Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

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

The next time the wall wtreet journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

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

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

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

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

“But what about the lurkers?”

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

This fight is for everything.

Come on, man.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Sure, Jan (Open Thread)

Sure, Jan (Open Thread)

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Big “you’ve never met my totally hot girlfriend because she lives in Canada” energy in this tweet:

I don’t know for sure that Trump will lose the election, but all the data we have says he’s losing right now, and he knows it. It must be absolute hell for a fragile narcissist like Trump to contemplate the ego annihilation that a big fat rejection at the ballot box would bring. It was one thing in 2016, when he was angling for a media empire and didn’t expect to win. Now he’s been president for a few years, and the people will render their verdict.

Trump has been a failure for 74 years, but until now, he’s never been in a situation that other people’s money and a geyser of bullshit couldn’t turn around. It’s still possible that money and bullshit could turn this situation around too, but the clock is ticking. In the meantime, I hope he spends every waking moment screaming at the low-quality hires to do something and dreading the possibility of becoming the first one-term president of the 21st century.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

156Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    dreading the possibility of becoming the first incarcerated one-term president of the 21st century in American history.

    I can dream.

  3. 3.

    Major Major Major Major

    Yeah, he’s definitely at the point where he’s throwing white power tweets against the wall to see if they’ll stick.

    But it’s a long, corpse-strewn road until November, so who knows what things will look like by then.

  4. 4.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Donald can’t grok that when he tweets crap like this, he’s only digging himself in deeper.

  6. 6.

    Major Major Major Major

    NJ gov is indefinitely delaying reopening indoor dining, and Cuomo is considering the same (it would start next week) for NYC. Hopefully he makes the right choice here. Not a safe activity.

  7. 7.

    Don K

    @Baud:

    Hehe, I keep dreaming of that, and of his whole house of cards tumbling down, leading to the entire family living in a box under a freeway overpass avec sparrow and radio antenna (or sans, for all I care). Ah, a boy can dream…

  8. 8.

    HumboldtBlue

    Day-glo Joe?

    Not-a-GI-Joe-Joe?

    Joe Momma?

    Ho-Ho-Ho-Joe?

    Just trying to help out the prez over here.

  10. 10.

    Calouste

    No one would ever lie to you Donnie, would they? Certainly not the people with the poll numbers?

  11. 11.

    Benw

    Lots going on in that tweet, but I agree with the big orange dummy about Fox News…

  12. 12.

    JPL

    It appears that the representatives that questioned the dear leader were given a bullshit performance at the White House about the latest Russian hoax.   The NYTimes was wrong and he will respond forcefully if true.    McEnany attacked the NYTimes but not the Russians cuz why not.

    How do you stand by and support someone more aligned with Russia than the USA is beyond me, unless it’s about power and judges.

  13. 13.

    MattF

    ‘Internal’ polling means ‘adding ten percentage points’. And no, I’m not making a joke— I’m ready to bet real dollars that it’s true.

  14. 14.

    West of the Rockies

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Well, Covid will have to diminish, the economy will have to improve, unemployment will have to decrease, and civil unrest will have to at least have the space for healing… As all those things are somewhat (or very) linked, Donald J. Dump has his work cut out for him.

  16. 16.

    Kropacetic

    People want LAW, ORDER & SAFETY!

    For all your bluster about these principles; they are, in fact, your antithesis.

  17. 17.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I always thought it would be impossible to do indoor dining and bars unless we aggressively got the virus under control, as other nations have done.

    Here in Ohio, where Governor DeWimp always listens to the experts and science, he defended his decision (right or wrong!) to not mandate public mask wearing because a significant number of Ohioans would’ve resisted it! Never mind how most people go along to get along and would’ve likely followed the law. He might’ve offended some idiots.

    People aren’t going to feel the urgency if it’s just recommended

  19. 19.

    Kropacetic

    @MattF: ‘Internal’ polling means ‘adding ten percentage points’. And no, I’m not making a joke— I’m ready to bet real dollars that it’s true.

    Would still have him losing if the polls I’m seeing are a guide.

    @West of the Rockies: What is the new nickname anyway?  I haven’t heard.

    Corrupt Joe.  Projection isn’t only for movie theatres, apparently.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    Today's decision reaffirmed that states can't put in place laws that unduly burden a woman's right to make her own health care decisions—but the fight isn't over. As President, I'll codify Roe v. Wade and protect a woman’s constitutional right to choose. https://t.co/qFrH8hFst8— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) June 29, 2020

  22. 22.

    hueyplong

    @MattF:  The Fake News polling doesn’t even account for the Steiner segment of the voting population. They will show up to the polls to a (white) man and sweep him back into office.

