Someone go find that violin-playing tardigrade for my home state’s senior senator, please. According to Alan He of CBS News, all this governing made him miss his beach vacation:
I am sympathetic to his struggles as a stroke survivor—someone I love who is about my age has also had to make a similar comeback, and while their job isn’t as high-pressure as Senator Fetterman’s, they’ve had maybe one proper vacation in the last 10 years. Come to think of it, so have I. And so have many of you, probably.
He ran as someone who’d be a tireless champion for working families. He is neither of those things. I hope he sees the light while Josh Shapiro is still governor.
That’s it. Open thread.
frosty
I managed to prioritize vacations, even when I was working. Sorry for the rest of y’all/youse/yinz/ustedes.
ETA That being said, Fetterman is a big disappointment. I’d be sorry I donated, got my picture taken with him, and knocked on doors … but Oz was much worse.
Hunter Gathers
He’s not going anywhere.
The dude is and always has been an upper-class turd cosplaying as a working class hero.
He’s going to cling on to his Comp Life as long as possible.
trollhattan
At this point I conclude whatever we have with Fetterman 2.0, he’s looking at McConnell and Grassley and thinking, “Looks like a plan.”
JML
Fetterman has been a disappointment. How much is it because of the stroke and how much of it is him maybe not being who we thought he was? (I suspect it’s mostly the former, but can’t rule out the latter. Stroke recovery can be really hard, and many people are never really the same.)
Saw this up at TPM today, and found it thought-provoking. I don’t know where I would come down on all of it, but thought it was worthy of consideration, and a perspective worth considering, even if you don’t maybe agree with it.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/another-perspective-on-nyc-politics-zionism-jews-and-everything-else
Raoul Paste
Not exactly a working class hero.
Old Man Shadow
Look, if Grandma Phyllis can work 80 hours a week at two jobs on her feet all day just to survive, you can give up a weekend to make sure she still has health care, Senator Motherfucker.
Belafon
@JML: I thought it was just another attempt to excuse the racists in the Democratic party.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@frosty:
Voting for Fetterman in the general was totally understandable. That qualified as voting for a “more” Democrat.
Next step is to work toward getting a “better” Democrat to replace him. If that doesn’t happen during a primary, then the usual nose-holding exercise commences. Won’t be the first time.
Old Man Shadow
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Lately, it seems all I do is hold my nose.
Well, I guess that’s not entirely true. Senator Padilla hasn’t disappointed me yet.
brendancalling
I’m on hold with his office. He is a horrible piece of shit. I fucking HATE him. Every single call/message to him ends with “you should resign.”
He’s a liar who made every single one of us who knocked on doors for him look like a fool. I almost hope he DOES run again, so I can go door to door and apologize to all the people I encouraged to vote for him.
BOO HOO, the ogre wants to go to the beach. He can resign anytime he wants and have plenty of beach time.
Just got off the phone w/his office as I typed these words. He’s a schmuck, and his staff is so obviously over him. They don’t even try to defend his sorry, racist ass anymore.
Poor baby wants to go to the beach—the vast majority of my kids come from families that are too poor to go to the beach. Fuck him. Go back to your swamp, Shrek.
Geminid
@JML: I always thought Fetterman was “fool’s gold.” I did not think the Democrats who voted for him in the primary were fools; my attitude was: their state, their call. But I’d looked at both John Fetterman and the Fetterman phenomenon and I concluded there was a whole lot of projection going on.
trollhattan
@Geminid:
Three time zones away it distilled to big dude in hoody vs. that sanctimonious teevee “doctor” with a dozen mansions. Easy to root for hoody guy.
Now just look, we’ve got both.
rikyrah
sigh…..
sigh…
stop the whining
Black people told you so about him…but, they were ignored.
NotMax
Lack of oxygen from being too tall?
//
rikyrah
@JML:
I dunno.
I do know that his phucking azz was UNCOMMITTED during 2024.
that’s all I need to know about him.
so, no, I don’t give a shyt if he wins in November, or if they re-elect that crook Adams.
