4.18-19 “Bloody” Open Threads – The Progressive Wing

Hey, wasn’t this past weekend Easter Weekend? A symbol of peace, rebirth, and spring? One sure wouldn’t know it in this country. Let’s see, in the last week or so, we’ve had the shootouts in the NYC Subway, the So. Carolina Mall, and in Pittsburgh. There were fatalities in that last one, correct? I know the stork dropped me in the wrong country, on the wrong planet! 🙁 At least, our peaceful Nest is quiet, and now Open for action. Stay well and sane, everyone! 🙂

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Aint Supposed to Die A Natural Death

Well, I’ll start out with a repeat of the positive and hopeful message from Howard Zinn ’cause I forgot one celebration – Happy Easter/Passover/Ramadan/Whatever

Thanks for opening obf.

jcitybone

Thanks orl

SCOOP: Billionaire Nelson Peltz hosted a private fundraising event for @Sen_JoeManchin at his Florida estate.
GOP megadonors in attendance: Steve Schwarzman, Ken Langone & Bernard Marcus. Leon Cooperman attended.
Manchin said he's running for reelectionhttps://t.co/razylgKrHs
— Brian Schwartz (@schwartzbCNBC) April 18, 2022

orlbucfan

Oh, Palm Beach, huh? West Palm Beach is where the other folk live. Palm Beach is right on the ocean side. Got news for those lowlifes, that’s where hurricanes like to strike when they follow a certain path.

wi64

The sad thing is they fly out before the fun begins and they can afford the insurance premiums if they take a hit, then again if there’s a loophole they get the tax payer to pony up. The congresscritters they own will pass some damage recovery legislation to help them out– the game rolls on.

jcitybone

1) "we have to run corrupt ex-CIA conservadems, who prevent us from passing anything, in every swing district to pander to moderate voters"
2) "grrr stupid young people are to blame for not bothering to vote in the midterms"
— ryan cooper (@ryanlcooper) April 18, 2022

orlbucfan

If they know how to read and write, they know how to think. Cooper knows that. They can register, vote and legally write-in their choices, if necessary.☮️👍

jcitybone

The time to #CancelStudentDebt is now. @POTUS can take decisive action and make this happen for more than 45 million with the stroke of a pen. https://t.co/XiYsEHnTVE
— Congressman Chuy García (@RepChuyGarcia) April 18, 2022

orlbucfan

Well, Byedone is too RW and senile.

jcitybone

https://www.clevescene.com/news/plain-dealer-endorses-nina-turner-over-shontel-brown-for-congress-after-testy-interview-38762379

