Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” is supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Democrats are back in array!

So many bastards, so little time.

The Supreme Court is corrupt. Democrats must win in November and force court reform.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

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

I really should read my own blog.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Open Thread: All the Worst People Stand Up for Their Donald!

Open Thread: All the Worst People Stand Up for Their Donald!

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… and it’s beginning to make the SERIOUS Republicans nervous…


************

(Catty subnote: I don’t think I’ve ever heard MoDo’s voice before. Now I know why she’s not broken out of the print/Sunday talking heads market into more lucrative celebutainment venues.)

Reader Interactions

184Comments

  1. 1.

    Keith P.

    Thank goodness Donald Trump hasn’t seen “The Running Man” yet. That’s a long time to sit still, but even after the first 15 minutes, it would be in his stump speech.

  4. 4.

    Mnemosyne

    Metro Bikes + a poor sense of direction = discovering that downtown LA has WAY more nude strip clubs and pot dispensaries than I ever realized.

    No worries, I made it safely back to the arts district where I started. But this vegan salad is not the Philippe’s French dip I was hoping for. ?

  5. 5.

    SiubhanDuinne

    (Catty subnote: I don’t think I’ve ever heard MoDo’s voice before. Now I know why she’s not broken out of the print/Sunday talking heads market into more lucrative celebutainment venues.)

    Heh. I thought exactly the same thing before I scrolled down far enough to see your “catty subnote.” If there are people who have a face made for radio, MoDo has a voice made for newspapers.

  8. 8.

    Major Major Major Major

    One of my very smart, intellectually highly socialist, friends just posted this.

    The American left finally gets the scenario they’ve been cosplaying for decades – a chance to stop a capitalist billionaire aligned with openly Nazi and fascist forces from literally destroying the planet for profit and causing hundreds of millions of deaths in the third world over the coming century – and they’re blogging about the dangers of two-party duopoly like high school civics students.

    There is hope!

  9. 9.

    daves09

    Drunk, drugged or a nasty fall while either or both of the above. Do MoDo and Dame Peggy share long gin and valium lunches? It would be irresponsible not to think so.

  10. 10.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Anoniminous:

    I did, earlier today, at my county’s Dem Party HQ, and I’m sorry to say it was a clusterfuck. I’m going back during the week when things are likely to be less crowded and crazy. Whoever was in charge today (if there even was such a person, or people) needs a quick lesson in reaching out to volunteers, making sure everyone has a job no matter how trivial it may seem, and following up effectively.

  14. 14.

    hellslittlestangel

    I find it hard to believe that — despite his claim to have the best words — “frisson” is in Little Gloves’ vocabulary.

    I’ve never heard Dowd’s voice before, either. I don’t find it unpleasant — in fact, it makes her sound surprisingly like an adult human.

  16. 16.

    JMG

    In my town Lexington, one of the bluest towns in Massachusetts (Democrats need 65 percent here in statewide runs), the Clinton/town Dems seem to be in order. Thursday was yard sign day. All of a sudden, Clinton signs up all over town. Friday was first phone call day to registered Dems. I got one, and pointed out I volunteer for them at every election. The embarrassed caller laughed and gave my family (me, wife, absentee daughter in France still registered here) a check and do not call checkmark.

  17. 17.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mike E:

    I hear tell that the ladies of the evening in Amsterdam just stand in display windows, but the people who told me that may have been high at the time.

    @p.a.:

    True story: when my nieces and nephew (17, 15 and 9) were out visiting last summer, I took them down to Venice Beach, where they have a dispensary about every 500 feet. The 9-year-old asked me what that weird smell was, and I very bravely said, “I have no idea.”

  18. 18.

    PsiFighter37

    Kind of funny that the GOP is desperately trying to use Kasparov as a prop. He is a neoconservative if there ever was one, and frankly a natural ally of the establishment GOP.

  20. 20.

    The Other Chuck

    There’s not a goddam thing wrong with MoDo’s voice other than that it isn’t trained like the ones of the other talking heads. She isn’t terribly pretty either, let’s all cut her down for that too.

  22. 22.

    Calouste

    Frum’s tweet number 14 explains why the family values crowd vote for Trump, despite him being divorced twice, having affairs, and having a nude model as his current wife. They’re definitely not into this whole discovering new facts thing.

  24. 24.

    Mnemosyne

    @p.a.:

    Ahem. “Auntie,” thankyewverymuchly.

    The 9 YO seemed genuinely puzzled. The 17 and 15 YO couldn’t decide if I was really that naive or just pretending.

  25. 25.

    Ryan

    @Calouste: Though given the Right’s track record with family values, I don’t think we should completely rule out a neurological disorder due to syphilis.

  28. 28.

    dmsilev

    14) Do you live by truth or by lies? Do you change your mind because you’ve discovered new facts – or because you’ve received new orders?

    There’s a pretty wide swath of the punditry class that lives behind Door #2, that’s for sure.

