Mr.TaterSalad

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST . . .

Except for H.W. Bush's loss and Carter's loss and Ford's loss and LBJ deciding not to run again because he wouldn't win.

Unless she wants to be governed by the American version of Viktor Orban and Vlad Putin again and watch us slip into being run by an autocratic regime, she may not have a choice. Can't do much influencing from jail or a labor camp.

I forgot about the BIF in my initial post. Unless people see the effects of the BIF right away in-terms of shovel ready projects, broadband access being turned on in rural/urban areas, roads being fixed, etc. it won't matter Democrats won't be able to sell a bill that doesn't have immediate impacts like the Child Tax Credit did/does or like BBB could if they pass it. The other thing Democrats need to do is go for broke and just start branding Republican candidates as authoritarian dictators who want to strip away your right to vote. I know I just previously said that a rerun of January 6th won't work, and it won't. But if you are going down, go down swinging, scratching, and clawing until the end. Democrat's need to let the American people know that one party is no longer interested in allowing them to vote or their vote counting. White folks, black folks, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, they want to cancel voting in this country. You talk about the cancel culture argument, that's the playbook Democrats need to hit Republican's with, only on the right to vote. Cancel culture comes to the voting booth because Republican no longer believe in free and fair elections and want to cancel out your right to vote. They won't win on that message, but they can get in a few good blows on the way down to damage the GOP brand further hopefully.

We know who that person is and her last name is Obama.

It's a fact of life, we (I am one) are the biggest voting block in America now. At someone point Dems need to get Millennials and Gen Z out to vote or they will get swamped by what Boomers remain and Gen X'ers who have moved over to the right. Millennials aren't that young anymore and you should start to see their voting numbers increase in the next several cycles. Democrats also have to give them a reason to show up and vote for their candidates. That means more Millennial candidates and more candidates who reflect our values. The party and its voting base is where it is. We have to move to the left to court Millennial/Gen Z voters and reflect there values, while still balancing out where the rest of the country is at. I think the divide between Millennials and their parents is as sharp a generational divide as ever. Democrats need to walk this line and get them out to vote.

I don't want Joe Biden to run again, the party needs to new energy and fresh blood at the top. We need someone who can excite and relate to the new Millennial/Gen Z base of the party and finally get them turning out at rates we need to win. I don't want anyone over 75/76 running in 2024 but fear there may be one or more running. I also don't think that Kamala Harris on her own, given her dismal primary performance as a solo candidate, is strong enough to beat Trump or DeSantis. For 2024 both covid and inflation have to be in decline and the economy has to be on the right track. Democrats have to find a way to win back some amount of non-college educated white and hispanic voters. They have to win back Hispanic voters of all ethnic and national origin backgrounds (Columbian, Cuban, Dominican, Mexican, Puerto Rican, Venezuelan, etc.). They have to motive voters of color and black voters from all walks of life and get them turned out. They have to hold suburban voters and keep flipping college-educated suburban woman over to their side. They need Millennial and Gen Z voters to actually turn out in mass for once, especially Millennials who now represent the largest voting age block in the country. I think the Democratic short list for 2024 should begin and end with Michelle Obama because she checks off so many boxes for the party and has the broadest appeal. In the end though, I think the party and Biden rally around Harris out of sheer stupid loyalty and make her the nominee. I think the following candidates will be in play and/or at least could conceivably run for the office. Top Contenders Kamala Harris - I think she would lose to Trump or DeSantis if Biden isn't more popular by 2024, but I think she'll ultimately be the nominee. Michelle Obama - The best candidate to unite all factions of the party and grow the base. Mayor Pete - I think he would lose to Trump or DeSantis if Biden isn't more popular by 2024 Elizabeth Warren - I think she would lose if Biden was seen as moving "too far left" during his Presidency Cory Booker - If he has something inspiring to offer besides trying to re-run the Obama playbook for himself he could win. Sherrod Brown - I believe Sherrod would win if he ran against Trump or DeSantis, but losing the Ohio Senate seat would hurt. Gavin Newsom - I believe Gavin could win if Democratic numbers aren't severely underwater and inflation/covid have receded by then. Second Tier Candidates Amy Klobuchar - MN Senator Gretchen Whitmer - MI Governor Mitch Landrieu - LA Governor Roy Cooper - NC Governor

This is the best candidate Democrat's have for 2024 . . .

