Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They are not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Bark louder, little dog.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

If America since Jan 2025 hasn’t broken your heart, you haven’t loved her enough.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Republicans in disarray!

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

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128Comments

  3. 3.

    Corner Stone

    Can we have legislation passed that allows society to commit people to an insane asylum if they are still “undecided” with less than a month to go to election day?
    They are clearly a danger to themselves and need constant monitoring to make sure they don’t swallow their tongue or otherwise forget to breathe.

  4. 4.

    Corner Stone

    HRC calls Trump out for praising Putin and defending him instead of his own country and these fucking “undecided” morons start turning their dial south against her for it.
    “Oooohhh, the negativity! I do declarh-uh I just can’t take all this dreadful personal attacks!”

  6. 6.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    @Corner Stone:

    I remain convinced that 99.9% of undecided voters are in reality “soft Republicans” looking for some way to still vote conservative w/o having to admit to anybody that they vote that way. They’re just another variant of Embarrassed Republicans ie Glibertarians.

  9. 9.

    the Conster, la Citoyenne

    Keep thinking about the comment Steve Schmidt made the other night about how wave elections work. He said the GOP is the Titanic (obviously), but he didn’t use the deck chairs analogy, he pointed out that the impact to the hull barely caused a noticeable shudder, but then the physics of the thing takes over. That’s what these two remaining weeks will show – the physics of the GOP collapsing. Which event was the impact? It’s hard to pinpoint exactly, but I think it was the first debate when not only did Trump show himself as the ridiculous buffoon he is, but right at the end Clinton masterfully put the Machado iceberg in front of him, and invited Trump to ram into it, which he did, then backed up, added the sex tape comment, and rammed into it again and again. I thought Trump’s absolute floor was 40%, but now I would actually bet money that it’s lower. It could be a tsunami.

  10. 10.

    Jeffro

    @comrade scott’s agenda of rage:

    I remain convinced that 99.9% of undecided voters are in reality “soft Republicans” looking for some way to still vote conservative w/o having to admit to anybody that they vote that way. They’re just another variant of Embarrassed Republicans ie Glibertarians.

    Well, one thing’s for sure, they’re vastly smarter and more thoughtful than us partisans – you know, those of us who have already considered our values, paid attention to what pols in both parties say and do, know where each party stands on multiple major issues, and therefore know who we line up with.

  13. 13.

    Punchy

    @comrade scott’s agenda of rage: Yup. Bingo. Anyone truly “undecided” is someone who doesn’t have feelings on misogyny, xenophobia, wanton jingoism, chronic business failure, emails, pussies, immigrants, college loan debt, cocaine abuse, or job experience. I posit such a person simply does not exist.

    “Undecided” means “too embarrassed by his bullshit to admit I’m voting for a shitgibbon”.

  14. 14.

    Amir Khalid

    Oh, she’s closed the deal, I reckon. With all the voters who were willing to consider her. With the voters who aren’t willing to, you can postpone election day to Kingdom Come and they still won’t have made up their minds.

  15. 15.

    Jeffro

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne:

    He said the GOP is the Titanic (obviously), but he didn’t use the deck chairs analogy, he pointed out that the impact to the hull barely caused a noticeable shudder, but then the physics of the thing takes over.

    So that’s what that screeching sound is! I think Trump has gotten watertight compartments 2-7 sliced open at this point…will it take until Nov 9th to see the bow start dipping down?

  18. 18.

    Calouste

    @khead: The Groping Orange Pedophile has already flipped the board. He is now arguing that he really was in a winning position when he did so and is accusing his opponent of cheating.

  19. 19.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Jeffro: some of them are also oh-so reluctant Greens and Berntards who aren’t done having their egos stroked for being so courageous as to sully their precious vote by helping to stop the apocalypse.

    ETA: I saw somebody on Facebook decrying the “avalanche of performative pragmatism by the center-left” just yesterday.

  21. 21.

    hueyplong

    The moment I stopped worrying was when Trump kept interrupting with “Where did you find this?” as Clinton was telling the Machado story in the first debate.

    It seemed likely, in the moment, that there would be more to come about that, and it was clear that Trump was panicking in real time, right in front of us.

