I'm With Her

Monday Morning Open Thread: Back to the Daily Leap of Faith

by Anne Laurie| December 2, 20194:56 am| 113 Comments

This post is in: Dog Blogging, Election Year, I'm With Her, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Warren for President 2020, Daydream Believers

This is Toffi. She tried her best and that’s all we can ask for. 12/10 and the couch is cancelled pic.twitter.com/dRfHhclbZL
— WeRateDogs® (@dog_rates) November 27, 2019

And a little start-the-week-well self-indulgence, because she’s not just my favorite candidate…

Seems the ?@ewarren? campaign scheduled this Chicago town hall perfectly to ward off the impending narrative about dwindling enthusiasm pic.twitter.com/4bkKuhnQ6j
— Zak Hudak (@cbszak) December 1, 2019

Later, in Iowa:

Asked by an audience member about healing divides in the Democratic Party, Warren says the debates make it seem like Democrats are more divided than they really are: pic.twitter.com/yB6JKPEx05
— Iowa Starting Line (@IAStartingLine) December 2, 2019

I was waiting to see if/how Warren would shake things up; this event definitely has. Long, game answer on Medicare-for-all (walking through each step), some goofball crowd work.
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) December 2, 2019

One woman asks Elizabeth Warren about a Senate impeachment trial, says she’s worried it’ll mess up her campaign by keeping her in DC
“Some things are bigger than politics, and one of them is the Constitution of the United States of America,” Warren responds pic.twitter.com/w2nnmlW7RU
— Iowa Starting Line (@IAStartingLine) December 2, 2019

Another not-so-typical Q from the town hall in Marion tonight. A lawyer asked Warren if McConnell should be disqualified from voting on impeachment
"On this one, you gotta let all of the folks who took the oath of office in the House in the Senate, come in and live that oath…" pic.twitter.com/h8fdotLE6K
— Deepa Shivaram (@deepa_shivaram) December 2, 2019

Ahead of the next phase of the impeachment inquiry, @ewarren tells #FoxNews she’s caught up on previous testimony, saying she’s also “done a lot of reading around it as well.” Says Trump used “American taxpayer dollars as bait & [used] a trip to the White House as a sweetener.” pic.twitter.com/ccMJTQ9YZ7
— Tara Prindiville (@taraprindiville) December 1, 2019

Monday Morning Open Thread: Back to the Daily Leap of FaithPost + Comments (113)

Election Open Thread: The 2020 Campaign Seems to Have Kicked Up A Notch…

by Anne Laurie| November 22, 20194:11 am| 64 Comments

This post is in: Election Year, I'm With Her, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Warren for President 2020

On Thursday, two of the Democratic frontrunners went to South Carolina — not ‘First in the Nation’, but the first primary state where voters aren’t disproportionatly white. The NYTimes chose to highlight the Dems in disarray!!! angle, and to focus on Joe Biden. But IMO what’s important about the separate incidents is how the candidates handled them.

Elizabeth Warren’s event:

Pressley: “When you are born into an inequitable world, you are born immediately into struggle.”
She and Warren campaigned together here for Stacey Abrams last year. pic.twitter.com/XU6Br3KJ2d
— Greg Krieg (@GregJKrieg) November 21, 2019

… Ms. Warren was in the opening minutes of her speech, a major address on racial inequities, when she was disrupted. In an interview, an organizer of the protest, Dianechia Fields, 40, who is from Memphis, criticized Ms. Warren for pledging to cut funding for charter schools. Ms. Warren’s education plan calls for ending federal funding for opening new charter schools and banning for-profit charters.
Ms. Warren eventually received some assistance from Representative Ayanna S. Pressley of Massachusetts, who had introduced her at the event. Ms. Pressley came back onstage and urged the protesters to let Ms. Warren proceed with her speech, which highlighted the story of black washerwomen who went on strike in Atlanta in 1881.
“We are grateful for your activism and your voice and you are welcome here, and we would love to convene after this about the issue that you are here to stoke our consciousness about,” Ms. Pressley said. “But when these women have been ignored this long, this is their moment, and we are going to hear the story.”…

A group funded by some of the richest people in the world, the Waltons, just disrupted an @ewarren speech on the 1881 Atlanta washerwomen strike. Can’t make this stuff up. https://t.co/1x6brZv9tt
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) November 22, 2019

The organization is 100% funded by the Walton Foundation. Carpenter had claimed to reporters the group started organically a few weeks ago in response to Warren’s charter plan. pic.twitter.com/9jEswc43mj
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) November 22, 2019

Meanwhile, Warren’s speech synthesizes a lot of the issues she’s discussed with black audiences: "Repeal the 1994 Crime Bill. Legalize marijuana. Undo the legacy of the War on Drugs. End cash bail and every law that criminalizes poverty."
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) November 22, 2019

"The rich and powerful want us to be afraid of each other. Why? Because they’re afraid of us. Afraid of our numbers. Afraid of seeing us stand together. Afraid that we will take up each other’s fights as our own. Afraid that they will lose their power." (3/3)
— Steadman™ (@AsteadWesley) November 22, 2019

Warren’s speech is so good that even the former protestors are clapping. That’s important. #AtlantaWithWarren
— blackness everdeen ?? (@traceyecorder) November 22, 2019

show full post on front page

That’s what I wanna see out of a candidate. At her @ClarkUniversity speech @ewarren got protested by a group of black charter school supporters who shouted her down. How did she react – she waited, listened, respected their protest & didn’t have anybody thrown out or arrested. pic.twitter.com/iytvyNn4pI
— Rep. Renitta Shannon (@RenittaShannon) November 22, 2019

Warren tells me she met with them after the rally and had a nice conversation
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) November 22, 2019

I’m here to make a commitment: When I am president of the United States, the lessons of Black history will not be lost. Those lessons, they will live in every part of my presidency—and I will ask you to hold me accountable for that promise every single day. pic.twitter.com/kIhG74rLCU
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) November 21, 2019

