Tuesday is National Death to TrumpCare Day. Call 866-426-2631 and be a lifesaver.https://t.co/mweNyOCOrc
— LOLGOP (@LOLGOP) May 2, 2017
NATIONAL CALL-IN DAY TOMORROW TO DESTROY TRUMPCARE. Call 866-426-2631. Use https://t.co/3XvofXuTE9
Pls RT
Here's the remaining undecideds: pic.twitter.com/uW4UKsBCtm
— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) May 1, 2017
Nice (as in ‘precise, accurate’) post from Josh Marshall, “The Cuck Stops Here“:
…For all the talk about Trump shutting down the government to get Wall money, holding Obamacare subsidies hostage or generally bending history or at least Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to his will, Trump got close to nothing in the funding bill meant to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year. He ended up crying uncle or “no mas” on virtually all his demands…
The EPA was slated for massive cuts – roughly 31%. It will retain 99% of its funding.
Trump demanded funding for his border wall. He didn’t get any.
Trump wanted to cut funding for the National Institutes of Health. It’s getting $2 billion of additional funding.
Funding is included for the Obamacare subsidies Trump has threatened not to pay.
There’s no provision for “defunding Planned Parenthood.”
There’s no language to defund “sanctuary cities.”
There are obviously many other things included in the bill. And it’s not like Trump got nothing. But at least on most of the hot button issues he’s pushed as part of his agenda he folded like a cheap suit…
…Trump presented himself as the consummate alpha-male ball buster, someone who speaks and embodies the ethos of domination his most ardent supporters instinctively crave and believe in. In practice, he’s repeatedly adopted what might be termed the preemptive fail, not only talking tough but failing to achieve his aims but actually jumping ahead of the process and unilaterally backing down or saying a metaphorical ‘nevermind’ before the supposed confrontation even arrives…Trump is less a threat than a bullshit artist who caves easily and is best either ignored or treated with a stern, disciplined and unafraid response…
Apart from preparing to be part of that “stern, disciplined and unafraid response”, what’s on the agenda for the day?
Mustang Bobby
Good morning, Friends. I will call Carlos Curbelo (FL), but I’m not in his district so I hope I don’t get a “thanks for calling” and crickets.
rikyrah
Good Morning,Everyone???
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
@Mustang Bobby: Good morning. I was wondering where you had gone to.
Baud
And Hillary still walks free.
NotMax
Repeated for the morning crowd simply because it’s a tuneful and pleasant toe tapper.
A different take on an oldie but goody, with three guitars and what I guess might be described as German scat singing.
Mustang Bobby
@Baud: Thanks for asking. Spring break, a theatre festival/conference, meeting Keir Dullea, work… the stuff piles up.
Baud
@Mustang Bobby: #LifeAfterBalloonJuice
Nice.
Betty Cracker
Damn it all, Sen. Gillibrand has ruled out running for POTUS in 2020. It’s too early to think about 2020 anyway, but I hoped she’d run.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: I am clearing the field.
Baud
Jimmy Kimmel’s newborn baby needed heart surgery.
I guess the baby should have led a more moral life.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: I wish she would have run too (as a former New Yorker). But she might have come to the same conclusion I have — the first woman president will likely be a republican.
germy
I turned on our local sinclare TV news station for a check of traffic and weather, and they called the new budget a “significant legislative victory” for the POTUS.
If they can’t get THAT right, how am I to believe their traffic and weather?
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
What an idiot.
Only an idiot would attack a beloved, charismatic figure like Obama.
Ya know, in 2012 Obama won Massachusetts by a whooping 24 points, while Warren only won by 7 points. Without the coattails of his 24 point blowout, Warren would still be teaching corporate bankruptcy to trust fund babies at Harvard Yard. Unfortunately, the hole in head prevents her from remembering that.
Baud
@germy: Sinclair is notoriously right wing.
kindness
Since Trump runs on optics maybe Nancy & Chuck should gnash their teeth and proclaim Donald the real winner and we can go on for 4 years fooling him. Who’se to say he’d know the difference?
germy
@Baud: I remember during Kerry vs. Bush, the station put something in the teleprompter for the anchor to read about “Kerry doesn’t care about the safety of the troops.” It was something that was obviously added at the last moment to an otherwise straight news story.
Shalimar
@Immanentize: Gillibrand is too ambitious to suddenly decide she won’t win. I can’t think of a Republican woman with any shot of winning their nomination, so Gillibrand would be waiting a long time if that has to happen first before she runs. More likely, she decided that being a female candidate immediately after so many misogynists voted against Clinton for various reasons that boiled down to her being a woman was not the best timing.
Baud
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: Agree. Gratuitously dumb.
Baud
@Shalimar: Plus being from NY and connected to Wall Street. She’d be attacked from the left too.
Baud
@germy: Yeah, it didn’t start with Hillary, and won’t end with her.
Shalimar
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: She’s not wrong. Obama has a good argument for best president we ever had, but he isn’t perfect. And mild criticism to try to make a point about how we could do better is not an attack.
Baud
@Shalimar: She didn’t need to call out our retired president specifically.
satby
@rikyrah: @Mustang Bobby: Good morning! Thanks to all the folks who cheered when I updated everyone last night that I will get my normal day off for my birthday in a couple of weeks. The office manager was nice about it, but then I had offered to sub another day so she could switch people around. I don’t have to do that either. I suspect the doctor is starting a low level redirection of the manager’s constant overstaffing. This isn’t a busy season for eye exams (which people shamefully neglect anyway).
PSA, get your eyes checked yearly, especially if you have other health conditions. Just this week we’ve referred out multiple people for diabetic retinopathy that had advanced because they weren’t managing their disease well. And that stuff doesn’t hurt and isn’t reversible.
gene108
@Betty Cracker:
One advantage Hillary had was Bill was President. Fragile male egos could not say the would-be First Gentleman was a pu$$y whipped beta-male, who lived in the shadow of his wife.
Hillary becoming President would not have eclipsed her husband’s career.
For example, Heidi Cruz, a successful Goldman Sachs employee, took an extended leave of absence to help Ted’s campaign. If Mr. Gillibrand, a successful Wall Street type finance guy, did the same thing, there would be story after story and rumor aster rumor about “who wore the pants” in the Gillibrand household.
There’s a level of sexism Hillary did not have to face because Bill was President, which any other woman running for President will have to deal with because her husband would not be as accomplished as her, if she became President.
