Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

75% of people clapping liked the show!

Republicans do not trust women.

Stand up, dammit!

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

The low info voters probably won’t even notice or remember by their next lap around the goldfish bowl.

“But what about the lurkers?”

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

The lights are all blinking red.

Reality always gets a vote in the end.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Let me file that under fuck it.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Let there be snark.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2020 / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Extremely Social Media

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Extremely Social Media

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  2. 2.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Turns out bats talk and 60% of what they say is arguments, including a whole category of calls for “males making unwanted mating advances” and another for when “a bat argues with another bat sitting too close.“

    And the other 40% is them yelling at cavers to, “Get that fucking light out of my face!!!!”

  3. 3.

    Sab

    Good morning. I really didn’t need to see all those bat eyes this early. Usually I think bats are kind of cute.

  6. 6.

    germy

    I went outside very early this morning to bring the garbage cans out front, and found a campaign sign in front of my house. (a local race)

    Are they allowed to do that? I thought they needed the homeowner’s permission to post campaign signs.

  11. 11.

    satby

    @germy: if it’s on the patch between the sidewalk and the street, it’s technically not your property but the city’s. Still considered bad form and a waste of money because those signs get tossed in the trash a lot.

  13. 13.

    Bobby Thomson

    Stolen, but that last tweet shows Clinton is still winning the popular vote in 2019.

  14. 14.

    germy

    @satby: Yes, it was on the patch between the sidewalk and the street. I don’t like it because it looks like I endorse her.

  16. 16.

    sm*t cl*de

    @OzarkHillbilly:
    Musk’s position was originally “When I called that guy a pedophile, I wasn’t serious because ‘pedo’ is just a standard term of abuse among my people… but now you mention it, I’ll take the opportunity to say that my investigation proved that the guy IS a pedophile.” It was a combination of double-talk and doubling-down… he could have stuck with “I didn’t mean it so no harm done”, but he felt obliged to use the legal process to destroy the guy’s reputation, to punish him for questioning Musk’s Stable Genius status.

    This did not strike me at the time as likely to arouse the sympathy of the judge.

    And now he was progressed to “Whoops, the defamatory thing I said about the guy when I was being serious is completely untrue? Um, it was the investigator’s fault.” Just write a cheque, Musk. Keep adding 0s until the judge says you can stop.

  18. 18.

    germy

    @satby: I can’t get into trouble for tossing it? I thought there were laws protecting campaign signs or something… The patch between my sidewalk and the street is pubic property (and yet I’m responsible for its upkeep)

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @germy: You can take your trash barrel to her campaign office and dump it there yelling “You litter in my yard, I’ll litter in yours!” (Arlo Guthrie would say to be sure to remove all correspondence that has your name on it first).

    Or maybe just call and tell them they lost another vote.

  20. 20.

    NotMax

    Misleading as all get out yet one has to grudgingly admit it’s a great lede.

    A “zombie deer” is on the loose. Source

  22. 22.

    MJS

    You can also put a hand-made sign next to it that says, “I’m not voting for this person.”

  24. 24.

    germy

    People who think Elizabeth Warren‘s old employer would have written “terminated employee for pregnancy reasons today“ are the same ones who helpfully pointed out that Brett Kavanaugh’s calendar for July 1, 1982 didn’t read “9pm: Attempt to rape Christine Blasey.”
    — Dana Stevens (@thehighsign) October 8, 2019

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    In a statement to the Guardian, Michel Moore, LAPD’s chief, defended the agency’s record, saying, “While the numbers presented reflect racial disparities when compared to the proportions of residential population, they do not define or describe the circumstances of each stop or search … [and] neither prove nor disprove racial profiling or other improper action.”

    He added that LAPD “has no tolerance for any officer that would use race as a basis for a stop or search”.

    Sure boss. You betcha. What were those numbers again?

    The severe racial disparities started with the stops: even though LA’s population is 9% black, roughly 27% of people pulled over were black. White people make up 28% of the city, but roughly 18% of stops. Latinos were 47% of stops, which roughly matches their population size. Asians, who make up 11% of the city, represented 4% of stops.

    For black and Latino drivers, minor equipment violations, such as a broken taillight, made up 20% of the stops compared with only 11% of stops for white people. These types of stops allow police to harass and search people of color without justification, activists said.
    ………………………………
    Traffic stop data from a recent 10-month period across LA revealed that black drivers and passengers were four times more likely to be searched by police than white people, and that Latinos were three times as likely to face searches, the Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday.

    In stops across the city, 24% of black drivers and passengers were searched, compared with 16% of Latinos and 5% of white people. White drivers were found with drugs or other contraband 20% of the time, a higher rate than other groups; the contraband rate was 17% for black people and 16% for Latinos.

    Nothing untoward there, nothing at all.

    Last week, however, LAPD faced widespread backlash after recruitment ads for new officers appeared on Breitbart, a far-right website. The department said it was a mistake and suspended its Google ads as a result.

    This was just an innocent mistake too.

  29. 29.

    WereBear

    We’ve had kittens Bud and Lou for almost a month now. They came from a big feral colony with its own set of rescuers who just grab and ship, so to speak, but their foster family must have found them as cute as I do. They were shy the first couple of days, but then they just settled into delightful. Early in the second week they would climb into laps and cuddle.

    Reverend Jim started visiting Kitten Country, and then he started living in Kitten Country. So the kittens couldn’t be in better paws. His last gig was Mithrandir, but that was 5 years ago. He’s 12 now, but in the end he could not resist TWO kittens.

    Because who can?

  30. 30.

