Well, it turns out we can have two nice things in the span of less than a month.
I wrote a piece on Walz the other day from the perspective of someone who had a lot of the same similar life experiences. Rather than repeating that, I want to tell a story about common decency and thoughtfulness.
The other day we were in Grand Forks, ND, which is right across the river from Minnesota. It’s about an hour six hours north of Mankato, where Walz and his wife taught, and it’s very near MN-01, the district he represented. Walking into a Walmart there, I saw this:
It’s just a bit of kindness that doesn’t cost anyone anything. So why not? I posted this on Bluesky the other day and someone told me that this is something that’s at the manager’s discretion.
I am so not surprised that a Walmart in Grand Forks would do this. Yeah, there are some Trump signs and other asshole signifiers, but overall this group of people likes to think of themselves as good people who are kind and helpful to their neighbors. Only weirdos would oppose turning off the music, TVs and cleaning machines in the morning at Walmart so people who are sensitive to noise can shop in peace.
Being kind, and, frankly, shaming those who are unkind, is Tim Walz’ superpower. He’s a guy that does all the things that people in the upper midwest do (hunt, fish, shoot skeet, eat corn dogs, etc.), but he’s also someone who isn’t embarrassed to promote an agenda of kindness on a one-vote margin in the Minnesota legislature.
This is a winning pick and it’s a pick that’s going to make the Republicans shit themselves. He looks the stereotype, and he’s anything but. He’s a national guard veteran: everyone from where Walz is from knows that the multiple guard deployments in the middle east were brutal. He’s a football coach and social studies teacher, which is a hilarious cliche, but he also agreed to be the advisor for the gay/straight student alliance at his school in 1999.
Finally, and this is incredible: Walz is the first Democratic VP pick since 1964 who didn’t go to law school.
ArchTeryx
Reposted from dying thread downstairs:
Somewhere out there, Madame Hyena (and to a furry like me, that’s a high complement) must be cackling gleefully at just how flummoxed the corporate press is at all this. They were caught as flat-footed as the Republicans were. When Joe Biden dropped out of the race, I was in a blind panic.
I’m not now. Now it’s the corporate media desperately fumbling around for an anti-Democratic narrative. We got a hell of a challenger out of the deal, and I’m gonna be proud to vote for her this coming fall. This shows exactly why. This puts a lot of districts into play that we would otherwise have no business winning. Even some non-cultist Republicans are probably taking a look at this ticket now.
hrprogressive
Walz is absolutely a fantastic pick, and I think his “Normie Guy Who Does It All” Persona is gonna help carry Pennsylvania along with the rest of the Blue Wall Midwest.
I believe enough in this ticket that I’m now doing recurring ActBlue donations to Harris/Walz. I’ve never done that for any candidate or ticket, ever.
I hope those who can afford to do so will do so as well. Let’s keep setting the narrative, etc.
Alce _e_ardillo
I’m pinching myself, but thankfully it’s not a dream. Maybe later I’ll have a cogent comment but for now I’m verklempt with joy.
clay
He was a teacher. That really means a lot to me.
VeniceRiley
#WhiteThoughts: Walz is the guy that would have been our father and grandfather had they not been captured by the full on right wing media onslaught psychological warfare.
He’s the man we all lost to them. He will draw a lot more than anyone thinks. I about sobbed watching him.
oldster
Another donation coming from me. It may only be a widow’s mite, but I’ll do what I can.
Not only is Walz not a lawyer (hooray!), but he’s also the first bald candidate since Gerald Ford. At least, the first bald one who doesn’t use a ridiculous comb-over to pretend he’s not bald.
Baud
This wins me over.
MattF
My opinion is that Harris chose the one she feels most comfortable with. And, to say so explicitly, that’s a good sign. And a contrast with TFG, who chose the power- hungry suck-up.
M31
the best is how Walz can pivot from cool dad to rapid fire ‘shut up you weirdo’ facts in no time at all
rusty
I did go to law school, and we aren’t missing anything at this point having a non-lawyer. I was also a public school teacher before that, so I have an affinity to Walz and his wife. He feels like a good pick and kindness is feeling so rare at the moment it’s a wonder we get to have someone that has it.
Elizabelle
So happy with this pick. Advantage: Harris/Walz.
I hope our ticket has industrial strength coattails.
Belafon
Now, just let a different commenter post a new thread every 15 minutes.
Jeffg166
Walz will be able to talk to the Midwest like no other candidate. I think his appeal will grow across the country the more he is seen.
OId Man Shadow
An NCO, a teacher, a coach, a dog lover, and not a lawyer.
I like it.
M31
@MattF: so clear that Trump picked the most adept at being an abject suck up, that’s the only thing that makes him comfortable
Peggy
With kindness, please note that Grand Forks, ND is 350 miles from Mankato, MN and, many Walmarts across the country offer sensory friendly hours.
As a born and raised Minnesotan I’m ecstatic that Walz is on the ticket!!!!!!
WereBear
I am so pleased this is becoming a recognized thing, and that the sign hints at the range of people who really need it.
Especially since my friends love the tech brewery which is all stainless steel and glass, and I have to wear my earplugs. The new open construction of my favorite kind, Wave Ear Plugs, let me carry on conversations without feeling like the CIA is trying to drive me out of my bunker.
Old School
Suzanne
Has anyone made any “I’m lookin’ California, and feelin’ Minnesota” references yet?
ArchTeryx
@Peggy: I’m a Chicagoian and can’t be happier. Minnesota Nice – the real article – is gonna be a great contrast to that creepy-ass suck-o-phant J. D. Vance. Someone that can reach out to the rural areas and maybe draw some votes away from TCFG is what we need. We don’t need to win those areas, but TCFG’s 90/10 margins there are killing us in Rust Belt states. Make his dark money PACs WORK for those votes rather than just taking them for granted.
WereBear
@VeniceRiley: Yes, about time White Dudes had some reputation rehab.
And we didn’t even start the Date Democratic movement, that was the young people, all on their own.
bbleh
@oldster: @hrprogressive: yeah just threw another $25 at Harris. Nothing says “LFG” like “here r mor muneez”.
Remember also, there’s oodles of opportunities to volunteer, even in red states, even from home. Postcards, phone calls, otherwise helping with local organizing. There’s WAY more of us, and the GOP’s ground game is badly disorganized, underfunded, and riddled with graft. GOTV will win this big for us.
Omnes Omnibus
To be fair, Gore never finished law school.
Kelly
@MattF: Well TFG is most comfortable with a power hungry suck up :shrug:
Scout211
The Walmart where we shop in Lodi California does the sensory-friendly shopping hours. It is great for us since my husband has both a vision loss and a hearing loss. The lower noise also helps my stress level since Walmart is not my favorite shopping experience.
Yes, it really is a kind gesture and I hope it continues because I really appreciate it.
Belafon
@bbleh: It’s not really a problem here, but we have to make sure to help all the other Democratic candidates as well.
catclub
“I picked him because he loved me the most” I still cannot believe trump said that.
UncleEbeneezer
I don’t really get the animus for lawyer/politicians here. They are literally in the business of passing, executing, administering and enforcing laws. I like my politicians to actually understand our legal system and the constitution. Kamala’s legal experience and expertise is a big selling point to me. Politicians certainly don’t HAVE TO BE lawyers, imo, but I don’t see it as any sort of downside.
grubert
Selfish me is not happy.. ( Minnesotan )
But he is the smartest pick…
Looking forward to the VP debate
WereBear
@M31: He could do some “dating advice from Coach Walz” on being a real ally to the other half of the species, yanno?
UncleEbeneezer
@Suzanne: Yes, about five threads ago, lol.
mali muso
@VeniceRiley:
This framing really resonates with me. He’s the antithesis of the resentful old white guys that clamor for attention to their grievances.
Excited for this ticket!!! Donated some more and need to get myself a yard sign now.
$8 blue check mistermix
@Peggy:
Ach, I mixed up Moorehead and Mankato – fixed the post. That’s the first Walmart where I’ve seen the sensory friendly hours, though.
Mr. Bemused Senior
Trump has a self-destructive streak and it’s showing up a lot lately. May it continue.
Math Guy
Walz is an older white guy from a small, midwestern town who grew up in gun culture, went to a state college, was a teacher, and turned out okay. My demographic. He is an outstanding choice from a deep bench of excellent candidates. Uff da!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Elizabelle:
A thousand times this. Harris was right there as the Biden Administration worked thru some of the most significant legislative accomplishments in at least a generation and all in two years.
We need the Electoral Trifecta and thus far, the decision-making to bring that about looks good.
BR
I just put in a donation on the Kamala Harris website so they can brag about fundraising numbers with Walz’s pick.
UncleEbeneezer
I just went to UDH (United Dem Hq’s) and wrote 25 postcards to voters in NV yesterday. It was 100 degrees out, mid-morning on a work day and they just moved locations so there was only a few volunteers there in addition to the staff who were still getting the place set up. At the table with me were two women in their 30’s who were writing postcards on their lunch break. The main staffer told me that a local organization (that I know well) was having a postcard event there last night with 50 people scheduled to attend. Both of those are very good signs for the enthusiasm and energy on our side.
stinger
@bbleh: Last night I participated in one of the “XXXs for Harris” zoom calls, run by the Dem party in my sadly red but still nice-Midwestern state. We didn’t get the candidate on the call, of course, but a couple of her campaign staffers were there, and some truly inspirational speakers from the state Dem party leadership. The goal was to raise $10,000 during the call, as well as energizing people to volunteer.
I’m proud to say we blew right through that goal, raising more than $26,000 during the hour-and-a-half call!
ETA: Half the money goes to the Harris campaign and half to the state Dem party. I know it’s tiny compared to the millions raised on some of these calls, but it was amazing for us!
HumboldtBlue
Let’s go, Kamala and Sarge, and it means we will see the first Native American governor in history as well.
artem1s
wow. truth. If there is anything I hate the GOP more for, than taking my father away from me 10 years before he actually died, I don’t know what it would be. He loved car talk and Julia Child. He was someone who knew a little bit about everything because he read. He loved science. He supported all of us getting higher degrees and was a lifelong learner. Until assholes like Limbaugh and Beck had him irrationally rejecting everything he loved that I loved about him. Every year for my birthday my mom would buy me a subscription to National Geographic until one year she told me it was too expensive. I’ve always suspected my dad and my sister made her cancel it because they published an article about the Gospels of Judas that were found near where the Red Sea Scrolls were found. The Christian Right lost their minds over it and my sister canceled her subscription and was very vocal about casting them as satanists and demons in her little Armageddon is Coming! fantasy.
They stole my father from me.
I never thought about it before but yes, having regular White guy leaders like Joe and Walz around who didn’t turn into Teahaddist MAGAt Deplorable Pod People has been a real comfort and relief.
Math Guy
@grubert: I’m also a Minnesota resident (native Nebraskan) and we’ll miss Walz here, but this is for the greater good. The country is going to get a good dose of Minnesota nice.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@BR:
Oh, that reminds me, while everybody was, understandably, touting Harris’s campaign haul in July, $310m, nobody mentioned the Orange Fart Cloud’s “haul”: $139m.
And how much of that will actually be put to use for, I dunno, actual campaign stuff and not just being shunted into Felonious D’s accounts?
HumboldtBlue
@M31:
That’s the teacher and the sergeant in him.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
I knew little about any of the contenders but Walz was my favorite on the vibe check.
BellyCat
The WalMart in Huntingdon, PA — in the MIDDLE of Pennsyltucky — offers the same.
Encouraging!
Belafon
@catclub: He picked him because he didn’t have the one flaw Pence had: Fealty to the Constitution.
Dagaetch
@UncleEbeneezer: I don’t see it as a downside in any individual case. But I think there’s value in getting different perspectives and lived experiences, and when lawyers, particularly a certain kind of lawyer (prosecutor or corporate) are over represented, I think it skews outcomes.
KatKapCC
It’s gonna be interesting to see what kind of “attacks” the right comes up with for him, because the only things would seem to be his actual policy positions, none of which are really all that super far left. So they’ll just make more crap up out of thin air like they always do, and it’ll appeal to their base but no one else.
Leto
I think a lot of our “culture war” issues come down to this. Just simple acts of kindness. Not being an asshole. Conservatives want to impose a world vision that’s just the polar opposite of that, and it’s we’re potentially at a tipping point of rejecting that vision. I hope that it’s more than just “Trumpov fatigue”, and it’s the beginning of a larger rejection of being an asshole.
UncleEbeneezer
Kay
@BR:
oh good idea. I’ll do it too. I went kind of big (for me, a tightwad) during the WW for Harris call – I love auctions and it had that vibe, but I’ll do another.
Dave
@UncleEbeneezer: I don’t think it’s necessarily animus, ok there is some and basically probably a mix of perceiving lawyers and politicians as untrustworthy sharks which is like half fair at best, but that we that we can use more people that followed a different path and have different life experiences and that is a sort of diversity of experience and approach that can be useful.
Unfortunately we tend to lens everything as a negative thank god he’s not another versus good this guy or gal has a skill and experience set that will bring value to governance. Probably helped in the case of Walz that while senior enlisted aren’t paid poorly that no one thinks it’s what you do to get rich or powerful same with being a public school teacher.
So in a case like Walz it creates the impression of someone who isn’t this calculated striver which isn’t a bad thing to be per se but does make it harder to trust someone.
So a mix of practical, diversity of experience, and vibes seems more potentially authentic and trustworthy.
Baud
I just got a text from Kamala. Apparently, she went with Walz.
MattF
@Baud: So I hear.
WereBear
@Leto: We were served far more than needed to trigger a gag reflex.
