Valued commenter cope emailed me a link to an optimistic piece published today on 3 Quarks Daily. The author is Evert Cilliers, and the argument is that since Putin has Trump by the balls, and Trump has the GOP congress by the balls (because the base worships Trump), the whole rotten shebang will eventually go off a cliff. An excerpt:
Trump is going to dig himself a hole so deep, his tiny hands will never be able to pull his big butt out of it.
He will go down to a thundering defeat in 2020, together with the entire GOP — a calamity from which they will never recover.
To that, I say — if we can’t cut Trump’s term short by other means — from Cilliers’ keyboard to the Flying Spaghetti Monster’s delicate, al dente orecchiette. Now, I’ve seen Republicans stuff a ruinous war against the wrong country and obliteration of the economy on their watch down the memory hole inside a decade, so I’m not quite as optimistic. But I sure hope Cilliers is right about the eventual outcome.
He’s definitely right about Republican candidates dancing like a rodent conga line behind King Rat Trump. Exhibit A, a new ad from Ron DeSantis, a wingnut congressman from Florida whom Trump endorsed for governor. Trump seems to have elevated the previously obscure DeSantis over Adam Putnam, a familiar establishment Gooper (current Ag Secretary) who has been considered a lock for an eventual GOP governorship from the cradle. And boy, is DeSantis grateful. Check this garbage out:
A grown-ass man teaching his toddler to “build a wall” to keep desperate Central Americans out and reading “Celebrity Apprentice” scripts to his baby is cringe-inducing to folks outside the Cult45 bubble. But I think DeSantis is going to kick Putnam’s ass in the Republican primary precisely because he is a shameless Trump sycophant.
However, I don’t think that’ll fly in the general. Someone asked last week if I thought DeSantis’ toadying would hurt him in the general. I said I hoped so but I assumed DeSantis would dial it back after winning the GOP primary. Not sure an ad like that can be dialed back. If I were in charge of the Democrats’ Florida strategy, I might supplement that ad buy.
Something similar is happening in other purple or red states. The Georgia GOP gubernatorial candidates had a Trump-off featuring deportation trucks, for fuck’s sake. TaMara says Stapleton in Colorado is also running as a squeeing Trump fan boy. And that fool Stewart, who’s running against Kaine in Virginia, continues to double down on the stupid. The point is, they’ve stacked all their chips on Orange — all over the country.
And, to the point of the 3 Quarks article, the Republicans really don’t have a choice, in the absence of courage and integrity. May the lack of those qualities come back to haunt them — bigly.
rikyrah
Stewart ran Birth of A Nation before Dolt45. He is truly that racist. But, Gillespie ran a Birth of A Nation campaign for Governor, and, it didn’t work. Keeping up hope that it works so well for them this time.
Baud
I thought Trump was above water in FL polls.
MattF
What, courage and integity? Ha.
But seriously folks, there’s also zero actual R policy, besides ‘what Trump says’. Some people will follow the bouncing ball where ever it goes– but not a majority, IMO.
cmorenc
2018 will be a tense test of whether the GOP fortifications protecting their minority rule can withstand a tidal wave of majority opinion, and whether their media sycophants and useful idiots can divert and dilute enough of the volume and energy of the wave that it fails to wash over or break through the wall.
Raoul
“He will go down to a thundering defeat in 2020, together with the entire GOP — a calamity from which they will
neverrecover.”As you note, Betty, we’ve seen the rehabilitation of terrible Republicans over and over. The question will be, which wing of the GOP stages the comeback.
father pusbucket
Invest in laughing stock.
Raoul
As to your lager point about GOPers going all-in on Trump, we here in (somewhat) purple* Minnesota are seeing one top GOP guv nominee attack the other for insufficient obeisance to the Orange gas giant. I hope that leaves a lingering stink for the general election … and I think it will.
*Purple in the sense that our state Lege got taken over by Repubs. But all our statewide offices are currently Dem, as is a majority of our US House delegation. Trump only narrowly lost here, which was also shocking.
Yarrow
His wife looks like a brown haired Trump female. So plastic. They all look the same–Foxbots, Trump women, this woman.
TaMara (HFG)
Also it sounds like Congresscritter Mike Coffman (CO-6th district – R) is taking it on the chin for not standing up to Trump in his district. Which if I remember correctly, went for Hillary in 2016. With a bit of work, I think it can be flipped.
piratedan
Here in AZ, McSally is running ads that “trumpet” her support for The Wall and “Shutting down sanctuary cities” and have a brief clip of Trump stating that she’s his kind of politician.
I’m hoping that she craters, a LOT will depend upon the fuckery that is likely to take place at the state level with the SOS, running one of the most poorly managed offices in the US, so we’ll see if the ground game and disgust factors will outweigh Russian hacking and GOP voter suppression. I’ve been checking my voter registration weekly and as soon as the registration deadline is over, I’ll be checking it again and again the week of the general. i simply don’t trust the GOP not to cheat about any fucking thing.
Schlemazel
@Raoul:
Timmy has been running ads against the GOP endorsed Jeff Johnson because he actually supported some smart tax increases. It could be fun if he wins the primary because he would then have to defend his miserable record as governor and that would be a real test to see how stupid the rural voters are.
Roger Moore
I think they’re going to run into the problem of being a cult of a living, breathing, horrifically flawed human being. The Republican party has obviously been a cult for a while. They could get away with being a cult while the object of their reverence was a cardboard cutout of Ronald Reagan, because the cardboard didn’t have real human frailties and only said what the men behind the curtain wanted. But worshiping a living, breathing human is always harder because they can surprise you, and Trump is worse in that department than most.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Not according to the polls I’ve seen. Trump hasn’t cratered as badly here as he has in other states he won (thanks mostly to retirees in places like The Villages, where Trump remains popular), but he’s still underwater.
TenguPhule
@Baud:
Did you factor in Global Warming to the measurement?
