Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

People are complicated. Love is not.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

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

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

This blog will pay for itself.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

After roe, women are no longer free.

I was promised a recession.

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

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

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

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

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

T R E 4 5 O N

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

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Tuesday Morning (Redundant) Open Thread: Readership Capture

Tuesday Morning (Redundant) Open Thread: Readership Capture

by | 88 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Not to stomp Betty, but there are jackals who would never forgive me if I let certain snippets fall under the radar…

Bonus: Some good Election Year news:

Reader Interactions

88Comments

  4. 4.

    Mousebumples

    Posted this in Betty’s thread , and I’ll post it here too –

    Fyi to anyone wanting some of Alain’s sourdough starter, there’s details on how to request some , officially , in that thread. I’m on my phone so linking the thread is more time consuming than I can manage for now , but I’m not sure who is all keeping up on the comments of that old thread …

  6. 6.

    Betty Cracker

    Here’s the new Biden ad dropped by the Lincoln Project, a Never Trump Republican outfit:

    Vice President @JoeBiden is the antithesis of everything @realDonaldTrump stands for, and his personal triumphs and tragedies have shaped him into the leader he is today. Joe is the best choice to lead America through our worst crisis in a century.?? https://t.co/1jKD4DICS1 pic.twitter.com/wpF4Plg9cx— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) April 21, 2020

    A competent effort for the genre, I suppose. Appeals to bipartisanship make me stabby, but I’m not the intended audience. And it’s true that uniquely among US presidents, Trump has never even pretended to represent all of us; he’s the avenging avatar for his cultists, and that’s it.

  7. 7.

    raven

    So Brian Kemp, David Perdue & Kelly Loeffler walk into a bowling ? alley Friday night. That’s it, that’s the joke

  10. 10.

    Gin & Tonic

    @rikyrah: Um, my son already got his “check” (he got a direct deposit last week.) So I don’t know what this tweet means.

  13. 13.

    John S.

    $47M in the midst of a pandemic… Joementum is real!

    As if Trump needed yet another reason to lose his shit in the daily LOOK AT ME! briefings.

  14. 14.

    Princess

    @Betty Cracker: I usually think their ads are crappy (eg. the one against Collins which had a woman saying “we Mainers” in the flat accent of a midwesterner.) but this one is good. It isn’t even bipartisan: it’s aimed squarely at Republicans.

  15. 15.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Gin & Tonic: My wife is an immigrant too, tho legal and now a US citizen. I suspect he left off the word “undocumented” or maybe “illegal”.

  17. 17.

    Betty Cracker

    @John S.: The $47M haul is good news because Biden’s campaign lagged in fundraising throughout the primary, which was legit cause for concern. But sometimes I wonder if we’re fighting the next-to-last war when we focus on campaign fundraising.

    Free media helped Trump beat better-funded opponents in the 2016 GOP primary. The media’s irresponsible coverage of Trump’s freak show campaign helped him get close enough to eke out an Electoral College victory in the general.

    I don’t know what the solution is, but it’s definitely a problem.

  18. 18.

    Betty Cracker

    @Gin & Tonic: Did he file a 2018 tax return with an immigrant spouse who did not have a SSN at the time of the filing? Those are the US citizens being stiffed, from what I read.

  20. 20.

    WereBear

    The key to Republican hegemony has always been lying about their true purpose.

    Racism? No, no, it’s state’s rights! And real estate values. And education.

    Sexism? No, it’s just reverence for traditional marriage. We put women on a pedestal, see. We want to help them make moral choices. We want to cure gay people. We’re helpful, really.

    Cruelty? No, never! Just being law abiding, really lots law abiding. Law and ORDER.

    And so forth. Likewise their followers can happily vote their hates because it’s disguised as something good, not something horrible and twisted and very very bad.

    Like so many illusions, the pandemic strips that mask off. And we’ve got the Open Up protester I’ll never forget: the guy who wants free tea refills.

  21. 21.

    Betty Cracker

    @OzarkHillbilly: Nope: immigrants who are married to US citizens and are in the process of becoming citizens or obtaining a green card can get a number for tax filing purposes that is not a SSN. The article says those couples (a million US citizens) won’t get a check, which is fucking outrageous if true.

  22. 22.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Betty Cracker: Well, his wife had a TN (working) visa last year, so I’m assuming she has a SSN. They filed separately, too, for a number of reasons.

  24. 24.

    rikyrah

    Asked about the president’s latest attacks on her, Pelosi says on ABC: “I don’t pay that much attention to the president’s tweets against me. As I’ve said, he’s a poor leader. He’s always trying to avoid responsibility and assign blame.”— Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 19, 2020

  27. 27.

