marceline

I'm with you. It's not just depressing it's EXHAUSTING. I'm so tired of government by tweet and I don't care if that tweet comes from Trump or AOC. I'm tired of stunt queens and nihilists. I'm tired of the bigotry, including the bigotry I'm seeing from my own side. (Screaming "no more white men" only drives away potential allies.) At the same time, seeing the constant failures of the media to adjust to this new reality - as evidenced by the reaction to the Barr memo - leaves me despairing.

I can't testify about Florida but I know there's been plenty of outreach here in Ohio. At least in Cuyahoga and Lorain counties which have sizeable Puerto Rican communities. It started with just basic services like job fairs and help with housing but the political outreach is happening through those local groups. The issue with Never Trumpers like Wilson (who I should add I respect as a writer.) is that they are still at the end of the day Republicans. These are the people who sat by while their party turned into a doomsday cult of Nazis, pedophiles and Evangelicals waiting for the rapture and they still can't take responsibility for that. They need Democrats to save this country from what they've unleashed and they resent it. They also think that the Democratic base is motivated the same way as Republicans: by fear and hate. Don't get me wrong I'm seeing a lot stupid stuff I don't like happening in the Dem primary but advice from Never Trumpers isn't going to take because - to paraphrase an old 12 step saying - their best thinking got us here.

I honestly think that the thing that will do both Omar and AOC in at the polls is the constant drama they create. Remember back when we were talking about Joe Biden? So much of the appeal of Joe Biden would simply be a return to normalcy. Trump creates so much chaos the last thing some of us want is chaos agents on the left. Even people like us who are focused on politics are tired. Omar and AOC focus more on their online fan clubs than on their constituents. Interviews with some of Omar's constituents show people who really just want to keep their heads down because they know how quickly things can turn. They don't want to have to keep defending her words and actions. As for AOC, I think the Amazon pullout is going to drag her down. No matter what one thinks of the company, you can't run on "I threw away thousands of jobs."

The truth is we simply can't function in outrage mode all the time. Also, a lot of the people screaming the loudest didn't take this [!@#$%^&*] seriously in 2016 (or 2014 or 2010). I won't march with people who didn't vote.

This is just a dress rehearsal of what Trump would do if he were impeached without being removed from office. He'd go scorched earth. Republicans have gone full fascism.

Another Parkland suicide.

William Barr and Mueller have been friends for years. Mueller has attended the wedding of Barr's children. Their wives apparently attend Bible study together. I want to believe that Mueller would have some kind of backup plan if he thought Barr was compromised. I'm not saying I trust Barr either. After all, he's a Republican and they have pretty much turned on this country but I don't think he's a Trump lackey like Whitaker was. If Whitaker were still Acting AG we'd be pretty doomed. Keep in mind that a lot of people Trump has named to positions, including many of his judges have ruled against him. This is part of the benefit of the fact that Trump doesn't pay attention to details.

Completely non-political post: the chicken pox are how I discovered soap operas. I was head to toe in spots. I had them everywhere: mouth, ears, eyelids and my torso was just ravaged. I still have some of the scars to this day. I was laying in bed and ended up watching "Search for Tomorrow" with my mom. It must have been sweeps week because Renata Sutton was in the hospital about to give birth and the hospital was on fire. She ended up giving birth in a storage room with oxygen tanks in it and as her husband carried the newborn baby to safety there was an explosion and she died in a classically soapy death scene. ("David...take...care...of our daughter." *dies*. David screams "RENATAAAAA!") I sat there on the bed with tears streaming down my calamine-lotioned face and soaking into the blanket. The rest is history. The double irony is that a few years later I would be home sick with a really nasty flu and that's when I would see my first episode of "All My Children" and discover my very first supercouple: Cliff and Nina. 😊

You know the more I see the insanity coming from people trying to "push the party left" the more I'm ready for Biden.

My understanding is that some of Bevin's nine kids were foster children so basically this lunatic took kids who were already victims of bad circumstances and chose to abuse them some more.

