Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

I really should read my own blog.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

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

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

The words do not have to be perfect.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Bark louder, little dog.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

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

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Consistently wrong since 2002

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Late Night Open Thread: Reasons to Be Hopeful

Late Night Open Thread: Reasons to Be Hopeful

by | 95 Comments

This post is in: , ,

Tonight, in Virginia:

And if *that* don’t do it for ya…

Reader Interactions

95Comments

  4. 4.

    Sab

    I am in Ohio and was feeling bleak. Got a call from a Warren Iowa worker moved to Ohio. Canvassing this weekend!

  5. 5.

    Jerzy Russian

    As far as I know, most things in space travel at incredible speeds. Also too, I don’t think the asteroid that is on its way here is not the one pictured in the tweet.   Sadly, the classification of “potentially” hazardous means it will miss up by a wide margin.  Maybe better luck next time.

  7. 7.

    Jerzy Russian

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:   Actually, having read the linked article, it is good that it will miss us by about 3.6 million miles.  This asteroid is about a kilometer in diameter, so the bad effects of a collision would be global.

  9. 9.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    Dear lord, we have to ask, which would be better for the USA, DJT, or the asteroid?

    And it *does* disturb me how I can’t promise any GOP President since the 1970s was actually *better* than the asteroid.

    Nixon created the adage “his real crime was getting caught”.

    So Reagan didn’t get caught, and everyone who did got a pardon, because, what’s helping Iran, negotiating with terrorists, and sending money to other terroristic organizations (in contravention of the law), when you *really* get down to it?

    George Bush proved that even when you can’t get away with it,  you might be able to pardon everyone. (Which is, really, just a tiny bit worse than actually engaging in the activity, when you think about it.)

    And George W got caught, but, of course, it was only torture; and lies about a war of choice; and about rampant FISA violations; what’s a few million dead, a few trillion dollars, the eternal ruination of any of America’s moral high ground, and widespread violations of the Constitution, when you *really* get down to it?

  12. 12.

    Jerzy Russian

    @John Revolta:

    Corr: asteroid

    Yes, this one is unusually large for something this close.

    If you are bored, there are numerous articles that explain why Bruce Willis can’t save us, for example Here

  14. 14.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    Walked over to the low class mall to pick up some stuff at Target and decided to go on over to the Fancy Pants Mall across the street to see if the Samsung store had the new S20’s.  They did!  Got to play around with the S20 Ultra’s camera, pretty slick.

  16. 16.

    kindness

    What was that pole that New Hampshire Democrats would prefer an extinction event meteor strike to Trump’s re-election?

  19. 19.

    Redshift

    @Sab: I have found that getting active is usually the best cure for feeling bleak.

    Warren was in fine form tonight. There were “many more people than expected” according to the local news report (hence the visit with people who couldn’t get in), so that’s good.

  24. 24.

    Sab

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Visited my sister in La Jolla a couple of years ago. Couldn’t park for love or money anywhere. And she thinks its a liveable area.I guess it beats downtown Shanghai, but for me it’s meh.

  26. 26.

    burnspbesq

    @Sab:

    Visited my sister in La Jolla a couple of years ago. Couldn’t park for love or money anywhere.

    There are other parts of San Diego that are even less car-friendly.

  31. 31.

    Sab

    @burnspbesq: Wow. And I was with my husband limping along with a cane and a horrible back. We went to the beach at Torrey Pines. I have a picture of him standing in the surf with his cane. Breaks my heart to see.

  32. 32.

    Sebastian

    @Sab:

     

    how can you not find parking here? (I happen to be in La Jolla tonight). It’s wide open spaces everywhere

  41. 41.

    Sab

    @burnspbesq

    :  I came slinking home after a failed marriage at 45. Restarted my career and met the love of my life. 20 years later I am so happy.

    Wish that for you.

  43. 43.

    JWR

    So anyway, this is the first I’ve heard of Trump’s obsession with… Badgers? (What, am I not following along closely enough?)

