Tim Walz is Weird

fuck it, i'm gonna start a thread for this guy

liberal white lutheran governor of minnesota whose current schtick is calling republicans "weird". possible VP candidate under kamala harris? i don't think she's picked a VP candidate yet.

if we ever have anything more to say about this guy, this is probably the place to do it

If he is truly from Minnesota I'm guessing his high school nickname was Walleye.

he looks like he should be in a Coen brothers movie, has a kind of Charles Durning/David Huddleston type look

unfortunately it's looking like he won't be VP.

Reportedly he was the faculty advisor of the very first Gay-Straight Alliance at his school sometime in the NINETIES, which is going back a bit. I don't remember anyone being out at all in my school OR in my college years.

in my senior year in high school, in '93, i moved to louisville, and one of the friends i made there was out as a lesbian. she was fighting hard to be allowed to take another girl to prom. i don't know if they let her or not. if they didn't, you know, i'm pretty sure they do now, and she had something to do with it. i was just, haha, an _ally_ back then :) i think there was a guy in new jersey who did come out as gay... shortly after he came out as an alcoholic. lotta partying in that high school. i think that was also in '93. i didn't know him so well because, well, i didn't really party. i respect him more now than i did back then... back then i resented anybody who got invited to parties in the first place lol. i don't remember his name. i hope he's doing ok.

but yeah being gay was _not_ accepted when i was in high school. fuckin' nobody was out. there were no GSAs or anything like that. if you were queer, you were pretty much on your own.

which is kinda what unnerves me about tim walz and his "weird" thing. like this guy got the background. he made minnesota a sanctuary state for trans people. he's been a consistent advocate for queer people. he's gotta _know_ how fucking weird we are, right? "transgender" is an anagram of "strange nerd", that's a meme i like.

well. anyway. weird or not, the dude interests me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZONUAFp3nY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvhY-pMmC8c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA0Jq76D8q0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S233kqP0ak8

unfortunately it's looking like he won't be VP.

say more? seems like historically picking a governor of a swing state doesn't actually help you.

He's still on the shortlist. We still don't know who will be VP. There have been a few rumors about Beshear (he supposedly got additional security detail) and Shapiro (VP announcement will be in Philly) but they're just rumors afaict.

I think the sheer number of union endorsements Harris has racked up makes it harder for her to pick Kelly, who's been pretty publicly anti-union in the past, which by default moves Walz up a rung, but we'll see.

i'm very happy to keep him here where he can continue to do a good job instead so i hope he gets passed over

The main qualification for a good VP pick is someone broadly acceptable enough to not upset any part of your base, bonus points if they help you look a bit better to a subset of your voters who were feeling kinda miffed at you.

As Leonard Cohen said, take this Walz!

Walz was no friend to Minneapolis Public School teachers when they were on strike, and many many people in the Twin Cities won't forget him calling in the National Guard on protesters there in 2020.

I thought he was likeable enough for a statewide politician. Definitely better than any of the alternatives thrown up by either party. It's really progressive legislators in the cities getting the big work done in MN. He has been there for speeches and photos and done a good job staying out of their way in the past session. But I hope people don't think he's another Bernie or Wellstone or whatever, because they will be disappointed.

Oh yeah he's not a true progressive or perfect by any means, though getting just enough outstate votes to win is a tricky needle to thread

And staying of the way isn't nothing either

He's still on the shortlist. We still don't know who will be VP. There have been a few rumors about Beshear (he supposedly got additional security detail) and Shapiro (VP announcement will be in Philly) but they're just rumors afaict.

― c u (crüt)

beshear would be stupid imo, who's he gonna bring to the ticket? oh he got elected governor of kentucky, so? tim walz got elected governor of a state and _did something_

i'm not past the stage of political consciousness where i can read the word "shapiro" without thinking "ben". presumably it's not ben. helen or something.

probably not helen either, they're probably gonna want a cishet white guy, right?

But I hope people don't think he's another Bernie or Wellstone or whatever, because they will be disappointed.

― underminer of twenty years of excellent contribution to this borad (dan m)

is he at least a happy warrior

please tell me he got happy warrior cred

It's really progressive legislators in the cities getting the big work done in MN.

yeah my understanding is that these two women got all this shit done with a bare-bones margin of votes and walz just signed the bills

which doesn't mean he's a bad vp pick! i'd certainly take him over shapiro

Walz was a vocal and very effective advocate for the agenda.

