Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

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

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

They want us to be overwhelmed and exhausted. Focus. Resist. Oppose.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

Republicans in disarray!

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

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

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

We’re watching the self-immolation of the leading world power on a level unprecedented in human history.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

The words do not have to be perfect.

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317Comments

  2. 2.

    FastEdD

    An old maxim in running for office is that if voters don’t see the candidate fighting for them, they won’t fight to get the candidate elected. Time to open up the old can of Whup Ass.

  6. 6.

    Parfigliano

    Media tut tutting about the DEM incivility in…3…2…1…fuck em.  Kick em in the Jimmy and when they are down kick again.

  7. 7.

    Jacqueline Squid Onassis

    If the media won’t report Dollar Store Mussolini’s garbled utterances accurately, our candidates will have to do their job for them.  I hope they never stop doing this job.

  8. 8.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Harris’ communications team is first rate.  On the ball, getting the responses to TCFFG/PAB’s blather out within hours of his vomiting something resembling English out.

  9. 9.

    bbleh

    I like the use of “strange” and “bizarre.”  They’re leaning into that (and “weird”).  And I notice both CNN and the Vichy Times picked up (and CNN headlined) the “you won’t have to vote any more” story.

    The MSM may still be either in the tank for the Felon or just in it for the clicks and book deals, but when you toss ’em something that juicy, they can’t resist.

    (As to whup-ass, a — warning, CRUDE! — vignette I fantasized about elsewhere:
    Scene: Mar-A-Lago. FELON, the BOYS and COUCHGUY laughing and joking about how they got it in the bag against Old Joe.  Knock sounds at door. FELON opens it.  KAMALA stands there wearing prosecutor-face. KAMALA: “Surprise, motherfker!” Knees FELON in nuts.)

  11. 11.

    Josie

    Yes! Since the media won’t report on the repulsive things the felon is saying, we’ll just have to do it ourselves. I love this new approach.​
     ETA: Or, what Jacqueline Squid Onassis said.

  12. 12.

    JoyceH

    Hey, does anyone know what’s going on with Mar A Lago? I know Trump’s been going there, had that weird pretend-official meeting with Orban there. But he usually relocates to Bedminster in the summer months, and the club itself is “closed for the season”. So is the club open this summer, or is Trump just rattling around in an empty club, with no standing ovations when he shows up for dinner?

  14. 14.

    scott (the other one)

    @pacem appellant: Because most times and from most candidates/elected officials, the media would excoriate them, nonstop. They would both sides it, they would what about it, they would amplify the fainting couches to 11 and repeat and repeat and repeat every attack from the GOP, no matter how baseless, until shortly the story would be all about how uncivil and dirty the Democrats are. And that’s all the normies would hear.

    It’s working right now for a variety of reasons, a big one of which is that SO DAMN MANY people are saying on all the social media thanks to the massive energy boost, and the press was so taken by surprise, that neither they nor the GOP had time to go to their normal playbook and nullify it.

    And, of course, the charges are all true. And Vance being such a creepy weirdo is a major component. (The aforementioned fainting couches, for example, are all hiding in terror.) It’s not just that TFG is truly so strange, but his veep pick is somehow maybe even stranger–or at least hasn’t had time to be normalized yet–and it’s just steamrolling both the GOP and the media. (But I repeat myself.)

    The unexpectedness of the change, the energy and the blitz have just utterly wrongfooted the GOP and the media (but again I repeat myself) and it’s doing the country an enormous good.

  16. 16.

    M31

    lol check out the headline in this Rolling Stone article from 2022:

    J.D. Vance Has a Burnt Monkey Testicle Problem

    I mean, seriously, did Trump’s team do even a cursory google search on this guy? I mean, no, in that they just do what Putin tells them, but still.

  18. 18.

    oldster

    I’m also glad that her final promise is “freedom, opportunity, and security.”

    That’s how you persuade the median persuadable voter that you have their interests at heart.

  19. 19.

    scav

    “went on and on and on” is a fine little bit of knifework that slips in amidst the more obvious bodyblows.

  22. 22.

    wjca

    @bbleh: They may still be either in the tank for the Felon or just in it for the clicks and book deals, but when you toss ’em something that juicy, they can’t resist.

    Not least because something that juicy will definitely generate clicks like nobody’s business.  Bottom line comes first.

  24. 24.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    Strange, synonym for weird. I expect at some point they may riff some more on this theme with creepy. It all fits and probably gets under Trump’s skin and the media will really have a hard time both sides-ing it because the all the weirdo creeps are on the GOP side. There’s nothing weird about Harris.

    I expect if he keeps saying she hates Jews we’ll see a statement from her that yeah I know people in your weird-ass family hate their spouses but I love mine and I love his religion and heritage.

  25. 25.

    David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    People are strange
    When you’re a stranger
    Faces look ugly
    When you’re alone

    Women seem wicked
    When you’re unwanted
    Streets are uneven
    When you’re down

    When you’re strange
    Faces come out of the rain
    When you’re strange

  27. 27.

    Martin

    @pacem appellant: because there are conventions to uphold and if Democrats break them then there won’t be any conventions and that will just cause Republicans to act worse. So when the GOP tear up the rule book, we need to pretend that didn’t happen and keep following the rules.

  29. 29.

    Scout211

    Olympic programming note:

    Women’s 400 meter freestyle relay finals coming up on NBC in a few minutes.

     

  30. 30.

    wjca

    @What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:  the media will really have a hard time both sides-ing it because the all the weirdo creeps are on the GOP side.

    Sadly, no.  It won’t be easy.  But there’s plenty of weird and creepy on the horseshoe left.  Just a matter of finding a few, without the old standby of Ohio diners to start from.

  32. 32.

    Ken

    @JoyceH: So is the club [Mar-a-Lago] open this summer, or is Trump just rattling around in an empty club

    Trying for Howard Hughes, but only achieving Norma Desmond….

  33. 33.

    hrprogressive

    So MVP’s campaign is not only saying normal shit that normal voters would say about Convicted Felon Donald Trump, but she’s summed up her campaign promise in “Freedom, Opportunity, Security”?

    Where the holy hell has this level of Democratic Party…oomph…been my whole life?

    Obama tried with “Yes We Can” and hope, but for all of his positive characteristics, Obama was not nearly the transformational POTUS I had hoped for when I voted for him.

    I’m gonna have to start giving recurring donations, because this is the shit I want.

  35. 35.

    Martin

    @HumboldtBlue: Harris doesn’t love us enough to use that name in a speech. Trump would but he’s not clever enough to come up with something like that.

  41. 41.

    Mike in NC

    Every single day we need to bash Fat Bastard and his creepy mini-me over their fascist Project 2025. That and the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 needs to be the laser focus of the upcoming convention.

  42. 42.

    RepubAnon

    @pacem appellant: In the days of yore, the media largely filtered out this type of talk.  AOC and Fetterman showed the political consultants that the times have changed.  Kamala Harris’ team has adopted these successful tactics.

  43. 43.

    trollhattan

    Considering the media are derelict in their duty to accurately report what Trump and his team do, in detail, then do it for them. Yaaaas.

    And make sure Biden’s Jersey gal social media person is involved. His messaging improved so much once she came on board.

  46. 46.

    UncleEbeneezer

    The choice to have Rafael Nadal be the final torch-bearer at the Paris Olympics is hugely significant.  Usually that honor is kept for an athlete of the host country.  But with 14 French Open titles, a Spaniard became the King of France (and tennis!)

  49. 49.

    Nukular Biskits

    Good afternoon, y’all!

    Sitting in ATL, waiting on my connection. I hate flying.

    And, WRT what John said, HELL TO THE YEAH!!!!

  50. 50.

    Citizen Alan

    @hrprogressive:  Obama was less than I had hoped for, but I had hoped for a lot more than was probably achievable. I do wonder what he’d have achieved if he’d had a Congress that backed him for 8 years. He had 2 years to get a lot done despite Blue Dogs shackling and undermining him, and after that, he had a hostile House of Reps for the rest of his time in office.

  51. 51.

    TBone

    @lamh47: I spoke to a retired former employer at length recently, an Italian-American attorney from DelCo who’d moved to The Villages from Media, PA. He moved back to Media (we’re all damned Yankees at heart in DelCo).  He’s still every bit of the pistol I knew him as 30 years ago, and I’m not surprised The Villagers are coming on board.

    ETA His longtime girlfriend is Black and they lived together there in Florida.

  52. 52.

    Harrison Wesley

    @M31: Well, Frank Zappa had a Burnt Weenie Sandwich album, no reason J. D. Vance can’t have a Burnt Monkey Testicle….huh?

  56. 56.

    WaterGirl

    @Martin:

    because there are conventions to uphold and if Democrats break them then there won’t be any conventions and that will just cause Republicans to act worse. So when the GOP tear up the rule book, we need to pretend that didn’t happen and keep following the rules.

