Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

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

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

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

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

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

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

Fight them, without becoming them!

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

“Just close your eyes and kiss the girl and go where the tilt-a-whirl takes you.” ~OzarkHillbilly

How stupid are these people?

All hail the time of the bunny!

Nothing worth doing is easy.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2016 / Open Thread: Last Stand At Gettysburg?

Open Thread: Last Stand At Gettysburg?

by | 246 Comments

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Anyone who watches TV news knows there’s a tipping point in the aftermath of every natural disaster where the local authorities switch from insisting that everything is just fine (so as not to discourage business/tourism) to bewailing the unprecedented destruction and its devastating effects on a suffering population (to garner relief funds as quickly as possible). Maybe I’m just a Democratic optimist, but it’s beginning to feel like the GOP and its media enablers are pivoting from Step #1 to Step #2 concerning the political disaster that is Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

The Washington Post reports:

GETTYSBURG, Pa. — Donald Trump traveled Saturday to the site of the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, where he suggested that the United States is nearly as divided now as it was then. But instead of laying out his vision for uniting the country, as President Abraham Lincoln once did here, Trump declared that the system is rigged against him, that election results cannot be trusted, that Hillary Clinton should have been barred from running for president, that the media is “corrupt” and that he will sue all of the women who have accused him of sexual assault…

Trump said the system is “totally rigged and broken” because Clinton has been allowed to run for president, even though he says that she broke “so many laws on so many different occasions.” Trump also implied that what he called rampant voter fraud could cost him the election and said the media was “dishonest.”…

After spending more than 13 minutes listing his grievances, Trump read several numbered lists of things that he would do on his first day in office or during his first 100 days. Nearly all of the items were things that he has repeatedly promised to do, but this was the first time that he listed them in a speech….

In his speech Saturday, Trump listed more than two dozen things that he wants to do, including amending the Constitution to create term limits in Congress, renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement and other trade deals, overwriting “every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama,” and suspending immigration from “terror-prone regions.”…

Trump was joined in Gettysburg by his top two campaign aides, Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway, along with former New York City mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg. As Trump spoke, Conway and Giuliani stood to the side of the stage and watched.

After his speech, Trump visited the Gettysburg National Military Park, where a small crowd of onlookers had gathered to see him.

VERY LOW ENERGY – SAD!



Wingnut Welfare outlet the Washington Examiner is hardly an unbiased source, but their report on last night’s conference call from the Trump campaign is… schadenfreude-intensive:

… The conference call, which the campaign pitched as a briefing on Trump’s “major” upcoming speech, was scheduled originally for 9:30 pm EDT. It was then moved to 10:00 pm EDT.

When the call eventually started, campaign staffers made it clear they were not to be quoted by name…

At around 15 minutes into the call, and as Trump’s team continued to repeat information that is readily available on the candidate’s website, some reporters appeared to grow restless…

“We know what his policies are [on the website],” the reporter said. “Is there anything outside of those that will be discussed?”

An anonymous Trump staffer replied, “There will be new material tomorrow.”

“But the more fundamental thing though, that, you have 100 different policies, and 100 different priorities, and 100 different goals,” the aide said.

The reporter interjected to say, “I’m trying to figure out what’s new and what we should be paying attention to.”

“I don’t want to say what it will be,” the Trump staffer replied.

“Okay, then why are we on this call?” the reporter asked…

Reader Interactions

246Comments

  4. 4.

    Trentrunner

    Noting for the record that Trumpers at today’s VA rally had both Hillary-as-target on target practice poster, and Hillary’s head on a pike.

    I think this counts as qualitative escalation.

  5. 5.

    scav

    They managed a press event with ever less information than the infomercial for the new Trump Hotel. With the classic making them wait tradition. Going all out with jerking the choke chain on the chained media.

  6. 6.

    NMgal

    OT, reposted from dead thread:

    Mr. NMgal and I voted yesterday at the county courthouse, saints be praised. I would have filled in the scantron bubble next to “Hillary Rodham Clinton/Timothy Michael Kaine” twice, but I had a fresh Sharpie and I didn’t want it to soak through and spoil the ballot. So I just stared at it awhile to savor. Then I carefully filled in the bubbles for every Democrat on offer, including all those running unopposed (a majority of races, it being northern New Mexico). And for all the socialistical bond proposals to benefit libraries and education and other elitist shit.

    I witnessed no ballot handling irregularities like those poor bastards in NC, thank goodness – though if there were it would probably benefit Dems, since our (very rural) county votes like 85% Democrat on a regular basis. Went about 57% for Bernie, in fact. Yes, we are weird, and like it that way. Go Hillary!

  8. 8.

    Karmus

    @Yellowdog: The ‘Po could have used “bloodiest” instead of “pivotal”, which might have be benefit of being true and incorporates a favorite word. But maybe “bloodiest” sounds $carier or $exier?

  9. 9.

    NotMax

    Funny, innit, how he voiced no such concerns regarding NBC for all those years it aired his program?

    Constitutional amendment on day one. Yeah, now pull the other one.

  11. 11.

    Baud

    The reporter interjected to say, “I’m trying to figure out what’s new and what we should be paying attention to.”

    Emails!

  12. 12.

    hovercraft

    Why are Jessica and Gloria emphasizing this mysterious word “consent”? Did they not hear Rush say that “consent” is a liberal, elitist concept that real men don’t believe in.

  16. 16.

    hovercraft

    @Baud:
    You see when there are new e-mails that reveal the minutia of running a campaign, that is a drip, drip , drip, whereas when additional women come forward to say that the orange shitgibbon accosted them, if there is no new twist, then it is just boring, been there done that.

  18. 18.

    dmsilev

    Disaster area, huh? Perhaps FEMA could do something to help the impacted population, maybe set up some camps to house them.