But once you get sick on something… you never want to see it on the table again…
Chief Oshkosh
@OId Man Shadow:
Just to clarify… :)
Matt McIrvin
@artem1s: I’m thankful to fate forever for giving me parents who didn’t fall into that vortex, even in their eighties.
They are not so lucky-subject to lots of tense dealings with red-hatted folk in the extended family. Fortunately it’s not all of them.
Kay
I was a little disappointed honestly, not my pick and riskier in my view, but seeing the general jubilation reassures me this was a smart move. The joy is important. You can’t buy it or invent it or force it and it might be why we win. We need happy people.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: Did you know it’s Walz?
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Really? I thought it was Walz. I’m shocked.
Elizabelle
@VeniceRiley: that’s a really poignant comment. I hope a lot of posts and articles and stories pick up that dynamic.
Look at all the losses extreme right wing broadcasting and media has forced us to endure. Public — all the dead schoolkids, concertgoers, people who were living their normal lives until a cretin with a gun showed up. Private— I can’t even talk to my (elderly) relatives any more. They used to be better people. I loved them, and miss them.
WereBear
@Kay: It’s looking like a charisma election. Helped win another squeaker with Kennedy/Nixon. A bright boring guy would not have worked, but we had charisma and their side had a kind of black hole.
KatKapCC
@WereBear: I’m at a loss for what you’re responding to in Leto’s comment.
Dave
@Baud: I’m disappointed that she didn’t reach out to you in person or at least a phone call. Simple courtesy; may have to vote for a malignant mango and his couchphiliac running mate now.
A shame really.
BC in Illinois
Just putting this here:
Old School
@Baud:
Dude – spoilers! I haven’t heard from her yet.
Al Rennick
Balloon Juice has spent the past 8 years viciously trashing Bernie Sanders yet it now praises Tim Walz, a politician whom die-hard Bernie supporter Kyle Kulinsky https://x.com/KyleKulinski has described as to the left of Sanders.
You guys are the biggest fucking hypocrites on the Internet.
Baud
@BC in Illinois:
I’ll miss that guy.
UncleEbeneezer
@artem1s: Ugh, that sucks. My Dad was seduced by John Galt and Ronald Reagan. He says he doesn’t support Trump but he sure as hell will never vote Dem. My saddest moment was when I called him legitimately freaked out on the day that LA went to Stay-At-Home status for Covid and he told me the whole thing was a farce. He was never anti-vaccine at any point in our lives, and fancies himself big on science. We still get along but it’s just sad that such a smart guy abandons all critical thinking if it challenges the William F. Buckley dogma at the center of his political beliefs. He’s so obsessed with fantasies of individualism that he wouldn’t even get vaccinated to help protect immunocompromised family members. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive that shit. So I love seeing older White Men like Waltz, setting a better example.
Baud
@Al Rennick:
Yet you keep coming back.
UncleEbeneezer
@Old School: Can somebody Front-Page this?!
Dave
@WereBear: I’m actually hopeful, maybe a 15-20% chance, that this isn’t actually a close election and that the Trump mirage finally shatters. Not betting on it but I can least envision a realistic path to that outcome now.
dexwood
I take Maggie Sue Dog for an hour walk at my neighborhood park every morning. We often encounter Ruth, a 24 year old medical student, and her fantastic dog Ryder. This morning, while talking to Ruth as the dogs played, my wife texted with the news that Walz was the pick. I told Ruth who was delighted to hear the news, very excited and very much informed about all the VP candidates. I was very happy to see someone nearly 50 years my junior so well-informed, so ready to become involved and vote. The Harris choice and Ruth’s reaction set the tone for my day.
Suzanne
@Kay: FWIW, one of my lifelong besties, who is a Mexican gay dude who did not go to college and is also a total politics junkie, is currently on social media absolutely melting down with joy about Walz. (He was utterly bored by Tim Kaine, as was I.)
Kaine feels like a politician. Walz feels like a real person.
M31
just donated, and made sure to do it from the Walz announcement tweet page so they’d know why
though any contribution this morning is for Walz lol
mostly I’m just glad the veepstakes is over and we can get back to laughing and pointing at the bad weirdos who hate America
Baud
Yeah, I’m glad we’ll finally have an older white guy in office that we can look up to. :-\
columbusqueen
@VeniceRiley: In my case, I didn’t lose my dad & grandpa to right wing garbage, so Walz is them. No wonder I dig him so much.
WereBear
@KatKapCC: He talked about how the right wing harshened the culture by promoting bullying behavior. And the rest of us have been wading through the mud.
I’m hoping more people are tired of all the screaming and induced fear.
HumboldtBlue
@Baud:
Duh, Walz wears pants.
piratedan
now that the silly season is over, I should be able to post again.
Just another jackal in support of the Harris/Hallmark Movie Dad ticket!
anecdotally, Vance strikes me as a prototype for every “bad” male protagonist ever in these Hallmark movies.
Leto
@WereBear: 100% this.
MSNBC is, like everyone else, stationed outside the Walz residence, interviewing a guy. He’s a cyclist, and there’s a lot of cyclists passing behind them. I really like that image.
Old School
@Al Rennick: Don’t worry. I’m sure plenty of Republicans will also describe Harris-Walz as the leftiest lefties who ever lefted too.
Elizabelle
@Suzanne: You would not think that about Tim Kaine if you ever knew him in real life.
Leto
@Baud: representation matters!
Kay
@WereBear:
People are just desperate to be optimistic again. I don’t think our national character or temperament is grim and dark and mean spirited – the Trump world view. In addition to joy I think Harris has a warmness that people will respond to. I don’t think it can be faked and she has it.
PST
I grew up with and still know people who harbor seething resentment toward those who went to elite colleges and advanced to prestigious and lucrative careers. This resentment does not usually extend to the billionaire class, but more to those with life arcs like Harris’s and Shapiro’s, that pair of former AGs. Ticket balancing may require consideration of factors other than region, ethnicity, or ideological positioning. Walz, with his farm to enlistment to teacher-coach to Congress experience, genuinely represents a path to high office that is rare today. My intuition, and it’s no more than that, is that he may get through to a population we Democrats have lost or are losing for whom Shapiro is just another suit. I think Shapiro is great and would be happy with him too, but my old, midwestern, white-guy sense is that there are millions out there that Walz has a unique chance of reaching.
SatanicPanic
nice he seems good
West of the Rockies
And in 2028 our campaign slogan can be, “Let’s do the Kam-Waltz again! (It’s just a jump to the left..)”
Suzanne
@Elizabelle: I’m sure that’s true. But perception matters.
DougL
@VeniceRiley: My father just passed last month at 86. He was always conservative but became hateful towards everything (but his liberal sons whose views he abhorred but not enough to overcome his deep love, thankfully). So instead of being even closer in the past 25 years since my mom died, there was always a wall built by right wing propoganda of political and cultural hate that really limited that. Your comment nailed that feeling.
Elizabelle
@WereBear: Bullying and greed and selfishness.
Matt McIrvin
@Al Rennick: My objection to Bernie Sanders was never his ideology, which was fine, it was his addiction to choices that had the effect of pissing on Democrats during election campaigns. Does that sound familiar?
columbusqueen
@Al Rennick: Guess what? It’s not about the policies, it’s about the person. If you can’t see that, I feel sorry for you.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Yeah. I’m sad for Joe. He didn’t deserve to be treated this way.
Belafon
@Baud: Hopefully he’ll lock up the looks older than they are group without scaring off the rest of them.
zhena gogolia
I need a Harris-Walz lawn sign to counter Jesus Christ humping an American flag on my neighbor’s flagpole.
Elizabelle
@PST: Exactly. And maybe Walz will inspire young people to go into public service and seek office.
Chief Oshkosh
Just donated $119 to the brand new Harris-Walz campaign!!! :)
different-church-lady
Is that some kind of tacit admission that “attention grabbing” has finally gone too far?
Kay
@Leto:
Rediscovering I love riding a bike has been such a revelation for me. I have no idea why it took so long – I just loved my bike as a kid and spent all summer on it. It’s the most enjoyable exercise ever. My husband is amused – he’s been telling me this for 30 years. He finally bought me a bike 2 years ago and I got on it rather than “waste” the money he spent and I have been on it as much as I can ever since.
KatKapCC
@Al Rennick: Cry more.
Jay C
@Elizabelle:
maybe, but “real life” unfortunately often has little to do with political issues (like campaigns).
Though I think Tim Walz may be an exception
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Agreed. But Al isn’t posting in good faith. The merits mean nothing to him.
Suzanne
LMAO just saw that Tim Walz is younger than Brad Pitt.
Jackie
Found Walz’s carved butter school bus! Even better; he carved it at the state fair! And won a participation ribbon 😂
https://x.com/GovTimWalz/status/1167241546275729408
KatKapCC
@WereBear: Ah ok. I think your metaphors were going a bit over my head. It’s early here :P
DougL
@artem1s: your comment about losing your father to rw propaganda said it better than mine, so I wanted to recognize that!
PatD
@Al Rennick: Kyle’s wrong and so are you. Walz had the benefit of a legislature that pushed family friendly priorities and he got behind them. That doesn’t make one a leftist or socialist.
Leto
@zhena gogolia: my neighbor promised to grab some for us when they became available. We were walking past his house the other day, he was sitting outside and asked if we wanted yard signs. I said sure, he said ok, and that’s that. He was waiting for today, so hopefully they’ll be available soon.
Kayla Rudbek
@VeniceRiley: yes, exactly on the nose!
Maxim
@Baud: Me too. That’s an amazing data point.
MattF
@Jackie: Ha. It’s… not a complex carving.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
We’re liberals because we realize society is unfair and we committ to fighting injustice. And often lose individual battles. The best thing we can do now for Joe is get his Veep into the top spot.
Dan B
I loved the way Walz is as good at debunking right wingers as Pete but with great economy of words. I also feel he’ll match fierce devotion to doing what’s right and clear joy that are Harris’ great strengths. Add in the fact he’s head of the Democratii Governors Association. If we gats can’t have Pete (more experience plus more family time please) then having the football coach / military / hunter agree to head the Gay Straight Alliance in 1999 – abd he’s done more for the rest of the LBTQ+ community feels great!
Leto
@Jackie: well, he just secured the coveted Betty Cracker Butter Lamb constituency.
Kent
Out here on the west coast I’m always behind on these threads.
I was just listening to NPR (yes, I know…) and the worst “on the other hand” criticism of Walz they could muster was that “he could be criticized for not doing enough to stop the rioting after George Floyd”
That’s it. That’s all the media can turn up? Pretty weak gruel.
They did emphasize his National Guard career which I think is an understated part of his appeal. Flashy shit like being a fighter pilot and officer is impressive to non-military types. Walz is the senior noncom who can walk into a fucked up situation and get it sorted. People who have actually been in or around the military know the type. They keep the whole thing running.
TBone
This might be TMI but hubby’s IRL name is a close match phonetically. Same name, different spelling!
Kofuu
Their daughter’s name (Hope) has a special meaning…
“Walz’s experience with IVF has greatly impacted the policies he’s passionate about as governor. ‘Gwen and I have two beautiful children because of reproductive health care like IVF. This issue is deeply personal to our family and so many others,’ he wrote in February in reaction to the Alabama ruling which declared that frozen embryos are children, jeopardizing the future of IVF in the state.”
https://people.com/all-about-tim-walz-kids-8690258
Almost Retired
@Leto: And that cyclist guy was smart and well-spoken. Usually these street voter interviews are my clue to go refill my coffee, but that was a good spot.
By contrast, if I have to hear Steve Kornacki explain that Walz didn’t outperform Biden in any Minnesota counties in 2020 one more time, I’m going to slop paint on his khakis. It’s going to be a long 90 days.
zhena gogolia
@Jackie: I LOVE THE WAY HE TALKS
rikyrah
I wish I could find the clip of Governor Santa Claus on CNN with that clown Tapper.
Tapper rattled off everything that Walz had accomplished for the people in Minnesota, and then pursed his lips to say
” How will you defend that against Republicans?”
Governor Santa Claus thinks that people didn’t catch his side eye towards Tapper…but, I did…
And, then, he did a ” Muthaphucka, please” in his response..but, did it in Minnesota Nice…
That’s when Governor Santa Claus captured my political heart, and he shot up the VP list for me..LOL
Belafon
@Al Rennick: Guess who else is to the left of Sanders based on voting record: Kamala Harris.
His act during the 2016 election, where he pulled so many stunts to try to win after Clinton had received enough delegates that he lost control of his supporters at the convention, was one strike. His ability to see everything only through a lens of economic inequality was another. And lets consider the fact that Pete, Warren, and other Democrats dropped out of the race in 2020 to keep him from winning to be a sign of what his coworkers felt like having him be the nominee would have cost everyone.
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah: That was a great clip.
rikyrah
Adam
@AdamJSmithGA
SNL get Steve Martin on the phone NOW
https://x.com/AdamJSmithGA/status/1820825241272365425
PST
@Kay:
Yeah, Kay! I’ll bet there are plenty of us here who made the same discovery at some point in their adult lives. It might make for a good thread on a slow day sometime (if a slow day ever comes again).
Jess
@VeniceRiley: That is a very profound insight. I haven’t lost anyone I deeply cared for to the cult, but I still feel a lot of sorrow for all the damage that’s been done by Fox et al to people’s psyches and the social fabric.
Leto
@Almost Retired: agreed about Khaki-Kornacki.
Did you see the cycle beside the reporter? One of those recumbents with an aero shell around it? Very cool! I think the part of the interview I liked was when the guy said (paraphrasing here), “He’s the type of guy who will help you fix something around the house”. That’s such a damn down to earth description, but also so on point: he knows how to fix stuff. He’s the reliable/knowledge person you call. Simple, but powerful.