Same state, different world:

A big welcome for @JoeBiden, who greets this Greenwood crowd wearing a @follow_lander ball cap. pic.twitter.com/8Jsxb2qUv1
— Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) November 22, 2019

Joe Biden was just asked in Greenwood, S.C., about his immigration plan. He said Dreamers are “American more than most Americans are.” Other undocumented immigrants should have a path to citizenship, he said, if they “learn the language, etc., you go through the same process.” pic.twitter.com/SvPZsbqttN
— Eric Bradner (@ericbradner) November 22, 2019

“You should vote for Trump,” Joe Biden tells @CosechaMovement protester Carlos Rojas at tonight’s town hall in Greenwood, S.C.
Rojas and other protesters from the group were criticizing Obama-era deportations and asked Biden to say he’d end all deportations — which he rejected. pic.twitter.com/od188WIlrQ
— Eric Bradner (@ericbradner) November 22, 2019

… For more than six minutes in a palpably tense gym here during a town hall-style event at Lander University, Mr. Biden sparred with the activist, Carlos Rojas, an organizer with the immigrants’ rights group Movimiento Cosecha. The organization is urging presidential candidates to back a moratorium on deportations on their first day in office and has protested Mr. Biden before.
“You should vote for Trump,” Mr. Biden admonished Mr. Rojas during one of the most heated moments, after Mr. Rojas rattled off deportation figures under the Obama administration amid scattered cries of “give him the mic!”…
“If you were to be president, will you stop deportations on Day 1 through executive action?” Mr. Rojas asked.
“No,” Mr. Biden responded. “I will not stop all deportations. I will prioritize deportations only of people who have committed a felony or a serious crime, number one.”
He walked over to stand near Mr. Rojas and Silvia.
“Number two,” he continued, “to compare President Obama to this guy is outrageous.”
Mr. Biden went on to defend the Obama administration’s record on immigration, and said he would not discuss any areas of internal disagreement with Mr. Obama. And he repeatedly said he would not back a total moratorium on deportations, even as his remarks were punctuated several times by protesters who shouted, “Not one more deportation.” After Mr. Biden promised that there would not be family separations under his administration, someone shouted, “That’s a lie!”
“No matter what happens, someone commits murder, they shouldn’t be deported,” Mr. Biden said, characterizing the protesters’ position with an edge in his voice. By then, Mr. Rojas had left his seat and was standing next to Mr. Biden in the center of the room. “No, I’m asking you a question,” Mr. Biden added.
The exchange finally ended as the protesters left the room and the rest of the audience applauded Mr. Biden…
The clashes upended what had been an otherwise friendly town hall — but some voters afterward commended Mr. Biden’s stewardship of the incident.
Dan Healy, 70, said that he liked that Mr. Biden “said he wouldn’t stop deportations for criminals.”
“Yeah, he didn’t back down,” Mr. Healy’s wife, Lora Healy, 72, said…

A pretty intense moment as the protestor approached the former vice president. Biden discouraged aides from removing him, and attempted to engage him, but to no avail. Unsatisfied with Biden's response, the chants began again, and he walked away. pic.twitter.com/z6pzGdCxp7
— Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) November 22, 2019

Difficult night for Biden. After climate protesters were escorted out, a woman asked him to “please don’t take money from corporations.” His response: “You listen to Bernie too much.”
— Cleve R. Wootson Jr. (@CleveWootson) November 22, 2019

Here’s the second outburst, where several people shouted out that @JoeBiden accepts donations from corporations. He said he doesn’t. pic.twitter.com/cPfxSeej5s
— Meg Kinnard (@MegKinnardAP) November 22, 2019

The rules are changing. One of the things that impressed me about candidate Barack Obama, back in 2008, is that he’d learned valuable lessons from his time as a professional community organizer. It’s a much harder job than the scornful pundits’ conventional wisdom would have you believe, and part of the difficulty is that you can’t succeed unless / until you get ‘buy in’, however grudging, from a working majority of your coalition. Which means spending a lot of time dealing with tiresome cranks, one-issue fanatics, dedicated opponents determined to shout you down, and confused individuals who just wanna get the potholes on their particular street repaired. Mostly it’s enduring hours of boredom, but the kind of boredom where you can’t afford to lose focus, because while everybody must have their say, you can’t let the shouters intimidate the meek, or the ‘unwinnable’ derail the conversation.

Biden came up in Old School Original Gangster politics, where a guy made his bones by shouting down hecklers or encouraging his fans to do it for him. Every now and then, the OG would climb down into the pit to perform a primate dominance ritual, massaging a protestor into silence if they couldn’t be persuaded by a firm grip and a show of white teeth. This method… doesn’t work as well, a least for Democrats, in 2019.

Warren — and Pressley — only got into politics as the rules were changing. (And that’s been an advantage for them, because primate dominance never worked well for women.) They know they need to persuade the hecklers that their concerns are being taken seriously… while not letting any individual or subgroup derail the event, and without discouraging or frightening the rest of the audience.

The NYTimes, and the rest of the Media Village Idiots, still prefer the Stand-Up Performance they’ve gotten so expert at reporting, but this is just one more indication that the future is passing the NYTimes by. Big Swinging Dick arena performances still (seem to) work for Trump, and the (shrinking) Republican voter pool, but the Democratic candidates drawing enthusiastic attention right now seem to be those who hustle to ‘make connections’ with potential voters on a much more intimate scale. It’s not manly, it doesn’t make for a good ‘horse race’ lede, but I think our politics will be better for the evolution.

