I hope the reports in The Post, CNN, The Times, AP, Politico, etc., about Trump screaming at Brad Parscale, Jared Kushner, Ronna Romney McDaniel and other flunkies because of his bad polling numbers are true. They’re all shitty people, so they deserve to be shrieked at by the erratic, unfit lunatic they irresponsibly helped to elevate to the highest office in the land.
The rest of us suffer, so they should too. In fact, I hope the abuse gets much worse and that Trump starts throwing things at them during in-person meetings. I hope they’re flinchy for the rest of their miserable lives after spending weeks dodging flying busts of Churchill, potted plants, framed photographs of Trump’s hideous parents, packs of gold Sharpies and thick binders of unread strategy documents. Regarding this week’s reported blow-up, Paul Waldman in The Post made an interesting observation:
There’s something unusual in the story of Trump reacting so strongly to this “grim” polling data from his advisers. For the entirety of the primary campaign, in trail heats Trump has run behind not only Biden but the other Democrats who ran for president as well. Him trailing Biden would not be news to his campaign, or even to Trump himself, despite his ample powers of denial. Which means that those polls must have been really bad for Trump.
The most hilarious part of the story is that in order to make amends, Parscale later came to the White House with “polling numbers that were more positive for Trump, and the president seemed in a far better mood.” The most powerful person on earth is essentially a toddler whose volatile moods need to be carefully managed by those around him. Perhaps Parscale also brought him a lollipop to soothe his tender feelings.
Thus placated, Trump was soon back to his old self. “I don’t believe the polls,” he told Reuters on Wednesday. “I believe the people of this country are smart. And I don’t think that they will put a man in who’s incompetent.” That’s certainly an interesting way to think about it.
Yes, it is. It’s going to be the ugliest, sleaziest, most revolting campaign in U.S. history, this attempt to reelect the ugliest, sleaziest, most revolting incumbent ever. I don’t know what’s going to happen, and I’m not looking forward to the spectacle, but the potential payoff — Trump’s utter humiliation — is highly motivating. Open thread!
patrick II
In Trump’s heart, he knows he’s a fraud. He has gone past what he knows. He is living a life of fear and insecurity. I wish his pain brought me more consolation.
Jeffro
“thick binders of unread strategy documents”
LOL
I bet Parscale and his fellow remoras realized that if they can’t keep trumpov at least in the low 40s, the grift is over. I can only imagine, with delight, the conversation that they had with the Ill Douche about how his crazy daily ranting was pulling him below his usual ‘floor’ of 40%.
Benw
Henchman got to hench, flunky got to flunk, the rest of us got to sit and wonder “why why why?”
Josie
I enjoy the fact that someone on the inside appreciates how ridiculous this whole dance is and puts it out to reporters.
patrick II
It reminds me of a psychological study I saw of a baby in a highchair. They brought the baby half of a glass of milk and the baby cried, cheated out of a half of a glass of milk. They took the glass away put the milk in a smaller glass which it filled and put it back in front of the baby. The baby smiled and drank his milk.
Doug R
He’s out, he’s in prison or worse. And yet he is in this office knowing this. So what’s the game plan after the election?
debbie
Screaming at Jared, the man in charge of every major problem in this fucking world? I want proof, please.
PsiFighter37
Meanwhile, reading that Biden is mollifying Wilmer’s campaign by asking he keeps his share of delegates. These fuckers think pushing the platform left will make any difference? Seriously, his supporters are all about earning as many fucking participation trophies so that they don’t scream, throw their toys and have a tantrum. Spoiled brats at best. I will not look forward to AOC being their new patron saint, since she is so young and can help them nurse their grievances for a generation.
patrick II
@Doug R:
He was robbed. The same as it was when he thought he was going to lose to Hillary. Foreigners voting multiple times (especially in California where he will lose badly), voter ID fraud, moving NY black people to vote in Massassachusets. Etc. The bloody scratches you will see on the front White House steps will be from his fingernails as they drag him out of there.
Baud
We have a second chance to defeat the worst people in the world. Let’s use it.
waspuppet
He’s right. The people of this country voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton. Talk to the Electoral College.
CaseyL
@debbie: My guess is that Jared and the rest of T*’s inner circle are used to his screaming fits, and just keep their minds focused on their status as the beneficiaries of his will. (The Trumpian version of “lay back and think of England.”)
Parscale isn’t part of that group: his payday depends on keeping the toddler happy.
scav
p.a.
They will resort to violence to try to win this election, possibly not even as a last resort.
Elizabelle
Glad to see Trump on the ropes. He needs to be defeated and go to prison. For the rest of his life.
We need to figure out some way to take away his ability to self-deal even worse between November and January. Too long a period for an even more unhinged Trump. Maybe he can be arrested the day after the election.
And: from the morning thread:
WRT the deplorable Tara Reade’s deplorable claims: USA Today link. Point by point analysis of why her claims are so loopy.
Why I’m skeptical about Reade’s sexual assault claim against Biden: Ex-prosecutor
If we must blindly accept every allegation of sexual assault, the #MeToo movement is just a hit squad. And it’s too important to be no more than that.
by Michael J. Stern
Opinion columnist
Elizabelle: I do not “believe every woman.” I never have. Judgement comes into it. This whole story stinks to high heavens.
If I did not already despise Bernie’s associates … I will never, never support Sanders for anything. He could stop this with a sharply worded statement. He is not doing so. This is on Bernie, a lot of it.
patrick II
@Doug R:
Part 2. Rallying his voters. He will probably have his own cable show. It will be very hard to put this man on trial with the rabid followers he has. I look forward to seeing him in an orange suit, but I do not look forward to what this country will go through to put him there.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@PsiFighter37:
My understanding is that AOC is a lot smarter than that. Weren’t the howler monkeys turning on her at some point because she was being practical about supporting the eventual nominee, whoever that was?
Elizabelle
@patrick II:
It has to happen. And we need to get rid of the Electoral College too. We are NEVER safe as long as the Electoral College is out there to fuck Democrats over.
kindness
Apparently Republican polling is now a statistics exercise where you can bend the numbers and make them say what ever you really want the outcome to be.
Amir Khalid
The Reuters reporter is a better person than I. I might have retorted, “And yet, sir, here you are.”
Betty Cracker
@PsiFighter37: Smart politics from Team Biden, which realizes what too many at Balloon Juice do not: the vast majority of the people who voted for Sanders in the 2016 and 2020 campaigns are good Democrats who deserve a voice in our platform, which is also theirs.
Gin & Tonic
@Doug R:
Never. Happen.
You can take that to the bank (go through the drive-up, though.)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@PsiFighter37: as I said earlier, I wish Bernie cared as much about the composition of the courts– hell, of the Senate– as he does about the Democratic platform committee
or that he remembered, as I do, the time he forced HRC to accept Cornel “Inauguration Tickets” West as a committee member, and that meant so much that the bitter old crank (West, not Bernie) splashily endorsed Jill Stein a week after the convention
H.E.Wolf
Quite a large number of us (where “us” is “residents of the US”) are sitting and working hard to elect Democrats up and down the ticket(s), in every state in the country.
For inspiration, here’s one of the places I look:
https://www.emilyslist.org/
Their Twitter feed is also an excellent source of information about women who are changing this country for the better.
MisterForkbeard
@PsiFighter37: Agreed. It’s the smart thing to do: If Bernie gets removed from the NY primary, the smart thing to do is to say you believe he should get a share of the delegates appropriate to his polling there, since he wanted to stay on the ballot and the ballot change was a recent development.
Just remove their ability to whine about it with any kind of (real) reasoning.
kindness
@Elizabelle: The next time Democrats win the Presidency, the House and the Senate they need to vote on and pass a Constitutional Amendment eliminating the Electoral College and making the presidency a direct citizen referendum. I don’t really care if it has zero chance of passing in 37 states. It just needs to be done at the beginning of what ever term this happens during.
JPL
Hitler killed himself 75 years ago.
patrick II
@Elizabelle:
Agreed. And not just for him, but for most of those involved in his schemes (you will need to give some a break for witness testimoney). His family, McConnell, Nunes, and others need to be investigated. The prosecution based on facts, and not our wishes though.
I think Warren has suggest something like South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission because the graft is so widespread. Justice will not be easy.
Meanwhile, Trump will be holding rallies and spending time on cable, and keeping the nightmare alive. It will be a serious battle for truth to keep this country’s democracy alive. Be ready.
Baud
@JPL: Seems so long ago. Just one lifetime.
