Some random musings, after the jump ……………………………….
But first: Top Comments appears nightly, as a round-up of the best comments on Daily Kos. Surely ... you come across comments daily that are perceptive, apropos and .. well, perhaps even humorous. But they are more meaningful if they're well-known ... which is where you come in (especially in diaries/stories receiving little attention).------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Send your nominations to TopComments at gmail dot com by 9:30 PM Eastern Time nightly, or by our KosMail message board. Please indicate (a) why you liked the comment, and (b) your Dkos user name (to properly credit you) as well as a link to the comment itself.
Regular readers know that I normally cover popular culture, or other topics than hardcore politics — many people here know more than I ever will. But, here are three topics that I need to rant on (at least, as much of a rant that can come from a mild-mannered accountant who likes cats).
“The Democrats … need a message!”
You hear this often, and not just from the Beltway Centrists (let alone our opponents). No, it comes from people we like … for example, the former mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown:
Democrats need to come up with a platform that addresses the average voters’ hopes and concerns. Not just the needs of underdogs or whatever cause happens to be the media flavor of the week.
If he is speaking about Democratic Party officials, current officeholders or candidates for this year’s mid-terms … he should name them. Most of them — in their stump speeches, campaign literature and websites — are brimming with 12-point programs and all sorts of policy proposals. (Most were quite willing to work on an infrastructure plan, had the Trumpster ever put one forward).
And if he was referring to activists, pundits and bloggers …. well, they are not in a position to offer a “platform” — that is what the party leaders/candidates must do.
I don’t mean to harp on him — many other commentators say that — but seeing Democrats make these charges (without any names) just reinforces the Beltway press … and several right-wing publications have linked to that column.
No lack of a platform here, was there?The Far-Left … is taking over the Democratic Party
There was a recent Washington Post essay that made that statement, and the very able Egberto Willies wrote a strong rejoinder about the overall tone of the article, and that we are on the right path.
I’d like to focus on some of the essay’s specifics (especially about the state of Pennsylvania). In talking about the primary to choose a Democratic candidate to succeed the retiring GOP congressman Charlie Dent: the essay lamented the loss by veteran district attorney John Morganelli, who lost to “Susan Wild, who ran at him from the left”. Why would sensible Democrats do this? Well …. perhaps it was due to this:
“Morganelli, who opposes abortion rights and ‘sanctuary cities’, was attacked relentlessly on the airwaves for speaking positively about Trump and tweeting that he was open to taking a job in the administration during the transition”.
This attitude is nothing new. Howard Dean was considered a moderate-to-conservative Democrat within Vermont — as I noted in this space, he wanted no part of same-sex marriage when it came up for debate in the year 2000. However, the Beltway press dubbed him a "left-wing" Democrat when he ran for president in 2004 and was ... against the Iraq War and for raising taxes on the 1%.
Even in this article: "far left" seems to translate as being for Medicare for All, legalization of marijuana, universal background checks, protecting public lands, reducing incarceration, et al.
Agreed, there are limits: and a group that calls itself "Democratic Socialists" may work in California or Vermont … perhaps not in, say, Pennsylvania. Yet even that group in that article is cited as wanting: regulation of 'crisis pregnancy' centers, and to work to raise money to finance repairs of broken tail lights (to avoid police stops for people of color). Their name may be their biggest liability.
In sum: the mainstream press wants Democrats who are Republican-lite. I do not want rigid litmus tests; local candidates should be able to carve-out district-appropriate policy positions (see Conor Lamb and Doug Jones) and maybe some of these primary winners might prove to be unwise. Just don't confuse the labels they are given by the Beltway with reality.
Which Howard Dean revived in 2004Players that other teams …. didn’t want
OK, enough with the politics — this coming Monday, the National Hockey League will begin the Stanley Cup finals with two new finalists. One is the Washington Capitals — a team that many believe have been underachievers for years, who have finally made it to the finals after a Game 7 semi-final win over Tampa Bay.
The other? An expansion team, the Vegas Golden Knights. First season. 500-1 odds to win the Cup, and here they are competing for it. How?
They had an excellent management who made good decisions, good trades and brought the team together with vision. Early in the season they bonded together after the Jason Aldean concert shooting and had fan support all year long. And that should be enough, right? My hockey fanatic brother Pat likened them to the 2015-2016 surprise championship (in the English soccer Premier League) of Leicester City— for whom everything came together in a magical season.