  23. 23.

    Anonymous At Work

    @MattF: Would be willing to start a betting pool with odds if we could get our hands on (and verify) the numbers he’s seeing.  I think it adds enough to be margin of error (some plus, some minus) in all his 2016 states and puts a few more in play.  I bet it even does it with one layer of honesty and it isn’t until you hit crosstabs (e.g. “left-handed tuba players plus registered Republicans”) that you see the lies.

  24. 24.

    Aleta

    I’ve got some tears in the eye from this SC decision but not for joy;  but for thinking of Kavanaugh-Collins and ‘respect precedent’ which he doesn’t give a flying fuck about to the extent that Roberts can contradict him and it doesn’t matter.  Which to me right now  (I’m assuming w/o much reading) implies a stark naked admission that he will probably always obey what he was bought to do.    So I’m thinking of those 270+n  other lifetime appointments, a tear-jerking disgrace.  All I can do is wish for a law that would be feasible (though not bloody likely) that if a pres. is found guilty even after leaving office of, for example, treason or massive self-interest and corruption,  all his lifetime appointments must be subjected to investigation followed by another vote.

  28. 28.

    Martin

    I  will direct people to this article.

    Two weeks before the majority leader’s stunning 11-point loss on Tuesday McLaughlin’s poll showed Cantor with a 34-point lead over professor Dave Brat (R). That cushy margin caused Cantor’s team to treat the race much less seriously — and likely was a major factor in the shock of both Cantor’s staff and national observers.

    It’s not the first time McLaughlin has missed. In 2012, his polls found GOP Senate candidates Linda McMahon of Connecticut and Tom Smith of Pennsylvania statistically tied just weeks before they both lost by double digits. A poll for former Sen. George Allen’s (R-Va.) campaign weeks before Election Day had him up 47 percent-44 percent against now-Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Mitt Romney leading in Virginia by 7 points. Romney lost by 4 points, and Allen lost by 6.

    He also had Rep. Bob Dold (R-Ill.) up double digits weeks before he narrowly lost his reelection bid, Massachusetts’s Richard Tisei (R) leading Rep. John Tierney (D-Mass.) by 17 points less than a month before he lost, and a neck-and-neck race against Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) less than a month before she won with 68 percent of the vote in the heavily Democratic Queens district.

    Any guesses who Trump recently hired to do polling? McLaughlin is the ‘unskew the polls’ guy who is convinced there are more Republicans out there than there actually seem to be and that correct polls are just designed to suppress GOP turnout.

    So yeah, Trump believes he’s winning, if only the losers that he hired would do their damn job.

  32. 32.

    artem1s

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    because a significant number of Ohioans would’ve resisted it!

    it wasn’t a significant number of Ohioans who resisted masks.  It was that a significant number of the minority who wanted to open up Cedar Point, sportball practices and megachurches, showed up to the State House with guns to make their point.  Then the death threat to Dr. Acton started – and DeWimp (I like that) was fine with her resigning because he wasn’t getting the heat from the ammosexuals.  Next time he won’t have her skirts to hide behind.  we are heading for another lock down – it may take a few sportsball students dying to get it thru to the yokels that the white flight burbs are plague ridden now.  Once their precious angels start getting sick, they’ll be back with their guns screeching about why didn’t he protect them.

  33. 33.

    dmsilev

    @MattF: Over the weekend, the Post had a big Trump Campaign In Disarray story, and the takeaway message was that all he needed to do was (a) completely change his personality and governing approach and (b) gain ten points in the polls, and then he’d be fine.

    Some Trump advisers and allies are privately pushing for sweeping changes to the campaign, including the idea of a major staff shake-up and trying to convince the president to be more disciplined in his message and behavior.

    […]
    The president must straighten his campaign out and convey to the American people that he can move forward and lead,” Rollins said. “He’s got to go out and add 10 points pretty quick. If he can do that, he’ll win. If not, Biden is sitting there as the alternative.”

    […]

    Trump has recently been asking advisers whether he should stick with his current nickname for Biden — “Sleepy Joe” — or try to coin another moniker, such as “Swampy Joe” or “Creepy Joe.” The president is not convinced that “Sleepy Joe” is particularly damaging, and some of his advisers agree and have urged him to stop using the nickname. In a tweet on Sunday, Trump tried out yet another variant: “Corrupt Joe.”

  34. 34.

    hueyplong

    @debbie: Wait, she acknowledges that the public will be pissed about repeal of the ACA but figures the people who did it won’t be blamed?

