I did not mean to leave this one out of the early post. Especially as representation is important. This took a lot of courage and that should be recognized and supported.
A flag with the words "trans people deserve to live" was displayed during the fifth inning of Game 5 of the 2018 World Series before the police removed it. #TransLivesMatter #LGBT #worldseries2018 #WorldSeries #TransRightsAreHumanRights #Resist ?✊? pic.twitter.com/Pr75cFdhtH
— LGBT Puerto Rico (@lgbtpr) October 29, 2018
From CBS LA:
The statement was emblazoned on the Transgender Pride Flag, colored blue, pink and white. (The flag, designed by an Arizona trans woman, made its debut in 2000 at a pride parade in Phoenix.)
One report indicated the protest was planned by members of the TransLatin@ Coalition, a Los Angeles-based activist organization that advocates for the rights of transgender Latinx people. It’s unclear whether the flag was removed by the activists who brought it or by stadium security, and FOX’s television broadcast did not show either the flag or its removal.
Supporters of transgender rights have been galvanized in recent days after reports the Trump administration is planning to roll back Obama-era protections for trans people and to legally define gender as an immutable, biological trait.
It does us no good to combat anti-semitism, Islamophobia and the spillover on Sikhs, Hindus, and Buddhists from the subcontinent and Southeast Asia because bigoted Americans who discriminate can’t do it properly (morans!!!), anti-African American racism, anti-Latinx/Hispanic racism, anti-Native American racism, anti-immigrant xenophobia and nativism, and homophobia if we don’t make sure we support and lift up and, if necessary, intercede on behalf of all of people that fit within the LGBTQ community. Never again has to mean something. And has to mean something beyond just combatting anti-Semitism. We are, indeed, stronger together. And there are more of us without the herrenvolk coalition of the President’s supporters and the Republican Party and conservative movement they are remaking in an ugly, retrograde, revanchist image. They have picked this time and this place to try to make a last stand. I say we ensure they fail! Also, we’ve got folks like her in the fight:
If Senior Chief Beck’s still fighting, the least we can do is back her up cause I sure as hell don’t want to be in her way! And I’d pay good money to see the Vice President or the Attorney General tell her she can’t use the Lady’s Room!
Updated at 11:45 PM EDT
From Sister Golden Bear in the comments:
Trans Lifeline, an organization that runs a crisis hotline for transgender people and staffed by transgender people, said that calls to their suicide hotline have quadrupled since the story broke that the Trump administration is trying to legally erase transgender identity.
In an Instagram post, Trans Lifeline reported that calls increased by four times last week, and first-time callers doubled.
BTW, I know people are (appropriately) focused on donating to political campaigns at the moment, but if you can spare any extra, please consider giving to Trans Lifeline. They’re a shoe-string operation run for, and by, trans people.
You all know what to do!!!!
Vote like your life and America’s depends on it! Get everyone you know to vote like their lives and America’s depends on it! And remember you’re not alone!
Open thread!
Adam L Silverman
I have to go and run an errand, I’ll be back in a bit. You all have fun.
Chyron HR
“Like”?
A Ghost To Most
Luckily, Francisco Franco is still dead. Unluckily, his festering spirit inhabits the bloated semi-corpse in the WH.
Mnemosyne
I honestly get paralyzed when it comes to figuring out how to argue against people who say shit like, “God doesn’t make mistakes” to explain why they have an irrational hatred for transgeder people.
Because visible birth defects don’t really exist in their world, apparently, so therefore gender dysphoria that originates in the brain, like, double doesn’t exist since it’s invisible to the naked eye unlike a clubfoot, which doesn’t exist in the first place because God doesn’t make mistakes?
I can’t figure out how to push back against someone who refuses to acknowledge objective reality.
Baud
@Mnemosyne:
“He made you, didn’t he?”
Schlemazel
@Mnemosyne:
when people say that shit to me I simply ask them what they think I did to deserve my birth defects and the issues they are still causing. That generally shuts them up. If they reply with “sins of the father” bullshit I ask them what sort of a benevolent being would punish an unborn child for someone else’s mistake?
I can play that game with them all day. I had 6 years of bible training in addition to Sunday school
jl
@Baud: That’s what I like about Baud 2020!, always says the same thing to his base as he does to the opposition. A straight talker.
Mike in DC
@Mnemosyne: It’s always fascinating to see the many ways that nuance, subtlety, context, complexity, empathy and compassion get washed out from the conservative/fundavangelical worldview. Unless you bring up apparent hypocrisy on their part, in which case they rediscover nuance.
jl
Thanks for another inspiring post. The GOP and Trumpsters have gone full lunatic in their desperation of the last two weeks of the campaign. In fact, they have fallen into an infinite loop of abject derp. I see in Josh Marshall’s twitter feed that they are yelling that the Central American refugees are lepers and will turn the US into a giant leper colony.
Have to hope the country rejects the stupid and vicious next week.