I mean also that's kind of how government works, he signs the bills

getting on board with the agenda isnt nothing, lot of dem governors wouldve been active underminers

v. tru (all three of you)

no shade on anyone here, including me, but i genuinely am more enthusiastic about allies who aren't themselves so enthusiastic about things that i feel like they're gonna start taking estrogen next week

which, exactly, allies do you feel are about to start taking estrogen

which, exactly, allies do you feel are about to start taking estrogen

― mookieproof

the Really Good ones

i know plenty of women who were Really Good Allies

the best allies

and yet you are less enthusiastic about them

ok i just gotta be autistic here, am i being, like, insufficiently clear in my implications here? am i being too vague? or am i like being roasted? i genuinely can't tell :(

no biggie -- i was just trying to figure out if there was something involving tim walz beyond you inserting Your Trans Journey to it. evidently not

sorry if i'm being a dick (lol)

i understand and respect that transitioning is a huge deal for you. but you seem to be popping into random threads (even on the baseball board) dropping weird irrelevant info about it?

i know you have interesting things to say. but maybe not so much about tim walz

oh he got elected governor of kentucky, so? tim walz got elected governor of a state and _did something_

i think there are a number of reasons beshear is appealing as a VP candidate - very popular governor who is term limited, led his state through COVID and several significant natural disasters, solid progressive despite the clean cut image, doesn't capitulate to republicans

Walz on the Ezra Klein Show:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/02/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-tim-walz.html

sorry if i'm being a dick (lol)

i understand and respect that transitioning is a huge deal for you. but you seem to be popping into random threads (even on the baseball board) dropping weird irrelevant info about it?

i know you have interesting things to say. but maybe not so much about tim walz

― mookieproof

yeah i actually get where you're coming from and i don't really think you're being a dick

it's super legit to be exhausted with how i make goddamn everything about trans stuff. i do actually myself find it pretty tedious and boring. i'd rather just talk about the same ordinary normal shit (well, ordinary weird shit, i guess) i used to, live the same kinda life i lived before transition. i didn't go into this being all like, hey, why don't i go change literally everything about my life. kinda the opposite. like my being trans _isn't_ a big deal, it _shouldn't_ matter.

i say this stuff over and over because, fuck, i don't know what normal _is_. there's so much shit that's obvious to me that most cis people don't have experience with. i go banging on about the most tiresome shit imaginable and it's stuff that people genuinely want to know, but the only people telling them are telling bullshit lies. doing my tedious "by the way did i mention i'm trans???" schtick has changed and continues to change people's lives for the better.

plus it's the only thing i can talk about that i know anything about. and i don't know much. hardly anything at all. i mean i know more about king crimson, probably. but i've never actually been _in_ king crimson.

i mean i'm gonna piss people off, and you know, a lot of people i piss off, they're rightfully pissed off. it's not great, but i accept that. honestly i'm probably gonna keep talking about trans shit on threads that have nothing to do with trans shit, just because that's the lens through which i view fucking _everything_. i don't mind you throwing shade on me for that. only problem is the way you did it in this thread, i was legit confused, i wasn't sure whether you were genuinely curious or just sick of me talking about trans shit on a tim walz thread. idk.

i guess if you and other people throw enough shade at me i'll conclude people are sick of me and leave. i don't have that impression right now, and i basically like pretty much everyone here. and i mean i get a perspective from folks here that i don't get from other people. y'are My Cis Friends. out where i live, it's easy, it's _possible_ to just... not really talk to cis people, on more than a superficial level. and i don't like that. i talk a lot but what i value most is listening and learning. i've listened and learned a lot from people here, including people who've criticized me pretty vocally and openly.

i'm not... ilx isn't forever. i know that. it's been a pretty good experience for me. it still is a pretty good experience for me. it doesn't have to be all positive, though.

it's cool, i'm not sick of you! and if i am, i can simply not read it

no doubt this ties into 'cis ppl simply not wanting to be bothered' but also . . . i have enjoyed your writing about music that didn't immediately go to who is or isn't taking estrogen

(that said, i am absolutely here for it if you have a grand unified theory of pink floyd and transexuality)

<3

anyway! tim walz seems like a good guy and also a golden opportunity to bring the word 'avuncular' to everyone's attention

I get Kate's aversion to 'weird' because it harkens back to things like "smear the queer." Something I realized today is that this seems to be the week where "weird" disengages itself from "queer," at least as long as the Democrats' campaign is working.

i'm glad you are here, Kate! you definitely follow your own unique written path on here. by the way, i don't identify as cis or cisgender. i don't like the word and i would never call myself that. not a big deal though. but if someone called me that irl i would tell them not to. not that you were calling me that. but for the record.

