I was going to write something about the “Statement of Concern” issued by New America, a civic affairs think tank. So far, it has been signed by more than 100 poli-sci and public policy professors and other experts in democracy. It expresses alarm about Republican attempts to rig future elections by using Trump’s lies about fraud as an excuse for new election laws in red states, and it echoes a lot of the alarm we’ve expressed here in more profane terms. An excerpt:
Statutory changes in large key electoral battleground states are dangerously politicizing the process of electoral administration, with Republican-controlled legislatures giving themselves the power to override electoral outcomes on unproven allegations should Democrats win more votes. They are seeking to restrict access to the ballot, the most basic principle underlying the right of all adult American citizens to participate in our democracy. They are also putting in place criminal sentences and fines meant to intimidate and scare away poll workers and nonpartisan administrators. State legislatures have advanced initiatives that curtail voting methods now preferred by Democratic-leaning constituencies, such as early voting and mail voting. Republican lawmakers have openly talked about ensuring the “purity” and “quality” of the vote, echoing arguments widely used across the Jim Crow South as reasons for restricting the Black vote…
We urge members of Congress to do whatever is necessary—including suspending the filibuster—in order to pass national voting and election administration standards that both guarantee the vote to all Americans equally, and prevent state legislatures from manipulating the rules in order to manufacture the result they want. Our democracy is fundamentally at stake. History will judge what we do at this moment.
TL;DR version: “America, you in danger, girl.”
I really don’t have any thoughts on that topic that are more coherent than BLAAAARRRGH. So here’s a bird picture instead:
It’s a Red-Shouldered Hawk, and every lizard and squirrel on the property froze in place when the hawk shrieked “SKREE SKREE SKREE!!!” shortly after landing on that branch. We need a Democracy Hawk to freeze election-rigging Republicans in place for fear of getting figuratively ripped to shreds and devoured. Or literally. I’m not picky about what form Democracy Hawk takes, but we need one. Badly.
Open thread!
MattF
TFG thinks he’s going to be ‘reinstated’. Any minute now.
Quinerly
Probably has already been shared. NYT Maggie H saying that Trump is telling insiders that he will be reinstated as Pres in August. Something, something, Something… My Pillow Guy will go to the Supreme Court with proof.
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-expects-to-be-reinstated-as-president-august-2021-6?op=1&scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4
jackmac
New America calls for “suspending” the filibuster. Is that something the Senate can even do? What would it be? A two-week suspension? Three months? A year?
Just what do they mean?
To me, the discussions have revolved around Dems completely eliminating the filibuster while still controlling the Senate through the end of the current session of Congress. There is, of course, the understanding that the GOP can put it back if they regain control and implement their own rules in the next Congress.
guachi
There is nothing more fundamental to democracy than voting. The Republican opposition to free and fair elections is direct opposition to meaningful democracy.
Foreign terrorists may kill me, but only my fellow Americans can destroy democracy. It’s clear who my real opponent is.
Cheryl Rofer
LOL, Betty. I was just thinking about front-paging this.
A number of times lately, I’ve thought about Franklin Roosevelt’s quote, “I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it.” That’s a necessity of politics, and a prescription for healthier politics. Citizens must be involved; getting lazy about that is what has gotten us here.
So this is one more element of making Joe Manchin, and whomever else of those rumored Democrats who are bound to the filibuster’s racist history, do it. Keep ’em coming! We’ve got three weeks until the vote.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Quinerly: Let’s assume we really live in Crazytown and the Court sets aside the election results. Do we re-vote? Or do we kick out the President and Vice President and follow the chain of succession and get President Pelosi?
JMG
@jackmac: A rule can be suspended for any legislation if a motion is made and passed with a majority. The rule then can be put back by the same majority, but why bother? It’s beyond obvious Manchin isn’t gonna vote to end the filibuster, not because he cares for bipartisanship, but because a majority of West Virginia voters think it would be a fine thing if only white people voted. He doesn’t think that, but he’s never gonna go against an in-state consensus.
Steeplejack (phone)
I’m so out of it that when I read Haberman’s original tweet I thought she meant Trump was expecting to be reinstated on Twitter. But later in that thread she confirms that he means the presidency. ?
Kay
@Quinerly:
They’ve been good about this though, media. They’ve taken it seriously since the insurrection. Before that really- they were clearly alarmed in the months leading up and I think they have portrayed the seriousness to the public.
I credit them with this one- they did well.
Kent
They can make up any rules they want. The GOP just unilaterally dropped it when they wanted to ram Gorsuch through into the Supreme Court. The only way to make any of it permanent is through constitutional amendment.
The Senate could, for example, suspend or drop the filibuster for civil rights legislation. Just flat out say that rights are not something that they will subject to filibuster any longer (but keep it for ordinary other stuff like infrastructure or whatever)
hilts
@Quinerly:
Trump is begging to be officially declared mentally incompetent.
Every Republican member of Congress needs to be asked for his/her reaction to this latest delusional bullshit comment by Trump. We can’t allow Rethugican politicians to normalize this fucking lunatic. Trump belongs in a prison cell or a psych ward.
Brachiator
@Quinerly:
He’s delusional, but as always, knows how to string his gullible base along.
Otherwise, it is wild to see Republicans moving ahead with various laws all designed to steal or suppress the vote.
The GOP has no shame. They also do not understand that once they decide to throw away democracy, they cannot guarantee that they will be the ones to benefit from what comes next.
Quinerly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: to me the bigger question concerns whether Trump is this delusional. Do we think he really believes this?
And how on earth was Lindell so successful? And what brain disease took over once sane people like S Powell and M Flynn?
Jeffro
Max Boot has a good piece up now too: The Republican Plot to Steal the 2024 Election
Take a vote, any vote, on that infrastructure bill, Dems, and then GET MOVING on this. There is no time to waste.
