Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Let there be snark.

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

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

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

Usually wrong but never in doubt

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

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

I did not have telepathic declassification on my 2022 bingo card.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

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

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

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

Eh, that’s media spin. biden’s health is fine and he’s doing a good job.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

This really is a full service blog.

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

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Biden For President / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Biden Is Now *Officially* Our Best Hope

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Biden Is Now *Officially* Our Best Hope

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157Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    Congrats to Joe! Hard to believe how bleak things looked before South Carolina. As I’ve said before, he has exceeded my expected, under very difficult and unforeseeable circumstances.

  2. 2.

    WereBear

    Question in the new Marist poll about the demonstrations around the country after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis at the hands of police

    Do you think the demonstrations are:

    Mostly Legitimate Protests: 62%
    Mostly People Acting Unlawfully: 28%
    Unsure: 10%

    Within statistical significance for Crazification Factor.

  3. 3.

    Central Planning

    Wasn’t Biden going to announce his VP pick before the convention? I thought it was supposed to be two weeks ago or something like that.

  4. 4.

    Baud

    If you’re trying to rehabilitate your image, taking it to Trump is a good move.

    Drew Brees tells Trump NFL protests have never been about the US flag

  11. 11.

    Amir Khalid

    So is Biden officially the nominee now, or does he still need to be formally nominated at some sort of Democratic convention?

    And what of Bernie’s plan to go for as many delegates as possible, so as to have some influence on the party platform? Is it shut-up-and-go-away time for him?

  12. 12.

    Baud

    @rikyrah:

    I agree. Bernie has shown that he is not the Bernie he led his fans to believe he was. He is the Wilmer we thought he was.

  17. 17.

    Baud

    There’s a Daily Caller headline on my feed that says that 15 people have died in the “protests and riots.” I don’t know how many of that 15 were killed by police.  I just find that a remarkably low number given everything.  (Obviously, not for the victims and families).

  19. 19.

    Anne Laurie

    @Central Planning: Wasn’t Biden going to announce his VP pick before the convention? I thought it was supposed to be two weeks ago or something like that.

    Last I heard, he’d pledged to announce his choice by August 1st.

    He may move up that date, now — but the vetting required for *every* potential VP candidate takes time, and doing multiple searches at that level of granularity certainly isn’t made easier by the various shutdowns / social distancing pandemic requirements.

    Assuming that the two goals behind such an announcement are attracting media attention & wavering potential voters… Right now, all the attention is (quite rightly) elsewhere, and the potential voters know damned well they have a choice between Biden and ‘Burning Dumpster Fire Full of Murder Hornets.’

  20. 20.

    opiejeanne

    @Baud: I wonder about that too. There have been too many atrocities committed by police this past week.

     

    The most recent death I heard about was a young woman in her 20s who died today as a result of tear gas, because she was asthmatic.

  23. 23.

    Betty Cracker

    Published today at Politico:

    Democrats discover a new team player: Bernie Sanders

    After criticizing his role in 2016, top Democrats are heaping praise on Sanders and his top brass for working overtime to get Joe Biden elected.

    “Sen. Sanders has been a tremendous force in helping unify the party,” said Neera Tanden, president of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress and a longtime Hillary Clinton aide who has been a vocal critic of Sanders in the past. “I am grateful for his work to urge his supporters to support Biden and fight Trump. He knows the stakes of this election, has always said he will support the nominee, and has been a man of his word.”

    “Many of us who believed that Donald Trump could win in 2016 also believed that Hillary Clinton would win. And that has proven to not be the case,” said Jeff Weaver, Sanders’ longtime adviser and friend who created America’s Progressive Promise, a pro-Biden super PAC. “I feel a great responsibility having worked in this progressive space for 35 years — my entire adult life — at the side of Bernie Sanders to make sure that we stop what is happening in this country.”

    Good for him.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    @NotMax:

    I’ll never trust him, but I don’t think he’s done anything objectionable since dropping out.  Some of his acolytes have been awful though.

  29. 29.