Baud
Cop who killed Walter Scott pleads guilty to federal crimes.
Patricia Kayden
@Betty Cracker: Do you think she would get fair coverage after what the MSM (especially NYT) did to Secretary Clinton? I assume women may be a bit gunshy to run after seeing Secretary Clinton demonized so easily.
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: I find it odd that so many people are riled up about President Obama earning money out of office. I don’t recall much musing about other former Presidents who did the exact same thing. Odd.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….. gasp….. wheeze…. Stop it, yer killing me. You know they said the same thing about the first black President? Yeah, like that was ever going to happen.
Shalimar
@Baud: No, but it is a debate we need, and hell if I want Bernie Sanders as the person arguing from the left. Better to have Elizabeth Warren, at least she is in the damned party.
Hunter Gathers
@Shalimar: I think it is imperative that the Democratic Party take a stand against making money. Making money isn’t cool, it’s not hip, and we’ll never achieve Wilmer’s Glorious Worker’s Paradise if people keep making money.
By the way, if you think that anybody outside the Progressive Bubble gives a rat’s ass about that shit, I have a series of bridges to sell you. Oh wait. I’d need money for those bridges, and since money is so gross and disgusting, I’d settle for a handful of Wilmer Rubles.
Kay
@Shalimar:
Nikki Haley could run and be competitive, IMO.
gene108
@Shalimar:
It is not about right or wrong. It is about winning. Period. We don’t win or gain any competitive advantage by pissing in our own tent.
Mustang Bobby
@Patricia Kayden: As Melissa McEwan at Shakesville observed, it’s only when a Black man does it.
That and plays golf.
satby
@Hunter Gathers: outside the progressive and right wing haterz bubbles, you mean.
Edited to add: a Venn diagram of those two would overlap by quite a lot.
Baud
@Shalimar: The debate is fine. Attacking our most popular Democrat is not. You know that will lead to personal recriminations and schisms. Warren shouldn’t follow Bernie’s rhetorical model.
Kay
I saw Paul Ryan is polling poorly so I bet he’s the fall guy for disgruntled Trumpsters. The base must be blaming him. They’ll say there’s too many establishment people in Congress. The lurch to crazy will continue.
Betty Cracker
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: I think there’s some truth in what she says here:
It’s true that the standard of living for middle class Americans has been sliding for decades. Wages have been flat since the 70s (IIRC), few people have a decent pension plan anymore, folks are living paycheck to paycheck and are increasingly at the mercy of corporate shitheads, etc., because the fat cats are sucking up all the profits and rigging the rules in their favor.
It’s not President Obama’s fault — his actions to salvage the country after the Republican-sponsored financial meltdown were nothing short of heroic, IMO, and he did more to address wealth inequality than any Democratic president since LBJ. Trump will attempt to reverse everything Obama did and won’t do jackshit for the morons who voted for him.
That said, Warren is right to say that the Democrats can’t point to the GDP and low unemployment rate as signs that the status quo was/is acceptable. Where I disagree with her is in the implication that PBO (and presumably HRC and other Democrats) ignored these systemic problems. I don’t think they did. But it makes sense to reframe our message, which is what I think Warren was getting at, in a ham-handed way.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
Like the mustard, this is a lie.
Shalimar
@gene108: Winning is the first step, and it obviously matters more than ever with a narcissistic child in control of the country, but it also matters what Democrats plan to do when we win. Warren is making her case. As long as she is also opposing every single thing Republicans do, I don’t see the problem.
Phylllis
@Kay: Unfortunately yes. She’s as dumb as Dolt45, but manages to appear not.
amk
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: warren/bernie 2020. win!
OzarkHillbilly
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch: @Baud: Disagree. Obama is not perfect, there are any # of his policies that I can and indeed have criticized him for. This is one of them. It is not a black/white criticism, it’s a matter of the shade of gray and who here does not think he was a little too friendly with the Banksters?
Warren has earned her chops, in a way that Wilmer never has. She gets to give what she feels is an honest assessment of President Obama’s shortcomings. Criticizing her for that is just wrong.
Patricia Kayden
@Betty Cracker: Attacking President Obama is a stupid way of saying that many Americans are economically anxious and Warren needs to be called out for doing so. It really galls me how many Democrats are perfectly comfortable attacking President Obama when he did so much good for this country and for our foreign relations.
Mary G
I think Jimmy Kimmel put the last nail in the coffin of Trumpcare with the story about his newborn son, and the future surgeries he will need.
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
I completely disagree. The first woman President will be a Democrat. Same thing for first Latino and Asian President
Shalimar
@Baud: If Obama responds to it as an attack, then I will reconsider. I think he will be the first to admit that constant Republican obstruction shaped what he was able to accomplish as president. He might agree with her about areas he came up short.
Kay
@Phylllis:
She’s….not horrible. She looks like she’s positioning herself as “serious” on foreign policy too- that’s the time-honored jump from governor to President.
Someone tell Trump. He’ll get rid of her. There’s only ONE star in that show!
MJS
@Shalimar: “I think President Obama, like many others in both parties, talk about a set of big national statistics that look shiny and great but increasingly have giant blind spots,” is not “mild criticism”. It is exceedingly condescending, in essence accusing him of dishonesty (talking up the economy when he knew it wasn’t great for a large swath of people) or stupid (not knowing the economy wasn’t great for a large swath of people). Either way, she’s wrong. She may as well go write for the NYT, with this level of bothsiderism.
amk
@Shalimar: yeah, beautiful losers is the way to win.
Betty Cracker
@gene108: IMO, any advantage that conferred was more than offset by the “dynasty” baggage. I think the “dynasty” thing is bullshit on stilts, but it’s a widely held view, at least among Democrats of my acquaintance.
@Patricia Kayden: I think any woman who runs for president is going to face a shitstorm of misogyny.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
I never bought into that specific criticism. The bankers hated Obama. And contrary to what people on the left believe, Americans don’t hate bankers enough for Dems to be tougher on them. It’s like trade — it’s an issue that left will use to attack Dems, but no Republican will ever lose their seat for being pro-trade or pro-bankster.
AxelFoley
@Immanentize:
I remember when some said the first black President would be a Republican. I’m just sayin’…
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
It isn’t that for me- it’s that Democrats don’t have a coherent economic message. They haven’t for a long time. I don’t know if Warren’s message is the one they should adopt but they need something compelling and less abstract.
