the most disappointed I’ve been in ourselves since election night 2016. Things are way more of a struggle than they should be. I’d be much happier if it were the independents that were the problem. That wouldn’t implicate my identity.
trnc
Thanks. I get that. I just meant that when DT started getting flack for the bloodbath comment, did he have to walk it back himself, or did the media do that before he had to comment on it? Not a big deal.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Princess: I wondered that too. Maybe some Ukranians?
Kay
@Baud:
This site (BJ) tends to downplay the role of independents and Right leaning Democrats though and (I think irrationally) knee jerk blame the Left side of our base. There’s a lot of factors in a loss by 10,000 votes. It could be Lefties in the Dem coalition but it could also be Righties in the Dem coalition, or the idiotic “independents”.
Clinton could have lost because of Bernie Sanders but she also could have lost because Dem leaning Independents didn’t show up or Right leaning Democrats broke for Trump. I don’t know. It’s impossible to determine. 10,000 votes either way could be just about anything.
Geminid
@Frank Wilhoit: I do not assume Tom Cole to be an insightful man, but I have observed Cole over the years and I think he knew what he was talking about here.
But we’re predicting future events, and this argument won’t be settled until after the House reconvenes April 9.
Baud
@Kay:
I agree, although two things. BJ expects less of right leaners. And BJ tends not to encounter right leaners working against Dems on social media (and maybe real life too). Related, BJ encounters fewer people unreasonably defending right leaners.
Kay
@Baud:
If I look at Ohio the bleeding from the Democratic Party didn’t come from the Left of the Democratic Party – it came from the Right. They went to Trump, not Bernie Sanders because they always were Right leaning Democrats. Rural counties in Ohio went from 40% D to 25% D -the whole swing was to the Right.
Geminid
@Kay: I think a lot of Dem-leaning Independents voted for Gary Johnson in 2016. He got over 3 million votes more that year than when he ran in 2012, and I don’t think that was because Libertarianism had a sudden surge of appeal.
I expect some of these were Sanders voters, who were not neccesarily all lefties. And misogyny spans the ideological spectrum, I think.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
Baud
@Kay:
Right. Since 200w, the parties have moved to the left and right, but it’s still a 50/50 country (with a fudge factor for systemic issues that aid the GOP). That’s because we shed righties when we move left. But that makes getting criticized by the left even more irritating.
Marcopolo
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Do you know any 12 year olds? Finding one to help you might be the easiest path. I hear they take to Tik Tok like a fish to water. Only half snarking. Good luck in your efforts.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Kay
@Baud:
Right leaning Dems are not working against Dems on Twitter- that’s true. They’re on CBS and NBC and Fox and MSNBC and the NYTimes and the Washington Post. Larry Summers and Joe Manchin worked very hard to bash the Biden economy and they get blanket mainstream media coverage.
Baud
@Kay:
Agreed. But they also get lots of scorn on BJ.
rikyrah
@Baud:
They spent two phucking years telling us we were in a recession. Phucking MSM.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Marcopolo: I don’t know any kid who’d be helpful at the moment. Maybe my kindergarten-teacher DIL? She’s very tech savvy. I have to be able to do it myself though, because like on any site, posting has to be ongoing for people to get to know you.
rikyrah
@Kay:
This is absolutely no lie. Plus, don’t forget the coverage that The Squad gets. For every media appearance of a Jasmine Crockett or Lauren Underwood on MSM, who are always fabulously on point as to the successes of this Administration, there are 10 of The Squad.🤬
Kay
@Geminid:
But you ignore the elephant in the room! The Obama to Trump voters! They were primariy Right leaning Democrats. Like the Democrats in my county group. That’s why we saw Ohio flip. It wasn’t some surge in Indpendents or Lefties – it was Democratic voters breaking for Trump. Same with Florida. It’s like you’ve chosen this small, subtle number in order to avoid the large, obvious number.
Why did the 3 million libertarian votes matter? That’s the question.
Geminid
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Murkowski is unlikely to turn Democrat, but if Democrats have 49 or more Senators in the next Congress, I won’t be surprised if she becomes Independent and votes for Schumer as Majority Leader. She can make a deal with Democratic Senate leaders to caucus with them and keep her committee seniority.
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I don’t know how to make a video, but don’t forget to drop your TikTok handle, so that I can find you and follow you.🤗
peter
@RevRick: Thank you — that was very well stated, and apt for the season.
Kay
@Geminid:
My county went from 45% Obama in 2012 to 25% Clinton and then Biden. We didn’t bleed Lefties. We bled Right leaning Democrats and Independents. The Right picked up that whole 20%. Florida looks the same.
rikyrah
@Kay:
They definitely know that the policies set in place Biden have been good for the working man, and they hate it
Baud
@Kay:
Because Dems have been moving to the left. Same thing happened with the so called Reagan Democrats.
Kay
@Geminid:
Agree. I think it’s a real possibility. Murkowski became much less of a Republican after Sarah Palin engineered a challenge to her with that idiot lawyer Palin chose and Mukowski won as a write in.
She doesn’t need the GOP. They need her.
rikyrah
@Kay:
That would take courage, which they lack😒😒😒
Most gutless people ever 🤬
Frankensteinbeck
@Kay:
Because a black man wasn’t just elected, the White Establishment (as O’Reilly described it) could not put him back in its place. Because Democrats followed up by nominating a strong woman.
I don’t think it had anything to do with Democratic policy except equality, and I don’t think it had anything to do with ignoring those voters. They rebelled against our core values and in the process went crazy.
rikyrah
@Baud:
They were desperate to find a way to explain it away. After all, they spent 4 years trying to gaslight us as they attempted to normalize him 🤬🤬🤬
Subsole
@zhena gogolia:
Trump doesn’t know that, and the Evangelicals will let it slide. That’s the joke.
Baud
Although DeSantis was a failure running against the Woke, I’m increasingly convinced our commitment to equality remains the primary driver in keeping Republicans strong.
ETA: What Frankensteinbeck said
Dorothy A. Winsor
@rikyrah: The idea of people I know seeing me on tiktok is kind of horrifying, but once I get going, I’ll do it.
Kay
@Baud:
Having watched it the last ten years, I’ll tell you what happens. The Right goes after the Democratic brand. They make the brand poison, so you see things like Ohio voting overwhelmingly for choice in abortion but also backing anti choice Republicans. The issues aren’t …the issue. It’s the brand “Democratic”. I don’t really know how to fix that but once it takes hold you can’t turn it around – Ohio is gone. Florida is right on the cusp of being gone.
Uncle Cosmo
Not for a significant number of Christians, Rev. Orthodox Christianity calculates the date for Easter in a slightly different fashion, which can lead to vast differences in the actual date. Most years the ttwo dates are the same or differ by a week, but in 2024 Orthodox Easter falls on May 5, a full 5 weeks after the non-Orthodox date of March 31.
rikyrah
Was the money for Ukraine in the funding package?
Geminid
@Kay: I did not say Obama-to-Johnson voters were the only or even the most important factor. You brought up Dem-leaning Independents and I talked about some of them because it supported your contention that it was not just left-wing Sanders voters who caused Clinton’s loss,
Also, I pointed the some disaffected Sanders voters were not neccesarily that liberal to begin with.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Frankensteinbeck: I’ve said before that sometimes it’s embarrassing to be an old white person. Of course, Mr DAW counters by saying I should try being an old white man.
Baud
@Kay:
They link the brand to our base. Often black people, but also other minorities and, of course, wayward women and LGBTQ people. That’s the main thing IMHO.
Baud
@rikyrah:
I don’t believe so. Not sure if some amount of it can be reallocated to Ukraine.
rikyrah
@Frankensteinbeck:
It will always be the re-election of Obama that broke them.
Never forget..Willard got the same percentage of White voters that Trump did.
They were stunned that their wishes were turned away , by non-Whites in 2012
Nelle
@Marcopolo: If I go ahead with my half- thought idea, I will go to Young Democrats at the nearby university and look for help there. That’s another idea for DAW.
Baud
@rikyrah:
The Onion called it.
Kay
@Baud:
Agree.
