DL Open Thread Wednesday May 17 2023
Here is some stuff that happened… Is Carper really running? Roll Call is asking.
Democratic Sen. Thomas R. Carper has yet to announce his plans as well and after Cardin, he had the lowest fundraising total among Democrats whose terms are up next year, raising just $195,000 in the first quarter. The 76-year-old incumbent has held public office in Delaware since Jimmy Carter was president.
If Carper decides not to run for a fifth term, Democratic Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester would be the favorite to succeed him. She already represents the entire state as the at-large representative, and a woman of color, with her resume, would be hard to beat in a Democratic primary. General elections in Delaware are more of a formality these days.
Let me throw cold water on this. He doesn’t need more money than he already has in his campaign treasury. He will be running unopposed in the nations smallest political media market.
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Hostage taking pays off for GOP. Biden apologists will say that Biden, unlike past Democratic Presidents, is dealing with actual Republican psychos, not the pretend Republican psychos of yore.
US debt ceiling: Biden and Republicans hopeful of a deal
Florida Dems Shock GOP With Jacksonville Mayor Win
Jacksonville was previously the largest city in the country to have a Republican mayor.
Democrats keep majority in Pa. House after Heather Boyd wins special election in Delaware Co.
The seat opened up in March after the resignation of Democratic Rep. Mike Zabel.
Biden strikes me as one of those sad old time-y centrist Dems who keep thinking at that old GOP is about to reassert itself. I mean even if his plan was to “not negotiate” a part of that strategy SHOULD HAVE BEEN building up the non-congressional alternatives like invoking the 14th or minting the coin. Instead Biden undercut his own position:
Neither minting the coin nor litigating the 14th will do it. Yes creditors will be paid, but markets will see either option as a gimmick casting doubt on stability and “full faith and credit.” Interest rates for US borrowing will go up, therefore recession and Republican win in 2024.
That’s how Republicans figure it, yes. Ever since B Clinton pointed out the correlation between the economy and presidential elections, Republicans have treated it as a magic bullet.
People who aren’t Republicans buying into their narrative like this is the whole reason it works.
It’s the exact same gimmick as fiat currency, hence the markets would be fine with it lol
If the markets “would be fine with it” it would have happened by now.
Lol. Right. Because “the markets” never irrationally overreact to what might happen to try to push for their preferred outcome. That would be totally out of character for “the markets”🤣
Oh and there are no other political forces at play. Just “the markets” fear mongering ok
You could have just said, yeah, you’re right, actually it is exactly the same concept as fiat currency and everyone knows this. But here we are.
North Carolina MAGAts override Governor’s veto of draconian anti-abortion law:
https://apnews.com/article/abortion-veto-override-north-carolina-4282913637b499490494dd3e3cce3478
Anybody spending vacation dollars on the Outer Banks this summer?
DeSantis backlash in Florida? D’s win Jacksonville mayor’s race:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/democrat-donna-deegan-flips-jacksonville-mayors-office-major-upset-rcna84791
Reminds me of a song. Nathan Arizona will surely approve:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di9JCGAK8xI
It’s easy to instill fear when your candidate is 80 plus years old, as noted by everyone Joe is showing his advanced age. The Dems have failed to produce a younger candidate, in turn the Republicans are playing with fire, hoping to blame somebody else when the house burns down and the economy crashes. The American electorate remains third rate and anything but well informed so a Trump victory is possible. As noted Biden remains an old school centrist Dem and still hopes the Republicans will revert to a sane, functional party. The rest of us know that’s fantasy at best.
No, they haven’t ‘failed’ to produce a younger candidate. Several of them ran against Biden last time. Several of them would be viable alternatives–if Biden wasn’t freezing the field.
If he caves on this debt ceiling thing, which he’s well on his way to doing, I’d love to see someone step up and run on the platform of effective leadership by using power the way it should be used. It just takes one.
No more of this institutional comity bullshit.
On the Jacksonville, Fla., mayor’s race:
This happens quite a lot in recent years — the candidate who spends the most loses — and it’s happened to both Democrats and Republicans. This illustrates that how the money is spent is much more important than how much, particularly in the current targeted-ad age.
Back when TV ads were crucially important, money was a barometer of audience reach. It’s not anymore, but reporters still treat it that way because it’s some of the scant actual data available to them.
Didn’t work at all in the Philly mayor’s race either, where the two men, Jeff Brown and Alan Domb, spent shitloads of money on TV ads, and finished 4th and 5th respectively.
Soviegn governments issuing fiat currency based on the total value of the economy (even idled labor and potential value) is a gimmick. The gimmick works perfectly fine for many very basic reasons.
Good day sirs
It is entirely possible to be 100% correct and still lose. The current gimmick works because we all agree not to call it a gimmick. Once we switch to a new unfamiliar gimmick the public discussion will be all about the gimmick.
Hell, Republicans and media have convinced most of us that the federal budget is like balancing your checkbook.
Some moron republican the other day said we should do away with elections and basically end democracy and i wonder, have we already? the likes of the bidens, carpers, feinsteins, mccarthys, pelosis, et al, have been in positions of power so long has their presence worn away true democracy since the largest segment of the population isnt really represented?
El Som – Yes, I knew Root Boy when he was still Foster MacKenzie III. I once dated a Rootette.
Saw him three times. Third time was somewhere in northern Virginia. Whole crowd ‘did the gator’. He had quite the following.
I saw Root Boy perform more times than I can count. One of my favorite encounters with him was while attending a Baltimore Orioles baseball game at Memorial Stadium, Root & I crossed paths and I excitedly called out “Root”! He looked at me and put his index finger to his lips to shush me as if he did not want anyone to recognize him.
Saw him one time in NYC. The opening band was The Sick F*cks, featuring two female singers dressed as BDSM nuns. I’ll never forget this inspirational conversation:
Root: “What kind of drugs are you fellas on?
We respond.
Root: “Got any?”
Plus, I’ve told this before, but it bears repeating. Saw him at the Chester Cabaret, which was actually in West Chester. The first set was just his band, with sax player extraordinaire Ron Holloway performing from the top of the bar.
And then, the Greatest Entrance Of All-Time: They brought Root Boy out on a hand truck and dumped him onstage.
On more than one occasion a Root Boy set was cut short due to his inability to physically continue. He would consume anything an audience member handed him during the course of a show.
It was always a striking contrast between the professional skill of his bands and Root Boy’s obvious impairment.
“These people are crazy. This is the United States government. First of all, you never have to default because you print the money, I hate to tell you, OK?”
https://fox2now.com/news/trump-u-s-will-never-default-because-you-print-the-money/
I hate to tell you….
What really pisses me off, and it happens all the fucking time, is that Democrats unilaterally disarm when dealing with Rethug terrorists.
I don’t give a shit if the ‘coin’ IS a gimmick. I don’t give a shit if using the 14th Amendment IS a gimmick. They work. The DEBT CEILING IS A GIMMICK. Won’t these feckless fucks (OK, so I’m channelling Logan Roy) EVER stop snatching defeat from the jaws of victory?
Jeezus Effin’ Christ!
Yeah. My young sons who are far to the left of me – are registered as “I’s”and they hate the Democratic Party, in part, because they view it as the party of greedheads & obsequious pushovers. Which it is, let’s face it.
The goddam 80 year olds in charge are letting the people in their 20’s go for no good goddam reason.