Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

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

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Everyone is in a bubble, but some bubbles model reality far better than others!

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

No one could have predicted…

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

I was promised a recession.

Second rate reporter says what?

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

“Squeaker” McCarthy

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

The revolution will be supervised.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

You are here: Home / Pet Blogging / Cat Blogging / Friday Morning Open Thread: TOO! MUCH! NEWS!

Friday Morning Open Thread: TOO! MUCH! NEWS!

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My sleep schedule is even more erratic than usual, and apparently we will never get another 24-hour span of sunlight here. Rain didn’t used to bother me, back before I was old & arthritic & had a yard to tend, but what seems like a solid month of mizzle interspersed with downpours is wearing me down. I finally managed to get outside long enough to break down the tomato ladders and bin the dead plants for city recycling, so now my throat is raw and my sinuses are blocked, because even that token effort stirred up a ton of mold spores. Ever tried raking leaves while wearing a respirator? Ugh.

There’s a bunch of news percolating, but even if I had the mental energy to string the stories together, they’ll probably be superseded by a Friday news dump.

AND YET…

Reader Interactions

198Comments

  2. 2.

    Balconesfault

    So now wing nuts are jumping on an OKeefe story claiming that the Beto campaign would be doing something as stupid as directly funding the caravan.

    The stupid burns. Looking forward to all the debunkings, but meanwhile they’re going to be trying to shove it into the election narrative.

  3. 3.

    geg6

    I have to say, that Oprah speech was pretty fucking awesome. She’s got a future in public speaking, I think. ?

  5. 5.

    bystander

    My take on McCaskill is that she shouldn’t be siding with twitler on border security. I had forgot she refused to sell her soul for Kavanaugh, tho, and that’s a matter of real substance. KC has a large Mexican-American community who should be a source of strength for CM. But good luck to her. Her rival is despicable. Thus endeth my take on McCaskill.

    The best thing about voting in NYC this round is voting for the replacements for the blue dog Dems we had representing us in Albany.

  6. 6.

    satby

    @rikyrah: Good morning ?

    Packed agenda today: early voting, then canvassing the neighborhood with postcards to my neighbors. It’s a mixed race working class area, the kind that can have low turnout because of jobs that limit the time they may have to vote on election day. So I’m going to be spreading the early voting hours and location too.

  7. 7.

    Chyron HR

    @Balconesfault:

    After pumping 50 million dollars into the race and having the first family make repeated campaign stops, the GOP is still worried they’re going to lose in Texas?

  9. 9.

    Immanentize

    @Balconesfault: @Chyron HR:
    I lived in Texas for more than a decade (South Texas) and if there is one State where people know what that group of people is — NOT an invasion! — for all their conservative attitudes I can’t believe the Texans really believe
    1). The caravan is a threat and
    2). Beto is funding it.

  10. 10.

    Immanentize

    My migraines follow a very particular pattern. The come AFTER periods of great stress. Last night I woke with the worst migraine I’ve had probably since last April. Ugh.
    But this also means that the Immp finished his four early applications getting the last one in last night about 6 hours before the final deadline….
    The bad and the good.

    I just looked in the mirror and found the ugly

  13. 13.

    Kay

    If Betty has time, I hope she’ll give us a Florida analysis (with her notebook paper map). It’s driving Trump crazy that Florida is leaning D. Delightful to watch him squirm.

  15. 15.

    Kay

    Nate Silver
    ‏Verified account
    @NateSilver538
    Follow Follow @NateSilver538
    More Nate Silver Retweeted (((Harry Enten)))
    Pennsylvania polls have been just awful for Republicans. If Democrats have a good night next week, PA would really be the epicenter in some ways—a bit ironically given the preponderance of Trump-voters-in-Pennsylvania-diners-still-love-Trump stories

    Maybe not a Trump realignment after all.

  16. 16.

    evap

    My workplace (a major research university in Atlanta) just announced that they are running shuttles from campus to a bunch of nearby polling places on Election Day, and anybody can ride them. As far as I can remember, this is the first time they have done this. What an excellent idea!

  17. 17.

    Quinerly

    @bystander: St. Louis has a very large Hispanic community also… Plus a large immigrant community. Don’t want to be a Negative Nellie, but last night I had a sinking feeling about Claire. It hit me about 11…about the time I was coming off of the high from Oprah’s speech. Claire is an amazingly lucky politician who knows every inch of this state. If anyone can pull it off, she can.

  24. 24.

    debbie

    Yay, Oprah! I know it takes a lot for her to get on the political stage.

    I have something going on in my sinuses. No sniffles, but the sometimes dizziness and light-headedness are really annoying.

  25. 25.

    JGabriel

    Anne Laurie @ Top:

    Ever tried raking leaves while wearing a respirator? Ugh.

    Does having sex while wearing a snorkel count?

    Not me! I would never do that. I’m just uh … asking for a friend.

