Gonna be another busy, strife-ful day in politics, so…
This rules https://t.co/J45Q50BYfZ
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) December 11, 2019
That’s my Senator topping the list: @IndivisibleTeam
? bold policy
? fighting for our democracy
? grassroots power https://t.co/0Nq0ofUyVb pic.twitter.com/hlgiYWrjPA— Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) December 11, 2019
Elizabeth Warren is not giving you sneaky double talk and she’s not trying to scam you into supporting her.
She understands the plight we’re in and where our problems lie. We need structural changes now and can’t afford to wait. pic.twitter.com/pSHGr0DCqI
— Phillip Henry (@MajorPhilebrity) December 11, 2019
And furthermore:
When you return to the Senate in a bubble gum pink blazer to call for the investigation of misconduct committed by the Attorney General of the United States. ???? pic.twitter.com/Bf5HrOyQzf
— Meena Harris (@meenaharris) December 11, 2019
This is important. IG can’t investigate attorneys within DOJ. That’s done through the Office of Profesisonal Responsibility which is under DOJ/Barr. I admit I used to think this was ok. It’s not. Not when you have clear partisans like Barr at the top. There’s pending legislation. https://t.co/RUqVUHazoI
— Mimi Rocah (@Mimirocah1) December 11, 2019
IG Horowitz literally begged the Senate to give him the authority to investigate AG Barr.
Process that for a sec.
— Ben. No More, No Less. (@BJS_quire) December 11, 2019
OzarkHillbilly
Been awake since 1:15. Tried to fall back asleep. Twice I got close only to get hit with a charlie horse each time. Finally gave up at 3. Blech.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: I have the insomnia today as well.
Baud
In case you were wondering why Bernie didn’t top Indivisible’s progressive wish list.
Biden and Amy came in last (although they didn’t respond to the questionnaire).
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: @Baud: Good morning fellow insomniacs! Been up since 3:30 and wondering where the hell everyone was.
I’m not commenting much lately because frankly it’s all just too depressing.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: blech indeed. I woke at 2:30 and read my favorite news site for awhile. I noticed Baud was commenting at 3:00 so figured that insomnia was attacking a few of us.
Baud
@satby: But it’s more depressing without you.
JPL
@Baud: Bernie mentioned that he was going to release his medical records in two weeks. He’s using trump’s definition of two weeks.
Baud
@JPL: Jane is probably in charge of keeping those records.
Sloane Ranger
OK. So I voted in our UK general election just now. It’s raining felines and canines here but the polling station was seeing a steady throughput.
I voted Labour, even though I prefer the Lib Dems clearer position on Brexit, since Labour came 2nd in this constituency last time. Unfortunately, it’s unlikely to make a difference. This is a safe Tory seat with arch Brexiteer Peter Bone winning by over 19000 votes in the last election.
satby
@Baud: huh, look who outscored Wilmer on “Day 1 Democracy agenda”, whatever that is. I didn’t bother to dive deeper. I left the local Indivisible group after about 8 weeks due to the constant whinging about “Bernie woulda won” in early 2017. And never regretted it.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Suck up. It’ll probably work too.
satby
@Baud: oh shucks! ☺
HinTN
Mrs H watched the hearings and that was her immediate hot take. He begged them to give him the authority. I’d that isn’t clear condemnation of the AG I don’t know what is.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: I knew it would work.
satby
@JPL: like he released his taxes? I doubt it. He’s not gaining traction, I think he’s going to stay his usual irrelevant irritating self for the rest of the election season.
Betty Cracker
I’ve been up since 3 AM or so too, thanks to the stupid dogs. Been reading about the British election a bit and will probably put a post up about it later.
@Sloane Ranger: Steady turnout is good! Fingers crossed for y’all.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: ?
satby
@Sloane Ranger: keeping my fingers crossed for all of you.
Baud
Hoocoodadnode? (Hint: This guy)
Baud
@Sloane Ranger:
We’re rooting for you, kid.
rikyrah
@OzarkHillbilly:
Sorry Ozark?
I understand completely.
