Holy crap, Biden almost said racist f**ks just at his presser.
What a time to be alive! pic.twitter.com/Fiu0STimm7
— Danny Deraney (@DannyDeraney) June 11, 2020
maybe Joe is the right nominee for this moment https://t.co/NrTQN4EKk0
— The Public Option is good actually (@gdigitalzsmooth) June 9, 2020
Have you ever considered what would happen if you win and Trump doesn't leave? @Trevornoah asks
Biden: "Yes I have." Adds that with the military leaders speaking out against Trump, "I'm absolutely convinced they will escort him from the White House with great dispatch."
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) June 11, 2020
Yahoo Entertainment:
… Biden added, “This is a guy, you have 23, I believe, states have passed over 82 pieces of legislation making it harder for people to vote.”
On Tuesday, hours-long waits, problems with new voting machines and a lack of available ballots caused a voting catastrophe in Georgia, which is why Biden shared that he’s putting together an initiative of lawyers and other staff members to work on voter protection issues.
“We’re putting together a major initiative of lawyers to go out and make sure that we’re in every single district in the country to patrol this. If I’m president, and this is what worries me, when I’m president we’re going to have same-day registration,” said Biden…
Tonight at 11/10c on Comedy Central: @JoeBiden on whether to defund the police and why he wants to invest in community policing. pic.twitter.com/dnwtjQvWLe
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) June 11, 2020
Biden’s policing reform proposal has some really good stuff in it. Compared to Trump this is a no-brainer. https://t.co/LS9YZToBHW
— The Public Option is good actually (@gdigitalzsmooth) June 10, 2020
Ignore the polls. We can’t take anything for granted this November — the stakes are simply too high.
Register to vote: https://t.co/Hy8C4mIL2M
Donate: https://t.co/BpHN3x7cbq
Volunteer: https://t.co/pTOKTUQT4t
Let’s get to work. https://t.co/gI5KfaGsYI
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 10, 2020
TaMara (HFG)
Thank you for this. I needed to start my morning with some powerful Joe Biden.
Joe, a man after my own expletive-laced heart.
The entire GA voter suppression really tanked me the past couple of days.
SiubhanDuinne
“Racist … … [long pause] … … FOLKS, that’s it, racist folks.”
LOL, good on you, Joe.
Kay
A lot of older white Democrats in Ohio are pleased he’s the nominee but just as a warning, those are also the people who expect a very traditional campaign and they aren’t getting what they expect. They’re already upset about yard signs and the lack of pro-Biden ads on tv – I think they recognize the lack of “events” is because of Covid and they’re fine with that . I no longer know if any of that matters, really, but ya know, give the people what they want :)
One of their complaints does kind of concern me- they say there is no one on the ground in Ohio they can contact. They say they are directed to his national campaign team and that is just not how it’s done. It’s not too late to fix that but he probably needs to. Fast. He’s raising a lot of money now. Hire some people!
SiubhanDuinne
@TaMara (HFG):
You should live here. It’s rage-inducing and demoralising, in equal measure.
Omnes Omnibus
Racist fucks is a perfectly cromulent term.
BTW for those who were part of the discussion the other day when I said many “Biden gaffes” were intentional, I would say that this almost “Biden gaffe” was. And it worked perfectly.
MattF
Hewitt’s WaPo column (don’t read it if you have a BP issue) says that Biden should be ignored. And here we see why the White House wants that.
And, fwiw, Hewitt (and, by inference, the White House) says it’s all about Trump and his courageous battle with the librul elites.
Mary G
He has risen to this moment magnificently just through sheer decency. Black voters led the way and thank Dog Democrats followed. You can see why all the fake scandals slide right off him. I admit it; I was horrified when he got into the race and didn’t want him to win the nom. I was wrong.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
And which group on those polls always comes out as still, STILL, favoring the Evil Orange Moron, even though we’ve long past plunged over the cliff and are now heading for the active volcano?
