I’m spending most of today in a hospital waiting room (everything is fine — elderly relative, routine procedure). Fox News is on the overhead TV, and no remote is in sight, but the volume’s mercifully low. They really are obsessed with AOC on Fox.
Seriously, she’s like 80% of their content. I think she makes them feel all tingly, then ashamed. It’s a weird thing to witness.
I guess I could go find someone to complain to about the channel, but I’m just reading a book and ignoring it instead. Open thread!
rikyrah
Uh huh ???
The Hill (@thehill) Tweeted:
JUST IN: Buttigieg, Fox News in talks for town hall https://t.co/fzZ6SmQgy3 https://t.co/gwOdynZDXS https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1118172706011271168?s=17
Baud
The right wing’s obsession with Hillary starting in the early 90s paid dividends for them in 2016. I don’t blame them for going after AOC.
rikyrah
HE.IS.TRYING.TO.GET.HER.KILLED!!!
Trump says of @IlhanMN, “she’s got a way about her that’s very very bad for our country.”
That’s not a critique of her policy views. It’s racist dog-whistling to his base that she is “other,” “foreign” — straight from the anti-Muslim hate groups’ playbook. #IStandWithIlhan https://t.co/J3Gl4iFrjQ
— Farhana Khera (@farhanakhera) April 16, 2019
Mr. Mack
Is it me or did Ms. Rofer’s post about the aluminum plant in Ky disappear? And is it too late to blech?
Mike in NC
Last time I took my car in for servicing at the dealership, FOX News was playing on the TV in the waiting area. As soon as I was the only one sitting there, that shit was gone.
Cacti
@rikyrah:
Mayor Butt-igg-egg wants to be the younger, sexier Bernie.
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah: I see. Have Mayor Pete and Wilmer thought about joining Bill Weld in the Republican primary?
SFAW
What happened to the Deripaska thread? I had an extremely witty, pithy, and all-around wonderful comment, which now appears to be gone.
OK, so maybe the comment wasn’t THAT great — actually, kind of run-of-the-mill — but still …
rikyrah
lips pursed:
Thread on charitable giving: Beto O’Rourke released 10 years of tax returns last night. He and his wife gave $1,166 to charity out of their $370,412 income in 2017. That’s one-third of 1%. It puts them at the bottom of 2020 Dems who have released taxes. https://t.co/EwMfQwTaP7
— James Hohmann (@jameshohmann) April 16, 2019
SFAW
@rikyrah:
And if she DOES end up getting murdered, he and Jethrene will say he was “only joking.”
Cacti
@mrmoshpotato:
Wilmer’s job is to be the Kremlin candidate on the left against the Dems. Trump has it covered from the right. Pete is auditioning for Bernie’s spot.
Baud
@rikyrah:
I swear it was a big deal not to long ago that Fox not be allowed to host any of our debates.
Maybe that criticism was more about Tom Perez.
plato
The oldest entitled white demography going after the youngest non-white, non-entitled demography. aka white fucking privilege.
Baud
@rikyrah:
I blame Nancy Pelosi. #Twitter
Betty Cracker
@Cacti: I’ve warned you about using the homophobic slur. Next, I’ll delete your comments that contain it. Go complain to Cole if you feel your free speech is being infringed.
Cheryl Rofer
@Mr. Mack: @SFAW: It will be up later.
Cacti
AOC’s apparent position on Biden is an interesting illustration of the divide between the left fringe and the party base, where old Joe is widely respected and admired.
rikyrah
@Mr. Mack:
Hopefully, it will be back later on today.
James E Powell
@Mike in NC:
I know this is anecdotal and warped by memory, but in my experience, every waiting room with a TV has FOX on. I do not know why.
NotMax
In a case such as this, silence does equal consent. The powers who control the remote need to be made aware there exists objection.
Brachiator
They have practically created a reality show around her. The Real Congress Persons of Washington, D.C. They should pay her accordingly for starring in their malignant little tv show.
MattF
AOC breaks the taboo against actual leftists voicing actual leftist opinions. Apologetic liberals are OK, as long as they stay apologetic about their lack of connection with the Real America. But AOC is a different kind of critter– an entirely post-cold war leftie– and the Foxies can’t deal with it.
Cacti
@Betty Cracker:
And in jumps a charter member of the Snowden/Greenwald front page fan club, threatening to silence any insufficiently obsequious comments about her new object of adoration.
I’m flattered, Betts.
MattF
@James E Powell: What happens, I think, is that some Fox fan turns it on, and no one dares to complain.
prufrock
@James E Powell: Demography. Waiting rooms are full of old people. Old people watch Fox.
If you go to a waiting room with a more diverse clientele, you’ll likely see something else (the Pep Boys near me usually has ESPN on).
Gravenstone
You know that in an earlier time they’d be scourging themselves for possessing those thoughts. Hell, some of them probably still do.
Fair Economist
@rikyrah: I’m conflicted on Fox running these town halls for lefties hoping to split the D party (more mainstream candidates have the sense to stay away). It does split us by hyping these more divisive candidates, but for it to work Fox has to give them a relatively sympathetic treatment and so the Fox audience hears their ideas (like the popular support for Medicare for All).
Cacti
@Fair Economist:
Bernie ran this campaign in 2016 too. The end result? President Trump.
Fair Economist
@Baud: AOC talks policy a lot more than Hillary did back in the 90’s, and more ambitious policy too. Like with townhalls for Bernie and Buttigieg, it may serve their political goals but there will be ideological benefits for us.
dmsilev
@Cacti: Oh, for fucks sake. Criticize him all you want, just leave the homophobia out of it. Is that really too much to ask?
Roger Moore
@Cacti:
Lear to read. She didn’t object to you dissing someone; she objected to what she sees as a homophobic slur. There’s a difference.
Joey Maloney
Was it Scalia that at some point we learned he used to wear a cilice? For all the moaning about Democrats’ perverted sex lives from Starr & Co. (yeah, I’m old), I know way more about Republican perversions than I want to. They just keep leaping (or tripping) out of their closets.
germy
I remember sitting in a doctor’s waiting room (eye, ears, nose, throat man) and the TV played a pharm commercial on endless loop. It just kept playing and playing. My wife got up and asked the receptionist if it could be changed or turned off, and the receptionist said no. I guess the doctor had been paid for this advertising.
No one in the waiting room watched it or paid any attention to it. Big sign on the wall: TURN OFF YOUR CELLPHONES.
As if someone poking at their phone would have been more annoying than their looping ad.
Brachiator
@Baud:
This bugs the shit out of me on many levels. Especially in the age of the Internet.
Fox is both racist and sexist. They enjoy bashing women and people of color (and of course Muslims). It cultivates a constant undercurrent of hatred.
It also feeds the most despicable Internet scum (many who have no real political affiliation) whose primary reason for being is to try to belittle, harass and shout down women and people of color.
And the right wing nutjobs who own Fox News know that once they stir this shit up, it becomes a perpetual hate machine.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Fair Economist: I’m ambivalent, too. It depends on how much Buttigieg pushes back against trumpian propaganda when he’s actually on the network. It would be nice if he has some explicit words for Tucker Carlson’s racist rhetoric, too.