    Betty Cracker

    @opiejeanne: My daughter and a group of her friends have been in the daily peaceful protests in Tampa, and the cops are pepper spraying participants and shooting bags of buckshot at them for no fucking reason. There are multiple videos. It’s all over Twitter and gets some newspaper coverage. But the mayor (a Democrat) and the police chief just lie about it every goddamn day.

    There was serious looting in another part of town one night after the peaceful protests downtown had dispersed. I think it was the first day of the protests. A big store was burned to the ground and smaller shops were broken into.

    But other than that, it’s been peaceful. The cops say they’ve had shit thrown at them and are responding to that. Maybe that’s true, but the proper response isn’t to indiscriminately shoot at and pepper spray a large crowd that is 99% peaceful.

  31. 31.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    It is hard to imagine a more apt metaphor for the Trump presidency than the transformation of the White House into a fortress.

    Not going to look for it, but there was a Doonesbury or two (hundred), circa Obamagate Watergate, showing a brick (or cinder block?) wall around the White House. Said wall was shown being taken down after Tricksy Dicky (miss you, efg) resigned.

  33. 33.

    debbie

    That video up top is a great way to start what will be yet another day of outrage.

  35. 35.

    Yutsano

    @NotMax: If the convention is virtual (which looks likely at this point) the Bernistas will have a tougher time disrupting the proceedings. Oh they will try: I’m sure there will be boos and such, but it will be more difficult for them to interrupt Biden’s moment.

    I’m actually more worried about the announcement of the vice president. There will be much consternation from that cohort when it’s not Wilmer.

  37. 37.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    Too many tweets yesterday to find it, but the man who delights in rubbing up against the American flag in a way that would get him arrested if it were a child has expressed his disappointment in Drew’s change of heart.

  39. 39.

    charluckles

    @Betty Cracker:

    Why do the police need all this battle armor if they are going to lose their minds every time a teenager throws a water bottle at them?

    It’s like this doctrine where they can shoot anyone if they feel endangered.

    F this!

    If you can’t do the job without keeping your cool and if you can’t stop yourself from feeling terror when someone challenges your authority than quit.  You don’t belong in law enforcement.

  40. 40.

    Jeffro

    @sanjeevs:  I remember hearing all kinds of outlandish, gleeful scenarios from my TCNJ dad and bro…”brokered convention” “it’ll be Bernie!” “it’ll be Bloomberg!”…all variations on the blessed “Dems in disarray!”

    Who’s in disarray now, GOP?

    This clown is going to drag them down, excruciatingly, all summer long. Go long on popcorn.

  41. 41.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @Yutsano: I think Bernie doesn’t want to be the VP. And he doesn’t want to be POTUS either. Not now. It looks like too much work.

  42. 42.

    Amir Khalid

    @Yutsano:

    Twice now, the Bernistas’ hostile takeover of the Democratic party has definitively failed. Do you think that some of them will depart in a snit and go over to the Green Party, like last time?

  43. 43.

    Jeffro

    @Yutsano: They already know it won’t be Wilmer, ’cause Biden said he will select a female VP.

    Which is long overdue…but also a clever way to have avoided the Wilmer issue.

  44. 44.

    Chyron HR

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’ll believe Bernie’s unifying the party when the remnants of his campaign stop pushing “Biden is a rapist with senile dementia and possibly dead” memes everywhere.

  45. 45.

    Yutsano

    @The Thin Black Duke:You’re correct: he doesn’t. He wants to lead the violent revolution that will overthrow the United States government so he can be installed as the new leader of the glorious Communist republic. People forget he’s a Marxist. It’s one of several reasons my Bernie curiosity died quickly.

  46. 46.

    Lapassionara

    @Amir Khalid: Thank you. I noticed that it was a D-Day anniversary when I saw the date this morning. What a gripping story of sacrifice and bravery, combined with misjudgments and clusterf’s.

  48. 48.

    SFAW

    @Jeffro:

    Who’s in disarray now, GOP?