    Rules, revised.  :-)

  58. 58.

    lamh47

    @TBone: Someone mentioned is a mixed of not liking Trump, but also the things they say about SSN in Project 2025.

    But for my money is a combo of that but also Boomers and the argument about fighting for our democracy is definitely a argument that works with that age group.

  61. 61.

    WaterGirl

    @hrprogressive:

    Obama was not nearly the transformational POTUS I had hoped for when I voted for him.

    In all fairness, most of us didn’t expect that after he was elected even some of the people who voted for him would be racist.

    And we sure didn’t expect the in-your-face fuck you, no supreme court justice for you level of ugliness.  “Fuck the country, my mission is to make Obamam a one-term president.”

    *I know you know all that, though, but I felt compelled to say it.

  64. 64.

    Martin

    @lamh47: Don’t be too afraid of white people. It only takes one racist or sexist to fuck up your whole day, but that one person can’t win an election. POC and women have a lot of allies by whites and men. Not as many as they should have, but enough to win an election. It’s not easy, but it’s definitely possible.

  66. 66.

    lamh47

    @cwebbonline

    When your next President knows what it feels like to be you… #KamalaHarris “My mother was very well aware that she was raising two Black girls to be two Black women, and she did that instilling in us pride in our culture, and cultures, always knowing that we would face all kinds of obstacles, but she never let us believe that anything could get in the way of our dreams or pursuits.”
    https://x.com/cwebbonline/status/1817183704521032019

  67. 67.

    azlib

    The beauty of this particular response is, it is all true and anyone interested can verify the truth. I also think it is a direct slam at the media for not reporting all the weird an delusional things Trump says all the time in his speeches.

  68. 68.

    Bugboy

    “criminal Donald Trump”

    Besides all the other bits, I think this is the first time anyone has stepped up to state the obvious.  Go ahead, Donald, and sue for defamation!  I DARE you!

  70. 70.

    Starfish

    @TBone: There is a nice retirement community there in Media, PA. We would always go visit my husband’s grandmother at Riddle Village.

  80. 80.

    Martin

    @HumboldtBlue: Latinos are the group I worry about the most. Even though Democrats do kind of a shit job delivering for black voters, black voters have determined that their best opportunity to build power is here, and electing Obama really helped to shore that up – Harris herself is a product of that election – she was still SF DA at the time and Obama’s endorsement of her in the CA AG race was gold.

    Latinos have not come to the same determination. I would not mind a latino in the VP slot. The GOP keeps dangling people like Marco Rubio for this reason. Dubya was a dumbass, but on this he got it.

  81. 81.

    lamh47

    I don’t knowm but something does feel different this time..something is happening guys…at the very lest Harris campaign and DNC will be doing what they can to keep this momentum going for Nov, but I am imagining more women voting Dem once they are in that booth, even if their husbands stil vote GOP!

    @malcolmkenyatta

    I’ve been on a 5-day, 10-county tour across rural PA, campaigning for myself,
    @KamalaHarris
    and Dems up & down the ballot — let me tell you SOMETHING IS HAPPENING! Events with my rural friends that usually get 25-30 folks are seeing easily 3x that. In DEEP RED AREAS!

    @malcolmkenyatta

    ·I met a woman yesterday in Clinton county who pulled me in and whispered: “This is my 1st Dem picnic. I saw you in TV & know I talk to Joe & Kamala. If Joe can be brave enough to step down, I can step up. Please tell them thank you.” I’m not crying — you’re crying!

    https://x.com/malcolmkenyatta/status/1817270370241548634

  82. 82.

    artem1s

    @pacem appellant: ​ 

    What I truly, genuinely do not understand is why ALL Democrats don’t do this all the time?

    They do all the time. To each other. They forget who the enemy is.

  86. 86.

    TBone

    @lamh47: There are almost no campaigns signs for Dotard anywhere in central PA anymore.  But I’ve seen Biden flags!

  88. 88.

    BR

    @Martin:

    I was heartened to see that at least the initial polling (all caveats apply) shows that Harris has erased Biden’s weakness among Latino voters. Not where I’d like it to be, but still +20 or something.

  89. 89.

    lamh47

    This is such a profound and satisfying short clip…especially if you have always been a supporter of Kamala from the beginning of her campaign in 2019 and even if you weren’t.

     

    @MoniquePressley

    This past Monday when it became clear VP had the delegates she needed and would be

    @thedemocrats nominee, I couldn’t help but reflect on Dec. 3, 2019 when Senator
    @kamalaharris suspended her 1st campaign. Shared some thoughts on #RolandMartinUnfiltered . #WinWithBlackWomen#harris2024

    https://x.com/MoniquePressley/status/1817273818622345368

  91. 91.

    JML

    @Martin: I think my only lasting criticism of Obama is that he didn’t throw bankers in prison. That’s had unbelievable lasting damage.

    Much as I love Obama, he had misses beyond that which have not held up well under the cold light of history. The chase for grand bargain, bipartisan legislation led him to keep negotiating against himself where important concessions were made with zero results and it frankly cost a lot. Beyond that, he wasn’t able to translate his own popularity into support for the party more generally and build a more lasting coalition up and down the ticket. From a legislative perspective, Biden has done very well, with much less to work with.

  92. 92.

    Nukular Biskits

    @TBone:

    Just left northern Virginia, specifically around King George area.

    Lotsa Trump signs there, unfortunately.

  93. 93.

    scav

    @artem1s: They do all the time. To each other. They forget who the enemy is.

    An assertion that proves itself.  Congratulations!

  94. 94.

    Martin

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Oh, they broke so many fucking laws. I mean, Trumps conviction is on felony falsification of business records. The financial crisis had that from end to end.

    Obama I think was afraid that we so badly needed the banks to stabilize and to cooperate with a not particularly robust recovery plan to stabilize the economy that defenestrating their officers was probably not conducive to that outcome.

    The long term problem was that subsequent generations, watching their parents lose their home and life savings while bank executives continued to cash in, learned the lesson that the only way to actually get ahead in this economy was to cheat. From that emerged crypto culture and the whole county fair of get rich quick schemes, passive income grifts, meme stocks, covid home remedies, and an affinity for the kind of person that got ahead doing that kind of stuff – Donald J Trump.

  96. 96.

    Nukular Biskits

    @JML:

    Agreed.

    Obama wasted too much precious time and political capital trying to win over GOP. Case in point:  ACA

  97. 97.

    Trivia Man

    Kamala Harris needs to release her tax returns for the last 10 years IMMEDIATELY!!*

    What is she hiding??? Everyone knows a legitimate politician releases their tax returns if they want to run for president!

     

     

    *Or at an appropriately selected time of her choosing

  99. 99.

    Sister Golden Bear

    <Kylo Ren gif> MOOOAARRR!

    Seriously, what’s really interesting to me is the aggressive tone is a sharp contrast to what I remember about Obama’s campaign and his tenure. A couple thoughts:

    Aside from different personal temperaments, Obama was definitely shackled by avoiding being seen as an “angry Black man.” Hell it was even a running joke with SNL’s Anger Translator, who said what Obama was really thinking but had to hold his tongue about. Not sure how Harris being a Black/(Asian) woman plays a part in this, but certainly there’s a stereotype about “tell it like it is” Black women that probably gives her more room to maneuver. And potentially Black women not being seen as threatening as Black men. I’ll defer to those whose lived experience far better qualifies for them to comment about this.

    Times have definitely changed over the past eight years. “When they go low, we go high” (which Michelle Obama only meant as her own approach, not how others should act) is clearly woefully out of date, and clearly there’s an appetite to now say. “Fuck that. When they go low, we kick them in the teeth.”

    Third, Harris’ whole career has been as a post-Prop 187 politician. To condense a lot of history down to a sentence, 1994’s anti-immigrant Prop 187 did a couple things, including causing Hispanics to become a major political force in CA, but more relevantly it’s what kick-started CA’s Republican Party’s implosion into becoming a far, far right rump party. There’s definitely ruby red parts of CA, but Republicans haven’t won a statewide office in ages, and for years now, Dems hold a veto-proof majority in the state legislature. So they’ve been MAGA long before the Tea Party folks.

    Consequently, there’s never been any “cross the aisle” dynamic during her career. One of Obama’s weakness — probably in part due to his community organizer background — was wasting years trying to reach “for the better good” agreements with Republicans who weren’t remotely interested in doing so. Biden seems more clear-eyed, in part from watching what happened to Obama, but I think at some level it’s been hard for him to shake the memories of when “cross the aisle” was a thing. Although to give him credit, some of his reaching out was rope-a-dope stuff to box Republicans in.

    In contrast, Harris realizes that current Republicans are never going to give any quarter, and will always fight dirty, so there’s nothing to lose by going on the offense. Also that the Democratic base is tired of being nice, and welcomes an aggressive approach.

  101. 101.

    BR

    @Trivia Man: ​
    Someone just did an analysis of her investment portfolio. The sober-minded investment community seems impressed, in that there’s no funny business. She holds various retirement / index funds and that’s it.