MisterForkbeard
@Elizabelle: I’m not sure I entirely blame Bernie for it, but he can definitely assist here. Just say something like “I don’t believe Joe Biden did this. I encourage further investigation, but right now there are too many inconsistencies and too many problems with Tara Reade’s account to believe Joe Biden assaulted her.
I follow Joe’s own example in asking that we give Tara’s accusation the respect it deserves and continue to investigate – but I do not believe Joe Biden committed this crime.”
EDIT: I’ve heard from a few different places that several investigative reporters (including Ronan Farrow) heard about this and declined to publish because they thought it was too full of holes. I’d like to find real confirmation of that. But it took unscrupulous reporters from the Intercept and other Bernie-friendly places to push it, including coaching sources on what to say.
Amir Khalid
@kindness:
Don’t Constitutional amendments over there, once approved by Congress, need to be ratified by voter majorities in 2/3 of states?
EthylEster
I see that Waldman, like many pundits and blog commenters, continues to think that he knows what Trump thinks:
Which means that those polls must have been really bad for Trump.
And to state: The most hilarious part of the story is….
NOTHING HILARIOUS HERE. Just elite journalists who make a living telling what the POS prez MUST be thinking and how silly he is. I don’t find this useful. Instead it is distracting.
Baud
@kindness: Presidency is irrelevant to constitutional amendments.
AliceBlue
@Elizabelle: Apparently her brother remembered Reade telling him about Biden’s touching. It was only after a Bernie staffer spoke with him that he suddenly “remembered” being told about the assault.
To make things even weirder, there’s a diary on DKos with a passage from her late father’s novel that describes an assault that is very similar to her accusation against Biden.
MisterForkbeard
@JPL: I was born in the 80s and I always thought of WWII as fairly recent history.
That this is now 75 years ago blows my mind. Time flies. :/
@AliceBlue: The passage in question isn’t that similar. Basically, in 2010 her dad wrote a bad novel where a woman having a consensual affair was at point semi-consensually acted on by her boyfriend in a similar act to what Reade is accusing Biden of, IIRC. Trying not to go into details – this is a family site, after all :)
The only real similarity is that the act itself was the same, but not the intent, circumstances or relationship. It’s a tenuous thing.
That said, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Reade lifted this from her dad’s book.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
3/4 of either state legislatures or state conventions.
Elizabelle
Cuomo presser: reporter Q: Elise Stefanik wondering about opening the summer camps, which I guess are in her district.
Cuomo reminds that Stefanik is in a position to get federal money for NY State.
patrick II
@PsiFighter37:
I am fine with AOC if she is the person leading the progressive movement after Bernie. I don’t think you could wish for better. She is a woman in the time of the ascendancy of women, she is young and understands and uses social media better than anyone in congress. Plus, it seems, I agree with her on most issues. She is pragmatic when called for, and smart as a whip. Watch her cross-examine witnesses in hearings sometime. I am fine with AOC.
Don’t transfer your dislike of Bernie to her. She ain’t him.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@MisterForkbeard:
if he’s ever seriously addressed the toxicity of large parts of his campaign, I’ve missed it, and this grew out of that
L85NJGT
Joe knew how sleazy this would get – it’s Donald J. Trump after all.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
I didn’t think we needed a remake of “Downfall”, but I’m intrigued. This sounds like ranting in the bunker to me.
How long before Army Group Steiner comes to the rescue?
clay
@Elizabelle: That USA Today column was good, but it barely scratched the surface as to why Reade’s story should be given some heavy side-eye. Stern didn’t mention the coaching of witnesses by one ‘journalist’, nor the fact that Reade’s neighbor “forgot” about the Biden story until Reade talked to her and “reminded” her.
It also neglected to mention that Reade has been editing some of her online articles to reflect her current story, whereas the originals did not support her allegations.
So, yeah, it stinks to high shit.
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
I lounge in bed corrected. Thank you.
Elizabelle
@JPL: Ah. That’s why “Adolf Hitler” is trending at WaPost.
One never knows, these days.
MisterForkbeard
@patrick II: To be fair, she seems to have much better instincts than Bernie – but still hares off on wild weird tangents every once in a while.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Okay, that is entirely fair. Good point.
Citizen Alan
@kindness: No, what they need to do is simply amend the Congressional Reapportionment Act of 1929 to greatly increase the number of Representatives (which is where the number of electors mostly comes from) and also to ban gerrymandering. THAT could be done with a simple act of congress rather than an impossible to pass Constitutional Amendment. Hell, I bet there’s a way to do it via Reconciliation with 51% of the Senate.
The Moar You Know
Hitler killed himself 75 years ago.
@JPL: They say history repeats itself. Hope that’s true!
Aziz, light!
Two things worry me:
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: No, but close. It’s 3/4 of the state legislatures.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@clay:
Based on all of this, it sounds like this story probably has a good chance of completely falling apart, particularly in the midst of this pandemic
The Moar You Know
@Amir Khalid: 75%. WILL NOT HAPPEN. Also, as others have noted, there are other ways to get there.
Bex
@Elizabelle: Check this out: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/29/-Tara-Reade-just-got-busted-altering-her-2019-Medium-post?utm_campaign=trending
Mandalay
@Betty Cracker:
No matter who wins in November, and by how much, this time next year there will still be a bunch of folks here concocting reasons to whine about “Bernie Bros”. It gives their life meaning, and they’re not going to give it up.
Baud
@Aziz, light!: Can’t control two. Focus on one. Wisconsin Dems showed up. Be heartened about that.
Elizabelle
@Citizen Alan: That’s a great idea. It should happen, too.
Although I still do not like each state having two senators, and the Dakotas having four Senators among them.
The Founders did not foresee how the nation would develop, and populate, in the 200 plus years following. Their compromise is a mistake. As was some of their compromising on behalf of the slaveholding states.
I wish we could come up with a solution to that.
Elizabelle
@Mandalay: You are so fucking
tiresomepure.Jim, Foolish Literalist
@AliceBlue: my initial reaction to Reade was a damaged woman who wanted to be Joan of Arc to Bernie’s Charles VII. I feel like all the evidence since has made that more likely. And Ryan Grim and Nathan Robinson and Katie Halper will let her burn if she takes down Biden, cause then they were right about Bernie.
Baud
@The Moar You Know: You want Trump to move to Argentina?
patrick II
@Baud:
Which is one more reason we have to work to Democratize state assemblies and governorships. The constitution has served us well, but is showing its age.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Citizen Alan:
This begs the question of why this wasn’t attempted when we last had control of both chambers. Or anytime before. It’s bullshit that more populated areas get less representation than largely empty tracks of land. Too many institutionalists in the upper echelons of party leadership?
I also think we need to pack the SCOTUS to begin to reverse the damage, but will Biden or Schumer do this (Sanders or Warren wouldn’t either more than likely)?
geg6
@Elizabelle:
Campos has a good piece over at LGM with similar but more detailed points. I haven’t read the comments, though, because, well, LGM commenters. Ugh.
Shalimar
Apparently the Trump administration is thinking about defaulting on the Treasury notes China owns as retaliation for making Trump look bad with the Corona.
About the only thing that makes this crisis look manageable is Treasury’s ability to spend unlimited money with limited cost because inflation is non-existant, so of course they’re thinking about pointlessly doing something that will fuck that up.
Citizen Alan
@Elizabelle: My understanding is that the sparsely populated Dakota territory was divided into two even more sparsely populated states by a Republican Congress in the 1920s for exactly the reason you might expect — to add 4 Republican Senate seats.
rp
The word I’d use to describe the bernie supporters’ attitude towards the Reade story is “gleeful.” It’s incredible how similar they are to trump supporters. They have no interest in whether the story is true or how this might actually play out in the real world; it’s just a cudgul to use against their opponent.
debbie
@clay:
Was it Adam who shared a screenshot of her being all mysterious back in March, implying something was going to be happening, and then ending with a “tic toc”?
Uncle Cosmo
@kindness: Bingo! I honestly don’t know what the problem is. They don’t even need to cobble up a dishonest or deceptive survey instrument. Just start with perfectly reasonable raw results & fuck with the turnout models. E.g., presume that his MAGAtMilitiamen will be staked out at every polling place to shoot every Nth Democratic voter before they get inside; adjust N till you get the result you want. E-Z-P-Z!!
Baud
@Shalimar:
I don’t think it’s possible to pay only some treasuries and not others.
JPL
Reade is going on the Chris Wallace show on Sunday.. She turned down Hannity.
