I’m not going to be watching tonight. My wife and son will be, but me? I’m around the corner to a bar with the ballgame on.
I’m a wimp. I’ll admit it. I can’t take the debates anymore. I get too pissed off; I get scared; I get enraged…you get the idea. I’d rather follow on my phone, switching between the Balloon Juice thread and Twitter, and maybe the Guardian liveblog.
My goal — to get to sleep tonight before two or three, having dodged the useless-replay that I’ve found myself pacing through for hours before I actually get to sleep.
So, this is just to create a thread for those who want to rage, rage against the dying of the light endless derp of modern media, and to offer a little distraction.
Which would be this. I heard it on the radio today just before I headed off to the dentist to confirm the horrible suspicion that the howling pain in my molar meant (another) root canal (tomorrow at 4, thanks for asking).
I’ve always loved this song, but for some reason it seemed so on point to this election. It certainly put me in a better mood than I had any right (or inclination) to hope for — and maybe it’ll do the same for some of you, mes sembables, mes frères (et soeurs).
It doesn’t make me feel like the media will ever do its job — I just heard a clip on the local Boston public broadcasting station in which New York Times reporter (of course) Farah Stockman rather giddily proclaimed that this election wasn’t about facts or policy or any of that stuff (in a segment seemingly decrying the calls for fact checking the debate) but about fear.
Well, if so, oh Main Stream Media stalwart, it is because you and your stunningly less clever than they think they are colleagues have allowed it to become so.
So yeah. Bare Naked Ladies beat our elite political press any day and twice on Sundays. Enjoy, and say what you will below.
Baud
Not sure if I’ll be watching or not. I’m getting to be the same way as you are.
StringOnAStick
Love their unplugged album most of all.
Woodrowfan
No way am I watching. Trump will just lie his way through the whole thing.
RobertDSC-iPhone 6
I can’t watch. That orange motherfucker presses the rage button.
p.a.
agreed. some reading to catch up on, I’ll check here too (not that THAT is a calming influence) ?. As long as I don’t have to listen to tRump’s voice…
JordanRules
It’s usually BJ, Guardian and Twitter to follow along for me too Tom.
JPL
haha I emailed a friend and said to call if Trump is laying on the floor in a fetal position, calling for his mother. Tomorrow MSM will let me know who won.
Mnemosyne
I’m going to a debate watching party, but sadly it will be dry (hosts are both recovering alcoholics). If things get too bad, the TV might get turned to something less annoying, like that Cheetah Girls show on the Disney Channel.
Felonius Monk
Condolences on the root canal, Tom. Remember: What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. Good luck.
SFAW
I’m also torn. I figure watching Trump tell lie after lie would spike my BP, and that would not be a good thing. But I’m hopeful that Hillary destroys him.
I’m also hopeful that the MSM doesn’t thumb the scale, and declare it a draw. Then again, I’m hopeful that I wake up tomorrow with a full head of hair. We’ll see if either comes to pass.
BruceFromOhio
A green dress? That’s cruel.
The Dangerman
Count me in as a ballgame watcher; I’d rather have nails jammed under my fingernails than listen to Trump for an extended time (after Bush won in 2004, I swore I’d never listen to him speak again and I did well; I bet the total amount of time I listened to him in Term 2 was under 30 minutes).
raven
Our friends have come over for the last three so we’re gonna run it back.
pattonbt
Just submitted my overseas ballot in Colorado for Clinton!
Jacel
@Baud: If you were included in the debate, I would certainly watch. Is there any feed of the debate available that only includes what Hillary says, and omits Trump and the moderator?
SFAW
@Baud:
Bastards wouldn’t let you on the stage? It’s because the RNC is scared you’d bring the pain to the ferret-headed shitgibbon.
Baud! 2016
raven
@Mnemosyne: Yea, it’s sooo sad not to be able to drink.
jo6pac
I’m having a drinking game but then I’m not watching no need to because their both lying.
Voting Green and not the lesser evil.
TL I hope your team wins the Giants are out of show time.
Baud
@pattonbt: Colorado is not overseas.
