Learn. Their. Names. pic.twitter.com/lYzH8LIj6d
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) July 8, 2020
From the paper of record in the company town whose monopoly industry is politics, the Washington Post: “Trump who? Senate GOP candidates in tight races avoid any mention of the president in campaign ads”
… Republican senators up for reelection this fall in tight races have been unwilling to publicly criticize Trump as he continues to fan racial tensions and struggles to control a pandemic that has devastated the economy and killed close to 130,000 Americans. But they are being careful not to embrace him either.
In their campaign ads back home, it’s as if the unpopular incumbent president doesn’t exist, as Republicans choose instead to highlight their own achievements or go on the attack against their Democratic challengers.
This deliberate approach underscores the difficult position Republicans find themselves in as they head into an election season that looks increasingly grim for the party. The senators don’t want to clash with Trump and rile up his stable of loyal supporters whose votes they will need to be reelected, but they also don’t want to hug him tightly him and turn off more moderate voters whose views of the president have turned negative…
Stop worrying if Trump will win. He won’t. But we need to obliterate him. We need to beat every Repub possible, from Trump to county road commissioners & coroners
By Nov mask-less Repubs who haven’t killed each other will be hiding from people w pitchforks & torches
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) July 9, 2020
And we can be sure that, just as soon as some aspiring competitor brings this to the Squatter-in-Chief’s attention, he’s gonna respond by attacking them as RINOs, and siccing his social-media death cultists on every single ‘traitor’. Conservative columnist Henry Olsen, also in the Post — “This year’s Senate races spell disaster for the Republican Party”:
Republicans are beginning to gird themselves for a landslide defeat for President Trump that drags the entire party down. It could be even worse than they think…
… Public polls show incumbent Senate Republicans trailing in five states: Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Maine and North Carolina. One recent poll from Georgia shows Sen. David Perdue leading his Democratic opponent, Jon Ossoff, 45 percent to 42 percent, but that same poll also shows Trump trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the state by two percentage points, 47 percent to 45 percent. The clear implication is that Georgia is also in play if Trump’s ratings stay down, which would spell disaster for Republicans since the second Senate seat in Georgia, held by appointed Sen. Kelly Loeffler, is also on the November ballot. That’s seven GOP-held Senate seats at a high risk of switching parties, with only the Democratic-held seat in Alabama that is seen as a likely Republican pickup to offset those losses…
Republicans have little control over their fate, given the polarized and nationalized electorate. They could reprise a gambit from the 1996 election, where congressional Republicans argued voters should split their tickets to prevent President Bill Clinton from having a “blank check.” That is always a risky strategy, but it’s even riskier with the notoriously vindictive Trump. He would likely attack any Republican who dared to cut loose from his sinking ship, rendering such attempts futile from the start.
Things could get better. Republicans would hold many seats at all levels if Trump were to lose by only six points rather than 11 or more. Right now, though, for Republicans nationwide, that feels a lot like holding the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Let it be our job, and our joy, to spend the next crucial five months tying their Dear Leader tightly around the necks of every single GOP miscreant. Three hundred pounds of concealer-tainted albatross in an ill-fitting suit is quite the heavy load…
“It’s dark days right now, and anybody who says it’s not dark days is not being honest,” said a GOP Senate campaign aide. “But he can turn it around. He just needs to stop [expletive] tweeting about Confederate flags.” https://t.co/WvAEneDYzg
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 8, 2020
Nora
Great ad by the Lincoln Project. Not a name there I didn’t know and loathe, but good to remind people of how Trump stays in power.
Bruce K
Translation of what that quisling said in the Halberman tweet: Trump needs to stop being Trump.
hells littlest angel
Just a reminder: The Lincoln Project may not be a friend, but it’s an ally. You don’t have to like your allies, but they deserve respect.
Baud
Darkness is Brightness
Dorothy A. Winsor
My kindergarten teacher DIL went to a meeting of her school board last night. They discussed opening in the fall, and she was horrified. They didn’t think the kids should have to wear masks and weren’t all that hot on social distancing that would require rearranging classrooms in some way. She’s seeing her doctor today to see if her health would allow her to return to that situation. She’s had health issues so I predict he’ll say no. But then, whose health would allow going into that situation?
The board is of course made up of people who won an election. There may be no educators or health experts. They may mostly be people who want their taxes lower.
