American politics 2016: Lawyers, Guns, and D-Money

Saw this take by a Ohio State prof Kevin Boyle in his NY Times review of Fear Itself

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/books/review/fear-itself-by-ira-katznelson.html?_r=0

It’s a powerful argument, swept along by Katznelson’s robust prose and the imposing scholarship that lies behind it. Only at the very end of the book, though, does he acknowledge another side of the story. For all its compromises, the New Deal gave millions of Americans a sense of belonging — a sense of rights — they’d never had before. That sense swept through the industrial working class, where union buttons suddenly became badges of honor. It swept through all those ethnic communities that until the 1930s had been treated as not quite American. And despite the racial dynamics Katznelson so ably describes, it swept through African-­American communities too.

No doubt that’s why Bubbeh Frima saw Roosevelt as such a towering figure, because where she lived up in Washington Heights, America seemed a better place than it had been before he took office. That’s also why, just a few years after Roosevelt’s death, Jim Crow began to come tumbling down, shattered by a social movement that had been invigorated by the promise, if not necessarily the practice, of the New Deal era. Roosevelt can’t be given credit for that extraordinary triumph, of course; that belongs to the men, women and children who risked their lives on the streets of the South. But he played a role, however indirect. And any assessment of his legacy has to set that fact alongside the concessions that marred his administration and blighted our less than perfect union.

i'm reading Fear Itself right now (well i put it down for a bit cos it's a slog),

aw man I raced through it – it would have taken a Theodore Bilbo for me to put it down

holy shit @ kirk/duckworth debate. wtf is wrong with him

Is she looking at a layout of the Senate offices this morning?

gotta say, viewing american electoral shifts as primarily driven by race makes a hell of a lot more sense than the crappy old clintonian view of seeing them as driven by economics.

once you recognize something's happening, you can see how long it's been happening for. now that people are finally openly asking "what the hell is wrong with white people?", the political shift of whites without college educations from democrats to republicans makes more sense.

they've embraced an ideology that has systematically destroyed working-class economic opportunity because the republicans made them white. italians and polish and slavs didn't used to be white people; their political shift reflects their racial shift.

Roanoke (Virginia) Times endorses McCrory for NC governor; thanks him and HB2 for sending so many jobs to Virginia

Close race in NC for governor. Roanoke paper may not get its wish

Is there any actual chance California seceedes? Seems... possible.

That didn't go well the last time it was tried.

That didn't go well the last time it was tried.

― marzipandemonium (Ye Mad Puffin)

pretty sure questions of historical precedent are off the table at this point

great swatches, to use the parlance of the time, of Northern California are as far right as much of the more isolated parts of the west so idk how that'd work out

just means it's finally time for jefferson to achieve statehood!

god no. they'd just give us two more reactionary senators.

"us"

oh my god what the fuck was this guy smoking

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmDhFCTAaPM

lol started giggling uncontrollably at :35

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trumps-infrastructure-plan-comes-important-catch

There are some real drawbacks to an infrastructure plan like this one.

The first is that’s probably a more expensive route, because it costs more for private businesses, which pay higher interest rates and need to make a profit, to borrow than for governments to do the same. As a Washington Post report added last week, the plan “would likely impose substantial costs in the form of tolls and fees on the people using the new infrastructure.”

Which leads us to the second and related problem: “new construction would only occur in communities where it is urgently needed if private investors were convinced users could afford to pay,” the Post explained.

In other words, areas with lower-income residents would be the least likely to see the benefits, because private investors would seek bigger returns elsewhere.

W/ a Dem minority in the Senate and the House will there be any way to change such a bill, if it happens?

Los Angeles has experimented with all kinds of private solutions to traffic and they're all fucking worthless.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Thursday announced his support for Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) to lead the Democratic National Committee.

Sanders gave his pick for DNC chair in an interview with the Associated Press. Ellison, perhaps more than other candidates to succeed former chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), has put himself forward for the job. According to an October Politico report, Ellison had reached out to state party chairs, Hillary Clinton campaign officials and other Democrats connected to the committee.