  30. 30.

    Anoniminous

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    It is a Truth universally acknowledged that a campaign prepared for thirty volunteers will get three and when prepared for three, thirty shall be the count. Lots of volunteers is a Good Thing and, while frustrating at first, will work itself out.

    @Mnemosyne:

    I’m working the call lists, getting ready for October 11 when early voting starts in New Mexico.

  31. 31.

    hellslittlestangel

    But to be really catty … it looks like the Grey Lady has finally had enough of being done wrong by her man Donald. To summarize the front page: Little Gloves is a vicious, lying, money-grubbing cheat.

  33. 33.

    p.a.

    @Mnemosyne:

    personification of memory in Greek mythology. A Titanide, or Titaness, she was the daughter of Uranus and Gaia, and the mother of the nine Muses by her nephew Zeus.

    My apologies!

  34. 34.

    Redshift

    @Anoniminous: I was out again this afternoon in NoVa, like I am every weekend I’m not out of town. It went even better than usual; got six “commit to vote” cards signed, recruited a volunteer, and helped one college student with changing his registration to his college address.

    I’m fired up and optimistic!

  36. 36.

    SFAW

    @Felonius Monk:

    Hey, D’Souza. Delete yourself, you odious piece of shit.

    What have odious pieces of shit ever done to you, to deserve being classed with that motherfucking criminal?

  38. 38.

    delk

    D’Souza’s Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party is currently the worst reviewed movie of 2016 according to Rotten Tomatoes with a 4% rating.

  39. 39.

    Redshift

    @dmsilev: Including Frum himself, until awfully recently. Though I’m sure he’d insist he came to believe the same things as all the other wingnuts by his own superior powers of reason, not on anyone’s orders.

  41. 41.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    I just bought and finished watching “All You Need Is Cash”, pretty funny; there’s even a current US Senator in it.

  48. 48.

    Kay

    Maureen Dowd has written about 100 columns attacking Bill & Hillary Clinton. Not once did they lash out at her.

    Maybe they should have. Seems to be the key to favorable media coverage.

  49. 49.

    The Other Chuck

    @Marc: You’ll get no argument from me there. Newspapers really are the incumbency advantage of the worn-out incompetents (while cable news is that for newly-minted incompetents).

  50. 50.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Anoniminous:

    It is a Truth universally acknowledged that a campaign prepared for thirty volunteers will get three and when prepared for three, thirty shall be the count. Lots of volunteers is a Good Thing and, while frustrating at first, will work itself out.

    Yup. That’s why I’m going back during the week when they’re not trying to cope with 60-70 volunteers for whom they were completely unprepared!

  51. 51.

    p.a.

    OMG I’m at a folk show and there’s actually a guy wearing those shoes-with-toes like in the Tina Fay commercial. I’m so uncoordinated I have trouble getting gloves on properly; I know I’d fracture a bone using those shoes.

  52. 52.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Anoniminous:

    I’m working the call lists, getting ready for October 11 when early voting starts in New Mexico.

    I did poll watching for both primaries and G.E. in 2014 on behalf of the Michelle Nunn campaign. Got an email a short time ago from an official of the state Dem party who had my contact info on file and asked if I would like to do the same thing during early voting and on Election Day. Of course I said yes! (Early voting in GA starts October 17.)

  53. 53.

    Pogonip

    Around here it’s about evenly divided between Trump and Johnson signs. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many signs for a 3rd-party presidential candidate.

  56. 56.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @SiubhanDuinne: I honestly cannot imagine Teh Donald knowing that word, or what it means. I think MoDo was translating whatever it was that the snotty 70-year old said into adult English.

  57. 57.

    Mnemosyne

    @p.a.:

    Just a note: I have no children, especially not ones fathered by my nephew! ?

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Well, sure, but it was in my pocket where I couldn’t see it. Which is why Metro Bikes need a phone holder.

    @lollipopguild:

    Wouldn’t have worked, they’re beach babies from Florida.

  58. 58.

    Kay

    Good piece on Trump’s business dealings:

    Donald J. Trump has relied on the government and taxpayers to benefit the core of his Manhattan real estate developments.

    I bet that’s what he’s really flipping out about. They’re finally looking into his past.

  60. 60.

    hovercraft

    @delk:
    Conservative movies and documentaries tend to be terrible because they sacrifice story/objectivity in order to drive a message. They tend to take themselves too seriously, and lack humor, especially any that is self deprecating. Rick Santorum’s big movie last year or the year before also bombed. Conservatives who are successful in Hollywood are those who focus on the story, not on making conservative movies. There are a few instances where a movie that happens to be conservative is successful, when the focus is on telling a story, not on beating the viewer over the head with a message.
    They should just accept that movies are not their forte, just as we concede that talk radio and hate TV are theirs.

  62. 62.

    Mike G

    @delk:

    That’s generous, Metacritic has it at 2%.