Ceci n'est pas mon nym
It’s a given Trump will lie so baldly and continuously that we’ll be hard-pressed to find three consecutive true words.
It’s a given that the punditry will declare him the “winner”. Those stories are already written, just waiting for a couple quotes to drop in.
I choose not to get enraged about those things. They are the world we’re currently stuck in.
I’m watching to see how Hillary rises above it, because as President she’s going to have to. And having stayed afloat in this muck for 20 years, I expect she will. Still smiling. I want to see my next President do her thing.
japa21
Not watching tonight, I’ve had enough stress for the last few days. My wife started developing the same symptoms her mother had before she was found to have breast cancer. Today we were up at 4:30 to go to the hospital and have a biopsy done under general anesthesia. Now we have to wait for the pathology results, which, thankfully shouldn’t take more than a couple days.
The surgeon said that, based upon his experience, it is no more than a 10% chance that it is cancer. The good thing is that even if it is, we will have caught it very early.
The upshot is, neither of us will be watching the debate. I’ll check in here from time to time.
Ceci n'est pas mon nym
@Jacel: Wouldn’t an audio pie filter be a lovely thing?
Mnemosyne
@raven:
Dude. It’s a joke. Calm down.
JPL
@pattonbt: I love you! Good job!
Trentrunner
Credit to Sanders: Right now on MSNBC he’s giving a great affirmative case for HRC, not just “We have to beat Trump.” Good for him. About fucking time, Senator.
JGabriel
When I first saw the song title, Tom, I thought it was going to be this song:
Eminem – If I Had …
Mike J
Hillary’s name is misspelled on tickets for the debate.
Splitting Image
No debates for me tonight, although I’ll look through the liveblogs after everything is done.
No baseball for me either. Yankees elimination day isn’t until tomorrow.
Comrade Scrutinizer
The narrative for the debate has already been written; people aren’t watching for substance, but to see the latest bon mot, to see whether Hillary follows the script that supporters have written for her (“Hillary just just say bippity boppity boo”), to see the Donald dominate Crooked Hillary, to see Hillary kick Donald’s ass. As if after 20 some-odd years Hillary will do or say something unexpected, or as if Donald will deviate from his usual deceive, inveigle, obfuscate mantra.
It’s bread and circuses, it’s a chance for wish fulfillment, it’s anything but substance, and I don’t want it, and I certainly don’t need it. There is no conceivable way (and very few inconceivable ones) that my mind and my vote would change in response to any sturm und drang tonight. I have very few fucks left to give, and I’m saving them up for something of value. Tonight’s calliope can play on without me.
Humdog
I must watch, even tho I am not enthusiastic about it, because it will be an historic event. Further, if Hillary can survive it, I can be brave enough to witness it. How much crap this remarkable woman has put up with!
Gotta watch on Cspan, tho, I am not a masochist!
Tony J
Well I’m not watching either, because it’s on far too late for my time zone and all the other reasons of rage, disgust and helpless anger you mention. I have no interest in actually putting eyeballs on a serious political debate that is supposed to help decide who should be the most powerful elected politician in the world when the people moderating and framing the debate are applying the rules of WWF Wrestling to make it more exciting. That’s just silly and nothing an adult should condone.
Instead I’ll catch up on how much of a Shitshow it was tomorrow morning, for which I thank BJ’s hardened correspondents in advance. Someone has to do it, and even neck deep in slime and floating disgustingness you people always come through. #fistpump4therealheroes
waysel
Bloomberg TV is gonna fact check in real time, with a crawl I think. I’m watching them and/or CSPAN. And Colbert is doing an immediate after debate show.
JPL
@japa21: Sleep will be restless before you know the results, but so far so good.
Hopefully, the actual results agree with the doctor’s.
I don’t have cable and depend on my antenna, and I discovered Create TV. It’s a PBS channel consisting of DIY, Food or Travel.
Rob
I will not be watching the debate. I may follow along online, or may simply ignore the world and go to sleep early.
Mike J
@waysel: The Times says they will fact check in real time, but it’s a facebook thing.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/27/us/politics/new-york-times-debate-coverage.html
Mnemosyne
@japa21:
Yikes! Good luck with that. I had a biopsy earlier this year that freaked me the hell out, because my mother died young of breast cancer. Fortunately, mine turned out to be a benign fibrous thingy, but the whole process was No Fun. I’ll keep both of you in my thoughts and hope for the best for you.