As bitter as I am right now?
Oh hell no. Not voting for any Uncommitted Muthaphucka.
Geminid
@trollhattan: Yeah, Fetterman was fortunate in his opponent. Mehmet Oz wasn’t just from Turkey, he was a turkey.
David McCormick, the guy who just beat Bob Casey Jr. last year, would have been a tougher opponent but Oz barely squeaked by him in the primary.
We can thank political mastermind Sean Hannity for that one. He’s the idiot who talked Trump into endorsing Oz.
ArchTeryx
@brendancalling: Don’t involve Shrek in this. Dude may have been an ogre, but he didn’t mean anyone any harm. He just wanted to be left alone to do his own thing.
I’d take him over any Republican politician ANY day. You treat him well, he’ll at worst treat you indifferently.
trollhattan
The death cult is pressing the accelerator though the car’s floor.
Jay
So given the mass alignment against Mamdani, Democrats, Rethugs, Islamophobes, AIPAC, ADL, DMI, Billionaires, it’s going to be either Cuomo or Adams.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/its-your-good-pal-zohran-mamdani
https://forward.com/news/732217/why-claims-of-antisemitism-didnt-stop-zohran-mamdani/
Gin & Tonic
Being a US Senator is the exact opposite of a “high-pressure job.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Jay: That is a take. Probably the wrong one, but it is a take.
lowtechcyclist
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Problem is, the primary is three years away. Which is why so many people want him to resign now, rather than put us all through another three years of this.
They say that showing up is 85% of life, and it’s even more true for a member of Congress than for the rest of us. If showing up is too much trouble for him, he needs to get his ass out of there.
Geminid
@Jay: Zohran Mamdani will be elected the next Mayor of New York City. People are trying to scare Democrats about this situation because they have axes to grind.
chemiclord
From what I can see, the stroke has really just removed the inhibitions covering up who Fetterman always was.
God, I wish people would stop electing their leaders based solely on vibes.
Betty Cracker
@Jay: Christ, I hope you’re wrong. That would be the stupidest fucking outcome possible.
Geminid
@Gin & Tonic: A U.S. Senator has one of the cushiest jobs around, in or out of politics.
CaseyL
I do think it was mostly the stroke.
I remember how public Fetterman and his wife Gisele were, not only in the run-up to the election, but afterwards. Gisele and their kids are the real thing, and I don’t think it’s an accident that they have largely vanished from public view since the stroke. I think it changed him, profoundly, and his family is trying to deal with their husband/father being a totally different person.
It’s awful for his constituents, but it’s also awful for his family.
lowtechcyclist
@rikyrah:
As someone who doesn’t live in PA and didn’t feel I knew enough to have a dog in the primary fight, it was him or Dr. Oz. He’s still the right choice out of those two: the worst Democrat is still better than the best Republican, and Dr. Oz is nowhere near that low bar.
But now the mental comparison is between Fetterman and a Dem that Gov. Shapiro would appoint. I’d prefer to take my chances on the latter.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: I did not see any Black people say not to vote for Fetterman in the general election. I saw plenty saying not to vote for him in the primary though.
NaijaGal
I keep seeing on Balloon Juice that Zohran Mamdani was “uncommitted” in 2024. Elsewhere, I see that he voiced support for the uncommitted movement during the Democratic primaries but did not sit out the November election or ask anyone else to sit out the general election. What’s the actual truth?
Betty Cracker
@CaseyL: I do feel sorry for his wife, who seems like a genuinely good person. As for whether what we’re seeing now is the stroke or who Fetterman was all along, I’m not sure how trustworthy a source Adam Jentleson is, who used to be Fetterman’s chief of staff. But according to him, Fetterman is a different man post-stroke when he goes off his meds. He says Fetterman has done crazy shit like reckless driving that could have gotten himself and/or others injured or killed. If that’s true, how awful for the wife and kids.