    D’ouchebag’s arguments keep getting lamer as the nutjobosphere exerts no quality control at all and like a true Reaganist he’s primarily concerned with churning out lowest-quality product he can get away with, for maximum money.

    “He hasn’t killed ALL the dissidents so he’s not a murderous dictator” isn’t much of a thesis.

  64. 64.

    redshirt

    Also, Dowd’s voice isn’t bad. Yeah, she’s not the smoothest speaker, but not terrible.

    And too? NO WAY Donald said “frisson of excitement.”

    Which is my new album name by the way.

  65. 65.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    I really don’t make a thing of calling for violence against people, but, holy shit, D’Souza really needs to have somebody beat the living shit out of him. I mean, yeah, there are awful people in this world. I know that. But something about him is just so much more repellent. He isn’t just awful; there’s a visceral reaction to somebody like that. It’s like stumbling onto a nest of snakes in the woods. You recoil instinctively. He’s that shitty a life form.

  66. 66.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Redshift: Frum’s an interesting, frustrating guy. Several years ago Charles Murray put out some inane book about how the white working class was suffering because liberal handouts had eroded their morality, and Frum absolutely and magisterially ripped it apart. But I think he came home for the Republicans in 2012.

  67. 67.

    Kay

    $885 million in tax subsidies is a good way to get rich

    Clinton should say that at every event. The part of the millionaire welfare programs that kills me so much is not Trump. It’s those horrible grown children pretending they “succeeded” on their own initiative. Why do people have to be subjected to them every day? What kind of normal adult can just drop everything they’re doing for 2 years and follow their dad around? Do they not have responsibilities to attend to?

  68. 68.

    bemused

    It doesn’t surprise me that diehard Trump supporters don’t care what he said about his birther history. They either believe him and don’t care or don’t believe he meant it. They know what’s “in his heart”.
    They have their hologram hero and won’t give it up.

  72. 72.

    dmsilev

    @Kay: I don’t know what he has to flip out about as far as that piece is concerned. It’s not flattering to be sure, but they couldn’t find and didn’t allege any actual acts of wrongdoing, just someone pushing the law and the government as far as he possibly could in the name of profit.

  73. 73.

    tech98

    11) But his movement is not American. It’s Soviet. It is based on the willing acceptance of fantastic and constantly changing lies.
    — David Frum (@davidfrum) September 17, 2016

    I don’t know, that sounds pretty close to the mindset of Republican Americans.

  74. 74.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @hovercraft: He’s a Senator from a more western state than VT, not far west, more mid west.

    ETA: It was a scene with “Ron Decline”(parody of Alan Klein) played by John Belushi.

  76. 76.

    Kay

    @dmsilev:

    Oh, it got to him. He’s threatening to sue them. Nothing Maureen Dowd said would enrage him. She seems to give him campaign advice, actually, judging by that clip.

  77. 77.

    dmsilev

    I take back what I said about the NYT piece. Even though they didn’t claim Trump did anything illegal, he still is flipping his lid:

    Donald J. TrumpVerified account
    ‏@realDonaldTrump
    My lawyers want to sue the failing @nytimes so badly for irresponsible intent. I said no (for now), but they are watching. Really disgusting

    Can any legal types comment on whether “irresponsible intent” is an actual thing?

  78. 78.

    Trentrunner

    I just want to pause here and say: This is really happening.

    This is not a bad dream. This is not a drill.

    All those times we warned about the VRWC and Fox News and dumbing down America and letting bothsidesism carry the day…this is what we were warning about.

    We’re just a few more weeks’ shitty media coverage and one faux Hillary scandal away from electing a full-on authoritarian bigot ignoramus with no impulse control and a never-satisfied ego and giving him a rubber-stamp congress, along with 2-4 SCOTUS picks and the nuclear codes.

    And I know, I know, don’t fret, organize, donate, etc. etc. I am. I am.

    But I just can’t believe we’re here.

  79. 79.

    Feathers

    @p.a.: What would you do if you learned that you could live a long life, in perfect health until the end, but the price was that you could only wear those shoes with the toes? Heard that when they first came out. Still think of it and laugh whenever I see them. (Or hear about them it seems.)

  83. 83.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    Gates also bad-mouthed him in the WSJ, and so Trump’s freaking out about him too. “He doesn’t know me.” Like a wounded schoolgirl all of a sudden.

    That might be the answer: Have 1,000 journalists write 1,000 columns bad-mouthing Trump. His Twittering would be so frenzied, he’d just go up in smoke.

  86. 86.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @tech98: My thought exactly. The contemporary GOP is composed of the people Orwell was warning us about.

    “Ronald Reagan is watching you!”

  88. 88.

    Kay

    @Trentrunner:

    I just can’t believe we’re here.

    You’re not alone. I vacillate between stunned and furious. She’ll pull it out though- she has to. 60/40 are not bad election odds. It was basically 50/50 in ’12 and we did it and all of these people sucked then too, we just didn’t know the extent of the internal rot :)

  89. 89.

    jacy

    Russia called emergency meeting of UN? Just walked through the room and CNN has Russia accusing the US of being terrorists, or something…..?