Fair Economist
There *have* been three really bad polls for Trump in the past week. Trailing in TX, 5 points back in NC, and 10 points back nationally. All from highly reputable pollsters. On the Biden side of recent polling in all three, sure, but not incredibly so and certainly very scary numbers for Trump – all at least 5% beyond the point that he has any chance to win nationally. Then there was the poll that had him lagging in >65, which would be landslide realignment if it actually happened at the voting booth. So there’s a lot for him to be upset about.
Lapassionara
@clay: I saw on Twitter where she claimed that the WP never followed up to interview her, and then a blurb from WP saying they had talked to her multiple times.
I also saw that some women are urging Joe Biden to make some kind of public statement about this issue. I do not know what he would say, but in my experience, these kinds of statements never seem to satisfy the people who ask for them to be made.
prostratedragon
@Baud: What’s Lunfardo for “ptui?” By the time he figures out he’d better run the entire Southern Cone will probably be closed off to him.
Baud
@JPL: I wonder how Wallace will play it.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@debbie:
Yes, it was. She was planning this. She’s been trying for months because I remember some interview or something from late last year
henrythefifth
” The most powerful person on earth is essentially a toddler whose volatile moods need to be carefully managed by those around him. Perhaps Parscale also brought him a lollipop to soothe his tender feelings.”
By coincidence, my son is across the table from me listening to his teacher read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by video conference. She just read the part about how Veruca Salt got her ticket, which included a description of how she went nuts and cried until she got what she wanted. So he’s also a caricature character in a children’s book, provided as an example of the dangers of wealth and excess.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: FWIW, I also suspect Reade is a damaged person who is being exploited by people on the left and right who have an agenda. But here’s what I wonder from a campaign strategy standpoint: should Biden address it personally, or just stick with the unequivocal denial issued by his spokesperson a while back? I honestly don’t know which is the better strategy. It’s definitely getting more MSM attention, but there’s no reason to believe addressing it would quell that. Either path seems risky.
Geoboy
@Elizabelle: I second that emotion.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@JPL:
Yes, going on Fox News, that’s a sign this is being done in good faith. She could be being manipulated, but her altering medium posts is highly suspect
planetjanet
@PsiFighter37: There is specific heat to push to eliminate all superdelegates. Does not matter that all superdelegates are either elected officials or elected members of the DNC. They assume they are all corrupt.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@rp: yup, if you’re as gleefully (perfect word) enraged about Nancy Pelosi’s ice cream as you are about a violent sexual assault, you don’t get to accuse other people of not taking sexual violence seriously.
Baud
@Lapassionara:
Yep. The worst thing we could do for Biden is to fall into “make it go away” mode. That will just lead to prolonging the story.
JPL
@Baud: Bernie will.
JPL
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): She wanted Gayle King to interview her, but that didn’t work out.
Mallard Filmore
@Elizabelle:
The Biden people would have to have a talk with Barr to plea bargain about his own fate in order to get the Feds on board for that.
burnspbesq
Humiliation? Not enough.
we need indictments. Lots of indictments.
Ksmiami
@Boris Rasputin (the evil twin): But Hitler was less of a wussy coward and could off himself/ Trump will be more like Macy’s character in Fargo as he gets arrested in his underwear
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker:
Hayes solemnly intoned last night that Joe Biden must address this. What else can he say: “This super duper didn’t happen”? “I have no memory of this very junior staffer from thirty years ago whose job was to oversee a half-dozen interns for six months?” There’s nothing he can say that won’t just lead people like Kaczynski and Beinart, and now of course Mitch McConnell and probably by the end of business today Kellyanne Conway, to keep asking variants of “Why can’t you prove the negative?”
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Citizen Alan:
Oh that’s interesting. I’ve read calls for expanding the House to make it more representative. That is, the least populous stats (Wyoming maybe?) gets 1 rep, and then their population number is applied to create House member places. We’d need a bigger Chamber apparently, but whatever.
But I never connected that with how many members of the EC each state gets, even though I knew that was how it happens.
Mallard Filmore
@patrick II:
Extraordinary rendition to The Hague solves many of those problems.
rp
The timing of the reade allegation is actually terrible for Trump — few are paying attention because of COVID-19 and the election is months away. It would have been far better for Trump if this had come out in September. But of course this is being driven by Bernie supporters who can’t wait that long; their goal is to force Biden to drop out and replace him with Sanders.
All of which is to say that there’s almost no chance this is an authentic accusation — it was planned in advance and dropped at the necessary time.
Nora Lenderbee
n/m
Aziz, light!
Nope. Still prez until new prez sworn in Jan. 20.
rikyrah
@Elizabelle:
I will say this again..
” Believe all women?”
I think not.
The pages of history of THIS COUNTRY are littered with the blood of Black men at the end of some White woman’s FALSE ACCUSATIONS.
The ridiculousness of ‘ Believe all women’ should be obvious.
And, the thought…
The mere thought….
That the GOP would have HELD BACK IN 2008 AND 2012 if this story had ANY LEGS…
Are you phucking kidding me?
feebog
Trump’s obvious mental decline must be freaking out a lot of Republicans by now. They know he’s not going to get any better, and they dread a televised meltdown that erases all doubt of his mental state. I really don’t think we will see debates this fall, too risky that Trump goes completely off the rails.
zhena gogolia
@rp:
Yep. And unfortunately our new young Mayor I voted for is among them.
Repatriated
@The Moar You Know:
As originally conceived, Constitutional amendments could pass if 75% of legislators elected by wealthy white males wanted them, and could be blocked if 25% did not want them.*
Now they require 75% of a far more diverse electorate, but can still be blocked by 25% of that same electorate.
The amendment process is, in effect, no longer viable.
*It’s by state but that’s a different issue.
planetjanet
@Lapassionara: His campaign has responded and denied the allegation. Some people just want him to defend it 24/7.
Elizabelle
@geg6: Me neither. I just wanted to put up some ammo for defense since The Serious Papers (WaPost and FTF NY emails! Times) have decided to run with this.
This is so slippery: I was looking for the original FTF NYTimes article, in print April 13, with a pretty strong paragraph that they could not substantiate Reade’s claims.
They have “updated” the article on April 29, and I don’t know what they changed.
I hate when they do that. They should make it very, very clear what has changed. Otherwise, how can they be a “paper of record.”
And us without libraries we can visit to look at the dead tree edition.
Does anyone have a dead tree copy of the April 13 FTF NY Times lying around??
Elizabelle
@zhena gogolia: Who is your mayor? You have mentioned him numerous times.
planetjanet
@Betty Cracker: He has unequivocally denied it. Beyond that, if you are explaining, you are losing. It is best to have his allies respond to the allegations in detail. Let them do the fighting.
Mandalay
@Elizabelle:
Heh.
You have just cut and pasted your post attacking Sanders over Tara Reade’s allegations three times in two separate threads.
Who’s “tiresome”?
Repatriated
@planetjanet:
It’s actually counterproductive. The elected and former elected officials will be delegates in any case. It’s just that they’ll then be taking up delegate seats that would otherwise have gone to rank and file members.
Scamp Dog
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The US population is about 330 million, and the smallest state population is just under 600,000. One representative per 600,000 gets you to 550 reps, not much bigger than what we have now. I say let’s double it, 1,100 reps and an electoral college of 1,200 instead of 535. Or even three reps for the smallest state, why not?
Uncle Cosmo
@Citizen Alan: That would be a tough timeline – since North and South Dakota were separately admitted as States of the Union in 1889.
The biggest asymmetry in statehood annals was the admission of Nevada in 1864 when it had less than 1/6 the 60,000 population required for statehood, while Utah exceeded the threshold in 1870 but was not admitted to the Union until 1896. Minor details, like the Republicans thinking they might need an EV cushion for Lincoln’s reelection, and the fact that Utah’s Mormon hierarachy did not abandon (& then outlaw) polygamy until 1890.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@planetjanet: the spade work has been done, pretty convincingly IMHO, mostly by pseudonymous tweeters, a lot of them black women (it’s almost like there’s a pattern there…). Blue check twitter is starting to poke their heads up over the ramparts, and getting Christine Blasey Ford thrown back at them. Remember when CFB was found to have a twenty-five year history of changing her story about Kavanaugh? And when Tara Reade called for a thorough FBI investigation and Joe Biden allied himself with trump and the GOP Senate to shut it down?
