Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Everybody saw this coming.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

People are complicated. Love is not.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Debate Prelims Open Thread

Debate Prelims Open Thread

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I’m getting the feeling, after reading comments for the last couple days, that there will be a certain drop-off in debate viewers among the BJ commentariat. Not that I blame y’all. But I am by both genetics and training one of those people who cannot let go, so Trickster God and my router willing, I’ll be here. My go-to viewing choices are the Guardian‘s liveblog (always), and YouTube’s livestream (for as long as I can stand it).

Wired has a long list of ways to watch the debate.

New one to me — Regal Cinema will have free screenings, some in IMAX, at a whole bunch of locations. So if none of your IRL friends want to share the experience, there’s more choices to do so communally.
.

Reader Interactions

179Comments

  3. 3.

    Eljai

    I can’t decide if I should meditate for 90 minutes while sending positive thoughts and light to Hillary, or if I should walk over to the bar next door to watch the debate with a drink in hand. Maybe I will attempt to do both.

  6. 6.

    RaflW

    Due to travel, the debate will be live at 3a.m. local time for me. Even with jet lag, I will *not* be watching. I’ll catch the post game when most of you are sleeping.
    G’night, cruel America.

  7. 7.

    Hilfy

    I’m a political junkie. It’s the only vice I have left,so I must watch. Been looking forward to it for days.

  8. 8.

    bobbo

    I couldn’t watch the second and I won’t watch the third. Trump is an abusive personality and I don’t see why anyone who doesn’t have to would submit themselves to it. Hillary is about one thousand times stronger than I am.

  9. 9.

    hovercraft

    Steve M.

    …. the media has decided that it’s Clinton who needs to be concerned about her performance tonight. Here’s Rick Klein of ABC News:

    Could it be that there’s actually more pressure on Hillary Clinton at the final debate than on Donald Trump? … Clinton is now less than three weeks away from being elected president, barring a stunning collapse. Acting like that means not just rebutting and attacking Trump but going broad, reminding voters of her promise, not just her opponent’s weaknesses. There’s an opportunity if not an urgency for her to use the final presidential debate to appear downright presidential.

    So this is the nonsense is what we have to look forward to tonight.

  10. 10.

    Derelict

    I haven’t watched any of trhe previous ones, so I won’t be watching thbis one, either.

    Stay strong, Hillary. The rest of y’all, please guard your sanity!

  12. 12.

    Cacti

    @hovercraft:

    So this is the nonsense is what we have to look forward to tonight.

    As is the custom, the bobbleheads will say it was a win for the Republican, and the audience for the Democrat.

  13. 13.

    hovercraft

    Sarah Palin will be a Trump guest tonight, only from one source so far, so maybe. I’m sure that will be very impactful.

  14. 14.

    NR

    Notable pre-debate polls:

    Ohio: Clinton +3
    Pennsylvania: Clinton +4
    Utah: McMullin +4
    Arizona: Clinton +4
    National: Clinton +15, Clinton +10, Clinton +7, Trump +1

  16. 16.

    Trentrunner

    Hillary fills me with confidence, so I will watch and support her against the Onslaught of Sideshow Carnies that Trump will be bringing tonight (Palin, Obama’s half-bro, Clinton “accuser,” Benghazi mom).

  18. 18.

    NotMax

    Will Drudge (already finalized for publication) “poll” announce a Trump victory by over 90% or stay stuck in the 80s?

  19. 19.

    hovercraft

    @Cacti:
    Tweety still believes that he is correct that Trump won the 2nd debate, and so last night was urging him to stick to the issues that got him here, trade, immigration, and stupid wars, and that will get him a knockout instead of the split decision he got last time.

  23. 23.

    FlipYrWhig

    @hovercraft: Chris Matthews is a fucking imbecile. Notice that what Matthews thinks Trump would win by talking about are all of the things that Chris Matthews likes to talk about. Fuck him in the ear with Andrea Mitchell’s elbow.

  24. 24.

    Starfish

    This video by Ezra Klein on “Understanding How Hillary Clinton Would Govern” was really good if you have 15 minutes.

  26. 26.

    Aleta

    Strange to think that many voters for Trump from prez. don’t want a federal president or Congress at all; don’t want a democracy either. Maybe the ballot should have a checkmark for that, so they can express their belief without throwing votes to a person like DJ just because he’s a mad old hen.

  28. 28.