Baud
@Betty Cracker: Good to hear.
The Dangerman
Without going to the Mighty Google, is that something like Rocky Mountain Oysters? Because, if so, so soon after talking bout Trump’s balls, I’ll pass bigly.
ETA: Bigly not describing said balls, of course.
Baud
@TenguPhule: Good point.
Raoul
@TaMara (HFG): I sure hope Coffman falls. I supported Morgan Carroll, but don’t actually live in CO-06 so I’m not really sure what happened, why she didn’t connect. Incumbency has big advantages of course, but a D+2 district, I thought she’d do better given her state Lege history.
I hope Jason Crow can pull it off, seems like the table tilt is much better this coming fall.
Raoul
@Schlemazel: I think a reminder of Timmy’s “health impact fees” (when is a tax increase not a tax increase? When it’s a tax with a bullshit name!) along with his smash-n-grab of school funding make him fairly vulnerable.
Plus he is both unctuous and boring. And was shown the door very quickly as a national GOP. Layering on his decision to go be a highly paid DC lobbyist for the banking industry gives further ammo.
R-Jud
@The Dangerman: It’s a type of round pasta that looks like a little ear. No balls involved.
TenguPhule
Was anyone else horrified by the post title and immediately thought we’d discovered dozens of Trump’s little bastards?
debbie
2020 is too far away. I want him humiliated in November 2018.
TenguPhule
@Roger Moore:
Cults end in only one of two ways. They succeed or everyone involved dies out.
randy khan
Not that I feel the slightest pity for the GOP in Virginia, but Stewart actually may have been the least awful of the people who were running for the Senate nomination. One of the others was a guy so crazy that Ken Cuccinelli ran away from him when they both were on the GOP ticket in 2013.
trollhattan
Betty, does Florida have child protective services? Call them, STAT! Get that bebee outta there.
oldster
“dancing like a rodent conga line behind King Rat Trump”
that cracked me up, Betty!
I sure do love your turns of phrase.
Yutsano
@debbie: SO SAY WE ALL!!!
Emerald
I mentioned in Major Major Major Major’s literature thread that I was reading Martin Chuzzlewit and that Mr. Pecksniff was a virtual portrait of our current vice president*.
Because Dickens knew these guys.
But I wondered if he had any characters like Orangimandias himself.
Chapter 28. Jonas Chuzzlewit: Trump. Damned nearly perfect portrait, even to being the son of the founder of the fortune. Nasty guy, and the con man himself getting easily conned.
Yeah, Dickens knew all of these guys.
Jeffro
@Yarrow: She does indeed.
That ad is sick and repulsive. I’d like to think we are going to absolutely trounce this MFs in November, but I have my marching orders from PBO just like last time: let’s RUN THROUGH THE FINISH LINE!
Jeffro
@debbie: he will be humiliated this November, and he won’t be in office come November 2020, either.
Baud
@Jeffro: I don’t know if we can trust his advice after he danced at that concert.
?BillinGlendaleCA
OT: I stopped by The Huntington today to see “Li’l Stinker”(the corpse flower that’s about to bloom) and it’s not as yet bloomed and begun to stink.
ETA: I ran into one of the Glendale Photo Group folk on the way out, she’d also come to see Li’l Stinker.
debbie
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
We have two of those here at Ohio State, but alas, they may have become corpses themselves.
eemom
That’s not entirely true. The real reason the GOP Congress sticks with Dump is because he’s doing everything the billionaires — who do, in fact, have them by the balls — want.
That’s the same reason it drives me crazy when emmessemmbots babble about repubs needing to “grow a spine” against Dump. I’m not saying they HAVE spines, but again, that’s got nothing to do with why they don’t oppose him. They don’t oppose him because they’re sellout whores to the plutocrat puppet masters, who don’t give a shit about anything or anybody but having and keeping all the money in the world.
I’m also not so sure that either the plutocracy or its enablers are too worried about the yahoo “base.” If it were to become in their interest to take down trump, they’d find a new set of lies to sell them on, and they’d buy a way to do it. Four legs good, two legs better.
Jay
Actual Nazi’s on the ballot as an R, might leave a mark.
google.ca/amp/s/www.vox.com/platform/amp/2018/7/9/17525860/nazis-russell-walker-arthur-jones-republi…
?BillinGlendaleCA
@debbie: They’ve got something like 40 of them at The Huntington, this one was produced from the 2002 blooming and several more were produced at the same time. We should expect more blooming this year.
MomSense
Part of the reason why this horror show has been so hard to accept is because we all know that the election was illegitimate. It was rigged, believe me. They are doing it again. It isn’t just McCaskill. Senator Sheehan said there have been hacking attempts against her. We will learn about more before long. Trump is counting on the fix being in again in 2018. Rudy is running a campaign to discredit the Mueller investigation because they think that if they hold Congress this conspiracy against the United States is addressed politically. That’s a battle they can win with a Republican Congress.
The other thing that is happening is that Trump, Stone, Russians, and other entities have the goods on the Republicans. Why would Christie kowtow? They know shit about him. Same for Graham, Jordan, Nunes, Ryan, and the rest. This is not just a case of Republicans afraid of their base. If that were true, the retiring Republicans would do something.
We have to fight for our lives starting now until we win in November. We are up against a global oligarchy that is using ethno nationalism and cheating to seize power. The situation is dire but I still believe we can prevail if we are committed to the fight.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: There was one a while back that said that, but I think it had a “likely voter” screen (e. g. whiter and older than average). The validity of such a result depends entirely on how well the screen matches actual turnout. Most polling outfits don’t go to LV screens until late in the cycle when they think they have a good idea how to apply it–and they’re still sometimes wrong.