  91. 91.

    Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)

    @redshirt:

    Also, Dowd’s voice isn’t bad. Yeah, she’s not the smoothest speaker, but not terrible.

    I said much the same thing about HRC.
    She’s not Professor Binns level boring, but her delivery is a bit flat compared to Reagan or Obama.
    That said, she could be Zombie Hillary shuffling along while grunting ‘Braaiinns’ and I’d still vote for her over the Orange One.

    And too? NO WAY Donald said “frisson of excitement.”

    He probably said ‘fission of excitement’.
    If he gets into office, the odds are good that he’ll deliver on that promise.

  95. 95.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    I feel like Gates doesn’t have any credibility. He criticizes everyone. To me, he’s a McCain-like figure. Someone who sits in the back storing up grievances while acting holier than thou. These people should get out before they get so bitter. They always act like we’re begging them to stay. Go home. You’re done.

    That’s what I like about Harry Reid. He doesn’t pretend to be a statesman. He brawls openly.

  98. 98.

    The Sheriff's A Ni-

    @Trentrunner:

    But I just can’t believe we’re here.

    I can. All that white anxiety from shifting demographics had to go somewhere, and here we are.

  99. 99.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    Though when Gates bad-mouthed Obama, he was again the GOP darling. I wonder if there will others tweeting along with Trump condemning him.

  100. 100.

    TS

    @Kay:

    Maybe they should have. Seems to be the key to favorable media coverage.

    The media expects democrats to be above such things – grin and bear it. Only republicans are allowed to call the media out when they receive negative coverage.

  101. 101.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    @bemused:

    I guess he needed some more time in there. Too bad he didn’t get it.

    He really is one of the worst fucking people in this country, and that’s saying a lot. Almost everybody has something worthwhile about them. D’Souza? I can’t think of anything even remotely redeeming about him. Even back in college, he was a shitbag, outing gay kids at Dartmouth for fun.

    It would be fascinating to work out just what it is about him that makes him so truly, madly, deeply awful. As I said, there are so many awful people in the world, but some of them are truly repellent. Even most run of the mill awful people aren’t repellent. It would take a book, though, to really work through D’Souza’s vileness.

  102. 102.

    Peale

    @Kay: I don’t know. Gates I think gets credibility for not being Rumsfeld. And he seemed to bet more competent at his job than Panetta, who I never want to hear from again.

  104. 104.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Kay:

    That’s what I like about Harry Reid. He doesn’t pretend to be a statesman. He brawls openly.

    He started his public service on the NV gaming commission battling the mob. It probably helped that he used to box.

  106. 106.

    The Sheriff's A Ni-

    But his movement is not American. It’s Soviet. It is based on the willing acceptance of fantastic and constantly changing lies.

    I have always felt that those entering the afterlife of the 21st century are welcomed by Josef Stalin’s continuing Georgian gut laugh at Ronald Reagan’s expense.

  108. 108.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @hellslittlestangel:

    Agree about Dowd. I’ve never seen a good photograph of her—she always looks smirky or pissy—but in that clip she comes off as almost neutral. And her voice is not as bad as what I hear when I read her columns.

  109. 109.

    Mike E

    @TS: low energy ca$h flow, now that the news people won’t stay bought, seemingly. I think this is what’s motivating Cuban to wave walking money in his face…billionaires are sensing umm, a weak bottom line

  110. 110.

    hovercraft

    @jacy:
    We probably struck and killed 80+ Syrian soldiers who we thought were ISIS . Samantha Powers on her way in just before him was scathing, to the point of non-diplomatic. Which is why he came out of the meeting room which he had already entered. Russia is accusing us of supporting ISIS.

  111. 111.

    Cat48

    @Kay:

    I agree about Gates. He supposedly left bc his family built a brand new home on the West Coast and they had never lived in it. It was time to retire. Panetta too, and they’re still hanging out on the East Coast critiquing everyone.

  112. 112.

    Dadadadadadada

    @hovercraft: He’s had cameos in every Batman movie since 1989, but The Dark Knight was by far his most visible role. “You remind me of my father…”
    (I haven’t watched that movie in years, and I still get chills just thinking about it. Great, great film.)

  116. 116.

    TS

    @Mike E:

    I think this is what’s motivating Cuban to wave walking money in his face…billionaires are sensing umm, a weak bottom line

    A candidate who can be bought – there is NO honor with this terrible horrible man – like too many I’m freaking out on the thought that he could actually win.