We’re doing a full court Biden push here. I met with two women yesterday who will work with me and we’ll have the backing of the County party. We made a list of 2500 squishy Dem voters using the county voter database and we’re going to concentrate on them. It’s kind of fun because it’ssuch a long shot. I’m most comfortable as the underdog. If nothing else it will help Sherrod Brown.
Baud
@Kay:
Best of luck. I appreciate your efforts. I’m a big fan of doers.
RevRick
@Uncle Cosmo: They still operate on the Julian calendar. So, yes, wildly out of sync.
RevRick
@peter: You’re welcome.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: I don’t believe it’s irreversible–if it were, we never would have won a presidential election again after the 1980s, because “Democrat” and “liberal” were poison brands nationwide at that point.
sab
@Kay: I wish we could convince voters that the Republican brand is blatant corruption at every level, because that is true.
Maybe Yost going after First Energy will help. He isn’t doing it to fight corruption. He is doing it to tarnish the reputations of rival Republicans like Husted.
Tony G
Damn, I forgot that today is Palm Sunday. That’s what I get for not going to Mass in fifty years. Back when I went to Sunday School as a kid, the other boys (not me of course) used to get a lot of laughs from the idea of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on an ass.
Subsole
@mrmoshpotato:
Lol. You wish.
The fact they’re finally coming up for air doesn’t mean they’re tired.
kalakal
@TBone: Naw she should leave it, those things just suck up money, it’ll just sit there falling apart costing thousands in storage and maintenance
dr. luba
Eastern rite christians will be celebrating Palm Sunday the last Sunday in April, as our Easter is on May 5 this year (“Cinco de Easter”).
In Ukraine the last Sunday before Easter (Palm Sunday) is called Willow Sunday (Verbna nedilia). On this day pussy willow branches are blessed in the church, instead of palms, as in the west. People tap one another with these blessed branches, repeating the wish:
Будь великим, як Верба,
А здоровим, як Вода,
А багатим, як Земля.
Be as tall as the willow,
as healthy as the water,
and as rich as the earth.
Or they may chant:
Не я б’ю — верба б’є
За тиждень Великдень
Недалечко червоне яєчко!
The willow hits you, not I
In a week it will be Velykden
and soon you’ll have a red egg!
The origins of this custom are ancient, and probably precede the acceptance of christianity in Ukraine. It is said that this tapping transferred living energy from the willow plant (which was a goddess totem) to the person being tapped. Children, particularly, would be tapped, so they would grow big, strong and healthy.
The blessed willow branches were then taken home. Some of the blessed pussy willow branches were placed above the holy pictures (icons) in the home, to protect the household from evil spirits. These branches would replace the branches that had been placed the previous year. The branches which were taken down were carefully burned; a few would be used to light the stove to bake this year’s pasky (Easter breads).
Some of the branches were planted by the father or oldest son. If they took root, it meant a marriage for a daughter or son of the family. Often they would be planted near the family’s well, to keep evils spirits away from it, and to make the water healthy and good tasting.
Blessed branches were used to drive the cattle to pasture for the first time on St. George’s Day, and then the father or eldest son would lightly tap the cattle with them to ensure good health and fecundity.
Branches would be used to ward off storms, and thrown into fires to help put them out. A branch or two would be placed in the coffin with the deceased, to protect them from demons.
Kay
@sab:
100% agree in Ohio. It breaks my heart a little. They’re – we’re – getting robbed. I resent paying state taxes because I’m basically funding a GOP crime ring.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
Well, waiting for Ukraine aid has been feeling a lot like Waiting for Godot. Will Godot show up in April? Or will a little boy show up and tell us that Godot isn’t coming this month, but he’ll be here in May?
Subsole
@Baud:
They are. Same reason they’re ramping up the Baby-eating-Jews crap, too.
And sadly, it seems to be working. They’ve got these kids reciting the fucking Protocols, at this point.
Chris T.
@Baud:
And windows! All kinds of ways in and out of … oh, doers, not doors. Never mind.
Frankensteinbeck
@rikyrah:
There are levels of racism. There are those who thought they could handle a minority in charge until it happened. There are those who could handle a minority in charge as long as they felt like white men put him there. They could handle a black man in charge, but not blacks being in charge. Obama’s reelection crossed that line.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: My guess is that this matter will be resolved one way or the other in April, probably the first week the House returns.
Kay
@rikyrah:
But you can look at The Squad two ways too. The Squad sometimes criticizes Democrats so you could say The Squad pushes down D votes or D “enthusiasm” but if you’re looking at it from the perspective of the Left side of the Party you could say The Squad keeps the Left side of the Party IN the Party. The Squad gives Lefties Democrats to back. If we have a Left side of the Party IN the Party we keep those voters.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Kay: I once sent her a small contribution with a thank you note for doing some right thing or other, I forget what. And it didn’t take me long to start to regret it, concluding she was just as bad as the rest of them.
I won’t send her any more money, but I’m glad my first instincts may have been correct. Certainly being one of the lonely few who voted for impeachment puts her in an exclusive club.
Gvg
@zhena gogolia: No one is stupid enough to propose we UV ourselves or drink bleach to kill germs, except Trump. The joke is that Trump is so ignorant of Christianity but his followers who claim to be Christians either put up with it and pretend it doesn’t matter, or are just as ignorant and false as he is.
WaterGirl
@Sure Lurkalot:
If Murkowski wants to be the model for *principled Republicans to NOT VOTE FOR TRUMP, even if they won’t for Biden, I am okay with that.
Just win, baby!
*principled Republicans, I am tempted to say “both of them?”
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
That’s true. We’ve (obviously) also picked up states, so we lost FL, OH and (a while ago) Missouri but we picked up VA, CO and to a lesser extent GA and AZ. That’s a good trade. If you had told me in 1993 that GA would go for Democrats I would have laughed. Same with Arizona.
sab
@Kay: My husband went to St Vincent’s high school ( LeBron James’ alma mater) in the 1970s and he paid his own tuition. He was talking to a priest at St V a couple of months ago, and he said that there is only one family in the entire school paying full tuition. Everyone else is heavily sunsidized by the state.
My tax dollars are paying for Catholic schooling, and at the elementary school level they have to follow the bishop’s anti-LGBT dictates. We are a family with gay and trans members and it absolutely infuriates me.
hueyplong
@Kay: The Squad doesn’t prevent things from passing (or even coming to a vote). Can’t say that about the two about-to-be-former Senators.
rikyrah
For those who follow figure skating,
New Men’s World Champion did SIX QUAD JUMPS during his long program 😳😳😳
He is 19.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLjT67yM/
Mike in NC
Who’d ever imagine that Fat Bastard would be too broke to hold his Nuremburg-style hate rallies in deep red states? Tulsa was still the gold standard for his being humiliated by teenage girls ordering tickets.
Subsole
@Kay: They need less turnout because Electoral College is tilted in their favor. Also, no matter how much they whine, they show up. Unlike us.
Everyone – EVERYONE – needs to stop fucking around and go vote Team Blue.
Otherwise those kids better adapt to IVF bans, women not being able to have their own bank accounts, no more divorce, legalized beatings, mandated prayer, rampant pollution, slashed wages, constant race crimes, naked bigotry, trans re-education camps, gays getting shoved back in closets, mass deportation of brown citizens, and watching Gaza get salted and paved, along with Ukraine.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: Growing up catholic, palm sunday was a big deal. Not because of the symbolism, but because we got the palms!
With 3 sisters, we had enough to braid them together! Somehow that was a really big deal.
Baud
@Subsole: Yeah, I wish people would stop saying the kids are alright. Many are, perhaps even most, but a lot are not.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Kay:
If nothing else it will help Sherrod Brown.
That’s key. I’m under no illusion that states that have seen the red demographic shift over the last 20+ years will do anything but vote (R) for Preznit but am hoping there’s enough ticket splitters who don’t totally buy into the brand and brand-linked-to-your-inner-racist messaging by Reps that’ll reelect somebody like Brown.
Or in the case of MD, keep some clown like Hogan out of the Senate.