    Clearly, it’s the Democrat Party, libtard. They screwed up the COVID-19 response, pretending it was no big deal, then they prevented the states from getting PPE, then they DEMANDED that St. Tinyhands open up the country, then they brought in “crisis actors” to riot during the “peaceful” demonstrations in every city/town. Not to mention they somehow managed to score a ton of “tear gas” (cry me a river, libtard), which they used ON THEMSELVES in a fake attack just before St. Tinyhands went to his church across the street, in an attempt to make him look bad.

    And the neat-o-peachy-keen thing is that I bet each of the above memes (or whatever they are) can be found on various mainstream RWMF sites.

    I long for the day when Poe’s Law is no longer operational.

  49. 49.

    donnah

    I don’t subscribe, but the Washington Post had an article last night that there was a miscalculation in those wild job numbers and unemployment did go up, not down. Paul Krugman said at first that the report had to be in error and got fragged on Twitter, but he deserves a heap of apologies if this new info is correct.

     

    And when will Trump come to the Rose Garden and admit that the numbers were wrong?

  50. 50.

    Yutsano

    @Amir Khalid: Nah. They either won’t vote or write in Sanders. Oh some will go to the Green Party, but I forsee more will just take their ball and go home. And bitch about Biden and about how Wilmer would have done better blah blah blah. It’s a bit of a cult on that side too: it has to be Bernie or no one. On the one hand, I’m actually happy he has inspired so many young people (and my older brother) but on the other, he should stop trying to hijack another party without understanding what that means.

    And if anyone is curious about why I am awake at 0500, it’s because I’m keeping a friend in the Army somewhat less bored while he does a 24 hour watch. It’s a wonderful torture the military imposes upon our troops. At least he can have his phone…and avoid conversations with the various insects that come across his path. He’s also a medic so he’s watching me as I had a weird spell last night. I’m feeling much better now, but it was disconcerting.

  51. 51.

    SFAW

    @Yutsano:

    You’re correct: he doesn’t. He wants to lead the violent revolution that will overthrow the United States government so he can be installed as the new leader of the glorious Communist republic.

    Having a bad week? Silly hyperbole like that is unlike you. [I’d say it was more like Goku (ref. a back-and-forth in a string last night), but he might think I was being serious.]

  54. 54.

    Suzanne

    @Yutsano: I’m not sure that the Bernie people are gonna be A Thing. So much terrible shit has happened in just three months.

  55. 55.

    Yutsano

    @Suzanne: I mean I hope not. Sense seems to be missing from that lot. But you’re right in that maybe some will have the scales lifted from their eyes and figure out hey maybe it’s not all economic oppression. But some will ride that hobby horse until at least Wilmer dies. Then I don’t want to know what they become then. Maybe Susan Sarandon will take the reins.

  58. 58.

    Suzanne

    @Yutsano: I know (and love) a lot of people who supported Bernie, though none of them are what I would describe as “Berniebros”. Including Spawn the Elder. None of them are ride-or-die. All of them are being fairly pragmatic here, especially given the absolute unbelievable fucking shitshow that has been MAGA2020. I think the only-Bernie contingent is much smaller than we think, and they are getting outsized attention because they’re just really annoying.

  59. 59.

    Chyron HR

    @donnah:

    I don’t subscribe, but the Washington Post had an article last night that there was a miscalculation in those wild job numbers and unemployment did go up, not down.

    How dare you?  George Floyd is up there in Negro Heaven with MLK and Kunta Kinte and they’re all looking down with tears in their big strong man eyes saying “Sir, thank you, sir, for your great economy as the most super duper president.”

  60. 60.

    Kay

    A man running for election supervisor in Pinellas County is asking Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala pursue charges against Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis ex-cop accused of killing George Floyd, alleging he voted illegally in two Florida elections.
    Dan Helm, a Democrat and attorney, sent Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala a letter notifying her of Chauvin’s voting record.
    “While living in Minnesota, working there, paying taxes there, Derek Chauvin cannot claim residency in Orange County. His home, residency and where he intends to live is in Minnesota, not Florida,” Helm wrote.

    The supervisor of elections confirmed- Chauvin voted twice in Florida.

  61. 61.

    HinTN

    @Baud: And it points out once again how not representative of the Democratic party Iowa and New Hampshire are.

