Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

Let me file that under fuck it.

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Bark louder, little dog.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

This blog will pay for itself.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

President Musk and Trump are both poorly raised, coddled 8 year old boys.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. Do not congratulate. This is not business as usual.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Dog Blogging / Friday Morning Open Thread: Travelling On

Friday Morning Open Thread: Travelling On

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travels w ch nickie

From commentor Travels with Charley:

I am a longtime Balloon Juice lurker (2008) de-lurking to send my favorite dog pics. The large brown poodle is Charley, the small one is Nicky. So far, the traveling has been strictly metaphorical!

***********
The Always Wrong Oracle has spoken!

So it looks like Trump’s speech will have been effective… at turning out the Democratic vote.

***********
Apart from admiring a most elegant duo — and girding ourselves for the DNC next week — what’s on the agenda as we wrap up a busy week?

travels w ch duo

travels w ch charley

Reader Interactions

177Comments

  1. 1.

    David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch

    We Just Watched the Republican Party Kill Itself

    With Donald Trump’s RNC 2016 nomination, the Republican Party is dead. And all the conservative activists here in Cleveland know it.

    CLEVELAND — It seemed possible that the balloons would never drop.

    This was not, after all, the celebration that the Republican Party had waited four years for.

    This was a reading of last rites.

    The Republican brand is now permanently sullied by the victory of a former reality television star with an adversarial relationship with the truth and a fluorescent rodent adorning his head.

  3. 3.

    PurpleGirl

    Both doggies are cute but I think I like Nicky a little bit more — it’s that floofy small body and face. Thank you for sending in the these photos. It’s always nice to start the day with critter pictures.

  5. 5.

    Nora Carrington

    I’ve been an on-again-off-again lurker here since 2008, too! Doing work for HRC in VA is looking like it makes more sense than just voting for her in MD, where I live, and doing my work on local/state campaigns, which is what I’d planned to do.

  10. 10.

    amk

    Josh Barro ‏@jbarro 9h9 hours ago Cleveland, OH

    Is there a theoretical GOP nominee so dangerous and horrible that McConnell, Ryan, Rubio would be conscience-bound to oppose him?

  13. 13.

    Barb2

    Poodles are so smart! We had two a long time ago.

    Anyway, we are snow birds. AZ, where we winter, may be in play. We vote by mail in WA State, and our home state is in Hillary’s column.

    So vote before we leave or get our ballots forwarded so we can be in AZ to help get out the vote down there.

    This is the year when all hands are needed on deck.

    The spousal unit is very disgusted with the GOP nomination of Putin’s Puppet aka Trump. So he will be hopefully joining the get out the vote in North western AZ. Older guys will approach the spousal unit to talk up Trump. He will cut the Trump fans off at the knees by saying thing like – “Trump is a raving lunatic”.

    No woman in laundry rooms etc has walked up to me to sing the praises of Trump. Just happens to spousal unit. Older guys seem to have a word of mouth bonding over Trump. Most wives don’t seem to be on the Trump fan wagon. If the wives do react – they use the eye roll.

    Yes yes – we can do this. Putin’s Puppet thrives on chaos and attention. His ego needs to be starved.

  14. 14.

    David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch

    Trump’s Acceptance Speech Was A Eulogy For The GOP

    July 22, 2016 By John Daniel Davidson

    ***
    It was cartoonish and Nixonian, and it will likely be remembered as a kind of eulogy for the GOP.

    But for the occasion of his coronation as leader of a doomed political party, it was entirely appropriate. After all, Trump has tapped into the anger and frustration of so many Americans in part by exaggerating their problems and the troubles facing America.

  18. 18.

    satby

    Beautiful boys Travels with Charley! Glad you delurked to share with us, stick around to put in your two cents too.

  19. 19.

    satby

    Good morning to rikyrah and all the rest of the early risers! Heat advisory for today, heat index is supposed to be 109 by the afternoon. So today will be a good day for me to learn how to replace a sink drain, ya think?

  23. 23.

    Barb2

    Lying liars Trump is at the top for telling the most lies.

    Clinton and Obama are at the bottom for being the most honest.

    This link goes to a (shock) Mormon website.

    Someone posted at BJ posted this link and after the hate filled RNC – I thought it might be nice to know who we will be electing in November. (Hillary, of course.)

  24. 24.

    Calming Influence

    Bullshit. There’s nothing cute about this. That dog ran me off the road last week.

  26. 26.

    satby

    @Barb2: I shared that on the book of face; where the Trump supporters in my feed have skunk off in silence. I was aiming for the third party curious I already kapowed with the Savage podcast from yesterday.
    My friends in other countries are watching this the way you gape at a car wreck.

  27. 27.

    Kay

    Others made still bolder guesses. Mindy McAlindon, an Arkansas alternate delegate, and her husband guessed Ohio would stay blue — too many unionized workers — but that New Jersey, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Florida would all tip to Trump, as would his home state of New York. Trump would lose “inner-city Manhattan,” Lance McAlindon conceded, but he’d surely make up his losses in the rest of the state.

    The voter fraud theories when they lose this cycle will be amazing. Like nothing we have seen before. I can’t wait for the first report on the “white vans” full of black people voting twice. It’s always “white vans”- no other color- like Democrats bought a voter fraud transport fleet at an auction.

  28. 28.

    Schlemazel Khan

    I can’t believe I am this late to the party ans sti;; get to post the correct caption to that top picture!

    Don’t ask questions, just shut up and get in!

  30. 30.

    Mustang Bobby

    About last night:

    What it all came down to is that Donald Trump told America and the world that we are in a hell of a mess and he is the only one who can fix it.