  26. 26.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Immanentize: I used to get migraines on Saturday when I was in grad school–the kind that make you puke. So yeah, stress and then let up and wham!

    I’m tweeting out a pre-election short story about a woman who bewitches an Etsy account and uses it to humiliate Trump. I’m using tweetdeck to post and sadly, they’re not necessarily appearing in order. Boo! I also couldn’t thread it with tweet deck. I used the hash tag #LadiesLikeMe (which turns out to be used by some sad ass men too)

  30. 30.

    JGabriel

    Anne Laurie @ Top:

    My sleep schedule is even more erratic than usual, and apparently we will never get another 24-hour span of sunlight here.

    Was going through the same screwy sleep thing for the past ten days, then finally got 9 hours straight yesterday. Wishing you the same for today/tonight, whatever works best for you.

  33. 33.

    Quinerly

    I’m out of Bloomberg today clicks it seems. I posted this on the Book of Faces yesterday: “Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, in written responses to a Democratic senator, said reducing immigration could slow the economy over the longer run by limiting growth in the U.S. labor force.

    The comments came in a written response to Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Nevada Democrat who asked Powell if he agreed with pro-immigration comments by Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari. Kashkari, whose parents came from India and wife is from the Philippines, called immigration “as close to a free lunch as there is” for the American economy, according to a Wall Street Journal opinion column in January.”

  34. 34.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I like Nate Silver because he directly challenged the NYTimes on the email coverage, and backed it up with a showing of how much time they spent on it. There’s no defense.

  37. 37.

    rikyrah

    @Quinerly:
    I don’t know if this was posted here before, but I knew about it. All over Black Twitter.

    Add
    Can’t stand by your own car to wait for AAA as something else that Black people can’t do without being harrassed.?

  40. 40.

    Baud

    @Kay: Every once in a while, I come across a posting of an NYT article from the 2016 election. It’s one thing to remember they are garbage. It’s another to relive it two years removed. Our people absolutely have to be prepared for what they will do in 2020.

  42. 42.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:
    I have been watching the Florida Governor race…
    I am impressed with Gillum. He has a talent. He stands up for himself. Has the ability to get his opponent..and does it all without being able to get labeled as

    ” The Angry Black Man”

    That takes skill. Gillum is a dark skinned Black Man.

    Every racist trope of the Black brute is in an image that looks like Gillum.

    You can’t talk about his ability to be strong, yet not get labeled, because that would mean that you would have to admit that unsaid bias.

    But, it is a talent, and puts Gillum a couple of tiers above your regular politician. If he can pull this off….
    The GOP has reason to be terrified of him.

  43. 43.

    germy

    Jacob Wohl tweeted this photo of the ‘Mueller accuser’ (left), who failed to turn up to his press confidence. You can just stick it into Google Images to get her face, since that exact photo is old, already online and.. his girlfriend. pic.twitter.com/rYyauaWFiw— Kevin Beaumont (@GossiTheDog) November 2, 2018

  44. 44.

    Quinerly

    @rikyrah: Tail wags and waves.? The bed magnet has ahold of Poco and me. It’s evil. ? We haven’t left our bat cave on the third floor yet. Think John Lennon, fearless rescue kitty, has slept in, too. No meows yet. Have a great day, sweet girl.

  45. 45.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    @Kay:

    the perennial “diner” articles

    they never go into a starbucks or a deli or a taco joint. not even a waffle house, 7-11, wawa, or McDonalds.

    it’s always, “lets do a feature on low-information, white reactionaries, who have nothing to do on a work day.”

  46. 46.

    Quinerly

    @germy: love the comment….”Probably not as depressed as she. Every sexual encounter they have is the best 23 seconds of Jacob’s day.”

  48. 48.

    gene108

    As much money as we spend on healthcare you think they could come up with a better hospital gown.

    One where your ass isn’t hanging out and hospital staff isn’t awkwardly arranging a second gown on your backside to keep you covered

  51. 51.

    Schlemazel

    You guys broke me down, I am going to try to vote early today. City hall is a block away. They hand me a regular opti-scan ballot 7 it goes into a locked box just like a regular one.
    Just got up & not going to work. Not a good night. going back to bed but wanted to say good morning to everyone & wish you well.

  52. 52.

    Platonailedit

    ‘The real Super Mario’ dies aged 84

    Mario Segale, the man after whom video game hero Super Mario was named, has died aged 84.

    Mr Segale was a successful Italian-American property developer from the US state of Washington.

    In the 1980s, he leased a warehouse to Nintendo of America who decided to name the star of their new video game after him.

    Super Mario was originally called Jumpman until Nintendo decided it wanted to give the character a proper name.

    Mr Segale said it was Minoru Arakawa, who had been tasked with setting up Nintendo of America, who told him the video game hero carried his name.

  55. 55.

    germy

    Today Wohl is retweeting the veritas ratf*ck of Beto. Says “he should drop out of the race immediately!”

    Why do these dishonest little shits want to ruin our country?

  56. 56.