Baud
@Quinerly:
The fake world often provides people with a purpose a status that the real world will not.
zhena gogolia
@Quinerly:
I read this as “covering for him”
Ken
He’s probably confused the August “Silly Season” with the “Feast of Fools”, when the village idiot was made leader for a day.
Quinerly
@Steeplejack (phone):
Reinstated to Twitter. Reinstated to the presidency… Perhaps he sees no difference.
Jeffro
Btw also in the Post: J-Rubs lays it all out there:
MattF
@Quinerly: Obviously, opinions vary on TFG’s sanity. One theory I’ve seen is that he has no thought processes at all.
Mike in NC
A couple of points about the Tulsa Massacre of 100 years ago:
(1) If we hadn’t rid ourselves of the toxic Orange Clown, he’d be ranting and raving today about how there we “many fine people on all sides”, etc. just like he did during the Unite the Right demonstration by American fascists in Charlottesville in 2017.
(2) My favorite image is Trump returning from that dismal Tulsa hate rally looking like a whipped cur, with his necktie askew and holding a crushed red MAGA cap in this hand. Brad Parscale’s finest moment, when a million attendees turned out to be merely a few thousand. I want to frame that damned picture to look at for all eternity.
WaterGirl
We shouldn’t feel discouraged because this statement was issued – we should be thrilled.
We already knew it was this bad, and if this wakes some people up, that’s a good thing. So how about if we spread the word on this, and spread our own message INSTEAD OF promoting the awful things that come from the other side?
Because of gerrymandering and the electoral college and the court packing by the Rs, this is an uphill battle. But we can’t believe we have already lost the battle; if we believe that we have lost and act as though we have lost – that’s how we lose it.
When we retweet their messaging, we shoot ourselves in the foot because that helps spread their message.
Can you tell I just read Cole’s thread from last night? I get discouraged, too, and sometimes I get fearful about the fight ahead. But I for one am not going to roll over for these lying sacks of sociopathic wanna-be authoritarians.
Fuck those guys. We fight for what’s right.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kent: The filibuster’s probably unconstitutional anyway, in that it creates a de-facto supermajority requirement to pass legislation.
Baud
@Ken:
Quinerly
@Baud: I fail to understand why Powell (and Lin Wood) aren’t disbarred. We all know attys who have been disbarred for less. At a minimum… Suspended for a period of time.
dww44
@Kent: The filibuster is a Senate Rule. It’s not mentioned in the Constitution. Doesn’t require an amendment to be undone. It just takes enough Senators with guts and fortitude and an overriding belief in our democratic republic to get rid of it… either temporarily in certain situations or permanently altogether.
I’ve more hope for Joe Manchin changing his mind than for Kristen Sinema. As some one said more than once in these comments, Sinema doesn’t seem to have any real rock solid beliefs.
WaterGirl
@Quinerly: This is just the hype to get the rubes to come out for the T**** rallies in June.
Who cares what Trump does or says at this point? Anyone who believes that crap is so far down the rabbit hole that they can’t be reached.
Let’s keep our eyes on the prize.
Baud
@Quinerly: I agree. I don’t know how long those proceedings take. Presumably, they didn’t start until after the Inauguration, so it’s only been about 5 months.
Kelly
I don’t remember where I read it but someone pointed out filibuster rules already exempt Republican priorities. Judges are appointed by a simple majority and reconciliation rules allow Republican tax law changes with a simple majority.
Kay
@Jeffro:
They will absolutely do this. I don’t know who Max Boot is but if he thinks that’s just a crazy idea they’re tossing around he’s not listening to them. They are saying Biden is only President because he got a majority of US House members to certify. They say he won the House vote. That’s the measure they now use. If they have a majority they won’t certify. They tell us just about every day.
hrprogressive
The authors were not forceful enough about the pending Fascist Coup Against America, but I am glad they said something.
The problem is, the Fascists aren’t going to wait around until 2024. My fear is that we have, at best, till 2022 – and that’s actually been shaken by the reporting about “reinstatement” by August, along with Flynn’s treasonous calls for an actual Coup.
The Fascist Right has done nothing but stockpile weapons, and their trigger fingers have been itchy for decades, and all the Democratic Party of Joe Manchin wants to do about it is shrug, be aghast that they can’t find anything “bipartisan”, and shove their fingers in their ears and pretend that “It Can’t Happen Here”
It *is* happening here. Right now.
And personal attacks against me aren’t going to change that.
People with much more credibility, and authority, are saying exactly the same things.
Elizabelle
@MattF: I think what that says is that Trump is almost prostrate with fear and anxiety over what’s coming down from Letitia James and Cy Vance (if he gets his case ready soon enough).
ETA: And: Haberman got there first. Another tweet from her:
Gravenstone
@MattF: He spelled “committed” wrong. He’s as delusional as his fuckwit former attorneys. I wonder if that’s a contagious form of dementia? How is it transmitted?
Quinerly
@MattF: psychopath vs sociopath?
I know that’s different from what you are saying.
Another Scott
@Kent: Someone pointed out that the filibuster is already gone for the things the GQP cares about – judges, ramming through tax cuts via reconciliation, preventing progress. Only things that Democrats care about – equality under the law, having the rich pay their share, workers rights, etc. – are subject to the filibuster now.
We won’t get a fully level playing field in one fell-swoop, but we have to do what we can while we’ve got the majority.
Cheers,
Scott.
Elizabelle
Another Maggs tweet:
“Laser focused.” Trump. Right; that’s just how we would all describe him.
Although, he’s more likely “laser focused” on his money and his empire than anything else in the world. Which means he is in great fear of it slipping away. In public.
TFG’s “ideas” are a distraction for himself, as much as they’re the usual distraction to the rubes.
People, we do not live in Myanmar. Why would Flynn come up with that example? Sounds better than “Third Reich??”
Quinerly
@WaterGirl: I can do both.