    That has been the message of every dictator — from the left or the right — for time out of mind. Every one of them has cited facts they claim to be true yet are easily refuted. Every one of them has found a scapegoat to blame for the problems their citizens faced and accused them of treachery or worse. Every one of them has claimed to be the voice of the people, and every one of them, whether they’re standing on the stage at Nuremberg, the balcony in Rome, the wall of the Kremlin, the plaza in Havana, or the gates of the Forbidden City, has risen to power or seized it with that messianic claim, and every one of them has done it at the expense of lives, fortunes, and freedom. Fortunately no one has ever stood on the steps of the Capitol in Washington and delivered a speech like that, and if we are to live and grow and survive as a country, we never will hear it.

    Mr. Trump’s speech was all about him, how “I” will do this, “I” will stop that, “I” will make some other thing happen. It was rarely “we,” and when it was, it was about what his administration — his government — will do to others.

    But this is a nation of “We.” “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union,” “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” The echos of Thomas Jefferson and Franklin Roosevelt were lost in the bombast and narcissism of this belligerent bully who knows nothing of true compassion for anyone other than himself or what would feed his ego.

    Counting on my sobriety to get me through this.

  32. 32.

    Barb2

    @satby: That is an amazing graphic. I have it bookmarked. Thank you for sharing it.

    One group of fact checkers found that Putin’s Puppet doesn’t lie 4% of the time. No Link – Spousal Unit heard it on the radio – npr? So Putin’s Puppet lies 96% of the time.

  33. 33.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @mike in dc: I have read she is asking for a Monday prime time speaking slot.

    Gonna hit 101 today with humidity 70-80% range no doubt. I’ll put 4 hours in on the barn and call it a day. Over the past 2 weeks we made the turn on the really nasty corner, putting up all the cribbing to hold it all up and together, cutting down the tree that had been holding it up, grinding out the stump and some roots too, digging piers and forming up for a grade beam, bending and tying the re-bar, pouring the concrete and then letting it cure, putting in the new sill plates, posts, and beams, then removing the cribbing and putting up the new siding. My buddy is happy. At one point he looked at me and said, “It all looks like one giant Jenga stack.” it was that scary looking. But it was all good, no real worries, just take it one step at a time and when in doubt, pause, step back, rethink it to make sure you didn’t miss anything and then do the next thing. We are now on the back rake wall. got a couple sill plates to replace, one major beam, reframe part of it for a new tractor sized door, then re-side it. No real weight tho, because it’s a rake wall. That will be the end of all the major structural work on it.

  36. 36.

    Kay

    The money people in the GOP quietly line up behind Trump:

    “You have these two worlds colliding a little bit here,” said David Tamasi, a lobbyist at the firm Rasky Baerlein and a top Republican fund-raiser on K Street, who joined Mr. Trump’s team after his preferred candidate, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, went down to defeat. “That’s what’s going to be interesting: How do the establishment guys make those folks feel at home?”

    What will be interesting is watching the GOP electeds (publicly) try to straddle a line where they’re pretending they’re opposing parts of what Trump stands for- they have to hedge their bet.

  37. 37.

    Cat48

    Cute poodles. I haven’t studied the 270 maps this year, but Hillary is doing well in CO and FL. Her lead averages 7 or 8 pts in those states. Obama squeaked out FL by about 2 pts both times. He did’nt have orange furor screaming about Latinas though.
    That was really a disgusting speech last night, 90 minutes of screaming nothing. Ohh, be afraid!

  38. 38.

    CarolDuhart2

    Been having stomach issues lately, so decided not to watch Trump live. Thanks to all who did so in my stead. Judging from what I read, I certainly would have retched for sure.

    From Little Green Footballs: Is this real?

  40. 40.

    CarolDuhart2

    @Cat48: Still, I wont relax until the Wednesday morning after election day. The Trump people don’t seem to be too good for dirty tricks, even outright intimidation in some places. So my advice would be to take advantage of mail voting wherever it’s offered and vote early whenever possible (polling places are often at the Board of Elections or equivalent).

  42. 42.

    Cat48

    Speaking of money men, I saw an article this week. Trump has $1.3M & Hillary has $42.5M on hand.

  44. 44.

    bystander

    @Kay: I’m sure we can count on an appearance by The New Black Panthers intimidating whitey at some polling place.

    Whenever TNBP is mentioned, I think of The New Christy Minstrels. Kind of like when they dittohead “he pledged allegiance to ISIS”, I hear, “I pledge allegiance/to ISIS/and to the republic…”

  47. 47.

    Elizabelle

    Wonderful thunderstorm rolling through now. We need the rain.

    Happy Friday, all.

  49. 49.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    They say it so often I think Republicans think it’s a really clever Trump strategy- “we have to retain GOP control of Congress in order to limit the damage done by President Trump”. Making lemon-aide from lemons :)

    Once again I am struck by the fact that I am much more “conservative” than “conservatives”- they are really reckless people. Anything for power. Anything. How ’bout that authoritarianism from the people who crave “limited government”, huh? That was the speech of a dictator.

    BTW, when he loses I want the Trump adult children shunned too. This dream they have of their family running the country by electing their father is fucked up and weird. Where exactly do Ivanka and Donald Jr. get off with these delusions that they somehow deserve and have earned this?

  51. 51.

    Chyron HR

    Reminds me of that classic SNL sketch, “Trump: The Cat Who Can Drive a Political Party”.

  53. 53.