    Seth Meyers Mocks Trump’s ‘Very Dumb Obsession’ With Badgers

    ~Sigh~ Our president is a really stupid man. But Seth Meyer’s should be fun tonight, so there’s that, at least.

  45. 45.

    SectionH

    @burnspbesq: Uh? I can’t think of any, and I live here. Maybe less Valet parking?

    @Sab: We keep the secret parking places secret…
    Ok, I lied. For one thing, I haven’t been in La Jolla in ~3 years. The traffic isn’t worth it. There are lots of real places in San Diego where real – not rich – people live. And here the parking is… a challenge, but not impossible. And for ppl who just come for restaurants in our neighborhood, paying in many lots isn’t that expensive – and it’s about damn time that car drivers start paying their share of what it actually costs. I’m pretty cool about a lot of aspects of those trade-offs. And I don’t walk very well, so I get the trade-offs.

    But please don’t judge San Diego by La Jolla. Cause, damn.

  46. 46.

    Mnemosyne

    I’m sure this was already addressed in detail in another thread, but I am boggled that Sanders fans have been calling their opponents literal murderers if they’re not all in for M4A and now they’re all LOL it was just a negotiating position why so serious?

    This is the Bad Place.

  48. 48.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mnemosyne: You’re boggled about cult members?

    This is the Bad Place.

    LOL

    ETA – “Are they fucking?” – Jameela Jamil about the geese

  50. 50.

    Jerzy Russian

    @Mnemosyne:  Yes, that tweet by that dude whose name I forgot and is not worth looking up was the most incredible thing I have seen in a long time.   “You won’t lose anything because my boss’s promised programs won’t actually become law”.

  52. 52.

    Duane

    @LongHairedWeirdo: A class-action suit against the Republican party, asking they be outlawed and fined into oblivion for being a threat to our nation and the world doesn’t sound so crazy, given all the facts in evidence.

  53. 53.

    hervevillechaizelounge

    I spent the day with my two Trump-voting aunts today; I asked who they planned to vote for and got some (theoretically) good news.

    Aunt #1: Dead broke, living on SSI and food-stamps; said she planned to vote for Trump again because he’d done everything he promised. (Right-wing media must be like science fiction at this point.)

    Aunt #2: Inherited tens of millions of dollars from her husband; said she’d be voting for Bloomberg if he’s the Dem nominee. I asked why she was switching and she said, “Trump is rich but Bloomberg is REALLY rich and richer is always better.”

    Tl;dr:  I hadn’t really factored in Republicans’ naked worship of money; I’m not a Bloomberg fan but his appeal to Republicans could be substantial. His appeal to Democrats, however, is lacking; I will never understand why he didn’t run as a Republican:(

  56. 56.

    Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]

    So, I am not a Christian, though I went to a Lutheran church.  I lost my faith when my 7th grade teacher said “if you don’t go to church every Sunday you are stupid”  (Currently I’m a post-doc with Bachelors in computer science and biology, and a PhD in Electrical engineering),  Also, he was driven from Hawaii about 9 months later for diddling his female students (Got off on the fact that Hawaii laws still had “Harm intent” in their pedophilia laws at the time).

    I like to say I’m a Deist on a good day and an agnostic on a bad day, but honestly I feel most religion belief is extremely powerful and dangerous nonsense.  Basically, the safest way to treat religion is like trying to dispose of an abandoned can that contains a combination of shock-sensitive and radioactive toxic waste.

    (Pro-tip, If you have physical mixed waste like this, no hazardous waste company would ever accept it, you have to hold the mixed waste until the radioactivity decays away.  University of New Mexico has mixed waste going back to the 60’s, they will probably have to hold it another 60 years at least before they can dispose it)

    Still, four years after the death of Scalia, and living in this current timeline, I hope there is a hell. It gives me a measure of pleasure that Scalia might be beginning to truly understand the concept of “Feeling the Burn”.

  60. 60.

    jl

    If NASA is right about the asteroid, a miss is as good as 3.6 million miles. Whew….