  62. 62.

    Amir Khalid

    @Yutsano:

    First, Biden wants a woman VP, so it will definitely not be Bernie. That aside, Bernie’s clearly not qualified for the VP job anyway. He sucks at playing on a team. He wouldn’t be an asset to a Biden administration as a strategic or tactical thinker, an executive, or a politician.

    If the Bernistas are holding out for that, they’re going to be disappointed.

  63. 63.

    Mary G

    @Suzanne: They seem to be more interested in fighting among themselves about whose fault it is that their savior lost. He cannot fail, he can only be failed, you know. Nobody cares right now. There is a pandemic plus massive protests, so no attention for them.

  64. 64.

    Ken

    Dave Weigel: i.e., after a point, people stop assuming events can break in his favor and start assuming that he’ll make more blunders.

    What took them so long?  The fourth bankruptcy wasn’t enough of a clue?

  65. 65.

    Yutsano

    @Amir Khalid: I was coming up with a witty response, but I am deciding I’m not going to talk about the losers in the nomination contest from now on. This is Biden’s moment. I really should be celebrating our presumptive nominee. Let the Berners pout. We have a good one.

    EDIT: by the by did you see my comment a while back about a possible e-mail exchange?

  68. 68.

    hueyplong

    My second favorite thing from overnight was the Marine Corps banning displays of the Confederate battle flag.  My favorite thing was former Marines in the comments unloading on MAGA trolls as snowflakes well camouflaged behind the Confederacy’s final flag.

  69. 69.

    Cheryl Rofer

    I’ve seen a lot of people sharing that first video, and I know it’s supposed to be a feel-good thing, but I find it at least obnoxious and perhaps dangerous.

    Who are those people? I’m guessing National Guard, which is okay, but what did they do next? Did they end the night clubbing and tear-gassing protesters? I have seen reports of police and others apparently befriending protesters to pull them in so they could be brutalized.

    One of the problems is that reporters aren’t contextualizing things, so we don’t have a bigger picture. Where are protesters being allowed their First Amendment rights? Why do I have to say “allow” there? Which police/ National Guard units are behaving well? City governments? Are there reasons for that, like the type of training  those units have received? How about their equipment?

    There’s plenty of video of all types out there, but I start from the point that uniformed and heavily armed people on the streets are not a good thing, even if they’re dancing.

  70. 70.

    lamh36

    @Yutsano: They already knew not be Wilmer.  Biden announced he’d pick a female running mate way back to after SC primary and has stuck to that pledge so far.  Last I liked Bernie ain’t no lady ??‍♀️

    So they finna gnash teeth regardless ??‍♀️

     

    I mean

  71. 71.

    MomSense

    @Baud:

    What I find interesting about it is that when Clinton said that nobody is the Senate  likes Sanders She was correct – except for Joe Biden.  The gossip is that Joe and Jill Biden were always very nice to them and socialized with them.  There’s some wisdom in Biden’s old school Senate ways.

  72. 72.

    Suzanne

    @Mary G: Yeah, agree. But I also think that they are so few in number that they don’t really matter. They’re a small subset of Bernie’s voters. I think some readers here have inflated their number and relative importance in their minds.

  74. 74.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Baud: Let’s call that fence The Chicken Coop.

    Kos had a post yesterday saying that by all indications, Biden would win, the Ds would retain the House, and the Senate would wind up 50/50. I thought that was hopeful.

  75. 75.

    Phylllis

    @charluckles: Hubby and I were saying this last night, in regards to the incident in Asheville where cops destroyed a medic tent and punched holes in water bottles, saying they could be thrown as weapons. Hubby said “They’re in head to toe body armor, how much damage can a Polar Springs bottle do to them?”

  76. 76.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @rikyrah: I believe Bernie did a remote interview on Tonight with Jimmy Fallon on June 5th. I caught part of it. Imagine my Not surprise when he pivoted the BLM/George Floyd/Breonna Taylor protest marches to economic reasons/unemployment/health care/
    I do understand that unemployment is higher and health care and out comes are poorer in black communities but he completely misses the point that it’s because of systemic racism and that wealthy college educated black people in the US are at as much risk of being profiled and harassed/beaten/murdered by the police. To me he seemed as tone deaf as ever…he also just Had to bring up him own protesting past..