    SFAW

    @Immanentize:

    Have you seen this Danish National Orchestra version of the Good the Bad and the Ugly? It actually makes me tear up for some reason.

    That was awesome. I especially liked the hanging effigy.

  58. 58.

    SFAW

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    they never go into a starbucks

    Maybe not, but Jacob “Banned From Securities Work for Life, and I’m Only Just Getting Started in Grifting” Wohl apparently frequents a lot of hipster coffee (or is it covfefe?) shops.

  61. 61.

    gene108

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Better. But there is still pain and mobility issues due to the abdominal incision. Sitting up is still tough but I have a normal gait when walking.

    I am not supposed to bend, lift and twist. The number of routine things that involve bending and lifting is huge.

    Hope I don’t push myself too hard and screw up the recovery

  62. 62.

    Elizabelle

    Who put up the youtube for “Fistful of Dollars”? Thank you. Great rendition by the Danes. Love Ennio Morricone.

    “We can fight.” Will play that a few more times in these closing days of midterms 2018.

  63. 63.

    Marcopolo

    Good morning folks. I’ve been diligently writing GOtV postcards a couple hours every morning since the beginning of September but finished the last few of them yesterday. Now I’m just sitting here twiddling my thumbs. It feels weird.

    I may go the entire day without doing something directly election-related. I guess it is the calm before the storm. I will be canvassing both days this weekend then doing election protection prep on Monday and an actual election protection gig on Tuesday. And hopefully celebrating on Wed.

    For anyone else looking for productive things to do before Tuesday, check out TheLastWeekend. They will direct you to activities going on in your neck of the woods. If you want to use your own phone contact list to do GOtV look into VoteWithMe. I guess I was only a little surprised by how many folks I know do not necessarily vote in every election.

    Now I think I am going to find a afternoon showing of the Queen biopic–that opened this weekend, right?

  64. 64.

    waratah

    @Immanentize: the Republicans are worried and have reason to be. The state and federal candidates are crying and spending time defending their healthcare votes. They have Adelson (sp?) help funding add buy that is supposed to be about Beto’s DWI, with heavy time in Houston Cruz hometown.

  67. 67.

    satby

    @Schlemazel: take care of yourself.

    I think the damage of this administration will shorten a lot of lives indirectly as well as directly (mine for sure) by the insomnia, stress eating, and general depression it induces.

  68. 68.

    Marcopolo

    @Schlemazel: Yes! Thanks for joining the early vote club–it’s popular this year.

    As of yesterday, 22 states had surpassed their 2014 early vote totals. My own state of MO was the last to join the list and we don’t even have real early voting (we have in person absentee). The 30 largest counties in TX that report early vote totals have already surpassed their total 2014 vote with large increases in the numbers of younger voters–hopefully good for Beto. In Georgia, out of 1.8 million early votes, there are over 670,000 new first time voters, which is outright freaking amazing.

  69. 69.

    JMG

    Going to NYC this weekend to visit my sone and his girlfriend. No election activities, made a last round of donations last night. Tonight, a Thai kickboxing fight card! as one of Josh’s high school friends is in charge of marketing it for a sports agency. I’m assured it will be weird enough to make it a good use of my time.

  70. 70.

    Immantize

    @waratah: Houston is lost to Cruz. I assume the play is to just keep Beto’s numbers down. Hell, I think Sugarland is lost for Cruz.

    ETA. In laws live in Richmond

  71. 71.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @cain: Lots of diners in urban areas (I miss my favorites), it’s just that they are full of those people.

  72. 72.

    Immanentize

    @waratah: Houston is lost to Cruz. I assume the play is to just keep Beto’s numbers down. Hell, I think Sugarland is lost for Cruz. (My in-laws live in Richmond and hate Cruz)

  74. 74.

    hueyplong

    @germy: And Debbie Cox appears to be wearing — gasp! — a hoodie. Clear sign of thug status and grounds for a shooting were she more melanin enhanced.

  75. 75.

    debit

    @Schlemazel: I voted by absentee ballot again and really cannot recommend it enough. And when you request it there’s an option to just get one with every election, so it just shows up in your mailbox.

    I like voting absentee because I’m terrible about knowing the candidates for the smaller races (school board, etc) so this lets me sit down with my ballot and my laptop and research. I even voted for the judges that had opponents.

    ETA: and I’m sorry you’re not feeling well. Take care of yourself. {{}}

  76. 76.

    Lapassionara

    @Marcopolo: Election Day voting in MO will be a mess, I predict, because the ballot is so long and full of wordy propositions. I just hope our voters have the staying power for the long lines. Even a deep red state like South Carolina has “no excuse needed” early voting for people over 65. Surely MO can at least do the same.

  81. 81.

    waratah

    @Immanentize: I think Beto has cut into the Republican vote all over the state. he may not get the Panhandle but he has been all over it in a lot of the small towns and I think he will get more than my sons brother-in-law thinks.. I kind of think he will get Lubbock. I was very surprised of the turnout in East Texas at his rally’s.