Election Open Thread: The 2020 Campaign Seems to Have Kicked Up A Notch…Post + Comments (64)

Pre-Debate Open Thread: Not Yet Endorsing, But You Know I Have A Favorite

by Anne Laurie| November 20, 20194:54 pm| 34 Comments

This post is in: Election Year, I'm With Her, Open Threads, Warren for President 2020

.@ewarren’s campaign is handing out cacti in Las Vegas tonight – “Warren has a plant for that” pic.twitter.com/H04HK1kxKX
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) November 18, 2019

Warren now has a health care plan, a backup health care plan, and a backup backup health care plan. https://t.co/ETcvwXuPwj
— Margot Sanger-Katz (@sangerkatz) November 18, 2019

Two years ago, Elizabeth Warren invited a well-known single-payer advocate to a meeting at her home.
Over tea, the senator peppered her guest with questions about universal coverage.
Days later, she called for Medicare for all for the first time.https://t.co/cmpz5wVyqs
— Sarah Kliff (@sarahkliff) November 18, 2019

'She would also seek to add a dental benefit to the Medicare program, by reinterpreting language in the statute that says dental care can be covered only if it is “medically necessary.”'
This is the most significant bit. Can you create a $20-30bn entitlement by executive order? https://t.co/7Ilh5GjSS8
— Chris Pope (@CPopeHC) November 18, 2019

This is one of the oldest Warren plans, pre-dating not just the 2016 Bernie campaign but the 2014 effort to draft her into the race. https://t.co/hjAGIWyP75 https://t.co/vdR7Fw1C7S
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) November 19, 2019

The morning after the Nevada Dems dinner, Warren is speaking at the Nevada Partners "Westside Pride" Black Community Summit. She’s starting with a focus on housing: “Safe, decent, affordable housing is a basic human right.” pic.twitter.com/jvKgplgrNt
— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) November 18, 2019

Democrat Warren vows to use 'every tool' to combat white nationalist violence https://t.co/RV5EJv61SI
— Amanda Becker (@AmandaBecker) November 19, 2019

Too many @ewarren plans for one wall so we had to start another one… https://t.co/h0znhOvxgn
— Janice Rottenberg (@janicero) November 20, 2019

Pre-Debate Open Thread: Not Yet Endorsing, But You Know I Have A FavoritePost + Comments (34)

Monday Morning Open Thread: Gonna Be Another Busy Week…

by Anne Laurie| November 18, 20194:34 am| 155 Comments

This post is in: Election Year, I'm With Her, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat

Awwww…

“I never really seriously considered it”- @HillaryClinton this morning on @SkyNews makes clear she had no intention of running for President again: pic.twitter.com/O7mgKcLE4o
— daphna (@daphna27) November 16, 2019

citing Trump's rallies in KY and LA and losses there:
"You know what I want to know–where is the president going to go next?" @amyklobuchar says, arguing the elections were about the economy and healthcare but "it was also a values check. It was a patriotism check."
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) November 18, 2019

Speaking of which…

"If [Trump] could fly, he could convey that he is as Jeanine Pirro suggests, superhuman. But if his shuffling, unsteady gait is any guide, that's a big if." https://t.co/kViYuiKwNS
— Schooley (@Rschooley) November 17, 2019

Trumpland sounds like some blown up Florida scheme that left behind a thousand lawsuits. https://t.co/W3h9DLyATG
— Schooley (@Rschooley) November 18, 2019

The NYTimes smells blood in the water. “President Trump Bet Big This Election Year. Here’s Why He Lost”:

… The results in Kentucky and Louisiana are particularly ominous for the president, in part because they indicate that his suburban problem extends to traditionally conservative Southern states and may prove even more perilous in the moderate Midwest next year.
They also reveal political weakness for the president at a moment he is embroiled in a deepening impeachment inquiry and desperately needs to project strength with his own party. And as he enters what will likely be a difficult re-election campaign, the two states emphatically demonstrated that he has become just as much of a turnout lever for the opposition as with his own supporters…
The Louisiana results are a stinging rebuke for the president, because he spent so much time there and because Trump allies couldn’t chalk it up entirely to local factors as they did for Kentucky, where Mr. Bevin was deeply unpopular. And even before the Louisiana race was called on Saturday night, finger-pointing from the Capitol to the White House to Mr. Trump’s campaign broke out about why he spent so much political capital on the race in the first place…
Still, the main instigator for the president’s involvement in the races, many Republicans said, was Mr. Trump himself, who simply craves the adulation of his supporters and is singularly focused on notching victories, no matter the details. He is even more eager to flex his political muscle in the face of impeachment, and has surrounded himself with several aides who either defer to his whims regardless of the neon-flashing signs of risk before them, or know little about politics.
People close to Mr. Trump — who spoke anonymously to discuss sensitive matters — said he viewed the campaigns he had weighed in on mostly as opportunities for gratification. And with few seasoned political advisers in his inner circle — his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has control over the president’s campaign, has never worked on another race — there was nobody to tell him that attacking an anti-abortion rights, pro-gun Democrat like Mr. Edwards as a radical would be folly. ..
Mr. Trump, of course, is not the first president to be faulted for his party’s losses. But few have so openly invited the risk of being blamed for them.
“Donald Trump just happens to relish this centrality more than most,” said Liam Donovan, a Republican strategist, “and has a tendency to say the quiet part loud, sometimes to his detriment.”

pic.twitter.com/iWfEcI35jX
— Schooley (@Rschooley) November 18, 2019

Monday Morning Open Thread: Gonna Be Another Busy Week…Post + Comments (155)

Election 2020 Open Thread: Smart Move, Sen. Harris

by Anne Laurie| November 2, 20191:56 pm| 72 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Election Year, I'm With Her, Kamala Harris 2020, Open Threads, All Too Normal

IA is more important than NH. Tank in Iowa, you’re prob done. Don’t do IA, NH voters will flit away to someone who did well in IA. You won’t beat someone in NH who’s from MA or VT. NH doesn’t reward you for not doing IA, good result in IA softens punishment for doing little in NH https://t.co/oohzu91qxo
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) November 1, 2019

