Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

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

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

This blog will pay for itself.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

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

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

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

If rights aren’t universal, they are privilege, not rights.

So very ready.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Our messy unity will be our strength.

If ‘weird’ was the finish line, they ran through the tape and kept running.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / This About Sums It Up

This About Sums It Up

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This post is in: 

House GOP Falling Apart, Trump Is Unwell, The Loss Of Rights For Anyone Is A Loss of Rights For Everyone (Simon Rosenberg)

Morning all. Still in Los Angeles for DNC/State Chairs’ meeting so a shorter post today.

First, there is a very good feeling here among Dem party leaders. We had a good electoral year. Won in races of all kinds all across the country, many by big margins. We should end the year feeling like we all did something important and necessary, and excited and confident about what we can do together in 2026.

Wait, what?  There’s a DNC State Chairs’ Meeting going on?

I know I’ve been busy with work, but I haven’t heard a thing about that?  Has it been in the news?

Let’s repeat that.

  • There is a very good feeling here among Dem party leaders.
  • We had a good electoral year.
  • Won in races of all kinds all across the country
  • Won many of them by big margins.
  • We should end the year feeling like we all did something important and necessary.
  • We should end the year excited and confident about what we can do together in 2026.

Nah, let’s fight among ourselves!

I’m no pollyanna, but I sorely wish that we could do more celebrating of victories here before we have to start working our assess off again at the end of January.

The comments are much more interesting when we’re not rehashing the same grievances over and over.

There is a lot of horror right now, but there’s also so much winning that I will never get tired of.

Can we list our wins?

Reader Interactions

152Comments

  3. 3.

    prostratedragon

    Another bit of good news from the pushback front:

    The U.S. Senate sent President Donald Trump a bill Thursday that would protect a portion of the Wounded Knee Massacre site on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

    U.S. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-South Dakota, sponsored the legislation in the House, where it passed in January. Sen. Mike Rounds sponsored the legislation in the Senate, where it passed Thursday, with Majority Leader John Thune as a cosponsor. Both are Republicans from South Dakota.

    Looking over the clips from yesterday at Rupar’s, I felt like the day was a high water mark for ludicrous bullshit from the 🤡 Show. Maybe more of this push building up where we can’t see it yet is the reason.

  5. 5.

    Jackie

    @Josie:

    I guess it’s not really our win, but I love seeing Indiana telling Piggy to stuff it.

    Saving two Dem House seats is a WIN for all of us!

  8. 8.

    MargeF

    Tom Perriello announced he will run for his old seat, VA 05. He was a wonderful one term congressman that lost his job by voting for Obamacare. We are currently “represented” by John McGuire. McGuire won by stealing the seat from Bob Good. Imagine, Good was not bad enough for the district. I think Good is thinking about trying to primary McGuire. Perriello has a serious chance to flip the district. I can’t say how much this is bringing some excitement back to central Virginia. He is local to the area, born in Charlottesville. His Dad was my kids pediatrician. This is very good news. I hope the BJ community will give him lots of support.

  10. 10.

    Old Man Shadow

    There is a very good feeling here among Dem party leaders.

    Highly unusual. Have they been checked by a doctor?

  13. 13.

    Jackie

    This hasn’t been discussed? It IS hard to keep up some days.

    Another day, another discharge petition short-circuiting the power of House Speaker Mike Johnson. Yesterday, the House passed a bill overturning a Trump executive order stripping union protections from some federal workers, a bill that began as a petition circulated by Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine).

    It came as some surprise to everyone that Johnson, thrust unexpectedly into the speaker’s job in 2023 at a moment of maximum intra-conference chaos, managed to keep things ticking along as smoothly as he did for a while. Now, however, he seems to be landing pretty much where many people expected him to be from the jump: a weak speaker whose fractious conference increasingly ignores his playbook to do what they want. Happy Friday.

    open.substack.com/pub/thebulwark/p/trumps-hand-picked-rnc-chair-predicts-doom-midterms-joe-gruters-a…

    Bonus piece about FFOTUS’s hand-picked RNC Chair predicting DOOM! also included at the link!