Rob
@waysel @7:53 pm:
On the other hand, if I can access Bloomberg TV maybe I’ll watch some of the debate.
Baud
@Humdog:
This.
Smiling Mortician
For those of you avoiding the debate because of the media’s refusal to fact-check, Bloomberg has a live feed that purportedly will fact-check in real time throughout the debate.
ETA: Oops, missed waysel’s comment.
Iowa Old Lady
@japa21: Here’s hoping you hear good news quickly.
I’ll read live blogs tonight. I can’t stand to actually hear or see Trump.
“Bare Naked Ladies beat our elite political press any day and twice on Sundays”
And that is why we need art of all sorts. It speaks to our hearts and souls, which is where we apparently need a good talking to these days.
patroclus
@Comrade Scrutinizer: I think if Hillary says “bibbity bobbity boo” people are going to be unsure what she’s talking about. I recommend speaking in English.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@patroclus: Philistine.
jl
Ha! I’ll be joining TL for Transcript Tuesday.How soon should we stop drinking tonight before we read them tomorrow morning. Should we stop drinking?
different-church-lady
How the heck am I going to follow the debate on BJ if nobody on BJ is watching it?
Mike J
@patroclus: Salagadoola mechicka boola?
MomSense
@japa21:
That is such a stressful thing to go through. When I had a biopsy the doctors said the same things about the chances of cancer but you still feel panicked. I’m sending my best wishes and hoping for good news. Hope you can get some sleep tonight.
ET
As someone who has had too many root canals and one implant I sympathize… You can’t have teeth problems and watch debates when Trump is on the teevee… I have no excuse because I ain’t watching and don’t have teeth problems. But then I am not really into self-torture.
Kjsbrooklyn
Going over to a friend’s house to drink wine and eat pie. ( and watch the debate ) Also I agree with Humdog, if Hillary is brave enough to be doing this for the last umpteen million years, I gotta be brave enough to watch.
schrodinger's cat
@Humdog: Are they going to livestream it?
Turgidson
Also not watching. I don’t know if that makes me a wuss exactly. I just think life is too short to spend any of it listening to Republicans lie their asses off about everything. I don’t watch the Sunday shows for the same reason, and change the channel when particularly egregious Republicans get interviewed on cable news.
I couldn’t watch Willard Mitt “Mittens” Romney lie his way through the 2012 debates, and Trump makes Mittens look like Abraham f’ing Lincoln by comparison.
It wasn’t so much about being afraid the Democrat would lose the debate – in fact, it barely occurred to me that Denver 2012 was a possible outcome of that debate until after it happened – it’s just that I get really fucking angry watching Republicans so shamelessly lie about everything when the stakes are so goddamn high. They should get fucking electric shocks when they tell demonstrable falsehoods. But they don’t. Instead they’re judged to have “messaged well” (looking at you, Chucklehead Todd) or judged the overwhelming winner of the debate (Mittens).
Hillary will probably do just fine. She’s not going to be intimidated by the Short Fingered Vulgarian and has done pretty well in just about every debate she’s been in. But I have better things to do than to watch that lunatic lie and bullshit for 90 minutes. It’ll just be the cherry on the steaming pile of shit sundae when the media gushes that he seemed presidential just because he managed to get through the debate without biting the head off a live chicken or dropping a deuce in front of Lester Holt. Don’t need it.
rikyrah
I am following on Twitter
Smiling Mortician
@Iowa Old Lady:
No shit.
Mnemosyne
@patroclus:
Considering how many Disney employees have contributed to Hillary’a campaign, saying, “Bibbidi bobbidi boo” would just be pandering to her donors.
JPL
@Kjsbrooklyn: Well if your comment was to make some of us cowards feel like shit, you succeeded. The first and second question will be about emails. I’m sure she will do fine, but the fix is in.
The Sheriff's A Ni-
You and me both, Tom. I’ll wait for the atrocities to be documented tomorrow.