Schlemazel
@Raoul:
I have been doing some phone work & at least the DFL’ers are excited to make a pinata out of TPaw
I want him to go down hard
zhena gogolia
@MomSense:
Whenever I ask people if they remember why thousands of Russians poured out on the streets to protest in 2012, no one seems to remember. THEY WERE PROTESTING PUTIN RIGGING THE ELECTIONS. This is what he does. He’s very good at it. And if we think it’s just social media, we’re kidding ourselves.
debbie
@MomSense:
I don’t think we have to fight to win, but we should fight to win BIG. I want a rout that will get all those fat asses scurrying like so many cockroaches.
OT/ Just read your post from this morning. WHITE SHARKS OFF MAINE? Unbelievable!
Yarrow
@Jeffro: Agreed. He’ll be out of office long before November 2020.
@MomSense:
We are indeed and the sooner we realize it the better off we’ll be. The oligarchy does not want us to win and they will do whatever they can to stop it. There are more of us than there are of them.
Ruckus
@piratedan:
Is there any kind of receipt that you can get for your registration?
Because once the deadline is past what can you do but otherwise show that you were?
BTW I think this is a great idea in red states but how useful is it without a way to protest…..
A Ghost To Most
@Jay: That’s a feature, not a bug, for the base of Putin’s pumpkin.
thistle313
@Ruckus: Here in Michigan, we get Voter Registration cards [little cardboard cards mailed as part of a postcard] to show we are registered. Maybe your state does something similar?
Roger Moore
@TenguPhule:
Cults do actually lose members, especially when their leader fails badly enough. The can also die out when the leader dies (or is arrested, forced to flee, etc.) and there’s nobody else with the charisma to hold the group together. I could imagine either one happening to the Republicans under Trump.
But more important, the Republicans don’t have to die out completely to fail as an effective political force. Permanently losing 5% of their voting support would hurt them very badly.
SiubhanDuinne
@TenguPhule:
Oh, I’m sure there are lots of them around. FitzDonalds here, FitzDonalds there, little FitzDonalds everywhere.
ruemara
@debbie: Sit by me. I’d cheerfully watch him fall into a grinder. And the rest of the them.
cmorenc
@Roger Moore:
That’s why observing that 95% of Trump’s base will stick to him no matter the facts (and therefore hopeless to try to persuade otherwise) – misses the key point that we only need to persuade the 5-10% who are most weakly bound to him to switch sides to have an enormous impact on 2018 electoral outcomes. Recall that it was peeling off 5-10% of Obama’s base to switch or at least stay home that made the critical difference in the 2016 presidential election in the three close midwestern states Clinton lost.
Brachiator
I understand and accept that this expresses hopes and dreams. But other than that, it doesn’t mean much. The task will be to work hard to defeat Trump in 2020. Undoing the evil that he has encouraged will take longer, if he is defeated.
Ruckus
@thistle313:
Mine does when you register. But I live in CA, a state that wants everyone to vote. And they are trying to make it easier. I did a comment yesterday about my registering when I moved back to CA as I had a slight problem with the county clerk but it was resolved easily and rapidly. All I have to do now is update my address if I move. I’ve done that 3 times since I went perm mail voter. Easy peasy. And as an example of CA liking that people live here I moved out of state for 11 yrs. I moved back, applied for my drivers license and when it came back in the mail it had my original number. So even though I’ve moved out of CA for over a decade I have had the same CA license number for 53 yrs. More important I can still remember it!
Ohio Mom
@thistle313: I think I have a vague memory of getting a little cardboard voter registration card in Ohio but it was long and several addresses ago. I also seem to remember everyone automatically being mailed applications for absentee voting but that was only for an election or two.
They keep changing things, and it throws a person off balance.
On the blue wave: Democrats in southwest Ohio are very enthusiastic and charged up. We are getting attention and money from the DNC.
We also just got a new local oposition office paid for by the Koch brothers. I take comfort in the fact they are obviously alarmed, that is, when I’m not worrying they’ll succeed.
Jay
@A Ghost To Most:
After the Trumpapocalyis, it’s goona be harder for the ReThugs to rebrand as “moderate”,
’cause I pretty sure that having been welcomed in, the Nazi’s arn’t going to be the ones who leave.
FlyingToaster
@thistle313: Most states — and especially voter suppression states — no longer send out voter ids. The last time I had one was 1983, when I stopped voting in Missouri because I was a grad student in Indiana, where they never heard of such a thing.
Massachusetts doesn’t have voter id, but they have a municipal census that is used for a bunch of things, including jury duty and the voter rolls. So I never bothered to tell Somerville when I moved my registration to Watertown, because I was purged within 6 months for not answering the census.
Repatriated
@TenguPhule: Stupidest “The Boys From Brazil” remake ever.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I registered to vote in Illinois. Do you think I need to do anything about removing my registration from Iowa? I’ve never done that when we moved states, but isn’t there some sort of R voter suppression effort that checks and could deregister me? One problem is that I can’t see any way to do it on the Iowa website.
RedDirtGirl
How the flying fuckstick can that not be a parody ad?
ETA
Maybe I’ll find out it is, once I catch up with you guys..
lamh36
WHAT…DEE…FUQ!!!
@lauren_kelley
Good god. At FEMA, “women were hired as possible sexual partners for male employees”
ETA: this was asking for a GIF
cain
In Oregon, conservatives have put in some initiatives to get conservatives out to vote so they’ll vote for the Republican governor who is a total Trumper. We will need a massive organization in Oregon to make sure Libs win overwhelmingly.
Roger Moore
@cmorenc:
Unfortunately, I don’t think permanently losing 5% of their voters would be enough to get the Republican party to change course, which is what I really want. It takes a much bigger drubbing than that to really make a political party sit up and take notice. Part of that, of course, is that it’s hard to tell if a 5% loss of votes is permanent or temporary; it would take a few elections to sort out, and by then the drop-off would be seen as the new normal. It would take either a 1932-style drubbing or a series of ever worsening defeats to really convince the Republicans to change.
Miss Bianca
@TaMara (HFG): Who’s running against Coffman on the Dem side?
some guy
Florida voters’ view of President Donald Trump has dipped, slightly, in a new poll.