  19. 19.

    msdc

    I think it’s safe to say this was less of a “last stand” at Gettysburg, and more of a Pickett’s Charge.

  21. 21.

    Schmendrick

    Early voting began today in Nevada. I voted in southwest Las Vegas in a mobile voting trailer at a shopping center. Arrived around 1:00 pm local time. There were about 50 people in line when I arrived. I completed voting around 1:20. I think there may have been 75 people waiting by then. No one passing out any voting guides for either party. I had to sign an affidavit promising not to vote twice, since I had previously requested a mail-in ballot. (I expected to leave town yesterday but my trip was delayed.)

    All-in-all it was a non-exciting process (as it should be) except for the satisfaction of voting both for Hillary and against the hamster heedit bampot. (translation: hamster-headed person of low intelligence and hooliganistic tendencies)

  22. 22.

    hovercraft

    @Major Major Major Major:
    It’s proof that he’s a “reformer” and an “outsider” who is coming to drain the swamp. The Chuckles of the world say it shows his seriousness. Now if he’ll just stick to that and the rest of his first 100 day agenda he will win 57 states. Unfortunately for him, he led off his very serious policy speech with him threat to sue his accusers and to break up the media entities who are being mean to him by reporting things like his “words”. So unfair !

  24. 24.

    Another Scott

    @Major Major Major Major: It goes back to the Contract on with America. It’s seemingly designed to reduce the independence of legislators so that they’re dependent on the party leadership. (E.g. prevent powerful people like Arlen Spector from building their own power-base independent of the party leadership.)

    It’s yet another example of Trump’s campaign being nothing more than stupid memes without any thought of how to actually make things better.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  28. 28.

    NMgal

    @hovercraft: Thanks! Felt good. Mr. NMgal was lowkey but I know he took great satisfaction in casting this ballot, as a Clinton fan from 2008 (he’s one of about four white no-college-degree HRC supporters around – “We have meetings,” he said.)

    I found it interesting that, in addition to R and D prez candidates plus the expected Stein/Baraka *spit* and Johnson/Weld (Stoner Gary is literally our neighbor, he owns two houses in the area) tickets, McMullin was one of the choices. NM has a reasonable number of Mormons, is I suppose why. Plus there were a couple more narcissists on the ballot to make themselves feel relevant or whatever.

  29. 29.

    Percysowner

    @Major Major Major Major: My guess is it came when he 1) remembered that he would be term limited and 2) decided he hates, hates, hates Paul Ryan. If he can’t get Ryan out one way, he’ll use this instead.

  38. 38.

    Jay C

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Where did this term limits thing come from anyway? For Trump, i mean. Seems new.

    Well, the idea isn’t “new”; it’s been a staple of Republican/right-wing proposals for decades – since the Newt Gingrich era, I think – based on the dubious proposition that upright, patriotic American voters (i.e. RWNJs) would overwhelm and replace those deplorably senior liberal Congressmen/Governors/Statehouse Reps if only the latter were termed out in favor of “disinterested” “citizen-lawmakers” (i.e. RWNJs).

  41. 41.

    Chip Daniels

    @Baud:
    My election day feast will include arugula with Grey Poupon, washed down with white wine.

    Made by lesbian vinters from a Dept of Ag. grant.

  45. 45.

    Chip Daniels

    @Jay C:
    Even now, rightwing outlets explain that the reason Real True Conservatism didn’t happen under Reagan, or under GWB when they held all three branches of government, was the faithless “career politicians”, who thwarted the goals of cutting the government in half.

  46. 46.

    ruemara

    I’m looking forward to savoring the 2016 vintage of wingnut tears. It looks like a bumper crop harvest, bless the Great Pumpkin’s tiny, incompetent, hands.

  47. 47.

    bystander

    As much as I’m enjoying the smell of Trump slowly turning on the rotisserie, the collateral damage is equally delicious. The eleventh woman accusing Trump of sexual assault just stepped forward. Guess she didn’t hear he’s going to sue them all. No word if they can certify a class and move this to Federal court on a jurisdictional basis.

  49. 49.

    bystander

    @ruemara: Great idea! Pumpkin spice wingnut tears. Sure, it’s seasonal but I hear women love anything that tastes like pumpkin pie.

  51. 51.

    Kay

    Los Angeles Times ‏@latimes 1h1 hour ago
    This is a letter Trump sent us in 2008. He was upset about an article on Trump University, later threatened to sue.

    The threats of lawsuits are bullshit just like everything else he says. He’s threatening the women hoping more don’t come forward. Doesn’t seem to be working. I’m hoping one of the women taped something- that’s the only thing that stopped Ailes.

    The letter begins “I am worth many billions of dollars…”

    Guffaw. I hope grownups weren’t actually intimidated by these letters.

  52. 52.

    Roger Moore

    @Another Scott:

    It’s seemingly designed to reduce the independence of legislators so that they’re dependent on the party leadership.

    The other practical effect is to prevent legislators from developing any real expertise, so they depend more on lobbyists and government agencies to help them make decisions. That’s the argument I usually prefer when arguing against term limits: do you want power in the hands of the people you elect or in the hands of unelected lobbyists and bureaucrats?

  53. 53.

    Mike in NC

    We haven’t watched SNL in years, but will probably tune in tonight to catch Alec Baldwin doing his impression of the Manhattan Mussolini.

  55. 55.

    Truegster

    The cadaver dogs will have to be trained for “Orange Clown”, which under normal circumstances would be hard to to, but since we have an outbreak of Clown Terror a sample should be easy.
    Art needs to be made of Sad Trump in Reclusion, in his tower, no money for the hair treatment, no more Melania, the kids mad because he ruined their brand.