“Men: -6 (43-49)”
“Whites: -5 (45-50)”
Nice to see that Trump has truly lost the over-65 Fox demographic. It would be even nicer if Fox lost them as well.
schrodingers_cat
My day began well (not) I got a doctored Obama video from my Indian whatsapp contact.
schrodingers_cat
FWIW my relatively non-political husband kitteh supported Biden right from the get go. He is appealing to many non-political types, the ones who don’t obsess about day to day happenings like we sometimes do.
Mathguy
Those polls are so striking, showing that the shitgibbon loves the poorly educated and they love him back.
Baud
I’m glad he caught himself before he said “deplorable.”
Jinchi
Good timing Joe, and 10 points for delivering an epithet with folksy charm. I think he’s been taking speech classes during quarantine.
Calouste
@MattF: Talking about the shitgibbon’s courage or more specifically the lack thereof: has anyone ever seen this supposedly staunch supporter of the second amendment holding a gun? I think he’s too scared for that.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus:
In that clip he sounded in complete control, extremely sharp and eloquent. Compare that to any 1 minute 42 seconds of Trump, ANY, even scripted.
Kay
“News” about Hillary Clinton’s health. Did or does Hillary Clinton have some issues with health? No, she does not. Funny that Hillary Clinton’s “health” helped Donald Trump since in fact Hillary Clinton is healthy as a fucking horse and always has been and has been in public life for 40 years and her “health” was never an issue until they made it one, 3 months before the election.
Are they still concerned about her health or is it like the emails, where they completely stopped giving a shit about secure communications the moment they successfully elected Trump?
WereBear
@schrodingers_cat:
That’s an excellent point.
He was not my first choice because I was so fired up about CHANGE. But he’s bringing that, too. Certainly the man for this moment.
TaMara (HFG)
@SiubhanDuinne: I can’t even imagine. 2018 was bad enough and now they’re doubling down.
Ohio Mom
Not on topic: that mask hanging from one ear looks way too goofy.
I wish there was a way to get this message to Biden’s campaign because lots of people are swayed by stupid, inconsequential visuals.
I am not a stylist, but maybe hang the mask on a cord, like people do with their reading glasses? Hanging on his chest, at the ready to be put to use.
It looks like Pelosi has solved this problem by wearing color-coordinated masks that sit on her neck looking like a scarf. That won’t exactly work for a man but there has to be something that doesn’t look so absent-minded as that mask hanging by one ear-loop.
Sorry for the digression. I just want Biden to win BIG and can’t help but worry about anything that might be a misstep.
Now almost saying the f-word and stopping himself, I think that’s a smooth move. It’s macho amd self-controlled at the same time. And a comeback to those who make fun of Biden’s signature adjective, Malarky.
Mary G
@Kay:
Right on, sister. Come sit six feet away from me.
I hope whatever the Democratic Party does in place of a convention includes HRC let loose to give a scorching NFLTG speech. Along the lines of “I told you bitches so, Deplorable was too weak a word.”
Patricia Kayden
satby
@Ohio Mom: the hanging mask is actually a protocol, if you remove it to set it down you increase the risk of contamination. You can see health care professionals do it, especially when PPE is scarce, like recently. He’s modeling correct mask usage.
Barbara
@schrodingers_cat: Only sometimes?
Gin & Tonic
@Kay:
Since Prince Jared uses WhatsApp to communicate with Mohammed Bone Saw, that’s been answered.
artem1s
@satby:
@Ohio Mom:
Thank the FSM he’s not wearing a TAN SUIT!
Barbara
@Patricia Kayden: It has seemed for the last few months, at least, like Rather has NFLTG.
satby
@artem1s: Headline on NBC news today about the continuing shortages of PPE in, you guessed it, urban areas.
Not to forget more than 600 medical staff have already died from covid-19.
Rand Careaga
@MattF: The first few lines of Hewitt’s column are beyond surreal:
As Charles Pierce likes to say, somebody get the fscking net.
Geeno
@Ohio Mom: I could totally see Biden saying “that’s just fuckin’ malarky!”