    Lizzy L

    I will be here. I have a beer in the fridge. (Yeah, one beer. Sue me.) I won’t watch or listen, but I’ll be on the computer checking all my favorite live blog sites, and I’ll be here as well. She’s got this. It almost doesn’t matter what kind of crazy Trump brings — and he will bring the crazy, you know that — she will handle it.

  29. 29.

    Cacti

    @hovercraft:

    Tweety still believes that he is correct that Trump won the 2nd debate, and so last night was urging him to stick to the issues that got him here, trade, immigration, and stupid wars, and that will get him a knockout instead of the split decision he got last time.

    Loud, obnoxious male believes other loud, obnoxious male won by being loud and obnoxious?

    Get right outta town.

  31. 31.

    Brachiator

    @hovercraft:

    Could it be that there’s actually more pressure on Hillary Clinton at the final debate than on Donald Trump? … Clinton is now less than three weeks away from being elected president, barring a stunning collapse. Acting like that means not just rebutting and attacking Trump but going broad, reminding voters of her promise, not just her opponent’s weaknesses. There’s an opportunity if not an urgency for her to use the final presidential debate to appear downright presidential.

    Yeah, this sounds incredibly dumb.

    But it reminds me that I have heard from pundits, surrogates and spin doctors, but no one has asked actual voters what they would want to see. And it doesn’t matter. A fairly honest political strategist who has been appearing on one of the local talk radio stations here in Los Angeles talks about how the candidates have to get their message across, attack or whatever. But it is all a variation of show business and attempts to exploit the voter. The idea that a candidate would actually try to explain policy or what he or she would want to do in governing is seen as quaint, old fashioned and pointless.

    Trump ups the ante by providing an often crude, nasty circus.

  32. 32.

    Elizabelle

    @FlipYrWhig: Grateful to have cut the cord to MSNBC.

    People, it’s like a sacrament. No more Tweety. No more Mrs. Greenspan. My blood pressure is better.

    Where is Baud?

  33. 33.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Cacti: Not to mention that Trump knows fuck-all about trade or immigration and actually supported the stupid war in question. Chris Matthews is ridiculous. He thinks it’s always 1968 and he’s just come up with a brilliant strategy to appeal to the hardhats. (Trump, by the way, thinks it’s always 1985.)

  34. 34.

    debbie

    @efgoldman:

    Man, I hated myself for sticking it out with Lost. It was horrible after the first two seasons, but I just had to see how it ended. TV crack.

  35. 35.

    WaterGirl

    @NotMax: My dictionary says it can be spelled either way. This might be the first time I have ever agreed with Jake Tapper. The horror. I console myself with the thought that it will also be the last.

  36. 36.

    NotMax

    @Steeplejack

    If not the worst, certainly among the top five is the opening phrase of the school song from one of my alma maters.

    Staunch and gray thou stands before us

  38. 38.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Brachiator: The pundits have no idea what their jobs are. As someone else said somewhere else — it may have been Ezra Klein? — punditry has become an exercise in imagining how effective politicians probably were at communicating to some hypothetical version of the public that doesn’t know anything or care much. It’d be like a movie critic talking exclusively about how much money the film would make overseas. “Well, Chris, it was loud, stuff exploded, and the girl was hot, so I think it’ll be huge among the tasteless and stupid.”

  40. 40.

    Botsplainer

    Doubt I’ll get to see any liveblog action on the debate – while my flight to Beijing is moved back an hour for maintenance, I think I’ll be passing outside inflight coverage wifi before 8:30 PM EDT, based on route maps I’ve seen.

    I did get the last bump to business class, though, so I have that going for me, which is nice.

  41. 41.

    Corner Stone

    being statesmanlike

    Why do idiots keep blithely repeating stupid shit like this? I have more chance of beating Gabby Douglas in a floor competition than Trump does of being “statesmanlike”.

  42. 42.

    Elizabelle

    Dang. That grieving mother from hell (Benghazi!) who has heaved herself into Donald Trump’s orbit is vilerat’s mother.

    I was kind of hoping she wasn’t. Mother of Sean Smith. I knew she is not related to Christopher Stevens — his family has a lot more class.

    Someone was rumormongering that she was not on speaking terms with her son when he died? Grief can do a lot of awful things ….

  43. 43.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    @debbie: I got to somewhere in season four and just gave up. Too convoluted. Heroes lost my attention, too. Characters were too disposable, sometimes even pointless.