RevRick
@dr. luba: Thank you for this piece of Orthodox history.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I always found it chilling that he was so adamant on getting to the riot on Jan 6, to the point of trying to grab the wheel from his driver. I suspect he had a vision of standing on a literal pile of the bodies of his political enemies.
Baud
@hueyplong: That’s been true so far. The supplemental could be a test. Depends on what Republicans do with the discharge.
But I generally give anyone, right or left, a pass on protest votes if it doesn’t prevent passage. And yes, Manchinema are worse, but they’re also gone next Congress.
ETA: As is Dean Philips for that matter.
WaterGirl
@Subsole:
Is that still true, though?
Remember the 2020 special election for our two awesome senators in GA? As I recall, with his tantrums and talk of rigged voting, Trump seemed to have depressed the voting in the runoffs.
Maybe we can do that again.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Well, yeah, but what they mean is that they’re legalizing running over protesters.
Princess
@Kay: I think you’re right about the branding issue. And while the Dem brand has been tarnished, somehow the GoP brand has grown stronger, because these people aren’t sitting home, A lot of this is Trump (and frankly, people who think Trump is stupid, are stupid, and I include Fran Liebowitz in this. It makes people feel good and superior to believe it but it’s false). But when you’re talking about who builds and destroys brands, you come right back to our friends in the media. That’s the business the NYT and the rest are in – polishing up one brand and wrecking the other one. Even the nominally pro Dem media makes our brand look awful — like protected smarty pants urban whiners.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@WaterGirl: Also grew up catholic. Sometimes we’d tie two together into a crude cross. More often just leave them on a windowsill for months till somebody finally threw them out.
It wasn’t till moving to Philly and seeing elaborate woven palm things at the Italian Market around Palm Sunday that I knew that was a thing. There’s a produce market near us that sells palm weavings too. I think they’re also Italian.
I see the rest of you jackals are as church-going as I am this fine Palm Sunday morning. The wife is in church. I’m sipping a redeye and munching a chocolate biscotti.
Subsole
@Kay: Fair. I think part of that is because the Leftier than thou make so much noise about staying home or sitting out and, essentially, are constantly threatening to withhold their vote.
We can argue about the sense and righteousness (or lack thereof) of that approach, but the fact they are constantly holding it over our heads does, I think, make it stick in peoples’ minds. Indies and right-leaners just don’t make as big a production over it, so they slide under the radar, as it were.
Kay
@sab:
Well, I agree it should infuriate you, but the big complaint from Catholics here who use our Catholic school is the vouchers are bringing in non Catholics who have no intention of following Catholic dogma or joining the church. They think vouchers have backfired for Catholic schools – that the schools are no longer Catholic. They don’t say this but underneath this “The schools are no longer Catholic!” is another concern -they’re pulling in some challenging students from public schools and they don’t want those students. They don’t want their children going to school with poor people. That’s why they sent them to private schools – to avoid the 50% of children in this county who are poor. You should hear my book club. It’s great in a way. The dog caught the car and they’re not happy. Cry me a river.
I resent vouchers because private schools offer NOTHING to public school students but public schools are required, by law, to offer public programs to private schools. It’s not reciprocal. They just take. They don’t give. It’s not fair to public school students. I’m sick of our students being treated as less than by private schools. If they’re going to take public money they should contribute.
sab
@WaterGirl: I grew up in Florida and saw the guys with steel shin guards going into the palmetto brush to cut palms for Palm Sunday. A lot of the snakes down there are poisonous. I like the idea of Willow Sunday. The palm part of Palm Sunday has always horrified me because of those guys and the snakes. Although the snakes were mostly still in hibernation that time of year.
Fair Economist
@Geminid: Murkowski isn’t totally crazy, but she’d a pretty hard-core Republican and it would be hard for her and the Democrats to work an agreement.
And while a Dem Majority leader with Murkowski as swing vote would be a damn sight better than a Republican Majority leader, it would make us all long for Manchin as a swing vote. It would be very painful.
TBone
@kalakal: I don’t want her to keep it. I want her to take it away from him.
Subsole
@rikyrah: Hello and good morning!
Fair Economist
@Mike in NC: Fat Bastard isn’t too broke to hold rallies, he’s too demented. He has no public events planned in the future. None.
He’s so far gone they’re afraid to have him talk in public.
Subsole
@Frankensteinbeck:
This.
It was the misogyny. It was always the fucking misogyny.
Manyakitty
@satby: this is a great idea.
Kay
@Fair Economist:
Ha! I think I agree. All those quotes from Republicans look planted – like the whole article was planned.
sab
@Kay: That should cheer my husband up.
We have an autistic granddaughter in Akron public schools and they have been wonderful for her. It really irks me having my tax dollars go elsewhere. Akron public schools have to provide busses to the kids that opt for charter schools.
TBone
@TBone: 🎶
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nguuo344j00
Geminid
@WaterGirl: When the November, 2020 Senate races went to a runoff, “conventional wisdom” said the Republicans would win because historically, the Republican vote dropped of less than the Democratic in runoffs. In the event, Jon Ossoff’s vote dropped by about 80,000 while David Perdue’s dropped by well over 200,000.
That was a good GOTV effort by Democrats, but also a sign of Republican division. That evening, I listened to live coverage on Atlanta’s clear channel radio station, WSB AM-750. I remember one of the reporters saying he had talked with Republican officials in rural counties about turnout and said they were “chagrined.” A hopeful sign.
In 2022, I was psyched about hearing WSB’s coverage of Raphel Warnock’s and Stacy Abram’ races but the Georgia’s basketball team had a game and they had that on instead.
Gvg
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I am not sure. When Palin was big news I read about Alaska politics because Palin was reported as having courted Alaska Independence Party voters. That party is about succession and I consider it treason. Apparently in Alaska it’s a very big party, maybe a 1/3 of Alaskans and not a fringe party. None of the politicians there can ignore or denounce it and win. Silly voters seem to think they could afford to be independent and run their own defense and trade and the government would still be able to send them their oil checks. So, anyway, the politics of that state are very different than any other and Murkoski might be able to swing changing parties. She won as an independent when a far right loon won a primary against her and I think that means she got democrats votes as well as independents (no party and independents party).
this may be why she is so different from Collins and the other Republican Senators too. Her state is different.
Brachiator
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I find this interesting even though I never use Instagram or TikTok. Do readers really want to see messages from the authors?
OTOH, I am really impressed at how a lot of folks get into producing fun and impressive videos. I bow down before them, because I don’t have any talent for this at all.
I noticed that some pundits I follow on YouTube had to learn how to do YouTube shorts. They had to make them punchy, like little stories with a clear ending or punchline or they were ignored. I’m curious as to what works best in TikTok land.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Fair Economist:
Yup and that is an understatement. It would be the classic one senator gets all the attention and has disproportionate power over the caucus. Spare us that please.
sab
@Kay: Every time I turn on the tv I see an ad with Sherrod Brown talking to manufacturing workers at plants in Ohio. I hope it has an impact. I am glad he is starting so early.
Kay
@sab:
I like Ohio’s open (public school) enrollment. It’s allowed public schools to sort of specialize in areas of strength. We have one district here that is very strong w/ kids with disabilities. They have like a cult following of parents with those kids. They get those kids from all over the county – they can choose a district because of open enrollment. People choose my district because it’s the largest so has economies of scale that allow us to offer 3 languages, lots of AP classes, lots of different sports, etc. Some people prefer a tiny district, like our rural districts. It’s “choice” that works for public schools – makes them stronger.
Subsole
@rikyrah: It’s not even the working man! They’re always interviewing like, the town lawyer, or some car dealership owner, or people who live in the small town but work in the small city 20 minutes away! Or they interview some local GOP offocial – and don’t mention they are GOP!
Hell, I remember they interviewed folks from this town in central PA. Come to find out they only interviewed Republucans! They ignored the 50% of the town that voted Clinton! People from that town were lighting their asses up on Twitter for making the town look like something it wasn’t!
They don’t actually care about these towns or the people in them. They want to preserve an illusion of the Noble (small-town, white) Savage for the wealthy urban sophisticates who sign their paychecks.