    Kay

    @bystander:

    Election fraud theories always have a true part- a small part of a rule or statute they take out of context or an actual sighting that becomes urban legend. I think the “white vans” thing probably started with church vans in Ohio. They do “souls to the polls” after church and those vans are popular with churches.

  54. 54.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    Where exactly do Ivanka and Donald Jr. get off with these delusions that they somehow deserve and have earned this?

    Rhetorical question of the year.

  56. 56.

    RK

    CNN snap poll of the speech: 57 percent “very positive reaction” 18 percent somewhat positive reaction 24 percent negative.

  58. 58.

    debbie

    This morning, NBC reporter Tracey Potts summed up Trump’s speech as “a different kind of hope.”

  59. 59.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    Kay, what did you think of the scenario where, as VP, Kasich would actually be running the country? I’m surprised he didn’t take the offer.

  60. 60.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    So Trump is going to run a Nixon 1968 campaign, I guess it’d make sense to bring Roger Ailes onboard. He’s not doing anything now.

  61. 61.

    Mr. Mack

    Loved the pup at the wheel! That other poodle is stunning, and quite LARGE.

    Hot as hell here today again. I too will limit work out in my barn to around 4 hours. Just bought a new zero turn with fuel injection and shock absorption. Can’t wait, but first I’m installing a sun shade on the roll bar.

    If I can get my projects done…hoping I can help in southern Ohio this Fall. I was going to let younger people do the heavy lifting this year…but I don’t feel like I can live with myself if we lose and I didn’t do…something.

  65. 65.

    Kay

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It’s the privilege end-game. They earned nothing, and by the third generation they believe they deserve everything. They’re the result. I have to adopt a fatalistic view in these situations. If Americans promote this family to Supreme Ruler then merit means nothing and we’ll all just carry on knowing that. We can still do worthwhile things and earn what we get but we’ll know certain people don’t have to.

  68. 68.

    rikyrah

    @Cat48:
    We should continue to be vigilant. The NYT had that graphic about the combinations that the candidates had to 270. Hillary had over 900 ways to 270. Trump had under 80.
    And, if Hillary wins Florida?
    Trump’s ways go down to ONE.
    ONE.

    GOTV, people.
    GOTV.

  70. 70.

    Keith G

    I remember the voices about 15 months ago who were so upset at the choice of president coming down to one of two political dynasties. Even some here were decrying the need for new faces.

    Dog bless the Clinton political dynasty as it is what stands between us and a very dark turn in our political leadership.

  73. 73.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    Someone tweeted last night “what if Obama had 5 children by three different women?”

    I’ll tell you “what if”- there never would have been a Senator Obama, let alone President. It’s not even that there are “different rules”- it’s that they change the rules to fit people like the Trumps. “Rules” simply don’t apply to them. That’s the definition of privilege.

  75. 75.

    Billcoop4

    @Mr. Mack:

    If I can get my projects done…hoping I can help in southern Ohio this Fall. I was going to let younger people do the heavy lifting this year…but I don’t feel like I can live with myself if we lose and I didn’t do…something.

    Ohio looks to be on my horizon in the fall, also. I doubt any work I did in Kentucky would make a difference, unless it’s to work against Rand Paul. While I hate working the phone bank, I love driving people to the polls.

    WMC

  76. 76.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: Stories of “white vans” always make me think of the DC sniper attacks, and how the authorities at one point said on the basis of eyewitness reports that the shooter was operating out of either a white van, or a Chevy Caprice. And someone with a background in statistics pointed out that it was almost certainly the Caprice, because the thing about white vans is, white vans are everywhere, and people will see them and associate them with any random event just because they’re around. But people were freaking out about the white vans, of course.

  77. 77.

    MomSense

    Good morning, everyone. Puppies are adorable.

    Can’t believe I watched that mess last night.

  80. 80.

    amk

    last 3 days has been trump, trump, trump on bbc fp to the exclusion of every other important news. let’s see what they do with the dem convention.

  81. 81.

    OzarkHillbilly

    On Feb. 25, the heavy hammer of justice fell hard on James T. Green.

    In a city where gun crimes are an everyday occurrence, St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Steven Ohmer made an example out of the 67-year-old. Last November, an all-white jury had taken about an hour to decide the 6-foot-2-inch, 300-pound African-American man’s fate on four charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

    Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.

    Ohmer was not in a merciful mood. This is a city where the police chief, Sam Dotson, had railed on judges for being weak on gun crimes. Never mind that Green hadn’t stolen the guns, or used them, or sold them, or committed any other crimes at all. He was going down. Despite a recommendation from the circuit attorney that Green, who is diabetic, be given a sentence of seven years, Ohmer handed down the maximum sentence available by law.

    Green would spend the rest of his life behind bars. Sixty years in all.

    “I never thought I’d see St. Louis again, except on TV,” Green told me Wednesday. He wasn’t behind bars. He’s not on probation or wearing an ankle bracelet. We sat at a Hardee’s on South Broadway sipping coffee while he told me his story.

    What happened?

    Ohmer went from 60 to zero in four months. On June 1, the judge reversed his previous sentence and set Green free. No more jail time. No more probation. No fees. “Defendant … is discharged from custody,” Ohmer wrote. Green was a free man.

    “Damnedest thing I’ve ever seen,” Green says. “It’s been a long, long rough road.”

    What happened, indeed.

    Two documents tell the story of how Green went from poster child of what is causing violence in St. Louis to an example of everything that is wrong with how the criminal justice system treats African-Americans. After the trial, public defender Julie Fogelberg filed a motion seeking to set aside the verdict or order a new trial based on multiple violations of Green’s constitutional rights during the trial, most related to decisions made by Ohmer.