  77. 77.

    Suzanne

    @Ken: Trump has seemed pretty impervious to negative consequences in the past, and I think that sort of becomes self-reinforcing. I mean, the Mueller report, Ukraine, impeachment, kids in fucking cages…. none of it really seemed to stick. Shooting people on Fifth Avenue and all that. But this pandemic and the response to the protests I think have managed to dent his image with even some of the lunatics who voted for him, and once that starts happening, he loses that narrative armor. In short, things happen slowly, then all at once.

  79. 79.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Yutsano:

    There will be much consternation from that cohort when it’s not Wilmer. 

    Did you see a pair of eyes roll past?

  81. 81.

    MomSense

    Yesterday I went to the BLM demonstration.  It was impressive and very moving.  The kids were so organized.

  85. 85.

    TS (the original)

    @donnah:

    A ‘misclassification error’ made the May unemployment rate look better than it is. Here’s what happened.

    When the U.S. government’s official jobs report for May came out on Friday, it included a note at the bottom saying there had been a major “error” indicating that the unemployment rate likely should be higher than the widely reported 13.3 percent rate.
    The special note said that if this “misclassification error” had not occurred, the “overall unemployment rate would have been about 3 percentage points higher than reported,” meaning the unemployment rate would be about 16.3 percent for May.
    The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the agency that puts out the monthly jobs reports, said it was working to fix the problem.

    Some took this as a sign that President Trump or one of his staffers may have tinkered with the data to make it look better, especially since most forecasters predicted the unemployment rate would be close to 20 percent in May, up from 14.7 percent in April. But economists and former BLS leaders from across the political spectrum strongly dismissed that idea.

  86. 86.

    Phylllis

    @Cheryl Rofer: During Steve Hartman’s heartwarmingburn story du jour last night, he pointed out all the demonstrations that were peaceful, where police participated and marched along, etc. saying, “that you haven’t heard about”. Wherein I yelled at the tv “And why is that, you feckless toady?”.

  88. 88.

    Immanentize

    @Yutsano: there is always another candidate to run to.  Always.  Pat Paulsen leaps to mind.  And the worst of the Sanders people are no doubt Larouchers. The key is to keep that additional candidate  very small and quiet. Sanders is fulfilling that role and there is no successor in sight. Win.

  89. 89.

    MattF

    I’m pleased to claim that the Maryland primary ballot I mailed in last weekend was part of the ‘last-minute surge’ that sent Biden over the top. My original reaction to him was ‘too old’, and I still think that younger, female, and not-white would have been a clearer and better challenge to Trump. But– we’ve got to win, Biden’s a good guy and his connection with Obama matters. Yay Joe.

  90. 90.

    Steeplejack

    Dave Weigel: “. . . after a point, people stop assuming events can break in his favor and start assuming that he’ll make more blunders.”

    Three years in and this counts as a hot take?! Gimme a break.

  91. 91.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ken:

    What took them so long?  The fourth bankruptcy wasn’t enough of a clue? 

    Hahaha, he’s tremendous bigly at bankruptcies, you losers!  Sad!

  94. 94.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Mary G: The ones I see have stopped talking about Bernie and are beating on liberals for wanting to reform or regulate police instead of immediately eliminating law enforcement, prisons, capitalism and all unequal power relations.

  98. 98.

    evodevo

    @MattF: My take locally is, people don’t WANT a LOT of change…all they want is sanity and calm at the top, after 3 1/2 years of shitshow and dumpster fire.  Joe looks a lot more like that than a fiery revolutionist, and that’s why he will (fingers crossed) win…

  101. 101.

    MattF

    @Matt McIrvin: Thereby (once again) answering the question ‘Why I don’t get into arguments with ideologues’. It took a little while for me to figure it out; but being regarded with contempt for ‘idealism’ or ‘not understanding the dialectic’ were contributing factors.