I’ll be looking through races to give another round of contributions this week.
TheMightyTrowel
@Mnemosyne: You and me both. I default to asshole mode: snort, roll my eyes and walk away. I have too much to do to defend my existence to idiots.
Back before the 2016 election I had a conversation about identity politics with a white cis male acquaintance of mine. This guy was a union activist, a Dems Abroad organiser and generally a loudly leftwing person whose wife is also a really outspoken feminist activist. In talking about the election, I said that, being queer, female-bodied and of Jewish descent, I strongly felt that anyone who voted Republican saw me and people like me as less than human. He was shocked. Totally bowled over. We spent about an hour wrangling and despite years of moving in activist circles and working for unions he could not wrap his head around that idea that for some people political debate was personal. He and his family left Oz for Europe about a year ago, but I still think about that conversation. I wonder if he’s figured out what I was trying to tell him.
Ohio Mom
@Schlemazel: What I despise is people who say to me (in regard to my autistic son), “He’s so lucky/fortunate/blessed to have you as a mother!”
Like my efforts are a match against all the ableism in the world, let alone the forces that are working to dismantle Medicaid, Social Security, and all the other crucial supports for people with disabilities.
Hungry Joe
I don’t know why it was this particular thing that sent me around the bend today, but I went around and back. And here I go again:
So Mike Pence, the Vice President of the United States, attends a “Jews for Jesus” ceremony for those slaughtered in Pittsburgh. Hey, asshole, listen up: We consider the divinity of Jesus to be iron-age fantasy; your sanctioning of this sad farce in an official capacity is a hard slap in the face to my already traumatized community.
Oh, and then there’s this: Jewish leaders in Pittsburgh have said they don’t want Trump to come. He’s coming anyway.
My GOD, but I’m angry.
rikyrah
I have been thinking about my ancestors who lived during Reconstruction, with its promise, only to see it turn into Jim Crow.
That is what crosses my mind when I see this Administration’s attacks on Transgender Americans. ??
And, that is why we fight
schrodingers_cat
@TheMightyTrowel: Me ex-friend could not understand why I would take T’s rants against immigrants seriously because I was a “good” immigrant quite unlike the ones he was demonizing. For her voting is all about her tender fee fees.
PhoenixRising
@Mnemosyne: Well, it’s complicated.
‘Gender dysphoria’ requires the sufferer to believe that some feelings, thoughts, acts and habits are ‘male’ and others are ‘female’. I reject that dichotomy. But gender is real in that we see and can measure its effects (most visible in edge cases), in the same way that ‘race’ is biologically real as we can measure its impact on health.
While I reject the gender binary for my own use, as a guideline for how to behave, I accept that it is a framework impacting the lives of people who are trapped by it. One of my steps to prepare to interpret/escort trans people from Central America through the safe house pipeline where I volunteer is: dress in clothing sold for the gender on my driver license. I ask my teenage daughter for help if I’m not sure that I’m presenting correctly to get respect from the airline and TSA as a white professional they don’t want trashing them on TV.
As Cornel West said about race, just because it’s not real doesn’t mean it’s not killing folks on the wrong side of it.
Mike in DC
@TheMightyTrowel: That seems odd. The only way one could not “personalize” political debate would be if one felt no personal stake in the outcome of elections or policy decisions. I’m affected personally by decisions regarding mental health coverage in insurance, coverage of preexisting conditions, tort “reform”, student loan reform and civil rights matters which affect my friends, family and loved ones.
Marcopolo
Andrew Gillum on Maddow right now.
I am a 55 year old hetro white male but I have a serious crush on this guy.
PhoenixRising
@Hungry Joe: Christ on a pogo stick. They used fake Jews.
seaboogie
We have a fairly recently transitioning transgendered woman as a client in our artisan jewelry shop (referred by a friend of the shop who knew she would be welcomed), and this gaggle of middle-aged women who work in our shop have welcomed E with open arms and have kind of taken it on as a somewhat sacred duty to introduce her into womanly ways – with regards to jewelry – and make her extremely welcome and comfortable in our space. In our experience (because the nature of our business is that most women have body issues) all we really have to do is get the pronouns right, and then we just play as we do.
So when E is looking at bangle bracelets and has large hands, the discussion actually becomes somewhat generic to all womanhood, because human physiognomy varies greatly, including with cis-gendered women.
I think we bring a slightly greater measure of our usual deep compassion for any client, respecting how challenging (and also exciting) this must be for E.
Mary G
A Ghost To Most
@schrodingers_cat:
There’s a lot of that going around.
schrodingers_cat
@seaboogie: Your so right, I am petite and think tall woman have all the great choices regarding clothes etc and my friend who is 5ft 8 inches wishes she could be dainty and not so tall.
Baud
@Mike in DC: I don’t know. I care about a variety of issues that probably won’t affect my life in a tangible way.
schrodingers_cat
@A Ghost To Most: Oops, my ex-friend, not me ex-friend.