“Opportunity” doesn’t mean anything to people. It’s too think-tankey. I think that’s what she was getting at – pointing to “data” is not a story or narrative or set of beliefs.
Baud
@Shalimar: Obama is retired. He’s not going to respond to this.
Taylor
@Betty Cracker: I assume the Goldman Sachs connection was a deal killer*. Either that, or she figures the WH is the Republicans’ to lose for the next 8 years, God help us all.
Congratulations to Maggie Haberman and Mara Liasson (and yes, Martha Raddatz) for helping to kill the best chance in a generation for this country to have a female President.
* Don’t bring up Heidi Cruz unless you’re feeling particularly naive this morning.
Phylllis
@Kay: I will say she came along a good ways as Gov here, and handled Hurricane Matthew well. But she’s still right ignorant.
Shalimar
@amk: Doesn’t Bernie have to rejoin the Democratic party for Warren/Sanders to happen? Politics isn’t supposed to be one of those jobs where you change your loyalty every 2 years depending on what is best for you personally.
AxelFoley
@David Canadian Anchor Baby Koch:
I always gave Warren the side eye. She was one of the loudest detractors of TPP, and now this shit?
Fuck her.
Elizabelle
@Kay: And what Nikki Haley will have going for her: “She’s not Trump.”
Trump is locating the bar for Republicans on a subterranean level.
Baud
@Kay: I agree with this. We don’t have a good story, partly because we can’t agree on a story.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Uh uh, Kay.
Part of a minority’s challenge is that they have to be validated by their minority group. The last Black GOPer that could remotely get that was Colin Powell. Haley has to sit there and justify the GOP shyt that she never took a stand on.
amk
What’s with the racist rw pols and constant plagiarizing ?
Elizabelle
LOL. Vanity Fair has a bunch of stories on the Fyre Festival Fiasco, which is more fun to obsess over than current politics, because — while its roots are similar, the damage is far more contained.
Mary G
@Betty Cracker: Lolgop said on twitter last night that the Democrats need to adopt the slogan “Tax wealth not wages.”
I do fault the Obama administration for not bringing some WallStreeters out in handcuffs in a perp walk. Holder settled for negotiating massive fines, but it got lost in the noise in the way of a trial laying out the dirty details day after day in the news wouldn’t have, even if the people were acquitted. Particularly the rating agencies that sold AAA ratings to banks for the ridiculous batches of loans that were garbage.
debbie
Steven Colbert was brutal to Trump last night, even more than usual. I hadn’t seen FTN’s Trump interview, but Trump’s attempt to end the interview by ignoring Dickerson and shuffling papers was an absolute embarrassment to this country.
Patricia Kayden
@OzarkHillbilly:
President Obama passed at least one tough regulation (Dodd-Frank) on the banking industry so in my opinion, he wasn’t overly friendly with Banksters. We now have an administration which will be the poster child for “friendly with Banksters.”
debbie
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
I don’t think she’s criticizing the president; she’s criticizing the policy. Obama’s not sacrosanct, and I’d bet he doesn’t want to be.
Baud
@Mary G:
Sounds catchy, but are we really going to eliminate wage taxation? And we’d need a constitutional amendment to tax wealth directly.
Shalimar
@Baud: I’m not sure why anyone is. She’s pointing out that even an amazing person hasn’t focused enough on something of critical importance to most voters. It isn’t an attack, though I agree that she should have chosen different framing in this new internet age where every single thing someone ever says can be youtubed into a reason to hate them.
AxelFoley
@Patricia Kayden:
This.
You don’t fucking attack your most popular, beloved by most in your party and the world, successful party member. Full fucking stop.
THIS bullshit is why Democrats lose. The muthafuckas can’t stay united to attack the GOP. Instead, they try to throw the best President in most of our lifetime under the bus to score points.
Nah, fuck that shit. Try to toss President Obama under the bus at your peril. Just fucking try it and watch how quick you lose the black vote.
debbie
@Patricia Kayden:
And yet the banks have become larger and more unruly.
Baud
@debbie: She’s criticizing Obama specifically for talking about GDP and unemployment rate. At least in that excerpt.
Betty Cracker
@Mary G: I like that slogan. Also agree with Kay that Dems should run away from the “opportunity” framing. Instead, maybe propose tangible, doable projects that would create jobs and deliver real benefits that people could get behind, such as a rural “internet-ification” plan on par with past projects to bring electricity and phone service. Solar panels. That sort of thing.
Baud
@debbie: Larger because of regulation and buy outs of failed institutions. Not really more unruly than pre-crisis.
Elizabelle
Margaret and Helen are back with a new blogpost. Those girls have been alarmingly quiet in recent months. Take it away, Helen:
If only jokes about assaulting women were reason enough to lose elections…
Iowa Old Lady
@amk: How old would Warren and Sanders be in 2020? Watching old men sliding toward dementia (and my own aging) has led me to say the Constitutional change I’d like is an upper limit on age.
Baud
@Shalimar: She should have pointed out how the GOP stopped everything Obama tried to accomplish instead.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I thought Hillary was criticized for being too specific on policy and not having a theme.
satby
@Kay: I disagree about “opportunity” not meaning anything to regular people. Yesterday a young co-worker ( mother of three starting when she was 15!) was telling me why she came to work at the doctor’s office instead of taking more hours at the cookie kiosk in the mall when the pay is the same. Because she has the opportunity to learn office and medical building skills that will lead to a better job, maybe even a career. She’s a sharp kid, but college isn’t in the cards for her for a while at least, so this way she builds her employability.
People understand “opportunity”, they just don’t think they offered good choices for it. A twenty-something parent making just over minimum wage has no time or bandwidth to take advantage of even free college.
JMG
The one overriding problem Obama had was, as is the usually the case, part of the reason he won in the first place. His natural optimism and idealistic view of the world kept him from seeing how bad things really were for a long time. Exhibit A was his efforts to reach out to congressional Republicans who he had to know weren’t interested. He should’ve blasted them from the start. Exhibit B was his belief the financial system would be OK if resuscitated and then reformed a bit.
rikyrah
New York State Trumpcare Alert
https://mobile.twitter.com/TopherSpiro/status/859368493791236096
Baud
I’m starting to see the merit in the Republican policy of naming everything after Reagan. That’s how you build a movement, apparently.
Let’s be honest. The only reason to talk about Obama or Clinton, both of whom are retired, and not simply talk about the policy is because you want to appeal to the white bigots who voted for Trump and you know who they hate.
