Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

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

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Bark louder, little dog.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

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

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

When they say they’re pro-life, they don’t mean yours.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Books are my comfort food!

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2020 / And Now – The Joe Biden Show

Reader Interactions

235Comments

  2. 2.

    cmorenc

    What amount of coverage will the networks actually give Biden?  The orange asshole seems determined to suck up all the media oxygen from Biden with his daily press mis-briefings on COV-19, including timing them to stomp over scheduled Biden media events, in addition to just being motivated by Trump’s narcissistic craving for attention.  And with the D primaries effectively over, there’s not any conventional horse-race events for quite awhile to provide shiny objects the press is pre-conditioned to cover the way Presidential briefings are.

  3. 3.

    Martin

    I would like everyone to consider that treating the presidency as the thought leader of the legislative agenda rather than the executor of the largest organization on earth is perhaps a bad idea.

    I trust Nancy and Chuck to do their jobs. If we ever needed a president who could find the Defense Logistics Agency with one hand, it’s now. Please encourage Joe to talk about how to use the many levers afforded to the WH to solve problems, rather than how to design a new health care system.

  4. 4.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @cmorenc: I think it will take time, but people will respond to someone who sounds like he knows what he’s doing, rather than Trump’s repetitive self-adoration. And then the coverage will shift.

  5. 5.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Martin: True, true.  Congress is important and I have an issue when folk start talking about pulling folk out of Congress to staff the administration.  Some have mentioned your congresscritter.

  6. 6.

    Woodrow/asim

    @cmorenc: Biden has more than enough name recognition that he doesn’t need to be in the news every damn day.  Trump is driving down his approval numbers with his daily patter, and inability to actually make real news that makes a difference to ordinary Americans.

    Biden is likely holding his fire. That makes a huge difference getting the right message out thru our Short Attention Span Media when it matters — in the Fall.

  9. 9.

    germy

    ‘I Congratulate Joe Biden, A Very Decent Man,’ Says Bernie Sanders In Unprovoked Attack On Democratic Party Unity

    (Onion headline)

  10. 10.

    Mnemosyne

    @Martin:

    I think that’s what Biden has been doing while Kamala Harris is out there pushing specific legislation, like her recent proposal to have credit card companies waive late fees.

    Almost like they’re working in tandem to build an agenda … ?

  12. 12.

    Cheryl Rofer

    I am listening to Biden, and, although he’s not proposing anything astonishing enough to make NYT headlines, it’s refreshing and comforting to listen to a person who is concerned about people, who can construct whole sentences, who knows something about policy, and is conversational with his questioners.

    Violence and hostility just aren’t that appealing to most people.

  13. 13.

    Mnemosyne

    @germy:

    Meh. The Onion has been populated by Bros this whole primary season. I’m fully expecting them to try and sabotage Joe.

  14. 14.

    Martin

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Well, she is wonderful. I won’t lie. Would prefer that we’ve shored up the Dem infrastructure a bit more before we let her go.

    Right now, her biggest impact will be to audit the recovery packages. Trump is going to corrupt the shit out of that, particularly after his determination that no IG is needed.

  16. 16.

    Elizabelle

    Yes.  It’s Alexandra Petri.  WaPost: Sitting on a throne of skulls, Mitch McConnell confirms his 8,999th judge

  17. 17.

    germy

    @Mnemosyne:

    Not sure how much influence The Onion has.

     

    Undaunted Sanders Supporters Announce They’ll Continue Presidential Campaign Without Candidate

    NEW YORK—Stressing that they would not allow a minor bump in the road to prevent them from delivering true change, the nation’s undaunted Bernie Sanders supporters announced Wednesday that they would continue his 2020 presidential campaign without the candidate. “Time and again, the mainstream media has predicted the end of this campaign, and they will again try to spin losing our only candidate as the clear conclusion of Bernie’s run for the presidency—but they could not be more wrong,” said Peter Symanski, a 27-year-old Sanders supporter who echoed the sentiment of thousands across the country while describing the Vermont senator’s decision to drop out of the race as “an insignificant setback” on the path to bringing a progressive vision to the Oval Office in 2020. “They said this race was over after South Carolina, they said it was over after Super Tuesday. But with or without our candidate, we will soldier ahead with our plan to bring true change in November. This race isn’t close to over.” At press time, the unwavering followers of Sanders went on to vow that if they did not find success this year, they would likely keep running the 2020 campaign until the end of the decade.

  18. 18.

    NotMax

    Achieved acceptance of it after big honkin’ Tuesday (as if there was any other rational option but acceptance). That doesn’t mean I must feign happiness about where the fickle finger of fat fate has chosen to point, it means I must needs support it and do whatever I legally can to trounce the incumbent.

  19. 19.

    Mnemosyne

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    The online Bernie supporters — including much of his staff — just did. not. get. that. They completely failed to understand that insulting people and demanding that they “bend the knee” was actually counterproductive to what they wanted to accomplish. It was very weird to watch it happen and their complete inability to understand why insulting someone made them less likely to vote for their candidate.

  20. 20.

    Duane

    If there’s something I hate hearing it’s the Pesident of the US whining about it’s not fair. You’re in charge of the richest most powerful nation and you cry like a spoiled brat. Grow the hell up.

  23. 23.

    germy

    One of the regrettable by-products of Bernie’s fatal decision to run as a factional rather than majority candidate is that his senior campaign staff was littered with Stein ’16 people. One should be pretty wary of soliciting the paid advice of people who were indifferent-at-best to the liberalism v. fascism question in the last election, especially if you’re trying to win the nomination of a party the vast majority of whose members do not consider the question difficult. If someone was really good at some specific job, it shouldn’t be disqualifying in itself. But the prominent de facto Trump supporters in the Sanders campaign were all massively incompetent.

    https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2020/04/a-campaigns-relationship-with-the-press-should-be-instrumental-and-other-lessons

  26. 26.

    dmsilev

    @Mnemosyne: The Sanders strategy was “we have 30 percent of the electorate, which is enough to win a plurality in a crowded field. Bend the knee, neoliberal scum!”. They completely failed to plan for …most of the other candidates dropping out and therefore having the remaining 70 percent consolidate around someone else.  Of course, going all snake-emoji on the candidate who was arguably the closest in ideology and thereby turning off her supporters was also a grade-A strategy choice.