Baud
@satby:
He’ll do that in his 2024 run.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Betty Cracker
Regarding Horowitz, I don’t know what to make of him. Josh Marshall says he’s a hack who’ll do the bare minimum to fulfill his job requirements while doing everything in his power to avoid pissing Trump off. He pegs him as a bureaucrat who has more integrity than someone like Bill Barr but lacks the real courage needed to take these institutional vandals on. So, akin to a Rod Rosenstein. Marshall cites the moribund FBI New York Field Office investigation as an example of Horowitz’s hackery and cowardice.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: Josh has a good point when it comes to the NY FBI. That one should’ve been wrapped up a long time ago.
Baud
@Baud:
Reading the article, none of the quotes talk about betrayal, so it’s really the author’s propaganda there.
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
I think that lot tend to be ein Bisschen trigger-happy when it comes to disagreeing with the party leadership, in particular Nany Pelosi.
OldDave
@Betty Cracker:
Having more integrity than Barr is not a big hurdle to clear.
Betty Cracker
Speaking of the thoroughly corrupt hack Bill Barr, Eric Holder wrote a WaPo op-ed about his successor:
Well said, sir.
Tony Jay
@Sloane Ranger:
Good God, that Mr Peter Boooooooooone? You poor thing.
Still, I salute your vote and hope there are many, many like you. All of the ‘political experts’ are expressing shock at the exceptionally large turnout* they’re seeing at the polls, despite the crappy weather. I will, of course, be up all night watching the returns come in, so an absolute state tomorrow morning no matter what happens.
*Yes, it all depends on where they’re voting, but the first clues that the 2017 Polling was widely off the mark was long queues at the polling booths. We can only hope.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Meanwhile, there’s a group that’s actively causing headaches for Pelosi and the party, and surprise, it ain’t the much-maligned progressives:
I’ll reserve my contempt for those motherfuckers.
germy
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
They really cowardly since the impeachment vote should be unanimous among all House members, but none of the quotes attacked Pelosi so it’s a different beast.
satby
On the other hand, the moon is glorious right now as it’s slowly setting in the still dark morning. So that’s worth seeing.
@rikyrah: Good morning ?
Warblewarble
FACT. tRUMP committed many impeachable crimes.Censure does not cut it. THERE ARE CRIMES,THERE ARE DANGERS.
Warblewarble
FACT there are crimes.Censure does not cut it.REAL CRIMES,REAL DANGER
Tony Jay
Oh, and there’s this.
Владимир Жириновский
@Zhirinovskiy
Mr. Prime Minister @BorisJohnson
I and the entire LDPR party sincerely wish you victory in the election today. With the support of people, you will quickly bring Britain out of the European Union!
Always nice to see the Far-Right Russian Nationalists come out to support their ideological fellow-travelers. You can bet both your bum-cheeks on the BBC air-brushing this particular demonstration of support out of their coverage, though. I mean, can you imagine? People might start asking questions about why the BBC hasn’t even bothered pressing Johnson and Co about the Intelligence Report on Russian Interference in British politics they’ve been suppressing, and we can’t have that, can we?
SMH
debbie
@satby:
That’s all most of the candidates will be: an irritation. I really wish they’d shorten the campaign season. Drastically.
Kay
@Baud:
It’s unequal because our part of the legislation is popular with all voters (family leave is popular) and their parts of the legislation is popular only with their voters, or, in the case of what Kushner contributed, not popular with anyone outside the far Right. So they get to run on our legislation and we can’t run on theirs. They won’t be apologizing for family leave. Their voters want it. In fact, Kushner and Ivanka are planting stories in the NYTImes promoting their roles in family leave. No Democrat will be planting stories in the NYTimes promoting their role in Kushner’s protection of the Saudis.
“Bipartisan legislation” pays much bigger dividends for them. They get their shitty unpopular policy and our popular policy.
OzarkHillbilly
Ted Simmons finally gets to the HOF.
debbie
@germy:
I love being put in my place by a sunrise.
Baud
@Kay:
What do we want that would not be universally popular?
germy
germy
@debbie:
Too much money to be made by consultants and media.
