Obsidian Wings

Boots on the ground

by Doctor Science

The second weekend in October I went down to Philadelphia with a bunch of other NJ Clinton volunteers to do Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) canvassing. PA, of course, is a "battleground" state, and NJ is not. We don't even have a Senate seat up this year.

It turns out I'm not a cost-effective canvasser these days: because of my knees, I move too slowly and painfully, especially up and down the lovely stone stoops in Center City. But I did register one voter ahead of the deadline, and talked to a bunch of people. And the next day I came down with bronchitis and I've been sick ever since.

Since I'm not going to be able to do much more than office support work (data entry, etc.) for the Hillary campaign before November 8th, I'm urging you-all to seriously consider signing up to work some part of Saturday, November 5th through Election Day. They'll need LOTS of people to canvass door-to-door, others to make phone calls, but there will be work for shy people, too: data entry, office support, and driving people to the polls.

It's not that the Presidential race is close and Every Vote Counts lest we have a horrible re-run of 2000: Sam Wang of Princeton Election Consortium (accept no substitutes! Your Yoda he will be!) gives a Bayesian probability of 99% that Hillary will be the winner.

Yet now Republican Senators are talking about not approving *any* possible Hillary nominee and letting SCOTUS be understaffed for *years*, while Representatives are already planning impeachment hearings. It's been going on for decades, but this time they're letting us know ahead of time: the Republican Party will not consider a Democratic President legitimate. When Donald Trump said he's keep us "in suspense" about whether he'd accept the election results if he lost, he was (as usual) baldly stating what the GOP already believes: democracy doesn't count if they don't win.

So we have to A) run up the score for Hillary, to make it as clear as possible how Republicans are rejecting democracy; B) get a Democratic majority in the Senate, so we can have things like a Supreme Court; C) try to get a Dem. majority in the House, so we can have things like a Federal budget.

Canvass for America! but also do it for yourself. The goal of canvassing isn't to debate people, it's to have a series of human-to-human contacts. It's extremely effective and profoundly democratic: in a democracy, power should scale with the number of human connections.

For you as a volunteer, canvassing will re-inforce the feeling of being in a democracy, where everyone is different but all have something to add. It will get you away from the people you know and regularly interact with, give you a sense of our country's scope and diversity.

Years ago in the run-up to the Iraq War, I wrote a post titled "Activism More Satisfying Than Ranting, Scientist Says". In this horribly stressful and drawn-out election season, helping GOTV will let you feel you've done something, it'll reduce your sense of helpless anxiety. It's also physically tiring, which will make it harder to get worked up over minor things.

Here's the link to learn more and to sign up. Depending on where you live, there may be lots to do nearby, or they may be looking for people to travel to the nearest "battleground". Young people, this is where you can shine! You may not have money, but you do have things like energy and better joints. Do what I can't do!

Society Hill Row Home, oil painting by Ed Ryder. The neighborhood really is that pretty, but going up and down those stone steps was *murder*. Someone bouncier than me should be doing it!

Terroristic Threats Closing Schools on Election Day

by Ugh

OMG, you mean people are taking you srsly?

Many of the schools across America that house polling booths will not be open on Election Day for the first time after parents raised fears over violence.

And what's a little harmless hanging in effigy and heads on pikes between friends, no?

An effigy depicting Hillary Clinton with a noose around her neck dangled above the crowd cheering on a Donald Trump rally in North Carolina on Wednesday....Earlier this week, Trump supporters took a model of Clinton's head and mounted it on a stake.

Meanwhile, former GOP (surprise!) Congresspersonthing and low rent a$$ hat coward* Joe Walsh (and deadbeat dad to boot - party of family values!) tweeted "On November 8th, I’m voting for Trump. On November 9th, if Trump loses, I’m grabbing my musket. You in?"  But it's just civil disobedience, he says, wink wink nudge nudge say no more!

This has caused me to wonder, his cowardly walking back notwithstanding, exactly who are you going to threaten and - if things go the way you clearly want them to - shoot with that musket?  Are you going to march on the White House?  City hall?  Go out Zimmermanning?  I mean, there are going to have been 65,000,000+ people that voted for Hillary by the time November 8 ends, are you going after them to get "your" country back and defend your fever dream version of the U.S. Constitution?  No, fnck you.

More broadly, this is the inevitable result of the national GOP constant de-legitimizing Democratic Presidents dating back to (I'm guessing) at least Carter, having reached its zenith with Obama and the birthers, and the widespread voter fraud propaganda based on lies with the goal of providing a fig leaf for the purposeful disenfranchisement of African American voters (it's 2016, do you know where your Jim Crow is?  How many GOP congressional votes do you think the 24th Amendment would get were it proposed in Congress today?).  Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Ted Cruz, and empty suited boy wonder* Marco Rubio - all Trump voters and endorsers, lest it be forgotten, you need to be out on the stump repudiating all this sh1t, but you're not because you're' worried about being re-elected.  tl;dr for this paragraph - Trump is the natural result of a GOP base that has been catered to by the "elites" and not some kind of Mule-like aberration.  

And don't get me started on this nascent movement to block any and all Clinton SCOTUS nominees, per rat-faced crap weasel* Ted Cruz.  What happened to the oh so very principled position of letting the people have their say on the SCOTUS nominee via the Presidential election?  Oh, you made that sh1t up on the fly on a weekend, of course you did.

Misogyny, also, too.

*Yes it's very substantive name calling, bite me.

Besides Obsess about Politics....

by wj

Wonkie suggested "an open thread where we share stuff we do (besides obsess about politics), because I'm pretty sure this is an accomplished group of folks who do all kinds of interesting things." So why not? (Well, I suppose there might be an argument for waiting until after the elections, so we will be less obsessed. But would I even remember in two weeks?)

