new yard sign arrived pic.twitter.com/We9ynTvcxa
— Cake or Death (@Johngcole) August 30, 2024
Two middle-class kids.
One, a daughter of Oakland, California, who was raised by a working mother and had a summer job at McDonald’s.
The other, a son of the Nebraska plains, who spent summers on the farm.
Only in America is it possible that the two of us would be… pic.twitter.com/le6xrf55E0
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 31, 2024
Two middle-class kids.
One, a daughter of Oakland, California, who was raised by a working mother and had a summer job at McDonald’s.
The other, a son of the Nebraska plains, who spent summers on the farm.
Only in America is it possible that the two of us would be running together all the way to the White House.
During the #S4KCall, over 14,000 #SwiftiesForKamala registered to vote, checked their voter registration, or reached out to a friend to get them to register to vote.
But we've just begun ??? https://t.co/LRk1QtmZVu
— Swifties For Kamala (@Swifties4Kamala) August 28, 2024
BREAKING: In just over a month since Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee for President, this account, which is dedicated to uplifting Kamala’s wins, has defied the media’s expectations and gained over 685,000 followers. Retweet and follow to keep proving the media wrong. pic.twitter.com/nRAQt83A8T
— Kamala’s Wins (@harris_wins) September 1, 2024
There was a brief online kerfuffle about Kamala telling Dana Bash she’d ‘consider‘ the tradition of putting a Republican in her cabinet. Because I am not a Very Serious Pundit, this suggestion brought me joy:
Adam Kinzinger as SecDef, and then see if he paints the red line for Ukraine at just beyond Moscow or a few kilometers short of Vladivostok. https://t.co/FWkh6cHolI
— Slava Malamud ???????? (@SlavaMalamud) August 29, 2024
every never trump republican writes at least variation on “here’s what [democrat] should do to court disaffected republicans” and the answer is always be a republican with republican policies
good insight, man. thanks for contributing. helpful.— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) Aug 31, 2024 at 1:08 PM
lmao I'll take it https://t.co/lJeZWDf5M5
— Finnegans Take (@LittleMammith) August 31, 2024
Phylllis
I have a good feeling about this.
Shana
Picked up a half dozen Harris/Walz signa this week and have given several away already. We need to over represent the neighbor with the hand made “I’m voting for the felon 2024” sign
brantl
This is really going to eat Stumpy’s liver. A REALLY PRETTY SINGLE CAT LADY’S followers lining up to vote against him.
hrprogressive
“Hey disaffected Republican who doesn’t like fascism:
Vote for us because if you do, you just might get a chance to rebuild a functional, Non-Fascist GOP within your lifetime.
If you don’t, and we lose, well, have fun in the Trump Gulag you’ll find yourselves in when his Fascist Thugs come for retribution against you”.
Seriously, we’re well past the age of “courting Republicans with Republican policies”.
Fuck their policies, every single one of them.
The Democratic Party for all of its flaws has the more popular policies and legislative ideas. Full stop.
Thankfully, I haven’t actually heard Harris or Walz actually talk about embracing any of those actual policies, and her interview non-answer is about the best we can expect when speaking to the corprofascist media.
p.a.
She married a real ‘Murcan, I guess she’s o.k.
JFC! But yes, I’ll take it too. Eyes on the prize.
Another topic from yesterday: as I posted, in was MS fucking NBC with the “Harris Vows to Appoint Repub” chyron. The ‘liberal channel’😂😂😂
oldster
Maybe I don’t understand the re-colorized Stars & Stripes that JC posted. There’s probably a good message in there that I’m missing.
But I will say that after a decade of seeing fascist police and their enablers corrupt the Red White and Blue by making it all blue and black — the Punisher Flag, if you will — I am immediately turned off by any flag that does not show the original colors.
I say, let’s reclaim patriotism, and reclaim the real US flag — the Red White and Blue. In its original colors.
Again, this probably means that I am missing the point of John’s flag, and I’m also being a stick-in-the-mud, spoil-sport as well.
But I would rather have the whole nation unite under the original flag, than have us subjugated under the “thin blue line.”
Nukular Biskits
Good mornin’, y’all!
sdhays
Who was the last Democrat nominated to be in a Republican President’s fucking Cabinet? The faith based initiatives guy in the early W administration who oversaw dumping taxpayer money into religious grifts, shitting all over the First Amendment?
Betty Cracker
@brantl: I went to the Women’s March in D.C. on 1/21/2017, and it occurred to me that no American male has ever been rejected by as many women as Hair Furor. May we break new records in November.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@hrprogressive:
I’m under no allusions that any (R) in what would be considered a “minor” Cabinet position would push policies counter to the Executive that’s setting the agenda.
That being said, this entire “put somebody from the other party in the Cabinet” is simply the Beltway Media Corpse bipartisan wet dream at least symbolically.
It’s a stupid concept and I’m hoping Harris said this as simply an operational campaign ploy. The Orange Fart Cloud wouldn’t consider it…not that any real Dem (as opposed to former Faux Dems like Gabbard and the like) would ever consider taking one.
Kinzinger has no business being SecDef. I’ve said in other threads, they wanna make some token show of the media’s bipartisanship bullshit, appoint him Sec of the Air Force, that’s in his wheel house. Nothing higher to any (R).
dmsilev
@sdhays: I’d like to say Norm Mineta during the GW Bush administration. Secretary of Transportation.
narya
@oldster: pride flag colors
sdhays
@oldster: It’s a rainbow, so that’s the message. But I had a similar mild reaction – so tired of seeing the flag desecrating by people who think they are the “real” America that any modification raises my hackles now.
But that genie isn’t going back in the bottle, so I’m happy to see the rainbow flag.
Another Scott
I like our chances, very, very much.
Meanwhile, a new Wondermark is out today!
[ snort! ]
Cheers,
Scott.
J.
@Betty Cracker: Amen!
MomSense
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Let’s just win first. If her stated willingness to work with Republicans and to nominate one for a cabinet position reassures some swing, Independent or Republican voters then it’s a good thing.
Marmot
@sdhays: John di Iulio? (Spelling?) He’s the “zomg ‘90s kids are transforming into super predators!” fool. He ain’t a Dem.
But yeah, what the hell? Has any Repub president ever hired a Dem into his cabinet?
sdhays
@dmsilev: I have no recollection of him. I stand corrected. But still, first W term. We should give it a rest.
J.
So, the spouse and I live in SWFL and have MAGA neighbors. We would LOVE to put up signs, but we are afraid of getting shot or having our house vandalized. (There’s a reason we put security cameras around our house.) However, we’ve been spending the last month in Blue CT, so I bought a KAMALA t-shirt, which I have been wearing proudly. And we are planning on spending election day in another Blue state. Go Kamala and Tim!
Eolirin
@Another Scott: Montana will keep me up at night, but otherwise, yes.
lowtechcyclist
Not an art thief:
Exactly.
There’s a vast chasm between Republican and Democratic policies on practically every major issue. There’s really no middle ground between trying to limit climate change and claiming its a hoax, between believing women should have full bodily autonomy and banning abortion, between believing that every American over 18 should be able to vote without fear and without impediments and throwing up all sorts of barriers and impediments to voting, and throwing people in jail for believing they had the right to vote…etcetera, etcetera.
There’s no place to compromise, even if it made some sort of political sense to do so.
Besides, you take any one of the top dozen or so issues, and a solid and durable majority of Americans think we’re right and they’re wrong. The next step is to solidly link those positions in their minds with the Democratic Party, so they know that if they want Good Thing X rather than Bad Thing Z to happen, voting D is how you get there.
That seems to be the weak link these days, that people support all our policies without necessarily supporting the Democratic Party. We need to make that link ironclad in people’s minds, and the Democratic Party supporting Republican positions would totally undermine that. So fuck that garbage.
Eolirin
@Marmot: Yes, they have. It’s been a norm going back a long way to have at least one token member of the opposite party in a cabinet position. Trump broke it. Biden has followed suit. Though he’s appointed Republicans to some roles, like Flake as ambassador to Turkey.
sdhays
@MomSense: I trust MVP. But the desire for Republicans in important positions is the reason we had Jim Comey as the FBI Director. They typically don’t perform very well.
geg6
@MomSense:
Yes, this.
PigDog
My kingdom for a Democrat as FBI director.
Eolirin
@lowtechcyclist: I think part of the reason they don’t support Democrats is that while our policies are more popular, there are a few things we don’t and aren’t willing to support, and those voters will vote for those things over our things even though they like our things.