Leto
@rikyrah: OMG… perfection; hope SNL makes that happen.
rikyrah
Pete Dominick
@PeteDominick
WalzBitz: Walz and his wife Gwen’s children were conceived through IVF/ fertility treatments, he doesn’t drink alcohol or coffee, he taught English in China in 1989 and can still converse in Mandarin, his father died of lung cancer when Walz was 19 -his mom is alive to see today!
8:16 AM · Aug 6, 2024
https://x.com/PeteDominick/status/1820811255038332972
HumboldtBlue
@Kent:
MSNBC just interviewed the couchfucker and his response was just a mishmash of absurd lies and ridiculous right-wing-fever-swamp bullshit that just doesn’t play well outside of their toxic bubble. He was rambling about Walz sending jobs to China and forcing Minnesotans to eat Chinese food or some shit, just utter nonsense because in the end, those hateful fuckers don’t have a fucking thing to grab onto.
Another Scott
My MIL was from New Prague, MN. Her parents owned a hotel/bar there during Prohibition. They always knew when the Revenuers were coming, because people stood up for and took care of each other there. They still do.
She was a very kind, patient, and loving mother (she had twins when she was 42!).
I’m sure she’s looking down and smiling today.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
TBone
@zhena gogolia: cardboard and Magic Markers!
HumboldtBlue
@rikyrah:
Ohhhhhmyyyyy… that’s PERFECT!
OK, off to jury, don’t trash the place while I’m gone.
zhena gogolia
@HumboldtBlue: Forcing them to eat Chinese food! And taco trucks on every corner!
Geminid
@Kay: Don’t forget to wear a bright colored top when you ride. I see a lot of bikers on my commutes and they are very responsible and safety-conscious except: some wear dark tops and they blend right into tree shadows on an otherwise sunny road.
rikyrah
Kaila Hale-Stern
@kailahalestern
let’s also talk about tim walz’s wife, gwen walz—and what it would mean to have a second lady passionately dedicated to expanding educational opportunities for incarcerated people
https://x.com/kailahalestern/status/1820626506827063630
Bill Arnold
@Al Rennick:
You are a troll. That is not a compliment.
West of the Rockies
@Al Rennick:
So why you here, bro? Door’s to the left. Feel free to use it.
artem1s
@rikyrah:
OMG he’s Captain America. We need a picture of him and Chris Evans punching Nazis together.
catclub
My understanding was Walz was elected Gov in 2018 and re-elected in 2022. So not on the ballot in 2020.
Seems a like a stretched comparison.
RaflW
@mistermix: “This is a winning pick and it’s a pick that’s going to make the Republicans shit themselves.”
Saw what I think was the T-V campaign’s first email about Walz after the pick ‘leaked’. It was a short list of all the utterly predictable, too-online buzzwords.
What that tells me is that campaign did nothing to prepare for the different options. They haven’t even opened whatever oppo folder they should have been supplied with (but who knows if they even bothered?!).
Walz is not known widely. Two relatives who are well educated, read newspapers, etc texted this morning, knowing I’m Minnesotan to ask about him. So the other team being flat-footed when now is the moment when each side will define the candidate is a huge meoment.
I fully expect the Trumpers to keep blowing it. They can’t get out of their bubble for a second.
Leto
@Kay: Bicycle riding is one of the last things from my former life I can still do, and greatly enjoy. Avalune was so mad that even after my accident, I’m still such a strong rider. She thought she was finally gonna have the upper hand, but then just cursed me so much.
I’m probably not going to be able to get back on the bike till next year due to my recent surgery, but I’m already jonesing for it.
M31
@rikyrah:
that was the clip that sealed it for me
the good-dad energy, MN homespun is gravy, but the ability to attack-dog defend his liberal legacy with joy is what I really want
and Tapper “pursed his lips” is so apt, you could tell he was so gleeful to try that approach, fucking tool
raven
Hello Walz
Kay
@PST:
I think it might have been spending time in Copenhagen. Many, many older women on bikes. There’s social pressure to ride too – the place is set up to advantage bike riders. We go again in August and the first thing I’ll do is rent a bike. Danes have this foul weather riding gear that interests me too. It’s a rain suit but with a hood and back neck that is a continuous slope and sluices water off. My son and daughter in law have a set. I started wearing glasses again though rather than contacts (which I wore for 40 years) so I may have to go back to contacts – my glasses fog up.
rikyrah
@ArchTeryx:
When I tell you that I was too.
I saw the 20th century being taken away.
But, now, we have a fighting chance to keep democracy.
Kent
Chinese food? What’s not to like.
Now if they make us all eat hot dish with cream of mushroom soup and tater tots. I dunno.
KatKapCC
OMG this is too cute.
Also, one trending topic is “He’s 60” which I assume is a bunch of exasperated people explaining to dingdongs that Walz is NOT actually 87 or whatever.
But another one is “Tampon Tim” because the wingnuts are mad that Walz apparently signed a bill to make period products available in all school bathrooms, not just girls’. Like…if this is their best attack, that is pathetic. “Oh no, he put a tampon near my son, now his penis is going to fall off!!!!”
rikyrah
Walz is the first Democratic VP pick since 1964 who didn’t go to law school.
CLAP CLAP CLAP
raven
@artem1s: My old man was always a “DuPage County Republican” but when they took the Super Bowl away from Phoenix he went around the bend.
Soprano2
@Peggy: My WalMart offers that. I thought it was a corporate thing, I’m glad to know ours has a decent manager.
columbusqueen
@Jackie: Wow. Butter carving, the most Midwestern thing ever. I love this guy.
Kelly
Mom’s last vote, Oregon’s May primary, was all Democrats as it had been for as long as I know. She maintained polite, skeptical relationships with all our MAGA relatives and neighbors. I tend to avoid the assholes. By the way her mail in ballot was rejected by the signature match process. She was very weak and it wandered. She had me fill in the boxes on the scannable ballot to keep the marks inside the lines. I’m sure she’d like Harrison/Walz.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Belafon: My donation dollars are getting stretched a little thin, but that’s why I have recurring donations to the DNC, DSCC and DCCC. I wish I could donate more to individual candidates that will help us turn the House and Senate blue, my inbox is overflowing with requests from good candidates, but I’m doing what I can.
Leto
@Geminid: wearing bright colors also helps reflect sun, and reduce your internal core temp. I was watching the women’s road race, and the racer from Malaysia… the poor woman was racing in a head covering, and was covered from the wrist/ankles up. In black. I respect her cultural/religious choice, but ffs at least make it white. She was with the peloton (main group), but was dropping off the back. I can’t imagine how hot she was. Ugh.
hueyplong
@mali muso: So you are saying Walz gives old white guys permission not to be assholes?
Sounds good.
RaflW
MSP plane spotters say Walz took off at 10:46 from our airport. So I guess the Harris campaign had the finalists sleep (or not sleep much?) at their homes last night.
I’m so stoked. Just bubbling with energy!
Jess
@Al Rennick: I don’t think anyone here thought Sanders was too much of a lefty. The common criticism was that he had no viable plan to enact his lofty goals, and seemed myopic and stubborn about anything outside his focus on the White working class. He was not a coalition builder, and came across as a bit of a jerk.
Kay
@Leto:
Our Ohio residence and town is downright hostile to bikes, which my husband has always complained about. True. They’re mad that you’re using their road. He wears a safety vest and uses lights day or night. He says if one of the giant truck assholes hit him and kill him I must sue :)
lowtechcyclist
@UncleEbeneezer:
Certainly we need a fair number of lawyers in any legislature. But AFAICT, the vast majority of Congresspersons are lawyers, and that’s a fairly narrow band of life experience for people to come from who are to represent the public as a whole. So it’s more about the desire for a wider set of backgrounds in those who represent us. People aren’t going to pass legislation to remedy things they can’t even see.
Sister Golden Bear
FYI, regarding the social media strategies post downstairs…. remember kids, repost your friends; screenshot your enemies’ posts and then
snarkpost about them.Seriously, screenshotting then posting denies our enemies the engagement numbers that boost them in the algorithm. You can also annotate your screenshot (e.g. with a red “cross out” line) to flag any lies you don’t want accidentally repeated.)
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@rikyrah: I like it but you might have to find a role for Martin Short too. There’s this weird joined at the hip thing going on, I don’t think I’ve seen them appear separately in at least a couple of years.
Kent
He attracted and elevated all the wrong people. The Sandernistas were some of the most intolerable folks I have ever encountered in 45 years of participating in politics.
Old School
@rikyrah:
The interview is here. That portion starts at the 6:30 mark.
SatanicPanic
@BR: same. Something big is happening and I want to be part of it
brantl
@oldster: Walz out to offer Donnie Doll-Hands some sunscreen for his bald spot, to ward off cancer; Donny’d blow a gasket.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@Dave: Baud!2024! isn’t toast yet. I understand the National Radical Meadow Party of Bloom County may still be looking for candidates. They are, after all, the only political party to consistently field candidates who don’t wear pants.
Jackie
@Kent: Don’t forget the green jello salad with grated carrots and chopped celery!
My MiL was a Minnesotan…
jimmiraybob
“Embracing policies to allow convicted felons to vote, Walz is obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda far and wide.” – a certain convicted felon scheduled to be sentenced in September
You’d think he’d be thrilled.
VeniceRiley
Thanks everybody. I feel like we should hit the “fox orphans” population hard with this message. In my case, I lost my mother. Despite the fact that she relied on her Dem children and not her R children for decades until her 3 digit death. They got her through the telly and the radio. I’ll never forget and never forgive.
Let’s push it!
KatKapCC
He also changed his bio to read “Running to win this thing with @KamalaHarris”
Leto
@Kay: Most of Northern Europe has some type of rain/snow suit because they’re 365 riders. When I did my motorcycle recert training in the UK, 2015, it was raining pretty steadily that day. Our instructors were two German guys. When I brought up that it was raining, and were we still going to do the class, they just laughed. “We ride all the time, no matter the weather. We wear the appropriate gear, and ride safely.” And we went out and did the course. I’m glad that I got the additional training on how to ride in wet weather, but I was still 100% a fair weather rider!
But for cycling, they have tons of infrastructure set up and it’s really easy to do it. I’m still really jelly regarding it.
Ishiyama
@West of the Rockies: Another winner of the internet!
Kent
Teacher here. There is an ENORMOUS difference between lawyer talk and teacher talk. Walz does teacher talk. Simple and direct with both seriousness and humor. Lawyer talk is why the app you install has 167 pages of unreadable fine print “disclosures” that you must click on and agree to AFTER you have already bought the damn thing.
Walz is the first candidate since Lyndon Johnson who worked as a teacher. And no, sorry Barack, teaching constitutional law at University of Chicago doesn’t count.
Manyakitty
@Sister Golden Bear: I love this idea.
Baud
@Kent:
You realize Kam is a lawyer.
hueyplong
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Make up Short like a racoon and let him be Vance.
Dave
@hueyplong: Permission and may even remind a few of them life is better for everyone of you choose not to be a raging asshole.
Miserable or delighted holding a piglet riding the slingshot with your daughter. I know what I’d prefer but there a lot of people addicted to rage.
karen marie
@Leto: Someone should do a “Walz is your new bicyle” like the one made for Obama. I love thatcsite still.
I am delighted with the pick!
Kent
Which is why Walz provides balance to the ticket in a way that fellow AG Shapiro would not have.
KatKapCC
@Kent:
First, it’s Barack. Second, why not? Only certain kinds of teachers count as teachers?
rikyrah
Michael Del Moro
@MikeDelMoro
Walz was a football coach, but also the faculty advisor for a gay-straight alliance in **rural Minnesota in the 1990s** 🥹🥹
https://x.com/MikeDelMoro/status/1820812533839650878
p.a.
Before I can support him I need to know his opinion re: Replacements, or Hüsker Dü.
Dave
@Baud: Don’t think this is anti-lawyer but pro more voices than lawyers; which she should receive credit for embracing.
Baud
@Kent:
Balance is good. Complaining about how lawyers talk is bad.
PaulWartenberg
As a suburban white trash punk from the 80s, lemme just say
BALLZ TO THE WALZ
What? It’s perfectly good slang for “Pedal to the Metal”.
Kay
If the Sanders people think Walz is to the Left of Sanders and that makes them happy, maybe don’t crow about that to own the libs because that’s dumb politically. They’re bad at politics on the Left. Let Democrats figure out the politics. The most successful center Left Party in the world can handle this roll out. Bernie can do something else. He’s the fucking kiss of death politically.
KatKapCC
Speaking of Barack Obama, love this bit of shade from his FB post:
Baud
@Dave:
This is anti lawyer.
That has nothing to do with diversity or balance.
Kent
@KatKapCC: I doubt most people think of law professors as teachers. Including law professors themselves. Go to any law school and ask the law professors what they do for a living and count how many say they are “teachers”
Jess
@Kent: Well, I was trying to be Minnesota Nice about it…almost made it to the end.
Baud
@Kay:
We’re not talking about “Sanders people.” We’re talking about a single specific troll that is here to insult us.
rikyrah
Also going to say this.
The Democrats only have a 1 seat majority in the State Senate in Minnesota.
And Walz has governed like it was a 10 seat majority.
CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP
Baud
@rikyrah:
Life is good when there is no filibuster.
JAFD
@WereBear: (off topyc, please excuse) Am old man with fading hearing, hard to follow conversations in places with background noise, wondering if the ‘Wave Ear Plugs’ you mention would be helpful, and if so, the URL of website of the maker or seller.
Thanks very very much!
KatKapCC
@Kent: Okay, but that’s probably more of a bit of pretentiousness regarding the difference between the title of “teacher” and “professor”. Doesn’t change the fact that technically, a professor IS a teacher. From dictionary.com, the first three definitions:
There is no reason to denigrate the educating work that law professors do just because you’ve decided it’s meaningless.
