I hope the Boston Globe won’t mind my using this. I’m trying to create more Globe subscribles.
Remember when I published one of these — or earlier on, a Virtual Front Page — pretty much every day? If you do, you’re showing your age, because it’s been awhile.
But here’s one for today, anyway…
- Yankee beaches — Since a lot of y’all are probably at the beach, and bemoaning the fact that there’s not enough room to walk, be glad you’re not up north. It’s getting ridiculous up there with the tent cities being set up everywhere. See the picture above. My daughter who was in Rhode Island last week said she saw a lot of that on Block Island. Why am I sharing this? Because I enjoy news that makes S.C. look good. We don’t get enough of that.
- You are contaminated — This is a tad depressing — talking about how such things as plastics permeate our bodies and those of all living things on the planet. But it’s a moment of nostalgia for me. I remember the old days when we worried more about old-fashioned pollution than climate change, which sometimes seems like the only ecological problem young folks know about.
- Your choices for governor — How bad can they get? Well, Nancy Mace just made her campaign official, so… Not bad enough for ya? Well, consider that Ralph Norman has also raised his absurdly unqualified hand. I was glad to see that Pam Evette was running, because it lets us know she’s still among the living — our Gov Lite is so invisible that I tend to think of her as the Ghost Who Walks. I don’t know Josh Kimbrell, but that alone would dismiss him from my consideration. The only Republican running with anything like credible credentials is Alan Wilson. But that still puts the GOP one viable candidate ahead of Democrats. Perhaps things will improve. Perhaps not.
- Joy in Beantown — This is the thing that most motivated me to post an Open Thread. I wanted to say something before the moment passed. The weekend just past was a great one at Fenway. The Red Sox are now ahead of the Yankees in the AL East, and only 3 games behind the leading Blue Jays. And I’m digging it, whether you are or not.
- This isn’t the same Democratic Party as Trump’s first term — I posted this just to react to the headline by saying, “Yeah, crushing defeat can do things to you.” I probably won’t read the rest of the story. Y’all can tell me if there are any surprises. I haven’t seen anything in politics to surprise me since last year. I suppose I could have said what I’ve already said frequently in recent months: “Ya think?”
Oh, and why don’t I do Virtual Front Pages any more? Probably because, as I’ve watched our country (and other countries) fall apart over the last few years, I’ve been spending less time reading things the kind of stuff that I’d put on a front page. All that stuff is far too depressing to spend time writing and talking about. Just knowing them is bad enough. Also, as I’ve said many times, I see little I can do to fix the situation. Across the political spectrum, people are unreachable by the written word, especially if they don’t already think the same thing…
So I turn more to things that interest me — things I can bear to contemplate. And those things fit better into the Open Thread concept…
Following up on a different thing… as to what I said about Pamela Evette…
Two things…
First, I wasn’t thinking primarily about the comic strip character when I said Ghost Who Walks, a figure that most of you probably don’t remember anyway. I was thinking about someone I hope some of you will remember, our old friend Burl Burlingame. I was not one of those people who worked on the high school newspaper; I didn’t get started with student journalism until college. Burl not only got started befrore that, but in high school, he published his own underground paper — which was one of the many ways in which he was cooler than I was. Anyway, we had this principal at Radford High who was rather reclusive. I know I never met him, anyway (although I did get sent to an assistant principal’s office once). And we didn’t have assemblies, unless we did and no one told me. Anyway, in his underground paper, Burl called Mr. Yamamoto (the mysterious principal) the “Ghost Who Walks.”
So don’t picture the purple guy.
I should also confess that I have more reason than most people to find Ms. Evette to be a less-than-inspiring candidate. And her supporters are free to use this to dismiss whatever I have to say, if they’d like (which is what people do today if they don’t agree with you anyway). I don’t care, because I know what I know. I tried to help Mandy Powers Norrell get elected in her place. 2018 was the first time governor and lt. gov ran together as a team, and there was no established job description fo the second chair. James Smith drafted his own plan, and in his eyes she would be practically a co-governor, serving as his main liaison with the General Assembly. And her career up to that point in the Legislature, working constructively and effectively across party lines, made her the perfect person to play that role.