  117. 117.

    jeannedalbret

    @Peale: suggest you check your sources

    1984: New Hampshire Investigates Conservative Student Newspaper for Alleged Wiretapping of Gay OrganizationEdit event
    The Dartmouth Review, a conservative weekly student newspaper funded by off-campus right-wing sources (see 1980), publishes a front-page story proclaiming an “Exclusive Report on the GSA,” the Gay Straight Alliance. In 1981, Review editors had published the names of GSA officers, many of whom wished to keep their homosexuality a secret (see 1981). This article features a transcript of a private GSA meeting, recorded by Review staffer Teresa Polenz, who was sent by Review editor Laura Ingraham. The accompanying illustration depicts a man peering over a bathroom stall; Ingraham’s accompanying prose calls the GSA “cheerleaders for latent campus sodomites”.

  120. 120.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @Kay:

    Do they not have responsibilities to attend to?

    Well, if your responsibilities consist of being a toady in Dad’s business . . .

  121. 121.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    You should ride the metro a lot more. It might just surprise you how much you don’t know about LA. I’ve seen that it has changed a lot in the last 30-40 yrs but some things really really never change. Where did you pickup the Metro bikes?

  122. 122.

    redshirt

    @Trentrunner:

    But I just can’t believe we’re here.

    It is shocking, but not surprising. We’ve been marching towards this moment since Goldwater, since the media has been corrupted, since the think tanks and the Koch’s and the pure moral relativity of the Republicans. They don’t believe in anything anymore other than power, and hate, and money.

    But take heart, until the Republican party collapses, until the media is thoroughly reformed, it will probably keep getting worse. :)

  124. 124.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Ruckus: I have been doing that recently. Metro’s much nicer than it was 20 years ago.

    Mnemosyne: The mountains are north, a good substitute for a compass.

  126. 126.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    Don’t know about today but the 45 yrs ago ladies in the district displayed their wares in windows. They looked bored. The city guide boats in the canals would point them out and describe them in 5 languages. It was fun watching the different groups hear their language come around and what was being said. Lots of laughter.

  127. 127.

    Brachiator

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    . .It’s not that her voice is unpleasant, exactly, but she is an awkward speaker.

    Yes, her voice is unpleasant. She sounds like a barking seal.

    But the way she talks about knowing Trump well and talking to him often, she sounds more like a gossip columnist or a social page hack, than a political columnist. And I’m sure she knows many on the left as well, but she certainly is happy to be part of the Insider’s Club, and this is the essential problem with a lot of political reporting.

  128. 128.

    Anne Laurie

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):

    Even back in college, he was a shitbag, outing gay kids at Dartmouth for fun.

    While I’m sure he enjoyed doing so, outing his fellow students was strictly a career-building move. There were lots of mouthy right-wing shitbags among Dartmouth students during D’Sousa’s college days, so he needed to go that extra mile to raise his profile for the Wingnut Wurlitzer funders. And it worked!

    D’Sousa, PJ O’Rourke, and his 80s fellows are the inspiration for today’s Breitbrats. There’s a straight line from him to Steve Bannon, just as there is from Ann Coulter to Milo ‘Dangerous F*g Tour’ Yiannopolis.

  129. 129.

    Peale

    @Brachiator: and it is largely her own doing. She got her boost by making a comment about how Mondale seemed confused at the 84 democratic convention, not knowing in which order to greet his VP choice and her husband. That’s the remark that got her promoted to write a “new kind of analysis” for the times. It’s always been abundantly clear that her beat is to be tremendously shallow. It pleased her bosses. But then she won a Pulitzer for it and got to sit on the high perch. What can we say?

  130. 130.

    Peale

    @redshirt: that’s been the problem. Like the barbarians of old, each wave seems to be worse than the last. I feel like we just got over the visigoths, and now here come the Huns

  132. 132.

    Ruckus

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    I ride every day now. It’s a hoot. But I’m amazed at how nice and civil almost everyone is. It’s an exception when someone is being an ass. Walking in a crowded station like the red line where you have to climb a lot of stairs can be a bit much some days but it all works. Having to stand for 30+ minutes in a moving train isn’t the most fun though.

  135. 135.

    redshirt

    @Ruckus: What’s the usage level of LA’s Metro? Heavily used? Barely used? I’m fascinated.

    I once had a cool book idea of covering the major subways of the world. Part history, part travel book. Alas.

  136. 136.

    Brachiator

    @Trentrunner:

    .But I just can’t believe we’re here.

    It makes for interesting times.

    You can talk about media coverage and faux scandals, but the bottom line is that if Trump wins, it will be an odd, suicidal success for democracy. People see who he is and what he is. And if a plurality or majority decide they want him anyway, it will say a lot about what the nation has become.

    Where we are now is similar to the UK BREXIT vote. A lot of people were determined to be blissfully ignorant, and seemed surprised to find out what they had voted for. Some younger people did not vote at all, holding onto the fantasy that somehow everything will continue exactly as before.

    But then there were those who believed that their votes would ensure a return to a happy past where the right sort of people would be provided for, and pesky foreigners and undesirable ethnics would be put back in their place.

    That’s where we are now. I think we, the reasonable people, will win. I think that Clinton will score a solid victory.

    If not, it just means that we have a hell of a fight waiting for us.