Lobo
Related: Why didn’t any Democratic Senators use other procedural mechanisms like calling for quorum? At times during the reading, there were no senators. A calling for quorum would have slowed things down and made everyone uncomfortable. At these times, discomfort is called for. But Fetterman, let’s the cat out of the bag. What make me uncomfortable over measly millions losing their healthcare and food.
rikyrah
@lowtechcyclist:
I’m talking about the primary.
rikyrah
Dr. G (@GinnyMcDonald8) posted at 10:27 AM on Sun, Jun 29, 2025:
People need to read the BBB plan. It cuts Pell Grants and subsidizes loans to students. It raises full time student from 12-15 hours. Many kids take 12 hours because the have to work. It allows no stopping of payments if you become unemployed. It forbids future POTUS’ from
(https://x.com/GinnyMcDonald8/status/1939344902024040620?t=fJ00BuNsmxmy944Vc91v4Q&s=03)
Dr. G (@GinnyMcDonald8) posted at 10:27 AM on Sun, Jun 29, 2025:
forgiving students loans. It doenst allow loans to be discharged after 20 years of payments. You’ll be paying out of your SS check. This bill is designed to hurt liberals and the educated.
(https://x.com/GinnyMcDonald8/status/1939344904334762386?t=NZQjH8GRIMLP45p8RPQDxQ&s=03)
Betty Cracker
@NaijaGal: If evidence existed that Mamdani sat out the general election in 2024 and/or encouraged others to do so, his many enemies within the party would have dug it up and publicized it by now. Since it hasn’t been produced, I suspect it does not exist.
UncleEbeneezer
@JML: That’s a very good piece from TPM, thanks for sharing. It 100% echoes the sentiments I’ve heard from Jewish friends/colleagues of mine who are loyal Dems (some even long-time activists for the Civil Rights movement). They are rightfully mad that the Left (and many of Zohran’s biggest fans) push a completely disingenuous, cartoon caricature of Zionism that has no resemblance to what 90% of Jews actually support/believe in.
Noam Weissman broke it down in a recent episode of the Unpacking Israeli History podcast:
Unfortunately, just like racists love to hijack the definitions of Black Power/Liberation/Pride, Affirmative Action, DEI, CRT, Intersectionality to create a boogey-man threat to White People (they literally equate these things with White Genocide), antisemites do the exact same bullshit move by claiming Zionism = Racism/Colonialism/Imperialism/Genocide. And while Liberals/Progressives usually don’t fall for or support the former (right-wing, bullshit caricatures of Black Liberation) way too many do fall for it, when it comes to Zionism.
Moreover, the Left eagerly supported Arab, Latin-American, Asian and African Nationalism movements for the creation of states to enable self-determination for those peoples, but won’t do the same for Jews. And won’t even acknowledge the blatant double-standard as it is applied to one, and only one, nation/people.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Betty Cracker:
It’s in the same vault as the pee tape.
Or Michelle Obama’s “whitey” tape.
hitchhiker
That line about missing the beach trip just presses every button I have. I can’t even imagine my parents taking a beach vacation, and I grew up in Michigan, where there are plenty of beaches.
Why not? Because vacations where you go someplace were just out of their range, and out of the ranges of every family I knew. Vacations where you go someplace were for some other species of people.
And the idea of somebody feeling so entitled to that kind of thing that they BITCH about it when they have to miss it makes me want to take a shovel to their face.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: I don’t know much about these “many enemies in the Democratic party,” but the Cuomo campaign had months to come up with something and did not, and they had money to do oppo reasearch.
I haven’t seen any journalists find anything either, and this would be a big story.
Anyway
I didn’t see any ads about nursing homes losing funding as a result of the Ugly Horrible bill — I watch some baseball and though I mute the commercials get a sense of what’s being pushed. i am surprised the insurance /healthcare industry did not stir up more of an opposition to the bill.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: I think this is probably correct and, even at the time, I didn’t have a problem with people using the primary to express their dissatisfaction with the administration’s policies. I thought it was a way to make a point without endangering Biden’s re-election/Harris’s election. Voting uncommitted in the the general, OTOH, was a horrible idea.