Jeffro
@rikyrah: Wait, are you also factoring in the greatest gift of all…Beto’s gift of himself, to us, the people?
(I kid, I kid =)
In other exciting news:
– I dropped a nice letter to the editor of the Post just now, asking once again why Gary “Admit It: Fox News Was Right” Abnerathy has a regular platform there to spout his 100% wrong trumpian psychobabble. I think I called it “Groundhog Day (again) in southern Ohio”
– also just dropped a half-dozen links to actual news regarding the IRS’ obligation to release trumpov’s tax returns to Congress, and on trumpov’s hustle to install both a trumpov-friendly IRS commissioner and IRS legal counsel on my RWNJ dad, who is beginning to maaaaaaaybe think there’s something fishy in those returns. (YEAH RIGHT…he’ll be back with his head in the sand in 15 minutes but still)
Harris/Buttigieg(running-on-Warren’s-platform)2020! Henceforth known as “HB(W)2020!” ;)
Jazzman
It’s depressing how common it is to find Fox News blaring away in all kinds of public spaces–coffee shops, doctors’ offices, oil change garages, literally everywhere. What’s even more depressing is that for too many people this casual exposure to Fox is the only “news” programming of any kind they ever see.
Rupert Murdoch is despicable but he’s no fool. It’s the same kind of saturation bombing that has worked so long and well for the Coca-Cola Company. I’m with Mike in NC–whenever I get a chance to turn one of those idiot boxes off, I do it.
Cacti
@dmsilev:
I know. Because pointing out that the first four letters of his last name are B-u-t-t is just beyond the pale. I conspired with his parents 41 years ago to make it so. (eyeroll)
germy
Gex
@MattF: I’m sure the polling that shows broad support for her positions, and even significant Republican support, helps motivate them too.
Cacti
@Roger Moore:
Wurk on yer speling.
Ruckus
@germy:
Your cellphone interferes with their ability to force you into watching their money making commercial.
Kent
@Brachiator: Exactly.
It makes absolutely no difference who the Dems are or what they say. At the moment it is AOC and Omar. In 2018 it was Pelosi and all the hand wringers were thinking if we could just get Pelosi out of the way it would be smooth sailing. If Fox gets bored with them they will create some new boogyman or woman out of thin air. Mayor Pete, perhaps. Or Warren and Harris.
It will never end. The garbage stream is perpetual. Just have to push through it and see it for what it is.
germy
@Ruckus: I admit I never returned to that physician. The environment he created turned us right off.
cmorenc
Unlike Snowbilly princess aka Sarah Palin, whom RWers openly lusted over, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez is forbidden fruit which they can’t openly admit gives them a hard-on because she’s so beautiful and powerful and sassy in such an um…not to be redundant, but sinfully forbidden way.
Mandalay
@Cacti: You really need to find another web site for posting that stuff.
NotMax
Irony is dead when a hospital willingly foists a channel which negatively affects mental health on its clientele. Does the cafeteria sell [insert unhealthy food choice here]?
Cacti
@Mandalay:
Thanks for your opinion, Bernfeeler. It means a lot.
cain
It’s a way to scare their viewers that the future of the country is going to be going to people like her. So this of course makes them sit and stare at the TV at this “emerging new threat”. They are doing some of that with Ihan as well of course. The visuals of a person wearing the hijab just means that they can use the natural prejudice to throw her to the wolves. It’s easy stereotyping. But AOC is their true enemy, and the next HRC for them to demonify.
Brachiator
@rikyrah:
I don’t give a shit.
I care when people cheat on their taxes, or are obvious crooks. And while I think it good that people give to charity, I don’t demand it of anyone, including political candidates. As always, your mileage may vary.
I remember years ago, people raised this kind of thing about Al Gore. He didn’t give enough, according to their arbitrary inner scale.
different-church-lady
I hear she quit Facebook. Brings her up a couple of notches in my view.
matt
The donor class and Byzantine machinations of congressional leadership have stifled Democratic populism for a long, long time. They’re fascinated because they see the threat.
Betty
Even worse I was in a place yesterday that had OAN on. Very strange people there.
Ruckus
@germy:
I’ve had to figure out how to avoid a couple of docs at the VA, which isn’t quite as simple as just not making an appointment but can be done.
matt
@different-church-lady: I just dumped my facebook account this last week. Feels like losing weight.
different-church-lady
@Cacti: Huh?
catclub
@germy:
This is when I look for the plug to pull. many people no longer seem to remember there are buttons on TV’s that can be pressed.
WereBear
@germy: For me, that’s a sign of a bad doctor. Not going to think about what I need, going to think about what they need.
Betty Cracker
@Cacti: You’re as obsessed with Snowald as Fox is with AOC. It’s the go-to cloud of ink you squirt when called on your bullshit for, what, six or so years now? I’ve never been a Snowald fan, but if reflexively screeching that lie means you got the message about using the homophobic slur, screech away.
cmorenc
@Kent:
How long before some commentator at Fox slips up and calls him on-air what you know some of those neanderthals are calling him when they think there’s no cameras or microphones turned on: “Pete Butt-gig”, because he’s openly out.
germy
@catclub: This wasn’t a regular TV. It was a weird monitor playing the ad continuously.
trollhattan
@Baud:
It’s a tell for sure, she scares them shitless. And it works because Chelsea is definitely not running.
Chyron HR
@Cacti:
Do… do you think that’s his first name?
MisterForkbeard
@rikyrah: Makes sense. Bernie’s went well, and Buttigieg is MUCH more charismatic than Bernie. I’m seeing leftblogistan apparently in rapture over how Bernie did in his townhall despite some fairly obvious biases from the host.
Candidates like Buttigieg have a good reason to appear on Fox as well – they’re only sort of well known, and require positive events to break out and continue getting vote share. Bernie didn’t really have a good excuse other than his bullshit “reach across the aisle” stuff that won’t really work. He got lucky in that the primary question was about health care, which the public REALLY trusts Democrats on and which the media and republicans have refused to recognize. If he tries this again, they’ll recalibrate to the stuff that Bernie can’t do well, like actual policy.
Buttigieg actually DOES have a sort of valid claim to being able to reach across the aisle. Sort of. I think it’s much more possible he’d get Republican votes than Bernie, and he has a way of expressing Democratic positions that let conservatives realize they also support them.
But I’m not a big fan of this at all. :(
NotMax
@Betty
Should you find yourself in a place that has CROATOAN on, leave. Fast.
;)
trollhattan
@cmorenc:
After “Adam Schitt” I believe everything is possible.
Cacti
@Betty Cracker:
Nice revisionist history, Betts.
Are you ever right about anything?
cain
@germy:
Bring a learning remote and turn it off ;)
germy
@WereBear: I’ve had so many bad experiences with docs like that. It becomes discouraging.
different-church-lady
Pro-tip: berating the hall monitor didn’t work in junior high school, and it’s not going to work here.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I was in a waiting room last week, also an older relative for a routine procedure. The TV was off when we got there, and the receptionist walked by and switched it on. We were treated to The Talk, Sharon Osbourne barking at me about some singer I’ve never heard of. It was a small room and the volume was high. I would’ve asked to switch it off, but the other guy in the room, also waiting for an older relative, was transfixed.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
That sounds like you’ve never eaten at a hospital cafeteria. Best I can tell, they seem to be interested in creating new patients above all else.