  102. 102.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Martin:

    I think my only lasting criticism of Obama is that he didn’t throw bankers in prison. That’s had unbelievable lasting damage.

    Yeah, and “look forward, not back” was publicly the plan from the get-go. There was never any intent by his Administration to even try.

  103. 103.

    Nukular Biskits

    @TBone: That area is heavily dependent on fed spending … making support for government-hating GOP all the more bizarre

  105. 105.

    JML

    @Nukular Biskits: It’s part of what made Obama such a good and decent person, but failing to recognize he didn’t have anyone to negotiate with in good faith and still chasing a figment hurt his legacy. And it makes some of his former staff insufferable today, because they pretend they did everything perfectly as they try to polish the boss’s (and their own) legacy.

  106. 106.

    KatKapCC

    @BR: Hmm, can’t get that link to work. The sidebars come up but no post, just a spinny wheel.

  107. 107.

    lamh47

    @Trivia Man:

    Not for nothing but…

    @nbcwashington

    Financial experts describe Vice President Kamala Harris’ investment style in one word: boring. “To me, she has the cleanest portfolio you’ll see in a politician,” said an analyst who studied her public financial disclosure.

    https://x.com/nbcwashington/status/1817224691406319987

     

    Chile…soo…now what they gon do? Besides which we already know Don da con’s financials are fuq’ed up!

  108. 108.

    Ken

    @TBone: There are almost no campaigns signs for Dotard anywhere in central PA anymore.

    That could be because the campaign has no money to print them, all of it being siphoned off to pay Trump’s defense fees.

  110. 110.

    Martin

    @JML: I don’t disagree. I don’t fault Obama for the party support though. It has always seemed to me the party has this determined instinct to campaign like we’re Republicans and only periodically back a candidate like Obama and then remember that we win when we’re excited. Like why is Roy Cooper in the running for VP? He’s a good guy, I like him, but what the fuck even are we doing here?

  113. 113.

    Ken

    @lamh47: Financial experts describe Vice President Kamala Harris’ investment style in one word: boring.

    Oddly, they did not continue, “Not at all like the excitement of looking through Trump’s books, as we recently saw in New York. Felonies on every page! And so blatant even the laypeople on the jury could understand it was criminal.” — even though every word is true.

  115. 115.

    Martin

    @BR: Take Warren Buffets advice, unless you do this for a living, shove your money in the Index 500. That’s in his will. It should also be a federal law for politicians that they can only invest in a short list of index funds.

  118. 118.

    M31

    @Martin: yup, and also note the percentage of people who do do that for a living and don’t do as well as the S&P500 index

  119. 119.

    EarthWindFire

    @Nukular Biskits: Northern Virginian here. It is very common around these parts to bite the government hand that feeds you. All you have to do is convince yourself that you’re in the worthy part of the government. You don’t support those other government people.

    And they do. It’s really tiresome.

  121. 121.

    KatKapCC

    @Sister Golden Bear: Well, there is definitely an “angry Black woman” trope too — the “Sapphire” stereotype that portrays any show of valid anger from a Black woman as rude, pushy, too loud, etc. I do think that perhaps with women there is a difference in that it’s tougher to paint them as vicious or dangerous, the way racists do to Black men, but she will still have to deal with that garbage. However…Harris has proven that she is VERY tough to rattle. They’ll try it, and they’ll fail every time. Meanwhile, Donny is easier to rattle than a chihuahua with anxiety.

  122. 122.

    eclare

    FYI, some of us are DVR’ing Olympic events or maybe waiting to watch the nightly recap.  Please, no spoilers

  123. 123.

    lamh47

    For those who are following the story of Flava Flav and his sponsorhip of the Women’s Water Polo team!

    here is when Jilly met Flav…LOL

    @FlavorFlav

    I love all the support Women’s Water Polo is getting,,, ya boy is so appreciative that the First Lady came to the First Game . THANK YOU

    @flotus
    Dr. Jill Biden for all the support of you and your family  #olympics

    https://x.com/FlavorFlav/status/1817212671948726591

  125. 125.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Nukular Biskits:

    Just left northern Virginia, specifically around King George area.

    Lotsa Trump signs there, unfortunately.

    King George County isn’t Northern Virginia. Hell, you’ve got to go through Fredericksburg to get there from actual Northern Virginia, which stretches a lot further these days than it used to, but not that far.

  130. 130.

    JoyceH

    @Nukular Biskits: (waves) I live in King George and true – the blossoming of the shiny new Trump signs is disheartening. I know KG is a red county, but it’s discouraging to realize how many of my seemingly nice neighbors are either haters or brainwashed dupes.

  131. 131.

    Nukular Biskits

    @EarthWindFire:

    I had lunch Wed with a civil service guy (and retired Navy).

    He was really upset about “the current administration turning this country over to China”. Seriously.

    I didn’t acknowledge and changed subject.

  132. 132.

    chemiclord

    @pacem appellant: My contention is that the sort of partisanship required for Democrats to go on the attack like this and not alienate critical squishy voters that still had delusions of “compromise,” “cooperation,” and “comity” was simply not worth it.

    Biden, for example, won by pretty much ignoring the social media style of messaging.  Just four years has changed a lot.

  133. 133.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    @JML: It’s part of what made Obama such a good and decent person, but failing to recognize he didn’t have anyone to negotiate with in good faith and still chasing a figment hurt his legacy.

    Besides the bankers walking off with their pockets full there was plenty of criminal activity in the W administration. Torture, Alberto Gonzales, the outing of Valerie Plame, the list goes on.

    Could Obama have addressed this better? To me it seems he judged that if he did go after these things he wouldn’t accomplish anything else.

    The failure as I see it is that neglecting to pursue the arguably criminal activity has led to the ultimate in impunity, Donald Trump, who believes that whatever he can get away with is by definition legal. It’s not just Trump himself. This has led to wider disrespect for the law.  Our society has been damaged.

  134. 134.

    Martin

    @Ksmiami: Maybe. If you’re playing the electoral map, that’s the only appropriate choice. And he’s a good campaigner, but being a bit to Harris’ right doesn’t help (swing voters are generally on the left side of the Dem party), and PA isn’t enough to win. You have to win the blue wall at least, and I would prefer a candidate that provides strength nationally rather than in just one place. We’re going to feel like fucking idiots if we win PA and lose MI and WI.

  135. 135.

    trollhattan

    @lamh47:

    Good people doing good things. My heart, it is warmed.

    I did see him hollering in the stands today as US women TCOB. I am a sucker for the Olympics.

  137. 137.

    Martin

    @chemiclord: I think this is a misunderstanding of swing voters.

    • The swing voters of the 2024 election are younger and more diverse than the composition of the overall 2024 likely voter population. Forty-three percent of swing voters are under 45 (compared with 33% of likely voters overall), and only 62% are white (compared with 71% of likely voters overall).
    • Swing voters reject ideological and partisan labels. They are especially likely to describe themselves as “moderates” and to not identify with or lean toward either major political party. However, some take clear left or right ideological positions on economic or social issues, aligning with existing data showing that voters who self-describe as “moderate” are not always coherently moderate on the issues.
    • Swing voters broadly lean left on government spending, taxes on the wealthy, and social equity. A majority of swing voters (60%) think the U.S. should increase spending on social programs and raise taxes on businesses and wealthy Americans, and a majority (52%) say they favor accepting non-traditional values and embracing diversity and inclusion efforts.
    • Swing voters are politically disengaged. They broadly dislike Biden and Trump and do not pay much attention to politics. Many are not sure which candidate they trust more on major political issues. They also demonstrate low interest in national politics and less enthusiasm for the 2024 election than likely voters overall.
    • Swing voters slightly prefer Trump over Biden in a race between the two candidates, but many are unsure and defect to third-party candidates. In a two-way race between Biden and Trump, Trump (32%) holds a slight advantage over Biden (29%) with swing voters, while a plurality (39%) are not sure. In a six-way race, with third-party candidates included, only 4% of swing voters back Biden, while 7% back Trump. A majority say they would back either Independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (46%) or one of the other third-party candidates (12%). Thirty percent say they’d still be unsure.
    • Their focus is on the economy. To the extent they do care about politics, it is focused heavily on the economy, with a plurality (33%) ranking it as their top issue in the 2024 election.
    • Swing voters say they want Biden to take more action — not less. Sixty-one percent say that “Biden needs to take more action to solve our country’s problems” (compared with 49% of likely voters overall), while 22% say that “Biden has taken too much action that has made our country’s problems worse.”
    • Swing voters’ main concern is Biden’s age and ability to handle the job — not his ideology. Swing voters select Biden being too old (55%) and being incompetent (40%) as reasons they might not vote for him. Ideological concerns do not rise to the top: Only 16% select “Biden is too liberal” and only 5% select “Biden is too conservative.”
    • That said, swing voters are more concerned about Trump’s criminal charges and threats to democracy (48%) than Biden’s age and mental and physical health (41%).
    • Swing voters trust Trump more than Biden on the economy, immigration, and foreign policy. Biden holds an edge on other key issues including abortion, health care, and climate change. However, swing voters say they’re not sure whom they trust more on these issues at a higher rate than likely voters overall.
    • There is no evidence that a rightward ideological pivot would solve Biden’s problems with swing voters. The top two policies that swing voters say would make them vote for Biden are left-leaning economic policies — raising taxes on the wealthy (23%) and raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour (18%) — while the third-most cited is increasing border security (17%). Lower-ranked policies are a mix of left- and right-coded issues, including extending the Child Tax Credit, increasing oil drilling, conditioning military aid to Israel, adding work requirements to SNAP, legalizing marijuana, and increasing funding for police officers.

