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You are here: Home / Past Elections / Election 2016 / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Well Said (with Just A Look)

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Well Said (with Just A Look)

by Anne Laurie|  October 26, 20165:43 am| 192 Comments

This post is in: Election 2016, Hillary Clinton 2016, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Woman in the Whitehouse 2016, Daydream Believers

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So… captions, please… pic.twitter.com/AUDSwGR2ch

— Backstorymom1 (@Backstorymom1) October 26, 2016

And a nice little reminder, from Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post:

Not enough has been made of two obvious facts: Hillary Clinton, if she wins, will be the first woman elected to the White House. And it will have been the votes of women who put her there.

Think, for a moment, about what a remarkable milestone that would be. Consider what it would say about the long and difficult struggle to make the Constitution’s guarantees of freedom and equality encompass all Americans. The first 43 presidents were all members of a privileged minority group — white males. The 44th is a black man, and the 45th may well be a white woman. That is a very big deal…

President Obama’s election meant that African American parents were no longer lying when they told their children they could grow up to be president. Likewise, if Clinton wins on Nov. 8, all parents will be truthful when they tell their daughters that there is nothing they cannot achieve…

***********
Apart from taking a moment to feel good about this moment, what’s on the agenda for the day?

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Reader Interactions

192Comments

  1. 1.

    Viva BrisVegas

    October 26, 2016 at 5:52 am

    Obama: Sorry Ryan it won’t work, Trump will still recognise you. How about my witness relocation program instead?

  2. 2.

    Schlemazel

    October 26, 2016 at 5:54 am

    “And I’ll miss you most of all scarecrow”

  3. 3.

    Mustang Bobby

    October 26, 2016 at 5:55 am

    Obama: “I’m sorry, I have no record of your reservation. Perhaps you would like to wait outside?”

  4. 4.

    Baud

    October 26, 2016 at 5:55 am

    @Schlemazel: Heh.

  5. 5.

    TS

    October 26, 2016 at 5:59 am

    One term Speaker & one term Senate Leader – I don’t threaten, I deliver.

  6. 6.

    Patricia Kayden

    October 26, 2016 at 6:00 am

    Very proud to be a member of a Party which is making history back to back with its Presidential choices. Go Democrats!


    Loving Hannity’s meltdown. He’s such a racist. It kills him that a Black family is in the White House.

  7. 7.

    Baud

    October 26, 2016 at 6:01 am

    “If you guys are tired of waiting, I have my own plane. Y’all welcome to come to D.C. with me, if you’re ok sitting in the back.”

  8. 8.

    Baud

    October 26, 2016 at 6:04 am

    @Patricia Kayden: Agreed. The GOP had kind of been threatening at times to beat us to the punch to totally prove they aren’t bigots. But even this year, when they had two top-tier (for them) Latinos running, they went with the old, cranky racist white guy.

  9. 9.

    Schlemazel

    October 26, 2016 at 6:11 am

    I always figured that the first AA President and the first woman President would be Republican. I based that on the belief that the ugly crap the GOP would pull out against a Dem from those groups would keep any non-white, non-male candidate from winning. Turns out I was wrong & I am very glad to be wrong in this case.

    Sure, we are ‘lucky’ the GOP nominated 3 losers in a row but part of that ‘luck’ was that we have had better candidates all along while the GOP has slowly gotten worse. That is not really luck.

  10. 10.

    satby

    October 26, 2016 at 6:12 am

    Good morning everyone! Saw that picture last night and thought it was weird that no one has pointed out to the ZEGS that the beard just makes him look more smarmy.

  11. 11.

    OzarlHillbilly

    October 26, 2016 at 6:12 am

    “Lose your razor again Paul?”

  12. 12.

    Mustang Bobby

    October 26, 2016 at 6:13 am

    I got a robocall from President Obama last night touting a local state senate candidate in Miami. The Dems are pouring money into down-ballot races not only for 2016 but for 2020 so they can get majorities in state legislatures when the census dictates redistricting. Meanwhile, Trump is no longer fund-raising for the GOP, basically telling them they’re on their own. Nice!

  13. 13.

    Mustang Bobby

    October 26, 2016 at 6:13 am

    @satby: He needs hipster glasses and skinny jeans to complete the pathetic factor.

  14. 14.

    David ?▶️Bad Hombres▶️? Koch

    October 26, 2016 at 6:15 am

    The Hill @thehill

    Trump claims he was endorsed ‘conceptually’ by military

    Retweets 33 Likes 27

    11:13 AM – 25 Oct 2016

    DonaId J. Trump ‏@realDenaldTrump

    It’s true, folks! It’s true! What I didn’t say is that it’s the Russian military. #ImWithPutin #RussiaFirst

    0 replies 40 retweets 83 likes

  15. 15.

    amk

    October 26, 2016 at 6:15 am

    Didn’t rush, the racist, offer to “self-deport” to some south american country if the kenyan was elected?

    peak wingnut = #ODS

  16. 16.

    Ben Cisco

    October 26, 2016 at 6:15 am

    Got a video from Mom – Dad’s now lifting BOTH arms and LEGS. She says he’s hitting rehab hard. Everything’s on track for him to be home before Thanksgiving.

    Also, this:

    According to the North Carolina board of elections, as of Monday, October 24th, approximately 654,000 votes have been cast early this year. Of those votes, 47.8 percent have been cast by Democrats, 28.0 percent have been cast by Republicans, while 24.0 percent come from those without a registered party and less than 1 percent come from Libertarians.

  17. 17.

    Schlemazel

    October 26, 2016 at 6:16 am

    @Baud:
    While neither of those two are as smart as scarecrow both are more astute than the Georgia Beach. They would not have a PUBLIC tantrum about seating. There would be whispers and fringer’s tweets about someone being ‘uppity’ but nothing the media would tie to them personally.

  18. 18.

    satby

    October 26, 2016 at 6:16 am

    Told a couple of people in South Bend that early voting is open here, two have committed to voting early and another one already has, for Clinton. I don’t dare hope IN will go blue, but close to tipping would be nice. Put a scare into some of the complacent elected Republicans around here.

  19. 19.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    October 26, 2016 at 6:16 am

    I only lasted 15 minutes with Morning Joe: Trump’s surging in Florida and (though NBC news can’t verify that they’re true, we’re running with them anyway) Hillz emails.

  20. 20.

    amk

    October 26, 2016 at 6:17 am

    @Schlemazel: Their deep inch bench is and was inch long. Simple.

  21. 21.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 26, 2016 at 6:18 am

    I’m in moderation. Apparently wordpress hates bad spellers. So I’ll repeat: “Lose your razor again Paul?”

  22. 22.

    rikyrah

    October 26, 2016 at 6:18 am

    Good Morning ?,Everyone?

  23. 23.

    Schlemazel

    October 26, 2016 at 6:18 am

    @amk:
    It was the Dominican Republic & if the Kenyan usurper was re-elected.

    I am still waiting for Hanity to be waterboarded like he promised

  24. 24.

    raven

    October 26, 2016 at 6:18 am

    @Mustang Bobby: Finally got that screen door!

  25. 25.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    October 26, 2016 at 6:18 am

    @Ben Cisco: Good to hear about your dad’s progress.

  26. 26.

    David ?▶️Bad Hombres▶️? Koch

    October 26, 2016 at 6:19 am

    If Millennials were only group allowed to vote, Clinton would win 504 electoral votes and lose 23. (Map)

    Thanks Obama.