  82. 82.

    glory b

    @Immanentize: I was listening to an npr “On Point” podcast the other day (don’t hate me).
    A caller was a younger female Repub from Texas. She said she wouldn’t vote for Cruz because he didn’t defend his wife from attacks from Trump. She said it’s a pretty low bar, if he won’t stand up for his wife, he’s not worth having in office.

  83. 83.

    MomSense

    I share your malaise, AL. It’s another cold and rainy day here. I’m asking too much of my coffee.

  86. 86.

    Marcopolo

    @Lapassionara: Hey! Good morning. The two issues I know folks will be working on post-election here in MO will be Medicaid expansion & a make-voting-easier ballot initiatives. I suspect we will see that in a lot of places.

    As for our the length of our ballot, all I know is the voting guide I put together as kind of a lark for my friends has apparently been forwarded quite a bit a little to my chagrin. There are a lot of people out there who don’t know me but have now seen my flip “No No No Hell No” comment on Amendment 3.

  88. 88.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @ThresherK: Like all pathological liars, it is as reflexive as breathing. He literally could not tell an unadulterated truth even if it would help him.

  89. 89.

    raven

    Back from there beach after a beautiful week. My wrists, hands and knees are covered with gnat bite and I’m climbing the walls. . . the price we pay!

  91. 91.

    Princess

    @rikyrah: I cosign to everything you are saying about Gillum. He is extremely impressive and I love the way he goes after racists and racism with a big smile on his face and a stiletto. He and Stacy Abrams give me a lot of hope.

  93. 93.

    Marcopolo

    @OzarkHillbilly: Appreciate the snark but it will happen. And through ballot initiative. It’s a no-brainer that the average voter will want to make things easier despite R electeds wanting exactly the opposite.

    I’d put it like this: malls are dying because folks don’t want to/need to go out to shop. They can order things over the innertubes & have them delivered to their doorstep. If you tell them they can get their ballot, fill it out in the comfort of their own home & then mail it it they will shout “sign me up”.

    Oh, and I’ve only spent about 45 years of my life in MO–is that enough to have earned any credit?

  96. 96.

    Marcopolo

    @Lapassionara: In mid-October I sent an email to my friends where I went through the ballot & told them how I was going to vote on everything, including the dreaded judges part. The folks I sent it to know me & my politics & we all generally agree on issues, but about half of them have forwarded it on to other folks who don’t know me. As they say, once something is out on the internet it lives forever–or something like that.

    Btw, I know you actually have a life & plans & stuff but I’m knocking doors in West County on Sat @ 11 if you want to join in the fun.

  97. 97.

    kindness

    Sorry about the weather affecting you Annie. Move to California. If we’re lucky it rains the 3 months in the winter and that’s it. We haven’t been so lucky lately. Damn I wish it would rain in the summer here.

  99. 99.

    Platonailedit

    @Marcopolo:

    Yup. People will need and will take to change and dems need to push plain common sense proposals which will eventually click even in deep red states. Clever cynicism is useless surrender in politics.

  102. 102.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Marcopolo: 60 here with a few brief sojourns to the wild lands. 45’s enough. Hell, 6 months ought to be enough for most people to see how backwards we can be. On the issue of vote by mail, I can see it happening but it won’t be easy (VOTER FRAUD!!!) and it will probably take a few elections.

  103. 103.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Immanentize: Brilliant arrangement & performance – complete with a guy who’s “really hung” & an Arty-Deco ikon of The Stranger In The Lice-Infested Poncho hovering over all. (Multiculturalism, ho!)

  104. 104.

    Marcopolo

    @germy: And Andrew Gillum is a “stone cold thief.” Kinda surprised that one was left out since it was said at the same time at the same rally.

    As for Abrams, she’s degreed from Spelman & Yale, unlike her opponent knows proper gun etiquette, and has more government experience, including being the minority leader of the GA assembly. I think that also clearly makes her more qualified for just about any position than Drumpf.

  105. 105.

    Luciamia

    This Caravan story is s gonna rival Wells War of the Worlds broadcast for sheer hysteria. Let’s hope people don’t try suicide out of terror of the”invaders”.

  106. 106.

    MazeDancer

    Balloon Juice Candidate Lizzie Panhill Fletcher is down one in Texas-7.

    Down 1

    In Texas.

    Could be a great pick-up.

    Info on PhoneBanking for Lizzie: PostCardPatriots.com

  107. 107.

    dww44

    @evap: Better be careful, though. The Repubs are liable to claim that this is an illegal use of public monies!! Of course, if it’s not a public university, then they got squat.

  108. 108.

    SFAW

    @Platonailedit:

    “In the seven weeks leading up the midterm elections, the president made 1,419 false or misleading claims — an average of 30 a day.”

    The Traitor-in-Chief wants to nail down his first-ballot selection to the Liars Hall of Fame. Maybe Bill James can weigh in on Lying Littledick’s LAR* stats. I’m sure that his numbers would kick the butt of anyone trying to compete against him.

