Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

Republicans in disarray!

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Peak wingnut was a lie.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

The revolution will be supervised.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

This fight is for everything.

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Because Why Not

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Saw this a while back at my favorite fishmonger (New Deal Seafood on Cambridge St. in Cambridge, for you Hub of the Universe Juicers)…


Which, inevitably, evoked this:

Meanwhile, Tikka asks, are you ready?

Early voting opened in my town today (yeah — MA does it by city and town)…

Just sayin.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

143Comments

  2. 2.

    LAO

    While this is a cat post, I have to share the single funniest thing a vet has ever said to me. So today, I took Maggie for her yearly vaccination/wellness vet visit. She is a staffy/beagle mix and I worry that’s she a little tubby. Anyway, she weighed 39.4 lbs and I asked Dr. K, if she need to lose any weight. He looked her over — she has a defined waist, large chest, big haunches and stubby legs — and says to me “look, she’s never going to look like a greyhound,” as if that’s the standard of beauty in the dog world. LOL.

    For those worried she is too fat, according to the vet 40 lbs is her red line, so apparently she’s fine.

  6. 6.

    JPL

    @LAO: A vet that Finch occasionally sees suggested he lose a few pounds. Now every time I bring him to the practice I am so concerned when he has to weigh in.

  8. 8.

    LAO

    @JPL: I hear you, I was very nervous weighing my chunky monkey today. People are always commenting on her “figure” because for a lap dog, she’s surprisingly dense.

  10. 10.

    Ohio Mom

    @LAO: It has long seemed to me that the most reasonable, practical goal for all us, whatever species we are, isn’t to lose weight but to stay the weight we already are.

    That can be enough of a challenge.

  13. 13.

    Elizabelle

    @LAO: My little beagles were on Hill’s Science reducing diet kibble their whole lives. And they lived long ones.

    Beagles aspire to portliness. They are chowhounds. Hills seemed to help keep them relatively svelte. (Important, because the older one had a bad back.)

  15. 15.

    pluky

    Yes! Many moons ago I lived down on Fulkerson Street across from the middle school. Utterly amazing seafood, and impressive proprietors. Was in there one day when the Lady of the Shop was chatting with her husband in Greek, some of the locals in Portuguese and Italian, one of the workers in Spanish, and finally taking an order in Japanese from a couple that had just walked in. I had to ask, “how many languages do you speak?” Her reply? “Depends on how well you mean by speak?”

  16. 16.

    geg6

    @LAO:

    LOL! That’s how I feel when I take Lovey to the vet. She may look fat (fuck you, John Cole), but she hovers between 18 and 20 lbs. I always say that she’s very muscular. Which is true. She spends half her life wresting for toys with Koda, who weights 86 pounds. The other half is spent either sleeping, barking at whatever she sees out of the windows and jumping on my or John’s lap or whatever piece of furniture looks as soft as our laps. Her chest and rear haunches are very muscular.

  17. 17.

    cmorenc

    @LAO:

    and says to me “look, she’s never going to look like a greyhound,” as if that’s the standard of beauty in the dog world. LOL.

    I’ve seen what a (thankfully rare) really fat Greyhound looks like – it’s a disturbingly pathetic-looking sight that provokes disturbing thoughts about the possible deficiencies in its owner that contributed to producing such a grotesquely unhealthy animal.

  19. 19.

    Salty Sam

    Back in the mid-aughts, I worked as a fish cutter in the seafood dept. of a high end grocery store. A big part of the morning shift was setting up the display on ice. There was competition among the fishmongers as to who could set up the best display. Bizarreness counted…

    I used to hum “Fish Heads” to myself whenever it was my turn to set the case…

  20. 20.

    Aleta

    @geg6: She spends half her life wresting for toys with Koda, who weights 86 pounds.

    One thing I admire about feisty small dogs is how they believe they are as big as anyone else on the planet.

  21. 21.

    ET

    I keep thinking of all of those animojis that were so popular so I want to know what song those fish heads should be singing.

  22. 22.