A Florida Atlantic University Poll released Wednesday found 41 percent approve and 47 percent disapprove of Trump’s performance, a net negative of 6 percentage points.
The poll showed sharp divisions along party lines with 76 percent of Democrats disapproving of Trump and 80 percent of Republicans approving.
Among independent voters, 31 percent approved and 51 percent disapproved.
In May, the same poll found Trump’s net negative was just 2 percentage points.
RedDirtGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
From what I hear, everyone should be checking on their registration status weekly through November…
vote.org/am-i-registered-to-vote/
And making sure everyone else is, also, too.
PS. I may never get tired of that particular Palinism.
cain
@zhena gogolia:
But when it does happen, we need to ignore Republicans nad start consolidating power. That means, putting laws in place in regards to registering to vote, protecting the ballot boxes, and various other things so that Republicans and their Russian counterparts can’t steal the election.
oldgold
Hmm! Interesting.
nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/former-trump-campaign-chair-manafort-first-face-trial-russia-prob…
Roger Moore
@cain:
Absolutely. I’ve said for a while that a new VRA should be the top item on the Democrats’ agenda when they next take power, because without one they aren’t going to stay in power for long. It would be great if they could include something to limit gerrymandering while they’re doing the rest of the VRA stuff, also, too.
cain
@Roger Moore:
You also need to do enough that russian hackers can’t steal the election without making it completely suspicious.
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
So you’d like to see them go the route of the Whigs.
So would I. Repugs have lasted longer and done a lot more damage than the Whigs could manage.
BC in Illinois
I expect there will be Republican candidates who will attempt the Monty Python/Grail strategy:
But there are places where that will not work.
Here in the Missouri 2nd District, we have Ann Wagner (R – safe Republican vote) who is not only on record, she is on video backing anything Trump proposed. There is a famous picture of her shaking hands with Trump after he signed the order that financial advisors don’t have to put the interests of the client first. There is an even more famous news clip of her exulting over the House vote to kick millions of people off health coverage:
She will never be able to run away from Trump.
Now, it will take a strong wave to turn her out of office. She has never had a town hall meeting since she was first elected in 2012; she never had to. But she’s running now [“re-introducing” herself] as if her polling shows a need to actually run a campaign.
We have a strong candidate in Mark Osmack — endorsed by VoteVets, Tammy Duckworth, Tulsi Gabbart, MO Progressive Action Group, and various local Democratic Clubs and Progressive Groups. He has a Moms Demand Action “Gun Sense” Distinction and is also endorsed (!) by the Missouri Fraternal Order of Police. Our primary is next Tuesday, Aug 7th — and there is at least one other significant candidate — but whoever is running against Ann Wagner (NRA “A”rating), I expect that she will find that this will not be a good year for Trump-adjacent candidates.
eponymous
@Miss Bianca: Jason Crow. I am not in his district, I’m doing a Swing Left for Crow.
bemused
@rikyrah:
Luckily for Minnesotans Stewart moved to Virginia. The deplorable creep is a native of Duluth, MN. We still have Jason Lewis, former rightwing talk show host but his past racist, sexist, inhuman radio rantings have been unearthed and reported a lot here. Hope it leaves a mark.
Brachiator
@Ruckus: I had problems voting for the first time ever this California primary. The voting location changed and I got dropped from the rolls and was given a provisional ballot. Later got a confirmation that my ballot had been counted. I’ll check to make sure that everything has been corrected.
hells littlest angel
@TenguPhule: The Boys From Queens will someday be a remake much more frightening than the original.
laura
@Brachiator: here’s a handy tool. Plase feel free to share:
rockthevote.org/resources/am-i-registered-to-vote
Also, that “dad” GOP candidate/tool is fit to be in the same room as the dad with three jobs who bought his daughter the dress of her young girl dreams.
I recently lost my dad, but I will never lose the knowledge of having been a loved and wanted child, neither will she.
RobertDSC-iPhone 6
Can we fly Baby Blimps at their appearances?
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
Do you live in LA county? Because there was a massive failure by the county registrar in the primaries that left over 100,000 people off the voter rolls. Supposedly this was just a problem with printing of the voter information for the polling places rather than actually purging people permanently, but it still seems really, really bad.
lamh36
Wow…superficial magazine stuff, but still in it’s 126 year history, Vogue magazine has NEVER had a cover photo shot by a Black photog. It will now, thanks to the unprecedented control Beyonce asked for and was granted by Anna Wintour.
Here is Yashar’s twitter thread, with the details of just how much unprecedented control Beyonce is getting for the Vogue issue…including NOT even doing a long form interview, and also giving Vogue the photo to use, and not Vogue giving her the photo they plan to use…!!!
I’ve gotta commend Beyonce on this…apparently, she is the ONLY reason that the 126 year barrier breaking will ever happen…
Here’s the thread:
twitter.com/yashar/status/1024016120536227842
126 years and NEVER…this is 2018…like…wow
Crashman06
@FlyingToaster: Nice to see a fellow Watertownian around here.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore: Yeah, I was part of the 100,000. I think they made sure that everyone with a provisional ballot got a follow up confirmation. So far, so good. But I will try to check prior to November that everything is good again.
khead
That ad is cultish.
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
LA County needs a new Registrar/Recorder. It’s not just the voter roll printing debacle. Voting in LA County is badly handled in general. For example, a county with 10 million inhabitants really ought to have more than one early voting location.
Doug R
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Blodel Conservatory had their corpse flower bloom a couple of weeks ago: globalnews.ca/video/4334515/blooming-corpse-flower-draws-a-crowd-at-vancouver-bloedel-conservatory
Brachiator
@lamh36: 126 years. Damn.
JPL
There’s a March for our Lives in my town tonight, and a friend texted me to say that the venue was packed. The originally site was canceled by Fulton Cty School Superintendent a few days ago, but a local church stepped up and provided their church.
