Click to enlarge the numbers:
Only 84% of Republicans wanting him to run for reelection also seems not great. pic.twitter.com/W95nVbcVod
— Malarksist Revolutionary (@agraybee) January 1, 2020
Speaker of the House is a thankless job. The opposition uniformly hates you and your own caucus blames you for everything that doesn't go perfectly.
So any speaker polling on par-to-slightly-above a sitting President is frankly INSANE. https://t.co/o9zHHjVxL6
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) January 1, 2020
New guidelines require two side-by-side columns: one with nutritional information for a single serving, and a second with information for eating the entire package. https://t.co/M2rIc2EZON
— ABC News (@ABC) January 1, 2020
(So much for comforting fictions about improving one’s diet in the new year… )
making better choices in 2020:
-hard
-impressive
-everyone expects itmaking worse choices in 2020:
-easier
-arguably more impressive
-no one expects it
-“how were there worse choices”, they will say— randy (@leakypod) December 31, 2019
NotMax
Another toon.
Baud
There are always worse choices.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: There’s Baud!
Baud
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
In a world in which Tulsi is a candidate, I am not the worst choice…for once.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone 😄😄😄
Patricia Kayden
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: And I expect people to make them.
Amir Khalid
I am considering seeing Cats. I am aware of the not-too-encouraging reviews. But I am also aware that the director is Tom Hooper, who also directed Les Misérables, which has been described as the best movie musical ever made (by Anne Hathaway’s mom, but I happen to agree).
Raven
It’s 37 in the Windy City, not bad considering! I stayed up and watched my Dawgs win the Sugar Bowl so things could be worser!
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: You shouldn’t have said that. Now they will be.
rikyrah
This poor young man 😢😢😢
rikyrah
Survivors Guilt is real
eclare
@rikyrah: Oh how tragic. I remember first reading about his death, wondering about suicide.
debbie
Well, police here are saying there were about 350 celebratory gunshots on New Year’s Eve. Based on what I could hear, this seems low.
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
Considering the stellar reviews it’s been getting — if the meaning of “stellar” has transmogrified to “the worst piece of crap in the last 10 or more years” — I fear for your post-Cats mental health.
Baud
Baud
So Bernie, Yang, Tulsi, and Pete has strong fundraising quarters. No word yet from Biden and Warren.
Le sigh.
JMG
Last and saddest part of the holidays to be done today, taking down the trees and putting them at the curb for town pickup tomorrow (they do it next week too for the people who put ’em up on Christmas Eve). Don’t care for the job because it is sad, but when it’s over I do get the feeling of “OK, bring on the New Year, let’s go.”
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: I suspect they mean 350 incidents of shots being fired. This makes me think I am correct:
It would not surprise me if the Shotspotter technology has difficulty differentiating between shots fired too close together. Some things the human ear can do better.
Immanentize
@Raven: Not only did the Dogs win, they beat Baylor. I hate Baylor, I hate the town of Waco, the whole operation….
Baud
Immanentize
@JMG: our tradition? Tree stays up until Epiphany
Immanentize
@Baud: I hope she can sort the Northern Ireland mess
Dorothy A. Winsor
@debbie:
Someone on twitter commented on how odd the phrase “celebratory gunshots” is.
Also this morning, Scalzi’s site will spend the year with a sidebar linking to the National Association of Secretaries of State, where you can check your voter registration, and to vote.gov which helps folks register in their state. I think I’ll tweet those sites occasionally this year, along with the Nov 3 election date. I put that date on my new calendar this morning.
WaterGirl
@Baud: Uh oh. Low self image day?
WaterGirl
@Patricia Kayden: This makes me want to bang my head against a wall. At this rate, I’m not sure we can make it to November, and god help us, even assuming we win… just thinking about everything Trump will try to do between the election and jan 20 gives me the willies.
I am not usually up this early, so maybe the news is always this grim, and it’s just hitting me harder in the cold gray hours before dawn?
Baud
Baud
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I LOVE that. I wonder if John would consider doing something similar.