    So she’s saying they’re going to be dishonest about this (as they are about everything else), and the media’s sole job is to assess whether the lies are working.

    Of course, the sad thing is that I can’t be sure which of us is less tethered to current reality.

  36. 36.

    Martin

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Shit, that was the advice 30 years ago. But there were always enough anti-abortion Dems in the caucus to block it. If we win the Senate in Nov, that will no longer be the case. We will need to kill the filibuster though.

  37. 37.

    justaguy02

    Covid has Trump’s campaign on life-support. Not looking good.There are very few undecideds left.

  38. 38.

    Nicole

    As much as Biden wasn’t my 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th choice, I will say it’s fun to watch Trump flounder in his attempts to attack him.  He’s an old white guy, just like Trump, so none of the identity politics Trump counts on are of any use to him.   He can’t call him ugly, he can’t call him nasty, he can’t use any of the gendered or racial or ethnic insults so near and dear to him.   And Trump doesn’t know how to attack opponents on policy, because he doesn’t understand it.

    I read an article about Nancy Pelosi, where it was mentioned that sometimes Democratic candidates for office call her and apologize for having to attack her or oppose her in their campaigns (based on where they were running) and her response is always, “Just win, baby.”  That’s where I am at now.  We just need to win, baby.

  42. 42.

    catclub

    @debbie: These are people who think the Democrats made it so bad ON PURPOSE, that the GOP had to destroy it.

     

    Except by actually passing a better bill.

  45. 45.

    Geminid

    In 2016 Trump had the second lowest vote total of the ten major party candidates in the five presidential elections since 2000, barely exceeding John McCains 2008 total. This November I hope he will set a record for low votes that will last the rest of the 21st century.        But I will settle for trump losing the electoral vote.

  47. 47.

    Mike in NC

    Seems like only back in April the Fat Bastard was hoping to “pack the churches” just in time for Easter, and to have a vaccine ready “within weeks”, but that didn’t happen and the country and most of the planet are heading for Niagara Falls. Hope he has a bigly supply of Adderall to get by.

  48. 48.

    catclub

    @Martin: We will need to kill the filibuster though.

     

    I think the Hyde amendment could be repealed without a filibuster proof majority, since it is a spending bill. Kill that and the ‘gun research Forbidden’ rule.

  49. 49.

    Martin

    @hueyplong: I don’t understand why they’ve trotted out the repeal and replace bullshit. If USSC strikes it down, it’s gone. They need their replace ready that day and it’s obvious they don’t have one. At least with repeal they could argue they’ll ease it out, but USSC affords no such luxury.

    No way Joe doesn’t make that clear to the public that the GOP plan is to just end it.

  53. 53.

    Martin

    @catclub: That could, but a proper abortions right bill will get filibustered. I didn’t read Joe’s comment as a Hyde Amendment repeal, but as a civil rights bill.

  55. 55.

    senyordave

    @Don K: If you want an example of someone who had a fortune and ended up losing it all, read about Leonard Tose.  He made a fortune in trucking, owned the Philadelphia Eagles back in the day, had five wives, but was a compulsive gambler and an alcoholic.  He lost everything, spent his last years alone in a downtown hotel room (paid for by, among others, Dick Vermeil, and dies alone in a hospice wing of a Philadelphia hospital.  Unlike Trump, he was an American success story whose father was a Russian immigrant who made good, and the son made it big.  He also was a philanthropist, helping to start the first Ronald MacDonald House.

    If anyone ever deserved to end up alone and broke, it is Donald Trump.  Although it would be even better if the whole family ended up penniless.

  56. 56.

    danielx

    @dmsilev:

    Over the weekend, the Post had a big Trump Campaign In Disarray story, and the takeaway message was that all he needed to do was (a) completely change his personality and governing approach and (b) gain ten points in the polls, and then he’d be fine.

    Yeah, read that same article. So all he needs is a personality transplant from the Dalai Lama and it’s all good, eh?

  58. 58.

    MattF

    @justaguy02: Agree that there aren’t many undecideds. However, the fact that Biden’s polling continues to improve means that the properties of the small pool of undecided voters are changing over time and that voters don’t stay undecided. Apparently, support for Trump is an either/or proposition— voters support him until they don’t.

  59. 59.

    Hoodie

    It must be absolute hell for a fragile narcissist like Trump to contemplate the ego annihilation that a big fat rejection at the ballot box would bring.