Low taxes, low regulation, white supremacy supporting positions, etc. (Especially that last one)
Baud
@Eolirin:
You left out black people
ETA : nevermiind, I misread.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone 😊 😊 😊
oldster
@sdhays:
“so tired of seeing the flag desecrating by people who think they are the “real” America that any modification raises my hackles now.”
Thanks, that’s what I meant to say.
Eolirin
@sdhays: Flake seems to have done a good job as ambassador to Turkey. Jerome Powell is a Republucan too no? He’s been doing a decent job.
But yeah, we don’t need them heading up major agencies when they’re hostile to those agencies’ existence. That’s the bulk of them nowadays.
MazeDancer
Most of my dearest close friends still live in NYC. Maybe it takes the perspective of having lived many other places to see what a rag the NY Times has become.
While I have long observed that NYC is old school provincial – lots of people value success, education, philanthropy, artistic achievement, good walking shoes – also noticed as my friends got older, they got more small c conservative.
These people are always going to be proud feminists who support liberal causes. But they won’t turn on The Gray Lady.
Have stopped trying to enlighten them and decided that as long as they keep donating and voting, so what if they’re deluded. Let them do their puzzles and enjoy.
Not having to be right every time is hard. But if I let that go, maybe others will, too.
Betty Cracker
@J.: Ugh, sorry about your MAGA neighbors and the security situation. That sucks!
Eolirin
@Baud: Yeah our support of black people, and the queer community and equality for women are kind of sticking points for a lot of people.
TBone
Today’s wildlife sighting at Casa TBone:
A huge Golden Eagle! 💜
Glad we bought good binoculars years back, they come in handy for close-ups. He’s still there, atop a very tall tree, surveying his kingdom (looking for prey).
sdhays
@Eolirin: Ambassadorships are potentially ok. Is Powell really a Republican? I know the Donvict originally appointed him, but is he actually more non-partisan?
But you’re right, he’s been decent.
Eolirin
@MazeDancer: The Times is only genuinely awful when it comes to their political reporting. If people aren’t so focused (read: obsessive) on that, there’s still stuff of value there. We hate it because it’s poison and affects political outcomes in a bunch of very negative ways, but we’re weird outliers in a culture that doesn’t really care about politics. (Though this is also why we can’t have nice things)
MazeDancer
A very popular opinion on Twitter is: Any GOP Senator who can be replaced by a Dem Governor would make an excellent Cabinet member.
Susan Collins for Whatever She Wants. British Ambassador has lots of good parties and the #2 can run the real show.
rikyrah
Andrew Arenge (@MrArenge) posted at 8:23 AM on Sat, Aug 31, 2024:
NEW: Last night, the Harris campaign launched 25 new digital ads all running on various platforms (Meta, Google + Snapchat). These latest ads are vertical videos.
This 🧵 will go through all of the new ads.
The first one uses Donald Trump’s own words from a recent rally https://t.co/qigQsPe7iT
(https://x.com/MrArenge/status/1829872702779519372?t=QJcNbK_EaC4HqgsXWlkaOQ&s=03)
TBone
@Betty Cracker: 🤣😍
Jackie
This. A snippet from EmptyWheel’s reaction to a WaPo article published this morning. Her link also includes excerpts from the WaPo story, but this is what caught my eye:
Eolirin
@sdhays: Obama appointed him to a Fed position to help get another nominee through, and it was notable at the time because he was a Republican.
Trump elevated him. Biden kept him.
But he’s not a Republican politician. Afaik he’s never held elected office. So it’s a bit of a different situation.
rikyrah
🪄✨Lisa #KamalaHarris2024 (@lisareynaloe) posted at 6:37 AM on Sun, Sep 01, 2024:
This Veteran is spot on! 👏🏽
Nothing matters to TFG’s base.
The only thing that should matter to us is the ballot box.
November is coming.
Make your voting plan for #HarrisWalz2024 NOW.
✅Register to vote
✅Know your dates
✅Find your voting locations
https://t.co/9nBonZLvig
(https://x.com/lisareynaloe/status/1830208320159756506?t=t6z8wUEe2f1kSUGEM3yIag&s=03)
oldgold
@J.: I was unaware the Alitos had a place in SW Florida.
MomSense
@sdhays:
As I said, let’s win first.
TBone
@Jackie: thank you for sharing. Staying on offense is good strategy IMO.
MomSense
@J.:
My dad and stepmom spend the winter in SWFL and they have a really nice UU congregation close by. It is a great community.
Betty
@Eolirin: Powell is not so great. He should have lowered interest rates months ago. It would have improved this public’s perception of the economy.
Baud
@Betty:
Fed should not be making political calculations.
TBone
Cap! Does it again 😆
https://showercapblog.com/im-still-undecided-but-ill-probably-wind-up-voting-for-whoever-defiles-the-fewest-cemeteries/
sdhays
@Eolirin: He’s been surprisingly independent of Republican fiscal orthodoxy.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@dmsilev: It’s nearly always DOT that gets the token from the other party. We do NOT want to appoint any Republican to the Following: Sec of Defense, the CIA, the FBI, NSA, basically anything involving law enforcement or national defense. I’m beyond done with R’s in charge of all that shit. It sends the implicit message that Dems can’t be trusted with that stuff which reinforces current perceptions. Plus at this point I’m not sure I trust any Republican no matter how anti-Trump, to put the interests of the country first. So many of them have been disloyal in different ways to the oath they have to take that it’s not safe. It’s time for us to reclaim patriotism, the rule of law, and defense of the nation and its interests as our own.
Eolirin
@Betty: No it wouldn’t have, it would have simply resulted in more squawking about run away inflation.
Baud
SBA head is currently a cabinet position with little authority. Might be a good fit for a Republican.
Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog
@oldgold: Probably they have a “friend” who has one and in a friendly and companionable way has made it permanently available to them, no notice required. As one does.
Eolirin
@sdhays: He has. It’s probably why Obama picked him in the first place.
But his background is finance. Orthodoxy that loses you money gets discarded real fast.
Another Scott
@Eolirin: I guess it depends on how broadly you define their political reporting.
Wikipedia – List of FTFNYT controversies.
Even beyond their objectively awful reporting examples, their corporate policy (unless it has changed recently) of practically never giving smaller news outfits credit for breaking stories that they cover later is infuriating.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Eolirin:
Agree. All the discourse about the economy is fake. Just goes to show how many natural serfs exists in the country and in the party.
jonas
@sdhays: I generally agree, but the difference is that the rainbow flag symbolizes inclusivity and diversity, whereas the other ones = “fuck you if you aren’t a white male meathead.”
sdhays
@Baud: In general, Republicans don’t like small businesses, despite their rhetoric. But maybe an ok one could be scrounged up.
Geminid
If she wins, when she wins, Kamala Harris will apoint whomever she wants to her Cabinet. I am not going to second guess her, and especially not in advance.
That said, there are plenty of things in the world that I worry about, but the prospect of a Republican in a Harris cabinet is not one of them.
Baud
Biden didn’t appoint any Republicans and you see what that got him. So I agree with @Geminid.
JML
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: Yeah, DoT is fairly non-partisan so it’s been considered “safe”. Commerce can land that way too. What can’t be allowed is the idea that a Harris administration has to appoint a Republican to Defense, AG, or the FBI. (I’m not necessarily opposed to CIA; there are republicans who would do fine and frankly it’s a low-profile job so you don’t have to deal with the grandstanding) But they need to be kept away from Defense (can’t allow the media to run the idea that Democrats “can’t” run the military), Justice (Republicans have perverted justice too much recently), Education (no blatant enemies of public education and teacher allowed; I’m sure Walz would have things to say about this), or HHS.
Pick a couple of Republicans as ambassadors, find one who believes in civil liberties for the NSA or something, etc. It’s fine. Do just enough to throw the Beltway media a bone and nothing that will sideline your agenda.
Geminid
@Baud: Geoff Duncan for SBA!
Kay
Good number
Ramalama
@MazeDancer: Yeah! Reminds me of the panel of Democratic women governors talking with Julia Louis Dreyfus. So so good.
JLD has honed in her interview skills (from her fantastic “Wiser than Me” podcast), while keeping her sense of humor because she’s a professional. The whole thing was funny, interesting, smart, awesome.
The governors, including the one from Maine, were hilarious while displaying their experiences in kicking ass for their states. Governor from New Mexico was out of this world.
edit: here’s the same video on Youtube in case CSPAN is not your jam.
Baud
@Kay:
That Comey endorsement really helped.
MazeDancer
Hopium reports: Harris up by 6 among Likely Voters in latest ABC poll.
Wait til they roll out the big JD Vance footage in October.
ETA: See that Kay noted as well!