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 26, 2016 at 6:19 am

    “Whooooweeeee. Which one of you guys stepped in Trump?”

  28. 28.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    October 26, 2016 at 6:21 am

    @David ?▶️Bad Hombres▶️? Koch: Unpossible, I’m told that millennials don’t trust her and won’t get off their couches to vote for her.

  29. 29.

    amk

    October 26, 2016 at 6:21 am

    lametimes poll back to donnie dick +1. win!

  30. 30.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 26, 2016 at 6:21 am

    @Schlemazel: “Fortune favors the prepared mind.”

  31. 31.

    satby

    October 26, 2016 at 6:22 am

    @Ben Cisco: Very good news about your dad Ben, and about NC too.

  32. 32.

    amk

    October 26, 2016 at 6:23 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: The deadbeat did some seven events in FL this week. Must be that effect.

  33. 33.

    Schlemazel

    October 26, 2016 at 6:26 am

    @amk:
    Inch deep may be an over estimate but one of the things their 20 candidate clown car showed this primary season was that it is 2 miles wide. Lots of sociopaths and grifters want in on the action.

  34. 34.

    Schlemazel

    October 26, 2016 at 6:27 am

    @Ben Cisco:
    Good for your dad! Hope his recovery is better than even he expects.

  35. 35.

    Ceci n'est pas mon nym

    October 26, 2016 at 6:27 am

    @Ben Cisco:

    while 24.0 percent come from those without a registered party

    It’s Trump’s missing voters! Where are our poll-unskewers to tell us that 24% will put him over the top?

  36. 36.

    David ?▶️Bad Hombres▶️? Koch

    October 26, 2016 at 6:28 am

    Caption:

    “It’s the smart move — the Turtle was always smarter. But I’m gonna wait — after the baptism. I’ve decided to be Godfather to Connie’s baby. And then I’ll meet with Ryan — and the Turtle — all of the heads of the Five Families.”

  37. 37.

    Baud

    October 26, 2016 at 6:28 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Don’t confuse turnout and percentage.

  38. 38.

    Schlemazel

    October 26, 2016 at 6:29 am

    @David ?▶️Bad Hombres▶️? Koch:
    Heck, if the GOtV goes as expected she may do that anyway! Here’s hoping.

  39. 39.

    satby

    October 26, 2016 at 6:29 am

    @raven: that looks great!

  40. 40.

    Mustang Bobby

    October 26, 2016 at 6:29 am

    @raven: Oh, I love it. When I was in the window/door business, it was always hard to find a good match for the single patio doors. That’s a beauty. Does it come with a tempered glass storm panel you can put in when it get chilly?

  41. 41.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 26, 2016 at 6:30 am

    @raven: Beautiful. The Woofmeister would go right thru that screen at the first UPS delivery. :-)

  42. 42.

    amk

    October 26, 2016 at 6:31 am

    Trump campaign turns infomercial.

  43. 43.

    TS

    October 26, 2016 at 6:32 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I also lasted until the mention of emails. When Nicole Wallace is the smart one on the panel – has to be a turn off. The b.s. about how the media has been so against Trump for months and months and months – yet everyone is still voting for him – I just can’t. Media has been against Hillary for 30 years and more. They don’t seem to mention that.

  44. 44.

    JPL

    October 26, 2016 at 6:43 am

    If Bill Clinton is fair game, why isn’t there more coverage about Melania? She has an interesting past, including her entry into the country.

  45. 45.

    anderj

    October 26, 2016 at 6:44 am

    “Trump who? I hear nice things about this Obama (R)…”

  46. 46.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    October 26, 2016 at 6:46 am

    @Baud: I know, that’s what sunk the Baud!2016! campaign.

  47. 47.

    Baud

    October 26, 2016 at 6:47 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    I won 73% of the voters who stayed home.

    Rigged!

  48. 48.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    October 26, 2016 at 6:47 am

    @JPL: She’s not really campaigning for her husband, Bill is on the trail for the HillBeast.

  49. 49.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    October 26, 2016 at 6:50 am

    @Baud: One of the polls they showed before I clicked off Morning Joe was from AZ. For those that have already voted the HillBeast was up by 10, for those that haven’t Trump was up by 9.

  50. 50.

    Baud

    October 26, 2016 at 6:52 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    That’s actually not unusual. I think Republicans are more likely to vote on election day than vote early.

  51. 51.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 26, 2016 at 6:54 am

    @JPL: Bill is a politician. Melania is not. Bill is campaigning on behalf of Hillary. Other than the obligatory “stand by your man” photo/interview ops Melania is hiding in Trump Tower.

  52. 52.

    p.a.

    October 26, 2016 at 6:54 am

    “You may have been declared RINOs, but you’re not going on the protected list. HawHawHaw…”

  53. 53.

    Immanentize

    October 26, 2016 at 6:55 am

    @raven: that is one fine door. Pricey, I suspect.

  54. 54.

    hueyplong

    October 26, 2016 at 6:55 am

    @Ben Cisco: while 24.0 percent come from those without a registered party

    @ ceci n’est pas mon nym: It’s Trump’s missing voters! Where are our poll-unskewers to tell us that 24% will put him over the top?

    One of those non-party-registered votes was from me. I hope Trump is counting on me. Hope Morning Joe is, too.

  55. 55.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    October 26, 2016 at 6:58 am

    @Baud: I’d rather have my votes banked ahead of election day. Never know, it could snow in Phoenix on election day.

  56. 56.

    Patricia Kayden

    October 26, 2016 at 6:59 am

    @Schlemazel: Given how racist and sexist Republican voters are, I never see them having a woman or POC Presidential nominee. Their base doesn’t roll like that.

    @Ben Cisco: Nice news about your Father and the elections. Woohoo!!

  57. 57.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 26, 2016 at 7:00 am

    Who said, “We’re gonna have to leave it at that, and you can take your anger issues and spend some time working on them, Mr Speaker.” and to whom was it said?

  58. 58.

    Immanentize

    October 26, 2016 at 7:01 am

    @Baud: I thought it was the other way around — that republicans have traditionally excelled at early and absentee ballot run ups. This is particularly true in Hispanic communities.

  59. 59.

    JPL

    October 26, 2016 at 7:02 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: @OzarkHillbilly: True.

  60. 60.

    dogwood

    October 26, 2016 at 7:03 am

    @Immanentize:
    Absentee, yes. Early vote, no.

  61. 61.

    JPL

    October 26, 2016 at 7:04 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: The NYTimes has an article about the dust-up that occurred between Megyn and Newt last night.

  62. 62.

    Immanentize

    October 26, 2016 at 7:07 am

    @dogwood: Thanks. But looking at North Carolina comparisons, it seems the republicans are underperforming their early voting efforts from 2012 by at least 40%. I haven’t seen any other state’s comparative data.

  63. 63.

    dogwood

    October 26, 2016 at 7:09 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    “Bloody” Megyn to nasty Newt.

  64. 64.

    Tony J

    October 26, 2016 at 7:09 am

    RYAN: “What are they going to say about him? What? Are they going to say he was a kind man? He was a wise man? He had plans? He had wisdom? Bullshit, man!”

    TURTLE: “FFS, Newbie…”

    OBAMA: “Donnie’s still in the wire, huh?”

  65. 65.

    Kay

    October 26, 2016 at 7:11 am

    So funny that the Clintons are beating Newt Gingrich again. He’s too old to come back, too. He’ll never be influential with another US President- forget “President” which is what he wanted. Now he won’t even get close to one.