Soprano2
I think that last tweet is absolutely hilarious. That anyone at this point thinks Trump will quit tweeting about inflammatory racist shit is amazing and funny.
Of course the Democratic challengers to those Republican incumbents who are reluctant to even mention Trump need to do everything they can to hang Trump around those people’s necks. Make them own what they did, and what they have been protecting for these past 4 years.
Bruce K
@hells littlest angel: I trust them to fight hard in the war. I don’t trust them to govern.
Anya
Let Trump be Trump, man. Why do you want to change him?
satby
@Bruce K: Fortunately they aren’t on the ballot.
mrmoshpotato
Names, names…..hmmm….
Rick Wilson, Bill Kristol, Jonah Goldberg, Hugh Hewitt…
oclday
This won’t be over on 1/20/21. I expect Trump to sell what ever state secrets he knows to the highest bidder, hell he might just give them away for free.
Anya
I wonder how will the The Lincoln Project leaders survive after Trump? Would they still get a job with the GOP?
sometimes, I feel like they’re doing this because they know the writing is on the wall and they want to claim victory. They’ve defeated Trump, not the millions of Dem voters who would crawl through broken glasses to defeat Trumpism.
Nicole
The political ads that I saw while in Oklahoma were from GOPers who were very happy to tie themselves to Trump. I am curious how they’ll feel about that decision as the pandemic burns on.
Then again, a (liberal) friend who lives there put it well when he said, “The problem is, there’s no social cost to being openly racist here.”
Omnes Omnibus
@hells littlest angel: They can have all the respect they want. They, however, should get no policy voice in the next administration. They were a big part of the Right’s rise to power over the last 40 years, so they help to create the environment that allowed to Trump to happen. That shouldn’t be forgotten.
Nicole
I’ve been mulling that, too, and I think they’re counting on switching to lives as political commentators, since the media has made it very clear it loves having any excuse not to have an actual Democrat offering commentary. They’ll eat up all the right-wing economic stuff Lincoln Project folks will spew out. MSNBC gave Wallace and Schmidt whole new careers.
sanjeevs
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/08/stop-saying-trump-is-denial-truth-is-much-worse/#click=https:…
About time people recognised Trump’s failure on Coronavirus is deliberate and not incompetence.
45 and his people are capable enough when it comes to things they want to do, like packing the courts, politicising DoJ etc
mrmoshpotato
@hells littlest angel:
People who made a living being ratfucking sacks of shit? No. No thanks. Fuck them all and the monstrous party they made and can’t control anymore.
narya
Kitchen update! Half of the cabinets are in! Well, not completely in, but mostly, and I like it. The stacked cabinets go to the ceiling, and don’t waste that space, so I will have a place to store things that I use, but only infrequently (e.g., a large stock pot; pitchers). it looks like today is more cabinets. It may not be ready for the appliances when they arrive Monday, but at least now there’s room in the dining room to stash them. I think I noted that the tile will be delayed, probably until the first or second week in August. I also need to find a screen door. My shelves (unstained reclaimed barn wood) will show up today, and I need to get hooks from which to hang the pans for the bottom of those shelves. I suspect the final “look” will make interior designers a little queasy–there will be at least
fourfive different types/shades of wood in the room (cabinets, floor, window, shelves, counter), so not exactly matchy-matchy.MattF
@sanjeevs: A lesson I learned a while ago is that, by and large, people do what they want to do. Sad but true.
Baud
I’m fine enjoying the LP ads that are enjoyable, but the amount of hand-wringing about them is way out of proportion to reality. In the end, their ads will have less than 1% influence in the election outcome, and there’s no chance Biden will feel beholden to them. (To the extent Biden tries to reach out to the few sane Republicans left, it’ll be because he thinks that it’s best for the country, not because LP made fun ads.)
Joe Falco
In Georgia House races, especially a couple of the Republican primaries that went into run-offs, the R candidates are falling over themselves to prove how Trumpy they are. Georgia Republicans will hold on to the Lost Cause of Trump-ism well after if Trump is defeated in November.
PsiFighter37
@Baud: I am pretty sure Lincoln Project doesn’t actually have much money behind it – pretty sure all they do is release web ads and advertise in the DC local market to get some rent-free space in Donnie’s head.
narya
@Omnes Omnibus: And would someone please ask them about that, in pointed ways? And say to them, yeah, this is great, but you helped create the situation that allowed it to happen, and bring receipts.
