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Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

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

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

In after Baud. Damn.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

Republicans in disarray!

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

The willow is too close to the house.

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You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2018 / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Soldier On

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Soldier On

by Anne Laurie|  July 11, 20184:55 am| 83 Comments

This post is in: Election 2018, Music, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat

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It's a noisy indicator so check back in 2 weeks but the generic ballot is the best it's been in a while for Dems. Doesn't really match the narrative where various issues (Immigration! Incivility! Ocasio-Cortez!) are supposed to be causing problems for 'em. https://t.co/nSPeKmDTNc pic.twitter.com/XTtgLlvLg8

— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) July 10, 2018

Odd use of a ?. Story here is not #DemsInDisarray. It’s 8+ point leads for Dems in Trump states of OH/WV/MI/PA/MT/WI/AZ. All the small single digit races in these could easily go one way in Wave (that’s why it’s called a wave). https://t.co/d3UAA8UK62

— Nick Gourevitch (@nickgourevitch) July 10, 2018

This district has been in Republican hands for decades and, even before this official withdrawal of support, the GOP had been effectively writing it off. Remarkable sign of the bad cycle for Rs. https://t.co/tk1NZ0aSL6

— Josh Barro (@jbarro) July 10, 2018

A majority of Americans now say the Supreme Court should base its rulings on what the Constitution means today, representing a shift in public opinion. https://t.co/3BCGNg6VLg pic.twitter.com/Dba5jxOdTq

— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) July 8, 2018

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Reader Interactions

83Comments

  1. 1.

    Pete Mack

    July 11, 2018 at 5:23 am

    Grrr. Why post a cover of “first we take Manhattan”, when it’s not necessary? Leonard Cohen was a musical and poetic god who never got enough recognition. And I suspect this song in particular was partially inspired by this. And yes there are dozens of covers of this song, though not so many as there are of Hallelujah. But he sang it better than REM ever did.

  2. 2.

    raven

    July 11, 2018 at 5:30 am

    @Pete Mack: Because it not YOUR post. Don’t be sweatin my homeboys, dork.

  3. 3.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    July 11, 2018 at 5:43 am

    @raven:

    Good morning. Have you decided how you will travel from Logan to Providence yet?

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    July 11, 2018 at 5:54 am

    Elon Musk has questioned the expertise of Thai rescue officials who turned down his offer of a submarine, despite their having organised the successful rescue of all 12 boys and their football coach from a flooded cave. The entrepreneur had offered his help and posted footage of tests being carried out on the apparatus he proposed in recent days. But while Narongsak Osatanakorn, the head of the joint command centre co-ordinating the operation, acknowledged Musk’s offer he said that the mini submarine would not have been practical for the cave rescue.

    “Even though their equipment is technologically sophisticated, it doesn’t fit with our mission to go in the cave,” Osatanakorn told reporters.

    In response, Musk said Osatanakorn was “not the subject matter expert”, adding that he believed he had been “inaccurately described as rescue chief”, and should be more accurately referred to as the “former Thai provincial governor”. Osatanakorn stepped down as the governor of Chiang Rai during the rescue operation, but remained its commander.

    Musk posted an image of his email correspondence with Dick Stanton, the British diver who first made contact with the football squad and their coach, in which Stanton asked the inventor to keep working on a project that could potentially bear fruit. “Moreover, based on extensive cave video review and discussion with several divers who know journey, SpaceX engineering is absolutely certain that mini-sub can do entire journey & demonstrate at any time,” Musk added.

    The ego on this mf’er. And people are just supposed to take his word for the miracles his technology can accomplish at a time when the slightest mistake can kill. Just like the so called “autopilot” on his cars.

  5. 5.

    Anne Laurie

    July 11, 2018 at 5:57 am

    @Pete Mack:

    Why post a cover of “first we take Manhattan”, when it’s not necessary?

    It’s one of my favorite Cohen songs, and I’ve used both his & Jennifer Warnes’ versions here before. (IIRC, Mr. Cohen said he preferred the Warnes/Vaughn version to his own… )

  6. 6.

    rikyrah

    July 11, 2018 at 6:02 am

    Good Morning, Everyone ???

  7. 7.

    Shalimar

    July 11, 2018 at 6:06 am

    a href=”#comment-6941737″>OzarkHillbilly: If there are subject matter experts on the use of mini-submarines in cave rescues, I am almost positive Elon Musk is not one of them.