Baud
@Kay:
I think one thing Dem voters need to figure out is whether we want our elected officials to produce results or to fight. Republican voters have chosen fight. We seem to want both, and they really are to odds with each other.
OzarkHillbilly
Jager
Mrs. J is finishing up the first year of building her furniture wholesale business, it has been a heavy lift starting from scratch. She’s been cranking 55-60 hours a week since she started. She goes to bed between 9 and 9:30, way too early for me. Our new house is a lot smaller than the old one, I have to be quiet. So I read in the guest room or on the sofa and sure as hell fall asleep around 10, that means I wake up at 3 o’ god damn clock in the morning. Anze the Dog, gets up with me, waits on the patio while I drink my first cup of coffee, takes his morning pee and then he goes back to bed.
debbie
@germy:
At some point, people have to start realizing that not everything has to be monetized to be made better. Sigh.
germy
Baud
Kay
@Baud:
Broader family leave that will cost something to employers. That’s why this is so narrow. It’s just federal employees. You can nearly always describe centrist policy as “narrow”- it’s the main difference between the two wings of the D Party. Now in that case I would have made the deal- family leave is bedrock D policy- right in our wheelhouse- and it’s worth it, but bipartisan deals benefit them more than us. Always. Their policy is broadly unpopular and ours is broadly popular. They’ll run on space force with their base and conservative media (Fox) and family leave to the broader electorate and elite media (the NYTimes).
That is exactly what they’re doing, right now.
JMG
The “moderate” Democrats are so dumb at politics (I grant some of them are freshmen/women). They will receive no credit, none, from any Republican for voting against impeachment. All they will do is dampen Democratic support. Fewer volunteers. Fewer donors. So they can spend next fall watching GOP ads in which faces morph into Pelosi’s with fewer resources to respond. Do they honestly think they got elected because their districts wanted a new face to support Trump? They were hired to oppose him.
Baud
@Kay:
Is Space Force unpopular? I haven’t seen polling.
Family leave is popular but I don’t know if family leave for feds is popular.
Steeplejack (phone)
@rikyrah:
Good morning. ?
Kay
@Baud:
That’s why their base is always happy and ours is always unhappy. Their base literally gets more. Incidentally, their base will also happily take family leave when they need it and continue to safely back Republicans with no personal cost at all. Maybe this is the “right thing to do” – I don’t know- maybe bailing out Trump with farmers on the trade bill was worth it- but it isn’t going to help Democrats in 2020. It helps Republicans. Republican voters pay nothing for their support of these people, because Democrats ride to the rescue.
Baud
@Kay:
Their base is happy because our base is unhappy. They have sold out their children’s future to that end.
Do you have a solution that does not require us to abandon liberal policies? That’s what keeps GOP voters safe and secure. I’m not a good person, but most Dems want to be, so that’s a handicap.
Betty Cracker
@Kay:
Yep, just like they’ll insure their young adult children and not worry about preexisting conditions thanks to the ACA, then vote for the Republicans who want to rip all that away and throw them back to the tender mercies of the insurance companies.
It’s a problem when only one party takes on the responsibility of governing for all while the other coasts on demagoguery. It warps the crazy party, obviously, but it warps the sane one too, IMO. I don’t know what to do about it.
Kay
@Baud:
Our base can stand it when they push and promote only far Right policy because it’s not popular and they don’t want it anyway. Our base is unhappy when they couple narrow popular liberal policy with big far Right policy. Understandably. It’s a better deal for them. That’s a fact – maybe it’s a defect and a difference between the two parties that can’t be helped but liberal criticism isn’t irrational. It’s rational. They get much less substantively and they get substantial downside, politically.
Baud
@Kay:
I guess I don’t view the world in the same way. But you’re view is probably more in tune with how most of our voters feel.
JPL
@Kay: Even if a democrat wanted to plant a story about Jared’s love of Saudi money, the nytimes would not print it.
Kay
It does get discouraging. I was watching “Wall Street” last night with my youngest. He was jeering at 1980’s hairstyles, btw. Puffy. Lot of…air in those hairstyles.