  103. 103.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Cheryl Rofer: Maybe this is the same one you’re thinking of, but I saw an account of one protest in Brooklyn where the police pushed hard to get involved, started hogging the microphone when people started speaking to the crowd, then some people in the crowd got testy and threw stuff at the cops, and all the cops just sprang into full riot-suppression mode. It sounded like that one wasn’t an intentional ruse, it was just that the desire to get in on the protests was all empty symbolism with no real change to behavior.

  104. 104.

    PsiFighter37

    So all this handwringing from Wilmer’s acolytes about staying on the ballot to gain delegates, and he got a pittance in the latest primaries. I hope this means they will accept a further-diminished voice on party platform (which, again – nobody actually cares about) whenever it gets written.

    I hope they enjoy the participation ribbons and that it was worth it.

  105. 105.

    Immanentize

    @Cheryl Rofer: What mansplaining?? That’s nutty. Notmax put up a link to a useful source. “Thank you Notmax” is an appropriate response.

    To quote raven:
    “What’s wrong with you?  Got crabs?”

    (Which by the way really ought to be a rotating tagline.)

  106. 106.

    Steeplejack

    @Betty Cracker:

    Damn it, can’t find it now, but I could have sworn Politico (?) had a piece this week about Sandernistas in disarray. Ex-staffers sniping at one another, David Sirota alleged to have made off with mailing lists, etc.

    And, yeah, Sanders may be helping Biden, but has he said anything about the country going up in flames? Golden opportunity for him to tie it all to economic inequality.

  108. 108.

    Immanentize

    @Steeplejack:

    David Sirota alleged to have made off with mailing lists,

    Oh, I completely believe this. Back in the early days at Kos, Sirota scraped the email addy’s of all the then-users and spammed them. Blogwhoring his drivel. That’s when I started really not liking him. It’s been a decade’s long hate affair for me with that putz.

  109. 109.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @sanjeevs: And I remember some people (myself included) reminding everyone that there were still four Democrats in the race.

  111. 111.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Matt McIrvin: It’s hard to keep track of all the protests and videos I see on Twitter. That certainly could be one of the ones I’ve seen. The problem is that heavily-armored cops dancing in one place at one time, or cops seizing the microphone at another place and another time are hard to sort out in terms of motive. They need to be tracked down and analyzed. I really would like a sense of how many departments and cities are doing good stuff. I know they’re out there.

  112. 112.

    MattF

    @PsiFighter37: I think the usual convention formalities (platform arguments, balloon releases, state-by-state votes, reorganizing committees) will be largely dispensed with. Sanders supporters just won’t have much to do except argue among themselves.

  117. 117.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: The polls are just insane right now, if they can be trusted and the election were held today, Biden would crush Trump into a small orange stain. There are polls showing him ahead in Georgia and tied in Texas.

    I don’t really believe that for a minute– every recent cycle seems to have a moment when it looks like the Democrats could take Texas, and it doesn’t work out that way. The partisan divisions always harden when it really gets going, and I’ve been looking at the polls assuming that most of the places where the lead has been switching are going to go back to Trump in the end. But I’d definitely rather be in our position than theirs.

  118. 118.

    Kay

    @JPL:

    Residency can be surprisingly fluid. There was a case in Ohio in 2012. Man resides in both Chicago and Columbus, owns home in both, pays various taxes in both – property, city – but registers and votes in the presidential election in Ohio. His wasn’t fraud because it turned on where he works. He mostly works “in” Ohio even if he’s sitting in Chicago while he’s doing it.

  119. 119.

    MattF

    @Matt McIrvin: Which is why GOTV is so essential and why the Trump campaign focusses on reducing the D vote. Again, small changes in poll numbers are due to changes at the margin and those changes are due to people who can’t make up their minds. Not a reliable indication of anything.

  120. 120.

    PsiFighter37

    Apparently Twitter is abuzz with news about “Lady G”, aka Lindsay Graham, hiring loads of male escorts over the years and making them sign NDAs. Man, if this story actually has legs…after Moscow Mitch, Sweet Lindsay is the one who would be really nice to see taken down.