Henry McMaster had NO plan for his lieutenant, so it didn’t matter to him that she had no experience in government or politics. She was an unknown, and she has mostly remained just that. She seems to have been happy in helping Henry do little beyond kowtowing to Trump. And Henry really didn’t need any help with that…
Get a load of what she was quoted as saying in that story about her running. She was making a Trumpian effort to portray her great weakness as a strength:
In other words, she doesn’t stop and think, because she has no knowledge or experience that would be helpful to her in such an endeavor.
I’d laugh, but I’ve heard Voldemort himself spout such nonsense too many times, and he long ago ceased to be a laughing matter…
Oh, finally…
I should point out that the title Gov Lite is not about Pam Evette in particular. I started calling it that when Nick Theodore held the office in the late 80s and early 90s. Nick was lieutenant governor when I came back home to South Carolina in 1987, and before that, I had worked in states where the title meant something — or at least slightly more than it did here.
So, it wasn’t just about Nick, either. It was about the office.
In fact, in that office, Nick was the opposite of Pam Evette. Every day, he competed hard to get as much press as Gov. Carroll Campbell (and of course, he was definitely NOT a member of Campbell’s team). He was constantly creating committees to appoint people to, and sending out multiple releases about the doings of said task forces.
My favorite story of his aggrandizement was when we found he had a larger security detail than the governor.
He worked really hard to LOOK like a guy who had a big job and was doing big things with it. And of course, he was never absent for the events Gov Lites were usually invited to — ribbon cuttings and the like. He was everywhere.
I laughed about it at the time, but hey, at least he was making himself better known to the electorate. I recently noticed that Pam was coming out of her shell now and then and her name would be heard. I guess that was getting ready for her big announcement: “I, whom you do not know, am running for governor.”
I say I laughed. Actually, I was pretty ticked off by Nick’s eight years of campaigning when he beat the vastly superior Joe Riley for the Democratic nomination in 1994. All that time Nick was pressing the flesh, Joe was being the best mayor in the country. In fact, Joe didn’t really run for governor until he found himself in a runoff with Nick. Then, he got out there, and still lost to Nick by less than one vote per precinct.
It was the greatest disappointment I’ve seen in SC politics since I’ve been here. I kinda hate that I just reminded myself of it.
Nick, the nominee, went on to lose to David Beasley. I’m convinced Joe would have won…
Who’s the viable candidate?
Alan. The Democrats don’t have one yet… Rep. Jermaine Johnson has said he is considering running. He hasn’t announced. And he’s not nearly as strong a competitor as Alan…
I was surprised at Henry McMaster terms as Attorney General. Coming from chair of the South Carolina Republican Party, I thought that he would be partisan.
On the other hand, there’s the current Attorney General, Alan Wilson. Yes, he delivered a great closing on the Alex Murdoch trial. But he’s a hyper partisan hack. He’s an election denier, joining the lawsuit filed by embattled Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, suing Pennsylvania for election fraud in the 2020 election. Every unconstitutional executive order that Trump Issues, he files an amicus brief with other members of TAGA, Trumpian Attorney Generals Association. He even advocates overturning the Fourteenth Amendment. Wilson is clearly flattering Trump for a new endorsement.
I was surprised by Henry’s performance as AG as well, and for the same reason. His time as party chairman made me expect him to be a total hack. But he did a good job, especially compared to his predecessor, Charlie Condon…
I have some thoughts on your other point, but I’m going to that into a separate post…
I forgot another sycophantic action from Wilson. He and other TAGAs filed an amicus brief supporting Trump’s appeal to overturn his 34 count of business records falsification guilty verdict and fine in New York. His “fixer”, Michael Cohen served prison time as the go-between Trump and Stormy Daniels.