Leto
@Kay: as someone who has personal experience with that, hope it never happens.
sdhays
@UncleEbeneezer: No real animosity from me, but variety of experience and perspective is good. Having law school as a prerequisite for high office has its own distortions.
Geoduck
Chris Cillizza, Mark Penn and Nate Silver all said it HAD to be Shapiro. What better recommendation did we need? Go Walz!
Citizen Alan
@Al Rennick: Speaking for myself, I never hated Bernie Sanders for his political positions, most of which I agreed with. I hated him (and still hate him) for being a sanctimonious, self-righteous, bloviating hypocrite who has likely ensured that everything he claims to want for Americans has been put out of reach for generations because he was unable to persuade his own most devoted followers to stop trashing the Democrat who beat him fair and square.
Kay
@Baud:
I’m not though. I’m talking about Sanders people. They’re bad at politics. Joe Biden was godammned FDR and they spent 4 years pouting RIGHT UNTIL Biden became untenable and then with their incredibly bad and worthless timing they supported him. A day late and a dollar short, as usual.
Just let Democrats handle the politics of Walz. The Left in this country are their own worst enemy.
oldster
@Geminid:
Bright-colored neon jerseys, yes, plus blinking lights on front and rear of bike. Be as visible as you can, esp. to the rear. It helps the drivers give you more room.
KatKapCC
@Geoduck: When I saw Penn’s op-ed, I wondered if Shapiro saw it and cringed, thinking “Welp, no way it’ll be me now.”
Kent
There is no filibuster in the US Constitution either. It is just something Senators made up and then mostly popularized to support segregation.
Mel
@KatKapCC: Teaching law courses at a university, versus teaching teenagers in a public school? Oh, yes, there is a world of difference. K-12 teachers need to have skill sets that many professors, esp. those who are only teaching a select course here or there at the graduate level, can’t begin to imagine.
No disrespect to profs is intended, but I come from a family of educators, and have taught at the elementary, middle school, high school, and college levels and can assure you – there is a difference.
My hubby is an attorney and an educator, and he feels the same way about the difference in challenges encountered in academic settings.
UncleEbeneezer
@Kent: Obama, Biden and Harris all sound more like teachers than lawyers to my ears.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@HumboldtBlue: Chinese food? That must be this cycle’s version of a taco truck on every corner.
I’m still bitter that didn’t happen.
RaflW
Y’all.
You have GOT to watch this clip from Walz’s last campaign — its only 40 seconds, but sooooo perfect. Truly. As one person said after seeing it, “We’ve had fathers as VPs before, but we’re hopefully gonna get the first DAD.”
(Also, giving away a little bit, but soo good: “My goodness, he actually did ‘I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed’ to Ford in the video!”)
KatKapCC
@KatKapCC: Just went back to his Twitter page to send that tweet link to someone else, and I noticed he’s gained about 10,000 new followers in about 15 minutes :) I wonder what his follower count was yesterday…
Trivia Man
@KatKapCC: The only 2 i have seen do far that seem at all likely – George Floyd protests and Change vid lockdowns/ Vax requirements/ relief fraud.
And every line if attack has both a clean (and true!) rebuttal PLUS a powerful counter punch.
Baud
@Kent:
Agreed. The next Dem Senate should dump it.
KatKapCC
@Mel: Of course there is a difference. No one would deny that. But that difference does not mean that college professors are not teachers.
SatanicPanic
@PaulWartenberg: I love all the puns that are now possible
Build the Walz!
Baud
@KatKapCC:
“Stop helping!”
brantl
@BC in Illinois: We’ll have to try hard not to hold Manchin against him, but I guess it shows he’s more open-minded than I am.
Dave
@Kent: Even if you do there is pretty much a qualitative difference the day to day job of public school teacher and law professor.
Not to denigrate being a law professor (seriously this isn’t meant to be a backhanded compliment) but in the sense of connection to the day to day lived experiences of most of the population it doesn’t give the same bang for the buck.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@RaflW: Could we get 30-60 minutes of dad jokes at the convention? A person can dream.
KatKapCC
Phillips sucks, but this is good:
Kent
I’m not denigrating law professors. I’m saying what they do is not remotely the same job as someone who teaches as a public high school.
Kay
@Baud:
I did the Progressives for Harris call last night. Warren was quite good, the Working families Party guy was great, and Bernie was fine, but a drag as usual. They’re not good at this.
Somehow the working families guy got thru their selection process – he’s probably too appealing and welcoming – they’ll chase him out.
Nina Turner. Enough said.
Baud
@Kay:
Nina Turner was on a Progressives for Harris call?
Omnes Omnibus
@Al Rennick: It’s the singer, not the song. Troll.
brantl
@Baud: Not very much, does he keep coming back; I faintly remember his name, and haven’t seen it in years, have you?
And of course, he pierced me to the heart with that wicked criticism. /s
Dave
@Kent: Think the nature of being online primes people to read things like your comment and similar ones I’ve made as de-facto criticism; it’s an order of magnitude worse on most social media sites than sites like balloon juice but it still exists here as well.
p.a.
I’m just worried B Kristol will like the pick!
Kay
@Baud:
No but she’s who they pick as a spokesperson. If they want to destroy Walz they should help him. Dear God, no.
Baud
@brantl:
He’s been posting more since the whole Biden debate brouhaha began.
brantl
@columbusqueen: In drag, Walz could have been my mom, other than the genitalia and the looks, of course.
Omnes Omnibus
@rikyrah: Hey!
WereBear
A sign the gentler hormones are not being called upon. You can’t do everything with cortisol.
Omnes Omnibus
@p.a.: Valid question. ‘Mats is the correct answer.
WereBear
@p.a.: Is yodeling part of the vetting competition?
KatKapCC
@Kent: Okay, fine. I cry uncle.
rikyrah
Wu Tang is for the Children
@WUTangKids
The time Tim Walz signed a bill to rename a Minnesota highway “Prince Rogers Nelson Memorial Highway” in purple ink outside Paisley Park![]()
https://x.com/WUTangKids/status/1820848649863119155
Baud
@Kay:
I read that as “in drag as usual,” and thought, where was this guy in 2016?
rikyrah
Jennifer Bendery
@jbendery
The Trump campaign is attacking Tim Walz for restoring voting rights to convicted felons. Who… wants to tell them.
https://x.com/jbendery/status/1820847484580565336
hueyplong
@Baud: Appreciate the “legal” defense and, yes, he’s a little off base.
But, as a lawyer myself, gotta say the example he complains about is in fact very bad. It’s how your purchases end up putting you into mandatory arbitration with a corporate-friendly arbitrator and no ability to bring a class action (whether in court or in arbitration) in cases in which no justice can be obtained except via the class vehicle — the individual claims are too small and the costs/odds so daunting.
I blame the right wing judiciary for allowing shit like that to be upheld. Lawyers fight lawyers; it’s up to the judiciary to pick a winner based on justice and not bribes.
Right, Clarence?
Rant over. Go Harris. Go Walz.
brantl
@KatKapCC: 100+
WereBear
@JAFD: Here you go:
Wrong name: They are Calms, from Flare. (Wave is another kind I haven’t used.)
https://www.flareaudio.com/en-us/products/calmer
I’ve used them outside with traffic, inside with all hard surfaces, and while watching TV with people who turn it up louder than I do.
I love the kind with the built in lanyard. If they fall out, I won’t lose them.
Mel
@KatKapCC: I agree.
However, what Kent was referring to is that there is a vast difference between committing your life to working and being deeply involved with the well-being of kids, parents, and the community (while dealing with the low pay, 60 hour work week, lack of necessary basic supplies and support, risk to life and limb, constant worry about and fighting for not just the students’ academic health, but their mental well-being and safety and that of their families) and teaching a few courses, as an adjunct, to a highly prepared, motivated, “want to be there and have to do well in the course” group of graduate students.
Like I said, this is not to ding professors and adjuncts. I have taught at that level, and cared very much, as did most of my colleagues, about my students and their success. But it is undeniably different.
wjca
Over at Obsidian Wings, Hartmut lays it out:
Seems like he nailed it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kent: Lawyers adjust the way they communicate based on the audience and intended result. So do teachers.
Jay C
@RaflW:
Yeah, I saw that, too. It was good for them that “SHAPIRO” and “TIM WALZ” take up about the same typological space; they could just ‘shop in the name in the header.
Good thing for them Kamala didn’t pick John Hickenlooper…
louc
If there’s more reason to love Tim Walz, read this story in the NY Times from 2008 about a genocide class he taught in Nebraska. (article gifted)
Kay
Rich Lowry
@RichLowry
3h
Tim Walz is a MSNBC anchor’s idea of a folksy politician who can appeal to Middle America
As compared to the NYTimes political team, who have their finger on the pulse of the nation.
Get ready – here comes the NYTimes full court press for Trump. Complete garbage work. It’s a huge incentive to win, really. Think how mopey the overpaid assholes will be.
Baud
@hueyplong:
I agree with you about arbitration. Dems have proposed legislation to fix a lot of the problems, but as always, the filibuster stands in the way.
brantl
@Jackie: Ah, Jeeze …… , now it’s going to be “Butter schoolbus…..!”
Dorothy A. Winsor
The worst I’ve seen about Walz is the DUI in 1996. He quit drinking after that. I think that’s manageable. After all, the R nominee has 34 felonies.
rikyrah
Beto O’Rourke
@BetoORourke
Met Tim Walz on my first day in Congress, sat next to him on Veterans Affairs committee for the following six years. No one fought harder for veterans. And he did it by bringing Democrats and Republicans together to get the job done.
As Governor of Minnesota he codified abortion rights, implemented background checks, legalized marijuana, passed paid family leave, restored voting rights and invested more than $1 billion in affordable housing. Not bad.
And before any of this, he was a high school teacher, football coach and a 24-year veteran of the army national guard.
He also happens to be a terrific dad and husband — there isn’t a conversation I’ve had with him where he doesn’t bring up his kids, always with the biggest smile on his face.
We became friends in Congress, going on early morning runs (in the dead of DC winter, I’m bundled in layers and he’s wearing a t-shirt and shorts), talking Minnesota music, the Replacements (Tim!), Prince, Dylan, Husker Du, and sharing stories about our families and hometowns. In a business that prioritizes transactional relationships, he’s always been good to me, reaching out when I’m up, reaching out when I’m down, just being a good friend.
And in a profession that encourages poll-testing and focus groups and political corporate speak, he’s always himself, the real deal. Common sense, kindness and empathy.
I couldn’t be more excited that he’s on the ticket, couldn’t be more energized to do everything I can to help Vice President Harris and Governor Walz win the most important election of our lives. Let’s go!
https://x.com/BetoORourke/status/1820840029964399060
Baud
@rikyrah:
Nice.
EarthWindFire
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Agreed. A lot of people know someone who got a DUI. I hate to say it, but it’s a lot more relatable than fraud as crimes go.
Dave
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Hell responded to correctly it could even be a modest net positive. Though it is very difficult to judge how these things play out. Helps that it’s not something that has been hidden from the public so kinda mitigates the coverup thing that sends a thrill up the media’s leg.
Barbara
@Kay: The self-proclaimed standard bearers of the left are bad at politics. Mostly because their main goal seems to be to distinguish themselves as better rather than to build coalitions and persuade others to their point of view. Hence the tendency to never get anything done.
Kay
I have three boys, now men, and this is very important to me:
Moira Donegan
@MoiraDonegan
1h
Tim Walz’ model of masculinity—one of wholesome, benevolent cheerfulness—offers a really stark contrast to the boorish domination of Trump and spine-chilling creepiness of Vance.
We need him for young men to see a good man. They cannot follow Donald Trump’s world view. It’s just poison. To THEM, too! It’s bad for them! Look at them on social media. They’re fucking miserable.
wjca
I suspect a combination of the common TV ads for “ambulance chasers” and “that scum who represented my ex during our divorce.”
Since most of us haven’t been involved in the criminal justice system (except maybe as jurors), that pretty well sums up our acquaintance with lawyers in action. Although the Supreme Court (and various other Trump picks in the news) haven’t helped.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
I concur with the aforementioned comment by said Omnibus.
bbleh
@stinger: It’s NOT tiny; it’s a salary! One phone call one staffer (plus)? Deal!
And those who donate do other things — they’re motivated. And calls like that get people motivated, the same way volunteering does. Being with other people who are active and supportive is exciting, and the excitement is infectious (in a good way).
Every dollar counts, just like every vote. Thanks for participating!
les
This pick is causing some strange, unfamiliar feeling I haven’t had about politics in some time-I think I’m happy? Yowza! Walz is just so perfectly ordinary-well educated, but no Ivies/Oxford vibe; military, but noncom, not a pilot or officer or astronaut; a public high school teacher/coach, ffs; long time politician who’s liberal not because ideology, but the liberal stuff is just obviously the right stuff to do; amazing straight forward communicator. And knows weird when he sees it and doesn’t mind saying so. Really think there wasn’t a better choice out there.
Kay
@Barbara:
“Owning the libs” as a reason to exist politically works no better on the Left than it does on the Right.
Bernie Sanders comes off as churlish. It’s not appealing to normies.
brantl
@Jess: My in-laws are MAGAts, and they’re some of the few people that I don’t see all of the bullying character-flaw details that I would expect, for them to be that way, but they watch FAUX Snooze religiously……
KatKapCC
Good grief. Newsweek has an article titled “Tim Walz criminal record explored” and literally the only thing is the DUI. And the article is a total mess, it basically repeats everything it says twice. Maybe a case of WUI. Ugh.
bbleh
@wjca: he did, and every one of those arguments says “preaching to the choir” to me, plus a generous dose of “surly asshole.” If that’s their tack — and it may well be, ‘cuz I don’t see much else (plus the DUI of course) — I can see them turning off far more normies than they convert.