Like, it really does seem like their slanted coverage is them working through some identity issues.
bk
@catclub: Disagree about MJ. While he certainly gave Trump a (daily) microphone in the leadup to 2016, he has been a loud opponent of his for the past few years.
dr. luba
@RevRick: That is western dating. The eastern church adds the criterion that Easter cannot come before Passover, as the Last Supper was apparently a seder.
That is why the two Easters can be the same, a week apart, or even, like this year, 5 weeks apart.
(I think there is something about the dating of the vernal equinox in there, too……
It’s not just about getting 50% off on easter candy and better weather ;)
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: In the 1990s, Virginia was the Republican-voting one and West Virginia was the Democratic-voting one. Now it’s reversed. (Like it was in the 1920s.)
sab
@Kay: My granddaughter has a half-brother who is not getting along with his stepfather in Cleveland, so he is in vocational education in Akron now and happy with his shop classes.
Subsole
@dr. luba:
I really love that you tell us these customs. Thanks.
Gvg
@Kay: Republicans are burning down their own brand though. A whole lot of voters have never seen a sane Republican politician. Future years are going to be a bloodbath for republicans in office. There will be endless jokes about incompetent republicans who are also mean. We aren’t there yet but it is not just the young. It’s middle aged too. We need to survive a few more cycles but when republicans are not even admiring competence, I think they are doomed.
Brachiator
@Geminid:
@Baud:
It would be nice if the media quit worrying about Trump’s toothless rages, challenged him on his nonsense and moved on. But they will do whatever they do, and there is not much to be done about it.
But political leaders can mock Trump’s false bravado, slap him down, mark him out as a coward without any ideas or solutions. Treat him like an empty suit and move on.
Matt McIrvin
@Gvg: You have to factor in new generations of insane voters too.
bjacques
I’m celebrating Palm Sunday by counting down the 25 hours Trump has to pay up.
UncleEbeneezer
@Princess: The notion that The Dem Party Sucks, is prevalent because it is not only popular with Republicans (and Independents) but because a significant portion of people on our side co-sign it too. It’s pretty rare to see Republican voters bash their party publicly, no matter how terrible it acts. They may criticize Trump or Johnson or the Freedom Caucus, but those people are the problem not the party itself. If Republicans had an incumbent President who had been only a fraction as successful as Biden (as far as delivering on things they want) they would be 100% lined up to support them and proudly claiming Mission Accomplished. They sure as hell wouldn’t be running around telling their voters “it’s cool if you don’t want to vote.” It’s not just the Media that determines how people view the Dem brand. A lot of the tarnish is from us.
Subsole
@rikyrah:
That was amazing.
Also, my knees hurt, now.
Eunicecycle
@dr. luba: that is fascinating! Thanks for sharing.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Brachiator: Short is good on tiktok too. Once I get the tech figured out, I’d be fine doing little short things like, say, the cover of the forthcoming book (Dragoncraft) with music and a line something like “Brothers Hawthorne meets Fireborne.” Or an open book with some lines underlined and music playing. Those are probably 15 seconds.
I could do book reviews, I guess.
Kay
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
My approach to politics – what has kept me in the Democratic Party- is not so much the politicians or leaders but my solidarity/commonality of purpose with fellow Democrats. That’s where my allegiance is. I think this is because I live in such a red area and we never win. Really. Never. Sherrod never carries my county. We can just blunt the GOP margin. Obama’s team told us “get 8000 votes” (not a majority) but what he needed for a statewide win. That kind of an environment brings you closer to your fellow Democrats than to the politician. I want THEM – my fellow 25 per centers – to win.
I had a phione bank group at my house in 2004 – Bush v Kerry – and I knew early that Bush would win because my job was to collect numbers from precincts and I knew Bush voters were coming out. I was sad not for John Kerry or national Democrats but for the phone bankers. I wanted THEM to win.
Matt McIrvin
@dr. luba: Even with Western dating, it’s not the real Moon or the real equinox, it’s mathematically idealized versions of them that follow a simpler-to-calculate formula.
This was a BIG DEAL in the medieval church. They called it “Computus” — THE calculation.
sab
@Kay: I don’t know about other districts, but in Akron if a kid starts in a partcular school cluster then they can stay in that same cluster for the next 12 years instead of having to move around if their parents move. So they can develop lifelong friendships. Or they can switch to the more specialized schools.
Subsole
@Baud:
I hate to be that kind of old guy, but I really do think a lot of it is the distorting effect of social media.
These kids need a more varied info-diet.
Subsole
@WaterGirl:
Hopefully.
I still have too many bad memories of too many bad years watching people I otherwise respected hold their nose and vote GOP after trashing the guy for eight months. Because people like me just had to be stopped, I guess.
TBone
🎶 variation on a theme
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dY-_m6vUTUY
Kay
@sab:
Oh, that’s even better, because poor people move a lot and open enrollment requires planning by parents – they have to apply by the first week in June for the following year. Poor peoples lives are so chaotic they can founder on “planning”.
SFAW
@WaterGirl:
Get your vision checked, I think you’re seeing double.
ETA: Or, possibly, hallucinating.
Matt McIrvin
@UncleEbeneezer: I think a lot of people on the left have an emotional need to see themselves as intelligent independent thinkers and a distaste for party politics–that’s being part of the establishment, or empty team cheerleading, not cool. So praising the Democratic Party or a major-party politician for any reason gives them icky feelings.
It’s not a radical-left or a centrist phenomenon exclusively; it’s both. Centrists see the party as in hock to radical leftists and vice versa. The factions really have a lot in common temperamentally.
Another Scott
The Politico piece:
I don’t think it costs that much to rent a 5000 seat arena for a few hours.
Maybe there’s “donor fatigue” among GQPers because the donors already understand the “contrast between the two candidates”? There doesn’t seem to be “donor fatigue” on the Democrats side.
And some of the polls, even by the big names, are garbage. (E.g. Phillips getting 11%.) And we know that what matters is results in the “swing states” and that Biden has been ahead in the polling there. But, go on…
Yes, it’s just terrible that the former president, billionaire, very famous man who is “your favorite president” cannot seem to raise money on his own to cover his own expenses resulting from his own actions. Being “forced” to raid campaign donations that are supposed to pay to try to elect candidates that is just terrible.
[ groucho-roll-eyes.gif ]
It’s just incredibly bad horserace “journalism”.
Grr…,
Scott.
Kristine
@Kay:
I was worried about Haley. She’s attractive and presents well when she isn’t pushed to explain—given the MSM seldom pushes, she’d have been given a lot of slack. The anti-abortion rhetoric would’ve been buried under a steaming pile of “the conservative GOP could/might/will elect the first woman president before the liberal feminist Democrats hahaha.” So much would’ve been papered over.
I’d like to believe that the longer the GOP hangs onto Trump, the faster and deeper they’ll sink into babbling irrelevance. But I didn’t believe Trump would even be around now so what do I know?
Brachiator
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
These examples sound fun and interesting. But again, what do I know?
Have you looked at what other authors do? Or what book related Toks seem to get the most reactions?
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: I saw so much conspiracy theorizing driven by the leaked early exit polls that convinced people Kerry was winning.
I think this blew back on us. The whole Dominion Voting Systems BS that drove Trump’s conspiracy claims and January 6th was a variation on the stuff about Diebold rigging the election that was going around on the left in 2004. It exposed weaknesses in the voting system that were and are genuine problems, but there was this unwarranted tone of certainty to it all.
Betty
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Gen Z love their grannies, some of whom are good story tellers. So give it a go!
lowtechcyclist
@RevRick:
That’s the best kind of birthday! Who remembers their original birthday? Nobody! But if I am ever so deep into dementia that I no longer remember the day I was reborn in Christ, you can kick dirt over me because I’m gone.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Matt McIrvin: Or new generations of genuinely fascist voters
Matt McIrvin
@Subsole: There’s a longtime pattern of the vox-populi interview with a random man in the street expressing the concerns of regular citizens, and then it turns out the man in the street is the chair of the town Republican Party committee.
JPL
@Kristine: Just the idea that trump might win, scares me to death.