Punchy
We’ll know in a few hours if we still have a functioning system of checks and balances between co-equal branches.
If SCOTUS rules in favor of Trump, that’ll be his view that all subpoenas are moot. Watch Barr and Associates go crazy with the bullshit tactics to sway the vote if this happens. In fact, what limits at all would he feel compelled to obey?
Roberts will have a huge say on whether Congress has any power over the Executive. My guess is that he will vote that they dont.
mrmoshpotato
@Bruce K: I trust them to turn their guns on Biden once their orange shitstain is gone.
Donald who? George W who?
Kosh III
@Nicole: The open seat in Tennessee has both Grand Old Posterior primary candidates trying to be the nastiest liars and tying themselves to Trump firmly.
japa21
Trump is tweeting about PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT and PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT.
Guessing he isn’t going to like the SC decisions.
MomSense
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I’m not surprised. They will want to open schools in the cheap. It’s only when keeping the schools closed becomes a crisis to the business owners that we have any hope of getting the funding opening schools will require.
And the fucking CDC has already caved on the school opening guidelines. Our best hope is for teachers to refuse to go back in the classroom.
My personal rant for the morning is the office manager complaining to me that someone came in without a mask and walked right up to her. Her mother has stage four cancer and she can’t get exposed. She said all of this while standing too close to me and not wearing a mask. Now I think she is pissed at me because I didn’t say anything in response. Every other time she has complained about all of us back at work I’ve raised wearing masks and immediately she gets all upset because she can’t breath wearing a mask.
I’m so close to knocking all the papers and files off my desk and walking out.
We are too fucking stupid and spoiled to handle a pandemic.
MattF
@Baud: The question is, who is the LP’s constituency? I like their ads and they go places that Dems don’t… but who, exactly, are they appealing to?
Nicole
@sanjeevs: I read that too, and it has me anxious, because, while I think Trump is dumb as a sack of hammers, I think there is something to the fear that he and the GOP are willfully trying to break down society so as to stay in power. The fact that hundreds of thousands die in misery couldn’t matter less to them. Jesus Christ, they’re willingly sacrificing America’s school kids to the stock market.
To borrow from Luke Skywalker, this is not going to go the way they think. The surest way to have a trip to the block during Henry VIII’s reign was to be one of his close advisors. And I don’t think their beloved stock market will fare so well in a full on societal breakdown.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
mrmoshpotato
@oclday:
I personally think the entire traitorous trash crime family should be arrested as a matter of national security.
dmsilev
For those not familiar with the Post’s roster of conservative writers, they fall neatly into two categories: Never-Trumpers and Lickspittles. Olsen is firmly in the latter category. So, this column is probably best read as him trying to warn the GOP that they have a problem, or perhaps a howl of despair into an uncaring wilderness. If the same column had be written by Jennifer Rubin, it would have been a “I dance on their graves!” perspective.
Amir Khalid
@Anya:
Besides, change is not in Trump’s behavioural repertoire.
rikyrah
@mrmoshpotato:
Hewitt is NOT a Never Trumper
Wag
in my dreams, the GOP is going the way of the Whig party, in to oblivion. My hope is that out of the ashes will rise a new party that will reject the Trump/McConnell/Gingrich never compromise/never yield construct that lies at the heart of our current political disaster.
I also hope that it takes the former members of the GOP a decade or more to get their shit together, buying time for the Democrats to right the many wrongs inflicted on our society by the current GOP.
mrmoshpotato
@Anya:
No. The party they spent 40+ years crazifying will see them as traitors.
Baud
@MattF: As far as I can tell, they only affect they have is to help keep our spirits up.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Kristine
They’re going to keep saying “if if if only he would…” until the ship ? sinks and the wreckage washes up on the shore. You’d think they’d have learned their lesson in 2018. He Will Not Change. If there’s one person left applauding and screaming his name, he will play to that person and the hell with the Party.
i know—stop counting chickens. It would be ironic however if the party that prized loyalty so highly was done in by someone who only prizes loyalty to himself.
Nicole
@MomSense: Wait- so your office manager wants Masks for Thee, but Not for Me?
Oh my god. We are doomed.
I hate wearing a mask- I went to the grocery store yesterday and walked home unable to see for the first quarter mile because between the change in humidity from the store and the outdoors and the mask, my glasses fogged right up and I could not see. So I took my glasses off. It’s not that hard, people. Wear the stupid mask.