  27. 27.

    dmsilev

    Washington Post:

    Ahead of Easter and Passover, Kansas legislators voted along party lines Wednesday to strike down an executive order that Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly issued the day before, limiting religious gatherings to 10 people as a way of restricting the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

    Republicans in the state have condemned Kelly’s expanded stay-at-home order as an overreaching violation of religious liberty. When Kelly announced it Tuesday, she said Kansans could observe Holy Week from home.

    A literal death cult. Not Joe-Biden-literal, but literal-literal.

  29. 29.

    Roger Moore

    @Mnemosyne:

    They completely failed to understand that insulting people and demanding that they “bend the knee” was actually counterproductive to what they wanted to accomplish.

    I disagree.  For the assholes who acted that way- as opposed to the larger number of sane Sanders supporters who just liked the policies he was proposing- the goal was to trash the Democrats.  I don’t think winning was a primary goal.  For some of them I doubt it was a goal at all.  They’d much rather lose, maintain their purity, and be able to blame everything that happens forever after on the Democrats’ refusal to accept The Savior than win and be forced to produce.

    Shorter: They’re the Peoples Front for Judea.

  30. 30.

    germy

    @dmsilev:

     we have 30 percent of the electorate, which is enough to win a plurality in a crowded field.

    That’s an interesting strategy.  I think it shows a bit of projection onto other candidates:  “They’ll never drop out!”

  31. 31.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Here’s Trump:

    Biden is talking about what needs to be done to keep people going through the pandemic crisis. I’m sure that’s going to be a major theme for his talks. Lots of positivity about unions, about getting people relief and then back to work, keeping them covered on insurance (no details, thank FSM!).

    I think it’ll work.

  34. 34.

    Mnemosyne

    @dmsilev:

    I don’t have the thread open anymore, but after Super Tuesday I did see some Bernie supporters who were pissed at the campaign’s incompetence. When your national press secretary and your speechwriter spend more time searching their names on Twitter than they do on their actual jobs, your campaign has a problem, and it ain’t the fault of “the establishment.”

  35. 35.

    dmsilev

    @Cheryl Rofer: Never mind tigers, why the fuck is he talking about the head of the TVA? And, as a follow-up, does anyone believe he knows what the TVA is?

  37. 37.

    dmsilev

    @Mnemosyne: The current top thread over at LG&M, A CAMPAIGN’S RELATIONSHIP WITH THE PRESS SHOULD BE INSTRUMENTAL, AND OTHER LESSONS, gives some great examples of just how bad his senior staff were at their alleged jobs. This summary:

    Why are you SILENCING us by having some snake appear on your podcast instead of us? The fact that you invited us months ago and I won’t return your emails is central to my point!

    sounds snarky, but it’s actually accurate.

  38. 38.

    Joy in FL

    Cheryl, thanks so much for posting about the virtual town hall with Joe Biden. Now I am subscribed to his YouTube, so going forward I should know when he going doing something live online. I’ve been on his mailing list since Elizabeth Warren stopped running for president. I never get notified of his town halls. I want to add to the quantity of people watching, and I want to hear him say what he has to say first hand. I never thought I would be happy to vote for him, but the more I listen to him, the better I like him and the better I feel about what he would be as president. He doesn’t have to be perfect to be a good one.

  40. 40.

    Feathers

    Biden should do a regular series of scheduled video chats where he brings out experts in the field and listens to them talk about what is going on and what needs to be done. He can nod his head and do the “I approve this message” at the end. He’ll be bringing all the Obama administration eggheads back. Let everyone know who will be on board, especially on the medical/pandemic side of things.

  41. 41.

    Mnemosyne

    @dmsilev:

    I don’t normally follow Scott Lemieux on Twitter, but he’s been showing up in the timelines of people I do follow because he’s been PISSED about the campaign’s mismanagement for at least a couple of weeks now. It’s a clown show and I can totally see why so many Bernie 2016 staffers like Symone Sanders jumped to other campaigns this time around.

  44. 44.

    Roger Moore

    @germy:

    That’s an interesting strategy.  I think it shows a bit of projection onto other candidates:  “They’ll never drop out!”

    I’m not sure if that’s how I’d read Sanders’s strategy.  I think he was basically unwilling to moderate his positions to win votes, so his only plausible path to the nomination was to win a plurality in a divided field.  If you accept the basic limitation, it’s a sensible strategy.  That’s not to say there were no problems with the strategy- they had no way of forcing the field to stay divided, and there was always a question of whether the convention would nominate the plurality candidate if he was ideologically far from the rest of the field- but it was probably the best choice available to them.  Sometimes you have to accept that your best chance is still a long shot and hope for luck.

  45. 45.

    Mnemosyne

    @dmsilev:

    Lemieux only barely touched on this aspect but, man, Bernie’s staffers loathe Neera Tanden with the heat of a million suns and most Democrats don’t even know she exists. Why spend so much goddamned time attacking the head of a Democratic think tank? Make it make sense.

  48. 48.

    Mnemosyne

    @Roger Moore:

    It’s a workable strategy if you’re running as a Republican and the states are winner-take-all. It’s a stupid strategy when you’re running as a Democrat and the delegates are awarded proportionally.

    Also, I had not realized until a few days ago that Sirota had been a Ron Paul presidential campaign staffer, which explained a WHOLE lot about how the Sanders 2020 campaign burned down. 

  49. 49.

    Feathers

    @Omnes Omnibus: He wouldn’t have to say who was going to be doing what, just an invitation to work with the Biden administration and his guests saying yes would be huge.  Just letting the lefties know that he will sign whatever Congress puts in front of them, so they should be out there working on winning the House and Senate would be fantastic.

  50. 50.

    Mnemosyne

    @Feathers:

    FWIW, Biden is already doing this. You can see the upcoming schedule on his Twitter feed, and probably on his website, too.

  52. 52.

    Bruuuuce

    I had to snooze a Bernista on FB today, whose line was that now that Bernie’s campaign “can no longer be hamstrung by vote blue no matter who propaganda from the DNC”, it’s time to get out on the streets (!) and knock doors down urging people to vote for Bernie on ballots where he still appears, and write him in if not.