Taylor
@Patricia Kayden:
Obama did many great things, and personally he strikes me as a fine human being….but Dodd Frank passed despite efforts by the WH to knife it in the back. I suspect Warren has some feelings from that time, when she witnessed the behind-the-scenes up, close and personal.
I still think it was politically stupid to drag Obama into the debate about economic anxiety. You can have that debate, while at the same time trying to get Dulles Airport renamed to Obama Airport.
Shalimar
@Baud: Do you know for sure that she didn’t point out GOP obstruction? Just because she didn’t say it in the 10 second clip excerpted to get Obama supporters angry at her doesn’t mean Warren doesn’t make that point too. And if she doesn’t, I agree she should. All Democrats should, at every opportunity.
Hunter Gathers
@AxelFoley:
Progressives don’t give a shit about the black vote. Gotta chase the Wilmer’s Army and Trump’s Economically Anxious Asshole vote. Dumping on Obama is a twofer in this regard. Trumps voters hear ‘Fuck That Nigger’ and Wilmer’s cult hears ‘Fuck That Niggerish Neoliberal Sellout, Where’s My Fucking Unicorn!”
It’s open season on people of color, and Progressives would rather bitch about Wall Street. We’re being run by a madman, but that’s not important. A private citizen is making money, and that in and of itself is offensive to our Progressive Betters.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: You’re probably snarking, but I’m going to answer as if you were serious: I’m all for learning lessons from 2016, but it really worries me that the Dems are going to read too much into what was a truly fluky loss and over-correct in some harebrained way.
Baud
@Shalimar: I don’t. If she did, that’s great.
Elizabelle
I am terrifically concerned that the manic progressives might turn a winnable Virginia governor’s seat over to the Republicans this fall. VA and New Jersey hold their governor’s races the year after each presidential election.
Current governor is Terry McAullffe and he’s been terrific, doing as well as he can with a nutjob gerrymandered Republican legislature. Virginia does not allow governors to succeed themselves, although they can run for a second term later.
Anyhoo, McAuliffe and the state’s actually moderate Democratic establishment seem to have lined up behind Lt. Governor Ralph Northam, an Army pediatric neurologist out of Hampton Roads area who migrated to the Dems from the GOP many years ago.
Republican candidate will almost certainly be Ed Gillespie, a Bush family era political hanger on, who nearly pantsed Mark Warner last Senate election. Warner pissed away a lead out-bipartisaning himself, and the Republicans went home and voted for Gillespie, who is not and never has been batshit crazy. He is not a politician to scare Democrats.
SO: into this arena lunges Tom Periello, a very appealing young progressive from the Northern Neck. He will be the BernieBro candidate, and Elizabeth Warren has already endorsed him. She and Richard Corddray apparently had hoped to recruit him to the CFPB, although he declined.
I like Periello; I just don’t want to see intra-Democrat warfare while there is a moderate Republican waiting in the wings, drinking cabernet and enjoying his popcorn. I’d heard voters tell me at doors, for several elections now, that they looked forward to voting for Northam one day. And he is the current lieutenant governor. And works well, apparently, with Republicans. He might be someone a Republican can support, should Trump and thus Gillespie be due a protest vote by this fall. (For example, a government shutdown, which went over real well last election.)
Any other Virginians want to weigh in on that?
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: Thank you. And I’d like to punch all the fucking pundits/MSM types who are pulling out their hair to get Democrats to change course.
There’s never ANYTHING Democrats get right.
I am ready to throw bricks or start shooting one of these days.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: I remember when we all insisted that Hillary not run away from Obama in her campaign. She didn’t, except for the TPP, which the left should have liked, and not enough of us voters followed through. And now some of us are trying to draw them into our policy debate. Ridiculous.
JMG
@Elizabelle: I’m not a Va. resident, although all my in-laws are. But there’s going to be a primary. If Periello gets the most votes, what’s the problem? He’s the candidate and McAuliffe, a strong party man, will back him to the hilt.
Elizabelle
@JMG: Yeah. There is that. I will support the nominee enthusiastically. It’s not like we’re looking at Roger Grayson.
But I worry, maybe prematurely, about what happens when/if Northam wins, and the worst of the BernBro types take their ball and go home and poison the water, or the primary weakening the eventual nominee, whichever we get.
Patricia Kayden
@AxelFoley:
And look at who is in the White House. Why is any one on the Left talking against President Obama when Trump and his odious family are demonstrating how to grift the hell out of the American people? With everything that this country is facing under the Trump regime, you would think that our side would have plenty to talk about. But no, so many of us have decided to turn President Obama into a pin cushion. Good luck with that in 2020.
rikyrah
Have employer provided Healthcare coverage and don’t think that Trumpcare applies to you?
Think again
https://mobile.twitter.com/TopherSpiro/status/859168002100604929
satby
@JMG: She’s not worried about a primary particularly, she’s worried about the redux of presidential primary 2016, where a sore loser in the primary threw enough mud against the winner to hurt the general election. Which is a fair worry, because some of the purity brigade has decided to become the Tea Party of the left. Which we really don’t need.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Agreed.
@Baud:
How many went to prison after the crash? Indictments? Investigations? Oh wait a minute, who did he appoint as his Sec of Treasury? Of course they hated Obama. He’s a Dem. Dodd Frank, the CFPB and all that. The ACA raised their taxes.
In ’08 people hated the banksters, if you don’t know that you were living in a hole in the ground. Remember the rage at the Wall Street bailout? People were getting foreclosed on left and right, their mortgages were underwater, robosigning was rampant….And Jamie Dimon got a million dollar raise (I don’t really know what he got, but a lot of them were getting bonuses for crashing the economy but saving their banks) People wanted blood. They haven’t forgotten that shit. They hate bankers, they always have and they always will. Especially when they need a loan.
And of all those things that Obama did that they just absolutely hated? Did any of it change the downward trajectory for the middle class that has been in place ever since Reagan? Not really. It flattened the line a little but let’s face it, it was just a start. There is a lot more to do and not talking about it is not the way to do it.
Lastly, I have never heard a Republican criticize Reagan. They have put him on a pedestal and speak of him in almost reverential terms. I love Obama. I thank FSM for him and all he did for this country every day. Yes he picked his battles, he won some, he lost some. I am well aware of the realities he faced. But he is not above criticism. I retain the right to say he picked some of the wrong battles. Maybe I am wrong about that, but it is still my right and Sen Warren who has done more for more people than I ever will certainly deserves the same.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud:
And that ain’t gonna work. They’ll still hate you.