MomSense
@mrmoshpotato:
Word. Fuck Rick Wilson especially.
rikyrah
@hells littlest angel:
They are not our friends. But, will take them as allies in this fight
Baud
@japa21: That’s a good sign.
dmsilev
@oclday:
Look at the silver lining. That scenario, once he’s no longer President and can declare whatever he wants to be declassified, is a flat-out brings-jail-time crime.
mrmoshpotato
@narya: Is a remodeling post in the works so we can all ooooo and ahhhh?
Anya
@Baud: who’s afraid of LP having any policy influence over a Biden Admin? I haven’t seen anything like that. Mostly I see people predicting that they’ll be in the pundit seat talking about how Biden is a socialist and the Dems hate the military and are destroying capitalism, etc.
MattF
@rikyrah: Nor, I think, Goldberg. Although Goldberg is more reality-based than Hewitt.
Baud
@Anya:
There are comments.
Jeffro
Someone should find a way to let trumpov know about his buddy John McCain’s twist on an old saying:
“It’s always darkest just before…it goes pitch black.”
So. much. winning! King of the World and all that, amirite there Donnie?
PST
I actually read a George Will column that I found thoughtful and interesting. I know that doesn’t seem possible, but he makes a good argument in The Woman Biden should pick to lead us to calmer days for why Representative Karen Bass would be the best vice president. It’s not that I’m suddenly persuaded, but I found myself wondering why she hasn’t received more attention. I see her fairly often on MSNBC and she always makes excellent sense. She’s a former speaker of the California State Assembly, a 10-year veteran in Congress, and chairman of the CBC. She’s not flashy, but that may be a virtue this year. Anyway, I’m not trying to start a Bass boom, just expressing wonderment at a good Will column.
MomSense
@Nicole:
I’m the only person who wears a mask in my office. I’m furious.
Kay
I’ve now reached the point of this where I regularly don’t sleep well.
One thing I find comforting is it isn’t really “4 months” to the election. Cut that by 6 weeks – early vote is huge now. Tick tock.
I know electing Biden won’t fix everything – he’s walking into a catastrophe- and I of course am aware that he doesn’t come in until January but I think people will be much more hopeful and forward thinking once he puts a competent team together, etc. and if we do well in congressional races there will be a bunch of new faces and they’ll be raring to go. I don’t know about other people but I need a lift and just that energy will improve my outlook.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: But… But… They are willing to say things that no Democrats are willing to do…. If only Biden would let his ad guys be that ruthless….*
*I just thought I should give equal time to the other side of the hand-wringing.
MJS
I enjoy the LP ads, especially the fact that they’re running in DC on Fox News, but I’m more than a little tired of the, “This is how you do it” and “Democrats don’t do this stuff” nonsense. I recall a woman saying this stuff directly to Trump’s face and telling people that it was racists and other deplorables who supported Trump. She was a Democrat, but apparently had some issue with emails that rendered her unacceptable. The time for these ads, and this effort, was really 2016. An LP then may have made a difference.
dnfree
@narya: every kitchen that we re-did, starting in the early 1970s, had cabinets to the ceiling, even if there were nine-foot-ceilings, for exactly the reason you state. In the 70s we had to go with a 24” tall cabinet on top of a standard 36” tall cabinet. I don’t see the point to having a foot of dust-collecting space, or a soffit, over top cabinets.
Eclectic is fun! it’s your space. You might be surprised that some decorators size you up and come up with ideas that fit what you like, not some predetermined concept. They think it’s fun to work around quirky furnishings you already have.
mrmoshpotato
@narya: No one in the mainstream media will ask them in pointed ways.
Browse some of Driftglass’s blog if you want that.
narya
@mrmoshpotato: It is! But only the “before” photos, for now. WaterGirl kindly contacted me, and I even found a pic from before I did the window/transom. It was actually kinda cool to try to find photos to tell a story, rather than the usual random assemblage that lives on my (and probably everyone’s) phone.
Baud
@Kay:
We’re all dealing with the history of how Clinton and Obama only got two years. Especially Obama, since he inherited a worse situation and was more ambitious. Obviously, everyone hopes people have learned their lesson and it won’t happen again, but then again, 2016 was not that long ago.
p.a.