  124. 124.

    PsiFighter37

    @MattF: Well, he is from SC, so collaborating with Trump doesn’t seem to be much of an issue. Perhaps being taken down for being a closeted hypocrite will have more legs. I can’t speak to the morals and values of South Carolinians, though…

  125. 125.

    Kay

    @MomSense:

    The kids were so organized.

    Ours was tiny but nice too- teenagers and twenties and our (one) liberal pastor.
    A tattoo place that is across the street from where they stood for the protest bought them pizza, which is interesting. It’s “Testament Tattoo” and although I like the owner he’s kind of a scammer. Unless I miss my guess he models his “look” on Dog The Bounty Hunter which ya know makes me wary. I would have pegged him as a Trumpster.

  127. 127.

    zhena gogolia

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    Wow. Uncalled for, really. (I’m not a man.)

    Comments are not exclusively for the person they’re replying to. NotMax wasn’t explaining anything to YOU. He was offering a resource for others who might be credulously accepting information. He was supporting and amplifying your comment. I would think you would take his general personality on here into account before jumping to such an accusation.

  128. 128.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: Bikers and Tattoo guys can always surprise.  And they may be some of the people most flexible in their politics.  (Not referring to “Bikers for Trump” which is really an outlier in the biker community in that they are organized for a political purpose. The outlying factor is “organized”).

  129. 129.

    Immanentize

    @zhena gogolia:

    Comments are not exclusively for the person they’re replying to. NotMax wasn’t explaining anything to YOU. He was offering a resource for others who might be credulously accepting information. He was supporting and amplifying your comment.

    This is such a true and obvious point — comments are not private conversations here, they are generally referential. They are a building of a train of thoughts punctuated (or derailed) by links, music, compliments, comfort, insults, extrania, and vitriol. Hail the Jakalariat pack mind!

    But I guess that as
    — what you said (explained) is true and
    — that I am now agreeing to and adding to your comment and
    — in fact I am a man
    I guess it has now been s/hesplained

  130. 130.

    Ken

    @PsiFighter37: I can’t speak to the morals and values of South Carolinians, though…

    Care to guess if they’re higher or lower than Alabamans’?  You know, the “possible pedophile gets 48% of the vote” state.

  131. 131.

    Eural Joiner

    @MattF: uhhh, in SC that’s a major bragging point for him. Have you seen his hair lately?

    The D candidate is polling very strong here right now, but (as always) there are a lot of squishy numbers in those polls that favor Graham and it will come down to turn out in the end. As a SC voter of 30 years now I’m hopeful…but it’s still SC so I’m not really expecting him to lose.

  132. 132.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    I agree on tattoo enthusiasts, not so much with bikers. In my personal experience everyone I’ve ever met who adopts the whole “biker” aura (which is different than people who ride motorcycles for fun) is a Right winger. Maybe I just meet the wrong bikers.

  133. 133.

    Kay

    Sam Stein
    @samstein
    “Kayleigh McEnany cast Florida ballots in 2018 using her parents’ address in Tampa, even though she lived in Washington, D.C., and held a New Jersey driver’s license.”

    So this residency question leans “fraud”. Address and employment in DC, driver’s license in NJ. Her problem is she has no tie to Florida at all on the other side of the scale. If it were prosecuted her whole defense would be “intent to return” and that’s the fuzziest part of residency.

  134. 134.

    WaterGirl

    @Steeplejack: i’m actually grateful that Sanders has remained in the background during this time.  My take is that he may have finally figured out that this isn’t all about him and that maybe he doesn’t have anything to add to the conversation that isn’t/hasn’t/can’t be better covered by someone else.

  136. 136.

    Exregis

    @TS (the original): However, the unemployment rate dropped in May regardless of miscalculation. That’s because the unemployment rate in April was also miscalculated and should have been much higher (as the Washington Post article also mentions). So the rate drops either way if one is consistent (either including or not including miscalculations).

    In our universe the rate drop is a good thing because it shows improvement for people even if Trump gets to boast.