    Statistically, swing voters are disaffected by Dems not because they dislike their policies, but because they can’t get them implemented.

  138. 138.

    trollhattan

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: Like Biden, Obama came into office with a gigantic Republican-created mess to clean up. So much cleaning.

    ACA remains a miracle, having passed at all. I recall Obama then putting forth his jobs bill, to which the Republicans to a one said “as if.”

    Ironically, Biden did get ‘er done and look at our economy now.

  140. 140.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @KatKapCC:

    Well, there is definitely an “angry Black woman” trope too — the “Sapphire” stereotype that portrays any show of valid anger from a Black woman as rude, pushy, too loud, etc. I do think that perhaps with women there is a difference in that it’s tougher to paint them as vicious or dangerous, the way racists do to Black men.

    Absolutely agree, you put it far more elegantly than my coffee-deprived brain did.

    FWIW, I think Harris’ obvious “happy warrior”-personality—e.g. the public joyfulness she’s frequently shown—may help undercut the Angry Black Woman trope. Racists and Republicans (but I repeat myself), will still play that card, but I have a feeling it’ll resonate less with normies.

  141. 141.

    M31

    @Martin: hahaha, yup

    Sometimes I’ve thought I could do some stock picking, but then I realized that there were people out there flying drones over Walmart distribution centers to count the trucks leaving and who had high-powered computer and data pipe setups that I could only dream of and who also did nothing else with their lives but stare at spreadsheets all day and I figured I’d ‘buy the whole haystack’

    worked pretty good so far

    still I had this plan to buy Apple stock in 1997 but as you all know, grad students don’t have any cash and shit if i had I’d be typing this from my Tuscan villa, that was my smartest and only thought along those lines

  142. 142.

    Martin

    @M31: I bought Apple in 1997. Used some of our downpayment money for our first house.

    I don’t fly drones over distributions centers, but I was close. It was probably a 4 hour a day job on top of my full time job when I was doing it actively.

  144. 144.

    KatKapCC

    @BR: That worked! And wow…she put all of my jumbled thoughts on that term into succinct and clear words.

  145. 145.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Ksmiami:

    It takes all kinds to make the world go ’round, they say, but his cognitive dissonance was … astounding to me

  146. 146.

    KatKapCC

    @Sister Golden Bear: Yeah, it would be tough to, on the one hand, call her “angry” and then on the other hand, talk about her laugh. Like…you kinda can’t be both super angry and laughing up a storm.

  149. 149.

    Origuy

    It would be nice to have a spoiler Olympic thread.

    Lacking that, I suggest checking out the fencing if only for the venue. It’s in the Grand Palais, built in 1900. The fencers appear at the top of an enormous gilded staircase together and go to their respective sides.

  151. 151.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @wjca: Yeah, but in the GOP the weird creeps are the candidates at the top of the ticket. Then they’ve surrounded themselves with a bunch of other creeps.

    Some random liberal somewhere doing weird stuff doesn’t measure up to the top of the ticket being freaks. Harris doesn’t come off as weird, I guarantee her VEEP pick won’t either. It’s a contrast they should continue to emphasize. Maybe the media will try to both sides it but I doubt it’ll take.

  152. 152.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Martin:

    Take Warren Buffets advice, unless you do this for a living, shove your money in the Index 500. That’s in his will. It should also be a federal law for politicians that they can only invest in a short list of index funds.

    I agree 100% to both parts. For us ordinary folks, few of us are going to have the time and energy and smarts to beat the market, so the best plan for the medium and longer haul is to put one’s money in an index fund and let it do what the market does.  (I’m glad to say that’s what I did for 25 years as a Federal employee. S&P 500 been bera, bera good to lowtechcyclist.)

    And for the politicians, if their money’s in an index fund, then it will do better if the economy as a whole does better, rather than if a particular stock in a particular industry does better.  So no opportunity for them to increase their wealth by writing legislation favorable to a particular company.

  153. 153.

    Geminid

    @JoyceH: I believe you live in the 7th CD. I’m curious: have you seen much yet out of Eugene Vindman’s congressional campaign? I am in the southwestern corner of the district, Greene County and have not seen much so far. I expect he’ll be advertising on WTOP radio before too long. They are DC-based but I can get them on their Fredericksburg transmitter.

  155. 155.

    Jay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Investigate and charge the robo-signing and fake mortgages, missing titles,  the account “add ons”, establish that it was top down policy for the banks to defraud their most vulnerable clients, (also known as prey).

  156. 156.

    Origuy

    @lowtechcyclist: My 401(k) tracks the S&P 500 very closely. I haven’t touched the distribution in years. I figure it’s 50/50 whether I could do better or not, but it’s been very good.

  158. 158.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Nukular Biskits:

    That area is heavily dependent on fed spending … making support for government-hating GOP all the more bizarre

    King George County? They’ve got Fort Walker (formerly Fort A.P. Hill), but afaik, not much besides that.  And people just don’t view military spending as being in the same category as That Awful Federal Spending That Liberals Want.

    Down there, they’re also probably still pissed about the name change.

  159. 159.

    raven

    @lowtechcyclist: We’ve lost our ass in a film investment. We are in a group with one dude that has five million dollars and we’re pretty sure we’re SOL.

  160. 160.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Martin: Springboarding to a related topic, I’m sure you’ve talked about previously, are the political memories of younger voters.

    • For those voting for the first time this year, all they remember is Biden, Trump and Obama.
    • For those who are 30, it’s Biden, Trump and Obama, and W.
    • For those who are 45, it’s Biden, Trump and Obama, W and Clinton.

    All they’ve known is Republican incompetence, hatefulness, and obstinate intransigence dialed up to 11.

    That’s very different than the vast majority of jackalteriat.

    Which I think ties into their desire to actually get shit done.

  162. 162.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @lowtechcyclist: The guys that manage Harvard’s endowment can’t even beat index funds over a half decade. Maybe here and there for a few months, maybe a year or two. But then they guess wrong and the index eventually wins.

  164. 164.

    M31

    Bloomberg now reporting that it’s between Shapiro, Kelly, and Walz.

    The more I see of Walz, the more I like him! And Shapiro and Kelly have at least one pretty big thing I don’t like (vouchers for Shapiro and union stuff for Kelly).

    Walz also clearly has legislative mojo (got a ton of great liberal policy through with a 1-vote lead in the legislature, Nancy Smash style), and his cheerful competence looks pretty compatible with Harris’s.

    He had some great videos with his daughter, too (she got him to go on some kind of violent carnival ride at the MN state fair).

    so I’m rooting for him with my limited knowledge

  165. 165.

    M31

    lol but get this, as I wait for Harris’s decision, I realize that I trust the Democrats to do the right thing

    hahaha who’d’ve thought that?

    (That’s what Joe Biden wrought, methinks)

  167. 167.

    Martin

    Interesting observation by Sarah Longwell. In her focus testing, she warns against interpreting Harris ‘disapproval’ numbers too strongly, that the feedback she’s getting is that voters don’t have a negative opinion of Harris, rather a negative impression. They just haven’t really seen her, so they get other people’s opinions or they think she’s hiding or whatever and that these are very soft and can change pretty easily.

    Harris gained 10 points on her approval rating this week. Trump only gained 4 after getting shot. I guess, you know what, I like people who weren’t shot.

  169. 169.

    Joelle

    That is some top shelf DNC stone cold shade being thrown with aplomb into every Trumpsters lap. Pure poetry.   Who wrote that?  Bianco Del Rio?

  170. 170.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @HumboldtBlue:

    I’ve only seen Walz in that clip, the school lunch clip, and the “these are weird people,” and so I have no idea about his other qualifications, nor the implications of choosing him as a VP (i.e. how it might affect Minnesota). But he does come across with a down-to-earth realness that matches well with how Harris similarly comes across. Interestingly, while Walz looks like an “older white guy” he’s actually about six months younger than Harris.

    Regardless I trust Harris to pick a good VP candidate.

  172. 172.

    lowtechcyclist

    @What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    The guys that manage Harvard’s endowment can’t even beat index funds over a half decade. Maybe here and there for a few months, maybe a year or two. But then they guess wrong and the index eventually wins.