Ruckus
@Doug R:
I don’t think he can project bad news for himself. Which is part of the problem, he’s always seeing bad news for the first time. Because in his head, everything is always roses, right up to the moment it all turns into thorns. And because he has no capability to see bad ahead of time and no ability to be anything but bad, all his news is shit. He’s not right in the head, has no normal responses, and no normal expectations, so it’s shit in any and every direction.
planetjanet
@Repatriated: I agree completely. With superdelegates only voting on a second round, more influence is given to the grassroots activists who are pledged. There is a religious fervor to it. In preparation for the upcoming state conventions, the Sanders delegates were willing to risk not passing a resolution for single payer in order to include a resolution abolishing superdelegates. How can you risk making progress on healthcare in the midst of a pandemic because it is more important to work about my congress critter voting on a second ballot in 2024? It is not based on reason.
Elizabelle
@Mandalay: you look better as pupcake. Ciao ciao, little pony.
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: What is blue check twitter?
Just One More Canuck
@Mandalay:
Who’s tiresome? That would be you.
Ruckus
@PsiFighter37:
I could be wrong but I think AOC has a real desire to be good. She’s far left for sure, but seems to want to be taken seriously, and seems to understand that she has to work within the system, not break it.
West of the Rockies
I’ve expressed this thought here before, but I will air it again: I hope these polls, these daily humiliations, cause Trump and his people visceral misery. May gas, bloating, acute gastrointestinal distress be with them for life, along with high blood pressure, hives, tooth decay, halitosis, alcoholism, shame, loss of power, standing, pleasure, and money.
After the last 3+years,I hope no one wants a vinyl Ivanka Trump purse. I hope Kushner and company find themselves no longer welcome in restaurants, resorts, and the homes of former friends.
I hope the rest of their lives are an extended scene from The Blacklist, with a figurative Raymond Reddington telling them how they are loathsome and about to die.
Why, yes, I can go a little dark.
artem1s
@Elizabelle:
unfortunately the FYNYT has already started to question why Biden won’t give her claims credence by answering questions about it. The media has fillet the race horse and is ready to serve up red meat to the masses day after day after day. By next month the stories about Reade will out number those about how Trump had a hand in killing 60K people and counting. They don’t even have to rely on an insider like Comey to keep the story alive for the next FOREVER. The Sandernistas and the rubes who stabbed Franken in the back will line up to keep the bleeding going.
bluehill
Given everything that’s happened to get Trump elected and since he’s been president, repubs will fight until the end. They have no choice. They burned their boats a long time ago. Bernie, Amash, Reade, voter suppression, Russian influence operations to start with and there will be more twists as we move towards November that screenwriters couldn’t even dream up. If the last election was a velvet coup, this election is going to be a velvet civil war.
Geminid
@H.E.Wolf: Speaking of good people running for office: I am starting to see short internet ads for Barbara Boullier, who is running for the Kansas U.S. Senate seat now held by Pat Roberts, who is retiring. I even saw one on that weird “Balloon Juice” blog.
Subsole
Every last one of these people need to get the SandPebbles treatment every time they are fool enough to appear in public.
Repatriated
@bluehill: You think these guys can manage velvet?
I’m thinking spray adhesive smeared with dryer lint.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
My predictions
* Trump will accuse Biden of treason for running against him.
* Trump will sue the United States of America for deformation of character before the end of the year. Trump will try to force Barr to represent both him and the United States in this law suit
* A notable number of prominent Republicans will die from the virus between Trump rallies and the GOP convention as they vie with each other to show off how much they can violate social distancing.
* Trump will resign (in some crazy, half assed way) a week before the election, so he can blame Pence for the loss (and get a pardon from Pence).
bluehill
@Repatriated: Good point!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I hope that’s deliberate because it’s brilliant
NotMax
Put in mind in many ways of the other Harry Truman, the one who essentially insisted Mount St. Helens reporting was fake news.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Amusingly that was my dyslexia in action, but that would be so Trump, wouldn’t it?
Achrachno
@Dorothy A. Winsor: But the deformation happened years ago.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@artem1s:
I said during the Franken mess that this would bite us in the ass again. They saw it works, so they’ll do it again and again.
Repatriated
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
…. And botch the “not-really-resignation” somehow and invalidate the pardon.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
It must be like the famous video memes of Hitler going nuts in The Bunker when he receives bad news.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: Harry Truman is now part of Mt. St. Helens.
Eljai
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I am not happy with Chris Hayes or Rebecca Traister right now. And I used to be a big fan of Traister. She wrote an article highly critical of Biden before he got the nomination, so I know he wasn’t her top choice. But I don’t get the rush to legitimize an accusation that has so many glaring inconsistencies the more it’s investigated. I don’t think they’re consciously trying to get Trump re-elected, but WTF!
Raoul
In case anyone was wondering, yes the re-open now protests are still about the racism and anger over Obama having been past-president of this once-sorta-great nation.
@Snowman55403
Replying to
@thegarance
What the sam hill IS this?
Betty Cracker
@Baud: What’s “make it go away” mode? A statement from Biden himself? I’m conflicted on what’s the right course. I don’t think a statement basically reiterating what the spokesperson said would help, but I’m not sure a speech — like Obama’s post-Reverend Wright kerfluffle speech — would be a bad idea at all.
Obama’s speech didn’t make the Wright controversy go away completely, but it did give voters a way to move on from “goddamn America.” As I recall, Obama made it about the larger issue, not just Wright’s comments. Biden could do something similar. There’s a lot to talk about on this particular topic.
Brachiator
This is all like a bad parody of Adolf in his bunker.
clay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I have noticed that black women on Twitter seem particularly furious about this. I think they (rightly) view it as a last-ditch effort by the Roses to overturn the collective will of the Democratic primary voters (which, of course, include a lot of black women!).
Adam warned us a couple of years back that MeToo would be weaponized. I just thought it would come from the right, and not the left.
August West
I second these sentiments. I also hope that all these horrible Trump enablers and Trump himself are plagued with never-ending alternating bouts of constipation and diarrhea for the rest of their goddamn lives.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Eljai: They naively think if they can force Biden out then the nomination would go to Bernie.
The problem with their Wile E. Coyote plan is Biden’s delegates wouldn’t cast their votes for Bernie, but rather for Cuomo, who the clowns dislike alot more than Biden.
BobS
@PsiFighter37: If you don’t think AOC brings a lot more than that, you haven’t been paying attention.
PJ
@Baud: Nothing Biden says will make any difference to how the media, the BernieBros, or the GOP treat this.
jonas
JFC. I’m used to observing how much Trump projects his own failings and insecurities onto his perceived enemies, but holy shit. This is a goddamn supernova.
Raven Onthill
Four more years.
I like Amanda Marcotte’s account of the Tara Reid matter: https://www.salon.com/2020/03/31/a-woman-accuses-joe-biden-of-sexual-assault-and-all-hell-breaks-loose-online-heres-what-we-know/
“Up until today, I had no opinion on Tara Reade or her accusations against Biden. Having read this, and knowing typical MO of Russian internet trolls, I would be extremely, utterly surprised if the entire ‘Joe the Rapist’ thing didn’t come from Kremlin.” – Slava Malamud, https://twitter.com/SlavaMalamud/status/1251209421998272512?s=20
This isn’t a “me too” story. When Weinstein was accused there were dozens of women coming forward. Kavanaugh, Trump, same thing. Here, there’s only the one. Which doesn’t make Reid’s accusations false, but it does make them harder to believe.
The Thin Black Duke
Until COVID-19 goes away, nobody is going to care about Tara Reade three months from now.
Brachiator
@Betty Cracker:
I have no idea what Biden should do, but your approach sounds reasonable.
What really grates me about this is how some Berninebros, and maybe a few others, are using this as an excuse for them to totally reject Biden.
The GOP and the Russians know they have a good thing here, and are going to exploit it to the fullest.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
The Wright episode didn’t involve an accusation of personal wrongdoing by Obama.
“Make it go away” mode is demanding that Biden DO SOMETHING to make this go away. He doesn’t have that power. It’s up to all of us to fight the fight.
Cacti
The most prominent political scalp claimed by the #MeToo movement is…
Al Franken.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump is POTUS and Boof Kavanaugh sits on SCOTUS for life.
The right can always count on the left to cannibalize itself.
Betty
@MisterForkbeard: The information is already out there. The USA Today article lays out clearly how bogus this is.
Elizabelle
@Betty Cracker: That’s what I think too. The vacuum of no response from Biden is being filled by the usual bad actors.
Along with a speech, I think Biden should do a press availability with his staff at the time, who have gone on record saying that Reade never came to them with her assertions, and dissect and refute Reade’s claims, one by one by one.