Wilson is the only candidate with reasonable experience.
I like Jermaine Johnson. He fills in on a local radio show in Columbia on occasion and he can speak deeply on many issues, and he seems entirely reasonable and like someone who would be glad to work with anyone. He doesn’t use divisive language and he’s not attacking other people as less than human beings. That’s better than any of the Republicans.
Ralph Norman – a joke. Don’t see him having any chance.
The Lt Governor- the one thing going for her is she is not the bomb thrower the others are- at least so far.
Nancy Mace – Nancy has some emotional problems and personal issues she really needs to get solved. Divorced twice. Numerous failed relationships. She likes to seek revenge. Most everyone that has ever worked for her leaves and they do not have kind things to say about the way she treats people.
She has children. She should spend time with them instead of trying to tell everyone else how to live their lives because she has no qualifications to do such a thing.
I should add that another Democrat has expressed interest, but I don’t see that as a promising situation.
His name is Mullins McLeod, and here is his website.
Lately, though, he’s gotten more coverage for something that happened May 15. You can read about it in a number of SC news outlets, but if I were Mr. McLeod, I’d be most concerned about this story in the ABA (American Bar Association) Journal:
I’m sad to see that, because as I recall from the last time he ran (2010), Mullins is the nephew of one of my favorite people in SC politics over the last few decades — Walt McLeod.
It seems it would be best for him to concentrate on things other than politics for awhile, but his website seems to indicate otherwise (assuming he’s keeping it up to date):
Well, I wish him the best. But I hope a more promising candidate will emerge on the Democratic side. Voters should be given a choice in the general election.
in South Carolina, yelling while standing in your underwear is close to a prison sentence- as he was arrested for it. Worse in the eyes of “good Conservatives in South Carolina” is that he’s a Democrat.
However, divorced twice, bragging about extramarital sex in front of clergy, kissing the ass of a man who admits to grabbing women by their genitalia and who has been held liable in court for sexual abuse, who goes through engagements like some people go through dirty socks, and who spends time throwing vile insults at anyone that questions her is seen as a “good Republican Conservative” is the type of leader Conservatives salivate over and praise.
Well, yes, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. Some of these alleged conservatives will reject her for those reasons, and go with, say, Ralph Norman as more respectable. Or for the gov lite…
As I say so often, people are complicated, which is why it’s a mistake to try to take a one-and-zeroes approach to understanding politics.
I suppose I say that almost as often as Roy on “The IT Crowd” repeats his stock response…
Ralph Norman- the guy who took out a loaded pistol at a campaign event and placed it on a table- which was violation of state law in South Carolina.
Then he made a crude reference to Gabby Giffords as if it was her fault some lunatic shot her.
None of his law and order supporters cared. No law enforcement official dared to address the issue.
Silence from “law and order” conservatives.
Ralph Norman is 72 years old. An automatic disqualifier. Move on from geriatric politicians or things will never change.
It will be a battle between Wilson and Mace. It will be ugly. Evette has the personality of a bucket of water so she’ll be out early. Trump will likely support Mace so it will depend on how things are going nationally if that helps or hurts by then.
The Democrats cannot win so it doesn’t matter who they put up. It will likely be another white middle aged milquetoast lawyer/legislator who will talk about education and jobs but not have any actual policies that can address either nor any track record showing they have done anything on either in the past. Won’t even try to do anything outside the party lines. Will deflect on abortion as much as possible. And whoever it is will likely talk more about Trump than whoever he is running against.
Nancy has spent most of the year attacking trans people and spreading lies that trans people are taking over sports in South Carolina and that teachers are making kids gay in South Carolina
you know- obviously the most pressing issue in South Carolina…… LOL
It’s interesting you didn’t mention that at all about Mace.