  15. 15.

    Jeffro

    @WaterGirl: by coincidence, that is also my favorite part!

    Can you imagine having Crazy Lady as our actual governor for four years?!?  OMG

    Considering the sheer insanity of the VA GOP, just picture who’d be staffing Cabinet posts?  We thought Stealth MAGA Guy was bad…hoooooly cow!

    and then

    ahhhhhhhh…we don’t have to imagine any of that!  Go Abigail!

  17. 17.

    Jeffro

    @MargeF:Tom Perriello announced he will run for his old seat, VA 05.

    This is my second-favorite ‘win’ of the year!  Starts off with great name recognition and a fired-up base.

    McGuire sucks horribly, so I’ll be glad to help make him a one-and-done.  I voted for him in the primary just to screw over Bob Good…may do the reverse this time around.  =)

  18. 18.

    Layer8Problem

    I thought good Dems criticized each other as well as our political representatives mercilessly, in order to prove we’re not unthinking unreflective normies?

    Just kidding!

  22. 22.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Wait, what?  There’s a DNC State Chairs’ Meeting going on?
    I know I’ve been busy with work, but I haven’t heard a thing about that?  Has it been in the news?

    I knew about it because I read Simon Rosenberg’s daily newsletter. Don’t think I’ve seen mentions elsewhere — certainly not in the MSM.

  25. 25.

    Scout211

    This is new.

    BALTIMORE (AP) — A federal judge blocked U.S. immigration authorities on Friday from re-detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia, saying she feared they might take him into custody again just hours after she had ordered his release from a detention center.

    The order came as Abrego Garcia appeared at a scheduled appointment at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office roughly 14 hours after he walked out of immigration detention facility in Pennsylvania.

    His lawyers had sent an urgent request to the judge, warning that ICE officials could immediately place him back into custody. Instead, Abrego Garcia exited the building after a short appointment, emerging to cheers from supporters who had gathered outside.

  27. 27.

    Suzanne

    There is a lot of horror right now, but there’s also so much winning that I will never get tired of.

    I raise my slice of cake to you, WaterGirl.

  29. 29.

    AM in NC

    North Carolina broke the GOP supermajority in our legislature, elected another Democrat as Governor (and atty gen, and head of dept of Ed.), and we held on to a Dem state Supreme Court seat that the republicans used all kinds of fuckery to steal.  This sets us up in 2028 to re-capture a Court majority and get rid of partisan gerrymandering that is killing us in the state and national legislatures.

  35. 35.

    trollhattan

    Lengthy paste from Politico [spit] but swimming in Republican tears and not a little infighting, after California’s Prop 50 took their mojo.

    SACRAMENTO, California — First a Democratic gerrymander pushed California House Republicans to the brink of extinction. Now they’re fighting each other for scraps.

    In a state where Republicans had long counted on congressional races to exert some influence in Washington, just four of California’s 52 House seats are now safe for the GOP. And a decades-long slide for the party has reached a new nadir as Republicans surveying the landscape use words like “demoralized,” “massacred” and “obliteration.”

    “I’m sure Gavin Newsom and the Democrats are sitting back laughing and enjoying the havoc they’ve wreaked on the Republicans in California,” said Dave Gilliard, a veteran consultant who represents several House Republicans. “It’s going to be crazy next year, no doubt about it.” [Gosh Dave, you think?]

    The infighting began almost immediately. Less than 24 hours after Proposition 50 passed, Rep. Ken Calvert announced he’d run for one of the few remaining red seats, after his own Southern California district was redrawn to favor Democrats. He was followed quickly by Rep. Young Kim, who announced a $3.5 million ad buy that would begin in April of next year — an unusually long runway that looked like an effort to dominate the airwaves and drive up ad rates before Calvert could.

    In recent cycles, Kim and Calvert were two bright spots for Republicans: They repeatedly fended off well-funded Democratic challengers, holding swaths of Orange and Riverside counties for Republicans even as other incumbent GOPers succumbed. But now they have been drawn into a conflict that no one in their party wanted.

