I mean, of course the RNC is being cancelled. Everyone without an (R) behind their name knew it was going to be cancelled. The Democrats decided this MONTHS ago, and thus will be able to hold a good, strong, virtual convention with lots of programming and as much pageantry as is possible in such a setting, and the Republicans will basically have an unscripted zoom meeting and some fucker will Leni Riefenstahl up a zoom meeting for Cheeto Benito.
It’s the same with the coronavirus stimulus. The Democrats passed a bill in the house two fucking months ago, because it was obvious where we would be today (although, it was not entirely obvious that Republicans and Trump would botch this so bad). The Republican caucus in the Senate still does not know what the fuck they are going to do.
It’s literally the same with everything they do. They are reactionaries, and Cleek’s Law is as accurate as the crazification factor. They just want what they want when they want it and then when things go to shit say no one could have predicted and find a way to make things worse or just lie that things aren’t bad.
It’s who they are. It’s what they do.
rikyrah
No lie told.
They really thought that forcing open those states was just going to beat down the virus.
And, show all those blue state crybabies.
That’s what they thought.?
Frankensteinbeck
McConnell’s reputation for genius strategy is thoroughly undeserved. He’s a world class asshole who’s good at obstruction because he is such a piece of shit he gleefully does things that are so obviously Wrong no one else would consider them. He didn’t want to do a stimulus because he hates helping people and hates giving Democrats anything, and he’s watching the polls and now his balls are in a vice, but he still absofuckinglutely hates helping people or cooperating with Democrats, so he’s flailing.
dmsilev
Some guy who the Republicans have basically disowned and/or forgot about.
CaseyL
I still think the GOP may all be enemy agents. It’s hard to believe they could be *this* clueless; it has to be deliberate.
azlib
This was all too predictable. What is amazing me is McConnel’s negotiating position is a lot worse now than it was 2 months ago. The Dems are in a win-win situation politically. They do not have to give many concessions with the pandemic raging on worse than it was then.
mrmoshpotato
@rikyrah: “The virus will just go away with the heat, or the cold, or Dear Leader calling it a total loser on Twitter.”
?
Keith P.
They’ll probably still be able to get Scott Baio to do a guest appearance. I bet they can throw together some commemorative Zoom backgrounds for the occasion as well.
mrmoshpotato
Bernie-voting friend in Michigan just texted me.
I wanna reach through my phone!
HumboldtBlue
The world needs more Bolivian wannabe Boy George traditional rocking pan flute bands.
World would be a better place.
Eljai
The first hour will just be pasty white people saying “is this thing on?” with the sound of toilets flushing in the background.
West of the Rockies
@Keith P.:
Scott Baio… Good heavens, I forgot about him. Throw in Victoria Jackson, Nugent, Malkin, Milo, Palin, Dennis Miller… Yesterday’s wingnuts have fallen on hard times and faded from media attention.
ballerat
@rikyrah: I honestly think they thought the virus would kill mostly notwhite people, especially in blue states and especially especially in big cities.
Which they are still OK about. It’s just that recently it’s hurting more of the people that weren’t supposed to be hurt.
mrmoshpotato
@HumboldtBlue: But do we have to go back to ’81?
FlyingToaster
@Keith P.:
I can hardly wait for RateMyRoom to get ahold of these…
AnotherBruce
@West of the Rockies: That’s a good observation. The 3rd rate schmucks are dropping like flies. They wont be missed.
ballerat
@CaseyL: I think there is varying degrees of deliberateness to it.
Roger Moore
Didn’t their parents ever tell them, “When you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”? I don’t think my parents ever used those exact words, but they sure as hell made that exact point.
West of the Rockies
@AnotherBruce:
Now, if only Lil’ Tucker, Limbaugh, and Hannity would similarly fade, the world would be better off.
smike
@rikyrah:
It’s called “Owning the libs!”
mrmoshpotato
@smike: Dying to own the libs?
smike
@mrmoshpotato:
Whatever it takes, “Own the libs!” is the mission.