In that movie the Wall Street villain gives a passionate speech to the naive working class newbie Wall Streeter and in that speech he says “1% own 50% of the wealth” (it’s like a ‘get real!’ lecture- ugh- awful) and I’m thinking, 1987. We were saying this in 1987.
We were too. Or I was. Going on and on about it :)
Elizabelle
I suspect a lot of us might suffer insomnia because of a feeling of despair. Especially those of you who watch much MSNBC or televised news. Caught a bit of BriWilliams last night, and those “Pulitzer-prize winning journalists” who were there to assure us that no way Trump would be removed. Click. But the damage was done.
Events can change, and when they do, they will catch everyone “by surprise.” You have to do the right thing, even if you do not get credit for it.
One sleep aid: Youtube: I love this City Confidential episode on Salt Lake City. Yeah, there were a few pipe bombs, a car bomb, murders … but the narration is so soothing. Mountain views. Older white people. Lots of discussion of the Mormon church. Its history. Documents purportedly about the Mormon church. Another frame of a Mormon temple. Zzzzzzz……
Put it on at the lowest volume where you can make out the words, and the screen lighting one notch above darkness. (Ozark, I don’t know if this would work for you, since there’s the Mrs. who might not like laptops in bed. Maybe just earbuds for you??)
To this day, I have no idea who was setting off those pipe and car bombs. Blessedly. (And the following video is a City Confidential about Nashville and the Old Opry. Who the hell is Stringbean?)
Baud
@Elizabelle:
His removal was always a long shot.
Betty Cracker
Looks like some newspaper editorial boards are finally getting around to saying Trump should be impeached and removed. The Orlando Sentinel — a conservative paper — did today
ETA: One thing I appreciate about the Sentinel impeachment/removal editorial is that they called out Florida Republicans for being in the tank for Trump. I don’t think it’ll make a difference. The Republicans who don’t fully share Trump’s desire for Putin-style ethnostate oligarchy are too cowardly to oppose him. But it’s gratifying to see them called out for it.
JPL
@germy: The guy needs to be charged with terrorist threats, not be featured on the news.
No One of Consequence
@germy: Thank you. That is a great quote, and a helluva first engaging thought of the morning.
Much appreciated,
– NOoC
Elizabelle
@Baud: Events have not played out.
No one talks about it, but there are those tax returns and financials, and it’s likely John Roberts does not want to set the POTUS above the rule of law. Besides which, Trump is toxic for his [Roberts’] party.
Do the right thing. Also, can they bring up more charges of impeachment, even if the Senate refuses to convict over Ukraine?
And: I don’t think this impeachment is on the GOP’s and corporate media’s time table. Nancy and managers could slowwwwww this down considerably, right? Just like Nancy Pelosi was never going to be on board with impeachment … never. Corporate Nancy. Not.
We are told so much shit that is totally Republican-spin, but presented as inevitable.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
I don’t think things will slow down. It’s pretty clear they will vote next week.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: That’s marvelous.
And, as someone upthread (believe it was you, BC??) pointed out, the WaPost gave space today to Eric Holder, to write about William Barr being unfit.
Eric Holder: William Barr is unfit to be attorney general
The FTF NYTimes op ed page gave space to … Jared Kushner.
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: Ugh. What did the whey-faced, noodle-armed nonentity opine about in The Times?
Dorothy A. Winsor
Our president’s reaction to Time’s choice of Person of the Year
Elizabelle
@Baud: But could they add in more charges as it proceeds? And McConnell really will fast track this?
Is this Trump’s only dance with impeachment? It should not be. [You can see that I have not been following politics much lately, for my own sanity.]
I read your WaPost article on moderates possibly declining to support impeachment, and was relieved to see that my own Congresswoman is not among them.
mrmoshpotato
@Amir Khalid: Amir, Bernie would’ve
wonimpeached Dump before Dump was even elected.Amir Khalid
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
One of them is a child in years. The other is a chld in behaviour.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: It’s entitled “President Trump is Defending Jewish Students.” Cannot tell you more, cuz not giving them or Jared a click. Would guess that Adam Silverman will weigh in later.