    “I was really hoping there’d be some type of agreement worked out that we wouldn’t have Republicans pitted against Republicans,” said Rep. Doug LaMalfa. “That’s counterproductive and all it does is waste resources.”

    LaMalfa has a different problem on his hands. He has long represented the state’s vast rural north, a redoubt of anti-Democratic sentiment where conservative secession dreams thrive. Now he’ll be up against a former Democratic state legislative leader from wine country, Sen. Mike McGuire, who helped oversee the Legislature’s efforts to craft new maps.

    It’s possible neither he nor Calvert will survive.

    “If Ken Calvert goes away, there goes a very powerful Californian on water issues who’s also an appropriator — that’s a big deal,” said Rob Stutzman, a longtime Republican consultant. “Rural California does lose its voice if they lose LaMalfa.” [You hate to see it.]

    Other incumbents are still weighing their fates. Rep. Darrell Issa, who was already driven into one brief retirement by unfavorable maps, contemplated relocating his career to Texas but could see it end in California as a bevy of Democratic challengers seek his blue-tinted district. Rep. Kevin Kiley, his district shattered into six shards, will have to either plunge into a Democratic-favoring district or run against Republican Rep. Tom McClintock.

    “People are obviously demoralized at the moment about the results,” Kiley said. “We never would’ve seen something like this coming, but we just have to figure out how to move forward.” [Fight! Fight! Fight! I hear idaho’s nice.]

  38. 38.

    bbleh

    Second No Kings rallies were held in over 1500 cities and towns and drew an estimated 7 million people, which is more than 20 times what the “Tea Party” rallies ever drew.  That ain’t nothin’ to sneeze at.

    @Scout211: Good!  I was giving at least even odds they’d try that.  Good on the judge.

  39. 39.

    Miss Bianca

    @Josie: I count it as a win when any members of the GOP tell Piggy to stuff it. From what Adam S had to say about how the IN gerrymandering maps were structured, I for one was fucking terrified about that one going through.

    Every time *some* GOPers wake up and smell the coffee burning is a victory for us all, methinks, not just for Democrats. :)

  40. 40.

    hotshoe

    Maybe not the right place for me to say Goddamn The Atlantic and their editors and their choice of a self-defeating “progressive” (Arash Azizi) who wrote this:

    headlined:

    Why the Cinnabon Story Doesn’t Make Me Happy

    The left should be promoting working-class solidarity, not delighting in seeing workers summarily dismissed.

    goes on to write

    Wilsey’s is just the latest high-profile tale of an American who lost her job on account of a viral video. The racism she’s accused of is not debatable. In the TikTok video that circulated last week, Wilsey, a 43-year-old white woman, hurled a racist epithet at her customers and declared, “I am racist, and I’ll say it to the whole entire world.” She gestured to her crotch and added: “Suck it

    and then Azizi moans that we (those of us on the left) should be fighting to protect openly-deranged racists like Wiley!

    Those of us on the left should be fighting to improve protections for workers of all races, and thereby for the betterment of people’s material conditions regardless of their views. Progressives should not write off any segment of the working class as beyond the pale. We should instead sow working-class solidarity as an antidote to the racial divisions the right cynically promotes.

    Maybe I’m naive, or an incurable socialist. But I’d like to think that even if a worker is racist to my face, I’ll never ask for their dismissal. I’ll try instead to appeal to our common interest in improving the conditions of our lives.

    NO!
    Bad Azizi! Bad sentiments! Bad editor! Bad magazine corporation!

  41. 41.

    Scout211

    @trollhattan: Rep. Kevin Kiley, his district shattered into six shards, will have to either plunge into a Democratic-favoring district or run against Republican Rep. Tom McClintock.

    Make it so!  Make it so! I would love, love, love to see my representative, Tom McClintock *spit!* finally have a primary challenger.

    Kiley vs. McClintock! Oh please, please, please make it so.

    Prop 50 for the win!

  42. 42.

    rikyrah

    STATEWIDE RACES IN GEORGIA

     

    That victory in Mississippi

     

    That a SAFE Republican District is now R+13

     

    R+13

    Do you know how much that expands the field for Democrats?