Kay
@Baud:
Of the non-Tulsi candidates, Yang’s campaign is the most deceptive and it’s not even close. He insists he’s for Medicare for All- although he’s been told repeatedly that’s not what he’s backing. He’s running ads in Iowa saying it now.
He just says whatever and when he’s corrected or challenged he ignores it. He has no idea what any of these things mean and no interest in finding out. All these people who are “he deserves a slot in a D administration”. He deserves nothing. His entire campaign is slick, shameless bullshit. He’s unqualified.
satby
@WaterGirl: oh, I hope not. There’s sites all over for that.
edited to add, that linked one was the second Google result after the sec of states offices. It’s easy to find and superfluous to a site like this where most people are higher info voters.
Jager
As I prepare for my P 51 Mustang flight, I spent the holiday bringing myself up to date on the plane. I went through all the specs, its development from the original design, performance envelope, etc. I then read a bunch of interviews with the pilots, I ran across this gem from the radio chatter between two of them as they flew in formation on instruments through heavy cloud cover over Germany: “I’d eat a bag of shit to get out of these clouds.” His wingman answered, “You can start right now, my pants are full.”
Baud
@Kay:
Given that he’s a newcomer to politics, I think his fundraising haul is the most impressive, even if Bernie and Pete have higher totals.
What all this tells me is that supposedly struggling millennials have money to burn. :-)
JMG
@Immanentize: Some years we do that, but because this year our wonderful Christmas kind of ended when our daughter returned to her home in France on December 28 (our son was at his girlfriend’s mom’s house this year), Alice and I have a consensus it’s best to just do the deed and move on. A lot depends on the calendar, of course. 2020 holiday season has Christmas and New Year’s on Friday. Tree pickup in our neighborhood won’t start until Epiphany.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I think Warren’s goal was $20M, so even if she reaches it, Bernie’s haul is massive in comparison. Got to hand it to the old coot: he built a formidable money machine and has an enthusiastic base of support. I was thinking his diminished support between 2016 and 2019 would ultimately doom his candidacy, but he’s still legitimately a contender.
satby
@Baud: why would you assume it’s millennials and not ratfucking PACs to keep the distractions going?
Baud
@Betty Cracker: That’s a large part of why this primary is so depressing.
But results is results, and he’s achieved results when it comes to assembling followers and raising money.
Baud
@satby:
Did you see the :-)?
WaterGirl
@satby: Perspective!
Kay
@Baud:
We should reexamine the idea that anyone can be President. I don’t think it was intended this way.
satby
@Baud: I guess I missed that!
@WaterGirl: you know how dedicated to simplicity I am 😁
Immanentize
@Jager:
You just can’t stop rubbing that in, can you!😊
I actually started looking at similar flights the Immp and I might do together. Probably a WWII bomber….
The Judge I clerked for in Miami was a B26 wing commander for daylight raids over Germany from Britain — AT 21!
Baud
@Kay: As you say, Trump lowered the standards for everyone.
@satby:
More seriously, I believe PAC donations have to be reported as such, but I’m not sure.
Betty Cracker
@satby: This is strictly based on anecdata from my conversations with Millennials and Zoomers, but my impression is the enthusiasm for Yang among the Youngs is real. He’s not a serious candidate, IMO, but he’s addressing a looming issue that isn’t getting the attention it deserves.
Marcopolo
Good morning folks. Up early to see my brother off.
This may be the most upbeat thing I write all year (no idea how the elections thing turns out), but two days into January and I’ve already exercised more than I did through all of this month last year. So that’s something.
Going to my first campaign kickoff (candidate running for a state house seat) early next week. Glad to be starting early; I’ll be putting worrying about politics aside for working.
Have a great day everyone.
WaterGirl
@satby: That’s what makes you so valuable!
Immanentize
@JMG: I get it. Just trying to hang on to one or two totally irrational holiday habits.
Here is Tracy Thorne singing Taking Down the Tree for you. I love this song
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: The Immp is pro-Yang. He was really won over by guaranteed minimum wage. And he feels the beloved cold distance of a fellow techie.
