Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

Bark louder, little dog.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

The revolution will be supervised.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

You are here: Home / Elections / Harris-Walz / Monday Evening Open Thread: Tim Walz, Putting in the Work

Monday Evening Open Thread: Tim Walz, Putting in the Work

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Walz: There’s nothing conservative about an unelected South African nepo baby firing people at the VA.

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— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) March 14, 2025 at 5:01 PM

There’s a saying: Sometimes courage is saying ‘I will try again, tomorrow’. However excited the NYTimes lathers itself over the chances of a crowded Democratic primary in 2028 (gosh, who would’ve thought they’d be hungering for Dems in disarray! stories when the Oval Office Occupant is serving them such a buffet of Watch the GOP wheels fall off! tales?), what the country needs *right now* is a reliable, relatable Democrat with a national profile to speak up for our much-beleaguered party. You go, Gov. Walz!

Tim Walz is our guy!

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— @Boom-WhatsGoingOn.bsky.social (@boom-whatsgoingon.bsky.social) March 15, 2025 at 10:43 PM

?? Hey @governorwalz.mn.gov was in my hometown Omaha Nebraska! This is what Dem leaders need to do! Love it! ?????? Thank you Tim Walz!

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— BostonCatherine (@banner19.bsky.social) March 15, 2025 at 8:27 PM


Tim Walz, y’all.
www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-…

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— billygreg.bsky.social (@billygreg.bsky.social) March 16, 2025 at 11:05 AM

Per the local MPR News:

… The Minnesota governor and the 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee found himself back in campaign mode of a different sort. Over the weekend, he held the first two in a promised series of town hall-style events to give fellow Democrats a chance to vent about President Donald Trump’s first two months in office.

Walz spent time in Iowa and Nebraska — and will make a similar trip to western Wisconsin this week — as he visits Republican-held congressional districts to talk about national affairs…

In an interview with MPR News while in Des Moines, Walz pushed back on Republican criticism that he’s distracted from his current job.

“I have already put out a budget weeks ago. I will put out a revised budget by next Friday,” Walz said. “I have yet to see a single line item from the Republicans. I am there. No one’s ever accused me of not doing the work.”

The pair of events were focused, though, on Trump administration actions, ranging from deep cuts to federal agencies to tariffs roiling trade relationships around the globe.

Walz and presidential nominee Kamala Harris won the Omaha-area district where Walz appeared on Saturday at a local community college. But voters there also reelected GOP Rep. Don Bacon to Congress.

“I am not here to personally attack the representative, Representative Bacon,” Walz told the crowd of hundreds. “I don’t do that. They do on the other side.” …

The events were organized by the Democratic parties in each state, and Walz blasted out fundraising emails for his governor campaign account before and after both events…

Iowan Gene Merritt implored Democrats to change their approach.

“The Democrats just don’t know how to fight,” he said at the high school where Walz held a forum on Friday. “Republicans played dirty, and we’re like not and we’re losing. And we need to fight dirtier.”

At the Des Moines stop, Walz said it’s up to the crowds at these kinds of events to shape the future of the party.

“There is not going to be a charismatic leader to ride in and do this,” he said. “It is going to be people coming out on a beautiful Friday afternoon demanding change and holding people accountable.”

Argument with which I mostly agree:

It's almost entirely people who insisted that Walz would be an instant win button for her campaign trying to explain why VP didn't actually impact much without admitting they were wrong.
"No we weren't wrong the campaign just uh.. didn't use him right."

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— ArgellaStone (@argellastone.bsky.social) March 16, 2025 at 12:06 AM

HINT: A major reason people on here don't want to admit that 2024 was a revolt against progressive economic policy empowering the working class is because they spent four gleefully sabotaging that policy by pushing reactionary economic doomerism for online clout

— Weedle (@weedle.bsky.social) March 15, 2025 at 8:40 AM

Ya I know Tim Waltz reminds you of your dad but I don't think a few more zingers from him would have changed the fact that every small business owner in America spent the past 4 years in a frothing rage because they couldn't rule over their employees as a feudal lord anymore

— Weedle (@weedle.bsky.social) March 15, 2025 at 8:32 AM

The problem is voters don't want to and will never acknowledge that they're monsters. Tim on the apology circuit saying he owns not being persuasive is giving the gettable an out to do different next time. Tim absolutely knows deep in his bitter soul the zingers weren't enough, he ain't dumb

— sycoraxsetebos.bsky.social (@sycoraxsetebos.bsky.social) March 15, 2025 at 8:37 AM

Counter-argument:

Is Fox News campaigning for Tim Walz in 2028?