  44. 44.

    NoraLenderbee

    I’m watching because I love watching Hillz rule. And I’m curious what shenanigans Trump is going to pull.

  45. 45.

    Corner Stone

    “Spoke to GOP spokesperson insider. They tell me if Trump can stay disciplined, talk about immigration and job creation, be genuinely sorry for his treatment of women, and pull a phoenix out of his ass that squawks Top 40 Music Hits he can really help down ballot Republicans.”

  48. 48.

    Aleta

    Got an absentee ballot from the town office today. The workers were very upset and insulted about statements that the election has been rigged.
    –He doesn’t know what he’s talking about–He should come work here and he’d see there’s no way this can be rigged–We are very very careful– …

    Then my happiness was punctured when they said that (on the positive side)
    –We’ve gotten a lot of calls asking about this, and many new people are volunteering to help work this year–
    Makes me worry about who these volunteers are.

  50. 50.

    Corner Stone

    @Elizabelle: She’s incredibly damaged and seriously needs a lot of help to have any chance of getting back to some semblance of normal in the future.

  51. 51.

    Felonius Monk

    Statesman-like for Trump is showing up without his fly hanging open and then not farting for 90 minutes.

  52. 52.

    ThresherK

    @WaterGirl: So, staunch is a perfectly cromulent variation? I mean, the alarm went off for me seeing it up there too. I wonder if this was a knowing usage by Tapper.

    ETA: @NotMax: Yeah, that’s the stuff.

  53. 53.

    Corner Stone

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Chris Matthews is ridiculous. He thinks it’s always 1968 and he’s just come up with a brilliant strategy to appeal to the hardhats.

    “You’re a builder, Mr. Trump! You build great things! Get back to doing what you do best, building things!”

  55. 55.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    If Trump had TRUE Cunning(tm) he would declare that as this election as taught us all our nations daughters and wives face the ever present threat of middle age perverts with funny hair molesting them while they are in their ladies and dressing rooms but Trump it’s the one to stop this menace since he knows these pervert’s game all to well.

    On the other hand I suspect with Bengazigate and Obama’s half brother Trump will go full Springer show tonight as his last hurrah. I predict Trump will call Hillary a “g***damn b**tch” and then complain about her use of vulgarity to the moderator.

  56. 56.

    realbtl

    I would love to see Hillary walk out, glance quickly at Trump and then turn and look at the gang of losers Trump is bringing for a full 5 sec. Then as trump begins to grin, turn and say “So Donald, still yugely classy I see”.

  57. 57.

    Jeffro

    @hovercraft:

    Sarah Palin will be a Trump guest tonight, only from one source so far, so maybe. I’m sure that will be very impactful.

    Will probably hurt Obama’s re-election chances as much as having his half-brother in the audience…
    (apologies if someone upthread already hit this)

    Btw my dad was out today with dr’s appts for my stepmom (back issues) and asked me just a bit ago via email: “Was out all day – heard another Bill C. accuser is stepping forward?!?”

    So you know…hope endures…(sigh)…

  58. 58.

    WaterGirl

    @Elizabelle: Yep. A mom who wasn’t on speaking terms with her son when he died. A “fiancé”, oh yeah, from an engagement from 17 years earlier. Trump is really digging deep.

  59. 59.

    Patricia Kayden

    @hovercraft: Why would someone who is way ahead in most national and swing state polls have to “appear downright presidential”? She appears presidential — especially against the Republican buffoon — to enough voters and that’s why she’s on her way to a possible landslide. The media is invested in creating an illusion that the race is neck and neck and that Secretary Clinton is one mistake away from collapsing.

    Not going to happen.

  62. 62.

    Jeffro

    @piratedan:

    will be watching from my hotel room, sans alcohol… it could be a looong night.

    Watching from home, but same here w/ no alcohol – on antibiotics – will be interesting to see if this makes it more or less tolerable to watch!

  63. 63.

    Patricia Kayden

    @NR: Dang. Those are great polls for Secretary Clinton! That +15 poll = wave election. Please let it be so.

  64. 64.

    NotMax

    @Elizabelle

    Even the apparatchik who poison penned her screed for the convention has jumped ship.

    But the only prospect more terrifying than voting for Hillary Clinton is not voting for her.

    The reality of American politics today is, she is the only choice. Source

  65. 65.