  56. 56.

    James E Powell

    @Corner Stone:

    Used to follow him on twitter, but he blocked me. No idea why.

    Throughout the primary he was very anti-Clinton. Is that still where he’s at?

  57. 57.

    Iowa Old Lady

    @Roger Moore: I’ve read that one effect of the sequester was to strip congress of some of its staff, and that staff members were the ones who developed expertise in various subjects. The article said it was like a lobotomy for congress.

  58. 58.

    Kay

    Last Gallup approval before election, outgoing two-termers:
    DDE 58%
    RWR 51
    WJC 57
    GWB 25
    Today:
    BHO 57

    Hah. Obama beats Saint Reagan. Actually, everyone except GWB beats Saint Reagan.

  61. 61.

    Aleta

    Last night someone linked to a video from 2007. Trump on stage, a woman in the audience asks a question and is brought up on stage. He compares himself to an out of control alcoholic around women.

    My roommate sat down next to me while I was watching. Immediately he said “Look, he’s groping her breast.” I hadn’t noticed but I watched again and I think he’s right.

    btw it’s kind of triggering to watch, so be aware

  63. 63.

    hovercraft

    Michael Smerconish has Pat Pitchfork Buchanan on, he is ranting like a loon, the media is biased and it’s because the media has focused so much on Trump’s misdemeanors that they have destroyed Trump’s chances of winning, and what’s more important that or America. MS points out that since ’92 the liberal media no longer exists because you have talk radio, Drudge, Breitbart, or whatever or wherever you want to get your news, Pat comes back with the left and the establishment are stealing the election with their control of the media. He says that Terry MacCauliff gave 200 K criminals the right to vote by executive order, and they’ve opened up the borders brought in millions to change the character of the country, and now middle America and conservatives has no chance to win, what is he supposed to do, stand up and salute? Trump has endured the worst and most savage beating administered by the media, they focus on trivial pursuit, instead of the big things. Oh my.

  64. 64.

    Roger Moore

    @Jay C:

    based on the dubious proposition that upright, patriotic American voters (i.e. RWNJs) would overwhelm and replace those deplorably senior liberal Congressmen/Governors/Statehouse Reps if only the latter were termed out in favor of “disinterested” “citizen-lawmakers” (i.e. RWNJs).

    I think part of it reflected specific conditions in the South. There were a number of old-school Democrats (e.g. Sam Nunn) who were able to hold onto elected office based on personal popularity even as their states trended more and more Republican. I think the plan was to force them out of office with term limits under the assumption that their replacements would be Republicans. Of course they should also have been thinking about some of the old-school Northeast Republicans like Olympia Snowe who were in the opposite situation, but ignoring that kind of thing is typical Gingrichian thinking.

  66. 66.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Corner Stone:

    Wow. She’s a great actress. Nice sense of timing.

    To whom are you referring? Have gone all through the post. Anne Laurie, Jenna Johnson, and Kellyanne Conway are (as far as I can tell) the only female names listed — and none of those names makes sense in context of “actress” and “timing.”

  67. 67.

    kindness

    We all get there won’t be a Brooks Brothers riot after the results are announced. More like a rage riot of the undesireables. Most of whom own no Brooks Brothers at all.

  69. 69.

    Taylor

    @Kay: Reagan had the stink of Iran-Contra on him at the end….and his rambling testimony that was the first public clue that he had issues……

  71. 71.

    lamh36

    I really do enjoy watching Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol…one of the few movies I like Jeremy Renner in. Even as Hawekeye, I’m like Meh.

  72. 72.

    hovercraft

    @Mike in NC:
    I only watch during the run-up to the presidential elections. Tina Fey made it worth it in ’08, last time it was meh, this year much better. They will have a couple more weeks of improved ratings, and then fall off a cliff. If you are going to watch Weekend Update sometimes has some amusing content, but you have to wait till after midnight, so I recommend a DVR.

  73. 73.

    Mike in dc

    Jessica Drake is the latest accuser. She showed a picture of the two of them together. Came across as highly credible.
    At this rate there will be more than 20 groping accusations and 20+ stories of inappropriate conduct by election day. That’s the lower end of a Cosby unit. I don’t think the stories will stop after election day, either.

  75. 75.

    hovercraft

    @sukabi:
    Term limits, hah! He would fire them, then his staff would have to pull him aside to explain for the 64 time that he does not have the authority to fire congresscritters.

  78. 78.

    lamh36

    @Mike in dc: Right…but ya already can bet they will be ready and willing to use her porn past to discredit her, but then you are STILL left with Donald Trump..and his porn buddies…

    As we know, they love their porn, but they don’t like folks to know about their love of porn

  79. 79.

    David ?▶️Bad Hombres▶️? Koch

    John Harwood ‏@JohnJHarwood

    senior GOP Senate strategist: “Trump now tied in Indiana. down 11 in PA and 14 in NH. going down hard”

    0 replies 1,379 retweets 2,145 likes

    When a bubble collapses it’s really ugly – all the suckers stampeding to the exits.

  80. 80.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    “if he’s not elected, the movement comes to an end.”

    And our country can get off the toilet and breathe a sigh of relief.

  84. 84.

    Roger Moore

    @sukabi:

    Drumpf should have done his “speech” at Little Bighorn…. seems a bit more apropo for coming events.

    Just remember which side’s supporters like waving Confederate flags.

  87. 87.

    James E Powell

    But in Virginia, he says if he’s not elected, “the movement comes to an end.

    I mean, what are they gonna say when he’s gone? ‘Cause he dies when it dies, when it dies, he dies! What are they gonna say about him? He was a kind man? He was a wise man? He had plans? He had wisdom? Bull shit man!

  88. 88.