Balconesfault
Good planning takes away so many grifting opportunities.
mrmoshpotato
@smike: Morons.
NotMax
They are revanchists.
John S.
Wow.
i just saw the Trump ad with the bad guy kicking down grandma’s door because Joe Biden will defund the police. Coming from an incumbent, it reeks of desperation and flop sweat.
Just, wow.
NotMax
@John S.
Wait until they up the ante to zombie Willie Horton slurping granny’s brains.
//
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax:
You joke but…
NotMax
@NotMax
Amended.
Wait until they up the ante to zombie Willie Horton, wearing a ragged, stained “Vote for Joe” T-shirt, slurping granny’s brains.
//
JoyceH
I do wish that some mayor or governor would arrest some of these paramilitary goons and find out who they are. If the feds aren’t coordinating with the locals, the locals have no idea really whether those guys are federal or some right wing militia. Assuming they’re feds (or contractor mercenaries, another strong possibility), get their names and do some background checks on them. I’ll bet you’d find social media posts from them that would curl your nose hair.
frosty
@HumboldtBlue: Yes!! More Bolivian zampona (pan flute) music!! Have you heard any with the baritone or bass? The low pipes come down to the player’s knees.
frosty
@mrmoshpotato: The tag at the end was 1990. So maybe that’s 1980 in Bolivian music years?
frosty
@JoyceH: They’re coming to Albuquerque because the wingnut County sheriff invited them over the governor’s and mayor’s objections. Can the city arrest them? Dunno.
HumboldtBlue
@mrmoshpotato: @frosty:
This fucking place.
And let us remember our current anthem.
frosty
@HumboldtBlue: Zampona AND quena. Nice! I bet Rahsann Roland Kirk would have figured out how to play them simultaneously. LOL.
Calouste
@JoyceH: Force them to take off their shirts and uncover all the swastika and white power tattoos.
patrick II
Their distaste for planning (too much effort) is why they love macroeconomic libertarian free-market theory — no plans necessary, the free market will make everything turn out ok, just get out of the way. No thinking necessary.
BeautifulPlumage
Speaking of the fed mercenaries, they have arrived in Seattle. Anyone else going to the rally at Green Lake on Sat?
frosty
@HumboldtBlue: That anthem was great!!
JoyceH
I read in the news that the Portland dads who are showing up at the protests with leafblowers to blow the tear gas back at the feds call themselves Dadtifa.
HumboldtBlue
Portland is standing strong. Well done.
Poe Larity
You are giving them way too much credit. You always need to assume the worst.
Put another way, what does Trump know about JAX that we don’t know?
opiejeanne
@BeautifulPlumage: OH NO!
I really hate this.
opiejeanne
@Poe Larity: That it’s freaking hot and humid there in August?
oatler.
“not naturally wicked but, on the contrary, as guileless as any man that ever lived. His great simplicity, however, together with his cowardice, made him the slave of his companions, and it was through them that he at first, out of ignorance, missed the better life and then was led on into lustful and cruel habits, which soon became second nature.”
SectionH
@Frankensteinbeck: Some of us Kentuckians (Le Comte) and ex-inmates (me, for one) have told all y’all on BJ about Mitch repeatedly. In serious detail. tl;dr -He’s a fucking evil sob. There’s nothing else. Just his power, and pain to everyone else.
ColoradoGuy
I’m convinced this level of fucked-upness is not an accident. I mean, really, the CDC wasted SEVEN WEEKS on a failed test, when every single day of pointless delay added a huge number of casualties? Surely SOMEBODY at the CDC understood the concept of exponential growth!?
And the absurd and tragic absence of PPE, which killed hundreds of healthcare workers, and the criminal Mafia-like seizures of same, disappearing into secret warehouses? And the advice from the same CDC telling the public NOT to wear masks, while everyone in Asia wears them in flu season as a matter of common courtesy?
After a while, this cascade of failure, with deadly consequences for 140,000 Americans, looks less and less like a long series of accidents and incompetence than something much darker. Just think of the difference if Trump had simply been playing golf and running his usual little scams the last six months; at least 100,000 Americans would still be alive now.