    NotMax

    @germy

    Toss it, but will point out that it is possible the campaign workers simply got addresses mixed up and it’s a minor error on their part.

  32. 32.

    p.a.

    @satby: The metal H’s makes decent garden plant supports, and the plastic signs are good floor protectors under wet footwear or snow shovels.

  34. 34.

    Betty Cracker

    The Florida Democratic Party (a hot mess!) is having its convention in Orlando this weekend. I didn’t know about it. I was a precinct captain in the county party when we lived south of Tampa, so if we still lived in our old place, I’d have been aware. But I resigned from that county-level organization after we moved last year, and I never got around to joining the small and demoralized county party here in this 70% Republican area. My bad. I kinda meant to, but I’ve been busy volunteering for a voting rights org, so I figured I was doing my bit that way.

    Anyhoo, the Warren campaign alerted me to the convention and sent an invitation last night for an event this week. I’ve already got other plans, so I can’t make it. Also, the Orlando paper says not a single presidential candidate is slated to show up. FL’s primary is in March, so it’s not a hotly contested state for primary purposes. But still, I’m a little surprised at the campaigns’ indifference since this is still technically a battleground state.

  35. 35.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax: We have it here. It’s a pain for us who live in the woods. MDC has implemented a policy that any deer killed in designated counties (mine), the head is to be removed and brought in for testing, and the carcass is to be butchered on the spot with the gut pile and skeletal remnants buried. Nobody buries out here, I really doubt anywhere, but out here because our ground is a clay/dolomite matrix that requires a trac hoe to dig into. Not standard hunting equipment anywhere.

    So during the season and for months afterwards I have to keep a close eye on the dogs as they will return from their wanderings with various pieces.

  37. 37.

    NotMax

    @satby

    Owner of the summer camp where I worked ran for mayor of his city (and won*). He collected as many signs and billboards as he could – all wooden in those days – and brought them across state lines to recycle as a replacement backstop behind hay bales at the archery range at camp.

    ;)

    *part-time gig, his full-time job was high school teacher

  41. 41.

    germy

    And now i see Wohl/Burkman are accusing Kamala of having an affair with a personal trainer, and so they “demand” she take a polygraph test.

  43. 43.

    Ken

    @germy: You could have an “accidental” with the lawnmower and the sign. As you say, it may be public property but you have to maintain it.

  45. 45.

    germy

    @Ken: I have carefully arranged my life so that I no longer mow a lawn. A combination of perennials, groundcover, stone paths, etc.

    I mowed for thirty years. I’m finished with that. The sign went into the trash. Today is trash day, and the cans are out front.

  50. 50.

    OzarkHillbilly

    And by the way, that little strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street? If you are responsible for mowing it, you are responsible for anything in it.

  52. 52.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @germy:

    A combination of perennials, groundcover, stone paths, etc.

    Anne can use pictures and a story for Sunday morn, one that I’d like to read and see.

  58. 58.

    germy

    @OzarkHillbilly: It looks a lot better spring and summer. Right now it’s just green stalks. In season, it’s a riot of color. My wife planted flowers strategically, so they take turns blooming.

    First thing I did when we bought the house; I dug up the grass in that strip (sometimes called a boulevard, median, hellstrip, parkway, verge or tree belt) so my wife could begin planting.

    The stone paths are in the backyard, between another flower garden and a vegetable garden.

  60. 60.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @germy:

    Lucky dude, if true – I crush hard on her and would love that opportunity.

    I really don’t understand why she’s not polling higher yet – I hope she hangs in there for those of us who don’t want to blow everything up and see what comes out at the end.

  64. 64.

    WereBear

    @Betty Cracker: But still, I’m a little surprised at the campaigns’ indifference since this is still technically a battleground state.

    I don’t think we are getting the real picture with polling, because who has factored in being seen at the next election when you were all mouthy about who you voted for when your guy won?

    Are they going to risk more social shame for tRump? I would like to see that concept weigh in. I know it’s going to operate in my rural area.

  65. 65.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    On the LAPD/Breitbart thing, I imagined that they got a lot of contact back from white males aged 60-75 eager to re-enter the workforce in a second career in order to rough up people of color in the name of law ‘n order, and bragging that they already have sidearms….

  66. 66.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I do think it’s odd.
    This is Ohio:

    The national Democratic chairman and four of the party’s 2020 presidential contenders are scheduled to headline the Ohio Democratic Party’s biggest annual fundraiser.
    The party announced the line-up for its State Dinner Monday. Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez will be joined by White House candidates Rep. Tim Ryan, Julián Castro, Amy Klobuchar, and Tom Steyer at the dinner, which is being held October 13 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

  67. 67.

    Spanky

    In today’s Nobel News, Nobel in Chemistry is a 3 way split for the work to advance lithium ion battery technology.

  68. 68.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Simone Biles

    Simone Biles won a record 21st medal at the world gymnastics championships on Tuesday as the United States retained their women’s team all-around title.

    Biles’ 15th career gold medal brings her a total of 21 medals, breaking a tie with the Russian gymnast Svetlana Khorkina for the most medals by a woman at the world championships. She’s now two short of Vitaly Scherbo’s all-time record among men or women of 23.

    “Every year it feels better and better just because we’re adding to the legacy,” Biles said. “I feel like I never think of records. I just go out there and do what I came to do, which is compete for the country.”

  74. 74.