The editorial board of cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer has once again endorsed former Cleveland City Councilwoman and State Senator Nina Turner in the 11th district congressional race. In the May primary, Turner will face Shontel Brown, the former County Councilwoman and current chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party who defeated her in the 2021 special election and is now the incumbent in the seat formerly held by Marcia Fudge.
Arguing that Turner would be a “fighter” in Washington and would govern in the tradition of former Congressman Louis Stokes, the editorial board said Turner had “the passion, experience, toughness and out-of-the-box thinking to give Cleveland a powerful, socially committed and independent congressional voice.”
The decision looks to have been made by the director of the editorial page, Elizabeth Sullivan, and edit board members Thomas Suddes and Mary Cay Doherty. Suddes largely moderated the endorsement interview, the audio of which is available in full at the end of the PD story.
The hour-plus exchange allowed both candidates to make their case to voters. They described themselves in much the same way their campaign literature did in 2021. Shontel Brown sees herself as a cooperator, someone who can work with anyone, including those with whom she disagrees, to deliver results for constituents. Turner sees herself as a fighter, someone who’s willing to go to bat for residents and the issues they care about, even if it means putting her career at risk or speaking out of turn. She stressed that while much could be accomplished in the halls of congress, there was equal power and potential in the streets. She argued that public pressure was often the most effective way to achieve change.
Both candidates agreed in broad strokes on the importance of voting rights, the urgency of providing resources for reproductive healthcare in an era when abortion rights are increasingly threatened, of taxing the wealthy and increasing employment to shore up social security, and of providing aid to Ukraine while pursuing diplomatic solutions instead of escalating a global conflict with Russia.
The vocal disagreement, which arrived later in the interview, largely concerned Shontel Brown’s decision to remain in her position as Chair of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party through the last election and the current one. Brown maintained that there was no conflict of interest, especially because the party had not endorsed in the race. She said that last year, it would have been premature to resign before she knew if she would win the congressional seat and that while she plans to relinquish the chairmanship later this year — she will not seek another term — she did not want to neglect her responsibilities or short-change her party electors by vacating the post early.
Turner rejoined that regardless of how Brown felt, there was an appearance of impropriety. Turner said Brown had enjoyed an unfair advantage and that candidates across Ohio were suffering because the chair of the Democratic Party in Cuyahoga County — the state’s most important Democratic stronghold — was only able to provide a fraction of her time and attention to the crucial tasks of voter outreach and mobilization.
The disagreement spiraled into accusations about campaign finance and comportment during the bitter, expensive 2021 special election.
The Plain Dealer granted that Brown was “congenial and pleasant,” though prone to scripted talking points, and said that she had conducted herself “reasonably well” during her first few months in office. The edit board agreed with Turner, though, that Brown should have stepped down from her leadership position in the county party.

orlbucfan

Nina has GOT to rev up her grassroots up there. This is a major endorsement. She needs to clobber Brown right between the eyes with the voters in that district.

jcitybone

https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/john-fetterman-fundraising-conor-lamb-pa-2022-20220418.html

A turbulent few weeks and hard-hitting attacks have done little to change one of the persistent realities of Pennsylvania’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate: John Fetterman has a crucial money lead.
The lieutenant governor has more than three times as much money as U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb for the final month of the primary, according to an Inquirer analysis of campaign disclosures filed Friday, a key factor since polls already show Fetterman far ahead.
The financial edge is even larger than it first looks on paper, despite Lamb reporting his best fund-raising quarter so far. That’s because a significant chunk of Lamb’s campaign funds can only be used in November’s general election, not the May primary.
Even considering the super PAC backing Lamb, Fetterman has more than twice as much to spend than Lamb and his allies — despite already outspending them both.
Democrats watching the primary believe Fetterman’s cash advantage is a huge obstacle for Lamb and State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, in that they need to both increase their own support and drag down Fetterman, an expensive proposition in a state where campaigns rely heavily on TV advertising.
Fetterman had $4.2 million in the bank as of March 31, compared with Lamb’s $2.2 million. But looking only at money available for the primary, Fetterman has $3.9 million to about $1.2 million for Lamb, according to the Inquirer analysis.
That’s because $970,000 of Lamb’s fund is designated for the general election, reflecting his reliance on big donors whose contributions often exceed the $2,900 limit that can be used in the primary. The rest gets rolled into his general election fund.
Fetterman raised $3.1 million in the first three months of the year and spent $4.3 million as the campaign took on new intensity. As usual, Fetterman has relied on small donors, with more than half of his receipts in this report coming from people who gave less than $200.
Lamb raised $1.74 million in the same time frame, his best quarter yet, and spent about $2.5 million. More than 80% of his funds came from donors who gave more than $200.
Kenyatta continued to struggle raising money, despite polling better than many predicted. He raised $306,000 and had $271,000 left for the primary’s final weeks.
Penn Progress Inc., a super PAC supporting Lamb, helped narrow the spending gap against Fetterman by chipping in $1.1 million on Lamb’s behalf, and had $833,000 left in the bank.
The group had promoted an ambitious goal of raising $8 million. It has fallen well short so far, raising just $1.9 million.
About 40% of that came from Pennsylvania donors, with most of the remainder coming from Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, and New York.
Among the 51 donors to the PAC were Constance Hess Williams, a former state senator from Montgomery County; Joshua Bekenstein, CEO of Bain Capital; and Thomas B. Hagen, who heads Erie Insurance. All three gave $250,000 each.