  43. 43.

    Layer8Problem

    I’m sure Gavin Newsom and the Democrats are sitting back laughing and enjoying the havoc they’ve wreaked . . .

    Paraphrasing George Pickett, I’ve always thought the Republicans had something to do with it. Those guys have agency and are getting a reaction to their vandalism.​

  47. 47.

    Miss Bianca

    @hotshoe: “I know you just called me a camel jockey and spat into my latte, but let’s talk about our common interests as members of the working class, comrade! Aargh, why did you just shoot me, that is so inimical to our common class interests…gargle, gurgle…”

    Aaand…scene!

  49. 49.

    Eric S.

    @Chat Noir: until the election is was unaware Miami had a 3 decade down of GOP mayors. It surprised me to some extent. And it vicariously feels good to get that win.

  52. 52.

    WaterGirl

    @Scout211: Oh, thank god.

    I was sure they would try to do exactly that.

    edit: Thank god for that judge’s ruling. I was sure they would immediately arrest him again.

  53. 53.

    Ohio Mom

    We Democrats may be on an upswing but we have to give some credit for that to the Republicans, for making themselves so odious that even the clueless eternally undecided can see there really isn’t any option except to support us to weaken the GOP.

  54. 54.

    Old Man Shadow

    California Republicans could have warned the national party what happened to them when they went full white supremacist asshole in a purple state.

  55. 55.

    WaterGirl

    @dc: It may not be of much interest to many BJ peeps, too.  Just look at the engagement on the previous thread compared to this one!

  56. 56.

    p.a.

    @Geminid: … Texas Republicans…

     

    And the redistricting that produced more but smaller-margin R districts, “… And you may ask yourself “Am I right or am I wrong?”

    And you may say to yourself “My god what have I done?”… “

  67. 67.

    WhatsMyNym

    Geminid Speaking of Texas republican politicians…

    (Bloomberg) — Fermi Inc. plunged as much as 46% on Friday after the power developer, co-founded by former Texas governor Rick Perry, said a tenant terminated a $150 million agreement tied to its proposed artificial intelligence campus in West Texas.

    The company said its first investment-grade tenant canceled a deal from Nov. 4 that would have provided as much as $150 million to fund construction costs, according to a filing Friday.

  69. 69.

    Geminid

    @rikyrah: I think those Democratic wins in Georgia can be attributed to both good Democratic turnout and poor Republican. I guess some Independents swung also. It’s the poor Republican turnout that impresses me.

    I remember when Democrats won a trifecta in November of 2020– and in the Georgia Senate runoffs early in January 2021. Democratic morale was still pretty high eleven months into Biden’s term.

    But Republicans won a trifecta last November, and it seems like they’re already demoralized. Sad!

  71. 71.

    Capri

    I can’t often celebrate the actions of my Indiana politicians, but their refusal to vote for redistricting has been epic. This final vote came after months of pressure, threats and more against anti-redistricting Republicans, and the leadership digging up the redistricting corpse and forcing house and senate members to vote against it multiple times.

    The Gov and his henchmen said that Indiana needed to do this because mean old California and Illinois did it first. No mention of Texas or the GOP states. That omission came up every time they tried that tactic.

    I might be from Purdue country, but today everyone in Indiana is a Hoosier.

  75. 75.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Old Man Shadow:

    Highly unusual. Have they been checked by a doctor?

    I admit that got a laugh out of me.

    Off topic, but you know the saying about how if the headline of a news story is phrased as a question, the answer is always ‘no’?

    I got an email from the Baltimore Banner (which I subscribe to) with the title “Is it OK to boo Trump at the Army-Navy Game?” to which the only reasonable answer is, “Fuck, Yeah!!!!”  I mean, it’s always OK to boo Trump! So there are exceptions to that rule.

  76. 76.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @hotshoe:

    It’s ‘The Atlantic’, Jake.

    Or, to quote Anne Laurie:

    The Atlantic is deeply, historically committed to its brand of Smug Libertarian Contrarianism.

    Thus, that kind of piece is par for the course.