    “Thank you for letting me test my new toy. Sorry everybody died. The data we gained is going to make it more effective next time.”

  8. 8.

    raven

    July 11, 2018 at 6:07 am

    @The Ancient Randonneur: Funny you should ask! I rented a car. The reunion is Saturday night and I don’t fly out until later Sunday afternoon so I decided I wanted to drive around and see stuff!

  9. 9.

    David Evans

    July 11, 2018 at 6:09 am

    Late to the party, but I think Jennifer Warnes has the best version of this song. Also, Famous Blue Raincoat. Mmmm

  10. 10.

    Baud

    July 11, 2018 at 6:11 am

    @rikyrah: Good morning.

  11. 11.

    Quinerly

    July 11, 2018 at 6:13 am

    Glad to see this getting some press. I saw the video on Monday and cried:

    https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/10/us/illinois-puerto-rico-park-officer/index.html

  12. 12.

    Schlemazel

    July 11, 2018 at 6:13 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    The guy is an inflamed asshole, his ego could not fit in that cave. When you look at the “technical” stuff he does you will not see anything new there. He is trying to pull a Steve Jobs, take others work, put a lot of marketing behind it and making HIM the big deal. He has a legion of fanbois online though & if you dare point this out, particularly if you have examples you will be in for a waterfall of hate

  13. 13.

    Baud

    July 11, 2018 at 6:13 am

    A majority of Americans now say the Supreme Court should base its rulings on what the Constitution means today, representing a shift in public opinion.

    Between Obamacare’s surge in approval and this, I’m getting tired of a contrian public that doesn’t know what it has until it’s gone.

  14. 14.

    Quinerly

    July 11, 2018 at 6:14 am

    @rikyrah: Good morning from Poco and his tribe!

  15. 15.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    July 11, 2018 at 6:15 am

    @raven:

    Plenty to see, for sure. Have a great stay.

  16. 16.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    July 11, 2018 at 6:18 am

    @rikyrah:

    Good morning. ☕

  17. 17.

    raven

    July 11, 2018 at 6:20 am

    @The Ancient Randonneur: Thanks, I went up for this 5 years ago and had a fishing trip rained out. I may poke around and see if there are any short trips I could take out of Narragansett .

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    July 11, 2018 at 6:34 am

    Heh:

    Police in Canada are reminding drivers not to leave electronic key fobs sitting in unattended vehicles, after a woman in Ontario accidentally stole a car for two weeks having mistaken it for her rental car.

    The woman rented a black Nissan Sentra in late June, according to police in Cornwall, a city of some 47,000 people in eastern Ontario. From there she headed to Walmart, where she did a little shopping before tracking down a black vehicle in the sea of cars parked outside. She climbed in the unlocked car, pushed the start button and drove home. Soon after, police received a report about a black Nissan Infiniti that had been stolen in the same parking lot. The owner said he had ducked into Walmart and returned to find his car missing from the parking lot, according to police.

    “For the next two weeks, the woman drove around and used the black car for her regular everyday activities,” seemingly oblivious to the fact that the car she was driving was not the same one that she had rented, the police said.

    The first hint of the swap came last weekend, when she attempted to return the car to the rental company. “Once inside, the woman spoke to the manager and commented about how unkempt the inside of the vehicle was and the fact that there was a set of golf clubs in it as well,” police said on Facebook. “The woman was not impressed and handed over the keys.” The keys she turned in belonged to a Nissan Infiniti rather than a Sentra, leaving the manager “slightly confused”, said police. “The manager observed the vehicle and asked the woman where she got it.”

    After a quick back and forth over which car the woman had actually rented, the pair began to retrace the woman’s steps. When they reached the Walmart parking lot, the rental car was still sitting in the same spot where it had been parked two weeks before, police noted.

    The woman – who police described as being “confused and a wee bit embarrassed herself” – contacted police, explaining that she had accidentally taken an Infinity and driven around in it for two weeks. Police located the owner soon after and reunited him with his car.

  19. 19.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    July 11, 2018 at 6:36 am

    @raven:

    Plenty of fluke, bass and blue are caught on a 4 hour charter this time of year. As a single you should find a spot.

  20. 20.

    PaulWartenberg

    July 11, 2018 at 6:51 am

    in NATO news, trump has already opened a salvo aimed at Germany, accusing Merkel and that nation of being under Russia’s control.

    this is akin to Hannibal Lecter accusing Will Graham of being the cannibal during the first chapter of Red Dragon.

