21 thoughts on “Wednesday Open Thread”

1. The Republican-Conservative Hate/Lie Attack Machine will now begin its ugly and vicious work to try to elect Donald Trump, a two-bit real estate scam artist, as president. Even those who oppose him fantasize that Hillary is worse or somehow guilty of all their petty and misperceived "crimes".

   The ground has been prepared for it for almost five decades. The ground was prepared when the Republican Party married itself to the flotsam of American apartheid. The ground was prepared when the Republican Party married itself to a politicized form of American Protestantism. The ground was prepared when the Republican Party allowed itself to get drunk on the fantasies and fabulisms of Ronald Reagan and discovered, mirabile dictu, that the country as a whole had a taste for the moonshine, too.

   The ground was prepared when the Republican Party divorced itself from the proudest elements of its historical identity—the environmentalism of Teddy Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot, the commitment to what once were quaintly called "internal improvements" of Dwight Eisenhower, and most critically, the party's dedication to some form of racial equality that was its founding purpose in the first place. The ground was prepared when Richard Nixon was elected, twice. Sooner or later, someone was going to find the proper vehicle to run amok on the ground that was so prepared. Sooner or later, as Mary Shelley warned the world, the monster always breaks the chains.

   Eisenhower and Roosevelt would be booed just as Mitch McConnell was last night. 

   But as Republicans move further and further rightward in order to keep ignorance-stoked fire of hatred burning, Democrats always find a reason to follow them there and forget their own proudest achievements:

   Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Sen. Timothy M. Kaine of Virginia have emerged as the leading candidates on a longer list of finalists Hillary Clinton is considering for her vice-presidential running mate, according to interviews with multiple Democrats with knowledge of her deliberations.

   Although her list is not limited to those two, Clinton has spoken highly of both in recent days to friends and advisers as she closes in on an announcement that could come as soon as Friday.

   President Obama is among those who have advised Clinton on her decision, offering thoughts on the two contenders who serve in his Cabinet, Vilsack and Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, several Democrats said. These individuals did not say what advice the president gave.

   Because we have to limit the influence of liberal and progressive ideas on the White House, because we have to be careful in purple states like Colorado, because…..

   Vilsack rose through the ranks of local government to become a well-liked governor of Iowa…and served as head of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council while in office. 

    And Democrats will take a seemingly inevitable win with a clear mandate and turn it into Conventionally Wise/DC-Dumbed-Down, "safe" Centrism that earns nodding chin-rubs from conservative Op-Ed pages everywhere.

   Choosing Kaine as the Democratic nominee for vice president would be an egregious political miscalculation and a personal insult to people of color across the country. The evidence from the past eight years clearly shows that the way to win in today’s multiracial America is to increase turnout of voters of color, and a Kaine candidacy would do little to inspire or mobilize the coalition that snatched down the “whites only” sign from the Oval Office in 2008. Given the fact that there is little mathematical justification for choosing yet another white guy for the second-highest office in the land, a decision to do so would be highly offensive to the millions of people of color who now constitute nearly half of all Democratic voters and to whom Hillary Clinton owes her nomination.

   …The incontrovertible evidence of the past eight years is that Democrats win only when there is large and enthusiastic turnout among voters of color, as happened in 2008 and 2012. When millions of voters of color stay home, as they did in 2010 and 2014, Democrats suffer devastating defeats.

   You could follow Casey Stengel's advice on those facts if you don't believe them. Or you could ignore those clear truths and tell your client that you have to "move to the center". 

   Perhaps the most catastrophic consequence of a Kaine selection is that it would reveal a dangerous misreading of the moment we are in………

   In the face of such an existential threat, timidity, caution, and calculation are of little use or benefit. This is a time for choosing. Trump has unleashed an ugly and bigoted movement rooted in racial resentment. The way to fight back is to stand strong, double down, and accelerate the march toward an increasingly multiracial and equitable America. Returning to the days of all-white presidential tickets with white male vice presidents would be going backward, not forward. Even choosing someone like Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, while not having the same cultural connection as a person of color, would at least represent a doubling down on the demographic changes that Trump’s movement is seeking to roll back. 

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   1. So the first ever major party ticket led by a woman is business as usual?   Not on this planet, Zappy.  

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      1. a "Centrist" Dem who supports Austerity when the "center" is still being pushed inexorably to the right is BAU. Ignoring millions of new voters and newly inspired activists is also, sadly, BAU.