    Kay

    Joshua Benton
    @jbenton
    ·20h
    I can’t for the life of me think of why, but the luxury boutique
    @ProvenanceHotel
    chain recently removed its founder and CEO from its about page — fella by the name of “Gordon Sondland” who’s been in the news lately

  80. 80.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @OzarkHillbilly: Simone Biles being in the news triggered some web searching yesterday which led us to the conclusion that we did indeed know Kelli Hill, the coach who has trained many Olympic gymnasts. (But not Biles)

    It’s a pretty tenuous connection. Our kids were in nursery school together (her son was kind of mean) in the 80s. We knew they owned a gymnastics studio (not their current one). When I first heard about Dominique Dawes years ago and where she trained, something made me wonder “could that possibly be that couple from nursery school”)? Yesterday I finally tracked down the answer.

  82. 82.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @NotMax:

    Misleading as all get out

    You got that right!

    The situation is dire as officials fear the disease, which causes lethargy and emancipation, will devastate deer and elk populations.

  84. 84.

    Another Scott

    ‘morning all.

    Katya Adler at the BBC:

    […]

    The EU attitude here is: “What’s ok for Dublin, works for the rest of us”.

    But the Johnson government has expressed frustration with the Irish government. Their belief is that Dublin is “holding out” on making compromises since they believe a new Brexit extension is around the corner.

    And that is exactly what the EU thinks.

    Though no-one I speak to is starry-eyed about the possibility of having more time to talk.

    Whether next week or next month, a deal still needs to be found that’s acceptable to both sides – and not just to negotiators but to the European and the UK parliaments.

    And no-one is sure what that would look like. Which is why the feeling in Brussels is that the chances of no deal have gone up again. Extension or no extension.

    Ireland has a very strong hand. BoJo has a very weak hand, but he’s a bomb thrower. Corbyn has a strong hand.

    It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out. Here’s hoping that they:

    1) Demand an extension from the EU.
    2) Use the time to lay the groundwork for another, sensible, referendum (i.e. 1) May’s agreement, 2) Stay in EU).
    3) After the danger of a no-deal Brexit passes, Kick out BoJo and the Tories and elect a sensible Parliament.

    I’m not holding my breath. :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  85. 85.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Maybe they know something we don’t? Trump’s approval rating has consistently been stronger in Florida than it is nationally (he’s only underwater by 2 points here). Maybe they figure the growth of The Villages (massive mostly wingnut retirement community) has made FL irredeemably red.

  86. 86.

    Another Scott

    @Immanentize: Interesting. Around here, “swales” are the depressions between houses to direct excess rain runoff away from foundations.

    (I agree that germy can do what he wants with signs in front of his home.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  89. 89.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    Maybe they know something we don’t?

    But we sort of know, don’t we? I know OH is further Right than it was and I assumed that would mean less investment in the state from the national Party. I don’t know a thing about Florida but I do know Democrats in both OH and FL lost ground in ’18, which was a very good cycle for Democrats. “Growth” is the measure that matters for future investment. Up, not down. They look to states they’re adding voters, even if “add” still means net R. They’ll pour money into WI and PA and MI because they made gains there in ’18.

  90. 90.

    Immanentize

    @Betty Cracker:
    Florida will be contested. Maybe your hot mess party never coordinated with any of the campaigns? But you say Warren is having an event? She and Klobuchar both visited S. Florida this summer….

  91. 91.

    lahke

    Why didn’t any of the linked articles have audio? I would love hearing bats tell each other to push over.

  92. 92.

    ThresherK

    The bats’ conversation reminds me of a Far Side (perhaps) where it’s determined that dolphins do speak, and everything they talk about is fish.

  94. 94.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Quick query on the biomechanical attributes of domestic housecats – how can one 10 pound cat take up more space on the bed than a 70 pound dog? Wife’s out of town, and Fiona, who usually sleeps between us as the dog curls at the end, actually took up so much space that my feet dangled off the side of the bed.

  95. 95.

    donnah

    I just read the front page in our local paper and there’s an article about Rob Portman, the Republican senator from Ohio. He’s a coward, so while he made some mealy-mouth statements about Trump’s actions in regards to Ukraine, he has decided that he will not vote to impeach should the Senate come to a vote. He is the chair of the Senate Ukraine Caucus, ffs, yet he claims he never saw the information about the withholding of funds for Ukraine.

    So I fired off an email to him this morning, told him I was disappointed, called him a coward, and told him he should be ashamed of himself. I did it in a nice and polite manner, though.

  97. 97.

    NotMax

    @ThresherK

    Memorable scene from an Aquaman comic, featuring a shark swimming by.

    Thought balloon above it as the shark passes: Food. Food. Food. Food. Food. Hello Aquaman. Food. Food. Food.

  98. 98.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Emanuel: a poignant documentary on the Charleston church massacre

    The film Emanuel, produced by the basketball superstar Stephen Curry and Oscar-winning actor Viola Davis, takes the news blare of the tragedy and the intense outside focus on forgiveness into account, then zooms in closely to look at church, community and family: the victims’ relationships to the church, and how they loved. Why the families forgave, or did not, and still have not. The film features at least one representative for each victim, as well as numerous voices speaking to the history and culture of Charleston – journalists, local newscasters, activists, historians and religious community members.

    It’s also an unabashedly Christian film, told from the perspective of a director, film-making team and cast deeply invested in their church and the Christian precept of forgiveness. But director Brian Ivie maintains that it holds lessons for a wider audience. “The hope of the film is that it would show who these people are and what they believe, but it will also show how much work we have to do. And I think those things can coexist,” he told the Guardian.
    …………………………..
    People were “rightfully” skeptical at the beginning, said Ivie, but he credited two promises in earning their trust. First, that they would not profit in any way from the film. Second, that they would honor the faith of their loved ones. “Knowing that I shared their faith,” said Ivie, “I think that made them feel comfortable – that I was going to honor the legacy of faith of their families, which was very important to them.”
    ……………………………..
    The final moments of the film, though, belong to the families, each paying tribute to their loved ones lost four years ago at church: Clementa C Pinckney, Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, Depayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel L Simmons, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton and Myra Thompson. Their memories were integral to Davis and Curry’s support of the project, said Ivie. “That was their heart, to make sure the world didn’t forget about these people and why they died – and also why they lived.”