The horse-race touts at Politico would *very much* like Kamala Harris to shut up and go back to ~~her knitting~~ the Senate, but Houle’s right; New Hampshire would not vote for a woman of color from the opposite coast even if she promised to rebuild the Old Man of the Mountain at (other states’) public expense. The state is very white and its politics are very retro; they’re working as hard as any formerly Confederate state to make sure the college kids who might not understand ‘our local traditions’ can’t corrupt the purity of their voting pool. Even leaving aside the cranky libertarians who’ll swarm the Dem primary before voting for Trump next year, Democratic primary voters are pretty much divided between Sanders and Warren. Also, too:

the Live Free or Die state was always going to be her worst considering her background as a DA and AG so it's not surprising she is skipping.
— ????James 'Jinxed Time Cover' Polls???? (@james_polls) November 1, 2019

So Kamala went to Iowa, later that day, and did this:

“And to win, we’re gonna need a nominee on that stage with Donald Trump, who has the ability to go toe to toe with Donald Trump and Iowa, you’re looking at her,” #ForThePeople #LJ19 pic.twitter.com/nMEKktbony
— Daryon (@daryongeronimo) November 2, 2019

show full post on front page

Election 2020 Open Thread: Smart Move, Sen. HarrisPost + Comments (72)

Election 2020 Open Thread: Kamala Harris Took the Lead This Weekend

by Anne Laurie| October 28, 20199:30 pm| 87 Comments

This post is in: Civil Rights, Criminal Justice, Election Year, I'm With Her, Kamala Harris 2020, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Seriously

We must change people’s perceptions, and it starts at the top. When those in charge don’t see the value of people like Tamir Rice or Atatiana Jefferson, there can be lethal consequences. pic.twitter.com/J4MznO7Abb
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 27, 2019

Rep. Shirley Chisholm, one of my earliest political idols, said “If they don’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.” After Friday’s HBCU Trump debacle, Senator Harris took her chair, and changed the conversation.

Good story on @KamalaHarris today. https://t.co/oYKH04lQ7i
— Bakari Sellers (@Bakari_Sellers) October 27, 2019

… In the hours after Harris initially announced she wouldn’t be present at the forum, talks began between her campaign, Mayor Benjamin and Benedict College to create an end result that didn’t include the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center with a breakthrough happening overnight, a Harris campaign aide said.
“People were figuring out a solution where the group honoring President Trump wasn’t involved and students had access to speeches and the ability to ask questions,” the aide said.
Another aide said Harris, the only graduate of a historically black college in the 2020 field, wouldn’t stand for the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center “disrespecting” the legacy of HBCUs and their history rooted in protest, justice and equality.
“When it became clear Donald Trump would receive an award after decades of celebrating mass incarceration, pushing the death penalty for innocent Black Americans, rolling back police accountability measures and racist behavior that puts people’s lives at risk, and then learned all but ten Benedict students are excluded from participating, I cannot in good faith be complicit in papering over his record,” Harris said in a statement Friday…

Kamala Harris: "What do we have in Donald Trump? Someone who dares — dares — to use the word 'lynching' with the blood that has been poured on the soil of South Carolina and so many places." https://t.co/Hg8Ui0kIWv
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 26, 2019

“On that debate stage in terms of whose running, l am probably the only or one of a very few who has spent her career actually working on reforming the system as oppose to just talking about it.” pic.twitter.com/SQ06vteqbU
— Daryon (@daryongeronimo) October 26, 2019

Folks, let's stop for a minute and reflect on what Kamala Harris did in the last 24 hours.
— Wyeth Ruthven (@wyethwire) October 26, 2019

So Kamala Harris pulled her support for the forum. She was prepared to hold a counter-program with her own people.
— Wyeth Ruthven (@wyethwire) October 26, 2019

show full post on front page

Election 2020 Open Thread: Kamala Harris Took the Lead This WeekendPost + Comments (87)

Amy, Amy, AMY

by Betty Cracker| October 23, 20192:25 pm| 48 Comments

This post is in: I'm With Her, Open Threads, Trump Crime Cartel

Amy Klobuchar isn’t as flashy as poor Winehouse was, but Klobuchar gets shit done. Here’s an example from Mother Jones:

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) released evidence on Tuesday that the Justice Department buried the whistleblower complaint about President Donald Trump’s call with the Ukrainian president by failing to refer the matter to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Klobuchar suggested the Justice Department violated a longstanding agreement between the agencies to share information about possible campaign finance violations for potential enforcement action…

This is clever because while everyone else was understandably focused on Barr hiding the whistleblower complaint from House Democrats, Klobuchar laid the groundwork to expose further wrongdoing by verifying that Barr hadn’t notified the Federal Election Commission either. Turns out that is required!

[U]nder a 1978 memorandum of understanding between the [Justice D]epartment and the FEC—which, like Justice is authorized to penalize campaign finance violations—the complaint should have been passed onto the FEC even if the department declined to launch a criminal investigation, so the election watchdog can determine whether a civil penalty is called for.
Earlier this month, Klobuchar set out to uncover whether the Justice Department had honored this agreement, sending two letters to the FEC inquiring whether it had received any such referral. On October 18, the commission’s Democratic chair, Ellen Weintraub, confirmed to Klobuchar that the FEC had not been notified. “The refusal to inform the FEC and refer the matter regarding the President’s call to the FEC as required to do, as the Justice Department is required, undermines our campaign finance system and is unacceptable in a democracy,” Klobuchar said in Tuesday statement.

I haven’t watched much news coverage of the shit-show this week because disgust and baseball. That said, I doubt Klobuchar’s revelation got a lot of attention, what with the SS Trumptanic taking shots below the waterline. But this week, Klobuchar produced further hard evidence that Barr is a crook.

Thanks to the courage of the whistleblower, Barr’s attempt to make the complaint go away by fiat didn’t succeed, but Barr was sticking to the original lie/rationale (“it was a nothingburger!”) to protect Trump from Congress. Notifying the FEC isn’t optional, even if it’s deemed a “nothingburger,” according to the longstanding agreement between the federal agencies. That Barr failed to provide the notification is more evidence of a cover up. Way to go, Klobuchar!