MisterForkbeard
@Cacti: I don’t disagree with her, though. I think Biden would probably do well in the race and I do agree he has a lot of fans in the Democratic base (but not on left-twitter or whatever).
But she’s right that he’d be a step back. He’s much more corporately friendly that the party is, more used to old-time politics, and even in the best light is just more handsy than he should be in this current age. And taht’s a short list.
trollhattan
@germy:
Same at my…crap, such a big collection of doctors I forget which. Looping pharma and healthcare gadget commercials on a dedicated monitor. Somebody has monetized the waiting room just like the damn gas pumps that spew ads–loud enough to wake the dead–while you’re filling the old tank.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@germy: my dentist does that with some kind whitening straightening technology. He and his assistant spend a lot of time talking about those reality/talent shows while they’ve got their fingers in my mouth. But he’s a good dentist, and volunteers his time for low-income patients.
JaySinWA
@Baud: i think this is more like the attempt to make Pelosi the face of the party. It is penetrating the Fox audience, I know a couple of folks parroting this AOC crap, but I am not sure how much impact it will have outside of that.
burnspbesq
@rikyrah:
Beto has little kids. I dont blame him a bit if he’s putting every spare dollar in his 529 account. Of course, the Wilmerites will see that as proof of need for free (i.e., paid for by Some Mysterious Other) college, but fuck them.
Roger Moore
@Fair Economist:
ISTR Hillary being in charge of health care reform during the Clinton presidency. That was nittt-gritty policy stuff and very ambitious. She took a hell of a lot of flack for being involved in important policy stuff when she was “just” the first lady rather than holding an office in her own right.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
I agree. Gore was running for president, a job with relatively low pay, long hours and massive stress, isn’t that a kind of charity?
different-church-lady
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’ll one-up you. My dentist now has TVs in every exam room. I switch the one in my room off each time. But last time he switched it back on after my mouth was already full of hardware. Fox News, of course. This time the terms will be clear before procedures begin.
Mandalay
@Brachiator:
This. There are a gazillion things to look for presidential candidates, and making the size of their charitable donations an important priority seems like an odd decision.
germy
@trollhattan:
Brave New World
NotMax
@Ruckus
Well, last time I ate in a hospital cafeteria Ike was hale and hearty.
different-church-lady
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I did a job where I had microphones on two pediatric surgeons who were installing titanium rods in a kid’s back. It was a long procedure. They opened up the kid, got the procedure going, and proceeded to talk about their golf games for the next four hours.
Ruckus
@trollhattan:
At 4 bucks a gallon no less.
catclub
@Ruckus:
Diabetes on a plate – chicken fried steak/pattie, mashed potatoes, gravy with plenty of flour thickener,
green beans boiled beyond any texture, still have sweet tea.
cain
@MisterForkbeard:
So given the fact a lot of moderate and even conservative Republicans who actually adhere to little ‘c’ conservatism have left the party and moved to the Democratic party (or third party) how much does “reaching across the aisle” really mean? What’s left over on the other side other than hard fascists who don’t really care about anything but themselves. Don’t care about kids being put in cages, foreign policy, or anything that is Noblesse obliges.
What exactly are you going to compromise on, if one side really just wants to have white privilege?
Cacti
@Chyron HR:
Considering the Mayor makes a point to tell others the pronunciation of his last name, do you think perhaps he’s aware that the first four letters of his surname make for any easy punchline, irrespective of his sexual preferences?
I would hazard a guess that he’s know about this since around kindergarten or so.
If my benign comments already get you more delicate souls this wound up, you’re in for a rough ride if he ends up on the general election ticket.
germy
@Ruckus:
different-church-lady
@Cacti: Well, by all means continue to side with the playground bullies then.
zhena gogolia
@James E Powell:
Not in CT.
But then I don’t even want to hear CNN or MSNBC. I appreciated the fact that our GI outpatient clinic had a home-improvement channel on last time I was there.
zhena gogolia
@Cacti:
The idea that Betty adores Buttigieg is totally ridiculous.
burnspbesq
@Cacti:
Are you ever not a dick?
J R in WV
Here’s the post for those who didn’t see it in the few seconds/minutes it was up:
We saw this last night on local TV news… amazingly, no mention AT ALL of Oleg Deripaska and his “relationship” with Paul Manafort and Donald Trump!!! Just all those JERBS coming back in manufacturing. We are so
luckyfucky to have someone like Mitch McConnell leading Kentucky back to the future!!!Skepticat
I don’t wait well in almost any circumstances, and waiting rooms with any noise–most especially Fux News–bother me immensely. I once read there was a gadget you could buy that can switch off a TV remotely without anyone knowing the source, and if it is does exist, not only do I need one, but I also need to buy stock in the company and nominate the inventor for a Nobel prize.
Cacti
@different-church-lady:
And by all means, please keep whining about tone. When we lose again, at least we’ll know we were the good sports.
Roger Moore
@Ruckus:
The hospital cafeteria I’m most familiar with (the one at my work) seems to be mostly interested in preparing food people are willing to eat. They have a pretty wide range of foods, from healthy to junky. They are making a reasonable attempt to keep their food as healthy as it can reasonably be, but there’s only so much you can do to make a healthy chicken finger.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
my dad spent a lot of time in the hospital in the last three years, and the healthiest thing in the cafeteria was an uninspiring salad bar, it was really hard to stick to a low-carb diet– lots of sandwiches, and a grill section that actually did a pretty good cheeseburger and fries, lots of people in scrubs and white coats in that line
(MNSBC coverage of Paris sometimes makes me wonder if I’m watching the Catholic Channel. I wonder if somebody is gonna have Mother Angelica on to talk about the miracles)
catclub
@Mandalay:
and yet, I remember a passage in Michener’s The Source, to the effect that anyone who does not give to the poor is not really a
complete human being. I think that ‘anyone’ was jewish, in this case, so a jew that did not give to charity.
anyone have the talmud memorized?
germy
https://www.newsweek.com/so-many-conflicts-so-little-time-1396435
different-church-lady
@Cacti: OK, I’m not at all sure how making fun of one of our own candidate’s name contributes to us winning, but you just keep being you.
Cacti
@burnspbesq:
You’re about the last poster who should be asking that question, tax lawyer.
zhena gogolia
@different-church-lady:
You were spying for Christopher Steele?
Mandalay
@Brachiator:
I don’t remember anyone going after Gore for his charitable donations, but I do remember him being hounded about pushing for green policies while he was living in a huge house.
And I don’t remember him having a good answer for that.
Betty Cracker
@MisterForkbeard: Biden’s record as a senator is just godawful for a 2020 campaign. As Kay notes, Obama carried him for eight years. He won’t be around to carry Biden in 2020. I hope to Christ he doesn’t run.
catclub
@Skepticat:
a LONG time ago I remember overhearing teenagers who had a iphone app that did that.