  100. 100.

    Betty Cracker

    @Immanentize: Warren’s FL campaign manager will be at the state Dem convention and sent an invitation yesterday to an event that takes place Saturday. Possibly the state party fumbled — they’re kinda known for that — but you’d think the state campaign manager would be aware that the event was upcoming? The state party has lots of good people but it has been pretty ineffective for decades now. The Obama people in 2008 basically pretended the state party apparatus didn’t exist during the primary and didn’t use it as an organizing vehicle after. That was a smart move. Maybe the Warren people will take a similar tack. There have been Warren campaign organizing events in the state but not coordinated with the party, at least not yet.

  101. 101.

    Immanentize

    @Betty Cracker: It’s sorta worrying that not one candidate is coming to the party, but maybe the Obama answer is the reason? Like Kay always says, maybe Warren is talking to Mayors.

    Or maybe no one is showing up because you made other plans….

  102. 102.

    Butter emails!!!

    @rikyrah:

    Black voters remain a hurdle for every candidate not named Joe Biden. I’m hoping it’s more of a case of the others proving they can actually get votes and less that black voters actively find them objectionable or Biden particularly appealing, because I would immensely prefer voting for Harris or Warren and the other candidates outside of Yang, Gabbard, Sanders and Williamson are also preferable.

  103. 103.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Nine-year-old charged with murder of five people in Illinois trailer park fire

    “It was a heavy decision,” Minger said. “It’s a tragedy, but at the end of the day, it’s charging a very young person with one of the most serious crimes we have. But I just think it needs to be done at this point, for finality.”

    A major challenge for prosecutors will be trying to prove the child formed an intent to kill in advance, which is required in first-degree murder cases, explained Gus Kostopoulos, a former prosecutor-turned-juvenile defense lawyer in Chicago.

    “Nine-year-olds don’t know that Santa Claus doesn’t exist. They don’t know people die and don’t come back to life,” he said. “I don’t know if nine-year-olds can form intent to commit murder.”

  104. 104.

    Amir Khalid

    This video, for some reason recommended to me by YouTube, has some American RWNJ documenting his ilk’s take on that Twitter exchange between Trump and Hillary. Clck on the link only if you don’t mind being shouted at; but he’s saying that Hillary does want to run again, citing as evidence Trump’s attempt at a playground taunt about it. And his belief that the Democratic party is somehow orchestrating the various 2020 candidacies is … very conspiracy-theorist, let’s put it that way.

  106. 106.

    Butter emails!!!

    @Kay: Ohio has definitely moved right, but maybe Dems see the manufacturing recession as making it gettable in 2020. Sort of like Indiana in Obama’s first campaign but a slightly less heavy lift?

  107. 107.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Trump firm ‘refusing to pay’ legal bill for windfarm case

    I am shocked, shocked I tell you>

    Trump launched his campaign against the Aberdeen Bay windfarm in 2012 after claiming the “monstrous” project, a scheme to test wind turbine technologies, would ruin the view from his golf resort at Menie, north of Aberdeen, and dissuade guests from playing there.

    He took his battle to the Scottish parliament, claiming the country’s heavy investment in onshore windfarms would ruin its tourism industry. In one famous exchange with MSPs, Trump insisted the committee did not need to call any witnesses to verify his claims.

    “I am the evidence,” he said. “I’m an expert in tourism. I have won many, many awards … if you dot your landscape with these horrible, horrible structures, you will do tremendous damage.”
    …………………………………….
    Last month the company admitted the 2008 recession and the collapse in oil prices in 2014 had been the reason the resort was never developed in line with Trump’s original plans. The Trump International Golf Club posted a £1m annual loss for 2018 last week, the seventh loss in a row. Trump and his family firm have now loaned the business £43m and it has yet to turn a profit.

    Some expert.

  108. 108.

    Kay

    @Butter emails!!!:

    I feel like it’s slightly, tiny, net positive for Democrats right now- Trump is moving down here, and again- it’s the direction rather than the number that they chase.
    It’s true for the presidential candidates. Biden has to stay the same or go up. He cannot go down. That’s what’s killing Bernie- he’s still very popular, raised a TON of money, but he is losing support. There’s no avoiding that. Everyone knows both Bernie and Biden. They can’t drop.

  111. 111.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Amir Khalid: After all these decades, why anyone would do any work of any kind for him without payment in full, in advance, completely escapes me.

  113. 113.

    Kay

    @Butter emails!!!:

    Biden is not actually making a strong showing. He starts high, which everyone assumed he would, but he has to add and it can’t be completely by attrition- he can’t wait until people drop out and pick up their voters, because he won’t have time.

    If he starts at 40 and adds 5 that 5 is all his. If he starts at 40 and loses 5 that’s all his, too, in the other direction. That’s what he needs to show me, anyway. What is the Joe Biden + number, not the Obama coattail, seems like an okay guy number?

  114. 114.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Gin & Tonic: I read that Atlantic City contractors learned to work together, to double all their bids, and require 50% down payment before work began.

  115. 115.