Shana
Because my 90 year old MIL is ill and failing rapidly, I voted early last week. Hubby voted tonight on his way home from work. She may last another couple of weeks, we’re not sure how long really. She broke an ankle several years ago and the repair included putting a screw in her ankle. Since she has almost no muscle tone left the screw started protruding through her skin. They went back in a couple of weeks ago to remove the screw but she has almost no blood circulation below her knee and the wound isn’t healing. She’s developed gangrene which is what will probably kill her. She has almost no appetite and has practically stopped eating. She’s made it quite clear she doesn’t want anything more done.
It’s time, and everyone knows that, including her, but it’s still hard.
I may have to set backup to run Election Day at my precinct in case I need to go to Cincinnati for a funeral.
Adam L Silverman
@Chyron HR: Trying to keep things positive…
Ohio Mom
@jl: Even if there were people with leposy included among the refugees, leposy isn’t very contagious and it is completely curable. Not that facts matter to those panicking numbskulls.
A real problem — to change topics — is the rift that appears to be forming in the Pittsburgh Jewish comminity. From what I’ve read, not everyone is signing on to that Bend the Arc letter. Some are saying they welcome President Trump — including the rabbi from the Tree of Life congregation!
I don’t see this ending well.
Marcopolo
@Hungry Joe: Apparently the mayor of Pittsburgh has told the White House that as burial services will commence tomorrow & will need massive security needs the city itself does not have the manpower to also provide security for a presidential visit. He has asked the President to postpone until services are over.
Baud
@Shana: I’m very sorry to hear about your MIL.
Adam L Silverman
@Mnemosyne: Ask them why up to 80% of fertilized embryos either fail to implant or spontaneously abort/separate from the uterine wall before anyone knows they’re pregnant?
schrodingers_cat
@schrodingers_cat: * You are, and women not woman
Baud
@Ohio Mom: Yikes. Not good.
Adam L Silverman
@Marcopolo: It’s 2018, these things are alright to articulate. Also, this is sort of a safe space. Except when Cole is cranky…
Baud
@schrodingers_cat: Edit is back!
khead
This may be the worst ad for a Democratic House candidate (MD-1) I have seen this year. Unfortunately, it’s my district.
lamh36
@Hungry Joe: oh and as I said before they even announced it… Jared and Ivanka are tagging along
Adam L Silverman
@schrodingers_cat:
Just claim your Scottish. Or your former friend is a graduate of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: For the editing script is making the site load very slowly…
Adam L Silverman
@Shana: We’re keeping good thoughts for your mother in law and you and your husband.
Felanius Kootea
@rikyrah: It is striking to me that there were two black Republican senators during reconstruction, and after the second one left office in 1881, the next black senator in office emerged in 1967! Eighty-six long years passed and people thought this was normal. Goddamn.
lamh36
Sigh…
Elizabelle
@Shana: All the best to you and your family. Sorry to hear your MIL is having such a rough time.
Adam L Silverman
@Ohio Mom: There are three congregations that use that building, only one has said he welcomes the President’s visit. Moreover, you and I and everyone else knows that he’ll read the remarks Kellyanne Conway writes for him like he’s got a gun pointed to his head and then he’s going to go into rally mode. And this is going to happen on live TV in front of a bunch of really upset, really angry, and really scared American Jews. And they are not going to respond like at one of his MAGA rallies, which will frustrate and upset him and he’ll then ad lib some more, etc, etc, etc. The worst decision he could make was going to do this no matter what one of the three rabbis whose congregations use that building may have said.
lamh36
@Hungry Joe: and of course the VP team is blaming the one Jewish person on their team?
seaboogie
@schrodingers_cat: Exactly! Interestingly – in our biz – one of the first things (at a young age) women are self-critical about is their hands. When they are young, we just celebrate the variety, and work towards the best fit, and try to initiate them into accepting the particular beauty of their physiognomy. When they are much older, I remind them of all of loving, hard-working things their hands have done, to get to be as they are.
Schlemazel
@Ohio Mom:
don’t sell yourself short. your efforts are a salve against all the ugliness of the real world. I get your point and you are not wrong but it sounds like you are not recognizing how much worse it could be for him.
lamh36
@Adam L Silverman: nope he’s apparently also bringing Jared & Ivanka…my money says daddy’s girl speaks to test the crowd or maybe Chump won’t soesk at all??
Ohio Mom
@Shana: We just went through something similar with my 97 year old aunt — different medical issue, but knowing there was nothing to be done but bear the waiting.
lamh36
Hey Adam. Can’t wait to hear what you have to say about this
Timurid
@Adam L Silverman:
Boo. His. Ass. Off. The. Stage.
seaboogie
@lamh36: Oh, ummm…fuck that fucking guy! And Mother too.
schrodingers_cat
@seaboogie: Really? I like my hands.