Personally, I like to know what Trump is doing. Flynn too.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: Normies don’t pay attention to the sausage factory, they see it as a bunch of useless folk arguing. But they do pay attention to results and actions.
...now I try to be amused
You touch on something important, BC. The bastards don’t fear us enough. The cold, primal fear they have of their base.
IndyCat32
Regarding the Max Boot column: I don’t believe Republicans are afraid of Trump. They’re using him as an excuse to do what they’ve wanted to do for years. It’s the media that keeps saying Republicans are afraid.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
Trump by himself is a lying clown. But he’s not by himself. He runs the Republican Party all the way down to the county level.
Quinerly
@Elizabelle: in defense of Flynn, it was a question from someone in the audience. That person used Myanmar as an example… And badly pronounced it.
Jeffro
@Kay: he’s not saying it’s just a crazy idea…
GrueBleen
Not a frequent commenter, Ms Cracker, but you might like this:
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/right-and-left-the-choice-between-dumb-and-dumber,15130
Just a short(ish) quote:
“The research consensus is that political conservatives have relatively low-level cognitive skills. Of course, there are exceptions; it’s about averages. On average, conservatives struggle to process and plan complex tasks. In contrast, progressives are more comfortable with novelty, nuance and complexity. And, because progressive arguments are relatively complex, conservatives have difficulty processing them. The Right literally doesn’t get what the know-it-alls are on about. For conservatives, complex progressive ideas evoke feelings of being under threat.
What are the main research findings? Compared to progressives, the thinking skills, emotional regulation and moral competence of conservatives are not the best. Conservatives have a higher desire for security, predictability, authority, order, closure and certainty. They are overly cautious and scientifically less literate.
Conservatives have relative difficulty processing evidence even at a perceptual level. They tend to think about the world in black-and-white terms and are more drawn to authoritarian ideologies — because they simplify the world.”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Another Scott: Changes in the tax law can be done though reconciliation(cuts and increases).
Elizabelle
@ Betty Cracker: You came through with a great afternoon thread. I love the idea of Democracy Hawk. We all have to be Democracy Hawks.
And @ MattF and Quinerly, with the entertaining babble from that fucking guy.
John Revolta
@Steeplejack (phone):
Frankly I suspect that if Trumpf got reinstated on Twitter he’d be satisfied. “As long as there’s sex and drugs………I can do without the rock ‘n’ roll!”
Wyatt Salamanca
Given the existential threat that the Republican party poses to our democracy this statement should have well over 1,000 signatories in the next day or two.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Elizabelle:
He didn’t. Apparently it has been percolating around in QAnon circles for a while.
Kay
@Jeffro:
I sort of get the focus on the insurrection, but you don’t have to go to the insurrection. When Republicans are asked “if” Biden is President, they respond that he is but they use a different measure than the measure that is used in the United States.
The insurrection is the last war. Don’t fight that one. The next won’t be their clownish followers breaking windows. The next will be with a new legal theory, several new legal theories, actually.
We’ll see them throw a senate race to a state legislature to decide and soon- they’ll do it in 2022.
MattF
@Steeplejack (phone): Flynn was responding to a dumb question from a Marine in the audience. ‘Shouldn’t we have a coup like they did in Mamamoomiyar’. Flynn’s response was a bit garbled, but positive.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I try to imagine the response in the country if the Rs throw out a national election result. We apparently are untroubled by the popular vote winner not being the winner. Would we also swallow the electoral college winner being thrown out and the Rs installing one of their own?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Blatantly refusing to certify the pop vote winner and there being obvious chicanery? Absolutely. A lot of people would be pissed off
dww44
@zhena gogolia: I make it a point to listen to Haberman every time she’s on TV. It’s obvious that she does cover for Trump. Maybe it’s to protect her access, or maybe she simply is a GOP’er in fake neutral clothing. I’ve often noted that she meanders when responding. There’s nothing so definitive in her responses that she can’t wiggle out of them.
Quinerly
@Elizabelle: I’m here so rarely but when that Business Insider came across my feed, I couldn’t resist. Was hoping to be first!
In other news, I just broke it to JoJo las Orejas that we are on the road to NC in the AM. He won’t be “juggling” all his girlfriends at the dog park for a couple of weeks.. Zooey, The Lovely Kristine, Iris, Stella, and the designer Bernedoodle girl puppy… will have to carry on without his attentions and work it out between each other. Terrier Frank has offered to mediate. ? Toots and Ollie are backup if Frank can’t handle the situation. ?
James E Powell
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Yes, no, and somewhat.
White voters in Diner World blamed Obama for the 2008 recession and bank bailouts, but gave him no credit for saving their local industries.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Dorothy A. Winsor: We would become a smaller and much poorer country.
RaflW
@Jeffro: The complete meltdown of the majority of white Americans when a Black man played by all the rules and “bootstrapped” himself into the White House also makes Rubin’s point.
As does the fact that there are currently exactly four out of 500 Fortune 500 CEOs. Zero point eight percent. There have been fewer than twenty, ever.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
What if there was an insurrection against a GQP state legislature if they tried this?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@James E Powell: I’m not talking about those folk, they’re not normies. I’m talking about regular people who don’t follow politics that closely, usually they identify as non-partisan or independent.
Elizabelle
@Quinerly: Hope there are some cute girl dogs in NC, who can hold their own around Mr. Ears.
Ruckus
@guachi:
No use beating around the bush, simple and direct is best.
Kay
No shit.
“Who could have predicted that when we hired and promoted literally the lowest quality and worst people we could find that’s all we then attracted and the organization as a whole is now of lower quality?”
This is the decline and fall story of every entity, ever. There is no “Republican Party”. There is a collection of Republicans. If they’re bad then the Republican Party is bad. You’re Marjorie Taylor Greene and Donald Trump and ‘General’ Flynn. That’s what you are. If they’re low quality, and they are, then so is the organization.