    David ?▶️Bad Hombres▶️? Koch

    Gallup Presidential Poll — Oct 22, 2016

    Barack Obama

    Approve………..57%
    Disapprove……40%
    ———————————————————–

    Gallup Presidential Poll — Oct 22, 2008

    George W. Bush

    Approve………..25%
    Disapprove……70%
    ———————————————————–

    *

    *

    but, but, but….. this is a change election!

  89. 89.

    Villago Delenda Est

    National Trumpism comes to and end with his demise. Well. I wonder how the peasants are taking this message.

  92. 92.

    lahke

    hi, folks. For those wondering if Don Giovanni worth it, yes indeedy. (didn’t check all the comments, so siohban may have reported back already. sorry if this is repetitive. ) Simon Keenlysides was great, but sounded a little off the rails at intermission interview. Started off with the theme of the opera being personal liberty, even to be a gropy, rapey schmuck while defying the world and the devil, and then veered off to concerns about non-western values being something we might not want to adopt.

    On the other hand, sure beat the usual boring interview. And you have to give him credit for singing Winston Smith in the opera they made of 1984.

  94. 94.

    Schmendrick

    @Schmendrick: I should also add that according to Nevada law (NRS 293.270) I was not allowed to write in Baud, who was not on the ballot. I could have voted “none of the above”, but that just didn’t have the same feel.

  95. 95.

    hovercraft

    @Iowa Old Lady:

    I’ve read that one effect of the sequester was to strip congress of some of its staff, and that staff members were the ones who developed expertise in various subjects. The article said it was like a lobotomy for congress.

    It started before that with the Gingrich revolution, but it became especially stupid during the Bush years when the Congressional Research Service, which is congresses in house think tank, full of people who are you know “experts” on policy, provided things like facts that they didn’t like since they showed that they had no idea what they were talking about. They have been slowly killing the service ever since.
    Gingrich killed

    The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) was an office of the United States Congress from 1972 to 1995. OTA’s purpose was to provide Congressional members and committees with objective and authoritative analysis of the complex scientific and technical issues of the late 20th century, i.e. technology assessment. It was a leader in practicing and encouraging delivery of public services in innovative and inexpensive ways, including early involvement in the distribution of government documents through electronic publishing. Its model was widely copied around the world.

    During my first few years at the agency, 2003 through 2006, it was not unusual for agency analysts to write thoughtful pieces on governance issues for reputable newspapers and journals. Doing so was lauded by the agency, not least because members of Congress read op-eds. A number of professional journals listed CRS specialists on their editorial board. In my first few years, I wrote on governance topics for outside publication, and joined the editorial board of the Public Administration Review.

    That environment changed abruptly in 2006. That year, Louis Fisher made comments to a reporter about the limitations of the whistle-blower protection law. It ought to have been a shrug-worthy comment, especially as the facts indicated that agencies defeated whistle-blowers in court almost every time. But someone in Congress took offense and complained. A media circus ensued, and the Internet lit up with anger. In the end, the agency transferred Fisher out of his job and into another agency within the Library of Congress. We had lost a valuable and productive colleague. Congressional requests that would have gone to him were routed to others at the CRS with much less experience.

    The CRS’s blood was in the water, and more attacks came. Many of us were particularly shocked when Michigan Representative Pete Hoekstra, then chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, rebuked the agency. A CRS expert had written a confidential memorandum on wiretapping, concluding that the executive branch probably had not given Congress as much notification as the law required. Hoekstra told the CRS that it had no business writing about the topic. It was remarkable: the CRS’s expert had warned Congress that the executive branch might be taking advantage of the legislature, and a powerful member of Congress had essentially replied, “Shut up.”

    Agency management found this new operating environment both bewildering and a bit terrifying. The CRS gets all of its funding from Congress, and management had not forgotten that a decade earlier Congress, led by Newt Gingrich, had slashed the budget of the Government Accountability Office and abolished the Office of Technology Assessment. The CRS clamped down on its analysts talking to the media, and forbade the distribution of CRS reports to anyone who was not a member of Congress or an employee of the legislature.

    So yes the sequester cost them staffers, but those staffers are partisan hacks, the loss of the OTA and the suffocation of the CRS are where the greatest harm to the nation has occurred.

  99. 99.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @hovercraft: Too bad about the old Nazi. My heart pumps buttermilk for him.

    Die in searing pain, you holocaust denying sack of shit.

  101. 101.

    David ?▶️Bad Hombres▶️? Koch

    Ryan Lizza @RyanLizza

    If Obama’ approval rating is 57%, per new Gallup poll, this is not really a change election (despite the high “wrong track” number).

    4:54 PM – 22 Oct 2016
    0 replies 200 retweets 360 likes

    It only took two years for these “geniuses” to finally figure this out.

  103. 103.

    MazeDancer

    In childhood, I lived in a town that was a Civil War battleground. Tens of thousands slaughtered. Civil War battles were full of carnage because they were fought old style – in lines, get close to your enemy – with new fangled weapons, the power guns of the time. It was like firing AK-47’s from derringer range. Slaughter.

    Trump standing on hallowed ground, made so by power guns, adamant he would erase school gun-free zones was repulsive.

    Also repulsive: Peter Navarro, Trump policy guy. Just saw him on PMJoy. Creepy at a whole new level of creepy. Kind of Igor, dungeon keeper creepy. He has a Harvard PhD. Joy Reid graduated from Harvard. Neither of them mentioned the academic overlap. Thinking Harvard might only want to claim one, though have never her speak of them.

  104. 104.

    debbie

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Trump plagiarized it from the Tea Party. We have the Tea Party to thank for term limits, which are responsible for the dumbing down of politics. With showpieces like Joe Wilson and Louie Gohmert, term limits should be expunged from all records. Let the voters be the ones to decide who should leave and who should stay.