My friend is in an overflow room. Lucy McBath is speaking now.
Both she and I think that Handel supporters caused the superintendent to back down.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore: They had other temporary locations, but you’re right they need more permanent locations. One location at the southeastern edge of the county is not helpful.
Mike J
@lamh36:
Ever seen a marketing department in Silicon Valley?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Doug R: I’m watching The Huntington’s twitter, so far no news. They’re open tonight for members, I’ll go if it blooms. They’re normally closed on Tuesday’s but from what they were saying, they’ll probably be open tomorrow with extended hours for members(membership has it’s privileges).
Mike J
@Ruckus:
I’d like to see them go the way of the People’s Temple.
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
As I understand it this is being worked on. We had a discussion the other day about this. They are trying to move in the direction of 100% mail in ballots, with drop off stations, like I used in the primary. I had 4 or 5 places within walking distance to drop off my ballot in a locked ballot box, I didn’t need to actually mail it, it is for some days before the polls close election night, which of course if they go all mail in there won’t be. If they went to only mail in the vote couldn’t be counted much before the 3 days after voting day they give the PO to get a properly postmarked ballot to the register. So the boxes are a part of the solution to get accurate tallies in a timely fashion,
Doug R
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Blodel was open 7am to 11pm to the public as long as the corpse flower was blooming. Since we now live 4 hours drive away, we didn’t go.
Ruckus
@Mike J:
Wasn’t that all up in flames? I mean I’m OK with it but it stinks and is messy.
Mike J
@Ruckus: Flavor Aid.
lamh36
@NerdyWonka
Following Following @NerdyWonka
More
President Barack Obama out here casually striking yoga poses.
Live your best life, sir.
LIVE. YOUR. BEST. LIFE.
Ohio Mom
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That’s an interesting question.
Back when Ohio was sending everyone applications for absentee ballots, we got applications adressed to the couple we bought the house from a few years earlier.
I knew they’d died in an icy road accident the winter before and called the Board of Elections to tell them they could take Jim and Paula off the rolls.
“Not without a death certificate,” was the reply. I was told that Jim and Paula would automatically be removed once they hadn’t voted in two presidential elections (a time period which Ohio recently shortened considerably).
I thought about it and it made sense. The Board of Election can’t take orders from random callers to remove voters from the rolls.
I imagine you will have to prove to that you are you to the Board in Iowa. It might be more complicated than you think it will be.
Roger Moore
@Mike J:
I’d really rather not. The People’s Temple didn’t go down peacefully; they murdered several outsiders (including a Congressman), which I’d rather avoid. They also poisoned their children, which was horrible. If the Republicans are going to off themselves, I’d rather they follow the example of the Heaven’s Gate cult, which at least limited itself to killing avowed adult members.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore: They also wounded a now sitting CongressCritter.
Ohio Mom
@lamh36: You can tell from that photo Obama has a very good sense of balance.
But we already knew that, didn’t we?
Cameron Ramey
“Now, I’ve seen Republicans stuff a ruinous war against the wrong country and obliteration of the economy on their watch down the memory hole inside a decade, so I’m not quite as optimistic.”
Unfortunately they got a massive assist on this from Barack and Hillary’s own excellent neo-con adventures in Libya and Syria.
cokane
He must be saving the grab ’em by the pussy speech for when his kids need to learn sex-ed.
Baud
@lamh36: This 1000%.
@Cameron Ramey: Yeah, people turn to the GOP when they tire of war. :-\
Ruckus
@Mike J:
Long enough ago I had to look it up. I remember it as Jonestown.
But yes that’s an approved method. Less messy, still can get stinky for sure. Bodies do not smell good after a couple of weeks. Lived upstairs from a poor fellow who slipped in the tub and we think drowned. Because he was so quiet and kept mostly to himself no on noticed that he wasn’t around. Two weeks in the tub, his next door neighbor could smell it, I lived above her and it was pungent. Coroner had fun.
Another lurker
@Yarrow: And of couse they have to emphasize the baby bump. Yup. Gotta let the masses know that white folks are breeding.
She really does look animatronic.
chris
How about some more economic anxiety? Apparently the 1% are still feeling squeezed but the shitgibbon may have the answer. The best answer of course. Buckle up.
Mike in NC
@lamh36: By contrast, we all pretty much always knew that Trump can’t look down and see his own feet.
Mike J
@Roger Moore: You’re right.
Ruckus
@Ohio Mom:
I figured that my name would automatically be removed when no one had voted in a while when I moved from OH. I noticed the same thing, no way to have my name removed without a death cert and I wasn’t lining up for one of those.
lgerard
trump administration continues to add to its world record of “most employees escorted off the premises”
HHS official who spread conspiracy theories forced out
SectionH
@Mike J: Works for me.
Jay
@Baud:
The Killary meme was very effective in 2016.
Baud
@Jay:
When the left echoes the right, it’s hard to win.
Chris T.
@chris: I’d be OK with indexing capital gains taxes to inflation, provided that the base rate on those capital gains started out at their marginal income rate, for which the top tier should be about 70%.
In other words, for a billionaire earning $900 million in capital gains in 2018, they’d pay 70%, minus some discount for indexing, which might bring the rate all the way down to, say, 65%. (Today, they’re paying 20% or less.)
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Jay:
The response to anyone that denies that the GOP is a white supremacist authoritarian party now, is to ask them why the GOP is running open Nazis.
JPL
I don’t know if there is hope to flip the 6th or not, but the turnout for march for our lives gives me hope for our future.
twitter.com/JaclynCorin/status/1024084720504762368
twitter.com/MFOLGeorgia/status/1024056114923687937
this is after a change in venue
Jay
@Baud:
The YouTube clip in it’s variations was viewed over 121 million times and shared over 80 million times.
cope
@Brachiator: I agree that is not a preordained series of events that will all fall in place on their own and I agree that our efforts are all necessary to make it happen. However, this piece is the first thing I have read that gave me an image* of how it might come about and I suddenly feel more optimistic than I have since the morning after the election.