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— Clark Matthews (@clarkmatthews.bsky.social) March 15, 2025 at 3:27 PM

Reader Interactions

98Comments

  1. 1.

    Elizabelle

    I love Tim Walz.

    Oh, for him to be living on the grounds of the National Observatory.

    And The Felon to be blustering through his latest court date.

  3. 3.

    mali muso

    Love Gov. Walz!  And is that last screen shot from Fux for real?  It looks like a hoax…I mean, COME ON! “Unsupervised female health decisions”?????!?!??!?

  5. 5.

    Scout211

    what the country needs *right now* is a reliable, relatable Democrat with a national profile to speak up for our much-beleaguered party. You go, Gov. Walz!

    Well said, AL.

    And Gavin Newsom was never going to be that “reliable, relatable Democrat.” I’m just surprised that he showed his stripes so early on in his pre-campaign.

    Thank you, Governor Walz.

    ETA: And Gavin, bye boy!

  7. 7.

    John S.

    Looks like Sen. Schumer doesn’t want to face Democrats:

    The Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, has postponed several stops on a tour to promote his new book, citing security concerns, as the New York Democrat faces intensifying backlash over his vote to support a Republican-drafted spending bill and avert a government shutdown.

    Republicans were roundly repudiated when they decided they wouldn’t face their constituents because they didn’t want any backlash for their actions (or lack thereof), but it’s totally cool when Chuck Schumer does it.

    Book tours aren’t town halls after all, and he should be allowed to conduct business without threat of harassment like any other American.

  8. 8.

    Geminid

    The Fox News framing was intended to be invidious, but they managed to check off seven issues where Waltz is on the side of majority public opinion.

  9. 9.

    AJ of the Mustard Search and Rescue Team

    Ty AL and all the other front-pagers. I’m not super involved in commenting but the posts keep me slightly less insane and it really helps a lot. Thank you.

  12. 12.

    Steve in the ATL

    @mali muso: I was wondering the same thing.  It’s crazy that it’s plausibly real!

    And, needless to say, none of those has the slightest thing to do with communism.

  13. 13.

    Suzanne

    Big Walz fan. I started listening to the “Know Your Enemy” series on Elon Musk, and it’s good, but I was musing on “skipping like a dipshit” and how it really encapsulates Musk just perfectly.

    The drama here is a drive-by shooting on the next block. My neighborhood page indicates that the shooters were three teenagers. Let’s play “Where’d those kids get a firearm?”.

  16. 16.

    Jay

    @Baud:

    A bunch of US States have passed/introduced Employment Laws where your first Jr. High School job at 12 years of age is not delivering papers, but instead, operating a meat cutting station in a slaughterhouse or heavy equipment on a construction site.

  19. 19.

    Jeffro

    not…(shudder, gasp)…UNSUPERVISED FEMALE HEALTH DECISIONS!!!!1!

    good lord, what are we coming to as a country here???

    ///

  21. 21.

    Scout211

    Re: that Fox News chart. In all seriousness, it’s scary how much that chart is just blatant gaslighting.

    They’ve had decades to perfect their game and sadly, it has worked..

    ETA: Nevermind!

    @Old School:

    The “Tim Walz agenda” tweet is from last August and is satire

    Thanks.  Designed to be a funny parody but seems so real.

  22. 22.

    Jay

    @Baud:

    They don’t get lunch, or breaks, (they don’t work 7.5 hours or more, not with school and homework), and have to pee in a bottle at their work station, just like Amazon folks and North Koreans.

  23. 23.

    Baud

    There is not going to be a charismatic leader to ride in and do this,” he said

    This is the type of message that moves me. But I don’t think many people want to hear it.

  24. 24.

    Jeffro

    this is probably a little naive but between Walz, AOC, and Pritzker we have strong ‘leader signaling’ from the Dems here…

    …the question at the top of my mind is, “how can we all help to amplify and unify their messages”?

  26. 26.

    zhena gogolia

    Thanks for the Walz content, AL!