It’s one of the things I like about him.
Betty Cracker
My leftier-than-thou kiddo cannot stand Biden and put way too much credence in Reade’s BS story. But she sent me the above clip where Biden almost drops the F-bomb and said that was the most likeable he’s ever been. Well done, Team Biden!
dmsilev
@MattF: I only read his columns for the comments. The Post is much lighter on comment-section moderation than the NYT, so generally the comments to Hewitt columns start with “I see you still like licking Trump’s ass” and degrade from there. Great fun.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ohio Mom: @satby: I had the same thought– I didn’t know about the protocol. And I thought I was pretty on top of this. Of course, I’m still hermiting, so….
@Rand Careaga: Vote for President Trump and you are voting for the Constitution, military strength and robust economic growth.
I sometimes stop and think about North Korea, how badly that’s fucked up and what a fucking mess he’s left for Biden, and probably for years to come. How are the self-styled “national security” types who’ve joined the cult not laughed off the TV roundtables– Hewitt still blights MTP, doesn’t he? I can’t watch Chuck Todd, much less the Ambulatory Cream Cheese Sculpture
Amir Khalid
@Calouste:
In fairness, I doubt POTUS’ Secret Service detail would ever let a president hold a gun. Still, I can’t say I’ve ever seen a picture of Trump with a gun, either. Maybe he’s squeamish about the sight of blood, or maybe he considers hunting a sport for hoi polloi.
Anonymous At Work
giphy.com/gifs/worship-K55exy0toWjQc
eric
@Betty Cracker: has she seen the BFD Biden video.
zhena gogolia
@Anonymous At Work:
You can’t embed a gif unless you’re a front-pager. It came through!
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I get pretty bipolar when it comes to the youngs. Sometimes they seem so awesome, other times they look like monsters.
Amir Khalid
@Betty Cracker:
I liked how he managed to convey the phrase “racist fucks” without quite dropping the F-bomb. 10/10 for verbal skill.
Amir Khalid
@Ohio Mom:
He could have pulled the mask under his chin, or taken it off and put it on the table while he spoke. But then again, I didn’t notice the dangling mask until I saw it pointed out. So maybe it doesn’t matter.
Baud
@Amir Khalid: I didn’t notice it either.
Kay
@Gin & Tonic:
Andrea Mitchell completely forgot about her 16 months of panic that our enemies could read insecure communications. Aren’t they embarrassed? They flogged that issue as vitally important for 2 years and then all coverage of it ceased, like turning off a switch.
Gin & Tonic
@Amir Khalid: His son went on a very expensive hunting trip to Mongolia to shoot some sort of endangered sheep. We had the privilege of shelling out $75k for his Secret Service detail to accompany him. Clearly they don’t care if Junior holds a gun (in Mongolia, anyway.)
Baud
@Kay: The media accomplished their goal and moved on.
I’m hoping we have a monster election in November, but I’ll never forget what happened in 2016.
MattF
@Amir Khalid: The good news is that autocorrect eventually ‘learns’ your preferences.
Betty Cracker
@Amir Khalid: Or just bring a fresh one if the problem is that it could get contaminated!
snoey
@Amir Khalid: Reagan used to carry on his ranch. They finally talked him out of it after this:
cnn.com/interactive/2015/09/politics/ronald-reagan-ranch-history/
Just Chuck
@Amir Khalid: Reagan was popping off guns all the time. Shrub probably made many demonstrative manly shooting actions while he was “clearing brush” at his ranch.
This POTUS on the other hand … I guess his detail would be afraid he’d shoot someone on 5th avenue. Or one of them. I can’t imagine they’d cry if T managed to off himself, but I guess it’d be bad for one’s career.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
On that Twitter thread, health-care workers are kvelling over Joe’s good protocol. ETA: One says something like, “He looks like an ER nurse trying to scarf some lunch in 5 minutes.”