Chyron HR
@JMG:
AND YET IT WAS A PROBLEM.
rikyrah
Latest from Ossoff
https://mobile.twitter.com/ossoff/status/859229421412257792
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: People hated Wall Street in 2008. That died when Occupy died. It’s now only a tool to beat up on Dems.
Fixing Wall Street would not have helped the middle class or working Americans. That required government spending and policy reforms. Which became impossible been the voters gave the GOP the House in 2010.
Shalimar
@Elizabelle: Republicans don’t support Democrats, even as a protest vote. They hate the moderate former-GOPers even more than they hate liberals.
I’m not a Virginian so I don’t get a say, but I prefer Perriello. Republican disarray makes for a good chance to elect a more liberal Democrat. I agree about the absolute urgency of coming together behind whichever is the nominee though. This is not the time for personal attacks in the primary or for either side to protest if they lose the primary (especially the BernieBros, who are already notorious for that kind of sabotaging bullshit).
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: But at least I deserve their hatred.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Fine. Warren isn’t above criticism either. That’s what we’re doing. Hopefully, she’ll adopt more productive rhetoric in the future.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: We tax wealth directly now. Real estate tax, Personal Property taxes, probably one or 2 others I don’t know of (would Capitol Gains taxes be considered such? I think of them as more of a delayed and lower income tax)
Central Planning
@Mary G: How would taxing wealth, not wages work? Is it really “tax all income” regardless of source? That makes sense to me, but the “tax wealth not wages” is much more catchy”
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: States can tax wealth. Federal government cannot.
efgoldman
@Baud:
There’s a whole lot of wringers she might have just decided not to get herself squeezed thru.
Running for president/being president isn’t something every body wants to put themselves thru.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: Capital gains is income taxation. That’s why the 16th amendment was passed. Before the amendment, the federal government could not tax capital gains. It could always tax wage income.
zhena gogolia
@gene108:
Right. Why do Republicans understand this simple point and Democrats just don’t?
zhena gogolia
@AxelFoley:
And she’s a terrible speech giver.
I thought her hectoring of the Wells Fargo guy was borderline embarrassing. It was no better than the way the Republicans act during hearings.
OzarkHillbilly
@AxelFoley:
Let me just say bullshit. The GOP has done that with a senile old man who presided over one of the most corrupt administrations of my life time, plastering his name all over airports, ships, and post offices. We aren’t going to lose any elections because we don’t do the same.
We are going to lose elections because there are too many stupid people in America.
efgoldman
@amk:
We don’t have a sarcasm tag, but I’m pretty sure you need one.
Tarragon
Thought I’d give a update on that migraine that hospitalized my wife. 10 days later we still don’t have in our hands the one med that worked for her in the hospital. First it was that the hospital prescribed it but wouldn’t work through the prior auth process with the insurance company, then we didn’t have a PCP as ours retired and we hadn’t yet had the intake meeting with the new.
Thankfully she’s been OK for the last week, edging into the side effects and and one point about an hour where the pain was bad enough we were about to head back to ER before it calmed down on it’s own.
The end of last week she finally got into a neurologist who seems to know what he’s doing and took the time to look at her existing med list; both of these these are big upgrades compared to the neurologist she had before entering ER the first time. He signed off on the prior auth,which is waiting for the insurance company approval now, and we have plan to moving forward that is both further investigation why and further investigations into what works for her. So we’re happy about that.
We missed some travel and some things that were important at one time but it’s looking promising.
Baud
@Tarragon: Hoping for a continued upswing.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: Agreed.
Jean
@Elizabelle: I agree with you, Elizabelle. I too like Periello, but wish he did not enter the race late and set up a contest with Northam.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: We are talking past each other.
tobie
@Hunter Gathers:
So true. Since the election, Warren has gone from being a liberal firebrand to a populist to a demagogic populist. What I find shocking about her statement is its unabashed anti-intellectualism. Figures, statistics like the GDP evidently mean nothing. The only thing that counts are anecdotes. She and Wilmer are turning the Democratic party–their favorite punching bag, by the way–into the GOP. Reason, abstraction, and thinking are the tools of the super rich in their book. The only thing that counts is the common sense of the common man.
There’s one thing I’m sure of: if Warren is the party’s nominee, we will face the same drubbing that Labour in the UK is about to face with Corbyn.
amk
@Baud: Yup. Snipping from sidelines without the factual context is a dishonest way to score a point.
amk
@efgoldman: ! was a sarcasm tag.
Miss Bianca
@AxelFoley:
Yeah. Maybe i’m just cranky this morning – or, crankier than usual, because of dog-induced o-dark-thirty wake-up – but I personally think Elizabeth Warren has more nerve than sense going after PBO in this way. Someone whose most recent gig before going into the US Senate was teaching at Harvard Law School is not exactly poised to be The People’s Populist on economic issues, and I’m fucking sick of the way Democrats always reach for the cheap and easy method of currying favor with both the right- *and* the left-wing media – savaging their own side.
Actually, color me another who’s generally less than impressed with Elizabeth Warren. She’s not as bad as Bernie Sanders in that she actually DOES get helpful stuff done more often than not, but like him, she seems a little too high on her own supply of self-righteousness. Got over yourself, Senator..
Baud
Obama’s too nice. I will go medieval on anyone who attacks my work as president.
Ben Mays
@Elizabelle:
I think we are lucky to have two strong viable candidates here. I will likely back Northam in the primary, but I do have some doubts as to his abiity to fire the base up. My facebook feed is loaded with Virginia dems who have, through years of hard party work, become the “establishment” . They seem to largely be endorsing Northam, but without any vitriol towards Periello. Kaine, McAuliffe, Beyer and Scott have all endorsed Ralph. They are pretty much the most liberal of our electeds.
I like Tom’s fire and respect the work he did as Congressman. Both candidates were pretty measured in their debate last week. I think it would be a mistake for folks to see this race only through the lens of Clinton/Sanders, as that really doesn’t reflect either of these men’s positions. I have seen ugly primaries in Va (Webb/Harris was quite brutal), but this doesn’t appear, at this time, as one of those. Do keep in mind that we have actually won the fall race even after many of the uglier primaries (Webb in the 00’s, Baliles in the 80’s). Basically, I remain optimistic.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: OK.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud:
But what I’m hearing from too many is “STFU.” That’s not criticism.