    Cacti

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Why would someone who is way ahead in most national and swing state polls have to “appear presidential”? She appears presidential — especially against the Republican buffoon — to enough voters and that’s why she’s on her way to a possible landslide. The media is invested in creating an illusion that the race is neck and neck and that Secretary Clinton is one mistake away from collapsing.

    Not going to happen.

    For reals.

    There’s one candidate that the public thinks doesn’t appear Presidential. It ain’t the Democrat.

  69. 69.

    SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch

    @NotMax:

    Bless you for that. “Stanch/staunch” and “flaunt/flout” are on my all-time peeviest of pets list.

  71. 71.

    dmsilev

    @Monala: What about Hillary’s sixth grade home-room teacher? I hear Hillary got detention after she was caught passing notes in third period last week!

  72. 72.

    bluehill

    Why don’t they just have each candidate’s guests debate? I think it would be more entertaining and illuminating.

  73. 73.

    bemused

    @efgoldman:

    Remember when Palin was the wingnut darling? It took awhile but the deplorables dumped her. After Trump gets his ass kicked, I’m looking forward to Trump fading into near zero obscurity Palin level.

  74. 74.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I didn’t think Trump could get more ridiculous than inviting Obama’s estranged half-brother, but Palin… yeah, that’s it. The one brief sign of a connection with reality I saw with Trump was when he appeared to be wishing he could find her off button during her endorsement, and the fact that she pretty much disappeared from his campaign after that. I think Scott Baio was a more effective spokesman, and I thought Trump got that too.

    Maybe they have some data that she can draw in insomniacs and lonely alcoholics on the grave yard timeslot better than Ann Coulter or Andrea Tantaros

  75. 75.

    Kay

    @hovercraft:

    Acting like that means not just rebutting and attacking Trump but going broad, reminding voters of her promise, not just her opponent’s weaknesses. There’s an opportunity

    I actually agree with that. Not “what she must do!” but as an opportunity. People are ready for this to be over. She can wrap it up and use the time to start… Presidenting.

    It’s really difficult right, because Chris Wallace will be awful and go on and on about emails and Benghazi and Trump will be blurting shit out, but it IS an opportunity for her to present her basic theory on what her goals are- move it forward. I don’t see it as a bad thing. She’s ahead. She can afford to ignore him and focus on her broad themes.

  77. 77.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jeffro: Btw my dad was out today with dr’s appts for my stepmom (back issues) and asked me just a bit ago via email: “Was out all day – heard another Bill C. accuser is stepping forward?!?”

    Yup, an Arkansas news anchor who says Bubba pawed her in 1980

  80. 80.

    Mnemosyne

    @Elizabelle:

    The other rumor I heard is that her original grievance is that her son’s widow was the one who received the official call, not her. There is a certain type of creepy parent that is convinced that they “own” their child from the day they’re born and so the parent should always be the legal next of kin, not the spouse. That was also the heart of the dispute between Michael Schiavo and his in-laws, IIRC.

  83. 83.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @NotMax:

    Okay, maybe that’s a little florid—though perhaps not for a school song—but I find it correct for staunch as an adjective. Maybe you just didn’t like the turn of phrase?

    ETA: Shouldn’t it be “thou stand”?

  84. 84.

    Kay

    This is wild:

    volatile campaign: HRC favorability in NBC/WSJ poll 40% in Jan, 40% now; Trump’s 29% then, 29% now. She led him 51%-41% then, 51%-41% now

    We’ve come full circle :)

  85. 85.

    NotMax

    Interesting choices for debate day beginning shortly on TCM.

    Fail-Safe
    Seven Days in May
    Advise and Consent

    Charles Laughton as a scheming, oily senator from South Carolina in that last one is astonishing.

  86. 86.

    Mary G

    I was imagining that Trump’s super-secret guest would be the kid she punched in second grade for abandoning the bunnies. She could add five points to her total by offering to punch him again.

    I’m unable to avoid watching, but I’ll be switching between the debate and the Dodgers game. So I only have to see Donald when I’m trying to avoid the single-use Viagra commercials. What is the point of that?

  90. 90.

    different-church-lady

    @Corner Stone:

    …and pull a phoenix out of his ass that squawks Top 40 Music Hits…

    Goldwater, second debate, 64. Didn’t help him a bit.

  92. 92.

    Elizabelle

    @bemused: I am wondering if Trump will flee the country.