  78. 78.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @MargeF: A Tom Perriello win would be extremely gratifying!

    IIRC, he didn’t lose in the 2010 bloodbath because of the vote for Obamacare, but voting for climate legislation that had no prospect of passing the Senate. He did it because it was the right thing to do to try to address AGW, & because Pelosi & Obama asked him to. Obama had always expressed guilt for pushing the Dems in vulnerable seats to cast vote for ultimately futile legislations.

    Perhaps not the most “street smart” political move, but I for one admire politicians that stand on principle & stand for good policy, even if such stands could bring harm electorally. We need more of this kind of politicians.

  81. 81.

    Eyeroller

    @YY_Sima Qian: Nobody really knew anything about that. It was anger over “Obamacare,” much of it, of course, astroturfed. The district is gerrymandered (still, but much worse then), so riling up Republicans with cries of soshulism made it a pretty easy win..​

  82. 82.

    lowtechcyclist

    Wait, what?  There’s a DNC State Chairs’ Meeting going on?

    I know I’ve been busy with work, but I haven’t heard a thing about that?  Has it been in the news?

    “Has it been in the news?” Well you see that ‘D’ I bolded above, so of course it hasn’t been in the news.

  86. 86.

    They Call Me Noni

    @Josie: I live in Indiana and I am celebrating the people who protested against this abomination.  I give them ALL the credit because I will never be convinced that the Republican representatives suddenly sprouted a spine or found their morals.  So this evening I will raise a glass and say a hardy “Fuck Trump and a big Fuck You to Mike Braun”.  The people demanded they stand up to a bully.

  88. 88.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Eyeroller: I am not saying Perriello lost because he voted for legislation that had not chance to pass Senate. I am saying that the climate legislations was also demonized much like Obamacare, only it didn’t even make it into law so there was no upside.

  90. 90.

    Geminid

    @Layer8Problem: Oh yeah. And Democrats might have beaten Young Kim and Ken Calvert next year anyway. But California Republicans still had (I think) eight House members to rally around, and this Prop 50 map will serve to further marginalize their party. So I think that Texas Republicans did real damage.

  91. 91.

    H.E.Wolf

    More Democratic wins in November and December:

    Mayor of Seattle, WA (November general election): Katie Wilson

    Mayor of Roswell, GA (Dec. 2 runoff): Mary Robichaux
    Mayor of Albuquerque, NM (Dec. 9 runoff): Tim Keller​

  94. 94.

    Miss Bianca

    @WaterGirl: Heh, I didn’t read it either. Just imagining how the scenario would go if that smug little SOB actually tried talking to one of the racists whose “class interests” he’s so eager to protect.

    If I had to actually respond to this git, it would go something like this: “Listen, pal – first of all, if you’re writing for The Atlantic, it’s kind of hard to pass yourself off as a member of “the working class.” Secondly, if you don’t get that a member of the “white working class”, whose primary interest seems to be wanting to spew racial epithets with impunity, doesn’t give ONE RUNNY SHIT about “class solidarity” across racial lines, then you’re so delusional it’s actually almost poignant.”

  95. 95.

    trollhattan

    @Kristine: ​ NC is growing like a weed and IDK demographics of their new transplants, or if they can change the state’s voting base profile.
    They could find themselves with a new House seat after the 2030 census. Naturally the Republicans already understand this.​

  97. 97.

    oldgold

     

    @WaterGirl:  Rob Sand is the current Auditor of the State of Iowa. He is the only member of the Democratic party holding a statewide office.

    Rob is 43. His is a moderate. He is very well financed (family money). Rob is a lock to win the democratic nomination for Governor and is leading in the polls against all of the GOP candidates.

    Iowa will be good to the Democrats in 2026.

  101. 101.

    Smiling Happy Guy (aka boatboy_srq)

    @Old School: Again? Isn’t this the fourth or fifth film?

    Oh, wait, this one has Serkis, Close, Harrelson, Culkin and Rogen involved. This will be fun.

  102. 102.