    Probably a few seconds later you were thinking that the Clinton campaign had been holding back up to that point (as the polling numbers were getting uncomfortably close for lay observers like us) and it was difficult not to conclude that there were probably professionals involved and that they had the situation in hand.

    From that point on, Trump and his mouthpieces have been a little unsteady in their denials, regardless of the subject, insecure about whether known issues were really under control via NDAs and the like, and unsteady about what the Clinton people did or did not know.

    For me it all comes back to “Where did you find this?” on Sept 26.

  22. 22.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Mike Grunwald watched the debate with undecided “Millenials” in Florida, and as with the group of “Millenial moms” Nicole Wallace had on MSNBC the other day, it’s mostly about affect and things they’ve kinda sorta heard they should probably be upset about

    “Really, it comes down to who’s going to do less damage,” said Monica, a Latina student who might not vote at all. “Of course, Trump degrades women and minorities. But I don’t trust her. I don’t really know why. Maybe the emails?” …
    “There’s something shady about her, something that isn’t genuine. I can’t put my finger on it,” said Natalie Dominguez, a 26-year-old recruiter.
    Rick, a 34-year-old Marine reservist who voted for Marco Rubio in the primary, said Clinton has much more coherent foreign policies than Trump, and is not a “rambling fool” or an “extreme narcissist” like Trump. He’s tempted to vote for her and then oppose her in 2020, but she just bugs him. Rick disagrees with Obama’s policies but respects his honesty and good intentions; he thinks Clinton is a robotic political machine, saying whatever she thinks will get her elected. He said she just doesn’t feel like a leader.

  23. 23.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    @Jeffro:

    I should say it’s important to make a distinction between the self-described undecided douchebags and “low information voters”. They are undecided because they’ve not invested themselves in the process. Sad.

  24. 24.

    PPCLI

    @the Conster, la Citoyenne: I think the collapse will be more dramatic than most. So much of Trump’s appeal to his voters turns upon the Potemkin facade that he’s a “winner”, and “closes the deal”, and “hires the best people”, blah blah. As it gets more and more obvious that he is going to lose badly, as he starts thrashing around ever more desperate, as his people look sillier and sillier trying to defend what he says, and start sniping at one another and pointing fingers of blame, that facade will crumble exponentially faster each day. People will notice that Oz the Great and Terrible is in fact just the fraud behind the curtain.

  25. 25.

    BR

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    “undecided” is the key term there — I don’t think it reflects on young voters any more than any group of “undecided” voters would, since at this late stage if you’re undecided you’re probably just generally indecisive.

  26. 26.

    Kylroy

    @PPCLI: Trump’s life is built on the circular logic of “I win because I’m awesome and I’m awesome because I win.” Having that blown up, on possibly the largest stage in the world, may cause a literal mental breakdown.

  29. 29.

    Dork

    said Monica, a Latina student who might not vote at all.

    Ding ding ding! We have a winner! THIS. Undecided are those people who aren’t going to vote regardless. Which is why they dont care to decide; they have no intention of voting anyways. People with intention to vote in 3 weeks already know their chosen candidate.

  30. 30.

    PPCLI

    @hueyplong: That was one moment when I relaxed during that debate. Another was one that seems to have been lost in the flaming wreckage of all the other self-inflicted Trump catastrophes in that 90 minutes: the moment when Trump responded to the rental discrimination lawsuit with “lots of other people were sued for that too” and especially (repeatedly, in an archly offended tone) “I never admitted guilt!”

  31. 31.

    Corner Stone

    @Mike E: That’s kind of the thing I am getting at. At least the racist, bigoted, ignorant, hatefilled voters in Texas know who they are voting for. Now, you could say their decision is wrong, or made for wrong, ignorant reasons. Fine! But how in the name of all that’s wholly can someone be dumber than a fucking racist in Texas who’s going to vote Trump this November?

  32. 32.

    D58826

    The debate has been over for 12+ hours and the two GOP leaders in Congress have not said a word. Rancid Piebus seems to be rather silent also. Profiles in courage,

  34. 34.

    cmorenc

    @khead:

    If the election was a board game, it would be time for Trump to just flip the board and walk away.

    That’s exactly what Trump’s rants about the election already being “rigged” and his refusal to say he’ll accept the results amount to: Trump’s signaling his clear intention to flip the table and board over on November 9th, rather than admit he lost because more people were repulsed by rather than attracted to him and his campaign.