    Betty Cracker

    @Amir Khalid: Trump got into a Twitter dust-up with Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey yesterday over the city’s demand for up-front fees for a hate rally. The mayor had a PERFECT response:

    “I wake up every single morning with not a lot of time on my hands because I’m doing things like filling potholes and making sure our city has enough affordable housing,” Frey said.

    “I don’t have time with a city of 430,000 people to be tweeting garbage out, so it’s kind of surprising when the president of the United States, a country with 327 million people, has the time to do this himself, so I don’t know where the guy gets the time,” he added.

    I feel like that’s a message we should emphasize more — when does Trump WORK? What does he actually DO? He sits around on his ass live-tweeting Fox & Friends most mornings and has spent literally a third of his presidency at a self-branded golf resort. From all appearances, Trump is the laziest, most trifling, do-nothing pile of crap to ever hold office.

  116. 116.

    Sab

    @donnah: Kind of remarkable that this is what he chose as his first public position on anything ever: that soliciting election help from a foreign government doesn’t rise to the level of impeachable offense.

  117. 117.

    Amir Khalid

    @Gin & Tonic:
    Well, here it was Scotland’s legal costs in defending against his lawsuit. That means, If I’m not mistaken, that the court hit Trump with a financial penalty for bringing a frivolous lawsuit.

  118. 118.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @germy: There are almost certain laws against posting campaign signs (or for that matter, signs for any private activity) on public property. (Doesn’t keep campaigns from violating the law – our median strips are forested with them late in every election season, figuring that the authorities have more important things to do than take them down.) Check with the local authorities – they’d probably be happy to have you remove it yourself, saves them the trouble. You might contact the offending campaign & tell them they have a choice – they can either remove it themselves or see it lying on your lawn torn into pieces for all the passersby to notice. Might save you the trouble.

  120. 120.

    different-church-lady

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    They don’t know people die and don’t come back to life

    Nine year olds completely know that. He’s talking about four year olds at the most.

  121. 121.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Amir Khalid: Well, I’d think a sovereign government in a country where one owns property would have more means of getting repaid than some drywall contractor in AC.

  122. 122.

    Kay

    @Sab:

    that soliciting election help from a foreign government doesn’t rise to the level of impeachable offense.

    It’s bullshit anyway. The Trump Administration certainly believe it rises to the level of an impeachable offense. That’s why they 1. tried to hide it, and, 2. are frantically obstructing.

    Trump doesn’t believe he can shoot someone on 5th avenue, or whatever. If he did he wouldn’t spend nearly every waking moment hiding things. He came out and said he asked Ukraine about his political opponent, that is true. But he is desperately trying to keep testimony and evidence on it from the public. His actions contradict the bluster and belligerence.

  125. 125.

    Kay

    @Sab:

    Why did his sleazy lawyers freak out over that phone call and frantically hide it? Why are they working as hard as they can to hide testimony and communications to the extent where they’re making ridiculous claims that the President has the power to direct congressional proceedings? That power doesn’t exist. In fact, Congress is explicitly granted that power in the constitution. The President has no power over them.

    It goes back even further than that! Trump’s low quality ambassador called Dear Leader after there was a text message revealing the shakedown. They knew it was bad and that’s why they hid it. They’re still hiding it.

  129. 129.

    Kay

    @Sab:

    They’re such horrible cowards. They all took an oath. This is (among other things) a constitutional crisis. The President has declared supremacy over Congress. He is declaring their constitutionally granted power “illegitimate” That’s not our system of government.

    If this were happening in one of the countries we fucking SCOLD about democracy every elite conservative commentator would be handwringing over it. The President and his lawyers are attacking the foundation. They’ve smeared shit all over the walls inside the building and now they’re dismantling the foundation.

    I don’t know if Democrats are up to this but boy they better be, because there is no one else. They’re all we have.

  130. 130.

    ThresherK

    @NotMax: Does Aquaman have the ability to read sea creatures’ minds? If so, that’s a pretty low signal-to-noise ratio.

  131. 131.

    tybee

    @NotMax:

    the situation is dire as officials fear the disease, which causes lethargy and emancipation…

    everything wants to be free!

  133. 133.

    Leto

    @OzarkHillbilly: @different-church-lady: If 18 month old, and 2 year old, children can represent themselves in immigration proceedings, 9 year old children are the mob bosses of pre-teens. /s

    /smh over this

    @Kay:

    I don’t know if Democrats are up to this but boy they better be, because there is no one else. They’re all we have.

    Help me Obi-Kamala Kenobi! You’re my only hope! – America, 2019

  134. 134.

    Kay

    @Sab:

    The part that makes me have absolute contempt for GOP members of Congress is this- Trump thinks they are subservient to the executive too. He didn’t even tell them he was pulling out of Syria. They’re taking orders from a fucking moron who doesn’t have the slightest idea what the actual framework of our system is and has zero interest in finding out. He hasn’t passed any legislation since that obscene tax cut because he thinks they’re beneath him and he won’t negotiate. They didn’t fund his wall so what did he do? He robbed the money from right under their noses. GOP Congress members did that. They are beyond potted plants. They serve no purpose at all. He beat them into submission.

  135. 135.

    chris

    @JPL: Yeah, I’ve been watching the heat in the US hoping it would come up here. No luck, we’ve had several frosts in the last two weeks.

  136. 136.

    Kay

    @Leto:

    I myself would call every corroborating witness I could possibly find and attempt to turn their refusal to appear into a disadvantage to them, because refusing to appear means they’re also not defending. We prosecute criminals all the time without the defendants testifying. If we needed them no one would ever get convicted.

  138. 138.