i feel vindicated in starting this thread now lol

anyway mookieproof the question of "what does tim walz calling republicans weird have to do with you being trans" is a good question and one i have an actual answer to but it's a long answer and i'm too tired to write the whole thing up

in the meantime congrats to tim walz, i think he's a good pick tim i'm sorry i called you "weird", i meant "weird" in a good way, not "weird" in a bad way

Was going to post this to the ilx first mentions thread but but some reason it was locked in 2020

The Tim Walz first ilx mention award goes to gabbneb in 2006

The 2006 American Midterm Election Day Thread

true although Tim himself was posting the previous year on the Bob Seger thread

There's a new "first mentions" thread:
ILx "first mentions" part 2

Tim Walz was an REI hire. pic.twitter.com/pjLnvUEMZ0

— Jeremy Levenbach (@thelevenbach) August 6, 2024

REI? girl please, cabela's

otm

look at this fuckin dude

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Walz#/media/File:Tim_Walz_-_U.S._Army_Portrait.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Tim_Walz_-_U.S._Army_Portrait.jpg

https://twittet.com/Lowenaffchen/status/1820860499937898559?s=19

Sorry not sorry

In 2006 when I was homeless in St. Paul Tim Walz let me take a shower at his house and then tried to get in the shower with me

— Alex Nichols (@Lowenaffchen) August 6, 2024

crazy that the guy who was throwing away the trump ballots at the post office had this happen to him

that's amazing, she put it in her .xls

Now I *really* want to see Walz on Hot Ones.

Tim Walz telling Harris in this video he eats "white guy tacos" ("pretty much ground beef and cheese") and that black pepper is "the top of the spice level in Minnesota" https://t.co/iSbpfS4QGJ

— Sam Stein (@samstein) August 15, 2024

the video is kinda fun, they're doing some kind of Odd Couple thing but it works... she claims to be the first VP to grow her own peppers

Doug is a Depeche Mode guy

Shannon Selberg posted a pic of himself with Walz a couple days ago but don't think he's a Cows guy.

If elected, TIM WALZ would be the first U.S. vice president whose name is written entirely with straight lines

— Adam Aaronson (@aaaronson) August 14, 2024

Good trivia. Doesn't look like there has ever been a president who can make that claim. It helps, of course, that Tim Walz is only seven letters.

But of course his first name is actually Timothy

all letters can be written with straight lines if you believe

Trvth

do u believe in lines after lines

Dubya was the first President to wrote his own name in lines of coke

i can feel something inside me say i really don't think you're straight enough ohhhh

If elected, TIM WALZ would be the first U.S. vice president whose name is written entirely with straight lines

But of course his first name is actually Timothy

If you use a polygon with enough sides for the 'o', you still can.

TIM⁰THY

Dang

TIM[]THY

https://www.rollingstone.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/tim-walz-dog-scout.jpg
Who's a good boy? Tim's dog Scout seems a lot less intimidating than Biden's Major & Commander GSDs.

About whom the online right managed to briefly muster a totally fabricated scandal yesterday

https://www.newsweek.com/tim-walz-attacked-maga-over-dog-photos-1944785

Their quest to prove that Walz regular guy image is a cynical fraud is a huge projection, but if they keep it up for 5 years it will probably stick with a lot of people.

Newsweek links in 2024? Might as well share from Forbes.

Trump weighs in: "I don't know, is he a black dog or a brown dog? He was always brown until he recently he turned black."

"All I know is a big legged woman ain't got no soul."

Newsweek links in 2024? Might as well share from Forbes.

I know, just grabbing one that wasn't paywalled.

I want to see a thinkpiece titled Twitter Dueling: The New Political Street Fighting?

Divorce = liberation, or needing to earn that alimony?

this is pretty good

www.neverwalz.com

^^^^you have to cut & paste

(whoops, that divorce post was meant for the Oasis thread, on reasons for reuniting)

Their quest to prove that Walz regular guy image is a cynical fraud is a huge projection, but if they keep it up for 5 years it will probably stick with a lot of people.

Maybe? They never really got anything to stick with Biden. Nobody gave a shit about Hunter.

(except Biden being old. which ... he is.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYmnsP2Yuuo

i know my late grandfather was partial to the local blain's farm and fleet, but i bet he would've been won over by any candidate that knew the menards theme.

knowing about the 11% menards mail-in rebate is some real shit

Right wingers are going off about how Walz supposedly angrily yanked his son's arm on stage at the DNC. Looks to me like he was pulling him out of the way of a teleprompter.