    The thing about narcissists is that they aren’t all that constrained by reality because all they really care about is how they feel. With victory a fading hope, Trump’s narcissism will lead him to find a way to avoid the psychic injury. He’ll soon start setting up external actors responsible for the defeat, so be prepared for even more whining and conspiracy theories. The real question is how far people like Barr will go to enable that and what they think they can achieve from that as far as their own agendas are concerned. In that sense, Barr is really not that much different from the alleged “adults” that thought they could manipulate Trump to get what they want. Barr is just willing to debase himself more because he has a pretty nutty agenda himself.

  61. 61.

    Raoul Paste

    In my neighbourhood I’m seeing the same thing I saw during the last year of George Bush‘s presidency

    The more ruin he brings, the more flags his supporters put in their yard

  62. 62.

    different-church-lady

    As always, it’s the language of a manipulator: “Everyone else is lying, I’m the only one who’s telling you the truth, I’m the only one you’re safe with.”

    The entire freakin’ country is an abused spouse.

  64. 64.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Martin:

    That could, but a proper abortions right bill will get filibustered.

    Tack it onto a budget bill that goes though reconciliation.

    I’m all in favor of getting rid of the filibuster, but there are a number of Democratic traditionalists that want to hang on to it.  I believe our (very)senior Senator is among them.

  66. 66.

    Chief Oshkosh

    At the end of the day, there’s two things that I just cannot get my head around. The first is the caging of children. The second is doing nothing about the bounties placed on US soldiers. Republicans very quickly adapted to caging children. Many of my former acquaintances are dead to me due to that. I wonder how they will excuse Trump for the bounties? It’s a foregone conclusion that they will. I guess they’ll just say that everyone is lying except Trump.

  67. 67.

    dmsilev

    Everything Is Fine

    L.A. County coronavirus cases surge past 100,000 with record high one-day tally

    Los Angeles County confirmed 22 additional coronavirus-related deaths and 2,903 new coronavirus cases Monday, the largest single-day number of new infections the county has reported since the pandemic hit the U.S. The daily tally brings the total number of coronavirus cases in L.A. County to more than 100,000.

    The alarming spike in cases is not only related to increased testing, Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said. The surge is proof that community transmission has “definitively” increased as the positivity rate of infection nears 9%. Officials are now warning that 1 in 140 residents are likely unknowingly infected with virus, a huge increase since last week’s projection of 1 in 400.

    In addition, health officials revealed that more than 500,000 people visited newly reopened nightlife spots in Los Angeles County on June 20 when the county gave the green light for bars, breweries, wineries and similar businesses to reopen. Officials said that 49% of bars and 33% of restaurants in the county were not adhering to social distancing protocols this past week. Additionally, inspectors found that workers at 54% of bars and 44% of restaurants were not wearing face masks or shields.

  68. 68.

    Anya

    Weird capitalization aside, does “internal Polling Numbers” mean his sycophant low hires are giving him the Sadam Hussein treatment by giving him exaggerated approval numbers

     

    ETA: I think at some level he knows he’s losing. When he had his ego boost session with Hannity he actually talked about Joe Biden like he was already elected.

  70. 70.

    rikyrah

    These stories horrify me.

     

     
    California man says 28 members of his family have tested positive for coronavirus including his 60-year-old dad who passed away just before Father’s Day

    • Richard Garay was the first in his family to fall ill with the coronavirus last month  
    • He said shortly after he became sick, 27 family members came down with virus  
    • His father, Vidal Garay, 60, was among the family members to be hospitalized 
    • Vidal Garay’s health continued to decline until he died a day before Father’s Day
    • Richard Garay said most of his family members have since recovered from virus 

    By VALERIE EDWARDS FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
    PUBLISHED: 12:20 EDT, 28 June 2020 | UPDATED: 18:31 EDT, 28 June 2020
     

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8468191/California-man-says-28-members-family-tested-positive-coronavirus.html?ito=push-notification&ci=20574&si=733427

  71. 71.

    laura

    Flop sweat, loser stench and actual dereliction of duty/treason blowing up in his greasy saggy face. I’m not willing to rest on this election and am going to do any/everything to help Dems up and down the ballot, but the loser stank is building and it’s long overdue. Still, loser stinks like a loser losing.

  72. 72.

    Ohio Mom

    I’m reading predictions that Trump will announce he is not seeking a second term. Without considering whether that is likely or not, my question is, If this happens, then what?

    Who steps up to take his place? Does not having Trump to run against diminish the big blue wave we are all hoping for?

    What does the Lincoln Project do, do they equate Trump exiting as democracy defended and close up shop?

    Frankly, I am not convinced this would be good for Biden. Ironic because like everyone else here, I want Trump OUT and I think I don’t care how. But maybe I do?

