Kamala Harris: And we together understand the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on Earth, the privilege and pride of being an American!
[Crowd chanting U.S.A.] pic.twitter.com/2Xb4NgJewJ— Acyn (@Acyn) September 12, 2024
After the previous four days… Maybe I should light a candle to Churchy LaFemme…
Donald Trump wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act and said he has “concepts of a plan” to replace it.
He has no actual plan. pic.twitter.com/t50ZDyKWEU
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) September 13, 2024
Sharing is caring, social media friends…
Donald Trump and I are two very different people—and we would make two very different presidents.
Watch our new ad: pic.twitter.com/X7kZRarF6l
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) September 13, 2024
Trump had a rally today in Tucson AZ. He had to pay $150,000 in advance for a 2000 person hall to cover past bills he never paid. 550 people showed up.
This is the second Kamala Harris rally today in North Carolina. At capacity. #rockstar pic.twitter.com/HTIGqxtYRL
— Dayna Steele (@daynasteele) September 12, 2024
Vibes off the charts. https://t.co/PrnhVMUz3N
— Jean-Michel Connard ??? (@torriangray) September 12, 2024
Walz: Kamala Harris was able to use this guy’s inflated ego and narcissism to bait him into melting down on a national stage in front of 60 million. You don’t think Vladimir Putin could do that? You don’t think Xi Jinping could do that? pic.twitter.com/Tc0Td6DvPa
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 13, 2024
People are losing their minds over this exchange, but it’s hilarious.
No, I don’t care that Biden put on a Trump hat or that he was joking with a Trump supporter – politics doesn’t have to be a blood sport.
My favorite part:
MAGA man: you want my autograph?
Biden: hell no ?? pic.twitter.com/ETncG8gCiy
— Angry Staffer ?? (@Angry_Staffer) September 12, 2024
30 years ago President Joe Biden authored the Violence Against Women Act
Domestic violence went from a family matter to a criminal one
As he tried to get it passed opponents called women’s shelters indoctrination camps
Women and children are now safer
Thank you, Joe pic.twitter.com/fYj09ygaSZ
— Qondi (@QondiNtini) September 12, 2024
Meanwhile…
Trump during the 9/11 Moment of Silence smh pic.twitter.com/9HMLuSqZvY
— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) September 11, 2024
What’s wrong with Trump? pic.twitter.com/04Sy7L0P4P
— Geoff Garin (@geoffgarin) September 11, 2024
Can anyone name a single thing that extreme MAGA Republicans have done to make life better for the American people? pic.twitter.com/6r5MWSPl9x
— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) September 12, 2024
coward. Have some nerve like the Cheneys.
— Jen "We aren't going back " Rubin ???? (@JRubinBlogger) September 12, 2024
Kosh III
Chubby Christie needs to get a spine.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
Cf that last tweet, I suspect Christie thinks he still has a political career, and committing to voting for Harris would make him radioactive to the Southern Strategy voters he thinks he may need in the future.
That’s the thing. Dick Cheney doesn’t need the Trumpists any more. Liz Cheney knows she can’t possibly attract Trumpists any longer. But there are very few Republican politicians who can afford to lose that chunk of their electorate any more.
I wonder if Shrub will find a spine and endorse Kamala. Now that would be front-page news even for the FTFNYT.
Fair Economist
Did Trump really only draw 550 people for a rally in Tuscon?
JML
Very smart by the AZ venture to get paid in advance. I would never rent out a venue to that campaign without cash upfront. (If I were a private venue I would decline, but if I were running a public one it’s pay upfront or no deal.)
hueyplong
“Trump had a rally today in Tucson AZ. He had to pay $150,000 in advance for a 2000 person hall to cover past bills he never paid. 550 people showed up.”
Make Thiel spend it all.
RevRick
If Trump had any plan to replace the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act, it would be one of three possibilities:
1). The Affordable Care Act
2). Bill Clinton’s original 1993 proposal
3). Medicare for All
Anything else would be junk.
Shalimar
Even if you believe everything Donald Trump says and Kamala is bussing in the people for her rallies (from where? why aren’t they holding the rallies where all the supporters live instead of transporting them?) and paying them for being there (paying with what? if she has no supporters, where is the $47 million in 24 hours coming from?), managing the logistics of bussing that many people still makes her more qualified to be president than his delinquent ass.