  105. 105.

    NonyNony

    @David ?▶️Bad Hombres▶️? Koch:

    If Obama’ approval rating is 57%, per new Gallup poll, this is not really a change election (despite the high “wrong track” number).

    It only took two years for these “geniuses” to finally figure this out.

    It would be really nice if news agencies would hire pollsters to actually ask a follow-up question on the “wrong track” number. As in “if you think the country is on the wrong track, who do you think deserves primary blame?”

    My suspicion is that Congress would be number 1 with a bullet. Followed by the media. Obama might only make the top 3 because of the Republican base.

  107. 107.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @lahke:

    Thanks for this! Yes, I commented one thread down (#108-109) in response to a question from Mnemosyne and a comment from Jim, Foolish Literalist.

    I’m a big fan of Simon Keenlyside, and while his intermission comments were, shall we say, not the usual fare of “how I approach the character and keep it fresh after xxx performances and how does my performance change depending on who my Donna Anna is,” I have to say I found his comments intriguing. He was a zoology major (“read” zoology) at Cambridge before turning to music, so he brings an interesting perspective to the evolutionary and historical context of Mozart’s “social commentary” operas. Two or three minutes of a Met intermission probably wasn’t the right time or place for him to start the conversation, but I’d love to get him over a few glasses of wine holding forth. It’s a fascinating discussion, I think.

  109. 109.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @MazeDancer:

    Civil War battles were full of carnage because they were fought old style – in lines, get close to your enemy – with new fangled weapons, the power guns of the time.

    In the American Civil War, Napoleonic tactics were used, but the catch is, the weapons had far outstripped that tactical model, which is why the battles were so bloody. By the end of the war, a preview of trench warfare as it would be seen in The Great War was introduced. The reason for being so close to the enemy in the Napoleonic era was that the weapons used were subject to misfires, which reduced the overall effect of a volley. Breach loading weapons, often with metal cartridges, changed that dynamic, and the firepower of an infantry formation increased dramatically.

  110. 110.

    PsiFighter37

    I am in Portland, Maine and have seen a ton of Gary Johnson signs, one Trump sign, and no Hillary signs. I know they don’t really matter, but the Libertarian love suggests that the Berniebros here never got a clue.

  111. 111.

    jl

    Yeebus. The Trump First 100 Days Plan, what a bag of crap. The one thing I was worried about with Trump was he would have the discipline and focus to work up a bogus progressive (but really reactionary white apartheid populist welfare state) economic plan. So, let us see what we have here.

    SUE the crummy dames what accused him of sexual assault
    A few weak sauce slogans stolen from Sanders.

    The rest of it is a laundry list of reactionary, plutocratic and dishonest recycled GOP BS. And of that, what is not recycled, but new, is truly awful and counter productive, like federal term limits, which coupled with the standard and not very enforceable time outs for lobbying dough, is as likely to increase corruption and eliminate it.

    I haven’t liked the way the campaign has gone, but maybe it was for the best. Corporate media had an excuse to take accusations of sexual assault, hilariously inflated voter fraud claims, threats to disregard the election results no matter what the grounds, and (at least some of the) Trump financial scams seriously, which meant maximum damage to Trump. Probably, they would have recognized the standard reactionary plutocratic GOP policy proposals in Trumps first 100 days bullcrap, and tried to peddle it to the population rather than report it out. Gland Donny didn’t get around to unveiling this bag-o-shit until now, after it is too late.

    Let’s GOTV, contribute, and vote and hope for the best.

  112. 112.

    Shana

    @NonyNony: I’ve always been kind of conflicted about how to answer those “wrong track” questions from pollsters. I like Obama (obviously) and what he’s tried to do over his 2 terms, but hate what the GOP in Congress has been doing, or rather not doing, during that period. So who’s track are they asking about really?

    ETA your second comment on the issue was what I was trying to say.

  115. 115.

    David ?▶️Bad Hombres▶️? Koch

    Trump in 2013: We must ‘leave borders behind’ because future of US ‘depends on a cohesive global economy’

    Donald Trump, who has championed anti-free-trade and hardline immigration rhetoric on the 2016 presidential campaign trail, had a starkly different tone about globalization in a 2013 op-ed published on CNN’s website.

    The Republican presidential nominee, writing about how Europe was a “terrific place” for investment, argued at the time that the 2008 recession had made it clear “the global economy has become truly that — global.”

    Trump wrote that “cultures and economics are intertwined” in today’s society, and that it was necessary to “work with each other for the benefit of all.”

    Pivot.

  118. 118.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Damn post about Gettysburg destroyed by BJ going catatonic for DNS purposes after hitting the “post comment” button.

    OK here we go again:

    While many argue that from a military standpoint, Vicksburg was more important than Gettysburg, the fact is that Gettysburg took place near DC and the entire purpose of the campaign was political, to score a major victory on Union soil to establish that the Confederacy was politically viable. Winning that battle, with British and French attaches watching, would have opened up the possibility of British and/or French recognition of the Richmond regime. Failure spelt doom for the Confederacy, it was only a matter of time before the anaconda strategy ended things.

    Rhett Butler was right.

  122. 122.

    jl

    @David ?▶️Bad Hombres▶️? Koch: Trump has been on every side of so many issues that it is hard to keep track. Only constants I know of are

    1) treating foreign policy, defense treaties and allies, as a shakedown and extortion scheme
    2) die-hard racial and ethnic bigotry.

    Everything else is up for grabs. Why anyone would believe Trump’s supposed policy stances on anything is beyond me.