    Leto

    @Kay: And it was rather amazing how quickly, and easily, he did it. For people who claim to be so “tough and macho”, man they rolled over, showed him their belly, and left a good size puddle on the floor. All he does is say stupid shit, tweets stupid shit, and elected members of Congress are scared of that. It’s insane.

  139. 139.

    Another Scott

    @OzarkHillbilly: Of course he doesn’t pay his bills.

    But we also know that he loves accountants that can hide money. So I wouldn’t be at all surprise[d] if either: 1) the place is profitable under normal accounting rules, but he claims losses so that he doesn’t have to pay taxes; 2) the place isn’t profitable but he doesn’t care because he takes his cut off the top and the losses go to the suckers who are investors with him; 3) both.

    Remember: Donnie lies about everything.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  140. 140.

    germy

    I remember when Matt Lauer “moderated” the Town Hall with Trump and HRC.

    Ronan Farrow book “Catch and Kill” alleges Matt Lauer anally raped an NBC colleague at the Sochi Olympics t.co/r7IBvcr7nV— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) October 9, 2019

  144. 144.

    Leto

    @Kay: Agreed. Plus the House portion of the impeachment process isn’t even the trial part. He and his dipshit defenders keep going on about how they should have the right to cross examine the WB, while at the same time saying that the president can never ever ever be investigated or held accountable for anything he does. (Fuck nuts Barr actually had the DoJ make the case, yesterday in federal court, that Congress never should have received any information from the Nixon White House because Congress doesn’t have any oversight power over the Executive branch. The judge was visibly, and audibly, flabbergasted at that. “Wow, ok.” Was her response)

    The Senate is where the trial will happen. If he wants to cross examine someone, he’s going to have to cross examine himself because HE released the “transcript”. We’re dealing with the stupidest people ever (lower than low quality) who are trying to re-litigate fucking Watergate. I don’t see how any sane federal prosecutor stays at the DoJ because this is just fucking embarrassing. As you said, Trumpov, Barr, and Republicans are shitting on the floor, smearing it on the walls, and dumping termites into the foundation.

  145. 145.

    Leto

    @germy: I think it was Entertainment Tonight, whatever is on after NBC news at 1830, that had Lauer on and showing him dance, or something? All I thought was, “Oh, he’s served his “purgatory time” and the rehab campaign is now underway. Kewl.”

    Yet another piece of shit that needs to be shoved back under a rock until it’s time to print the obituary, which should simply read: “Matt Lauer, rapist, dead at XX. Not soon enough.” That’s it, the entire statement/notice.

  146. 146.

    japa21

    @Leto: This is all for his base and those who are at the edge and ready to bolt. Everything you say is true, but low information voters (roughly 90% of the electorate) don’t understand the difference between the House role (grand jury) and the Senate role (trial court). So they will believe that Trump is being treated unfairly. And the GOP goes along with this.

  147. 147.

    Sab

    @Kay: This why I like Pelosi’s approach, that the fight isn’t about policy differences but about protecting our system of government and the rule of law. The can’t both sides this into being like the Benghazi hearings.

  148. 148.

    germy

    Fox News is quoting someone from twitter who calls himself “Hugh Janus”

    Two free tips for Fox News:
    1. Don't amplify accounts with clearly spammy handle names
    2. Maybe read the screen name aloud before you broadcast it to the world
    pic.twitter.com/BgbsWGBlAq
    — Natalie Martinez (@natijomartinez) October 9, 2019

  149. 149.

    Leto

    @Betty Cracker: Here, lets follow along that theme “When the fuck does he work?”. Jim Wright, Stonekettle, posted this 45 mins ago:

    Wake up with a splitting headache. Boiling hot shower. Coffee. Pour cold fryer grease all over myself and the kitchen floor. Spend an hour with soap and water cleaning kitchen. Another shower. Change of clothes. Headache intensifies to the point where it feels like a crocodile with a sledge hammer is trying to crack open my head like a ostrich egg. Finally stumble out to the office and…

    … there’s President Stable Genius screaming like a madman at the world about how we’re all stupid and crazy and out to get him.

    Just Wednesday in America now.

    m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2472208922814496&id=100000762374540

    And he has 11 screen shots of tweets he’s already sent out this morning. Just long screeds of incoherent bullshit. When the fuck does Trumpov work? (We all know the answer to this)

  150. 150.

    germy

    @Leto: Yes. Lauer went after Hillary hard, and then basically kissed Trump’s ass. And I think he was encouraged by his boss Andy Lack. They’re all shit.

  152. 152.

    Kay

    @Sab:

    It’s really bad. I don’t think that means you have to freak out and hide under your desk but it’s time for everyone to admit it’s a crisis and behave accordingly. It really isn’t partisan. Is Congress subservient to the executive branch? Can the President direct congress in how to run their own branch? Not within the existing constitution he can’t. He simply doesn’t have this power. It wasn’t granted to him. It is illegitimate. It’s not grounded in anything and in fact the whole realm is specifically granted to the legislative branch.

    When Pelosi said “you’re in my wheelhouse now” that’s a constitutional argument.

  153. 153.

    Ruckus

    Hillary’s statement that tump should do his job really doesn’t mean much.
    First, he has no idea what a job is, let alone what his is.
    Second, he’s literally incapable of actually doing his job.
    Third, he’s a shithead racist, who revels in tormenting others, so he’s unfit for the job as well as totally unable to perform it.

  156. 156.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Not counting trash he’s retweeted, Trump has already tweeted 11 times this morning. I’d say he’s agitated.

    Awww….does orange baby need a bottle and his binky?