    ::headdesks so very hard::

  53. 53.

    Betty

    I think Joe will put together a good team and govern competently to begin to fix the damage. Saying that though, I do cringe when he calls the first female caller “kiddo.”  Something to live with, I guess.

  54. 54.

    Feathers

    @Mnemosyne: I am going to take all the credit because he must have been reading my mind. ;)  Honestly, there’s only so much to follow, so I just put Biden and Bernie on mute because there was just too much shit to keep track of.

  55. 55.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud:

    I wonder if Chris Hayes will light a candle on his show tonight.

    Ha! I’d have done spit take if I were drinking something. Now I have to tune in live just to see the sad-face farewell to the dream.

  57. 57.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Aaron Rupar@atrupar 1h
    Trump begins by saying, “on Sunday we celebrate our beautiful, wonderful Easter, which we all look forward to. We’re going to have many Easters together in churches in the future … we’re getting much closer to getting our country back to the way it was.”

    I’d love to hear what he thinks Easter is.

  58. 58.

    Jeffro

    @Mnemosyne:

     

    @Feathers:

    better still, pre-record it and let the world know that they’ll roll the tape “whenever, if ever” trumpov wraps up his free daily airtime/lie-fest

    trumpov will just die, knowing that the minute he stops squawking, Biden’s level, well-informed tape will roll in full

     

    what a contrast!

  59. 59.

    Martin

    @Betty: i think the singular focus of what needed to be done helped Obama staff up in a fairly cohesive way. I think Biden will benefit similarly.

    But Biden needs to work double-time to get blue states onto vote by mail by Nov. We’ll never get it through the Senate, but every state in the northeast, NY, VA, PA, MI need to get it through their state. The blue states that he needs have to have reliable votes up on election day. That needs to be done now, because it’ll take months to implement.

  60. 60.

    NotMax

    @Baud

    On the contrary, this opens up time and opportunity for Wilmer to show up there with more regularity.

    Maybe Sanders & Hayes will work up their own Gallagher & Shean patter.

    Full disclosure: Appreciated the weekend “Up” show (except for the insipid game show segment), otherwise have found Hayes’ M-F show eminently unwatchable for years now.

  61. 61.

    Van Buren

    PBS newshour just said Bernie single handedly moved Democrats to the left. Quite a snub of Liz.

  63. 63.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Maybe he’ll just sing a variation on this:

    The dream is over
    What can I say?
    The dream is over
    Yesterday
    I was the dream weaver
    But now I’m reborn
    I was the Walrus
    But now I’m John
    And so dear friends
    You just have to carry on
    The dream is over

  65. 65.

    Martin

    Biden needs to challenge the networks that if they’re going to give the Republican nominee an unlimited prime time slot every day, that they need to give the Democratic nominee at least something. There’s no legal requirement, but given that the networks are already uneasy with the Trump Show, they may be receptive to it.

  66. 66.

    Roger Moore

    @Mnemosyne:

    Why spend so much goddamned time attacking the head of a Democratic think tank? Make it make sense.

    They may dislike the fascists who make up the modern Republican Party, but they know their true enemy is the moderate left.  If only they could crush the liberal establishment, everyone on the left would have nobody left to vote for but them, and they’d be able to usher in socialist nirvana.

    So basically the People’s Front for Judea.

  67. 67.

    Nora

    Governor Cuomo just said we’re going to have vote. U mail for the primary in June. Shouldn’t be too hard to do the same for November.

  69. 69.

    NotMax

    @Van Buren

    single handedly

    The other hand was occupied endorsing checks over to Jane.

    Hands aside, he suffers carping funnel syndrome.

    //

  71. 71.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @NotMax: The game show segments was after Kornacki took over, I actually kind of liked them.  I agree that Hays doesn’t work well on weekdays, he seems to need the news to age for 48 hours before he does his thing.

  74. 74.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Jeffro:  nickel bet says he thinks it’s the day Jesus died

    I was thinking that’s if Kellyanne bought him a picture book about it in the last couple of weeks. Less likely but still possible: He’s unaware it’s specifically Xian

  76. 76.

    NotMax

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist

    “our” … “we all look forward to”

    Believers of non-Christian religions and atheists are, shall we say, passed over.

    I’d love to hear what he thinks Easter is.

    “Don’t have to go pretend to interact with all those icky kids on the lawn this year! WIN!”

  78. 78.

    JMG

    As far as can be told, Trump’s daily pressers are having a small, steady but significant downward effect on his standing with the public. The idea they’re some PR bonanza is most prominent with 1. Trump himself. 2. That segment of lefty (not all Bernie people) commentators whose default position is “the Democrats are doing it all wrong.” Look, Biden is who he is and to his credit he knows it. He isn’t ever gonna be anything but the tortoise in this race and we might as well get used to it. It’s a very small sample size, but according to the record books, tortoise is undefeated.

  80. 80.

    Miss Bianca

    @Betty: I use the term “kiddo”, so I don’t mind it, but I have come to understand that some others find it a wee tad condescending. As Wallace Shawn would have it: “INCONCEIVABLE!” ; )

  81. 81.

    cain

    @NotMax:

    Eh.. don’t care. As a non-christian person I get it that this country is fixated on judeo-christian religions of which are the overwhelming majorities. Since hindus are pretty much invisible till Obama came into power.

  82. 82.

    Chyron HR

    @germy:

    I’m so old I remember when Bernie told his supporters that The Onion was Hillary’s Shitstablishment propaganda organ.

  84. 84.

    Citizen Alan

    @Roger Moore:  Or to put that another way, Sanders would rather have 30% of the Dem electorate screaming his name in adulation than have 51% that was willing to vote for him.

  85. 85.

    mrmoshpotato

    If Dump can’t “open the country” by Sunday (haha, ain’t happening!), is he going to bang a porn star for Jesus?

    Also, do you have USA in a can?  Well then, let it out!

  86. 86.

    trollhattan

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    “Back in the day, I’d call up Hef–great guy, good friend, you should really get to know him–and have him send over half a dozen bunnies. I’d have the help hide them around the mansion and grounds, then spend the day finding them…. Easter truly is a blessed time.”