    If they can’t do it, then I damn sure can’t do it, math PhD notwithstanding.

    I haven’t looked, but my WAG is that over any 5-year period in the past 40 years, the market’s been higher at the end of the period than at the beginning.  And for most of those 5-year periods, a great deal higher.  But I wouldn’t pull any money out of my index fund if I didn’t expect to need it in the next three or four years.  (Unless Trump wins, then all bets are off.)

  174. 174.

    lamh47

    @eclare: oooh…gotcha.

    I’m mostly watching the events that aren’t on main broadcast thx to the Peacock app.

    They are actually broadcasting things like swimming and diving finals on broadcast at actual time.

  175. 175.

    lowtechcyclist

    @JoyceH:

    Fort Walker is in Caroline County. King George has the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Dahlgren on the Potomac.

    Thanks for the correction!

    But is there any significant non-military Federal spending in King George?

  176. 176.

    Steve LaBonne

    I don’t know why Shapiro would want to be VP. It seems kind of like being put on the shelf at a fairly early stage of a promising political career. There’s no guarantee at all that it would give him a leg up in 2032, if that’s what he’s thinking. But sure, if he wants it he’s a good choice.

  179. 179.

    wjca

    @JML:  The chase for grand bargain, bipartisan legislation led him to keep negotiating against himself where important concessions were made with zero results and it frankly cost a lot.

    This is such nonsense.  I get that a lot of progressives were sure that he was their guy all the way.  And were repeatedly disappointed.  But that misses two critical points.

    First, Obama was personally pretty centerist.  Yes, I know progressives devoutly believe any black politician must be a progressive, too.  But believing doesn’t make it so.  Many are, some (including some stalwart Democrats) are not.

    Second, Obama was clear that he was breaking trail for others.  If he had been the super -iberal of progressive dreams, we wouldn’t be where we are today.  As it is, a lot of non-progressives noticed that a black president didn’t necessarily mean sweeping changes in every part of their lives.  And they liked that.  You may think that this is against their best interests, but that doesn’t change the reality.

    So, as a result, now they are far more open to a black woman president than they would have been otherwise.

    Now if you want to fault Obama for failing to focus on state elections in 2010, fine.  I totally agree.  But that’s a different discussion.

    EDT Also, what @Sister Golden Bear: said.

  180. 180.

    eclare

    @lamh47:

    I’m DVRing from NBC, but looking at the airtime, I assume it’s pretty close to the actual time.  And on the DVR I can fast forward through commercials and hopefully not get all of the touchy feely backstory stuff.

  183. 183.

    VFX Lurker

    @lamh47: As a “Boglehead” index-fund investor since 2007, this pleases me greatly. All my friends, family and co-workers should follow Kamala Harris’ example in their retirement investing.

  184. 184.

    danielx

    @JML:

    My observation at the time was that Obama genuinely believed his congressional opponents/tormentors would see that what he wanted to achieve would be good for the country as a whole. It took him a while to realize they didn’t care about the good of the country, they were just out to fuck him every way they could and twice on Sundays.

  185. 185.

    Geminid

    @JoyceH: King George County also has Caledon State Park. People like to search for shark teeth along its Potomac beaches.

    King George is also the birthplace of Gladys West, the famous Black mathemetician. West earned a degree in Mathematics at Virginia State University, and after a stint teaching in Martinsville public schools she hired on at the Dahlgren Laboratory in 1956. She worked there for the next 42 years.

    West was inducted into the Air Force Hall of Fame in 2018 for her work developing satellite geodesy models. It provided the foundation for the Global Positioning System

    Ed. I think you may know all this but I put it out there so others know something else about King George County

    And oh yeah. I understand Mark Warner has a farm down there. If you run into the Senator at the Food Lion, please tell him Geminid says hi!

  186. 186.

    Mike E

    @lamh47: handball is like playing water polo on a basketball court! The end goal is to put the ball in the net, while following travelling rules and minding the rather large exclusion zone in front of the goalkeeper.

  187. 187.

    lamh47

    @eclare: It’s def how I watch as well.

    In some cases I do want to watch LIVE especially the sports and athlete I love.

    For example, the swimming competition, I’m def wanting to watch Simone Manuel’s swims LIVE and of course Ledecky!

  188. 188.

    M31

    Walz also beat Republicans in his first House and then Governor races, so he’s had some practice doing what we need him to do lol.

    National guard for 24 years, heavy artillery.

    And a high school teacher for a long time, so he’s used to keeping a straight face while immature boys spout off nonsense, which will come in handy in any debates with the couchfucker

  189. 189.

    JiveTurkin

    @Martin: They can’t throw people in prison for greed and/or bad judgement.  If they had obtained convictions it is very likely most if not all would have gotten no jail time.  IMO the PPP abuse was more obvious, and there have been almost no convictions or even cases brought.

  191. 191.

    MomSense

    @JML:

    UGH no.  That is not what happened.  In all the major fights we were actually trying to negotiate with blue dogs – those asshole conservadems in our own party.  Obama talking about negotiating with Republicans was giving cover to the blue dog dems.  He had a ton of fucking Manchins to deal with.

    Maybe sometime I will do a long post about our strategy and tactics during the fight for the ACA.  There is a lot of misinformation about what happened in not just that fight but stimulus, ARRA, etc.

  192. 192.

    lamh47

    Now watching Beach Volleyball. So glad the ladies dont’ have to wear those damn bikini uniforms! Let’s go USA vs CAN

  193. 193.

    Martin

    @Sister Golden Bear: I agree.

    A warning to people looking at polls. Pay close attention to what kind of poll. Harris is picking up 3-6 points across the board in the current polls. That may improve more, and it may not. But understand these are registered voter polls. Between 33% and 45% of them are not going to vote. The question is, which ones?

    If you are energized by 160,000 women showing up in a Zoom call, appreciate that almost 100% of them were going to vote for Biden over Trump. That enthusiasm never shows up in the poll. Some percentage of them may not have voted at all, and being on that call means that they will. Again, that doesn’t show up in these polls, but would start to show up in a likely voter poll.

    The reason that’s exciting is that the women on the call are likely to turn out democratic voters that wouldn’t have voted due to joining an outreach effort, that they weren’t going to join with Biden at the top. So if you are excited to see that energy, you’re not going to see the product of that energy in a registered voter poll. You’ll only see it in a likely voter poll. And if that outreach produces new voter registrations, those new registrants won’t be in any polls including RV ones – they’re all locked down by now.

    And, when it comes to first time voters they are hard to incorporate into a likely voter model because they don’t have a voting history. So they often are the source of a big surprise in results because they did/didn’t turn out, because the LV polling models struggled to predict their behavior.

    So, if RV polls seem a bit disappointing, consider that none of the excitement you’re seeing would show up there anyway.

  194. 194.

    JiveTurkin

    @danielx: This.  In my lifetime I had never seen a scenario where the opposition party made it clear they would rather see the country suffer than work with the president.  IMO, McConnell, along with Gingrich and Rupert Murdoch, are the three people who have done the most damage to this country in the last four decades.  Hopefully, after they pass, they’ll be pushing a boulder up a hill for all eternity.

  195. 195.

    Ivan X

    @Martin: That, for sure, but my other regret about Obama is that he had an army of enthusiastic followers, charged up and ready to serve their country, who were willing to idealistically work towards a better society, but there was just no energy behind the post-election OFA. It just sounded like the DNC. No one was told how they could enact the hope and change they wanted to see and be part of. It was a moment where people wanted to be inspired like they were when they campaigned and voted, but the energy just fizzled out. He became a manager at a moment when people wanted a leader.

    With all that said, I love the guy, and am glad he was my president for eight years.

  197. 197.

    BR

    @Sister Golden Bear: ​
    Yeah, Walz seems solid. And him being just 6 months older but looking much older has a good dynamic (though I don’t want that to detract from Harris’s seeming youthfulness once people realize that).

  198. 198.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Quinerly: just had this  ( keb mo, “ put a woman in charge”) come through my Facebook , or my YouTube. For sure I reposted it.. uplifting

  199. 199.

    Martin

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Actually, that would be a very good line should we get a debate and Trump is speaking out of turn. She can say ‘Mr Trump, I know you are aware you have the right to remain silent, can we do this by the rules you agreed to?’

  200. 200.

    Other MJS

    Does anyone know where to find Statements like this with working links? I can only find images when I search.

  201. 201.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Ivan X: are you willing to expand the discussion of leader vs manager, for our edification? Or do you suggest any particular blinks, reading? Seems it’s an ongoing distinction, and one wishes to understand better

  204. 204.

    Scout211

    @M31: now reporting that it’s between Shapiro, Kelly, and Walz.

    The media has already started the negative campaigning against Shapiro.