I would not want stock in that company. any company that appeals primarily to old geezers/cranks ( like you and I) may not do well.
trollhattan
@J R in WV:
Jesus, the balls on these people.
different-church-lady
@zhena gogolia: My job takes me into some unconventional situations.
tokyokie
I read about a study a few years ago that tried to match car preference with political affiliation. The No. 1, by a long shot, automobile-to-politcal-preference was Mini Cooper and liberal. So what did the local dealership always have on the TV? Fox news, of course. Way to know your clientele, dipshits.
But lately, I’ve seen a lot of medical offices with the safe choice of HGTV. My primary-care physician has the hospital corporation’s compendium of health tips going all the time.
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
You realize that if we hit twenty candidates it’s two-for one tacos for everybody, right? I want my tacos!
JK (not about wanting tacos) but my money’s on twenty before this thing’s over.
germy
@Betty Cracker:
I read somewhere his plan is to run on what his advisors call “Obama nostalgia.”
Brachiator
@different-church-lady:
My dentist will play a movie or music (and give you headphones) during some procedures. Other times there are innocuous videos about dental related stuff.
Deliberately turning on Fox News, not cool. Not cool at all.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
He didn’t have a good answer to a question posed by bad-faith partisans and the kind of preening purity bunnies who put first George W Bush and then Donald Trump in the White House?
Mnemosyne
@Cacti:
And taunting the person who has the power to bring the permanent banhammer down on you seemed like a good idea because … ?
trollhattan
@Mandalay:
Gore also flew in airplanes and Republicans totally pwned the libs because of it. I had otherwise sane people tell me that, like it meant something. “Bet he doesn’t compost his shit, either.”
different-church-lady
@Brachiator: If he wasn’t so damn good at his job, I’d have ditched him. But he is damn good at his job.
MisterForkbeard
@different-church-lady: This whole conversation is just kind of surreal:
(cacti) I’m using a possible homophobic slur in an otherwise fine comment!
(betty) That’s a homophobic slur. I’ve warned you before and you’re getting another warning.
(cacti) Oh look it’s a greenwald/snowden fluffer fluffing again! Raaah!
(betty) I’m not a big greenwald/snowden fan and you’ve been saying this for years, using it as a shield whenever we call you on anything cut it out and yelling about censorship.
(cacti) You’re wrong about everything, wrong-lady!
I mean, Jesus. The whole thing gets avoided if Cacti just says “I didn’t think that was homophobic, but I’m going to cut it out because why offend people?”
trollhattan
@Mnemosyne:
I was in fourth grade once. Some kids like time out.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Don’t worry someone will come along to explain how you are not seeing the entire context of this decision. Because PB can do no wrong, he can only be wronged.
Dr. Ronnie James, D.O.
“I’m spending most of today in a hospital waiting room (everything is fine — elderly relative, routine procedure). Fox News is on the overhead TV, and no remote is in sight…”
Much like how USA Today is “America’s top selling newspaper” by dint of it being given away free in hotels, I’m convinced that a huge chunk of Fox News’ viewership is due to it being left on all day in hospital rooms. My phone thankfully has an IR blaster so you can use it as a remote, which has turned out to be amazingly handy in the hospital…
Mandalay
@catclub:
I don’t know the Talmud from a bar of soap but there is this:
So it seems that merely giving out of a sense of duty is not enough. You have to love doing it as well.
Tough crowd.
different-church-lady
@Betty Cracker: Just on a practical level, I can’t figure out why the guy who’s last two presidential campaigns crashed and burned want to keep playing gin rummy for penalties.
Cacti
@different-church-lady:
Being paralyzed with fear about offending the Bernie cult was part of the losing formula in 2016. Nobody gets the kid gloves in 2020. Especially ones trying to position themselves as the new white guy whisperer, a la Bernie. That’s Pete.
trollhattan
@MisterForkbeard:
And this is a rerun–been there, read that, threw up a little already. He/she’s decided this is super clever and needs repeating.
Mnemosyne
For people who want a small beam of light to poke through the clouds, it looks as though much of the interior of Notre Dame has survived the fire (with some smoke damage) thanks to the hard work and dedication of Paris’ fire crews. Pictures here:
https://www.curbed.com/2019/4/15/18311697/notre-dame-cathedral-fire-paris
different-church-lady
@MisterForkbeard: I think it was more the “our enemies are going to use this shit against him, so I get to use it, and so should you” bit that confused me.
MisterForkbeard
@cain: Not much, I totally agree.
What I’ve seen a bit of is that Buttigieg is starting to do a good job of getting past that initial “he’s a democrat anti-american monster!” reaction and is getting a lot of actual favorable responses from conservatives – some of whom will talk about the things he says with this kind of wonderment of “why haven’t democrats ever proposed this before”, because they genuinely never got past that initial visceral hatred of Democrats to realize that they agreed with Democratic policies.
In the end, I don’t think this really changes much. The Republican senators will still be out and out racists and traitors. But he gives a lot of the more tribal but not totally racist Republicans a chance to *listen* to Democrats, which might result in some more votes come the General. It also might give him a spike in the Primaries, if he gets a reputation as The Guy Everyone Likes
Noncarborundum
@James E Powell: Here in the People’s Republic of Eastern Massachusetts it’s usually something else, often CNN. I can think of only two specific recent instances of Faux: a car dealership and a fast-food joint. I griped about it at the fast-food joint and refused to eat their hamberders.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
Mayor Pete’s not a terrible guy, but I don’t think he’s ready for prime time. ?♀️
The MSM is desperately seeking a white Obama, but there ain’t no such animal.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
OT.
Wouldn’t mention it except it is one of a small number of movie appearances by opera tenor Richard Tauber. On Prime, Forbidden Music (originally titled Land Without Music).
1) Laughably awful film, so not in any way a recommendation
2) Tauber gets under a handful of opportunities to sing – only one of those opera proper (but boy, did he have a healthy set of lungs)
3) Jimmy Durante in a blond, curly pageboy wig? Oy vey.
Kelly
Grrr hate waiting room TV’s. Even if it’s ESPN instead of Fox. I’ve given receptionists my cell number and told I’m going to wait in my car to escape the TV. Call me when my appointment is ready. About half turn off the TV the rest look at me like I have three eyes.
different-church-lady
@Mnemosyne: I was amazed anything made of wood still remained in the interior.
Brachiator
@Mandalay:
First result of a goddam easy google search:
This stuff was too stupid to even rise to the level of a cheap shot.
This was bullshit, too. And he had a good answer. I recall back in the day, radio host and comedian Stephanie Miller mocking the shit out of people who thought this meant anything.
J R in WV
Betty:
Just go ahead and ban Cacti. I don’t think Cole would fuss a bit, he doesn’t like homophobia any more than the rest of us do. I’m not crazy for Buttigieg myself, but he’s way better than Sanders or Trump, the two Russian stooges of the west.
Things we can’t count on Sanders for:
gun control
Russian sanctions
Real health care reform
Real tax reform
Any foreign policy that makes sense
Voting rights reform
and so many more!
James E Powell
I’m fine with FOX being obsessed with AOC. The fact that the white bigots at FOX hate her is not exactly going to damage her standing with the people who vote in her district. We Democrats of the Leftish Persuasion have never had anyone quite like her. I wish we had six or seven more.
different-church-lady
@Cacti: I think you really don’t understand which end of the cattle prod you’re holding.