    Merkel is not the one with 30 years of business dealings with the Russian Mob.

    Germany is not the nation worried about a goddamn Pee Tape.

    This is it, folks. trump is nuking NATO from orbit while Putin gets a hard-on thinking up all the ways he will punish Ukraine when he starts his full invasion.

  21. 21.

    Barbara

    July 11, 2018 at 6:53 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: The golf clubs might have been a clue.

  22. 22.

    Baud

    July 11, 2018 at 6:53 am

    @PaulWartenberg: Didn’t Ukraine stop cooperating with Mueller under U.S. pressure? Not sure Trump wants to rock that boat.

  23. 23.

    debbie

    July 11, 2018 at 6:54 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    He’s got a 15-inch sub?

  24. 24.

    debbie

    July 11, 2018 at 6:57 am

    @PaulWartenberg:

    Why, why, why hasn’t anyone said to Trump’s face that his lack of gratitude for the allies’ support following 9/11 and Bush’s invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan is the real problem, and that he risks a lack of support from the world after the next attack?

  25. 25.

    Zinsky

    July 11, 2018 at 7:02 am

    The party preference polls are all well and good but it’s all going to come down to the turnout of the 18 to 35 year olds at the polls in November. If youth show up to vote, we can crush this nascent fascism in its infancy. If they stay home, better get ready to leave the U.S., because we are one terrorist attack from losing all of our civil liberties. Poof!

  26. 26.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    July 11, 2018 at 7:08 am

    @debbie:

    He’s got a 15-inch sub?

    So that’s what the kids are calling it these days…

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    July 11, 2018 at 7:11 am

    @Barbara: The woman appears to be a bit of an airhead. My little sis is like that. It gets comical at times. Good thing she knows how to laugh at herself.

    @debbie: There is video of it at the link. It is a rube goldberg collection of bits and pieces slapdashed together by otherwise intelligent engineers who probably have open water experience but are wholly ignorant of what it is like to traverse thru a cave. It’s a joke. (not that the idea doesn’t have possibilities, but this was laughable) And yes, it is larger than 15″.

    @Schlemazel: He was wrongfully denied the opportunity to be the hero he deep down to the core of his being knows he is.

  28. 28.

    OzarkHillbilly

    July 11, 2018 at 7:15 am

    Was going to comment on trump’s pardon of Idaho arsonists but I see Betty already got there and said it far better than I would have.

  29. 29.

    debbie

    July 11, 2018 at 7:18 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    This surprised me. It’s not like he doesn’t already have the white supremacist vote already locked up and in his pocket.

  30. 30.

    rikyrah

    July 11, 2018 at 7:20 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    This muthaphucka ? ? here!
    The nerve ??

  31. 31.

    OzarkHillbilly

    July 11, 2018 at 7:25 am

    @debbie: The tiger gets cranky if it doesn’t get fed regularly.

  32. 32.

    Gin & Tonic

    July 11, 2018 at 7:25 am

    @PaulWartenberg: When it comes to the NordStream2 project, Trump’s not wrong.

  33. 33.

    rikyrah

    July 11, 2018 at 7:25 am

    @Quinerly:
    Morning to Poco and the tribe ? ?

  34. 34.

    Lapassionara

    July 11, 2018 at 7:27 am

    @debbie: He needs to keep them motivated. It would be interesting to know the back story on those pardons. Meanwhile, he is embarrassing the US daily.

  35. 35.

    WereBear

    July 11, 2018 at 7:28 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: This has almost happened to me. Gray compact cars all look alike these days, and I have actually been tugging on the handle when I noticed bling hanging from the rearview (which I never do.)

  36. 36.

    Bobby Thomson

    July 11, 2018 at 7:30 am

    What I learned from this is that Silver watches too much Fox News.

  37. 37.

    Gin & Tonic

    July 11, 2018 at 7:31 am

    @raven: What the randonneur said – there are half-day options out of Point Judith all summer. You’re an early riser, so should be no problem.

  38. 38.

    rikyrah

    July 11, 2018 at 7:31 am

    THREAD

    @atrupar: On CNN, @RajShah45 does not deny that a deal was made between outgoing Justice Anthony Kennedy & Trump about Kavanaugh being K… https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1016659854101041153?s=17

  39. 39.

    satby

    July 11, 2018 at 7:35 am

    @rikyrah: Good morning ?!