  66. 66.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 26, 2016 at 7:16 am

    @JPL: I love it. The GOP is reaching the “cannibalization” stage of the grief process.

  67. 67.

    TS

    October 26, 2016 at 7:17 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Bill is capable of campaigning, Melania is not – which is the only reason she is hiding away.

  68. 68.

    Ben Cisco

    October 26, 2016 at 7:17 am

    @hueyplong: Make that two.

    ETA: Actually, I mailed a ballot in, so no, the early vote stats don’t include me.

  69. 69.

    Ben Cisco

    October 26, 2016 at 7:20 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: @satby: @Schlemazel: @Patricia Kayden: Thanks all.

  70. 70.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 26, 2016 at 7:21 am

    @TS: While it is true she is not capable of campaigning (for that matter neither is her husband) it is for the obvious reason that she has absolutely zero desire to do it.

  71. 71.

    aarrgghh

    October 26, 2016 at 7:21 am

    obama: “you’re not alone, guys. i’ve heard that he’s groped other people too …”

  72. 72.

    NotMax

    October 26, 2016 at 7:25 am

    More accurately, the 42 men pre-Obama were white.That dang Cleveland and his non-consecutive terms.

  73. 73.

    Baud

    October 26, 2016 at 7:27 am

    @NotMax: Cleveland would be quite a story if it happened today.

    ETA: I would like to have a President named Grover.

  74. 74.

    AnderJ

    October 26, 2016 at 7:27 am

    “Don’t look, but Trump’s right behind you!”

  75. 75.

    Kay

    October 26, 2016 at 7:27 am

    The thing is, another Clinton Presidency will be great for the Right wing grift machine. Half these people made their careers on attacking Bill for 8 years.

    The Grift Caucus will probably get bigger and more unhinged, hopefully making it impossible for them to win in 2020. It’s a vicious cycle. Just the stable of losing Presidential candidates is up to what, 20? All those people have to find work along with their hangers on and there’s a younger set coming up behind them, the “alt right”. It’ll be huge- could be thousands of people living off small GOP donors.

  76. 76.

    bemused

    October 26, 2016 at 7:31 am

    @Kay:

    Newt is aware he’s got no influence or power judging by his pissed off outburst at Kelly.

  77. 77.

    Central Planning

    October 26, 2016 at 7:31 am

    “Paul, I dare you to knock that envelope out of Mitch’s hand”

  78. 78.

    debbie

    October 26, 2016 at 7:32 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Tough to be a foreign-born wife in a campaign built on hatred of foreigners. Especially when she was illegal for a period of time. What, GOP hypocrisy???

  79. 79.

    NorthLeft12

    October 26, 2016 at 7:34 am

    I see that David Brooks has delivered another pathetic column bemoaning the loss of civility and morality in today’s America. He then goes on to whine about specific instances that are all Trump/Republican related, but makes sure to “both sides” it at the end, basically appealing to Hillary Clinton and the Dems to reach across the aisle and consider the delicate fee fees of those bigots, misogynists, obstructionists, and ignoramuses when they attempt to run the country.

    Shorter Brooks: Dems; Please save the Republican party from themselves.

  80. 80.

    Kay

    October 26, 2016 at 7:34 am

    Hannity to Obama: “You want to go to Kenya? I’ll pay for you to go to Kenya”

    It’s really baked in among conservatives, the racism. Hannity believes he is in a position to “pay for” Obama to go to Kenya. Obama is a wildly successful person by any measure- as if he needs one of these low rent losers to “pay for” anything.

  81. 81.

    debbie

    October 26, 2016 at 7:35 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Had to Google that. I’m surprised Fox didn’t fire her immediately!

  82. 82.

    Baud

    October 26, 2016 at 7:35 am

    @NorthLeft12: We tried that with Obama. They spit in our face. Fool me twice…we won’t get fooled again.

  83. 83.

    debbie

    October 26, 2016 at 7:37 am

    @Kay:

    Hannity needs to answer for all his show’s listeners who took his advice and moved to North Dakota to make hundreds of millions of dollars, but now are stuck there and unemployed. He ought to pay their moving expenses to return home.

  84. 84.

    NotMax

    October 26, 2016 at 7:37 am

    @NorthLeft12

    There’s two sides to every salad bar.

    ;)

  85. 85.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 26, 2016 at 7:40 am

    @debbie: I read that the NY Post fucked up the time line on the particular instance they were reporting on and she did not work illegally (or at least there is no proof that she did). I think it was at TPM.

  86. 86.

    NorthLeft12

    October 26, 2016 at 7:41 am

    @Baud: Not sure how nominating a Latino candidate proves you are not bigoted. Especially when that candidate [Rubio or Cruz] is basically a bigot/misogynist, and he enthusiastically embraces the most vile and discriminatory policies in the Republican party platform.

  87. 87.

    Kay

    October 26, 2016 at 7:41 am

    @NorthLeft12:

    There’s a big ideological range among Democrats and it used to be bigger and more Right-leaning prior to 2010 and 2012.

    Republican leaders are stupid people. They should have reached out to conservadems in ’09. They could have essentially had a governing Congressional majority but they were too dumb to learn to count and figure that out. It’s greed. They wanted the whole thing or nothing so they went for broke, and they got “broke”. They’re bad at their jobs.

  88. 88.

    Baud

    October 26, 2016 at 7:43 am

    @NorthLeft12: Yeah but they don’t see it that way.

  89. 89.

    PsiFighter37

    October 26, 2016 at 7:43 am

    New Selzer poll has Trump up 2 in Florida. I know they have a very high pollster ranking nearly everywhere, but they were slightly off on Iowa this year, and I have no idea how good they are outside of Iowa.

    I find it hard to believe Trump is up…his ground game blows and he even is winning Latinos in Miami area…right.

  90. 90.

    hueyplong

    October 26, 2016 at 7:44 am

    Newt was just raging against the dying of the light.

    Everyone Trump touches is finished. I was thrilled when Gingrich decided it was a good idea to embrace Trump. Look at how quickly Palin dropped off the face of the earth. Happened at her very endorsement presser.

  91. 91.

    Punchy

    October 26, 2016 at 7:44 am

    Scratchy-Faced Granny Starver?

  92. 92.

    opiejeanne

    October 26, 2016 at 7:45 am

    @debbie: What was that about, Hannity getting his rubes to move to N Dak? What’s there that they would make so much money?

  93. 93.

    MattF

    October 26, 2016 at 7:45 am

    @Kay: I guess Hannity regards racism as humorous. He’s fallen into the ‘no redeeming virtues’ category, although possibly he was always there– I wouldn’t know.

  94. 94.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 26, 2016 at 7:46 am

    @debbie: Ailes is gone. I have been reading stuff that leads me to believe the Murdoch spawn want… a more reality based FOX? Time will tell. Lying was very profitable for them.

  95. 95.

    Kay

    October 26, 2016 at 7:46 am

    @debbie:

    who took his advice and moved to North Dakota

    I’m sympathetic I hope but even I think anyone who listens to Sean Hannity on practical matters is an idiot and probably deserves what they get. Hannity is dumb as a rock. They have to do some thinking before moving to North Dakota.

  96. 96.

    NorthLeft12

    October 26, 2016 at 7:47 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    The GOP is reaching the “cannibalization” stage of the grief process.

    HA! That is the QOTD for me. And its not even 8:00 AM.