Yellowdog
@Cacti: The fact that you feel it necessary to make a point of what the first four letters of his name spell is homophobic in itself. Also incredibly juvenile. In summation, you are an asshole.
pat
@rikyrah:
We gave at least 10 times that on about 1/2 the income…..
Mnemosyne
@different-church-lady:
I’m guessing (but only guessing) that they had priority zones for what needed the most protection and directed their efforts there.
I actually would kind of love to see someone write an article about how the fire was fought, what the plan was, how the priorities were decided, etc. Most likely, there were written emergency plans in place to let the fire crews know what to prioritize and they used those as a starting point.
Cacti
@Betty Cracker:
Wrong as usual. If Biden runs, he beats Bernie handily in any early contests, blunting any momentum for the Vermont toad.
If he screws up, as he’s wont to do when running on his own, it’s likely to happen after Bernie is a spent force.
Snuffing out the Wilmer cult early is of the utmost importance.
germy
somebody’s pissed:
Why the scare quotes around “audience”?
Is PEETUS implying it was a room full of pro-Bernie, socialist plants?
NotMax
@Brachiator
Sounds like wise choices from someone whose job puts the groin within striking distance of others’ elbows.
;)
Cacti
@different-church-lady:
I think like a lot of Dems, here and elsewhere, you’d rather lose pretty than win ugly.
That’s how we end up with Boof Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court for life.
Kay
@different-church-lady:
I think he mistook Obama’s wins as his wins. They weren’t.
I can’t wait to relitigate Iraq and the bankruptcy bill. I can’t wait for Joe Biden to explain to some 22 year old student loan debtor how he thought it was crucial to make private student loan debt non-dischargable in bankruptcy, which then (of course) led to an explosion in private student loan debt because it limited lender’s risk. That law was written by and for lenders. It stunk at the time. It stinks more now. We won’t need Bernie or Trump to go after him- Elizabeth Warren will. She knows the issue cold. She and Biden had an actual FIGHT about it at the time.
Mandalay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Gore was being attacked from the left for his hypocrisy. I still have a problem with Gore and other eco-hypocrites like Sting lecturing us about saving the planet. How can you take them seriously when they don’t practice what they preach?
trnc
@Betty Cracker: Just block him already so he can whine to all the other incels.
Cacti
@Mandalay:
Your Nader vote really made things better.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Mayor Phoney Baloney of South Bend is modeling himself as the heir to Senator Bull Shit from Vt.
chopper
@MisterForkbeard:
yeah, that was never in the cards.
different-church-lady
@Cacti:
No. I think I’d like you to stop being ugly. Here.
Elsewhere is your own concern.
MisterForkbeard
@Betty Cracker: I think Biden would be successful in the sense that he’d probably *win*, but he’d be a mediocre president and bad for the Democratic party as well. No question he’s out of step for a 2020 Democrat.
@Cacti: I think if that happens you’re looking at a 2016 re-run, where BernieBros and the candidate himself complain that the establishment coronated somebody else and they’ll get pissed during the general and sit it out.
Seriously though dude, there’s ways to have this conversation with Betty without being a gigantic raging asshole. If you’d left out the initial “wrong as usual” this would have been a legit comment.
@Mnemosyne: I prefer he gets more seasoning, but he’s remarkably good. His major missteps have been some assorted comments about Hillary’s 2016 campaign that feed more into conventional narratives than the actual truth, but that’s fairly minor and might even be a strategic decision. He’s not Obama, but he’s got some of the same way about him.
Cacti
@trnc:
And you are?
MisterForkbeard
@chopper: Guess not.
Roger Moore
@cain:
I think it still means reaching out to the little “c” conservatives. They may have left the Republican party, but a lot of them are still emotionally attached to it, desperately want to believe in sane Republicans who uphold those little “c” conservative values, and are convinced those old-school Republicans are going to retake the party any year now. The ones who have become independents or joined third parties can be convinced to vote for the Democrat, but they need to be sold on it every election. Being able to reach out to those people is very important because there are enough of them to swing the election.
chopper
@burnspbesq:
they brought in 370 grand, i don’t think saving some for college should be that difficult for them.
germy
@Mandalay:
https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha-vs-the-green-new-deal?id=matt-bors&t=author
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Of course you do.
@Kay: I go back and forth about Biden, but when I sit down think about the pros and cons, the list of the latter is sooooo long
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
Ha! Good one. And specifically, they want a white male Obama.
@MisterForkbeard:
Don’t much care about this.
BTW. I’m sorry, but I think that Biden is just too damn old. He looks worn down. But if he has the energy to run, good luck to him.
Mandalay
@Brachiator:
Really? What was his “good answer”?
Brachiator
@chopper:
You don’t get to spend other people’s money or make their financial decisions for them.
Kay
@different-church-lady:
Here’s Warren in 2002:
At the time she argued that the increase in bankruptcies was a symptom of a sinking middle class and Biden insisted it was moral decay or something. That ridiculous nostalgia again, that he’s so fond of. Warren convinced Bill and Hillary Clinton but not Biden- he wouldn’t budge.
Skepticat
@Ruckus: The cafeteria at the Maine Medical Center in Portland basically is considered a casual restaurant, and people do indeed go there even when they have nothing else to do in the hospital. Very well-prepared (though not especially fancy) food and very good prices.
MisterForkbeard
@Roger Moore: I think you’ve hit it. There are some people who have left the party but either sit it out or vote for Trump in *horror* that someone like Hillary could get in. If you can convince them to vote Dem (for even one cycle, this can have an enormous impact on a voter. No one wants to admit they were wrong and that goes a long way towards making them reconsider their beliefs) or just that the Democratic candidate is a good and decent person but the Republican is not… it can have an effect.
@Brachiator: He’s ALSO too old. As noted, I have a lot of issues with Biden. None are disqualifying and I’d support him in the general wholeheartedly, but we can do better.
Mnemosyne
@Roger Moore:
We had dinner with my Reagan-worshipping brother this weekend and I was astonished to see that he is moving to the left at a rapid pace. Like, concerned about civil liberties for criminal suspects! Thinking that the government needs to regulate Facebook and Google! Dogs and cats, living together!
He’s basically where I was in 2004, so I feel like he just said, “Hey, I got an album by this great new band called the Foo Fighters — have you heard of them?” ?
Cacti
@MisterForkbeard:
Disagree. Bernie’s campaign became the problem that it was because it was allowed to linger and fester. Biden polls much higher with lunch pail white dudes than Bernie does, and with black voters too. And let’s face it, he doesn’t have the “that b***h can’t tell me what do/I’ll never vote for HER” effect working against him either. Bernie’s core constituency is shouty college kids. They’re more loud than numerous, and sending him to a string of early defeats would hobble him straight out of the gate in a way Hillary was unable to do in 2016.
After that, it becomes much easier to sharpen the “why are you still here?” attacks, and turn his “do you think this is a coronation?” crap back on him. He’s not a team player and needs to get pushed to the sidelines with all possible haste.
Rich Webb
Nobody remembers the TV-B-Gone? It’s even at Amazon (well, so is everything else but still …).
Brachiator
@Mandalay:
I easily found stories about bullshit reactions to Gore’s charitable giving. Anything more I leave to you.