Let us not forget, a Jewish student was among the dead, killed in that Jersey City kosher supermarket, by the Black Hebrew Israelites. Body riddled with bullets.
Speech: protect. Guns: you’re on your fucking own.
joel hanes
@OzarkHillbilly:
“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.”
The Land Ethic, A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold, 1949
Dorothy A. Winsor
Today is my 49th wedding anniversary. I must have been a child when I married.
mrmoshpotato
@Tony Jay: How very subtle of the Russkis.
OzarkHillbilly
@joel hanes: I love that book.
Betty Cracker
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Wow, congrats! That’s a heckuva run! :)
Baud
@Elizabelle:
I think this is it for now. There will still be regular ongoing oversight.
Elizabelle
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Trump is advising someone else on Anger Management. LOL. If he even wrote that one.
And congratulations on the anniversary, and the successful marriage. That’s wonderful.
mrmoshpotato
@debbie: Bring on the British campaign laws! Shorter campaigns? Yup! Drastically less cash allowed to be spent campaigning? Oh yeah!
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Congrats!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker:
I am very old.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@mrmoshpotato: What kind of laws do the British use? I always thought our campaigns were so long because we know when our elections will be.
mrmoshpotato
@debbie: Well, the Sun was going to get sick of your trash talk sooner of later. ?
Elizabelle
@mrmoshpotato: I think radically shortening the campaign cycle and the cash allowed within would strengthen our democracy. As it is, it enriches the wrong folks, depletes good candidates, and bores the fuck out of the public, who get negative ad upon negative ad.
It’s not like a long campaign in 2016 saved us from Donald Trump.
There are so many reforms we need to make, when we take the Senate as well. It will happen. It must, or we are done. [I wish that could happen in 2020.]
We need to start a groundswell for dumping or radically changing the Electoral College, which perverts election results at present. That issue may outlive us, but we need to try.
I want to throw up when I hear the GOP howler monkeys talking about “overturning an election.”
The Electoral College did that for them.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I’m just glad Democrats in the House set a marker- set the water line. If they hadn’t have done this the corruption would be bottomless. The standards have dropped dramatically since Trump took office. We would have had no standards, which is really scary.
One institution functioned. It functioned imperfectly but it’s the only one that is holding. The rest were weak and collapsed.
Elizabelle
I like the Elizabeth Warren ad. Warren-Harris!
Betty Cracker
@Elizabelle: Have you heard about the movement afoot to get states to pledge to allocate their electoral votes to the popular vote winner? It’s still a long shot since rural states don’t want to give up their over-representation, but it’s more likely than a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College, IMO. The total EC of states that have agreed to the compact equals 196 now.
JPL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Wasn’t it just last week someone was criticized for mentioning that Barron couldn’t be a baron?
When I saw that tweet, I realized that there is no hope of redemption for the asshole.
Kay
When this is over we need to take stock and look at which institutions and organizations held up and what it was about them that made them more resilient and able to take body blows and still stand. That should be the template for rebuilding. What was the culture, leadership, rules and process that they had the others didn’t? Partly of course it’s the individuals – you don’t get a whole that’s worth anything when it’s composed of low quality parts. But that’s probably self-selecting, to a certain extent.
Our rebuilt institutions need to be stronger if one man can topple so many.
tobie
@Betty Cracker: The Republican base has no objection to “free stuff” as long as they’re the recipients and don’t have to pay for it and can rest assured that “those people” don’t get it. There is no more subsidized place than rural America as far as I can tell. We should all have it so good.
Elizabelle
@Kay: You have been so good on this topic. It’s true.
And agree with you about conservatives benefitting from Democrats’ hard-fought victories on policy, and not giving one iota of recognition to that.
We live in a really sick society. We should follow Canada’s example and not allow Fox News and Rush, etc. to poison the populace so thoroughly. There’s a not zero chance they will win all of this, for the rest of our lives. We cannot let that happen.
mrmoshpotato
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Oh Dump…
Should it be an old noir where Bogart is slapping the hell out of some woman? Then Thunberg might decide to slap the hell out of Dump! (Wear gloves Greta. Who knows what’s in that orange crap.)