And then announce that is going to be the last he says on the topic. That he is not going to give oxygen to falsehoods, and that the press should not allow false accusations like this to be weaponized.
And then not allow a free for all by the press. Some questions by fair reporters from reputable press organizations — the WaPost, the NY Times, the LA Times, USA Today — and then that is it.
I don’t think Biden can ignore this.
Cacti
@Baud: Biden should continue to do what he’s doing.
Refuse to play by a set of rules that only exists for Democrats.
Continue to let surrogates poke holes in Alexandra Moulton’s Kremlin fiction.
pamelabrown53
@Baud:
Spot on! Plus, each day the story/allegations get weirder and weirder, i.e., seems to be unraveling.
What makes this really rancid, is I find it hard to believe that Obama’s vetting process of his VP, wouldn’t have uncovered such serious allegations.
Elizabelle
@Baud: I disagree. I think Biden and his staff from the time of the accusation, and maybe a lawyer or two, should address Reade’s claims, since many of them are provably false — and then say enough with that story.
Stop giving oxygen to falsehoods. I have gone on record with my response. Anything further is just gossip-mongering.
Biden should not allow them to swiftboat him.
Meanwhile, allies should feed good leads on precisely where this story came from, because it’s a political hit and should blow up hard in its creators’ faces. So hard that others will not want to go this route again. For a few months ….
Otherwise, it’s going to become “he said, she said, gosh, who knows what the truth might be??”
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Raven Onthill: you make a great point. Biden has been in public office for 49 years. 36 years as a Senator, 8 years as VP, 3 years local Delaware office. Nearly 50 years, and there’s no history of him cheating on his wife and chasing women like Dump and Giuliani.
pamelabrown53
@Elizabelle:
What can Biden say that won’t be construed as throwing shade on the”Me Too” movement? Also, how doesn’t this just feed the “He said, She said” coverage?
I guess what I’m respectfully asking you and Betty Cracker is what do you want him to say?
Tdjr
@Aziz, light!: I don’t think so. Remember Wisconsin and that was a primary.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: It’s true the situations aren’t exactly analogous, but we all know what the implication of the Wright kerfluffle was: that, contrary to how Obama presented himself, he was secretly an angry black man whose mentor hated America blah blah blah.
Obama understood it was a complex minefield of a situation — not the actual incident being discussed but the politics around it. So is this, even if (as I believe) Reade has a screw loose and is lying about what happened.
Obama found a way to address all of that in an elegant, heartfelt and inspiring speech. Biden is no Obama, but one of his strengths is an empathetic, personal approach.
Maybe he could pull off a speech that would deny these particular allegations forcefully while reiterating women’s right to be heard, expressing empathy for women who have to deal with actual sexual harassment/assault and outlining a vision for achieving a greater level of gender equality, highlighting his own work on those goals, intent to pick a female VP, etc.
Not saying Biden HAS TO do this. Just saying it may be an opportunity. One of the things that really sucks about leaving it out there without Biden personally addressing it in a thorough way is that every woman who supports Biden is being hounded about it.
Omnes Omnibus
@patrick II: Co-sign.
Immanentize
@rikyrah:
I’m going to @ people with this every time from here until my death. Thank you
Elizabelle
@pamelabrown53: #MeToo does not give women a license to lie.
As I see it, Tara Reade and the cretins who put her up to this are doing a lot of damage to #MeToo.
A false accusation is a false accusation, and it can do a lot of damage, whether it should be able to, or not.
The Republicans have a huge problem. They have an actual and self-confessed sexual predator in the White House. So this is projection (and mind you, I realize it’s the fucking BernieBros that set this story on fire).
Maybe Reade’s accusations will fall apart on their own, and she will come across as trustworthy as OctoMom (remember her?).
But suppose they don’t?
Immanentize
@patrick II: I too agree completely about AOC. She is new to this, but obviously a quick study. She was delivering meals to her constituents last week. She seems willing to put her money where her mouth is, as they say.
Also, too, one cannot avoid the obvious sexualizing and fantasies that attend critiques of AOC. Not here, but certainly among the right.
Elizabelle
@Immanentize: Maybe time for a few carefully spoken words about To Kill a Mockingbird, and a major plot point in that beloved book. Which became such a tragedy.
Hoodie
@Baud: Seems to me the best approach is for Biden’s allies to attack the discrepancies in Reade’s story and those of her allegedly corroborating witnesses, along with attacking the actors that are promoting the story (e.g, fringe Bernie types and Russian trolls), linking them to a desire elect Trump. Biden does not want to get into the weeds on that. I think Biden should think about going on the offensive against Trump’s own acknowledged/unrefuted history of sexual assault, which will allow him to tout his own work with VAWA, etc. That’s what Trump would do. Fight fire with fire.
PJ
@Betty Cracker: Reade’s word is really the only evidence against Biden. The supposed call to Larry King by her mother indicates nothing about sexual assault, but rather some grievance against his staff; the neighbor she supposedly told the story to at least two years after the fact didn’t remember it at all until Reade called her up recently to remind her of it; her brother didn’t remember it until he was prompted by Nathan Robinson after first giving a different story to journalists; when she spoke to the Reno paper and the Washington Post in 2019, she stated that she didn’t have a problem with Biden but “only wished that he knew” about how she had been treated. There is no record of any complaint made by her in Senate files, and though she kept her Senate employment records, she did not keep a copy of the complaint, which she herself says mentioned nothing about sexual assault.
But to attack Reade’s word means attacking her credibility. That’s easy enough to do – she’s changed this story several times; she’s changed other stories about her life numerous times (e.g., why she left DC); she praised Biden on many occasions before deciding to become a Putin fan; she’s ripped off at least one charity; she went to Time’s Up looking not for legal help but PR help; she’s used BernieBros (notably Nathan J. Robinson) to coach her statements and her brother’s statements; she tweeted out “tic toc” to Ryan Grim on Super Tuesday to indicate that she was timing her attack on Biden; she refused to name Biden when she recently filed a police complaint; she’s recently changed previously published online essays to incorporate elements of her new story about Biden; and then there’s her general nuttiness (e.g., believing her horse talks to her).
But if Biden attacks her credibility, there is no way for it to not look bad for him – he’s attacking a sexual assault survivor! All he can do is say, again, “this never happened,” and, again, emphasize the importance of taking the accounts of alleged victims seriously, etc. All of which he has done. Would making a speech about it make much of a difference?
As others have indicated, I think the real endgame is to get him to open his personal papers at the U of D. If there wasn’t anything in the Senate files, it’s highly unlikely there would be anything about a low level staffer in his personal papers, but it would provide a field day for the GOP and journalists to find grounds for a new scandal every week between now and November. “But his papers!” would be the new “but her emails!”
There’s no good choice for Biden here. If the media did their job in any kind of adequate way, this would have been put to bed by now, but people like Chris Hayes and Michelle Goldberg are disinclined to do any real journalism and Ryan Grim, Katie Halper, and Nathan Robinson are happy to keep serving up bullshit to be amplified in the mainstream press.
danielx
@p.a.:
wish I could say you’re wrong, but I suspect you’re right. If we were discussing a normal personality…but we’re talking about Donald Trump. By definition, Trump does not lose at anything, ever. If he appears to lose, it can only be as a result of illegitimate malevolent forces, not voters who are sick of his incompetence and toxic personality. So it will be no great surprise if he tells his jerkoff followers to go in the streets with rifles. At the least, expect Patriot Polling Patrols with firearms at voting places.
pamelabrown53
@Elizabelle:
Thanks for your well-reasoned considered reply. Maybe, he and his best speechwriters should start drafting a speech addressing this in case it doesn’t fully unravel. So far, it seems to be falling apart quite rapidly.
BobS
@PJ: I’m really disappointed by Hayes and Goldberg- they’re usually two of the saner talking heads.
Immanentize
@Elizabelle: Recently the biggest show on Broadway!!!!
Tom Robinson is dead.
I can barely watch that scene.
J R in WV
@MisterForkbeard:
OH, Honey, do you think logic and reasoning has ANYTHING to do with their level of whinging? No, No, No !!!
clay
@Betty Cracker: I’m probably fonder of Uncle Joe than a lot of people around here, but even I am skeptical that he has the verbal dexterity to navigate that minefield. Obama, he ain’t.
If it didn’t happen — which, let’s face it, is looking more and more likely — then what can he say other than, “This didn’t happen”?
Cacti
@Hoodie: What you said.