  137. 137.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ruckus:

    I really wanted to take the Metro, but it would have taken about three times as long: 30 minutes by car, 90 minutes by Red Line, because it has to go all the way through Hollywood before it gets to Union Station.

    And stupid Metrolink only had trains at 8:00 am and 10:39 am, and I had to be at my training in the Arts District (3rd and Santa Fe) by 11 am. So, car.

  138. 138.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @PPCLI:

    I’m pretty sure that what Dowd is translating as the violence conferring a “frisson of excitement” was Deadbeat Donald saying “it gives me a boner”.

    STARBURSTS!

  140. 140.

    Rob Lll

    @redshirt:

    I’m not sure what the numbers are, but I ride the Expo line to work every day and it’s definitely becoming more and more popular — especially since they opened the extension out to Santa Monica. Lots of commuters, tourists and kids head out to the beach on nice days, people heading in to games or concerts at the Staples Center, etc. I haven’t driven to work in over a year (I live in Culver City and work downtown). Major asset to the city, IMHO, although I wish the trains ran a bit more frequently.

  141. 141.

    Mnemosyne

    @Rob Lll:

    Burbank/Glendale is still kind of a sad desert because Metrolink only runs every 2 hours on the weekends and stops at 6 pm. I’m wishing again that we had gone out towards Pasadena because the Gold Line is awesome.

  142. 142.

    Jeffro

    It’s encouraging to see how some former Rs (like Frum) are laying it out there.

    It’s astounding that Cruz, McCain, Kasich, Fiorina, Romney, Ryan, McConnell, and others aren’t being hammered daily by the press and the Ds – support or denounce this clown.

    Their unwillingness to expend the slightest bit of energy since March to slow down the fascist, white supremacist train, to let Ds exhaust themselves doing what the “deep bench” could not…it’s appalling.

    Want to bowl me over, media folks? Ask one of the cowards named above to go on record denouncing Trump, Bannon, Conway, the dolt-right, the Trump kids, this latest “closer” nonsense over birtherism, or any one of a million other offensive and un-American things.

    But no: they’re probably just wondering what kind of bacon Cruz will wrap around his machine gun in 2020…

  144. 144.

    Rob Lll

    @Mnemosyne:

    Yes, the Gold line is pretty sweet. I’ve taken it to see matinees at A Noise Within a few times. A long ride from where I am but still better than the miserable 110 on a weekend.

  146. 146.

    SFAW

    @Anne Laurie:

    PJ was at Harvard in the 60s or 70s, I think. He was part of the Harvard Lampoon crew which later started NatLamp, I believe. (Maybe it’s not what you meant, but your sentence read like he was part of the 1980s Young Rethug crowd. )

  148. 148.

    Kay

    We;re rebounding!

    I’m kidding- don’t lecture me about polls – you know you all look at them :)

    Democrat Hillary Clinton has a 9-point lead among likely Pennsylvania voters as Republican Donald Trump continues to struggle among groups key to winning the state, according to a Morning Call/Muhlenberg College poll released Saturday.

  149. 149.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    I normally spend about 4 1/2 hrs a day on 3 trains and a bus ride, going clean across town. I’ve done it in the car in only 5 1/2 hrs in normal traffic. If anything goes wrong on Metro it can take as much as 6 hrs. Yes the trains/buses run on a schedule that includes wait time. But it is the bus that is my sticking point, it only runs every half hr at the other end of the journey. So my waiting time is mostly for the bus, which I always have to be ahead of to insure that I arrive on time. Only 6 1/2 more weeks, every day. Fun times.
    ETA I don’t do Metrolink, I do the Metro Gold/Red/Expo lines. They run every 12 minutes or less.

  151. 151.

    Ruckus

    @redshirt:
    All of the trains are packed in the afternoon as rush hour starts, until early evening. Bet it’s the same in the morning. I have to stand several times a week, sometimes for 25-30 min at a stretch. The usage is more than they hoped for I think. Although the subway lines, Red and Purple have been going since 1990. Rode a subway train the other day that had a plaque that said built in 1989, so one of the original trains. A bit worn looking but working fine.

  154. 154.

    Ruckus

    @Rob Lll:
    I think the plan is to add more trains but downtown is a stumbling block, the stations being in the middle of the roads and having to wait to cross busy intersections. Between Crenshaw and Union Station is a problem because of the location, not the number of stops. Between Crenshaw and Sepulveda, where I get off it zips pretty good. Same with the gold line between Union Station and Highland Park, the speed is restricted because of the train running in the middle of the street. Better than nothing for sure and as you know better than driving on three of the most congested freeways in the country.

  155. 155.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ruckus:

    It’s ridiculous, but schedule-wise it’s usually easier for me to drive from Burbank to Pasadena and ride the Gold Line from there. Sadly, the schedule didn’t work out today (cleaning people + cat nail trims).