    They included:

    • Allowing the state to strike African-Americans from the jury pool because they had criminal convictions on their record.

    • Not allowing the jury to know that Green’s one-time co-defendant, Louis Bond (his nephew), signed an affidavit saying that all eight guns (most of them hunting rifles) found in the house belonged to him. Bond died before the trial, but he had previously signed the affidavit while he was represented by an attorney.

    • Not allowing testimony or cross-examination that would show Green wasn’t charged with any of the offenses he was actually arrested on when police searched his home on June 4, 2014.

    But perhaps the key allegation made by Fogelberg — in a motion for Ohmer to reconsider his sentence — is that the judge dropped the hammer on Green because he was mad that the 67-year-old dared to exercise his right to trial.

    “The trial court cannot use the sentencing process to punish a defendant by increasing his sentence because he decided to go to trial,” Fogelberg wrote. “… the court made it clear after the jury found Mr. Green guilty of all four charges that going to trial was a mistake, and Mr. Green’s sentence would reflect the court’s opinion about the mistake of proceeding to trial.”

    Ohmer, in an interview, said race had nothing to do with Green’s conviction or sentence. He denies he punished Green because he chose to go to trial.

    “I would never do that,” he said.

    Yeah, right. So what’s the reason then?

    “Mainly because of his attitude,” he told me. “He had a terrible attitude. His attitude was very defiant. There was no reason to have any sympathy for him.”

    The orignal charges against him were all dropped:

    He was arrested for operating a business without a license, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, and tampering with utilities.

    But a lab report came back empty. And so Green was never charged with any of those offenses. For six months he was in jail, not because he was a danger to society, but because he was poor.

    ……

    Today, Green is free but angry. He’s got paperwork to prove the system did him wrong, but not much else to go with it. He’s living with his brother and his family in south St. Louis. He’s trying to improve his reading skills, something a preacher helped him with while he was avoiding fights with the younger inmates in Bonne Terre.

    He wants to know who is going to help him get his life back. “I lost everything,” Green said. “And I never even should have even been arrested.”

    They say all lives matter, but in our society it’s pretty gawddamned obvious that some lives matter more than others. The whole thing is infuriating. If you want to see what Donald Trump’s America would look like, go read it and imagine how much worse it could have been.

  83. 83.

    Patricia Kayden

    What cute doggies — especially the one at the wheel.

    Checked out before The Donald’s speech. Glad I did, since I’m hearing that it was as awful as expected. The Democrats will show everyone how a Convention is done. Looking forward to next week. The only disappointment may be if Kaine is the VP choice. Oh well.

    @debbie: LOL. Well, that’s a creative way to describe it.

  85. 85.

    Punchy

    @RK: I bet 80% of this “snap poll” was GOPers. Dems would NOT have voted that “positive”…

  86. 86.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I once passed a petition on a voting rights rule change in Ohio. We have a referendum process where we can overturn state law and there was a very popular referendum petition going around, so voting rights people in the Obama campaign engineered this second one to tag along. I made some progress talking to people by going thru the steps of “voter fraud” because what these conspiracy theories really means is “voter impersonation fraud”. The fake-voter has to impersonate a real voter. The real voters name is in the poll book and the fake voter appears and uses that persons name. When you get them to think about it it starts to sound outlandish, because it is. It’s also not a net increase IN VOTERS IN THE POLL BOOK. It’s trading real voter for fake voter- they can never tell me where the addition comes in.

  87. 87.

    Baud

    @RK:
    America better hope so. Let’s dispel with the notion that Trump isn’t a national problem.

  88. 88.

    Patricia Kayden

    @OzarkHillbilly: So Green cannot sue for wrongful conviction/imprisonment which is what happens sometimes in similar cases? The scary thing about Green’s story is that it exposes the fact that so many other poor Black men are rotting away in jail for crimes they never committed.

  91. 91.

    Cat48

    @rikyrah:

    Definitely stay vigilant! I really don’t want the dictator :). Political Wire says Hillary will,probably text her VP today. I don’t know if I even signed up to receive it. It will be in paper soon enough.

  92. 92.

    bystander

    The Moanin’ Joe crew was marveling at how inclusive the RNC was with the reception Peter Thiel was given. While ignoring a platform that includes everything except yellow sheriff stars.

  93. 93.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Cat48: It will be interesting to see if Republican donors start to pour money down the toilet, I mean the Trump coffers, now that he is their nominee. With all the free publicity Trump gets from the fawning media, not sure if more $$$ is going to actually help him. Americans know him very well by now and there probably aren’t many undecided voters out there.

  94. 94.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Keith G: I keep thinking about the transition, if Trump wins. Is he going to have Obama dragged out of the White House in chains? Or just walk into the Oval Office with a pistol and blow Obama’s brains out?

  95. 95.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:
    I remember thinking the same thing in 2008. WHAT IF Senator Obama had a First wife that he threw over for the younger and richer Second Mrs. Obama.
    I guarantee you that there would have been piece upon piece about the First Mrs. Obama.
    And, what that said about his “character “.
    Guarantee you.

  96. 96.

    Aleta

    @raven: That’s a terrific picture. The pup-dog in the foreground is almost identical to one we had, except she had a pinkish nose. She was a beauty inside and out.

  97. 97.

    Kay

    @bystander:

    Because they don’t want to pay any taxes but they also don’t want any of that icky bigotry and hate that makes them look ignorant. The economic status quo is working out well for them, but the “social issues” make them uncomfortable.

  98. 98.

    Aleta

    Some comments in the twit world that I like:

    Josh Barro:
    And this is the thing. Hitler’s rise wasn’t just about hate. It was about craven fucks who thought he was their best bet for power.