Skepticat
@catclub:
Sadly, I’ve always been like this and hated noise, even in the long-ago when I was young. I’d buy the stock just to reward the company!
Roger Moore
@different-church-lady:
The best explanation I can think of- other than the hard work of the fire brigade- is that the fire started in the roof, and heat tends to rise rather than fall. A fire that starts in the roof has an inherently harder time burning down to the ground than a fire that starts on the ground has burning up to the roof.
different-church-lady
@Cacti: Still not understanding how the fag jokes are supposed to help with any of this.
Fair Economist
@Mnemosyne: The vaulted ceiling held up when the roof collapsed on it. A great credit to the medieval builders, and I even wonder if they planned for this as cathedral fires were almost routine. I’ll bet that one hole was from the steeple – not much could be done about *that*. Really excellent news. Great job by the firefighters too, who seemed to have known how to put out the fire without damaging the building, unlike a certain tweeter in DC.
Fair Economist
@different-church-lady: The fag jokes waste your time.
Cacti
@different-church-lady:
But you do seem to understand straw man arguments.
different-church-lady
@Fair Economist: Ah. Well I definitely don’t need outside help with that.
chopper
@Brachiator:
course not. but that’s pretty fuckin’ stingy. now, that’s not a dealbreaker for me, but it doesn’t look great.
Fair Economist
@different-church-lady: The ceiling of the main area is a stone vault separating the attic where all the burning timber was and all the stuff in the cathedral. I didn’t even consider it would be able to stand up when the roof collapsed but it did, except for one hole. As a result, there wasn’t much fire in the cathedral proper – only that one area under the hole and cathedral interiors are relatively resistant to spreading fire by virtue of all the exposed stone.
Roger Moore
@Mandalay:
A lot of what they’re preaching is collective action. We can’t solve global problems through individual virtue; we need solutions that work at the level of society as a whole. Also, on a purely practical level, it is possible to solve global warming while preserving a reasonably comfortable lifestyle, and acting as if the only solution is for us to live like hermits is only going to scare people away.
Mandalay
@Brachiator:
So you insist that Gore had a “good answer” to the charge he was an eco-hypocrite, but you refuse to state what it was?
Got it.
JaySinWA
@germy:
Yep, since the audience didn’t boo and hiss socialist medicine it must be “packed”//.
OTOH I am sure the audience was screened to some extent. Bernie fluffing was the order of the day. Any candidate that is seen as weak in the general is going to get softballs on Fox. It might even be smart politics for one person town halls for lesser known candidates.
ETA Trump may well be feigning anger, being in on the gag.
different-church-lady
@Fair Economist: Wow. So, lots of water and smoke damage, but a much easier rebuild than it looked to the lay-eye?
I’m fascinated by stories of rebuilds of times gone by, so it’s pretty amazing that we’re about to live through one. The Wikipedia of 2172 might be describing the rebuild roof to a future someone amazed at the primitive materials used.
Chief Oshkosh
@Fair Economist:
Hillary was not an elected leader in the 90s. She was First Lady. Her predecessors talked about whether the President likes beans in his chili, or gardened, or Just Said No!, or similar banana oil. Hillary’s participation in healthcare and insurance was way, way more “policy” than the vast majority of her predecessors ever got into.
Brachiator
@Mandalay:
Refuse to state?
Thanks for the laugh.
different-church-lady
I DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY YOU ASSHOLES CAN’T BE MORE CIVIL TO EACH OTHER!!1!
J R in WV
@Ruckus:
I spent a couple of months in the local teaching hospital with my seriously ill wife, and thank dawg, the food there was pretty good. I sometimes ate what the dietary service provided to patients, there was always a few extra trays in the big rack of food trays. Sometimes I went to the snack bar, which made custom subs and sandwiches, had hot plate food as well. Least often to the biggest restaurant, which wasn’t exactly bad, but wasn’t as good as the other two options.
Worst case, I once went thru the McD’s drive thru at 4 am… that burger was rode hard and put away… all dried out. Once. But the hospital had lots of folks who were barely getting by, and knew it, and did their best to help those folks deal with their medical emergencies.
rikyrah
@Kay:
and, this is fine. I totally want him to have to go and explain his positions.
The student loan debt issue is something he will not be able to get around.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
S
The target demographic is older males and AOC is a good looking woman.
Brachiator
@chopper:
I mentioned above that this kind of stuff does not mean shit to me. Your mileage may vary.
Mnemosyne
@Fair Economist:
Some tweeters and journalists yesterday seemed to think that Notre Dame still stored important artifacts like the Crown of Thorns in that attic, which is a completely fucking bonkers thing to assume if you know anything at all about modern museum and archive practices. ?
Fair Economist
@different-church-lady:
Yes, exactly, with the caveat that the stone structure may have been damaged by the collapse or the heat differentials and repairing stone arches can be quite a project. But in any case, far better than it looked yesterday when it seemed everything between the nave walls was going to be a near-total loss.
I agree, the repair will be an interesting lesson. I loved reading about the Chartres restoration, where I learned the image of dark gloomy gothic churches is an artifact of (literally) centuries of grime and they were actually built to be bright and cheery visions of heaven.
Immanentize
I am going to tell y’all a little near-universal truth about searches for high ranking administrators at Universities. We kinda talk about it as a joke, but it is so consistent, it’s more like a natural fact with exceptions…. In “national” (rather than “internal”) searches for Presidents, Provosts, and Deans there is generally an agreement that the search committee will name 3 or 4 finalists, which they almost always do, or otherwise risk having the search declared as “failed.”
The finalists almost always end up being, demographically:
1 white guy who has held a similar position or one just below that being searched for (provost for President, Vice Provost for Provost, etc.);
1 woman with administrative experiences in academia (could be a Dean or even a Department Chair for Provost, or even President sometimes);
1 POC with similar credentials to the woman;
1 other random white guy who may be an “out of the box” hire (from industry!; or in a new specialty on the rise, etc.)
Now, sometimes, the woman is also a POC or vice versa and the search oddly does not end with two POC or two women candidates, but rather with only three finalist candidates with the woman and the POC “slots” collapsed into one. But still two white guys. Of course this is a generalization which is disrupted by particular institutional leanings (like HBCUs, Religious schools, etc.) But even in those circumstances, it is an amazingly resilient model. In other words, the exceptions prove the rule.
This Democratic primary looks to me so much like that type of hiring search that I suspect it will go the same way. Right now?
Biden (V.P.) or Sanders (Previous Candidate) will vie for slot one.
Harris, Warren, Klobuchar, Gillibrand for slot two
Harris, Booker, Castro for slot three and
Buttigieg and O’Rourke for slot four.
And if Harris takes off, she will take over slot two and three (two-fer!! as I have heard faculty say), leaving one old white guy and one young white guy as her primary competitors.
Of course there are others running and the names in the slots might grow or shrink, but I am leaving this as my marker to see if the world of Democrats is actually just a big university campus.
chopper
@Brachiator:
so it doesn’t mean shit to you. i don’t recall asking.
Fair Economist
@Mnemosyne: The statement that the crown of thorns relic was in the steeple was everywhere yesterday. I took it at face value for a couple of hours, then started wondering why such a high-traffic item would be in such an inaccessible location. In every cathedral with relics I’ve ever seen the relics are stored in a place relatively protected from a building collapse and relatively accessible to the public, for obvious reasons.