    Somehow when he criticizes Democrats it doesn’t bother me. He really knows how to finesse an argument.

    ETA: And I agree that “skipping around like a dipshit” is a capsule description for the ages.

  27. 27.

    Parfigliano

    I’m hearing more and more right wing radio going out of the way to paint Walz as some crazy out of touch beyond the mainstream lefty whack job.

    He scares the shit out of them.

  29. 29.

    zhena gogolia

    I’d love to listen to the whole town hall, but when people tell their stories I get so enraged I can’t take it.

  34. 34.

    frosty

    @Scout211: Designed to be a funny parody but seems so real.

    Wikipedia: Poe’s law is an Internet adage that states that it is impossible to parody or satirize extreme views without being mistaken for sincerity.

  37. 37.

    Baud

    @frosty:

    While I agree with Poe’s Law, I also think there’s a corollary where people just mimic extreme views and call it satire.

  38. 38.

    Scout211

    @Baud: While I agree with Poe’s Law, I also think there’s a corollary where people just mimic extreme views and call it satire Fox News.

    FIFY

  39. 39.

    different-church-lady

    Nobody votes for a blatant fascist because they don’t like the other candidate’s VP. They vote for a fascist because they want the fascist.

  40. 40.

    trollhattan

    Sure Jan.

    New York City Mayor Eric Adams remains a registered Democrat, but on Monday he repeatedly refused to rule out running for reelection as an independent, Politico reports.

  41. 41.

    Jay

    FEMA’s announcement on Friday that all in-person training offered by the National Fire Academy is canceled sparked immediate pushback from many members of the fire service community, while others defended the administration’s actions as part of its wider efforts to evaluate agency programs and spending. Naturally, many debates played out on social media, including FireRescue1’s own Facebook post breaking the news.

    https://www.firerescue1.com/fema/this-is-a-travesty-fire-service-leaders-react-to-nfa-training-cancellations

  42. 42.

    Eric S.

    I have a very good friend who has done very well for himself and married even better (both monetarily and in many other ways.) He and his wife gift me some money every March. I always pay a portion forward to a worthy charity. There’s no shortage of great and good causes. This year I’ve decided women’s health is the direction I’m going. Planned Parenthood is my default idea. My employer will match my donation for a recognized nonprofit charity. Any other suggestions on the women’s health front?

     

    PS, if it local to NE Illinois or SE Wisconsin all the better. And I know PP has local chapters.

  44. 44.

    chemiclord

    I think you just have a society that really really, really doesn’t want to believe that about a third of the population are irredeemable assholes, and when that third is motivated they can do a lot of damage. So, instead they tell themselves that the problem has to be with the Democrats and not doing [insert pet issue here].

  51. 51.

    Jeffro

    @Baud:

    @Scout211:

    btw speaking of Faux News, here’s their top 5 headlines right now:

    5. Postal Worker steals $1.6M to fund ‘lavish’ lifestyle (pic of worker helpfully provided by Faux ’cause he’s Black)

    4. trump border czar “turns tables” on reporter who asked about 200-year-old immigration law

    3. trump administration reportedly mulling travel ban on people from 43 countries

    2. trump ends Secret Service protection for Hunter Biden: “18 people on this detail”

    and of course…why go halfway in on fascism and lies…

    1.
    Judge who ordered illegal Venezuelan gang members returned to US faces calls for impeachment

  54. 54.

    u

    @mali muso: Yes, that Fox News screen-shot looks like a parody — but who knows?   I never watch TV news (and certainly not Fox News) so maybe it — and the idiots who watch it — are actually that stupid.

  55. 55.

    u

    @different-church-lady: Yes.  But they think that the fascist will hurt only hurt those Other People who they hate.  When I read an article recently about farmers bitching and moaning that the termination of a program to provide fresh food to schools and food banks was making the farmers lose money, I thought the it was noteworthy that they were ONLY complaining about the effect on their sales.  NO CONCERN was expressed about the people going hungry.  We are a nation in which a lot of people are just shit people.  But, honestly, about a third of the population in the United States has ALWAYS been shit people.

  60. 60.

    Ramalama

    @Eric S.: Peoples’ Resource Center in Wheaton Illinois was started by friends of my parents, who were liberal, social justice Catholics. Not quite your area but good people serving people in need.

  61. 61.