    Baud

    @rikyrah:

    he’s a poor leader. He’s always trying to avoid responsibility and assign blame.”

    In GOP world, that’s considered being a good leader.

  29. 29.

    Anne Laurie

    @Betty Cracker: I don’t know what the solution is, but it’s definitely a problem.

    I think a lot of potential donors assumed, like me, that Good Ol’ Uncle Joe was a lock if he ended up with the nomination.  So we gave what we could scrape up to people who we were more enthusiastic about, or who we didn’t perceive as having Biden’s ‘clout’ with the Permanent Party.  But now that he’s Our Guy in 2020, for better or worse, the monthly stipends that aren’t going to Kamala/Liz/Beto/Pete have been re-routed.

  31. 31.

    Betty Cracker

    @Gin & Tonic: According to the article, the US citizens getting stiffed by this provisions filed jointly with an immigrant spouse, so your son is fortunate.

  35. 35.

    Betty Cracker

    @Anne Laurie: I’m sure that’s the case. I even coughed up a few bucks last week and am now deluged with campaign spam. I’m just wondering if the money game has shifted to “earned media.”

  38. 38.

    low-tech cyclist

    “The Gruffalo” is one of the best children’s books ever, just sayin’.

    So in case you missed Michelle Obama reading it in real time, here’s the vid.

  39. 39.

    Immanentize

    @Betty Cracker: I don’t think the game has moved to unearned media.  Campaign workers, street captains, computer infrastructures — they all cost a lot.  Advertising on TV doesn’t make the dent it used to and I am not sure that unearned media speaks to anyone but the choir.  If you hate him, when you see him you hate him more.

  40. 40.

    zhena gogolia

    @Gin & Tonic:

    What kills me is there’s no chance of people pouring into the streets to protest this, because our people are social distancing now. Can’t anyone do anything about this????

  43. 43.

    Immanentize

    In lighter news, Lucinda Williams has a new album coming out on Friday.  As I haven’t heard it yet, maybe it won’t be lighter at all.

  44. 44.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Yorkshire [email protected]

    MUSEUMS ASSEMBLE! It’s time for #CURATORBATTLE!

    Today’s theme, chosen by you, is #CreepiestObject!

    We’re kicking things off with this 3rd/4th century hair bun from the burial of a #Roman lady, still with the jet pins in place…

    CAN YOU BEAT IT?

    Ifn’s any one is bored.

  45. 45.

    John S.

    @Betty Cracker: I don’t know if the constant free media will help him this time around. Back in 2016, Trump was able to play the outsider with an unknown track record con-game, and barely eked out an EC victory.

    This time around, he’s a known quantity with a trail of carnage in his wake. His original schtick only plays to his most die-hard supporters, and there just aren’t enough of them to deliver a victory this time around.

    Live by the media exposure, die by the media overexposure.

  46. 46.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    So the preppers couldn’t last two weeks without begging to go to Applebee’s, the gun nuts found out that they couldn’t shoot a virus and that the virus doesn’t create zombies which they can shoot, and that the real economic drivers aren’t Master of the Universe jerb creator financial geniuses but are instead the cab drivers and hairdressers and waitstaff and chefs and small retailers and ….

  47. 47.

    Betty Cracker

    @Immanentize: What you say makes total sense to me, but we aren’t representative of the dumb bloc of fickle un- or weakly affiliated voters who unfortunately seem to decide elections. I’m convinced Biden will win in November because Trump has been a disaster in ways that directly affect hundreds of millions of Americans. But I do think the rules may have changed in a way campaigns aren’t accounting for yet.

  48. 48.

    germy

    @Gin & Tonic:

    My son and DIL are pretty panicked about that Trump tweet “temporarily suspending” immigration.

    And he did this on Hitler’s birthday.

  50. 50.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    OT, kinda – is anybody else starting to have trouble sorting out which day of the week it is without referring to a calendar?

  51. 51.

    Amir Khalid

    If you were hoping to take part in this July’s bull run in Pamplona or visit Bavaria this September for Oktoberfest, you’re out of luck: both events have been cancelled because of You-Know-What.

  52. 52.

    Immanentize

    @Betty Cracker: I worry way more about Book of Faces, Neighborhood, and other media platforms for the olds than I do about CNN, for example.

    ETA which is a way of saying that I agree the rules have changed, but also that no one has the key to that difference yet.

  53. 53.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Baud:

    Ha. They’re holding out hope that their collection of Bushmasters and other high cap mag weapons will actually be useful to do something beyond cratering their household budgets.