    Though, I do know some people associated with BJ blog who will be disappointed.

  64. 64.

    Martin

    @hervevillechaizelounge: Illustrates how much of a threat to the general order the GOP has become.

    If you’re a finance person, Trumps policies are a fucking nightmare. Closing markets is bad. Coal and oil are dying. The only automaker worth anything is Tesla. The money is in batteries, EVs, solar, wind, etc.

    And chaos is bad for business. Corruption is bad for business.

  65. 65.

    SectionH

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I admire  your fighting the 5. I was hanging around here long ago enough that one could actually find street parking around La Valencia… (20 yrs ago?)

    But Mr S told me this afternoon that um…  the checkout woman at Asshole Despot where he bought a furnace filter told him she regularly goes for HH drinks at La Valencia, because they’ll stamp her parking card… (maybe the Valet parking?)

    I probably won’t bother, but cool to know there might be something possible. (Also don’t ask me why this became a topic, but I have pretty good idea, which involves the fishing pier – eta on Shelter Island.) (Alas, you will not get any sunsets from Shelter Island. The sun goes behind Point Loma 30+ minutes before it’s actually dark… it’s still my favorite place in SD)

  66. 66.

    Anne Laurie

    @hervevillechaizelounge: His appeal to Democrats, however, is lacking; I will never understand why he didn’t run as a Republican:(

    Bloomberg is one of the few actual independents… if that’s the proper term for a stone-to-the-bone technocrat.  He’s run as a Republican, and as a Democrat, and I think as a capital-I Independent — depending on which ballot line would give him the best chance of winning.

    There’s no space in the Republican race right now, they’re 100% in the Trump death cult, either because they believe it or because they’re terrified of the other cultists.  Mike is running in the Democratic primaries, because there’s only two parties in America when it comes to picking the president, but he’s made it damned clear that his actual brand is Mike Bloomberg, Autocrat.

    If we end up choosing that brand because the only remaining alternative is Moar Trump, well..

  68. 68.

    trnc

    @hervevillechaizelounge: Aunt #1: Dead broke, living on SSI and food-stamps; said she planned to vote for Trump again

    Does that mean he hasn’t cut her food stamps yet, or did she get more excited when he did because she knew he also cut them for, you know, those people?

  69. 69.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Mnemosyne: What, not the original Panda Express next door?  The Chinese chicken place and the Korean BiBimBap place both closed.  We like the bibimbap, but it was pretty pricey.  The Apple store in the Galleria was one of the first two.

  73. 73.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Martin: Yup, across the street from each other, almost as bad as Starbucks.  I’m not sure why they kept the store in the Galleria when they opened the store at Americana.  Maybe they had a long term lease they couldn’t break.

  74. 74.

    ruemara

    @burnspbesq: Congratulations!

     

     

    I’m fairly hopeful. Booked enough VO this week & early enough so that I should be able to pay rent, so go me. Got paid for some design & marcomm work, so double go me.  I was planning on baking valentine’s cupcakes for my friends, but I might be working background on a film (er, NDA, sorry) all weekend including friday. Rather glad my February is turning out much nicer than my January.

  75. 75.

    Martin

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I doubt that. Apple breaks leases at will. They’re Apple.

    My best guess is that they couldn’t get a space large enough in  the new mall to meet the combined demand, and had to settle for 2 spaces. I know the original location was WAY beyond capacity.

    I know the Third Street Promenade store is at capacity and it’s almost 20K square feet. Also pulls down about half a billion a year, so my guess is they need both until they can get a large enough space. Can’t imagine Glendale gets any less volume than Santa Monica.

  76. 76.

    Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]

    Late night, but a useful tool for Bernie “Supporters”, courtesy of Driftglass. http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-discommendation-of-bernie-bros.html

    Any “Supporter” of Bernie should have this link applied repeatedly until delusion subsides or symptoms of trolling become obvious.

    In cases of trolling, whether from internal or external sources that can not be helped through mockery or disdain, Pie filter therapy is suggested.  This is indicated  to lower stress, high blood pressure, and the need to strangle random people on the internet.