    Aleta

    COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Norway’s prime minister says World War II saboteur Joachim Roenneberg, who headed the four-man team that blew up a plant producing heavy water which Nazi Germany could have used to produce nuclear weapons, is dead at 99.

    Prime Minister Erna Solberg says Roenneberg was “one of our finest resistance fighters” whose “courage contributed to what has been referred to as the most successful sabotage campaign” in Norway.

    Roenneberg, then 23, was tapped by the SOE — Britain’s wartime intelligence-gathering and sabotage unit — to destroy key parts of the heavily guarded plant in southern Norway in February 1943.

    … not a single shot was fired… .

  23. 23.

    Kelly

    Yesterday we adopted 12 week old kitten, Phoebe. 12 year old elder cat, Annie does not approve. Annie’s objections are expressed with hissing and batting at Phoebe, but no claws.

  24. 24.

    MagdaInBlack

    Your fish made me smile! High school friend married into a South Philly family who run a seafood store/restaurant. My favorite thing when visiting is to grab a couple dozen fresh steamed mussels there, go down the street for fresh filled cannolis, and go home to feast.
    Thank you for stirring those memories.
    http://www.anastasiseafood.com/about/
    …if youre in the neighborhood.

    My wonky wifi ate my first reply…hope i dont dupe.

  26. 26.

    joel hanes

    In an earlier phase of my life, my wife was the office manager for the Silicon Valley office of a Japanese aerospace outfit. She made good friends with the all-male Japanese contingent, and one night we set up our house Japanese-style, with a low table, mats, cushions, and eight of them brought groceries and made home-made Japanese dinner for us — miso soup, fish stew, rice balls, vegetables, hand-rolled maki, and many bottles of Japanese beer and saki.

    I was given to understand that choosing the very freshest fish-heads for the stew was one of the secrets.
    I was also warned never, ever to purchase “Hawaiian-style” miso or teriyaki: “too sweet”.

  29. 29.

    Frankensteinbeck

    Open thread? I dearly, dearly want Beto to win, not just for Senate control reasons, but because if he does “TED” will be all anyone remembers of Ted Cruz’s career.

  32. 32.

    ruemara

    I’m Jamaican. I love fish heads. And I love eating the eyes, bwhahahaha! I could use some fish tea (thin broth made of fish heads & bones) right now. I seem to have a flu and my tum’s not right. I knew getting to the wrong side of 40 would make me go downhill, but this seems quite fast.

    Edited to add that I also love the fish heads song.

  38. 38.

    ruemara

    @Raven: I’ve begged my parents for some ackee and other supplies, since Queens & Brooklyn is filled with Afro-Caribe stores. Thankfully, Amazon actually sells that and will ship, so if you’ve desired some Solomon Gundy on a fried dumpling with bammy, ackee & saltfish, YES YOU CAN! All I need is mamey for batida de mamey at home.

  39. 39.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Elizabelle: My Uncle’s Beagle Rex was *ahem* portly if you will. My Uncle owned a Pub that sold food and so we regularly made a sign for Rex “Please do not feed the dog, he is on a diet”. Somehow Rex got the “look at me, these people are starving me!” look about him and customers would regularly cut up their left over steak or gammon and feed him under the table.

  41. 41.

    Roger Moore

    @LAO:

    and says to me “look, she’s never going to look like a greyhound,” as if that’s the standard of beauty in the dog world.

    I think you’re misreading that. Greyhounds are the breed that the vet though of as looking the least like your dog: leggy and slender instead of short and robust. So the vet is saying you shouldn’t expect your dog to look like something she isn’t.

  42. 42.

    Origuy

    I started singing that song as soon as the picture loaded. It took several seconds for the YouTube link to load and confirm what I thought. Dr. Demento fans, represent!

  43. 43.

    Raven

    @ruemara: we used to go to Negril when there was nothing there but the Yatch Club and Redground. No condos, all-inclusive, Pewee’s, Bob Marley or jerk chicken! It was awesome in the early 70’s and we had a pipeline to a nice place on the beach called “Preserverence” run by the Jackson family. We’d take corn seed from Illinois and blue jeans and trade for local goods. It was wonderful and I’m sure it’s gone.