    @Baud: how about it? When someone complains to my face I usually ask if they vote Republican normally, and then tell them they’re getting what they voted for. Fortunately, I haven’t ever cared about being popular ???

  40. 40.

    MattF

    July 11, 2018 at 7:37 am

    Saw an online review of Musk’s latest adventures in car manufacturing, so now I understand much better. He’s not a complete fake, but he vastly overestimates his own competence and vastly underestimates the competence of others. Not a good combination.

  41. 41.

    Kay

    July 11, 2018 at 7:37 am

    Robert Barnes
    ‏Verified account
    @scotusreporter
    Follow Follow @scotusreporter
    More
    It’s a small world: One of the former Kavanaugh clerks signing a letter of endorsement for their old boss is Philip Alito, son of Justice Samuel Alito.

    Gross. Such a tiny and exclusive little club.

  42. 42.

    Bobby Thomson

    July 11, 2018 at 7:38 am

    @Schlemazel:

    He has a legion of fanbois online though & if you dare point this out, particularly if you have examples you will be in for a waterfall of hate

    Oh, yeah. It rivals Cult 45 in its irrationality and imperviousness to facts.

    It was deeply irresponsible for him to act as a distraction and Monday morning quarterback everything.

  43. 43.

    rikyrah

    July 11, 2018 at 7:38 am

    @kylegriffin1: The Trump admin has announced, for the 2nd year in a row, that it’s slashing grants to nonprofits that help people get he… https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1016826905113255936?s=17

  44. 44.

    OzarkHillbilly

    July 11, 2018 at 7:39 am

    @WereBear: I have done the same with silver Dodge p/us. Many years ago My parents were leaving Powell Hall after a symphony performance. They walked down the street, came to their car, the old man unlocked it and they got in. He was unable to start the car however. No matter how he jiggled the key in the ignition he could not turn it. About this point my mother started noticing that there were things in the car that did not belong to them. They got out, relocked the car and soon found the car that really was theirs just a few more cars down the block.

    And neither got arrested for tampering with a vehicle.

  45. 45.

    satby

    July 11, 2018 at 7:40 am

    @WereBear:,@OzarkHillbilly:
    when I was a road warrior, teams of us were sent to each location at once for weeks but we flew home weekends. After about a month, it wasn’t uncommon for people to try to open the rental car they had the week before that someone else now had, or to use their keycard on the hotel room from a previous week.

  46. 46.

    Baud

    July 11, 2018 at 7:41 am

    @satby: You’re popular with me.

    @Kay: Scalia’s kid is a big shot lawyer also. I believe he does anti-labor stuff mostly.

  47. 47.

    rikyrah

    July 11, 2018 at 7:42 am

    Long thread, but connected all the dots from Kennedy to Kavanaugh . Hope a FrontPager reads it:

    https://twitter.com/SethAbramson/status/1016825672277397504

  48. 48.

    ArchTeryx

    July 11, 2018 at 7:42 am

    @Zinsky: “One terrorist attack?” You’re a rose-glassed optimist. We’re going to lose them anyway once this newly minted fascist Supreme Court really gets rolling.

  49. 49.

    Betty Cracker

    July 11, 2018 at 7:44 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: That’s hilarious!

    @rikyrah: So Republican-appointed justices not only get a lifetime job, they get to hand-pick their successors. Another thing someone pointed out on Twitter: when R v W is overturned, four of the five Republican-appointed male justices who vote to strip us womenfolk of bodily autonomy will have been seated by white male presidents who lost the popular vote. We’re ruled by a Christianist bloc whose agenda is not endorsed by most of America. It’s not supposed to work like this, and I don’t see how it’s sustainable long-term.

  50. 50.

    Peale

    July 11, 2018 at 7:44 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: @Baud: yep. If I didn’t live here, and maybe if I were God, or something like that, I’d be preparing a smiting.

  51. 51.

    OzarkHillbilly

    July 11, 2018 at 7:44 am

    A former nurse has admitted tampering with intravenous drips in a mass poisoning case that police believe led to the deaths of dozens of patients at a hospital in Japan two years ago. Ayumi Kuboki, 31, was arrested at the weekend on suspicion of killing Sozo Nishikawa, 88, by injecting his intravenous drip bag with disinfectant when she was working at Oguchi hospital in Yokohama.