EarthWindFire
Just got done telling my spouse that I almost feel sorry for JD Vance having to tell the true believers how awful it is for Gov Santa Claus to feed school children. Almost.
WereBear
@KatKapCC: And he took it as a wake up call and made even more of himself. What a terrible thing!
Kay
@KatKapCC:
I think it’s fair game. I also don’t think it will hurt him. But they should report it.
Baud
@KatKapCC:
“He’ll appeal to black voters.” #TrumpMindset
jimmiraybob
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
“After all, the R nominee has 34 felonies.”
So far.
KatKapCC
@Kay: Reporting it is fine. But headlining it “criminal record explored” was a deliberate choice to make him sound much worse, and they know most people just look at headlines and don’t read the article. A single DUI that happened almost 30 years ago. Using the phrase “criminal record” makes it sound like he was running drugs and robbing banks.
Leto
@Dorothy A. Winsor: @EarthWindFire: this is another way the military has changed. You used to be able recover from a mistake like this. Since, roughly, 2003 it’s been an automatic career death penalty. We can absolutely discuss how it’s a lack of leadership, lack of judgement, etc… but you were at least given a chance to recover.
Mel
@Elizabelle: It is so hard to watch them get sucked into the wingnut quagmire, and even harder to realize that nothing we can do or say can reach them. We’ve lost my father, mother-in-law, and several dear friends / neighbors as well.
Soprano2
@artem1s: This was kind of my mother. Her second husband turned her into a wingnut, and she got worse and worse as the years went on. We couldn’t talk about politics at all. I found some stuff about the Vdare web site in her stuff that gave me pause, I didn’t know she was that far into it.
danielx
@Dave:
I’ve always thought about that metaphor a little differently. More like sending a thrill down the collective media leg, kinda like a golden retriever puppy pissing itself (and anybody handy) in excitement. And yes, that’s from experience.
Mel
@rikyrah: The irony is delicious.
Geminid
@oldster: I always notice this in the summertime. My route to work takes me along some scenic roads in western Albemarle County. The roadway is around 75% bright and sunny, and 25% shady from trees lining the road. Bicyclists in dark clothing just disappear when they are in the shade and my eyes are adjusted to bright sunlight.. They’re usually in groups so I’ll see the ones with bright tops.
Mel
@rikyrah: I didn’t think it was possible to like him more, but now I do!
Frankensteinbeck
@WereBear:
Bullying culture was all-powerful everywhere it took root pre-internet. School bullying is wildly ubiquitous in writing, fictional and otherwise, of previous generations. The last generation our culture has increasingly worked to make it unacceptable, and that is definitely one of the things enraging conservatives.
Anyway
@Kay: back in the day one of my favorite websites was all about “regular” bicyclists in Copenhagen – people going about their day on bikes. This is similar but not the same one
http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/
Kay
@KatKapCC:
It’s technically a traffic offense in Ohio. But he shouldn’t say that :)
Political media are horrible. I’m sure he’s used to that.
Baud
@Frankensteinbeck:
I think so too.
BR
@BC in Illinois:
It is a bit crazy that in picking Walz, Harris lined up support from Manchin, Omar, Larry Hogan, and AOC at the same time.
Elizabelle
@Mel: I am so sorry. What do you think makes some people susceptible?
Dave
@Leto: Understand the reason behind it though how that played out when you were stressing and traumatizing people with multiple tours and then destroying them for screwing up wasn’t the best look (this radically understates the depth of feeling I have regarding a lot of what was going on between 0h 2002 and 2018) but mostly my issue is the same side eye I give any zero tolerance policy.
They are reductive and abrogate judgment while purporting to be fair. And unless the last five years have led to a major change it didn’t really succeed in changing the booze culture of the military.
What I found worked best for this is a place where people aren’t being run ragged and can actually do their jobs and have a life; that and a command that ruthlessly eliminated the BS details and time sinks as much as possible.
Al Rennick
Besides Kyle Kulinsky, the happiest people with the selection of Tim Walz as VP are Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian at the Young Turks, Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland at the Majority Report, Vaush https://www.youtube.com/@Vaush, Zac and Gavin at the Vanguard https://www.youtube.com/@TheVanguardPod David Doel at Rational National, Mike Figueredo at the Humanist Report and Krystal Ball at Breaking Points.
Given the euphoria felt by all of these far leftists, what additional evidence does anyone need to realize that Harris just blew a golden opportunity to attract more moderates and centrists by not choosing Mark Kelly?
Dave
@danielx: I like your framing better.
Kay
@Anyway:
Thanks. That’s fun. The first time I went the seemingly thousands of bikes at the train station was just amazing. In December. I kept sweeping the scene – so many.
Mel
@Kay: Are you in Ohio? If so, the Little Miami Scenic Trail is a great place to ride.
UncleEbeneezer
Omnes Omnibus
@Kay: First DUI is a misdemeanor in MN under current law. It would not surprise me if it was a minor misdemeanor equivalent in 1995. It was a different time.
rikyrah
Bloomberg Philanthropies (@BloombergDotOrg) posted at 5:19 AM on Tue, Aug 06, 2024:
We’re making a $600 million gift to the country’s 4 historically Black medical schools – which will help diversify the medical field, address racial health and wealth equity, & save lives. https://t.co/hg1ZFgRsV4
(https://x.com/BloombergDotOrg/status/1820766754244608047?t=R5g_8q_4l7wuqDvaqV3I1g&s=03)
Marvin Sapp InTheSkreets/Marvin Gaye InTheSheets (@groove_sdc) posted at 6:58 AM on Tue, Aug 06, 2024:
Watch Republicans try to sue them because there’s nothing they hate more than someone trying to help Black people especially when it comes to education.
(https://x.com/groove_sdc/status/1820791503293198628?t=dlk4YNf_GPUOD0uFYkfMFA&s=03)
brantl
@Jess:
Much like Al Rennick.
jonas
Bolshevism! Sheer Bolshevism!
UncleEbeneezer
@BR: It’s time to get in formation and they all know it. Which is great to see.
WereBear
@Frankensteinbeck: Yes, they were trying to take it back into Stephen King’s It.
Very aware.
Kay
@Anyway:
We went to Milan last year – I just loved it – but I was a little disappointed it’s not really bike friendly.
I love how dignified and reserved the Milanese are. I completely understand them thinking they’re better than tourists. They are :)
We went to the opera – those are people who know how to dress for an opera. I put a lot of thought into it and I think I looked acceptable.
Elliottg
@Al Rennick: he got things done and can do math.
Citizen Dave
@oldster: Kudos on both the no law school and bald man! The bald man vote is not insignificant. While the ever-rarer combover guys may go for the Orange and Yellow Asshole, the true men will go for the bald man.
Harris/Walz HQ: Would be happy to help fund a Larry David/Walz bald community ad!
wjca
If Manchin’s endorsement helps us take West Virginia,** what’s not to like?
** Yes, I know that, if West Virginia is in play we’re already in landslide territory. On the other hand, it can’t hurt to get more folks there comfortable with the idea that voting against a RWNJ does not mean embracing ultimate evil.
KatKapCC
@Al Rennick: I feel sorry for you. It must be hard going through life knowing no one likes you.
dm
@Kay: It looks like it’s working.
The ActBlue tracker has a “by the hour” tracker now. Makes me wonder what might have happened at 9AM Eastern this morning
https://observablehq.com/@rdmurphy/actblue-ticker-tracker
matt
@Al Rennick: Go fart somewhere else please.
Omnes Omnibus
@Leto: A DUI effectively ended an officer’s promotion prospects during my time. If you had a SSM or above, you might make it past your next promotion but that would be it.*
*With SSM, DSC, and MoH, you have a different promotion board. There aren’t that many people with those decorations though.
Citizen Dave
@BR: Someone needs to–or maybe they did to nail down this decision–a Venn Diagram of that for Kamala.
Fair Economist
@Kay: I got into biking for urbanist reasons about 10 years ago and I love it! I love the feeling of being *in* the outdoors, not just looking at it, and I love what feels like free exercise.
About to bike to the grocery store for tonight’s dinner, actually.
Uncle Cosmo
@BC in Illinois: Just FTR, kudos to Senator Mancina** for using the word normality, which was the perfectly acceptable and in fact overwhelmingly preferred term before one Warren Gamliel Harding, probably the stupidest person ever elected President prior to Trumplthinskin, repurposed the obscure mathematical term normalcy into a dimwitticism forevermore associated with his abbreviated term of office. (You could look it up.)
** “The name “Manchin” was derived from the Italian name “Mancina”. His father was of Italian descent, and his paternal grandparents emigrated to the United States from the town of San Giovanni in Fiore, in Calabria.” You could look this up too.
brantl
@Kent: I will bet that they say they are professors, which is their title, NEH?
Larch
The response to the 2020 protests against George Floyd’s murder is likely to come up at some point, if it hasn’t already. But here are the two things I remember about Walz from living through those days here in South Minneapolis:
1. There was a – it seemed at the time – significant delay in bringing in the National Guard when things got violent (how & why that happened, and whether that was the right move are separate topics). But I recall that the governor’s office was trying to get hold of Mayor Frye to get him to make the request for some time, and Frye was…somehow uncontactable/unaware he needed to be the one to make that request. (I was singularly unimpressed with Frye, and that hasn’t changed.)
2. In his public statements, Walz was very clear that their intelligence showed that by far most of the fires (and some of the looting that wasn’t simply opportunistic) were being set by non-protesters — mostly out-of-state agitators trying to ratchet up the violence & make the actual protesters look bad. Walz could have stayed quiet about that, or worse, blamed the protesters, but he was very clear that the protesters were not setting the fires.
I’m happy to have him on the ticket!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Leto: 1990, I was working as a contractor aboard a Navy ship that was slated to be deployed to the Persian Gulf. One young sailor who was kind of wild anyway, was determined to commit the misbehavior that would get him discharged before the deployment, including lots of drinking and driving. Kind of a Klinger thing.
So he was very disappointed when the CO called him in to say “Son, I believe everybody is salvageable…”
les
Ya know, maybe if you spent less time studying idiots, you wouldn’t sound like such an idiot.
M31
@Uncle Cosmo: was “Gamliel” really his middle name?
here I am pronouncing it in my Bugs Bunny voice lol
“sheesh what a Gamliel”
Dave
@Omnes Omnibus: Officers always were a little harsher about that stuff; though they liked to keep end of career stuff behind closed doors.
Used to be that you were looked at suspiciously if you were a senior NCO without an Article 15 somewhere. Though it’s not a bad thing that particular attitude has changed.
DUI is a different beast though.
Fair Economist
My pie filter just coughed up Eyeore under a cloud for Al Rennick and that is so perfect!
M31
I will say that the people protesting the Walz pick are only making me more sure that Harris did the right thing lol
H.E.Wolf
@PaulWartenberg:
To my ear, that slogan sounds a little un-inclusive when the top of the ticket is a woman.
I bet we can find some excellent, catchy, non-genitalia-related slogans instead!
JaySinWA
looking back at the last 4 posts and the exponential acceleration of comments, this post might top out at 900 comments or so. Maybe even a double T-Bogg.
billcoop4
Gov. Walz ended up entering a plea agreement to Reckless Driving on that DUI charge.
BC
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@HumboldtBlue:
So basically Sarah Palin Reichwing Word Salad v2.0?
Jackie
Hilarious! 😂
A PSA Walz made with his daughter explaining how to make old people stop using their phones while driving.
VeniceRiley
I think 30 year old DUI potential disqualification was permanently buried by George W. Bush, who, IIRC, killed somebody.
DougW
@Baud: That ’64 VP candidate was a Minnesotan.
wjca
What I particularly loved was the first one. Characterizing enlisted military as “suckers and losers” (which is just soooo Trump) could turn the generally conservative military away from the RWNJs like nothing else. But against that exemplary military record, what else does a draft dodger like TCFG have?
Baud
@VeniceRiley:
I thought it was Laura Bush that killed somebody.
Omnes Omnibus
That attitude was fairly common during my time. So was asking the LT to take a walk while the NCO talked to the troops about fixing some problem. I always presumed that it was to spare my delicate ears.
Trollhattan
@Al Rennick:
That’s your best shot, Komrade? You had one jerb, one, and you fucked it up.
Vodka o’clock!
Kayla Rudbek
@lowtechcyclist: yes, and most lawyers have very little skill with math or science. Most lawyers were liberal arts majors who were avoiding math and science, and it really shows in their work on internet regulation, dealing with the supplements industry, etc etc
KatKapCC
@M31: Same same same
Trollhattan
@Baud: Killing mitt das Auto. That’s our Laura Bush.
Makes for an ironic, tragic comparison with the Biden family.
Pretty sure Shrub had a DUI beef somewhere in his past.
Old School
Citizen Alan
@piratedan: I would not say protagonist. I think he looks like every asshole boyfriend that the female protagonist must dump before finding true love with the male protagonist.
brantl
@Baud:
Would’ve livened up his campaign.
hueyplong
@Trollhattan: Kind of feeling a rush of optimism seeing that trolls don’t seem to have a clue how best to use Cenk Uygur around here. Maybe “Al” will sing “Daisy” to us soon and, with any luck, run out of gas halfway through.
matt
@Citizen Alan: I don’t hate Sanders. I think after his presidential aspirations faded he became a good partner for Biden. His worst supporters are a grim bunch, but most of them have left over his decision to be a better team player.