It won’t get better until they focus on quality. It’ll only get worse.
Elizabelle
It interests me that these MAGATs never have anything to say about Hillary besting that fucking guy by like 3 to 5 million votes, whatever it was.
Now THAT was a stolen election.
Quinerly
Love and follow her on the Book of Faces. Great news for Connie. Now in USA Today!!!
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/06/01/connie-schultz-pulitzer-daughters-of-erietown-opinion-columnist/5274055001/
Elizabelle
@Kay: And they cannot focus on quality because the GOP ideas are terrible and cruel, and have to be obfuscated at every turn. So, you already need liars and careerists.
I really hope the GOP just plain implodes. They are too dangerous to have around.
And something must be done about Fox News and rightwing media and all the garbage on Facebook/social media. We cannot fight it merely with facts or better information. These cretins are mainlining their fake news and views.
I feel like something will break, and perhaps sooner rather than later.
Who thinks we will see indictments of Trump and perhaps some of his executives/family this summer? I think it’s a strong possibility.
raven
A security alarm went off Saturday at a Fulton County warehouse containing presidential ballots, prompting private security guards hired by election skeptics to enter an unlocked door and investigate.
The incident led to a mass email from the most vocal critic of Georgia’s election, former President Donald Trump, who called for greater ballot protections.
Ballots remained secure within locked areas of the building, according to county officials. It’s unclear what triggered the motion sensor alarm in a clerk’s office located upstairs in the warehouse. The security guards didn’t find anyone inside.
The false alarm occurred as plaintiffs in a lawsuit are seeking to inspect 147,000 absentee ballots for counterfeits after Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump by about 12,000 votes.
Election officials have repeatedly said there’s no sign of significant fraud after three ballot counts and an audit of voter signatures on absentee ballot envelopes, but that hasn’t stopped Trump and his followers from continuing to claim that the election was stolen.
Geminid
@Kay: And even if trump died tomorrow, the republicans would be just as dangerous, maybe more so. trump showed the Republicans that Fascism sells, and how to sell it.
John Revolta
@Dorothy A. Winsor: As long as it’s done “by the rules” the majority of people are gonna be “Oh well………whatchagonnado?”
Quinerly
@Elizabelle: he loves his girls at the park. His new move is greeting their “moms” when they arrive. Sitting to say hello to each mom. Then rolling over on his back at the feet of each mom for a belly scratch. Just started that little ritual a few days ago. Only the moms. Not the dads.
Quinerly
@Geminid: you have a very good point.
Ruckus
@hilts:
Isn’t at least 3/4 of the republicans in congress completely agreeable to their “stakeholders” being the only people allowed to vote?
Most of them seem to understand that the majority doesn’t want what they are trying to do, which is why they are doing it in the first place.
Kay
@Elizabelle:
There’s this kind of complacency, a belief that the thing itself will hold up even if every person who makes up the whole sucks and is bad. It won’t. It didn’t have a life of its own. If it was good it’s because there were good people in it. Bad people = bad organization. Always. It can’t be otherwise.
Quinerly
Karma strikes yet again.
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/anti-vax-covid-19-conspiracy-theorist-rick-wiles-hospitalized-with-covid-19/
Citizen Alan
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Probably, tbh. I said after Bush v Gore that I expected American democracy to end in my lifetime. Nothing that has happened in the last 20 years has changed that belief. Even the 8 years of Obama really only crystalized the belief of the Republicans that no Democratic leader can ever be legitimate.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Kay:
The Republican-leaning “insider” publications like Politico and Axios must be sweating a little too, because once the current semi-sane Republicans are gone they will have no one to talk to. The Trumpians and Q-nuts hold them in the same contempt that they do the rest of the “lamestream media.”
Citizen Alan
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): A lot of people are pissed off when their preferred football team loses the Super Bowl on a close call. Same principle for most Americans.
Kay
A good story that some enterprising reporter should do is to go talk to GOP county level politicians and election administrators. I think some of the disconnect is there isn’t a wide recognition of how far this has spread. In my experience, the local Goopers are more nuts than the nationals. It’s systemic.
John Revolta
@Kay: Similarly:
Ruckus
@Quinerly:
A delusional person holds no logical reason, it’s often a large part of why they are delusional. And SFB has been delusional for decades.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’m not saying it wasn’t Russia, but I don’t see any reasons why it would have been Russia
targeting gasoline and food supply chain?
taumaturgo
Do we re-vote or revolt?
Geminid
@jackmac: The Democratic Senate Caucus is more likely create a carveout to the filibuster limited voting rights than to “suspend” the filibuster. But that may be what the letter’s authors are thinking of. There already are carveouts for reconciliation, lower federal court nominations, and most recently, for Supreme Court nominations. I am not saying this will happen. And if it does happen, it may be for a bill more limited in scope than the current S.R. 1.
Ken
Would it be irresponsible to speculate that one of the children TFG and his minions murdered and ate had kuru?
catclub
The counter arguement I have _ and it may now be hopelessly out of date on the sanity of the GOP, is that states with Democratic voters and GOPstate houses did not switch to House district winners for the presidency, as Maine and Nebraska do. Change it for Mich, Wisconsin and Pa (but not Texas or NC) and the vote gets super close.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Kay:
This morning I posted Seth Cotlar’s Twitter thread about what he is seeing just from monitoring local GQP Facebook feeds. It’s chilling.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
MSNBC going all in on Cult of the Presidency Green Lanternism, led by two former Bush aides, WH Communications Director Nicolle Wallace and chief strategist for Bush/Cheney ’04 Matthew Dowd
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
“Why won’t Biden even try”?
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: What do you mean by that??
Baud
@Kay:
Makes sense. Local Dem politicians in very blue areas are mroe liberal than the nationals.