Hunter Gathers
@Baud:
True dat. If I were in his position, the fuckers who went after my wife and kids would have gotten visits from the drone fairy or the ‘Look, we found child porn on your PC’ fairy.
Elizabelle
@Ben Mays: Thank you.
I will be back in the States for this fall’s campaign, and look forward to canvassing for either Northam or Periello. They’re both good guys.
Webb got a huge assist from George Felix “Macaca” Allen. But yeah, I remember that primary. Webb brought the fire. And then quit on us … but it is a pleasure being from a state with two Democrats as Senators.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tarragon: Good news.
nevsky42
Perriello was my congressman back in ’08, and he did a lot in the impoverished Southside areas (around Danville), including getting Recovery Act funds to install broadband and complete some infrastructure projects. He lost in ’10 but he severely overperformed in a gerrymandered red district that he should have by all rights lost by 20 (he lost by only 5 IIRC). I wasn’t a big fan of the Sanders endorsement because, unlike Sanders, he is a very pragmatic solutions provider in the Obama vein, and he actually delivered on projects designed to help the impoverished working class.
Elizabelle
@Jean: We’ll have to find some others for a central VA meetup one of these days.
And we will def do another DC area meetup by early fall. If not sooner!
Elizabelle
@nevsky42: Yeah. Periello is def the future. I like him a lot too.
I just want to make sure we keep the Governorship though, because our horrible Virginia Republicans in the legislature are a threat to life, limb and health.
ETA: And it’s Perriello. I have been spelling it wrong, Thanks, nevsky.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: No, we’re saying talk about the merits of your policies without gratuitously bringing Obama into it and specifically calling him out in this case.
tobie
@OzarkHillbilly: No one is telling Warren to STFU. Frankly none of us have the power to do so. We’re saying if you want to craft a winning message it does shit in this polarized environment with a fascist President supported by a fascist GOP to condemn Democrats for not having done anything to help regular folk. (A) It feeds into the narrative that according to Greg Sargent has now settled into the masses that the Democratic Party is the Party of the 1%, not the GOP. (Thanks, Wilmer!) (B) It completely ignores what the GOP did to obstruct the Democrats these past 8 years, especially when the Democrats were working their butts off to improve the lives of working people. (C) Pissing on the party is not the same as presenting positive proposals/ideas about the things Warren in particular and the party in general wants to do to raise the standard of living of all Americans. There’s nothing to be gained from attacking fellow Democrats except to destroy the party from within. That’s not a winning strategy.
Woodrowfan
@satby: I’ve had good students flunk out because they tried to work their way through school, and the hours working were a killer combined with classwork. I had one who worked a night shift then tried to come to classes. She’d fall sound asleep. At first I was mad, then I talked with her and learned her hours. (10 pm to 6:30 am). I want to punch any oldster who says “I worked to pay my way through college” in the nuts, repeatedly. And if it’s a woman, graft some nuts onto her and THEN punch them…
Woodrowfan
@Elizabelle: I can not decide between Northam or Periello.
Chyron HR
@OzarkHillbilly:
Oh, sorry. Here’s some genuine, progressive-approved criticism:
“I say SHE’S unqualified! She’s a WHORE! Sexism is just a symptom of ECONOMIC INSECURITY!” (waggles finger)
Baud
@tobie: Well said.
Elizabelle
@Woodrowfan: Yeah. And, in some ways, it’s an embarrassment of riches. Proud to support either candidate. We are not always faced with that.
amk
@tobie: Tell it like it is. Of all the horrible things the loony left has done, the worst is to frame dems as 1%ers party. Assholes all.
Central Planning
@Tarragon: That’s a relief. My wife has been a chronic migraine sufferer since her teenage years.
We finally found Frova worked for her – I think it was just the right formulation/strain of immetrix (sp?) that worked for her body chemistry. What one(s) did your wife get?
Dnfree
@satby: Yes on the annual eye exams. And if you’re an old person with a condition like diabetes, it’s covered as a medical exam, not vision. I have Medicare plus supplement F, which doesn’t include vision coverage, but it pays for all but one test they do. So it’s not a big out of pocket expense. Be sure to tell the eyecare provider your medical conditions.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I repeat, that is what I’m hearing. Maybe they should try saying it differently.
@tobie: A number of people are saying exactly that.
As far as the narrative, you are right, but you can’t blame Wilmer alone for that, it precedes his 2016 disaster movie by quite a few years. You have to give credit where credit is due: The GOP and their Frank Luntz’s. They have co-opted the language, they have co-opted the media (not just FOX and talk radio but all the other media into both siderism) etc. The GOP has done a very good job of dividing and conquering. We need to change the way we talk about things but we also need to do more about the wealth aggregation at the top
The party needs some criticism, it needs to hear that what we’ve been doing for the last decade or so (hell take it back to Bill) is not enough. I will be the first to say Wilmer should just STFU, but not because he’s wrong (he is, about so many things) but because he’s not a Democrat, has never done a damn thing for the party. Warren is and has. I am not smart enough to know what the winning strategy is, but gladhanding and backslapping the SSDD is a losing proposition. 2016 should have taught us that if nothing else. I’m going to listen to what she has to say. Even if it pisses me of, especially if it pisses me off.
And now I have to go. Coming tomorrow, SSDA (same shit, different argument)
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
You aren’t the only one.
Quinerly
OT…”juju”…if you are looking at this thread, jump back to yesterday’s “On the Road” thread. I responded to your comment after the thread died. We are practically neighbors! Hope to catch back up with you on another thread. Love small world Balloon Juice stuff.
rikyrah
@Tarragon:
Sending her positive thoughts and hoping that this illness leaves her.
Barbara
@Elizabelle: Okay, I like Perriello but I don’t think he is as good of a candidate as his opponent Ralph Northam. I went to a straw poll event in which every candidate for governor and lieutenant governor was present and given the opportunity to speak. Northam was on fire and he was passionate and committed and talked a lot about protecting women’s rights (something that Perriello hasn’t been strong on, partly because of the district he came from). Perriello was tentative and not strong at all. Maybe Warren and Sanders et al. like him for their own purposes, which purposes sound an awful lot like supporting anyone who opposes the establishment. But that doesn’t make Perriello a better candidate. So yes, I hope Northam wins and I have been giving him support.
Lurking Canadian
@tobie: It’s not exalting anecdotes over data.
There was a graphic making the rounds a week or so back that showed economic activity distributed geographically across the US. It was a bunch of spikes. There are literally five or six cities in the US where the economy is booming, and everywhere else, it’s flat.