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   2. Zap… first wait until you see who actually does get selected for VP before you rail against the choice. Second, please bear in mind it's entirely likely Warren doesn't want to be VP. I certainly hope she doesn't. It's a job with very little power, the main requirement being an ability not to hurt the ticket, maybe to help it and after election to unconditionally support your President's agenda and keep discreetly quite about any disagreements. Oh and attend funerals. I'd hate to see Warren wasted in that role. 

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2. First, if this can deflect from the lame "HickenVeepSter" rumors, then you can thank me. Second, If the job is boring and powerless, and the pick is typically intended to shore up electoral weakness, why go safe and why ignore changing tides:

   Voters remain deeply dissatisfied with the status quo. Clinton’s biggest problem, and the greatest threat to her candidacy, is the fact that she’s seen as the candidate of the status quo.

   …Mark Warner is also a longtime advocate for destructive budget cuts. He backed the unpopular and impractical “Bowles Simpson” plan, pushed austerity economics measures as part of the Senate’s misguided and self-promoting “Gang of Six,” and even urged business elites to get more involved in politics – at a time when we need campaign reform to reduce their political power…..

   …

   Hillary Clinton needs to show voters that she can make bold choices. She must embrace the populist moment and the electorate’s yearning for change if she is to fend off Trump’s insurgent challenge. That’s not just the smartest course. In the end, it’s also the safest.

    

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   1. The reason to go safe is because of any influence the VP may have on the election. While it's true people vote for the top of the ticket, not the VP, a bad choice can introduce avoidable problems while a VP from a competitive state might help push the state over the line in the desired direction. A VP might also help a bit with a particular constituency. But it's really all about the top of the ticket and even more so after the election.

      I personally believe HRC should try for a sweet spot between safe and acceptable to the progressive wing and minorities as well as one that doesn't jeopardize a Senate seat. Easier said than done.

      Do you see Warren sitting down and shutting up for eight years for HRC?  God, I hope not. 

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3. And we thought the only thing nauseating about the GOP confab was nominating Trump. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/07/19/norovirus-strikes-the-republican-national-convention/?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_draw

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4. Well, well, well.  Donald Trump expects that as President, he'll just sit back, relax, enjoy the perks while his VP does all the grunt work.  You know, sorta how it works now in the Trump organization:

   Donald Trump Planning To Just Let Mike Pence Run The Country, Apparently

   Trump plans to saddle his veep with most of the duties of being president. Because why not?

    

   who would have guessed that Donald Trump, in seeking the presidency, wants to claim all of the trappings of the office and none of the responsibility?

   At any rate, someone should maybe ask the Indiana governor what he thinks about all of this, given that if America fails to be “great again” after four years of a Trump presidency, it’ll be Pence who’s on the hook for that.

   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-mike-pence_us_578fa289e4b0f180da63defd?section=

   I'm pretty sure some of us already predicted that back during the primaries.

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   1. who would have guessed that Donald Trump, in seeking the presidency, wants to claim all of the trappings of the office and none of the responsibility? 

      Isn't that pretty much his life story?

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      1. Yep — all he does is drive his subordinates crazy, yak on the phone all day bragging about himself, yell at people if they get in his way, and take no responsibility for the havoc he creates.

         It is a wonder that anyone would work for him, but then like Fox's Roger Ailes, people will put up with a lot for the right amount of money 🙁

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      2. Trump does not want to be President. He wants to be Emperor. 

          

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         1. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/magazine/how-donald-trump-picked-his-running-mate.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fmagazine&action=click&contentCollection=magazine&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0

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5. The Dimocrats need to replace Dan Pabon immediately.

   http://www.denverpost.com/2016/07/20/dan-pabon-dui-body-cam-footage/

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6. On tonight’s episode of GOP Convention: Mrs. Drumpf makes her famous hotscakes (from a stolen recipe), and Donald delivers hotscakes to the Christie house (and finds that Chris has gone rooting for M&Ms).

   https://youtu.be/d6DBMxYTT4Y

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7. Thank God for the courts and please note that if you don't vote for HRC you're voting for a future of lousy court decisions. Texas' punitive, voter suppression voter ID laws struck down.

   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/texas-voter-id-struck-down_us_578fc842e4b0bdddc4d2c785?section=

    

    

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   1. Thanks for the link, B.C. I have HuffPo on my desktop but the 20th was our 30th anniversary so I spent the afternoon and evening with Karen, rather than keeping up with the news.

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      1. Hey, congratulations on 30, Cookie!  We just tallied 48.

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         1. 

            You’re a role model.

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            1. Congrats. We clocked 35 in June. I know. June. How original.

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      2. Congrats, skinny and Karen! 

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         1. 

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