Kay
@rikyrah:
Yeah, he and Trump can have a discussion why it was imperative to limit Chapter 7 bankruptcies- the chapter individual people file, but not imperative to limit Chapter 11 bankruptcies, the chapter businesses file.
Trump knows a lot about those.
Citizen Alan
@Kelly:
I stopped going to see a chiropractor back in 2005 because the receptionist refused to let me change the channel. “I just LUUURVE Glenn Beck,” she said, oblivious to the look of revulsion I was giving her.
bemused
@Mnemosyne:
Better late than never. You must have been pleasantly surprised.
WaterGirl
@burnspbesq: The answer to your question is clearly on display in this thread. The bullying-crybaby combination is not a good look.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@catclub: iPhones never had the hardware(an IR blaster) to do that, Samsung phones(until the S6) came with an IR blaster.
Dan B
@Cacti: Is this an attempt to turn this blog into the Pete is the worst white priviledged man ever? I believe that attacking Dem candidates can be not only divisive but damaging to the candidates that are experienced.
There is more than one white male priviledged candidate to the right of Buttigieg.
And the homoohobic dog whistle has no excuse. Perhaps you’d be better off telling gay guys to wait their turn. Pete has his flaws: ego, cluelessness, excessive ambition perhaps. Please deliver some reasoned criticisms.
I’m not fond of catering to Fox but he’ll probably drive Baier and company nuts, like Wilmer did (good dog did I say that?) with the audience cheers for Medicare for All. Buttigieg believes he can bring some Obama-Trump voters back. Lets see if he can. I want them voting for Harris or Warren, or whoever gets the nomination. (Tries to block out images of VT & DE..)
Dmbeaster
Fox is hate TV, and AOC is the new object of indoctrination for hate because Fox producers think that will sell to their demographic. It is not an obsession, but a basic political and business strategy.
It is important to identify this evil correctly.
Sab
@different-church-lady: That made my day.
Dan B
@Betty Cracker: Thanks! The Butt thing put me over tye top. There’s reason for keeping watch over white priviledge but identity politics has downsides as well as upsides. I’ve known racist xenophobic gays and homophobic and sexist black men. When we work together and achieve success it cultivates understanding and erodes prejudice. When we demand purity first it often hurts our better angels.
Mnemosyne
@Fair Economist:
Officials at Notre-Dame tried to swat those rumors down pretty quickly and said that they have off-site storage for the most irreplaceable objects like the Crown of Thorns, but it was already out there.
I also suspect that the “exploding” stained glass windows that some people reported was actually the lead strips that hold the glass in place giving way and the glass falling to the ground. To someone standing a safe distance away, that could well look like an explosion.
I’m still optimistic about the windows being salvageable — stained glass doesn’t break all that easily, especially when it’s been heated up to be more pliable than usual. I’m sure that some was lost, but I’m hoping that a great deal survived the fall. ?
@bemused:
Pleasant, but a little weird. He and his wife are moving back to Indiana in the next 3-5 years, so I’m bracing myself for another 180 once he’s in that social circle instead of liberal So Cal. ?♀️
Dan B
@James E Powell: They’re looking for worse outcomes to increase their repeat traffic?
Will the NRA defend my right to save my sanity by putting the TV out of my mysery?
(BTW, we don’t own any guns and Seattle knows better than having Fox on.)
Amir Khalid
@Mnemosyne:
Are they at least aware that Quasimodo doesn’t work there anymore?
Some football news:
Manchester United, who came to Barcelona needing two goals to overturn the own goal that had them behind on aggregate in the Champions League quarterfinal, have instead made two ghastly mistakes in the first 20 minutes of the second leg that gifted goals to Barca’s Leo Messi. There’s Sir Alex Ferguson, United manager when the current manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was a player, sitting in the VIP seats looking shellshocked.
smedley the uncertain
@James E Powell: My Dr.’s office used to have CNN. Told him he’d do anything to get patient blood pressure up. Lottsa RWNJ around here. Now it’s the House restore and flip channel HGTV.
The Lodger
@Cacti: I’m just glad nobody on this blog has seen fit to apply the World’s Worst Celebrity Nickname to Mayor Pete (a la J-Lo or A-Rod.) No further comment solicited.
Dan B
@Fair Economist: I cheered the no Dem debates on Fox. I’m softening on Town Halls after Medicare for All. Still is dangerous waters to show up on Reich Wing TV. These folks are prejudiced and smart at how to sway the gullible.
The Orange monster told the masses he’d bring the Biggest Best Healthcare and support the TBGL (upside down rainbow flag). Translation: Gotcha suckers! Of course it seems like social media is already sowing antagonism.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
Ike was hale and hearty the first time I ate in a hospital.
Mart
@MisterForkbeard: That is what first came to my mind. Cacti gives a non apology apology – I was just phonetically spelling his name, but if you somehow wrongly see it as a homophobic slur, I will not do it again. Then Cacti could go on happily being mean.
J R in WV
@Dan B:
Nope — we already know Sanders and Trump have that wrapped up.
Suzanne
FWIW, I saw it reportedyesterday that Beto O’Rourke gave much more to charity than is shown on his tax return, but he didn’t claim it as a deduction. Not sure if that’s true, and I can’t find the link. But may be worth withholding judgment until it is clearer.
Mnemosyne
Another article from Curbed that has the initial damage assessment report on Notre Dame from an inspection this morning. The Rose Windows are still in place despite yesterday’s reports, though they will almost certainly need some repairs and conservation work:
https://www.curbed.com/2019/4/16/18400170/notre-dame-fire-cathedral-paris-france
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid:
As opposed to our man in the Orient Amir Khalid, who is having a hard time wiping the grin from his face.
Amir Khalid
@Gin & Tonic:
Shh! Don’t tell anyone.
ETA: The current United side are simply not in Barca’s class, although they’re trying hard now that the weight of Jose Mourinho ha been lifted off theor collective shoulder. I reckon they’re a few good transfer windows away fro competing with the very best teams in Europe.
Ruckus
@Kay:
Trump knows about his bankruptcies as much as he does about building a rocket motor. He’s probably “forgotten” they even happened. Now it was for people like he was supposed to be that the law was written. Rich business owners.
Amir Khalid
@Amir Khalid:
And Liverpool old boy Philippe Coutinho makes it 3-0 to Barca on the night. Unless United find four goals in what’s left of the match, this is it for them.
Dan B
@Cacti: You’re so focused on booty. Seems like a tell.
There may be some suburban moms who’ll feel uncomfortable but seeing him hold hands with Chasten and crowds cheer when he mentions “Chasten, my love.” Will take away much of that. Ten years ago it would have been poison but you’re not making headway with this crowd, even the biggest angry-that-Pete-white-man! is sucking the oxygen out of the room folks.
The difference may be that Buttigieg supporters don’t throw dirt at the other favorites and would be happy to campaign for Harris, Warren, or another progressive, or even Biden if it came down to it.