Baud
I’ve realized that I don’t want a president that is independent of party. I want a president that is constrained by his or her party. Unfortunately, most Americans don’t feel that way. They think an “outsider” will solve “gridlock” or “dysfunction.” Jesse Ventura, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Trump and Bernie and, to a lesser extent Yang.
Also, unfortunately, I think a lot of young, left-leaners have bought into the majority point of view.
WaterGirl
@Marcopolo:
I assume you are not the candidate. Still, that’s good advice. Work, not worry. That’s two things you are apparently doing righting 2020 (the other being the exercise). Has it occurred to you that you might be making the rest of us look bad? :-)
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I donated to Warren again even though I know she isn’t going to win. I have never had a candidate who is a better match to what I think about…everything :)
I’m sticking with her until she’s out. This is once in a lifetime for me.
WaterGirl
Back to bed for me. Hopefully the news won’t feel quite as grim when I get up for real.
Cheryl Rofer
I was very heartened last night by the speed with which that deceptive Biden video was debunked. It reinforced my conviction that we all have to vet what we’re seeing. I will be posting regularly on disinformation – you may get tired of it, but dealing with it will be a collective action. Got a set of sources in tabs for another post, but have something else to finish first.
Meanwhile, know your sources before you share! That was the give-away on the Biden thing. Nobody had ever heard of the account pushing the video.
satby
@Kay: most of them only made it to the stage thanks to the asinine rules adopted to mollify the Bernie “rigged primary” yahoos that aren’t going to vote Democratic anyway. If the DNC is smart this should never happen again. Actual party membership, released tax returns, possibly a requirement to have won elected office somewhere as a Democrat. Those are still broad enough for Tulsii to be there, but would have eliminated the billionaire boys club, the New Age grifter, and Sanders. And I don’t care who screamed about it.
Yeah, anyone can run for President, but the cranks didn’t often get a seat at the debate table unless they were already elected officials. We need to go back to letting cranks scream their platforms in public parks and on sidewalks.
Jager
@Immanentize:
They were kids, my neighbor became an Ace at 19. Another funny line from the interviews, they called having sex with an English girl, getting some “dual time”.
There is a B 24 based in Van Nuys I see flying all day every weekend.
JMG
@Kay: Anyone backing any of the top four candidates should not assume their favorite won’t win. It’s still too close for that. A few thousand (if that) votes will be the spread between winner and also-ran in Iowa. If Warren takes that, the picture changes. Biden is the favorite, but not on the Secretariat level.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: @satby: He has a few Boomer backers too. I’ve seen 3 stickers on cars driven by old coots and a yard sign on a place I know is boomer owned. It’s about the same as I’ve seen for Bernie out here in the heart of trumpistan.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@satby:
The enthusiasm for an outsider links to the desire for term limits, I think. It’s like they don’t think there’s any job specific knowledge or practice involved in governing.
Ken
@Kay: Of course not every one can be president. The song clearly says “Every boy can be president.”
Kay
@satby:
I’m a Party person but I’m fine with people who switch. I think they have to switch though. They can’t just espouse GOP policy and call themselves Democrats. My objection to Bloomberg is not that he runs in whichever party offers him the best odds- I object to him because his economic policy is that of a moderate Republican, and I’m not interested in reforming the GOP on “social issues”. I hope they stay regressive there- it makes it easier to beat their shitty economic policy. Gun regulations in exchange for tax cuts and economic policy that only benefits billionaires is a bad deal. Reject. I want a better offer.
satby
@Betty Cracker: @Immanentize: @Baud: I’ve seen and heard some Yang support too and not only from the youngs. The guaranteed minimum wage thing appeals to a lot of economically insecure people in this gig economy, and let’s face it: millenials and zoomers can’t reliably look forward to a secure career life of even attaining the middle class existence their families have achieved. Which is exactly what Warren’s plans address, as do other real candidates. But most people aren’t sophisticated enough (failure of both our education and news media there) to understand that campaign promises can’t become reality without a political infrastructure to enact them. Gotta give it to Republicans, they’ve played a long (50 year) game to undermine education and an informed citizenry through journalism in this country and it’s paying off in spades for them.