    They have a Democrat criticizing him for the way he handled a sexual harassment complaint in his office.  It’s mostly the right wing media but here is Inquirer

    “I want a VP pick that’s secure enough to be second under a woman, is content to be VP & won’t undermine the President to maneuver his own election & doesn’t sweep sexual harassment under the rug,” McClelland wrote on X.
    McClelland was likely referring to a sexual harassment scandal in Shapiro’s office last year. Shapiro’s top legislative liaison was accused of sexual harassment and the governor’s office quietly reached a settlement with the accuser for $295,000. The liaison, Mike Vereb, did not resign until months after an internal complaint was filed, records show, and Shapiro was criticized for his administration’s handling of the scandal.

    Ugh.  The negative campaign and smears begin.

    But seriously Donald? Calling Kamala Harris a “bum?”  That’s all you’ve got? Sheesh.

  206. 206.

    bluefoot

    @Sister Golden Bear: I agree with a lot of this.  Obama not only couldn’t be seen as the Angry Black Man, just acknowledging his own blackness (after Trayvon Martin) had people up in arms.  I personally heard white people here in MA say things like “Obama betrayed us.” (I am still WTAF about that.)  There were definite limits to what he could say and be at all effective.  He also made some big mistakes (letting banksters off the hook is near/at the top of my list), but he had a very fine line to walk.

    I agree Harris benefits from the “tell it like it is” Black woman stereotype, and probably in lesser degree the Indian auntie “no filter” stereotype of innocently saying completely inappropriate quiet-parts-out-loud things.

    110% agreement on the change in politics.  Everything from 2016 onward had put the concept of Republicans working with others for the good of the country in the far distant rearview.  January 6th proved many of them would prefer to light the country on fire.  We are in an existential fight and all tools need to be brought to bear. Biden was restrained by his fundamental sense of decency and his memories of a better time.  And I think Biden thought/thinks if he does good things for all Americans, people would see that and act accordingly.  I think decent people like him have a hard time accepting the indecency of others.

    I may be projecting, but I am sure as a Black-Asian American woman, Harris has been on the pointy end of people’s bullshit her entire life and doesn’t have a lot of patience any more.  I know George Floyd’s murder is what finally made me throw out a lifetime of trying to spare people’s feelings about their bullshit.

  210. 210.

    Citizen Alan

    @Martin: The really appalling thing about this is that Buffet and whoever is running the hedge fund have enough cash laying around in the sofa cushions to bet $1 million dollars of their own money. At least Randolph and Mortimer Duke limited their reckless gambling with other people’s lives to a dollar.

  211. 211.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @M31: Uday and Qusay are not smart enough to vet anyone, and Thiel’s money was just too enticing to bother with vetting, anyway.

  213. 213.

    Citizen Alan

    @Nukular Biskits:  No offense, but that is why the Republicans are the way they are: they get so little pushback on their bullshit. I would have (and have in the recent past) looked him square in the eyes and said “Is that what your cult leaders told you to think?”

  215. 215.

    Suzanne

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    For those who are 45, it’s Biden, Trump and Obama, W and Clinton.
    All they’ve known is Republican incompetence, hatefulness, and obstinate intransigence dialed up to 11.

    That’s very different than the vast majority of jackalteriat.

    Which I think ties into their desire to actually get shit done.

    This is me. I remember Clinton well, but didn’t vote for him.

    I will also note that the events that forged my early political outlook were Bush v Gore, 9/11, and the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. There were a lot of Democrats who supported the AUMF, and that will never not be incredibly disappointing.

  217. 217.

    divF

    @lowtechcyclist: Fort Walker is just over the county line, actually. However, Dahlgren Naval Surface Warfare Center and Naval Support Facility is in King George County.

    The only reason I commented on this is that I used to work with people at NSWC in White Oak, there was a constant threat of moving everything to Dahlgren

    ETA: I see JoyceH got there first.

  218. 218.

    trollhattan

    @Scout211:

    It’s a tell that he’s intimidated. Remember “Nancy Pelosi, who I call Nancy”? A line he did not dare cross, the guy who mocked a handicapped guy in front of a crowd.

  220. 220.

    BR

    @206inKY: ​
    Supposedly Harris’s campaign was considering the “weird” line of attack back in 2020 as well. So it’s a good alignment on the Dem team.

  222. 222.

    Ishiyama

    Bernie Sanders has endorsed Kamala now. I think he waited in order to create an illusion of space between his reputation as a left-wing radical and her positions.

  224. 224.

    hueyplong

    @Villago Delenda Est: The only thing Uday and Qusay vetted were the checks they received.  The proceeds of Uday’s check went up his nose soon thereafter.

    Trump chose JD threenames for only 2 reasons: (1) the substantially larger check he received; and (2) JD seriously outperforming all other candidates in fulsome praise of Trump. Impossible to imagine the meeting without vomiting.

  225. 225.

    hueyplong

    @Ishiyama: I don’t know. The endorsements have been spaced and ordered as if coordinated all the way. I’m ok with the grand finale being Taylor Swift.

  228. 228.

    chbnna

    @HumboldtBlue: yeah but no mention of which way they will vote though. I am worried it’s not as positive as we might think…too many vote Republican for my comfort

  230. 230.

    Jay

    For those interested, Jasper was the most fire protected forest town in Canada. The town was surrounded by fire breaks, the forests were thinned, regular control burns were held every spring and fall.  Fire resistant plantings were used for landscaping. There was a perimeter high volume sprinkler system surrounding the town, and the town had massive reservoirs.

    That was no protection against a wall of flames 100 metres high moving at 15 kmh.

  231. 231.

    Nukular Biskits

    @Citizen Alan:

    Understood and i don’t necessarily disagree.

    Having said that, however, age has given me (somewhat) the wisdom to know when to choose my battles. Time & place.

    And if I can get the point across without using the hammer, so to speak, it won’t lead to harsh words.

  233. 233.

    Jay

    If you ever find coins underneath the seat cushions on your couch,…………

    that’s hush money from JD Vance.

  235. 235.

    Timill

    @chbnna: However, these aren’t just Latinos registering, they’re Latinos who were motivated by Kamala replacing Joe. Unlikely to be many republicans among them.

  236. 236.

    JoeyJoeJoe

    @Sister Golden Bear: 44 here.  One of my earliest memories was seeing Reagan speak after the Challenger explosion.  I remember Clinton’s presidency pretty well.  My high school had a mock election in 1996; Clinton beat Dole in it roughly 1500-150

  237. 237.

    206inKY

    @Sister Golden Bear: My first presidential vote was for Gore. I have vague memories of Gingrich getting swept into power and being a menace. Bush’s presidency felt like a boot on the neck until Obama came around, and the Republicans spent his entire term barely containing their racism. The GOP has been so awful this century that it’s hard to picture Republicans being remotely competitive after 2036 or so. I think Texas will turn blue by then and put the presidency out of reach.

  238. 238.

    trollhattan

    In my best Rodney Dangerfield voice, “Hey, get a room you two.”

    July 27, 2024 at 2:31 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard
    Peter Thiel Warms to Trump Again

    “The Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel’s relationship with Donald Trump turned ice-cold in the middle of 2023, when the former president excoriated Mr. Thiel on a private phone call over his unwillingness to support Mr. Trump’s re-election bid,” the New York Times reports.

    “Now, after Mr. Trump chose one of Mr. Thiel’s closest political acolytes as his running mate, there appears to be a thaw.”

    “Mr. Thiel is warming toward supporting the Republican ticket, he said in an interview on Friday, although he stopped short of making a formal endorsement.

    Doesn’t he have some fresh blood to snort?

  239. 239.

    Martin

    @Ivan X: Yeah, that’s hard. I mean, he was elected at a time when the country needed a manager and the party needed a leader. OFA couldn’t put the economic fire out, and Obama despite what he had just done didn’t have a lot of faith that the country was ready for more cultural change – which is the part that the leadership could have delivered. It was Biden that pushed him on gay marriage, after all.

    I was recounting to my daughter how 2008 felt and how it compares to today and I had to remind her that the iPhone had come out just the year before. People didn’t have smartphones. We had Facebook, but we didn’t remotely have the volume of visual sharing of information like we have now where it’s really easy to do YouTube, Instagram etc. BLM relied on that to take off, etc.

    I don’t think it can be overstated what a change that has had to how we perceive things, because increasingly visual media like TikTok and Instagram and YouTube force you to see other people as they are and not as you would tend to stereotype them. My base assumption for commenters here is that you’re all my age, and default white. And people reveal where that’s incorrect, and sometimes their name hints to that as well, but when you see a picture of someone, that breaks through that completely. And I think that’s had a significant impact on the right of revealing a country that doesn’t match their stereotype – and they’re afraid of that, and it’s had a significant impact on the left of revealing a pretty diverse place and builds our sympathy and solidarity toward one another because we are inclined toward that. And of course, young people don’t know to be afraid of diversity – that has to be taught, so they generally embrace it usually because they encounter it before someone teaches it to them. Young people aren’t afforded much time to believe the world is different than it is – they go right from Santa to video of a playground in Gaza being bombed. There’s no intermediate Mickey Mouse Club in there.