Focusing only on GDP growth when that’s the reality is like talking about the average net worth of the people in the elevator after Bill Gates gets on.
I don’t agree with blaming it on Obama. He did his best in the face of relentess opposition. I sometimes thought he should take a more oppositional public stance (he’d say “Congress needs to act” instead of “Paul Ryan needs to act”; he’d point to the success of the stimulus he got, rather than pointing out that Republicans blocked his attempt at a second, and so on) but that’s a far cry from blaming him for the problem.
However, I don’t think it does any good to pretend there is not a problem.
Barbara
@Shalimar: Why do you prefer Perriello? Do you actually know anything about Northam? What has Perriello done to make you prefer him? I assume you don’t support his pro-life voting record in Congress. So yeah, he apologized for that, but why are apologies for bad votes okay when it comes to abortion but not other things? And why does Elizabeth Warren fault Obama for not going all in on bankers but overlook Perriello not going all in on women’s rights? Seriously, I saw Perriello firsthand and I kept asking myself why the heck he has so much love. I would support him as a candidate for governor, don’t get me wrong, but the guy was not impressive in a very friendly setting.
chopper
@Hunter Gathers:
FTFY.
Barbara
@Baud: What is so depressing about this latest malapropism from Warren is that it overlooks that by passing Obamacare, Obama is the first president to actually reverse the long downward financial slide of ordinary Americans. The Lily Ledbetter equal pay legislation also helped, as did many other things that Obama did — like the efforts at curbing draconian sentencing by Eric Holder and others. The shift towards inequality happened one law and one regulation at a time over a long period of time, but health care is the biggest drag on the economic welfare of average Americans. Think about it this way. If you added health care costs — which employers do actually pay — to the salary/wage income of Americans, the average person’s income is actually significantly higher than what they take home. Reducing the share of the economy that is devoted to health care, and ensuring that all people are protected from financial catastrophe attributable to health care costs is a huge step to reversing inequality. IMHO, anyone who says anything critical about Obama has to make that point and thank him for the huge political risks he took to make that happen, even if they also say that it wasn’t enough. Warren didn’t do that and that makes what she said not okay from my perspective. It is simply untrue that Obama has ever said that GDP and the unemployment rate are the measure of the welfare of a nation. That also makes what she said misleading if not outright dishonest. I am a Warren supporter but what she said was at best tone deaf.
ETA: Obama also overcame huge legislative inertia to shift student tuition assistance away from private lenders and towards grants, although much remains to be done. These are the kinds of things help ordinary Americans.
rikyrah
Republican accidentally tells the truth about GOP health policy
05/02/17 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
As the Republicans’ health care crusade continues, we’ve grown accustomed to hearing GOP lawmakers present their regressive ideas in the most politically palatable ways they can think of. Occasionally, however, a GOP official will slip and say what he’s actually thinking.
TPM highlighted just such an instance late yesterday.
Health care proponents routinely argue that the Republican approach would effectively punish those who most need care. Brooks not only conceded the point, he suggested that those who most need care are less deserving of protection.
satby
@Woodrowfan: I worked two jobs and went to school after my divorce because I couldn’t keep my kids in a stable housing situation without that. And the ones who got the short end of that stick were my sons. It all came out ok due to great friends and neighbors and my improvement in employment, but if a parent chose differently so that they were more available to their kids I wouldn’t fault them, because that is my main regret in life.
People shouldn’t have to make those kinds of choices, but multiple systemic failures (in worker protections, child support enforcement, raising minimum wage, health care availability, access to education, etc) make it inevitable. And then the GOP blames them for their poor life choices and calls them lazy. Poor people understand opportunity. Many clutch for it every day. There just aren’t given the ones their parents or grandparents had to make a decent life without college, and not everyone is suited for college.
rikyrah
Why would the Trump admin target the Energy Star program?
05/02/17 09:20 AM
By Steve Benen
About a month ago, the Environmental Protection Agency announced the winners of the annual “Energy Star Partner of the Year Award,” which ordinarily wouldn’t be an especially important political story. But there’s more to this one.
As The New Republic noted, the Energy Star awards are given to businesses and organizations that excel in energy efficiency, and the EPA hailed the Energy Star program as “America’s resource for saving energy and protecting the environment.”
The trouble is, right around the time the EPA was awarding this year’s winners, Donald Trump’s White House announced its plan to eliminate the Energy Star program.
If you’ve ever shopped for an appliance – refrigerators, dishwashers, even computers – you’ve probably noticed the blue-and-white star on the box, letting consumers know about the product’s energy efficiency. The program isn’t expensive, and for nearly three decades, it hasn’t been controversial in the slightest.
Team Trump nevertheless believes it’s time to scrap the entire initiative, and as the Associated Press reported the other day, no one seems to think that’s a good idea.
rikyrah
Phuck.outta.here. with this bullshyt.
With anti-populist push, Republicans inadvertently help Dems
05/02/17 08:41 AM
By Steve Benen
It’s as counter-intuitive as it is baffling: a significant number of voters who backed Barack Obama in 2012 switched in 2016 to support the Republican who spent years pushing a racist conspiracy theory about Barack Obama. As the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent noted yesterday, Democratic strategists are focusing not only on understanding why, but also on steps the party can take to bring these voters back.
Greg relied on reporting Priorities USA, a Democratic super PAC, which conducted focus groups of Obama-Trump voters in Wisconsin and Michigan, states that backed Trump after decades of supporting Democratic presidential tickets. Among the most surprising findings was the 42% of Obama-Trump voters who said “congressional Democrats’ economic policies will favor the wealthy, vs. only 21 percent of them who said the same about Trump.”
In other words, for a sizable chunk of voters, Trump’s faux populism con worked. Enough voters fell for the scam to put him in the White House.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 5/1/17
Poor hires may explain poor performance of Trump administration
Rachel Maddow looks at how Donald Trump’s weak vetting and handing out government positions as political favors puts his administration at a disadvantage for performing government functions.
Tarragon
@Central Planning:
A nasal spray Triptan. I’m not fond of Triptans for myself; they make my heart race. It’s better for her and it’s the only thing they found that worked, so that’s our choice.
Looks like Botox is on the upcoming list too.
Migraine treatment gets into scary scary stuff.