Shalimar
@JML: I wouldn’t paint his name on his office door without payment in advance. He was infamous for not paying people decades before he ran for office. This should not have been a surprise.
BR
@Shalimar:
I think like virtually everything Trump says to his base, his lies aren’t meant to be believed in seriousness, but they’re just tactical talking points to attack the other side. His base doesn’t know or doesn’t care that there’s no logic to it.
Kristine
@Shalimar: Given the crowd sizes, that many buses would be hard to hide. It would be a caravan. If Harris figured out how to hide them? Another reason to vote for her.
OId Man Shadow
@RevRick: His plan is to let insurance companies take all your money and then tell you to get fucked when you get sick.
Shalimar
@BR: Of course you’re right, but I think he has still passed his sell-by date with all of this nonsense. Rally-size is the key to his credibility. There has to be at least a tiny sliver of possibility, and he has none left. Harris is drawing the crowds of his dreams, and he is so tired and stale now that he couldn’t draw 500 people to a storm shelter with a massive hurricane coming.
BR
@Shalimar:
Yeah, some super PAC needs to hire a giant mobile billboard company that mocks him for crowd sizes outside every rally.
TS
@hueyplong: 550 people showed up
Guess he has stopped paying people to attend
BR
Huh, CNN has started questioning Trump’s mental acuity comparing his 2016 vs. 2024 debate performances:
https://www.tiktok.com/@couriernewsroom/video/7414104827405274399
Yarrow
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: I wish Jeb! would endorse Kamala. TFG hates him because he wanted to open a casino in Florida and Jeb! was opposed to gambling so denied it. If Jeb! endorsed Kamala that would be good for Florida and bad for TFG and DeSantis.
Splitting Image
@Yarrow:
I remember Jeb’s Presidential campaign. Maybe he did endorse Harris and nobody noticed.
Suzanne
I posted a fantastic picture from Tucson (which is where I went to college) yesterday. It’s a sign that reads “CHINGA TU MAGA, NO MAS NARANJA”.
Fuck that pendejo.
hueyplong
@Kristine: “… that many buses would be hard to hide. It would be a caravan.”
I’m old enough to remember when RWNJs claimed to be able to spot a caravan.
OId Man Shadow
I think Trump and Vance might be trying to start the violence early with the blood libel against Haitian immigrants (who are legally living in America, Orange Asshole).
Or at least prime their base for violent terrorism when they don’t win the election. He would sacrifice every single American if it meant not going to jail. And Vance, I think, is a true believer in white supremacist theocracy.
Almost Retired
@Fair Economist:
Hard to say, but I’m familiar with the venue, which is named for Linda Ronstadt (my oldest son went to college in Tucson).
It only holds slightly more than 2,000 people, and it definitely wasn’t full. And Linda Ronstadt is pissed.
Suzanne
@Splitting Image:
PLEASE CLAP!!!
Weftage
Another report says there were 2000 people at Trump’s rally in Tucson. Still not a whole lot for a city of 500K people.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
BR
@Splitting Image:
I don’t think we want the loser stick of Jeb! around. Anyone who’d listen to him is already a never Trumper.
The one GOP defection that could matter would be Haley, not because she has a huge base but because she got 20% of the primary votes this year and endorsed him. She could say she saw the debate and his rallies and changed her mind.
BR
@OId Man Shadow:
In this grim timeline, we’re lucky in the scheme of things that Ohio isn’t a swing state.
rikyrah
@OId Man Shadow:
The Haitians are but a stand-in for who Trump wants to go against…
Black Americans.
It’s obvious. Give him a few weeks. He will work up to the ‘threat’ that the voters in Milwaukee, Detroit, Philadelphia and Atlanta pose to America 😡😡😡
prostratedragon
A song for the day: “Cherchez la Femme,” Dr. Buzzard etc., featuring Cory Daye. Maybe some new lyrics for TFG?
gene108
@Kosh III:
I think two things can be true at once. He’s getting paid well to be a non-MAGA* Republican, who hasn’t sold out to the Democrats, and he has delusions about a future in Republican politics.