    She has since told investigators that she also poisoned another 88-year-old man, Nobuo Yamaki, who was being treated in the same fourth-floor room as Nishikawa, and may have killed another 20 patients using the same method, according to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.

    This gets my nomination for understatement of the year:

    “We had had no inkling that she was a problem employee,”

  52. 52.

    MattF

    July 11, 2018 at 7:46 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: “We’ve asked the HR department to review the situation.”

  53. 53.

    Baud

    July 11, 2018 at 7:47 am

    @Betty Cracker: I think it’s sustainable as long as our side is more worried about making marginal improvements to the Democratic Party than it is fighting fascism.

    @Peale: I believe Trump is that smiting.

  54. 54.

    Baud

    July 11, 2018 at 7:48 am

    @MattF:

    “This will be discussed in her semi-annual performance review.”

  55. 55.

    rikyrah

    July 11, 2018 at 7:49 am

    @Kay:
    Kay,
    The more that I read about this Kennedy/Kavanaugh thing, I go back to your comments that you always knew that Kennedy was a fake, because of how he treated voting rights.

  56. 56.

    satby

    July 11, 2018 at 7:51 am

    My god, what a close call! The Guardian reporting the water pumps failed right after the last boy was extracted.

  57. 57.

    OzarkHillbilly

    July 11, 2018 at 7:54 am

    @MattF: @Baud: I’ll bet she doesn’t get a year end bonus.

  58. 58.

    Peale

    July 11, 2018 at 7:56 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: a few weeks after I got my Nissan, I also almost picked up an inifinity of the almost same color in a parking lot. I sat in the car and wondered why all the mirrors were wrong. Had the owner left his fob in the car, I probably would have started it.

  59. 59.

    raven

    July 11, 2018 at 7:59 am

    @The Ancient Randonneur: Yea,, I’m looking a the Francis Fleet site now!

  60. 60.

    OzarkHillbilly

    July 11, 2018 at 8:00 am

    @Peale: It would be very easy to do.

  61. 61.

    rikyrah

    July 11, 2018 at 8:00 am

    @satby:
    The stars were aligned. They had to be. Simply amazing.

  62. 62.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    July 11, 2018 at 8:04 am

    @Baud: So one of Steve in the ATL’s friends.

  63. 63.

    randy khan

    July 11, 2018 at 8:04 am

    It’s kind of funny how long it took the Rs to figure out that the candidate in NJ-2 was a loon, since he’s been pretty open about it from the start. And the guy he’s running to replace was about as moderate as Republicans get these days – among other things he was very unhappy with the Administration’s environmental policies, probably because his district covers about half of the Jersey Shore. (Yes, it’s capitalized. There is only one.)

  64. 64.

    Betty Cracker

    July 11, 2018 at 8:06 am

    @Baud: Maybe we’ll continue to form circular firing squads as the Republicans build Gilead around us. I don’t think so, though.

  65. 65.

    dnfree

    July 11, 2018 at 8:07 am

    @David Evans: one of the most touching Cohen songs is the one he and Jennifer Warned co-wrote and she sang, the Song of Bernadette. It expresses life’s regrets so poignantly.

  66. 66.

    MattF

    July 11, 2018 at 8:11 am

    @Betty Cracker: Me neither. We’re all sensitive to sniping from the holier-than-thou Left, but no one else cares about that. I think it’s much more likely that the height and blueness of the coming wave has been seriously underestimated– but I know by now that wishful thinking is a bad thing.

  67. 67.

    BlueDWarrior

    July 11, 2018 at 8:24 am

    @Betty Cracker: The next four years will show us the activists who are trying to build functional liberal majorities, and people who just want to be on the left for some misaimed notion of street cred.

  68. 68.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    July 11, 2018 at 8:25 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    I don’t see how it’s sustainable long-term.

    It’s not.

  69. 69.

    Gex

    July 11, 2018 at 8:37 am

    @Baud: As is usual, Republican talking points that suggest these things will hurt other people are very popular. The realization that they are among the other people who are going to be hurt is less popular.

  70. 70.

    germy

    July 11, 2018 at 8:42 am

    tech companies: we can solve any problem with the magic of code, ingenuity, and pizza!

    everyone: you're infested with nazis

    Tech companies: there is no solution possible https://t.co/TolIyVpT7b

    — Pat Dennis (@patdennis) July 10, 2018

  71. 71.