Agree: allies, not friends. LP to GOP, “you morons, you’re saying it out loud! also you’re too incompetent to drum up splendid little wars.”
SiubhanDuinne
@Punchy:
He’s already sent out tweets PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT! and PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT! this morning. Sounds like he has a hint of what may be coming down from the Supremes. Didn’t somebody here mention a day or two ago that the President, as a courtesy, routinely gets advance notice of SCOTUS decisions?
mrmoshpotato
@japa21: Serious question – how could he possibly have any idea ahead of the ruling being made public?
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
The info may have been leaked to Trump in this case, but to my knowledge, that “courtesy” is the norm in most cases.
japa21
@mrmoshpotato: He probably gets heads up from a clerk.
Baud
@mrmoshpotato: Backchannels.
Omnes Omnibus
@p.a.: Also, to the extent that there are people who really did have a Road to Damascus moment, they get to come to us. We don’t need to go to them. Cole could do it. They can too.
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah: He’s still a cyborg sent from the future to destroy America. Fuck him too.
Anya
@Baud: one and a half comments don’t make an amount.
Luciamia
Reporters should ask every single day are Trumps kid and grandkids going back to school?
H.E.Wolf
Today’s Electoral Vote blog has some information on Senate and House races. Not looking great for Republicans.
The link should go to the start of the relevant section. If not, scrolling up or down ought to find it.
electoral-vote.com/evp2020/Pres/Maps/Jul09.html#item-6
JoyceH
@MomSense: I just got a face shield in the mail, going to add it to the mask. The mask protects you from me. The shield protects me from you. I’m tired of betting my life on other people being considerate.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anya: Would you like Baud to go through the last six months of blog comments and link each one? Because I am sure that he would love to do that.
hueyplong
@SiubhanDuinne: President isn’t actually supposed to get advance word, but we suspect Trump gets it and Buchanan famously got a heads up about the upcoming Dred Scott decision so he could make some comments in his inaugural about rallying around and accepting whatever comes down from the Court.
Belafon
@MattF: What if their target audience is:
1. Pissing Trump off, causing him to do stupid stuff
2. Keeping Democrats focused on getting Republicans out of office
3. Causing those few Republicans who have become uncomfortable with the party to realize they can vote for the other guys.
Nicole
And any chance of that not happening will, I think, depend on Democrats repeating, over and over, every opportunity they get to be on TV, “The current situation is the Republicans’ fault.” Over and over. It needs to become their own party Baba Booey shout- no matter the subject of the interview, they work that in. Because voters in 1932 got that it wasn’t just Hoover’s fault, and gave the Democrats control of the House, with 2 brief (and one assumes, quickly regretted) switches, until 1994.
Mind you, I have zero faith in any Democrats doing it. They will try to “work with the GOP” and in 2022, we’ll be looking at a red Congress. AAAAUUUGGGHHHHHH.
Punchy
@hueyplong: I’d suspect the route of transmission is Thomas–> wife of Thomas –> various GOP operatives–>Preznit
Eric S.
@oclday: <blockquote>hell he might just give them away for free.</blockquote>
I think we can be sure that’s not going to happen.
MomSense
@JoyceH:
Thats a great idea. Where did you order a face shield?
mrmoshpotato
@narya: Excellent!
Betty Cracker
Trump is kinda freaking out on Twitter, and for a moment, I dared hope maybe he got a heads up that an unfavorable SCOTUS decision was forthcoming. But no, it looks like he’s TiVOing Fox News rage-bait and getting all spun-up about OBAMAGATE again.
laura
@Nicole: they’re willingly sacrificing America’s school kids to the stock market.
It’s worse Nicole, they’ve been willing to sacrifice America’s school kids to the gun industrial complex for years – there’s nothing that they are not willing to sacrifice- nothing stands in their way in the pursuit of power – power without accountability.
JoyceH
@MomSense: there is a wide selection on Amazon. Go for a shield that wraps around to just before the ears and extends a couple inches below the chin; those are supposed to do best. I think mine were something like two for ten bucks and came rather promptly.
Gin & Tonic
@MomSense: My office, which I’ve only set foot in a handful of times, at off-hours, since mid-March, has firmly and explicitly required masks of everyone all along, and is not relaxing that.
geg6
I love this ad so much I want to marry it.