Another Scott
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: Agreed, but we need a big enough working majority in the Senate to make sure her cabinet appointees can be confirmed. The idea that a president wouldn’t be able to have her own choices in her own cabinet would have seemed nonsensical a decade or so ago, but we know there are cranks like “Coach” Tuberville in there now…
Remember that Obama and Biden had some picks held up for months/years or they had to be moved to other positions.
We need to do what we can to win as many seats as possible. Harris can then figure out who she wants heading agencies, given the lay of the land in January, whether she needs to fight for certain people or have some sort of understanding with those throwing up roadblocks in the Senate, etc. I’m sure she’ll consider all the issues when/if the time comes.
My $0.02.
Cheers,
Scott.
Eolirin
@Another Scott: Most of those examples are situations where there’s a definite politicial agenda, so I’d count most of that under political reporting.
The leadership and it’s values are terrible.
But they do good reporting on science, and food, and most of the time on culture, though it’s a particularly NYC lens on that.
Despite that, I don’t think they should be supported because they do immense damage to the country, but I care about politics. That’s… already not a mainstream position.
Eolirin
@JML: Don’t forget HUD
TBone
Today’s message music 🎶
https://youtu.be/sY8nrodt74A
TBone
@Geminid: 💙
Kay
@Baud:
People are sick of Trump.
I read a smart suggestion the other day. Pull all the reporters who have embedded with Trump off him and put in all new ones. They think he’s normal because they’ve been making careers off him for 9 years and they’re buddy-buddy with his gross employees. Fresh eyes. We’re bored with Trump AND we’re bored with the coverage of Trump. Give the public a break and put new people in.
Harrison Wesley
@J.: When LOML and I were out last week celebrating her birthday in Gulf Gate, she was sporting her “, la” tee shirt. Nobody gave us a second glance; I’m pretty sure they had no idea what it meant.
oldster
@Another Scott:
“The idea that a president wouldn’t be able to have her own choices in her own cabinet would have seemed nonsensical a decade or so ago, but we know there are cranks like “Coach” Tuberville in there now…”
Plus a corrupt SCOTUS that will declare that the sacred independence and autonomy of the “unitary executive “ applies only to Republican presidents….
jonas
Except that the typical MAGAt is a small business owner (not, as the media often suggests, disaffected blue-collar workers with “economic anxiety”) — think car dealers, contractors, realtors, ranchers, etc. They hate taxes, business regulations, environmental regulations, worker safety regulations, diversity initiatives, etc., and Republicans are happy to cater to those gripes. Ironically, though, their businesses inevitably thrive more under the economic dynamism of Democratic administrations than under Republicans.
Kay
I don’t care at all if she puts a Republican in the Cabinet. I just want her to break with Biden’s Gaza policy – it’s an unmitigated disaster on every level. Rethink that, put new people in. My one and only request.
BR
@Kay:
They should hire some Canadians to cover Trump. Close enough to understand the US but arms length enough to see him for who he is.
MomSense
@Ramalama:
They’ve been gathering for years now at the Naval Observatory 😉. They’ve gotten close.
SatanicPanic
@Geminid: Agreed. Also it’ll be funny to see how many Republican senators vote no on whatever Republican she chooses.
MomSense
@Kay:
Both the policy and the messaging have been disastrous.
Geminid
@Kay: I wonder if you saw the August 29 Politico article titled, “Women in Florida reach across the aisle to support abortion initiative.”
It’s a long article that begins with a meeting at a clubhouse in a gated SW Florida community. An audience of “mostly Republican” women are listening to a discussion of Florida’s abortion rights initiative, led by a local obstetrician.
BR
@Kay:
Yeah, per Adam’s posts and comments, I’m optimistic that she has a different foreign policy perspective than Biden, and would put in a whole fresh team of experts at State and Defense.
And not that the VP makes these decisions, but I’m still floored by Walz teaching deeply — in a way that doesn’t even happen in college courses — about genocide to high school students in the early 1990s, predicting the Rwandan genocide.
https://cdn.xcancel.com/pic/orig/media%2FGUdkuPpXAAAlruc.jpg
Harrison Wesley
@Kay: That horse left the barn and is now stranded on the space shuttle. Look – the situation will be resolved by this time next year: there won’t be any living Palestinians in either Gaza or the West Bank. Everybody swims around the goldfish bowl a couple of times until all the unpleasantness is forgotten and then we all go out for cake.
JML
@Eolirin: Yeah, I don’t want the GOP anywhere near HUD: they’d probably try and bring back redlining. But you never know.
It’s possible to find a republican who isn’t a total crap-weasel on a particular area and work with them, just harder and harder these days since the primary requirement for the party these days is absolute fealty to TFG and willingness to renounce any principles you might have held at the request of Dear Leader. You have to buy in to the politics of resentment and grievance, which makes it hard to work with them on anything. This is something that places like the NYT refuses to understand.
This election is so incredibly important. If the GOP win the presidency, it cements grievance and resentment as the core principles of the GOP and that will dominate the next couple of cycles…assuming we even still have a recognizable democracy. If they lose, it could cause a massive fracture in the GOP as they flail around trying to determine some leadership (they have no one in the House, their senate leadership is either ancient or bland or idiotic) and the governors are a clown car of stupid.
TBone
My minor quibble of the week: when reporting on women bleeding out because abortion healthcare access denied and other pregnancy horrors, stop calling it “stories” when reporting. These are real life experiences.
Say it with me.
Experiences.
Hungry Joe
POSTCARD UPDATE — SERIES 2
Postcards to Swing States:
Yesterday — 19
Running total — 123
Note: My first 200 will be going voters in Nevada; this batch is for Texas. All are to be mailed 10/24. Postcards to Swing States is full up, but plenty of other orgs still need postcards written, to be mailed ASAP. Do just a handful a day, if that’s all you have time for. It adds up fast.
Kay
@BR:
Oh, I hope so. I emailed the campaign so obviously it’s as good as done :)
I read the Biden will take no advice on it. Ugh. I hate that sort of bullheaded stubborness – it’s ego. It’s a disaster as policy. Can’t change it up quick enough for me.
BR
@Hungry Joe:
Thank you for your inspiration. We’re working our way through the Arizona postcards. We’re at about 100 so far, 900 to go.
Kay
@Geminid:
No, but thank you. I’ll look for it. The polling is good but they have a huge lift. 60% is difficult. We just needed 51 in OH
J.
@oldgold: Ha!
BR
@Kay:
The most leverage that Biden or Harris would have is during the transition, I think. Biden can take “controversial” (to the media) but necessary steps that will be on him as the outgoing president.
hrprogressive
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Exactly. (D) presidents have made it an asinine “tradition” to put (R)’s in their cabinet, but I can’t think of the last time an (R) did the reverse. Especially in the age of Trump/Fascism, there’s zero chance of this ever happening, so.
The Bullshit Beltway Press is going to cream their pants at the thought of “bipartisanship” solely because it is closer to their goal of “unfettered GOP power” than “unfettered Democratic Power”, and a Harris/Walz admin would absolutely not benefit.
The other commenter who noted Kinzinger as SecDef if only for his pro-Ukraine stance is about the first time I’ve actually thought it sounded like at least a plausible idea, if only to piss the right off.
I certainly don’t want (R)’s in the Harris/Walz Cabinet.
But if you wanted to make a guy like Kinzinger some sort of Special Envoy or maybe some other lower-level, non-cabinet position, but one with enough media visibility to be a good mouthpiece…you know what? There might be a reasonable case for something like that.
But it’s a use case that is fairly limited, and fairly unique.
Simply plopping (R)’s in there in the name of “Bipartisanship” has got to be burned down and the earth salted behind it.
Put the best people in the role that best represent you and your party’s values. Plain and simple from here on out.
sdhays
@jonas: Totally agree. But it’s just a fact that so many shitty flags are out there that some of us reflexively flinch when we see something like it, before processing the actual message. Like I said, the genie isn’t going back in the bottle, but that was oldgold’s and my initial split second reaction. It sucks.
frosty
@TBone: How awesome! Golden Eagles are kind of rare. I’ve seen one at Middle Creek WRA in Lancaster County. But to see one from your yard???
Kay
@BR:
Biden isn’t going to change his approach. At this point it’s sunk cost fallacy in there. But I agree the best time to break with Biden would be immediately – obviously plan the break during the transition.
SatanicPanic
@hrprogressive: I was curious the other day so I looked it up- GWB, GHWB and Reagan all had Democrats in their cabinets. I don’t know the origin of this tradition so I can’t say which party it started with, but it’s been bipartisan for quite some time.
I said it in another thread- Trumps general fucked up behavior and towering corruption distorts everything. Until him this was a normal, uncontroversial thing. We can’t imagine even little gestures like this ever not being a sinister thing, but we should probably try to remember the before times.