Just Chuck
@jackmac:
Technically yes, but we’ve all seen what the Senate is actually capable of doing…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Elizabelle: saying various forms of “Biden doesn’t understand” the gravity of the voting rights situation because he hasn’t made the Senate pass new voting rights protections
raven
@Elizabelle: Ask him why he didn’t mention the other guests on the panel. (Nicole is the host)
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Jackholes.
Is MSNBC covering much from Tulsa? I’d like an alert when Biden speaks.
Just Chuck
@hilts: Incompetence is a job requirement for GOP leadership.
Elizabelle
@raven: Who are the other guests? (And hello there, and all the best to the Bhod.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@raven: because the other guests on the panel (Jason Johnson and Claire McCaskill) hadn’t said anything when he posted. And Wallace was editorializing on her own.
@Elizabelle: they just finished his introduction, he’s at the mike
sab
Our birdfeeder used to be a raptor buffet, until we got one of those german shepherd silhouettes on a spring stand.
Scares the birds. Every passing dog in the neighborhood is also shocked. My husband is often startled, unloading groceries.
HaHa. It works.
Ruckus
@Kay:
If they focused on quality, they’d never get anyone elected. Who on their side is quality? Yeah I thought that list is so short that it’s invisible.
raven
@Elizabelle: yes, now
raven
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: whatever
Just Chuck
@hrprogressive:
One professional and trained marine could waste a hundred of the 101st Chairborne without breaking a sweat. These mooks like to wave their guns around as fetishes, they don’t know how to actually use them.
Elizabelle
NYTimes breaking, about a half hour ago. Happy with this, President Joe.
President Biden is said to be suspending the oil drilling leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge issued by the Trump administration.
Tuesday, June 1, 2021 3:36 PM EST
The move was widely expected and follows President Biden’s Inauguration-Day executive order to place a moratorium on new Arctic drilling.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@raven: backatcha
sab
@Cheryl Rofer: Yes. Joe Machin is a large D old-fashioned Democrat in West Virginia. He knows his people and he is doing his best. Kind of like Harry Reid. You gotta grow where you’re planted. I admire those guys.
Jackie
@Mike in NC: I saved that photo series – and the one where Nancy is leaning toward him lecturing him and wagging her finger. Both photos give me great pleasure and satisfaction.
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Thank you.
C-Span live feed, President Biden in Tulsa.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?512210-1/president-biden-delivers-remarks-1921-tulsa-race-massacre&live
Ruckus
@raven:
The more they rattle off about stolen, tells me that they paid someone for something, and didn’t get their moneys worth.
Elizabelle
Good speech by President Biden; giving the history of the background to the massacre.
Quinerly
Fauci emails. Interesting.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nataliebettendorf/fauci-emails-covid-response?scrolla=5eb6d68b7fedc32c19ef33b4
Elizabelle
I love that he calls the survivor elders “Mother.” Mother Fletcher.
Mary G
@WaterGirl: Yes! No retreat, no surrender. Even talking about Manchin, Sinema, and the filibuster takes the eyes off the real prize, getting people to the polls in massive numbers next year, enough that we have majorities too big to ignore or suppress. Then we kill the filibuster and pass HR1, infrastructure, climate change, and every other thing Moscow Mitch has spent 12 years repressing. Talk about “the president’s party” always loses the midterms” ignores the fact that we’re in a unique and dangerous place. Whether it’s the media spewing their horse race group think or Putin’s bots and trolls peddling defeatism makes no difference.
H.E.Wolf
I find it so interesting that – in general – it’s straight, white men who pop up to (a) proclaim that we’re Doomed; and/or (b) fantasize about violent responses.
What a great difference it would make if all the doom-sayers then added, “and [this specific action] is what I, personally, am now doing, in order to move things in a better direction”.
(If it’s difficult to get started, look to BIPOC women and follow their lead.)
Betty Cracker
@sab: Hmmm. I’m trying to imagine how the spring mechanism works and why it doesn’t scare the birds at the feeder as well as the raptors. I solve the raptor buffet problem by hanging my feeders under the roof of the porch or under heavy tree cover but would love to hear about other solutions!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Elizabelle: that’s how she’s known in her community
Elizabelle
About Mother Viola Fletcher. 107 years old. https://www.becauseofthemwecan.com/blogs/the-feels/honoring-viola-mother-fletcher-one-of-the-last-tulsa-survivors-on-her-107th-birthday
Wanted to doublecheck her name, because I think there’s a bar by the name of Mother Fletcher’s. South Carolina??
There’s a Mother Randall too.
sab
@Steeplejack (phone): My moderate Republican ‘baby’ sister has noticed that her mixed race nephews really aren’t that interested in talking to her. She is still actually an old fashioned Republican, but nephews don’t believe such a critter exists in the wild, so they think the worst. Her older brother embodies the worst, but he is a lot older. It’s actually quite sad.
MomSense
I honestly don’t care what Republicans think or do. The problem is that I can’t count on our coalition. With the usual caveats about anecdata, I see so many youngs and hippies with reading glasses posting the dumbest shit on social media. Nothing Biden/Harris and the Dems accomplish is enough and every thing they don’t agree with is grounds to not vote for Democrats in protest. If they can’t be arsed to set aside their need to always be progressiver than thou and vote for Democrats when Democracy itself is under attack by actual fascists, WTF are we supposed to do?
zhena gogolia
@H.E.Wolf:
Thank you.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
That’s why I hate the “Biden doesn’t get it” rhetoric, especially from people who are neither young nor hippies. It encourages the kind self-righteous disengagement from people who already can’t figure out that their curated twitter feed doesn’t actually represent the electorate. And Joe Biden can’t make Joe Manchin pull his head out of his ass by shouting and big hand gestures.
Elizabelle
“My fellow Americans. This was not a riot. This was a massacre.”
Applause.
“Among the worst in our history, but not the only one. And for too long” … speaks of effort to erase it from our collective memory.
MattF
OT. New Israeli government likely to be announced tomorrow.