    Maybe not, if he’s got his rumored TV network. And lawsuits to contend with. All that groping and welshing.

    And if the US government lifts his passport …..

  93. 93.

    aimai

    @Elizabelle: I read up about her and it does seem like she is the unhinged mother in law from hell, simply unable to accept that protocol and common decency makes his wife and children his “immiediate” family who are given all the information about his death and not herself. Her son had a wife, children, and a family and their treatement took precedence over hers.

    Ooops I see Mnemo beat me to it. Exactly, what she said.

  94. 94.

    NotMax

    Wonder how much lucre the Trumpers waved at Vince Foster’s widow. And major props to her if they did and she told them to go pound sand.

  95. 95.

    Hal

    I think the bar for Clinton just isn’t that high. She should just talk policy and her “vision for America” yada yada and go ignore Trump’s bullshit.

  96. 96.

    SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch

    @Tokyokie:

    Totally agree. We’re fighting a losing battle on that one, sadly. It’s to the point that if you pronounce it correctly, just about everyone who hears you will think you’re ignorant and wrong :-(

  97. 97.

    p.a.

    I’ve spent the first 2 debates here, why would I want to ruin my beautiful mind by actually watching now? I’ll spin my 2 Les Poules à Colin cds, enjoy the warm night, and hope Chris Wallace doesn’t manage to throw a drowning man already wearing a Jimmy Hoffa necktie a life saver.

  98. 98.

    MomSense

    I’ve got two big mutts in a little house. Trying to keep their tails from spilling the debate beverages.

    Visiting mutt is now a big sister to a human little girl. We’ll go meet her tomorrow. A new reason to vote for Hillary Clinton.

  100. 100.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    @Elizabelle: Was he the EVE On line goonswarmer who was killed at Bengazi? Creepy part of that was his gaming buddies were texting him right before it happened.

  101. 101.

    different-church-lady

    @Monala: it’s quite remarkable that Trump is utterly blind to the fact that he would need to expand his voting pool, and instead keeps doing nothing but throw red meat to the people who are already going to vote for him.

  102. 102.

    dmsilev

    @NotMax: In lieu of anyone related to Vince Foster, perhaps Trump could invite the remnants of that watermelon that some R Congressman (Dan Burton?) shot to make some sort of point.

  103. 103.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    She should look into the camera and say “I know it has been hard but it is almost over”. Break the 4th wall.

    Chris Wallace and Trump in the background, yelling about emails…people would nod and agree- “oh, thank God“

  105. 105.

    Elizabelle

    @Enhanced Voting Techinques: Yup. Although I don’t know what EVE is.

    Sounds like he was a cool dude. All of them were. Gone too soon, and they don’t deserve to be remembered for SCANDAL! that was not. Can’t imagine they’d like that.

  112. 112.

    Mnemosyne

    @FlipYrWhig:

    I can’t imagine why a woman whose husband very publicly cheated on her might throw a lamp at said husband. It’s inexplicable!

  120. 120.

    p.a.

    If we had Brit-style election campaigns,
    1) Would tRump have been the nominee?
    2) If he were, might the short (I believe 6 week) campaign have insulated him from displaying his total lack of qualification for basically ANY position of public trust?

  123. 123.

    Elizabelle

    @p.a.: David Cameron’s party basically sounds like blue dogs — they’re not cretaceous period conservatives.

    So no, I don’t see Trump would have caught fire over there. The Brits seem like they might be a lot more decent than the most backward of the American colonies have become.

  124. 124.

    burnspbesq

    @NotMax:

    Chris Wallace puts the lie to the old saying that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

    He has that in common with Matt Taibbi.

  125. 125.

    hovercraft

    I am such a fan of the NFLG democrats, Tweety asked Harry Reid what he would miss most when he leaves, Reid’s response “not you”, the crowd went wild.

  127. 127.

    artem1s

    the Indians win the pennant! the Indians win the pennant! the Indians win the pennant! the Indians win the pennant!

    Even Trump can’t ruin this day!

  131. 131.

    Mnemosyne

    @Lurker Extraordinaire:

    I’m not going to diss her grief as “only” a stepmother because I have a stepmother I love dearly and who I know loves me like she does her biological sons. Her degree of outrage at not being the legal next of kin for her married adult child is out of proportion for any parent.

    And, as other people have said, this sounds like an in-law conflict gone really toxic. Remind me to hug my mother-in-law next time I see her and thank her for not being batshit crazy.