M31
@KatKapCC: lol as soon as Nate Silver and a couple of other pundit-brains said it had to be Shapiro, I knew he had no chance, poor guy
I was 100% “whoever Harris picked” the whole way
but saw a lot of upside with Walz
Citizen Alan
@Omnes Omnibus: My Southern accent was always stronger when I was talking, to students and parents when I was a teacher, and when I was talking to clients as a lawyer. And in both instances, I would dumb down my vocabulary.
PatD
@Al Rennick: why would Mark Kelly make a difference to moderates and centrists who would prefer a Trump presidency after seeing the shitshow the first time around? Be serious.
Trollhattan
Does this mean we can now expect a cavalcade of NYT and WAPO Cletus safaris in Manhattan and Brentwood diners?
“Let’s find out what these fund managers really think about the Democrat ticket and their financial anxiety.”
tam1MI
If I have my birthdays correct, Harris/Walz will be the first All Generation Jones ticket in US History.
Kayla Rudbek
@Geminid:
@oldster:
safety yellow is the one true and proper color for bike jerseys, the flashing lights front and rear are great, and I will also wear a LED scrunchie at the top of my braided hair. I still need to get Mr. Rudbek to put the lights onto the wheels; my goal when cycling is to make the Rockefeller Christmas tree look dim by comparison.
karen gail
When I went to high school, back in the 60’s, my history/civics teacher was school football/basketball coach; he required a C+ from all players, some of those struggled with B’s so he dropped to C+. (Those who struggled were often also working on family farms and get as much sleep time as they needed in teens. Not to mention first class was 8am and some got on bus at 6:30am.)
So to me, teacher/coach just makes sense; though the player complained he would often quiz them on bus rides to other schools.
PatD
@matt: most of the Bernie support was about him being the only anti-Clinton option.
KatKapCC
@Trollhattan: Nah, they’ll still go to Iowa and Kansas so that we can hear from a bunch of old men why Walz doesn’t hold his gun correctly on turkey hunts and therefore they just can’t possibly support the ticket.
Trollhattan
@Al Rennick: It rubs the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again.
Omnes Omnibus
@Dave: The other thing about Walz is I can just hear him saying “For cripes sake, sir, why did you do that?! Okay, here’s what we need to do now and everything will be okay” to a young LT or CPT. Not that I had any experience with senior NCOs saving my ass…
rikyrah
NoChillMood![]()
(@ritaag) posted at 8:14 AM on Tue, Aug 06, 2024:
Why MSNBC is looking like they are hosting a funeral while announcing VP Harris picked Walz as running mate?
(https://x.com/ritaag/status/1820810579583320228?s=03)
sab
@Omnes Omnibus: Vanderbilt offered a joint law/divinity degree. How odd is that? I believe Gore was in that program.
Matt McIrvin
@Al Rennick: This is weak. You can stop bothering us now.
M31
just as Trump made the truly horrible GWBush seem less bad than he was
so go Vance and Palin
I will never again say that conservatives have bottomed out with finding grotesque freaks to try to have rule over us
rikyrah
The New York Times is the #VichyPress (@Needle_of_Arya) posted at 8:26 AM on Tue, Aug 06, 2024:
Walz’ promotion to Vice President disturbs no purple/red governorships and leaves the Senate intact.
(https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1820813661084287122?s=03)
KatKapCC
@Kayla Rudbek: A friend who is a cyclist had a shirt that said “Hey, I’m ridin’ here!” on the back in reflective yellow lettering.
Shana
Fun fact about Mankato: it’s the real town that Maud Hart Lovelace grew up in and based the Betsy-Tacy series on. You can visit “Betsy’s” house and “Tacy’s” house and see the bench at the top of the hill if you go there. It’s charming.
I’m pleased about Walz
Soprano2
I agree with this. I was just telling a co-worker that one reason I was for Walz is because he codes “normal” to pretty much everyone, and the normie voters use stuff like that to make up their minds. It’s where the “want to have a beer with” thing came from, and it’s not all wrong. Plus, I think most people are tired of the drama and chaos that surrounds TCFG.
KatKapCC
The gun he’s holding looks like it’s tall enough to ride all the rides at Disneyland. (Bonus doggie too!)
hueyplong
@rikyrah: Would have taken them fewer words to say
NO SENATORS
JUDGES
JUDGES
JUDGES
rikyrah
DCPetterson
@dcpetterson
Walz has spent 18 years in elected office. Harris has spent 20. They have a combined total of 38 years of government experience. How in the world are they gonna compete with a Trump/Vance ticket that has a combined 6 years of office-holding experience? Seriously!
9:26 AM · Aug 6, 2024
https://x.com/dcpetterson/status/1820828789246713897
KatKapCC
KatKapCC
Old School
hrprogressive
@Al Rennick:
I hate that I’m giving you oxygen, but the idea that any of those people are “far leftists” is ridiculous.
Self-described “real leftists” won’t vote for any of these people because they aren’t accelerationist enough/aren’t marxist/communist enough or whatever.
Are people like Cenk and Krystal gadflies? Yeah, sure. I don’t particularly care for them anymore, myself.
But if people like that are fired up about Walz and by extension Harris, then let’s get them on board.
I don’t want any “omg they weren’t progressive enough idk i guess i won’t vote lol Bernie 2028” type people sitting this election out.
All hands on deck to save the Republic.
Kelly would have likely been a great choice too, but Walz has a lot going for him. If you don’t like it, that’s fine, but you seem like a concern troll anyway, so.
Have a great day.
S Cerevisiae
@Al Rennick: oh fuck all the way off with that. Bernie’s left position was never the problem with him or his supporters, it was the whole damn “stolen primary “ bullshit.
TBone
Comics for Kamala has a new song!
https://x.com/ArtCandee/status/1820620586248188099
By Nick Offerman
Jackie
@rikyrah: Obviously, that person isn’t watching the MSNBC I’m watching! 🤷🏼♀️
Citizen Alan
@VeniceRiley: He did not. His wife did however.
brantl
@Al Rennick: So, how long have you had a waxed-paper rectum? Because everything that you say sounds like kazoo music.
dm
@KatKapCC: “….specialization is for insects” (Heinlein)
Kay
@Soprano2:
Rules Number One two and three of organizing is meet people where they are. If they don’t want to delve into policy details they don’t have to – they might be busy and have other interests, which is allowed.
My favorite door knock ever was this breezy woman in her thirties who said “oh, I just vote for the Democrat – they’re generally where I am”. That’s a perfectly fine proxy for a vote on policy, a political Party. She isn’t that interested. She doesn’t have to be.
M31
lol ActBlue reporting 2.5 million in the first hour after announcing Walz
fuck yeah we’re fired up
Soprano2
@HumboldtBlue: I’m telling you, being against China or tough on China is big on the right these days. Almost all of the Republicans running statewide for any office are talking about it in their ads. “Don’t let China buy our farmland” is their cry, even though a bunch of them voted to change the law back sometime in the 2010’s when Smithfield was bought out by a Chinese company. It was so Smithfield could buy land in MO for their pig operations.
TBone
Today’s Tiedrich, for those who celebrate!
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/breaking-kamala-harris-picks-tim
LFG!!!!
rikyrah
@Larch:
For me,it always counted that MINNESOTA Prosecuted the officers in Floyd’s murder..that the DOJ didn’t have to come in, for people to believe that justice would be served.
matt
@Al Rennick: you’re just complaining about people you don’t like liking the pick, you have shown zero evidence that moderates won’t like him. Please try to use logic correctly.
brantl
@VeniceRiley: His wife Laura killed someone by running a stop sign, not George W. . And she suffered NO consequences. And they acted very distressed when anybody brought it up, so the media never did.
Jackie
@M31: That’s AWESOME!
I’m so excited!
https://youtu.be/vnPsziXgy3k?si=C9ZjQ7I23YS8wrP7
TBone
@Shana: I mentioned that book series in Medium Cool the other evening, it was my first school library borrow. I was in love with those girls and wanted to be besties with them!
Thanks for sharing that 💜
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: this is res judicata. All due respect to the totally awesome Bob Mould.
glc
David Dayen comments.
West of the Rockies
@Elizabelle:
Dying thread, but your question should be a prime time post all its own.
Myriad answers as to why wingnuts become wingnuts. And well worth exploring.
M31
well well well, antisemitic flyers with grotesque accusations against Shapiro placed on tables at today’s Vance rally
https://bsky.app/profile/clancyny.bsky.social/post/3kz2rbkpif226
lol they didn’t have anything prepped for Walz hahahahaha
Trollhattan
This is the best they’ve got? SAD.
“Dangerously liberal extremist.” I’d like to see the governor wearing that on a t-shirt while walking the dog.
wjca
See? See?!? Thats an example of a gun that he confiscated! /s
Fair Economist
I am boggled at the outpouring of support for Walz on my Mastodon feed. I mean, yeah, there are posts about how decent he is, about his military service, about his great legislative record, the pic of him with kids compared to Republicans with kids, but also: about rescuing his dog, and here’s one talking about how he’s a geographer and knows enough about it to give a speech.
stinger
@bbleh:
😊
Steve in the ATL
@Kayla Rudbek: patent lawyers excepted, of course. And history majors like me who took calculus my junior year in high school.
Emily B.
@Old School: I really liked Jake Tapper’s political coverage when he was at Salon. Savvy and not right-wing. But I just looked up his bio— and I see his Salon stint was more than 20 years ago, wow. He has repackaged himself a lot since then.
Hoodie
@Trollhattan: Moderates have no idea who those supposed leftists are; all they’ll see is a guy who hunts pheasants, carves butter sculptures at the state fair and was a high school social studies teacher. Maybe they’re falling behind in the research department in St. Petersburg (perhaps the brighter ones are fending off drone attacks in Ukraine). However, smells more like some domestic alt-right basement dweller or a Mark Penn sock puppet.
Soprano2
@Baud: I’m sorry, but our legal department lawyer got involved with our claims memo process, and it’s becoming a huge complicated mess according to the woman I (THANK GOD) unloaded that job on a few months ago. I wrote a simple, clear, direct memo saying what we did and what we found when we investigated a claim. Evidently now there have to be inspection reports and all other kinds of crap attached, and the memo is two or three pages long! Sorry, that’s just stupid.
KatKapCC
@M31: Post requires sign-in to view. Here’s the tweet the Bluesky post highlighted
Steve in the ATL
@KatKapCC: I was in Minneapolis for work then and had a heck of a time finding a hotel room. It was nuts.
Kay
Audrey Fahlberg
@AudreyFahlberg
South Philly — JD Vance gives podium today to Philadelphians who have “suffered” as a result of the Biden-Harris admin. Speakers talking about crime, family members who are battling drug addictions
Everything is horrible and bad and scaaaary – over and over and over. We can beat this by GOP and media. It’s all fear based. People are tired of being afraid and miserable.
Hoodie
@Trollhattan: Wow, that’s really dumb. At most, some Americans might think Minnesotans are actually Canadians.
Kayla Rudbek
@KatKapCC: Mr. Rudbek bought matching jerseys in safety yellow, https://www.peak1sports.com/share-the-road-mens-cycling-jersey/ makes us stand out when our tandem rolls by
LNNVA
@Elizabelle: So true. It makes me sad to hear people trash him. He and his wife are the best of people.
Kent
George W Bush had a DUI arrest in his history but it was Laura Bush who killed someone.
It was a Two-fer. His VP Dick Cheney also had a DUI arrest in his past. From Cheney’s Wikipedia page:
M31
@KatKapCC: thanks — I thought bluesky was more open, I guess it’s only the top post that is visible without logging in
Kay
May I just say it is amazing JD Vance is talking abut drug addiction again after he and his wife converted money that was supposed to go to drug addiction treatment and put it in their pockets.
Shameless people, both of them. Where’s the money, JD?
Lacuna Synecdoche
Mistermix @ Top:
It’s weird how only a week ago already feels like two months ago.
I’m guessing that, by tomorrow, today will already feel like week ago.
Leto
@Omnes Omnibus: well, we all knew that officers usually had some high social society function to get to. You know, tea and crumpets and shit. We just wanted to make sure you weren’t late.
When I was an airmen, we’d have Senior NCOs come shoot the breeze with us during a Friday luncheon, and they’d always talk about stuff like that. How back in their day when they were an airmen (early-mid 80s), they’d fuck up and get an LOR or Art 15, but that it wasn’t terminal. They were given another chance, and for the ones that took advantage of it, they honestly learned their lesson, straightened up and that was that. It also affected how they dealt with their own troops later on, as I feel it gave them greater empathy. Did that troop basically have a good track record, but absolutely made a bone headed decision? Maybe it set them back a promotion cycle or two, but overall we can fix this and that’s that. Versus the troop that was absolutely determined to fuck everything up, couldn’t be counted on to open a gum wrapper, and it was in everyone’s interest to move our own ways.
Again, I only speak from an Air Force perspective. But post 2003 our drinking culture radically shifted, and we just absolutely started hammering people on everything. How we were in 1997, when I first enlisted, was not how we were in 2019, when I retired.
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: haha! We had that at the school house. Combination of some people having freedom for the first time (“freedom”), and some who simply didn’t want to be there. Figured that being the biggest fuck up was the easiest/fastest way to a discharge and gtfo of there. Sometimes they were correct… haha
KatKapCC
@Kayla Rudbek: Dang, that is bright. You could probably be seen from airplanes flying overhead :D
Joy in FL
@louc: That is a great article you linked to in comment 245. Thank you for the gift link.
KatKapCC
@M31: Users can set whether or not to let people view their posts without being logged in. I’d bet most of them don’t even know it’s on.
Kay
Manchin is enthusiastically promoting “my friend” Walz. This is like a miracle. Lefties and Manchin.
Steve in the ATL
@West of the Rockies: Dying thread? Dude, this place is TBogg central now. We’re just getting warmed up!
jowriter
@louc: What a great story. Thank you. I’m unsubscribed from the NYT, so I appreciate the access regarding a fact they would probably never unearth today.