Aww I miss Farm & Fleet. I miss the feed corn barrels that you could run your hands through.

Are these the same right-wingers who were making fun of his son last week or different ones

they are the very concerned body language experts

Menards are big WI gop donors btw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o0bZ3QigVI

So they basically failed to Swiftboat him right? He is still Walzing and they're not even trying the stolen valor thing any more.

Like you have Elon, Murdoch, Putin, Trump, and a spineless legacy media - and the right still can't get a decent scandal or conspiracy theory off the ground. Are they just too online now to be good at this?

and sixteen minutes after posting that I come across this thread

Obviously this is who Trump is and this is what Trumpism is. But there's part of this that isn't widely enough known, tho it's well-known to a lot of reporters. And that is among GOP operatives and staffers under 30 or so the majority, maybe the great majority had their ...

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) October 28, 2024

Not on X. Is there a threadreader rollup of that?

I'll paste it here, since I think he's otm. probably best explains why Trump is sorta gaining with young voters

Obviously this is who Trump is and this is what Trumpism is. But there's part of this that isn't widely enough known, tho it's well-known to a lot of reporters. And that is among GOP operatives and staffers under 30 or so the majority, maybe the great majority had their political awakenings on sites like 4chan, 8chan, various far-right, incel and incel adjacent online communities. It crops up in various ways if you know where to look. It's why DeSantis had those weird frankly homoerotic campaign vids during the primaries. They're all awash in this world of casual racism, ironic provocation, not just misogyny but a weird emotionally-stunted kind of misogyny that to normal people isn't just often either offensive or weird but even kind of inexplicable because it's a very weird inside idiom and self-referential world that is fairly alien to mainstream audiences. Again, I know I'm not saying anything new to say Trumpers are weird and racist and sexist and all the rest. But young staffers make up the world of political life. They're not the 'talent' or the big names yet. But they're the workforce that makes thing happen. And that weirdo 4chany world is just deeply, deeply in the DNA. It's not just that they're into Trumpism. It's that that largely only world is the space and the idea world that made them decide they were conservatives, or Republicans or whatever association and home-ness in the right and far-right they have. So like I said, it's deep deep in the political DNA.

We know this in a watch just from watching the current GOP and when it comes to the surface in these weird ways. But I first realized this through various stories from the last five or six years, usually involving this or that outrage or scandal and over-time it became really obvious that LOTS of these guys had very long histories/online identities in that world. In most cases with political origin stories in which they found their political identities in those online spaces. maybe it's not surprising that ones who got in trouble or stepped on a rake in some way had those backgrounds. But the other ones did too. Like it just kept coming up again and again. If you follow politics you know these guys are out there. We've been in this post-gamergate world for years. But I think people don't put two and two together a lot that this is where the new generation of GOP staffers and operatives is coming from. Again, under 30? Maybe a touch older. Not just in the offices and campaigns of the crazies but in those of the semi-normal folks too. It's just pervasive. And really it's not surprising because it fits with the current politics of the GOP. But it's a bit ominous for the future. If you followed D politics in the 80s, 90s, aughts, you knew that pretty much all the big people, the candidates, the powerful operatives had all first met on the Mcgovern campaign. Almost didn't matter whether they were on the right or left of the party. That was the formative experience for all of them. In 2036 in the GOP it's going to be 4chan.

There’s a guy I used to be extremely close friends with who found himself to be a fairly popular right wing influencer after apparently having been doing nothing with his life except for being extremely online for a few years. When I’d last spent a lot of time hanging out with him, he was a fairly quiet and thoughtful dude, and when I find his subreddit now where he posts, it’s just like his mind has been irreparably broken, and he’s turned into this subhuman, hateful figure. He had a lot going for him here in Los Angeles, and now he lives somewhere in the hinterlands of Colorado, spewing hate.

my older brother is like that too. he seems fairly normal and charismatic until any political topic whatsoever comes up. he's going fucking insane and I'm trying to get my younger brother to stop arguing with him because I feel like he's goading him into a mental breakdown

Fucking bummers, sorry guys. the "Walz reminds me of my dad before I lost him to Fox" stuff was so sad. Almost happened to my father-in-law but my mother-in-law got to him in time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n9Gqa-0Cp0

Cool it with the Mountain Dew, big guy.

don't worry it's actually filled with Campari

This is the greatest and also DREAMCAST 4 LIFE