    *LAR = Lies Against Replacement. Sort of like the WAR (Wins Against Replacement) stat used to assess baseball players, but not like GWAR, which is something else altogether.

  109. 109.

    chris

    @raven: You’re welcome. I’m not sure what your gnats are but we have blackflies and nosee’ums in the spring that make me a little crazy. I carry bug spray and Afterbite at all times.

  114. 114.

    sherparick

    John Cole mentioned this on twitter, but I thought I would post it here. Apparently, besides a complete wag the dog spectacle, one of the biggest threats are right wing militias stealing U.S. military equipment.

    https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2018/10/31/deployed-border-troops-are-preparing-for-militias-stealing-their-gear-protester-violence-documents-show/

    “….From the papers, the military is preparing to defend against an “estimated 200 unregulated armed militia members currently operating along the [Southwest Border]. Reported Incidents of unregulated militias stealing National Guard equipment during deployments. They operate under the guise of citizen patrols supporting [Customs and Border Patrol] primarily between [Points of Entry].”

  115. 115.

    chris

    Scott Walker puts the “con” in Wisconsin.

    It’s difficult to summarize all the problems with the Foxconn deal, but suffice it to say that it is bad for Wisconsin taxpayers in three big ways: The jobs numbers are misleading, the cost per job is monumental, and the breakeven period for this incentive and subsidy package is hundreds of years away. One other thing is certain: Wisconsin’s government will be forever tainted by the legacy of this deal. The reputation for honest, open government earned over generations is rightfully gone.

  116. 116.

    Aleta

    @satby: yes. The Repubs should be sued for damages, for the headlines at least. I bet there will be suggestive medical stats for this period published some day,

  117. 117.

    Aleta

    Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford was on a Delta flight from Indianapolis to Boston on Tuesday when she noticed the woman next to her showing signs of distress. So Dr. Stanford did what she was trained to do in more than a decade of experience as a doctor — she began to assist her.
    But Dr. Stanford, who is black, said she had just started to help the passenger when a flight attendant approached and asked if she was a doctor. Dr. Stanford said yes and, without being asked, she took out her medical license, which says she is a physician registered in Massachusetts and has the letters “M.D.” after her name.
    “I know I don’t look the part,” Dr. Stanford, 39, said in an interview on Thursday. “So I just carry it with my driver’s license at all times.”

    The flight attendant glanced at it and walked away, she said. As Dr. Stanford continued to try to calm the passenger, another flight attendant approached and asked to see the license. She, too, looked at it and walked away. Then the two flight attendants returned together and began another series of questions.

    “Are you a head doctor?” one of them asked. When Dr. Stanford said she did not understand the question, the flight attendant asked, “Are you actually an M.D.?”
    Then the second flight attendant spoke: “Is this your license?” When the doctor asked what she meant, the flight attendant repeated the question. “Why would I carry someone else’s medical license?” Dr. Stanford said she replied.

    Dr. Stanford, who practices obesity medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and is a Harvard Medical School instructor, has carried the wallet-size version of her medical license with her since 2016, when she read about a black doctor whose offer to help a sick passenger on a Delta flight was challenged. She spoke with local news media outlets and wrote about the encounter on social media accounts this week, reviving questions about implicit bias against black professionals.

    The unguarded skepticism about medical professionals and race is something that Dr. Stanford, who graduated from the Medical College of Georgia in 2007, said she has often discussed with colleagues of color, who have swapped stories of being mistaken for support staff, or asked to remove trays or wipe up messes in the emergency room.
    …
    Dr. Stanford said she was not challenged for the rest of the two-hour flight. As they were descending, she said, one attendant told her they would not need to check her license anymore because “it seems like you were able to handle everything.”
    She interpreted the encounter as biased because of the persistent questioning about whether she was a physician even after she had provided proof. “It never stopped,” she said. “I just couldn’t figure out why we were having this discussion.”
    https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/02/us/delta-black-doctor-racial-profiling.html

    This link worked slowly for me.

  118. 118.

    tokyokie

    @Immanentize: All the goobers nitwitted enough to believe that Beto is funding the caravan (I guess as a front man for Soros) are already voting straight-party Republican, even on the bond issues on the ballot. But I’m also thinking that for a lot of Latinos, especially in the Rio Grande Valley, this will only intensify their efforts to defeat the bastards.

  119. 119.

    A Ghost To Most

    “If there is a civil war in this country and you were on the wrong side,” Spaeth said he told his sister, “I would have no problem shooting you in the face.”

    The reporter asked if he was joking, and Spaeth insisted he was serious.

    “No, I am not,” he said. “I love my sister, we get on great. But she has to know how passionate I am about our president.”

    Fucking Nazis.

  120. 120.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Aleta:

    As they were descending, she said, one attendant told her they would not need to check her license anymore because “it seems like you were able to handle everything.”