  36. 36.

    Soylent Green

    I think the repub ship will list a little more to starboard but won’t sink. Except for a handful of idiots, the voters have made their choice. And people tend to vote their party line. They may waiver right up to the moment they are in the booth but then their tribalism will kick in.

  39. 39.

    Walker

    The reason the media love undecided voters is because they hate and are unable to deal with data. They cannot report polls correctly. They have no understanding of how polling models work. The only way that they can understand demographics is to grab focus groups.

    But because they do not understand sampling methodology, they get completely unrepresentative groups and act like it somehow means something.

  40. 40.

    Corner Stone

    @Citizen_X:

    Along with Donald Trump, can we also bury forever the Grand Fucking Bargain, pretty please?

    That was just sheer rightwing nuttery during that whole “entitlement = death of the nation” segment. I didn’t count but Wallace must have used GFB at least four times when he was framing his entitlement questions.

  41. 41.

    Amir Khalid

    Some official religious idiocy from Malaysia. Just where do these dumbass “officials” get hired from? Just about anyone who’s lived here in the past 50 years has eaten perfectly halal hot dogs made by halal-meat suppliers and prepared by Muslims.

  42. 42.

    Corner Stone

    @Woodrowfan:

    can’t we just say undecided voters don’t have the common sense God gave geese cheese??

    There, that’s better. At least geese are smart enough to feed themselves.

  43. 43.

    Corner Stone

    Well, the day is looking up at long last. Tamron Hall is once again on my teebee and she’s rocking a nice purple sleeveless number. Nothing an undecided voter can do about that, I’m here to testify.

  46. 46.

    Corner Stone

    Now Trump is saying HRC had the debate questions ahead of time. This is going swell for him.

    Donald J. Trump Verified account
    ‏@realDonaldTrump

    Why didn’t Hillary Clinton announce that she was inappropriately given the debate questions – she secretly used them! Crooked Hillary.

    HAHAHAHAHA

  48. 48.

    Grumpy Code Monkey

    @Corner Stone:

    Y’all know that Trump is losing ground in Texas, right? And the South in general? I mean, yeah, he’s stil going to take the state, but only in the low single digits. Almost as many people are voting for Clinton.

  49. 49.

    Cermet

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Says it all – not a single concrete reason not to vote for Hillary; not even a single fact to support their dislike. Yet tRumps terrible points and behavior still isn’t a big deal. These people can function without help from others?

  50. 50.

    Seanly

    While I took much solace in the current polls, this thing isn’t over until the polling stations are closed and votes counted. I think Hillary Clinton will win, but I worry that if too many people think it’s a blowout then we might not do as well as we think. I want this to be a stompfest up and down the ticket for Democrats.

    I fear the stupidity of many of my fellow voters. True story – in ’92 I was working in my company’s NYC office and had to take NJ Transit and then the Path into work. Several mornings there was a group of friends in the Path with me who would be talking about various things (no one ever chatted so it was usually very quiet on the train). On election morning, I was once again in the car with them. One guy answered the question about his pending vote this way – “I’ll vote this evening. I’ll get home and check the early results.* I want to vote for whoever is winning unless its Clinton because I don’t like him.”

    * this was back in the day when the media would report results from questioning folks outside polling stations. I don’t know how this poor idiot would pick someone nowadays.

  51. 51.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    “But I don’t trust her. I don’t really know why.”

    Of course you don’t. I bet if you elaborated though it would sound an awful lot like someone made a recording of every talking point from FOX, Drudge, or the dozen or so Trump campaign employees that CNN hired and replayed it on a loop through your voice.

  53. 53.

    stinger

    I want somebody to make me a T-shirt that says

    Nasty Woman
    looking for a
    Bad Hombre

    BJ Store? Anyone?

  56. 56.

    TS

    @Corner Stone:

    Now Trump is saying HRC had the debate questions ahead of time. This is going swell for him.

    No wonder he kept going bankrupt – his brain operates differently to everyone else

  57. 57.

    amk

    srv, the resident racist idjit troll, posted some stupid teann vid where the ‘undecideds’ raised their hands for both will vote for the racist pig and for still ‘undecided’. The glorious combo of the stupidity of ‘the undecideds’ and the cable noise.

