James Carville, who became a multimillionaire off taking consulting fees and doing cable hits for the last 50 years despite never winning an election after Bill Clinton, is very very angry at Abdul El-Sayed. I’m not clear WHY Carville is so mad at El-Sayed, given that Carville endorsed the talentless and dumb Graham Platner.

Mystifying, because Graham Platner said the US and Israeli actions in Gaza are a genocide, and Platner supported Medicare for All, and Platner decrided money in politics, all of which are Abdul El-Sayed’s positions. In fact, Platner’s and El-Sayed’s position on US policy in Israel are identical. Incidentally, the NEW Democratic Senate candidate in Maine also holds positions that are identical to Abdul El-Sayed’s on US policy in Israel,. I wonder why it’s ok for Graham Platner and Troy Jackson but not Abdul El-Sayed? Tis a mystery.

El-Sayed shares all of Graham Platner’s positions, which James Carville endorsed a month ago, and unlike Graham Platner El-Sayed is smart as a whip, disciplined and very accomplished and has been a Democrat for his entire adult life. Yet James Carville endorsed Platner and has launched a smear campaign against Abdul El-Sayed. I’ll just let you take a wild guess what it is about El-Sayed that might make ancient campaign and cable tv grifter James Carville so angry, because it isn’t policy.

I’m also amused Carville thinks Hasan Piker is making too much money off Democratic politics. Ancient pundit and grifter shakes fist at younger pundit and grifter. Carville sees Piker as cutting in on his action. Hasn’t Carville made enough money off small Democratic donors while losing elections? Don’t any of these people have grandchildren they want to see?

Hillary Clinton also decided to weigh in, issuing a poorly informed opinion comparing El-Sayed to Mamdani, although Mamdani is DSA and El-Sayed is not DSA and made that fact clear his entire campaign against Stevens. Again, not sure why Hillary Clinton thinks Zohran Mamdani is the same as Abdul El-Sayed, other than that they’re both brown Muslims. Is it too much to ask that these high profile Democrats actually read something about a race or a candidate before opining? That way people like me who actually followed the race won’t come to the conclusion they’re just poorly informed bigots.

Of course, advice on how to win Michigan might be something Hillary Clinton takes a pass on. given that she lost both the primary and the general in Michigan in 2016, and in fact was the first Democrat to lose Michigan since 1988, when George HW Bush won. Gore, Kerry and Obama all won Michigan. Hillary Clinton lost it, famously due to the fact that her horrible campaign wouldn’t take any advice from people who actually live there. People like Abdul El-Sayed, who she thinks is exactly the same as Zohran Mamdani. And guess who helped advise Hillary Clinton in 2016? Why, none other than James Carville! See how this works?

One more thing. Republicans and media are launching racist attacks based on El-Sayed’s ethnicity and religion. If establishment Democrats don’t defend him on this, loudly and proudly, I never want to hear another fucking word about how we’re committed to civil rights and diversity. Shitting on one religious minority is shitting on all religious minorities. One would think people who quote the “first they came for…” Neimoller poem sanctimoniously (and incessantly ) would have some idea of what that poem means, but maybe they don’t read past the first line of that either.

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Joe is Wypoxic3 months ago

Damn Kay. Tell us how you feel. This is a great post and somehow needs wider distribution...

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Busted Knee3 months ago

I hate to say this. I hate to say it because it's true. I really hate to say this because so many of my club are guilty of it.

Platner and Carville are vets. Marines even. Veterans will give each other a pass on anything. We have to. For every disaster of a friend you have that people tell you to abandon there's another who took their own life or someone who milked their service into a position of status and we all know they're a sociopath mouthing the right words. It's a club. You ain't in it. Giving the fuck ups a pass on insane behavior is often the difference between a dead vet and a live one. We handle our shit and our own privately. Why we have to be like this is a conversation non veterans don't want to have, wouldn't understand, and frankly we don't wanna have it with you. You haven't earned the right yet. You come talk to me when your friend blew his brains out. You got the call. As you know, we don't have our spouse as the contact for that.

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Busted Knee3 months ago

Hillary and Carville have always been willing to use race to advance neoliberalism. "Breaking up the banks won't stop racism" so I don't know who expected better from Hillary. But they are stupid. They couldn't race slander Platner because he's white so they did a reverse race slander and when they didn't work waited for him to implode. But like good moderates they will race slander two Muslims because that's what liberals do. Liberals are racist. Especially moderates. But we hide behind magic Black people to prove we are not. Most people with half a brain see past that.

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Busted Knee3 months ago

Honestly we are as racist as the GOP when it comes to our moderates but we are selective about it. We use it as a shield and sword in all areas and if you step out of line we will slander you. Because that's how liberals roll.

We're in a generational fight. We have to wake up for it.