    MattF

    July 11, 2018 at 8:47 am

    @Gex: Republican talking points are designed to evoke certain emotions. Period. ‘Realizations’, ‘thoughts’, and so forth are not involved.

  72. 72.

    germy

    July 11, 2018 at 8:51 am

    @MattF:

    Republican talking points are designed to evoke certain emotions. Period.

    Resentment, hatred and fear.

  73. 73.

    Gex

    July 11, 2018 at 9:09 am

    @MattF: So why the change of heart on the ACA and originalism?

  74. 74.

    BC in Illinois

    July 11, 2018 at 9:12 am

    @WereBear:
    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Back in the days when I actually lived in Illinois, back in the days before cell phones – – i.e., back in the last century – – I got a call from my daughter at the mall in Belleville, 45 miles away. She had gone shopping with her high school friends and now she couldn’t get into the minivan. It was icy and she couldn’t get the key into the lock. She figured that the keyhole had iced up.

    Okay. So I got in my car, picked up a de-icer and began the one hour trip in sort-of icy conditions.

    While daughter and her friends were waiting inside the entrance to the mall, they saw someone walk to the van, put in his key, and drive away. “Oh. Maybe that wasn’t your van. Maybe THAT is your van.” Sure enough, another van, same color, who can tell them apart? They then just waited for me to arrive. (Pre-cell phones.) I was more relieved than ticked when I got there.

  75. 75.

    MattF

    July 11, 2018 at 9:27 am

    @Gex: I guess talking points have a lifetime of a few months. Anything longer than that, you have to be cautious and leave yourself some wiggle room– you wouldn’t want talking points to congeal into policy. That would be an error.

  76. 76.

    Uncle Cosmo

    July 11, 2018 at 10:25 am

    @WereBear: Happens to me regularly in the ‘hood – neighbor’s Nissan is almost the same color and size as my Kia. I’ve learned to keep the inside slightly messy so I can recognize my wheels by the crap inside…

  77. 77.

    NotMax

    July 11, 2018 at 10:44 am

    @Uncle Cosmo

    Heh. One reason when I took Mom on a car shopping expedition I insisted she opt for a distinctive color.

    (Impossible to find a pic on the ‘net that shows the particular color accurately, but the linked one is close.)

  78. 78.

    stan

    July 11, 2018 at 10:58 am

    Many years ago I had a green Plymouth Volare wagon, back when those were popular cars. I had to replace the driver’s door, so i got a blue one out of the junkyard. I NEVER had a hard time finding that car, and for sure no one else wanted it ;)

  79. 79.

    Gravenstone

    July 11, 2018 at 11:05 am

    With rental vehicles, I can understand potential confusion. But does NO ONE think to double check their license plates before jumping into a vehicle if there is any uncertainty?

  80. 80.

    J R in WV

    July 11, 2018 at 11:36 am

    @WereBear:

    Wife once was able to unlock the doors of a similar VW to ours, got in, was ready to start up, when she noticed that our trash was missing — in other words, the car was to clean inside to be the one she drove every day, which had many remains of fast-food eaten in the car en route to a newsworthy event.

    If it exploded, leaked, caught fire, caved in, or went on strike, she was there. Driving country roads to find the story of the moment. Oh, yeh, prison riots, also too. So a clean VW was NOT her VW.

    I expect if her plain old key worked for the door — it would have worked for the ignition switch too. . .

  81. 81.

    opiejeanne

    July 11, 2018 at 11:39 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: I used to own a white Jeep Cherokee, ’92. So did half of the rest of the world. I unlocked my car with the key one time and the kids piled in, but the key wouldn’t fit into the ignition. Hmm. Then my youngest piped up, “This isn’t our car; it’s too clean!” Our car was parked a little farther down the row.

  82. 82.

    Ruckus

    July 11, 2018 at 12:14 pm

    @Betty Cracker:
    The sustainability isn’t an issue to the perps. First, they don’t think about the negatative possibilities of their ideas, they’re convinced they are 100% right at all times. Conservatism doesn’t need reality, cults never do. Second, they don’t actually care if it works, only that the cult rewards them for their devotion to it.

  83. 83.

    Joseph A. Miller

    July 11, 2018 at 1:49 pm

    @Zinsky: We need to spread this around if we want to do something about GOTV. This is really good:
    https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/7/10/1779560/-Do-More-Than-Get-Angry-GET-GOING-Start-HERE-and-TAKE-ACTION

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