CaseyL
@Omnes Omnibus: The cycle of leftist outrage, where enough people sit out the election to hand the country over to the Greater Evil, is accelerating.
Used to be approximately every 20 years: 1968, 1980, 2000.
Now it’s every other election: 2016, 2024.
lowtechcyclist
@Geminid:
That may well be. But if someone tells me not to whine, they warned me, no they didn’t. Because you can’t expect everyone in this country to pay attention to every state’s primaries. (You seem to, but I’ll be damned if I know how you do it.) It may be fair to say that to PA Dems, but not to the rest of us. And even if they’d warned me, WTF was I going to do about it? I don’t get to vote in PA.
lowtechcyclist
@rikyrah:
So it’s OK if I whine, then?
Baud
@Jay:
My money is on Curtis Sliwa.
JML
@Jay: Adams? Even the republicans that bribed him are out on him.
I think it’s going to be Mamdani, who is doing a fine job of having some policies that people are interested with a positive campaign. Is Cuomo even still running? Sure he qualifies for a line on the ballot, but he’s lost basically all his endorsements.
I don’t think sitting out primary season and being a bit of a douche with a no endorsement stance back then will be a deal-breaker for him, especially when faced with a choice of more Adams, an honest-to-god republican or some rando. I don’t love that kind of performative purity politics BS, but we’re past the point where it matters.
brendancalling
@chemiclord: see that’s the thing: he didn’t suck as Lt. Governor. At all. It wasn’t based on vibes, it’s that he had done a decent job.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: I don’t pay attention to every state’s primary, but I happened to pay a lot of attention to this one. And it did receive more national attention than most because Fetterman was a media star.
JML
@CaseyL: seriously. sitting out an election just shows that you’re ready to be taken advantage of, but there are some people who prefer to do it over something more interesting…like winning.
dnfree
This is a gift article from the Chicago Tribune about just one person picked up “mistakenly”. And the family doesn’t know how they will pay the legal costs to get him back out of custody.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2025/06/30/ice-false-arrest-asylum-chicago/?share=otc0ci2oiwco2spi2gwr
Gin & Tonic
@Geminid: There’s got to be someone in Cuomo’s orbit somewhere, looking to reprise “Vote for Cuomo, not the homo.” (N.b. I neither know nor care about Mamdani’s sexuality.)
Omnes Omnibus
I’ll just mention again that I did not vote for Pocan in the WI primary last year. I left it blank because of his call for Biden to bow out. I voted for him in the general because of course I did. Am I now anathema?*
*For this reason only. Ignore all the others for the purpose of this discussion.
President Johnny Gentle (famous crooner)
I think part of the problem is that he says/posts stuff like this because he thinks it makes him look a regular guy who’s been dropped into Congress and see how silly, inefficient and pointless much of it is–as though he’s the stand-in for any one of us, who’d be reacting similarly. The problem is, he doesn’t come off like “regular guy” when he does this, he just sounds like a whiney guy who just keeps complaining and doesn’t want to do the job.
CaseyL
@Omnes Omnibus:
Exactly. Register displeasure/disgust at the primary level, but goddammit I’ll vote for the Democrat in the general. Because the worst Democrat is still better than the “best” GOPer.
(Especially now, when there aren’t any “good” GOPers at all. They’re all monstrous wastes of protoplasm.)
marklar
@UncleEbeneezer: Thank you.
VFX Lurker
I don’t know if this will make anyone feel better, but 1968 and 1980 were separated by 12 years, not 20.
Geminid
@JML: Emerson released a poll about a week before for the NYC Mayoral primary. Besides primary preferences they also polled general election matchups.
With Cuomo as the Democratic nominee, the numbers were: Cuomo 44%, Sliwa (R) 13%, Adams (I) 10% and Walden (I) (6%), the rest undecided.
With Mamdani the nominee, the numbers were: Mamdani 36%, Sliwa 16%, Adams 15% and Walden 7%.