  136. 136.

    Jeffro

    Btw Owen Ellickson has Julian Assange desperately trying to get on the one computer at the Ecuadorian embassy’s library…and it’s taken up by an old lady sifting through stuff on Etsy. Priceless.

    ETA and now she’s Googling pictures of Corgis…omg my sides hurt…

  137. 137.

    CZanne

    Nope, I am not contributing to the Reality Election demographic.

    Ballot is finished. I took shorter multiple choice tests in college. 3 11×17 pages. I feel like I need to turn in a blue book with it, too.

    I will drop mine tomorrow when I take the sewing machine BACK to the shop for the third time for the same issue.

    I now feel justified in skipping the debate, going out for the second night in a row for music, dancing and possibly an adult beverage. I will ask the universe with my expressions of ecstasy to permit the Drumpfster Fire to throw himself on the floor, kick and pound his fists and wail out his frustrations that he can’t have a coronation. It would just be a more obvious expression of recent behavior.

  138. 138.

    Enhanced Voting Techinques

    @Elizabelle: It’s this space mining MMORG that’s a free for all. Apparently really popular with state department workers, I guess they get to do all the evil stuff in Eve they wish they could do in their jobs.

    Having read articles written by Goonswarmers and their ends justify the means, even if it breaks the game, philosophy I think her son would think she is being horribly out of touch with how the world works.

  139. 139.

    Jeffro

    OLD LADY: I might get a dog.
    ASSANGE: And I Might Topple The American Fascist Empire Once And For All! Just-
    OLD LADY: Corgi. Cute!
    ASSANGE:

  141. 141.

    Lurker Extraordinaire

    @Mnemosyne: I am also a stepmom, but I know I come second to my stepdaughter’s actual mom. Anyways, I requested to have that comment deleted since I can find no evidence for that claim. Just something I had read, but if I can’t back it up, the comment should be deleted.

  143. 143.

    piratedan

    could certainly do with out Ms. Matthews openly cheerleading for a Trump comeback.

    Hope the fucker ends up unemployed after this… he needs to be put out to pasture. I could get more accurate analysis at my local bar and it would be a damn sight more respectful and entertaining.

  144. 144.

    hovercraft

    Tweety ends his show advising Trump to go after the quid pro quo charge, and tie that into the e-mail scandal, then tie that into Benghazi, all of which ties into her trust deficit, and force her to defend the Washington bureaucracy .

  146. 146.

    danielx

    GOP consultant tells me no way can Trump win, but can staunch the bleeding and help other GOPers by sticking to issues, being statesmanlike

    And pigs might have wings….hey, it could happen.

  150. 150.

    PsiFighter37

    Wait, so is Palin actually going to be there? That’s what it seemed to read like up top.

    Got my cheesesteak coming and my first beer is about to get opened. In other words, showtime!

    PF37 +0

  152. 152.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Elizabelle:

    So no, I don’t see Trump would have caught fire over there. The Brits seem like they might be a lot more decent than the most backward of the American colonies have become.

    The Brexit constituency is the British Trumpsters. Many thought they were voting for the expulsion of all immigrants. One crack about Polish rapists and they’d be eating out of his hand.

  155. 155.

    Patricia Kayden

    @NotMax: That’s pretty remarkable that she wrote such an unhinged anti-Clinton screed but may turn around and vote for Clinton. Wowzers!!

  156. 156.

    Kathleen

    @hovercraft: That is precisely why I’ve not watched any of the debates. I’ve stopped watching local news, too, because I never know when another “Hillary troubling emails looks really bad” transmission will come burbling down from the Network Mother Ship.

  157. 157.

    sukabi

    @hovercraft: have they not been paying attention?

    Or maybe what he’s suggesting that Hillary needs to be presidential is she’s going to have to grow a pen!s to go with her balls…

  158. 158.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Philip Gourevitch
    ‏@ PGourevitch
    Giuliani says Trump groping accusers are all bogus – and Trump is, in fact, “courtly”

    and Rudi was a virgin on his wedding night with Judi Nathan

  161. 161.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    She ignores him at her peril.

    She has an opportunity to bond with the American pee-pul on the issue of hating this election.

    Like a shorter, punchier SOTU address, is the general idea. “I have measured the drapes, literally measured them, they’re 62 inches,..”