    Another Scott

    It’s good that Walz is raising his profile. He’s got a sensible voice and commands attention.

    Ike came up yesterday or so in the comments, and it got me to look at his farewell address tonight. He closes with:

    […]

    You and I – my fellow citizens – need to be strong in our faith that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace with justice. May we be ever unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with power, diligent in pursuit of the Nation’s great goals.

    To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression to America’s prayerful and continuing inspiration:

    We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its spiritual blessings; that those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibilities; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; that the scourges of poverty, disease and ignorance will be made to disappear from the earth, and that, in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.

    That speech is remembered for the “military-industrial complex” but I think the ending is more important. We have to share this world, all of us, with people we don’t agree with. We need to find ways to make things better for all of us. That striving is part of what’s best of America and it’s good to be reminded of that.

    Lots of us are cynical. Sometimes for good reason. But sometimes it’s a defense mechanism because we don’t want our hopes and dreams to be crushed yet again. Underneath it all, we’re optimistic animals because one has to be an optimist to get out of bed in the morning to toil in the yard or the garden, to plow the fields, to do the work to find the mistake in the spreadsheet, to wrestle with PowerPoint yet again for yet another important presentation, to stand at the crossing with the little STOP sign, to make the machine run a little bit better, and all the rest. Optimism is part of the human condition and we need it.

    We need to again appeal to that optimism about America and the future. To fight back against anti-American words and deeds. To take back the poetry and imagery of the more perfect union and the last best hope of Earth and all the rest. To show the normies that we’re worth listening to, and that we understand really big stories about what America is at her best. To resist the urge to let those big stories in a campaign be drowned out by our specific, detailed, policy proposals that get nitpicked to death before they are even written up as legislation; that don’t get listened to; that get dismissed with “we can’t afford that, and it’s welfare and it’s bad”.

    We have sensible, detailed, specific policy proposals and that’s great and important. But these days that’s not what wins campaigns. Winning campaigns depends on voters being willing to listen to us and trusting that the caricature of Democrats hating America and only caring about everyone else except YOU is wrong, wrong, wrong. Campaigning on sensible economics isn’t going to sway people who will not listen to us.

    Of course, every campaign is different. Many folks are already doing what I’m advocating here, and Harris did a lot of that as well. But 3 months before an election isn’t enough. We need to make it part of our political DNA again. No time like the present.

    My $0.02.

    Best wishes,
    Scott.

  62. 62.

    Jay

    Whut they doing over there,………………..

    Minnesota Statutes 2024, section 245I.02, is amended by adding a subdivision to
    read: Subd. 40a. Trump Derangement Syndrome.

    “Trump Derangement Syndrome” means the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal persons that is in reaction to the policies and presidencies of President Donald J. Trump. Symptoms may include Trump-induced general hysteria, which produces an inability to distinguish between legitimate policy differences and signs of psychic pathology in President Donald J. Trump’s behavior. This may be expressed by:

    (1) verbal expressions of intense hostility toward President Donald J. Trump; and

    (2) overt acts of aggression and violence against anyone supporting President Donald J. Trump or anything that symbolizes President Donald J. Trump.

    https://www.wonkette.com/p/minnesota-gopers-want-to-make-trump

  63. 63.

    YY_Sima Qian

    More & more impressed by Walz. I am surprised that a Governor of MN would have such an audience in IA. Where are the Dems from IA?

  66. 66.

    Eric S.

    @Ramalama: I don’t have unlimited money (sadly) but I’ll look into them.

    ETA: I grew up in DuPage county so I consider that home-ish.

  70. 70.

    YY_Sima Qian

    As I’ve said many times before, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution vibes are getting stronger everyday:

    US Institute of Peace says Doge workers have broken into its building
    Remaining members of board – Pete Hegeth, Marco Rubio and Peter Garvin – fire president of independent non-profit

    Associated Press
    Tue 18 Mar 2025 01.07 GMT

    The Trump administration fired most of the board of the US Institute of Peace (USIP) and sent its new leader into the Washington DC headquarters of the independent organization on Monday, in its latest effort targeting agencies tied to foreign assistance work.
    The remaining three members of the group’s board – defense secretary Pete Hegseth, secretary of state Marco Rubio and national defense university president Peter Garvin – fired president and CEO, George Moose, on Friday, according to a document obtained by the Associated Press.
    An executive order that Donald Trump signed last month targeted the organization, which was created by Congress more than 40 years ago, and others for reductions.
    Current USIP employees said staffers from Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” entered the building despite protests that the institute is not part of the executive branch. USIP called the police, whose vehicles were outside the building on Monday evening.
    …

  73. 73.