*Self diagnosed visual learner here.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Po-moemu, etot tovarishch sidit na ulitse 26 Bakinskikh komissarov.
Ohio Mom
@Ruckus: I know all the stuff about people not eligible to vote voting is marlarky drummed up by the right — there is very, very little actual voter fraud — but designing a system to maintain voter rolls that is above board, accurate, up-to-date, tamper-proof, user-friendly…it’s a tall order. And Republicans are quite good at utlizing every weak point in their favor.
Baud
@Jay: How many by bots?
SectionH
@Roger Moore: Ah… point taken. Um, wow. I was going to mention the Heaven’s Gate loonies before I read your comment, but had to google to find the name. Read a bit more, and whoa – they make Jim Jones’s cult look normal.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Dah!
Jay
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
I don’t know of anyone denying it.
The question is in 2 – 6 years, can the ReThugs Memory Hole Treason Tribble Трамп?
They can if the Democratic Party once again “looks forward”, not backwards.
Kay
I did a voter registration table at a “town event” in a tiny town west of here for two hours Saturday. I don’t know what to call this event- it has a parade and a bounce house and a (horrible) DJ and a ..basketball tournament. Might just be free throw contest? Anyway- some basketball thing. We registered no one on my shift but I did get two “registered Republicans” who told me they are ashamed of Trump. I wish I had thought to ask if they were ashamed of the whole Party, but I didn’t. I gave them lit on our candidates and tried to be welcoming or at least non-threatening :)
It’s hard to get over, the idea one can persuade them. I don’t really believe I can but, I don’t know, the challenge or something. You try.
Baud
@Kay: I’d rather spend my time working on my perpetual motion machine.
lamh36
laura
@laura: isn’t.
Stupid non-edit function.
Steeplejack
@JPL:
How did the superintendent “back down” if they still had to have the rally in a church, not the original venue?
Jay
@Baud:
Only 1.7 million troll shares.
Hillary was portrayed as a warmonger because of her votes and actions. That also allowed ReThugs to duck Iraq War charges.
Because Treason Tribble Трамп’s got at least 8 contradictory positions on any issue, at the same time, he could be anything “the viewer” wanted him to be.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Cameron Ramey:
Oh boy
Roger Moore
@Baud:
In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics.
Baud
@Jay:
She was also portrayed as Killary because she killed Vince Foster.
Anyone who cares about war who didn’t see that Hillary was a better choice than Trump is a fool who will fall for whatever propaganda that the GOP or Putin want to feed them. We need to focus on people who can think for themselves.
raven
RIP Ron Dellums.
Kay
@Baud:
Well, you’re there anyway, and I’m not groveling or anything. I’m completely comfortable in my views. One of them gave me pineapple upside down cake- an adorable little individual cake the size of a pineapple ring- I can hardly turn away :)
People have such a variety of baking pans, it’s amazing. I can’t imagine pulling out a stack of little Easy Bake oven pans for bake sale. Do they have commercial kitchens, or what? I’m lucky if I can find a cookie sheet.
Jeffro
@Baud:re PBO:
#FakeNews
lol
JPL
@Steeplejack: The original rally was suppose to be in a high school auditorium, but at the last minute it was blocked. Eagle’s Nest church stepped up and allowed the event to be help there. I’m not sure who got to the superintendent, but I assume it’s from the repub side. The crowd for a red state area was amazing, and good for them.
The minister who allowed the event to proceed ran for mayor and lost.
raven
Dellums
“If it’s radical to oppose the insanity and cruelty of the Vietnam War, if it’s radical to oppose racism and sexism and all other forms of oppression, if it’s radical to want to alleviate poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, and other forms of human misery, then I’m proud to be called a radical,”
Jeffro
@bemused:
Oh, so that’s where Stewart gets his neo-Confederate beliefs from…the heart of the South, the last stand of the Lost Cause…Minnesota.
Oddly enough, I almost want to thank Minnesota on behalf of Tim Kaine.
Jeffro
@chris: Please proceed, Republicans. As if your image as the comforters of the comfortable isn’t already rock solid…
Jay
@Baud:
My point, and Camron Ramey’s point is that the Democratic Party can’t tar and feather the ReThugs as “warmongers”, because of:
– voting records on the Iraq War,
– inaction on Iraq War war crimes,
– Syria and Lybia.
As an example, in Canada, the center-left meme, is y’all are warmongers, always have been, always will be.
The ReThugs and their allies very effectively portrayed Hillary Clinton as a rabid warmonger, not with “fake news”, but actual events.
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
I’m not sure if I am all that hot for 100 percent mail in ballots. I sometimes need time to go through the hundreds of ballot propositions, and to decide on some of the nonpartisan offices (judges, etc). One year they had a form of electronic voting at selected places, including the main LA library. Worked fairly well. My local polling place was a short walk away, and the new location is still convenient. I’d like a paid day off or official holiday to vote more than mail in.
Kayla Rudbek
@FlyingToaster: I have a voter ID card with my precinct number on it. I figured that this was a legacy of Jim Crow voter suppression as I live in Virginia.
TenguPhule
@Roger Moore:
I thought they were only guidelines.
germy
Whoops. I don’t think that’s the conclusion they thought they were paying for:
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Just saw Chris Christie on my TeeVee and he seemed to be wearing a Princeton shirt. Made a google and he went to U Del and Seton Hall Law School.
I wonder if he’s trying to get trump’s attention.
Brachiator
@Jay:
Bullshit.
zhena gogolia
@Jay:
Oh, go to hell. Do you even look at the news these days?
zhena gogolia
@Brachiator:
Kazhetsia, eshche odin tovarishch. Mozhet byt’ etot na ulitse Sof’i Kovalevskoi.