Kay
It’s such a lazy argument. Filled with weepy sentimentality and no obligation, no duty, no responsibility to DO anything. Magical exceptionalism will make us exceptional based not on our actions or efforts but on pining away for some perfect time that never was. There are 8 year olds who are harder on themselves than this. Stop leaning on Lincoln. He did his work.
It’s all excuse making and avoiding hard work. Stop moaning and fix something.
Jeffro
@Rand Careaga: yes…Donald j trumpov, ardent Constitutionalist
??????????
Baud
@Kay:
Ok, but how does that help Republicans?
Frankensteinbeck
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Punditry has a long history of being impressed, even enthusiastic by swagger and bombs. Punditry has a long history of being bored and disdainful of whether anything actually works. ‘National security’ types are assholes who want to see the US bully other countries. Note the word ‘appeasement’. They see negotiation as weakness. They see anything but total domination through fear and force as weakness. It is an ideology, and they also don’t care what actually works.
These two attitudes make best friends.
Baud
@zhena gogolia: Cool. I’d like to get that group on our side.
MisterForkbeard
I hadn’t read Biden’s op-ed on how to deal with systemic racism. I agree, I like it – he’s carefully considered the problem and he’s not willing to use the phrase “I want to defund the police” because he knows it’s a bad fucking idea.
He is pushing to do most of the things the ‘defund’ movement wants. Local, community cops. More social workers and mental health professionals. Police reforms & accountability. And supports removing or lessening police funding if they can’t accomplish these reforms.
MisterForkbeard
@Betty Cracker: My wife (who really dislikes Biden due to his treatment of Anita Hill) also loved the clip.
I think we’re getting into the stage of this where Democratic voters who were turned off by the primary are starting to realize what a decent (and likeable) person Biden is.
senyordave
Hewitt’s WaPo column is worthless. It shouldn’t matter what side of the aisle you are on, a paper with the prestige of the Washington Post should not publish drivel like this. There are no well thought out points, no arguments with pros and cons. It is just Trump is wonderful and Biden is terrible. I think this comment that I read sums it up perfectly:
This is not even an essay. This is pure, unadulterated propaganda. WaPo, surely you can find a more sentient conservative voice than this. It’s embarrassing.
Another comment that takes a different tack is also quite appropriate:
“Vote for President Trump and you are voting for the Constitution, military strength and robust economic growth.” I can just picture Hugh sitting back in his office chair, chuckling to himself, and saying, “I actually get paid to write this crap!”
Barbara
@Rand Careaga: I don’t even bother with Hewitt or the other brain dead conservatives that WaPo has decided to carry for reasons I can only fathom. Basically, they are just so much click bait and I got tired of rewarding WaPo for it.
MisterForkbeard
@Ohio Mom: I saw a lot of people complaining on twitter about this. There were MORE people telling them that Joe was just being safe and modelling correct behavior, which was encouraging.
What struck me is that Biden is taking the mask off somewhat constantly. Basically, he puts it back on when others are speaking or when he doesn’t need to be perfectly clear. So he’s arranging his mask so that it requires minimal contact to get back into the right position.
Barbara
@Kay: The idea that Kevin McCarthy has a special channel to update the thinking of Abraham Lincoln for our times is preposterous.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
My leftier than though kid can’t stand Biden either. He’s redeemed by the fact that he really will listen and learn though. I’ve been giving him an informal history of the Democratic Party and he has absorbed some of it. For us, the difference is he doesn’t identify as a Democrat and honestly I don’t know why he necessarily would. I mean, I did at his age but that doesn’t mean he has to. I find I can talk to him if I approach it like “these are the Democrats and here’s how they are” because he’s not an asshole. He knows I’m one and he’ll listen to the spiel.
Subsole
@Just Chuck:
It’s more likely the dumb fucker would hurt himself than someone else.
Probably get his thumb caught in the hammer, at least.
Kay
@Barbara:
I like the grim, harsh version of Lincoln more than the movie version. I also liked that part about Obama. Obama doesn’t kid himself. They’re serious people. It’s hard. They know it.
debbie
@TaMara (HFG):
Wow! That’s the most powerful, non-teleprompted statement I’ve heard from him yet. Wonderful to hear!
debbie
@Kay:
We got plenty of Biden yard signs here. What’s the objection?