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
If I recall correctly, the last POTUS with no party affiliation was George Washington — and that was quite a while back.
Marcopolo
@WaterGirl:A long time ago I was president of the student body at my alma mater. One year of doing that was enough to help me realize I am neither flexible nor resilient enough to be a successful elected in real life. But I am a pretty decent campaign worker & I really cherish candidates/electeds who talk the talk, walk the walk, and stay good people (Paul Wellstone & Sherrod Brown are examples). God knows, running for office will change a person.
@Kay: I feel you about Warren. Am backing her until she drops out, gave her the same amount in Q4 as I did in Q3. Don’t know if you happened across this tweet thread about the progression of her campaign but I think the guy nails what happened pretty well: https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1208099440243826688
As for exercise, just trying to get in a few 20 minute walks a day. That time amount doesn’t seem to aggravate my knee and works well in fitting around other activities. So nothing exceptional though now I am in my mid-fifties I have finally learning to value the importance of just being consistent day after day after day… Small stuff really does add up over weeks & months.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
I’m going to disagree mildly about Schwarzenegger. He wasn’t a good governor, but he was way better than any other plausible Republican candidate. His second term went OK, largely because he was willing to break with his party and cut deals with the Democrats, something a Republican who was more constrained by the rest of his party never would have done. There were real structural problems that made California very difficult to govern at that time- we had a combination of pro-incumbent gerrymandering and a constitutional requirement for a 2/3 majority to pass a budget- and one of the major accomplishments of Schwarzenegger’s time as governor was that we removed those impediments. Gerry Brown’s 2011-2019 term would not have gone very well without redistricting reform and a simple majority budget requirement.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Same! :)
David 🎅🎄Merry Christmas🎄🎅 Koch
Money = meh
Wilmer raised 230 million last time and still lost by 4 million votes.
ron Paul used to haul in globs of money and he only got 5% of the vote.
and what good is burning hundreds millions doing Bloomberg.
Kay
@JMG:
I sort of disagree. Primaries are complicated. The path to the nomination is complicated. They have to hit markers to get to the next level. Compared to a national D primary a general election, the mechanism of it, is simple. Windows really do close. It’s why I admire Harris. She’s a realist. She knew she didn’t make what is the informal first cut. Klobachur is a little different because Iowa is her neck of the woods so IMO she’s justified in hoping for a miracle, but if she doesn’t do well there I think she should quit.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: I feel the same but it’s more because it is really hard to accomplish anything without a party behind you. What did Jesse Ventura or Arnold Schwarzenegger accomplish as governors? IIRC Ventura only succeeded in pissing off both parties, not sure about Arnie. trump’s only accomplishments are the tax bill and judges and let’s face it, a Republican beanbag could’ve gotten that much done. I would expect no more from Bernie and even less from Yang.
Obama only had 2 years of a DEM congress and it may not seem like it but he accomplished quite a bit. Saving the economy and reshaping the US healthcare system would be big lifts for anyone.
satby
@Dorothy A. Winsor: agree, and it’s a constant I push back on all the time. I respond “we have term limits, they’re called elections”. But, people know in their gut elections aren’t “fair” anymore, though why they think that will differ. Plus, the distrust and death of expertise thing that runs through our society doesn’t help. Which I also strongly believe goes right back to Republicans assaults on public education and undermining news journalism.
I know I sound like a nut on the subject, but it’s been a strategy and it’s been successful.
Betty Cracker
@Marcopolo: I think Smith’s outline of where Warren’s campaign began to founder is spot on, but he describes it as if she just up and decided to emphasize M4A all on her own. It was a coordinated action, IMO, with Murdoch properties, millionaire celebrity TV news pundits, Bloomberg, Bain Capital, etc., teaming up to take Warren out with mass hysteria about a proposal that has zero percent chance of becoming law. And if Sanders starts to perform well against Biden, they’ll do it again.