    No. Orange baby needs to resign, take Dense with him and still be prosecuted for several shittons of crimes.

  157. 157.

    Bobby Thomson

    @germy: Lauer’s “defense” is that it was a consensual affair. But he wouldn’t be the first man to “accidentally” perform an act that had not been consented to, or prohibited, even.

  158. 158.

    Kay

    David Freedlander
    @freedlander
    · 2h
    So a right-wing website publishes a scurrilous, easily-debunked piece about Warren making up the pregnancy discrimination she faced.
    And the CBS News chryon reads:”Warren Stands By Her Story”

    Jacobin promoted the story from the Left, too, because Warren threatens Bernie.

    But this is the reality for our candidates. We can certainly object to it but there’s no real effort or interest in changing the status quo in political journalism and they won’t. This is what it will be from now until election day for any D candidate, and they have to get around it. The ability to get around it is a requirement. It’s an additional requirement and I know that’s not fair but it is. They have to deal with what is.

  159. 159.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @joel hanes:

    I always will remember –
    ‘Twas a year ago November –
    I went out to hunt some deer
    On a morning bright & clear.
    I went & shot the maximum the game laws would allow:
    Two game wardens, seven hunters, and a cow.

    I was in no mood to trifle,
    I took down my trusty rifle
    And went out to stalk my prey –
    What a haul I made that day!
    I tied them to my fender & I drove them home somehow,
    Two game wardens, seven hunters, & a cow.

    The law was very firm – it
    Took away my permit,
    The worst punishment I’ve ever endured!
    It turned out there was a reason:
    Cows were out of season,
    And one of the hunters wasn’t insured.

    People ask my how I do it,
    And I say, There’s nothing to it –
    You just stand there looking cute,
    And when something moves, you shoot.
    So there’s ten stuffed heads in my trophy room right now:
    Two game wardens, seven hunters,
    And a pure-bred Guernsey cow!

    Listen & be entertained (or appalled, mir ist’s egal)

  160. 160.

    H.E.Wolf

    @rikyrah:

    Montgomery, Alabama, has elected an African American mayor for the first time in 200-year history

    Many thanks to you (and lamh36, last night) for boosting the signal on his victory.

    Montgomery is the home of a Civil Rights Memorial designed by Maya Lin. It’s a fountain with this quotation (Old Testament, via MLK, Jr.) inscribed upon it:

    “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Memorial

  162. 162.

    Yarrow

    @germy: Reminder that Matt Lauer is one of those ultra-rich Americans who buys land in New Zealand, like Peter Thiel. After the story broke and he was fired, New Zealand had some investigation to determine whether or not he met their “good character” requirement for foreign land owners. Wonder what will happen now. Link.

    Disgraced Today show anchor Matt Lauer can keep his New Zealand ranch. Lauer, who was fired by NBC last November following a sexual misconduct complaint, had been in danger of losing the sheep and cattle farm that agreed to lease last year for $9.2 million; authorities in New Zealand, which has become a popular destination for ultra-wealthy Americans, launched an investigation following his dismissal to determine whether his actions had breached a “good character” condition the country has for foreign buyers of major assets.

    New Zealand’s Overseas Investment Office told the Associated Press it interviewed Lauer and had also been in contact with NBC.

    “Mr. Lauer has not been charged with any offence, nor convicted, and the evidence available to the OIO at this time does not establish that Mr. Lauer is unfit to continue to hold the asset,” Lisa Barrett, an official at Land Information New Zealand, said in a statement. “However, in reaching this position, we do not condone the inappropriate way that Mr. Lauer has behaved.”

  164. 164.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @rikyrah: Due to time zone differences (and I only catch up with BJ sporadically during the day) I didn’t get a chance to do so yesterday, but I wanted to say thanks for your support. It’s much appreciated.

  166. 166.

    Steve in the ATL

    @JPL: i has to put on a jacket this morning up here in New York. Won’t need it Atlanta for 6-8 more weeks.

  167. 167.

    different-church-lady

    What the everlovin fuck are “alcoholic Tide pods” and why am I seeing them “trend” on my webpages?

  168. 168.

    CaseyL

    @different-church-lady: Glenlivit, which is legitimately a fine single-malt Scotch, has put out “Scotch pods” – gelatin pods filled with Scotch. Hilarity has ensued.

    As for the GOP… I don’t think they’re cowards or spineless or any of that. Remember, this is the GOP after 40+ years of intense RW propaganda. I think they just genuinely want to bring down the US, so they have a better shot at re-creating the vision of the country they prefer: pre-Civil Rights, pre-feminism, pre-union. They want the Gilded Age, when they were at the very tippy-top of the food chain and no one even thought of questioning their right to be there.

    Sometimes the simplest explanation is the accurate one: the GOP supports Trump because it agrees with him.

  169. 169.

    Chyron HR

    @CaseyL:

    I think they just genuinely want to bring down the US, so they have a better shot at re-creating the vision of the country they prefer

    To be fair, so does Bernie.

  172. 172.

    japa21

    @Chyron HR: Very true.

    Neither the somewhat far left nor the far right (now comprised by the entirety of the GOP) believe in the Constitution or basic principles of democracy. If Sanders were President he would show just about the same amount of respect for Congress as Trump shows.

  173. 173.

    Aleta

    Re: @germy: @germy:

    I was just reading/rereading these :

    (From the Variety article quoted by the DBeast today)
    NBC News has been bracing for what was expected to be a damning portrayal of the news organization and its leadership. Based on the fact-checking process for the book, NBC News is bracing for a blistering portrait of the news division and its leadership.