  97. 97.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 26, 2016 at 7:49 am

    @opiejeanne: Bakken crude.

  98. 98.

    debbie

    October 26, 2016 at 7:49 am

    @opiejeanne:

    Fracking. He told them there were trucker jobs by the thousands.

  99. 99.

    MattF

    October 26, 2016 at 7:50 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’m waiting now for the ‘concrete galoshes’ stage.

  100. 100.

    rikyrah

    October 26, 2016 at 7:50 am

    @Baud:
    Especially with someone who’s been villified by them for 25 years.

  101. 101.

    hueyplong

    October 26, 2016 at 7:51 am

    If Hannity hadn’t sent them to ND to lose everything in the get-rich-quick world of fracking and shale oil, they’d have given it all away to snake oil salesmen or a Nigerian prince.

    Stupid people following a grifting hate-monger– what could go wrong?

    At least they learned something. They learned it’s all Obama’s fault.

  102. 102.

    OzarkHillbilly

    October 26, 2016 at 7:52 am

    Time to go see the surgeon so he can tell me my arm is falling off. Y’all play nice now, ya heah?

  103. 103.

    Kay

    October 26, 2016 at 7:52 am

    @NorthLeft12:

    Democrats would have given them just about anything to get a GOP Senator on board for the health care bill. They had HUGE leverage. Now they have none, because Democrats already took the entire political hit for the health care bill. That issue will never again have the potency against Democrats it had in 2010. Democrats are essentially bullet-proof on the downside of it and now they’ll have Clinton to fix it.

  104. 104.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    October 26, 2016 at 7:54 am

    @PsiFighter37:

    New Selzer poll has Trump up 2 in Florida.

    Selzer poll?

    “A little song, a little dance, a little selzer down your pants.”

  105. 105.

    raven

    October 26, 2016 at 7:54 am

    @Mustang Bobby: No, it’s a straight up screen door. The door behind it is one of them new fangled jobs with good windows so I think we’re good. He used recycled heart pine and was glad when I said I didn’t want to paint it. Of course the oil cost quite a bit more but we love it.

  106. 106.

    debbie

    October 26, 2016 at 7:54 am

    @debbie:

    Gotta run to work, but more specifically: Last year, I got off work at 9:00pm and would sometimes tune in while driving home. Hannity kept telling listeners that Obama would never get them their jobs back, but there was this kind of gold rush up in North Dakota.

    It was kind of sad hearing callers tell him how they’d sold everything and moved up there.

  107. 107.

    Kay

    October 26, 2016 at 7:55 am

    @NorthLeft12:

    The political risk on the health care bill was never the uninsured. They had nothing, so nothing to lose. It was always the insured Democrats were worried about losing politically. The health care bill hasn’t harmed the people on Medicare and the people with employer-provided insurance and they were always the risky bet politically. They could not be harmed.

  108. 108.

    NorthLeft12

    October 26, 2016 at 7:57 am

    @Kay: I agree with you. Repubs are not believers in sharing. Compromise is a sign of weakness to them and their rabid base. Since the maddening crowd has no knowledge or appreciation of how government actually works, they rail and attack the Repubs for any legislation that is passed that they deem to be favourable to those people or Dems. That’s why they also rage and fulminate over the lack of success in repealing the ACA.

    HILL-arious!

  109. 109.

    opiejeanne

    October 26, 2016 at 8:00 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Thanks. I dug around and found it. I don’t understand people who would up stakes and move to a place without having a job offer beforehand, although I have family members who did just that in the 1920s; sold their farms in Missouri to homestead in Montana, and lost everything. I still look at the photos in astonishment, that they all lived in one tarpaper shack with their parents and their kids.

  110. 110.

    opiejeanne

    October 26, 2016 at 8:04 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Thanks. I dug around and found it. I don’t understand people who would up stakes and move to a place without having a job offer beforehand, although I have family members who did just that in the 1920s; sold their farms in Missouri to homestead in Montana, and lost everything. I still look at the photos in astonishment, that they all lived in one tarpaper shack with their parents and their kids.

    Montana homestead

  111. 111.

    satby

    October 26, 2016 at 8:07 am

    @opiejeanne: Wow, it’s great you have a family picture that’s been handed down like that.

  112. 112.

    Mustang Bobby

    October 26, 2016 at 8:08 am

    @raven: Sweet. You’re in a climate where you won’t need protection against -25F winters.

  113. 113.

    opiejeanne

    October 26, 2016 at 8:09 am

    @debbie: I found a forum that discussed it. He told some idiot that jobs driving trucks paid $80k but neglected to mention the high cost of housing in the area, and that said idiot could probably only get a minimum wage job anyway, if he could pass the drug test.

  114. 114.

    NorthLeft12

    October 26, 2016 at 8:11 am

    @hueyplong: Who knew that Sean Hannity would aspire to be the Horace Greeley of the twenty-first century.

    Although “Get your ass to North Dakota and drive a truck.” is not as pithy sounding as “Go west young man, go west!”

  115. 115.

    TS

    October 26, 2016 at 8:15 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Reminds me of when the President discussed his campaign & he said it had to be 100% OK with Michelle before he could run for president. Trump treats his wife as he treats all women – completely ignores her opinion.

  116. 116.

    opiejeanne

    October 26, 2016 at 8:16 am

    @satby: A bunch of us found each other online in 1998, and most of us had scanners. Some told stories, some shared photos, and some were as dumb as dumb. One told me rather huffily that she would be proud to meet all of her ancestors. Knowing what I know about her grandma, no, she wouldn’t, but I didn’t let her in on the secret that her grandma used to sit around with my grandma and the other ladies at tea*, and she had NO DRAWERS ON! It was the talk of Bannister Holler.
    *or whatever they got up to when they got together. Drinking buttermilk while they quilted.

  117. 117.

    MomSense

    October 26, 2016 at 8:16 am

    PBO: Relax Mitch and put down that folder, your nominee only grabs women there And you’ve got nothing to worry about Ryan cuz everyone knows you’re a dick.

  118. 118.

    prob50

    October 26, 2016 at 8:22 am

    @debbie:

    Fracking. He told them there were trucker jobs by the thousands.

    I guess you could say that Hannity kinda fracked them.

  119. 119.

    MomSense

    October 26, 2016 at 8:22 am

    @opiejeanne:

    I found out as a kid that none of the grandmas wore panties! Those grandmas were wild!

  120. 120.

    prob50

    October 26, 2016 at 8:27 am

    @opiejeanne: Could have been worse, from that picture it looks like the situation had “Donner Party” potential.

  121. 121.

    Tilda Swinton's Bald Cap

    October 26, 2016 at 8:31 am

    Fun article:

    Trump TV?
    CNN’s Jeff Zucker explains how he became Donald’s useful idiot

    Link

  122. 122.

    Jeffro

    October 26, 2016 at 8:31 am

    Meanwhile here in NoVA, of my three closest college buddies, one announced he was writing in himself (instead of voting for Trump). He even sent a picture of it around to us as proof (and yes, that’s legal in VA btw). This is no small feat – the guy had declared pretty early that he was for Trump “to shake things up! to show that Hillary unh-uh!” and that I shouldn’t try to change his mind. So I didn’t.

    I guess events overtook, and here we are with a write-in vote that won’t matter, but at least it’s not going into Trump’s column.

    Meanwhile, the other two clowns say they’re going to write-in that first clown so that he shows up with 3 official votes(!) Gen Xers are just worthless. But I suspect there might have been a Trump and a Johnson vote from those two, so I’ll take the 3 write-ins plus my vote for Hillz and call it a day for now.

