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After dobbs, women are no longer free.

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We are learning that “working class” means “white” for way too many people.

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Second rate reporter says what?

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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2014 / Thursday Morning Open Thread

Thursday Morning Open Thread

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Get up in the morning, slaving for bread, sir,
so that every mouth can be fed.
Poor me, the Israelite…

Intriguing piece from Timothy Egan, in the NYTimes:

…[W]ith barely two weeks to go until the midterm federal election, the most underrepresented people in the country could be the kingmakers for control of the Senate. Let us pause for the cynical voice of an Indian friend who thinks that elections don’t matter: “Democrats, Republicans, they’re all white to me,” he says.

Still, the fact that all the money and manipulations of the Koch brothers could be undone by a handful of native voters living in some of the poorest and most remote parts of the land is a tribute to our teetering democracy. More time has been wasted defending the name of the Washington Professional Football Team than has ever been spent discussing tribal sovereignty or how the modern diet is killing too many natives. Yet now, important-sounding people have been forced to learn a phrase in Yup’ik, or find Shannon County, S.D., on a map…

Thus we find ourselves in Alaska and South Dakota, where the native vote could be the only thing that stands in the way of a Republican-controlled Senate. Alaska voters, though quirky and contrarian no matter what the race, seem poised to give the Republican Dan Sullivan the seat now held by the Democrat Mark Begich. Except typically, the polls are more misleading in the Last Frontier than a fish finder’s sonar in a bathtub.

Only about 250,000 people are expected to vote there. Of those, almost one in five has some Alaska Native or Indian blood — the highest percentage of any state. Begich has been feverishly working native villages in advance of the state’s two weeks of early voting. If the race is a nail-biter, look for late returns from, say, Kotzebue, an Inupiat town on a gravel spit 33 miles north of the Arctic Circle, to decide the winner.

In South Dakota, Native Americans are the largest single minority group, and they tend to vote Democratic. In a three-way race, heavy turnout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation might be enough to prevent the fading Republican front-runner, Mike Rounds, from picking up the seat. Tribal elections are the same day, as is a ballot measure to change the name of Shannon County, which is more than 90 percent Indian, to Oglala Lakota County. In 2012, the tribes of North Dakota provided the winning margin for the Democrat Heidi Heitkamp, who won her Senate seat by just over 4,000 votes.

“The candidate who learns best how to ask Indians for their votes could be the winner,” Indian Country Today, the national tribal paper, reported this week in a story on South Dakota…

***********
What’s on the agenda for another day?

Reader Interactions

115Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    “Democrats, Republicans, they’re all white to me,” he says.

    I have to admit, other than the fact that Democrats are generally more in favor of social welfare programs, I don’t know how the parties stack up on Indian issues.

  3. 3.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Heh. The funny part is that the line in the article mentioning an “Indian friend” first made me think about South Asian Indians, but then I mentally fell into the article’s usage of the term. I should have been clearer in my comment.

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud:

    I should have been clearer in my comment.

    Now where would the fun have been in that? My pun actually was aimed at Dem politicians as I suspect they rarely think about native American issues and when they do, it is to the extent of “Is it racist to ask for wampum?”.

  5. 5.

    Phylllis

    At a school safety and risk management conference in Myrtle Beach. Avoiding tv up here, since it’ll be both SC & NC election ads. After a steady diet of both SC & GA ads at home, I’ve had enough.

  7. 7.

    mai naem

    Well, the Obama administration finally settled the Native American lawsuit that had been going since the 90s, about the Native Americans’ land trust fund being mishandled. The last time I heard about the lawsuit was way early in the Bush admin.. I doubt a GOP admin would have settled a Native American related lawsuit. It’s worth in the billions. I just remember one of Tom Daschle’s races coming down to native american votes in SD.

  8. 8.

    raven

    Nicole motherfucking Wallace has the guts to hammer and MD. “how could the medical community not imagine the ebola outbreak could occur when Hollywood did”. MD “if that is what you are interested in you should stick to Netflix”!

  10. 10.

    Amir Khalid

    Reposting from bottom of late-night thread, because it seems to fit better here:
    Today, the 16th of October, 2014, is the 735,522nd day of the Common Era.

    If I have counted correctly (I hope I got the leap years right; if any of you is bored enough to check my maths, please do so) Day Million falls on the 8th of December, 2738. Let’s hope the global civilisation survives to that day, which of course we cannot take for granted.

  11. 11.

    Schlemazel

    @Baud:
    Unless the ad is particularly clever or entertaining I agree, they all suck. TDS did something as a joke that I think candidates should do seriously. They clipped together about a dozen “The [Rick Scott] is perfect!” lines from that stupid ‘dress’ commercial with the bubble-headed bleach blonde being rapturously in love with a different gooper in each one. Of course it was hilarious and it made the ads look even more ridiculous than they do naturally.