As it turned out, this poll underestimated Mamdani’s primary strength substantially. Most polls did because they were based on the 2021 electorate and a lot of new voters showed up a week ago. I’m guessing the poll underestimated Mamdani’s general election strength as well.
Geminid
@Gin & Tonic: I hear Cuomo’s new campaign slogan is:
Omnes Omnibus
@VFX Lurker: There is a 2 in it so it’s probably okay for anyone who is not a math nerd.
sab
@JML: Not to generalize too much, but my city elected a POC Muslim 30ish mayor a couple of years ago and so far he is doing a fine job.
The police union hates him, but their guys all moved to a white suburb, so they can’t vote against him ( HA ha) and he is trying not to antagonize them while keeping the pressure on them not to murder the citizenry.
He is pretty adamant about accepting and working within the parameters of union contracts, which I admire.
Just a different point of view from the boondocks.
trollhattan
@Geminid:
Being it’s New York probably No More Mister Nice Goy.
Jay
@dnfree:
I guess the ICE Lawyer screwed up. It wasn’t supposed to go to a hearing. Normally the first thing the ICE Lawyer does, at the start of the hearing, is state that ICE would like to dismiss the case. The Immigration Judges never say “no” and few Immigrants have a Immigration Lawyer standing by to say I object, you are denying my Client due process on the basis of the 4th and 5th Amendments.
Instead, the clock is set to zero, all previous hearings and claims are gone, and the Client is now an Immigrant with no status.
Dan B
@Gin & Tonic: MAmbani is married to a woman, as I recall.
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: Agreed. Primaries are the time to voice that sort of dissent. The general is the time to keep the fascists at bay.
That said, I try not to write people off forever if they fuck up a general election vote either — as long as they own it and learn from their mistake. I’ve got no standing to criticize others for mistakes I’ve made myself.
Also, the horror in Gaza creates the kind of circumstance where people are more likely to make the perfect the enemy of the less crappy on an issue they rightly feel passionate about.
Colin Kaepernick said voting for Hillary Clinton as the lesser evil of the two candidates on offer in 2016 was still voting for evil. I think that was a mindbogglingly obtuse thing to say, and that attitude helped Trump/Repubs win and cause untold suffering. But I don’t think Kaepernick is a terrible person. He’s a person who has done much good but has also fucked up.
@Geminid: There are still plenty of Dems who recoil like holy-water doused vampires any time the S-word is mentioned. It’s still a pretty effective smear here in FL, though I’m hopeful Repubs’ increasingly outlandish application of the word to anything they don’t like negates its utility as a boogeyman.
tobie
I volunteered for Conor Lamb during the Dem primary. It seemed pretty clear to me that Fetterman was all style, no substance. I would have rallied behind Kenyatta too but it didn’t seem like he had a chance at all whereas Lamb had a slim one. It was an ugly campaign. Lots of smears coming from Fetterman’s team and then outright lying from the team about the state of Fetterman’s health leading up to the vote. Now we’re stuck with someone who hates his job and doesn’t seem to have any real political commitments.
rikyrah
@sab:
THIS?
THIS?
Angers me to no end. If a jurisdiction pays your salary, then it’s not too much for them to expect for you to live within said jurisdiction.
I am SO glad that the City of Chicago has the rule that if you get PAID from the City of Chicago, then you must LIVE within City of Chicago limits.
City Hall, Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Police Department, Chicago Fire…you collect a salary from them..you are required to live IN THE CITY OF CHICAGO.
AS IT SHOULD BE.
AND YES, the ones who continue to whine the most about this rule are the cops and firemen.
trollhattan
A PSA: school back in session mid-August.
Boy howdy, can’t wait.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
i mean, if he had done that just last November, there wouldn’t be enough time for redemption to be mayor of NYC, IMHO. Not that I get a say.
sab
@trollhattan: We really need to encourage religious nuts to home school.