  92. 92.

    trollhattan

    @chris:

    “Agent of change”

    I gave Bernie a fifty and he only gave me thirteen back. Where’s my ten bucks, Sanders!

  98. 98.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NotMax: “And then we play the remaining 5, because I’m not paying for secret service protection.  And what am I gonna do – go back to Washington and work for the people?“

  99. 99.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Roger Moore: Hey, worked like a charm for the German Communists. After 12 years and 7-8 million German deaths (plus another 25-30 million others in the ETO). Over somewhat less than half of their country. For 44 mostly drab years. Jawohl, worked like a charm…

  100. 100.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @NotMax:

    Maybe Sanders & Hayes will work up their own Gallagher & Shean patter.

    Gallagher and Shean! I suspect very few people even know who they were. I only know them from a recreation of their act from the film Ziegfeld Girl (1941) that I saw a few weeks ago

    Oh Mister Shean, Oh Mister Shean 

    Here in Egypt they have styles I’ve never seen!

    All along the river Nile, the girls wear nothing but a smile!

    That’s why I’m here Mister Gallagher!

    That’s why I’m here Mister Shean!

    I bet Sanders could do a great Mister Shean impression lol

    Fun fact: Gallagher and Shean didn’t like each other and broke up in 1925. Gallagher ended up losing his mind because of it and later died in a sanitarium in 1929.

    They had previously worked with each other from 1912-1914 and again from 1920-1925. The Egyptian craze of the early 20s influenced their act quite a bit

  102. 102.

    chris

    @zhena gogolia:I did notice that she wasn’t well this morning. Monica told me.

    no matter the past, upon hearing that linda tripp is very seriously ill, i hope for her recovery. i can’t imagine how difficult this is for her family.— Monica Lewinsky (@MonicaLewinsky) 8 April 2020

  105. 105.

    Brachiator

    @cmorenc:

    What amount of coverage will the networks actually give Biden?

    Not as much as anyone might like.

    The Democrats will just have to keep hammering home a strong message to bring Trump down.

  111. 111.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @NotMax:

    It was!

    It’s interesting that by the 1940s, it seems the really overt, crude, virulent racism that was in G&S’ act was not as in vogue anymore, at least in Hollywood, perhaps because they had to appeal to national audiences, whose attitudes had changed.

    Of course, the 1920s were super racist/bigoted in general. Boardwalk Empire really does a good job of portraying the common attitudes of time

  114. 114.

    Ruckus

    @oatler.:

    I thought that was SPACE FARCE.

    I like it when 3 yr olds play imaginary games with their toys. Less  impressed when a 73 yr old plays imaginary games with real lives and our money.

  115. 115.

    Mary G

    NEW Quinnipiac general election poll

    Biden: 49% (+8)
    Trump: 41%

    Among men:
    Trump: 47% (+4)
    Biden: 43%

    Women:
    Biden: 54% (+19)
    Trump: 35%

    Whites:
    Trump: 48% (+4)
    Biden: 43%

    Blacks:
    Biden: 84% (+77)
    Trump: 7%

    Latinos:
    Biden: 53% (+20)
    Trump: 33%

    https://t.co/SJqPnNijnU

    — Johnny Verhovek (@JTHVerhovek) April 8, 2020

  117. 117.

    Martin

    Data time:

    Not a lot of time right now, so this will be brief.

    • Italy: +542. Still declining, but more slowly than it ramped up. 
    • Spain: +747. Still off of their peak fatalities, but 2 days of small increases means they’re still in their plateau phase.
    • US: +1973. Slightly higher than yesterday, but a very slight easing. 
    • NY: +779. No improvement to trend today, for the first time in quite a while. We’ll see what the next few days brings.
    • CA: +63. No improvement to trend today. Tomorrow is when I expected to see CA stall out, but no evidence of it yet. LA did ease a bit today but +22 is still climbing. After 2 days of no fatalities in Santa Clara, they had 4 today. They appear to be on the decline despite that, but it takes a while.
    • FL: +26. Their data is so erratic it’s hard to spot trends over short periods but it looks like the trend is pretty stable.

    IHME models seem to think we’re stalling out here. Maybe, but that strikes me as very optimistic.

  120. 120.

    Chyron HR

    @Mary G:

    But Twitter told me Biden’s going to lose.

    Wait, sorry, Twitter told me they’re going to do everything they can to make Biden lose.  My mistake.

  122. 122.

    cain

    @Martin:

    @cain: Well, they were kind of white. But their real sin was that they were catholics.

    yes, that is true, but so were the Germans, right ? They were considered white.

  123. 123.

    WaterGirl

    We had a crazy storm here earlier, but it has settled down now.  One minute, I’m on the porch, working and listening to Joe Biden.  The next, the wind starts whipping up, it suddenly gets dark, and blowing rain starts.

    Joe Biden didn’t miss a beat though, and continued answering the question he had just been asked – as I got myself, my stuff, and my pups back in the house.

  124. 124.

    CarolPW

    I will be happy to vote for Biden, and would like the orange fuckhead to DIAF even though dying from the virus would be only appropriate.

    OT – WaPo coverage of John Prine’s loss, influence and impact on other songwriters has been wonderful.

  125. 125.

    NotMax

    @cain

    By the 20s the Irish had moved up in rank, mostly by virtue of having been here in significant numbers since the middle of the19th century.

    The Italians and Greeks were still considered suspiciously swarthy.

  126. 126.

    kindness

    I’m optimistic the party will come together and we’ll have a good election across the board in November.  We’ll take the Senate too.  Fuck MoscowMitch.  I’ve donated to Amy Mcgrath.  Some of my Bernie friends are taking it really hard.  Only a few are saying they refuse to vote for Biden.  They’re hurt.  They’ll come over and bitch and moan about the party the whole way.  Children.

  127. 127.

    Mnemosyne

    @Mary G:

    Interesting that Trump is up the same amount with men and with whites. That makes me wonder if he’s lost some white women voters this time around.

  129. 129.

    Mnemosyne

    @kindness:

    I’m being kind and conciliatory on Facebook under my real name while secretly cackling with glee.

    I have been touting marcopolo’s advice to find a candidate you can get excited about if you’re not excited for Biden, and it seems to be going over fairly well. Most people want to see Democrats gain back the Senate, so they seem to be receptive to the idea of concentrating on those instead for the general election. Every little bit helps, I say.