  123. 123.

    Another Scott

    October 26, 2016 at 8:34 am

    “I know you guys are shocked, but trying to ignore me won’t make me go away. I’ll be here until January 2017 – you might as well make the best of it. Or not, your choice.”

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  124. 124.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    October 26, 2016 at 8:34 am

    And it Trump wins he will be the first pimp president. You know, that “model agency” he ran and all that. So firsts all around.

  125. 125.

    Dork

    October 26, 2016 at 8:37 am

    Poor Barry….he lies down with fleas, wakes up with dogs.

  126. 126.

    prob50

    October 26, 2016 at 8:39 am

    Maybe N Dakota’s state motto is “Give us your stupid and ignorant”. They could build a “Statue of Stupidity” at the border.

  127. 127.

    donnah

    October 26, 2016 at 8:39 am

    Our first woman President; it seems like it was never going to happen. And Hillary has suffered the constant onslaught of hate and ridicule since Bill was elected. It’s a testament to her stamina and courage and that’s what a President needs to have. She’s proven herself over and over again, and she deserves to win this election, and it should be a landslide.

    Hillary has been practically vanished in terms of being a woman, which has led to so many people forgetting that she will be the first woman to be elected President. She’s been reduced to a shrew, harpy, hag, monster so often that the amazing significance of her becoming President has been lost.

    I cried when Obama won the first time, and again when he won the second. It was monumental. When Hillary wins, I know I’ll cry again, having seen the second great barrier come down. First race, then gender, no longer the brick walls against becoming President.

    That’s what we should be focusing on. And hopefully celebrating in just a couple of weeks.

  128. 128.

    Baud

    October 26, 2016 at 8:39 am

    @efgoldman: We’ve done worse.

  129. 129.

    aimai

    October 26, 2016 at 8:49 am

    @Jeffro: There really is a huge pissy component to some voters. I’ve been having a related discussion with some of the young, idealistic, voters around me at school. They all feel obligated to sigh and wish “the nastiness” was over and that we could all ‘work together’ and I just say

    “You will never get the politics out of politics–nor should you. We are fighting to the death over real policy differences. Those people on the other side are, in fact, wrong and not only are they wrong they are consistently and willingly choosing the most awful people, in support of the most awful policies. There is never going to be any compromising with them because they aren’t interested in compromise–and nor should you be! Its ok to fight for what you believe in, and refuse to compromise with people who believe in the direct opposite. Its not something to be afraid of, or ashamed of, or to hope ends. It should continue after the election–we have to keep fighting after the election. ” Or words to that effect.

    In my experience the nicer gen xers and millenials are too nice–and the meaner ones are too mean. So the nice ones want to make everyone happy, and they feel uncomfortable winning and want to soften the blow for the opposition. While the meaner ones, the Trump supporters, feel uncomfortable that someone else is winnng or that someone else is happy, so they want to spoil it for them. This leads our side to be weaker than it should, and their side to be more spiteful than they can manage.

  130. 130.

    satby

    October 26, 2016 at 8:52 am

    My cousins made Buzzfeed! The guy in the pictures is my “baby” cousin Rich.

  131. 131.

    Patricia Kayden

    October 26, 2016 at 8:56 am

    @debbie:

    It was kind of sad hearing callers tell him how they’d sold everything and moved up there.

    I’m so evil that I can’t stop laughing my head off at that. Really? They sold all they had and moved to North Dakota (haven of White Supremacists) on the say so of Sean Hannity? Why didn’t Sean move there too if it was such a gold rush? Rubes. Nothing but rubes.

  132. 132.

    hovercraft

    October 26, 2016 at 8:58 am

    Good morning.
    Can someone please tell Kristen Welker of msbnc that the word overshadow does not mean what she thinks it means. She keeps saying that the e-mail issue is overshadowing her campaign down the final stretch. Yes it is an issue that the media attempts to play up every day, but it is not the dominant issue either on the trail or even in the coverage. The first part of the coverage starts with the events, the attacks on the sjitgibbon and her surrogates, and then they talk about her lead, and the GOTV, and then finally they bring up e-ghazi.

    Ronan Farrow says millennials are trending towards Hillary but are not enthusiastic for her. Says Tufts research shows new registrations are in line with the last two elections, but says there is so much negativity it may affect turnout. So basically they have registered but since they don.t like her, and hate him, they may not turn out. One troubling sign is that only 30% say they have been contacted by either campaign.

  133. 133.

    Patricia Kayden

    October 26, 2016 at 9:01 am

    @donnah:

    When Hillary wins, I know I’ll cry again, having seen the second great barrier come down.

    Hell, I cried when she won the nomination. This is a very historic election — Orange Clown Bigot be damned. I may even drag my behind to see her inaugurated if it’s not too cold in January.

  134. 134.

    Betty Cracker

    October 26, 2016 at 9:10 am

    @satby: Aw, what a sweet story.

  135. 135.

    opiejeanne

    October 26, 2016 at 9:14 am

    @MomSense: Mine did. They were shocked that others didn’t, but I know that they didn’t in an earlier generation (not sure when they all stopped going commando). I’m 66, this was the 1920s. She was a bit of a floozy.
    Grandpa’s brother’s wife died of appendicitis and a couple of days after the funeral, Uncle Billy got himself duded up, put on his only suit and polished his shoes, and announced he was going to get himself a new wife, he needed a wife in the worst way, and he got the person described above.

  136. 136.

    Kropadope

    October 26, 2016 at 9:17 am

    On my way to take advantage of my state’s first every early voting period.

  137. 137.

    opiejeanne

    October 26, 2016 at 9:18 am

    @prob50: My great grandpa moved to Montana and built the shack in 1917. He convinced his adult children to move there and bring the kids, and until they got their houses built, they all lived together in that shack. Note that no one has a heavy coat on despite the snow.
    This picture amazes me, that those two women managed to produce cakes. It’s probably my great grandpa’s birthday, judging by the people in the photo.

    Party in Montana

  138. 138.

    opiejeanne

    October 26, 2016 at 9:18 am

    @Tilda Swinton’s Bald Cap: Oh, so he’s figured it out finally?

  139. 139.

    satby

    October 26, 2016 at 9:20 am

    @Betty Cracker: thanks! It’s been a comfort to them how many people relate to their loss.

  140. 140.

    Lee

    October 26, 2016 at 9:30 am

    @Patricia Kayden:

    This almost happened to someone I know.

    The guy that sits next to me at work. About 3(?) years ago his oldest son just graduated High School. Didn’t really know what he wanted to do so he enlisted in the army in the reserves as a helo mechanic. When he got out he didn’t know what he wanted so he was thinking of moving up the North Dakota to work.

    I grew up in West Texas & I’m very familiar with the boom/bust of the oil business. I told him in no uncertain terms that it was a bad idea and that they would be moving him back in 12-18 months unless he got killed or seriously injured in a work related accident. Thankfully he did not go.

  141. 141.

    Chris

    October 26, 2016 at 9:32 am

    @Patricia Kayden:

    And when North Dakota isn’t the goldmine they were promised, you know exactly who they’ll blame.

  142. 142.

    Jeffro

    October 26, 2016 at 9:33 am

    @Patricia Kayden:

    This is a very historic election — Orange Clown Bigot be damned. I may even drag my behind to see her inaugurated if it’s not too cold in January.