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: If he goes, it will go badly for him and only make things worse. American Jews are already whispering that someone needs to convene a Bet Din (rabbinic court) and hand down the herem on Jared and Ivanka. The herem is, essentially, being expelled from the Jewish community. It is the closest thing in Judaism to being excommunicated.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@seaboogie: Mr DAW worked for John Deere in an R&D facility, and when a co-worker transitioned, Deere sent around a memo establishing the ground rules which they were all expected to follow. It was worded with respect for the co-worker. That was the first time Mr DAW and most of his engineering colleagues were aware of being around a trans person, and the social expectations Deere laid down made a difference not just in how they acted, but in how they thought about the experience.
Basically Deere did the opposite of what Trump is now doing.
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: I saw that earlier. They’re going to burn a huge whole in the budget, screw up training, deployment, and leave schedules for a whole bunch of Soldiers, and accomplish very little. The Mexican ambassador stated today that the number of refugees is actually closer to 3,500 people and that large numbers are accepting asylum and aid in Mexico. It is highly likely they’ll be less than 1,000, let alone 2,000, refugees that actually get to the US border to ask for asylum. They’ll each get at least one, if not two, of their own Soldiers given the way the numbers will work out. This too will ultimately blow up in their faces.
Adam L Silverman
@Timurid: I think that is a highly likely outcome.
lahke
OT, but Kevin Drum has the list of Fox advertisers up. I just sent a screed to my Liberty Mutual agent–had no idea that they were active there. Anybody have an insurance company they like for home, auto, umbrella policies?
Mike in DC
@Baud: Sure, but it’s rare to have a political environment where nothing “personal” is at stake.
Barbara
@Shana: I am so sorry. More than once over the last years as I have lost elderly relatives I realize that it’s hard to know what to wish for as the end of life beckons. I am not offering advice but I am glad that I decided to take off work and just sit around in my brother’s hospital room while we tried to figure out where to go next because there was no next.
maryQ
Did you ever try eating kumquats while sipping gin? This is my new favorite thing.
lamh36
If you thought the Pence thing couldn’t get worse…it’s worse!
ETA:
bluehill
In other news, the next phase of the black vote suppression strategy is underway.
pk
@schrodingers_cat:
I basically avoid republicans as much as I can. I been cutting people off from my facebook since Romney was a candidate. Trump was absolutely the last straw. My best friend for the last 30 years use to say racist things. She fired her cleaning lady when she found out that she was undocumented. I don’t know if she voted for Trump. But after Trump was elected, I decided I didn’t want to know a racist, and I don’t care about a 30 year friendship. At this point I’d divorce my husband of 29 years if he voted for a republican. My contempt runs deep. This isn’t about politics anymore.
Matt McIrvin
@Mary G:
Wrong. Young people still aren’t voting nearly as much as old ones. Lots of Republicans are going to win for that reason.
Mary G
@Shana: So hard. Light and love to you, your partner, and your MIL.
billcoop4
I was just wondering if such a thing existed.
BC
Emma
@Hungry Joe: I have, by all family accounts, a formidable though infrequent bad temper. These days it’s just below the skin, ready to burst out. Until I get a handle on it, it’s best if I make sure none of these arseholes cross my path.
Chyron HR
@bluehill:
“It’s like a hashtag that you pay me to use.”
seaboogie
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Good on Deere! I think when you come face to face with someone who is transitioning, the sheer bravery – and fundamental necessity – of their experience is so “wow”, that you can only respect and support their experience – unless less you are a complete and total jerk/dumbass/hollowshellofanindividual*. *was trying to keep it non-gendered and not say *dick*. But then I just did.
Mike in NC
I hope there is a huge protest waiting for Fat Bastard when he visits Pittsburgh. Block his motorcade so he can turn around and head for Mar-A-Lago to hang with the other plutocrats and whine about the globalists.
Mary G
@Matt McIrvin: I choose to see 40% as a vast improvement over the usual turnout in those age brackets. YMMV.
CarolDuhart2
https://twitter.com/parasocial_moe/status/1056950965482467328
Lyrebird
@lahke: Geico has been very good to a couple generations of us, including during random car failures and complicated inter-state moves. Ymmv.
HinTN
@lahke: Auto Owners has been good for us for several years. No idea if they advertise…
zhena gogolia
@lahke:
Amica.
zhena gogolia
@lamh36:
Vomit.
Barbara
@Adam L Silverman: No one should invite themselves to a funeral, especially when it would completely take over the purose of the event. An ecumenical memorial service would be appropriate, e.g., the kind of service that was held for those who died when Gaby Giffords was shot. Is he talking about going to a funeral? I suppose he’s enough of a clod not to understand that having Jewish grandkids doesn’t entitle him to crash every Jewish funeral.
zhena gogolia
@Barbara:
Ivanka invited herself to McCain’s.