  164. 164.

    piratedan

    for a “liberal” network, MSNBC sure does provide an endless forum of GOP watercarriers and apparatchiks for us to listen to. Now I got Mike fucking Pence on my screen, jaysus.

  167. 167.

    Comrade Scrutinizer

    @NotMax: I don’t care for the politics of Advise and Consent and it’s sequelae, but the book and the movie both do a good job of showing the everyday hurlyburly of governmenting, Seeb Cooley is the quintessential southern senator from that era, and Laughton captured him perfectly.

  169. 169.

    Mnemosyne

    @Lurker Extraordinaire:

    FWIW, someone in the comments section of that link said the same thing, but didn’t seem to have any backup, so I guess we have to call it “unconfirmed.”

    Still sounds like an in-law problem to me.

  170. 170.

    Steeplejack

    @NotMax:

    Okay, got it. But that’s what maudlin school songs are for.

    Actually, I was trying on “staunch and gray” as a self-description. Hmm . . .

  172. 172.

    Tazj

    @CZanne: Music, dancing and adult beverages! How dare you! And you still consider yourself a real American? It sounds like fun, I envy you.

    I may be brave or stupid enough to catch a few minutes. I don’t like to unecessarily enrage myself. Once in 2012, I angrily muted the television when Mitt Romney was on and my son caught me. I wasn’t really being the best role model, so now I try to avoid this stuff while my kids are awake.

    I can’t believe Tweety is a cheerleader for Trump and handing out tips, embarrassing.

  173. 173.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Tazj: Tweety thinks he’s the Working Man Whisperer. The fact that he’s been being paid millions upon millions of dollars to do nothing, only loudly, seems to be no hindrance to that part of his self-image. Tim Russert was the exact same way.

  176. 176.

    Joel

    Which was the worst final season of an otherwise very good TV show?

    Lost gets all the attention, but Battleship Galactica really screwed the pooch at the end, and the Wire’s last season was just a fucking mess.

  178. 178.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Joel: Haven’t seen Lost or The Wire. Fringe was pretty bad. Abrams didn’t know what the fuck he was doing; unclear whether it was because he was intellectually incapable of handling the multiple-universes machinery or just didn’t give a fuck. There were half a dozen better & more logical endings floating around fan sites that the bullshit he came up with.

  179. 179.

    CZanne

    @Tazj: thanks – it was a BLAST. Tonight was night 2 of a 2 night series, so I am going to be double sore tomorrow, which tells me I need to make dance my primary exercise instead of walking/biking. So time to get serious about reflooring the carpeted family room with wood. Emma Goldman was onto something – Revolution without dance is not worth the shoe leather, Tomorrow AM, I’ll be uploading an unexpected, improvisational light-music performance that wrapped up the show. (This is allowed; it’s band policy to give blanket performance upload rights and they tell people to get out their phones if something’s about to be very cool.) The band’s lightboard blew at the end of their previous gig in LA (this happens), so they got a referral for a local to wing it, while the board is recovered, recognizing that the Denver venue is smallish, but their local fan base is completely open to experimentation, enthusiastic and there is deep mutual respect and admiration on both sides. We would probably be delighted with an all acoustic (though not necessarily totally traditional) instruments experiment. They take risks here because we’ll get the artistry. And the risk paid off.

    The lights artist was more or less magical, and the piece performed is one that they rarely ever do live because it’s built for 6 electronic tracks and they have two core members. It *can* be done by two people live, but they both have to be deep in the zone. And they nailed it. An hour later, and I’m still wired on the collective emotional energy.

    Without getting too metaphysical in a way I am not at all, dance is my primary (perhaps only) connection with anything even remotely numinous. I just don’t have the spiritual belief gene or conditioning or socialization. But in a crowd of other dancers, I am a single flake of snow, one grain of sand, a cog in a machine, and fully part of an infinite universe whose ultimate purpose I cannot know, but whose intentions and methods bend arcs towards justice and social healing. (The group comes out of the anti-fa movement.) In that space, I replenish my well of hope and endurance.

    If you’re near Denver, and available, and don’t mind wearing earplugs and being in a relatively diverse crowd (always over 16 but I’m middle of the age range and at the top of the bell curve at almost 41), and are okay that the mob mostly wears black and still sometimes feel the very personal sting of the wrong assumption that there actually was such a thing as a “trench coat mafia” responsible for Columbine, I’m happy to bring you along. We’re nice, just a little loud and monochrome.

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