    I think any intended sting in these bulk produced bullshitters could be greatly reduced if local voters heard the same BS over & over with a different candidates name. In my travels I have learned there are at least 6 Dems who cast “the deciding vote on Obamacare”. I think a lot of voters would be surprised to hear that & it is repeatable on so many topics.

  18. 18.

    Baud

    @raven:

    Those people are unreachable. No point worrying about them, other than to motivate yourself and others to support people who oppose them.

  19. 19.

    Amir Khalid

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    I haz a confused. With the fumes, the less than cozy surroundings, and the line of impatient drivers behind them, who in their right mind would stick around at a petrol pump to watch TV on it?

  24. 24.

    Mustang Bobby

    Watching the clip again from last night’s Crist/Scott debate. Oh, I love my state so much I could just plotz.

    Can you imagine the twtterpation if Charlie Crist had shown up with a clove of garlic and a cross?

  25. 25.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Amir Khalid: The story says the shows only last 5 min, with commercials of course. Myself? Not sure the TV would last 5 seconds with me pumping gas.

  29. 29.

    mai naem

    @raven: At least Steve Rattner pushed back on that with a “great job Brownie Katrina” comment.It’s a pity Rattner didn’t push back with Hollywood imagining 9/11 when Condi pulled the Hoocoodanode?!?!?

  38. 38.

    mai naem

    I think President Obama should get on the boob tube and tell Texas that this would be a very good time to secede and take their ebola with them and then get a bunch of Black and Hispanic Chicago Union thugs to build a twelve foot wall at the Texas/US border to keep out the Texas riffraff. .

  41. 41.

    mai naem

    @Baud: Joe isn’t there. For somebody who disses old Europe constantly, Joe sure likes his European style vacation day package.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    @mai naem:

    Thanks God Joe isn’t there. If Raven is this upset without Joe, we would have lost him completely if Joe were opining on ebola.

  45. 45.

    Bystander

    The plastic newsreader on GMA just covered Rick Scott’s refusal to debate because Charlie Crist had a fan, as, How old are these two guys? It was classic Both sides do it! but with a twist. Kudos to ABC for this groundbreaking coverage.

  46. 46.

    Iowa Old Lady

    We’re heading for Europe later today. The political phone callers will just have to talk amongst themselves.

  48. 48.

    MomSense

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    Can I stowaway in your suitcase? 3 weeks before the election and I’m pretty burned out. Also, too these long weekends seem great until you have to fit all five work days into four.

    Also, also too my shift keys intermittently do not work and I’m pretty sure the rest of the computer is failing.

  49. 49.

    Betty Cracker

    Can anyone recommend a decent FREE video clip capture app that works on Winders? The perfectly serviceable one I used for ages decided to get all fancy and is now unusable. TIA!

  52. 52.

    Southern Beale

    The unbearable intellectual dishonesty of Ron Paul.

    Apparently the only thing that can save us from Ebola are “free market principles” because, of course, “private airlines have a greater incentive than does government to protect their passengers from contagious diseases.”

    Really? The way Toyota had a greater incentive to protect its customers from faulty accelerators and Enron had a greater incentive to protect its customers from high utility rates and on and on and on. Man, you drink too much of that Libertarian Kool-ade and it rots your brain.

  53. 53.

    Cervantes

    “The candidate who learns best how to ask Indians for their votes could be the winner.”

    History can make for a chilling double entendre.

  57. 57.

    Thunderbird

    @Southern Beale: They could have just left “about Ebola” off that headline and we could all call it a day.

    I was talking to my mom on the phone the other day and explained to her the Five-Minute Rule When Talking to Libertarians (that was Charlie Pierce, right?), and she replied, “Yeah, that sounds about right.”

  60. 60.

    Botsplainer

    @Phylllis:

    My wife stole my sweet ride with Sirius XM yesterday (she does this so I can fill her gas tank, an old trick of her mother’s). I have the tricked up Fusion hybrid for image and the fact I drive 20K miles a year with a long, stalled commute that sometimes lasts over an hour; clutching that jam that long sucks ass.

    Anyway, her Jeep only has radio/CD, so I got subjected to ads. I was surprised to hear Grimes running to the right of McConnell on immigration but chuckled; it was running on wingnut talk.

  63. 63.

    raven

    Thought I’d give an update on my benign paroxysmal positional vertigo . I went to my MD and she confirmed the diagnoses. The VA audiologist called me and it seems as if there is no relationship between my having this condition and having just got a hearing aid. The bppv is in my right ear and the hearing aid is in my left. I’m exercises to try to address the issue and it’s much less freaky when I know what’s coming when I wake up.

  65. 65.

    Botsplainer

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    : Don’t worry guys, political ads are coming soon to a gas pump near you.