Brachiator
@MomSense:
A lot of people came around to vote Trump out of office in 2020. I think that they will be there in 2024.
sab
@Betty Cracker: It is just a really accurate silhouette that wobbles on its stand ( spring makes it wobble.) Critters perceive it as moving. In high wind it twirls, like a berserk shepherd. Very simple. Very effective.
Betty Cracker
@Mary G: Laws are already in place that empower red state legislatures to overturn election results they don’t like by overruling local election officials. I know everyone is sick of hearing about Manchinema — I am for sure — but urgent action is required now. 2022 might be too late.
Kay
@Steeplejack (phone):
It’s true. Our county Republican Party resisted the Tea Party – the Tea Party were able to get some people elected for exactly one cycle and the next cycle GOP voters threw them all out- incompetent. There’s no resistance to Trumpism at all. They’re all on board.
Elizabelle
Now Biden is speaking of the Klan, and how many “others: there were at the time. (Catholics, Poles, Italians, etc.) About hate, in law and culture.
“We can’t just choose to learn what we want to know, and not what we should know.”
Applause.
Biden has been taking on Q and the GQP in all his recent speeches.
“In silence, wounds deepen. only in remembrance, do wounds heal. We have to choose to remember …”
James E Powell
@MomSense:
Get off social media. Get in touch with local Democratic Party people and ask what you can do.
Elizabelle
Biden now speaking on the error of America as zero sum game.
Nichole and her guests paying attention?
Quinerly
@Elizabelle: might be one of the best presidential speeches I have heard.
Obama certainly knew he couldn’t give a speech like this. Honestly, it’s better that an old White man is giving it. One for the history books.
Elizabelle
@Kay: One set of male inlaws is totally radicalized. To the point of being violent, for one of them.
It’s Facebook, and social media. Had no idea one of them listened to Rush Limbaugh constantly. For shame.
It’s been a lot of targeting conservatives with anti-BLM, pro-police messaging too.
sab
@Quinerly: Moment of silence afterwards. 17 year cicadas were not having it. Buzz..
Geminid
@H.E.Wolf: Interesting. You may have detected a particular form of XCDD (X Chomosome Deficiency Disorder).
2liberal
Better: In a psych cell in a prison.
Just Chuck
I hope that marine is identified and given a Big Chicken Dinner.
Kelly
That’s my local GQP and yes they are that crazy and getting crazier
Kay
@Steeplejack (phone):
I did an election law “debate” – a presentation- at the high school prior to the 2016 election. I was The Democrat and they got A Republican who is a nutjob conspiracy theorist (and she once worked in the prosecutor’s office, so horrifying to me at that time).
She’s the mayor now. It’s a “weak mayor” system- she has no real power, but still.
Omnes Omnibus
@hrprogressive: Telling you to fuck off isn’t a personal attack as much as it is a suggestion. There is a difference.
Quinerly
I sure hope this speech gets the attention it deserves.
Elizabelle
@zhena gogolia: Yup. You brought up white privilege last night. And that is just what we are seeing.
Eyes on the prize, and it’s a long, long game.
Elizabelle
@Kay: That mayor has a microphone. And several official means of communication.
Joe just got to the Right to Vote. Speaking of John Lewis, on his deathbed.
sab
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Jim Crow lasted 100+ years. The McCarthy era was most of the 1950s.
Times now are scary, but I am an upper middle-class very white woman with black grandchildren who are welcomed among my friends and relatives. This would not have happened in my childhood or adolescence or eary adulthood. But it is normal now. Things change, things swing back, but we are creeping forward.
Elizabelle
@Quinerly: I hope we have this speech, and a Tulsa thread, later.
Why make everything about the crap ass Republicans?
Even if it’s not a long thread. A repository for links for those interested in Tulsa and Greenwood.
Elizabelle
“I hear all the folks on TV saying Why Doesn’t Biden get this thing done?” And then he explains his constraints.
LOL.
Did he just put MVP in charge of the voting rights agenda??
Elizabelle
Reminding everyone of the tiki torches in Charlottesville in 2017.
Mother Fletcher re the Capitol insurrection. Joe described them as a mob of white rightwing thugs. (Did he? It was strong language, even if attributed to Mother Fletcher.)
“Hate is never defeated. It only hides. Given just a little bit of oxygen by its leaders, it comes back out from under the rock … like it never went away.”
And now talking about terrorism by White Supremacy being the number one threat, per the intelligence community.
Quinerly
@Elizabelle: the 2 hr special on CNN last night was excellent.
Elizabelle
@Quinerly: Would like to see it. Don’t have cable.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@H.E.Wolf:
Look, I’m sorry, but since Republicans are moving forward to literally steal elections, with the federal courts in their pockets, will not uphold democrac, and Joe Machin and Krysten Sinema refuse to pull their heads out of their asses, where do you think this is all going to lead to?
I’m planning on doing that post cards to voters thing and donating to Four Directions etc, but if the worst is realized, what do you think is going to happen?
Elizabelle
This speech should be a national address. It’s that plain spoken.
Counterprogramming to all the lies and crap out there.
Speaking about the mixed race couples and people of color in advertising.
“That’s not by accident. They’re selling soap, man.”
debbie
@Quinerly:
I thought PBS’s broadcast was also very good.
Another Scott
My understanding is that TFG is merely parroting something going around in Q circles.
Where are the white hats on the Q boards telling them that he’s decided he’s done with the USA and will be flying to a dacha just outside New Germany for his retirement??
(sigh)
Cheers,
Scott.
Elizabelle
“Hope and history rhyme. Let’s make it rhyme.”
Done.
prostratedragon
@Quinerly: ¿JoJo los Ojos?
Cermet
Yes, our democracy is in grave danger and is life support; the disease known as republicanism is a cancer that thanks to Rump (but he didn’t start it) has undergone metastases and frankly, we are near to fascism.