    WTFGhost

    @WaterGirl: YES, there IS a SANTA CLAUS! WE TELL YOU EVERY YEAR! GEEZ! Would you *please* stop asking, every… oh, sorry, it’s not her fault, it’s the PRODUCERS. Of course it’s the producers. Sorry Virginia.

    Also:

    I’m no pollyanna, but I sorely wish that we could do more celebrating of victories here before we have to start working our assess off again at the end of January.

    Don’t talk sore and assess in the same sentence, it smacks of… bad estimates. But don’t you money-interested womenfolk usually want to work some of your assess off, having had the holiday “and what do my wondering eyes do appear, but ten extra pounds on hips thighs and rear”? Getting a little assess worked off might be good.

  107. 107.

    Soprano2

    @hotshoe: There is no legal protection for an employee who treats a customer like that, nor should there be. If she can’t be fired for that behavior, what could she be fired for? You cannot abuse customers in that way.

  108. 108.

    WhatsMyNym

    @Watergirl
    Here’s the link to the story.
    “Fermi plans to build four large nuclear reactors and has likened the race to power AI to the Manhattan Project from World War II to build atomic bombs. The company is facing intensifying competition from long-standing power developers to private equity giants, all aiming to win over the same technology giants.”

  109. 109.

    jonas

    @Layer8Problem: It wasn’t just that Prop 187 mobilized a generation of Latino Dem activists, but also severely reduced the bench of tolerable Republican candidates for statewide office. After Schwarzenegger won, but had a disastrous run as governor, they decided to completely ditch any pretense at moderation and go full wingnut/MAGA. And they’ve gone further to right each election cycle. They’re always putting up the most insane, fringe idiots — people like Larry Elder or Steve Garvey or that corrupt, ICE-loving sheriff running for governor now  — who just get their lunch eaten. A rational, reasonable-sounding Republican could potentially win in California. There just aren’t any.

  110. 110.

    Captain C

    @Soprano2: ,

    There is no legal protection for an employee who treats a customer like that, nor should there be. If she can’t be fired for that behavior, what could she be fired for? You cannot abuse customers in that way.

    Apparently in certain circles solidarity demads that they should be allowed to abuse customers if they‘re sticking it to the libs can be portrayed as part of the righteous working class™, however implausibly.

  111. 111.

    Baud

    Via Reddit

    The Canadian economy achieved a trade surplus for the first time since the U.S. trade war began, as exports rebounded and imports fell in September, according to Statistics Canada.

     

     

    The agency adds that export to countries other than the United States rose sharply by 11 per cent in the same month — and that while exports to the U.S. increased, imports from there dropped.

  112. 112.

    MattF

    @Jackie: Squeaker Johnson is having problems. Could be that the long entirely unsuccessful recess made people in the R caucus think again about the benefits of competent leadership.

  113. 113.

    Jackie

    @oldgold:

    House Democrats have released a trove of new Epstein photos form his Estate. Some feature Trump and are suggestive, but not smoking guns. You can see them here.

    There’s enough smoking guns to keep the WH from responding – so far. That photo of FFOTUS with those girls is the LAST thing they want to discuss! LOL

  117. 117.

    Geminid

    @YY_Sima Qian: I am sceptical as to whether Tom Perrillo would have won reelection even if he hadn’t taken the tough votes he did. Perriello didn’t win by much in 2008, with the charismatic Barak Obama heading the Democrat ticket. Between the Iraq war and the economic meltdown, 2008 was just a bad year to run as a Republican.

    Plus, the incumbent Perriello ran against was somewhat of a sleazeball, and a former conservative Democrat. In 2010, the Republicans came back with a much better candidate in Robert Hurt. Hurt was a wealthy, second-generation land developer thoroughly tied in to the Chamber of Commerce/Country Club network that ran Virginia’s Republican party.

    But Robert Hurt only served two terms. He announced his retirement before the 2016 election, even though he was only in his mid-forties. I think Hurt’s decision was influenced by Eric Cantor’s 2014 primary loss to a Tea Party type. Hurt himself could have beaten a Tea Party challenger but he have to meet the knuckledraggers part way. I think he decided the job wasn’t worth the hassle. Rep. Scott Rigel (VA-02) also retired that year. Like Hurt, Rigell was a wealthy businessman who was first elected to Congress in 2010.