  44. 44.

    germy

    HOW TO VOTE

    I’m wondering if they’ll be any funny business this year at our polling place.

    Back in ’12, a woman seated next to the voting place person asked the person if my wife was on “the list”. She was told “No, she’s not on the list” and my wife got to vote. I’m not sure wtf that was about.

  45. 45.

    Mnemosyne

    I’m grumpy today and I’m not quite sure why, other than because I’m being lazy about getting my various projects done. It was cloudy when I woke up this morning and my tummy is a little upset, so there’s a good chance that a migraine is lurking and hasn’t made itself known yet. I should probably take some Excedrin just in case.

  46. 46.

    Anonymous At Work

    @schrodingers_cat: I think that’s what Tikka is really asking, “Are you taunting me? Are you really dumb enough to taunt a clawed and nocturnal sociopath that lives in your house?”

  48. 48.

    Yutsano

    Y’all are looking at the fish heads and I’m drooling over that bowl of scallops in the upper left corner. It’s been too long since I’ve had some good ones. Maybe I’ll spoil myself next month and get some Coquilles St Jacques going.

    Edit because Monday hasn’t been my friend today.

  49. 49.

    SenyorDave

    A new poll (not Rasmussen) shows Trump with a 47% approval rating vs. 49% disapproval. I understand that he starts with 35%+ but WTF has happened since September to increase his popularity? Not sure I want to live in a country where almost half the people approve this racist amoral pig.

    In two weeks I’m driving people to the polls, and I will have to remind myself to keep my mouth shut. I live in Maryland which is as blue as can be, but we have a Republican governor and county executive, both of who will win big. Depressing as hell.

  50. 50.

    trollhattan

    @Elizabelle:
    The video of the beagle pushing the barstool from the kitchen island to the counter, so as to jump onto the stool, access the counter and then open the toaster oven and steal its contents taught me everything I needed about beagles and food.

    Goldies can be quite the thieves, despite (because of?) their eager-to-please demeanor. Friends found an entire Wonder Bread loaf freshly buried in their garden. It seems Duke had raided the construction site across the street, stolen the workers’ loaf of bread and hidden it away “for later.” Easier to apologize for than another friend’s goldie who managed to steal a neighbor’s purse and bring it to his mom’s house. “Uh, here’s your purse. The dog stole it. Really.”

  53. 53.

    Amir Khalid

    @SenyorDave:
    Fuck Trump and his ratings. He’s not running in the midterms. Just vote as many Republicans out and as many Democrats in as you can.

  55. 55.

    Mike in DC

    Trump is held aloft largely on the support of non-college educated white males. Non-college educated white women and college educated white men are a tossup. College educated white women are hugely opposed to Trump now, as are pretty much all voters of color.
    If we lose one seat in the Senate, then we have to pick up 3, which is doable. 4 or 5, I believe, is the best case scenario. AZ, NV, TN, TX and (maybe) Espy in MS.

  56. 56.

    germy

    schooley has an interesting thread about how tRump’s approval ratings are reported vs. how Obama’s were reported:

    Just heard MSNBC – MSNBC! – describe Trump as "riding high on his approval ratings." Someone is high, that's for sure. pic.twitter.com/6zLLPAoCMv— Schooley (@Rschooley) October 22, 2018

  57. 57.

    Dog Mom

    @cmorenc: I am hesitant to judge anymore. Sometimes it is not the owner, but unfortunate endocrine issues. I have two dogs with Cushing’s disease – the body fails to regulate the amount of the stress hormone, cortisol. Too much cortisol is like too much prednisone – Extreme thirst and hunger, muscle wasting and a big, big belly. Medication can help a lot, but can be hard to keep in balance. Now my third girl has the opposite disease – Addison’s. So she has to take prednisone for lack of Cortisol. She is nicknamed ‘ShortFat’ – it’s just the way she’s shaped.

  58. 58.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @trollhattan:

    Trump has made it “okay” to let your freak flag fly high.