  131. 131.

    PsiFighter37

    @WaterGirl: If I had to guess, black women have the highest level of support. Good bellwether for Democratic policies and politics IMO.

  132. 132.

    Brachiator

    @cain:

    Benjamin Franklin was suspicious of German immigrants

    “Few of their children in the country learn English… The signs in our streets have inscriptions in both languages … Unless the stream of their importation could be turned they will soon so outnumber us that all the advantages we have will not be able to preserve our language, and even our government will become precarious,” Franklin wrote in 1753.

    He said in the same letter that he wasn’t opposed to the immigration of a small number of Germans because they “have their virtues.” Nonetheless, he fretted that the ones who had arrived here were “generally of the most ignorant stupid sort of their own nation,” and would therefore bring the country down as a whole if they continued to immigrate.

    He later changed his mind.

  133. 133.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Michael Grunwald @MikeGrunwald
    This is really interesting. The Bernie revolution felt cool and fun, and no matter what Biden promises the left, supporting him will never be cool or fun. But “an anti-fascist coalition”? That could be supercool and superfun!

    Dave Weigel @daveweigel · 3h
    Trying to compare “Bernie or Bust” sentiment to 2016 levels. Talked to Cornel West, a 2016 Bernie-to-Green voter, who has issues w Biden but isn’t feeling the Bust. “I definitely must be part of an anti-fascist coalition, and that’s how I understand the opposition to Trump.”

    Maybe Biden promised him good inauguration tickets

  134. 134.

    Mary G

    This is insane:

    The federal government will end funding for coronavirus testing sites on Friday. While some sites will transition to being state-managed, others will close as a result. This as criticism continues that not enough testing is available.https://t.co/DuBCbJoRDO
    — All Things Considered (@npratc) April 8, 2020

    Ya think?

  135. 135.

    different-church-lady

    @schrodingers_cat: from that thread:

    Jerry

    @js_edit

    ·
    4h

    I’m told that we need to start wooing Berners.

    Woo

    You’re welcome.

    I only post that because it’s a great, funny dis. But there’s no point in dissing. Biden will be the nominee, we need to make sure he wins, we need everyone, no matter how cranky they are about it. Twitter fights, payback, and rubbing noses can only be destructive.

  137. 137.

    different-church-lady

    @chris: Well, to the extent he changed who became President in 2017, there is certainly no arguing with that.

  141. 141.

    Richard Guhl

    Trump held very public rallies in Kentucky and Louisiana before the voting for governor in those states. In so doing, he increased the GOP turnout there. But his performances ramped up Democratic turnout even more, and the Democratic candidates won.

    Trump will repeat this dynamic between now and November, because he is a blackhole of carking needs. He is incapable of changing his playbook. The results will be the same. The only question is whether Biden wins by a landslide that brings Democratic Senatorial candidates across the finish line.

  142. 142.

    different-church-lady

    Right, this is it:

    And The Tweet Goes On

    @lacadri34

    ·
    1h

    Since the hard left is asking what can Biden do to earn their vote, do you Bros/Broettes mind telling us what Donald Trump did to earn your vote?

  144. 144.

    Roger Moore

    @cain:

    yes, that is true, but so were the Germans, right ?

    The Germans were a mix.  There were a lot of German Catholics, but also a lot of Lutherans, Calvinists, etc.  And don’t forget all the German Jews.  I think the big thing was that the Germans had been here for longer and there were more of them, so whiteness that didn’t include Germans wouldn’t be able to maintain a majority.  That’s always been the key to expanding definitions of whiteness, and it’s a big reason I expect pale-skinned Hispanics to be counted as whites before very long.

  146. 146.

    Jay Noble

    @cain: Germans were split between Catholics and the original rebels – Lutherans so quite white. In my Great-grandparents time going back to the 1880’s, the boys were raised Catholic and girls Lutheran

  147. 147.

    Brachiator

    @Mary G:

    The federal government will end funding for coronavirus testing sites on Friday. While some sites will transition to being state-managed, others will close as a result. This as criticism continues that not enough testing is available

    There is something seriously wrong with Trump, the GOP and conservatives.

    They want to die.  Problem is that they want to take too many people who don’t believe their nonsense with them.

    In the UK, Boris Johnson seemed to be much like these idiots, before he caught the virus himself.

  148. 148.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @cain:

    Oh for sure. The “joke” I’m talking about though from the record was targeting black people, which were (and still are in certain circles) perennial favorites for mockery, eg, “How could a baby so dark be so light?” Nothing like that was in any of the recreations in Ziegfeld Girl (1941) and Atlantic City (1944), both of which had Al Shean reprising his role.

  156. 156.

    whomever

    @NotMax: Meanwhile Andrew Cuomo (who to be clear is old school Italian Catholic who went to Fordham) today talked about Passover starting tonight and used it as a metaphor the current situation.  It’s so depressing how watching an actual competent politician rubs in just how pathetic the President actually is :-(

  157. 157.

    trollhattan

    @Jay Noble:

    It got…complicated for German-Americans during the time of the Great War and IIUC there was some question beyond not just should the US join the fight, but on which side?

    Between the wars mom grew up in Illinois in a German-speaking house in which dwelt the two grandfathers, both of whom had emigrated. (Neither was named Drumpf, for the record.) German language Lutheran church, German language school, the whole bit. Then in the ’30s the grandfathers had a row over Herr Hitler, falling on either side of the good/bad divide. Dad had enough of that nonsense and declared they would become an English only home (for the kids at least) and no divided loyalties with the old country.

    I think a similar conflict occurred in many thousands if not millions of American households during that era. We have always been a messy country.

  158. 158.

    NotMax

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    “The federal government is not a shipping clerk swab jockey.”

    //

    As with the scorpion, it’s their nature. Jared’s grubby fingers are all over this, I’d wager, viewing it as the rabble getting something for nothing.

  159. 159.

    Brachiator

    @Roger Moore:

    I think the big thing was that the Germans had been here for longer and there were more of them, so whiteness that didn’t include Germans wouldn’t be able to maintain a majority.