Pogonip
@Baud: I refuse to watch any debate that does not include future President Baud.
raven
@Mnemosyne: If I was any calmer I’d be asleep.
seaboogie
Thank you for the post and the sweet song, Tom. Sorry you didn’t win the big prize, but how wonderful for you to be (deservedly so) in such good company. My Dad loves your book.
I am SO going to watch this debate. Been waiting months for it, and now we are at T-57 minutes. Hillary’s team is tweeting actively, and I sent her hugs and a “you go girrrrllll”. Trump team is radio silence, and they’ve apparently dropped his iphone in the toilet today.
Enjoy your retreat at the bar….
hovercraft
@Mike J:
How the hell do you misspell the name of the most famous woman in the world?
RB1123
I know I’m watching the worst channel but Andrea Mitchell just said Hillary has been practicing standing for 90 minutes in the debate prep.
What the fuck……
Major Major Major Major
@pattonbt: neoliberal whore.
hitchhiker
Right there with you, Tom. I plan to be out walking through a beautiful Seattle evening for that 90 minutes. It’s going to have to be what it is without my witness, because this entire campaign has become like living inside a nightmare meat-grinder.
Cacti
I’ll be following the live blogs, but I already know what will happen. Hillary will mop the floor with Trump on substance, the media will try to spin it as a Trump win. You could substitute the name of any D and any R for the above, and it would be the same. It’s up to team D to push back.
Emerald
@Humdog:
Of course you are correct, but I am a coward and I’m going to go see Tom Hanks play Mr. Sully.
I’ll read the BJ live blog of it when I get home and decide if I want to watch a rerun, coward that I am.
Baud
@Cacti: You’ve seen past debates, I see.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: It is, however, over the hills.
Turgidson
@Trentrunner:
Now if he could just go to college campuses and other areas distracted or bored millenials, thinking about voting for their weird dope smoking Uncle Gary over HRC for no particular reason other than “OMG Goldman speeches corrupt arglebargle” tend to gather and do the same thing every day until Nov. 8, she’ll be set.
Old Dan and Little Anne
I woke up 14 hours ago and immediately looked forward to 9:00. Go Hillary. I hope drumph has a fucking coronary in front of the largest tv audience ever. I’m not going to miss out on that possibility.
TaMara (HFG)
Not watching. Will read whatever thread we have here and thankfully Netflix sent me a Disney movie to watch instead. Or maybe I’ll rewatch Lucifer season 2 opener.
DCrefugee
Not gonna link to it, but Sully (no, the other one…) is live-blogging the debate tonight. I’ll watch a little bit of it, at least, via C-SPAN, then retire to my sleep chamber, dreaming that Hillz delivers the bitch-slap to His Hairness and is five points up by sunrise tomorrow.
debit
I’m going to watch. I really don’t want to for many of the reasons already listed by others, but I feel like it’s a duty. If Hillary can stand up there and take it, I can watch it.
the Conster, la Citoyenne
The song I would have chosen for this post is “If I Had A Rocket Launcher”. My targets would be Trump first, then NBC. I won’t watch. It’s too draining, because I don’t understand why our media doesn’t try to be better.
Major Major Major Major
@DCrefugee: ah, I remember his meltdown four years ago. Good times.
hovercraft
raven
@debit: No shit, wtf-k?
Baud
@Old Dan and Little Anne: I like the cut of your jib.
Turgidson
@RB1123:
I’m pretty sure Villago Delenda Est has assigned Andrea “Mrs. Greenspan” Mitchell a very high tumbrel number.
She must think her salary is based on how many different ways she can find to criticize HRC for the stupidest fucking things. Who knows, maybe it is.
PsiFighter37
We’re a politics blog. You’re goddamn right I’m going to be watching it. Just got a cheesesteak and cracked open the first beer. Bring it on.
Baud
@hovercraft: That’s awesome.
Chris T.
For $1M, I’d be halfway to buying a teardown in Palo Alto! Such as this one, whose for-sale description basically says “the reason we’re not showing you any interior pictures is that the place is a wreck, but for just $2M, it’s such a steal!”