Jay
@rikyrah:
Here, it uncommon in the last 30 years for municipal police to live in their municipalities. The RCMP do, but not the Delta Police, the VPD, the New West Police, Port Moody, etc. Housing is too expensive.
NaijaGal
@Betty Cracker: Thank you for that. Like others have said, I have no problem with someone expressing dissatisfaction in the Democratic primaries but supporting the candidate who won the primaries, no matter how much they dislike that person, in the general election.
I’ve done that myself (voted for John Chiang in the Dem primary for California governor and then for Newsom, who won the primary, in 2018). I did not like Newsom at all but I backed him in the 2018 general election.
sab
@rikyrah: Ohio used to have that rule but our state supreme court said otherwise.
The plus side is they can’t vote here anymore. FOP still gets very active with misleading postcards.
Firemen still mostly live in town near their firehouses.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Well, he didn’t. But if he had, and if I were a New Yorker, I’d probably still rank him higher than Cuomo or Adams.
Zelma
@tobie:
Agree with your assessment of Federman. I left Western PA in 2012 after having lived there for 30+ years. I always felt Federman was “all style and no substance.” Somebody above said “He did a good job as Lt. Governor.” As is the case in most states, the Lt. Gov is a nothing job. He did work kind of hard as head of the Parole Board and was generally on the side of the angels. But the fact that he (and/or his campaign) lied about the severity of his stoke is disqualifying. (Although some Democrat or the DNC ought to have hired his comm people; they were brilliant at keeping him in the race.) Conor was the rep from my district. He would have been a solid senator. OTOH, Federman or Oz? No issue.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t know what I’d do. Probably rank for one or more of the other not Cuomo’s. The only issue would be if I ranked Mamdani low or not at all.
But all hypothetical. He didn’t do it, and I don’t get a vote.
Steve in the ATL
@Omnes Omnibus: ah, just like “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo”.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: I see you left out Curtis Sliwa. Was that inadvertant, or are you secretly riding the Sli-wave?
satby
@Omnes Omnibus: well, he has a batting average to hold.
Betty
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: A large number of PA Democrats have made it clear that they are demanding a primary challenge. My personal favorite is Congresswoman Madeline Dean. I am seeing his last primary opponent, Conor Lamb, is being talked up by some on social media.
sab
@rikyrah: Jayland Walker was the sweetest, most polite, mild-mannered young man imaginable. Everyone knew him. Everyone liked him. I am an old white woman who never gets out so I didn’t but my kids knew him. My hairdresser knew him. Nurses aides who worked with my dad knew him.
Cops murdered him in some major league fuckup. Tried to call it deserved ( they claimed he had a gun, we seriously doubt it.) Then they tried to say suicide by cop. Ever since they have been hiding the identity of the cops ( even the one who fired 45 rounds into the kid running away.) Several years later the tensions are still really high.
I am grateful to have a mayor who viscerally understands our anger but can still calmly deal with all the parties he needs to deal with to keep us safe and calm.
ETA There were protests at the last mayor’s house ( he lived at home with his elderly mother. He quit. Yay.) Police chief quit ( before that I was a fan of his.) So we didn’t just ignore the murder. We just want the city to become safe , for citizens and the cops.
satby
@CaseyL: I think so too, and if that’s the case, then it’s a really sad situation. Even for the Senator, who had previously been very honest about some of the impairment he suffered. Now the stroke could even have set him up for early onset Alzheimer’s.
Geminid
@Betty: I don’t think Fetterman will run for reelection. He certainly doesn’t act like he intends to.
Betty
@CaseyL: I agree. His wife, children and the family dog all contributed to a picture of someone who would do right for ordinary folks. He also worked hard to lessen the Republican vote in deep red areas. Recently I have heard disturbing stories about being emotionally abusive to his wife and driving so recklessly that aides would ride in the car with him. Brain damage should not be discounted as a big factor.
Baud
This doesn’t take away from Mamdani’s win, but I’ve seen the wrong info floating around, so here’s a correction.
It’s about the age demo of the turnout.