    The condescension is dripping from that statement.

  124. 124.

    JoeyJoeJoe

    @MazeDancer: That particular district, in addition to being in Texas, was actually the most Republican district in the nation in the 1980s. In 1984, Reagan got 83% there, his best nationwide

  125. 125.

    different-church-lady

    My roof leaks. Therefore I am acutely aware of how much it rains. And it is not your imagination or just old age making you more aware: it has rained an absolute shit-ton this autumn.

  126. 126.

    Barbara

    @rikyrah: I feel the same way about Stacy Abrams. Watching her leave Meghan McCain looking foolish by rising above her was a thing of beauty. And she did it with humor and references to her grandparents. Even more important, she made it so obvious that McCain was trying to do a gotcha.

  127. 127.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @A Ghost To Most:

    I have received similar notices of intent from family and their friends.

    I love my family and I love my friends and I have a real hard time seeing myself walk away from any of them over a political difference, even one as deep and wide as the one we are faced with today. But that would be a deal breaker. Fortunately all of my family and 99% of my friends have pretty much the same politics as I, so I don’t have to worry about it.

    ETA I am sorry you have to go thru it.

  129. 129.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @A Ghost To Most: Steve Spaeth, a 40-year-old West Bend man who operates a home exteriors company, told the reporter during the Oct. 24 rally in Mosinee that “hate” was not too strong a word to describe his feelings toward anyone he considers a political enemy.
    …
    “They want to turn America into a socialistic country,” Spaeth said. “It’s disgusting.”

    one of those cases where I wish news orgs could have interns go through their interviewees’ tax returns and financial history to show all the ways they benefit from “socialism” and are hurt by “pro-growth” policies. Not that Steve would ever get it.
    Also, I’d be willing to bet he has bad debts, maybe to that liberal sister

  130. 130.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Barbara: I always say Megs could give the Romney boys lessons in born-on-third-base lack of self-awareness. She really thinks she’s a self-made genius. She’d give trump’s Fredos a run for their money.

  131. 131.

    different-church-lady

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: People miss the mark about these articles: the press has a sort of “bug under a microscope” fascination with this one tiny demographic slice of the country and they just won’t turn away. The writers think of them as some sort of different, weird species that nobody can figure out, isn’t this amazing, they have seven eyeballs on one side of their nose, they’re so different from the normal people our readers see every day in their vegan bistros and support group for affluent power-mothers with addiction issues.

    And the rest of us are like, “Nah, they’re just stone cold racist assholes, we’re already quite aware of them, STARE AT SOMETHING ELSE.”

  136. 136.

    chris

    @different-church-lady: It’s not an accident.

    One thing we're seeing now is the 2nd generation of Fox conservatives. The first grew up in a normal world & was pulled into Fox world (like my dad). But they *remember* the normal world & can still pass in it; they know what tone & keywords to use. However …— David Roberts (@drvox) 30 October 2018

  137. 137.

    Tenar Arha

    @different-church-lady: It’s just-so self-soothing via national newspapers. I really think that’s why “racially charged” gets in the headline rather than “racist,” the NYT et al are soothing the millionaires in their gated communities that they’re not like “those” people, so they’re not to blame for for their vote against Hillary.
    ETA grammar

  138. 138.

    different-church-lady

    @chris: No, I mean it’s eleventy dimensional chess or something — put all the focus on these two clowns while the skilled pickpocket is behind us…

  139. 139.

    efgoldman

    @gene108:

    One where your ass isn’t hanging out and hospital staff isn’t awkwardly arranging a second gown on your backside to keep you covered

    I just don’t give a shit any more

  140. 140.

    Gelfling 545

    @Immanentize: Wow. Makes me feel I should watch the films again. When I was in college a bunch of the guys we socialized with had a cult like devotion to the Eastwood westerns. Weekends often involved shoehorning a bunch of us ito some borrowed vehicle and watching an all night run of them at the drive in ( we still had those back then.) with the guys chiming in on the somewhat minimal dialogue.

  141. 141.

    catclub

    @JGabriel: I noticed this:

    and apparently we will never get another 24-hour span of sunlight here.

    and figured she lives above the Arctic Circle, but the axis of the Earth’s rotation has changed tilt so she is no longer above the circle.
    Which is worrisome.

  143. 143.

    Gelfling 545

    @Baud: I devoutly hope we have seen the last of “personalities” with no political experience running for major offices.

  144. 144.

    different-church-lady

    @gene108: I was once given one that had a side-tie. Seemed great. Went back the next year for the same procedure on the other side and they had gone back to the standard rear-tie. You can’t explain that.

  147. 147.

    The Moar You Know

    Did anyone post about this 51 year old white Charlotte chick harassing the two African American sisters who were waiting for AAA? White chick has been fired from her $125,000 a year job, the police are looking for her, and her landlord is going to evict her.

    @Quinerly: Been following this, my parents and sister live there. She was awful…but I’ve got a feeling they’re going to find that she’s killed herself. One of those super angry, super brittle personalities that can’t handle setbacks.

