Friday Tab Clearing
Steven L. Taylor
·
Friday, September 27, 2024
·
30 comments
- Today in foreshadowing bad foreign policy outcomes if Trump wins:
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
Follow Steven on
Twitter
On the one hand, I like the idea that DNC is thinking about the whole country, not just battlegrounds. On the other hand, this is taking place maybe 5 weeks before the election. Something seems off about it. What can you do with money in 5 weeks?
@Jay L Gischer:
Hire and train door-knockers. Pay for last minute media.
This is a good thing. Though if you believe the 9000 texts I get every minute, Dems are all desperate and down to looking for loose change under the sofa cushions.
Reading the article about the woman accused of murder it sounds pretty awful for her but it also cites another case that is too common because the laws being passed by states to limit abortion are short on details about what is legal and is not but they are very explicit about the penalties, jail time, loss of license and large financial penalties. Requests for clarification are being ignored. So in the case cited the woman written about had an incomplete spontaneous abortion but went to 4 different hospitals that all did ultrasounds and no one was willing to do anything to treat her due to concerns about the law as written.
Steve
@Jay L Gischer: How many “movable” voters, of the sort that the Brownstein article has generated two posts in two days on, do you think have been paying attention to the election before now?
From VoteIdaho: “When does early voting start?
Many Idaho counties offer early voting, typically beginning two weeks before an upcoming election. Check with your county elections office.”
@Jay L Gischer: It can be used to offset expenses already incurred, as well.
In addition to providing actual money to every state, it’s also a message to GOP political insiders: the DNC has enough cash on hand to splash it everywhere, even in deep red spots. This is as much a PR move as it is a political one.
@Jen: I was hoping you would speak up. Thanks.
How awesome would it be if Kamala eventually springs it on Trump (after she wins the election) that he was right that she never worked at McDonalds, and forgot it was another fast food place. Or even better, that she straight up never worked at a fast food joint, Mickey Ds or otherwise.
In the meantime, she should tease him that she will eventually release proof that she was a Mickey Ds employee by posting a picture of her original employee name tag in a week or twos time, or something like that. Of course, she should not follow through. Just keep teasing Trump.
I just pretty much believe with near 100% certainty that “undecided” voters are not going to break for Trump just because Kamala did not work at the golden arches, so in a world where it was less deadly serious that she keep Trump out of the White House, she would be able to have fun with this.
@Just nutha ignint cracker: It’s more that it’s hard to spend money in a very short time and be effective if you don’t know the money is coming and you might not have organized to spend.
Not to mention the timeline is probably shorter than 5 weeks because of vote-by-mail, etc.
@Jay L Gischer:
Even vote by mail states tend to have ballots come in closer to election day.
@Jay L Gischer: Yeah. My (small) expertise is in charities not politicals. Charities are perpetually short of money and always have places to spend it effectively.
@steve:
It does not speak well of doctors that they are so willing to comply with an unjust law. Maybe not full-on Mengele, but awfully willing to ignore the well-being of a patient. Someone needs to step up and be the test case.
@Michael Reynolds: Fortunately for me I’ve only gotten a few texts this season and those were asking me who I was planning to vote for. Some of them were only state level races.
Like all tech savvy people I just deleted the texts and moved on. Who knows where the information would end up. I like to keep to a minimum the data collected on me when possible.
@steve: @Michael Reynolds:
I’m thinking of my cousin, who had to have a dead fetus surgically removed. It was a heartbreak for her and her husband, but I wonder if she’d have that lifesaving (hers) option now.
@Michael Reynolds: “Someone needs to step up and be the test case.”
I agree… but I also have to say that it would be truly terrifying to risk a 10-year prison sentence over a matter of principal. Yes, it would be a great world if more people were willing to step up this way, but I can’t guarantee that if I were an ob-gyn I’d be stepping up… much as I’d like to think I would!
@wr: And don’t forget lose your medical license– in some states, maybe even if you prevail in trial.
@Michael Reynolds:
@wr:
No matter how the case results, my guess is malpractice insurance gets jacked way up, my guess from already being sky high for OB/Gyn. Which maybe makes your practice untenable.
I can understand anyone not choosing dead certain severe damage to their career.
ETA: Hospitals are risk averse also, no matter how the case goes you lose your admitting access to the local hospitals.
ETA again: The capriciousness/vagueness of the anti-abortion laws is a feature, not a bug – keeps people properly intimidated.
@wr: @charontwo:
What are doctors going to do when the government decides they shouldn’t treat drug ODs, people injured by police, or the undocumented, or people without a home address?
@Michael Reynolds: man…a call for big principles from a guy who jumped bail for a relatively minor charge until he could buy his way out is wild.
@Thomm:
I completely agree.
I’m not a martyr, I’m a self-serving survivor.
Isn’t it already illegal to give medical assistance to someone
shot while fleeing“injured by the police” without reporting to that selfsame agency where to come to arrest said someone?@just nutha:
You do have to report. You don’t – yet – have to let them bleed out.
Melania can use her speaking fee to buy two of the cool watches her husband has started to sell, and still have a few thousand left over to invest in BarronCoin.
It’s beyond astonishing to see a once and possible future President of the United States behaving like a crude grifter, year after year. The country is suffering from advanced age regression.
@Ken_L: It is gross, TBH. But yet there he is. Ron Popeil had more class, but it does all remind me of UHF commercials in my youth.
Michael- So far, someone has stepped up and taken the risk so far, but it has taken going through a couple of docs to find the brave ones first sometimes. I am retired now but I would like to think I would be brave but it’s too easy to say that. It like when the first time someone stabs you or pulls a gun on you. You can talk all the bad ass you want but you dont really know until it happens. It would be pretty tough to go to jail for 10 years after your lawyer specifically told you not to do something. Who would you appeal it to? The Supreme Court?
Steve
@Michael Reynolds:
Door knockers, nowadays?
I know I am, and it seems like everyone I’ve ever known or heard of, absolutely hates/despises anyone who knocks on their door unannounced. You couldn’t text or call, you barbarian?
Unless it’s the cops who announce themselves loudly, I ain’t opening for nobody. There is no good outcome to opening your door to strangers trying to sell you stuff door to door.
Showing up unannounced knocking on someone’s door without forewarning is now viewed as highly suspect and problematic. One just would never, ever do that unless in a dire emergency.
Door knocking random folks is rude, intrusive. Yeah, don’t do that if you want to court people.
@Michael Reynolds:
I’m kinda the hero in my story. It’s what I know to be true. My hero often waits around far too long to act appropriately in time and is super annoyed that things have devolved that badly, so gets disgusted and walks away while washing his hands of the whole situation.
Even my idealized avatar is avoidant and lame as fuck.
My superhero avatar is Whatever, Man.
@de stijl: it’s literally the most effective way to get out the vote…especially in down ballot races and off-year elections.
@de stijl: , @IdaHokie is correct. Door knocking works. It is by far more effective than direct mail, or television advertising–anything. Simply making eye contact with a voter and saying “please, we need you” is critical to GOTV efforts.
@Michael Reynolds: “What are doctors going to do when the government decides they shouldn’t treat drug ODs, people injured by police, or the undocumented, or people without a home address?”
I’d guess a lot of them go along with it, the way most people generally go along with whatever. Some will rationalize it by thinking that at least they’re still able to help the other people, some will delight in not having to treat people they hate, and many will grumble but adjust to a new status quo.
@wr:
Yep. But we could make it a little easier for doctors to vote with their feet. Free states should create a streamlined system for licensing out of state doctors.