Pogonip
Having had occasion to go from West to East Deplorable today, I conducted a Patented Pogonip Poll of yard signs. At this point future president None-of-the-above has a decisive lead. There are NO yard signs along the route in West Deplorable, and in East Deplorable there were, as expected, no Hillary signs BUT there were only three Trump signs. That is unprecedented. The East Deplorable area is so Republican they think Phyllis Schafly (sp?) was a Communist. I’ve never seen them so unenthusiastic about their presidential candidate this late. Usually in a presidential election their signs start popping up right after the Republican convention.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@different-church-lady: You noticed that problem as well.
? Martin
I’m watching. Nut up people and have a little faith in the most abused and determined individual in politics. She’s got this. We’re not about to be beaten a psychopathic gibbon.
pattonbt
@Baud: It isn’t? Man that legal weed is killing me!
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
I’m cueing up some sportsball, with ample amounts of Southern Comfort (neat) at the ready. Watching the debate would simply turn me into a rage monster, and I don’t need the grief. Nothing either of them will say would change my mind. Literally no reason to watch.
Ben Cisco +1
hovercraft
From The Guardian live blog:
Sab
I am going to take James Fallows advice and watch debate with sound turned off. I won’t have to listen to Trump and my spouse can pretend there is nothing on tv
raven
@? Martin: Oh, they are too nervous.
Cacti
@Baud:
The most egregious example from recent memory is that trip to the woodshed Biden gave to Palin, that the bobbleheads tried to declare a draw.
Emma
@japa21: The good news is that it’s eminently survivable. The difference between the treatment my mother had to endure twenty years ago and what I’m doing is like the difference between the fourteenth and the twentieth century.
Turgidson
@DCrefugee:
Prediction: Sullivan will be completely certain that Hillary got destroyed, no matter what. Because even though he’s (barely) sentient enough to realize she’s the only sane choice this time, he just really, really, REALLY fucking hates her and it’s going to show through tonight even if she’s putting up the best debate performance in the past century.
Until the Short-fingered Vulgarian actually won the fucking nomination, I was utterly, completely certain that Sullivan would endorse whatever bile-soaked hairball the GOP primary coughed up to run against her, because he just fucking hates Hillary Clinton that much more than he wants to see Barack Obama’s work continued. But the Trumpocalypse rendered that prediction void. Even Sullivan’s hate has its limits in such circumstances.
raven
Fucking asshole Bobby Knight in the house.
patroclus
@Mike J: I really don’t understand these recommendations for Hillary to start “speaking in tongues.” I think that would be weird and would create a bad impression with swing voters.
p.a.
@japa21: Best wishes and positive thoughts to you both.
Mnemosyne
One thing I will say that may buck people up a bit: Hillary is at her best in long form, as in a debate. People who are only familiar with her in sound bites and interview clips will be surprised at how warm and funny she is when she has a chance to speak at longer lengths than they usually see her.
If people watch for themselves, it doesn’t matter if the media puts their thumbs on the scales afterwards. It becomes who are you going to believe, the media or your lying eyes?
TaMara (HFG)
@pattonbt: Awewome. I’m having a difficult time believing polls that say it’s close here, more than half my Republican friends (yes, I have quite a few, most business related) are opting not to vote for either candidate…and may not even vote at all (the down ticket choices are not inspiring either from what they’re saying). Should be interesting to see how it all turns out…I’m wondering if the R turnout is going to be very low…
max
Guys, not watching is about refusing to give the networks any reward for their endless promotions of ‘The El Trumpo Show’. Also, repeated exposure to fall political debates has been shown to accelerate the progress of dementia in lab rats and elite political reporters and may also contribute to the development of CTE.
Consider the many debates since 1976, and then consider the direction of the overall political culture of the US and in particular, the political attitudes of the group of (AHEM!) older voters.
max
[‘Then consider whether it does any good to watch the debates.’]
seaboogie
@debit: Right on!, Debit – Hillary has been waiting her whole life for this moment, and didn’t expect to be facing Trump, but if she can do it, I’m wit ya in bearing witness. For me, this debate is as much about the media being accountable as anything else.
Aleta
@Jacel: There should be an app. Or one that inserts “Of course I’m lying, but ” in front of everything he says.