*The guy was the blueprint for Trump like bullying and bluster succeeding in politics, until his corruption and ego undid him. This “warm and cuddly” Christie is a far cry from the loud mouthed asshole governor.
zhena gogolia
Great roundup, thanks! Can’t wait to get home and watch that Biden clip.
hueyplong
@rikyrah: I wouldn’t bet two cents against the accuracy of your prediction. He’s probably got dozens of staffers scouring local news for a black-on-white crime to amplify into a wave of racial violence sparked by Kamala Harris’ arrogance.
Betty Cracker
@Almost Retired: Yep. Reposting this from the earlier thread via Ronstadt’s insta feed. I love her!
zhena gogolia
@Suzanne: That’s great!
Kosh III
@OId Man Shadow: “His plan is to let insurance companies take all your money and then tell you to get fucked when you get sick.”
That’s always been the Regressive Party plan: Get sick and die.
hells littlest angel
@BR: In a way, I’m fine with the press giving Trump’s decline and derangement a pass until now. If they’d gone after him six months ago, or a year ago, it would be “old news” by now. But now, as voting is beginning, is the time to start exposing him. There’s blood in the water, media. Go for him, and go harder each day.
Wapiti
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: Which is why I couldn’t figure Mitt Romney’s endorsement of Trump. Romney doesn’t need Trump, unless he’s trying to protect his sons’ eventual ambitions?
Or maybe Romney likes being a coward and a lickspittle.
Suzanne
@zhena gogolia: It makes me so happy. I have a very soft spot in my heart for Tucson. There’s a lot of pragmatism that comes from being near the border.
BR
@Wapiti:
Romney is a money guy. He wants his tax cuts and deregulation. He has never shown much courage.
Dave
@Kosh III: After paying out everything you own of course.
prostratedragon
From The Jase, a new setting of “Eating the Dogs” for unaccompanied trombone; with score. He has also graciously provided a ringtone file.
Yarrow
@BR:
It’s not about Jeb! individually. It’s about a crack in the last of the really big Republican names that haven’t endorsed Kamala – the Bush family.
Yarrow
@Betty Cracker: Linda Ronstadt is the best. Love her.
TBone
@OId Man Shadow: he made such a sacrifice in Butler, PA. He’s been trying to start shit this whole time, since he took out the full page ad against the Central Park 5 and before that even.
It was not a coincidence that he stood on graves at Arlington soon after…
Lapassionara
@BR: I’m looking forward to 192 articles in the NYTimes about his age and mental acuity. s/
prostratedragon
@Betty Cracker: Hear her words!
RevRick
@OId Man Shadow: IOW, the Heritage Foundation plan to privatize Medicare and Medicaid, completely deregulate insurance companies, and take away all subsidies for purchasing insurance.
Which wouldn’t be better in any sane universe.
Kyle Rayner
I only ever see “Vote Harris” ads when I’m linked to them.
Coming of age when VA was becoming a serious battleground state, I grew so accustomed to the deluge of “Vote Blue” ads every presidential, midterm, and our off-year gubernatorial races – constant phonecalls, postcards, door knocking – that it’s uncanny adjusting to the new reality. The ONLY ads I get served naturally are “Donate to Harris.”
Mission accomplished, 2010s Dem volunteers and campaigns. (I’d still love to occasionally watch “Vote Harris” ads before my youtube videos tho, only bc they’re good enough to watch for fun.)
NotMax
@RevRick
“It will be the greatest health care in the history of the world. And Mexico will pay for it.”
/
RevRick
@BR: They are loyalty tests for his supporters. By handing them increasingly ugly lies, he’s priming them for the “bloody story” that he and his henchmen have planned.
satby
@rikyrah: don’t forget our hometown, which morphed into a dog whistle a long time ago.
prostratedragon
Debate watch party reaction
p.a.
Click my nym for a map of cities tRump owes $$$.
Josie
I just read some good news for once here in Texas. Tarrant County (very conservative) officials had voted to cut the early voting sites on college campuses. Due to strong backlash, they have changed their minds and reinstated the voting sites on all the campuses. When we fight, we win!
https://www.keranews.org/government/2024-09-12/tarrant-county-early-voting-colleges-ut-arlington
Mike in Pasadena
@JML: cash or the check must clear first
jonas
@RevRick: Of course there *is* an actual plan. It’s to scrap the ACA, replace it with nothing, and tell Americans who need health insurance to go fuck themselves.