    Good. Very little has actually changed. They were always this awful. The Republican Party has been lying to our face and pushing Hellish, corrupt, unpopular, unscrupulous policies for decades. With mostly minor variations in foreign policy, this nightmare was inevitable the next time Republicans gained power. The real change is that a lot of white people who wanted to believe that Republican voters weren’t white supremacist level vile, hateful scum have had it rubbed in their faces. Hopefully this message will stick and those people will keep voting like their lives depend on it. They do. It’s the whole GOP, not Trump.

  59. 59.

    Catherine D.

    I weigh my 14 year old cat once a week. The first sign of the big three senior cat diseases (hyperthyroidism, kidney failure, cancer) is usually gradual weight loss. He will have his 6 month old-fart checkup/blood work in two weeks, but I’m not expecting trouble.

  60. 60.

    Brachiator

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Good. Very little has actually changed. They were always this awful. The Republican Party has been lying to our face and pushing Hellish, corrupt, unpopular, unscrupulous policies for decades. With mostly minor variations in foreign policy, this nightmare was inevitable the next time Republicans gained power.

    OK. So, Trump, no big deal. Just another Republican. So, no special urgency in trying to stop or defeat him.

  61. 61.

    Mary G

    Encouraged by reports of people camping out overnight to be first in early voting, but terrified of some October surprise by the masters of mayhem. It’s always hard to wait after I ‘ve mailed in my ballot, but I’m finishing up 75 postcards from Postcard Patriots today or tomorrow then getting more names and addresses.

  63. 63.

    Gelfling 545

    @trollhattan: One of my many temp jobs after retirement was for a proberty manager who had his office in 1/2 of his home so one naturally became acquainted with his dog, a somewhat portly beagle. This dog had learned to open the refrigerator and help himself when he didn’t feel his food supply was adequate. Mostly they put easily eaten items in a refrigerator the dog could not get to – though he was also an escape artist – and kept bottled or otherwise inaccessible products in the main kitchen fridge but I still recall him meeting me at the door with a package of frozen pork chops he’d liberated from the freezer.

  64. 64.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Brachiator:

    So, no special urgency in trying to stop or defeat him.

    Exactly the opposite. Thank goodness people are noticing the danger that was here already. Trump is not particularly unusual, other than his obviousness. The Republican Party is that horrible, and has been for a long time. Trump didn’t block Garland or try to sink a stimulus package that was all that stood between America and another Great Depression. If Cruz or Jeb? were in charge, we would still be facing the prospect of Roe overturned, the safety net destroyed, civil rights stripped from everyone, the deficit exploded by cutting all taxes on the rich, and some sadistic racist attempt at genocide, although take your pick who’d they be going after. This urgency is the correct level of involvement we already needed, as demonstrated by the fact that we’re in this situation at all.

  65. 65.

    Shana

    @Raven: Did they have phone service then? My parents used to go around then and they told me about a joke phone on the bar of their hotel that wasn’t attached to anything.

  66. 66.

    OzarkHillbilly

    The VA House Incumbent Who Airs Dirty Laundry As His Re-Election Strategy

    Virginia Del. Lee Carter wants you to know that he is in the midst of his third divorce, can’t hold a job, lobbed homophobic insults when he was young, and may even have explicit photos of himself floating around on the internet.

    It’s not that the incumbent Democrat wants to lose the election next year; he just wants to get all of the potentially damning information out there before any of his opponents can.

    “I think we’ve moved past the age where folks in politics can pretend that their past doesn’t exist,” Carter, a 31-year-old first-term delegate from Manassas, told The Associated Press in explaining his decision to release the less-appealing aspects of his life in a series of 15 tweets.

    Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington, acknowledged that Carter’s strategy is unusual but said the approach “might be crazy like a fox.”

    “In the age of (Brett) Kavanaugh, trying to peddle false or incomplete narratives about one’s past appears to be a high-risk strategy,” said Farnsworth, referring to the Supreme Court justice whose nomination was in the balance after he was publicly accused of sexual assault when he was a high school student more than three decades ago. Kavanaugh vehemently denied the charges and was confirmed.

    Carter’s approach has the benefit of disclosing everything now, a year away from his re-election, making it “old news by the time you’re in front of the voters again,” Farnsworth added.