    The day after election, I can afford to wax nostalgic for the entertainment lost because of the Trump defeat. For example, I imagine a Trump ‘win on the nuclear’ crash program, which would probably include ceremonial weighing of US nuclear warheads to publicly certify that they are bigger and heavier and classier than other countries’ nuclear warheads. And then ceremonial application of a gold Trump coat of arms. that would be way cool to watch on the TV.

    Until we can afford nostalgia though, everyone participate some way in GOTV, contribute, and vote.

  126. 126.

    TriassicSands

    In his speech Saturday, Trump listed more than two dozen things that he wants to do, including amending the Constitution to create term limits in Congress,

    Once again Trump reveals his profound ignorance of the way the US government works and the contents of the Constitution.

    The president has no role in amending the Constitution. Both houses of Congress have to vote by a 2/3 majority to pass an amendment. Then, 3/4 of the state legislatures have to pass the amendment. That means that Trump has to get 2/3 of the House and 2/3 of the Senate to vote to term limit themselves. While the TeaBaggers may be willing to support such an amendment, it seems very unlikely that only 1/3 of each house would oppose Trump’s amendment.

    The other means to propose a constitutional amendment is by a vote of 2/3 of the state legislatures calling for a constitutional convention. None of the 27 amendments has been passed by the convention route. Most politicians rightly fear holding a convention — once the convention is called it is open season on the Constitution. In this case, the convention would not be limited to the term limits amendment. There could be an amendment proposed to end Citizens United or to rescind the 2nd Amendment or anything else the crazies at the convention wanted to propose. Risky business.

    Trump has repeatedly criticized Clinton for not changing this law or that law when she was a senator. He acts as though senators can enact legislation unilaterally. Trump did that in both the 2nd and 3rd debates and for some reason Clinton didn’t respond by pointing out Trump’s complete ignorance of the way laws are passed. Trump also behaves as though the president can do whatever she or he wants to do. Apparently he thinks he will be able to make any change he wants through executive order or more likely he thinks it will be through Presidential Edict. The man’s an idiot.

  127. 127.

    jl

    @Omnes Omnibus: Isn’t there a famous passage about suing all the crummy dames what smeared him in George Washington’s Farewell Address? So hard to keep track of the illustrious precedents for the Trump campaign.

  130. 130.

    lahke

    I keep trying to get my friends to read BJ. Now I can tell them it’s a political, animal-rescue, opera-loving recipe blog?

  134. 134.

    Ruckus

    @TriassicSands:
    tRump isn’t running for president, he is running for king dictator.

    ETA He’s so dumb he doesn’t even know how you normally get to be a dictator.

  135. 135.

    jl

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    The mystic chords of memory (and I’m very proud to announce a special Trump Inauguration special issue of Trump Mystic Chords will be on sale soon) stretching from every Trump resort and golf course to every MAGA cap (special inaugural memorial versions on sale now) all over this top terrific and classiest country, will yet swell, yeah, that is what I mean, really swell and terrific, The Best, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature, who will tell you that I am a winner, I alone will make us win, and if you don’t listen you’re a loser and a dummy, and if you make trouble, look forward to hearing from my lawyers from the department of justice, asshole.

    Edit: sorry not a good Trump imitation, I don’t have time to translate it all into fourth grade English right now.

  137. 137.

    Ian

    @debbie:
    The Colorado GOP did the whole term limits and tax-refunds into the state constitution about 30 years ago. Has not worked out well for the state or for the state GOP.

  138. 138.

    Groucho48

    Trump’s first day in office:

    FIRST, Rename the White House to The Trump White House
    SECOND, Order up some gold paint. LOTS of gold paint
    THIRD, Hire the BEST designers to build a 9 hole golf course in the back yard. Start hawking memberships.
    FOURTH, Fire all the cooks and have all TWH meals catered by Trump Enterprises
    FIFTH, Retire Air Force One and have the government lease his jet for his use.
    SIXTH, Have Clinton, Paul Ryan, Elizabeth Warren, Obama, Jeb!, and various reporters arrested and sent to Guantanamo.

  141. 141.

    germy

    If we’ve learned one thing about Donald Trump this election, it’s that he’s a sore loser. Which is why Salma Hayek’s story about what happened when she refused to date Trump is entirely credible.

    Hayek was interviewed on Spanish-language radio show El Show del Mandril, and when the host asked if she believed the allegations of sexual assault made against Trump, Hayek said she believed the accusers based on her personal experience with the candidate early in her career.

    “When I met that man, I had a boyfriend, and he tried to become his friend to get my home telephone number. He got my number and he would call me to invite me out,” she said, according to BuzzFeed.

    But Hayek rejected Trump’s advances even when she was single, which Trump took as the ultimate insult. Trump then used the classic pick-up artist tactic of “negging”—insulting a romantic prospect to make them vulnerable to your advances.

    “Someone told the National Enquirer—I’m not going to say who, because you know that whatever he wants to come out comes out in the National Enquirer. It said that he wouldn’t go out with me because I was too short,” she said.

    The story doesn’t end there, though.

    “Later, he called and left me a message. ‘Can you believe this? Who would say this? I don’t want people to think this about you,'” Hayek said. “He thought that I would try to go out with him so people wouldn’t think that’s why he wouldn’t go out with me.”

    Trump, however, had no such luck. He even tried to buy a date with Hayek, using Trump Foundation funds to purchase a $120,000 luxury trip that included dinner with the actress.

    But Trump never went on the trip. He probably stayed at home pouting.

    (Esquire)

  143. 143.

    Woodrowfan

    when Trump’s team revealed Gettysburg had been chosen as the location of the tour kickoff because the candidate believes Abraham Lincoln is an important figure in GOP history.

    YA THINK??!!! Jesus.

  144. 144.

    Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

    Media is calling it the Grievanceburg address.