    They lost me when they started bragging about the reach and value of Upworthy.

    Nothing on the internet shocks me, is unbelievable or restores my belief in humanity. I’d like to take every marketing guy who floats hyperbole as good salesmanship and have him machine-gunned at the start of the Revolution (after a proper show trial) as a lesson to others. Some of the smarter among the Revolution’s survivors will chuckle at the irony of the show trials.

    Douglas Adams had the same idea.

  66. 66.

    Elizabelle

    I like starting my day with Desmond Dekker. Thank you, Anne Laurie.

    Love Desmond’s costume. And some very odd camerawork (getting stuck behind a pillar, twice?)

  70. 70.

    Southern Beale

    @Thunderbird:

    …the Five-Minute Rule When Talking to Libertarians…

    Am not familiar with that. I assume it means something along the lines of, “Libertarians are only tolerable for a maximum of five minutes, before they go off into coocoo bananas country”?

  71. 71.

    GregB

    The TV machine is telling me the Democrats are doooooomed to a fate worse than triple Ebola this election.

    Everyone hates Obama, he’s a drag, the Democrats suck, blah, blah, blah…….

  72. 72.

    Botsplainer

    @Dupe1970:

    Started Twitter hashtag #FireDoctorVarga spread the word, use it.

    He deserves it.

    Sadly, I can’t join that as it would create issues in my immediate family (I’ve probably wreaked enough havoc with some Facebook comments on somebody else’s feed and had a mini-spat with my mother because it isn’t his fault and ni-CLANGS) but my sympathies lie with you. He’s an incredible douchebag; Texas is truly his milieu.

  73. 73.

    jibeaux

    Some picture of Rick Scott came through my facebook feed w/r/t Fangate, Fandango, etc.

    I know it’s petty to talk about appearances, but noted in passing without value judgment I just need to say that that man looks more like a p – e – n – i – s than any person alive today or possibly ever.

  77. 77.

    Belafon

    @Joel: Because the military side isn’t making the money it used to. And the company that solves fusion will make a LOT of money.

  79. 79.

    Ruckus

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Wash the windows, that takes time away from the pump. And generally I have my helmet on and have to hold the handle to fill up my bike. So my back is to the screen. IOW I’m avoiding the screen with all my might.
    @Amir Khalid:
    Here in the land of nuts and berries (CA) we have the vapor nozzles so in theory there are no fumes. We aren’t the only state.

  80. 80.

    Corner Stone

    @Botsplainer:

    I’d like to take every marketing guy who floats hyperbole as good salesmanship and have him machine-gunned at the start of the Revolution

    Every single one that uses hyperbole?

  81. 81.

    Corner Stone

    @Southern Beale:

    Apparently the only thing that can save us from Ebola are “free market principles” because, of course, “private airlines have a greater incentive than does government to protect their passengers from contagious diseases.”

    Private airlines made 9/11 easier due to their profit/loss ratios. Decided that a $17 (or whatever) lock for the cockpit door, and refused any kind of security screening/training for airport personnel due to the costs involved.
    As I said last night, airlines (and other parts of the transportation industry) should be nationalized.

  82. 82.

    Cervantes

    @Ruckus: I may be “remembering” something that never happened — but I think the EPA advised a few years ago that those vapor-recovery nozzles are nowadays redundant, leaving states the option to no longer require their use in gas stations. I think the requirement was dropped because all cars built after a certain year (2005? 2006?) have vapor-recovery systems built in.

  85. 85.

    Botsplainer

    @Corner Stone:

    My recollection was that security experts were talking about these flaws somewhere around ’96 and requesting that bulkhead doors be locked each flight at minimum.

    The airlines refused the advice to even have those doors locked as a matter of policy, don’t remember the reason.

  86. 86.

    Elizabelle

    @GregB:

    The constant “Obama unpopular; Democrats are gonna lose” refrain (yes, from NYTimes, etc) depresses me a bit too.

    Question is: will it depress turnout? Maybe not.

    I hate the constant emails from DNC and Democrats and candidates: “re: unbelievable loss.” “All hope is gone.”

    Delete them after a quick skim. Why should I give money to surrender monkeys?

  87. 87.

    Botsplainer

    @Cervantes:

    It’s a reality TV program I’d DVR for multiple viewings. Each one could be given an opportunity to make a lifesaving pitch before a pardon commission sitting right there at the execution site. They’d have to pardon at least one early, to up the entertainment value of the pitches for the rest; at the end, the commission would revoke that pardon and say “on reflection, no sale”.

    The residuals on that kind of quality programming would be worth billions.

  88. 88.

    Corner Stone

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    We’re heading for Europe later today.