    You know…that is a great point/heads-up. I have been so focused on Nov 8th I’d forgotten that we need to celebrate Inauguration Day around here (and what better way to do it than to take the kids downtown) Thanks Patricia!

  143. 143.

    Jeffro

    October 26, 2016 at 9:36 am

    @aimai: I like the part about “you’ll never get the politics out of politics” – the whole country could use a wake-up on that one – but I’d probably shorten the rest to, “ignore the media and look at what the two parties actually stand for (in terms of stated policies) AND what they work towards…then vote your values”

    Of course for my fellow Gen Xers I skip this message entirely and simply ask that they not vote. Bunch of Reagan babies…grumble grumble…

  144. 144.

    Eric U.

    October 26, 2016 at 9:40 am

    @debbie: I get the impression that there are very few trucker jobs in fracking, mabye a few hundred in a whole state. My guess is that they don’t just hire anyone for the job either. Those trucks are big, they travel on back roads, and a liquid load isn’t that easy to deal with. It’s not your typical long-haul trucking job. One thing we found out here in Pennsyltucky: fracking is a pain in the butt and the locals don’t get jobs. But they do lose their apartments because the rents go sky-high. It’s nice that the activity has essentially stopped, the fracking workers would come to State College and be a pain in the butt.

  145. 145.

    Jeffro

    October 26, 2016 at 9:49 am

    Btw could someone with a little more time on their hands (and their good arm not in a sling) deconstruct Chunky Bobo’s latest bit of extreme navel-gazing? I am trying to follow his argument and it seems to be “we need more conservative intellectuals” without recognizing the oxymoronic nature of that phrase.

    (he also appears to be engaging in wishful thinking – “if only W had been right about something, anything” – while (as usual) bemoaning the decline of sexual mores in this country. I’m telling you, it’s the full Chunky B laundry list)

  146. 146.

    Ceci n'est pas mon nym

    October 26, 2016 at 9:53 am

    @Chris: This North Dakota thing reminds me of the Alaska Pipeline construction in the 79s. Similar Gold Rush thing, with rumors of huge salaries to be made. I knew a few young single guys who went up there. At least one of them fell in love with the state and stayed.

    But if you’re fresh out of college with no ties, why not? Different thing with a family, and what I think is a harsher climate. These ND fracking prospectors are probably more analogous to the idiots Jack London liked to write about, hoping to get rich in the Yukon. Most London “idiots in the frozen north” stories don’t end well for the idiots.

  147. 147.

    Patricia Kayden

    October 26, 2016 at 9:58 am

    @Lee: Good on you for talking him out of what could have been a foolish move. Too bad Hannity followers didn’t have you to talk sense into their heads.

  148. 148.

    Patricia Kayden

    October 26, 2016 at 10:01 am

    @Chris: Not Hannity.

  149. 149.

    prob50

    October 26, 2016 at 10:06 am

    @opiejeanne: That’s such a cool picture. It’s clear everybody, especially the children in front, were wearing their “Sunday Best” for the photo. Glad you pointed out the cakes, I would have missed them entirely.

    ‘Bout 10 or so years before your great grandpa moved to MT my ancestor’s were hopping a boat from Europe to escape pogroms and God knows what other crap they had to deal with and would soon be festering and growing . Lucky for me they did, otherwise no prob50 today.

  150. 150.

    Gin & Tonic

    October 26, 2016 at 10:08 am

    @Eric U.: I think most extraction-industry booms are like that. I recall reading a story a few years ago about some guys making serious coin driving trucks in the mining biz in Western Australia. Sure, maybe a few guys did, but left only lightly mentioned, if at all, is that you have to go to the middle of fucking nowhere, where there is no place to live, nothing to do and no women to pass the time with. So you sleep in your truck and spend all your money on booze.

  151. 151.

    prob50

    October 26, 2016 at 10:16 am

    @Gin & Tonic:

    nothing to do and no women to pass the time with. So you sleep in your truck and spend all your money on booze.

    But hey, they can still watch Sean Hannity.

  152. 152.

    Tripod

    October 26, 2016 at 10:19 am

    I hoped after the election we’ll lose the cottage industry of white male liberal think pieces on the Democrats betrayal of hard workin’ hardhats. But then I realized, as long as there are status insecure white doodz, that shit ain’t ever gonna end.

    Duncan Black’s commentariat smacked him down yesterday when he blathered into the economic insecurity nonsense.

    Sad to realize how few of these idiots have bothered to read the Port Huron Statement (RIP Tom Hayden) – the post war job offs in low skill labor (and decline of organize labor) took up a good chunk of it. Not that the “left” has addressed that in the ensuing fifty years – they just keep trying iterations of blame the Boomers.

    The neo-New Dealers stand fast in their belief that the industrial revolution was a net job creator, resources are infinite, and therefore so is consumption. It is the economics of a model railroad.

  153. 153.

    Bill in Section 147

    October 26, 2016 at 10:19 am

    You can’t blame the dog for that one Mitch.

  154. 154.

    Cracker and toast

    October 26, 2016 at 10:21 am

    @donnah: “When Hillary wins”.

    Don’t count your chickens before they hatch. Sam Wang downgraded her chances from 98 to 97% and congressional seats are moving over to Trump. Also something something obamacare. Also Rasummussen says it’s almost tied. Also Al Gore.

    So I’m scared. I think she is in trouble.

  155. 155.

    hovercraft

    October 26, 2016 at 10:30 am

    @Tripod:

    Not that the “left” has addressed that in the ensuing fifty years – they just keep trying iterations of blame the Boomers.

    Speaking of blame the boomers, Dana Milbank has a new column today.

    ……And what does this generation have to show for its quarter-century of leadership?

    Boomers inherited the sole superpower after the Greatest Generation won the Cold War — and squandered U.S. influence with two long and inconclusive wars.

    They gave us the financial collapse of 2008, the worst economy since the Great Depression, a crushing federal debt and worse inequality. They devoured fossil fuels and did little about global warming while allowing infrastructure and research to deteriorate. They expanded entitlement programs and are now poised to bankrupt those programs. Their leadership has led to declining confidence in religion, the presidency, Congress, the Supreme Court, banks and big business, schools, the media and the police. They may leave their children (the millennials) worse off than they were.

    Boomers, coddled in their youth, grew up selfish and unyielding. When they got power, they created polarization and gridlock from both sides. Though Vietnam War-protesting boomers got the attention, their peers on the right were just as ideological, creating the religious right. Boomers are twice as likely to identify as conservative than liberal, a figure that hasn’t changed much in two decades. And Trump captures his generation’s selfishness: his multiple draft deferrals, his claim that he’s “made a lot of sacrifices” by building buildings, his vow not to cut Social Security but to have huge tax cuts and massive military investments.

    Generational patterns repeat over time, as researchers William Strauss and Neil Howe showed. A “civic” generation is followed by an “adaptive” one, then “idealist” and “reactive” generations. The boomers are idealists — same as the generations that led the United States into the Civil War and the Great Depression. Gen Xers are reactive — cynical and pragmatic — and clean up idealists’ messes. Millennials, like the Greatest Generation, rebuild institutions.
    Happily, Gen Xers, the cleanup crew, could become the plurality in Congress as soon as 2018. The question is whether my generation, working with the millennials, can break the boomers’ gridlock and deal jointly with the many crises boomers left us.

    Gen Xer that I am, I’m not convinced my cynical cohort has what it takes. But Rosen is hopeful. “When we see national emergencies arrive, Generation X will be able to get things done when it needs to,” he says. “All the evidence suggests that Gen X has those qualities.”…..