Chetan Murthy
@Lyrebird: I use Geico for auto ins. They’re pretty good. Sadly, they’re owned by Buffett’s company, and he also advertises on Fox [per Kevin Drum’s list].
Mnemosyne
@PhoenixRising:
The book that completely changed my thinking about gender and sex was John Colapinto’s As Nature Made Him, which is about the ultimately tragic attempt to raise a cisgendered boy to be a girl when his genitals were irreversably damaged shortly after birth.
I think that there is something innate to gender BUT that it comes from our brains, not our genitals, and that the innate sense of gender a person has is not tied to what society tells us our gender “should” be like. And it makes sense to me that, as with so many other things human, gender identity would exist on a spectrum, so some people have a strong sense that they are a specific gender and others don’t have a strong feeling either way.
lamh36
@bluehill: Oh brother…the last thing Dems have to worry bout is Kanye West influence on Black folks. Newsflash…he has none
Barbara
@zhena gogolia: At least McCain was a public figure and he had a chance to plan his own funeral.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Ohio Mom:
What morons! What does the rabbi think is going to fucking happen when Trump opens his mouth? Doesn’t he think the President’s rhetoric has helped cause this tragedy? Members of congregation are dead partly because of him!
HumboldtBlue
TJ McConnell is a Pittsburgh kid, he plays for the Philadelphia 76ers and he was on point tonight in Philly.
schrodingers_cat
@pk: She would call herself an independent. Voted for W twice, Obama twice and Jill Stein in 2016. So not an R but a weather vane.
Ohio Mom
@billcoop4: Yes, such things exist but Bet Dins have a sort of limited jurisdiction. American Judaism is decentralized; there is no ultimate authority analogous to a pope or a synod.
The various branches (denominations) can differ wildly on how they interpret and follow Jewish tradition. Bet Dins are a thing among the orthodox, not among liberal Jews, who tend to stress following one’s own conscious. And most of what Bet Dins address tend to be matters of, what we in the secular world call, family law (divorce and other disputes among intimates).
However, if anyone in the liberal Jewish world wants to convene a panel of rabbis to excommunicate the Kushners, I’ll be there cheering them on.
Platonailedit
The price for electing this corruptest cretin and his traitorous party is steep and will be paid by americans for a long time to come.
lamh36
They played WHAT!
lahke
Thanks for the suggestions on insurance; h alternatives is great if they aren’t going to change.
lamh36
No this mofo didn’t??
Obama’s to blame for white supremacist shooting up a Black church!
Really mofo…really
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1057093942578241537?s=21
Chetan Murthy
@schrodingers_cat: I had a [female] friend who’s all het up about Pussburgler and what he portends for women. But she’s 100% for MJ [and other illicit drug] criminalization, balanced budgets, and John Kasich. And she’s clearly a homophobe. Is proud that her evangelical church lets gays worship, but not preach. She says she “self-identifies” as an Independent, not a GrOPer. But fuck that. You believe in these things, you’re just an “ashamed GrOPer”.
Of course, she’s also for strong enforcement of our borders, but I think she’s been shamed by what Shitlord’s minions have done to the children.
I’m glad she’s gonna vote against Shitlord, but I can’t see her staying strong for enough cycles to make a different. And she’ll vote against Shitlord as long as her pet issue is in danger. The minute Roe v. Wade is no longer in danger, I see her with a Kasich sign on her lawn.
Fuck that.
Ohio Mom
@Barbara: It would be especially awful if Trump crashed Tuesday’s funerals. They are for two developmentally disabled brothers, and we already know how disrespectful Trump has been to people with disabilities. Extra salt in the wound.
lamh36
@lamh36:
this tells me internal polls must be showing Gillum in good position going into the last week before midterms
Ohio Mom
@lamh36: This is a different topic but can anyone tell me why internal polls are held to be more accurate than, what do you call them, “external” polls? What makes them more accurate and why don’t all polls use the same techniques?
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: That boy ain’t right!
Sandia Blanca
@Adam L Silverman: Hope those whispers turn into a loud chorus!
lamh36
CarolDuhart2
Can they lock the doors and keep him out? I would rather have a secret funeral than have Trump anywhere near the services-or my grieving family. And that brings up something that people don’t realize isn’t normal: it usually is an honor for the head of your state to attend your funeral. Obama was never turned away. Shrub was never turned away. Clinton was in his element comforting mourners. Already we have 2 high-profile decedents making it clear that they want no part of him and his crude and insensitive and bigoted self. He can’t even fake dignity, let alone compassion.
zhena gogolia
@lamh36:
I think they meant to play “Tacky”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zq7Eki5EZ8o
Dan B
@Mnemosyne: You can’t get anywhere by pushing back with these bigots because holding their beliefs is whar gives them identity. The only thing you can do is tell them stories about Trans people and how you’ve felt about their stories. As an openly gsy man I don’t have to becsusr I’m grouped in with every sexual minority. But I’ve experienced the transformation that telling my stories has made.