JMG
@Pogonip: I posted this earlier today, but spent the weekend in the Youngstown, Ohio area for a (really nice and happy) wedding. In covering various roads from hotel to churches (GPS sent us to wrong one first) to function room where reception was held to my brother-in-law’s house for a next day brunch staged by parents of the bride to Pittsburgh airport, I saw one Clinton sign, one Trump sign and no bumperstickers at all. This is in two “battleground” states.
BR
@? Martin:
If nothing else, we all need to say we watched if pollsters call afterwards.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@seaboogie: Trump has an Android, that’s how you can tell it’s actually his tweets. The iPhone is Ivanka.
Brachiator
Trump has already started with class:
The Snapchat header says Donald J Trump vs Crooked Hillary.
seaboogie
@? Martin: What you said!
Percysowner
I’m not watching either. I can’t stand Trump. I can’t stand his voice. I can’t stand his face. I can’t stand his hair. I can’t stand the gestures he makes with his stumpy little fingers. Watching will only make me angry. I’ll read comments online. If I have to watch I’m sure someone will post the whole thing online, hopefully Bloomberg with all the fact checking.
SyFy is running The Magicians Uncensored, with all the bad language and sex scenes for a month. I’d been meaning to watch the show anyway, and I might as well watch it as the writers intended. It’s been pretty good so far. So I’ll settle in with that tonight.
patroclus
I knew Jack Kennedy. I served with Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.
gogol's wife
@hovercraft:
So true.
hovercraft
@Chris T.:
That’s just insane, 1,300 sq ft for $2 million, that’s even worse than Manhattan, not 5th or anything, but for a lot of neighborhoods.
gogol's wife
@? Martin:
You sound like my husband.
? Martin
@Chris T.: I’m glad that Obama is jumping in on this issue. I don’t think a lot of these communities realize the potential consequences of this. We had a local CEO explain why he was moving his company away. He said the taxes were never a factor but the inability to hire employees because they couldn’t afford a house was fatal. Median home price here is just under $1M. A $60K employee has no reasonable path to affording a $1M home even within a decade. Communities have to build affordable housing in order to keep and attract jobs. No company is going to move to Palo Alto. Hell, even Apple is expanding their operations out of the area because they’re losing $150K per year engineers because they are struggling to find a decent house (if you’re earning 3x the median national income, I think it’s reasonable to assume you could get at least a halfway decent house/condo).
Kay
My son in Chicago wants to watch it “together” but I might just listen to his commentary. He’s calm about the election. My daughter hates Trump and won’t be watching.
Mnemosyne
@Emma:
I got a very high recommendation from someone for Amy Schumer’s audiobook, so you may want to consider that if they let you wear headphones.
And if you want some light romance reading that’s a little dirty but not dumb, I’ve been reading a lot of Tessa Dare.
debbie
@Pogonip:
I saw my second Trump sign today, lost in a sea of Hillary signs. The usual suspects (who always have GOP signs) remain signless.
chopper
man I am right there with you.
SiubhanDuinne
I’ll be watching, and will check in here at frequent intervals. I want to watch Hillary mop the floor with Trump, and I want to see and hear for myself whatever he does and says, because I’m pretty sure that whatever the media’s spin is tomorrow, it won’t be accurate.
Is one of our front-pagers going to put up a dedicated thread with a link? (No TV, so it’ll have to be something streaming for me.)
? Martin
@hovercraft: Oakland is now more expensive than Manhattan. Fucking Oakland. SF is 2x-3x as expensive now. It’s fucking absurd.
Humdog
@schrodinger’s cat: I will watch it on cable tv, don’t know about live stream.
BR
@SiubhanDuinne:
Here’s C-SPAN’s live feed.
seaboogie
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Oops – my bad – you are correct, and I did know better.
gogol's wife
In 2004 we still had this little black-and-white television (it was before everything had to be digital), and that was the only way I could stand to watch Bush and Kerry debate. I can still remember my husband saying, “Even if Kerry wins, it may already be too late.”
burnspbesq
In case you haven’t seen it yet, this Tecate beer ad is teh awesome.
http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/tecate-will-ambush-tonights-debate-trump-mocking-ad-about-building-beer-wall-173708
Omnes Omnibus
@different-church-lady: Some of us are going to give it the old college try.