    I applaud.

  67. 67.

    Jay

    @SenyorDave:

    Nate Silver only includes Rasmusson Poll’s in his aggregates towards the end of an election cycle, because Rasmusson typically polls R’s +3 to +7 more than any other polls, until the last month of the cycle, when they tighten up and start to reflect what other poll’s show.

    Basically, you can ignore Rasmusson Polling on Hair Twitle until October 2020.

  68. 68.

    Raven

    @Shana: I remember the Yacht Club had a phone. Where we stayed was a grass roofed hut a skeeter net over the rack. A lot of it was like the Nam.

  69. 69.

    Raven

    From a Negril blog

    Yacht Club in the 1970’s
    I remember the only Public Phone was outside the Yacht club ( long before cell phones appeared) and to confirm your return flight you had to go there with sufficient change in JA to get a call thru to Sangster Airport to confirm your seat. And sometimes wait in line to use the phone. Another time the call would not go through since the coin box had not neen emptied in so long , there was no room for more coins !Frantic voice would come on the line and say ” No Call today – The box is full – the box is full!! Restaurant was pretty good in the day too – Jamaican & Chinese Menu.

  75. 75.

    Mary G

    Apologies if this has been posted before, but this 2-minute film advocating voting for Democrats, and scored to “Fortunate Son,” is great. I’m trying to stay off the internets as much as I can, but it has jazzed me up, so I am glad I took a break from the postcards.

    BREAKING: #BlueWave imminent!The #BlueWave Trailer pic.twitter.com/kCLvSqK5lz— Eleven Films (@Eleven_Films) October 22, 2018

  77. 77.

    Yutsano

    @OzarkHillbilly: Not to mention all the footage shown so far has shown them to be non-violent women and children. It’s not turning into a good look for the Repukes.

  79. 79.

    Jay

    @John Revolta:

    Nope. Since 2010, these caravan’s have been organized as both a protest, a means to avoid coyotes/human trafficing, a means to offer mutual support for travellers, from child care to food sharing, and as a means to provide self protection as a group.

    There’s a convoy every 3-4 months, they ususally disperse in Mexico, after a symbolic protest in the border. In their travels through Mexico the ususally “bleed off” participants because Mexico is much safer and has greater economic opportunity than home.

    In this case, some 1,000 crossed the border into Mexico, but their numbers have been swollen inside Mexico by people who left previous marches or crossed into Mexico on their own.

    It’s more about how the US MSM doesn’t inform American’s than timing.

  80. 80.

    NotMax

    @NotMax
    Linky.

    Germany is freezing arms exports to Saudi Arabia as Riyadh faces a growing chorus of international condemnation over the killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in its Istanbul consulate and near-universal disbelief over the kingdom’s shifting explanations for his death.
    [snip]
    German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the ban on exports will stay in place while questions remain over Mr. Khashoggi’s fate. “I agree with those who say that arms exports, which are already limited, cannot happen given the circumstances,” she said on Sunday. Source

  81. 81.

    Jay

    @NotMax:

    Yup, and Eurofighter and other contracts are outside the review.

    So far only Norway, Finland and Spain have shown a spine.

  82. 82.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    Excedrin works for a migraine? We must have significantly different reasons/types of migraine.
    Only thing that works for me is zolmitriptan. Or a specific opiate pain reliever, that docs do not like to prescribe, and at max dosage (twice what is needed) it gives me hallucinations that are quite interesting. Last time I had to purchase zolmitriptan, by far the cheapest place was in Canada at $150 for 10. $240/10 in the US.

  83. 83.

    Jay

    @Yutsano:

    The Deplorables, Gullibillies, Trumpies and Nazis lizard brains turn off when they hear “brown”,

    They don’t see women and children, because the lizard brain has turned off the ocular nerve’s connection with the brain and instead they visualize a Mongol Horde with some ISIS Fighter’s clad in black, flying ISIS flags.

    The messaging is targetted at Hair Twitler’s base.

  85. 85.