    No loss.

  148. 148.

    tokyokie

    @Immanentize: I watched it, and I, too, teared up. Because until you see it performed by a full orchestra and choir, you don’t have a feel for how rich the music of Il Maestro, Ennio Morricone, is. And this is all in furtherance of what, at the time it was released, was considered a film in a B-movie genre, but what is now considered one of the all-time great films. (Quentin Tarantino and yours truly consider Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo the greatest movie ever made, but some days I think C’era uno volta il West is.)

  155. 155.

    Platonailedit

    Amazing athlete

    American Simone Biles has become the first gymnast to win 13 world titles.

    The 21-year-old won vault gold at the World Championships in Qatar.

    It was Biles’ third world title in this year’s championships and she has now broken the all-time record set by Belarusian male gymnast Vitaly Scherbo in 1996.

    On Thursday, Biles made history by becoming the first woman to pick up four all-around world titles after winning the team and all-around events.

  156. 156.

    trollhattan

    @tokyokie:
    I want to see how they score the “Ah-ee-ah-ee-ohs”

    And what’s with the hanged(?) guy? Those Danes, so very Danish. Gorgeous hall BTW.

  157. 157.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @SFAW: Can’t even guess what WAR and GWAR might mean. Is that something like “He’s 3-2 against left-handed third-basemen in 7th innings in October”?

  158. 158.

    BC in Illinois

    @tokyokie:

    be sure to make note of the mezzo-soprano’s earrings

    Okay, you made me go back and watch the video a second time.
    (I had played it a third time, in the background.)
    It’s good music for this weekend.

  164. 164.

    tokyokie

    @hueyplong: I tend to think of Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo as the greatest spaghetti ever made, and C’era una volta il West as the greatest traditional western ever made. Which I consider better on any given day is whether I’m feeling more traditionalist or non-traditionalist. But you have to credit Leone for using the most divisive conflict in U.S. history as a backdrop for a story about three back-stabbing scoundrels (and apparently the only sane men in the New Mexico Territory) trying to acquire a fortune in stolen gold, or how he reduces the symbol of America’s western expansion as the means by which Tuco rids himself of the burden of an overweight prison guard. And I’ll see your “You brought two too many,” and raise you a “If you’re gonna shoot, shoot. Don’t talk.”

    And yes, I have the latter as a ringtone.

  168. 168.

    Ruckus

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:
    When the docs ask me the pain level I tell them it sometimes gets to 12.
    “The level only goes to 10.”
    No, that’s only as high as you are willing to write down. 10 is you have to be hospitalized. 11 is you wish you’d just die and get it over with. 12 is thinking that if I blew my brains out it couldn’t hurt any more for a split second and then, relief. They look at you in that professional way of shock, not shocked. Then they ask you about suicide. Answer – Have been having migraines for decades, if I was going to kill myself I’d have done it long ago.

  169. 169.

    SFAW

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    If I understand it correctly, Wins Against Replacement (“WAR”) is how many more wins a particular baseball player produces in a season, compared to a typical replacement player. A higher number is better. It’s allegedly used by savvy general managers or some such, when trying to obtain talent to help them win the World Series.

    Re: GWAR: Elizabelle has it right. It’s just one of my little simple-minded (attempted) jokes, has nothing to do with baseball.

  170. 170.

    tokyokie

    @hueyplong: C’era una volta il West was the first movie I went to see twice during its initial run and something that struck me on first viewing as a work of genius from just the opening title sequence. The 50th anniversary of its premiere in Torino comes up next month on the Friday before Christmas. And today’s links have reminded me to pick up the Italian Blu-ray of the movie, which appears to be 1 minute longer than the versions from other countries.

  171. 171.

    SFAW

    @tokyokie:

    I tend to think of Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo as the greatest spaghetti ever made,

    Very few people are aware that it was based on a Kurosawa film

  172. 172.

    Ruckus

    @gene108:
    @Baud:
    Can’t get a better gown after all these years, butt’s hanging out. It’s a butt, everyone has one. Different shapes, still a butt. Not ashamed, not proud, it’s a butt.

  174. 174.

    Ruckus

    @germy:
    They want to ruin it so that everyone else will be at the same level of issues that they are. Their lives suck, mainly because they suck as humans, but it still sucks. They are too stupid to realize that it’s them that makes their lives suck but they have decided that everyone’s lives should suck as much as their’s does. Fortunately because they suck and are stupid and incompetent at everything, they make life semi miserable for a few and provide hours of wondering how they manage to continue to live without someone just running them over with a car, to make all of our lives better. It isn’t worth the effort, the gas, the car and the jail time – easier to just point and laugh.

  179. 179.

    tokyokie

    @SFAW:

    I tend to think of Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo as the greatest spaghetti ever made

    Very few people are aware that it was based on a Kurosawa film.

