US Politics, June 2020 — You have to dominate.

my best friend lives in Philly and works for WHYY, he sent me Jon Ehren's stuff about Fishtown as it was happening. glad it got some attention.

it's pretty obvious by now that Pelosi is good at some aspects of her job, like organizing her caucus, while being fucking terrible at the part where she's the de facto face and voice of the entire party.

― Evans on Hammond (evol j), Tuesday, June 2, 2020 11:25 AM (fourteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I think "public relations" for members of Congress used to just mean cultivating relationships with the press. In other words, it was never that public: It was about calling up reporters and feeding them stories and talking points. But the current media environment demands a much more direct approach. Younger pols like AOC get this. Many older ones do not, or seem uncomfortable with it.

it's pretty obvious by now that Pelosi is good at some aspects of her job, like organizing her caucus, while being fucking terrible at the part where she's the de facto face and voice of the entire party.

For better or for worse, that's Joe Biden as soon as he's the nominee, and to some extent right now.

xp to jaymc

yeah. to use a tiresome phrase, she has trouble "thinking on her feet" these days. there was a time when statements were prepared and delivered as part of a communications strategy which politicians could somewhat control. now, an effective politician needs to be able to say something powerful (or at the bare minimum make a coherent point) at a moment's notice, in situations that are out of their control

cool

House Dems had an emotional caucus call today with some members crying as they spoke.

They agree that they need a bold response and quickly. But exactly what that is is up for debate.

Dems will talk again Thursday, w/ the call being entirely devoted to this discussion. https://t.co/nvevIM3nmQ

— Heather Caygle (@heatherscope) June 2, 2020

that is cool, actually

I just think - maybe the bold response should get figured out before Thursday? Things are happening pretty fast.

sure. but it the purpose of the meeting is to develop legislation, that's gonna take time to pass anyway (especially considering that if it's decent legislation, mcconnell and trump won't let it pass)

btw, just imagine a republican in 2020 crying about civil rights

it's literally impossible

well there were a fair number of black and liberal Republicans in 1968

I just have so little faith in the Dems right now. Thursday will be another call to decide on a meeting for later next week, while events continue to outpace them.

Exactly what do you want from legislators?

Why legislate now when you can legislator, am I right?

powerful words from pelosi here:

“We would hope that the president of the United States would follow the lead of so many other presidents,” Ms. Pelosi said, “and be a healer in chief and not a fanner of the flame.”

#healerinchief

#notafanneroftheflame

her comm team is good. really, really good

#nailedit

2020: a cross between veep and idiocracy

you must admit the following scene seems a lot more realistic than it did just a few years ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGUNPMPrxvA

kushner is joe

Why legislate now when you can legislator, am I right?

― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, June 2, 2020 6:33 PM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I've got legs but
I'm not a legislator

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muhFxXce6nA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muhFxXce6nA

Fun to think about what the republican response to Tea Partiers getting teargassed and Obama calling for greater force would have been.

Hard to say. They do like to be dominated, after all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rczBM8BnQBk

Trying to imagine explaining this turn of events to someone from 1980 and not getting very far

Kpop fans are taking over M*GA and pro-police hashtags and crashing law enforcement snitch apps and it’s beautiful https://t.co/h2HzGj9MEx pic.twitter.com/uUPgHOu76W

— Laura Hudson (@laura_hudson) June 3, 2020

Well I mean the ROK wasn’t really even culturally equipped to have its current entertainment industry in 1980, for one thing

Steve King out, it seems.

I know we aren’t supposed to express our defeatist fears here, but seeing the photo of the troops lined up on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial really hammered home for me that this week is the end of democracy. Trump’s absolutely got the police and military behind him 100%, he will never step down. It’s over.

The military are not behind Trump, they’re beholden to a strict hierarchy, their service contracts, and to the people next to them in line. They’re as scared of this as anyone.

Cops have powerful unions and can quit anytime they want. Don’t pile the military in with them.

yeah, that's a wee bit dramatic. the troops were National Guard, and they weren't standing on the memorial out of allegiance to Trump. they were requested by Defense Secretary Esper from other states, and those that were willing sent theirs there (many Democratic state Governors also refused to send their guard there).

Trump would need the support of the entire fuckin' army to pull off a coup like that, and.....nah. we're nowhere near that.

most of the military guys I know hate his fucking guts

my National Guard ex hates his fucking guts

Fully aware I’m being overdramatic, I’ve just never felt as hopeless as I’ve been this week watching cops just go full bore on protestors. While I believe a fair number of National Guards hate him, it’s that “following orders” mindset that got us where we are today. I’m just freaked the fuck out.

do any of you think that this will mark a sort of seismic shift against trump? it seems like republican leadership would see the writing on the wall here. he's gonna fucking lose, and he is a fucking asshole that pretty much everyone on the planet hates. (of course, i have thought that this moment would come hundreds of times over the last 3 years....)

yeah, that's a wee bit dramatic.

Jon you seem like a great guy but "wee bit dramatic" is a kind description in general

I don't think it's ever going to come from Leadership, unless it's October and they have given up. even today, the most GOP Senators could manage is to claim his tweets "aren't helpful" or "aren't constructive", and when asked about the Insurrection Act, it was the same rhetoric they pulled with the "what if he fires Mueller" line of questioning - "hopefully he doesn't do that!", "I think it's premature to be talking about things he hasn't done yet", "well, I THINK it's premature, but if things change" type bet hedging.

and most of them defended his little photo-op and teargas dispersal.

voters, on the other hand, I think the way he's performed in two crises may siphon even more independents. i do think this is going to hurt him in the race, definitely

xxpost I'm not meaning to have a go at jon, just that the post in general was dramatic. but I also understand just about everybody here is dealing with a cacophony of anxiety so I understand how every development can have us on edge.

I don’t think jon is wrong to feel freaked out. This is all very fucked up, none of us should normalize it in any way. We’re all in a fucked up situation.

xps don't forget the old people who aren't thrilled about being abandoned to the plague

Personally I think he’s fucked himself and with any luck he’s fucked Republican control of the Senate. This many people turning out under the threat of COVID, tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets? Imagine how many will turn out just to vote.

This assumes we have something like “peacetime” come November. Nobody really knows what winter will bring. But people hate him. They hate him so much it’s frankly impressive.

I knew I shouldn’t have posted that, just being cooped up at home for three months and now being surrounded by horrible news, images of shocking violence everywhere I turn and that goddamn orange idiot stirring shit up at every opportunity has my anxiety at an all time level.

I’ll just say it’s hard not that let worst case scenarios spiral out in your head during all of this shit.

“hard not to”

it ain't like that man, you're stressed, we're all stressed, and this is how it manifests itself sometimes. you're good people.

I don't know if this represents a shift against Trump and the GOP, but if this goes long enough and their numbers sink low enough, they will eventually try to find some way to make peace just to save what's left of their political lives. Those are very big ifs though.

Apparently old-people social media (local Facebook groups) are et up with people freaking out about Antifa invasions. One woman I know said her grandparents own a business in a small town (a town not menaced by anything at all) and they spent the night at the business last night because they were afraid it was about to be looted.

Tons of troll posts circulating warning about Antifa forces gathering in, like, mall and Target parking lots.

at the mall, stealing cds from Sam Goody

to be fair, once all the nazis wrap up their urban sojourns they'll probably throw in a little light vandalism once they get home just to dot all their i's