  56. 56.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    I can hear the grumbles starting at kitchen tables in trailers and cracker box homes now, as beleaguered women look at their laid-off/furloughed partners and say “you said we needed the gun collection to stay safe. Can you shoot the virus with your Bushmasters? Is anybody willing to buy them from you so we can go buy groceries? You spent all your time shooting at targets of people, but you don’t know how to hunt or field dress game…”

  61. 61.

    danielx

    @Betty Cracker:

    Yeah, and chief among the rules that have changed is the one about free and fair elections. Trump, his minions and his handlers don’t give a flying fuck about free and fair elections and would just as soon do without them altogether.

  63. 63.

    Immanentize

    @JMG: I was thinking persuadables.  But you are right about that cohort.  But they are heavy users of the Olds apps.  They are not so much the Instagram or Tik Tok generation. And I bet, although I haven’t seen the research, that Trump supporters are heavily aligned with Facebook and Reddit?

    ETA — According to the Youngs, the ‘getting olds’ are old.

  64. 64.

    danielx

    Item: an old friend’s daughter is serving on board the Comfort in NYC. A covid-19 patient told her he’d done two years on Rikers Island and “being on this boat is worse!”

  70. 70.

    satby

    Because I was sick of being blocked from reading stuff at WaPo I resubscribed. Still can’t read anything, because it’s been a clusterfuck of email verifying with links that are expired by the time I get them.

    I’m already thinking about cancelling it.

  72. 72.

    Gin & Tonic

    Very well done music video encouraging the residents of the Ukrainian city of Dnipro (formerly Dnipropetrovsk) to “Stay Home.” Spoken and sung mostly in Russian, but really good camerawork and other production values. ~5 minutes.

  73. 73.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Yeah, but I think a lot of the funding is going to be a problem. I’ve always done a few bankruptcies every year, though, spend the money for the Cadillac form and upload program. I’m brushing up, because the BK judges are anticipating a wave that would knock over the SS Poseidon, (based on a telephonic hearing I was on a couple of weeks ago), and the climate is going to be VERY debtor friendly by agreement among the bk judges.

  74. 74.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker: Exactly.  His campaign spent $10M on advertising and got something like $2B in “earned media”.  Ridiculous.

    Uncle Joe and all the members of the Democratic Justice League need to start bigfooting trumpov’s press conferences, and start pounding on the media to ask trumpov, “aren’t these just substitute hate rallies?” to his face.

  75. 75.

    Jeffro

    Glad to see Michael Steele throwing some truth around in his latest podcast (per the Post, anyway):

    “You know what I’m looking forward to … just to put it out here,” Steele told me in the latest episode of “Cape Up,” “[a] reporter stands up when the president says something like he’s done over the last few weeks and looks at the president and says, ‘Mr. President, this is my last day on the job, you are full of s— because what you just said is a bold-faced lie to the American people.”

    And Steele talked about how he thinks Trump has treated the nation during the coronavirus pandemic. “America, in some respects, has been abused by this president,” said Steele. “He doesn’t give a damn about how you feel.”

    “Abused” is the word we should keep using from now ’til November.  He is a textbook abuser, and that resonates with plenty of people (unfortunately)

  80. 80.

    WereBear

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:  This reminds me of my lawyer, a utility player who liked me because my bankruptcy wasn’t because I’d bought boats and trucks and tropical vacations. It was because we’d had a predatory second mortgage, a death in the family, and loss of our business.

    He’s going over my forms and was all, “You spend this little on entertainment? Do you ever buy clothes?”

    He practically hugged me.

  84. 84.

    J R in WV

    My computer says, at the very top of the laptop screen:

    Tue 21 Apr 2020 12:33:00 PM EDT

    So that’s how I know what day of the week it is, the date, the time. It’s right here. We gave the puppies their last dose of parasite-preventers the first week of the month. So I called the Vet office, and they were perfectly prepared to accept an over-the-phone order for those meds, to weigh the material for postage cost, and to mail us the meds, after taking my CC info over the phone.

    But I already knew Vets were pretty well educated regarding disease transmission and epidemiology. Good friend was a horse doctor before a back injury, then turned to being a prof of epidemiology at NC State.

  86. 86.

    taumaturgo

    FEC reported campaign donations:

    Feb 2020 -Trump – $86m Biden – $18m  Bernie – $47m

    March 2020 – Trump $63m – Biden – $46.7m – Bernie – $33m

  88. 88.

    Schmendrick

    @frosty: I keep an old iPad next to my 7-day pill box and use it to verify the day of the week so I can be sure I don’t take my pills twice in one day.  They say when you get old your memory is the second thing to go. I can’t remember what the first thing is.

Comments are closed.