    Um, I think you mean Per un pugno di dollari, which is an uncredited (and frequently shot-for-shot) remake of Yōjinbo, which itself follows the basic structure of Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest. Leone’s thievery was so blatant that to settle the ensuing lawsuit, Kurosawa was granted the full Japanese distribution rights to the first Man With No Name movie.

  180. 180.

    SFAW

    @tokyokie:

    I was kidding about the Kurosawa thing. Sorry, sometimes my “humor” is a little abstruse.

    Yeah, I know about Red Harvest — I read it about 30 or 35 years ago, after finding out about the Yojimbo connection. (Although I’ve also read some article disputing that, but I prefer to believe that there is a connection.) I also hear/read people talking about Lucas and The Hidden Fortress, but I think the connection there is more superficial.

    That being said, Shichinin no Samurai is one of my all-time favorite movies, although I wish they could have gotten Yul Brynner to reprise his role as the bald ronin/gunfighter. [Yes, that’s a joke.]

  181. 181.

    SFAW

    @catclub:

    which one? I thought I knew Kurosawa’s works fairly well.

    It was a joke. Sorry.
    With all the Westerns and similar that were based on Kurosawa films, I figured I’d add one more.

  182. 182.

    trollhattan

    @tokyokie:
    That must be it.

    Have the Leone box set; need to break it out for the YouTube-fixated daughter. “Honey, here’s an oeuvre for your fashion videos.”

  183. 183.

    SFAW

    @tokyokie:

    Forgot to mention that I think Python’s version of The Wild Bunch (at a garden party) was probably inspired by the last duel in Sanjuro. Well, not really, but what the hell …

    ETA: Forgot to ask in a previous reply: have you read Red Harvest? It’s a lot murkier (in terms of how the Continental Op sets things up) than Yojimbo.

  184. 184.

    TenguPhule

    @Immanentize:

    for all their conservative attitudes I can’t believe the Texans really believe
    1). The caravan is a threat and
    2). Beto is funding it.

    George W Bush
    Ted Cruz

  186. 186.

    SFAW

    @catclub:

    Ikiru is mine.

    I’m OK with it, but my brother hates it (too sappy).

    I’ve been taking High and Low/Tengoku to Jigoku out of the library, but I realized I wanted to read the novel it’s based on, before watching it. Eventually I’ll watch it. Mifune, Nakadai, Shimura, Tono — what could be better?

    In the novel, the Mifune character is kind of a dickhead, I’ll be interested to see if he’s heroic or not-so-much in this film.

  188. 188.

    J R in WV

    @efgoldman:

    @gene108:

    One where your ass isn’t hanging out and hospital staff isn’t awkwardly arranging a second gown on your backside to keep you covered

    I just don’t give a shit any more

    I’m with you EFG, if they don’t care about my ass hanging out at the clinic/Dr’s office/hospital, I sure don’t care. Nothing about me a medical staffer hasn’t seen 10,000 times already! After boot camp and getting old, no shy left whatsoever in this house.

    Although some seem taken aback that I don’t care at all… which is a little strange.

  189. 189.

    Mnemosyne

    @J R in WV:

    This is reminding me of a story a friend told me about when she had her baby at UCLA Medical Center. Since it’s a teaching hospital and she was a graduate student, she basically had to agree that they could bring medical students in for “teaching purposes” at pretty much any point.

    After a while, so many people were coming in to take a look at her cervix that she wasn’t sure they were even medical personnel, and she didn’t really care anymore. She was like, “The janitor wants to have a look at my cervix? Whatever!” ?

  190. 190.

    SFAW

    @efgoldman:

    Hey! Welcome back! I hope you’re feeling OK.

    [You’ve probably been back for a few days, but I’ve only been here sparingly.]

  191. 191.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    Whatever!
    At some point the entire world is a whatever. Medicine has for a very long time tried to teach about body parts rather than an entire human. Docs only work on parts, no one sees the entire picture. There is a certain need for this, but there should be limits to it as well. Some people seem to even despise the entire picture, that it’s beneath them.

  192. 192.

    Burnspbesq

    There are times when you just want to say “aw, for fuck’s sake.” Reading the Nigerian military’s tweet was one of those times, and not even reading the district court’s smackdown of Kemp made it better.

  195. 195.

    Gravenstone

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: WAR is intended to be a statistical measure of a player’s value against an average (or replacement) player at the same position. I think at least half the numbers are pulled directly from someone’s ass.

    GWAR is a theatrical heavy metal band known for over the top costuming of the various members.

  196. 196.

    SFAW

    @Gravenstone:

    I think at least half the numbers are pulled directly from someone’s ass.

    Well, as Shakespeare or someone else once said: 73 percent of all statistics used in conversations are made up.

  197. 197.

    Yutsano

    @Ruckus: When I was in the hospital for my transverse myelitis, the hospital wanted to take three MRIs. Two were for diagnostic purposes. The third was “because your lesion is unusual and we want it for medical purposes”. I should have asked for royalties.

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