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tam1MI 3 months ago

I happened to bump into two acquaintances this past weekend who were hardcore moderate Dems. Without any prompting from me, they brought up the Senate election and...

Yikes.

They were happy to tell me they were hard "No" votes on AES. One of them cited Hasan Piker as the reason, the other the Bernie endorsement. (That one was a huge Hillary fan, she damn near left the party over what she felt was the raw misogyny of what was then called the "Dirtbag Left"). They were absolutely gleeful about how "now the shoe was on the other foot" and how "those Bernie pukes will have to come crawling to us for votes for a change". The Hillary stan had already been pitched on AES by someone who appealed to her on the grounds that a Democratic Senate could help tilt the Supreme Court back to sanity. Her reported reply?

"Bitch, that ship sailed in 2016".

So, like I said, Yikes.

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tam1MI 3 months ago

And, it should be noted, Mike Rogers is making a hard play for voters like them, telling them that they will "have a home with us". I have no idea whether or not this pitch will work, but it's worth noting that as recently as the 2024 presidential election, the Republicans were able to peel off votes on the Democrats right.

https://pro.stateaffairs.com/mi/elections/rogers-targets-disaffected-michigan-democrats?ref=AAAAAAAEMOEAAIr0AA

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r po3 months ago

"a home"

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John S.3 months ago

GenXers aren’t exactly a hotbed of liberalism, if that’s the cohort you’re referring to. Boomers are substantially more conservative.

Those do not seem like the responses of Millennials or Zoomers.

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r po3 months ago

A little hard to parse here from the far away cheap seats. Are you saying these people will not VBNMW in 2026 because... HRC lost?? 2026-2016 => 10, a decade.

Now Kay with this barn burner really made my coffee taste wonderful this too hot morning, because dumping on a person who made it a life long priority to hang with scum like Kissinger always makes me smile, but... this is bonkers! I told everyone I knew to hold their nose and vote for HRC in 2016!!! This did not make me popular!

There can be two bad things, one of which is much worse!

I am afraid I might have gotten a little shouty if presented with this situation. Nihilistic narcissism.

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Joe is Wypoxic3 months ago

Wow! Yikes is right...

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Sepideh M3 months ago

If you replace the taco cart on every corner with a halal cart, all hell will break loose because you might learn that you like saffron, and that is almost as expensive as Trump has these gas prices.

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TBone Dinosaur3 months ago

😂

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John S.3 months ago

Fuck yes. Shawarma now!

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mister mixAuthor3 months ago

It's anticipatory racism. We can't have a Muslim candidate because people won't vote for him. The dumb shit the media asks him is getting really old, too.

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John S.3 months ago

I love how the standard for El Sayed is that he must answer for podcasters like Piker. Meanwhile, if the media held Republicans to that standard, it would be catastrophic.

Which is probably why the asymmetry exists to begin with.

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Kay W.3 months ago

Not just Republicans. Bill Mahr is an absolute Islamophobe. But no one has to apologize for going on his show.

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Busted Knee3 months ago

He's on the left. Vote blue no matter who unless they are to the left of you. The true fascists are on our side. We need to deal with it.

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Kay W.3 months ago

I really am starting to believe what people said during Obama. If you thought Obama couldn’t win that was YOU, not “the public” They should just say “I would have trouble voting for this person whose name scares me” Instead it’s always an evaluation of some other voter. Cowards.

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Busted Knee3 months ago

No we can't have a left candidate because Black folk didn't vote for him they voted for the neoliberal. You need to realize this is the issue.

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John S.3 months ago

That photo looks like one of Dale Chihuly’s glass sculptures. Where was it taken?

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Kay W.3 months ago

It is! Grand Rapids MI, at the Meijr sculpture gardens. I went to the exhibit. It was just lovely. I read they are extending the show - it was quite popular.

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John S.3 months ago(edited)

His museum is here in the Seattle Center, so I am quite familiar with his incredible work. If you ever visit here, it’s a must see!

We are lucky because we get to see his work all over the Puget Sound. 😊

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Kay W.3 months ago

I love the work that looks like fantastical sea life - undulate.

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tam1MI 3 months ago

I'm hoping to go to Meijer Gardens before the exhibit leaves. As it turns out, I will also be in Seattle next month for a cruise to Alaska, so I may get a double dose of Chihuly! 😊

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Kay W.3 months ago

They have this part of the exhibit that is just fascinating. He loved faxes, so he would send faxes to people who commissioned his work and include small drawings.

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John S.3 months ago

The Chihuly museum is an official stop on the Alaskan cruise circuit. Right after Pike’s Place Market and the waterfront.

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tam1MI 3 months ago

No love for the Space Needle?

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Joe is Wypoxic3 months ago

John - showing some cultural chops. Impressed!