Steeplejack
@zhena gogolia:
Minor nit: I didn’t like the mask hanging off one ear. Looked a little goofy and potentially mockable.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Too, credit where it’s due. Biden’s numbers with the youths are way up in the poll at the top of the page. He’ll do Clinton or better with them, I think.
Omnes Omnibus
It’s amazing. We all condemn Trump for not wearing a mask in public and rightly so. But now, people are jumping on Biden for modeling correct mask protocol? Of course it looks goofy. So does wearing a mask. We just need to change our mental model of what looks goofy.
debbie
@Ohio Mom:
Masks with ties work. You just hook the top tie over your ears when you’re using it and then unhook the top for the mask to be lowered around your neck.
Steeplejack
@Ohio Mom:
Just saw this. Almost my exact words!
Kay
@debbie:
Two of them sent me an email yesterday where they don’t have an OH contact for Biden and someone in the Biden campaign gave them a PO Box to use. A PO Box in Pennsylvania. That is kind of concerning.
They know it won’t be a normal campaign because of Covid. They want to be given directions because most of the normal stuff they do they won’t be doing. It’s the nature of “activists”. You have to give them an action.
Steeplejack
@satby:
What about putting the mask in your pocket?
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack:
Have you ever been in a hospital? I recognized immediately that he was doing the proper thing.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus:
Right!
Baud
@Kay:
This makes me happy. It’s so hard to know whether the stuff you see on the internet is representative or anecdotal.
debbie
@Steeplejack:
You’re not supposed to be touching the mask itself. That where all the virus is.
trollhattan
@Rand Careaga:
Good god, what is this, September 2001 again? Nobody should print Hewitt, ever.
Our dead tree paper wastes precious space on Mark Thiessen today. Y’all will be shocked, shocked to learn that if black lives matter to the country, then so too do police lives. Did you know some police are black? Thanks, Mark.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
Sort of like everybody else.
Gvg
If you turn the volum up as my poor hearing requires he says “these….got to watch my language(said low voice)…folks”
trollhattan
@Barbara:
Are there any Republicans and/or conservatives left who can make a good faith argument, or have they all been drummed out of the corps? I ask because of hazy memories such critters once existed, but today they are, to a man (and occasional woman–looking at you, Kathleen Parker) cartoon cutouts posing as qualified analysts. IDK why papers insist on putting their crap in print, for “balance.”
Kay
The public paid John Bolton to do a job, which he didn’t do, and now he wants you to pay him again for his stupid fucking book about all the ways he didn’t do his job. He wants to be paid for testimony. He withheld it when he was collecting a paycheck from you but he’ll give it now, but only after he’s paid again for it.
When all the Trump reporters at the NYTimes release their Trump books they’ll be doing the same thing. You paid for the newspaper, but they withheld the best part so they could sell it to you separately.
We didn’t get “coverage of Hillary Clinton” from Amy Chozick. We got her side job while she was writing her book about Amy Chozick covering a presidential candidate. You pay these people several times for the same work.
Suzy
I cringed too when I saw this. But after a few seconds, didn’t bother me anymore. Because he looks so confident, doesn’t give a damn about the mask, talks about what’s important. He looks serious and focused. I don’t know… He looks and talks like a president even with that mask hanging on this ear.@Ohio Mom:
Baud
@Steeplejack: Not everybody else. Trump’s base is all monsters all the time. Black voters are almost always awesome. I rarely see much angst among liberal women voters. But I seem to come across a lot of anecdotes, stories, and polling about young progressives that are negative with respect to their feelings towards the broader coalition.
In the end, it affects turnout, rather than voting percentage. I expect that the younger cohort will be our best age demo in terms of the share of the vote they give to Dems.