Ask, and it shall be given unto you....

the liberal coastal elites speak!

by russell

actually, it's a research project on US economic competitiveness at Harvard.

what they say is: the biggest impediment to US economic growth and vitality is government dysfunction.

an interesting piece.

First Tme in my Lifetime -- Open Thread

by wj

Because it's important to keep track of what is really important in life. And the Cubs are going to the World Series for the first time since before I was born. Not only that, they did it with the first time a team has faced the minimum number of opposing hitters (27) in a post-season game since . . . 1956: Don Larson's perfect game.

Now we just need to see something not seen since before women had the vote: a World Series victory. Go Cubs!

Signifying Nothing - your 3rd "debate" open threadedness

by Ugh

Fnck it, let's do this thing.  I'm looking forward to a substantive discussion of Trump's tax reform plan and Hillary's infrastructure spending proposal.  My guess is that Hillary may have the upper hand in the discussion because she better understands the basics of american civic institutions in general and the operations of the federal government of the United States in particular, which is, of course, all anyone really cares about in this election cycle.  She's also not stark raving mad, but YMMV.

How many weeks until this misery ends, or perhaps begins?  

Open thread. 

Dylan

by liberal japonicus

I'm really busy, so with little ado, a thread for your thoughts on and favorite lyrics by the newest Nobel laureate (note to self: when exactly does someone become a Nobel Laureate? Is Sartre a Laureate even though he turned down the prize?). A link or two, and you're on your own...

2nd Debate Open Thread

by wj

(Just because who knows where things will go tonight?)

It has occurred to me. Baring divine intervention (or demonic intervention; take your pick) it's pretty obvious by now how this election will turn out. Only two questions remain:
- What will happen down-ballot? (AKA How big will it be?)
- How does the GOP recover?

Given the number of down-ballot Republican candidates who are "un-endorsing" or otherwise explicitly bailing on Trump, it appears that they, at least, think he is going to do them significant damage. Yeah, some of them may actually be acting on principle here. But let's face it, anyone really acting on principle (or concern for character or suitability) acted months ago. Figure the professionals, when it comes to elections and winning them, just might know what they are doing.

And it's not hard to see why. You can win, at least in some places, even while trashing every minority in sight. It might even win you votes, especially if you do it carefully. But start trash-talking white women? That's not a minority in those places. And their husbands, and fathers, (most of them anyway) also tend to take it badly.

But look a little further ahead. All those folks that Trump has bad-mouthed are not going away. Nor are their memories. So what does the GOP do to recover with them -- which it must do if it ever wants to win another national election. And, increasingly, a lot of state and local elections. The post-mortem on the 2012 election laid out the need in general terms. But what specific steps do they take?

I've got one off-the-wall idea. Suppose, in 2020, the GOP ran a ticket of Nikki Haley and Susanna Martinez (listed in alphabetical order for the moment). Yeah, I know there is zero chance of that happening -- work with me here. At a stroke, the perception of the Republicans' attitudes towards women, and towards minorities in general (and Hispanics in particular), undergoes a significant change. It may not be totally persuasive, but it's obviously a big step in the right direction.

Could such a ticket win the general election (in the massively unlikely event that it got nominated)? That depends on a) how Clinton has been doing, and especially b) how the economy is doing for most of the country. But win or lose, it would change the conversation significantly.

If anyone has an alternate specific action or three, feel free to share. It will give you something to talk about until the debate provides new fodder.

Shelter from the Storm

by Doctor Science

Hurricane Matthew is nearing Florida. I really hope everyone who lives on Florida's Atlantic-side barrier islands has evacuated. I don't know if any of the regulars here are in the strike zone, but my best web-design client is an antique store in West Palm Beach. I really hope they got their stock moved to the second floor or, better yet, inland.

Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge are speculating that the National Weather Service is crying wolf about Matthew, the better to support the leftist climate change plot. This is why we can't have nice things, and why the NWS FAQ has to cover the inadvisability of nuclear responses to storm systems.

Keep sane, keep dry, keep safe.

Storm, Bahamas, 1885 watercolor by Winslow Homer.

Are our National Security State learnin'?

by Ugh

It seems the NSA has another leaky contractor on its hands, as the WaPo reports.  This may be the person responsible for the hacking tools that appeared online in August getting there.  Like Snowden, this person works for contractor Booz Allen, Hamilton, which one would think might cause the NSA to ask who these government contractors are actually working for, or not.  Gotta keep open the possibility of a nice payday in the private sector doing the same thing you were doing for the government, only without the restrictive pay scale.

There is also the report that Yahoo! adapted its spam filter to scan for a specific "signature" (whatever that is) and " involved the systematic scanning of all Yahoo users’ emails rather than individual accounts."  Gee, nothing could go wrong there.  It's time to overrule Smith v. Maryland and require the government to get these orders from a regular court and not the FISC monstrosity.  And, you know, to let people sue if their rights are violated instead of invoking the state secrets privilege.  The fncking gag orders alone are an affront to Democracy and the rule of law.  But hey, terrorism.

Speaking of rights violations, the Bush Administration's state sponsored torture program is the gift that keeps on giving.  "Jose Rodriguez, who was the head of the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, and John Rizzo, the agency’s former acting general counsel, [must] submit to depositions about a program that used methods widely condemned as torture."  Jose Rodriguez, Jose Rodriguez, that name rings a bell for some reason..... Oh.  This legacy is a sufficient reason to reject the GOP's occupation of the Executive Branch for the foreseeable future - it's all but written into the party platform and of course enthusiastically supported by their current Presidential nominee.  And don't forget Mitt "Double Guantanamo" Romney.