On my own personal upbeat story – my last month’s series of sonic images set off major alarms for three of my principle organs but recent CAT scans show all to be false alarms. So while I’m still getting older, and by the way smarter, I’m not losing ground (as of yet.) :)
Omnes Omnibus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Right, you, for example, have no posting history and never go straight to the post-apocalyptic, violent fears/fantasies. Pull the other one, it’s got bells on.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I got a phone call in the middle of that speech. I missed this
Given the standards of intra-party decorum, and Biden’s personality, that’s a straight shot at Manchin and Sinema.
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I heard that, and was wondering if I heard right.
*smack*
Way to go. Tells us Biden and the Dems are sick of the posturing and challenging these two unnamed people …
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m sorry. I’m legit scared that friends and people I know are going to be hurt or killed simply because they’re trans, NB, etc. Not to mention myself and my family if things go down the shitter.
I mean it when I say I’m going to do those Post Cards. I’d be more than willing to share my progress and work with all of you
Elizabelle
Anne Laurie just put up a thread on Tulsa.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty Cracker: The US Senate doesn’t do urgent.
MomSense
@Brachiator:
I’m worried about the 2022 Midterm elections. We do better in presidential election cycles.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: I believe “Go Fuck Yourself” is a greeting ’round these parts.
sab
He is just lurking in the utter shadows,with his sweet little face, terrified by the new environment.
He moved from one very isolated corner to another. Where he is is cold and damp and lonely and no food. When will he come up for air?
His horrible last owner made him live out in Ohio winter, and me and the vet were saying last rites. We can’t count on him coming up for air when things get too scary. Because help isn’t anything he expects.
Any advice on wooing in a sweet terrified healthy cat in your basement?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Omnes Omnibus:
Hell, I’ve talked before about donating my money to different groups back during the election. I donated a bunch of money to candidates too
Elizabelle
@MomSense: We did well in the 2018 midterms.
The urgency remains, especially with all the voting fraud shit.
Elizabelle
@sab: I don’t have any, but maybe just go down and talk to him very softly? Cats seem way harder than dogs, in your instance.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I have to wonder if Putin didn’t threaten this kind of thing when alone with Trump.
Mary G
@Betty Cracker: But what action?
sab
@Elizabelle: Tried that before. Will try that again. We have met before. He is such a sweetie.
My step-daughter and her stepkids have had very hard lives.
Makes them monstrous re mere animals
Kids actually abandoned by parents don’t have a lot of sympathy for pets. They worry about themselves and other children.
Geminid
@MomSense: That was the historical pattern until 2018. But Democrats turned out in greater numbers than Republicans that year. Virginia used to have a big Democratic dropoff in our off year elections, but 2017 and 2019 were wave years for Democrats. Right now Virginia Democrats seem as united and motivated as ever before. So hopefully the 2022 midterms will be different than 2014 and 2010.
When Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff advanced to the January 5th Georgia Senate runoff, people discounted their chances. After all, the Democratic vote typically dropped off a lot from the general election. In the event, Ossoff’s vote total dropped by ~100,000. But his opponent’s total dropped by ~200,000, and Ossoff won by about 30,000. The numbers for Warnock were comparable.
Jo Jo las Orejas
@prostratedragon:
¡Hola!
Viajamos mañana. Extrañaré el parque para perros y a mis amigas.
Mary G
@sab: Heated bed and patience? When I got my semi-feral two I would sit in the room next to theirs and sing or talk to them, but it took time.
Elizabelle
@sab: Good luck, sab. You are good people to take in the pets.
sab
@Mary G: I will try that. He is so scared.
Another Scott
In other news, GovExec:
Note this is just plans – it doesn’t mean that everyone must be back in the office by that date. I assume that many agencies will have a phased repopulation of the offices and continuing use of telework at much higher levels than in the Before Times. But it indicates that planning for an After Times reality is underway in the federal government’s workforce.
Cheers,
Scott.
sab
@Elizabelle: Not worth taking them in if I can’t make them feel safe. They would be better in the yard wild.
Mary G
@sab: It takes a long time, but it’s wonderful to experience that first pet or cuddle! Your task is harder because you have so many other cats. Elizabelle is right, you are a good person and I suspect are the rock of your family
Also feeding and attention at the same time every day. They don’t like surprises. My two start bitching for snacks at 7:01 pm sharp, and when the housemate’s cleaned my room and put the food and water dishes in the wrong order they have a fit.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Nobody’s saying you’re not doing your bit. It’s just that, specifically, in discussions on this blog, you tend to skip past 24 intermediate steps and go immediately to the equivalent of “What if Hitler had the atomic bomb in 1938?!” It’s not helpful. And people get tired of talking you off the ledge that is six buildings away.
Another Scott
@sab: A really yummy treat? A little bit of canned tuna on an old towel (someplace slightly warmer)?
It may take time…
Good luck, and thanks for helping them.
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
@sab
Lay a large open cardboard carton on its side, place food and water inside that. After a few days also put an article of clothing you’ve worn but not yet laundered in there too.
sab
Whent down to talk to the cat. We were chatting. Then my husband shrieked, cat got scared, bit me.
Every decent thing Ihave done in my life for the last ten years my husband has blasted.
Betty Cracker
@Mary G: Setting federal standards on elections so Republican statehouses can’t overturn results they don’t like. That’s almost certainly going to require abolishing or at least carving out an exception to the filibuster
ETA: Haven’t heard Biden’s speech (working late), but I’m encouraged to hear he at least obliquely called out Manchinema. It may be impossible to get either one (plus other filibuster-philes who may be more publicity averse) to budge on the issue, but I’m all for creating pressure and even making them cast a “no” vote if it comes down to it.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Steeplejack (phone):
….That’s something I’ve been aware of and it’s something I’ve been trying to work on. Thanks for your response
Another Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
https://reut.rs/34B0F2u
This is my shocked, shocked face.