    ETA: Looking at congress now, I don’t have is faith in the Gen X’ers who are there to do anything but make the situation worse. Ted Cruz, Ryan, Rubio? Yeah right.

  156. 156.

    opiejeanne

    October 26, 2016 at 10:33 am

    @prob50: Yes, lucky for you and them. Of course, they had to put up with a lot of crap here, too but minor compared to what they escaped.

  157. 157.

    waysel

    October 26, 2016 at 10:38 am

    @Jeffro: Driftglass blogspot is usually good for a Bobo takedown. The guy hates him some Brooksie real good.

  158. 158.

    prob50

    October 26, 2016 at 10:38 am

    @opiejeanne: Here they had the decent chance. Eastern Europe circa 1907 or so? Not so much.

  159. 159.

    opiejeanne

    October 26, 2016 at 10:38 am

    @hovercraft: What a twerp. Blames an entire broad generation for the misdeeds of a handful of people who got into power, who should never have been left in charge of anything more important than picking up after their dogs.

    No mention or praise of Bill Clinton or President Obama for what they did to fix things that had been messed up by Reagan and W.

  160. 160.

    hovercraft

    October 26, 2016 at 10:39 am

    @Jeffro:

    Btw could someone with a little more time on their hands (and their good arm not in a sling) deconstruct Chunky Bobo’s latest bit of extreme navel-gazing? I am trying to follow his argument and it seems to be “we need more conservative intellectuals” without recognizing the oxymoronic nature of that phrase.

    I will not actually read Bobo, my contribution is to bring you the moronic natterings of Joe and his crew, but I did see this analysis at the GOS>
    The Unbearable Lack of Self-Awareness of David Brooks (Or, Their Barbarians are now at their Gates)

  161. 161.

    hovercraft

    October 26, 2016 at 10:45 am

    @opiejeanne:
    He kind of proves Tripos point. This propensity to blame or attribute things to entire groups of people or generations is stupid. This is a way of absolving those who are actually responsible for the disastrous decisions they made. They built it, so let them own it, it’s true that most of us were too busy living our lives to notice, but that’s not the same as being the ones who broke the country.

  162. 162.

    Jeffro

    October 26, 2016 at 10:48 am

    @waysel: @hovercraft:

    My bad…I meant Chunky Reese Witherspoon (I thought ‘Chunky Bobo’ also worked) aka Ross Douthat…he’s just a mess today, even more than usual.

    Hey since we’re still on this Open Thread: Bill Weld calls for voters to choose Hillary, throws shade on his own running mate Gary Johnson

    “Every citizen must be aware of the power and responsibility of each individual vote,” Weld writes. “This is not the time to cast a jocular or feel-good vote for a man whom you may have briefly found entertaining.”

  163. 163.

    The Moar You Know

    October 26, 2016 at 10:53 am

    Gen Xers are just worthless.

    @Jeffro: As a Gen Xer myself, let me agree with you. Loudly. I’m so fucking ashamed of my generation. Yeah, the boomers and millennials have their own problems – far fewer than usually ascribed to them, especially the millennials – but us? We’re mean as shit and utterly lack any sense of civic or social responsibility whatsoever.

  164. 164.

    prob50

    October 26, 2016 at 10:54 am

    @Jeffro:

    This is not the time to cast a jocular or feel-good vote for a man whom you may have briefly found entertaining

    That’s not “shade”, that’s a G-Damn tarp.

  165. 165.

    prob50

    October 26, 2016 at 10:55 am

    @The Moar You Know:

    We’re mean as shit and utterly lack any sense of civic or social responsibility whatsoever.

    But you give really good snark.

  166. 166.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 26, 2016 at 11:03 am

    @Jeffro: Chunky Bobo is I believe, an internet tradition of which I am aware that refers to Douthat, spinning off his own “chunky Reese Witherspoon” about the night he decided to maintain his virginity, or something.

    “cast a jocular vote”– Bill Weld does have a sort of latter-day, Boston Brahmin Bertie Wooster quality that I find appealing.

  167. 167.

    MomSense

    October 26, 2016 at 11:03 am

    @The Moar You Know:

    I’m right there with you. We GenXers are the worst. We embraced the greed is good mindset and the snake oil Ronald Reagan was selling.

  168. 168.

    Jeffro

    October 26, 2016 at 11:12 am

    @MomSense:

    We GenXers are the worst. We embraced the greed is good mindset and the snake oil Ronald Reagan was selling.

    Well we aren’t – we’re here on Balloon Juice, at least we’re paying lip service to progressive ideas and causes =)

    But yeah, between Reagan, RED DAWN, and WALL STREET, a generation’s minds sure got warped along the way…ugh…

  169. 169.

    Gin & Tonic

    October 26, 2016 at 11:15 am

    For a good time in Novosibirsk…

  170. 170.

    hovercraft

    October 26, 2016 at 11:17 am

    This is such a depressing thought from Steve M.
    WHAT KILLS REPUBLICANS IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS WORKS FOR THEM IN MOST OTHER ELECTIONS

    Pundits aren’t waiting for the results of the presidential election to do a post-mortem on the Republican Party. At Business Insider, Oliver Darcy and Pamela Engel argue that what’s killing the GOP is its lying, conspiracy-mongering media:……

    Darcy and Engel’s colleague Josh Barro responds that it would be futile for the GOP to try to take on the conservative media, in part because shunning the big media names on the right wouldn’t reduce the flow of lies:
    You can most easily tell you can’t put the conservative media back in the box when you consider one of its most powerful elements — email forwards and Facebook memes, which are controlled by no authority and make profits for nobody (except Facebook).

    These media reflect the huge demand for Trump-style lies — even if you shame Hannity out of the business, someone else will rise up to offer these lies. The donors cannot ever regain control over the machine.
    Barro also argues that you can’t wean the GOP off lies because lying — about the broad-based benefits of tax cuts for the rich, for instance, or about the nonexistence of climate change — has been central to the GOP for years, and comes from the top, spread by rich donors via the think tanks, periodicals, and outside groups those donors fund.

    But why are we even having this discussion? The GOP will continue to be the party of lies because being the party of lies works — for fat-cat donors, for the bottom lines of conservative media outlets, and, yes, for the party itself … in most non-presidential elections.

    It’s never going to end, the cancer has metastasized, we are all doomed.

  171. 171.

    germy

    October 26, 2016 at 11:20 am

    Has anyone linked to this? Trumpland

    He admits he’s never voted for her, but he makes a powerful case for her. Very moving when he talked about trip to Estonia twenty years ago to learn about universal healthcare, and how she was humiliated when she returned to America.
    The Estonian doctor says “We have universal healthcare and you Americans still don’t.”

  172. 172.

    prob50

    October 26, 2016 at 11:21 am

    Slapping around an entire generation is not only stupid, it’s pointless as well.

    But examining influential events/persons has relevance.

  173. 173.

    dexwood

    October 26, 2016 at 11:22 am

    Caption (forgive me if I repeat someone’s line, haven’t read through the thread):

    So, how’s that Trump thing working out for you?

  174. 174.

    waysel

    October 26, 2016 at 11:26 am

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Thanks to you and Jeffro for the Bobo primers. I’ll try to keep them straight in future, when all things are possible.

  175. 175.

    bemused

    October 26, 2016 at 11:28 am

    @germy:

    I watched it this morning and liked it.