    Virginia’s 5th CD has gotten a lot of national attention this decade, what with Bob Good knocking Denver Riggleman out in 2020 and then John McGuire knocking Good out last year. It will be the same this year, I think, especially among Republicans. They’ve been wailing about George Soros for years, and now they’re facing an actual “George Soros agent” in Tom Perriello!

    I expect John McGuire’s fundraising pitches will open with something like, “Be afraid. Be very afraid….”

  118. 118.

    wonkie

    @hotshoe:  I think Azizi made a valid point about needing to unite people against a common enemy, but he made a really bad choice for his jumping off point. Of course the goal can’t be to reach people like that woman; however, the goal does need to be to cast the message out everywhere, fight everywhere, talk to everyone, and reach people not previously reached.

  122. 122.

    Eyeroller

    @YY_Sima Qian: I live in the district and never heard about this as an issue.  (But I paid a little less attention then.)  It was death panels, government chooses your doctors, etc. on and on and on.
    But reps like Periello made several votes that could be demonized at the time.​
    ​
    ​

  124. 124.

    WaterGirl

    @Jackie: Totally innocent!  He was just talking to those nice young girls who were the same age as Ivanka, asking what they were covering in their high school English classes. //

  126. 126.

    Baud

    @wonkie:

    Of course the goal can’t be to reach people like that woman

     

    That’s not what he says.

    Progressives should not write off any segment of the working class as beyond the pale.

    Admittedly, he want to try to evangelize to this worker to overcome her racism, but it seems clear that if conversion doesn’t work, she’s still welcome into the fold.

  127. 127.

    oldgold

    @Jackie:

    Do you think they blacked-out the faces of the females in 2 of the Trump photos because they think they are minors?

    In one of the Trump photos the female’s face is not blacked-out.

  128. 128.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Baud: ​
     My beloved father made me a sandwich every morning for breakfast for a full school year. (Chicken, beef, ham, etc.) Rice Krispies just weren’t tiding me until the school lunch break.

  129. 129.

    Trivia Man

    I was encouraged by 2 stories in Wisconsin today.

    First: In 2020 Jim Troupis, kenny chesboro, mike roman, and fRon Johnson tried to substitute a fraudulent slate of electors. Bless mike pence and his staff, they refused to touch them. Felony forgery charges will go trial next august says the EI supreme court. The argument fRon is making to stop it? The judge may have had a ghostwriter for the opinion. I DEMAND PAM BONDI STOP THIS (state) LAWSUIT!!!

  130. 130.

    rikyrah

    Neera Tanden🌻
    @neeratanden
    A note to all the law firms, media companies and universities who caved to Trump and those that cower: a bunch of Indiana Republicans just ignored pipe bomb threats to do the right thing.
    History will remember your cowardice just as it will remember others’ courage during this era.
    7:24 AM · Dec 12, 2025
    x.com/neeratanden/status/1999470369757921372?s=20

  131. 131.

    Trivia Man

    @Trivia Man: Second – Redistricting battle heats up today. Scott walker passed a law in 2011 that all redistricting suits be heard by a 3 judge panel, appointed by the WI Supreme Court. 2 separate suits, the schedule is being discussed today. Will it be soon enough? Check back later!

    Elections have consequences, thanks for all the money and postcards in april!

  132. 132.

    Harrison Wesley

    @Soprano2: Yeah, the only place where I can conceive of this sort of abuse being “customer service” is some kind of after-hours kink club.

  134. 134.

    rikyrah

    Heartland Signal
    @HeartlandSignal
    MISSOURI SECRETARY OF STATE SETS OFF ANOTHER LEGAL BATTLE OVER GERRYMANDERING

    After the group People Not Politicians submitted more than enough signatures for a referendum to repeal Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional map, Secretary of State Denny Hoskins (R) says the map will still go into effect.