Amy, Amy, AMYPost + Comments (48)

Monday Morning Open Thread: Speaking Truth

by Anne Laurie| October 21, 20194:28 am| 190 Comments

This post is in: I'm With Her, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome

“There is no work being done in this administration. Everybody waits around to see what the latest tweet is. . . That’s how policy is being made, & we are going to pay a really big price for that in the years ahead.” ??????
She’s right & she’s warning us again. #NoFucksHillary pic.twitter.com/LSdQP4uKQ4
— diane-jefferson (@dianejeffersonc) October 18, 2019

Everything Hillary said in 2016 has come to fruition so why do reporters still act so goddamn arrogant & dismissive of her. Compare to the latitude & deference given to Pompeo or Tillerson. If nothing else, you’d think some of these folks would at least try harder to hide sexism.
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) October 18, 2019

There is no defensible journalistic rationale for how differently these stories were played. pic.twitter.com/hodQ0H4AwU
— Dan Lavoie (@djlavoie) October 19, 2019

.@HillaryClinton: “We need to vet all of our candidates so we can see who can withstand what will be a BRUTAL attack on them from the right.” pic.twitter.com/NDsnavjSnj
— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) October 20, 2019

HRC got Tulsi to meltdown and pretty much prove she's a ratfuck and yet journalists are convinced it was a bad move because [decades of trying to take down the Clintons]
— Emperor of Pumpkins (@EvilCEOE) October 18, 2019

For three decades now HRC has repeatedly proven she's smarter than the press and it rankles with them
— Emperor of Pumpkins (@EvilCEOE) October 18, 2019

Hillary, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Queen of Meereen, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Protector of the Realm, Lady Regent of the Seven Kingdoms, Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons. https://t.co/WnWBFqqjKM
— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) October 18, 2019

Ok. I’ll say it. I think that’s precisely what Hillary intended. https://t.co/JzAhPUAj4l
— Armando (@ArmandoNDK) October 19, 2019

Literally the @nytimes and @maggieNYT specifically should do a written assessment of how and why they reported what they did. And what they’ve learned from the mistakes that they specifically made. https://t.co/TNKkTEHtCh
— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) October 19, 2019

Monday Morning Open Thread: Speaking TruthPost + Comments (190)

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Readership Capture

by Anne Laurie| October 19, 20195:29 am| 120 Comments

This post is in: I'm With Her, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Readership Capture, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Rare Sincerity

We’re searching for additional artifacts that tell the story of @BarackObama and @MichelleObama for possible inclusion in the Obama Presidential Center Museum. Have something you’d like us to consider? Tell us about it here: https://t.co/5AHpo319ej
— The Obama Foundation (@ObamaFoundation) October 17, 2019

Elsewhere:

This is the only news concerning @HillaryClinton that I give a shit about today. We spent an entire election on this inane story four years ago because a lot of otherwise intelligent people deemed it important. Many of them still run media outlets today. https://t.co/00hAIiZBEN
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) October 19, 2019

conveniently released on a Friday afternoon
— Jennifer Epstein (@jeneps) October 18, 2019

Remember when Jared Kushner wanted a DIY SCIF to talk to the Russians without NSA?
— Xeni Jardin (@xeni) October 18, 2019

This is a lie with more than 3,000 retweets as of Friday afternoon, and hundreds of people responding to lap it up. https://t.co/tDdCbN9p0h
— Julian Sanchez (@normative) October 18, 2019

How right does Hillary Clinton have to be on Russian disruption to not be treated with skepticism every time she talks about it?
— Schooley (@Rschooley) October 18, 2019

Ok. I’ll say it. I think that’s precisely what Hillary intended. https://t.co/JzAhPUAj4l
— Armando (@ArmandoNDK) October 19, 2019

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Readership CapturePost + Comments (120)

Balloon Juice After Dark Open Thread: GO COUGARS, Sen. Warren!

by Anne Laurie| October 5, 201912:13 am| 104 Comments

This post is in: Grifters Gonna Grift, I'm With Her, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Repubs in Disarray!, Warren for President 2020, Clown car

Friday night, presumably the young & impressionable are either in bed or off partying somewhere, let’s indulge in a nice rowdy game of Kick the Wohl-ball!

First off — if Warren isn’t our 2020 candidate, the winner should most definitely hire her social media staff instanter, because they are GOOD:

Never trust a politician without a sense of humor. https://t.co/9EPDh5oWb5
— Yoni Appelbaum (@YAppelbaum) October 3, 2019

Backstory / fisking, ICYMI:

This is some genius viral marketing I can’t believe Warren’s campaign thought of thi— I’m sorry, I’m being told this is intended to hurt Warren? https://t.co/I22IYFnRtE
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) October 3, 2019

Some 69 year old woman convinced a marine she was Elizabeth Warren and it worked ?????? https://t.co/PahA9E6jdg
— Bakari Sellers (@Bakari_Sellers) October 3, 2019

The owner of the escort agency that Jacob Wohl's fake Warren accuser said he worked for disputes the story and says he would never employ the alleged escort — He's "not up to caliber to work at our agency."
Story from @ejdickson https://t.co/1ANs1oHhw9
— Will Sommer (@willsommer) October 3, 2019

show full post on front page

Balloon Juice After Dark Open Thread: GO COUGARS, Sen. Warren!Post + Comments (104)

Election 2020 Open Thread: Kamala Harris Gets Her TIME Cover

by Anne Laurie| October 4, 20191:44 pm| 61 Comments

This post is in: Election Year, Excellent Links, I'm With Her, Kamala Harris 2020

Extremely powerful & important image. @KamalaHarris is inspirational to millions of little girls (including my 7 week old daughter Mariah). We need / deserve a strong & compassionate #46 POTUS. KDH we will fight for & with you all the way to the White House. #GetMooreDone #khive pic.twitter.com/1JYCB3ocLx
— SC Representative JA Moore (@jamooreforsc15) October 3, 2019

Molly Ball is always worth reading, even when her editors have saddled her with a blatantly biased pre-take. “Kamala Harris Is Making Her Case… “:

… Harris is here, in Iowa, trying to regain her footing in the race. After a promising start in January, her campaign has stalled. While she is in the competition for the nomination, she’s stuck in the mid–single digits in most national and early-state polls and draws modest crowds. Perhaps three dozen people showed up to see her in Waterloo, where they were packed into a few rows in front of the stage so that the large room–an ornate century-old former department store–wouldn’t look so empty.
In mid-September, Harris said she’d be focusing on the first-to-vote caucus state. It was something of an unwitting announcement: she was overheard in Washington joking to a colleague, “I’m f-cking moving to Iowa.” (At least, a staffer quipped, “she didn’t say, ‘I’m moving to f-cking Iowa.’”) Her campaign is doubling its staff in the state, to more than 130 people, and she has pledged to visit every week for the foreseeable future. “I’m really excited about it,” she tells me, saying the opportunity to engage in “old-school retail politics” reminds her of her San Francisco political roots. “I like people.”
People like Harris too; they just can’t quite place her. Like the acquaintance you recognize but can’t recall how you met, she seems both familiar and yet mysterious. Is she a liberal or a moderate, establishment or populist, reformer or radical? Critics point out that she has flip-flopped or obfuscated her positions on important policy issues, like health care and immigration, and the speeches she could use to define herself often devolve into paeans to unity.
For all that, however, Harris remains in the hunt. She consistently polls among the top five candidates in the jumbled Democratic field, and she has the financial resources to remain viable. Her campaign raised $11.6 million in the quarter ending Sept. 30–a respectable haul, although far short of what some other front runners pulled in. As more long-shot candidates bow out of the race, campaign officials expect Harris to benefit from voters’ renewed focus. With a little luck, they say, she still has a fairly clear path to the nomination…
Meanwhile, as the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives moves toward impeachment, another piece of Harris’ record may supercharge her candidacy in the coming months: her background in law enforcement. At a time when liberals are clamoring to make the criminal-justice system less punitive, her record as a district attorney and state attorney general has been a liability. But in this new political climate, voters may relish the idea of seeing Harris–with her icy prosecutor’s glare–square off against President Trump on the national stage.
“This guy has completely trampled on the rule of law, avoided consequence and accountability under law,” she says of the President. “For all the sh-t people give me for being a prosecutor, listen. I believe there should be accountability and consequence.”…
show full post on front page

Since her election to the Senate in 2016, Harris has thrilled liberal audiences with her punishing interrogations of Trump Administration officials. She made former Attorney General Jeff Sessions blanch and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh squirm. And in May, she deftly filleted the current Attorney General, William Barr, asking him, “Has the President or anyone at the White House ever asked or suggested that you open an investigation of anyone?” Barr was reduced to stuttering. He wouldn’t or couldn’t answer. In recent weeks, the clip has gone viral again as new questions have arisen about Barr’s involvement in the President’s political pressuring of foreign governments.

Sitting in the office in Los Angeles, Harris says she asked that question on a prosecutor’s hunch. “It has become clear to me that these are the kinds of questions you have to ask members of this Administration,” she says. “What kind of unethical requests has this President made of you? I knew by instinct and by example that it is not beyond him to think that America’s justice system is his personal apparatus for political gain. He’s made that quite clear.”…

By upbringing and orientation, Harris seems to have a strong sense of right and wrong and a fierce drive to fight injustice, coupled with virtually no large-scale policy instincts. Presented with a problem, she looks for ways to solve it, starting with data, guided by few firm ideological convictions. “All these grand ideas that academics and so many have about how you’re going to transform the world,” she says. “But, you know, pay attention to the basics.”

Perhaps, in these days of brutal ideological combat, that kind of pragmatism could be sold as refreshing. But in Harris’ case it seems to be having the opposite effect. Some of the attendees at her events in Iowa told me they don’t think she’s progressive enough; others said she strikes them as too far left. “She hasn’t gone far enough to get the activists behind her, but she’s gone too far for some of the moderates,” says Larry Gerston, a professor emeritus of political science at San Jose State University. “So she’s in kind of a no-person’s-land in terms of having a good base.” And yet, polls indicate that Democratic voters still want to like her–if only they can figure out what she’s about. The race is far from over. Iowa voters are notorious for shopping around until the end…

There’s a theory on political twitter that ‘people just don’t know who Kamala Harris is’… yet. If true, that can — and will — change.

Kamala Harris going into more detail on electability riff at Supermajority event — talks about how painful it was after Clinton lost in 2016 and people still say America is not ready for a woman:
“We cannot wait for other people to give us permission to tell us what is possible”
— Deepa Shivaram (@deepa_shivaram) October 3, 2019

Harris wins endorsement of civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump https://t.co/euDkvabp0Y via @politico
— Stank Stan ????????? (@StankAttitude) October 2, 2019

Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump is endorsing Kamala Harris for president, citing the California senator’s record on criminal justice and comparing her campaign to former President Barack Obama’s historic White House run in 2008.
Crump, a high-profile Florida attorney, represented Trayvon Martin’s family after the teen was shot and killed by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman in 2012. He has since represented other families whose children were killed in fatal altercations with white police officers that captured the nation’s attention, like Mike Brown Jr. in Ferguson, Mo., and 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland.
In a phone interview Monday afternoon, Crump said that while he had gotten calls from multiple campaigns, Harris was the candidate in the top tier who stood out to him.
“When you look up some of the stuff that she’s tried to do working from the inside, you know that she understands the challenges of trying to get progress when there are a lot of powers that be that are pushing against the cause for equal justice,” he said…

This @TIME photo of Kamala Harris and these young black girls ?? pic.twitter.com/KyX440Bitb
— Zara Rahim (@ZaraRahim) October 3, 2019

Good piece. https://t.co/JSkqkz3TJT
— Bakari Sellers (@Bakari_Sellers) October 2, 2019

Wow. This is who @KamalaHarris really is. pic.twitter.com/ck6TI145Mu
— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) October 2, 2019