Kay
What if everyone did what Bolton did? Refuse to provide testimony anticipating selling that testimony in a book? How much and how many times are we supposed to pay these people to do ONE job?
Baud
@Kay: When did Bolton become an expert on impeachment strategy?
Suzy
@satby: Didn’t know about that. Wow. It shows that Joe Biden is very comfortable in his skin, isn’t afraid of how he might look.
My only criticism: he should be careful and not touch his face with his hands.
Villago Delenda Est
The heart and soul of the GOP is now racism.
In the words of the lamentedly late efgoldman, fuck ’em.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Patricia Kayden: And a fact that people rarely hear about: Medgar Evers served in the United States Army during World War II from 1943 to 1945. He was sent to the European Theater where he fought in the Battle of Normandy in June 1944. After the end of the war, he was honorably discharged as a sergeant.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’ve been calling this my tin-foil hat theory for three years now and yeah it’s only a book that I haven’t read and won’t, but I still feel vindicated (Raw Story)
Kristine
@Kay: No idea what good it will do, but I paraphrased your comments in a response to one of the text surveys I received from the Biden campaign. No names–I did mention Balloon Juice–but I did say that hey, there are folks in Ohio who want to help so give them the resources.
MisterForkbeard
@Kay: The argument is basically “America is great, Lincoln thought so and he freed the blacks, so therefore we never need to change again”, I guess.
I do not find this convincing. And honestly, whenever someone puts words in the mouth of a famous president/founder I get highly suspicious.
The Thin Black Duke
I don’t think black voters care how Biden wears his mask.
Baud
@The Thin Black Duke:
As long as he doesn’t drive a tank or go windsurfing with a dangling mask, I’m cool with it.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: He’ll figure it out!
I’m encouraging my kid to focus on local elections. She’ll vote for Biden to get rid of Trump, but I’m hoping she’ll find a state or local candidate to get excited about, even if they end up losing.
I’ve argued that local stuff directly affects everyday life more anyway. The unemployment insurance fiasco here in FL brought that home to her, as did the heavy-handed police response to peaceful protests in Tampa.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
State and (especially) local are more fun anyway, because they’re not such hardened “pros”. They’re regular goofy people and she’ll make actual friends among them.
Kay
@Kristine:
Thanks. These are reliable Democrats. They’re not just bitching to bitch. I see one of the women who emailed me at every single political event, and have for years.
Kay
My son is doing an installation at a GM plant where they’re taking a ventilation system that was used for dust control (they don’t use the process that produces dust anymore) and retrofitting it for increased ventilation and air flow to prevent Covid transmission.
I just thought it was interesting that a big company is taking this so seriously. It’s expensive and they want it done fast.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: His timing was perfect.
trollhattan
@Kay:
Seems to me that a big space like a factory would benefit from exhausting the air out through the roof, so perhaps something like that. The steel mill I once worked at had a baghouse on the roof that did just that, capturing the particulates that once drifted over a hunk of Seattle.
Not looking forward to returning to my ’60s era office building with its recirculated HVAC air. And especially not the elevators.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: Happy to have this news. I was hoping that this might help the young pups connect with Biden.
satby
@Amir Khalid: both moves potentially contaminate the mask. The ear piece is least likely to get contaminated by people breathing at you, so unhooking and then rehooking the mask is the least likely way to self contaminate from your mask or by setting it on a potentially contaminated surface.
satby
@Omnes Omnibus: thank you.
satby
@Steeplejack: gahhhh! NO!
Kay
@trollhattan:
Engineers can probably do a lot to mitigate covid transmission indoors. We’re smarter than bolting in plexiglass shields. We can do better than that. My daughter’s a PA and she talks a lot about limiting risk- that we have to live (can’t stay locked down) so we have to come up with ways to work with it. She’s been treating some Covid patients, they test them once a week where she works and she’s still negative.
I wanted a plan if she tests positive but she has a brand new baby and she looked so stricken when I said it that I couldn’t continue. I think she functions by not dwelling on it. It’s fine. We can come up with it fast. She’ll have a lot of help.
topclimber
Is #FolkTrump trending?