    As I noted elsewhere here, even Ben Franklin early on thought that too many Germans would be bad for America.

    One of the few non-English groups able to move seamlessly into the new American republic were the aristocratic elements of the New York Dutch society.

    This is even understood in the musical Hamilton.  Alexander Hamilton marries into the prominent Schuyler family.

    The Dutch were still among the top of society in Edith Wharton’s day.

  160. 160.

    Roger Moore

    @different-church-lady:

    Since the hard left is asking what can Biden do to earn their vote, do you Bros/Broettes mind telling us what Donald Trump did to earn your vote?

    I don’t think they’re actually going to vote for Trump; they’re just going to refuse to vote for Biden and throw away their vote on some stupid third party candidate.

  161. 161.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @NotMax:

    The Italians and Greeks were still considered suspiciously swarthy.

    Speaking of Greeks, I did some reading a few days ago about the 1967 military junta that held power in Greece until 1974. Fucking crazy idiots who sounded suspiciously similar in ideology to the modern alt-right, such as the Proud Boys:

    A central part of the regime’s ideology was xenophobia, which presented Greeks of the creators of civilization with the rest of the world jealous of the debts they owed to Greece. Colonel Ioannis Ladas, the Secretary-general of the Ministry of Public Order, came to international prominence in the summer of 1968 when he personally beat up Panayiotis Lambrias, the editor of magazine Eikones for running an article saying that homosexuality was accepted as normal in ancient Greece. When the BBC’s Greek service reported the incident, Ladas gave a rant at a press conference, claiming that the BBC was run by homosexuals, making him into a sort of unofficial spokesman for the regime.

    At a subsequent speech before a visiting group of Greek-Americans on 6 August 1968, Ladas quoted Friderich Nietzsche’s statement that the ancient Greeks invented everything and went on to say: “Foreigners confess and acknowledge Greek superiority. Human civilization was wholly fashioned by our race. Even the enemies of Greece recognize that civilization is an exclusively Greek creation”. Ladas went on to denounce young men with long hair as “the degenerate phenomenon of hippyism”, calling hippies “anti-social elements, drug addicts, sex maniacs, thieves, etc. It is only natural that they should be enemies of the army and the ideals which the military way of life serves”. Ladas ended his speech by arguing that Greeks for racial reasons were still the world’s preeminent people, but had only declined of inadequate leadership, a problem which had been solved by the “revolution” of 21 April 1967. Ladas claimed that Greece under military leadership would be “cured” of its problems and resume its rightful place in the world. Clogg noted that before the coup, Ladas had been associated with the far-right 4th of August Party, and contributed many articles to that party’s journal, which was a “racist and anti-Semitic” magazine which glorified not only the 4th of August Regime, but also the Third Reich.

    Being an American, I’d never been taught about it or the earlier authoritarian regimes either. I’m ashamed at the US’ propping up of such a regime because it suited our purposes for the Cold War. I know it apparently took the CIA by surprise and LBJ wasn’t thrilled with the situation, but the US should’ve done something to stop it, along all of the other Hitlers we supported in the name of anti-communism/national interests. We also treated the anti-Junta movement with suspicion, like all student movements

  162. 162.

    Roger Moore

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    WTF? Why!?

    If the number of reported new cases goes down, they can justify reopening everything and get the economy going again.  They’re (metaphorical) ostriches sticking their heads in the sand and thinking that makes the threat go away.

  166. 166.

    chris

    When these people from the government say they’re here to help I, to coin a phrase, reach for my revolver. This needs to be watched but from the NPR article:

    A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services tells NPR, “Many of the Community-Based Testing Sites (CBTS) are not closing, but rather transitioning to state-managed sites on or about April 10.”

    The agency and a spokesperson for FEMA say the CBTS program originally included 41 sites. It was intended as a stop-gap to bring testing to critical locations, especially for health care facility workers and first responders.

    “The transition will ensure each state has the flexibility and autonomy to manage and operate testing sites within the needs of their specific community and to prioritize resources where they are needed the most,” the HHS spokesperson said.

    FNPR

  169. 169.

    Brachiator

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    It’s interesting that by the 1940s, it seems the really overt, crude, virulent racism that was in G&S’ act was not as in vogue anymore, at least in Hollywood, perhaps because they had to appeal to national audiences, whose attitudes had changed.

    Hollywood in the 40s and 50s still accommodated racism.

    Nonwhite people were either depicted as stereotypes or simply omitted from movies.  Black performers were still edited out of films that were shown in Southern theaters.

    This is still a problem in contemporary films. Notting Hill in the UK has a sizeable population of Caribbean born British black people, but you would never know this by the movie of the same name.

  170. 170.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Brachiator: When you a drive around in New York you see many towns with Dutch names. In Massachusetts and Maryland its mainly British names. Possibly because Dutch were amongst the first European settlers in NY, I think. Wasn’t NYC, New Amsterdam?

  171. 171.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Roger Moore:

    Then they’re fucking idiots. Or sociopaths if they know and don’t care. Either way, at least 100,000 people will die, and all of the pain and sacrifice of the last few weeks will be for absolutely nothing

  172. 172.

    Jeffro

    The ‘trumpov bump’ from the pandemic went nowhere and now the Ill Douche is back to his usual poor polling numbers.

    Sanders conceded much earlier and much nicer than he did in 2016.

    The entire Democratic Justice League of Avengers has Uncle Joe’s back and is ready to fight hard for the big win in November.

    I realize our national snooze media will do its level best to try and make a race out of this, but with trumpov already in the tank and doing nothing but making it worse…start measuring the drapes, peeps.

  177. 177.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Miss Bianca: in 2008, we talked a lot about a public option, and I at least thought we were gonna get one. With majorities in the House and Senate, that turned out to be a bridge too far for people like Mary Landrieu and Mark Pryor and the Spite Monster from Connecticut. Now after five years of Bernie bellowing about Single Payer, I figure (based on nothing but hunches) we’ve got a 50/50 chance of taking the Senate (I’m feeling optimistic today), and I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to get something like a strong public option through that Senate.

    Thanks….. Bernie….?

  178. 178.

    Jeffro

    @schrodingers_cat: Putin: “Jillsky!  Get off your lazy rear and tweet something to cause division in Democrat party, like past time!”