Ruckus
@Skepticat:
A casual restaurant is not the same as a mass preparation food service. The military is a good example of the latter. And I’ve been served a few decent meals in the military. Some. Most were “Will this kill me, or make me up chuck in the next 5 minutes? Every other mass prep facility I’ve eaten in has been the same.
Dan B
@J R in WV: Apologize for including “fucky” and “McConnell” in the same sentence. Have you seen him and his wife. Defies common decency and probably the laws if physics, although Crocodiles seem to manage.
Dan B
@different-church-lady: Anyone named Hussein or Obama (sounds like obamination!!) will destroy us!!!!
Sounds of rending of flesh optional…
WaterGirl
@Suzanne: Purity ponies are going to be the death of our democracy. We need to remove the evil racist sociopath from the Oval Office, and Dems are attacking our own candidates over things like whether they gave enough to charity.
I mean, by all means, people can choose which candidate they prefer based on anything they want to, but attacking Democratic candidates over small things just helps Trump stay in the white house.
Not directing this at you, Suzanne, just sharing my thoughts about the donations to charity thing.
Ruckus
@J R in WV:
Wasn’t saying that mass produced food can’t be eatable. Only that great is an awful lot to ask of it. You and I both ate navy food and we aren’t dead.
Suzanne
@WaterGirl: The amount of kicking and shaming of our own allies has been incredibly visible to me in the past few days and it makes me really sad. Whatever.
I agree with you. This sucks.
Dan B
@Betty Cracker: A good friend who is part of the Dem consultancy says that blacks trust Biden because he stood “behind” Obama for eight years and didn’t elbow his way into the spotlight. He also has the respect of many latinx voters, although I don’t know how he stacks up to Castro or Beto.
I wonder if the issue will be white “fairness / decency” voters. I’m already not there with Biden.
Apparently a number of Harris supporters went after John Harwood when he had Buttigieg on. Harwood’s response was “She says no.” I hope it’s a strategy to avoid the early deluge of rwnj / branding. I’d feel more confident if she took some hits now to keep on the media “I’ve got dirt!” circuit but in time for the media to forget about “old dirt”.
catclub
@?BillinGlendaleCA: in the phone hardware category,
would you know which phones have an ‘NFC’? I think it is near-field-coil.
It reads from a sensor that you have stuck on your skin. I was told iphones do, but not androids, but did have great faith in my informant.
some (non-random!) person on the internet, i can depend on.
WaterGirl
@Suzanne: It makes me really sad, too. It’s also perplexing – what happened to all the people who were so focused on winning in 2018? I don’t understand this new mentality at all.
Dan B
@schrodingers_cat: I’m trying to remember which candidates you like and why you like them. It seems like the majority of your posts are about why Pete is terrible. There are a lot of priviledged white male candidates thst don’t bither you much.
I like Kamala because she’s strong, experienced, and because of her background she’s likely to be on the progressive side of issues. She seems ready to lead. I believe she needs to jump in to some controversies, get dirty, and get more media buzz ahead of the debates. Pete is going to be blasted with his inexperience and blind / clueless spots by the time the debates roll around and she could be riding the wave, but only if she gets into the media brawl soon.
Warren is great but policy and intelligence only win elections in high education locales. Every consultant I know says people don’t like people with IQ’s 10 points higher. It’s why a parliarmentary system gets higher IQ leaders than our system. They’re all predicting that Pete will max out fairly soon. I hope it doesn’t curse Warren or Harris, but it doesn’t seem to have hindered Harris in CA, a more average educated electorate than MA.
Democrats in 2020 and Sleaze / Prude removed as efficiently as possible.
Brachiator
@Dan B:
Hmmm. Maybe you know some dumb consultants.
Wait. What? The Italian parliament is smarter than our Congress? Unpossible.
We like smart presidents if they are humble and competent (Ike), witty and charming (JFK, Clinton, Obama) or ruthless (Nixon).
Some Americans may have to overcome their fear of a smart woman. But remember that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote.
Dan B
@schrodingers_cat: So why are Bernie supporters attacking Pete? They should love another socialist saint. Why does Obama think he and Harris are two of the most promising Dems? Why was Axelrod at Buttigieg’s launch saying, “Crowd is not diverse.”?
And who do you support?
Brachiator
@catclub:
The google Pixel phones do.
And here’s a whole big article: Best phones with NFC — what are your options?
I use google pay with my phone and love the NFC option
Dan B
@Roger Moore: Great points about the “old c’s” mythos. Ike was the last and he was asked to run as a Dem but declined because he thought he could deal with the war profiteers better as a Republican.
At the same time voter suppression and voter turnout may bring in more votes than O twice – T once voters. Both groups will matter in PA, MI, and WI. Both Pete and Stacey have good points.
I’d also like to see minorities, especially the young, inspired to get involved in politics, and young undecideds get into the Dems. When they are young they tend to stick with the vision and assist the program.
Brachiator
@Dan B:
For Bernie bros (and gals) there can be only One. They are fanatic about defending their One True Leader and trashing all potential rivals. And sense they see themselves as higher than mere sell-out Democrats, some of them have been undermining their own cause by trashing Obama, who is, of course, loved by the majority of Democrats.
Uncle Cosmo
@WaterGirl:
Each of their favorite candidates was running in a separate state or district last year; they could all win & everyone would be happy. In 2020 there’s only one glittering prize – well, 1.5 maybe if you count VP. And the winner (presuming s/he retires Needy Amin) will have a lot of modestly glittering consolation prizes to hand out. SATSQ.
Dan B
@Brachiator: I believe the distinction is people who seem smarter by a lot. There’s a story that W ran in Texas, spoke like a policy wonk and lost. There are tapes – Connecticut accent too. Rove found him and taught him how to win in Texas, hence the weird Texish accent. College classmates said he was plenty smart to be president.
Saw a speech of HW on Amanpour from 1993 calling for strong action to cut global warming. His chief of staff (?) was a skeptic and torpedoed Rio.
And about the Italian Parliament. They elect some real doozey-schmart ones! Good point.
Dan B
@Brachiator: It seems suspicious that the Wilmerz don’t aim their fury at Warren or Beto but that may be they can only do one thing at a time.. or there’s some rubles that feel Pete is the biggest threat ir the easiest target at the moment. Smells fishy.
It seems odd because Harris seems like the best at the marathon to me. Is it more risky to be seen as racist than dog-whistle homophobic? Is there some research that shows taking out the white guys one at a time works?
WaterGirl
@Uncle Cosmo: Maybe that’s part of it. Though some Democratic candidates are decidedly better than others, we all collectively win if a Democrat wins. I get the Bernie hate, and he’s not a Dem anyway. It’s the rest of the hate I don’t get.
Keith G
I want to see Senator Harris move to the top of the pack. I hope she has the chops to do that.
I do have a soft spot for mayor Pete and I think his strategy of saying yes to every interview and media moment it’s paying off and vaulting him ahead of candidates who have been a bit more reticent about who they talk to and when.
All that said, it is still early and I am looking forward to seeing the top candidates get it tested and pushed around as they outline the policies they intend to forefront as they lead the nation.
Nobody has earned my vote. That said, I would rather sit on a lit Roman Candle then support someone outside the Democratic party such as Bernie Sanders.
Warren Lorente
@MattF: There’s always this…
HeartlandLiberal
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