I think if inflation doesn't go down in 2022 and covid doesn't start to dissipate with these new antivirals Democrats chances are cooked for both 2022 and 2024. We saw in Virginia that being "not Trump" or running a January 6th playbook will not work. Most voters are looking forward and care little about what happened yesterday. When they go to the grocery store and pay higher prices for foods, when they pay more at the pump, when their couch takes 3 months to get delivered, they are going to blame that on Biden and the Democrats 1000%. What message or platform do Democrats have to even run on at this point? The almost year old American Rescue Plan and . . . what else? The party is literally bankrupt of accomplishments and a message to run on. Combine that with high inflation, covid, rising crime, and culture war issues like CRT and defund the police and I think a 2010 style beating is coming the Democrats way. This time, with all the changes to election laws and gerrymandering, I think it is a good decade before Democrats see power in this country again. If we fall into Trump-style authoritarianism than Democrats may never see power again and democracy will have been lost. If inflation tapers down to under 3.5% or so by June, these antivirals work for covid, and Democrats get their act together legislatively and pass a version of BBB, voting rights, and more, then they have a shot. Right now though, I think Democrats are headed for loses so big they will need to invoke the mercy rule. Not only on the House side, but I think Democrats will lose big in the Senate as well in Florida, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Warnock will lose to Herschel Walker in Georgia, Fretterman will lose to Dr. Oz in Penn, The Wisconsin Democrat will lost to Ron Johnson in Wisconsin, and on.

This guy has Covid. I'm no doctor, but look at how out of breath he is in this video. This guy is ridiculous.

https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/new-york/nysdce/1:2019cv11161/527808/39/ Never forget what Fox News' own fucking lawyers argued in support of Tucker Carlson in federal court. "Fox persuasively argues, that given Mr. Carlson's reputation, any reasonable viewer 'arrive[s] with an appropriate amount of skepticism' about the statement he makes." and also . . . "The "'general tenor' of the show should then inform a viewer that [Carlson] is not 'stating actual facts' about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in 'exaggeration' and 'non-literal commentary.' "

I'm happy with my Michigan accent because I can go to the grocery store and buy all the melk I want from Meijers and then drive home comfortably in my Fords.

Thank you!!!

I post sometimes here about my family because it is something I greatly treasure in my life and I feel that personal stories are often the most relatable. Not only do I reflect fondly on the time we've all spent together, I try as best I can to learn important lessons and take from the wisdom imparted on me from people I am closest with. I also learn valuable lessons of what not to do when I see things in my family that aren't always a positive life lesson. Sometimes, I fail at that endeavor, lose site, and get thrown off course. Each and every month my mom and I would take time out to go and visit the home of my Great Auntie Carmen and my Great uncle Ramon at their home on Rougeway St. in Livonia. When you visited Carmen and Ramon you never just dropped in to say hello and goodbye. Instead, you stayed around. You stayed for dinner and something to eat because they insisted on feeding you something. You also stayed around for the conversations and stories because they insisted on sharing their love with you and imparting their wisdom onto you. Spending time with my Great Uncle Ramon and hearing him tell you about his life stories was an especially valuable experience. Each time you sat around at that brown kitchen table or on their green couch in the living room you got important life lessons that helped you as a human being. Listening to my Uncle Ramon you could gain compassion for your fellow human beings and learn important lessons from history all in one conversation. One story in particular that has always stood out to me and one I heard a hundred times if I heard it once was the story how my Great uncle Ramon fought courageously in the Spanish Civil War of the 1930's and stood up against General Francisco Franco and the fascists of Spain. See, even though Franco and his thugs in the Spanish Army drafted my Great Uncle Ramon into fighting on their side, he refused to march the order of fascism, even if it meant his own death in the end. He knew that democracy and freedom were what was right. He refused to shoot his fellow countrymen and himself was almost killed for his refusal to fire his weapon and kill another human being in the defense of tyranny. Never once did my great uncle fire a bullet out of his gun at a human being on the other side to kill in Franco's honor and fascisms defense. He would tell all of us in my family with a sense of sadness about the war, yet with tell us with great pride, that he refused to defend tyranny and kill in the name of fascism for Franco. I'm posting about my great Uncle, Ramon Sieira, on the anniversary of January 6th not simply to share a family story about who he was and what I learned from him. I'm reflecting on his legacy and sharing it here in the hope that everyone can take something out of it. Through his courage, compassion, conviction, and refusal to defend Franco, he knew what was wrong and right. Ramon Sieira defended freedom, liberty, and the right to vote through his support of the Second Spanish Republic of the 1930s. He defended democratic values and norms that proved fragile in Spain in the 1930's and would indeed fall into Franco's hands of tyranny. No, my post about my great uncle is not intended to indict one political party or another. It is not about Democrats or Republicans being worse or better than others. It is about the lessons of democracy and the fragile nature of a free society and peoples. On this January 6th anniversary, I hope we all take valuable lessons from it and don't take democracy and freedom for granted. Republican or Democrat, progressive, moderate or conservative, we should all be able to come together peacefully and support democratic intuitions and accept free and fair election results.