So tell them about Sister Golden Bear’s transition (without her nym unless she gives a rip roaring affirmation) and how it made you feel. If they disavow your feelings you can’t reach them. But some of it might seep through the cracks.
Every interaction is unique so pay attention to the feelings that arise. They are your story and they’re often the key to someone else’s story. I’ve seen the light go on. It’s often I don’t even recognize it until later.
Adam L Silverman
@Ohio Mom: The campaigns have a far better idea of what the electorate looks like because they have access to information about voters and trends that the public pollsters don’t.
lahke
@lahke: Oops, Geico’s on the list too.
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: Gillum has not trailed DeSantis in any poll since the general election started.
Gin & Tonic
@Lyrebird: Second vote for GEICO, which happens to be majority-owned by Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett’s holding company. He’s a billionaire who’s not also an asshole.
Adam L Silverman
@lamh36: Bless his heart!
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Adam L Silverman:
Why don’t public pollsters have access to the same info? Is it proprietary software or something?
J R in WV
Every poll uses a different set of respondents with a varying analysis of the answers to the questions asked by the polling firm. There are a variety of statistical analyses that can be applied to the data derived from answers to the questions.
The polling companies work with the client to design both the questions asked by the poll and the analysis of the answers given by the people polled. So if the client is a news organization the goal of the poll is different from the goal of the client candidate.
Adam L Silverman
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: The campaigns just have access to proprietary information that is gathered in a different way and is usually more robust than what the public pollsters can get by doing phone polls or publicly recruit people for focus groups.
Gin & Tonic
@lamh36: Shame that the best reporting on Trump is being done by a Canadian.
Steeplejack
@Ohio Mom:
Any individual candidate is going to much more motivated to spend the big bucks for the best demographic targeting and data analysis—it’s literally his or her job on the line—than a newspaper, TV network or think tank trying to get a handle on potentially multiple campaigns for news or punditing purposes.
jl
I guess next photos claiming to prove they are lizard replicants from middle earth, grown by the real Nazis still hiding down there.
Fox News Commentator Says Migrants Are Carrying Smallpox, a Disease Eradicated in 1980
www thedailybeast.com/fox-news-commentator-says-migrants-are-carrying-smallpox-a-disease-eradicated-in-1980
Marcopolo
@Ohio Mom: I don’t think it’s a given that an internal poll is better. There are a multitude of variables when it comes to polling but pretty high up on the list is turnout model. I suppose, because campaigns do more frequent polling than outside groups, they might have a better idea of that. But the comment I hear most often is campaign polling typically uses the most optimistic turnout model for that campaign because you want good results you can show to potential funders. I suppose campaign polls might also have a better feel for the direction in which voters are moving as they poll more often but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are more accurate.
Anyways, experience seems to indicate that The best way to get an accurate read on a race is to look at an average of polls in a given race weighted by the accuracy of the pollster & the freshness of the data.
Adam L Silverman
@Gin & Tonic: Just another job, like being the President’s wife, that no American is willing or, as in this case, able to do!
jl
If they keep this up, the GOP base will be too afraid to vote, and will be hiding under their beds on election day counting their wingnut con-job internet non-hybrid survival seeds and slurping down protein super powder, immunity booster glop, and man-problem pills.
Dan B
@Marcopolo: Congratulations on your crush on Andrew Gillum. You may select from the merit badge of Goin’ Gay for Today or the order of Friends of Friends of Dorothy ( FOD is an old code for queer). Or you can just be like gay old (married) me – having a tough time deciding if Andy G. is the one or Beto O. or Stacey A.
Life is rough, crush on it!
Seriously he’s dazzling all the way through.
Dan B
@seaboogie: Wow! I hope Mnemosyme borrows this story when he needs heartfelt ammunition.
tobie
@khead: Thanks for drawing my attention to this ad. As you know, I’ve been canvassing for the local Democratic party but this ad is so disgusting that I don’t think I want to participate in the campaign any longer. I realize MD-1 is a conservative district but this ad is over the top. It made me wonder why Colvin is running as a Democrat if he has so much disdain for the party.
Ruckus
Damn, damn, damn, damn. These fucking assholes.
I read Sister Golden Bear’s comments and I’m drained. I read the comment from The Fat Kate Middleton in the last thread and I’m moved. Adam I read that paragraph above and I’m pissed, and in tears. Damn, damn, damn, damn, fuck.
Life is hard enough just being a straight white old man with cancer and possibly some other major stuff. I can not imagine why those assholes need to make this worse, what the fuck do they gain? I somewhat understand why someone wants to be rich, it is nice, I’d imagine. But what the fuck does someone gain by being a bigot? What the fuck? Can anyone tell me what could possibly be gained? My sister lived as a lesbian. She did like men though so I’d guess/bet she was bi. My best friend was her partner 45 yrs ago. She died last year because of sickle cell. My most memorable person was a black man that worked for my dad when I was 12-14 yrs old. On of the most human of all the human beings I’ve known over the years. The man that let me live on his property when I had nothing left is a naturalized citizen from Mexico. All of these people have been a light to me, a beacon of good. None of them were saints. But each of them were/are great humans. That I could be half as good would be nice.