Biden needs to keep his focus on Donald Trump, his mismanagement of the country, and the harm he’s done to Americans. Let surrogates take on whatever new shiny object the Repukes throw out. This certainly won’t be the last one.
hilts
Given that the english language has never been Biden’s best friend, he needs to keep his mouth shut about Tara Reade and let his surrogates handle this issue. Uncle Joe has never demonstrated any degree of verbal dexterity and will only make matters worse as soon as he starts talking.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Michelle Goldberg discovers the tic-toc tweet, a couple of weeks after I did (I think) and several days after she tweeted out that Lynda LaCasse’s evidence was persuasive, but better late than never (and I am a big fan of her)
all the @ s left in to show who’s who in this rolling clusterfuck
Elizabelle
@Immanentize: I didn’t watch it all. I love Gregory Peck.
Lots of people named their sons (and dogs!) Atticus.
I do not think we are going to see a generation of “Donalds.”
Betty
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Sounds right to me. It is sad in a way.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@PJ:
I was one of the evil apostates who betrayed the righteous grievances of the activist side of femaledom by taking the side of Franken. I compounded it by being really fucking unimpressed with Blasey-Ford when she was whining about Kavanaugh’s behavior from high school when there was far more recent, actually worrisome reasons not to confirm him in the recent past.
I predicted – correctly – that waving non-justiciable, ancient claims to before a howling mob of whimpering hysterics would bite us in the ass.
In short, and I’ll shout it to the rooftops, if you didn’t bother to deal with it back then due to the perception of either personal gain or some sort of self-protective notion, don’t bother bringing it up now.
Jeffro
Amen! Enough with the Reade BS.
Btw in case y’all hadn’t seen, one of the Post’s bigger hacks, Henry Olsen, is sounding the alarm at Camp trumpov: trumpov is behind by every metric
It’s glorious! I’m sure Henry thinks he’s helping, but all it will do is put Captain Tailspin into an even bigger spin-out:
Hey GOP…what are we, still six months out from the election? Covid-19 and the economy going to go well for you with this guy in charge, do ya think? Or trying to blame it on/sue China?
We tried to warn you…
Cacti
@hilts: I agree that Biden isn’t an eloquent orator. But he’s actually pretty damn good with off the cuff quips. BHO gave us “Yes we can”. But Uncle Joe reduced human weasel Rudy Giuliani to “a noun, a verb, and 9/11”.
He’s still angry about it 12 years later.
Jeffro
Mods plz help – I did something that got my comment at #170 moderated?
Elizabelle
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I am a Franken defender too. He was railroaded.
I believe Christine Blasey-Ford. It’s very understandable why she did not come forward earlier, and there is a great deal of corroboration for her claims and memory.
I don’t like seeing sexual predation weaponized like this. We have to figure out how to stop it. Make it ineffective.
Fake news — and having the general public tune out because of the constant barrage of false accusations — is a real danger. It is an end in itself, and does not serve Democrats or democracy well.
Betty
@Lapassionara: My guess is that he has no idea who this woman is. Many years and many staff members have passed since her 6 month stint. If he says that, they’ll say he’s senile. Can’t win.
Omnes Omnibus
@rikyrah: The idea that Obama’s people wouldn’t have checked it out is somewhat ludicrous as well.
Mallard Filmore
[edit: left a previous comment here]
How about “Its difficult to address the accusations when the story keeps changing.” [add examples here] ???
frosty
@MisterForkbeard: I was born in the 50s and we’d go to Sunny’s Surplus to buy WWII gear to use to play army in the woods behind the house.
Immanentize
@clay:
Back when I was regularly trying criminal cases, this was one of the things that I always hit on hard, especially in miss-identification or fabrication cases, during jury selection. If you weren’t there, what can you say about it other than, “I didn’t do it?” If you have been miss-IDed, there is no possible explanation you can give because you don’t know anything about it. If someone is making up something about you really your entire defense ends with, “NOPE.” The way you say “I don’t know anything about it” is by simply saying, “not guilty.” (which is what the fifth amendment provision prohibiting negative inferences from silence is all about — recognizing that innocent people really have nothing meaningful to say about what they never did.)
Cacti
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: In Dr. Ford’s defense, at the very least, she was willing to go under oath and penalty of perjury.
Franken’s case was straight up mob justice, and a major own-goal by the Dems.
Jeffro
@Jeffro: thank you! =)
BobS
@Elizabelle: I believe Blasey-Ford, and I also believe Kavanaugh’s denials- he honestly didn’t remember because he was blacked-out drunk.
I also agree with the comment that there were more recent, serious disqualifiers for Kavanaugh, like the hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of baseball tickets.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Elizabelle: as I recall, and in the constant shit-storm of the last four or five years, it’s hard to recall a lot of details, she was very reluctant to come forward until she was named by… Ryan Grim
@BobS:
I believe that too. But he knew who Debbie Ramirez was, and so did a lot of his friends. That’s who they all thought was talking to Feinstein when the story first came up. And he knew who his HS drinking buddy was (the name escapes me), and was pants-shitting terrified of that guy testifying. And IANAL but I’m pretty sure he perjured himself about Ramirez in his own confirmation hearings.
Calouste
@Hoodie: I think that Biden’s surrogates should bring up the accusations of sexual assault against the shitgibbon every time someone asks about Reade, to point out the holes in her story and contrast it to the more reliable accusations against the shitgibbon.
For example: “Reade can’t tell when this incident happened. On the contrast, Jane Doe accused Donald Trump of assaulting her on xx/xx/xxxx”
J R in WV
@clay:
I think assuming Senator Sanders is actually a part of the left is a great leap into the abyss of the unknown. He loved the USSR, which used a pretense of being “left” to actually run a reactionary state just like Tsarist Russia except for killing off all the Romanovs back during the “revolution”
He still appears fond of the Russian Republic, which is now owned and operated by criminals from top to bottom, authoritarian and reactionary just like the Soviet state, just with a different set of mobsters on top.
If the political spectrum is a circle, where the Fascists and the Communists are side by side on the opposite part of the circle from freedom and democracy, which I believe it is, then Bernie Sanders can be (and is) a tool of the Russians, just like Trump is a tool of the Russians.
So talking about right and left is not very meaningful once that spectrum has curved around and joined the right wing to the left wing under the table.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
One of the first phrases that I think justifies capital punishment to the utterer is the idiot phrase “x was credibly accused” or “x was credibly accused of y incidents”.
An accusation is just that – an accusation. Now, the person leveling the accusation can be considered to be a generally credible person, but the accusation in and of itself is only credible to the point that it is amenable to being tested.
There is a reason why you don’t see much intersection between #MeToo, #BelieveAllWomen and the Innocence Project, because the Innocence Priject has a great deal of experience with the accuracy of accusations and the results which all too frequently arise.
Immanentize
On another topic — have people seen this adgit-prop from China about our pandemic response?
Damn, that is going to leave a mark.
hueyplong
I’m with Jeffro only with lots more vehemence. Biden doesn’t have to and shouldn’t say a Goddamned thing about these Reade allegations.
She’s got contradictory (and often exculpatory) statements all over her timeline, and the only thing worse than having to explain and reconcile them is to get caught trying to change/delete them, which has happened this very day.
By the time Sunday rolls around Chris Wallace might not even be interested in talking to her anymore, leaving her to reverse course and go on Hannity so that this Plan B on Biden can be blessed with Seth Rich-level credibility.
When the USA Fucking Today says she’s full of it, it’s game over. They’ve said it. It is.
Next.
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: I saw Olsen’s headline or blurb, about Trump being an “underdog.”
Not falling for that. Underdog was a good character and creature. It’s shorthand for “give the little guy a break.”
I do see that Thiessen has jumped on the Tara Reade bandwagon. Low hanging fruit.
JMG
@Elizabelle: He should do nothing except deny it. Nothing. Anything further he does will just be grist for the BothSides mill. He doesn’t “have” to address it. The Washington press will whine, but screw them. If McConnell wants, he can have Lindsay Graham gin up an investigation and put Reade under oath, a place where she has so far not looked to go.
It’s a simple rule, really. Whatever the Beltway wants a pol to do, a smart one does exactly the opposite.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
and I see in Cole’s twitter feed that Jake Tapper has joined the “transparency” caucus, I guess that was inevitable
If Reade now has a Perry Masonesque breakdown and confesses on Sunday, Tapper et al will blithely move on to Joe Biden’s Senate files at the University of Delaware. If there are no crimes there, why won’t he publish these documents that neither Tapper nor Beinart nor Kaczynski had given a first, much less second, thought to a week ago?
But his Senate files…..
hilts
@Cacti:
You have far more faith in Biden than I do.
