Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
The National Hurricane Center is currently forecasting current Tropical Storm Milton to make a speed run east northeast across the Gulf of Mexico and hit somewhere near Tampa Bay as a Category 3 storm in the middle of the week.
The forecasted landfall is Wednesday.
West Florida Jackals — start prepping now and be safe!
Milton is looking for his stapler in Tampa BayPost + Comments (14)
OCTOBER SURPRISE: President Obama will campaign for VP Kamala Harris in Pittsburgh next week. That event will launch a larger effort by Obama, who intends to ramp up his campaigning for Harris across the battleground states in the final 27 days of the election. #HarrisWalz2024 pic.twitter.com/s88ktti41x
— Jon Cooper ???? (@joncoopertweets) October 4, 2024
Barack Obama will soon hit the campaign trail for Kamala Harris. https://t.co/o45OtnX8Ve
— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 4, 2024
Per the Washington Post, “Obama to campaign for Harris in month leading up to election”:
… Obama senior adviser Eric Schultz said in a news release that the former president is doing “everything he can to help elect Vice President Harris” and Democrats across the country.
“Now that voting has begun, our focus is on persuading and mobilizing voters, especially in states with key races,” Schultz said. “Many of these races are likely to go down to the wire and nothing should be taken for granted.”
Obama, the country’s first Black president, is the nation’s most popular Democrat and still wields considerable influence in his party. After President Joe Biden’s faltering debate performance against Donald Trump, Obama told allies that the president needed to reconsider whether his candidacy was viable. Obama and his wife, Michelle, endorsed Harris shortly after Biden left the presidential race and Harris became the presumptive nominee. Since then, the Obamas have said Harris represents a continuation of the same vision of America that helped Obama make history in 2008.
“If we work like we’ve never worked before, if we hold firm to our convictions — we will elect Kamala Harris as the next President of the United States,” Obama said at the Democratic National Convention in August. “We’ll elect leaders up and down the ballot who will fight for the hopeful, forward-looking America we all believe in.”…
Harris was an early supporter of Obama, traveling to Iowa during the 2008 campaign to knock on doors for him. The two of them have a relationship that stretches back two decades.
Save the date! Two weeks from Today. RSVP to WaterGirl
Saturday, October 19
3:30 – 5 pm Eastern
Be there or be square. :-)
RSVP with email to WaterGirl
Family stories. The classics Everybody’s got them, right? The thing that was said that lives on, in infamy. Or possibly glory!
Commenter wjca told this one in the wee hours of the night last night, in a discussion about swearing.
Almost 3 years old younger brother, over some minor oops: “Damn it!” Almost 5 years old me, with the authority of my superior years: “No, David, it’s ‘God damn it!’.”
Mother, in the next room, suddenly realizing, with a bit of a shock, that her language around us might need a bit of restraining,
Which made me think of the classic story of my niece, at the shoe store when she was 4 or 5 years old.
While trying on shoes, she managed to use nearly every form of the word fuck, properly conjugated. Fuck. Fucking. Fuck it.
I think the original “fuck” was when she had trouble getting a shoe on. “Fucking” was in reference to a problem with the zipper on her jacket. I do not recall the context for “fuck it”.
I’m sure my sister was mortified, but I thought it was hysterically funny.
Similar to wjca’s story, it led to a conversation with my sister’s husband and what could and could not be said around the kitchen table when his friends were over after the kids were “asleep”.
Any family stores that you guys would like to share?
Open thread!
"Our kids are watching…"
?? https://t.co/g0oEmPF3WB— Wesley Bell (@WesleyBell4MO) October 4, 2024
President Joe Biden, in a rare appearance in the White House press briefing room, celebrated the suspension of a dockworkers strike and the latest U.S. jobs numbers. He also said he doesn't know whether Israel is holding up a peace deal to influence the election. pic.twitter.com/xLOhKVPaeZ
— The Associated Press (@AP) October 4, 2024
Marking 32 days left till Election Day with #32.
Great seeing you, @magicjohnson! https://t.co/VbrfuqVy9P pic.twitter.com/7sl9tA2Kf3
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 4, 2024
BREAKING: Pres. Biden says he is unsure if the election outcome will be "peaceful."
"I noticed the vice presidential Republican candidate did not say he'd accept the outcome of the election … I'm concerned about what they're going to do." https://t.co/kg0rBBA2gk pic.twitter.com/01uIkK5hP8
— ABC News (@ABC) October 4, 2024
Saturday Morning Open Thread: Putting in the Work, RelentlessyPost + Comments (186)
I don’t have anything to say but thought I would throw up a new space for you all to clutter up before heading to bed. Finished Jack Irish off, got some closure there, and started watching Blue Lights.
Night all.
Two quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie is doing very well at the end of the week after her most recent treatment. Thank you for all the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donation.
Second, it has been a long, draining week. Something from the hurricane seems to have broken most FloriDuhans’ brains and everyone is driving like its Death Race 2024 out there. I’m going to just run through the basics so I can go rack out.
The DOD Deputy Press Secretary held a briefing yesterday. Her remarks have not gone over well in Ukraine. Also, in my living room.
Q: Thank you. So today, President Zelenskyy urged NATO allies to help intercept Iranian missiles and drones over Ukraine, as they do with Israel. Can the United States and allies help Ukraine with that? I mean since it’s possible Israel, why cannot it be done with Ukraine?
MS. SINGH: So thank you for the question. While I appreciate the question, we are talking about two very different landscapes and battlefields. The president, at the very beginning of when Russia invaded Ukraine, has directed this department to provide Ukraine what it needs on the battlefield.
They have been very successful in employing, whether it be air defenses or other capabilities, to continue to take back their territory. The secretary just had a call with Mr. Umerov, getting that battlefield update, getting to better understand what other capabilities they might need, if any. The president has made a commitment that the United States is not putting boots on the ground into Ukraine, but we are supporting Ukraine in their efforts to take back their sovereign territory.
Q: Well, shooting those targets, say from Polish or Romanian territory, would that be putting boots on the ground?
MS. SINGH: That would be involving us in a war in a different way. And right now, we feel that Ukraine has been able to successfully defend against Russian strikes to their cities, to their populations, to their infrastructure. And we’re going to continue to make sure that they have the support that they need to do that.
Then, give the Ukrainians the damned guns and permissions to defend themselves! Most of the thousands of relevant weapons and platforms in Western armies will never be used & end up as scrap metal. This stuff was once built to fight the Russian army & can now be used accordingly. https://t.co/jLIsdK6u7H
— Andreas Umland (@UmlandAndreas) October 4, 2024
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.