BR
https://mastodon.social/@GottaLaff/113062605250290334
Omnes Omnibus
@SatanicPanic: List of presidential appointments across party lines.
TBone
@frosty: we live very close to the Susquehanna River as well as to a lot of acres of State Forest. All kinds of sightings occur! If it lives in PA, I’ve seen it (except for mountain lion – I saw something big and slinky in the brush but could not confirm). Bobcat, beaver, bear, mink, coyote, osprey, all sorts of birds…I know I’m forgetting some.
One ornithologist walking on the lane by my cabin informed me that he’d logged the largest number of different species of birds of his entire career there (Penns Creek, White Mountain Wild Area).
Jackie
@hrprogressive: Heh. I just had a thought: Does Kinzinger have a law degree? If so… how about USAG? He’d relish throwing TCFG and MAGA congress critters in prison ASAP! 🤔🤭
<snark>
SatanicPanic
Trump trying to call Harris a liar because she claimed to work at McDonald’s but didn’t (according to Trump) is wild.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Kay:
@MazeDancer:
I wonder if those “likely voter” models include the massive numbers of newly registered voters I’ve also been reading about.
Baud
@SatanicPanic:
Thank you. I’m sick of fake slams against Dems.
Jeffro
WHERE’S MELANIA??!?
(j/k, who cares =)
TBone
https://www.jefftiedrich.com/p/elderly-fascist-golfer-calls-violent
Another example of How to Do a Headline, for all who celebrate! 😆
Baud
@SatanicPanic:
She needs to release her long form job application.
sdhays
@SatanicPanic: The parties used to be a lot more heterodox than now. It’s a lot harder to find someone from the other party you can genuinely work with on common ground, and that you can trust.
I’ll say it again – I trust MVP. I just think the whole idea is stupid.
SatanicPanic
@Omnes Omnibus: ooh that would have saved me some time yesterday. Looks like it goes back to Jefferson.
HinTN
@Kay: Yes, a thousand times yes! Adam is right about the Nat Sec team being prisoners of their biases about not antagonizing Russia.
frosty
Road Trip!!
Baud
@sdhays:
True. But she only needs to find one.
TBone
New campaign sign near Casa TBone:
💙🇺🇲❤️
Baud
@TBone:
Good.
SatanicPanic
@sdhays: I think it’s not a bad idea in and of itself, I’m just pushing back on the idea that it’s some sort of plot against Democrats that Democrats are too foolish to see. It’s not, it’s just a normal thing we did until Trump came along.
TBone
@frosty: 💚
UncleEbeneezer
Vice President Kamala Harris:
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Voter fraud!
Philly’s most notorious slumlord has been busted for really blatant vote fraud, including use of fake SS#s.
(Apologies if that link is paywalled. The guy’s name is Phillip Pulley.)
He’s switched his registration to Dem in recent years, but somehow I’m dubious that a guy like this votes Dem.
NotMax
A great big thank you to those who showed up last night: fellow jackals Layer8Problem, JAFD, arrieve, Tom Q and Jayne.
Proof of life photo will have to wait until I’m settled back at the domicile.
scav
Just to throw it out (because I don’t care either way, Kamala seems to choose good help and it’s her cabinet) if having a repub in there is something democrats have always done, then signaling she’d do so again is a sign of returning to fucking normality, a state that many are desperate for.
TBone
@Baud: last presidential election it was “Anyone But Trump. Any sentient creature!” In my suburban neighborhood, the rumpers are seriously outnumbered – across the street white couple purposely sold to a Black lady before they moved to New York.
The rumpy neighbors’ son thought he was slick trying to steal other neighbors’ campaign signs one night. We got him!
kindness
@Jackie: The comments over at that WaPo story are really good. Much better than the article.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@SatanicPanic:
McDonald’s is not included on her legal CV. Therefore she must never have worked there according to the Republican resume experts.
TBone
@NotMax: yay!
Another Scott
@Kay:
OTOH, maybe the US and Biden doesn’t have as much leverage as one might think.
TimesofIsrael.com (from today):
I don’t expect much of anything, short of a clear military d, efeat,to make Bibi and his cabinet take a different approach.
YMMV.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
Btw this should be the week where trumpov starts losing a couple % in the polls due to his FLIP-FLOPPING on ABORTION.
(It won’t show up until the following week, but it’ll be noticeable)
(NYT headline story about this has already been moved off of their front page, for obvious reasons)
TBone
no@Another Scott: that is also my opinion
“… maybe the US and Biden doesn’t have as much leverage as one might think.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: To be fair, McDonald’s is not on my CV because I never worked there. Applying the transitive property, she never worked there either.*
*This was intentionally bad logic. You do not need to correct me. Thank you in advance.
Anoniminous
@Ceci n est pas mon nym:
The “Likely Voter” demographic is hard to define. Because people lie. (duh) Usually pollsters ask a couple of questions to determine if they are Likely a big one being if they voted in 2020. Newly registered voters fail the test and, thus, usually screened out when polling Likely Voters.
Another Scott
@Omnes Omnibus: “Ivanka Trump – Democratic”
Heh.
(Thanks.)
Cheers,
Scott.
SatanicPanic
@Baud: I’m sure Glenn Kessler is on the story. For Harris’ sake I hope she’s not misremembering and it was actually a Burger King or it’s Pinocchio city for her
TBone
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: oh that makes me very happy!
Baud
@SatanicPanic:
It was a McDowell’s.
Omnes Omnibus
@Another Scott: The person who did the Trump section was really reaching.
SatanicPanic
@Baud: Home of the Big Mick!
TBone
@Baud: 😆
I never put Wendy’s on my resume. Or the dental office where I was an assistant’s assistant. Or the ShipNShore clothing factory.
https://youtu.be/SiQhXQoJ3d4?si=CZq05RgcoS2saZC5
Anoniminous
@SatanicPanic:
Lincoln had Andrew Johnson a Southern Democrat as Veep. Which turned out to be a serious mistake since he was a States Rights white supremacist who did everything he could to subjugate Blacks politically, socially, culturally, and especially economically.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Another Scott: Heh indeed 😁 “Peter Navarro — Democratic [with a footnote]”.
mrmoshpotato
@SatanicPanic: Sounds like Putin’s bitch needs to go harass McTrashass’s for Kamala Harris’s job application from decades ago.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Wow, the SBA is a Cabinet position?! Well, so it is. Dayum.
I’d say give Veterans’ Affairs to a Republican whose career you’d like to kill. If he doesn’t come through and do right by veterans, his opponents can use that against him forever. And if he tries to do right by them, but has to spend his entire term fighting against Senators and Representatives of his own party to try to do so, well pass the popcorn.
Sheila in nc
@JML: No R’s to lead Commerce. That’s where NOAA lives. Hands off our climate data.
Matt McIrvin
@Anoniminous: Some of the “Biden must go” talk in the summer inevitably gravitated around a fantasy of the Democrats nominating a never-Trumper Republican for President, or some kind of unity ticket with a Republican VP. Terrible, terrible idea.
Belafon
@oldster: I understand the feeling at modifying the US flag, but it might help to think of them as gang signs. And I wouldn’t mind being in the gang using John’s flag.
satby
I think you forgot the crowd you’re talking to here. Not really the predominate skill set /s
lowtechcyclist
@JML:
We found out back in 2009 just how nonpartisan transportation policy is in this country. Remember all those R govs blocking Obama’s proposed high-speed rail projects? And with EVs becoming important to forestall climate change, it hasn’t gotten any better lately. I’m very glad that we have a Democrat in that job.
Maybe once upon a time, since Commerce is really a grab-bag of discrete agencies, but that includes information-gathering agencies like NOAA and Census, and the GOP has repeatedly demonstrated that their response to information they don’t like is to hamstring or remove the agency that gathers it and makes it available.
Best just to keep Republicans out of the Cabinet and other positions of responsibility altogether.
ETA: Beaten to the punch on NOAA by Sheila in nc. :-)
Anoniminous
@Matt McIrvin:
Can always find some morons to vociferously promote a mind-boggling stupid idea.
lowtechcyclist
@MazeDancer:
“And you can believe me, because I never lie, and I’m always right.”
-George Tirebiter
Shalimar
@Omnes Omnibus: The Trump list is about as honest as Trump. Michael Flynn is a Democrat? Ivanka Trump? Peter Navarro?!?!?!
O. Felix Culpa
@UncleEbeneezer: Thank you for posting this. May Hersh’s memory–and the memory of all those murdered on Oct. 7 and subsequently–be a blessing.