  76. 76.

    danielx

    Assuming (hopefully) that Trump is crushed like a grape in the election, adding to my wish list –

    I don’t want to hear any of this ‘let bygones be bygones’, ‘look forward and not back’ bullshit – again. Yes, I want a Biden administration to get stuff accomplished. I also want to see some motherfuckers in jail doing hard time for fraud, perjury and whatever else congressional and grand jury testimony can produce in the way of charges.

  77. 77.

    Eunicecycle

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I stopped watching his briefings that day. My observation in my part of Ohio is, if you tell people they must do it, they do it! Menards requires masks; people do it. My church requires masks; people wear them. Another church close by doesn’t require them; only about 25% wear masks. Yes, people will bitch and moan, but most will do it if you require it! For the few people who can’t wear a mask for whatever reasons, it’s ok. Like we don’t have to vaccinate people with compromised immune systems is everyone else gets the vaccines.

  78. 78.

    Bard the Grim

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: You had me at “I ‘borrowed’ the disability/gift connection from Bujold’s Miles Vorkosigan.” :)  Congrats on your book, and making the cut for Whatever.

  79. 79.

    VeniceRiley

    Trump only wants to gin up his racist base; so “Joebama” is my nick candidate.

  80. 80.

    Jeffro

    @Kropacetic: “Let’s see…we’ve already used ‘Crooked’…what else helps blur the lines/encourages more both-sides coverage?”

    (grabs nearest thesaurus)

  81. 81.

    tokyokie

    My point about der Trumpenführer is how many people who voted for somebody else in 2016 will vote for him this time in light of his performance in office? Very few, I’d say. And which states that he lost in 2016 will he win this year? My guess would be none. And which states that he won last time will stay with him? The last polling I saw had him down double digits in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, down by 8 points in Florida and Arizona, and even down in Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, and Texas. So what’s he going to do to regain his footing with voters? React competently to a crisis? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

    In 2016, Clinton carried only three of the top 10 states in population: California, New York, and Illinois. I haven’t seen polling from those states, but then I don’t think anybody believes that a lot of people in those states will suddenly decide that the country needs an incompetent, stupid bigot running things. In the other seven — Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, and Michigan — he’s trailing. But McLaughlin won’t get paid for telling His Orangeness the truth, so he’ll continue to lie.

  82. 82.

    Baud

    @Ohio Mom: Whoever the GOP chose would neither be has hated (by us) or loved (by their base) as Trump.  But the process of choosing could really tear the GOP apart.

  83. 83.

    dmsilev

    @Ohio Mom: Well, at this point the primaries are over so it’s not like they can field a bunch of candidates. So instead, the delegates to the R Convention would have to vote on a replacement. I’m pretty sure they’d pick Pence, although it is certainly amusing to contemplate an actual floor fight. As for the electoral consequences, I think unless Trump also simultaneously resigned and was locked in a Faraday cage to block out any Tweet attempts, he would still effectively be on the ballot.

  84. 84.

    MattF

    @Ohio Mom: Trump is the big fat target at the top of the ticket, but the Lincoln Project attacks Trump’s enablers as well, including, in particular, Republican Senators. That might not work so well if Trump is gone…

  86. 86.

    senyordave

    @Ohio Mom: I think it  is bad if Trump doesn’t run.  I think in states like GA and TX, whoever would replace Trump will make the GOP palatable again to some fence sitters.  Most of Trump’s base will probably still turn out.  I want him running.

    I hope the state of New York makes it crystal clear that they will go after Trump on January 20, 2021.

  88. 88.

    tomtofa

    @dmsilev: Doc, of course – the stuttering one . . . though he’ll probably go with Dopey, cause he’s too lazy and thick to do innuendo.

  89. 89.

    Hoodie

    @MattF: It would be interesting to see what these guys at the Lincoln Project would do if Trump dropped out and they replaced him with a standard Republican who was a Trump enabler.  My guess is that they’d drop all of the attacks based on Trump enabling because of the opportunity to get back on the GOP money train.

  90. 90.

    tokyokie

    @dmsilev:

    What is the new nickname anyway?  I haven’t heard.

    I was holding out hope that he’d follow Sleepy with Sneezy, Grumpy, Bashful, etc.

    I think a good nickname would be “President Joe.”

  91. 91.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    Magic, mirror on the wall

    Who’s lead the polls for the fall?

    *

     

    A handsome Joe I see

    Alas, he is more fair than thee.

  92. 92.