Ksmiami
@UncleEbeneezer: yes, but as a population in our Congress, there are way too many lawyers and a little more career diversity would go a long way in doing better with the public.
AM in NC
@VeniceRiley: While I love Walz and was silently hoping for him to be the pick, I had never thought about him in the way you frame it here. And it is Spot. On.
My dad is one of the ones captured by WSB in Atlanta as it changed over from regular talk radio to rightwing freakdom, and he just didn’t change the channel, as it was his habit to listen to WSB. The poison they poured into him for years completely changed his politics. It was astounding to see how effective the propaganda is.
I want my dad back. I’ll settle for Tim Walz as VP.
M31
@KatKapCC:
thanks! I didn’t even know that was a setting lol
KatKapCC
Heyyyy “Walls” by TPHB just came on in my shuffle :D And yes, the line is “Even walls fall down” but ignore that.
karen marie
@Citizen Alan: Thank you.
Al Rennick
Balloon Juice is the undisputed biggest confederacy of dunces on the Internet.
Trollhattan
@Hoodie:
They had packages ready to go for whomever Harris chose and each was surely a slightly modified variation on this one (one hopes but is not confident, with names correctly spelled and states properly identified). By god, what a scary group of monsters they all are.
California lives rent-free in their brains, ironic given the rents here. “He’s turning everything into California!”
Not unrelated, Musk has quit us multiple times now and yet, his cars sell more here than anywhere. How, exactly, does that work?
Steve in the ATL
@Ksmiami: have you ever seen laws written by non-lawyers? There is a reason why so many lawmakers are lawyers.
Lacuna Synecdoche
via BC in Illinois:
Normal being the opposite of weird, that’s surprisingly on-point messaging from Manchin.
KatKapCC
@Al Rennick: Only when you’re here, pal.
Leto
@Dave:
Just like in project management, you can 2 of the 3. They’re not going to give us more manpower, nor will they reduce the workload, so here we are. Back when sequestration happened, senior leadership started telling us, “Let us know when you’re stretched too thin; let us know if you need more help; let us know…” And we did. We let them know, in very vocal terms, and you know what happened? The great Hunger Games of 2014. Force reduction of 20k (we’d already had a 40k reduction in 2008), but instead of 5k per year, which is what the other services were doing, we did 20k in one year.
I will never be happy regarding the circumstances of my retirement, but I had a physical relief when I did.
Trollhattan
@Al Rennick: Cool story, bro.
sdhays
@Kent: I don’t think it was ever established how shitfaced Cheney was when he shot his friend in the face.
KatKapCC
@Trollhattan: I mean, I know they’re talking about politics, but like, have they seen my state? It’s real purdy. I dare anyone to visit the Central Coast and not love it.
Uncle Cosmo
Close but no cigarillo: it was Gamaliel. Mi dispiace. Chalk it up to what my chessplaying friends would identify as a Fingerfehler and my Oriental acquaintances as a T’ai-Po.
FTR Warren Gamaliel “Not Quite Tonya” Harding bought hisownself some postmortality notoriety in this valedictory pome from e.e. cummings.
Kay
I figured the “I execute puppies” lady had dropped out of politics. I was surprised to see her. I’m not even an animal lover and I think she needs a psych eval. Torturing animals is a bad sign. Stop her before she kills again.
Trollhattan
@Lacuna Synecdoche: It does make me wonder what size yacht Walz owns.
Kayla Rudbek
@Steve in the ATL: yes, patent lawyers get an exemption (although reading the IP Watchdog and the comments on Patently-O blogs makes me shake my head about my fellow patent lawyers).
my attitude is more the “for Deity’s sake can’t you people reason your way out of a wet paper bag, you’re supposed to be at least competent at logic, what was the LSAT even testing for, can’t you even _try_ to figure out the consequences of the rules you make, just how much are you whoring yourselves out to the Federalist Society”
Trollhattan
@Uncle Cosmo: Learned the pronunciation from Al Stewart. No chance I’d have known it otherwise.
https://youtu.be/HMCTORbBXXQ?si=vITcnVXv9hd45cdL
Mel
@Elizabelle: I have tried and tried to figure that out, thinking that if we could understand the reasons behind it, maybe we could find a way to get through to them. It seems different in each case, for each person, and in some cases we have no clue what the triggers or predisposing issues were. It is heartbreaking.
My mother in law is by far the most puzzling. She relied on government programs years ago to help keep a roof over their heads and keep her children clothed and fed when her husband was disabled with a brain tumor. She saw her son and daughter be able to go to college and then grad school in large part because of Pell Grants and student loans. She saw another son move up through the ranks to become an officer in the Army, and use his military benefits to obtain a college degree. She saw another son use public school and apprenticeships to become a master carpenter, and benefit immensely from Union membership. She has a grandchild who is severely disabled due to a seizure disorder and the ensuing brain damage. This little one and her family depend upon Social Security to keep her safe and comfortable.
MIL has a son who is suffering from end-stage pancreatic cancer. Utilizing Medicare /SS disability has allowed him to access treatment that gave him an extra year to be with his family, time to take a last vacation with his wife that they desperately wanted to take, and time to try to prepare his children for the inevitable awful loss of their father. They have two adopted little ones (in addition to two older biological kids) who are now safe, loved, and flourishing with them because of the foster care / adoption resources provided by the state.
So, it seems like a no- brainer that a person who has had these experiences would not just want to support social programs, but want to strengthen them. Not the case with MIL.
We directly asked her how she could support a political agenda that would deny the same help that she had needed to others who need it, and would cut her granddaughter and her own son off from help that is literally keeping them safe, housed, ALIVE.
Her response was to smirk and say, “It doesn’t matter, because I’ve got mine. Mr. Trump will do what’s right.” Meaning, because of her age, she’ll not lose her Medicare and Social Security benefits before she dies, so screw everyone else. She is obsessed with Trump, and buys in to every conspiracy theory she hears.
The only gateway that we can figure at all was her very Catholic anti-abortion stance, but still- this is a woman who went to South America in her 70s to help build houses for unhoused families, but now believes that there shouldn’t even be school lunch assistance programs or food assistance or Social Security for the disabled ( including me , her daughter- in- law who she claims to love and claims she “prays for healing for because [I’m] sick with such a terrible illness”. (multiple scary autoimmune diseases)
I can’t find any explanation for it that makes any sense, and It hurts so much to see my hubby struggle with how vile she has become. He loves her, but can hardly stand to speak to her because of the hateful rhetoric and crazy conspiracies that make up her entire focus.
Ksmiami
@Steve in the ATL: yes. I grew up in California- the peoples proposition state. And yes of course there will be lots of lawyers in Congress by definition- however, having a few non lawyers is a good thing
Kelly
@Kayla Rudbek: Enthusiastic bicyclist neighbor has a radar accessory that tells her GPS when a car is behind her. triggers about 100 yards out.
MisterForkbeard
@Kay: Ew. Please tell me they didn’t have Nina Turner on that callNevermind, phew
Kayla Rudbek
@KatKapCC: we also have plain safety yellow jackets that are bright enough that we got a comment from a bystander in a restaurant parking lot “I’d have to be really drunk to not see you on the road”
Darkrose
@rikyrah: That is amazing. She and Tim are people who genuinely want to make a difference for marginalized people.
UncleEbeneezer
@Trollhattan: California has a gang-buster economy, liberal policies, functions rather well and people here are happy. That drives Republicans nuts!
Leto
OT but Charleston, SC is already being slammed with flooding from the hurricane. Flooding from Charleston all the way up to Wilmington, NC. My mom sent me a pic of an interstate under water. Apparently this is going to be a multi-day event from today through Thursday. Ugggggghhhhhhh
Steve in the ATL
@Ksmiami: I concur. I’m a big fan of diversity of thought.
Of course, I also support people’s right not to think at all. Hi, Omnes!
Kayla Rudbek
@Kelly: oh I like that idea. I have a rear-view mirror on my left handlebar but I will have to look for that
UncleEbeneezer
Gershom Gorenberg on Xitter:
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Mel:
Interesting variation on IGMFY.
wjca
That’s what staff is for. Leaders (legislators) set policy; staff implements it. Doesn’t seem hard to understand.
And do you seriously imagine legislators putting pen to paper to write a piece of legislation?
M31
@Uncle Cosmo: ok that’s a great poem
lol but that poetry site needs a better tag editor, they think that one is a “love poem for her” hahahaha, fucking AI how does it work? not at all, he said, not at all
Mel
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: It’s incomprehensible to us, and really horrifying to watch a kind, quiet, gentle person turn into a monster.
Baud
@Mel:
I’ve seen support groups on Reddit for people in your situation. It’s a widespread problem.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Steve in the ATL:
Yup.
Darkrose
@KatKapCC: In theory, professors are teachers. In practice, especially at research universities, professors rarely teach. That’s what grad students and poorly-paid adjuncts are for. Professors bring in grants and do research–which is important, but isn’t teaching.
AM in NC
@Al Rennick: It wasn’t Bernie’s policies that some people here had a problem with. It was that he (and more to the point, many of his supporters) isn’t a Democrat and does NOTHING to advance Democrats being elected in down-ticket races. They piss into the tent, and that allows Republicans to win.
It was never about policy. It was his political lack of skill and firing at who should be allies that was the problem.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steve in the ATL: Huh?!
lowtechcyclist
@West of the Rockies:
I see you shiver with antici…
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
…pation.
JCNZ
@VeniceRiley: I love this.😘
Uncle Cosmo
@brantl:
!!!??!!!?!!? Dad in his later years used to say to me, on occasion, You talk like a man with a paper asshole. Which I damn well never understood. Is that second sentence, at long last, the clarification of the meaning??!?!?!?
Leto
Also I hope that the Harris/Walz event in Philly here is inside, because we’re expecting major storms in the area starting around 6pm. The next 5 days look to be wet, wet, wet, wet. That’s not a good thing.
MisterForkbeard
@KatKapCC: I was gonna say: He’s got a point. Mostly because we haven’t kicked him out.
Geoduck
@M31: Someone was actually prepared for Walz being picked, they’ve got an ad running already that he’s a groomer who invades kid’s bathrooms.
UncleEbeneezer
@West of the Rockies: The tricky part will be changing it to 3/4
BR
For geography nerds, if you can believe it Walz keynoted the GIS conference run by ESRI just a couple weeks ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni8BrT0-6gM
Oh my, this talk is something people need to watch. He taught his students in 1993 how to use GIS and understand the Holocaust to then understand where in the world things were headed in the same direction, and his students identified the Rwanda genocide in real time (before it happened).
p.a.
Ugh. He’s angling for Interior! //s
Matt McIrvin
@Trollhattan: I hear this from people in non-political contexts all the time: anyone who’s slightly right of center imagines California to be a horrifying post-apocalyptic hellscape.
I think the real trigger is visible homelessness. There’s genuinely a lot of it on the West Coast–there’s a lot of it in general, but especially there. Homeless people just horrify them and conservatives don’t see homelessness (which is to some degree a byproduct of high real-estate values) as the problem, it’s that these horrible people are allowed to exist in public.
Kay
Erick Erickson
@EWErickson
5h
No Jews allowed at the top of the Democratic Party.
Chuck Schumer
@SenSchumer
1h
News to me
rikyrah
Reverend Al Sharpton
@TheRevAl
In this video, you can see Governor #TimWalz with us at Daunte Wright’s funeral, who was killed by police in 2021 during the George Floyd trial.
In 2020, we demanded justice for George Floyd in Minneapolis. Governor Walz listened to our calls and appointed Attorney General Ellison to lead the investigation.
This showed me he is a man who listens and acts in the best interests of his constituents. A year later, we saw justice for George Floyd.
We can trust Governor Walz to bring the same openness as Kamala Harris’s vice president. He will be a reliable partner as she leads the nation. Governor Walz has shown he isn’t afraid to confront those who seek to move our country backward, which will help us move forward. He is ready to support Kamala Harris as she aims to become the first Black female President, breaking significant barriers in the process.
Video: Supreme Creative Agency
https://x.com/TheRevAl/status/1820867537480851867
p.a.
@Leto: We always joked about the work triangle: Productivity, Quality, Safety. Which point would impale us this quarter?
Steve LaBonne
deleted
Kay
JD Vance and his wife frantically Googling “how to convert to Judaism”
The Catholic thing isn’t owning the libs enough.
rikyrah
Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) posted at 1:05 PM on Tue, Aug 06, 2024:
I do rather like the contrast of Tim Walz wanting kids to get school lunch and breakfast and MAGA wanting kids as young as 13 to be able to work in slaughterhouses and coal mines.
(https://x.com/TheRickWilson/status/1820883885452095938?s=03)
Misterpuff
@UncleEbeneezer: Glad to see Shapiro do a supportive tweet regarding the new ticket. Shows class.
Where are the other veepstakes participants? They all should have chimed in by now.
Love that Beto did.
Let’s get it together Dems!
Peke Daddy
@Geoduck: With…tampons!
Old School
@Geoduck: I see the New York Post is going with Walz “slithered out the door” by leaving the National Guard after 24 years and running for office.
Kay
@Steve LaBonne:
He’s on it! Chuck Schumer is charming. My husband and youngest and I ran into him in Detroit once and he started this real conversation with my son, who was probably 15. It was fun.
rikyrah
Charlotte Alter (@CharlotteAlter) posted at 0:31 PM on Tue, Aug 06, 2024:
Walz’s personal experience with IVF is also HUGE asset, especially since Dobbs put IVF on the chopping block.