Biden’s meeting with Vlad in a couple of weeks is going to be interesting…
Cheers,
Scott.
sab
My arm will probably get infected like the last bad cat bite, but this time the cat did nothing wrong. Reacted normally in a normally stressy situation which my husband made worse by screeching. And I have no idea why he did that. Just being an excitable jerk, as always.
NotMax
@Another Scott
Not to elevate nor absolve Putin entirely, but a lot of the ransomware attacks on private enterprises have all the hallmarks of being straightforward criminal operations looking to score loot rather than state sponsored or state directed operations.
Steeplejack
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
You’re fine. Maybe take a few (metaphorical) deep breaths when you feel yourself getting wound up and anxious like that.
Also, open-ended questions tend to do better. “What do you think will happen with Hitler?” vs. “Atomic bomb, 1938,” etc.
Low Key Swagger
@sab: Not an animal expert by any means, but I have won over many a feral cat. One thing I think is true…they are born predators, and feel safest being on offense. I take a piece of paper and loudly crumple it up, not so loud as to frighten, but loud enough that it gets their attention. Then I bat it around for minute, then throw it. Sometimes it takes ten tries, sometimes once. But all of our cats have learned to play fetch with a wadded up piece of paper. Can’t hurt. Best of luck!
Steeplejack
@sab:
Was your husband in the room, or was he yelling down from upstairs? My experience with skittish cats is that one-on-one interaction is better. The cat can concentrate on you and not worry about what the other hoo-man is trying to pull at the same time.
Kathleen
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: The “Biden/Democrats are incapable of dealing with this threat from Republicans because they’re in denial and out of touch” is the theme de several jours this past week. I find it hilarious that the very purist punderattis who blame only Dems for everything bad suddenly decide Rethuglicans are the real problem and yes – wait for it – that is now the fault of Democrats too. I’m with MomSense. This kind of crap is every bit as toxic and dangerous as the Rethugs.
Even people whose opinions I respect are indulging in this crap and I’m ready to do some blocking/unfollowing/subscription cancelling. And most of the offenders I’m observing on Twitter are white.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
Many of them are straightforward criminal operations, but they have the tacit acceptance of the state. The woman who literally wrote the book—well, a book—on ransomware was on MSNBC a week or two ago and said that they set their bots to skip sites with Russian or Ukrainian as a main language, Cyrillic alphabets, etc. Other than that it’s open season. But if the state comes and asks a favor, well, it’s “cue the Godfather music” time. And I’m sure they’re like a standby National Guard that could be quickly drafted into a state-sponsored cyber conflict.
rikyrah
Candidly Tiff: Realistic ?? (@tify330) tweeted at 1:59 PM on Tue, Jun 01, 2021:
These two can literally campaign together. Nikki is from Miami and Val is from Orlando. They can help each other to win in the same way Ossoff and Warnock did. I am so hyped…come on Val announce officially, please. https://t.co/sVR76AfYgA
(https://twitter.com/tify330/status/1399802774876045312?s=02)
Elizabelle
@Low Key Swagger: That’s a great idea. Go for the predator behavior, rather than soley soothing them because they think they’re prey.
Geminid
@Geminid: I think I will bring this up at the next meeting of my self-help group.
Another Scott
@NotMax: Krebs (of KrebsonSecurity) has made the point that Russia cracks down hard on people attacking Russians with these types of ransomware attacks, but seemingly turns a blind eye if non-Russians are the target. (He had a recent article that said that simply installing a Cyrillic keyboard on your PC can be a cheap defense (but shouldn’t be your only one).)
The “little green men” in Ukraine were not “state sponsored” either… ;-)
Seriously, Vlad will be blamed even if he didn’t tell them with a wink and a nod to do this. He needs to clean up his act and face some consequences.
We’ll see.
Cheers,
Scott.
MomSense
@Geminid:
In 2018 we were the opposition party voting against the party in power. We did really well in 2018 and it was in keeping with the well established pattern of the opposition voting against the party in power. The track record for Democrats in midterm elections when we are in power is abysmal.
jnfr
Love the Democracy Hawk idea. So say we all!
Anne Laurie
First thing I’d do is give him some warmth / shelter he can take advantage of where he is — an old blanket, or some towels, that will let him get off the cold floor. Maybe an overturned box with one side cut out, for a ‘den’. Let him take the night to examine your new offerings carefully, don’t ask him for any more interaction just yet.
Give him time to adapt to every little change. It’ll be more uncomfortable for you than for him, but if he has access to a warm place to hide, water, food he can recognize, a litter box… it wouldn’t seem like much of a life to one of your demanding ‘upstairs’ cats, but it may be as much as this guy can handle, at least in the short term.
Poor dude may *never* be a lap cat, but you can make him as comfortable as he’ll allow himself to get.
Geminid
@MomSense: I stand by my comment! But we won’t know who is right for 17 months.
Geminid
@Geminid: This November’s Virginia state elections will give a snapshot of the relative strengths of Democrats and Republicans.
Chief Oshkosh
@Steeplejack (phone): Yeah, but at the end of the play, Cassandra did turn out to be right…
J R in WV
@Quinerly:
You seem to be making an absurd conclusion — that Sidney Powell and Mike Flynn were ever sane~!??~
I very much doubt that assertion. Especially Mike Flynn, who appears to have successfully concealed his rampant insanity for years in the military. Ms Powell also seems seriously detached from reality.
Miss Bianca
@hrprogressive:
“Democratic Party of Joe Manchin”
oh, fuck off.
Geminid
@J R in WV: Flynn seems to have been an efficient staff officer during the years he worked as Stanley McCrystal’s intelligence deputy (G-2?). But when he commanded in his own right as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Flynn proved impossible to work with or for.
Flynn and McCrystal took different political paths after they retired from the Army. Flynn became a MAGA-maniac, while McCrystal ended up endorsing Biden last October.