    Josh Marshall:
    I’m glad Peter Thiel thought ahead and did a lot of coke before this speech.

    And especially:

    Colin Dickey, from back in May:
    If you’ve ever wondered what you would have done in 1930s Germany well then my friend here is your fucking chance to find out

  99. 99.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Patricia Kayden: Once they get you in the system, it is the price of freedom for all too many. The thing that really pissed me off was the “His attitude was very defiant.” What, you mean he didn’t get on the floor and beg forgiveness for a crime he didn’t commit saying, “Pleeze don’t hit me Massa, Toby be good ni**er.”

    In similar circumstances I can’t imagine being anything but defiant. And as a white man I could probably get away with it. And if I was a rich white man? Hell, the cops would have apologized for bothering with questions about the dead girl in my bed.

  100. 100.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    They didn’t have anything on him so they promoted what Donald Trump made up- that his birth certificate was fake.

    I don’t blame media for Trump winning the GOP primary- that’s on the GOP. I blame them for pretending his blatantly racist birther crusade was worthy of wall to wall coverage. They did that voluntarily and for no good reason. Birtherism was about racism. It’s an old idea in this country that black people need a white person to verify their own testimony and approve or turn down their submitted documents. It was part of the law. A black person by themselves is not credible. They need a white person to vouch for authenticity. That’s what birtherism is about.

  101. 101.

    Mary G

    @Mustang Bobby: Great column, Bobby; it articulated things I felt but couldn’t quite put words to.

    Even David Brooks is appalled (not going to link, too little, too late, no clicks from me).

  103. 103.

    bystander

    The good news on the gay front is that the repubs have been willing to give a boost to the gay sex worker industry. According to the NY Post:

    It’s been a great week for gay escorts in Cleveland. Male prostitutes contacted by The Post said business is booming and Republican National Convention attendees — most of them married — are clamoring for their services.

  105. 105.

    Kay

    @Aleta:

    It was about craven fucks who thought he was their best bet for power.

    FOX was apparently a hostile work environment for women for the last 20 years. That pig used it as his personal harassment playground. Yet the crusading investigative reporters there said nothing until a contract wasn’t renewed and the Big Guy let it be know it was time to furlow the pig. What else don’t they whistleblow on over at FOX I wonder, if it would be bad for careers?

  107. 107.

    RK

    @amk: Yeah, that makes sense as Baud pointed out.

    @Baud: I pretty much agree but not in the way, at least in part, many do, which is to say I’ve seen his campaign from the beginning as a transparent and cynical white nationalist sales ploy.

  109. 109.

    Aleta

    @Kay:

    I am much more “conservative” than “conservatives”- they are really reckless people. Anything for power. Anything. How ’bout that authoritarianism from the people who crave “limited government”, huh? That was the speech of a dictator.

    Yes, well said.
    And true all the way through: they lie as they denounce lies; claim family values as they call for mass deportation; yell “opportunity and liberty and justice for all” while leading cheers for hate speech. The architects of this campaign are desperate people who are very afraid of losing this election.

  111. 111.

    Scotian

    bystander:

    I’m a pansexual male who goes to our local gay sauna/bathhouse every few months, and it never ceases to amaze and amuse me the high percentage of closeted married men who are there. The last time I was there I ended up talking to staff about it, since the numbers were way down for a Sat night, well there was a street party from a neighbouring gay bar going on, and it seems that the reason the numbers were sharply down was because of how many of the regulars being said closeted married men were afraid of being seen coming into the place. So I’ve found watching the way the GOP sex scandals over the past couple of decades have a large percentage of closeted gay male behaviour at the core of them more than a little amusing, and also very, very sad and depressing. So I am not at all surprised to hear that the gay prostitute business was booming in Cleveland thanks to the GOP Convention.

    General:

    I love this premise that Trump is the LGBTQ’s best friend while leading a party that at the same convention that nominated him created a policy platform that is as anti-LGBTQ as has been seen in recent years, and when one remembers how the 2004 campaign was fought on the backs of SSM by Bush/Cheney and the GOP, that is no small feat. The formal endorsement of pray-the-gay-away in particular along with his Veep choice speaks far more to what Trump is actually willing to fight for.

    I will say this to all reading this, take the Trump campaign SERIOUSLY! No one ever believes the crazies can win, until after they do when they do, and then it is too late. Trump’s best friend in many ways is the “it can’t happen here” mindset, and this is something Americans of sense regardless of political affiliations need to really watch out for this year.

    I am not enjoying watching this decent into madness by my next door neighbour. Please, Please, PLEASE prevent the Trumpacolypse from coming to pass, because it isn’t just your nation this risks, but the entire planet in a very real and serious and immediate sense. His foreign policies look like they will massively increase global insecurity and conflict, and the more war that is free flowing in the world, the more it will breed, and with modern weapons that is something I find truly terrifying to think about.

  114. 114.

    bemused

    Nasty storm with wind speeds est 60 to 80 mph went through northern MN early Thurs morning. Duluth hit very hard, they were plowing trees off streets and warning not to venture outside with so many down power lines. We live about 70 miles north of Duluth and haven’t had power since 2am Thurs. My spouse had to go to International Falls, 2 hour round trip, to get a generator. Locally stores sold out. Generator is freaking loud plus other many inconveniences but at least we save the food in the fridges and freezers and connected to wifi and can recharge phone, ipad. Slowly power getting restored to nearby towns but we could still be out for the next few days.