One of my favorite follows on Twitter for sure. Scarily accurate too.

NYT Pitchbot is on fire today. Some of my favorites . . .

I thought Biden gave a good speech this morning about January 6th. It's too bad almost no one saw it and given the short attention span of people, will have long forgotten both the speech and the insurrection by the time November roles around. I love the media's bothsidesisms that will continue as normal after today. You know, some people on one side tried to overturn an election and overthrow democratic institutions of power, but let's hear from Chuck Todd, the New York Times, and Politico about Democrats in disarray for the 1,000th time and how Republicans can take back power.

I can't get behind a defensive back in the top 5. I would pick George Karlaftis the DE out of Perdue over Hamilton if a scenario like that played out.

Why am I supposed to feel sympathy for people who routinely vote against their own economic self interest in red or blue states? My dad does it all the time when he votes for Republicans and he lives off of Social Security and Medicare. I feel more anger for him that a rotten system set him up to fail through two recessions and multiple stock market crashes. But at some point, he keeps voting for a political party and candidates that would gut the very Social Security and Medicare he now lives off of and I have to stop feeling bad at some point. Republicans would tell my dad to kick rocks and eat rats all in the name of privatizing Social Security and getting rid of Medicare. If you think that is me being hyperbolic, just look at what the prior Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, wanted to do. Privatize Social Security and end Medicare. He's a big boy though, he is smart, he knows how to read. He just choses to rot his brain out by reading poorly sourced books, falling pray to chain emails, and watching Fox News everyday. He could chose to listen to NPR and watch PBS News Hour, Frontline, and Vice News as I do. He could choose to read read Economic Policy Institute, Center for American Progress, Washington Post, NYT, the Intercept, and reputable, sources as I do. Instead he choses chain emails, memes, Fox News, and books like The Bell Curve. If Republicans do gut Social Security and Medicare one day, what should I say to my dad and the tens-of-millions of Republicans like him besides "I told you so" and "thanks a lot".

If you're interested in curbing corporate power and gaining real control than read about The Meidner Plan in Sweden from the 1970s. A democratized workplace with strong unions is the best way forward to curb corporate power. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rehn–Meidner_model

If I am a Wyoming Democrat or the Wyoming Democratic Party I would 1000% cross over and encourage others to do the same and vote Liz Cheney.

Agreed! People are broken and aggrieved for different reasons. But as you said, demagogues like Trump in America, Orban in Hungry, Lukashenko in Belarus, they find their way into the minds of people like my dad and exploit what troubles them for political gain. You can be conservative or libertarian without being like that. Bob Dole, George H.W. Bush, George Will, Jack Kemp, Ron Paul, William F. Buckley, and countless others over generations of the conservative movement proved that. Unfortunately, they and their ilk have been casted aside for the Donald Trump's, Louie Gohmert's, Matt Gaetz's, Lauren Bobert's, and MGT's of the political world and it doesn't look like the Republican Party is coming back from that rink anytime soon.