jcitybone

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/04/18/john-fetterman-pennsylvania-trump-country/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

Rural Democrats. The muted minority. An embattled species. Here in Adams County, Pa., which borders Maryland, 66 percent of voters went for President Donald Trump in 2020 — about the same that voted for him in 2016, and 3 percent more than went for Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee in 2012. That’s the trend in Pennsylvania, and in many parts of the country. As rural counties grow redder and redder, some Democrats have focused on winning over suburban swing voters turned off by Trumpism and trying to maximize turnout in Democrat-heavy cities.
Fetterman, 52, who is the purported Democratic front-runner for the coveted U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Republican Sen. Patrick J. Toomey, has made a show of not giving up on the red counties. These are the places where Trump campaign signs still sit in front yards and banners hang from flagpoles and porches. Several are visible along Lincoln Highway, the road leading into Gettysburg. Plus, on the edge of town, a banner on the side of a shed that says “F— Biden.”
Fetterman campaigned in these areas in 2016, when he ran for the Senate as a pro-Bernie Sanders candidate and finished second in the primary. After a similar strategy helped him become Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor two years later, he visited all 67 counties during a listening tour about legalizing pot. “This is old hat for us,” he says.
It’s mainly Democrats here at the community center, and at other such stops he has made over the months of his campaign. Fetterman has come to see them. To validate them. To listen. To feel their angst. And to advocate for legal weed, transgender rights, gay rights, ending the filibuster and immigration reform, among other Democratic touchstones.
One of those who have come out is Marty Wilder, a retired local newspaper editor who serves as a Democratic Party leader in McKean County, 150 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, where Trump won 72 percent of the vote in 2020. Wilder has lived for 40 years in Bradford, Pa., where the largest employer is the Zippo lighter plant. In recent years, when she organized rallies for Democrats, she said there were people who drove by “in their pickup trucks with their Trump flags, giving us the finger, honking. They came right up to us, especially the younger kids, right to our face.”
“I had a ‘Resist’ sticker on my car that I took off because I don’t want to deal with the harassment,” she says. “It’s pretty difficult being in such a minority.”
In Gettysburg, as Fetterman begins his spiel, a woman shouts, “We all came out of hiding for you!”
This the last of a three-stop tour. Fetterman is doing the drive in his black pickup, along with an entourage that includes campaign staffers and a security detail that follows his truck in a black SUV. He’s done the call-and-response at each one of these stops — Bedford, Chambersburg and now Gettysburg.
“Do you feel the Democratic Party has made your concerns the center of their campaign?” Fetterman asks.
“Nooooo!”
“Do you feel that we need to flip this seat blue?”
“Yes!”
“It’s critical that the Democrats do a good job reaching out to the people, that it’s going to come down to every single vote, and that means every single person in this room.”
He’s quick to make sure everyone knows he doesn’t mean turning Trump counties blue. If he thought that was possible, he likes to say, “You’d think I was smoking too much of what we think should be legal.” The goal is cutting into the margins of Republican victories.
“We as a party cannot afford both from a moral perspective but also a tactical perspective to let any of these counties go 80-20, 82-18, where we just let them run away with it,” Fetterman tells a breakfast crowd at Horn O Plenty, a restaurant in Bedford County, where Trump won 83 percent in 2020.
Republican leaders in Pennsylvania do not seem overly concerned.