Omnes Omnibus
@Shalimar: They may very well have been registered Democrats. You know, like Richard Perle was.
Anoniminous
@Omnes Omnibus:
LOGIC!!!
Eunicecycle
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: pprobably not, as there is no way to measure their propensity to actually vote. Usually that’s why the poll asks if you voted in the last election, sometimes more. New voters didn’t, so they wouldn’t be likely voters. But some polls try to add an “enthusiasm” variable and number of new registered voters may factor that in.
wjca
On the contrary, there are Never Trump Republicans who will tell you flat out that the way to court disaffected Republicans is to lean on “Trump is weird,” “Vance is weird and creepy,” and keep laughing at both of them. How effective that is can be seen in how frantically they try to refute it. Unsuccessfully, and it just amplifies the message when they do.
Beyond that, it can be useful to put out there ads with Republican officeholders endorsing Harris, and ex-Trump voters rejecting him. You may be scornful of both groups. But the point is to win this election. And, like it or not (and I don’t), the reality is that there are disaffected Republican voters who need what is basically a permission structure to feel comfortable voting for a Democrat. Even on a secret ballot. And those ads can help give them that.
Denali5
@oldster: Guess I am an oldster too. I don’t like any change to our original Flag.
Matt McIrvin
@Anoniminous: I’m not Socrates, I’m just asking questions.
Eunicecycle
@O. Felix Culpa: I am just so sick about this. Reporting says they were executed; they did not die from their ill-treatment. And Hersh was supposed to be released as part of a deal that Netanyahu torched.
Matt McIrvin
@lowtechcyclist: And to think there was a time when I had to memorize all the Cabinet-level departments for school. I’ve long since lost track.
Anoniminous
@wjca:
Tactically, I’d prefer disaffected Republicans to stay at home and not vote. That way the Grand Old White People’s Party would lose votes all the way down the ticket. If the GOP vote collapsed back to Romney’s 60,933,504 and we got Biden’s 81,283,50 – or more – we could very well end up with substantial majorities in both the House and Senate.
cain
@oldster:
Me too
I’m not a fan of all these flags. The right have been using it as some kind of way to show loyalty to different factions.
I suppose that’s good since they don’t use the original flag anymore. I don’t know why we should follow suit.
Mr. Bemused Senior
That point was raised in the video AL posted on Friday. The rise in newly registered voters is suggestive, not necessarily indicative.
Renie
@TBone: thanks for the link. that guy is hysterical! joined his mailing list.
Matt McIrvin
@oldster:
I like that idea too, in part because the symbolic power of the flag does tug at people’s emotions and among the bad things it’s stood for, it’s stood for important good things too. And it seems to me that every time there’s been progress toward justice and equality in this country, it’s because the associated goals and values were framed in patriotic terms, as something this country is supposed to be about.
But I just saw a discussion of flag stuff elsewhere get derailed into someone insisting that the US flag is a symbol of war crimes and is too tainted to be anything else.
It’s so hard for our side to build any kind of functional coalition, because of this kind of thing.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anoniminous: If the Evangelicals went back to their old standard of not wanting to sully themselves with involvement in the “dirty” world of politics, that would be okay too.
Anoniminous
Will @Matt McIrvin please report to the Agora prison. Your cup of hemlock is waiting.
Matt McIrvin
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Someone on another blog was wondering why the companies tracking 2024 presidential polls don’t seem interested in adjusting their demographic/LV models for the shifts in enthusiasm we saw in the 2022 midterm.
I responded that they can’t. How would you do it? A midterm electorate and a Presidential electorate are markedly different things–the former is historically far more conditioned by differences in turnout enthusiasm, because in a presidential year there’s more of it across the board.
The effect of Dobbs and the reaction to it on a Presidential election is simply unknown, until it happens. We can guess, but we can’t make informed estimates.
Mr. Bemused Senior
And their preachers were right. Just look at what happened.
Sure Lurkalot
@Jackie: Apologies if this has been posted, an archive link to the WaPo article about Republicans trying to thread the needle on abortion.
http://archive.today/vpYku
FFS, they’re loud and proud about their cruel policies until it threatens their job, like denying reproductive care somehow doesn’t threaten women’s lives.
Omnes Omnibus
@Matt McIrvin: I really do think that you make so much of an effort to read the writings of people on the margins of our politics that you start to think that they are more numerous and influential than they are.
K-Mo
@lowtechcyclist: At some point we are going to have to have a conversation with the country about when a “DEI hire” might be a good thing and when it might not.
”This person comes from a demo with political or economic power and we need to cater to that group “ isn’t really a great look although it is commonplace. Essentially that’s what a token GOP in the cabinet is.
“This person comes from a demo that has been shut off from opportunity and we need to make sure we are mining every source of human potential” is much better. Ideally it leads to a situation where someone grows immensely with the opportunity and rises to higher office on their blossoming talent.
Omnes Omnibus
You kids have fun. I am going to get cleaned up and go to the Wisconsin Highland Games.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Sure Lurkalot:
“Baggage.” More like the chains Jacob Marley forged in life. May it sink them.
Tony Jay
Not yet, no. But with Stench and Snowball proving incapable of cracking a smile without hurting people first, trying to turn JOY into a negative will be a priority for the corporate PR industry.
artem1s
@Baud:
the Fed should also not be making decisions based on big banks need to borrow money at 0% interest. The banks and billionaire edge lords have had zero rates loans from the American tax payers since W’s recession. They want Greenspan’s Fed back. And they want FDIC insurance for their shitty venture capitalist, Russian mob, money laundering, cryto currency Ponzi schemes. Keeping the fed rate at or around 5% is historically low. It’s only since the GOP started dumping their economic disasters on Democratic administrations that they figured out they could keep the party going endlessly by handing the ‘too big too fail’ banks an unlimited, zero interest loan that the country has started to believe 5% is too high. Also 5% means the average American can get a decent rate of return by using an FDIC savings account, HSA, or CD. The banks, Wallstreet and their brokers really, really hate all that cash sitting in safe, secure FDIC accounts that isn’t available for them to gamble away on investments like backing Elmo’s Xhitter failure.IMO Powell and Biden have been doing the country a favor by keeping the Fed rate at a ‘normal’ level rather than giving in to the temptation to give the banks unfettered access to free money so they can tank the economy again, and again, and again. Also,too having the fed rate somewhere above 0% is the only tool the President has to recover from the next supply side, tax cuts for the rich, forever war, GOP induced
recessiondepression.TBone
@Renie: yours in service,
TBone ❤️
(A day without laughter is a day wasted.)
wjca
Almost, but not quite. For example: Ukraine. There’s a chasm between Democrats and Trump. But there are both Democrats and Republicans who want more aid to Ukraine. (Starting with changing the insane policy which keeps Ukranians from attacking the Russian bombers which fire bombs and missiles into Ukraine daily.)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Media idiocy isn’t just an American MSM thing, here is the time some Serbian tank modelers fooled everyone with a fake tank.
https://youtu.be/l3tGsrruawI?si=PsLjutXPzB353yLP
Anoniminous
@Omnes Omnibus:
Unfortunately if this election is anything like the last election:
Arizona- won by ~10,000 votes or 0.03%
Georgia: won by ~2,000 votes or 0.23%
Michigan: won by 154,188 votes or 2.78%
Nevada: won by 33,596 votes or 2.39%
Wisconsin: won by 20,682 votes or 0.63%
those “marginal voters” could swing the election.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anoniminous: Not my point.
Ramalama
@MomSense: They’ve …
..
been meeting at ..
(whispers loudly) KAMALA’S HOUSE?
Baud
@artem1s:
We lost that battle, just like we’ve lost so many other battles when it comes to the economy. The majority want low wages and Reaganomics.
Another Scott
@K-Mo: Relatedly, …
+1
(via GottaLaff)
Cheers,
Scott.
Citizen Alan
@sdhays: AcActually, it was norman maneta, the transportation secretary who was the only person in the cabinet who showed genuine competence on 9/11. So there’s that I guess that means you’re permanent.
Matt McIrvin
@wjca: That’s an interesting point: Israel/Palestine is a wedge issue for our side, but Ukraine/Russia is a wedge issue mostly for THEIR side.
(yeah, there are some “antiwar” “leftists” who are effectively pro-Russia, but they are mostly the type who deserted the Democratic Party long ago.)
lowtechcyclist
@TBone:
Well, let’s find out. We give them a shitload of aid on a continuing basis. How about we stop?
Either they would change their policies in order for our aid to resume, or they would do without.