Nelle
@satby: I like these guidelines. I hate the swooping in of billionaires that has happened. I especially think that having to have won an elected office as a Democrat is a minimal requirement.
I’m also wondering who is funding these candidates. Gabbards has some pricey billboards up and they’ve been up for months.
I’m new to Iowa and the caucuses this year. I so appreciate this site, though I mostly lurk. Since I have a month to decide, what I see here is influential. And then I talk to my neighbors, who are running kids to sports (this street has about 15 elementary age boys. And one girl) and dont have time to keep up with the welter of news. Countering disinformation is vital…thanks for the help on this. So I’m trying to increase your influence here on Iowa ground.
I’m surprised that no one has heard of Baud, though.
OzarkHillbilly
@Nelle:
He’s running a stealth campaign.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Nelle:
Have fun at caucus. We moved from Michigan to Iowa (and are now in Illinois) and I’d never seen anything like IA caucuses
Nelle
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Any advice?
Patricia Kayden
This is what the MSM needs to focus on.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Marcopolo:
A guy I used to work with got a lot of steps in with small tricks like parking at the farthest spot from the grocery store and then going up and down every aisle whether he needed something there or not
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Nelle:
Take all your patience because it’s a long process. They start by electing people to run the thing. But it’s once every four years and this year, it’s exciting to be part of it (even if you hate the anti-democratic aspect of it).
mrmoshpotato
@Raven: Thirty-eight degrees now. Who’s up for a dip in the lake?
It seriously should be about 8 degrees this time of year.
ETA – Go Dawgs. Glad to see the Ducks win the Rose Bowl too. Sadly, Michigan decided to only play the first half of the Citrus Bowl.
OzarkHillbilly
The Russians (thistle) are coming! Ambushed: 15ft tumbleweeds trap drivers and force Washington state road closure
Dawgdamned Russians.
satby
@Nelle: last Real Clear Politics polls I saw yesterday had Mayor Pete +2 over second place Bernie, with Biden a distant third. So I’m hoping hard Pete maintains that lead and denies Sanders a win in Iowa and limits him in New Hampshire. Because Pete is a loyal Democrat, and will wholeheartedly campaign for the eventual nominee, which we already know Sanders won’t do.
The DNC missed a chance when Pete ran as chairman, he’s smart and a data guy and I think would have prevented a part of the primary insanity we have going on now. I think he’d have found a way to keep most of the grifters off the stage and the primary ballot, including Bernie, by simply putting rules like I outlined in place. And then if Bernie wanted to abide by those rules, fine.
Gin & Tonic
@mrmoshpotato:
Went to the beach at Watch Hill (RI) yesterday, and encountered a pretty large group of mostly young people who went for a swim. It was pretty warm, mid-40’s. Windy, too, so a couple of kitesurfing guys were out as well.
satby
these folks
joel hanes
@Marcopolo:
I really cherish candidates/electeds who talk the talk, walk the walk, and stay good people (Paul Wellstone & Sherrod Brown are examples).
Tom Harkin and Jim Leach were two more.
Baud
@satby: I didn’t realize Biden has fallen to third in Iowa.
mrmoshpotato
@Kay: Spot on. I hate that we Democrats have the flooded field that the 2016 GOP had as well as our share of crackpots.
Richard Guhl
@Immanentize: Our tradition? Decorations remain until Candlemas. Which is forty days after Christmas, when Mary was allowed out in public after giving birth. February 2nd.
satby
@Baud: why he’s downplaying Iowa and emphasizing South Carolina. We need someone to ding Sanders’ electability myth, so I’m glad my former mayor is doing it.
MazeDancer
Very sad about Julian Castro leaving the race.
No way Bernie raised all that money without Putin’s help. Seems like online donations would be an easy hack.
anarchoRex
@satby: Bernie wins the VT Dem party primary every election, so unless you want to tell the VT Dems they’re not a real party then he would still get in under your scheme (not scheme in a bad way just mean it in a ruleset way.)