“Fetterman is welcome to waste his resources up here, we’ve got a couple of Democrats somewhere,” Vince Matteo, GOP chair in Lycoming County (Trump: 70 percent), said in an interview. “He doesn’t represent the values of Lycoming County or anywhere in rural Pennsylvania. He’d be better off running in New York City.”
The Democrats who have come out to see Fetterman feel different.
Hartnett, who was at Fetterman’s Gettysburg event, said she felt as though he understood what it means “to come from a small town.” “We’re a real overlooked population,” she said. “We’re surrounded by a lot of people who don’t see any value in our viewpoint. He’s listening to us.”
At the Horn O Plenty gathering, where the menu offerings included a $16 plate of corned beef hash and eggs, Dave Cook describes himself as “energized” by Fetterman’s willingness “to encourage us to be Democrats, to not be hiding, to be proud and realize we’re Pennsylvania voters, too.”
Cook, 57, the owner of a weaving business, moved to Bedford 20 years ago after marrying his wife and relocating to her family’s farm. In 2008, he says he and his three kids were standing on a corner with an Obama campaign poster when a car pulled up. The driver, he says, pulled out a gun, “flashed it at us and then drove away. Several people just flipped us off.”
“You learn to keep your views to yourself,” he says.
Seated in a nearby booth, Bonnie Walter, 55, who drives a school van, recalled her own unpleasant encounter at Walmart, where she went shopping in a face covering that had “B-i-d-e-n” printed across the front. “’You have a lot of guts wearing that in a public place,’” a man told her as he passed, she said.
“I wanted to say, ‘Are you one of those people who drank bleach?,’ ” says her husband, Steve Walter, a retired highway worker, but he decided silence was a more prudent response.
“I consider you the secret sauce in Democrats winning statewide,” Fetterman tells the Horn O Plenty crowd.
Fetterman is traveling with Gisele Barreto Fetterman, his Brazil-born wife, who — with her a stylish flower-print dress and leopard-patterned heels — is as dressed up as her husband is dressed down. “I’m always overdressed,” says Gisele. “I think half of it is me trying to compensate for him.”
Fetterman’s sartorial style may seem more suitable for Wawa than Washington (though, for the record, he describes himself as a “Sheetz guy.”) The shorts are a thing. Today’s are black-and-gray, similar to the gym shorts he wore in January, when he met President Biden at the scene of a bridge collapse in Pittsburgh. He also once tried to wear shorts to a funeral, but his wife wouldn’t let him. “You’re putting pants on!” Fetterman remembers her saying. Gisele recalls her husband arguing that the deceased wouldn’t be offended, on account of them being deceased. “I was like, ‘No, John,’ ” she says.
In Bedford, Fetterman meets Alex Dierling, 38, a machinist who is wearing cargo shorts.
“You’re a well-dressed man,” the candidate says.
His Everyman stylings — not just the shorts but also the tattoos on his forearms, and fondness for Carhartt and Dickies — are an often-chronicled aspect of his political rise, along with his 6-foot-8 frame, spiky goatee and intermittent scowl. Even GQ, the Manhattan-based magazine, was taken with Fetterman’s sense of couture, proclaiming him an “American taste god.” But some of the locals who have come out to see Fetterman today are a little nervous about how others will see him.
“I see its appeal,” Sandra Mailey, chair of the Franklin County Democratic committee, says of the Fetterman look. “It’s just that I grew up in a very different time. The whole world dressed for everything.”
“A lot of people are put off by how he dresses, that he isn’t professional,” says Jane Jacobs, a retired nurse standing a few feet away. “It’s not an issue for me but he needs to win. I just hope he talks to more and more people and that they see past the superficial.”
Fetterman’s defense: “Wearing a suit doesn’t make me any smarter.” Or, as he tells a local TV reporter, “This is who I am.”