If the latter, at least we wouldn’t be supporting war crimes and genocide anymore. That’s enough of a silver lining for me.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: The majority want low wages until it happens to them. Mostly in the form of NO wages when the economy caves in.
kalakal
@Anoniminous:
Another Scott
Meanwhile, in Brazil, …
Hmm… Follow the money is always a good idea.
Eyes on the prizes.
(via 7veritas4)
Cheers,
Scott.
K-Mo
@MazeDancer: Moving Susan Collins out of a position where she wields immense power into one where she serves at the pleasure of Kamala Harris would be a home run.
p.a.
Times change. At one time the position of USPS head was a dumping ground (TBH I’m not even sure where it stands in cabinet/subcabinet hierarchy & don’t feel like googling), but it’s kind of important now! Maybe trade-commerce-SBA if Harris thinks it would be a political+, otherwise guests at federal prisons are my preferred “appointments”.
MomSense
@Ramalama:
Yup.
Another Scott
Hmm. My comment went poof. Perhaps it’s in the dungeon because it contains a banned ‘nym again?
Dunno what else might have caused it.
Help?
If that’s not it, here’s the link – about a possible motivation for Melon going after Brazil’s laws and government. (via 7veritas4)
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
@Matt McIrvin:
When I was in grade school, there were ten Cabinet departments, IIRC. Now there are 24 people in the Cabinet. I’m not gonna remember who’s heading up the Small Animal Administration.
Sister Golden Bear
@oldster:
@sdhays:
The recolonized flag is riffing off the rainbow Pride flag. While I’m also sick of the various MAGAized versions of the flag, there’s a couple big differences. This version empathizes inclusivity. It’s also way for queer (and trans) people, and allies, to signal our presence — which especially in WV is a big Joe Biden Deal. It’s meant as much for letting othe queer/trans that they’re not alone, akin to having a Harris/Walz sign is for other Dems in Red State.
Personally, I fly both a Pride and standard US flag — and I definitely am in favor of Dems reclaiming the flag — but I think an exemption is warranted for this one.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@kalakal:
Logic is a little tweeting bird, chirping in a meadow.
Another Scott
@Mr. Bemused Senior: Nimoy must have loved those lines. Like with you, they’ve stuck with me for many decades.
:-)
Cheers,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
@K-Mo:
Are you sure you didn’t mean this as a response to someone else? I haven’t been commenting on the DEI business in this thread.
Citizen Alan
@Citizen Alan: I Have no idea where those random extra words came from.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Another Scott: Star Trek provided so many opportunities for actors to go over the top. Most of the time it worked beautifully.
Citizen Alan
@p.a.: Honestly, there is no cabinet position that is safe from a Republican appointee If that appointee wants to destroy the department or agency he’s in charge of for ideological reasons.
Tony Jay
Not yet, no. But with Stench and Snowball proving incapable of cracking a smile without hurting people first, trying to turn JOY into a negative will be a priority for the corporate PR industry.
Tony Jay
Testing
trollhattan
@wjca: We could take a page from the UK which, despite having gone from Tory to Labour remain foursquare pro Ukraine. Living rather closer to Vlad tends to focus one, which totally does not explain Hungary or a lot of Republicans and American billionaires, but there you are.
lowtechcyclist
@wjca:
Doesn’t matter what they want; it matters how they vote. Anyone who’s ‘for’ aid to Ukraine but helped block aid to Ukraine for several months last fall and winter…well, enough said.
trollhattan
@Tony Jay: Magic 8 Ball sagt “Nein”
Mr. Bemused Senior
What what what what what ..
Tony Jay
Not sure what’s going on with comments.
Simple ones go through, but ones with quote boxes selected and different fonts don’t?
Do we have banned words now?
lowtechcyclist
@kalakal: You posted that just for the halibut.
Frankensteinbeck
I don’t have time to read and take part in a thread.
In case this hasn’t been raised yet:
Hamas killed six hostages when the IDF stormed the Rafa tunnels. The Israeli people are BIG mad, with huge protests, at Netenyahu. The feeling in Israel seems to be Bibi could have saved these people with a ceasefire and maybe even deliberately let them die for political reasons.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@artem1s:
Sooo much what you said. Greenspan’s Fed. Unlimited Free Money (to our oligarchic overlords) and a regulatory structure makes vulture capitalism so appealing.
And so detrimental.
Steve LaBonne
@Eolirin: FTFNYT has pretty much stopped even the largely fictitious pretense it used to maintain of covering its own city. (I live in Ohio but I’m a native New Yorker so that offends me.) And there are plenty of better sources for international news. So I don’t know what’s actually left besides recipes and games (and there are infinitely many other sources for those, too.)
Mr. Bemused Senior
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Free enterprise! Creative destruction! Happy days!
[sorry, I got carried away] /s
kalakal
@lowtechcyclist: Correct!
And Thinking of Monty Python and halibut
JAFD
@Nukular Biskits:
Good day !
(Repeated from below) This shot was Pfitzer, but most of the ones I’ve had before were Modena. Hope that helps.
oldster
@Matt McIrvin:
“But I just saw a discussion of flag stuff elsewhere get derailed into someone insisting that the US flag is a symbol of war crimes and is too tainted to be anything else.”
Silly people — don’t they know we have a special flag just for war-crimes?
wjca
I think this is one of those rare cases where “slippery slope” is a real thing. We’ve already got, as you note, a Pride flag. No need to mess with the Stars and Stripes.
Another Scott
@Tony Jay: If one uses the ‘nym of a banned commenter (e.g. e v e r s o r), it immediately goes poof. Otherwise, I don’t think there is a list of banned words.
Trouble is, we don’t know all the banned commenters…
I don’t know if there are other gremlins out and about in FYWP now.
HTH a little.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kent
It was Norm Mineta who served as George W. Bush’s Secretary of Transportation.
wjca
We were talking about Never Trump Republicans. Not a lot of those in Congress these days. Or, if they are there, they are deep in the closet.**
** Yes, innuendo intended.
Geminid
@Citizen Alan: I think these fears are overstated. Cabinet secretaries serve at the will of the President and Harris can give any wayward Republican appointee the hook “right quick-like.” She can also choose their Deputy and Assistant Secretaries. Harris strikes me as someone who will staff her administration carefully and run a tight ship afterwards.
Kent
The VA is really the only Cabinet-level agency that is truly non-partisan. Although Republicans have tried to privatize it in administrations past. But that sort of policy is probably above the level of VA Secretary. So the VA is the only place I would dump a Republican.
Commerce is an environmental agency. It’s biggest component by far is NOAA which is the management agency for all the nation’s oceans and collects much of the nation’s climate and weather data.
Agriculture houses the Forest Service which is enormous in the western half of the country and at the center of many western environmental fights.
Defense is far to consequential of a cabinet agency to use for an “affirmative action” hire.
Transportation is immensely important as Buttigieg has shown us.
Nope, the VA is the only safe place to dump a Republican.
Tony Jay
@Another Scott:
Hmmmmm. Reading through the comment there are no unwanted crazytroll names. Can’t see any other issues. It just won’t post it. Let’s see.
NYT Daily Hot-Take
Democrats accused of promoting ‘sexual slavery’ in row over campaign’s adoption of iconography similar to Nazi Party ‘Joy Division’
Trendy young social media influencers employed by the Harris/Walz campaign probably thought they’d stumbled upon a powerful message when they made JOY the foundational theme of the Democratic ticket, but the advantages of experience and rhetorical caution were quickly made stark when their latest bright idea was revealed by independent Washington-based lobby group Mothers Against Globalist Advertising to echo a Nazi era policy that involved the enslavement of women and girls who did not embrace Hitler’s anti-Socialist ideas.
“We’re not accusing the Democrat Party of being card-carrying Nazis”, said the group founder and main spokesperson Karen Blanchefort, a homemaker and mother of nine from Bowling Green, Kentucky, “or even suggesting that they have actionable plans in place to force conservative white women to service their legions of jackbooted thugs, but it beggars belief that Kamala Harris would sign off on this ‘Joy Division’ theme without recognising straight off how insulting and threatening it would be to women outside of the Liberal Bubble”.
Democrat offices were contacted but had not responded by time of publication.
(Not yet, no. But with Stench and Snowball proving incapable of cracking a smile without hurting people first, trying to turn JOY into a negative will be a priority for the corporate PR industry.)
Tony Jay
@Another Scott:
Bizarre. I can’t see any crazy troll names but it just won’t post it.
Nettoyeur
@sdhays: Who then resigned, said some critical things about the W/Vice admin, which he recanted after his family was threatened.