Ellison and Sanders were brothers in arms for much of the presidential campaign season. Ellison, one of two Muslim members of Congress, was the second member of that body to endorse Sander’s bid for the Democratic nomination for president.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/sanders-supports-keith-ellison-dnc-chair

pleeeeeeease let this happen.

https://cpc-grijalva.house.gov/

I have always liked the ideas of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, that Ellison co-led, but they did not seem very effective in getting those ideas out --on the hill, to the Obama administration, to the media, or to the public. If he gets this position at the DNC I hope he will carry more weight and thus be more effective than he was at the little known CPC.

pleeeeeeease let this happen.

― Karl Malone

are there other options? is there anybody in the party now more powerful than sanders?

Chuck Schumer technically!

nyt mentioned tim kaine as a potential new leader and i had to laugh

I got to see Corey Booker speak tonight at an event. I feel sort of bad for the way I gut reacted to him, because everything he said was right and his stories are rather amazing and he is so much on the right side of so many issues and obviously way more in touch with actual poor and working class people than most politicians, and he was very good in the beginning of his speech about the Trump against the backdrop of history. But he went into what felt almost like a rehearsed, method-acted dramatic performance about his time in Newark, and it felt so like he had been crafting his narrative for this piece even as he lived it. Maybe I was just in a very depressed mood. Maybe it felt surreal against the backdrop of a luxury hotel ballroom in a room full of well-fed lawyers. Maybe I just hate the contemporary American style of political oratory. I would vote for him in a second over most options. And he does have a definite charisma. Something still rang false and I don't know why.

He was talking about very real, intense stuff, including a kid he knew who was murdered. Yet there was something about how he played up the drama of the story so much that felt disconnected. Maybe it's just the impossibility of seeming fully authentic when you have to get up there and do that in front of crowd after crowd.

he's a politician and that means weaponizing people's stories to enact change. booker is expert at that but his style is a tetch overzealous and polished so he can come off feeling like a company man. that said, we desperately need some of those guys on the side of angels right now.

I suggest reading some of the many fine articles about his falsity from the last several years. Your instincts are correct imho.

https://newrepublic.com/article/114197/cory-bookers-role-startup-waywire-shady-unsurprisingly

http://www.salon.com/2013/08/13/dont_vote_for_cory_booker/

https://newrepublic.com/article/114300/cory-booker-wins-primary-hes-even-worse-critics-say

yeah the question is in whose service is he weaponizing stories. It reminds me a lot of the charter school pitches, disarming opposition with the poor black children who shouldn't have to play the lottery for education.

Tammy Duckworth probably can't make the Obama four-year leap, right? Just for putting up with Kirk's racist bullshit at the debate and then crushing him I'm kind of ready to start campaigning for her.

well she was born in thailand so...

so, shall we have enormous faith in Schumer?

https://twitter.com/ebruenig/status/797108303344074754

*doom*

(thats from THE CORNER, last July)

well she was born in thailand so...

― nomar, Friday, November 11, 2016 9:33 AM (thirty-eight minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

:( bummer

Tammy Duckworth probably can't make the Obama four-year leap, right? Just for putting up with Kirk's racist bullshit at the debate and then crushing him I'm kind of ready to start campaigning for her.

― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Friday, November 11, 2016 5:31 PM (forty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Gonna bet all my moneys Kamala Harris will. California is setting itself up as the Opposition.

I had this thought as well but idk if Kamala really has the star power to do it. If this is her ambition she will have to hit the ground running and make a splash somehow (similar to Warren)

I am so thankful I live in California

Yeah, was just about to post, hopeful talk of fast tracking, but I dunno much about her.

xp her father was an American, so she's a natural-born citizen.

Kamala is great, I voted for her, would vote for her for prez w out a second's hesitation

shes cozy as fuck with big law tho.. the head of the office a firm in LA I was maybe fired from (lol) is married to her

http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article2607685.html

then again if you look at clinton's top donors half of it is big law firms

Lol, "big law." Of all the things this election has done, it has doubtlessly raised the bar for what makes me wring my hands.

big law defends our civil liberties in its spare time sometimes so

I'm on Team Tammy 100% if she's eligible

She is unequivocally eligible.

okay good

a big law firm I was not fired from is representing trump in the trump u case.. if I still worked there I would on the brink of killing myself.

California is setting itself up as the Opposition.

the west coast, ahem

what kind of trials/suits is the sitting POTUS protected from? this was a bar discussion last night.

anything involving his behavior prior to being elected is open to litigation. once in office, he is only answerable to congress.