  58. 58.

    Corner Stone

    @Bill E Pilgrim:

    I bet if you elaborated though it would sound an awful lot like someone made a recording of every talking point from FOX, Drudge, or the dozen or so Trump campaign employees that CNN hired

    I recently asked someone, after they flatly stated that HRC had had four Americans killed at Benghazi, “but why? what could she possibly have to gain by having four Americans killed?”.
    After a couple of responses it ended up being something like, “she let them die because she didn’t want to start WWIII”.
    I confess I didn’t understand it but they were so convinced I came away believing Hillary killed those four Americans.

  59. 59.

    piratedan

    @Corner Stone: it’s almost as if she studied for the test and had an idea on what questions might be asked…. shocking.

    That is something that astounds me, electing a competant, prepared President who has an idea on what is going on in the world and who the players are. Somehow the GOP has tried to make that a disqualifying character flaw. The Media seems woefully unprepared to handle it.

    and apologies to all.. last night I called Andrea Mitchell a bitch. That’s simply not right. Granted she’s a media conveyor belt for the GOP this election season and after a couple of hours of folks attempting to spin Mr. Trump, I lashed out. Mistakenly so. so again… apologies to Ms. Mitchell and our readership.

  62. 62.

    p.a.

    @Amir Khalid: freedom dogs? not change-y enough, or too US Republican? cylendrical cuisine? the possibilities for hot dogs are endless, but mostly in poor taste. a local product here (not halal- pork & veal) are called gaggers.

  63. 63.

    bystander

    @PPCLI:

    “I never admitted guilt!”

    Nope, the court did it for him. Bigly.

    I agree the Machado moment was his Rick Lazio Gets Muscular moment when DOOM started to appear faintly on Trump’s forehead.

  64. 64.

    Corner Stone

    @Iowa Old Lady: Doesn’t Wallace have to at least comment on this now? I don’t know how strongly or with what wording but since Wallace started the debate stating they were his questions and he shared them with no one, ISTM that Chris has got to now do something about this.
    As I said, this is going swell for Donald.

  65. 65.

    Peale

    @TS: Because those debate questions were just all out of left field. Complete “Gotcha” questions like “who is the mayor of Tbilisi and what are you going to do about the high prices of organic avacados in France. Like no one could know the answers or be expected to have well thought out issues on topics like “The Supreme Court” or “Abortion” or “Iraq.”

  67. 67.

    hueyplong

    @Corner Stone:

    Three reactions:

    (1) Who on earth thinks Fox News would leak questions to Hitlery, demonized on a daily basis by that entity since it first opened its doors for business?

    (2) People who win a debate pretty much never whine about the opponent getting the questions in advance.

    (3) A loving God would make sure that Trump launches at least 1000 more tweets between now and Nov 8. He is incapable of saying anything that increases the number of people voting for him beyond the dead-enders already on board.

  70. 70.

    hovercraft

    ‘I’m going to cut this short’: CNN host tries to mercifully end Trump adviser’s voter fraud meltdown

    After Donald Trump suggested at Wednesday’s debate that he might not accept the election results, McCaughey told Costello that “this nation has been victimized by rampant election fraud.”

    “There’s so much evidence of it this year,” McCaughey insisted.

    “That’s not true,” Costello pointed out.

    “The Pew Foundation says one out of every eight voter registrations is either a dead person, a duplicate or an illegal voter,” McCaughey droned on.

    The CNN host reminded McCaughey that Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, who supports Trump, rebuked the GOP nominee for making “irresponsible” rigged election claims.

    “There is rampant fraud in New York!” McCaughey exclaimed. “The incumbents always protect the system!”

    “I can’t!” Costello interrupted, raising her voice. “There’s no evidence of widespread voter fraud in this country.”

    McCaughey, however, continued: “Between 2 and 5 percent of illegal voters vote.”

    “Stop!” Costello demanded. “Or I’m going to have to cut this interview short.”

    “You don’t want people to hear the evidence?” McCaughey shot back.

    “I have presented the evidence to my viewers,” Costello said. “And my viewers trust me to tell them the truth. We’ve cited studies, I’ve talked to secretaries of state who are Republicans. I’ve talked to many Republican officials.”