///
Unrelated: love how the “unilaterally disarmed” candidate is absolutely crushing the fundraising game.
O. Felix Culpa
I like those criteria. Satby for DNC Chair? :)
Baud
@satby:
Agreed. I hope he does well.
O. Felix Culpa
I like those criteria. Satby for DNC Chair? :)
As A Matter of Fact, Bob IS My Uncle
Was reading today that in 2012, the Republican who won Iowa in January was way down in December. That Republican was Rick Santorum, who won Iowa and was gone by April. So you just never know.
O. Felix Culpa
@O. Felix Culpa: Huh. I liked satby’s idea so much I somehow managed to post it twice.
Richard Guhl
@OzarkHillbilly: Obama didn’t even have two years. Effectively, it was more like the eight months from Franken’s seating in the Senate until Scott Brown’s election to fill Kennedy’s seat.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@rikyrah: We were introduced over the last couple of years to an Irish tune called “The Parting Glass”. We’re told it’s traditional to sing it at the going away party for someone emigrating to America. There’s a survivors guilt verse that always gets me.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Agreed. We watched the first coordinated pile-on of the season. But she would have to overcome that to win and then win the general, so it is the reality.
The corruption charge strikes at the heart of the entire campaign industrial complex, and media are absolutely a part of that. Their industry is central to it. They’re not outside observers in any sense of the term. They are players.
satby
@anarchoRex: he wouldn’t, because we’re still waiting for him to release his tax returns from 2016 (the returns, not a summary page).
satby
@O. Felix Culpa: 😂😂😂
Nelle
@anarchoRex: Wouldn’t it need to be a general, not a primary, election?
mrmoshpotato
@satby:
Amen. It’s already tiring having all of these unserious candidates in a flooded field. I mean, Steyer, Williamson, and Yang, please just go away and back to whatever it was that you were doing. Bloomberg can join them. There are probably others I could add if I wanted to look at the list but those 4 are definitely WTF? candidates to me.
anarchoRex
@satby: this one?
https://berniesanders.com/documents/8/Sanders-IRS-Filing-2016.pdf
Or is there a different form your talking about? I’m not super familiar with all the tax reporting stuff, I just do my EZ1040 every year.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Amir Khalid: Complaints I’ve seen seem to mostly focus on the Uncanny Valley nature of the way they transformed humans into cat-people with CGI. I didn’t realize they’d done that, I just assumed it was costumes and actors moving in cat-suggestive ways, i.e. the way actors would normally portray animals on stage.
There’s an old saying in tech: “Just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should.”
I have no intention of seeing it. But then I never had any interest either in the stage show during the centuries it was playing.
satby
@As A Matter of Fact, Bob IS My Uncle: yeah, Iowa doesn’t predict much, but it can boost a candidate’s credibility until they don’t continue to do well. I want Bernie to lose everywhere. The doctors letters about his health were the last straw, the guy is every bit the meglomaniac Trump is.
anarchoRex
@Nelle: Oh, I guess he did say “office,” maybe winning a primary wouldn’t satisfy that.
satby
@Nelle: yes
Arachno, I’m a she. Edited again to add: part of the mosaic of reasons I really hate Bernie’s guts.
OzarkHillbilly
US Embassy in Baghdad Invaded after SecState Pompeo Slashed Security Funding, Took no Preventive Steps in wake of US Airstrikes -Juan Cole
anarchoRex
@satby: crap, I’m embarrassed, sorry about that. I generally try to stick to “they/them” I guess I slipped. Sincere apologies.
anarchoRex
@satby: if you hate Bernie’s guts for winning the VT Dem primary, maybe your issue is with VT Dems?
satby
@anarchoRex: I wasn’t paying attention to him, so missed that three years after promising them he finally released them. So whatevs. I guess three years from now we may get the released medical records following his heart attack, but by then he could very well be dead. As most 78 year olds with cardiac issues are. And the rest of them start slipping into cardiac dementia if they aren’t compliant with treatment. Which he won’t be, because nobody is the boss of him.