Of course, even Trump’s not so stupid as to say that out loud. Yet.
Baud
@Josie:
👍
Jackie
I posted this last night: it’s worth noting TCFG’s handlers and Faux haven’t let him know yet… 🤭
Mike in Pasadena
Thanks for the cheerful post, Anne. It’s just what I needed.
NotMax
@TBone
Catchy earworm to add to your morning repertoire aimed at the MAGAhood?
:)
jonas
@Fair Economist: I don’t know who Dayna Steele is, but that post is inaccurate. The venue capacity was around 2500 and by all accounts, it was more or less full.
prostratedragon
@Josie:
💥❗️ Bet they didn’t know what hit them.
New alternative flag
HumboldtBlue
danielx
Ever thickening fog of loser stank emitting from SFB campaign, and he knows it. So yeah, protective gear might be in order.
Suzanne
Me to Mr. Suzanne: “I feel like I need to buy some nice earrings to assert my antipathy to the patriarchy”.
catclub
yeah, if she has the technical tools to have earring earpieces getting her debate help. CIA tech for the win. Why couldn’t Trump get that? bad techbro support.
Baud
@Suzanne:
Make sure you get the ones with the ear phones.
catclub
actually, no need to fuck yourselves, just die quickly.
NotMax
@prostratedragon
Linky for the ages.
;)
BR
@Suzanne:
Hah, nice.
Your comment reminds me of a video clip I just saw of Jill Stein being dismantled on the Breakfast Club. After one of the hosts read out hard numbers of her 20 year history of running for elected office, Jill Stein said “You and AOC are just using talking points of the patriarchy and colonialism and white supremacy” and the host was like “you want to tell me and AOC, women of color, that we’re parroting patriarchy and white supremacy? The difference between AOC and you is that she wins elections.” The difference between real and fake power.
Matt McIrvin
@Kyle Rayner: Yeah, the only political ads I ever see from Democrats are constant, often alarming appeals for money, which suggests that campaign organizations already know what I’m good for.
(I think this can have a perverse effect on the mental state of committed base voters, because while “Vote Blue” ads have to sound strong and optimistic, “send us money” ads have to be scary and a bit pessimistic.)
The exception–campaigning about local primary candidates and state ballot questions, where there’s actually some question how I’ll vote.
TBone
@NotMax: I love it! So cheesy and delicious 🤤 thank you!
trollhattan
@BR: I’m certain dining with Putin and Flynn broke up the patriarchy for good. We’re all reaping the rewards today.
tam1MI
I watch a lot of YouTube with ads. Up until this month the political ads I saw were pretty much evenly divided between Republican and Democrat. This month, however, it’s all Democrat, all the time.
BR
@trollhattan:
Putin hates colonialism, that’s what my horseshoe left handbook says.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@gene108:
The instant he might ever attain elected office again (let’s hope not), his natural persona will return, that being the loud mouthed asshole.
Christie needs to be ejected off the planet.
Jeffro
this Laura Loomer thing is fucking cracking me up! (when it’s not giving me the dry heaves)
as one wit put it:
They’re stuck with him! He will never, ever leave the race, either.
Matt McIrvin
@tam1MI: Every so often, the YouTube algorithm has served me up an appeal from Donald Trump, looking haggard and droning on with his face too close to the camera. I’m not sure what it’s smoking but I haven’t seen them in the past week or two.
Suzanne
@BR: I have no patience for performative assholes like Jill Stein. I am probably politically left-ier than most people and I think that much (maybe most?) of the political left is a good influence on our coalition. The squishes in the middle are the ones that I have to grit my teeth and remind myself that we need them to get a majority.
...now I try to be amused
@Jeffro:
They had their chance to drive a stake in him — twice! But TCFG sized up his marks well.
Nettoyeur
@BR: George Conway is heading there with billboards aroun Mar a Lago…..
tam1MI
@Matt McIrvin: I suppose it’s too much to hope that the Republicans have run low on money and can’t buy more ad time.
danielx
@Suzanne:
Exploit the oppressor.