    Watch here.
    By the end Carol Costello is yelling back at the lying Betsy, and she takes a time out so they can pul the tape of Husted saying there is no rigging.

  71. 71.

    Marigold

    @BR: I don’t really interact here, but I wanted to thank you for posting these. Last Saturday I went door to door for the first time as a result, and it wasn’t nearly as terrifying as I’d feared, and I’m doing it again this weekend.

  72. 72.

    Peale

    @Seanly: Thinking your side is going to lose in a blowout is a lot more demotivating than thinking you are going to win in one. I know that the right wing can survive forever with people telling them that victory is just around the corner, but they do pay attention to the MSM just like we do in our bubble.

  73. 73.

    Corner Stone

    @Grumpy Code Monkey: That was not really what I was talking about. And yes, I have seen polls showing it’s within MOE now, or was recently. I want to believe that but I have little faith in voter turnout in south TX and turnout west of Austin. Even in this heated a contest I will have to be shown it before I believe it is going to happen.

  74. 74.

    RK

    All three debates in a nutshell:

    You’ve been in power for years, represent the establishment, the majority of Americans want a new direction. POINTS TRUMP

    I have the flimsiest of knowledge on both the issues and policy which my 4th grade vocabulary and manner of speech makes clear. CLINTON WIN

  75. 75.

    Peale

    @hovercraft: For those of you keeping score at home, Besty McCaughey is not some rube hick from a deep southern red state. She is, in fact, the former Lt. Governor of New York.

  76. 76.

    TS

    @Peale:

    Like no one could know the answers or be expected to have well thought out issues on topics like “The Supreme Court” or “Abortion” or “Iraq.”

    And the ONLY thing Trump knows about the SCOTUS is abortion, the only thing he knows about the constitution is the 2nd amendment – the questions were handpicked for Trump – and he still lost the debate. There should have been a constitution question on the legislative powers, executive powers and the judicial power. Trump’s answers would be the stuff of fairy tales.

  78. 78.

    different-church-lady

    @Peale: does anyone else find it rather curious the Trump camp spends so much time talking about what would happen if they lose?

  79. 79.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    Yeah while I agree that complacency can be a danger, I think at this point the trend is going the other way, Democrats are now energized against Trump, and on his side, I think the bottom is about to fall out.

    I know it seemed like he couldn’t go lower but — watch. That wasn’t the floor. That was a rotted, barely-holding together platform propping him up, and once it crumbles his numbers are going to fall to the dirt below it. Where he should feel right at home.

    He’s become a national joke, people laughing at you claiming that you’re a decent person — just laughing, outright, at the notion — is not generally a good sign. Bandwagon effect will happen now, except everyone is jumping off, not on.

  80. 80.

    Botsplainer

    Am arrived here in JYNA, in a really neat contemporary luxury hotel in Beijing. Place is really lovely, driver met us before customs and shepherded our shit right through.

    Roads are great, plus we rated an Audi A6 for the ride from the airport, which made me happy.

    Gonna try and power down and sleep opposite my usual time (I don’t have to reset my watch – we are on the opposite side of the Eastern Time clock). Tomorrow starts early, with an excursion to a more remote part of the wall.

  81. 81.

    hovercraft

    @Corner Stone:
    Once again he contradicts himself, he Won, all the polls say so!
    Hillary cheated, she had the questions in advance.
    So is he saying she had the questions and he beat her anyway? Or is he saying she did so well because she had the questions in advance. Which is it?

    Obligatory: All of them Katie.

  83. 83.

    FlipYrWhig

    @hovercraft:

    “The Pew Foundation says one out of every eight voter registrations is either a dead person, a duplicate or an illegal voter,” McCaughey droned on.

    I guaran-damn-tee you that the last category is swamped by the first two. McCaughey is trying to make it seem like between 2 and 5 percent of these 12.5% are committing a crime: 0.25% to 0.625% of all registered voters. But she’s bootstrapping “illegal voters” to the dead and the duplicates to make it that big. She’s repugnant.

  85. 85.

    Peale

    @different-church-lady: Well, they used to promise building big walls and sending crying refugees back into war zones if they won, but that didn’t actually win over enough voters. So now they think if they threaten to walk away from the deal altogether we’ll get back to negotiating with them.

  86. 86.