    Hoskins told the Missouri Independent that the signature process will not stop the new congressional map from going into effect on Thursday until his office verifies the 300,000 signatures (only 107,000 are needed to put the map on a referendum for voter approval). This is despite precedent in the Attorney General’s office that laws targeted by referendums are frozen until the vote is held. Hoskins also claimed that he has the power to declare the referendum unconstitutional.

    “I’m going to follow my attorney’s opinion and the attorney general’s opinion that explicitly states that the referendum does not take place until those signatures are verified by the secretary of state,” Hoskins said in an interview Tuesday with the Independent.

    Hoskins’ statements will likely spawn even more lawsuits over Missouri’s new map. This week, one lawsuit filed by Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway (R) — which sought to block the referendum process — was tossed out of court. Another upheld the ability for the Missouri General Assembly to redistrict without new Census data.

    (Photo provided by People Not Politicians)
    x.com/HeartlandSignal/status/1999237852694016254?s=20

  136. 136.

    cain

    @Ohio Mom: ​ The cynical part of me is that this is just like the previous patterns. They need us to do a clean up so they can go back to voting for the GOP. The question is how do you keep them after they voted for you especially if the GOP is working hard to not allow anything to happen like they’ve done before.Dems need to fix the media landscape if they want any hope of getting elected after the midterms because it’s really broken. The amount of things to fix is nuts and even then we have the supreme court willing to nix anything. The Dems need to step out of their comfort zones and really really fix things in a way that is radical.​
    If there is one thing the voting public has indicated is that htey are ok with radicalism. They’ve been voting to blow everything up for 30 years now.​
     

    ETA – lol the new post validates my claim. They want someone to shake things up. Nobody is happy and thus they need radicalism.

  137. 137.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @hotshoe:

    Maybe I’m naive, or an incurable socialist. But I’d like to think that even if a worker is racist to my face, I’ll never ask for their dismissal. I’ll try instead to appeal to our common interest in improving the conditions of our lives.

    It’s not being naive, or being an incurable socialist, it’s being a godammned moron trying to substitute a political hobbyhorse for a real moral code.

    And agreed, hotshoe, Fuck the Atlantic.

  139. 139.

    tam1MI

    @Soprano2: There is no legal protection for an employee who treats a customer like that, nor should there be. If she can’t be fired for that behavior, what could she be fired for? You cannot abuse customers in that way.

    According to Slate Online, after she was fired, she put out a fundraiser and almost immediately it raised $500,000.

  141. 141.

    cain

    @Baud: American farmers are going to be pissed as all their markets dry up because countries are finding other markets.

    Even if you are Big Ag, you are going to be pissed.

  142. 142.

    hotshoe

    @Miss Bianca: ​
     
    Okay, I probably shouldn’t laugh at at the idea of someone getting shot, but … gargle … gurgle … giggle ;)
    Thank you for making me laugh this morning!

  143. 143.

    tam1MI

    @oldgold:

    Do you think they blacked-out the faces of the females in 2 of the Trump photos because they think they are minors?

    In one of the Trump photos the female’s face is not blacked-out.

    It may have been that they blacked out the faces of the women who did not give their consent to have their faces shown.

  144. 144.

    Soprano2

    @Baud: Progressives should not write off any segment of the working class as beyond the pale.

    That’s not what’s happening, though. They’re writing off someone who is so racist that she doesn’t care to show it even when she knows it’s being recorded. She doesn’t care that she’s going to lose her job. I’m sure we cannot appeal to those people in any way, shape or form.

  145. 145.

    Jackie

    @oldgold:

    Do you think they blacked-out the faces of the females in 2 of the Trump photos because they think they are minors?

    Absolutely. The other woman was clearly an adult.

  147. 147.

    gene108

    @Soprano2:

    They’re writing off someone who is so racist that she doesn’t care to show it even when she knows it’s being recorded. She doesn’t care that she’s going to lose her job.

    I believe she’s made more off her GoFundMe than she made working.

    There’s a grift available right now for being recorded saying the n-word and worse.

  150. 150.

    WaterGirl

    @tam1MI: What I saw on the news (take that for what it’s worth) is they blacked out the faces of anyone who was a minor or who could have been a survivor.

    Adult women would fall under neither of those categories.

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