As bad as Haley is, I don’t think see would destroy democracy. Don’t get me wrong, it would take years for us to recover from her administration.
btw Mediaite has a nine minute interview with Ronna and she is still the same lying evil person she was before.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
I was not online for politics in 2004 so I saw none of it. I was such a “square” I followed results on the Sec of State site – it was only later I found out that online people had convinced themselves we won. I was looking at each precinct and Bush was over performing – his people were coming out in droves. I knew we would lose by 3 PM. I made an effort to arrange my face so I wouldn’t demoralize the people who were doing GOTV calls. We had one guy from Indiana – he was (is still, probably!) gay and drove out and found us just because IN wasn’t a swing state and OH was and as you’ll recall the disgusting Bush people demonized gay people to win Ohio. Those are the people who get me invested, make me want to win.
We lost Ohio in 2004. You know who were the biggest promoters of “ohio was stolen”? The Green Party and RFK Jr. That’s all you need to know.
Another Scott
@Jim Appleton: Wait a minute, I thought Easter was when Samson destroys the Temple (3:32)??
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if TIFG gets the various events and dates confused. He would claim that he mixed them up on purpose (as he always does).
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Cheers,
Scott.
Paul in KY
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Your publisher should know a pro who can guide you through it.
lowtechcyclist
@Ken:
Try Discworld. Of course, it’s round too, but just in two dimensions rather than three. Maybe that third dimension makes all the difference. Who knows? ;-)
Paul in KY
@Kay: They don’t want to get rid of him (the movers & shakers in GQP) cause they think/hope he can get back in & then they’ll just do whatever they damn well please, as he’s busy being a buffoon (see Henry VI as buffoon example).
Paul in KY
@Dorothy A. Winsor: You can use “Kari Lake Focus”. I think it’s an actual setting…
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: Greg Palast always bugged me–I liked some of the work he did on problems in the election system, but it always seemed like he went for the most maximalist “election was flipped” claim in every given situation. And then he went all in with claiming the 2016 primary was rigged against Bernie.
Paul in KY
@Gin & Tonic: When it comes to abuse/mistreatment of prisoners, you gotta hand it to them…
Paul in KY
@Baud: Happy to roast that pigeon on a hanger under the overpass as long as the blahs & browns have no hanger & no pigeon…
Omnes Omnibus
@Kay:
I was in a different part of Ohio in 2004. I stood in a line for two hours in cold drizzle to vote in the Schiller Park Community Center in Columbus because Ken Blackwell’s office stiffed us on voting machines (two machines for most of German Village). A friend who lived in Powell waltzed in and out of his polling place in Powell where there were six machines. At the very least, there was indirect voter suppression.
Betty
@rikyrah: Thank you! That was breathtaking!
Paul in KY
@Kay: They work on trying to make politics like rooting for your sports team. It’s a diabolical tactic.
lowtechcyclist
@SFAW:
I very much doubt that many of those Talibangelicals have been reborn.
I mean, think about it: if you grew up in an evangelical church, you knew from an early age that someday you would step forward and accept Christ as your personal Savior, and shortly afterwards, you’d get dunked and all that.
But what happens when you do? What changes in your life? Nothing. Everything’s still the same for you as before you answered that altar call, including, with all likelihood, your heart. All you’re doing is making it official that you’re staying in the club that you’ve grown up in. The only ‘old life’ you have to leave behind is the one you’ve just affirmed that you’re continuing in. If you’ve been ‘born again,’ you’ve just passed through the birth canal and found yourself in exactly the same life you’ve been in.
The whole thing’s hollow.
Another Scott
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Hehe.
None of this “technology” stuff is intuitive. It takes time to develop the muscle memory to wrangle the software to get it to approximate what you want.
Jump in and do it. It’ll get easier as you keep at it.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
—
Who hasn’t done any TikyToky things himself.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
It’s just a misunderstanding of the mechanics of Ohio elections, and that kind of laziness bothers me.
By law, each county in Ohio has an equal number of Rs and Ds on the Bd of Elections. Sometimes in heavily partisan counties it will be “2 Ds’ plus 2 I’s” or “2 R’s plus 2 I’s” but it is NEVER a D or R majority. It is their job to make sure there are enough voting machines. The Democrats on the Bds of Elections in the “college counties” failed at their job. Ken Blackwell can’t keep them from getting voting machines! Half the time they don’t even get them from Columbus – they get them from a neighboring county. If there were lines at D polling places in Ohio that was because D’s on boards of elections didn’t plan properly.
Kay
@Omnes Omnibus:
But Omnnes you don’t sit back and say “golly, I hope the wildly partisan sec of state allows us voting machines”. They have a fucking YEAR to plan. Get them. if you can’t get them, sue.
Not expecting an influx of students in Columbus is malpractice. WTF? They’re supposed to have a 20% cushion for turnout.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: That sounds like hard-core voter suppression to me. More hidden to the white folks and the folks with money, but you can bet that the folks who get one machine know that the “right” people are getting 6 machines, and they know exactly why that is.
WaterGirl
@Kay:
Not sure whether that makes me feel better about it, or worse.
Better, I guess, in the end, because if we have good Dems in those positions it sounds like that’s one particular problem we could actually fix without participation from the other side.
Another Scott
@Frankensteinbeck: I think it was much, much more about “Anybody But Clinton”, myself. HRC had something like 30 years of lies and demonization thrown on her that Obama didn’t. (Yes, historical racism was huge, but it was different in the dynamics.) It would have been a very different race if TIFG were running against, say, Jeffries.
VVP didn’t want HRC to win (because she was going to ramp up sanctions). Comey and the FBI NY didn’t want HRC to win because she was going to rein them in. Big Pharma and the Insurance conglomerates didn’t want her to win because she was going to help people and take away their giant profits. The “evangelicals” didn’t want her to win because she kept saying that girls and women are actual people with rights. And on and on.
And with all that, she still got more votes.
And with all that, she lost in the EC because of Comey and voter suppression.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
trollhattan
@Paul in KY: When mere Vasoline won’t do.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Brachiator: The publicist sent me a sample of videos that do well. And I’ve been following booktok for a while on my desktop, so I know what works well there too. But that’s different than coming up with the material myself. I try to think of content, come up with maybe three things, and then dissolve into panic.
@Jeffg166: I just finished watching that video. It turned out to be very helpful. Thanks again.
lowtechcyclist
@RevRick:
“You killed my father. Prepare to die.”
Baud
@Another Scott:
Ask Kamala about anybody but Hillary. She’s getting the same treatment.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kay: FWIW German Village isn’t a student area. It’s well-off, artsy, gay-friendly and gentrified. In any case, you are saying it was malpractice by the county board?
ETA: That would still be indirect (albeit unintentional) voter suppression.
UncleEbeneezer
@Matt McIrvin: The difference is that nobody listens to Manchin, Synema and Dean Phillips. They are laughing stocks who get rightfully mocked for their nonsense. I don’t see anyone claiming we shouldn’t vote for Biden because he’s too Progressive (or making excuses for those that do). I’m sure some exist but I doubt they are the ones responsible for most of the hesitation by voters in our coalition.
Kay
@WaterGirl:
Well, we did fix it and you know we fixed it because Jon Husted was the wildly partisan Republican who was sec of state in 2012 and Obama won. Obama won because he had a giant army of volunteer lawyers who obsessively focused on boring mechanical details like making sure Ds on Bds of Elections had their shit together and got enough voting machines. The lawyer-lead for that in my area was a wildly successful personal injury lawyer. Detail obsessed and an extremely competitive person. You want him rather than RFJ Jr. Trust me.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
A lot of people just need to look down on the collective because their sense of status depends on it. And that includes extremely moral people who always vote blue.
lowtechcyclist
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Voting for Biden instead of Trump would be twice as good as not voting instead of voting for Trump, but I’ll cheerfully take as many half-loaves as former Trump voters want to offer up.
Kay
@Omnes Omnibus:
I am. It was the fault of the Ds on the county boards. Obama put lawyers in every county to check their work. We sent them a list of questions in June regarding planning for high turnout and other things – interruptions in voting, ballot printing (now moot) keeping polling places open, etc. They have to answer the questions – it’s the Ohio code. It worked. They were ready in 2012.