Kent
I spent 15 years of my life working for a federal agency (NOAA). Cabinet Secretaries have a lot of power. Every regulation the agency promulgates goes out under their signature. Delay for specious reasons can be as effective as outright obstruction. And they can influence the hiring and promotion of all the underlings under them who aren’t themselves direct political appointees (most). They also wield control over their agency’s budgets which is extremely significant. Not the total line item budget for the agency. That is Congress. But how it gets spent.
So no. You very much do not want the “wrong” people in power in federal agencies. Government is hard enough without having powerful people obstructing things at the top.
oldster
@Sister Golden Bear:
I’m not in a position to offer an exemption or withhold one, either — no one consults me.
However, I do think that the fate of many queer and trans people turns on winning this election — life is going to get a lot worse if Trump wins and implements Project 2025.
And I also think that Harris and Walz have been smart to run on old-fashioned, Fourth of July, patriotism. I think that they have made the judgment that their best hopes for protecting oppressed people of all kinds lies in de-emphasizing that part of the Dem coalition, and running to the center instead of running to the left.
If there are gettable votes in WV, if there are any potential Trump-to-Harris voters out there, then my guess is that they will react more warmly to the original flag than to the pride flag version.
It’s good to win elections. There will be time for visibility after we win.
wjca
Then again, if you look at how TCFG has been constantly disrespecting veterans, and the military generally, it would have to be a high profile, early adopter, Never Trump Republican. Like started in early 2016 and kept being loud about it.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Kent:
I’ve written about this before. Worked for DOT for 27+ years so saw how that unwritten rule played out.
It was typically DOT Secretary mainly because transportation pork spending (not necessarily a bad thing) was broadly bipartisan and it didn’t make much difference who was the nominal head of DOT.
The idea was to put someone in there with a modicum of experience in transportation issues. It’s one reason why Obama nominated Ray LaHood for the position, he’d served in Congress on the Transportation sub-committee.
Of course (R) worked the “we’re the party of national security”, thus we had holdovers like Gates as SecDef (not that Gates was a particularly egregious careerist (R)).
But since bipartisanship is a thing of the past (except in the minds of our Beltway Media Corpse and then only in (D) Administrations), it makes no sense to appoint anybody from the other party to the 15 Cabinet positions. Moreover, the (R) will only appoint rank careerists, Chao probably being one of the worst examples given her personal, family background being up-to-its-eyeballs in benefiting from transportation-related regulatory capture. At least she could say she’d been a Cabinet secretary before and it’s galling to think of somebody like that as Sec of Labor. I digress but it addresses Kent’s basic statement above “These fears are *not* overstated.”
For one thing, appoint Dems to these positions allows our bench to flex and grow their skillset. We’re not here to help (R) do shit other than dig themselves a big hole to jump into which we’ll gladly cover up.
eclare
@Kent:
Thanks for this summary.
Mousebumples
@Hungry Joe: thanks for postcarding!
I’ve got a collection of GOTV opportunities on this linktree I’ve found (https://linktr.ee/getup_GOTV2024) and WaterGirl has more on the 2024 Activism post in the menu bar.
I did another 20 last night, up to 70 for my running total…
Another Scott
@Tony Jay: You could try breaking it up in to separately posted paragraphs, I guess. Or mail it to WG?
I think a n o n y m o u s got me today, but that seems impossibly common to actually be a dungeon word.
:-/
Dunno. Sorry for the hassle.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mousebumples
@BR: wow! Great work to you too!
TBone
I have no interest in litigiousness today. Can’t work up the seriousness necessary to argue on a holiday weekend. It’s also our ten year anniversary tomorrow and damnit, ain’t nothing gonna bring me down! Pool’s still open and they throw a great Labor Day bash every year where we go to celebrate like they planned it for us 🤣 there’s a huge buffet table and some people even bring hot dish! Bacon-wrapped shrimp, chiles relenos, fresh salsa, all kinds of dips and nibbles and crockpots show up. I just made two puff pastry tarts. One peach, one strawberry (both made with jars of local fruit preserves obtained from Mennonite farm stand). The preserves taste like heaven!
Betty
@Baud: This was not a matter of politics. Leading economists agreed that it made sense to lower the interest rate sooner because high interest rates were the keeping the price of housing higher which was keeping inflation higher, and higher inflation is why Powell said he wasn’t ready to lower interest rates. Catch 22. Coincidentally lower rates will help the Democratic argument that the economy is good.
Steve LaBonne
@oldster: The ideals we pay lip service to but have never lived up to nevertheless provide the best raw material for building a country that works for all of us. I think reclaiming patriotism for the left is a far better approach than rejecting it.
Geminid
@Frankensteinbeck: Yesterday Israeli opposition groups called for a “Day of Rage” today, September 1. That call was in response to Thursday night’s tumultuous Cabinet meeting, and before the murdered hostages’ bodies were recovered last night.
I have not checked out Israeli news since early this morning, so I don’t know how this is playing out today. I will this afternoon and I’ll probably start with freelance journalist Noga Tarnopolsky’s Twitter account. Israeli media sites like the Times of Israel will also post stories.
I did catch this from Barak Ravid this morning:
Ravid likely has a fuller account published in Axios today.
The Audacity of Krope
So I have been maintaining two residences this year and I’m trying to decide where I ought to vote; at the apartment I’m renting or at my parents’ house where I stay on the weekends.
There are really no competitive elections in either place, I expect a full slate of Democrats to win in both places. Ballot initiatives will be the only competitive election. The only reason I might prefer my new home is so I can use it as a reason to bring up voter registration with my roommates. If I ever ran for office, though, I’d want it to be in my parents’ district.
The Audacity of Krope
@Steve LaBonne: Patriotism 👍
Jingoism 👎
K-Mo
@lowtechcyclist: Just contributing to the general conversation running through the thread about the call to name a Republican to the cabinet. Yours was the last . I don’t think anyone else connected it with the “DEI hire” framing- that’s one of my contributions.
Steve LaBonne
@The Audacity of Krope: Completely agree!
Sister Golden Bear
@oldster:
So we should go back in the closet until Nov. 6. Got it.
K-Mo
@lowtechcyclist: Wasn’t “Newt” Gingrich in that agency?
Geminid
@Kent: I trust Kamala Harris to not pick “the wrong person,” and I think she understands the potential problems as well as anyone here does
Tony Jay
@Another Scott:
Meh. Wasn’t anything too important, just my usual messing around with quotes that could be from the NYT but aren’t – yet.
I’ll see what Watergirl says. 👍
The Audacity of Krope
Maybe even better than at least a couple of us…
She also knows best what she wants to accomplish and who can help.
lowtechcyclist
@wjca:
We were talking about what Republican policies to adopt on their behalf.
JWR
@Kay:
Damn straight! At the very least the networks s/b doing as you say, using them as roaming reporters. Though being so well connected to their respective nets and colleagues that the narrative has likely already been set and they know exactly what to say or ask a candidate. But who knows? Might work. And term limits for political pundits!
scav
@Sister Golden Bear: Ah yes, everybody back off, the stereotypical average voter must be pandered to: can the married white christian blue-collar worker with an outie please come to the front of the line again?
It suddenly struck me how odd these threads can get. Only a bit ago everyone was high fiving the campaign about having all those republican speakers and daring to put them in such prominent timeslots (“big tent! big tent! out-reach! return to normalcy“) and now it’s all “Never trust a single one anywhere!! ever!! Purity Purity Purity“. Rather like the one thread was how refreshing it was to see Walz’s hot dish recipes as a sign we were putting the heartland in play again and another was all how hot dishes were inedible depression-era food replacement relics to mocked in the rear view mirror. Messaging. It’s so complicated. And we can’t even figure out what we want consistently. Good thing we’re nowhere in charge.
lowtechcyclist
@TBone: Happy tenth anniversary to you and hubby!
oldster
@Sister Golden Bear:
If you thought that putting queer people front and center in the election would lead to Trumps winning, followed by four or more years of persecution and death for queer people, would you choose visibility now at the cost of those deaths? I would not.
But again — no one is asking me for permission to do anything. I’m just stating my estimates of the odds.
lowtechcyclist
@Steve LaBonne:
Seconded!
The Audacity of Krope
@scav: Some of us are more consistent than others, will prioritize being consistent in one regard over the other, or just haven’t fully thought everything through before conversing about our ideas on the internet (perfectly valid BTW).
I don’t see a problem with this. Even if any of us aspire to office, that’s a good way to get feedback and refine ideas.
The Audacity of Krope
@oldster: Never tell me the odds…
lowtechcyclist
@K-Mo:
He fit right in.
scav
@The Audacity of Krope: Just an observation. Bit of a reminder, even to self.
K-Mo
@Kay: Re: “Pull all the reporters who have embedded with Trump off him and…”
i thought that sentence might go a different direction.