I think a Democrat or anyone talking about the current President of the United States and his policies and how they impact people in South Carolina makes a whole hell of a lot more sense and is more relevant than Nancy Mace talking about gay people every 9 seconds- or accusing people of being gay when they ask her a question she doesn’t like
Nancy needs serious life coaching and a mental health counselor. Although, that is probably not going to help given she goes through men like people use toilet paper
Well, Barry, if I had tried to list Nancy’s faults (a daunting task), I don’t think that would necessarily have topped the list. As you say, it’s not enormously relevant to the office of governor. And when people blather about culture war stuff, I tend to ignore them.
At any rate, I’m not going to try to compile such a list now.
The one general thing about Nancy is, she is someone who would not have been elected to Congress in an earlier time — for whatever reasons you choose, plus others. She has that in common with Trump. Both are a measure of how far the American electorate has fallen.
I’m not saying American voters were always wise before 2016. But they did have a basic common sense line they did not cross, collectively.
That’s gone now. Right out the window…
Her attacking other Americans and constantly slinging crap that would get a part time worker at Family Dollar fired on the spot is a near constant reminder of the mess she’s made of her own life. It’s a big issue and should be a big issue.
Why is it that the biggest culture war fighters are the almost always the ones that can’t run their own lives properly?
Nothing says “governor” more so that a woman who wants to tell everyone how to live, but who has a family life out of a disaster movie.
She should be on psychiatric medication.
“Both are a measure of how far the American electorate has fallen.”
I could name 50 politicians across both parties who have been in office long before Trump was elected who are horrible representatives.. Pelosi, Schumer, Maxine Waters, Elizabeth Warren, Lindsey Graham, McConnell, Sanders, Joe Wilon…all f them partisan hacks.. most of them corrupt… Some, like Waters and Warren and Wilson, are simply idiots
It’s convenient to pretend this started with Trump to fit your narrative but it’s simply untrue.
No, Doug. It’s entirely true. You know how I’m always complaining about people who speak in terms of ones-and-zeroes. Well, one reason I say that is that there are always exceptions. And in keeping with that, even my rule against ones-and-zeroes has exceptions. This is a big one. And I’m sorry that it’s not as obvious to you as it is to most people who seriously study and think about politics.
We know that you really, really hate politicians in general. This blinds you to the obvious.
In truth, there are all sorts of politicians. Some are better than others, some are worse.
The plain and painfully obvious truth is that you can lump all those pols together into one class, and pick on this one or that one all you want (as I have done professionally over the years). But Donald Trump is not in that class. I’m going to say this one more time, even though I know you will scornfully reject it: By 2016, our political climate had gotten pretty bad, mostly because of hyperpartisanship. It was a worrisome situation.
But before that year, the American electorate had never, ever elected anyone as grossly unfit for office as him. And not because we somehow found out about this or that failing or flow. He spends every moment of every day proudly showing off his gross flaws. We never get a moment’s break from it. It’s as if JFK had gone around announcing that he had banged Marilyn Monroe again the night before, and wow, it was really something. And people eagerly voted for him because of it, not in spite of it.
There has never, ever been such a phenomenon in American politics. The electorate as a whole has never behaved this way, ever. Anyone like Trump would have been soundly rejected in the past.
This is an amazingly startling development, and it amazes me that you cannot even see it.
So there I go again, wasting a bunch of time responding to you complaining about one of your pet peeves, and once again I’ve wasted a great deal of time. I won’t do it again on this subject — or on any subject, I hope.
Anyway, we’re done with this on the blog. You’ve complained again, and I’ve answered you again, and we’re done now…
No, Doug. I DO have to respond. Most comments don’t need a response. But when I say a true thing, and someone flatly says “it’s simply untrue,” I’m going to respond fully as to why that’s wrong.
That is, I’m going to do it unless I see that as a waste of time that I’d rather spend writing new posts.
I should have just disallowed this one, because as we’ve seen over and over, what’s the point?