    Yutsano

    @Jay: It doesn’t matter what it looks like to THEM. It’s what it looks like to the majority of us who haven’t drunk the Orange Turd Tea. And it looks like they are bullying desperate folks who are just trying to escape madness. I don’t give two shits what they think. I’m sick that their view is in control of my country right now. And it’s incumbent on those of us who want to change it to take it back.

  86. 86.

    WaterGirl

    @Mary G: I got goose bumps watching that, then I started crying. God, I hope we take this thing. Now I’m gonna go watch it again.

    edit: that was the fastest 2 minute video I have ever seen. It grabs you instantly and takes you along for the ride. Well done!

  88. 88.

    germy

    Now we see who the real victim is here.

    The #KhashoggiMurder was immoral. But it was also disrepectful to Trump & those of us who have supported the strategic alliance with the Saudi’s. Not only did they kill this man, they have left @potus & their congressional allies a terrible predicament & given Iran a free gift.— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) October 22, 2018

  90. 90.

    Jay

    @Yutsano:

    The Insane Clown POSus is yelling to his base about it, so of course, the MSM is “covering” a story the ususally ignore.

    Yes, you and I see desperate people we would like to help, and you get to vote on this issue.

  91. 91.

    Jeffro

    Didn’t I (and a few others) already call this a week ago?

    Trumpov preparing to call midterms illegitimate if GOP loses

    Journalist Carl Bernstein said Sunday that President Trump has discussed ways to challenge the results of the midterm elections if the GOP’s grasp on power slips.

    During an appearance on CNN, Bernstein said his sources relayed this information to him on Friday, warning that Trump has talked about a disruption campaign if the results are close but have the Democrats taking control of the House or Senate.

    “I talked to people … in touch with the White House on Friday who believe that, if the congressional midterms are very close and the Democrats were to win by five or seven seats, that Trump is already talking about how to throw legal challenges into the courts, sow confusion, declare a victory actually, and say that the election’s been illegitimate,” Bernstein said after being asked if Trump’s challenge to fraudulent voters was a form of voter suppression.

    Hey GOP – what do you think about this? You’re ok with it? Let us know…we’ll be busy GOTV-ing like never before!

  92. 92.

    Jay

    @Jeffro:

    The Insane Clown POSus is actually “shopping” two different meme’s at the same time,

    Meme #1 is that he won’t “recognize” the elections if the go badly for the ReThug’s, ( but he’s dropped China interference and Dem/Russian Collusion because they didn’t market well),

    Meme #2 is that Hair Twitler didn’t lose the election, weak! sad! ReThugs did.

  94. 94.

    germy

    @Jeffro:

    if the congressional midterms are very close and the Democrats were to win by five or seven seats… Trump is already talking about how to throw legal challenges into the courts, sow confusion, declare a victory actually, and say that the election’s been illegitimate,

    Then we must make sure they are not very close.

  95. 95.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    The kid was over for dinner yesterday and returned my NX500 and 300 pics from Australia and New Zealand. I’ll be spending the next few days going over the pics.

    ETA: There will be an OTR.

  96. 96.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    The #KhashoggiMurder was immoral. But it was also disrepectful to Trump

    Dumbest thing I’ve read all year.

  97. 97.

    CapnMubbers

    And for all the posters who referenced “Fish Heads”; that was the first thing that popped into my head.
    Fish heads, fish heads, jolly jolly fish heads,
    Fish heads, fish heads, eat them up, YUM!
    Now I have an earworm for at least the day.

  100. 100.

    Brachiator

    @Jeffro:

    Didn’t I (and a few others) already call this a week ago?

    Trumpov preparing to call midterms illegitimate if GOP loses

    I think that Bernstein is getting his chain pulled. I think that the GOP will do everything they can to retain their grip on the government, but Trump can say whatever he wants. It will have no impact on the Congress or a Democratic Party majority.

  102. 102.

    Barbara

    @WaterGirl:

    “You bastards, killing that guy put us in an awkward position; how dare you treat us like this!”

    ” . . . and expose us for all the world to see what toadying, servile, yes men we are when it comes to Saudi Arabia! You’re making us look bad!”

  103. 103.