RevRick
@sdhays:
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
@MomSense:
FDR appointed the following Republicans to his Cabinet:
Harold Ickes — Interior
Frank Knox — Sec. of the Navy
Henry Stimson — Sec. of War
lowtechcyclist
@K-Mo:
How about “and strand them on a deserted tropical island for an impromptu remake of Gilligan’s Island” ?
Baud
I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that we’re not going to win West Virginia regardless of our messaging.
The Audacity of Krope
@Baud: The type of election where we did would be earth-shattering. We would have wide latitude to do a lot of good.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
More like The Island of Dr. Moreau.
JWR
@Kay:
Yes this! And while she’s doing that, she can do away with Biden’s Ukraine policy, where they’re askeerd of using weapons that might make Pooty poot mad.
K-Mo
@lowtechcyclist: Sounds like a hit!
zhena gogolia
Everyone’s going to love Trump’s policies on Israel and Ukraine.
Sister Golden Bear
@oldster: Thank you for cishet-splaining the election stakes. /s
Some Pride-inspired US flags are not gonna lose us the election in West-Fucking-Virginia FFS. And I never said the election should be centered on queer/trans people, so spare me the hypotheticals
It may not be what you’re intending to say, but it’s sure as hell coming across as that we need to go back into the closet until after the election. Guess what, we’re not going back.
The Audacity of Krope
Edited to reflect how long we’ve been supporting Israel to the detriment of the Palestinians.
Baud
@The Audacity of Krope:
The Republican base is pretty entrenched. I don’t see how we get a modern equivalent to the Reagan Democrat. It’s difficult enough keeping our standard coalition unified.
Baud
@Sister Golden Bear:
Wasn’t there a trans person speaking during the roll call of the states?
The Audacity of Krope
@Baud: Never say never. Even some less extreme surprises would indicate a huge electoral gain. I’ll admit WV is a huge stretch.
TBone
@lowtechcyclist: thank you! Sometimes it feels like we met moments ago. Other times, we’ve always known each other.
Hubby is my polar opposite, yet we have so much in common. And, he proves every day that the way to his heart goes through his stomach 🤣
The best thing he does is household chores without being asked. I rarely have to wash a dish, he just cleans up after me! He vacuums, dusts, polishes, folds clothes, puts things away, and he even does windows.
My soul mate who spoils me rotten. So grateful to have found a prince!
🎶 🐸👑
https://youtu.be/S4Ah2dxTcWw
K-Mo
@K-Mo: PS In the finale they could discover that all the people they expected to help them get off the island were actually making money by keeping them on the island.
scav
@oldster: Your current opinion is also a bit predicated on a single option of campaign posters being equivalent to centering queer people throughout the entire campaign. A Klezmer Musicians for Kamala zoom meeting does not mean all campaign music now must be Jewish. My bet is your basic uncomfortable reaction is to the use of a stars and stripes flag structure and defending that over 240-ish comments may have lead you a bit further than expected. Because you’re really somehow reading as back-in-your-box minorities.
catclub
Isn’t there an Aesop’s fable about this with a fox and some bloodsucking parasite? Problem is the parasites here protect the the host too much.
Bill Arnold
@Jackie:
Yea, the 2024 RNC platform promises to grant fetuses (and embryos, blastocysts, and zygotes) protection under the 14th Amendment. (Religious doctrine of a subset of Christianity as law.)
4. Republicans Will Protect and Defend a Vote of the People, from within the States, on the Issue of Life
Baud
@Bill Arnold:
“The last clause in the last sentence is a lie so they must also be lying about being against abortion.” /UndecidedVoter
frosty
@TBone: He has a higher threshold of clean! This is how it works: Over time, the place gets messier. Eventually it gets to the point where you can’t stand it so you clean it up.
That’s your threshold of clean. Sounds like hubby hits his threshold first and does the dishes before it gets down to your level of yuck!
I discovered this while sharing a house in my 20s.
It can vary by type of mess, too. Ms F will clean the bathroom before I notice anything. I’ll do the kitchen before she does. It can work out OK!
Gretchen
There are lots of people on Twitter questioning whether Harris is lying about working at McDonalds for reasons? And demanding that she show proof of that 40 years ago job. Call the IRS! Call McDonald’s corporate! Why won’t she offer proof?
Bill Arnold
@Sister Golden Bear:
Flying a pride frag and an American flag, as you do, is the way to go. The symbolism is much clearer.
Memory Pallas
@Anoniminous:
I thought Georgia was (infamously) won by 11,799 votes.
WaterGirl
Four of you guys were caught in SPAM today. Tony Jay, cain, Another Scott and a nym I can’t recall.
Not sure why we are having hiccups in the SPAM filter the past two days but if your comments aren’t showing up send me an email.
Playing catchup on work, so I wont see any cries for help in the comments. But I guess if you’re being sucked into spam, you can’t comment anyway!
K-Mo
@K-Mo: and, scene:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qqPOeC-tnKI&t=8s&pp=2AEIkAIB
The Lodger
@Frankensteinbeck: Might there be some progress if Israel kicked Bibi off the war cabinet and left the other members in place?
stinger
@Kent: As a veteran, I say please do not “dump” a Republican on the VA just to pseudo-balance the Cabinet. Actual people suffer — who really don’t need further suffering — when the VA is poorly run.
I don’t care about the political leanings of the Secretary, but she or he should be competent and carefully chosen for the position. Not dumped.
Frankensteinbeck
@The Lodger:
Bibi decides who is on the war cabinet. The only way to stop Netenyahu from conducting the war however he wants is a new election, and getting one of those is much easier said than done. I think his own party has to be enthusiastically in favor of it for it to happen. As much as Netenyahu isn’t even popular in the Likud anymore, a whole bunch of his Knesset members will lose their jobs in the next election and aren’t super enthusiastic about hurrying it along.
Anoniminous
@Memory Pallas:
Yup, that’s what I get for doing quick math in my head
Geminid
@Gretchen: Last May, a Texas locality issued an arrest warrant for New Congressman Gabe Vasquez for non-payment of fines. They arose from a traffic stop made over 20 years before, when Vasquez was 18. Republicans raised a storm about this “fugitive” serving in Congress, but then El Paso County announced that the warrant was withdrawn because Vasquez had paid his fines.
Vasquez is running for reelection in the New Mexico 2nd CD, which basically covers the southern half of New Mexico. Democrat Xochitl Torres Small flipped theopen seat in 2018 when she beat Yvette Harrell by ~4,000 votes. Harrell came back to beat Rep. Torres Small by 20,000 votes in 2020. Then, after Democratic redistrictors made some adjustments in the map, Gabe Vasquez flipped the seat back in the last cycle, and now Harrell is trying to win it again.
wjca
For values of “everyone” equal to Putin and Bibi (and Bibi’s far right allies).
wjca
Although Vance is working hard to make it happen. I’m guessing Idaho is a bit more of a stretch. But there aren’t many.
Monica Morse
@Eolirin:
You say that one of the things the NYTimes is good at is science. But one of the items on the list of controversies is transphobia, and one of the specific objections to their coverage of trans issues is that their coverage of trans science is bad. Even if you want to say that they are bad on politics (and consider transphobia a political issue) and good on science, you have to qualify that as “good on science that’s not relevant to political issues” and the range of things you can actually trust them on keeps getting more and more narrow.
Kent
What Harris really needs is a new Israel policy.
Gaza is just a symptom and not the real issue. The war in Gaza will eventually die down but we will still need a new Israel policy since the Palestinians aren’t going anywhere in Gaza or the West Bank.
Monica Morse
@oldster:
You point out that queer people, and trans people in particular, are under massive threat if the Republicans win this election, and yet your conclusion is exactly the opposite of mine.
The fact is that Republican candidates who have emphasized transphobia in recent elections (2020 and 2022) have underperformed relative to Republicans as a whole. The voting public mostly sees this as a non-issue and wants Republicans to stop focusing on it. There is no reason for the Harris campaign to not be strong is support of queer rights in general, and trans rights in particular.
But this argument really started with you objecting to the flag which crosses the American flag with the pride flag, and doesn’t really have anything to do with the Harris campaign. My only response to the original issue is, “get off my lawn.”
VOR
@sdhays: Fun fact: There has never been a Democrat appointed as head of the FBI. 100% Republicans – plus J. Edgar Hoover. There was an Acting head for 71 days who was a Democrat, but never an appointee.
Kayla Rudbek
@Sheila in nc: hands off the Patent and Trademark Office as well (although the far right doesn’t believe in intellectuals and the far left doesn’t believe in property so there are some odd political alliances in IP law)