TBone
@NotMax: the algo gave me the new Lincoln Project presentation as a reward!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=76fxxtAszQY
JML
@Suzanne: Jill Stein has done an impressive job in wrecking the Green Party as a national political entity. Much like when the Reform Party got hijacked by Pat Buchanan, it’s become little more than a platform for Stein to show up every 4 years spouting nonsense. She’s absolutely awful.
BR
@Suzanne:
Yeah, my actual policy views are in many ways further “left”, if that term has any meaning anymore, than even some grifter like Jill Stein, but I separate my policy views from my practical nature and I never expect most of my views to become reality. I’ve never registered as a Democrat but basically always support Democrats. I hate having the only voices on the “far left” being grifters like Jill Stein.
Matt McIrvin
@tam1MI: The Republicans generally don’t run low on money. It comes pouring in from their richest buddies in the home stretch. It’s not a magic bullet but it’s always something to struggle against.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Wapiti:
Rmoney has shoulders you could land a 747 on, somehow held up without a spine.
I’m sure an x-ray of the man will reveal trace evidence of a cartilaginous spine but that’s not the same as proof of backbone.
TBone
@prostratedragon: 💙😂
TBone
@Nettoyeur: he’s got a strong constitution, gawds bless ‘im. Battle tested.
Maybe not the best judgement in choosing a mate but he survived.
And now I’m reminded that Loomer suggested his daughter should hang herself.
LadySuzy
@rikyrah: exactly. Voter intimidation. I hope governors in swing states are ready. At least the democratic governors of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona.
Geminid
Kamala Harris’s debate attack on Trump over his subservience to Putin was a shot heard ’round the world. This morning I looked at Bosphorus ship spotter Yörük Işik’s Titter accoont for news of a grain freighter hit by Russian missile in the Black Sea, and I saw Irik had reposted this from KamalHarrisHQ:
Yörük Işik studies Black Sea maritime matters through the lens of traditional Turkish emnity towards Russia, and understands that Trump is a Russian pawn.
Işik also reposted a parody TikTok ridiculing the story about pets being taken for food in Springfield. Then he was back to spotting ships loaded with stolen Ukrainian grain and tankers carrying sanctioned Russian oil.
Jackie
WHOA! Thank GOODNESS Taylor Swift is on our side!
TBone
@Matt McIrvin: gah. Now I have Yass on the brain. These fucking guys…
Matt McIrvin
@BR: I identify as a “liberal” rather than a “leftist” even though some of my views are ones that even most Democrats would consider crazy extreme.
But the behavior of the “leftists” who mostly piss into the tent, especially when they do the accelerationist/need-for-chaos thing, is really what does it.
I never lose sight, though, of the fact that “culturally liberal” centrists probably piss more vigorously into the tent and have more influence in most cycles.
Kay
Co-hosted a Sherrod coffee this AM. One new victim – he took a yard sign without saying much so a shy Democratic voter? :)
Talented young man working for Sherrod’s campaign. Colin Flanagan. University of Toledo law student (go Rockets) and very charming, yet admirably aggressive person. We hit it right off. Maybe a pol later in life?
TBone
@Jackie: 💙🎶💪
https://youtu.be/XzOvgu3GPwY
Can’t help myself, I stan!
BR
@Matt McIrvin:
That’s how I think of myself. I never use the term “left” or “leftist” to describe myself because of the folks who have poisoned the well and also because some of my policy views don’t line up at all with basically any policies out there from existing voices.
TBone
@Geminid: I woke up saying the word “navigation” today.
JPL
Rick Steves has released a statement in support of Kamala, which I think is pretty cool. You don’t think of him as being political. He might not bring along votes, but it is nice to see.
Jackie
@tam1MI:
Has anyone reported on how much $$$ DonOLD raked in the 24 hrs following the debate he won? I hear 🦗s.
TBone
@JPL: his antifascist travel show special edition left no doubt in my mind but thank you for sharing that confirmation!
eclare
@jonas:
I will never forget Paul Ryan’s shit eating grin at the kegger once “skinny repeal” passed the House. Murderous evil garbage.