    So I think the opportunities when Obama got in office were a lot more limited, and I think Obama being siloed off in the Presidency when this social change was taking place made it hard to contextualize and take advantage of. Harris is much more a product of this enormous social change, I think that shows in the relationship she has with the public, and I think the Democratic base is much more connected to this as well and there for it. As noted, we didn’t have a white women for Clinton zoom call 8 years ago, or a white women for Biden/Harris one either. And one of the things that was made clear in that call was that this was about learning from black women who have experience doing this how to do it and building a bridge between those communities. And that sure as shit wasn’t happening back then. I think we’re in a different place for a lot of different reasons, and Obama personality/priorities aren’t really a factor in that. I think we have changed more than maybe we realize. Not everyone individually – lots of people were there then – but collectively. It feels like despite being a collection of disparate interest groups lashed together, we have each others backs a lot more now.

  240. 240.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @pacem appellant:

    What I truly, genuinely do not understand is why ALL Democrats don’t do this all the time?

    It’s complicated.  There is a big chunk of our voters we can’t afford to lose who vote for Democrats precisely because they want the adult in the room and hate open anger.  Times have changed and they are much more open to fighting rhetoric.  It was also never monolithic.  I’ve heard, quoted on BJ, reams of fighting language and every time it’s followed by “Why don’t Dems talk like this?”  When they do, it gets ignored by the press or memory holed.

    @Martin:

    he didn’t throw bankers in prison.

    There was nothing to throw them in prison for.  Robosigning?  Not a crime.  Seriously, not a crime.  All it did was make the validity of the mortgages questionable, and a court decided to accept them all.  The lying about mortgage value?  Not a crime!  It doesn’t match the legal definition of fraud.  The whole point of deregulation for decades was to give the rich legal loopholes to do bad shit, and it worked.

    You have to be a serious dumbass and do something specific like a long pattern of giving banks inarguably, intentionally false value numbers to even get hit with a big fine.  Trump, the clumsiest criminal ever, had to break election law to make some of his financial crimes liable for jail time.

    It sucks, but a lot of shit that should be a crime isn’t, and Obama never had the power to lock up the bankers.

  242. 242.

    Ruckus

    @Citizen Alan:

    One of the other sides to rethuglicans is that for the most part they didn’t used to be who and what they are today. IOW not near as much asshole. Now I am talking more than a short time ago, like well over 20-30 yrs. I have, since before I could even vote (voting age changed to 18 the year I turned 21) been a democrat. Because my entire life rethuglicans have been about who even knows but likely the dollar and/or hate, but if you wanted to be about all of the people, you voted democratic.

  243. 243.

    JoyceH

    @Geminid: Back before he was an elected official and was merely the filthy rich state party chairman, Warner used to have an annual Pig Roast for a thousand of his closest friends. I got an invite one year when I was working for the local paper, and it was quite a thing. Sadly, high winds grounded the hot air balloon rides.

  244. 244.

    Ruckus

    @Scout211:

    Never ever give shitforbrains more credit than you would for any other germ. Because he’s no better than any germ that causes rampant disease.

  246. 246.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @M31:

    Of the three, yeah, Walz by a mile.  The only reason Shapiro hasn’t rammed thru some school voucher bullshit is the Dem legislature will have none of it.  Good background piece from earlier in the year:

    https://www.thecentersquare.com/pennsylvania/article_155b4402-c5d4-11ee-9ff0-f76befd5c26e.html

    Kelly’s union bona fides are problematic.  Somebody earlier in the week posted something about endorsements he’d gotten from the (I think) United Steelworkers which made one think that maybe his positioned has moved more toward mainstream Dem thought but I don’t really know.  A VP with a questionable union/organized labor record would be in sharp (and very sad) contrast to Biden who’s been the best labor president in forever.

  247. 247.

    Martin

    @Villago Delenda Est: I’d put it a bit differently. Managers pull people together into a team to solve a shared goal, leaders inspire people to go out and solve the problems they think need to be solved. Management is hands-on, leadership is hands off – a good leader gets people to organize themselves and find their own managers from their ranks. Managers typically are a bottleneck for the team, the team stalls out without their participation. Leaders are to some degree disposable – once the goal is internalized, the leader usually isn’t needed. Managers may or may not be leaders. Leaders may or may not be managers. I have known some great leaders that were terrible managers, and v/v.

  249. 249.

    BR

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    Each of them will have downsides, but all will be fine. Picking Walz will bring up the BLM protests of 2020 and the national guard and all that. There are surely MN activists who are pissed at him about it (I don’t know specifically who, but I guarantee there are). Shapiro will piss people off about Gaza and school vouchers. Kelly will piss people off about unions and the immigration.

  250. 250.

    Martin

    @Jay: Yeah. The path forward is going to have to be to get individual property owners to reduce the flammability of their own structures and land. It won’t save the properties facing the 100m wall of flame, but it’ll mean it propagates only a 50m wall, and the next layer reduces it further, and that keeps it from running through the whole city.

    CA has some measures to encourage that, but they aren’t actually going anywhere. Insurers have programs including rate discounts that most people are ignoring. Building codes aren’t changing as aggressively as needed. And it’s hard to get people to do something that won’t save their house but might save their neighbor’s.

  252. 252.

    Gvg

    @Sister Golden Bear: Don’t overlook that what happened to Obama, and then Biden’s success, but also problems caused by not having enough congressional votes etc plus the way the media and Republicans have played around like peoples lives weren’t important, has taught more voters that the bipartisan stuff is a fantasy. The longer the GOP acts like this, the more the voters want the democrats to fight back. The less call for bipartisanship and fainting over blunt rudeness.

    I have never quite thought Obama was quite as great as. Most here did, but he wasn’t a failure and he did have constraints. I also remember that Bill Clinton did too. I remember when he didn’t have the votes had had to come up with ways to partially defang something bad which he now gets blamed for, instead of the republican or the defecting democratic votes that really led to it.

    it’s always a good idea to remember the chronology. Each presidency has somewhat different choices available because of the ones before.

  253. 253.

    K-Mo

    This is some 200-proof stuff.  I’m trying to sip it but it’s delicious.   Somebody take my keys.

  255. 255.

    trollhattan

    @Jay: Wind is generally the wild card. The Santa Rosa fire burnt neighborhoods “protected” by a full multilane freeway that the fire shrugged and jumped. IIRC it hit 60, 70 mph. Same conditions the morning of the Paradise Camp Fire.

  257. 257.

    Kelly

    @Jay:   Jasper was the most fire protected forest town in Canada

    My great jaw dropping moment on fire breaks is when the 2017 Eagle Creek Fire jumped the Columbia River. Not only the biggest west coast river but also 6 lanes of I84, and a double track railway. A fire break at least a mile wide.

  258. 258.

    BellyCat

    @Martin: So when the GOP tear up the rule book, we need to pretend that didn’t happen and keep following the rules.

    Please tell us that you neglected to include a snark tag.

  260. 260.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @M31:

    Bloomberg now reporting that it’s between Shapiro, Kelly, and Walz.

    My choice would be Walz. Checks the midwest box, also seems to have a sunny disposition and an easy going manner while flinging poo at republicans. He’s relatable and likable.

  263. 263.

    Gvg

    @lamh47: The village is huge. It is a whole series of towns, a region of Florida. The concept got out of hand. I have no idea what the total population is now but it is very very large. I can’t tell if this is like 1% of the Villages or a more significant %. It does not mean they are now majority Harris supporters. Biden had support there last time and golf cart parades, but it still voted Trump mostly.

    covid, anti vax and DeSantis did cut into the Republican support there.

  264. 264.

    Cheryl from Maryland

    @Martin: My grandfather was well off in the early part of the 20th C, and he trained my father and his siblings to invest conservatively in index funds.  The family survived the 1920s crash and every subsequent crash.  My father passed this on to me and told me to invest my retirement money in a stock index fund and not look at it for 30 years.  His advice was VERY SOUND.  Everyone should do this — playing the stock market is for mad money only.

  265. 265.

    Martin

    @Kelly: Yeah, we had half dollar sized still-burning embers landing in our yard during the Silverado fire, and not only was the fire more than a mile away, the evacuation order line was more than a mile away. The fire was 3 miles away.

  266. 266.

    in the hills

    just remember what trump tries to do to his opponents.

    it’ll be a little harder to call a navy pilot and astronaut,a pussy.

  267. 267.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Gvg: Sadly assuming Republicans have no agency is something some Democrats are guilty of doing going back to the Clinton era.

  268. 268.

    Quinerly

    Seen on line, ” I don’t care what JD Vance did or didn’t do. I just hope it was a committed relationship with furniture and not one nightstand.”

    My inner 12 yo giggled

    Isn’t great to laugh again?

  269. 269.