Kay
Or, you’re a poor judge of character and you swooned for another Right wing fake tough guy who was and is a fraud.
That seems more likely than Giuliani turned into a completely different person at 70 or whatever he is. Might want to consider that.
RedDirtGirl
@lamh36: I just clicked through the cast photos. All the aptions for the men noted the part they played as actors in, or creators of, the picture. The captions for the women’s photos mentioned what they were wearing…..
Jay
@zhena gogolia:
I know how many countries you have SOF fighting in, do you?
Do you even read your own Post Mortems on military actions?
belfercenter.org/publication/lessons-libya-how-not-intervene
Did you ever find those WMD’s?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kay: Giuliani hasn’t changed. Greenfield has. He and Roger Ebert used to be good friends, from when they were radical college newspaper editors in the 60s, Ebert at Illinois and Greenfield in Madison. Ebert wrote a handful of political columns IIRC in the run up to Iraq, I don’t remember the columns specifically but I remember wishing that he would stay in the political arena. Greenfield has become a smug old Villager. Maybe it was fucking Peggy Noonan.
raven
@Jay: SOF is Status of Forces, what are you trying to say?
RedDirtGirl
@Jay: As a fierce Hillary supporter I have to agree with you there. I can hold these two beliefs in my brain at the same time…
… backs away, quietly.
zhena gogolia
@Jay:
Are you acquainted with one Donald J. Trump?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
A guy could get alcohol poisoning from doing that.
Jay
@raven:
“SOF may refer to:
Science Olympiad Foundation
Sea of Faith, a Christian liberal philosophical movement
Sound on film
Sofia Airport, Bulgaria (by IATA airport code)
Soldier of Fortune (disambiguation)
Soldier of Fortune (magazine)
Special Operations Force
Stretton-on-Fosse
Student of Fortune, an online tutoring company
Superior orbital fissure”
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOF
prufock
C’etait moi.
WaterGirl
@lamh36: 126 years ago was 1892. Fuck. I guess they figure cameras are just too complicated for black people??? Good for Beyonce.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
That’s wild. I had no idea. If I think of him at all I’d probably put him in “villager” category.
Why do they put themselves thru this? Every DAY they’re like “I thought he was a moderate! Why is he wearing that WHITE HOOD?”
Jesus. You were WRONG. About Paul Ryan, about Guiliani, about Chis Christie. Again. They insist that these people go from Boy Scout to gargoyle and that just isn’t how it works.
WaterGirl
@JPL: Can you do a Freedom of Information request as someone suggested earlier this week. I think we should publicly shame anyone in power who does something like this. I hope you do it.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@zhena gogolia: Didn’t he host some kind of TV game show?
ETA: I think it was called “The Toady” or something like that.
germy
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I remember Greenfield when he had shoulder length hair and wrote for the National Lampoon. He should have stayed there.
germy
Final smash and grab before the whole thing comes tumbling down.
zhena gogolia
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I feel as if the troll quotient is ramping up. The blog was pretty clean for a while.
Ruckus
@Ohio Mom:
Oh I agree. It’s just that they are good about removing names and that’s all I needed them to do. I thought they could handle it.
On the other hand what if they left my name and had someone vote in my place and vote on the side I wasn’t going to vote, say fucking republican? I’d still be on the roll as a voter so all it would require was the person with the book checking my signature to not know what I looked like and seeing something that looked similar. And that I wouldn’t put past Ken in the least.
germy
@zhena gogolia: Might have something to do with the recent wikileaks twitter chat dump
newsweek.com/wikileaks-secret-chats-exposed-11000-twitter-messages-leak-online-1047509
?BillinGlendaleCA
@germy: That should make “The Prince of Darkness”(aka Bob Novak) happy in his home in hell.
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
A letter with your name, birthdate, address in Iowa, last 4 of SSN.
Make it explicit that you have moved.
Be sure to sign it.
Send it to your previous voting jurisdiction in Iowa.
raven
@Jay: So what are YOU saying?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@rikyrah: That does seem to be the best I could do. It’s a pain. It’s amazing that they’re removing people from voter rolls for this in some places.
Kay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I don’t watch Chris Matthews but I read in an OHIO paper that he was asking the Ohio (US) House candidates if they supported Pelosi for speaker. Topical and relevant as usual, I see. Not health care, not the rich people tax cuts, but Nancy Pelosi, because that’s what we’re all focused on- the House leadership elections.
They’re horrible at their jobs. People don’t know anything because they have to listen to this useless bullshit day after day.
Medicaid. Kasich’s Medicaid expansion. The GOP candidate for guv actually flip-flopped on it- it’s THAT important to people. That’s what the Ohio House races are about. But they refuse to talk about that.
Ruckus
@raven:
What a guy. RIP
From CA and didn’t even know who this guy was. My bad.
patroclus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Roger Ebert was a treasure. But, uh, his negative review of the original Blade Runner was the worst movie review I have ever read in my entire life.
raven
@Ruckus: Oh man him and Pete McCloskey were awesome when we were in DC for the VVAW gig.
zhena gogolia
But let’s worry about Hillary Clinton’s Iraq War vote.
Kay
@germy:
It scares me. I’m afraid the reckless, greedhead douchebags are gonna tank the economy again and it will be worse than last time. I want them reined in. They’re on a greed bender again and we’re going to be stuck with the hangover. I feel it in my bones.
Miss Bianca
@Ruckus: That sounds like the CO model. Makes voting really easy.
burnspbesq
@Jay:
You’d have a much better chance of being taken seriously if you weren’t such a sanctimonious dick.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@zhena gogolia:
Well, that and her emails(her war plans were probably in the missing emails).
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
Yes I believe that election day should be a holiday. For everyone. But that’s not actually al that realistic in a modern society. What about the Metro operators, cops, etc.
