You should have kept the original, it was spot on.
Linking an article critical on Harris from the Washington Examiner (with pop up add for a political summit with Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich, Steve Scalise, Devin Nunes and Ken Starr!) as if it is evidence of something tangible is naive at best.
Heh.
It’s just…if you worked as a prosecuting attorney, part and parcel of that job is pissing people off. It’s unavoidable, frankly, that in execution of your job, you’re going to piss off a lot of people. It sometimes (not always, and perhaps not even most of the time, but sometimes) means you’re probably doing a pretty good job.
Matt_W
4758
I actually have to agree with this. I want to like Harris. I voted for her for AG here in CA, and I think she’s smart and would be a great candidate. But, I really don’t want prosecutors in positions of high power. When I peruse a ballot these days, experience as a prosecutor is an immediate red flag. I don’t think Harris is more law-and-order than is typical for a DA, but typical is enough.
For my money Warren is the most likely candidate for 2020. Biden and Sanders are just too old. And Biden is more conservative than you think he is. Harris, in the era of BLM, is gonna be sunk by her record as a prosecutor. Klobuchar is… who again? And Booker is too nakedly ambitious. If Michelle Obama ran, she’d win the nomination and she’d probably be a great President, but there’s no way that will happen.
Sen. Harris is intelligent and attractive and she certainly comes across as “fighter”. So I understand the appeal to the base. I imagine Lindsey Graham stock rose both among the Republican base and in the White House for his passionate defense of Kavanaugh and his attacks on Democrats.
I think packing the Supreme Court with former prosecutors and having a boatload in the Senate is bad enough, I don’t know why in the hell we need one in the White House. I really want to somebody who has actual executive experience running something a big city, a state, a large agency, or corporation. Prosecutors are great if you want to stick it to the other side, not so much if you want to get stuff done with the other side.
kerzain
4760
I guess Elon Musk might have some free time.
I’m counting on Elon to provide the back up plan for humanity if we keep electing Donald Trump, Valdimar Putin, Erdoğan, Nicolás Maduro, and Rodrigo Duterte.
Matt_W
4762
I know it’s not this topic, but we’re never going to Mars. And we’re certainly not going to colonize or terraform it. The earth is our home, and it’s really all we’ve got.
You are wrong, never is a really really long time. If we don’t get off this planet we will become extinct.
Thinking about this, the rage part of me wants someone who will just tear into Republicans and trump. “A fighter,” as it’s been described. But then I’m thinking, it might be a really powerful counterpoint to have someone grounded and well, nice. By the time 2020 rolls around, a lot of people might just be bone tired of the politics of animus. There’s the added bonus that it will be really difficult for the NYT and CNN to engage in the “but both sides, just as bad!” hit pieces that they would surely run with almost any other potential candidate.
I’ve been drawn to "nice"politician for years. But never more than since Trump took office, I part of the appeal of the McCain funeral is that John McCain at times was nice to his political opponents.
The only time I thought Kavanaugh was over the top was in his asking Sen. Klobucher about her drinking. I was happy to hear he apologized. I thought she handled his response with class and rather than make her look weak, I thought it made her look mature.
If Democrats, really want to start to adopting the Scandinavian policies, I think they also have to start acting like them.
And you call yourself a Republican? (zing.) Google McCain’s statements about Obama after the election. Not so nice. Obama remained civil and conciliatory towards Republican for most of his term, and look where that got him.
Sigh. I probably shouldn’t respond since you’re about to get Qt3 bombed.
But really, Strollen? His being in front of the judicial committee is a circus and “due to revenge for the Clintons, anger over losing the election to trump and money from the left wing” is reasonable? (Has he not seen the ads for him on MSNBC?) How is that ok? That is not behavior for any judge let alone for the highest court and who at the very least needs to avoid any appearance of impropriety. There is an emolument lawsuit going forward brought by Democrats. When it reaches the Supreme Court we’re to believe that BK will give that case a fair hearing? Judicial temperament matters. That seat is going to a conservative, realists understand that, why does it have to be this one?
Should the committee just have taken his word? Didn’t do it, case closed? Doesn’t matter, three decades ago?
Is that the bar for the privileged? Their word? Of course almost all Democrats were going to oppose him based on his (extreme) jurisprudence, but the red state Senators were undecided and/or inclined to support. Or the letter is a dirty trick to delay his nomination until after the midterms? The GOP have a 70% chance of maintaining control but even if they don’t they have until January. They held Scalia’s seat open for 454 days. There is no deadline. Feinstein held the letter at the request of Dr. Ford and someone leaked it. Welcome to Washington.
Republicans are masters at playing victims, the fauxrage would be hilarious if the stakes weren’t so high (the stakes being the integrity of the Supreme Court.)
(note, this last comment isn’t directed at you Strollen.)
Elizabeth Warren will be 71 in 2020. She’s not that much younger than either Bernie or Grampy Joe.
I’m not saying the McCain is nice in the same way that Joe Biden or Jeff Flake are nice, clearly he had a temper. But for the most part his attacks were on Obama’s policies not that man.
I have no desire to get drawn into the Kavanaugh shit storm. It is pretty much an example of American democracy at it is worse. I’m simply saying that Amy was nice and it was refreshing.
Fair enough.
(Edit: I mean that sincerely too.)
Heck, I’ll vote for whatever Democrat gets nominated. All I’m saying is that I hope the outcome isn’t same old white man; and if it is, I hope they don’t decide to round out the ticket with a token female minority.
It is a really long time. That said, the idea that the climate / environment will become so bad here we’ll have to live on Mars is comical. The climate / environment on Mars is worse than it will ever be here. It would be easier to terraform Earth than to terraform Mars, by several orders of magnitude.
The sun is heating up. In a billion years, I’ve seen some estimate closer to 500 million years, the oceans will evaporate making life pretty much impossible here on earth. The good news is that solar system warming, will make previously cold planets a lot more habitable. Mars is an obvious benefactor since 50-100 degree increase in temperature would make the planet a lot more suited for humans. Eventually humans will have to find way to go to other solar systems. But the extra billion years or so that Mars gives us good be a very big deal.
Talking about what life on earth will be like for humans in 500 millions years contains so many contingencies it is effectively absurd. In any event, if that’s the timescale you’re talking about, Elon Musk is irrelevant to the conversation. He’s probably irrelevant to the conversation anyway, but that timescale makes it certain.
I mean, 500 millions years ago is the Cambrian Explosion. It’s a long time for the life of a species!
https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/accessibility/transcripts/Imran-Rahman-Life-(500-million-years-ago).aspx
I guess what I really object to is this: Like other billionaire bros, Musk’s vision of salvation is a vision of salvation for a handful of rich people like himself. Assuming his worst fears are true, he’s talking about a few hundred or a few thousand of the right people making it to Mars while everyone else suffers.
You are much, much more optimistic about the longevity of our species (and its descendants) than I am.