    Democrats: WDGAF

    Putin: “Tulsi!  Get off y…”

  179. 179.

    NotMax

    @schrodingers_cat

    Yes to New Amsterdam. In upstate New York the land-rich Dutch descendants maintained quasi-autonomous enclaves and all-but-in-name fiefdoms well into the 19th century.

  184. 184.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    On Mad Men, at least in the first couple seasons, the reason Don Draper and Roger Sterling couldn’t get rid of Pete Campbell was that his mother was a Van Sometheen or other, and that tenuous connection to the old Knickerbockers impressed the rubes from the Midwest who came to Manhattan to be wined and dined and sign contracts.
    also, that actor used a really strange speech pattern that made me wonder if that was supposed to be another class marker for the character

  185. 185.

    jonas

    @cmorenc:  This is a problem. Programmers know perfectly well that these pressers are carnivals of howling mad poo-slinging by a deranged narcissist, but people will tune in/click to watch Dear Leader/the Daily Meltdown. As always, Trump is a ratings bonanza because he’s batshit insane. It’s like asking people *not* to tune into the slow-motion train wreck. They can’t help themselves.

  186. 186.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @cain: The reverse.  Hip, arty types moved into the area in the late ’80s and early ’90s.  The movie reflected the semi-bohemian middle class who had moved in as it became “safe” enough.  The Portobello Road isn’t edgy at all anymore.

  188. 188.

    Brachiator

    @schrodingers_cat: 

    When you a drive around in New York you see many towns with Dutch names. In Massachusetts and Maryland its mainly British names. Possibly because Dutch were amongst the first European settlers in NY, I think. Wasn’t NYC, New Amsterdam?

    Yep. New York was indeed a Dutch colony. But even when acquired by the British, the wealthy Dutch residents moved into the new proto American society.

    As Omnes pointed, Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt had Dutch ancestors, some of whom married people who came over on the Mayflower. Upper crust all the way round.

    BTW, the Dutch lower classes didn’t have it so good. This reminds me of the ancient Etruscans, who preceded the Roman Empire. When Rome became ascendant, they let the Etruscan nobility retain their status. Not so much lower ranking Etruscans.

  189. 189.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @NotMax:

    @trollhattan:

    I have not. I’ll have to check it out. Thanks for the rec :)

    The way the junta seized power and unilaterally stripped away the rule of law and civil rights is terrifying

  190. 190.

    WaterGirl

    @Mary G:

    The federal government will end funding for coronavirus testing sites on Friday.

    Holy fuck.  Do they think if they don’t test people, their numbers will look better?  Do they not know that we can compare stats of #s where are in the hospital and/or dying from BEFORE and NOW?

    Maybe they don’t know math exists?

  191. 191.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @WaterGirl: The Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal is a vicious wild animal from the planet of Traal, known for its never-ending hunger and its mind-boggling stupidity. One of the main features of the Beast is that if you can’t see it, it assumes it can’t see you.

    Source

  192. 192.

    Mary G

    ???

    The outpouring of love is a comfort to me and my boys. Thank you for loving @JohnPrineMusic so well. We can feel that love today. Keep listening and sharing his songs as we all find a way to be in the world without him. ??❤️— Fiona Whelan Prine (@FionaPrine) April 8, 2020

  195. 195.

    Brachiator

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Notting Hill has also been very, very gentrified. It is much whiter than it was.

    There was a deliberate thing among Hollywood producers to cast romantic comedies “white” (even though they were popular with all audiences. There was a fear that with too many black characters, a film would be perceived to be “urban.”

    I think there is a carnival scene in “Notting Hill,” and you don’t get much sense that it was still multicultural despite any other changes in the neighborhood.

  197. 197.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Brachiator:

    Hollywood in the 40s and 50s still accommodated racism.

    Nonwhite people were either depicted as stereotypes or simply omitted from movies.  Black performers were still edited out of films that were shown in Southern theaters.

    This is still a problem in contemporary films. Notting Hill in the UK has a sizeable population of Caribbean born British black people, but you would never know this by the movie of the same name.

    Oh for sure. However, my point was that the overtly offensive racism that was in Vaudeville minstrel shows for example and the popular 1922 Gallagher and Shean record which did feature a racist joke on it was notably not emulated in either of the 40s films that I mentioned before. Sexist jokes? Sure (talking about the missing arms of Venus de Milo: “I didn’t see them, Mr. Gallagher”/Where were you looking, Mr. Shean?” in Ziegfeld Girl), but not crap like “lol watermelons and fried chicken”.

    Although, I guess Shean’s “colonial” look with the fez and voice could be offensive against Egyptians. Oh and Trinidad apparently is full of white people (Ziegfeld Girl)

  198. 198.

    Brachiator

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I have not. I’ll have to check it out. Thanks for the rec :)

    I humbly add my voice to those recommending Z. Z and “The Battle of Algiers” are two films which have never lost any of their power.

  200. 200.

    NotMax

    @ThresherK

    Not to mention Flushing (Vlishing).

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Similarly, the military junta in Argentina from what doesn’t seem all that long ago to us codgers.

    On the same topic, don’t know if there’s a good book in English about the decades long Stroessner regime in Paraguay. Maybe someone else here does.

  203. 203.

    mrmoshpotato

    Who could perfectly sum up this current clusterfuck?

    Take it away, Charles!

    In the most serious pandemic the human race has faced in a century, the United States is in the hands of a corrupt mobbed up crime family led by a malevolent narcissistic con man, enabled by a craven power-hungry political party and their media propaganda apparatus.— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) April 9, 2020

  205. 205.

    bmoak

    @schrodingers_cat:

    New York City and the Hudson Valley all the way up to Albany was Dutch-settled, as was northern New Jersey.  Rhode Island wasn’t named for the Greek city of Colossus fame, but is from the Dutch for Red Island (Roodt Eylandt).

    There were people living in the remoter part of the Hudson Valley whose first language was Dutch even into the 20th century.

  206. 206.

    Sab

    @Brachiator: I had an internship to Jackson MS in the summer of 1972.

    I saw Gone With the Wind for the first time at a theater in Jackson with a white audience. I could see why my mother had never let me see it.