    Eyeroller

    @Gvg: I have been away from this site for a few days.  But in 2020 there was a similar golf-cart parade with a comparable number of participants for Joe Biden.  I am surprised (not really) that memories are so short.  Back in those days that nobody can apparently remember, they interviewed the president of the Democratic club there, who acknowledged they were very much the minority but they wanted to be heard.

    It may mean that they are enthusiastic now which could be a good sign.  It doesn’t mean we will win Florida.

  272. 272.

    BellyCat

    @Martin: Phew… Well, between your recent evil doppelgänger event and the new Rules of Conduct, one is now seemingly duty-bound to ask: DID YOU REALLY MEAN TO SOUND LIKE YOU WERE KIDNAPPED BY ALIENS?

  276. 276.

    BellyCat

    @Quinerly: ” I don’t care what JD Vance did or didn’t do. I just hope it was a committed relationship with furniture and not one nightstand.”

    You’re not the only one stuck at age 12! LOL…

  277. 277.

    eclare

    @Suzanne:

    This is me.  I voted for HW in 1988.  Then Clinton came along in 1992, and I have voted only for Democrats ever since.

  279. 279.

    Quinerly

    “Kamala has raised so much money that Clarence Thomas wants to go on vacation with her.”

  280. 280.

    Jay

    @Martin:

    Some of the Fairmont Hotel’s outbuildings are gone, thick stone walls, metal roofs, surrounded by manicured lawn.

    Not much fire proofing that can be done when the fire is not just raining down ash and embers, but also 6″ burning “logs” from 100 meters up.

  282. 282.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @eclare: I got you beat I voted for Dukakis. I did, in the late 80s and early 90s vote for Republicans occasionally for Congress but have never voted for a Republican for POTUS.

  283. 283.

    Devore

    Yeah.  Keep pouring it on.  Hopefully Trumps weird catches fire.   Although I would say weird and SMELLY.

    finally playing to win

  284. 284.

    BellyCat

    Maybe noted here (woefully behind on the daily machinations) but George Conway has come up with the best response for the GOP’s mispronunciation of Kamala’s name (with incorrect accent on second syllable): She should repeatedly and distinctly say, “Don-OLD” every time she refers to him and addresses him.  Love that this would turn their “Biden is too old” campaign back on Trump. (But, alas, I suspect Kamala is a bigger person than I am).

  285. 285.

    Jay

    @eclare:

    Most of the village was evacuated 4 days ago, only firefighters and a few residents feeding and housing the firefighters remained. The next day, they pulled out all but the Property Protection Crews, but only those crews that had their own respirators. They were pulled when the fire hit the town later that day.

    Everybody got out, pets and livestock too. Residents and Tourists.

    Helicopters that couldn’t carry a water bucket, Private and Corporate, flew the trails and evacuated 450 hikers and back country campers.

  286. 286.

    Scout211

    Speaking of fires, I’m watching a 10 acre fire from my front porch. Got the notification on the Watch Duty app when it was 1-2 acres.

    I’m a broken record but that app is just awesome for those of us in fire prone areas.  Highly recommend the free version.

    The fire is not going to reach us but we can see the smoke and the aircraft from our porch.

  287. 287.

    Jay

    @Kelly:

    Yeah, in 2022 the Litton fire jumped the Trans Canada, the twin track CPR, then the Fraser River, so about 4km of “dead ground and water”.

  288. 288.

    The Lodger

    @Ken: Had Trump followed the Kamala Harris investment strategy, he’d have been a real billionaire.

  289. 289.

    trollhattan

    @BR: Thanks, that was a great watch and holy hell, the West looks to be in for it in about a week, well-above average temps with no predicted end, from Mexico to Canada.

    Yay?

  292. 292.

    trollhattan

    @raven: I can’t imagine what it’s like after going through that, then to see every stick NOT burned in the Camp fire, burn subsequently.

    Only Paradise resident I know personally is never returning.

  294. 294.

    Eyeroller

    @Jay: My last vacation included stays at the Fairmont Hotels and my favorite was the Jasper Park Lodge.  This is heartbreaking to me.  Yet another loss.

  296. 296.

    Citizen Alan

    @Suzanne:  I was in law school during the Clinton impeachment and said loudly that I saw it as an attempted coup (and angered some of my more conservative classmates and instructors by doing so). I was working for a Republican judge when Bush v Gore was decided and that convinced me that the GOP was irredeemably unAmerican.

    Seriously, you look at all the shit that went down in 2000? The Election decided by less than 600 votes in a state where Dubya’s brother was governor? And the recount was shut down by a partisan SCOTUS in an opinion never to be cited again? And these MAGA scumbags want to complain about “irregularities” in the 2020 election. Fuck the GOP. Fuck them forever.

  300. 300.

    Jay

    @Eyeroller:

    The Fairmont Hotel is okay, they just lost some historic outbuildings. The historic Maligne Lake Hotel, is just ash.

    It’s going to be about 6 years before the park and the town regain some of their beauty, but the scars will be there for decades.

  301. 301.

    Eyeroller

    @BellyCat: There is an English name, maybe pretty uncommon now but once fairly popular, Pamela, which we do not pronounce pa ME la, so why is this so hard?

  302. 302.

    Fake Irishman

    @raven:

    Very true. I know the researcher who runs the VA LGBT office on the health care side. He’s extraordinary.

  304. 304.

    Jess

    @trollhattan: I have a friend living in Centerville (just a tad north of Paradise) who lost everything and barely escaped with his life in the Paradise fire. I’m surprised he’s still living a stone’s throw away, and I’m hoping he has better luck this time. He reports that the wind has shifted the course of the fire away from him, but he’s ready to evacuate.

  305. 305.

    Geminid

     

     

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: The Steelworkers endorsed and worked for Mark Kelly in 2022 and described him as “pro-worker.”

    I don’t know if the Steelworkers endorsed Kelly in 2020, but UNITE HERE Local 17 did in 2020 and 2022. They canvassed for him and Joe Biden in 2020 and canvassed for Senator Kelly, Katie Hobbs, Adrian Fontez and other Democrats in 2022.

    UNITE HERE Local 17 represents 40,000+ hotel, convention center, restaurant and convention center workers, in Arizona and Southern California. Local 17 says that in 2022 they and a partner supported 400 canvassers in Maricopa County alone. These are serious operators

    The rap on Mark Kelly is that he did not support the PRO Act in a Senate cloture vote, in 2022 I believe.. All 50 Republicans and two other Democratic Senators, voted no as well so the measure fell 13 votes short of cloture. You’d never guess who the other two Democrats were!

    Anyway, Kelly said last week that he would vote for for the PRO Act if and when it comes to the floor again. Schumer could put it on the floor again this Fall even though the House Majority won’t.

    ABC News posted an article about the Kelly/Labor question last week. They quoted labor leaders whose opinions ranged from, this is a serious concern to, we’ll cut a purple state Senator some slack for an inconsequential vote.

  307. 307.

    Fake Irishman

    @MomSense:

    Thank you for noting this about the ACA fight. It was almost entirely an intraparty negotiation after July 2009, with the partial exception being whether Olympia Snowe (GOP) or Ben Nelson (Manchin Dem) would be the 60th vote.

    “Inside National Health Care Reform” by John McDonough (scholar, one of the architects of the Mass. reform and hired by Ted Kennedy to be the point person on the Senate HELP committee) lays it all out in great detail. Amazing book. (I’m sure you or Dave Anderson could write a great post on it too)

  308. 308.

    Ruckus

    @hrprogressive:

    As much power as we think the president has, there are limits to what can get accomplished and those limits often start and end with these 2 words – House and Senate.

  310. 310.

    catclub

    @Martin: ​
      Of course, Buffet helped fix the contest. He said a selection of ten hedge funds- all averaged together. which makes sure to be mediocre. If they had picked one of the ones that is always on top, – another concentrated bet – it might be different.

  311. 311.

    catclub

    @Ruckus: Now the limits also include the SC deciding that democratic Presidents do not have the same right to govern as GOP ones.

  313. 313.

    Darkrose

    @Sister Golden Bear: Not sure how Harris being a Black/(Asian) woman plays a part in this, but certainly there’s a stereotype about “tell it like it is” Black women that probably gives her more room to maneuver. And potentially Black women not being seen as threatening as Black men. I’ll defer to those whose lived experience far better qualifies for them to comment about this.

    The Angry Black Woman is definitely a negative stereotype. Being angry or upset for Black women is often seen as threatening or aggressive, especially to white women IME. I suspect Harris is often shown smiling and laughing in part to defuse this message.

    ETA: Obama’s Anger Translator was from Key & Peele, a Black comedy duo. Key did it for Obama’s last WHCD.

  314. 314.

    Citizen Alan

    @columbusqueen: Last Republican I voted for was a personal friend who was running unopposed for DA in Mississippi. This was back in 2010, I think. Other than that, last one was Thad Cochran  in 1996, who was also unopposed. I voted for Bush Sr. in 1988, but I was young and stupid and even then it was a close call.

    I love California. They send out voter guides with everyone’s position along with the mail-in ballots.

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