  115. 115.

    mike in dc

    I want Warren as veep more than ever–counters all the “beholden to special interests”/”Rigged system” bullshit, gets under Trump’s skin, adds another strong debater to the ticket, energizes OUR base. We need a white-guy-hiatus for the next decade.

  117. 117.

    Aleta

    Donations to the ACLU will help what they are doing right now to overturn voter suppression laws in the courts, and fighting for racial justice.

  119. 119.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @bemused: We had one such storm last week. Was 3 days before we got the juice back. I hate generators but for the 2nd time in 6 years it has saved us a lot of grief. (2 freezers, one frig, and one AC unit due to the 95+ degree heat and humidity) The hardest part for us was because we have a well, we had no water.

  121. 121.

    Anon

    Enough about the repugs. Trump is seriously boring me.

    Is Hillary announcing a VP today? She has a rally scheduled in Florida. Who has been spotted in FLA, who has been spotted elsewhere?

  123. 123.

    MazeDancer

    If Hillary lures over 1 to 2% of GOP voters in purple states – landslide. This is save the country time. Hoping VP is Kaine.

    He is a devout Catholic who learned Spanish doing missionary work with the Jesuits. He is personally anti-abortion, but takes the Joe Biden stance of not the gov’s business to tell women what to do. He is as liberal as we need him to be. He was brilliant with Chris Murphy in the anti gun filibuster.

    Let fabulous Warren fight on in the Senate. Let’s get every suburban mom. Let’s get every sane, and now insulted by Trump this week, GOP in Ohio. We do not need to be excited by the VP pick. We are already on red alert, ready to work. We need out candidate happy. We need every American who can see the danger of Trump voting Democratic.

  124. 124.

    gogol's wife

    @Aleta:

    Colin Dickey is so right.

    The question is are you going to emigrate or are you joining the underground?

  126. 126.

    Keith G

    @Matt McIrvin: Actually, I rather doubt that. And while you are indulging and playful hyperbole, unfortunately on occasion I run across folks who are capable of believing such a thing. That is not helpful to our democracy either

  127. 127.

    Jeffro

    @rikyrah:

    We should continue to be vigilant. The NYT had that graphic about the combinations that the candidates had to 270. Hillary had over 900 ways to 270. Trump had under 80.
    And, if Hillary wins Florida?
    Trump’s ways go down to ONE.
    ONE.

    GOTV, people.
    GOTV.

    Or as the President put it, “we’ve got to run scared all the way through Election Day”.
    We’re doing our part registering votes in VA tomorrow (I’m bringing the kids too)

  129. 129.

    mike in dc

    It’s not 1989 anymore. Pick not-a-white-guy. It’s way more reflective of our party’s base electorate. It reinforces and embodies the progressive message. The fact that Very Serious People think it should be a white guy is the strongest possible reason to not do so.

  130. 130.

    Kay

    The only thing that surprises me is that the social conservatives fell in line ahead of the moneyed group. I thought it would go the other way- 1. money Party GOP, 2. social conservatives. Maybe it did and the money people just went public later.

    Love hearing liberal trashbags. You know I have millions of CAPITALIST fans? Proud to join Icahn, Thiel & other businesspeople to endorse T.

  131. 131.

    CarolDuhart2

    Don’t worry, Scotian. The people around here are on it. If you notice from the comments, a lot of us, phonebank, register voters, and certainly will vote.

    As for Hillary: she’s on the ball. Down here in southwest Ohio, Hillary is already on the air and has been for about a month now. I’ve already seen two of her commercials: the CHIP mom with a kid who had a chronic illness and who is now all grown up. The other is the kids watching Trump saying very demeaning things. The third (that I just now remember) is about her experience in foreign policy. So Ohio is very much in play.

  133. 133.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: Heh. I have a 350 gal. tank fed by downspout for just that reason. Even still, when I realized we had lost power I was placing 5 gal buckets under downspouts for more cushion. Fortunately Indian Creek is just a hop skip and a jump away so I was able to thoroughly bathe every day. Amazing how liberating a dip in a cool spring fed creek can feel.

  137. 137.

    Kay

    @MomSense:

    Remember when conservatives and media were outraged that the uppity Obama used pillars on stage?

    Those were the days, huh? When humility was a bedrock conservative value. Rule change! Alert the media! This bombastic fraud and his family are now the gold standard for “honor and dignity in the White House”. Bill Clinton wasn’t quite good enough for polite society, but this clown is.

  139. 139.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    Can you imagine if we made a list of all the Obama non-scandals Republicans and media were outraged about? Tan suit, feet on desk, girls in mini skirts, going on late night tv, ordering orange juice at a diner counter, saying the word arugula, vacationing in a place that is too exotic (AKA spending holidays with family in home state of Hawaii), and on and on and on.

  140. 140.

    D58826

    OT Obviously it has been that kind of year – two bulls decided to go walk about in Baltimore today. The slaughterhouse wasn’t on their bucket list apparently.

  142. 142.

    D58826

    @Kay:

    This bombastic fraud and his family

    The talking heads spent a lot of time talking about ‘old little hands’ family last night. At the end of the speech when the traditional family gathering on the stage was held, I noticed two of the baby mamas were missing. Oh well good old family values.

  143. 143.

    gene108

    @Scotian:

    From what I recall from Trump’s speech he said he’d protect the LGBTQ community from attacks by “Radical Islamic Terrorism” and not anything else.

  144. 144.

    scav

    @gene108: Well, maybe it’s rather like keeping the herd or flock protected so that the locals and owners get first and only crack at shooting the wildlife: Don’t want them derned foreigners stealing real American Jobs. Have ro keep ‘Merka’s stats high in the international rankings.