Paul in KY
@UncleEbeneezer: Tarnish from drama kings/queens who probably don’t consider themselves actual Democrats, but are considered so (from their political leanings) or just ratfuckers, for the most part.
Another Scott
@Baud: Yes, because the GQP always recycles what it thinks works.
But things are different now.
I’m not saying it will be a cakewalk for Kamala in the future or that racism isn’t a huge problem. Just saying that there were many, many more things that HRC had to contend with – over decades – than any other candidate at that time.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
@Dorothy A. Winsor: that is indeed the joke 😁
Bill Arnold
@Baud:
The language was quite clear. The text in brackets is my reading.
He initially refereed to the auto industry, then riffed to expand it to the entire country.
Since the GOP was quite ready to have the USA auto industry collapse in early (March) 2009 (to make POTUS Obama look bad), saying that auto industry failures (a fantasy stretch itself) would cause a bloodbath for the whole USA is … Not Normal Republican Talk.
Paul in KY
@Omnes Omnibus: Malpractice by the Democratic Party operatives who were supposed to be ensuring that kind of suppression couldn’t/wouldn’t be done.
Kay
@Omnes Omnibus:
And I know you know how voting works in WI and you’ve been a voice of reason when we veer towards voting conspiracy theories, so you’re not part of it.
It just discredits real voting rights advocates, as you know. It hurts us.
lowtechcyclist
@Kay:
This. This is exactly what’s been going on, and it predates Trump. It goes back at least as far as Rush Limbaugh gaining a national audience.
I don’t know how to fix it either, other than do the same job to the GOP brand, by regularly reminding people that the GOP is against all those things they’re for, be it a woman’s right to reproductive health care or a higher minimum wage or the ability to unionize.
Bill Arnold
@Robin Goodfellow:
The “bloodbath” riff extended to the whole country (probably the first one implying the auto-industry was on the teleprompter) was the sort of Trump “cleverness” that had him say “See You Next Tuesday” to Roberta Kaplan (E Jean Carroll’s lawyer). It should be treated with a similar level of contempt.
VFX Lurker
In 2018, Michigan was the sixth-hardest state for voting. Now it has same-day voter registration, no-reason absentee and early voting.
This lowers the barrier to student voters. We’re not guaranteed to get all of them, but we’ll pick up last-minute panic voters. Pizza to the Polls sent lots of pizzas to UofM and MSU in recent elections.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
I hope you’re right. But people here were saying we would probably have a cease-fire in Gaza on Monday, three weeks ago.
I’ve stopped believing claims that things are about to happen.
Brachiator
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’m sure that you will get it all figured out.
ETA. I looked at that YouTube tutorial. It was both enlightening and intimidating.
Kay
@WaterGirl:
The questionaire was sent to Bds of Elections in 2012 served two purposes. They let us know if we had a problem but they were also a record – paper we would have if we had to sue. In Ohio you bring an emergency voting petition to a common pleas judge – a county judge. They designate one in each county to take any petitions after hours. A common pleas judge is going to demand something real – we would have paper that said “X precinct in Y county assured 11 voting machines and only had 7”.
Obama was ready to litigate. I think because he’s a Black person he took voter supression seriously. It was not going to happen to him or his voters.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kay: Fair enough. I am still angry about waiting in the cold drizzle for two hours and Ken Blackwell is such an easy villain (primarily because if he could have done it, I am sure he would have).
RaflW
@lowtechcyclist: There was just a really good (if also complicated, as the guy is choosing death with dignity soon, utterly unrelated to the politics/messaging part) Politico Magazine article about how Dems need to — immediately — pivot to brand building to beef up our wins.
—
“Malchow made sure he had time to launch a final salvo at the way campaigns are run. He built his career championing marginal improvements to existing tactics, like rewriting a leaflet’s wording to improve turnout among recipients by 1 or 2 percentage points. But now, as he faces his ultimate deadline, Malchow is taking aim at a much bigger piece of electoral strategy: winning minds via mass media. …
Political communicators are sticking to approaches developed for an era when ticket-splitters and swing voters composed a sizeable chunk of the electorate. But with a body politic that has sorted into two highly polarized parties — with just one-tenth of voters torn between them — the logic of persuading voters to support a candidate has grown obsolete. Ad campaigns should instead promote the Democratic Party itself, Malchow proposes, particularly at moments when news events might help it win new adherents, such as after a mass shooting, when gun-control policy is thrust back into the news and voters might be ready to reconsider their allegiances.
“Ninety percent of voters are choosing parties,” he writes. “Yet our approach to advertising has not changed at all. Almost 100 percent of our advertising dollars are spent on candidate choice. The decision driving 9 out of 10 votes is not being addressed at all.”
—
Long read, and it’s a bit macabre given that he has now died (WaPo), but I highly recommend it anyway.
Kay
@VFX Lurker:
Oh, yay. Thank God. Biden’s polling in Michigan concerns me. It should be better.
Bill Arnold
@RevRick:
“Count his fingers lest ye deal unknowing with a fae.”
Baud
@Kay:
It should be better everywhere.
cain
@Baud:
After Trump says that if Jesus has allowed him to negotiate with God, Jesus would not have had to die. He could have made both sides happy.
Bill Arnold
@RevRick:
Also, this:
cain
@RevRick: this would make a great tiktok honestly
Kay
@Baud:
I don’t like to see the douchebag at 50. I’m fine with 43/45 or whatever because there’s room there. They can’t let him lock that in.
cain
@rikyrah: the media wants to exploit any divisions in the Democratic party. Anybody against the democratic party line is going to get a 🎤 and a video camera shoved in their faces.
The squad are the perfect foil because it riles not only us but provides amusement to the MAGA crowds.
Kay
A Romney desperately lying to keep the 300k NBC is paying her. Amusing.
News people have no one to blame but themselves that their industry is dying. They suck. They hire low quality people. No one should buy this garbage they sell.
Kay
How many statehouse reporters could one hire for 300k? Six in Ohio. But “news” chooses to pay the lying former chair of the GOP 300k instead. They deserve to die.
Matt McIrvin
@UncleEbeneezer: I hear that kind of thing from comfortable techie types in New England– they hate Trump and are embarrassed by him but the Democrats are so crazy left these days. Massachusetts isn’t a swing state but New Hampshire is and some of these folks live there.
Baud
@Kay: MI of all places should appreciate the benefits of Democrats in power. They have some of the best in the country.
@Kay: Agreed.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
It’s the white people’s sandwich. Dems are too left for some, and too right for others. They have no choice but to let Republicans win.
smith
@Matt McIrvin: Sounds like financially comfortable people casting about for a justification for voting for more tax breaks.
dirge
I think you can and should support the brand. There’s actually a great narrative to pitch, from the New Deal to the Great Society, continuing to the present. The healthcare and civil rights stories through Clinton to Obama to Biden are compelling. Biden’s economics as restoration of the New Deal is a great story. The “doing big things” story is fantastic: WPA, moon landing, current infrastructure and manufacturing investments. You can even defend Carter; in retrospect he looks like a prophet, especially on the environment. There’s a whole ad campaign there, with an ad for each salient issue.
On the other side, you can and should attack the Republican brand. Make them the party of “at long last, have you left no sense of decency?”, of “I am not a crook”, of “my heart and my best intentions tell me that’s true, but the facts and evidence tell me it is not”, of the “perfect phone call.” Tie everything toxic about them to every toxic republican going back a century. Works on almost any topic. The material is there.
Another Scott
@Kay: @Omnes Omnibus:
JSTOR paper (first page is here, rest is free online if one signs up for an account). Cutting-and-pasting is broken, so you’ll have to click over. It’s a 4 page article.
tl;dr – There was a surge in voter registrations in the county because of the national interest and importance. They needed at least 2000 more machines to cover the amount of voters who turned out. They didn’t have that many more machines in the county to roll out. The county election board decided that it didn’t make sense to buy more machines for “one election”. The authors estimate that Kerry lost 20,000 votes as a consequence, not enough to change the result.