Adam, if The Fat Kate Middleton asks for my email, please connect us. She answered in the last post and said she’d like to talk. Make it happen, please.
lamh36
Again I say…really…really../
Gin & Tonic
@Dan B: “She.”
Adam L Silverman
@Ruckus: Okay on the email.
Also, racism wasn’t reasoned into humans, it can’t be reasoned out.
pk
@schrodingers_cat:
My friend used to be a fairly liberal progressive. But she came to this country, became rich, bought a million dollar house and started talking like a right wing nut job. She got mugged twice by black men, but nothing justifies the bitter viciousness. She has a good life, a loving husband, kids who’ve done well and are successful. So I don’t get the bitterness. After the election I decided I didn’t want to know anyone who’s a racist.
Ruckus
@Dan B:
Mnemosyme is a woman.
I’d have thought that was obvious, given the many times she’s said so.
Adam L Silverman
@Ruckus: I sent it. I have no idea if the email she uses to post here is legit.
Ruckus
@Adam L Silverman:
Thanks.
Read my comment in the first Hero’s post you did earlier.
You’ll see we agree on that. I look at it like an addiction.
Marcopolo
@Dan B: Well, I will cop to having crushes on Beto & Stacey as well—it’s just that Andrew was on screen atm I wrote that. Honestly, as I wrote in a thread way earlier today I am pretty fricken impressed with the entire field of Democratic candidates across the country. It’s a good thing to think about when I am stressing about the election—our folks are just so much, like head & shoulders above, more impressive & smart & likeable than their folks. And I don’t think it’s just tribalism on my part.
And now to watch Andrew Gillum with Trevor on the Daily Show.
Redshift
@Steeplejack: In addition, I suspect campaigns can provide other information they have access to, like the voter file, to allow their pollster to more accurately model the electorate.
Dan B
@lamh36: What was Pence’s approval rating when he left Indiana – 11%?
No wonder. Wooden and dense!
khead
@tobie:
I caught it over the weekend and saw it again tonight during the news. I was pissed. Can’t find the actual ad so I had to settle for that link to a news article about it. I was going to write more tonight but didn’t really have the time. I plan on revisiting it tomorrow.
Adam L Silverman
@Ruckus: I saw it.
Dan B
@Shana: Hugs to you and your family. Do you know what she would want for you and your husband? Does she want you to be at peace? Hold good thougts and feelings when you can, if you can.
Our neighbors’ elderly mother across the street just went in an ambulance to the hospital. My Mike guy has a bad cold so we don’t want to go over. It’s hard to feel the distance.
Dan B
@Gin & Tonic: Thanks, forgot for some reason.
Joy in FL
Thank you for posting this example of courage and resistance. Some days it feels harder, less hopeful than other days, and seeing that beautiful, public boldness really helped me.
tobie
@khead: I knew Colvin wasn’t for an assault rifle ban and that he’s said some stupid things about Pelosi like she’s out of touch with the people in her district — has he ever been to the Bay Area???? — but I didn’t think these were the chief issues of his campaign. It’s certainly not what I’ve been talking about while canvassing. But evidently he’s decided to campaign in these final weeks as Zell Miller’s second coming. I’ve sent the campaign an angry message. Will let you know if they respond.
Citizen Scientist
@Shana: I really hope things go well for you and your MIL over the next several weeks. Hope you enjoy whatever time you have left together.
Sister Golden Bear
@Adam L Silverman: I just wanted to say how much I appreciate you highlighting this.
To all, if you know a trans person — and even if you don’t think you do, you probably actually do — please show your support. Many of us are feeling the walls closing in:
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2018/10/suicide-hotline-calls-quadrupled-trumps-latest-attack-transgender-people/
BTW, I know people are (appropriately) focused on donating to political campaigns at the moment, but if you can spare any extra, please consider giving to Trans Lifeline. They’re a shoe-string operation run for, and by, trans people.
#WontBeErased #StillFuckingHere
(And it seems like my talent for posting to dying threads continues…)
HumboldtBlue
Here come the police drones. Cloaked in response time rhetoric, policing soon takes to the sky.
rikyrah
@Timurid: ???
Ruckus
@Marcopolo:
Their candidates are caricatures of humans, what they think they should be like. In the future someone will write a Star Trek like show about how the aliens invaded and took over a political party. It took them 50 yrs to burrow into humanity and their people never quite got the gist of humanity but selling bullshit was their specialty and so they were able to be successful at almost taking over a large, wealthy country with the walking dead bodies that they inhabited plus the folks they conned into believing their bullshit. They found they had to invade more than just the one country to get enough traction, and money to be effective. But regular people caught on to the scam and using the tools they had built, overcame the Bullshitters From The Planet Zorg.
rikyrah
@Shana:
It’s so hard, letting go. Sending you hugs.