Amir Khalid
A quick reminder about allies like The Lincoln Project. There may come a day when the fight is won. On that day the victorious allies will gather to celebrate, as victors always do. And, as temporary allies will, to steal covetous glances at each other’s spoils.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud:
“Waaahhhh!!!! Obama didn’t give us everything else n 2 years! We’re not gonna vote! (pouts)”
mrmoshpotato
OT – Shake your bones
MomSense
@JoyceH:
Awesome!!! Thank you so much
mrmoshpotato
@SiubhanDuinne:
The orange assclown always did hate Diana.
mrmoshpotato
@japa21: Hooray for separate branches of government!
Anya
@Omnes Omnibus: I would enjoy that. How else would he prove to me he’s a viable presidential candidate?
MattF
@Betty Cracker: That’s bizarre + nuts. Trump is unable to deal with his resentment towards Obama– and that resentment always comes first. I guess all the predictions that he’s losing to Biden make it worse.
geg6
@PsiFighter37:
I can attest that they have run ads in battleground states…well, at least this one. I’ve caught a couple of the very best ones running here in the Pittsburgh market.
jonas
I love all the Republican observers talking about “how if Trump would just shift gears and stop doing X…” he might have a chance, and they’re getting worried, etc., etc.. It’s almost as if electing, and then selling your soul to, a narcissistic sociopath with no empathy and no desire to take advice or learn was a bad idea.
satby
@Baud: @MattF: The Lincoln Project is on Instagram, Twitter, and FB and their videos are widely shared on all thise platforms as well as on YouTube. They’re doing brilliant guerrilla marketing to younger voters as well as getting into the traitor’s head.
Anya
@Betty Cracker: I am little scared about the SCOTUS decision. I am expecting the absolute worst.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anya: Hey, Baud! We have a project for you.
jonas
Maybe they think they’re doing this, but if you still have a raging pandemic on your hands, forcing everyone back to school will *not* help the stock market.
mrmoshpotato
@Eric S.: I’ve got this thing and it’s fucking golden, and, uh, uh, I’m just not giving it up for fuckin’ nothing. I’m not gonna do it. And, and I can always use it. I can parachute me there.
By the way, I should say, if anyone wants to tape my conversations, go right ahead, feel free to do it. I appreciate anybody who wants to tape me openly.
MattF
@jonas: Some Trumpite commentators (e.g., Thiessen) inhabit an alternative space-time continuum where Trump is actually someone else. Thing is, there was an opportunity in 2016 for Republicans to select someone else, and they didn’t.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker:
I……ummmmmmm……..wait……what?
mrmoshpotato
@jonas:
Morning sarcasm is the best sarcasm.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@mrmoshpotato:
I can’t even remember what Obamagate was. Or is?
jonas
From what I can tell, their intention is to burn it all to the ground, sow that ground with salt, and build a new, non-Trumpist, non-populist center-right party in its place.
Omnes Omnibus
@Dorothy A. Winsor: He was President. And Black. At the same time.
mrmoshpotato
@MattF:
Are you talking about the voters or the party, because the voters overwhelmingly picked the traitorous, racist, fascistic, pu**y-grabbing, Soviet shitpile mobster conman.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
People wonder what the LP is doing with its ads – simple.
They’re forcing Trump to make errors.
Every time a new ad floats, his psyche can’t handle leaving it alone – he feels obligated to respond in his customary fashion.
mrmoshpotato
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Something about Obama tappping Dump’s calls or some such garbage. It was so many millennium ago.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Good. I want them away from schools. 500 feet, at minimum.
No one even knows what Obamagate is. Have they figured that out yet?
Omnes Omnibus
@mrmoshpotato: Not that I want to defend GOP voters (the ones who voted No Trump in the primaries voted for people like Ted Cruz), but did really choose Trump overwhelmingly? Wasn’t a big part of his getting the nomination due to the fact that the GOP primaries were winner take all and he kept getting pluralities?
Kay
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
They’re certainly watchable. They work as “ads”, for anything, really.
Punchy
and build a new, non-Trumpist, non-populist center-right party in its place
Haha! That’s too funny! Have they been to Alabama or North Florida lately? South Cackalacky? There’s no “center” in those people at all. You cant get within 5 miles of “center” with a large majority of those knuckledragging mouthbreathers. Might as well build some unicorns and jackalopes, too.
mrmoshpotato
@Kay:
Forget it Jake. It’s Bullshit town.