They say that since there were 2 Ds and 2 Rs on the county board, it’s “unlikely” that there were partisan reasons behind the lack of machines, but don’t follow up on it.
It’s funny though that the problems benefitted the GQP while the GQP was in charge in the state, huh.
What should have happened, was that the county and state should have planned and borrowed machines from elsewhere (if they weren’t going to buy them) to cover the surge in registrations. Just ignoring the problem was wrong.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ksmiami
@Matt McIrvin: the abortion issue is pretty huge in and among places with highly educated people and since it looks like the Supreme Court will ban the abortion pill, well that will re-up the energy
wjca
Could be worse. At least they like the policies.
Compare the GOP in California. The brand is toxic, and people don’t like the policies either. So there’s no, none, zero, way to turn it around.
smedley the uncertain
@zhena gogolia: Jehovah Witness came by, door to door, inviting us to celebrate Jesus birthday next week. Thanked them for the opportunity but it didn’t sink in ’till after they were gone. I have read some scholars studying contemporary history, documents and farmers herding sheep that would push the manger scene into Spring time.
Harrison Wesley
“Jesus? Great guy, the best guy – he came up to me on Easter morning, he had tears in his eyes – and he said, ‘Sir, I got crucified just for you, sir, and I’d do it again anytime for America’s Favorite President….'”
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: It wasn’t *just* about vote suppression in Ohio, though–there was all this chatter that Diebold voting machines and tabulators had flipped votes. It was the kind of thing that maybe theoretically could happen, but there was no evidence that it had happened (though the argument was that there was no way to tell).
Jackie
@bk: I agree with you re MJ. Scarborough has been staunchly anti MAGA/GQP for several years now. Watching his transformation really reminds me of us watching our own JC’s transformation from Republican to Democratic. We are a Big Tent party, and for whatever the reasons former republicans have switched – or at least shifted to independents, I welcome them! Once/when/if the MAGA party dissolves into background chatter, some former/Never Trumpers will go back – but a lot of them WON’T.
The Dobbs decision opened a lot of eyes, imo.
Citizen Alan
@TBone: If the plane is intrinsically good enough or viable enough to sell as a plane, I bet she could make a lot of money by having it disassembled and auctioning off individual parts. Aside from maga freaks who would want a piece for their donald trump shrines, I think I would probably drop a few hundred dollars for a single bolt from trump’s plane which I would have bronzed and then mounted on a plaque to commemorate the day Shitgibbon lost his fortune.
Matt McIrvin
@smith: Student loan forgiveness really angers them for some reason. Not that there wasn’t enough of it but that it was happening at all.
Ruckus
@Robin Goodfellow:
ShitForBrains also seems to be rather susceptible to old fartitus, wherein that part of the human body that runs everything decides it’s had enough and is quitting the job. If that’s not clear – it appears that his thinking apparatus, which was the cheapest, crappiest model available in the first place has decided to leave the building. I’ve heard that the output is just rambling nonsense, the old fart version of baby talk. Unintelligible, misfiring, idiotic, mental institution level BS. Of course he was never really much above that level but it appears that a couple of the cogs have stripped their teeth and just spin around inside that demented, deranged group of bacteria known as shitforbrain.
wjca
Especially when distaining expertise gets extended to rejecting expertise in winning elections.
Just like distaining legal expertise dooms winning in court. (But who would be dumb enought to do that? /s)
smedley the uncertain
@RevRick: Thanks for the info. Best explanation I’ve heard
Marcopolo
@Kay: thread is probably dead but this is what doomed McCaskill in MO (hope Brown does better). Her margins in rural counties saw a very similar drop (even though she worked hard to woo those folks: she did regular Q & As in rural areas, I went to a couple and saw her be present & engage honestly with folks; btw Hawley hasn’t done any of that since he won. Of course, he really doesn’t live in MO). I believe a lot of it was just the nationalization of local politics—that there had been some split ticket voters but the only media they see now (death of small town papers) is very conservative and they never got the other side. Now voting R seems baked in even though their R state legislators don’t actually legislate in ways that might improve their lives. Wishing the best for Sherrod—have been doing a small monthly donation for him for a year now.
TS
@RaflW:
From the WaPo obit
“If you’re a Republican and Hal Malchow showed up on the other side, you knew it because you were about ready to get hurt,” Karl Rove, the Republican strategist who helped propel George W. Bush to the presidency, said in an interview for this obituary. (my bold)
This is how the media works for the GOP – they always find a GOP spokesperson to comment – regardless of the fact that the obituary is about a man described as a long time democratic supporter/worker. So we see the name Karl Rove somehow associated with this long term democratic party worker
Mr. Malchow worked for every Democratic presidential nominee from Michael S. Dukakis in 1988 to John F. Kerry in 2004, more than 30 U.S. senators and 20 governors, and organizations including the Democratic National Committee, the AFL-CIO, the Sierra Club and Emily’s List, which seeks to help elect women who support abortion rights to office.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: I don’t remember people here saying we would have a ceasefire in Gaza next Monday three weeks ago. I know I said we could have one, but I never said we would and I’m about the only one who talked about this and when I did I pointed out the potential stumbling blocks.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Marcopolo:
Living there and being a close follower of McCaskill, that’s pretty much what happened.
For years, Booman would talk about cutting the margins in rural counties as being the key to winning statewide and for a while, yeah, that was true. McCaskill learned the hard way in earlier races that she lost b/c she’d blow off red, rurl counties like mine where local Dems wanted candidates to *ask* for their vote, not just expect it.
When I first moved there, my county would vote for federal candidates at maybe at 60/40 split for Reps. By the time I left, that had changed to close to 80/20.
And McCaskill campaigned all over the state last time when she lost and was blunt “I’m here in a red county. I’m a Democrat and yet I’m here. You’ll *never* see my opponent come here.”
Didn’t matter, people voted the (R) brand because of what you said above, not the candidate.
Also too, younger people have left these places in droves. They all seemingly come to Denver (I only say half jokingly) and while they might vote (D) here, they’re a fauxgressive bunch at best (for example, if they know who Ygelsias is, they think he’s a progressive’s progressive). But, their leaving meant places like my red, rurl county back in Central Misery got even redder so Booman’s old mantra couldn’t work anymore.
Kay
@Marcopolo:
It’s gone down to the local level where I live. We used to have well-off moderate Republicans – they were good for small towns. Now we have Trump people. The county commissioner we just elected in my county is an absolute scumbag. I do a lot with property records so I knew he had a federal tax lien on his house but local Republicans did not know because it’s not competive anymore – it’s just the craziest person. They found out last week about the tax lien. Wait till they find out about his behavior with the teenage girls who work at his pizza parlor. I could not fucking believe they voted for him. The new common pleas judge is also super low quality. She’s a joke.
I’m retiring and moving to Michigan. I think this place will go no where but down.
Uncle Cosmo
Just FTR, for a mid-pubescent, homely, tubby, acnified, too-smart-for-his-own-good, horny-as-all-getout lapsed Catholic** boy, every Sunday was Palm Sunday…along with most every other day of the week ending in a “y”, Juss sane ;^p
** FWIW Who busted out of the fire exit from OHCAAC*** on the sixth Sunday after
Goyische Bar MitzvahConfirmation & never looked back.*** The One Holy Cathoic And Apostolic Church. Pronouced “Oh, kaak!”
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
I hadn’t thought about those damned early exits in years, they’ve been superseded by so much other crap. But I remember that feeling of elation based on that news, only to have it dashed by the real results.
Afterwards, there was a lot of BS about how Kerry really won Ohio, but it always seemed to fall apart the moment you asked any questions about it.
Oddly enough, nobody seemed to notice that Kerry came within something like 38,000 votes of tying the election at 269; that was more than the number of votes he lost Nevada, New Mexico, and Iowa by, combined.
Of course, the election would have then gone to the House of Representatives, where Shrub would have won anyway, but it sure would have been different.
Damned as Random
@TBone: Try to imagine Trump in the middle seat of a commercial flight. It’s amusing until you consider the plight of the flight attendants and the stench the surrounding passengers have to endure.
Melancholy Jaques
@Kay:
Not just rural counties. Suburbs went for Reagan and both Bushes.