    For our upcoming weekend in Santa Barbara, I’m taking the Coast Starlight up that Friday and then G is driving up after he gets off work. I’m excited about that and I’m hoping to get a seat in the Observation Car for the most picturesque stretch (Moorpark and above). Amtrak is awesome for coastal day trips to Ventura, Carpenteria and SB.

    If I can find my SB bus pass (or even if I can’t), I’m going to do a mini knitting store tour by SB County transit since they have a good system up there. They’re really trying to encourage Car Free Santa Barbara by making it easy to get around on public transit.

  156. 156.

    Brachiator

    @Mnemosyne:

    . .It’s ridiculous, but schedule-wise it’s usually easier for me to drive from Burbank to Pasadena and ride the Gold Line from there. Sadly, the schedule didn’t work out today (cleaning people + cat nail trims).

    Line 501 from Burbank to Pasadena does not work for you?

  157. 157.

    Mnemosyne

    @Brachiator:

    I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks like it would merely double the amount of travel time to Downtown rather than tripling it like taking the Red Line would, so that may be an option for next time. Metro’s web site isn’t as good as I’d like because it didn’t even offer that as an option, just the Red Line.

  159. 159.

    Ruckus

    @redshirt:
    Who said I was sane? Have that person arrested for relaying falsehoods.
    The red and purple lines are subways, at least as far as I’ve ridden them. The gold, blue and expo lines are ground level to elevated at some locations. The expo and blue lines end at one of the red/purple stops, so about 30 ft under ground, the subway runs about 30 ft under that. You have to take the red/purple lines between the ends and Union Station, where all the Metrolink and Amtrack real trains are and it’s a pretty large hub. All the Metro lines are full electric trains, Metrolink trains have diesel/electric locomotives and run much longer runs but only run like every half hour and some lines stop or run much less often in the evenings. They make a lot more noise than the electrics and run through many neighborhoods so there is good reason for that. But they carry more people, most are double decked, none of the electrics are. Metro is local transit, Metrolink is long distance.
    One of the things to keep in mind is that all of this was built out with the existing areas already fully built out. To do what has been done is actually pretty amazing.

  160. 160.

    frosty

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: @Rob Lll: @Ruckus:

    I went to SoCal for college, stuck around for a few years and left at the end of 1978, partly because of Prop 13. It just boggles my mind to hear about successful transit in LA, especially rail (Pacific Electric, represent!). I used to take the RTD from Claremont to LAX — it took 3 hours. Kudos for everyone who made this happen.

  161. 161.

    Chris

    this is hilarious because if D’Souza was in Russia and said the things he did about Obama RE: Putin, he’d be dead

    That would certainly not be the worst thing Putin ever did.

  162. 162.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    The website sucks until you learn what they’ve done wrong and know how to plan properly. It took me several tries to make the trip planner work but now I know how. You really have to drill down into the choices to even get a rail/rail/rail trip shown. They are now saying there is a new website in testing that should be better. I hope so. One of the things I did was to take the raw schedule of when each train is supposed to be in what station and put my beginnings/endings in a spread sheet. That only took an evening. Then I sat down and banged on the trip planner until I figured it out. Mostly it’s that there are several ways to search for any one station/stop and doing so will give you quite differing results.

  163. 163.

    Ruckus

    @frosty:
    Some of the expo line stations are elevated, about 30 ft above ground and the floor of the platform is made up of concrete tiles. Some of them are engraved, for lack of a better word and some have the Pacific Electric logo and some other depictions of other historical stuff. They did a nice job on the stations.

  164. 164.

    redshirt

    @Ruckus: The T in Boston has improved massively over the last few years in providing riders information. Every station now has electronic signage indicating when the next train is to arrive, and there’s a sweet app where you can track the trains in near real time. It’s great for expectation setting.

    They still can’t handle the volume of traffic, but at least you know what’s going on, and that’s half the battle.

  166. 166.

    Chris

    @Kay:

    I always thought Gates was a Colin Powell like figure, a Republican “good cop” to the Cheney/Rumsfeld type “bad cops,” but in the end, not as different as all that. So yeah, I suppose McCain works too, being that he’s made a career out of being hailed as a “moderate” in comparison to people like George W. Bush, even though in the end he turned out to be no different.

  167. 167.

    Millard Filmore

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Mnemosyne: The mountains are north, a good substitute for a compass.

    Ha! If I take Beach Blvd that way, it ends up in the ocean … so that way is west. Going the other way hits the mountains, so the other way must be east!

    Right?

    (yes, i am kidding)

  170. 170.

    Ruckus

    @redshirt:
    I’ve ridden the subway in Boston. Wasn’t all that bad but this wasn’t at rush hours. The LA Metro system is not bad at all. Being built recently probably helped that as much as it hurt it.

  172. 172.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    One of the reasons I asked was that I only learned about Metro bikes by looking out the window of the expo line train. I haven’t seen anything on the regular Metro site.