    FlipYrWhig

    @RK: Nobody gives a shit about “the establishment.” It’s a stupid argument made by especially stupid people.

  88. 88.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: There was a lot of that going around in 2008, undecided voters who weren’t buying what McCain was selling, but there was just something about Obama they didn’t like. They couldn’t quite put their finger on it, but they just didn’t think they could vote for him.

  90. 90.

    Shell

    All the buzz today of course is Trump refusing to say if hell concede the election. Critics are saying he sounds like a dictator. That too, but to me he sounds more like a petulant child. Spare us your tantrums, toots.

  92. 92.

    Chris T.

    @amk: I’m not RK, but I’ll answer. In a rational world, no way. Hillary Clinton has not been in power, nor have Democrats. Democrats have held the Executive branch for almost 8 years now, the last 6 of which have been thoroughly blocked by Republicans holding the Legislative branch. Hence the three parts in:

    You’ve been in power for years, represent the establishment, the majority of Americans want a new direction

    are: false, questionable but I’ll grant it even without a proper definition of “the establishment”, and false—but to the ignorant who listen only to the loudest (and lousiest) Fox News voices, all three seem true.

  96. 96.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    “Really, it comes down to who’s going to do less damage,” said Monica, a Latina student who might not vote at all. “Of course, Trump degrades women and minorities. But I don’t trust her. I don’t really know why. Maybe the emails?” …
    “There’s something shady about her, something that isn’t genuine. I can’t put my finger on it,” said Natalie Dominguez, a 26-year-old recruiter.
    Rick, a 34-year-old Marine reservist who voted for Marco Rubio in the primary, said Clinton has much more coherent foreign policies than Trump, and is not a “rambling fool” or an “extreme narcissist” like Trump. He’s tempted to vote for her and then oppose her in 2020, but she just bugs him. Rick disagrees with Obama’s policies but respects his honesty and good intentions; he thinks Clinton is a robotic political machine, saying whatever she thinks will get her elected. He said she just doesn’t feel like a leader.”

    This just reinforces my view that these people are Soft Republicans looking for any excuse to not vote for Clinton. Doesn’t matter what age they are, millenials, olds, exurb crackers, etc., they’ve voted Repub all their life (short, long or otherwise) looking the other way as the stooopid was weaponized or were stuck in some single-issue ghetto.

    Now that the scab’s been ripped away and the world is looking at them for the electoral asshats they are, suddenly they’re “undecided”.

  97. 97.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Chris T.: Also, if Republicans wanted to run on being a fresh face, they probably shouldn’t have picked a candidate who’s 70 years old and been tabloid-famous for 35 years.

  98. 98.

    Soylent Green

    People vote for president but many (I think it’s most) can’t tell you the names of their Congress critters. The more who are unenthused about their candidate the more who will stay home. Festivus is coming early this year.

  99. 99.

    hovercraft

    @Bill E Pilgrim:
    Look at this study from the University of Michigan. Scroll down and look at the word clouds:

    Political persuasion
    The survey is now in its fifteenth week, and for many of those weeks, Americans have consistently connected Clinton with the term “email.” For Trump, key terms vary on a weekly, or even nightly basis—from “immigration” to “women” to “tax.”

    “For many weeks, email became a bigger and bigger portion of what people remembered about Clinton,” said Stuart Soroka, Michael W. Traugott Collegiate Professor of Communication Studies and Political Science at U-M. “The news content on the Trump side has been much more diverse. The real question then becomes, what’s worse: an ongoing string of negative events, or one negative theme that sticks with you for the whole campaign?”

  100. 100.

    SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch

    @amk:

    posted some stupid teann vid

    ‘Scuse my ignorance, but I’ve been trying for weeks now to figure out who or what “teann” is. (Téann is a Gaelic word meaning “strict” or “tight” or “tense,” but that makes no sense in context.) Please, what is a “teann”?

  101. 101.

    nonynony

    @Seanly:

    One guy answered the question about his pending vote this way – “I’ll vote this evening. I’ll get home and check the early results.* I want to vote for whoever is winning unless its Clinton because I don’t like him.”

    Ah – 1992. When Republicans were torn between voting for the hated George HW Bush and the nutty as a fruitcake H. Ross Perot. I would assume that this guy wanted to vote for Perot, but only if it wouldn’t cause Clinton to win in which case he’d vote for Bush.