Dan B
@Ruckus: Got it. Knew but spaced out. One of those days when a nap was needed to keep the grey matter functioning.. Apologies.
Adam L Silverman
@HumboldtBlue: The old joke: Why do I carry a .45? Because a cop weighs too much.
Ruckus
@Shana: @Shana:
Sorry about your MIL. It’s never easy. Don’t forget to take time for yourself and your hubs. Mom understands, we are ready when we are ready. Make her as comfortable as she’ll let you, do not forget about yourselves. It’s that old circle of life thing. To each in his own time. I held my dad in my arms as he passed. I don’t know if it was better or not, but I won’t forget that moment. Peace.
J R in WV
@Sister Golden Bear:
Don’t be like that… l hold a record for posting on dead threads here. Hang in there Sister!
Don K
I told my husband tonight that I had the great good fortune to attend an elementary school with a significant number of black and Jewish kids, so I always saw them as just kids and friends, and not as enemies. Then it occurred to me that, as a gay man, I’m sympathetic towards all people who are marginalized because of who they are.
Dan B
@Marcopolo: I do like / crush on Gillum. He’s a handsome man but there’s something in his face that seems like he’s a great guy through and through. Like he’s living a good life and sharing it with many people. Some people look tense like they’re struggling against inner demons. It contorts their face. We’ve got a local GOP poll who os heartless and dishonest, Dino Rossi. His smile looks like he wishes he never had to again or like he only laughs when he’s smashed the lesser people.
Adam L Silverman
@Sister Golden Bear: As I wrote in Cole’s post when you reposted this comment:
frosty
@tobie: Come up to PA and canvass for George Scott who could flip PA10. Or Jess King, a great candidate who’s a long shot in PA11.
Dan B
@Sister Golden Bear: I hope a front pager posts TransLifeline in a fresh thread.
The Ingersoll Center and Gender Justice League have not been included in the Seattle city budget. I hope this changes.
Adam L Silverman
@Dan B: I’ve just added it as an update up top. How’s that for a start?
Sister Golden Bear
@rikyrah:
The whipsaw aspect is perhaps the worst of it for me. During the Obama years I saw more progress on trans rights, more change towards social acceptance than I ever thought I’d see in my lifetime. I thought I finally might be able to lead some sort of normal life.
And to see how quickly it’s all being swept away….
Sister Golden Bear
@Adam L Silverman: Thank you!
Matt McIrvin
The banner is also directly relevant to a Sox game: Massachusetts’ Question 3, on the ballot this year, is an attempt to overturn the law protecting transpeople’s access to public accommodations. (The wording of the question is such that a “Yes” vote is to protect the existing law.)
Adam L Silverman
@Sister Golden Bear: Too easy!
Sister Golden Bear
@seaboogie: Thank you to you and your gaggle of middle-aged woman. I suspect that you’re doing her far more good than you can possibly know.
PhoenixRising
@Mnemosyne: True. Variation is what makes humans interesting, yet we are afflicted with people who fear variants.
@Don K: “I had the great good fortune to attend an elementary school with a significant number of black and Jewish kids…” I too had the good fortune to have a mother who thought diverse associations would benefit her straight white Christian kids…some of which she was correct about. I’m sure that I’m much less of a basket case than I might have been because I was exposed to human variation before I was exposed to biases against variant identities. So when I am confronted with prejudice, I know whose problem it is.
tobie
@frosty: That’s just what I’m thinking of doing!
Barbara
@lamh36: Does he not understand that Dylann Roof was not a fan of Obama?
Sister Golden Bear
@Dan B:
Thanks for the bit about asking permission, but I wouldn’t be posting publicly (albeit under a nym) if I weren’t comfortable with other people sharing what I had to say. So if it will do any good, definitely feel free share about my transition and other things I’ve talked about.
Also feel free the share the link to my blog (in my nym), which goes into far more details about what I’ve been through to be me.
seaboogie
@Sister Golden Bear: So glad to see you back here and hope you are doing well. Thank you for your comment. Being a post-menopausal cis woman, I have deep memory of the feminine experience without being driven by hormones. So with E, she’s probably 40 – but for many feminine experiences, kind of like 16 – like buying jewelry. So it’s kind of like a sweet trip back in time to when I started to feel like a woman.
seaboogie
@seaboogie: A couple years down the road, I’ll probably be all “hey E”, when she comes in – and it will just be a regular, casual thing. But for now – while we keep it casual, any time we spend with E touches my heart deeply. Perhaps especially when we treat her as just another gal when we are busy and don’t have time to pay special attention as we sometimes do – and that is another, deeper level of acceptance and belonging.