    Steeplejack

    In 2016 Trump ran on racism, misogyny and “drain the swamp.” Now we’ve got COVID-19 swamping the country, and Biden is kryptonite to the MAGAts because (1) he ain’t black and (2) he ain’t a woman. Every fake charge that Trump levels at Biden reminds everybody that the same thing is really true about Trump—times eleventy!

  93. 93.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I read your Scalzi piece this morning, and I’ve been thinking all day about your observation uneasy characters make for compelling stories. That really helps me understand what happened to one (later two) of my favourite fictional characters once their conflicts were resolved and they were no longer “uneasy.” This happened when a new author took over after the characters’ creator had abandoned them — and, whether she knew it or not, I’ll bet that’s why! Anyhow, an interesting and provocative insight there, for which I thank you.

  94. 94.

    MattF

    @Hoodie: It’s not obvious. Attacking enablers without Trump around would be significantly harder and less rewarding (and less satisfying), and success is the metric for campaign consultants.

  95. 95.

    Calouste

    @Ohio Mom: 

    The only benefit for the shitgibbon (and keep in mind that he only thinks about himself) in not running again is if the GOP candidate wins and protects him from prosecution. He might entertain that for a little bit until someone explains that the only way a GOP candidate is going to win is by explicitly running against the shitgibbon legacy.

  98. 98.

    cmorenc

    Trump’s potential path to victory isn’t through persuading a substantial number of voters not already firmly in his corner to change their minds about whether he deserves a 2nd term – it’s through de-motivating or suppressing or deflecting (to 3p) enough of the rest of the electorate who would otherwise have turned out to vote for Joe Biden.  After nearly four years as POTUS, there simply aren’t very many potential Trump-curious uncommitted voters out there to potentially harvest; he’s a completely known, completely defined quantity at this point impossibly positioned to redefine himself.  His further problem is: so for the most part already is Joe Biden – trying to re-define Biden at this point is kind of like trying to re-typecast Tom Hanks as a villain.

  100. 100.

    Redshift

    I’m enjoying the fact that Trump clearly thinks polls are themselves a thing, and not a reflection of what people are saying, so if he can just convince everyone the polls are different, more people will vote for him. Just like if he can BS enough that the virus is under control and the economy is doing great, it will be.

    Taking nothing for granted, but candidates who only want cherry-picked results that make them feel good rarely do well.

  102. 102.

    James E Powell

    @dmsilev:

    I was holding out hope that he’d follow Sleepy with Sneezy, Grumpy, Bashful, etc.

    Doc Biden would be okay, but Jill’s already using it, no?

  109. 109.

    Hungry Joe

    So in order to win the election, all Trump has to do is convince more people to vote for him. That’s … sound. Unassailable. Brilliant. Reminds me of a bit of wisdom disgorged by Howard Cosell in (I think) a ‘78 World Series game. The Yankees were shutting out the Dodgers in the late innings. “The Dodgers,” Cosell informed us, “have got to get on the board.”

  111. 111.

    JPL

    Twitter is telling me that trump’s wheels on his bus are starting to fall off with more folks stepping forward about his views on foreign policy.

  112. 112.

    Martin

    @Baud: I’m not so sure. The Villages video does point out just how committed much of Trumps base is to the white supremacy dream. The question is whether they constitute the majority of the  GOP base (I assume so at this point) and so replacing Trump with someone not as committed to that cause, particularly at this moment in time when they are losing that culture war so badly, would likely lose them in Nov.

    IOW, I don’t see any way for the GOP to build a winning coalition of voters from where they are in the near term. They have to  push out the racists, they have to find a large enough constituency to replace them, and they need to do that despite the fact that in their strongest states, they comprise the majority – so good luck getting them on board with this.

    It’s going to take longer than 5 months. It’s going to take longer than 5 years.

  114. 114.

    Brachiator

    I don’t understand these fantasies of Trump resigning or not running. They remind me of all the predictions that he would drop out at various points in 2016.

    Even if (when) Trump is defeated in November, he could complain until the end of time that election fraud deprived him of his rightful victory.

  115. 115.

    tokyokie

    I think that suffering the worst electoral loss by an incumbent president since Hoover in 1932 is more than der Trumpenführer’s fragile narcissistic ego can handle, so he’ll drop out and blame widespread voter fraud. But because he’s such a self-centered asshole, he’ll wait until late in the race, like mid-October, to do so, causing maximum damage to the GOP. He probably believes if he were to fail to be re-elected, it is the Republican Party that failed him, and it will need to be punished.

  118. 118.

    Ohio Mom

    Callouste,

    Hmmm…I hadn’t considered that possibility, of a quid pro quo between Trump and the to-be named substitute. Being protected from prosecution would be a good trade for Trump, and getting him out the way a good deal for the entire Republican Party.