Kay
@Melancholy Jaques:
Republicans won in Ohio in 2004 because they convinced 150,000 moderates that gay people were a huge threat to America. Demonizing gay people worked. They bragged about it.
Melancholy Jaques
@Kay:
A very, very low bar.
Melancholy Jaques
@lowtechcyclist:
The only way to fix it is to recognize that there are more of us than there are of them. Then register and vote in every election on every election day. It is the thing we can do.
Eleven congressional elections in 2022 were decided by less than 1%. Seven of them went to Republicans. We needed five of those to go our way. Low Democratic voter turnout in midterms is the reason in every case.
Geminid
@Melancholy Jaques: The dynamic in the 2022 New York Congressional elections reminded me a lot of that in the 2021 Virginia Governor election: Democrats were complacent, while Republicans were hungry
Ed. We probably left some California Congressional seats on the table in 2022, for similar reasons.
Soprano2
@Kay: That’s what happened in MO, plus the cities got smaller while the suburbs got bigger. The rural areas are bleeding population. Springfield is the 3rd largest city but has the largest school system in MO. I’m convinced that the R’s get lots of votes because they promise to do everything they can to keep your son from thinking it’s OK to be gay ( or trans) and to prevent your daughter from getting an abortion, and finally to make sure “those people” don’t have any power over you (white people). All of those things they don’t want are associated with Democrats in their minds.
On another note, I listened to Maher’s March 2nd show where he, Tim Ryan and that Ungar-Sarton woman try to understand why “working class voters” (the implication was that they were talking about white people) don’t vote for Democrats without mentioning race, misogny, religion or gay people. It’s funny and pathetic, they are all so puzzled and put it off on Democrats being too “woke”. If only Democrats would throw women, minorities, and gay people out of their coalition white working class people would vote for them! 🙄🙄
Dorothy A. Winsor
OK. I don’t know if you can see this but here’s the desktop link to my first tiktok. Send thoughts and prayers.
Geminid
Now I think we need a holiday suited to the times: Face-palm Sunday. It could be the Sunday before Festivus!
Uncle Cosmo
I note that Rep. Jeffries has endorsed white multimillionaire Rep. David Trone (MD-06) in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat that Ben Cardin is leaving. I wonder if that’s a function of Trone’s ability to self-finance (he’s dumped at least $23.3m into the race already), or a fear** that Hogan would win a matchup with the other major Democratic candidate – i.e., that ~10% of MD’s registered Dems*** would cross party lines to vote for Hogan rather than African-American Angela Alsobrooks, PG County Executive
** Possibly supported by accurate polling we peasants will never get a look at until long after the fact.
*** NB The Old Line State sports more DINOs than Jurassic Park, mostly beyond Prince Georges County and the Baltimore metro area. Those two regions are more than adequate to win a statewide primary for a POC, but until Governor Wes Moore in 2022 the only POCs ever elected to statewide office were Republican: Lieutenants-Governor Michael Steele (2003-2007) and Boyd Rutherford (2015-2023).
Baud
@Uncle Cosmo:
Or because Trone is currently in the House.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Dorothy A. Winsor: probably you noticed, but just in case: [un- ?] mirror your camera, the book cover shows up reversed
mrmoshpotato
@Geminid:
For today – and March Madness, it could be Slam Dunk Sunday.
Geminid
@Uncle Cosmo: I think Democratic House leaders including Jeffries endorsed Trone mainly because he is a member of their caucus. I think the other Maryland Democratic Reps who endorsed Trone also did it for that reason. Rep. Steny Hoyer, who represents much of Prince George’s County, endorsed County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, as did Governor Wes Moore.
I’m curious: Trone made a verbal gaffe in a committee hearing last week. Did you happen to hear about it? WTOP covered it the next morning but I was wondering how widespread the story was.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Mr. Bemused Senior: I saw that but I don’t know how to fix it. I wasn’t filming in a mirror, so I assume there’s something on my phone camera?
Mr. Bemused Senior
The WaPo covered it.
Ruckus
@Robin Goodfellow:
rump got his start by screwing over his siblings when dad died.
And after that he continued
thehis idiocy with the rest of humanity. And he isn’t LIKE an overgrown child – he IS an overgrown child. Of around 3 yrs old. He’s matured a year since he screwed his siblings. Of course it took him nearly half a century to do it.Mr. Bemused Senior
@Dorothy A. Winsor: lots of apps have a “mirror camera” setting so your own monitor view matches what you expect but can lead to this. Look in “settings” see if there’s a mirror video option.
Geminid
@Mr. Bemused Senior: I figured. I was just wondering how wide the story spread among normal Maryland Democrats, and while I wouldn’t call Uncle Cosmo normal I consider him to be normal-adjacent.
I don’t think Trone’s gaffe should matter much if any, but it seemed to have spurred interest in the race nationally and I think that was to Alsobrooks’ advantage.
Ksmiami
@Kay: Decline is a choice.
Ruckus
@Kay:
The phonies do what they want them to do, make life rather easy to report.
They don’t fill up press gatherings with things like facts and reality, so it’s easy to say anything reasonably vague and no one questions you. They are a better show than the realists.
Anonymous At Work
@Kay: Another “Brave Sir Robin” award-winner.
mrmoshpotato
@Kay:
NBC is paying Ronna ROMNEY McDaniel $300,000?!
Baud
@mrmoshpotato:
Hate clicks are gold, Jerry!
Melancholy Jaques
@Geminid:
Most definitely. The Ds all ran on abortion rights, almost to the exclusion of other issues, and it didn’t carry the day because (my & many other’s theory) California women did not believe their abortion rights were in danger.
In my view, the problem is we always have to struggle to get our people to vote.
Another Scott
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Success!
Well done!
Someone has probably already mentioned this, but there’s probably a setting on your phone to flip the image left to right so that the text isn’t mirrored.
:-)
Keep at it. Best of luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
Misterpuff
@TBone: And then she leases the plane back to him. Double Debasement!
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
In terms of investors in mainstream media, that makes them good judges of character.
Timill
@Dorothy A. Winsor: On my Google Pixel 7a there’s a setting (in Settings | More Settings) for “Save selfie as previewed”. Turning this off fixes it for me.
Jackie
@Misterpuff: With what money?
BAAHAHAHAHAAAAA!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Timill: I just found that! I’ll have to see if that’s the problem. But I think I turned it on, not off. Hm. I’ll see.
Another Scott
@Misterpuff:
“She’s lying. She never took my plane. It’s right here. [ assorted other lies … ]”
No, it’s better to take it, chop it up, and sell of pieces as if it’s parts of the body of some ancient holy man. Remember, this is the guy who said AF-1 was a step down from this in every way.
Go get ’em, Letitia.
Cheers,
Scott.
Manyakitty
@Dorothy A. Winsor: adorable. Not signing up for the app yet, but you came across as warm, engaging, and accessible.
bluefoot
@rikyrah: Ilia! Just beautiful. He makes it look so effortless.
My niece is a young competitive figure skater and has a couple of degrees of separation from Ilia. She’s been telling us for a long time to watch him.
His skill and execution is stunning.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Manyakitty: Thank you. I’ve always wanted to be adorable. :-)
The Lodger
@bjacques: Hosanna!
Matt McIrvin
@rikyrah: My wife was there watching.
RevRick
@smedley the uncertain: You’re welcome.
sab
@Dorothy A. Winsor: You are!
Geminid
@sab: That publisher must know what they’re doing.
Miss Bianca
@Harrison Wesley:
That is fucking scary. I mean, scarily hilarious.
I laugh when I’m scared.
SWMBO
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Well Done! You were a little nervous but that’s to be expected. If I may suggest you check out CoolAuntPammy? She has written The Way of Cats and she has short vids with her cats guest starring. Then the cover of her book at the end. She has several shorts that cover different aspects of cat ownership. I’ve given several copies of her books to friends with cats and they love it.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@SWMBO: I follow Pam (The Way of Cats) on tiktok. She’s an absolute expert, and she’s entertaining. She keeps the marketing down to that shot of her book cover too. It’s well done.