  145. 145.

    aimai

    @Keith G: This is a very nice point. In a way you have to see Hillary as trying to finish the job Bill started in taking the country back from these right wing assholes. I believe we need someone who has been in training her entire adult life to run the country towards the progressive side of things. , who has seen it from the factory floor on up.

  146. 146.

    Barb2

    @mike in dc:
    Yes! I like your reasons for Warren as VP.

    Plus, I believe that she could use the office in novel ways – a new power base.

  147. 147.

    Starfish

    @debbie: That would be a TERRIBLE season of the apprentice. If anything goes even slightly wrong, Trump would say “you’re fired.” And instead of getting stuff done, Kasich would have to work around Trump sabotaging his ability to get stuff done.

  148. 148.

    bemused

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    We’re rural so also have our own well. We have a big container of water to flush toilet, oh joy, and I plan to shower at mom-in-law’s home.

    We have talked about getting a generator off and on for a awhile and this power outrage finally got us off the fence. Considering the increase in freaky storms, the investment is worth it. Spouse thinking about benefit of generator during winter months running furnace. One winter we didn’t have power for 11 hours but luckily the temp wasn’t bitter cold then. Hearing other generators from our neighbors down the highway. The noise really carries.

  151. 151.

    Barb2

    Buy the generator before you need it. We get hurricane strength winds in western WA state. The rule seems to be – buy the generator and you won’t need it for a long time. But when that time comes – the sound will be beautiful.

    Our generator runs the refrigerator, freezer, well. We can use small space heaters for the house. Warning – power failures in the winter – you must keep the well pump going. That pump could freeze and replacing that pump will cost more than a small Honda generator. Been there, done that.

    That doggie driving. He looks like he’s saying, “do not bad mouth my driving”. We have a little dog who loves to drive down our long driveway. Showing off for his girlfriends.

    Fun!

  152. 152.

    Lizzy L

    I didn’t watch or listen to the speech last night. I’d like Clinton to choose Perez as her VP, but I’m fine with Kaine. Warren would be awesome, but I don’t think it’s in the cards. I’m leaving town today — visiting friends for two days. Looking forward to it. The dog goes to stay with the dog-sitter. Oh, and before I leave, I’m sending HRC some bucks. I cold-called in Ohio for Obama; I expect I’ll be doing whatever needs to be done to help Hillary get elected.

    Have a great weekend, y’all.

  154. 154.

    WaterGirl

    @MomSense: That would make a great graphic – a list of Obama scandals side-by-side with a list from, well, any other president. Though the republican presidents would make a more striking comparison.

    In the same vein, I would love to see a list of Obama campaign promises in a graphic with a list of Trump’s campaign promises.

  155. 155.

    Scotian

    @CarolDuhart2:

    I appreciate that, and I am a very long time lurker here, so I am familiar with the general sense of things, but I also lurk at a lot of other sites too, and I still see some signs of not taking this Trump thing that seriously even now, and it does worry me. That speech of Trump’s could have come from the mouth of so many South American dictators over the past century, and the way the family is used to help make the case and make the argument that Papa is stern but good hearted and raises us and therefore the nation right if put in charge, only underscores that vibe for me.

    I was one of those that from the beginning saw a path for Trump when he announced, at first I rated it at jackpot winning level odds of course, but I did see it as possible. By October though I was down to the 1 in 10,000 level odds a drop of several magnitudes (as defined properly by being by a shifting of the decimal point one place per order of magnitude), and by Feb 1 less that 1 in 20, and March essentially even. I took a lot of mocking from those I spoke to for the longest time for thinking he could ever win the GOP nomination, so I guess I am a bit sensitive about people failing to take this seriously enough.

    I was always a big fan of history, and I was raised by family that included someone who played a significant role in our national intelligence field at the highest levels from the early 30s to the mid 60s, and this left me with an acute awareness of how people like that German madman came to power, as well as so many other nasty pieces of work in the last century, and watching/listening to Trump, I hear a LOT of the same notes. Worse, I see more than a few in his natural opposition being so incredulous and disbelieving that this could ever work in America that I fear what could happen.

    The massive campaign of hatred against the Clintons and especially Hillary Clinton for the last two decades also does not leave me comfortable, especially given how widely some of the memes it has pushed have been taken to heart even within her natural base. Mind you, I also believe that Sanders would have been an unmitigated disaster against Trump and a GOP base behind him for reasons I will not go into here because I am not interested in litigating that old argument here yet again, I only toss that out to make clear that as worried as I am with her, he would have been in my view far worse. The problem though is what we saw at the Convention, in that her name unites the GOP base in hatred and rage, and I know how powerful a motivating force that can be, and it needs to be met with an equal determination from the other side in opposition to Trump and what he stands for if I am to feel comfortable that he will go down to defeat.

    Not only defeat, he needs to go down to CRUSHING defeat, so as to crush the darker forces that are aligning behind him using him as their own shield and standard bearer. That David Duke tweet complimenting the speech as one he couldn’t have said better himself speaks volumes. If there was ever a time to unite against a greater “evil” in politics, this is clearly it! In this case you have a choice between a standard capable, competent, conventional liberal (for American sense of the word) politician vs a true evil in Donald Trump. Anyone claiming this time out that they are too pure, that they are tired of choosing the “lesser evil” needs to have this reality ground in their faces at every turn until they finally realize just how serious this reality truly is.

    I can only watch from up here in Halifax, watch and worry. Too often I have seen those that no one would ever believe could reach power in your nation and mine manage it, so I cannot help but worry at least some. I will continue to until I see Hillary Rodham Clinton claiming victory election night in November, and I think it is essential that every foe of Trump think the same way until then too, for if ever there was a time for better safe than sorry, this is it!