JPL
@Jackie: There has been a massive voter registration drive, in downtown Atlanta at the Marta station. They hoped to register 5,000, but never heards the exact numbers. Now to get out the vote
comrade scotts agenda of rage
I’m in KC this weekend and saw something funny.
I’m staying with a friend in Riverside. I go for a run along the Line Creek trail. A housing development comes downhill to the trail, ending in a cul-de-sac. Thus, it’s about as non-traveled a neighborhood street as you can imagine.
The house at the end, right next to the trail, has a sign for Hair Furor out front. But what was great is right next door, somebody had two different Harris/Walz signs up.
Houses aren’t on big lots, the backyards are open to each other. They must be really friendly neighbors. :)
It’s the first time I’ve seen something like this. Oh, and drive east-west across KS north of I-70 and the only political signs/flags are for the Orange Fart Cloud. Not many, but it’s the only game in town so-to-speak.
tam1MI
They brought it on themselves when they succumbed to Ralph Nader’s siren song.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@JPL: He wrote a book called Travel as a Political Act that I liked a lot.
Suzanne
@BR:
I have been a registered Democrat since I was 18. Other than that….. co-sign all of this. I will note that probably most of the political left are people more akin to Warren and AOC: people who are lefty but understand how power operates….. and less like Jill Stein. I do think people confuse the loudest and most obnoxious voices on the left with people who matter, who have influence and numbers, who are in the room where it happens. Jill Stein and cranks on Xhitter don’t speak for the political left any more than that lunatic asshole on every college campus screaming about hellfire and damnation speaks for every religious person.
I will note that I have said here before that I don’t “identify” as a Democrat if I’m meeting someone new and I’m trying to tell people about myself. Part of that is borne out of that whole “mistrust of institutions” thing…. I don’t really identify as anything. I would never say I was a Wildcat or a Sun Devil, have never joined a church…. I just don’t have being a member of anything as part of my self-concept. I do things, but I am not things, if that makes sense. And the other part is…. I came of political age right around 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq, and I was really affected and disappointed by seeing how many Democrats voted to invade Iraq. So…. saying that “I’m a Democrat” is not descriptive enough, in my view.
Another Scott
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
FIFY.
Crap like that will keep happening unless there are actual consequences.
Grr…,
Scott.
thylacine
@JML: The so-called Green Party here doesn’t do any environmental advocacy at all. It is a total non-entity. In countries with parliamentary systems, the Green Party actually advocates for environmental issues.
Matt McIrvin
@tam1MI: I think the real problem is structural.
A presidential/congressional system with first-past-the-post, winner-take-all elections just inherently favors two parties, because a serious candidate in a third party that resembles one of the major parties more than the other will be a spoiler.
Serious political candidates who aren’t crackpots know this, so they don’t run with these parties. What’s left is low-quality candidates trolling for fellow obsessives and Need for Chaos voters.
Now, advocates for third parties call the spoiler effect “the spoiler myth” and argue that there’s no good evidence for spoiler effects in recent cycles. But if so, that’s BECAUSE these are not serious runs, or else they’re ideological anomalies like Perot where he was really was pulling equally from both parties. Most of the time, the knowledge of the spoiler effect is already strategically baked in.
A serious multiparty system where parties like the Greens can be major national players won’t happen unless the election system is changed somehow to support it.
trollhattan
@thylacine: Agree. It’s a purloined brand name here used for revenue generation and faux lefty posturing. Our “greens” vs. say, Germany’s Greens have more than the Atlantic separating them.
Sounds like “the patriarchy” to me.
prostratedragon
@NotMax: Indeed😆!
opiejeanne
@JPL: I’ve watched enough of his videos that I’m not surprised that he’s political nor that he endorsed Harris.
In 2014 we took his 10 day tour of Italy, and we never take tours; we usually read up on where we’re going and figure out what we want to see and do. We only decided to book his tour because we didn’t want to drive in Italy, and it was an amazingly good experience. We got a good look at other tours and realized what a very good deal we had gotten.
The only other tour we took was a one day trip to Glendalough on our last day in Ireland, because we couldn’t find it ourselves earlier in the trip and got lost using the rental car’s GPS.