    The nutty thing there is considering Perot to be a good vote. But that’s a guy who was never going to vote for Bill Clinton – just trying to decide if his protest vote was worth the potential downside.

  104. 104.

    Betty Cracker

    @FlipYrWhig: If Rubio holds onto his senate seat (FSM forbid!), it’s be interesting to watch him try to pass himself off as an anti-establishment fresh face. I don’t think he’s ever held a private sector job.

  107. 107.

    hovercraft

    @dmsilev:
    FOX to the Trumpsters is part of the MSM, so he can attack freely, they are a slightly less bad part, but still part of it. Basically any media entity that provides anything but but the most glowing coverage, is biased. Remember over the last few months he has only gone on Hannity and O’Reiley, with a couple of call ins to Fox and Friends, but even that stopped after the Merchado fiasco.

  108. 108.

    The Moar You Know

    Please, what is a “teann”?

    @SiubhanDuinne, liberal mob enforcer bitch: Lil’ wordplay at the expense of CNN. Caps will help:

    TeaNN

    As in Tea Party News Network

    Frankly a fairly accurate description. I’ve seen nothing from them in the last five years that I wouldn’t have seen on Fox.

  109. 109.

    Corner Stone

    @hovercraft:

    “For many weeks, email became a bigger and bigger portion of what people remembered about Clinton,” said Stuart Soroka,

    “Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right?” McCarthy had said. “But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping. Why? Because she’s untrustable. But no one would have known any of that had happened had we not fought.”
    Thanks, media for being so helpful to our Republican friends.

  110. 110.

    Kay

    @FlipYrWhig:

    I wish they would all stop talking about it until they bother to read and understand the boring details.

    We don’t vigorously cull voter rolls because voting is a RIGHT. If there is going to be an error, the voter isn’t dead yet, we want to err on the side of the VOTER because once the harm is done it can’t be remedied- if that voter is wrongly removed in that election that voter doesn’t get another shot. We’re careful not to make the mistake because we can’t fix it once it’s done. The voter gets one shot.

    There’s process. If the voter remains “inactive” they are eventually removed from voter rolls. Just because every Republican hack just discovered “inactive voter” issue doesn’t mean it’s complete chaos and a giant mess. Everyone who works in elections understands the process and the reasons behind the process. It’s state law or rule.

    They have to stop just idly discussing this as if they understand it and it’s all a matter of vague opinions. They don’t understand it because it’s boring and technical and none of them bother to read the rules.

  111. 111.

    hovercraft

    @Betty Cracker:
    Last night he was declared the clear front runner for 2020 because of his brave principled stand against the FSB and Putin’s interference with our election. He’s still a favorite of the Neocons. The question is can he get the base to fall in love with him. That’s assuming that he Pasta Goddess forbid.

  112. 112.

    Kay

    Every year the Bd of Elections gets calls from people who want their deceased parents removed from voter rolls. They call and say “why is she getting an absentee ballot application! She’s dead!” as if everyone in elections is monitoring these lists daily and removing people.

    They can’t remove people from voter rolls based on your phone call. Imagine if they could. Anyone could call and say “remove so and so”.

    There are thousands of elections officials in the US. If CNN or MSNBC want to discuss election process, call one of them! They have thousands of experts. They don’t have to rely on idiots just spitballing on how this works. It’s not unknowable and vague. It’s ordinary.

  113. 113.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Kay: I can’t tell if Betsy McCaughey et al. ACTUALLY think there’s a problem with voter fraud, or if they’ve just latched onto the idea that no one knows what happens in The Big City as a way to get their rubes good and agitated. And it doesn’t help that Chris Matthews thinks all shrewd political operatives are bent on cosplaying Richard Daley’s Chicago.

  114. 114.

    The Golux

    @Jeffro:

    #TrumpBookReport

    My fave:

    “Those poor heights. They were wuthering. Wuthering so bad. Bigly wuthering. I’ll make them great again.”

  115. 115.

    Steve in the ATL

    @piratedan:

    and apologies to all.. last night I called Andrea Mitchell a bitch. That’s simply not right. Granted she’s a media conveyor belt for the GOP this election season and after a couple of hours of folks attempting to spin Mr. Trump, I lashed out. Mistakenly so. so again… apologies to Ms. Mitchell and our readership.