Mike in NC
Won’t watch because Trump is a moron with ridiculous body language and a voice like fingernails on a blackboard.
hovercraft
@Aleta:
Howard Kurtz was bitching on his show yesterday that CNN and msnbc will be using the Chyron to fact check the debate. His complaint was that people have different ‘facts’.
Citizen_X
@JMG: Of course people aren’t putting up signs & bumper stickers. Trump fans are afraid they’ll be shunned for supporting fascism and racist violence. Clinton supporters are afraid they’ll get shot.
burnspbesq
I thought the naked link issue had been addressed. Grumble.
the best ad you’ll see tonight
Iowa Old Lady
@Pogonip: My well-off neighborhood is pretty Republican, but I’ve seen one Clinton sign and two that read “Smaller/Smarter” which I assume is some Republican slogan, though there’s no name on it, and I can’t imagine what “smarter” has to do with Trump.
I was thinking about how I’m afraid to put a Clinton sign on my lawn or sticker on my car because I think Trump supporters might vandalize it. Their anger and delight in violating what the see as political correctness makes them more likely than Clinton supporters to do that (I say with no evidence whatever).
BR
Remember everyone — if you’re on twitter, tweet at the media like mad to influence spin. Also, Trump = con artist.
Kay
Lies every day, constantly.
Any one of the bigger Trump lies would be a week or two of breathless coverage in a normal election. He’s lowered the bar so much 90% of the lies just fly right by. It’s amazing how you think there are “standards” or “norms” for behavior and then that just turns out not to be true at all :)
I didn’t realize there were no conflict of interest rules for Presidents until Trump. They’re not subject to any of the rules that apply to members of Congress or cabinet positions. This big gaping hole was there all along.
seaboogie
@BR: Also, here is a live feed from a Hillary twitter link
Emma
@Mnemosyne: My treatment is a five year course of pills. Three years of Femara and two of Tamoxifen. This is my second time around with the beast. It seems my body keeps producing way too much estrogen. Which, ok, it’s not fantastic, but “you don’t have any of the genetic markers” almost makes up for it.
Omnes Omnibus
@hovercraft: Beyonce is going to be there?
hovercraft
@Kay:
My 13 year old wants to watch it together as well, she will get extra credit for class. I was going to watch anyway, but now I have to watch my mouth. I’ll still curse, but I’ll be more restrained, less creative.
Irony Abounds
I have an excuse with a pre-scheduled old man’s basketball game, but I think I’d blow a gasket watching the debate live anyhow. There were multiple problems with McCain and Romney, and Bush was a disaster, but in comparison to Trump they are Eagle Scouts. Just thinking about Trump in charge of the Executive Branch of the United States of America is so terrifying. Please don’t fuck this up Hillary. Beat the shit out of Cheeto Jesus.
BR
@Kay:
Antonia, who posted this diary at DKos is a whiz with message framing and I think she hit the nail on the head — it’s *why* Trump lies that will get through to undecideds. Calling him a con artist exposes something insidious whereas “liar” just sounds like an insult and everyone already knows that he BS’s constantly.
JGabriel
@Humdog:
This^2.
Turgidson
@gogol’s wife:
The hindsight silver lining of Kerry losing was that he probably would have been a one term president blamed for the Great Recession if he’d won – I don’t think there was anything GWB did in his 2nd term that Kerry would have done dramatically differently that would have stopped it or something like it from happening at some point.
God only knows where the Democrats would be now if they’d been at least somewhat plausibly blamed for that shitshow. They have enough trouble winning the battle for public opinion about the economy as it is, when they’re so obviously superior that you have to have a head injury or be a Republican (but I repeat myself) to deny it. Imagine them trying to win a campaign in the first couple presidential elections after Kerry got booted out of office as the Great Recession hit. Or, maybe don’t.
?BillinGlendaleCA
I will be watching the debate, then possibly some In-n-Out. I got the BluRay of ‘George Harrison-Living in the Material World’* today; I watched Part I earlier, I’ll watch part II post debate.