  157. 157.

    Dadadadadadada

    @OzarkHillbilly: That judge should be impeached/disbarred/fired. He needs to be fully investigated by DOJ. I’m 80% sure he should do time for just this, but I suspect this is not even the worst thing he’s done.

  158. 158.

    Barbara

    @gene108: Although I know there is so much to choose from, to me, the most obnoxious quality of the Republican reaction to gun violence is that it somehow matters — that it is more or less horrifying or that a person is more or less dead — whether you are murdered by a radical Islamist, an out of control African American ex-marine versus a sociopathic white boy. Gay and transgendered people have been the target of violence for a long time. Trump supporters did not give a flying fuck until the killer matched the demographic profile of someone they hate even more than queers. Ditto for those poor parents whose kids were murdered by immigrants, but how does the immigration status of a criminal make the crime worse? The moral logic at play here is just unfathomable as anything other than rank racism.

  160. 160.

    Soylent Green

    The wailing and moaning over at Redstate today is high-larious. Who knew the Christianists and homophobes would be joining us in denouncing Trump?

    Of course most of them will vote for him anyway.

  163. 163.

    Mnemosyne

    @Kay:

    It’s not even that there are “different rules”- it’s that they change the rules to fit people like the Trumps. “Rules” simply don’t apply to them. That’s the definition of privilege.

    Truth.

  164. 164.

    Starfish

    @MazeDancer: They are already painting Kaine as pro-bankers.

    I think that attempting to woo the religious right is foolishness. If your religious people are willing to support the thrice married Trump, then there really is not much to bring them over. They are a small group, but they tend to turn out regularly. Encouraging some other group to turn out regularly would be better than attempting to grab whatever religious people are voting for Trump.

  165. 165.

    catclub

    @MomSense: Jon Stewart on Colbert last night mentioned all the things they right wing was outraged about OBama – a thing skinned, inexperienced, narcissist – and how they love those with Trump.

  166. 166.

    satby

    @catclub: That clip is out on YouTube and it’s hilarious while serious. I don’t understand how comedians are able to do compare and contrast stories with actual clips while to our news media every day and every utterance is fresh and new; like there’s no history or past statements to consider when reporting.

  167. 167.

    Aleta

    @gogol’s wife: It’s a big question. I’ve left before. It felt good to work outside the US and have some friends from around the world, meet people from oppressive countries. Nowdays my partner always says “stay here and fight.” But I’m not a good fighter or reliable socializer. Hate appointments, like privacy.

    I believe they will be defeated, but also believe it’s impossible to be certain. There’s too many variables.

    It’s when elections are close that things like ‘hanging chads’ and ‘counting military ballots,’ ruling out votes and turning away voters, sudden scary events or scandals have an effect, make it unpredictable.

    My understanding is that the Kochs and anti-govt people are concentrating more on local elections. Trump is providing a useful diversion.

  168. 168.

    wenchacha

    OG Ill Douchey is what Trumpence is all about. The people who seriously dig him are often the same who can’t say enough witty euphemisms for female body parts. And devout evangelicals. And Neo-Nazis.

    Has Jonah Goldberg had anything witty and incisive (as if) to say about fascism lately?

  170. 170.

    Dadadadadadada

    @satby: It’s real simple: comedians want laughs, so they must make people think. News people want stationary eyeballs, so they must make people not think. To an unthinking mind, everything is fresh and new and divorced from context, and so that’s how the news presents things.

  171. 171.

    karen marie

    Charley is gorgeous! I did research on dog breeds for a year before I got my first dog. Standard Poodle was at number one. I ended up with Cocker spaniels (from parents I knew for several years prior), and I like the size. Their poops are a lot smaller than a standard Poodle.

  176. 176.

    J R in WV

    Folks, regarding generators and back-ups for your back-ups. We started with a craftsman generator that roared. It lasted for years of power outages, but was a royal pain to have running all the time to keep the heat running in winter storm black-outs.

    Then I bought a Honda camper-style generator for construction off-grid in Arizona – quiet as a refrigerator. Almost have to put your hand on it to feel for vibrations to be sure it was still running.

    So back home in WV I went looking for a similar tool – a quiet generator. After spending time on the innertubes (no luck locally) I spent all day driving around, and a similar Honda was not to be had locally. So I went to a big Yamaha dealership, and they had shelves with generators stacked to the ceiling. It was quite a bit more expensive than the SOP roaring construction generators, but you could like with it.

    After a few more years, dealing with gasoline fuel, adding Stabile to help the fuel last, running big extension cords into the house , connecting to the panel to get power to the furnace, I quit. I saw a neighbor installing a Generac generator, plumbed into his natural gas line. The installer was a retired coal mine electrician who started a company to hire other laid-off workers to install and maintain back up Generac generators for businesses and residential purposes.

    I got the biggest air-cooled generator installed – 22K watts. When the power cuts off, 15 seconds later the generator kicks on. It runs everything but the giant A/C compressor, so in a real heat wave we would move to the half-underground walk-out basement. It stays cool down there even in hot spells, we’ve spent many a storm in the basement in case of trees blowing down or such.

    It won’t run the well pump, because the water well head is 800 feet from the house. We would need a second generator down there, which would be stolen eventually. So I put a 300 gallon tank in, with a little pump from Ace hardware, to flush with, which is the worst part of being without running well water. We have a water connection to a local water system, never turned on, in case the oil and gas production in our area destroys the aquifer.

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