    Are you sure you can handle all the guilt? Knowing that mankind is destroying the environment a little more each day and here you are contributing to our destruction with such a large carbon footprint?
    I think, for your sake, it’s best if you decide to stay in the states and reflect on how you can help save the planet.
    Tell Mr. IOL to be looking for a very handsome man wearing a 10 gallon hat, bolo string tie and ostrich quill boots to meet him at the airport. I’ll have my saddle slung over my shoulder.
    I just couldn’t live with myself if I let you experience that kind of torment. I’m strong, I can take the guilt.

  89. 89.

    currants

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Navaho res

    Lived/taught there back in the mid-90s, and it took getting used to, that they referred to themselves as Indians. In New England that was not properly respectful.

    And although annoying, it also seemed fitting that on “Columbus Day” (aka Genocide Day, see Loomis, LGM) the students had the day off, and the teachers–98 or 99% Anglos–had to come to workl for an inservice day.

  91. 91.

    Cervantes

    @Corner Stone:

    I just couldn’t live with myself if I let you experience that kind of torment. I’m strong, I can take the guilt.

    You know that second statement contradicts the first one, right?

    And everything else you’ve ever written.

  93. 93.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MomSense:

    I’ll give you GM, but it seems to me (30+ years after the fact) that Tylenol actually handled the poison pill thing very well. They were proactive, they pulled product off the shelves until they could come up with a fix, and they pretty much changed the safety packaging of OTC medications.

    Unless there was a different Tylenol episode that I’ve completely forgotten.

  95. 95.

    Corner Stone

    @Cervantes: No, no, no. I can take the guilt of doing my part to destroy the environment. I couldn’t allow that kind of burden to befall kindly IOL.
    Everything I’ve ever written? I see that when the hyperbole bug strikes, it strikes not in onesies but in twosies.

  96. 96.

    currants

    @Cervantes: Yep, but typically only when there are other Dine (People) present. Back then, anyway. (Mind you I was mostly in one small town, Ganado, and can’t speak to how it might have been in other areas.)

  97. 97.

    SRW1

    The natives are going nativist on us. These un-American types should go back to where they came from!

    /wingnut

  100. 100.

    Cervantes

    @currants:

    I think it’s great that you lived and taught there.

    I’m sure the duty was its own reward — but thank you, anyway, for doing it.

  102. 102.

    Dupe1970

    @Botsplainer: Thanks and understood. I live in Texas. Great state if we could simply isolate the crazy. I own a condo that I rent out that is literally two blocks from that hospital. If we are calling for Frieden’s head we absolutely should get rid of Varga first.

  103. 103.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @JPL:

    Presby hospital is a private facility so that seems to blow that theory.

    “They weren’t a true freemarket institution” libertarian

    Libertarianism can only be failed, but it can never fail.

  104. 104.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Southern Beale: The example Ron Paul cites is a Goodyear company town. So that’s his idea of a libertarian paradise. Being ruled by a populist democracy – bad, being ruled by a privately owned corporation with no interest in the community beyond extracting profits – good.

  105. 105.

    Corner Stone

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    being ruled the ruler of a privately owned corporation with no interest in the community beyond extracting profits – good.

    That’s the only way a glibertarian ever imagines a dream scenario.

  106. 106.

    Amir Khalid

    @Cervantes:
    One thing I noticed from these idle calculations (other people doodle, I do sums) is that all odd millennia are 365,242 days long, all even ones are 365,243 days long. (Odd millennia have only two leap century years each; even millennia have three.) I’m pretty sure of my numbers.

  108. 108.

    Cervantes

    @Amir Khalid: I agree, it’s an interesting exercise. A friend of mine had a son who was hyperthymestic-autistic and able to to these kinds of calculations in his head.

    Oh, and my “You may be off by a day” thing, precisely correct or otherwise, was just a small joke. If one wants to be serious about it, one can think in terms of Julian Days. Today is Julian Day 2,456,947. The first day of Year 1 was Julian Day 1,721,424. You can do the subtraction, etc.

  109. 109.

    Amir Khalid

    @Amir Khalid:
    Oh dearie me. Upon rechecking my sums, I find that I was off by ten days. (Error caused by failure to use Calculator for one of the sums.) Day Million is actually on 28 November, 2738.

  111. 111.

    catclub

    @dmsilev: I think the article mentioned that in the 50’s fusion was only 5 years away. Then they started getting experience with trying to confine a plasma, and the time got pushed back to 25-50 years.

    If these guys at LM can do it I will be amazed and surprised.

  112. 112.

    catclub

    Well, I still think the NYT report on hiding any chemical weapons found in Iraq – because they were the wrong ones to find – is a big deal.

  115. 115.

    currants

    @Cervantes: Like all understaffed, high-need school systems (not all of which are urban), it was really hard work in complicated ways that people who don’t teach never think about, and that people who teach in wealthier areas also don’t think about.

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