That’s what I’ll do on the subject, starting now…
The trans issue is what they call an 80/20 issue. 80% of South Carolina voters likely agree with her. I know in do when it comes to biological males participating in women’s sports as well as banning “gender affirming” surgery for children. Those are both issues that she will have plenty of supporters. I doubt I will vote for any candidate unless a Democrat comes out in favor of legal pot, legal sports betting, and school vouchers in certain cases where school districts are failing. Aside from that I don’t care because the like McMaster, the next Republican governor will do very little to change South Carolina.
As someone who has a trans family member, we always laugh at the sports issue in South Carolina.
In the history of South Carolina, there have been 5 individuals who sought to play a sport not historically aligned with their gender. Several of those were approved with no objections and it wasn’t an issue (in at least 2 cases, it was trans boys wanting to play a typically male sport). South Carolina has already passed a law to ban this huge concern that was at the top of concerns for good South Carolina citizens.
However, that’s not the issue.
The issue is how a mentally unstable person in Nancy Mace makes this issue the biggest issue in the world, so much so that she calls people crude names out of the blue when it doesn’t even apply.
Of course, making a non-issue a huge issue is the only wat she could hope to win.
Nancy should work on staying married more than 15 minutes and get all her rape accusation cases handled before lecturing anyone else.
South Carolina will elect another nut-job and that’s South Carolina.
Mace said she would abolish the state income tax in five years (conveniently into what would be her second term).. whether she can do that is doubtful but it’s the red meat she needs to toss out there to the base. All the Republican candidates have to do is say “cut taxes, no abortion” and they’re in. The trans stuff are the side dishes to the red meat.
Let’s see how hard the Democratic candidate tries to avoid that subject. They need crossover votes to have a chance but have to thread the needle on woke issues.
Yup. Of course any serious candidate SHOULD avoid it, because it’s irrelevant to the job of governor. Or pretty much any public position. Maybe it would come up if you were a high school athletic director or something, but even then it’s not something the people hiring you should obsess about…
And of course, they most likely would not — because what they really care about is whether you win ballgames…
If you put a blanket over the kitchen table you can make a tent ⛺️ city…
https://youtu.be/zL_Iw9Jqr-k?si=ZAfMSxli2PXiqEDi
Trumps civil case in New York thrown out on appeal.. and the D.A. has her own issues with possible mortgage fraud. Georgia case collapsed when Fani Lewis was exposed as a corrupt person sleeping with and paying her boyfriend on the case.
Remember when all the liberals thought the walls were crumbling down on Trump?
All they got him on was questionable bookkeeping entries that he didn’t even make.
You mean his conviction on 34 felony counts arising from his payment of a porn star to stay quiet about him having sex with her? A conviction that just came down last summer, in the middle of the election that made him president again?
Yeah, he’s a real angel, and he’s SO persecuted. You need to keep defending the poor fellow. He’s so friendless…
34 felony counts for bookkeeping entries made by someone else… and all of those 34 “felonies” were of the type: send an invoice, signed a check, made an entry in ledger for the check.. so 3 “felonies” for each bookkeeping entry. They had to “trump” up the charges to make it look much worse. Why wasn’t it possible to convict him on one charge of paying off the porn star specifically instead of going this route? Anyone else who did the same thing would have lilkely plead to some type of misdemeanor.
Here’s the actual felonies as detailed by NPR:
https://www.npr.org/2024/05/30/g-s1-1848/trump-hush-money-trial-34-counts
I don’t defend Trump. I defend the truth. The truth is Democrats tried to stop him from running by bogging him down with multiple lawsuits/cases/etc. Those are all falling apart…
I’m not happy with a lot of what he’s doing lately aside from addressing illegal immigrants. His economic policies with tariffs are negotiated too much in public which causes uncertainty. But he’s certainly better than Joe Biden would have been. That would have been a disaster considering all of his medical conditions,