SiubhanDuinne
@Anya: Me too. I’m clenching my teeth waiting for it.
germy
mrmoshpotato
@Omnes Omnibus: I’d heard he got the most Rethuglican primary votes in history. I haven’t done the research or number crunching to confirm it.
Kay
@Punchy:
They forget what happened. In 2012 white working class (racists) didn’t come out to vote for Romney and so they had a choice- chase those people or become more inclusive. They chose the former.
It’s just gone down the rabbit hole, but this was a WHOLE public discussion in the GOP, and it happened before Trump came down the elevator. The Party rejected the Romney path.
Kay
@mrmoshpotato:
I was hoping they would lose interest in schools in 19 hours. I can’t get a CPO to keep them off the property but that’s next best.
Honestly not a one of these people has any interest at all in public schools. It is the LEAST prestigious and powerful area in the federal government, which is why they stuck America’s schoolchildren with Ivanka and the yacht club lady.
Llelldorin
@Punchy: I don’t think they think that they’ll win there at all. I think this is the sliver of the GOP that wants to do what the Dems did in the sixties—tell the white supremacists to take a hike. They’d rather have a smaller party centered on suburban districts.
Jinchi
@Luciamia: Do they go to school at all? They’re rich enough to have private tutors if need be. My guess is they’re not sitting in a class with 35 other kids.
SFAW
According to the banner at TPM, SCOTUS has upheld the criminal subpoenas for the Grifter-in-Chief’s financial docs.
Keeping my fingers crossed that they do the same for the Congressional subpoenas, but I’m still worried they won’t
ETA: CNN says that they ruled he is “not immune” from subpoenas, but the question of getting the financial records is still undecided?
mrmoshpotato
@Jinchi:
They’re mobster enough to threaten private tutors if need be.
Fixed.
MattF
@SFAW: Also, it says here, 7-2 against Trump on the Congressional subpoena. And SCOTUS website has crashed.
ETA: case will go back to lower courts.
Uncle Cosmo
@mrmoshpotato: “Dem bones, dem bones, dem – spry bones!”
mrmoshpotato
@MattF:
SCOTUS rulings are the hottest rulings in every town!
Dorothy A. Winsor
low-tech cyclist
The GOP Senators will try to walk that line – not rocking the Trump vote, but trying to render invisible their connection to him, at least in the eyes of semi-sane GOPers.
As I keep saying, an impeachment vote would fix that. Force them to take a very public vote where they either have to vote for Trump and the escalating death toll, or jump ship.
SFAW
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Dummy that I am, I thought that was the job of the SCOTUS.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Kristine
@MattF: wow.
Can’t recall where I read that the SC is one of the first places to check to see which way the political winds are blowing.
SFAW
@low-tech cyclist:
None has been spotted “in the wild” for a number of years, you know.
Completely agree. It won’t happen, but I would love to see it.
SFAW
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Not what I would have predicted, but very glad to see that. Of course, we’ll have to see how long his backbone lasts.
A Ghost to Most
@mrmoshpotato: I trust the Lincoln Project to help save America far more than I trust gutless purity ponies.
NotMax
@Dorothy A. Winsor
I believe the highfalutin legal term for that is cannus downroadito kickimus.
;)
Ruckus
@sanjeevs:
There is a difference between cheating the game and actually doing the work. republicans are good at cheating the game. But that very thing limits what they can do for anyone/everyone else. Their policies, such as they are, are to kick everyone else out and only have sycophants in their place. Solidarity is their action, theft is their goal. So assuming that they can do other things, like selflessly help others, like be for the better good, like do the right thing, like do the smart thing isn’t going to happen. That would be like a zebra changing it’s stripes to different colors. These are people who have taken religion and merged it with racism and taken capitalism and merged it with the mob bosses.
They can get worse, but they are incapable of healing themselves or anyone else.
And those that are, already have. The lines have been drawn.
SFAW
@Ruckus:
Terry Gross had Sarah Posner on yesterday, talking about “Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump.” It was both scary and interesting to hear what her research showed.
lee
Remember the discussion here about the LP after Trump?
I’m pretty sure this ad just answered that question. They are in it for the long haul (Cruz is not up for releection for another 4 years). They want to purge the GOP of anyone that supported Trump.
I’m not sure if the deplorable Rick Wilson is going to stick around that long or will he revert back to his deplorable self.
lee
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
That is the best news I’ve heard in a long time.
mrmoshpotato
In complete agreement there, but I’m not losing sight of their ratfucking histories.