Alas, some newscasters (and even more sadly, a few sportswriters) are not satisfied, and inform us that the Golden Knights are winning with players that … “their old teams didn’t want”. Do they mean … “Beat it, kid — you’ll never make it in this league”, or better yet, “Old-timer, you’re all washed-up”?
In reality: whenever a sports league introduces new teams, it would be foolish to expect them to stock their clubs with minor leaguers, rookies, and broken-down old veterans. And so there is held an expansion draft— where the existing teams are allowed to “protect” a certain number of players on their roster, and the new team(s) can then select players not protected.
Yet in the past — especially if there were more than one expansion team joining — the existing teams could expect to lose few players of note, as they were allowed to protect many on their rosters. There were always existing teams that made bad choices (not protecting an underachieving young player, or mistakenly letting a veteran go who really wasn’t over-the-hill), yet only so many.
This past year: Vegas was the only team admitted to the league — and their ownership syndicate ponied-up $500 million in an entry fee distributed to the other teams in the NHL. So the other teams were amply compensated.
In return: the existing franchises — with a roster of 20 players, plus 1-3 reserve players — could only protect either 9 or 11 of them, depending upon whether they wanted to specify forwards, etc. So more players were exposed to the draft than had been the case years ago (and some older franchises wish they had had the same sort of choices, back then).
None of this is to diminish what the Vegas franchise accomplished. A different management team might not have done as well — their leading forward (William Karlsson) played for two different teams before, scoring only 6 goals for Columbus — then scored 43 for Vegas. And it’s fair to go down the list and point out bad choices that existing teams made, as some analysts have done.
Just avoid the “players that their old teams didn’t want” trope — these weren’t cases of “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out”. (Perhaps $500 million was a bit greedy on the part of the existing owners, huh?)
Winning the conference title trophyOK, rants are over. Let’s close with a selection from an instrumental tribute album to the late Curtis Mayfield — and the drumming of Terri Lyne Carrington makes this cover of It’s All Right a truly infectious tune for my ears:
x xYouTube VideoNow, on to Top Comments:
(nothing from the field for this evening)
Item from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the diary by Dieslrae about the WSJ account stating that Roger Stone dealt with Julian Assange — two helpful legal opinions were forwarded by blue aardvark (via Renato Mariotti) as well as from annieli (via David Frum, whom I was unaware is a Harvard Law graduate).
And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion:
1) Sorry. Assault is assault. Mockery will do just … by Crashing Vor +144 2) Sorry, but I disagree with that...I think that i … by Murfster35 +121 3) Trump wants to meet her to check out her whatever by exlrrp +119 4) It certainly inspired a bunch of new women candi … by WI Lurker +117 5) America is a sad story now. All the winners belo … by collardgreens +107 5) You must have been an effective prosecutor. All … by pierre9045 +107 7) Words alone can be assault. That’s the assault p … by Azubia +105 8) I’m still wondering how they managed for only th … by gchaucer2 +95 9) Absolute insult and fuck you to every single one … by AfricanLived +90 9) This extremist unhinged behavior would end his p … by Semblance +90 11) There is no way that they would leave a loaded g … by PissedGrunty +84 12) And Cohen is busily writing up a NDA and scrambl … by Azubia +83 12) They decided to arrest him at first sight. … by red 83 +83 14) I'm glad someone's saying it at last, to be perf … by Freelance Escapologist +79 14) “Working past retirement.” … by dsnottselliott +79 16) She’s a repulsive carbon footprint but I can’t c … by gchaucer2 +78 16) Jesus fucking christ America is going to stupid … by moparkid58 +78 18) Since the Congressional republicans helped the G … by kurious +73 19) Marco Rubio, joined by all the other republicans … by dmhlt 66 +71 19) The Access Hollywood tape may have played well w … by Gertie Green +71 21) Yeah, that’s true. But I think we might have to … by ontheleftcoast +70 22) This is a super important and very well written … by GoodNewsRoundup +69 23) Serena rocks!!! Roger Federer gets it! by doroma +68 24) Almost all of the Republican politicians have be … by marvyt +66 25) That access Hollywood tape helped get him electe … by Stupidsays +65 26) They are Christians. Of course that makes them d … by jfromga +64 27) Wait til he hears what Clapper said on Rachel Ma … by OpposeThis +63 27) How’s this-- … by ian douglas rushlau +63 29) please RT — share what you can by Denise Oliver Velez +61 29) [embed] by Greg Dworkin +61