Matt McIrvin
@Matt McIrvin: …I should add to what I said above:
There are exceptions, places mostly in New England (Vermont, Maine) where “independent” candidates are major players. For whatever reason, usually they are functionally Democrats with the serial numbers filed off. But one of two things happens–either there just is no major Democratic candidate and that person is there instead, or: yeah, there’s a massive spoiler effect and the Republican wins.
That got Paul LePage elected *twice*. And because of it, Maine went to ranked-choice voting. But, ironically, because of the wording of the state constitution, it got struck down by the courts for the governor’s race, which was the one that inspired the move.
Matt McIrvin
@Suzanne: I think the American left could use more partisanship, because in a system like ours that’s how things actually get done. But we temperamentally think of it as kind of disreputable. Like, just cheering on your team is what dum-dums do.
And I feel it, too. Like, I see the “Proud To Be A Democrat” tag here and my mind immediately brings up every shitty thing a Democrat ever did, and continues to do. It’s like I have an inner Erik Loomis.
SiubhanDuinne
@TBone:
Whut? When (and why) was that?
Bill Arnold
@Kristine:
Federal regulations say 56 passengers max, so roughly 18 buses per 1000 attendees.
Highly advanced (magic!) Democratic party “stealth bus” technology is clearly involved. :-)
Citizen Alan
@BR: George Romney would have been humiliated by the man his son grew up to be.
prostratedragon
@JPL & @opiejeanne:
Here’s his “The Story of Fascism” show, which tours some of the sites in Germany and Italy associated with that movement. At this stage, if I were going to travel I’d look into his tours.
hueyplong
A troll, a big, strapping troll, came up to me with tears in his eyes, and said, “Sir, they got all those buses because of UNLIMITED CASH.”
Citizen Alan
@Suzanne: i don’t think stein is a performative asshole. I think she’s an actual russian asset. As are the green party and the dsa at the organizational level.
Matt McIrvin
@Bill Arnold: “Liberals are bringing in buses/vans/trains full of brown people to do crimes in your town” is one of the central mythical images of modern American conservatism. It’s the school busing controversy of the 1970s; it’s why white NIMBYs hate public transit; it’s how they imagine Democrats do voter fraud; it’s why Abbott and DeSantis thought it was a clever trick to dump busloads of immigrants in Massachusetts (give them a taste of their own medicine!); it’s the menacing Caravan; it’s the Haitians in Ohio; now it’s this.
Matt McIrvin
@Citizen Alan: AOC came up through the DSA and is a good team player–I don’t think she was ever a Russian asset.
Of course, they’ve de-endorsed her and are now calling her a sellout.
opiejeanne
Had an annoying conversation with the electrician working on our master bath yesterday. He’s getting his information/news from some idiot named Brett Weinstein who got fired from a WA college for being a racist asshat.
The electrician was telling us that AI is going to destroy all enterprise citing the big layoffs at MicroSoft and several other companies (he agreed that AI can’t wire a house or fix the plumbing), inflation is over the moon as well as interest rates, houses aren’t selling (our daughters each bought a house within the past 3 months and the competition was fierce, and I told him he should look back at the late 70s when mortgage rates were over 19%. Not sure he believed me), said no one is remodeling or building anything (while he’s working on our remodel), immigrants have destroyed various cities although he did acknowledge that Seattle is not a pile of smoldering rubble, kids today have no respect for their elders!, dogs and cats living together!
He’s an immigrant from Brazil, but it’s the Venezuelans in NY robbing people in broad daylight in Central Park.
Geminid
@Matt McIrvin: There is a commenter here who was active in the DSA, and last summer he was a delegate at their Chicagoconvention. He has since left the organization. I think they’ve lost a lot of other members in the past year.
Suzanne
@Matt McIrvin:
Mistrust of institutions is a real thing. I feel it a lot. Comes from being disappointed.
I think it’s related to the fall-away from religion, the pattern of frequent job-changing, etc.
artem1s
@Kosh III:
Same as it ever was. The usual cowards are cravenly sticking their toe in the water and quickly retreating if TCF scowls in disapproval.
Mart
There were two other assholes looking up in the 911 moment of silence pic, Uday & Qusay.
zhena gogolia
@Mart: True!
Ruckus
@Kosh III:
Like that’s ever going to happen….
Ruckus
@Shalimar:
Would you want to be stuck in a storm shelter with THAT?