    Nobody should be sitting idly by letting a presidential candidate threaten to sue his sexual assault accusers. He’s already stepped over the line on muliple occasions but that is going even further.

    I hope people go after him legally from all directions and cost him a fortune after all of this.

  146. 146.

    germy

    Salon: Michael Steele says Donald Trump’s campaign “captured that racist underbelly … of American life” – Steele becomes the fourth former RNC chair to unendorse Trump, who “gave voice to” America’s “racist underbelly” by Brendan Gauthier

  147. 147.

    NCSteve

    @Yellowdog: It’s the great “depends on how you measure it” of the Civil War. Antietam was the single bloodiest day in American history, but the three day Battle of Gettysburg was the single bloodiest battle of the war and the bloddiest ever fought on North American soil.

  149. 149.

    germy

    question of the day from the Washington Post:

    Has Trump transformed America or just revealed it?

  150. 150.

    Shalimar

    @jl: What we need come November 9th is a good situation comedy series, Drumpf In Charge. Scott Baio can co-star as a different cabinet official each week. Lots of potential plots in fictional Donald destroying everything he touches.

  151. 151.

    NCSteve

    The legal defense fund GoFundMe page for those women will meet its goal in half an hour.

    There is nothing about him that isn’t loathsome, but among the loathsome things is the way he uses the legal system as a means of using his money to bully and harm those who he has wronged.

  153. 153.

    jl

    @germy: I think I got the link for that quote, Is this the one? That goofball Steele only now unendorsing Trump? From what he has been saying and writing, I assumed Steele had jumped off the sinking GOP loon ship long ago. Why TF would Steele have stayed on board so long? They dumped and smeared him for the likes of frat doofus Priebus, who has made Steele look like a fricken genius.

    Michael Steele says Donald Trump’s campaign “captured that racist underbelly … of American life”
    Salon, Friday Oct 21, 2017 (!?)

    Michael Steele has officially joined the scores of influential Republicans vowing not to vote for Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential election.

    http://www.salon.com/2016/10/21/michael-steele-says-donald-trumps-campaign-captured-that-racist-underbelly/

  154. 154.

    Mary G

    That photo of Uday or Qusay (I can never remember which one is which) holding up the severed elephant’s tail is beginning to seem strangely prophetic.

  156. 156.

    germy

    @jl:

    Why TF would Steele have stayed on board so long?

    I wondered that myself. What was the “last straw” for him?

  157. 157.

    germy

    @Mary G: Should be a Toles cartoon. The sons holding up the severed tail while Toles’ GOP elephant character looks on in horror, both hands behind his back covering his ass.

  158. 158.

    jl

    @David ?▶️Bad Hombres▶️? Koch: @germy: Well, you stare into stupid and weird long enough,stupid and weird stares back at you. Probably hopeless to figure out why those people do what they do. The very thought that Steele is one of the smarter saner GOPers should be clue to just not try to figure them out.

  162. 162.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MomSense:

    Glad you are going! I’ll reiterate my one piece of advice to Mnem downstairs: make sure you visit the restroom before the opera starts. Act One is a good two hours before intermission starts.

  163. 163.

    Ken

    if he’s not elected, “the movement comes to an end.”

    I’m sure he’s just planning to convert the movement into a TV channel, but does that sound a bit, well, Jonestown to anyone else?

  165. 165.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @lahke:

    Now I can tell them it’s a political, animal-rescue, opera-loving, gardening, American football, soccer football, health care/insurance, national security, international espionage, music, film, art, authors-in-our-midst, vegan, home-repair, car-buying, filthy-mouthed recipe blog?

    ETFY (Expanded That For Ya)

  167. 167.

    Schlemazel

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    Yes, Vicksburg was the stake in the heart of the bastards, they were a dead mob walking after that. It was only a matter of time before the rest of the rotten corpse stopped twitching. Gettysburg got the attention because it was near all the big shots & media. It continued to get all the attention because of the lost cause bullshit idea that somehow winning would have brought England in on their side. There is nothing that would have done that but those people want to believe in fairy tails.

  168. 168.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Now I can tell them it’s a political, animal-rescue, opera-loving, gardening, American football, soccer football, health care/insurance, national security, international espionage, music, film, art, authors-in-our-midst, vegan, home-repair, car-buying, filthy-mouthed, recipe, family blog?

    ETFY

  170. 170.

    Schlemazel

    @Ken:
    At this point I’d be mostly OK if a lot of his followers did the Jonestown punch bowl when he loses. It would be better than the revenge fantasies they seem to want to act out.

  173. 173.

    hovercraft

    @lamh36:

    So apparently they had an old skool mutha…mutha…house party at the White House. We will most certainly never see the like of the Obama White House again.

    This is the sort of thing that the beltway types hate, all the cool kids were invited to the WH for a party, but they were not invited. They are the gatekeepers dammit. They want to in with the cool kids too. He doesn’t invite them to his parties, and he turns down their invites, in other words he’s uppity.

  176. 176.

    redshirt

    All you ME CD2 junkies out there will be happy to hear the latest poll now shows Hillary will a slim 2 point lead, but this is a big comeback from her 14 point deficit 6 weeks ago.

    She’s gonna take it.

  178. 178.

    sukabi

    @Ken: he’s burning thru whatever resources and people would help him fund that adventure…he’s probably going to be spending considerable time and resources fighting off his kids, shareholders for control of his existing properties….

  179. 179.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @hovercraft: It’s high school again. There are the official “cool kids” and there are the kids who are actually cool. The msm sees itself as the arbiter of the “cool kids” and they didn’t pick the Obamas. The Obamas never gave a fuck because they had no interest in being officially “cool.” They simply went on being naturally cool.