  78. 78.

    Mai naem mobile

    Not exactly  a ‘ do you remember where you were when the  WTC went down’ moment but I remember I was at a store where the Scalia died.  They had the teevee tuned to CNN. It was a Saturday afternoon. I was on the cell phone with my non political junkie sister and I was wandering around the store saying ‘OMG Scalia is dead, OMG Scalia died, this is huge, you don’t understand this is OMG, Obama is going to get a lefty on the court to replace Scalia.’ My sister ofcourse didn’t get the full significance of what I was babbling on about. Little did I know how much of a fucking asshole Mitch McConnell was going to be.

  80. 80.

    SectionH

    @Mai naem mobile: So I could actually re-register in Kentucky, um, to vote against McConnell “one more time.” With feeling…

    I am not making this up: I was in the elevator from the parking garage to our condo lobby with 3 sets of neighbors when one (I love her) said, “wait? you haven’t sold that house?” and I got what she was saying…  it was like, your vote’s just gonna be with the 3+ million of us in CA, but Kentucky?

    I don’t actually like that sort of shit, but, yes I was actually feeling guilty by the time I got off the elevator. (bugger, I’m using “lift” from now on, it’s a lot shorter word than elevator)

    One more time to vote against Mitch… I have to admit, it’s very tempting

    And tbc, almost everyone in the lift was even older than I am. I was delighted. We are so blue in Hillcrest.

  84. 84.

    HeartlandLiberal

    A meditation on how one learns from the Web.

    I clicked through to the article at IGN, and ended up reading through a list of recommended top 25 scifi films. Reading about Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis”, I learned that a print had been found about 20 years ago in Argentina including 25 minutes of footage from the original theatrical release thought lost forever! From there I tracked down the DVD issued with the restored footage on Amazon, and logged on to my local library and recommended they add it to the collection. One of the most influential films of all time. Restored to as close to original Fritz Lang vision as we will get. I can’t wait. To help you identify it, here is the description from the Amazon prime page:
    The Complete Metropolis (Silent)

    8.32h 28min192713+

    The most influential of all silent films, this astounding new version of Fritz Lang’s visionary masterpiece includes 25 minutes of newly-discovered, digitally restored footage and Gottfried Huppertz’s magnificent original score – the closest version ever seen since the film’s 1927 Berlin premiere. METROPOLIS takes place in 2026, when the populace is divided between workers who must live in the dark underground and the rich who enjoy a futuristic
     

  86. 86.

    burnspbesq

    @Martin:

    South Coast Plaza and Fashion Island both rock all day every day. Brea, Spectrum, and Mission Viejo less so.

    Austin only has two Apple Stores, which is surprising for a metro area this size but speaks to the lack of sufficiently upscale malls. Only the Domain and Barton Creek have the right ambiance. If we ever get a third one, my guess is that it will be downtown.

  89. 89.

    RedDirtGirl

    @Mai naem mobile: I was on vacation when a work friend texted me the news of his death. Given the source, I wondered why she was telling me that one of our painting subcontractors, Frank La Scala, had died, and why it was such breaking news. Context is everything.

  90. 90.

    zhena gogolia

    No time to read whole thread, but I think she got this from SNL — in which case it was Putin who was the elf on the shelf behind Alec Baldwin. But her delivery is perfect!

  92. 92.

    PST

    @Mai naem mobile:

    @burnspbesq: Congrats! Best wishes . You have zero excuses for forgetting your wedding anniversary now

    Ha! We got married on July 4 for just that reason. I was 61 and so it seemed prudent to anticipate and guard against the danger of memory losses. Congratulations burnspbesq!

  94. 94.

    Steeplejack

    @hervevillechaizelounge:

    Thread long since dead, but I can’t resist asking: couldn’t millionaire Aunt #2, er, “help out” indigent Aunt #1? Or does that break some Republican law of “personal responsibility”?

Comments are closed.