    A couple of weeks later (or earlier, I forget which) I saw Battle of Algiers at Tougaloo College ( HBCU). What a stark contrast between the films, and the aidience reaction.

  207. 207.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @bmoak:  is from the Dutch for Red Island (Roodt Eylandt).

    The things I still don’t know…. I love finding out stuff like this

  208. 208.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @bmoak: There were people living in the remoter part of the Hudson Valley whose first language was Dutch even into the 20th century.

    This cries out for a good Rip van Winkle joke.  Does anyone know one?

  209. 209.

    bmoak

    The abolitionist Sojourner Truth grew up a slave in a Dutch speaking household and Dutch was her firs language.

  210. 210.

    chris

    @WaterGirl: Once one gets past the headline and the outrage it would seem they’re moving some temporary testing facilities. As I remarked @#166 I don’t trust these fuckers at all and it needs to be watched. So too does NPR.

  211. 211.

    Brachiator

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Oh for sure. However, my point was that the overtly offensive racism that was in Vaudeville minstrel shows for example and the popular 1922 Gallagher and Shean record which did feature a racist joke on it was notably not emulated in either of the 40s films that I mentioned before.

    That black people, for example, could only be shown in movies as happy, largely ignorant domestics who loved to take care of white people was about as offensive as you could get.

    The Amos and Andy show continued on radio or tv until 1960.

    Black characters had to be written to be acceptable to delicate Southern sensibilities.  The rather innocuous 1945 comedy “Brewster’s Millions” was banned in Memphis Tennessee because white audiences felt that a black servant played by Eddie Anderson was treated too well.

  215. 215.

    mrmoshpotato

    @WaterGirl:

    I’m trying to think of something to say that doesn’t include a swear word. 

    What a fucking waste of time these fucking days. :)

  216. 216.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Brachiator:

    I’ll add it to my bucket list.

    @NotMax:

    Similarly, the military junta in Argentina from what doesn’t seem all that long ago to us codgers.

    On the same topic, don’t know if there’s a good book in English about the decades long Stroessner regime in Paraguay. Maybe someone else here does.

    Yeah, 1983 really wasn’t that long ago. There probably is

  217. 217.

    Ruckus

    @Mary G:

    The testing sites are not making money for trumpy so they have to go….

    I think it’s easy to forget that trumpy has only one lens for his camera and it only focuses on him. Anything he does is easily explained in how he sees it in relationship to him. And his enablers recognize that they can do anything stupid as long as they can sell it to him as not being beneficial to him in either monetary or suck up points.

  219. 219.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Brachiator:

    That black people, for example, could only be shown in movies as happy, largely ignorant domestics who loved to take care of white people was about as offensive as you could get.

    Hell, that’s still a thing today, called the “Magic Negro” trope.

    The Amos and Andy show continued on radio or tv until 1960.

     

    In 1988, the Amos ‘n’ Andy program was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame.

    Fucking yikes. That was in 1988.

    I concede the argument

  221. 221.

    WaterGirl

    Now that we have our candidate, it’s going to be really interesting to see how the dynamic changes over the next few days.  I think Biden’s campaign is going to be much bolder.  I hope so, anyway.

  224. 224.

    Jonas

    @Brachiator: Oh, yes. The so-called “Patroons” — or great Dutch landowners — remained quite influential in New York well into the colonial English and early American period. Place names related to  van Rensselaer, Schuyler, van Cortland, etc. are still notable around central NY to this day.

  226. 226.

    sdhays

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: We would have had Medicare buy-in for 50 (55?) and older if not for Joe Lieberman. Once it was clear it wasn’t going to happen (because of Lieberman), the others also said they wouldn’t support it because they had look like they were being “moderate”. But all indications were that they would have accepted it if not for Lieberman.

    That blood thirst war monger punished millions for losing the Democratic nomination to Ned Lamont

    ETA: Choosing him to be his running mate was Gore’s greatest lapse in judgement.

  227. 227.

    Anya

    @germy:

    Now back to my pleasant “what if both Bernie and Biden had decided to sit this one out” counterfactuals — what a beautiful world that would be.

     

    I relate to this so much. And before anyone jumps on me, I will  crawl on my hands and knees over miles of broken glass to help elect Biden.

  229. 229.

    cain

    @Jay Noble:

    Wow what an interesting dichotomy. I assume that Lutheran was the more strict teaching so of course they would apply that to the women?

  230. 230.

    cain

    @Roger Moore:
    I keep mentioning this elsewhere, but this won’t work especially when it comes to commerce. These other countries are going to need proof through testing that cases in the U.S. are in fact going down.

    I can assure you that every country will protect itself and not allow travel to their countries if the U.S. does something like this.

  231. 231.

    Hkedi [Kang T. Q.]

    @WaterGirl: I know you know, but it’s a page out of Florida’s playbook for unemployment and welfare, which is biting them hard in the ass right now.

    Math has a well known liberal bias……

  232. 232.

    Mnemosyne

    @Brachiator:

    As you probably already know, it was a tradition in Los Angeles for the Black community to have their own honorary mayor who was basically a PR person who could publicly talk about that community’s concerns.

    Eddie Anderson was an early civil rights figure and held that position for a couple of decades.

  233. 233.

    SFAW

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    No one here trusts polls anymore.  I don’t really see the issue.

    NPR had David Gergen on this PM, the general topic was the political situation as a result of COVID-19. At one point, the NPR interviewer said something about the electorate expressing their displeasure — i.e., removing — with the Murderer-in-Chief “at the polls.” Gergen replied by talking about whether polls really mattered.

    I guess using the term “polls” in the sense of “polling places” is a mysterious, arcane, and complex concept — something which an apolitical genius such as Gergen should not be expected to understand.

    To paraphrase Tennyson:

    “Morons to the right of me, morons to the left of me, morons in front of me, follied and blundered.”

  234. 234.

    low-tech cyclist

    @bbleh:“Fortune strums a mournful tune
    for those whose campaigns peak too soon.”

    Bored of the Rings!!

  235. 235.

    low-tech cyclist

    I think Biden needs to shelve the grinning pix (like the one here) in his ads, Twitter account, etc. for a more serious expression.

    This isn’t a very grinning sort of time, and to some people it’s gonna look like he’s grinning while people die.

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