I don't think that's what it's all about. For someone like my dad, a white male over 70, it's about racial grievance and the feeling that being white in America is under attack. It's also about white superiority over others. My dad is the least religious person you'll ever meet, so Christian Nationalism is far from his mind. He's a George Carlin when it comes to believing in God. He wants whites to be recognized as superior beings in society. He read a book called the Bell Curve years ago and has used that book as evidence that whites, and specifically certain sects of Jewish people, are just smarter than blacks and brown-skinned Hispanic people. To him, it is a scientific, irrefutable fact that there are intellectual differences between blacks and whites. He yearns for a time where blacks and whites live separate lives. Where schools, cultures, and daily lives were separate. He yearns for an America where you could go into polite society, the workplace, wherever and make jokes about Asians, Blacks, Jews, Muslims, etc. He also hates immigrants from the Central/South America, Mexico, the Middle East, Asia, and the Indo/Pakistan region. He believes that America is losing its heritage and standing in the world because of these people. He believes they are taking jobs from Americans and white people, driving down wages all the while. He also hates woman and taking direction from woman. Woman are out to get him and ruin his life. Feminism has made it harder to get ahead as a man and has oppressed men's rights and standing in the world, all in the name of false equity in his mind. To him, MAGA is about restoring white identity and a man's role in the world. He'll tell you he's a conservative and what not, but that's all bullshit. My dad doesn't have a pot to piss in after losing all his investments, savings, and home through multiple financial crashes since being bought out by his company in 1999. He literally lives off of Social Security, Medicare, and a part time job at a theater he works at. He's the last person that should be some strident fiscal conservative or libertarian. When my father was a child he moved around a lot and ended up settling in Ecorse, MI. Ecorse was always a multi-racial working poor town with blacks, Hispanics, and whites all living in close quarters. My father and his two brothers were violently abused as children by their father and for a period of time, abandon by their mother after she left his dad. When he was 13 his dad threw him and his two brothers out of the house and they ended up going to Ecorse to live with their mom and sister. They lived poor as church mice in a two bedroom home. After graduating high school in Ecorse my dad and his brothers were all drafted to fight in Vietnam. So after being abused and abandon as Children, they all had to go and kill for Uncle Sam in Vietnam. After Vietnam he went to work in the steel mills on Zugg Island and then got himself into the corporate world at AT&T once he got tired of working in the mills. He put himself through college at both UofM Dearborn and Wayne State. He spent 25+ years at AT&T until he was bought out when the company downsized during the dot com bubble era. From there, he would go onto lose his shirt financially and life savings through multiple economic downturns and stock market crashes. My dad is a broken individual, who never got the help he needed from the horrific childhood he experienced. Abused by his father, abandon for a time by his mother to his abusive father, and asked to kill people in Vietnam. Those are life experiences that are hard to overcome and shape you into being a toxic and self destructive person. It's why my dad drinks, it's why he reads books like The Bell Curve to feel justified in his moral superiority, it's why he's racist, xenophobic, sexist, and more. First and foremost, beyond his identity politics, he wants everyone to be equally miserable like he has been. I think for many in the MAGA community they are just miserable human beings and want others to feel the same way they do. So the hope and optimism of a Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, or Elizabeth Warren is a turnoff to them. Beyond being miserable, as I mentioned above, they want the whiteness of America restored, which to them is the Great Again part of MAGA. Having a woman, person of color, or someone of a different religion in power is a troubling sign that they are losing their grasp on what makes America, America. Again, you can talk to my dad about him being a small government conservative, but that's all bullshit. Misery loves company and so do racists. Intolerance, grievance, and misery are what really drive my dad towards the MAGA movement. I suspect it drives others as well. For the record, I still have a great relationship with my dad and so does my sister. We argue about politics from time to time and he sends me stupid right-wing chain emails about current events or whatever and I just ignore and delete them. My father was good to me as a kid, when he wasn't drinking and yelling all the time. He could never bring himself to spank me or my sister as kids because he knew how much he hated it as a child. He is a far better father to us than he was husband to either of his ex-wives. That said, he's still who he is and wants America restored to some former glory it never really had.