I suspect that’s also Trump’s dementia source.
H.E.Wolf
@WaterGirl:
Thank you to WaterGirl for the phrase “work, not worry”. Well said!
When I learned the news of Rep. John Lewis’s grave illness, I decided that I would honor him by working for the Beloved Community.
Therefore I’m going to follow Marcopolo’s example and start the new year with political activism. I’ve got a free day today, so I can do 3 things:
– call my elected Rep and Senators in D.C. (haven’t called them since 2019 :-) )
– write a handful of GOTV postcards (yay, http://PostcardsToVoters.org)
– go in to the local Dems’ office and do Tasks For Introverts for an hour (scheduled this one last year, to start 2020 the way I plan to spend it).
satby
@anarchoRex: ok, now you’re just being a troll. IDGAF about VT. Obviously. They can keep the old coot.
he helped Trump get elected, it’s an established fact, and I am not addressing this further with you.
mrmoshpotato
@satby: Yup. As always.
anarchoRex
@satby: aight, but I was honestly trying to guess which piece of the “mosaic” you were talking about, it wasn’t clear to me from your comment. I’ll troll you no more, I hope the second day of this new decade goes well for you.
Shalimar
@Baud: We had a president who was basically independent of his party: Jimmy Carter. One of the best people on earth, and it did not go well. The chances we will get someone with his character the next time are remote. It can only get worse.
J R in WV
@Baud:
That popping sound is those RWNJ heads exploding. Thanks for sharing this bit of news.
Shalimar
@anarchoRex: You seem to have missed the “won elected office somewhere AS A DEMOCRAT” part of her statement. Bernie isn’t doing that.
Edit: Yes, it pisses a lot of people off that he won’t join the party whose nomination he is seeking. I understand and feel that anger, but I’m not one of them for practical reasons. A much bigger disaster would be Bernie running as an independent and handing an easy re-election to Trump.
Nelle
@satby: Aren’t there some FEC filings from 2016 missing? They were at the time. Maybe that’s taken care of also. The torrent of fresh crap spewed out makes it hard to follow up on anything with anyone.
Bruuuuce
@OzarkHillbilly: Pompeo may have slashed the funding, but it was clearly Hillary’s fault, as always :-(
WaterGirl
@Nelle:
I have some advice, based on what I witnessed at the Iowa caucus I got to work when volunteering for Obama in 20078/2008.
For the final two weeks, they had only one team of two people in each precinct, so everyone saw only the same two people in their neighborhood day in and day out, trudging through the cold and the snow. You got to know the residents, and if they signed the card committing to caucus of Obama, they still saw you every day and the commitment held. I think that made a difference.
But I digress. Back to the caucus.
We were lucky enough to get to work the caucus, which I think was kind of a rarity.
At least in “my” precinct, it was a very dirty business. I forget what they were called, but each candidate had a contact person who was in charge of everything for their candidate.
There was a coin toss to determine which candidate’s “person” got to run the caucus. The Hillary person won the coin toss.
The Hillary person pushed (ahead of time) for the agreement from all representatives that there would be no snacks for participants that year. We were smart enough to bring snacks anyway, and leave them in the trunk of the car, just in case it was a dirty trick, which it was.
The total number of people was counted as people entered through the only door, and registered signed in.
Each candidate was assigned an area in the gym, which is where you congregated with the others who were for your candidate. You stood there with all the other peeps for your candidate.
After the first round where people “stood” for their candidate, when you added together the number for each candidate, the total was far higher than the total number in the room, so each candidate took another count.
In spite of the fact that the discrepancy was with the Clinton campaign, their person (who was running the caucus) attempted to restart the whole process by making EVERYONE leave their area, start by standing in the Clinton area, and only THEN could they move back to their candidate’s area.
We were having none of that, but she tried hard to make that an extra hoop that a person – who had already declared for another candidate – would have to jump through. I won’t bore you with the rest of the details, but we had to fight tooth and nail for a legitimate process at every step.