Mail in works, you get a ballet 2-4 weeks before the voting deadline and if you had a ballot box at convenient locations near you for all that time, you can take all the time you want/need and easily drop off your ballot. In a modern world a solution that works better for more people. As I said I had 4 locations I could walk to, no problem. Prior to this I had to take my ballot to the post office, how many PO boxes do you see around anymore?
Kay
@zhena gogolia:
“Global”. I bet the countries who actually regulate guns are going to have something to say about that. My sense is countries without mass gun slaughters are none too eager to adopt the US model. They seem pretty content taking a pass on our monthly horror.
Ruckus
@raven:
I can imagine.
Ruckus
@burnspbesq:
If he wasn’t, would he be himself?
Kay
I just love how crazy this is. They really think they get to define “the crime” as this …word and then announce it isn’t a crime and that wraps it up!
“Conspiracy isn’t a crime”. No, it’s not. It really depends on what they’re conspiring to do, so no one will be charged with THAT WORD. The Court of Cable News. They have no jurisdiction, Fox News! That isn’t how any of this works.
Bobby Thomson
@Betty Cracker: I think I remember someone at 538 saying Florida is the only 2016 battleground state where Trump has become more popular.
Jay
@zhena gogolia:
LMFAO
Trump supporters are generally well know for using the terms, ReThugs, Nazi’s, Hair Twitler, The Mango Hued Shitgibbon, Insane Clown Potus, Treason Tribble Трамп, “Gym” Jordan, Stagger McChimpy, etc
while referring to Hillary Clinton as Hillary Clinton, or Sec. State Hillary Clinton, President Obama as President Obama.
Trudeau’s my Prime Minister, and doing an okay job,
Putin’s Meatpuppet’s your POTUS, not mine.
James E Powell
@Jay:
Hillary Clinton is the only politician I can think of whose career was damaged by her support of the Iraq Invasion.
efgoldman
@MomSense:
Speaking of which, is your asshole Governor Mucilage term limited? If not, what are the chances of impeachment?
Omnes Omnibus
@James E Powell: Jesus fucking Christ, a vote for the AUMF was not a blanket vote for invasion. We have covered this many times.
Jay
@RedDirtGirl:
Yup, not a common trait these days,
Bad choices, inaction and not holding disinfo ops accountable allowed the Rethug’s, Bernie Bro’s and the Russians to sucessfully paint Hillary Clinton as the greater danger to World Peace than the Insane Clown POTUS,
efgoldman
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Don’t let Kobach find out
Omnes Omnibus
@Jay: Actually, at this point, you should sort of fuck off. Please.
James E Powell
@Omnes Omnibus:
Please. With respect, please. There was no doubt that the AUMF was a prelude to invasion. Presidents don’t request authorization to do things that they don’t intend to do. It’s a distinction with no political significance. Further, there is no evidence that Hillary Clinton opposed the invasion at the time it was going on. Neither did any other Democratic senator who had presidential ambitions.
I stand by the statement to which you responded. It isn’t fair but it’s true.
Jay
@raven:
Post Trump, you all better not play the “look forward, not backwards” game again,
Rip the rot out root and branch.
Barbara
@oldgold: I think the odds of a plea bargain with Manafort just went way up.
Platonailedit
@James E Powell:
Absolutely true. Every other warmongering mofos, including all the fucking dumbya regime war criminals, paid zero price and they all got away with their loot.
Omnes Omnibus
@James E Powell: I disagree. At the time, I saw it as a tool to get compliance. We just didn’t expect that compliance would be ignored.
ETA: I can’t believe that this fight still cromulent. It isn’t. Leave it.
Jay
@burnspbesq:
So, tell me something I don’t already know, and don’t really care about.
You wanna trash talk Trudeau on the merit’s, I’ll probably agree with you some of the time.
Most of my Hero’s are dead, and some of them were real assholes.
I’m not one of those people heavilly invested in pedistals.
MomSense
@efgoldman:
He’s out, thankfully and our race between Mills and Moody (blech) is heating up.
Jay
@James E Powell:
Yup, funny how a 40 year MSM Snark Hunt, allied with Purity Ponies, Russian Intelligence Agencies, ReThug Reframing, Looking Forwards Not Backwards, Syria and Lybia works out.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jay: Shitting on people from other countries isn’t always a good look.
Jay
@Omnes Omnibus:
We’re playing the “fuck off game”?
You go first.
See, I’m nice, I’m letting you go first.
Jay
@Platonailedit:
Yup, Yoo’s probably gonna wind up a Supreme.
Jay
@Omnes Omnibus:
Saddam was being compliant.
Jay
@Omnes Omnibus:
Never had much use for people being morons, unable to read simple concise statements.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jay:Are you really that dumb?
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus:
On v Kanade. Da, da, ia veriu, on v Kanade.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jay: I already said that,
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I would. There must be an email address.
Jay
@Omnes Omnibus:
Really, the ROW saw through the bullshit, Chiraq, Cretien,
But you belived The FTFNTY,….
Who’s stupid.
debbie
@Kay:
How is it possible he hasn’t been fired yet?
Omnes Omnibus
@Jay: Look up what I said.
Mandalay
@James E Powell:
Exactly so. Bush was given a blank check to complete as he saw fit.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Well, surprise, surprise surprise, as either Gomer or Goober used to say
all about the meeting that never happened, just ask anybody who was at the meeting, and the president was never at the meeting that didn’t happen
Platonailedit
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Who ya gonna believe, Rudy or your lyin’ eyes?
sgrAstar
@Jay:
« I’m not one of those people heavilly invested in pedistals »
Ahem. You don’t appear to be too invested in the use of apostrophes, either. Pet peeve!
Not gonna mention the « pedistal » thing.
Mandalay
@James E Powell:
Probably so. In a similar vein, Barbara Lee is the only politician I can think of whose reputation was (ultimately) enhanced over the Iraq Invasion.
Sasha
From America’s Most Adequate News Source: “Trump-Voter ‘Pretty Sure’ Candidate Ron Desantis Would Let Trump F*ck His Wife”