    (Dec 2017 NYT) Many of the male journalists who stand accused of sexual harassment were on the forefront of covering the presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Matt Lauer interviewed Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump in an official “commander-in-chief forum” for NBC. He notoriously peppered and interrupted Mrs. Clinton with cold, aggressive, condescending questions hyper-focused on her emails, only to pitch softballs at Mr. Trump and treat him with gentle collegiality a half-hour later.

    Mark Halperin and Charlie Rose set much of the televised political discourse on the race, interviewing other pundits, opining themselves and obsessing over the electoral play-by-play. Mr. Rose, after the election, took a tone similar to Mr. Lauer’s with Mrs. Clinton — talking down to her, interrupting her, portraying her as untrustworthy. Mr. Halperin was a harsh critic of Mrs. Clinton, painting her as ruthless and corrupt, while going surprisingly easy on Mr. Trump. The reporter Glenn Thrush, currently on leave from The New York Times because of sexual harassment allegations, covered Mrs. Clinton’s 2008 campaign when he was at Newsday and continued to write about her over the next eight years for Politico.

    These recent harassment allegations suggest that perhaps … these particular men hold deep biases against women who seek power instead of sticking to acquiescent sex-object status.

    A month ago, Rebecca Traister wrote in New York magazine that with the flood of sexual harassment charges, “we see that the men who have had the power to abuse women’s bodies and psyches throughout their careers are in many cases also the ones in charge of our political and cultural stories.” *

    So I thought I’d look at (Rolling Stone) Matt Taibbi’s take on Warren and Harris, etc. (Because of Taibbi’s past writing, and his former publication boasting about abusing Russian women, and his print-harassment of a female journalist who was working in Moscow at the time. She later wrote about the experience in the Post.)

    Likewise, this time there may be attacks out of bias on the work of women journalists who sometimes write about this stuff.

    I didn’t have time to do a fair (complete) look at Taibbi’s articles. But I think it’s something to watch for this time around. ** Example, though this is not an article:

    (Sept 26 2019 in Rolling Stone) In the latest episode of our Useful Idiots podcast, Matt Taibbi and Katie Halper chat with guest Nathan Robinson on why we can’t ignore the differences between  presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren — even when they appear unified on the debate stage. Robinson expands upon his recent piece for Current Affairs, in which he argues a Warren nomination would actually be “very worrying.”
    … …
    Halper and Taibbi also play a game of ‘Who Said It: Hillary Clinton or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?’ Spoiler: former Iranian President Ahmadinejad is the one quoting Tupac.

    ————-
    * Other articles came out immediately after Lauer’s ‘town hall’ against Clinton. They had less influence at that time.

    ** Not just in Taibbi and other writers, but in headline writers and bloggers.

    At least biased or inaccurate headlines can occasionally get changed, I’ve found, by writing to the reporter of the piece (who’s not the headline writer). A few reporters are able/willing to do that if alerted.

  174. 174.

    Another Scott

    @CaseyL:

    Sometimes the simplest explanation is the accurate one: the GOP supports Trump because it agrees with him.

    I think one could go ever further than that – Donnie embodies everything they have been arguing for for decades:

    1) The rich are better than the rest of us, and have the right to rule us. Whites are better than anyone else.
    2) Taxes are inherently unfair. Broad-based benefits in society are evil.
    3) Land should vote, not poor people who live in cities.
    4) Politics is a game, and laws are flexible. Any argument and dirty trick can be applied against Democrats, but Democrats must follow the rules and norms or they’re hypocrites. It’s perfectly fine – no, demanded – that GOP politicians punish their enemies and use every trick possible to extend their power. The only real crime is getting caught and not being able to slither out of any consequences. After all, the GOP is the only legitimate party.

    Etc.

    Donnie embodies that. The GOP could have beat him back during the primaries, but they didn’t want to do the soul-searching necessary to make a break with him and their policies.

    Grr…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  175. 175.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Tommy Christopher at Mediaite also promoted it in a particularly dishonest way (IMO), supposedly because he thinks slagging Warren helps Harris. I’m guessing there must be Warren zealots who are promoting dumb stories about Harris, Buttigieg, Biden, etc., too. Probably only poor Bennet is utterly bereft of bros! But yeah, what you said: this is reality now, and every candidate is going to have to learn how to operate in it.

  176. 176.

    prostratedragon

    @NotMax: That Wikipedia is really something. The other day something or other made me want to check the accuracy of my guess that mad scenes in operas are rarely written for male voices (a real missed opportunity). And sure enough …

  181. 181.

    mrmoshpotato

    What the everlovin fuck are “alcoholic Tide pods”

    Anyone else want this added to the rotating text at the top?

  184. 184.

    zeecube

    @germy: Throw it away. It is on your property without your permission. Granted, it may be place in a spot where the municipality has a right to do stuff on your property, such as a right to put in a side walk (In Louisiana, it’s called a predial servitude, I think), but you own your property all the way to the street, at least. That’s why it’s your responsibility for its upkeep. I am guessing whatever ordinance gives the city service rights does not extend to third parties’ campaign signs.

  185. 185.

    J R in WV

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Here, during deer season and for quite a while afterwards, White Dog would emit fearsome terrible fumes, got way less kibble to eat, and gained 15 pounds. She lives in our house, but is free to go into the woods and hunt, she mostly finds motionless dead things.

    Not much you can do about that.

    Now we have two new puppies who were astray for a week, and were thin when they got lost. Now they’re filling out slowly on 4 cups of puppy chow daily. Alice is getting fed twice a day to prevent jealousy issues to that extent, not gonna lose weight like that!

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