Betty
@Betty Cracker: Adam was chief of staff for Harry Reid and a very solid liberal who I used to follow on X. His decision to write to Fetterman’s doctor about his condition seems to reflect sincere concern.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: Busted! I’m a sucker for a man in a beret! ;-)
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Geminid: Then he should resign. Today.
UncleEbeneezer
@Omnes Omnibus: Supporting the stupid Uncommitted shit in March of 2024 (as Zohran did) did absolutely nothing but help spread Both Sides nonsense and voter apathy that ended up killing us in November. There really was no competitive primary with Biden as the incumbent President. We needed everyone to start rallying behind our candidate and party long before November. I don’t know how many times we need to get burned by this holding-out-our-vote crap before we learn that it’s not something you can suddenly reverse with a last-minute endorsement or by voting the right way.
UncleEbeneezer
@NaijaGal: You can’t relentlessly bash our candidate/party and then suddenly do an about-face and all of a sudden it’s all good. Once you convince people they shouldn’t support Genocide Joe, Kamala The Cop, Crooked Hillary etc., you can’t put that genie back in the bottle again. Many of them will not pivot with you and the damage is already done. I’m sorry people don’t get this but there really is a time when the only thing we should all be doing is getting into Voltron formation for our team. Bashing Biden/Harris and granting a permission structure for people to not bother voting for them, in an election year was never a good idea. Republicans went to the mat for their team. We didn’t. And it’s probably why we lost. We should’ve been signal-boosting the threat to Medicaid and the gross Tax Cuts that we all knew were coming if Trump got elected. Or countless other horrible things he’s doing. Instead of publicly circle-jerking about the evil of Joe Biden/Kamala/Dem Party and saying there’s no real difference between the parties so why even bother voting? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
But sadly a significant swath of our “side” only feels alive if they are shitting on/inside our own tent. So we have to go through this shit every four years.
sab
@sab: Our young coucilman quit because his real job was too stressful and time consumimg for council work. City fathers appointed an apparently upstanding oldish citizen to replace him. Primary had a council fight. The allegedly upstanding citizen got FOP from outside of the city (not just the council seat area) to endorse him so the othe guy lost.
I am outraged. Fall I will write in. Hope a lot of the kids knocking on doors do also.
Omnes Omnibus
@UncleEbeneezer: Refusing to vote for Pocan in the August primary was pure self-indulgence on my part. I think we need to draw a line on where we are going to go after people for wrong think. I am choosing to draw it here. Were I a NYer, I would probably have tanker Lander first. I am not one and I am happy to let NYC makes its own choice.
NaijaGal
@UncleEbeneezer: We’re taking on an authoritarian regime that is threatening to denaturalize and deport the Democratic winner of the New York City mayoral primary because the president has decided he’s a communist who must have lied on his naturalization documents about supporting terrorism (per the response to Pete Doocy’s insane question to Karoline Leavitt today). I think a little perspective is in order.
I was very angry with all the Democrats who asked Biden to step down, including Adam Schiff. I got over it and voted for them in the general because I like democracy.
I’ve lived in a dictatorship. One of the ways that authoritarians gain even more control is fracturing an opposition that seeks absolute perfection in its membership while ignoring the fact that this leaves fewer and fewer people opposing the atrocities going on around them. You may not like Mamdani. You don’t have to. But you’re in the same party, on the same side when it comes to democracy versus autocracy.
Gvg
@trollhattan: has he ever LOOKED at a coal mine? I know he has bad taste but that’s stupid.
Gvg
@rikyrah: how do people change jobs? What if they marry and want to combine households but live and work for different government employers? What if they have parents nearby but not in the city that need looking after? What if they can’t afford to live in the area of their paycheck?
In general it seems like a good idea. But there are a lot of reasons it might not be.
dnfree
@rikyrah: Students who have educational allowances, like having ADHD or autism, also often take 12 hours because it takes them longer to do the work. So yeah, requiring 15 for full-time status is very intentionally restrictive.