  176. 176.

    Jeffro

    October 26, 2016 at 11:28 am

    @hovercraft:

    It’s never going to end, the cancer has metastasized, we are all doomed.

    THEY’re doomed, you mean. If the GOP has itself a nice civil war, with one of its main points of contention being “are we going to stay in our own bubble or engage with the outside world and its pesky facts”, then they’ll stay tied up in that for-effing-ever. Meanwhile, the Dems, the Obama/Clinton coalition, appear perfectly comfortable in dealing with reality and continuing to pursue incremental progress. We’ll keep winning.

  177. 177.

    Frankensteinbeck

    October 26, 2016 at 11:29 am

    @MomSense:
    Growing up in the 80s, I’d say it’s worse than that. Crap like GamerGate is the downstream effect of a wave of toxic masculinity that hit in the 80s. We were told – relentlessly, often with physical abuse to drive the point home – that sexual success was the only judge of male value, and all that emotional shit of the 70s was unacceptable weakness fit only for pathetic, permanent virgins. You can imagine the attitudes towards women that grew over the next few decades after that, except you don’t have to imagine. We’re only starting to rebel in the other direction now.

  178. 178.

    catclub

    October 26, 2016 at 11:29 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: But I am still suspicious. She has stated that ‘you go back [home] every x months’ to get your visa renewed. That is not how green cards work. That is how tourist visas work.

  179. 179.

    hovercraft

    October 26, 2016 at 11:46 am

    @Jeffro:

    THEY’re doomed, you mean.

    Actually we are all doomed, because they stay crazy and keep electing loons, they will continue to have a strangle hold on congress and legislatures.
    Another problem is that with more and more democrats becoming ever more concentrated in and around America’s cities, they are becoming less and less able to compete for rural districts. So they may not have a chance to win the presidency, but they will be able to stymie progress just as they have for the last eight years.

  180. 180.

    sukabi

    October 26, 2016 at 11:49 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: megan kelly to newt…angry pasty man child threw a tantrum.

  181. 181.

    LurkerExtraordinaire

    October 26, 2016 at 11:58 am

    @Jeffro: hey man, #notallGenXers.

    I turn 38 tomorrow.

  182. 182.

    hovercraft

    October 26, 2016 at 12:08 pm

    Lake Worth rally crowd tries to sing happy birthday to her after she takes the stage.

  183. 183.

    PaulW

    October 26, 2016 at 12:10 pm

    I’m at the downtown library in Tampa now, resting until I get to the rally

  184. 184.

    hovercraft

    October 26, 2016 at 12:12 pm

    Shout out to Patrick Murphy, unlike his opponent he has not been afraid to stand up to Donald Trump.

  185. 185.

    C. Isaac

    October 26, 2016 at 12:21 pm

    So in this increasingly bizarre election, Trump is now accusing Clinton of…

    … ordering Donald Duck to to attack Trump…

    I… what… I… what even?

  186. 186.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    October 26, 2016 at 12:22 pm

    @hovercraft: couple of wacky outlier FL polls today, on showing Trump up two, and another one showing Li’l Marco up ten, which even if it’s an outlier suggests he has an incumbent’s edge in a close race.

  187. 187.

    hovercraft

    October 26, 2016 at 12:36 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    Ann Seltzer is a good pollster, so I trust the source, but the actual raw numbers are promising. Since this is basically a dead thread, here is a long excerpt.

    ON EARLY FLORIDA VOTING AS ON EVERY OTHER SUBJECT, REPUBLICANS PREFER THEIR OWN FACTS
    Things look pretty bad for Donald Trump in Florida, according to Politico’s Marc Caputo:

    From polling to early voting trends to TV ad spending to ground game, Donald Trump’s Florida fortunes are beginning to look so bleak that some Republicans are steeling themselves for what could be the equivalent of a “landslide” loss in the nation’s biggest battleground state.

    Trump has trailed Hillary Clinton in 10 of the 11 public polls conducted in October. According to POLITICO’s Battleground States polling average, Clinton has a 3.4-point lead. Even private surveys conducted by Republican-leaning groups show Trump’s in trouble in Florida, where a loss would end his White House hopes.

    “On the presidential race we’ve found Clinton with a consistent 3% – 5% lead in surveys that attempt to reflect Florida’s actual electorate,” Ryan D. Tyson, vice president of political operations for the Associated Industries of Florida business group, wrote in a confidential memo emailed to his conservative-leaning members this weekend and obtained by POLITICO….

    “This is in all reality a landslide in our great state,” Tyson wrote, echoing the concerns of numerous Florida Republican insiders and experts….

    And early voting in Florida confirms that, Caputo writes in a separate story.

    Fueled by a strong first day of in-person early voting, … Democrats threaten to overtake Republicans in the number of votes banked before Nov. 8.

    Of the 1.6 million votes recorded Tuesday morning, about 665,000 were made by Florida Republicans (almost 42 percent) and 658,000 by Democrats (almost 41 percent). That means Republicans are only holding on to a margin of 0.43 percentage points in pre-Election Day ballots cast over Democrats.

    The GOP lead over Democrats was 1.7 points on Monday morning, before the first in-person early voting polls opened. And at that point, on Monday, Republicans were well behind the 5 point advantage they held in pre-Election Day ballots cast during the same period of the election in 2012.

    That’s right — four years ago, just as in-person voting was starting, there were 5% more Republican votes than Democratic votes. This year, the parties are much closer to even. And remember, once all the votes had been counted, Obama beat Romney in Florida. So Clinton is ahead of Obama’s winning pace.

    So I’m thinking the Bloomberg poll is an outlier, but even if it isn’t it just means we need to work harder to get out the vote.

  188. 188.

    hovercraft

    October 26, 2016 at 12:40 pm

    @C. Isaac:
    By his next event he will be adding this to her list of sins.

    A man dressed as a city construction worker took a sledgehammer to Donald Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles on Wednesday morning.

    The vandal identified himself as Jamie Otis and wielded a sledgehammer and pickaxe in an attack that left chunks missing from the sidewalk around 5:45 a.m., according to a report by Deadline Hollywood.

    Otis told Deadline that he originally planned to remove Trump’s star and auction it off to raise money for women who have come forward with sexual assault allegations against the GOP nominee spanning four decades.

    I do not approve, stop giving him reasons to whine.

  189. 189.

    prob50

    October 26, 2016 at 12:51 pm

    @hovercraft:

    I do not approve, stop giving him reasons to whine.

    Yeah, besides, if people started taking a sledge to every “Walk” star that did objectionable stuff the sidewalks on Hollywood Blvd. would be impassable.

  190. 190.

    Chris

    October 26, 2016 at 1:12 pm

    @hovercraft:

    I keep worrying that the best case scenario for this era is that we end up like the nation after the Civil War and Reconstruction – with the extreme right being too marginalized to take over on a national level, but so well entrenched in their own part of the country (the South back then, rural states with few big cities this time around) that within that territory, they’re basically untouchable, and that still gives them enough of a following in Washington politics to be able to gum up the works for decades.

  191. 191.

    Miss Bianca

    October 26, 2016 at 1:20 pm

    @p.a.:

    “You may have been declared RINOs, but you’re not going on the protected list. HawHawHaw…”

    OK, I like that one!

  192. 192.

    ChrisGrrr

    October 26, 2016 at 3:31 pm

    @hueyplong: Me too (or three).
    “No party affiliation”, which is FL’s version of “decline to state”. Voted Monday.

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