From all I’ve seen of him during this campaign season, the second he begins speaking directly about the Tara Reade issue he’s in serious trouble.
Elizabelle
@JMG: There is that. And a non-zero chance Reade’s story will fall apart further; it’s specious to begin with.
The press of news. We will be on to something new in 2 weeks, perhaps. Everything happens at simultaneous warp speed and in slow, slow motion these days.
J R in WV
@Jeffro:
I can’t help with the release, but I CAN count the nine links you post in your comment. I think the new limit is 5, or 7, up from 3 in the old blog software…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
While Jake Tapper and all the other Jake Tappers pretend they’ve always through the public needs to see Joe Biden’s Senate papers, it looks like this is happening in the Michigan state senate chamber?
PJ
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
@Elizabelle: I believed Blasey-Ford, too, because she came across as a credible witness, and the other witness, Mark Judge, was sequestered away so that he could not testify. I can also believe that Kavanaugh had no recollection whatsoever of the attempted rape, because it definitely seems like he was a blackout drunk and that this situation was not abnormal for him, so, even if he could have remembered it, there was no reason for him to remember it. I also think that if he actually remembered it, he would not have produced the calendar which showed the party they all attended.
Blasey-Ford did not want to go public with her allegations. She sent a private letter to Feinstein because she was concerned about Kavanaugh for obvious reasons, but she did not want to be the focus of any of it, whereas Reade is delighting in all of the attention (see her Twitter feed). The only way Blasey-Ford’s and Reade’s cases are similar is that Ryan Grim was instrumental in bringing their claims to the public, except that in Blasey-Ford’s case it was against her wishes, and with Reade, it was with her cooperation (see the Tic Toc tweet).
planetjanet
@Baud: This. This. A thousand times this. It is up to us to talk to those in our circle and try to encourage critical thinking skills.
planetjanet
@Elizabelle: Biden has not ignored this. He has denied it. Does he have to deny it on an hourly basis? An interview a week dissecting the latest?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
With out a doubt. And Trump will then claim the election doesn’t count for some absurd reason. Refuse to show up Biden’s inauguration, run off to one of his resorts spewing lawsuits and claiming he is still president
H.E.Wolf
Yes! Thank you for mentioning her. She’s one of the EMILY’s List folks. Her bio looks good: https://www.emilyslist.org/candidates/barbara-bollier-20
JPL
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: That won’t even make the MSM because …
The end game has always been about the senate records, imo cuze they can prove he’s not progressive..
hitchhiker
@rp:
They’re going to be disappointed.
Aside from all the reasons to raise two eyebrows way up that others have mentioned, the story itself just doesn’t align with decades of public witness of Biden. This is the behavior of someone capable of cruelty — someone indifferent to others and ugly in the expression of that indifference.
We’ve never seen it! Joe has plenty of issues, but this isn’t in his range. It reminds me of how certain people in 2008 were desperate to find the “whitey tape,” where Michelle Obama supposedly went full gangster-mouth.
In a fantasy version of Michelle, that tape could have existed. In a fantasy version of Joe, he could have said, “you’re nothing” to woman he’d just sexually assaulted in broad daylight.
But neither of those fantasy people exist, so meh. Reade’s credibility is damaged, imo, by that “you’re nothing” detail.
I’m an old woman with a lifetime of dealing with entitled men. Do they put their hands on you as if it’s a favor? Sure. Do they assume that your ordinary friendliness is an invitation to screw? Yep. Do they get mad when they find out you’re not interested? They do.
But the ones who are ugly in a “you’re nothing” way are routinely ugly in that way. That’s not the sort of thing that happens once and only once in 60 years.
JMG
@Elizabelle: I think you’re an optimist for thinking it’ll take two weeks for the next new story. I was thinking two hours. We are all hyper political people on this site, easily among the top one percent in terms of political information. It’s hard for us to put ourselves in the minds of those who aren’t so engaged. I try this metric. In six weeks, 30 million potential voters have lost their jobs. I don’t think Tara Reade is a big issue for them right now.
rikyrah
Do I have to ask what would happen if they were Black ???
satby
So, I was informed today by one of the right wing nutters at the Farmer’s market that I shouldn’t get a flu shot, because it was “nationally reported” that the flu shot was what was giving people Covid-19. Tried to pin him down on what national news outlet reported that, but he said he didn’t remember. I just told him he was nuts and walked away. I hate it here.
PJ
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Kavanaugh certainly perjured himself about everything that was in his yearbook. All he had to say was, “I’m sorry, I was young and stupid and cruel” and it would have been passed over, but he had to lie about all of the stupid things he wrote, which led me to believe that if he would lie about something so minor, he’d lie about anything.
satby
@hitchhiker: absolutely true in my experience too.
hueyplong
@rikyrah: My first thought, too.
Good ol’ boy “protests” are always heavily armed. And never, ever, do you see anybody have anything to say about it.
Another Scott
ICYMI, PPP poll of “battleground” states from last week. (polling done on April 20, 21):
Remember back to April 21? 42,000 dead and more than 787,000 confirmed infected in the USA way back then…
We’ve got a breeze at our backs, but we still have to do the work to get the ship off the rocks and pointed in the right direction. Forward!!
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I wonder if there’ll be a countdown clock.
Barbara
@Another Scott: Meanwhile, we are on track to lose another 2000 souls today. And yet Trump and his bootlicking son in law assure us that the U.S. .has implemented a stellar response and we are well on our way to being past it.
It looks like it is blowing up in Pennsylvania.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mandalay: Who is tiresome? You.
Suzanne
@August West:
Oh, absolutely.
I hope that they are totally socially rejected. Utter ostracism. I hope they are disinvited from every event, divorced by their spouses, and disavowed by their kids.
And the constipation and diarrhea thing, too.
Especially Jared.
Ella in New Mexico
@Betty Cracker:
What I think could/ should be happening is further/ deeper investigative work talking to the people in Tara Read’s past—staring with the ones who currently say she has defrauded them, stolen from them, and made false accusations against them with the same “go ahead, prove the negative” element to them. I’m seriously betting there’s a whole lotta dysfunction and dubious behavior in this woman’s past.And very likely a psychiatric diagnosis to go with it.
She strikes me as someone with a high functioning combo of bipolar and borderline personality disorders and I can vouch for how dangerous a person like that can be from my years working in mental health. Two clients like this nearly destroyed the professional reputations of two of my co-workers. Their delusions manifested in official actions in which they made false claims against them that involved no witnesses, utilized just enough casual knowledge of the person accused, exploited the law’s tendency to believe the accusations of victims and only until their own psychological and criminal histories were able to be revealed did they get dismissed.
Biden would be smart to get surrogates or widely respected journos to do a deep dive and reveal just this, a very embarrassing and somewhat cruel, but necessary act of self preservation. I bet he’s a bit averse to it.
James E Powell
@Lapassionara:
Because the statement – any statement – is a news item. If press/media are holding off on any related thing that is tenuous or unsubstantiated, the statement means they can now run that thing.
The response of the entire press/media will be that the statement “raises more questions than it answers” because that has been the Republican and NYT response to every statement by every Democrat for the last 40 years.
She is going to file some kind of lawsuit. The lawyers will be paid by one or more right wing billionaires, but the press/media will never say that. Instead, they will publish leaks from sources close a person with knowledge that some big revelation or new evidence is right around the corner. The NYT and WaPo will put that on the front page, assign three reporters, and make it the #1 issue in the campaign.
Geminid
@H.E.Wolf: I got interested in Kansas politics when I started following Representative Sharice Davids and Governor Laura Kelly in 2018. Kansas seems to be getting a little purple, so I was interested when Boullier announced. I checked out her website this winter; it presciently introduced her as “a doctor, not a politician, who who is running to clean up the mess in Washington.” I think Boullier has a real shot; the Republicans may even nominate the odious Kris Kobach, who lost to Kelly two years ago.
Another Scott
@kindness:
The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is probably an easier lift than a constitutional amendment. And even that has some issues.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ella in New Mexico:
No politician should be the assignment editor for journalists, and in this case shouldn’t have to be. And I don’t think a deep dive is really necessary here, a cursory review of her Medium posts, the piece she published barely a year ago and her twitter feed establishes pretty clearly that she’s unreliable– even though I suspect you’re correct that there are much deeper issues there (that thing about her dad’s novel is straight up terrifying). But the journalists who should be doing that are afraid of being accused of being part of rape culture by people like Rebecca Traister, and of being accused of hypocrisy by people like Tim Carney. There’s more than one club, we’re not in any of them, and most legacy media journalists are, or want to be, in more than one of them.