*I saw it on HBO a couple of years ago and liked it, so I decided to get the BluRay(never seen one of them before).
Pogonip
@Iowa Old Lady: I wonder how many people know that, around here at least, campaigns go around requesting to put signs in your yard? My parents always said “Sure, go ahead” to whoever showed up first. That was a less hostile time, though.
sukabi
@RB1123: now if only Andrea would practice being an actual journalist or even something resembling a human…
Citizen_X
@hovercraft: Holy moly, that’s dumb.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I don’t know how much I’ll make it home to watch, but if I do, it will be CSPAN or PBS, Cole just pre-reminded me of the uselessness of MSNBC
and the smart one. I remember when Joe Scarborough and Michael Steele represented the Right on the sorta-liberal-for-a-while network. And I actually miss that.
SenyorDave
I will be watching. My prediction is Trump will be on comparatively good behavior, and will mainly talk in generalities. Clinton – get in tax returns (especially as it relates to his huge tax cut for the wealthy), birtherism (he owes apologies to Obama and the country), and his man-crush on Putin. Oh, and the charities thing if there is a context for it.
Mnemosyne
@Emma:
Phew! I have vague memories of my mother’s radiation and chemo treatments in the mid-1970s, and they were a horror show. Fortunately for me, none of her female relatives have ever had any reproductive cancers, so hers was most likely a fluke. She was a dental hygienist starting in the early 1960s, so I strongly suspect it was x-ray exposure that did it, because they weren’t nearly as careful about shielding the hygienists back then as they are now.
patrick II
@waysel:
According to Crooks and Liars, Fox’s media critic Howard Kurtz, is complaining about fact checking chyrons not just at Bloomberg but also at MSNBC, so perhaps there will be two channels fact checking tonight.
Pogonip
@JMG: Yep, if None-of-the-above were running he’d win in a landslide.
The Dangerman
@? Martin:
Seriously? That’s crazy. I’m not a big fan of most things Bay Area, so I’m biased, but … OAKLAND?
ETA: I’m old enough to remember driving through what would become Silicon Valley; I recall Orchards and Farms and …
Pogonip
@Mnemosyne: my brother remembers when shoe stores could x-ray your feet!
Mike J
@? Martin: Manhattan has these tall things that stick into the air where people can live.
Turgidson
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Hewitt must have blackmail material over the NBC/MSNBC execs. How the fucking fuck else does it make any sense that he’s suddenly their most prominent conservative talking head? I thought he was properly excluded from polite company all these years and we were happy that way. He’s an unhinged right wing radio lunatic who happens to comb his hair and wear glasses and is capable of using his inside voice while saying demented and demonstrably false shit. Is that really all it takes to become a “respected” conservative commentator? Egad.
Davis X. Machina
@? Martin:
I’m not worried about the gibbon, I’m worrying about the zookeepers…
NoraLenderbee
I never watch the debates because I can’t stand the BS. But this time, there is no way I’m gonna miss watching Madame President take the shitgibbon to pieces.
Larkspur
@japa21: I had the same thing done, several years ago. General anesthesia, biopsy/lumpectomy, then two days later, the good news: benign, benign, totally benign. Woo and hoo. Hoping for the same for your wife.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Turgidson: I’m watching less and less lately, but I swear he must have in his contract that he’s never given a liberal to argue with, his (long) segments must be one-on-one with a single (and deferential) anchor. I’d love to see him debate Charlie Pierce, who would finally say “Oh, that’s all my balls…” on TV
HinTN
@PsiFighter37: Lost to the mists of time, but HinTN headed for +3 and, hell yes we’re watching.
Mnemosyne
@Pogonip:
Somebody here had a sibling who somehow ended up with some kind of cancer on his feet. I wonder if that was how it happened, because otherwise that seems like a really weird location.
gogol's wife
@burnspbesq:
Great!
01jack
@Pogonip: True. I remember doing it in the 1950’s.
Ben Cisco (onboard the Defiant)
@burnspbesq: That is awesome.
seaboogie
This debate is the FUCKING BOMB!!!!!