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 5/1/17
Trump administration weak on basic competence
Rachel Maddow points out how Donald Trump has hired people who are ill-suited for the roles in which they’re meant to serve, like contraception skeptic Teresa Manning in charge of contraception programs, or anti-abortion activist Charmaine Yoest bringing alternative facts to HHS.
rikyrah
Interesting that the man who says he’s so good at making deals is now floating a change to the Senate rules because he can’t make a deal. pic.twitter.com/THX64wEJGp
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) May 2, 2017
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 5/1/17
Trump compromises US human rights leadership by praising despots
Senator Chris Murphy talks with Rachel Maddow about how Donald Trump’s repeated praise for despots and dictators degrades the high global moral standing of the United States and gives license to other leaders who are inclined to abuse their power.
rikyrah
Our report on this is now out: https://t.co/ky5WZerUMi https://t.co/cRayGas34D
— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) May 2, 2017
rikyrah
“As @dankildee told us, it’s callers from red areas who killed #Trumpcare the first time.”
Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121 https://t.co/X8Fwpff89p
— Dan Kildee (@dankildee) May 2, 2017
rikyrah
THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW 5/1/17
Trump EPA denies Americans access to decades of climate data
Gina McCarthy, former EPA administrator, reacts to the EPA under Donald Trump removing the climate change section from its web site, and talks about the value of environmental protections to “normal human beings.”
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Don’t tell him, Rachel.
I’m serious. The dysfunction is the only thing that’s saving us so far.
Elizabelle
@Barbara: I kind of wish Perriello was running for Lt. Governor, and that he and Northam could team up beginning now. Rather than delineating why the other guy is not as good a candidate.
And, since the governor cannot succeed himself, Perriello would have an open shot in 2021. He’s a very young man. Northam is current Virginia Lt. Governor, and has been all over the state this past term.
Yes, pointing out differences is the purpose of a primary and campaign, but let’s not kid ourselves there’s not going to be oceans of outside money floating into Virginia and New Jersey this fall.
rikyrah
Quick Takes: Trump Doesn’t Know What’s In the GOP Healthcare Bill
A round-up of news that caught my eye today.
by Nancy LeTourneau
May 1, 2017 6:01 PM
You can see for yourself what Trump had to say about what is/isn’t in the Republican health care bill by watching this video. Sarah Kliff explains:
Kliff is right, he either knows what’s in the bill and is lying about it, or he doesn’t know but is trying to bullshit his way through pretending like he cares. Either way, it is a frightening performance from a POTUS.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: Does anyone know how many Obama-Trump voters there actually are? I’ve seen a slew of articles on the findings of the Priorities USA group (including the Benen post linked above), but I haven’t seen any data that indicates the number we’re talking about, and that seems kinda important. Anyone?
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Don’t know the numbers, but I’d bet that they’re less than the Obama voters in 2012, whose vote was taken from them via Voter Suppression.
I simply don’t believe these muthaphuckas. They are phucking lying. Economic populism/Economic anxiety my ass.
Barbara
@Elizabelle: FWIW, Hillary Clinton trounced Sanders in Virginia and trounced Trump in the election. Warren et al. show their lack of understanding of Virginia in other ways, the most notable being that it’s hard to win a statewide election for one of the three statewide offices if you are not from Richmond, Hampton Roads or Northern Virginia. Perriello is from the district that is heavily gerrymandered to make sure the votes of Charlottesville and Albemarle County are diluted. Charlottesville might be good enough to win a statewide office, and Perriello’s name recognition might be higher than that of other candidates from the non-metropolitan areas, but that is the way it has worked since I have lived here, which has been for a long time.
Barbara
@rikyrah: That was my conclusion. My assumption is gender bias in the sense that people are predisposed to believe negative accusations about women based on any confirmatory information, whereas men are given the benefit of the doubt. Pennsylvania is your bellwether: There were five statewide elections in 2016 — PA AG, two PA Supreme Court, Senator and President. The two female Democratic candidates lost (Senate, President) while the other three Democratic candidates, all male, won. This makes sniping from female politicians like Warren, and journalists particularly hard to take, because I can never help feeling that they must have swallowed big fat doses of denial and self-loathing. I am looking at you, Amy Chozick.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: One frequent refrain I’ve heard (from the usual suspects here and in meat space) is that voters who voted for Obama and then Trump couldn’t possibly be motivated by racism, not even a little bit, since they voted for Obama at least once. Bullshit, I say. McCain and Romney didn’t run on an overt white nationalist platform; Trump did.
dogwood
Elizabeth Warren is a democratic convert. And growing up Catholic, I recognize all the self-righteous, sanctimonious, tedious tendencies that accompany conversion. She’s a mediocre speaker at best. and she didn’t just ride Obama’s coatails into office, she wouldn’t even have had a foothold in government if it weren’t for him.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: I am with you on this one. The actual WWC peeps I know always vote D, its the comfortably off white peeps that vote R, at least among the peeps I actually know.
schrodingers_cat
@dogwood: I agree, her hectoring speaking style is only slightly less annoying than the shouty finger waggy one of BS.
grandpa john
@Kay: living in SC I have to say this, she might be competitive, but she sure wouldn’t be competent
Sab
@Baud: Amazing the trouble you can get into in utero.
Elizabelle
FWIW, not into the dumping on Elizabeth Warren. She remains one of my heroes. Clear-eyed woman.
But no complaining about Obama or good Democrats in public, please. The media does plenty of that on the their own, not to mention the shitweasels who are not Democrats (Republicans and all manner of other creepsters).
I do not include Charlie Dent in any slaps at Republicans. The man is not voting for TrumpCare. Period. Full stop. Thank you.
J R in WV
@Betty Cracker:
Since the ’70s per capita GDP is up 135%.
Since the ’70s per capita wage is up under 6%.
Where did that extra 129% increase go, anyways? Rhetorical question, we all here know where it went. But all Democratic candidates need to be asking the questions for those who don’t know the numbers and don’t know where that extra 129% increase went.
I could actually benefit from a bump of anywhere from 50-75% in my take home ~!! Shocking, I know, but true. I suppose I’m a rare bird, though, and most voters would turn down such a raise out of compassion for the plight of the .01% income folks.
J R in WV
@OzarkHillbilly:
Come on, fellow hillbillly, you can’t really believe disagreeing with Professor Doctor Senator Warren is wrong? I too know that President Obama is not, was not perfect.
After all, he didn’t induce wall street bandits to jump, as they should have. So I too disagreed with Obama.
But still, we are also allowed to disagree with Warren. Really~!!