PaulWartenberg
We need a separate thread on this but right now there’s a goddamned armed insurrection going on in the Michigan capitol.
https://twitter.com/SenPolehanki/status/1255899318210314241
James E Powell
@Elizabelle:
And they will all – led by the NYT – agree to accept that answer? No disrespect, but it’s like you haven’t followed the press/media for the last 40 years.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
This is un-fucking believable
but what’s Joe Biden hiding in those Senate papers….?
hitchhiker
Regarding what Biden himself can say, what I want to hear from him is something like this:
The incident Ms Reade has described — and I’ve read her words carefully — is horrifying. It’s also not something I have ever, in all my life, come close to being part of. Not with Ms Reade, not with any woman, ever. I don’t act that way, I don’t speak that way, and I have nothing but contempt for men who do.
But why is she accusing you of this if nothing like it ever happened?
You’ll have to get that answer from her. I have no idea, nor am I interested in speculating. I repeat, what she describes is not something I have ever, in all my life, come close to being part of. Not with Ms Reade, not with any woman, ever. I don’t act that way, I don’t speak that way, and I have nothing but contempt for men who do.
JPL
@hitchhiker: Truth!!!
and to trump who wants his papers, I’d say you get nothing.
Sebastian
@Fair Economist:
Wait until the economy really craters. Six months to go until the election. This will be a blue tsunami, we have to make sure that we consolidate wins and enact structural change:
Corruption in politics (regional, state, federal), law enforcement, courts, and business. Massive action against corruption in lobbying, massive action against money laundering and organized crime with punitive damages and confiscation of stolen wealth and funds.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@hitchhiker: you’re good
I’d only add something like, “I’ve said what I have to say on this matter”
Sebastian
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
If these guys were darker than a coffee filter they would be riddled with hundred of bullets. WTF
Baud
@Sebastian:
Fixed.
hitchhiker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I mean … when Pelosi said today that Joe Biden is Joe Biden, that’s what she was saying. He’s just not “that guy.”
If he has to talk about this (he might), he should take the opportunity to express his disgust with men who are capable of doing what Reade has described — namely donald trump, but without naming him.
Women are already 20 pts in favor of Biden over trump, which is why the Rs are so thrilled to have Reade out there; they’re dumb enough to think that every accusation is going to make us scratch our silly heads and wonder.
It won’t work. trump’s cruelty and sexism are baked into his public persona, just as Biden’s compassion and gentleness are baked into his. The trick will be to make this accusation a reminder of both.
BruceFromOhio
Irony, she is alive and well.
BruceFromOhio
@Sebastian:
That sounds like Kamala Harris as Attorney General.
Hey, a guy can dream, right?
Jeffro
@J R in WV: ah that is it…thanks!
Jeffro
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: not. ok.
Beat on the media to beat on the GOP about this, Dems. Push back hard.
Another Scott
@Elizabelle: http://newsdiffs.org/ is a/the site that keeps track of changes to FTFNYT stories.
I haven’t looked for what you’re looking for, but it’s probably there.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Scamp Dog: Supposedly 930 Representatives is the magic number for our current population, to minimize “disparities”.
https://time.com/5423623/house-representatives-number-seats/
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
@PaulWartenberg: it’s a test run…
Biff Baxter
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: They think it’s like the Miss America contest and that the first runner up assumes the duties.
Another Scott
@Elizabelle: “But whatabout…” will always be there. It’s impossible to prove a negative.
I don’t know the solution, but I do know that: 1) nothing Biden says will “make this go away”. 2) Some deranged people believe falsehoods. 3) Some earnest people only believe their tribe when it comes to politics – they don’t do any thinking on their own. 4) And we know that too many actors these days just live to create chaos and try to break things, and too many platforms live on “clicks” and “engagement” no matter how much damage it does.
Biden isn’t stupid and has smart people on his team. I’m sure they’re gaming this out in all kinds of ways and will do their best to minimize the impact.
The main thing, IMO, is that he and Democrats in general have to stop being in “reactive mode” about everything. The GOP and Donnie are provably incompetent and are damaging the country and the world. Never let the press forget that.
NPR:
Stuff like that.
Cheers,
Scott.
Betty Cracker
Just read somewhere that Biden will go on Morning Joe tomorrow to address the allegations personally for the first time. God, I hope that’s not true.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Betty Cracker: just heard Nicholle Wallace confirm it. I hope he’s practicing, and with some new staffers
laura
We both know they’d be mown down like some much fields of wheat because ‘ah feared for ma life’ and then blue lives and 2nd amendment lives and gop lives matter more.
Bmaccnm
@Amir Khalid: Nor did the reporter say, “Are you being sarcastic, Mr Trump?”
r€nato
my wingnut aunt-in-law posted an unhinged rant blaming the Democrats 100% for all of this on her FB page last Saturday and ending with an exhortation to vote Trump to avoid socialism.
I am very much looking forward to her ragegasm when Trump loses. Pretty sure I won’t be able to contain my gloating even when in person. Screw her, she’s a fucking idiot
EDIT: in case anybody is curious…
——
Well the Democrats have successfully killed our economy with this virus. They got just what they wanted , to see Trump’s economy, the highest economic growth ever in this country, to die. Our oilfield will be just what Joe Biden said, non-existent, oil dropped to -$36 a barrel. That’s right negative $36 a barrel. It’s a shame that a political party would celebrate the death of it’s own country just to see the president fail. Democrats you failed this country by putting your hate for one man ahead of the millions of Americans you’re supposed to be helping. America should be ashamed of the politicians who left us behind because they hate president Trump. This man-made virus has given the government total control of everyone, no one is working, our oilfield died, businesses closing by the day, socialism is here, some of you better be ready to not only fight to get your country back, but to fight to survive the coming months. If Trump’s not re-elected in November you are seeing first hand how our country will be under socialist Democrat rule. #wakeupamerica!
TRUMP2020
Copied and shared from a friend.
Now it’s your turn to copy & share!
——
nobody liked nor shared her comment. She got one comment in response, it was pro-Biden.
Geminid
@Another Scott: That’s some good communicating by Schumer. I listen to him sometimes on the hourly radio news. Usually its when some issue is before the Senate, and he gets a 10 second sound bite after McConnell gets his 10 second sound bite. Schumer is always pithy and punchy. Nice to see him stretch out some. And on this issue he is right, which helps.
BobS
@r€nato: How about we all do a Strangers on a Train with each others shithead relatives?
r€nato
@BobS: sure LOL
one of these days imma go through idiot wingnut aunt-in-law’s son’s FB feed and document the insanity, screen cap everything and put it in folders according to subject matter. It’s basically a lot of shit he saw on Fox News or whatever other toxic right-wing media he consumes and passed through his own bitter, ugly rant filter. That’s like 80% of what he does with his FB feed. I unfriended and blocked him because it’s so fucking toxic that a) it’s insulting to me personally and b) I don’t want anyone to think I know him.
I’ve taken to referring to him as The Angry Screeching Fox News Parrot.
James E Powell
@Another Scott:
Democrats have been in that mode almost my entire life. I am not sure why, but I usually think it’s restraints imposed by the donors.
Another Scott
@r€nato: It’s one of those stupid “forward to all your friends” things – she probably didn’t read it that closely. 32 hits. It’s got too little activity to show up on Google Trends yet.
It’s tribal, and FB loves it.
Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
r€nato
@Another Scott: yeah I get that she didn’t write it herself but I know this woman. Sounds exactly like her. She’s a retired boomer who watches a fair amount of Fox News and is yet another of those very opinionated right-wingers who just has to share her rancid political opinions with house guests and dining out guests, regardless of whether anyone fucking asked her about the topic or not. Besides, if you are going to post something on your FB you should fucking read it first, if you put it out there for the world to read without any editorial comments or context then people will naturally assume you are endorsing it.
Fuck her, the crazy old bat is going blind from macular degeneration anyway and I won’t feel the slightest sympathy for her when it happens. Oh and her sister (my MIL, who lives with her) would be fucking destitute and fucking dead long ago if it wasn’t for socialist disability checks and socialist Medicare. Believe me, it has taken all the restraint I have to not remind her of that.
Sebastian
@BruceFromOhio:
This is a dead thread but by God, YES!
Also, USMC followed by swarms of FBI and IRS agents into various tax haven islands. I would enlist the big four accounting firms for forensic analysis and promise them 10% of all recovered funds. All of this is probably as stupid as stupid goes but one can dream!