Kay
So far, I would say, the State Department is much more resilient than the DOJ. Which makes me a little sad as a lawyer but seems to be obviously true, judging by the public face.
I’m a little shocked at how corruptible the DOJ was. Jesus. Get off your knees, you cowards. Embarrasing.
Needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. There was structural rot there or it wouldn’t have collapsed.
I always thought the FBI was insanely over-rated, so no surprise there for me. The FBI has a very good PR department, not so much on the crime-fighting. They “couldn’t find” Rudolph, the anti-abortion terrorist and he was leisurely camping and hiking for three years.
SFAW
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Congratulations to you and Mr. DAW!
JPL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: How does one celebrate such a momentous occasion?
Dorothy A. Winsor
Here’s Greta’s morning tweet. God, I love this girl.
Elizabelle
@Kay: And Comey didn’t have the balls to take on his own NYC FBI field office.
Clean that rat’s nest out. Toxic environment. Perhaps the FBI needs to rotate assignments more than they think. Bring in some fresh eyes.
Yeah, what’s happened at DOJ is tragic.
eclare
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Congratulations!
tobie
@Elizabelle: when I get discouraged, I remind myself of the election results in 2018 and more recently in Louisiana. You think these voters won’t vote in 2020? No, they want Trump gone and order restored.
mrmoshpotato
@Dorothy A. Winsor: ? ?
Elizabelle
@tobie: Yup. And corporate media exists to tamp our hopes down.
They sure did not see Virginia in 2017 coming.
SFAW
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
The day the country no longer has to hear/read the vileness spewing from that asshole’s piehole or “keyboard” should be declared a National Holiday. He is such a sick, evil, vile, stupid bastard. It’s draining.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@JPL: Being boring, we’re celebrating by exchanging sweet cards and heading off to an exercise class together.
Thanks for the congrats, BJ. This is a good place
mrmoshpotato
@Dorothy A. Winsor: This is these extent of my knowledge – Democracy in the UK
Another Scott
@Baud: Not to pick on you and Kay, but note that what was approved in the DoD budget isn’t really “paid family leave”, it’s “paid new child birth/adoption” leave. There were proposals to make it broader (including for care of sick relative, etc.), but that was stripped out.
It’s a good benefit for those who qualify, but given the aging of the Federal workforce not many will immediately be in that bin. (But it will encourage more younger people to consider Federal employment, so that’s good.)
Cheers,
Scott.
Mr. Mack
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Congrats! Good run indeed. 27 years here. Next year you get gold!
sdhays
@JPL: It’s against FTFNYT policy to plant stories based on actual fact.
SFAW
@Elizabelle:
I sometimes ruminate on whether Rupert Murdoch, Moscow Mitch, or Putin has done more to destroy democracy in America. I’m currently in the Murdoch “camp.
ETA: And “All of em,
KatieSFAW” is not a permitted response (whether from you or any other Juicer).zhena gogolia
So Bj is going to totally ignore all the awesome speeches the Dem members of the Judiciary Committee gave last night? Demings, Swalwell, Neguse, Jayapal
Kay
@Elizabelle:
I don’t think Warren’s (very focused) anti-corruption message has found a broader audience though- there will need to be more and blatant corruption before it becomes a top-tier issue. But it can’t continue forever. There has to be a functioning, enforceable set of rules for a market economy to survive. Ordinary people have to be able to operate in the economy with assurances that they won’t get slaughtered because it’s unequal- sophisticated actors will always beat less sophisticated actors. If you’re a small business person you simply don’t have time to vet every product and service. You make assumptions. The thing runs on trust. Without that it’s too risky for regular people- they’ll be frozen.