The point here is not that it was the Clinton person who played dirty. The point is that there was room for that to happen with the caucuses.
So my point is this: No matter who you want as your candidate, STAND YOUR GROUND. Speak up. Help make sure there is a fair process. Do not let yourself be intimidated if someone else behaves as the person did at the caucus I attended.
If your candidate doesn’t get the requisite 15%, then you go stand with your second favorite candidate – of the candidates that were still standing after the 15% cut – even if that person is only your third choice, because your second choice didn’t make the cut, either.
A few people refused to choose another candidate after theirs didn’t make the cut. I would urge you NOT to do that. There’s way too much at stake to make that stand to “honor” your candidate – help choose the candidate that will come out of your precinct.
It was an experience that I wouldn’t trade for the world, but it was also eye-opening. I will always be grateful to Iowa for giving us Barack, because if he hadn’t won in Iowa, proving that white people would indeed cast their votes for the incredibly talented black candidate, the race would have been over. Even Barack knew that, and I have the letter to prove it.
dnfree
@Richard Guhl: one of our daughters married into the Greek Orthodox faith. (She doesn’t practice it but some of the traditions hold.). They keep that practice in a way. She couldn’t go back to church until forty days after giving birth, and she had to meet the priest in the parking lot to get a blessing first.
dnfree
@WaterGirl: fascinating story! Thanks for your hard work and dedication. I’m from Illinois, where white people already voted for him. But I don’t think that counted nationally as much as Iowa.
WaterGirl
@H.E.Wolf:
Do they actually have a Tasks for Introverts board? Or signup? That is so awesome that even if that’s just your own clever name for it, you should suggest to them that they have a very public Tasks for Introverts for volunteers.
chopper
better.
WaterGirl
@dnfree: I’m from Illinois, too! I am so very grateful that I got to spend those last couple of weeks on the ground in Iowa. I believed Barack would win long before he even announced, and I vowed that I would do everything in my power to get him to the point where other people could believe that he could win.
I still choke up thinking about it. That’s one of the more important things I have done in my life. At least to me, and that’s what counts.
WaterGirl
@dnfree: There was a double bonus for having worked the caucus in Iowa, because from there I went to Colorado for 18 days in Jan/Feb, where they also had a caucus.
In the precinct where I was assigned in Denver, I turned out to be the most experienced caucus person there, so everyone looked to me and I was able to put the kibosh on some crazy misunderstandings people there had about how to even do the counting.
Funny how small things can make a difference.
H.E.Wolf
@WaterGirl:
It’s just my own name for it… but I’ve been (a) mentioning it often to the cohort of delightful extroverts who run the office, and (b) recruiting other introverts, so that we’re a known quantity. :)
How it worked: I called the local Dems’ office and asked if they had projects for introverts. There was a perceptible pause, and then: “…data entry???” I said yes, and have also done file-cabinet-organizing, envelope-stuffing (yes, still a thing; hand lotion prevents paper cuts), and shredding old canvassing route sheets from 2014.
I’ve got a whole postcard-writing recruitment effort going on, too. It’s tailor-made for folks who’re introverts and/or have crowded schedules.
ETA: I salute you for your work for Obama! Thank you for making his election possible. My heart is warmer, just thinking about it.
dnfree
@WaterGirl: It’s not just to you. Thank you again, from the bottom of my heart.
I saw his election (as many did) as a sign of the continuous progress since my youth–civil rights, women’s rights, gay rights, trans rights, more awareness of white privilege……and then it didn’t just come to a crashing halt in 2016, it started going backward. I hope we’ll get back to forward progress this year.
Zinsky
I still say we need to start throwing things, mainly rotten food, at Trump and his family! Pelt Ivanka with a couple of rotten tomatoes – decorate Don Jr.’s new suit with rotten eggs and give the orange monster a pie or two in the face at Mar-A-Lago during “meet and greet”!
Nothing says “you suck” and “hit the road you POS” like a cascade of rotten food all over the Trumps!!