    Barbara

    @Brachiator: My theory here is that a lot of coverage we are seeing of the elections (e.g., Republicans are bouncing back, Democrats are nervous) is a direct result of having been so wrong in 2016. They don’t really know, but they sure as heck want to be able to point to a story showing that they weren’t wrong, so they seem to be writing a lot of stories suggesting a complete range of possibilities. Time to stop reading and just keep writing, calling, canvassing and donating.

  104. 104.

    Barbara

    @Barbara: And I should have added, they are making us, the United States of America, look like a client state of Saudi Arabia, ready to do its bidding. I am sure Erdogan, whom I loathe, is fully aware of the strategic message he is sending to the world.

  106. 106.

    Bostondreams

    Speaking of elections, my good friend and fellow Gator Michele Phillips is running a write in campaign for South Carolina Superintendent of Schools, to give voters there a choice after the Democratic candidate dropped out with his name still on the ballot. The State actually noticed and did a nice write up.

    If you are in SC, please check out her campaign. She’s a former professor at the College of Charleston, a middle school teacher and a passionate educator! And while this is a long shot campaign, her belief in civic responsibility and democracy leads her to want folks to have a choice!

  108. 108.

    The Moar You Know

    It’s not turning into a good look for the Repukes.

    @Yutsano: Not to you or I. The Foxbots in my office want us to go down and bomb the caravan. Seriously.

    They’d settle for the Mexican troops shooting them all, but they’d really rather we do it.

    For what’s it’s worth I’m also in the “timing of this is not a coincidence” camp.

  109. 109.

    Jay

    “According to two people familiar with the conversations, Trump is distancing himself from a potential Republican thumping on Election Day. He’s telling confidants that he doesn’t see the midterms as a referendum on himself, describing his 2020 reelection bid as “the real election.” And he says that he holds House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell responsible for protecting their majorities in Congress.”

    According to one person with knowledge of these talks, Trump has said of Ryan and McConnell: “These are their elections … and if they screw it up, it’s not my fault.”

    https://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2018/10/baby-trump-is-getting-ready-for-yuge.html?m=1

  111. 111.

    WaterGirl

    @Barbara:

    And I should have added, they are making us, the United States of America, look like a client state of Saudi Arabia, ready to do its bidding. I am sure Erdogan, whom I loathe, is fully aware of the strategic message he is sending to the world.

    Two thoughts. 1. It appears that we actually ARE currently a client state of Saudi Arabia, as well as Russia. 2. It’s a sad state of affairs when I am counting on Erdogran, who is a thug, to help get justice for this man who was butchered. He is surely not working in our best interests, but I don’t care. I want the truth of this to come out. The act itself was horrifying; the cover-up is horrifying in a different way.

  113. 113.

    Jay

    @The Moar You Know:

    “The Central American migrant caravans,[1] also known as the Viacrucis del Migrante (Way of the Cross),[2] are annual migrant caravans of Central Americans organized by Pueblo Sin Fronteras (People without Borders).[3][4] Viacrucis caravans have usually been organized since 2010 by the migrants themselves, who set off during Holy Week.[5][6][7][8]”

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_American_migrant_caravans

    “Pueblo Sin Fronteras (English language: People Without Borders) is an immigrants rights group known for organizing several high profile migrant caravans in Mexico and Central America. The organization’s efforts to facilitate immigration and calls for open borders attracted considerable amounts of coverage in the American and Mexican media.[1][2][3][4][5]”

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pueblo_Sin_Fronteras

  114. 114.

    Brachiator

    @Barbara:

    My theory here is that a lot of coverage we are seeing of the elections (e.g., Republicans are bouncing back, Democrats are nervous) is a direct result of having been so wrong in 2016. They don’t really know, but they sure as heck want to be able to point to a story showing that they weren’t wrong, so they seem to be writing a lot of stories suggesting a complete range of possibilities.

    I generally ignore these stories. Most of them are little more than space fillers.