    I guess we will have to hope that Trump’s narcissism gets in the way. But there are a lot of people who would benefit in addition to Trump, starting with the rest of his family. One assumes they have some sway over him.

    He’s made unsavory deals his whole life, what’s one more? And now I have totally depressed myself.

  119. 119.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    I’ve always found “Do Nothing Democrats” to be one of the weirder bits of projection. Is it not general knowledge that Mitch has 400+ Democratic bills he’s sitting on?

  120. 120.

    low-tech cyclist

    I’m sure Trump’s next nickname for Biden will turn it all around, amirite?

    Seriously, attacking Biden is almost like trying to attack a very likable version of ‘generic Democrat.’  IOW, it’s next to impossible.  And the stuff that might have been weaknesses in the primary, like the 2005 Bankruptcy Act, are things that the GOP loves so it isn’t even on their radar to think of attacking him over.

    Since muddying the Dem candidate is the GOP’s main approach to winning (emails! Swiftboating! Ayers, Alinsky, etc!), this really cuts down their paths to a win.  And they can’t exactly run on their record.

  121. 121.

    evodevo

    @oatler.:  The cops said he panicked and floored it when they started smashing out his back window…but I don’t see a broken back window in the video…

  126. 126.

    mrmoshpotato

    Are these internal polling numbers from his very good brain inside his fat, orange, fascist pumpkinhead that sucks Putin’s asshole?

  128. 128.

    zhena gogolia

    @JPL:

    oh, I misunderstood, I thought you were talking about the rumors that he’s going to not seek a second term. Thanks!

  129. 129.

    mrmoshpotato

    @SiubhanDuinne: I’d like his last complaints from the gallows.

    “Waaahhhh, don’t throw my body next to brown bin Laden!”

    “Fuck you, traitorous bitchwaffle!” (trap door opens)

  132. 132.

    evodevo

    @Ohio Mom: Yes, you do care…You really want him to stay till the election, because the momentum against him, that would drive a record turnout of OUR people, would falter if he’s not there to incite disgust.  And we want that.  I, for one, want to drive every Repub possible down into the dirt, in an unprecedented wave, and that wave will lose strength if the Mad Orange King is no longer at the top of the ticket…remember, the GOPers will be just as bad if he’s there or not, and their policies will be there as well.  We can’t afford to lose at this point.

  133. 133.

    sanjeevs

    “Some of the things he said to Angela Merkel are just unbelievable: he called her ‘stupid,’ and accused her of being in the pocket of the Russians …

  134. 134.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Is it not general knowledge that Mitch has 400+ Democratic bills he’s sitting on?

    Trump yearns for the days when Sanders handed him attack lines against Hillary.  He thinks he can play all sides in his attacks.  ‘Do Nothing Democrats’ is aimed at the left, who do not know about that 400+ bills, or more accurately are convinced that if Democrats really wanted those bills passed, McConnell would not have been able to stop them.

  135. 135.

    Aleta

    @Martin: a small point, not about your larger one:

    The Villages’  parade in the video was a campaign event.  Designed to attract voters, they hope, by showing large numbers supporters who’re excited and insanely committed.  I don’t know the reality (how much dedicated support is in the US).  I just don’t think the level of absolute commitment to him in the US can be gauged by the video.

  137. 137.

    Kay

    A guy in our local Democratic group said last night “Biden is Obama’s third term, and that’s what will kill Donald Trump”

    It’s true too. It’s even better beating him this time because now it’s a rejection of the Trump we have come to know, instead of the phony “successful businessman” bullshit they sold. Now it’s a personal rejection.

  138. 138.

    trollhattan

    @rikyrah:

    Sweet tapdancing Jesus, what a clusterflock. What part of California? (Asking for a friend who’s blocked at the site)

    Our county’s recent jump is almost entirely from family gatherings. Do you good people not get how this thing kills?

  140. 140.

    Kay

    Seung Min Kim
    @seungminkim
    ·24m
    Really strong reaction from
    @BenSasse
    on reports that Russia paid bounties in order to attack Americans and Trump saying he wasn’t briefed on the matter

    The biggest fraud in Congress sticks out his chest and struts around in circles again. He has some stiff competition too, serving with Rand Paul and Susan Collins and he’s STILL biggest phony by a mile.

    He won’t do anything. He never does.

  143. 143.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @trollhattan:

    Our county’s recent jump is almost entirely from family gatherings.

    Damn. My cousin, who herself is particularly vulnerable due to a respiratory condition, was lobbying to have a family barbecue– outside and socially distanced! Another cousin pointed out: “You have one bathroom, and it ain’t outside.”