    YY_Sima Qian

    Click through the link for the nauseating video of the press conference:

    Liveuamap@Liveuamap

    White House spokesperson: “It’s only because of the United States of America that the French aren’t speaking German right now. So they should be very grateful”
    https://france.liveuamap.com/en/2025/17-march-17-leavitt-its-only-because-of-the-united-states

    Yep, about right:

    Christopher Clary@clary_co

    It is funny to see these arguments your drunk buddy might slur at you late on a Sunday during football season with the imprimatur of US power behind the speaker. Not funny haha, I guess.

  75. 75.

    dww44

    @Another Scott: Should we be copying and pasting documents like this to outside archival spaces given Trump’s intention to bury and disappear anything that runs counter to his beliefs and actions?  What’s to prevent them from wiping this speech from the National Archives?

  76. 76.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Jay: friend of mine is involved in the Hyundai child labor case in Alabama.  It’s…ugly.  But maybe not a problem anymore!

  77. 77.

    Belafon

    @John S.: who says it’s totally cool when Schumer does it? I, for one, think Walz should do a book tour to all of those locations.

  83. 83.

    tam1MI

    @Baud:This is the type of message that moves me. But I don’t think many people want to hear it.

    I think we got a little spoiled with first Bill Clinton then Barack Obama.

  88. 88.

    Geminid

    @Belafon: No one said it’s totally cool when Chuck Schumer cancels appearences promoting his book. That’s just a strawman, a complaint that not enough people are totally uncool with it like the commenter seems to be.

    The irony is that couple days ago, Schumers critics were ripping him for going on this “book tour” and now this critic is ripping him for not going on the tour.

  90. 90.

    prostratedragon

    From the National WWII Museum in New Orleans:

    Students will learn about the brave men of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion and their extraordinary mission to help protect US soldiers during the D-Day Invasions on June 6, 1944. The 320th was the only unit to storm the beach that day that was composed entirely of African American soldiers. They provided critical protection to the ships and soldiers below them from attacks by enemy aircraft.

  91. 91.

    Geminid

    Bad news for the people in Gaza. From Ankara-based Clash Report:

       Israel unilaterally ended the ceasfire in Gaza tonight, launching extensive airstrikes that have killed over 200 Palestinians.

    Dozens of civilians, including children, have been killed.

    Trump gave Netanyahu the green light to continue attacks.

    The reporting on Trump’s posture may have come from the Wall Street Journal.

    Israel also pulled its negotiating team from Doha, Qatar where Egyptian, Qatari and U.S. mediators have been trying broker an extension of the ceasefire that commenced late January.

  92. 92.

    Splitting Image

    White House spokesperson: “It’s only because of the United States of America that the French aren’t speaking German right now. So they should be very grateful”

    Funny. We were talking about A Fish Called Wanda only just last night. I wonder if he knows what the London Undergound is agitating for.

  93. 93.

    prostratedragon

    Of possible interest:

    This Thursday, March 20th, Jeff [Atwood, of Stack Exchange] will be sharing a stage with @AVindman at The Cooper Union in New York City. They’ll be discussing three questions:

    — What are the core values that unify Americans?
    — How can we resurrect this country’s collective sense of purpose?
    — And how do we rebuild economic mobility in an age of widening inequality?

    Event link

  94. 94.

    Geminid

    @prostratedragon: Alexander Vindman’s twin brother Eugene is now my U.S  Representive for the Virginia 7th CD. They both were born in Kyiv, raised in Brooklyn and attended SUNY-Binghamton.

  95. 95.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: Correction: the Israeli negotiation team returned from Cairo. That’s where the latest round of ceasefire negotiations was being held.

  97. 97.

    chemiclord

    @Geminid: There’s a whole ton of Schumer criticism that comes about simply because it’s Chuck Schumer.  The dude has negative charisma and his optics are terrible; and since we are nation that makes decisions entirely based on vibes now, it doesn’t matter what Schumer says or does or his reasons.  It’s always going to suck and be the wrong move.

Comments are closed.