J R in WV
@Amir Khalid:
Actually, the Secret Service allowed VP Dick “Monster” Cheney to shoot a friend in the face with a shotgun, didn’t they? So maybe Trump would be allowed to fuck up Trap and Skeet shooting?
At least wave around a certified harmless weapon with no works inside for a photo op… but nope. Phobic about them, like the sight of blood?
Just ranting here… as always good to hear from you Amir!
Kayla Rudbek
@Kay: UV-C lights in the HVAC for starters patents.google.com/patent/US7704463, UV-C lights in the elevators (with a detector to turn the UV off when the elevator is occupied) , and UV lights mounted on a Roomba spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/medical-robots/akara-robotics-turtlebot-autonomous-uv-disinfect…
Hoodie
@Omnes Omnibus: or quit worrying about whether someone looks goofy, rather than worrying about whether they’re a freaking psychopath.
Ruckus
@Kay:
Do you really need a response?
LongHairedWeirdo
OMG, that’s so *perfectly* put. He can say he’s not in favor of “defunding” the police, yet he can promote the exact same actions as, say, Camden.
Camden eliminated their police, and made all police re-apply as county-level police. By creating a new organization, they can roll out new rules, and start without the toxic baggage that grows within too many police departments.
LongHairedWeirdo
@Omnes Omnibus: keep in mind there are a large number of people – probably 40% or so, given Trump’s approval numbers – who will immediately attack Biden with the “hate o’ the day” message.
They’ll say he’s going senile (let’s have Sarah Cooper lip sync both, and see where she looks more like an ill informed drunk, shall we?); they’ll say he is corrupt because it would help Trump’s reelection chances; they’ll say he’s goofy looking for having a mask hanging off his ear.
His image folks will decide on a better set of options, but, honestly, I understand why having it there is actually better than most other options.
You don’t want to put it down on the table; surface contamination probably isn’t a major way this spreads, but we can’t be sure. You don’t want the front of the mask on the table (that could contaminate the surface), nor the back (that could contaminate the mask, where it touches your face).; you don’t want to hold it in your hands (people fidget with their hands without thinking about it).
Keeping it “live” – in contact with you – is probably the best way for a person to keep good masking discipline, especially for a fellow like Joe, who still hasn’t perfected the “cough into your elbow”. (Hey, it took me a long time, and I’m a lot newer of a dog learning the new tricks!)
There is one thing I’d mention here: the Republicans are mean spirited. The way Republicans win is by pretending to be civil, and letting their friends in the propaganda – er, I mean, “conservative news media” – be the nasty people.
This would be a *great* time to show off their nastiness. Find the fugliest (I don’t have to explain “f ugly” do I?) bit of hate, and use it as a response to someone who makes a pointed barb at Joe, and say “this is why I don’t think it’s a laughing matter.”
See, everyone knows Joe Biden is, above all else, a fundamentally decent man, one who is proud of public service. And they’re going to be spewing all kinds of hate about him.
Point it out. Point out that the President’s son keeps calling Joe a pedophile. (And, remind people that he said Democrats were hoping for millions of Americans to get sick – this is a fine time to say “no, we didn’t; that’s why we begged your incompetent father to do something useful for once in his miserable life”)
Don’t try to be hateful when illuminating hate – don’t counterpunch. Just get the ugly out there, and wonder why it’s never denounced. “Hey, I’m not expecting Trump to praise Biden (though George W, George HW, and St. Ronnie, all would have had praise to speak for him); but he lets his son tell such despicable lies? Seriously: how can you trust anyone who would try to use such a lie?”
Ruckus
@Kay:
You do obviously know that they don’t want to know, nor to fix anything. The robbery is in progress, and the robbers are the republican politicians or their backers. They say anything, the are implicated. They fix anything, they are the one’s paying the check.
Ruckus
@Villago Delenda Est:
As it has been for my entire life. Although it wasn’t, at one time, really the only thing they stood for.