  182. 182.

    germy

    @Omnes Omnibus: A few days ago I saw Charlie Rose on some panel discussion. He mentioned Hillary’s life of “privilege” and I remembered that Charlie has his own table at “21”

  183. 183.

    hovercraft

    @David ?▶️Bad Hombres▶️? Koch:
    I saw an analyst say somewhere that the right/wrong was more of an indictment of congress and the gridlock in DC. The public blames everyone in DC for the gridlock, but unfortunately for the GOP they are a bunch of loons, so even though they constantly point the finger at the President, he seems reasonable and likable, so they get the bulk of the blame. The silver lining for them has been that gerrymandering and incumbency has protected them. So if the wave does materialize, this will indeed be a change election.

    ETA: @NonyNony, you beat me to it.

  193. 193.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Now I can tell them it’s a political, animal-rescue, opera-loving, gardening, American football, soccer football, health care/insurance, national security, international espionage, music, film, art, authors-in-our-midst, vegan, home-repair, car-buying, filthy-mouthed, recipe, family, Aristocrats blog?

    FETFY (Further ETFY)

  196. 196.

    Ken

    @Omnes Omnibus: I’m pretty sure that the original meant it to be taken literally, since it was part of an anti-immigrant rant. Let me google… the oracle says it was by Marco Gutierrez, founder (and possibly sole member of) Latinos for Trump. Wonder what he has for dinner every night – pizza? Chow mein?

  198. 198.

    lollipopguild

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: We need a new version of the Twilight Zone to have an episode where Trump is walking home from a bar one night and he is followed/stalked by Taco Trucks!

  199. 199.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Omnes Omnibus: No, it was meant quite literally. The dude who said it was a Latino Trump supporter who said it within the context of the pervasiveness of Latino culture.

  207. 207.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Shana: I hope you mean that he solicited the services of an escort; not the other way around.

    ETA: Anyone know if Costco has Brain Bleach™? I may need the family size for the next 2 1/2 weeks.

  215. 215.

    Tokyokie

    @Yellowdog: Antietam was the bloodiest single day of fighting during the Civil War, but Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle, lasting three days.

  217. 217.

    Pest Bog Mummy, Frakensteinbeck

    @hovercraft:

    even though they constantly point the finger at the President, he seems reasonable and likable, so they get the bulk of the blame.

    And this is why Obama offering the olive branch to the GOP through the vast majority of his presidency was genius, not naivete. On the chance they would cooperate, he gets more done. If they don’t, he looks like an adult and they look like children. It’s also morally right. There is no downside except not meeting the anger requirement of a tiny number of leftists.

  225. 225.

    MomSense

    @redshirt:

    Don’t jinx it!! I think Dem early voting is far outpacing the Republicans, also too.

    I still think this is going to be a squeaker.

  227. 227.

    karen marie

    @Ken: People keep calling it a “TV” channel but it will be an internet channel, not cable or broadcast. I am assuming the fuck ton of money they’re trying (and so far failing) to raise is prepayment for “talent” who, given Trump’s propensity for stiffing people, won’t sign on before seeing actual cash in advance.

  228. 228.

    Brachiator

    I’ve been away from the media and Internets most of the afternoon and evening. I see that the Log Cabin Republicans have declined to support Trump.

    Their official position is that they are proud not to be a single issue group, but I have to wonder how they can stay in a political party which believes in the efficacy of conversion therapy.

  229. 229.

    Brachiator

    @Pest Bog Mummy, Frakensteinbeck:

    @hovercraft:

    even though they constantly point the finger at the President, he seems reasonable and likable, so they get the bulk of the blame.

    Unfortunately, I don’t think this is true. The situation quickly becomes transformed into “both sides do it” and “why can’t they compromise?”

    On the chance they would cooperate, he gets more done. If they don’t, he looks like an adult and they look like children.

    That someone looks like an adult is a big deal for liberals. It means nothing to Republicans.

  234. 234.

    sdhays

    @patroclus: As I’m sure you know, there were no battles of any consequence west of the Appalachian Mountains until all of sudden Ulysses S. Grant wrote to President Lincoln while sitting at a bar in Illinois and suggested attacking Vicksburg. The entire war can be (and basically was when I was in school) described in terms of what happened in Virginia, with brief special episodes in Maryland and Pennsylvania and a bit of unpleasantness in Georgia. Whatever Grant and Sherman were doing for the first few years of the war just couldn’t be worth bothering about…

  240. 240.

    Dmbeaster

    @Villago Delenda Est: The big change was rifled muskets, which were still muzzle loaded. More hitting power, very large bullet, and accurate to a much greater range. Napoleonic muskets were smooth bore and not accurate at over 50 yards. That is why a mass of men standing in a group and firing volleys was the only effective way to hit something. And you are definitely right that the end of the war foreshadowed trench warfare that came later.

  241. 241.

    JR in WV

    @Chip Daniels:

    I got a bottle of Iron Horse and a bottle of Granite’ champagne, chilling for the night of November 8th. Can’t wait. Will enjoy, going to invite neighbors to share. Probably get a couple more bottles between now and then.

  243. 243.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @NMgal: I’m from down south and the husband and I voted Monday. No lines, no confusion about precincts, nice and friendly folks at the table assisting us. Give them your name and birth date, and they print your customized ballot for your district. Fill in the bubbles and run it thru the scanner and BOOM! You get your “I Voted” sticker.

    For all the crap New Mexico gets about being at the bottom of so many things, I’m so very proud of how well we conduct our elections. The whole country Could learn a thing or two from us.

  245. 245.

    Cleos

    @scav:

    Going all out with jerking the choke chain on the chained media.

    In terms of richly deserving a choke chain, there has never been a canine so over-excitable or belligerent that wasn’t put in the shade by said chained media.

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