orlbucfan

Damn, this guy will win this Senate seat. Why can’t someone like him show up in my poor ridiculed state??? I can’t wait to see the new U.S. Senate introduced next year with the Junior Senator from PA walking in, 6’8” tall, tats all over, and proudly and ready to be a public servant at that level for his state! Can I help write his speech?✊☮️✊

wi64

Going out in Shorts he’d fit right in in Wi.

wi64

If I didn’t see it was Fetterman i would have thought Bernie was out on the trail.
R’s complain on how he dresses, Hell theirs way to many suits in DC that do way to much damage anyway. You’ve heard the term “Dressed to kill” too many congresscritters do exactly that by what thier paid to vote for

orlbucfan

The media keeps yelling about big money donors. How about the grassroots campaign Fetterman has built when he ran for Braddock Mayor and Lt. Governor?

wi64

Some other candidate did this i think? 🙂

jcitybone

When Trump nominated her to the federal judiciary, Kathryn Kimball Mizelle had never tried a case, civil or criminal, as lead or co-counsel, since her admission to the bar. She spent 10 months at a firm and 3 years in government practice. The ABA rated her Not Qualified.
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) April 18, 2022

Anyway, there's a pretty good chance Kathryn Kimball Mizelle will still be ruling us 2072 when she's in her 80s. That's the future we're condemning ourselves to if we unquestioningly accept rule by Trump judges. That's what Democrats are embracing when they oppose court reform.
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) April 18, 2022

wi64

We are so screwed, all these so-called anti this- that policies are now set law/ So when the next Pandemic rolls around, you wont have to take any precautions as the R’s will quote a judicial decision’s that were made. Good luck America your gonna need it. I doubt i be around to worry about it. The death toll will make Covid look like a picnic. Govt better stock up on body bags.

wi64

“I know the stork dropped me in the wrong country, on the wrong planet! ”

Orl, you have no idea how many times i’ve uttered that same phrase to myself usually because once again mankind did something totally asinine and against its best interests.😞😞😖😢😢

Benny

This was in my alerts this afternoon. It’s from PR Newswire.

SOUTH BEND, Ind., April 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — A children’s family book series, The Adventures of Cannabis The Cat is designed to begin an open, honest and ongoing conversation about the hemp plant. Beautiful color illustrations by Mike Motz. Cannabis The Cat is an inviting way to help introduce the sometimes difficult conversation with the increasingly complex world of opiate addiction and the marijuana plant.
The best medicine in life can sometimes just be an open and honest conversation. I explain to parents that after reading these books, for them to leave them out on the kitchen countertop or dining room table. Say nothing. Eventually, the much needed conversation will begin.
I had two great parents while growing up. I just wanted to talk to them about Weed. But that was the early 1980’s. Think, “Just Say No”, so that was not going to happen.
Today we have opiate overdose reversal drugs, in free public vending machines. I can’t help but think the mistakes we have made as a country concerning cannabis in the 1970’s, has been the result of this.
Marijuana at times has clearly helped my personal battle with alcoholism.
This coming week I celebrate 15 years of continuous sobriety from alcohol and narcotics.
The story includes real life pets from The Joe Biden family, as well as pets Marlon Bundo, from the former family of Vice President Mike Pence. Also appearing are Vice President Kamala Harris and Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont.
Follow Cannabis The Cat Goes To Washington and learn more true history, about the United States of America. We are at a time like no other, when factual information is what is needed the very most. This story adds a touch of fun make believe, as Cannabis The Cat travels Washington DC helping his new friends Major and Champ on the lookout for runaway rabbit, Marlon Bundo.
This book is hardly designed for any specific age. The conversation about weed is so much needed, yet so rare. Even adults love the content. As so many adults are finally able to legally discover the true benefits from cannabis. Finally, we have a legal alternative to highly addictive narcotics, for pain and other ailments of the mind and body. It is increasingly difficult to not imagine what might have happened had we not criminalized marijuana in the early seventies. As we now arrive in 2022 we find public vending machines dispersing free opiate reversal drugs.
“Cannabis the Cat” Story Synopsis: Think Smokey the Bear, and Woodsy the Owl. If someone has a cannabis emergency, they dial 4-2-0 and Cannabis The Cat responds on a magic flying carpet made from the finest hemp plants, and saves the day. Remember, “You don’t have to use marijuana, to love Cannabis The Cat.” is probably my favorite line in each of the books. Visit CannabisTheCat.com for more information.
The author is a veteran of the United States Navy and served on board the U.S.S. Lexington, a World War 2 Aircraft Training Carrier, The Lady Lex. Later becoming a professional Municipal FireFighter from the 1990’s through the mid 2000’s in a small area in Indiana.