Having a *man* talk compellingly about his personal experience with reproductive freedom from a place of joy, not sadness, will be big
(https://x.com/CharlotteAlter/status/1820875258548646057?t=tuigsycmcw0-FjshpZuCoA&s=03)
David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch
Hey guys, my flight just landed. Anything interesting happen?
Quinerly
@Al Rennick:
The difference in Bernie and Tim Walz is Walz is a nice guy. Not an asshole. Team player. Not strident. Plus, Walz doesn’t go back and forth in his party affiliation for convenience. Walz is a member of the Party and doesn’t piss on his fellow party members. His wife seems nice, too. Not a grifter.
ArchTeryx
@Baud: And a refreshing lack of Republican gadflies with a “D” next to their name. That seems to be an endemic problem in the U.S. Senate, but Walz was very good at keeping any internal sabotage under control. Party displine in the Minnesota Senate is tight. The same absolutely can’t be said for the U.S. Senate.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@BR:
Yet another reason to be a big fan of his says this BA/MA Geography, CU-Boulder, 83/85 grad.
Man, GIS in 1993 was *painful*. ESRI had ArcView out but you had to be a total computer nut to actually learn it outside of craptons of expensive classes.
We had it on, and I’ll date myself here, Sun Sparc 10 workstations, in my offices with DIA/J2 at the Pentagon. We got no training on it so nobody used it unless you devoted your spare time to trying to teach yourself.
I spent many, many months during Clinton’s first term using ArcView to plot out rail lines and capacity in North Korea to the Chinese border as we were tasked with seeing how much cargo could get into the country if we decided on a naval blockade of some type (during one of the first NK nuclear “crisis” moments).
The fact that Walz could do that and teach it to students during the same time frame is quite frankly incredible.
Thank you Team Harris for picking this man.
JCNZ
@catclub: Let alone how it must have made Tim Scott and his fiancé feel…
AWOL
@Al Rennick: You’re a weirdo.
Trollhattan
@David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch:
Nothing much. Jolly Rancher has been named the Official Candy of the United States, which is causing consternation in some quarters.
Jackie
Schumer and others smack down talk that Dems don’t allow Jews at the top:
Cheryl from Maryland
@UncleEbeneezer: As someone whose husband was a lawyer, albeit getting his JD after several years on the job market, I have issues with so many of our politicians and judges going from prep/private/super competitive high school to a killer college to law school with no stops in between. I think they lose out on life experiences — I think that is what Justice Sotomayer was trying to express with her phrase “wise Latina.” Lawyer (and maybe this is wrong and lazy) is shorthand for Hawley and Cruz and those like them who never have had to breathe the air of reality.
CapnMubbers
@Leto: Indoors. Liacouras Center.
MisterForkbeard
“Walz only spent 24 years in the military!” is a really great takedown from the party of “Vance spent 6 months in Iraq doing public relations before he was weirdly sent back early” and “Donald Trump has mysteriously vanishing bone spurs and can’t fight”.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch: Baud was eliminated from the Veepstakes.
KatKapCC
@Misterpuff: They have. NYT quoted all of them from social media.
eclare
@Baud:
So is Joe.
divF
@Al Rennick: Yes, and the dunces are in confederacy against you.
Pied.
JCNZ
@stinger: Great story. Happy Days Are Here Again.
MomSense
@BR:
Oh wow. That’s amazing.
Msb
So delighted that Harris picked Walz. Here’s to more joy and normality in political life, and life in general.
Hoodie
@MisterForkbeard: Looks like the GOP is flailing after this pick. They may have counted on her going with Shapiro because of PA. They don’t seem too shy about cloaked racist and misogynist attacks on Harris, and you could bet we would have seen some pretty ugly antisemitic undertones from the right if Shapiro was her running mate. Early indications are they don’t know how to deal with a Harris/Walz ticket.
JCNZ
@Kay: “Sweet Ka-ma-la! Ba ba ba! Good times never seemed so good!“
karen gail
@Mel: One thing that makes sense, since I know so many people who have become maga/trump worshippers is the depth of their “religious faith” that made them part of us vs them crowd. Personally, I believe that someone who believes you are superior because of religion along with living in fear of hell has already been program to accept that type of thing from politicians.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Looks like Republicans have their attack line.
/s
(It’s the Borowitz Report, which is now a substack. I think you can “preview” without subscribing.)
Quinerly
@Al Rennick: yet, you are still here.
Hmmmm…..
Uncle Cosmo
@M31: Hey, I grabbed the first link that linked to the pome, no warranties express or implied per the rest of the page.
cummings in case you dint no rote some nastyass ditties, e.g. #26 from the collection No Thanks:
or this one remembering Louis Untermeyer, who assembled several anthologies of pomes which strangely enough included samples of his own pupperel (which never rose to the stature of doggerel):
or this gem:
And then there’s –
KatKapCC
@Kay: LOL gonna take them a few years. We make you work for it.
KatKapCC
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if he tried it. Never mind that Walz is about as Corn-Fed White Boy as you can get.
The Lodger
The Lodger
@TBone: Didn’t Lauren Boebert used to date Nick’s brother Jack?
KatKapCC
@The Lodger: Well, we know she likes to jack.
Chris Johnson
Immediately went to ActBlue and threw money, same as when Kamala Harris took over. I don’t know if everybody else did likewise, but I’d made a little promise to myself that if she actually picked Walz I would go and throw another $100, whether I could afford it or not. And so I did, and feel good about it :)
KatKapCC
@Chris Johnson: I did too!
Ruckus
@Matt McIrvin:
Having been born literally in the middle of Los Angeles a long time ago, and have lived here other than while in the USN or for one decade when I lived in OH, and having traveled to and worked in 46 of the states. I can say that it is NOT a horrifying post-apocalyptic hellscape. It’s crowed now, unlike when I was a kid but there is a reason for that – it actually is a nice place to live, even with a lot of people here. We are now seeing what I call connected homes, like what my sister lived in, in Boston. I believe they are called row houses. Three stories tall, 2 sizes, but mostly 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, build in garage, 6 or 7 units per building and they are rather nice and about 1/4 mill cheaper than a single family home. There are several around me and they are finishing the last of 5 buildings across the street from me. That’s 35 homes in the space of maybe 5 or 6 separate homes.
SomeRandomGuy
Dear god, the people who fight minimum wage increases (even though a higher minimum wage would probably *increase*, not decrease, their net) have a sign like that. It doesn’t feel natural, but it does feel good.
Cheryl from Maryland
@BR: Thanks for the link. Brilliant, just Brilliant. Forward-thinking, straightforward, and intersectional. I am in awe.
Dan B
@VeniceRiley: W’s wife killed a man.
Ruckus
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
He learned. That is not always the case, even when someone gets a DUI.
I myself quit drinking 25 yrs ago because I saw myself starting to drink more than 1 or 2 drinks a week. Because that mountain gets very steep once you began to really “enjoy” it. And it really starts to be enjoyable once you start getting farther into it, because it makes you feel nothing. Till in some way that mountain gets so steep you fall off of it. And then it all falls down on top of you, and all at once. I’ve seen men when I was in the USN who could/would spend basically their monthly paycheck in booze. And if you drank on base the cost was a lot less than in town. Humans can learn if they want to, but hiding is easier and hiding in a bottle is easiest. BUT. It doesn’t work, it just trades one problem for another – one that can screw you worse than you will ever imagine. A person that learns a life lesson when it’s offered is far better than one who never does.
And to me learning is better than being smug, which I call the “I’ll never do that splat.” IOW this makes me appreciate who he is. A human with a brain. I’d bet he’s not pompous, just a normal human being.
KatKapCC
@Ruckus:
Just feels that way during fire season. Which is now apparently about ten months long…
Ruckus
@KatKapCC:
The Post fire in SoCal is now 100% contained but there are a number of other fires in CA that are not, Cal Fire shows 8 not fully contained. Numerous areas of CA can catch on fire easily in this time of year given CA weather and the terrain of a lot of the land and the population, which currently shows as 39 million, which is near 12% of the nation’s population.
Dan B
@Mel: The answer is propaganda, specific media that pursued it. The right wing drift is most evident in English speaking countries that allowed FOX in. Case in point, Canada did not. The religious right has used media to advance an agenda that has led the Sermon on the Mount to be decried as communist propaganda. We’re like fish who don’t see the water. We are immersed in it or people we are close to are listening right now to FOX. Freedom of the press is sacrosanct in this country but without consequences it will be, and is being, uses by people who despise democracy, hate free speech, and love hierarchical authoritarian systems. We’re afraid of “consequences” because they can backfire but unless we figure out how to operate faur and truthful media the lies will finish first.
Dakota Expat
Whoops! Accidentally placed this in the Tampon Tim (weird!) comments; meant to go here. Apologies! (Hey, I don’t do this often, not very agile with the intertubes…)
So yeah. Intentionally avoided things today (well, also busy). But this Walz thing has me walking on air for many reasons (though like most of us, I would not have stopped walking on air no matter what or who Kamala Harris chose). Like Mr. Mix, I’m a native of the region (I’m from North Dakota, not too far north of Mr. Mix’s people; I went to college at a place very much like Mankato State, a place called Moorhead State University (back in the day) in Minnesota (I started out at Bismarck Junior College and migrated to Grand Forks for a year at UND; ended up in Moorhead to study with Tom McGrath, but another story). Anyway… Dakotan, Minnesotan, and living as an expat in Michigan now (since 1985).
So I’ve inclined toward Walz for many reasons (though I truly expected Kamala to go for Shapiro, and that would have been as fine as all). But Walz really does remid me of my people — my leftie grandfather who was total Non-partisan league and raised me thinking that being Catholic is as good as being socialist, two sides of the same coin). All that hunting, fishing, and progressive politics not separate things.
Short story: brilliant move by the Harris campaign. Cuts that faker and pretender Vance off at the knees. Neutralizes lots of the resentment of midland folks for the coasts (something I was raised to share as an orientation — hell we though Minneapolis was the arrogant east!). This is all good. I got Trumpie relatives, many of them. They’ll find it hard to not like Walz. Even the one near and dear relative who sent me the “Tampon Tim” thing with a chortle. Even he agrees that Walz is at least one of us.
Dan B
@BR: OMG I got ESRI magazines free on the mail for decades. They’re a huge deal. It seems that every city, county,and state has staff using GIS for everything from siting sewage treatment to traffic improvement to watershed, and far beyond. To have Walz keynote ESRI is like winning an OSCAR for the biggest movie of the year.
Dan B
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Ditto! I had to learn ARC GIS for an ecological restoration project. It had gotten so much better by the time I learned it. But it was still challenging. For Walz to get students to be excited / motivated enough to slog through gives me the feeling he can help right the shipwreck of American politics.
Betsy
@Geminid: Wait til you find out about dark-colored cars!
Denali5
@BR: Thank you so much for this link. So happy to have Waltz on the ticket!
SomeRandomGuy
@Ruckus:
One note of importance: alcohol helps with certain types of pain, including neurological pain. Neurological pain doesn’t always feel like ouch-pain. It might, but sometimes it has odd effects.
The big problem with this, is, “everyone knows” that you just have to keep an alcoholic from ever drinking again, no matter what, or why. The idea that there might be hidden pain, and relief from that pain in alcohol, just doesn’t occur to them.
Now, I’m not defending excessive alcohol use, suggesting it’s okay. But pain meds are usually *much* gentler on your body, especially your liver. There are other pain meds, besides opiates, that might help. (In fact, opiates don’t tend to help neurological pain.) So even an opioid abuser might find effective pain relief.
So, if you crave alcohol, you might be in pain, and you should consider that as a possibility. Is there any sensory nerve activity that makes you feel awful, maybe like you could scream, or, bawl like a child with a skinned knee? Or is there just something annoying that you can’t quite figure out, but it goes away when you relax, maybe when you lie down? Do you ever find something annoying happening in your body, maybe when you’re lifting something heavy – not too heavy, just, “don’t interrupt me while I’m working,” heavy?
Well, that can be neurological pain. It’s not normal pain, but your body is screaming “stop that!” and not in the normal way, so your brain casts around for a non-pain “stop that!” sensation. It might feel like pain, but it might feel like something else. I will often use the highly scientific term of “a yucky feeling”, because sometimes, I feel pain with a bit of nausea, or a general feeling of illness (technically called “malaise”).
So: *IF* you crave alcohol, and *IF* you realize you might be in pain – and maybe *that* is why you crave alcohol – you really should talk to your doctor about possible neurological pain.
If your neuro pain is under control, it’s a *lot* easier to “just say no”. If it’s not, and alcohol helps with it, you’re going to have a much more difficult time stopping drinking.
SomeRandomGuy
@Cheryl from Maryland:
The “wise Latina” comment was in reference to a certain set of decisions, with some people saying that a Latina could do “just as well” as the white men who made the decisions.
She said that wasn’t a sufficiently strong statement – there’s plenty of reason to think that a wise Latina might have done better. So there was nothing racial about her statement – it was reasonable supposition to say that a wise Latina might be better than a replacement-level white man.
This is one thing I hate about Republicans. They’ll lie about stuff that’s a big deal, and they’ll lie about stuff that isn’t, and they just won’t ever admit that “Okay, what she said was no big deal, we just wanted to destroy her utterly, because she was a Democrat[sic] pick.”
SomeRandomGuy
No, more evidence isn’t needed, I promise you. But those who need evidence need to avoid listening to you, unless they’re stoned and need to laugh at the obscure jokes that become immediately visible while reading your detritus.
Also: “detritus” isn’t a naughty word, but thanks for looking it up.
JCNZ
@VeniceRiley: This is you, bro!
From Heather Cox Richardson’s column today: “A number of observers are saying that part of the genius of the Walz pick is that he seems to many people to be the dad and grandfather stolen away by the right-wing rage machine…”