An example. I like expensive perfume. It’s one of the (few) things I spend money on. I bought some from Amazon and it’s not the real thing. I know what the real thing smells like. I can’t buy from them anymore. I no longer trust them as a reputable retailer. Now, I have other options, but what if everyone did what they’re doing? A normal purchase becomes riskier.
mrmoshpotato
@JPL: How dare you! (Can I faint on my bed? Or do I have to go to my couch?)
Dorothy A. Winsor
@mrmoshpotato: Gotta admit, I wasn’t expecting The Daily Show when I clicked! It does sound like money is the root of the evil.
mrmoshpotato
@JPL: Wait a year? ?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Is it possible to limit campaign money given the Citizens United decision that money = speech? Frex, at least according to The Daily Show, it sounds as if the UK prohibits political TV ads. Would that fly?
Elizabelle
@SFAW: It’s Murdoch. And Ailes.
Putin benefited from the fields they salted. No Fox News, no Trump. The Birchers among us would not have their microphone.
We need to get that shit off the air. There has to be some workaround WRT the First Amendment. The Founders could not have envisioned broadcast propaganda.
Joseph Goebbels sure did. And he’s clearly been carefully studied.
Elizabelle
@Kay: Anti corruption. Consumer protection. Accountability.
It’s why corporate media is painting Warren as a dilettante but also a severe threat. Jeff Bezos’ WaPost has Annie Linskey, who is right out of the Amy Chozick playbook. It is sick.
Elizabeth Warren believes in regulated capitalism and knows her subject well. For that she’s getting pilloried by the left and right. Or ignored, in the case of Jen Rubin, who is puffing up Biden and Mayor Pete and pretty much ignoring EW. It is sick.
mrmoshpotato
@zhena gogolia: Good morning! Turkey, egg and cheese bagel and C-SPAN3? (That’s live. Last night’s session is on their YouTube channel as well.)
Elizabelle
@mrmoshpotato: Checking out C-Span outline now. Thank you for the reminder.
Maybe we will get a dedicated thread. It’s history happening.
tobie
@Elizabelle: yes, I forgot Virginia 2019 entirely. Now we just need to Bloomberg, Steyer, Buffett, Bezos, Bill Gates et al to buy up the right-wing media universe and turn it over to the public.
mrmoshpotato
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s by no means comprehensive, but it hits on the length of campaigns and the money.
SFAW
@Elizabelle:
I give Murdoch the edge over Ailes, only because Murdoch has done the same thing in Australia and England. [Yes, I realize I had confined the “question” to America.] I don’t recall if Ailes sought out Murdoch to launch Fox, or Murdoch found Ailes. Given Murdoch’s actions in other countries, I’m inclined to think he was the initiator, but I don’t know.
Of course, in the long run, I guess it doesn’t really matter, other than whom to go after if things ever get fixed.
catclub
Is it from as far back as maybe 2006?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@catclub: Can’t be. She’s 16. Also it’s clearly a response to Trump’s tweet.
NotMax
In space, no one can hear you clean.
polyorchnid octopunch
@germy: This is very much a problem created by fixed election dates. As soon as Harper passed legislation to create fixed election dates (rather than the traditional Westminster ‘elections are called by the Prime Minister with a time limit on when they must be called’) our elections started getting longer and more expensive.
japa21
@Dorothy A. Winsor: A little late, but congratulations. My bride and I celebrated our 45th last Saturday. None of us are old, just well used.
Elizabelle
@polyorchnid octopunch: I wonder if that is something Canada and the US can regulate with legislation.
In the US, where money IS free speech (legally, rather than that which drives out free speech), that would be a heavy lift.
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor:. Congratulations! you probably lived in Tennessee – 14 years old. Eh? Like Jerry Lee Lewis’ cousin bride
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Good old fashioned movie? Maybe All The President’s Men?!
J R in WV
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
This past spring was our 48th anniversary, so you’re about 6 months ahead of us. We got married 3 days after wife’s college graduation up at the U. My dad had to sign a permission slip as I wasn’t 21 yet, tho I was in the Navy. Technically still a child by law!
Happy anniversary, Dorothy!!
tam1MI
@Immanentize: NEWSIES. A movie about a bunch of kids who take on a corrupt oligarch and win.