I’ve said before, I’ll take the ads, but that’s it.
Miss Bianca
@MJS: Word.
Just because I enjoy seeing the Boys of LP turn their guns on one of their own, for a change, doesn’t mean I embrace them, and doesn’t mean I’m ready to forgive this country for ignoring, belittling, and hamstringing HRC when she tried to tell us the EXACT SAME FUCKING THINGS, only in a timely manner that would have averted disaster if she had been heeded.
You remember why Kassandra was doomed to speak the truth and be ignored? Because she resisted Apollo’s attempts at a little date rape. That was his revenge.
Think about it. What’s actually changed in that societal dynamic in 4,000 years of Western history?
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: Word on that, also. Too.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: The remodeling post is scheduled for tomorrow (Friday) at 10 am.
This one shows what’s happened so far – the next one will show it all being put together again.
patrick II
@Nicole:
Giving Wallace a new career was worth it. She is damn good.
artem1s
@MJS:
I remember all kinds of flack she got for saying these things out loud. God forbid we discuss racial injustice and not focus on white people problems that will all be fixed with a minimum wage and free college and weed. Dems aren’t allowed to have hard hitting campaign ads! they might upset the nice white suburbanites and make them vote for an R again (which they were going to do anyway). I’m glad the LP is attacking their own, it’s their responsibility to clean up this mess after all. It also leave room for Dems to highlight what good governance looks like and not be attacking just for the sake of attacking.
dopey-o
@mrmoshpotato:
If Blagojevich had just stepped into Obama’s Senate seat, he’d be wearing expensive suits, appearing on tee-vee and be set for life in a blue Illinois. But he got greedy.
No wonder Drump pardoned him. Birds of a feather.
Bill Arnold
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
The recent Israeli experience (early June) is relevant:
Schools outbreak jeopardises Israel’s emergence from strict lockdown (David G Rose, 6 June 2020)
Bold mine:
LongHairedWeirdo
See, this is what *really* scares me. He really can’t turn it around. He’s let the pandemic spread too far, and the economic damage is going to be too great. Sports – think of the multipliers, right? It’s not just the gate, and the concessions, and the TV sales. There are sports bars that would have gotten a fellow through several beers, but now he might pop in for a quick one, or maybe two if they put on a good marble race.
Movies – not just producers, but all those theater owners, and their workers. Bars and restaurants; and, remember all those stories of the food destroyed, because it couldn’t be prepared for sale before spoiling – that’s hurting the farmers, the food prep (dairy/meat packing/etc.) workers, etc..
The Democrats had the right idea of monthly stimulus checks. That would have kept the wolf from people’s doors, and kept stable payment money (rent, mortgage, utilities) flowing. The PPP was a fine idea, too, and, yes, some straight-up bailout money for businesses that we want to keep ready for normalcy.
But that didn’t happen, and now, it’s not just that I think the Republicans see the problems, but aren’t willing to help. A fool saying that, that a reporter feels is credible enough to quote, means there’s a pretty good chance they really are *that* clueless – they really think Democrats are wrong about everything, and that it’s somehow just plain bad luck that this pandemic hit and did the damage it did.
It’s like, they don’t even realize how Hillary Clinton would have made sure there was a working test (“SHE BOUGHT THE GERMAN KIT! Just because there were some ‘questions’ about the CDC test!”); and would have been securing PPE starting by mid-January. Yes, indeed, she’d be acting like the US really is “a shipping clerk” and accused of corruption because she pumped so much help into New York early on, while sending lower amounts to red states that hadn’t had major outbreaks yet.
The US would be tracking hospitalizations and assessing danger zones, and helping make plans for what to do if one hospital or another is overloaded; there’d be plans in place for expanding hospital capacity, either for Covid-19 patients, or non-Covid-19 patients; but most importantly, there’d be a test-trace-isolate program in place that mean those plans go on the shelf, for the next Democratic administration to review (unless Republicans start respecting competence).
That’s what really scares me. They’re screwing the pooch, on live TV, with someone screaming “that’s a dog, you idiot!” and they’re responding “yeah, no DEMOCRAT would do this to show his love of America, right?” as if what they’re doing is, in fact, competent and normal.
It’s one thing to put on a good face for the rubes. It’s a really bad thing if the rubes are running the show.