  141. 141.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    It didn’t used to be that way. Lots of the bikers I knew way back when were (ugh at the word) hippies.

  144. 144.

    Another Scott

    @Yutsano: There have been reports of DDoS or similar attacks against sites raising money for bail.  I wouldn’t be at all sanguine about similar things being attempted against the virtual convention.

    Eternal vigilance, and all that.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  148. 148.

    J R in WV

    We voted in the WV primary on Thursday, early voting. Voted for Biden, of course, and John Cole’s fav for governor. Hope things work out, the Democratic party in WV was once a powerhouse, now not so much.

    Would ask folks to kick in a few shekels to Jamie Harrison running against Lindsey Graham in SC. He stands a fighting chance of winning, given the Trump Plague, social unrest, etc. Running neck and neck.

    Just Google “ActBlue page for Jamie Harrison” …

  150. 150.

    The Moar You Know

    There’s some wisdom in Biden’s old school Senate ways.

    @MomSense: There’s just plain wisdom and decency in being nice to people.  Both my parents have spent their entire lives starting shit with people they didn’t have to.  As a result, they’re going to have a hard time getting invites to their own funerals much less anything else.

    I have tried to learn from their mistakes, and more importantly, not repeat them.  The space I have the hardest time doing this in is online, so I dropped all my social media, and solely post here and at one other musician’s site.  And I may drop those too.  I lose my shit at some posters here entirely too often, and need to realize that’s just them being them and if I can’t handle it, I need to leave.

    IRL just being courteous has paid nothing but dividends.  Save from my aforementioned parents, who occasionally still bitch me out (I’m in my fifties, jeez) crying to the heavens that it’s just a matter of time before someone takes advantage of my non-confrontational approach to people.

    It’s only happened once.  I’ll put that track record up against theirs any day.

  151. 151.

    planetjanet

    @Amir Khalid: Sanders already as at least 25% of the delegates (barely) and has earned the right to have supporters on various committees.

  152. 152.

    planetjanet

    @Amir Khalid:  Oh, it has not failed.  A lot are joining the party and moving into leadership.  The discussions are turning left.

  153. 153.

    planetjanet

    @MattF: There will definitely be platform fights online and reorganizing committees.  Locally, they are going after superdelegates AGAIN.

  154. 154.

    Geminid

    There is a left wing internet news site I often read. I’ll call it Common Screams. A lot of  commenters have always been skeptical of Sanders because he is a squish, but possibly useful as a Trojan horse to take over the Democratic party. Once they figured out that wasn’t going to happen his candidacy was still usefull as a club with which to beat the Democratic establishment.                Personally I don’t much like Sanders but I’m  glad he is laying low, hopefully resting. He looked very rough in February. Biden’s  breakout in South Carolina and the Super Tuesday states might have saved Sanders’ life.

  155. 155.

    Geminid

    I saw that the Rhode Island Green Party will contest local and state elections but will not put a presidential candidate on the ballot. This may be a prudential decision. People are so riled up about Trump that a lot of progressive voters would be so enraged by a campaign that could cost Biden votes that they would reject the other Green candidates.

  157. 157.

    Heywood J.

    I was really underwhelmed with Biden from the start, but the past couple months he has stepped up in a way that — well, it doesn’t change anything, since I was going to vote for him regardless — gives me a lot more confidence that he will be able to bring good people in that can help carry the load of repairing the damage Trump and his claque of scumbags have done. Biden knows his strengths — and more importantly, his weaknesses, and will bring in people to help fill those gaps and get things done.

    Regarding that first video in the post, the Atlanta cops dancing:  look officers, we don’t need you to make silly Macarena videos for us. We just need you to stop murdering people, macing little girls and kicking them in the face, shoving elderly cancer patients into the concrete and asphalt. We need you to stop closing ranks every time one of your cowboys goes apeshit on an unarmed civilian, and making sure that behavior goes unpunished. We need you to stop acting like a fucking occupying army, like urban America is the Gaza strip or something. That’s all. Just stop behaving monstrously, just because you know you’ll get away with it. Sound good?

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