Benny

It’s the first children’s book I’ve seen that used cannabis to tell a story.

wi64

Yesterday i posted about NASA trying to communicate to possible Dangerous Aliens. Sometimes timing is everything and the Abyss was on today and of course i thought about the “contact” scene with Bud at the 2:00 to 3:35 mark, perhaps a nudge is needed by a friendly species at the 8:30 mark of the clip. Couldnt hurt could it? 😌

This clip was an alternate ending and only on the directors cut. Not in the released movie, too bad as it sends a powerful message.

jcitybone

By the numbers, the new legislative maps from the WI Supreme Court look to be far and away the most politically skewed court-imposed maps anywhere in the country for at least 20+ years. A quick 🧵. 1/6 https://t.co/M6pukOPi2G
— Rob Yablon (@RobYablon) April 18, 2022

jcitybone

John Fetterman writes diary at DK.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/4/18/2092686/–PA-Sen-What-I-wore-to-the-2022-White-House-Easter-Egg-Roll-Photos

orlbucfan

Read it and left a comment. As a vet sitting-on-the-bike-of-a-bike through the US and the Alps, you can bet I am rooting for him!!

Aint Supposed to Die A Natural Death

Loved these piks of Fetterman family – beautiful. Aside, I haven’t been on DK in a long time, it kind of reminds me of the old Huffington Post from the early 2000s.

orlbucfan

When Markos started that site back in 2002, 2004? It was a relief for the old fart Futurists like me. I read about it through other links I followed. I signed on in 2008, but also read his background. X-GOPuke stuck in my head as I was very cynical, still am, when reading it. When he put out the order chasing off the Bernie Progressives, that did it for me. I am a member of the PMC but so what?! I have the equivalent of 3 degrees in American English. I worked in small item retail and then in administrative and office management. Believe me, even now, I know how to out-communicate the dumb PTB in our language. At my age, I don’t worry about being humble about it anymore.

jcitybone

Then she better extend that philosophy to all of her medical needs. Toothache? Pull it out. Blood poisoning? Cut the limb off. Heart attack? Nice knowing you.
Me, I live in the 21st century and will avail myself of all of the medical advances, thanks.
— Katie (@ktbobaytee) April 18, 2022

jcitybone

Ron DeSantis' vile "groomer" law is facing a problem. Lawyers challenging the law tell me they think *liberal* parents may bring actions against school boards for discussing heterosexuality and cisgender identity. That could unmask the law's ugly intent:https://t.co/22CowL8emV
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) April 18, 2022

“If a teacher can’t assign a story about a young girl who comes home to her two mommies, that teacher also can’t assign a book about a young girl who comes home to her mommy and daddy.”
Lawyer @JoshuaMatz8. This may form the basis of liberal challenges:https://t.co/22CowL8emV pic.twitter.com/EHxGhVRI6S
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) April 18, 2022

orlbucfan

This is a major problem with these fake “Democrats.” Their paymasters and the bought off media focus on this BS, and not on what the fringe FRIghtwingnut creeps pull. Since these yahoos owe a lot of major media that these dumbed down idiots listen to/watch, guess what happens.

jcitybone

the transphobia gets top billing these days but don't sleep on this classic gay baiting straight out of the 1950s. they are *for sure* coming for gay marriage pic.twitter.com/MvOSybKpjs
— ryan cooper (@ryanlcooper) April 19, 2022

orlbucfan

Ignore and don’t do Tik-Tok cos I am just not interested.