    Either retract your retraction or go post at red state instead of BJ. We have no use here for anyone who won’t openly admit the objective truth that Andrea Mitchell is a bitch!

  117. 117.

    Kay

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Right, there’s the hacks, but this isn’t mysterious, this process. Call an election official and ask how they deal with”inactive voters”. Provide that public service.

    It reminds me of birtherism, where they all pretended an ordinary state birth records process somehow involved mysterious forces making arbitrary decisions. No. That’s not what it’s like at all. It’s just weird to me, like none of them operate in the ordinary, boring world. Boards of Elections are MUCH less exciting than this.

  118. 118.

    Kay

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Kids have the sort of magical thinking these adults use. The kids who are in the court system are like “how did you FIND OUT I got suspended?!?” Because schools generate a letter as part of a state process. You’re not special and none of this is mysterious or arbitrary. Sorry. it’s way more boring than that.

    If cable news and conservative pundits covered that it would be “thousands of students are being denied schooling!”

  119. 119.

    randy khan

    @Corner Stone:

    Now Trump is saying HRC had the debate questions ahead of time. This is going swell for him.

    Donald J. Trump Verified account
    ‏@realDonaldTrump

    Why didn’t Hillary Clinton announce that she was inappropriately given the debate questions – she secretly used them! Crooked Hillary.

    HAHAHAHAHA

    @

    dmsilev:

    After all, it would have been impossible to figure out what he might ask on your own unless, say, Wallace had done something like announce beforehand that he’d be asking about, oh, “debt and entitlements, immigration, economy, Supreme Court, foreign hot spots and fitness to be president.”

  120. 120.

    randy khan

    @Peale:

    For those of you keeping score at home, Besty McCaughey is not some rube hick from a deep southern red state. She is, in fact, the former Lt. Governor of New York.

    True. But she’s always been a hopeless hack.

  121. 121.

    Jeffro

    @Major Major Major Major:

    some of them are also oh-so reluctant Greens and Berntards who aren’t done having their egos stroked for being so courageous as to sully their precious vote by helping to stop the apocalypse.

    I think their votes are more valuable than ours…well, certainly ‘better’, anyway. That’s what they tell me.

    ETA: I saw somebody on Facebook decrying the “avalanche of performative pragmatism by the center-left” just yesterday.

    I’m smiling just reading that.

  122. 122.

    different-church-lady

    @Kay:

    It’s just weird to me, like none of them operate in the ordinary, boring world

    A huge part of the effectivness of taunting is that the less things make sense, the more infuriating they are.

  123. 123.

    Jeffro

    @comrade scott’s agenda of rage

    :I should say it’s important to make a distinction between the self-described undecided douchebags and “low information voters”. They are undecided because they’ve not invested themselves in the process. Sad

    The only undecideds I have any sympathy for whatsoever are people too busy working (working 2 jobs, a lot of OT, whatever) and trying to make ends meet to do a deep dive into the info that’s out there. And even then…recognizing it’s hard to be even remotely objective…you have to wonder who would want a reality-TV jerkwad running your country. Amazing what 40 years of anti-HRC propaganda can do.

  124. 124.

    Jeffro

    @piratedan:

    it’s almost as if she studied for the test and had an idea on what questions might be asked…. shocking.

    That is something that astounds me, electing a competant, prepared President who has an idea on what is going on in the world and who the players are. Somehow the GOP has tried to make that a disqualifying character flaw. The Media seems woefully unprepared to handle it.

    One of the gasbags actually said she “seemed over prepared” after the first debate…maybe Czillia (sp)? That kind of thinking offends me quite a bit – in what business, government, agency, or human endeavor of any kind do we want to encourage our bosses, co-workers, students, staff, or elected leaders to, you know, not be quite so prepared and all.

    I think she scares the GOP and the media alike for the same 2 reasons: she IS over prepared on most things/will out-work them, and she’ll call them out on their bullshit like no one they’ve dealt with in decades (save Harry Reid and Nancy Smash)

  126. 126.

    stinger

    @Seanly: I was thinking maybe both versions would find wearers. That way we would know one another when we meet! Saves time.

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