  173. 173.

    redshirt

    @Ruckus: The subway in Boston is pretty good. Down points are its early shut down time and lack of cross city access. But those are minor in the scheme of things. It’s good.

  174. 174.

    Millard Filmore

    @redshirt:

    Excuse my ignorance, but how many of the lines are rail, above or below ground, and how many buses?

    Use these words in Google: LA rail map

    Here is a good map:
    media.metro.net/riding_metro/maps/images/rail_map.pdf (add http if needed)

  175. 175.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ruckus:

    I get emails and Facebook messages from various local bicycle groups, so that’s why I knew about them. I was super excited to see a stand right outside the building where I had my volunteer training, so that’s why I decided to give it a try.

    It was a little nerve-wracking to ride in downtown traffic with no helmet, though. Maybe I’ll throw one of my extra ones in my trunk for future spontaneous rides.

  176. 176.

    Miss Bianca

    @Mnemosyne:

    I hear tell that the ladies of the evening in Amsterdam just stand in display windows, but the people who told me that may have been high at the time.

    They were doing that when I walked thru’ the Red Light District there, but that was over 25 years ago. Things may have changed.

  177. 177.

    Millard Filmore

    @Mnemosyne:

    It was a little nerve-wracking to ride in downtown traffic with no helmet,

    Get a helmet as soon as you can. Back in 1975 I read a small blurb in a bicycle magazine, news from around the world. A professional woman bike racer in Europe was riding through the after race crowd, after all the crazy racing, going slow. Somehow as she patiently zig-zagged through the throng, she tipped over, hit her head, and died.

    If you are religious, its one thing to say “When its your time to go, nothing you can do.”

    Its quite another to taunt your god with “Nyeah, nyeah, you can’t catch me!”

  178. 178.

    Chris

    @Millard Filmore:

    A friend I knew in college hit the back of a stopped bus once and went over the handlebars, hitting the bus so hard he passed out for a couple of minutes.

    Because he was wearing a helmet, no lasting damage was done. (Except to the helmet).

    I’ve gotten better about wearing the helmet over time; it really can make a difference in the event of an accident.

  179. 179.

    Mnemosyne

    @Millard Filmore:

    Oh, I always wear a bike helmet, which is why it made me nervous to go helmetless even just this once. My own klutziness demands it. I think I have 4 bike helmets on hand right now, which is why it would be practical to keep one in the car for future use.

    ETA: 2 Nutcase, 1 Giro, 1 Bern.

  180. 180.

    Millard Filmore

    @Mnemosyne: I crashed on Mt Baldy, coming back down on a beautiful Easter Friday. Cool weather, did not overheat while cranking up the hill. Had a nice cold soda at the top. Going back down when you are no longer working, it can get chilly. Did you know that the resonant frequency of a bicycle is just about shivering speed? At the bottom of the mountain … no cars, smooth straight road, gentle grade, I let go of the brakes. What could go wrong?

    Picked up speed to maybe 40mph and CRAP! It was like a giant hand had grabbed the bottom bracket and started pumping back and forth sideways. I was back to maybe 25mph when the front wheel wobbled too far and crashed. My head (and helmet) hit the pavement at the temple, and then I slid on my back for a while. I would be dead without that helmet.

    Stay safe, and ride like every car is out to get you.

  181. 181.

    Jack the Cold Warrior

    @Mnemosyne: True! Stationed near Nuremburg, Federal Republic of Germany for 44 months during the Cold War. Nuremburg had “The Wall” red light district by the city’s feudal wall. Little storefronts with ladies in various exotic outfits, standing, or sitting in a chair illuminated usually by a red light. Others strolled along the cobblestone street.

    Efficiently regulated, licensed, medically checked, and taxed by the authorities. Many other large cities in Germany and the Netherlands did the same.

  182. 182.

    Ruckus

    @Millard Filmore:
    I got knocked down off my motorcycle by a coyote going about 30-35. I got is slowed down enough that I just caught the back of the coyote and didn’t even knock him down. But of course I then highsided (look up videos if you want) and landed right in front of an oncoming pickup truck going about 35, driven by one of my neighbors. Me on the ground sliding towards the truck. Head first. Head hit the bumper and went underneath so the bumper hit my shoulder. Torn rotator cuff. Helmet had a major hit from the bumper. Without a helmet I’d be dead or at least wish I were. I never ride a 2 wheeled contraption without a helmet. Didn’t before that, not starting now. BTW it was after dark so when my head went under the bumper it became pitch black. Wasn’t sure if that meant I was dead or not. Walked away, no concussion, rode home the last 300 ft. Everything below the neck is replaceable. Nothing above it is. Fixable but not replaceable. It’s the important stuff.

  184. 184.

    David Smith

    @SFAW:
    Almost alone among the early writers at the Lampoon O’Rourke did not go to Harvard. There was once a photo of him in the magazine with the caption “Why I didn’t get into Harverd”. He did get a MFA from Johns Hopkins, which is nothing to sneeze at.

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