Everything about Bernie 2020 is nothing but a warmed over version of his failed 2016 campaign with extra viciousness, extra lying, and extra negativity.

Beto's in Cleveland today. It's telling that he's doing his appearance at a restaurant that's a fave with the factory workers in the area because it's right by the steel mill.

What I find amazing is how one of the right-wing's favorite causes is trying to force everyone to say "Merry Christmas" specifically so they can erase everyone who doesn't celebrate it. So exactly how is that supposed to appeal to Jews?

I haven't run across those people but I suspect that's because Beto's been a non-issue for me. Even during his Senate race, I pretty much ignored him. I know he has a cult around him but so do a lot of the 2020 contenders. (I think the world of Kamala Harris but the cult that has risen up around her is offputting to say the least.) The difference I see is that Beto doesn't see the Democratic Party as his enemy. Bernie does. The Berners are assholes because Bernie's an [!@#$%^&*]. His whole shtick is about appealing to white male grievance. O'Rourke is all about channeling the hopey changey/JFK vibe. If he loses, I don't see him being the vengeful little prick Bernie is.

I didn't want Beto to run but watching the Berners lose their collective [!@#$%^&*] over him makes me glad he did. He can siphon off a lot of Bernie's youth support and anything that kneecaps Bernie is good for Dems.

It's weird watching the reaction to Beto O'Rourke declaring. It 's still amazing to watch how quickly people on the left will build someone up then tear them down.

Aaaaand there goes his pardon. I knew someone was waiting in the wings with state charges, I just assumed it would be Tish James.

Here's the list of all of the people charged. https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/investigations-college-admissions-and-testing-bribery-scheme For as much attention as the Hollywood types are getting, I'd like to see an investigation in to all the other people named on this list. I bet you'll find a lot of prep school types a la Brett Kavanaugh.

Me too. I saw this on Twitter and just kept reading the headlines and feeling like I was going insane.

Omar and AOC are well on their way to primary challenges.

Marceline is a jumble of mixed feelings. People have been suggesting Sherrod run for years and every time they do I've fought it tooth and nail. More than once I've said, "You'll take my senator when you pry him from my cold, dead hands!" That changed after the midterms. Ohio is just such a lost cause I feel like it doesn't deserve him. That said this was a real Sophie's Choice for me. I really do think he would be a wonderful president but the journey there would be hell and I didn't want that for him or Connie. His 2012 race was one of the most expensive in history because he was the Kochs' top target. It was a nightmare. That would pretty much be a lap dance compared to 2020 because this time he'd also be attacked Berners because of his ties to Hillary Clinton. One thing I'm grateful for is that his profile has increased. I've enjoyed seeing people "discover" him. I hope that the party realizes what an asset he is and promotes him more.

At this point Omar is either being duplicitous or stupid and I'm not interested in defending either of those things. I'm tired of watching these freshman stepping on rakes because they don't realize that real life isn't Twitter.

I'm trying to stay neutral on that until he decides whether to announce but yes, I think Brown/Harris is a solid winning combination.

I have my issues with Biden but I believe he'd be a good president. He'd do a good job helping to repair our alliances around the world, he'd help reinstitute a lot of Obama's climate policy that Trump gutted, and given that he considered selling his house to help pay for his son's cancer treatment he could do wonders for the conversation around universal health care. Let's be honest, Trump was elected as revenge for Obama. The people stanning for Kamala Harris are basically doing it because they want to elect her as revenge for Trump. (Disclaimer: I think Harris is fantastic but I didn't want her to run.) With Obama we were poised to move this country into the future. Trump was elected to drag it back into the past. That thread points to something else I've been saying. All this talk of "pushing" the Democratic Party left is really just an attempt to gentrify it and refocus it on the economic priorities of white millennials at the expense of the civil rights of marginalized groups. Like it or not, any Dem nominee will have to win black voters in the south.

Some interesting information. I'm sharing the whole thread because rarely do we get to hear about people not on social media. The media wouldn't talk to black women in the south if their lives depended on it.