    And I recall a key missed call from the recent past. Here’s the Boston Globe on the Alabama election involving Roy Moore:

    The view from Alabama: Why Roy Moore will win

    Also, the American Prospect:

    Will the traditional method of turning out black voters in Alabama be enough to carry Democrat Doug Jones to victory?…

    At the heart of this conundrum is whether the Jones campaign is doing enough Obama-style boots on the ground, phone calling, and text organizing to supplement the traditional turnout mechanism of the Alabama Democratic Conference…

    Efforts to register African Americans have succeeded, but many blacks fail to vote on Election Day.

    Of course, Moore got his butt kicked, thanks to a strong black turnout.

    I must confess that I did look at a story in today’s NY Times wondering why Latino voters seem to not care about the midterms, but I have not finished the entire thing.

    Bottom line. Between now and November 6, it’s all about the actual voting, not the speculation about the voting.

  116. 116.

    Barbara

    @Brachiator:

    “A week before Election Day, new poll finds tightening race for Va. governor” Source

    One week from Election Day, Democrat Ralph Northam’s lead has narrowed to five percentage points in the Virginia governor’s race, with Republican Ed Gillespie closing a motivation gap and consolidating support among conservatives and supporters of President Trump, a new Washington Post-Schar School poll finds.

    I am not getting complacent, not by a mile. But I think it’s okay to tune this stuff out.

  117. 117.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    So now Twitler is saying that they will pass tax cuts for the Middle Class before the election, which will be a hell of a feat considering congress doesn’t go back into session until after the elections. Is there no end to this mans genius? He must have a magic wormhole that can spirit all the members of congress back into session to pass his mythical tax cuts prior to November 6.

  118. 118.

    JMG

    Because of the peculiarities (to put it nicely) of how Congressional districts are set up, there ARE a wider range of possible outcomes, from Republicans holding both House and Senate to the Democrats taking them both. These can be expressed as percentages, but most American political reporters are innumerate and the ones on TV are there to blah blah blah. There is also the audience imperative. Nobody’s going to click on stories saying an election is not close.

  120. 120.

    Jay

    Conditions really must be horrific for people in Central America for them to consider life in Trump’s America to be an improvement.

  121. 121.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Barbara: That one went BANANAS. And the howling started with various leftier-than-thous who fastened on something Northam said about “sanctuary cities” and decided the sad-sack candidate no one ever wanted was demoralizing The Base and generally neoliberaling things right up and everything and everyone was DOOOMED. Then Northam won by 9%, the best performance for a D Gov in 32 years.

  127. 127.

    debbie

    Guess it’s too late to say those fish heads look like something out of the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

  128. 128.

    debbie

    @Litlebritdifrnt:

    I couldn’t believe it when I heard that this afternoon. He’s escalating so rapidly, he’ll be parting the Red Sea by Thursday.

    Are we up to saving a gazillion jobs by sticking with the Saudi arms deal?

  130. 130.

    Yutsano

    @debbie: Jesu Christe. Have they all gone reality show carnival barker? WHERE’S THE FUCKING DOCTOR SO WE CAN FIX THIS SHIT???

  133. 133.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Barbara: remember the press cheery picks polls to get the narrative they want. I really find it hard to believe anyone’s mind is going to be changed in the next few weeks.

  134. 134.

    Yutsano

    @SiubhanDuinne: Tikka does not need your lame excuses about not voting. Tikka will enforce this edict with his mighty claw. While looking dashing the whole time.

  140. 140.

    david

    Welp. DId my civic duty. It was quick and easy. Was in a voting booth in less than 5 minutes after arrival.

    Almost voted straight ticket; but, there was one state justice seat that had no Democratic candidate, but
    did have a Libertarian, so the ticket had to be split. Plus, this technically makes me bipartisan. I think.

    Good news: every seat at the state level (with that one exception) had a Democratic candidate this cycle.
    Bad new: every county/local seat was Republican unopposed. Yeah, east Texas is deep red.

  141. 141.

    Ohio Mom

    @Yutsano: Ugh, doctors. This week I am particularly irritated about having to chase one of mine down. She didn’t do what she was supposed to, and there is a fine line between being one’s own advocate and having to steer the entire boat yourself without knowing how to read a nautical map. Why isn’t she here at the helm?

    Hope your doc today is on top of things, thorough, and pleasant.

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