Election 2020 Open Thread: Kamala Harris Gets Her TIME CoverPost + Comments (61)

Election 2020 Open Thread: Warren Moves Fast , Wins (Some) Hearts

by Anne Laurie| October 4, 201911:18 am| 222 Comments

This post is in: Election Year, I'm With Her, Open Threads, Warren for President 2020

My chief takeaway is that none of these protestors seemed able to walk fast enough to get in front of @ewarren. https://t.co/adszNERxMV
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) October 2, 2019

Read to the end of @teddyschleifer's great piece on Silicon Valley's begrudging respect for Elizabeth Warren. https://t.co/iHYJu03Iwy
— Ella Nilsen (@ella_nilsen) October 2, 2019

… Hunter Walk, a former product director at Google who is now a venture capitalist, calls it his “evolution.”
“To find her right on everything else and then disqualifying when it’s about my industry? Maybe that’s a little bit too precious,” said Walk. “I’m willing to say, ‘Yes, change all the other things! Uproot all these other assumptions!’ But then, oh my goodness, when she said something about tech, that’s disqualifying? Come on.”
Walk isn’t alone. Recode’s canvass of a group of major Democratic donors and fundraisers in Silicon Valley shows Warren is making significant inroads with some of tech’s wealthiest Democrats. That progress would have been unthinkable just six months ago after she called for the industry’s iconic companies to be split asunder.
Warren has not moderated her at times vitriolic rhetoric toward Silicon Valley. But tech elites are not, as often caricatured, single-issue voters driven by tech policy. And the two dozen tech executives, investors, and veteran fundraisers who spoke with Recode outlined three key reasons why their industry is making this unexpected shift toward Warren: They say they respect her policy rigor. They see her as less radical than once imagined (and especially when compared to Bernie Sanders). And perhaps most importantly, she has a reasonable path to winning the nomination, and there’s nothing Silicon Valley loves more than a winner.
What’s even more unusual is that Warren is gaining traction with these elites by doing barely any of the traditional coaxing and coddling that is a mainstay of today’s big-money era. While some of her 2020 competitors are returning to Silicon Valley multiple times within a single month, Warren is, by at least one measure, doing the best in the tech industry while also doing the least — sometimes with glee…
show full post on front page

Three things have boosted Warren’s standing in Silicon Valley since she rattled tech’s cage this past winter, Democratic fundraisers say.

First, each of her new policy plans has won hard-earned kudos from Silicon Valley’s wealthy, who are finding her intellectually simpatico even if they don’t agree with her.

“The clarity of her plans and message is the way folks in tech are used to talking about tackling problems,” said Nabeel Hyatt, an early investor in companies like Discord and Postmates. “Even if you disagree on some things, there is just a craving for competency, for someone who will do a job well.”…

Secondly, some high-dollar donors — people who donate thousands of dollars a year — also say that as they listened more closely to Warren in town halls and on podcasts, they discovered more differences between her and avowed socialists like Bernie Sanders than they initially anticipated. Warren has for months tried to subtly draw that distinction…

Above all else, Silicon Valley leaders value in a candidate what they value in their C-suites: intense competency. Analysts have widely praised Warren for running one of 2020’s most effective campaigns, and fundraisers say that has endeared her to donors who aren’t predisposed to like her but who admire her execution.

Warren last month began overtaking Joe Biden in some key early-state polls, mirroring the slow embrace Warren has found in Silicon Valley.

“People just respect success,” said one Silicon Valley fundraiser aligned with a different candidate. “There’s a flight to quality.”…

And, as the article somewhat gleefully concludes, like any such ‘quality’ subject, Warren is refusing to sell herself short by compromising her public promises with wink-wink ‘but just this once, for you’ events. Even her professional friends aren’t getting special favors from the Warren campaign. Those voters who truly share Warren’s goals will understand why she’s doing this right now… and for those voters/donors who just want a bragging-rights bandwagon to jump on, there’s nothing as attractive as a candidate who plays hard to get.

Election 2020 Open Thread: Warren Moves Fast , Wins (Some) HeartsPost + Comments (222)

Election 2020 Open Thread: Elizabeth Warren Has All the Right Enemies

by Anne Laurie| October 2, 201911:40 am| 314 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Election Year, I'm With Her, Proud to Be A Democrat, Warren for President 2020

Elizabeth Warren won’t have to run a single ad if these guys keep it up. https://t.co/INzuOBNE3K
— Tim Fullerton (@TimFullerton) October 1, 2019

“@ewarren, meanwhile, used the renewed focus on the issue as an opportunity to reiterate that she is ’not afraid to hold Big Tech companies like @Facebook, Google, and Amazon accountable.’” https://t.co/0AK32XA5Gx
— Gabe Ortíz (@TUSK81) October 1, 2019

“By offering a steady diet of policy proposals, Warren has grown her following significantly and risen to the top of the polls. Her plans to reshape the gov’t extend to areas like the economy and education, where she has called for a wealth tax and canceling student loan debt.”
— Gabe Ortíz (@TUSK81) October 1, 2019

I am not going to lie, this makes me a little nervous about Facebook's trustworthiness going into this election.
— Summer Brennan ?? (@summerbrennan) October 1, 2019

Possibly related?…

Elizabeth Warren has overtaken Joe Biden as the top 2020 choice among college students, according to a new College Reaction/Axios poll. https://t.co/hW2LWFHXdm
— Axios (@axios) October 1, 2019

Which reminds me, in case anybody missed this during the rush of news last week:

Did… did the Warren campaign pay for this https://t.co/eQ4MsTR0kR
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) September 26, 2019

wow that really does sound…
well pretty good tbh https://t.co/Ch48c3r6zF
— darth™ (@darth) September 26, 2019

This sort of confirms Warren's whole worldview, doesn't? Big Finance, given the choice between treason and a wealth tax, chooses treason https://t.co/hcnGcpY4vq
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) September 26, 2019

Maybe worth pointing out that Warren's wealth tax kicks in at $50 million. Sorry, but people with that much money can afford anything any sane human being would want. For them, wealth is about keeping score. For that, they'd betray democracy?
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) September 26, 2019

Election 2020 Open Thread: Elizabeth Warren Has All the Right EnemiesPost + Comments (314)

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

by Anne Laurie| October 2, 20196:18 am| 121 Comments

This post is in: Books, I'm With Her, Impeachment Inquiry, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, All Too Normal

(John Deering via GoComics.com)
.