  144. 144.

    low-tech cyclist

    @Kay: Yeah, Sasse is real good at posturing bravely.  If he’s good for anything else, I’ve yet to see evidence of it.

    But the media need to believe that there are decent Republicans out there, so they’re taken in by his act.

  145. 145.

    Martin

    @trollhattan: The current working theory is that weather that drives people indoors is the problem. Northern cities in winter, southern cities in summer. Slow to spread outside, but inside to recirculated air, and <boom>.

  147. 147.

    low-tech cyclist

    @Frankensteinbeck:

     ‘Do Nothing Democrats’ is aimed at the left, who do not know about that 400+ bills, or more accurately are convinced that if Democrats really wanted those bills passed, McConnell would not have been able to stop them.

    I doubt it. It’s more aimed at the average doesn’t-pay-much-attention-to-politics voter. Because one of the things Mitch McConnell is right about, is that he can make bills disappear by not taking them up. When he does that with a bill, it’s not a story anymore, and poof! it’s gone from the news, and from most voters’ minds.

    The Dems did indeed pass a metric ton of bills last year, but after the first few, they didn’t get much traction in the news in the first place, because the reporters already knew Mitch wasn’t going to take them up.  So of course ‘do-nothing Democrats’ works on your typical voter.  Or would, if they weren’t too scared of the coronavirus to give a damn whether the Dems had passed bills or not.

  148. 148.

    Martin

    @trollhattan: It’s really a bit of a mess. State dashboard suggests declining hospitalizations in LA county but LA county  is indicating a large uptick – expecting to run out of beds in 3 weeks (which I’m skeptical of). Maybe the testing data hasn’t made it to the state dataset yet, but LA was doing pretty well overall.

    Not sure how to square things.

    State still projecting statewide hospitalizations to quadruple over the next month, but I don’t see any countywide trends to support that. Sure some county projections are climbing, but not many. Maybe there just isn’t enough county-level granular data which leaves us unsure where the big uptick is.

    Pretty sure OC is seeing a decent uptick though.

  149. 149.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Martin: Bangalore! Except that hot, humid air will be surging northward very shortly, and once daytime highs on the Least Coast & up the heartland snuggle up to triple digits (& maybe just as important, overnights remain muggy with lows in the 80s), people will be packing into air-conditioned venues for respite – & that is when the fecal matter will impact the air circulator.

    IMO the second wave in those areas will start to show up NLT the last week of July & be roaring away by Ferragosto (15 August to you non-italo-americani).

  151. 151.

    WaterGirl

    @Major Major Major Major: I didn’t say it didn’t suck.  But as I like to say about a lot of things, you can either pay now, or pay later, with interest.

    I’d rather have us do what we need to do now in the hopes that we haven’t fucked this up so badly that there is no getting control of it, ever.

  152. 152.

    Kay

    Jon Lovett
    @jonlovett
    ·6h
    Our failure to contain to virus resulting in millions of kids being unable to go back to school full time in the fall has such far reaching consequences for their futures, their parents’ jobs, the economy, etc. etc. – and we’re just barreling towards it.

    Not to whine and it doesn’t even directly affect me because my youngest is a high school senior next year, but this situation makes me feel more panicky and hopeless than anything in Covid so far.

    We’re just going to fail them. We couldn’t even manage to get them a bare minimum school. No other country blew this off like we did. Every single other country did better on this than we did. We didn’t even try.

  154. 154.

    James E Powell

    I read the CNN article and I really have to wonder about the “some senior US officials — including his former secretaries of state and defense, two national security advisers and his longest-serving chief of staff” who were willing to tell Carl Bernstein this stuff, but not the American people.

    We had this little thing going on called impeachment. It would have been a great time to speak up, but they all stayed quiet. I do not have the vocabulary to express my rage or disdain.

  155. 155.

    Hoodie

    @Kay:  Idiot conservatives obsessed about government debt, but the real debt is thirty years of disinvestment in government to pay for stupid wars and tax cuts.   If Republicans had put one-tenth of the focus and resources on Covid that they put out in response to one-off terrorist attack from a group that wasn’t nearly the existential threat to our citizens or our economy that Covid is, we could be in a position similar to that of most of our EU allies.  We’re living in a termite-eaten shotgun shack with a fancy new truck parked in the front yard.  But we’re free!

  156. 156.

    Don K

    @senyordave: 
    My thoughts exactly (see my @7 above). I grew up around Philly, but moved away a while ago and didn’t know about Tose’s unfortunate end.

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