INBOX: Pelosi *and Schiff to hold a press conference tomorrow at 10:45AM ET
— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) October 1, 2019

It's before. IG meeting is currently schedule for the afternoon. pic.twitter.com/vThcUaPw6u
— Miranda Binewski (@superlorna69) October 1, 2019

The Inspector General of the State Department does not seek a meeting with Congress during a recess because they want to say the Secretary of State is a great guy. https://t.co/7VpJApDhNF
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) October 1, 2019

From a Watergate prosecutor:

The shift to support impeachment is happening even faster than it did during Watergate. I suspect 45's approval ratings will tank in direct correlation to rise in support for impeachment as it did for Nixon as the facts came ut. https://t.co/KWID5X3eEt
— Jill Wine-Banks (@JillWineBanks) October 1, 2019

Living Well: The Best Revenge…

"The Book of Gutsy Women" is out today. It's full of the stories of courageous and resilient women who had faith that their actions could make a difference. And they were right.@ChelseaClinton and I are so thrilled to share it with you: https://t.co/cZSyC1Ltch pic.twitter.com/jrVFG5xyZk
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 1, 2019

An appearance by Hillary and Chelsea Clinton gave CBS' 'Late Show With Stephen Colbert' (@colbertlateshow) its highest-ever overnight ratings for a Monday show https://t.co/l9EKwAkT8I
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) October 1, 2019

Hillary Clinton’s recent appearances are causing a lot of people with guilty consciences to get super upset.
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) October 1, 2019

Tomorrow, former Secretary of State @HillaryClinton joins Rachel @Maddow live in studio for an in-depth interview. Watch “The Rachel Maddow Show” tomorrow at 9pm ET on @MSNBC. pic.twitter.com/QiFZr2iPpC
— MSNBC Public Relations (@MSNBCPR) October 1, 2019

Wednesday Morning Open ThreadPost + Comments (121)

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: No Lie Told, Madame Secretary

by Anne Laurie| October 1, 20194:58 am| 186 Comments

This post is in: domestic terrorists, Foreign Affairs, I'm With Her, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality, Trumpery, I Smell a Pulitzer!

Clinton haters are angry about her recent appearances because they are too consumed by their personal hatred for Hillary to admit she warned us about everything we'd see in a Trump presidency. https://t.co/EAZSzDKAHm
— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) October 1, 2019

Imagine where we would be right now if Democrats hadn’t taken back the House in 2018.
If you’re eligible to vote, register and do it. Every election. Every time.
— JackiSchechner (@JackiSchechner) September 30, 2019

Meanwhile, the manly-men MAGAts are cheering for their Dear Leader’s threat…

Stop saying a “civil war” is gonna happen, it’s gonna be a bunch of chuds cresting a wave of far right terrorism by randomly murdering innocent people. War implies two sides
— Anti Matt Aktion (@MenshevikM) September 30, 2019

So much this. Every reporter should be asking every GOP member–and not letting them off the hook til they get an answer—whether it's a-ok to threaten a war that would kill millions of Americans bc you're trying to get away with a little treason…
— Cliff Schecter (@cliffschecter) September 30, 2019

He’s excited about Civil War because he knows America will erect statues of him after his side loses.
— Mike Rundle (@flyosity) September 30, 2019

It’s all fun’n’games until they start setting Black churches on fire…

I understand the fun being had with #CivilWarSignup. But there are real world consequences from people out there who aren’t taking Trump’s tweet as a joke, but as a call-to-action. We can imagine who their targets would be. Please keep in mind. https://t.co/mRr6LSBNVb
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) September 30, 2019

You know what is going to piss Trump off the most?
The Whistleblower will be named Time Person of The Year.
— YS (@NYinLA2121) September 28, 2019

I'm just going to retweet this every hour on the hour now. https://t.co/Bk3cgsjbTk
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) September 30, 2019

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: No Lie Told, Madame SecretaryPost + Comments (186)

Just a few bad apples.

This is how realignments happen…

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Saul Alinsky is my co-pilot

Yes we did.

Usually wrong but never in doubt.

A snarling mass of vitriolic vicious jackals

Almost as fun as hiking the Appalachian Trail.

This is a big f—–g deal.

We have all the best words.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Also, too.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Wetsuit optional.

Word salad with all caps

Mission Accomplished!

Militantly superior in their own minds…

Gastritis Broke My Calculator

This blog will pay for itself.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Hot Air and Ill Informed Banter

What fresh hell is this?

The revolution will be supervised.

It’s a tarp!

Monday Morning Open Thread: Back to the Daily Leap of Faith

Election Open Thread: The 2020 Campaign Seems to Have Kicked Up A Notch…

Pre-Debate Open Thread: Not Yet Endorsing, But You Know I Have A Favorite

Monday Morning Open Thread: Gonna Be Another Busy Week…

Election 2020 Open Thread: Smart Move, Sen. Harris

Election 2020 Open Thread: Kamala Harris Took the Lead This Weekend

Amy, Amy, AMY

Monday Morning Open Thread: Speaking Truth

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Readership Capture

Balloon Juice After Dark Open Thread: GO COUGARS, Sen. Warren!

Election 2020 Open Thread: Kamala Harris Gets Her TIME Cover

Election 2020 Open Thread: Warren Moves Fast , Wins (Some) Hearts

Election 2020 Open Thread: Elizabeth Warren Has All the Right Enemies

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: No Lie Told, Madame Secretary