No, he had to ridicule the entire concept of a worldwide pandemic, and stay on that message for month after month. Looking back, his message discipline was pretty impressive, considering his declining cognitive skills. But that really was the unifying theme of last several months from this administration … nothing to worry about, ignore the media, and if you’re a Real Man, don’t wear that sissy mask. That’s the unifying message, and to give Trump credit, he’s really stuck with it, along with the GOP propaganda machine.
Who benefits from what amounts to slow national suicide? Not anyone in this country. So … we must look abroad, at adversaries who benefit from weakening the USA. Guess what, one of those adversaries has been loaning the money-losing Trump organization billions of dollars, using Deutsch Bank as a pass-through. And surprise surprise, that same adversary has actually been paying $100,000 death bounties in Afghanistan.
Chetan Murthy
@ColoradoGuy: I also want to believe it’s malice. But then I remember that basically nowhere in the country, have governors organized testing to use universities, research labs, startups, in a manner like Germany did. Instead, everywhere governors have relied on commercial testing labs, and when they fall short, on ….. nothing. There’s a rot in our country, that is far deeper even than Kaiser Pilzkopf, far deeper than the GrOPers. It’s a rot of incompetence and failing “meritocrats” who can’t be bothered to even shamelessly plagiarize from other successful Western countries.
I sure don’t have any good answers to this, but I kind of believe it’ll start with fixing our education systems to generate more well-educated people from humble origins: people who know why government and society need to work well, b/c they’ve seen what happens when it doesn’t.
Joey Maloney
Betcha the GOP screw up the security settings for their Zoom meetings and get attacked by dick storms and whatnot.
SectionH
@Chetan Murthy: I come from a long line of teachers, and yeah. I’m sorry – I so would like to think one of the COVID miniscule silver linings would be that people realize how important schools really are. But I doubt that. Maybe we can get their fucking attention about school issues for a bit when lots of school systems shut down. There’s a great trade-off…
P.S – it’s malice. Added onto a heaping wtaf.
brantl
@JoyceH: THAT is way too cool.
Chetan Murthy
@SectionH: Self-interested indifference is a form of malice, as we’ve learned when it comes to structural racism.[1] Indeed, the …. indifference of GrOPer officials to what they’re about to inflict on teachers and other school personnel is sickening. It speaks volumes about their priorities.
[1] and so much less messy than noisy, sticky, hard-to-deny active malice.
oatler.
@West of the Rockies:
Hey, let’s show some respect for “Campin’ Buddies”.
(and then my Everclear ran out)
Dan B
@Eljai: Crying here thinking of all the GOP toilets decimating the Zoom convention. Thank you for the image!
SectionH
.
Dan B
A prof from Yale who’s written ‘How Fascism Works’ says that Trump and Bolsonaro and Putin etc. can’t deal with the pandemic because their only understanding is of friend / loyalist vs. enemy / other. The real world throws them for a loop.
SectionH
@Chetan Murthy: Yes they want deniability. Not.This.TIme.
Dan B
@ballerat: The Yale prof who wrote the How Fascism Works book says it’s easy to do fascism since all it takes is extreme vetting of loyalists and endless blaming of enemies.
Democracy is much more difficult since it requires working together to confront challenges and to maintain clear shared vision, plus the strategy and tactics to achieve the goals.
Dan B
@BeautifulPlumage: OMG! Saw the plane pic at the airport. Details?
Dan B
@Dan B: Found the details. 4 PM!
satby
@mrmoshpotato: I’m closer, should I go slap the shit out of the Berner for you, me, and all the rest of us?
Brachiator
Trump loyalists thought the Orange Menace was tough because he was going to have the convention anyway. And now he is tough for shutting it down.
Ken
If you mean can they find a reason to arrest them, sure. Jaywalking, broken tail lights, loitering… Just use the laws that are normally used to harass THOSE people.
If you mean will the cops arrest them, or will the stormtroopers resist successfully, I’m also back to dunno.
Ken
That they were demanding payment in advance?
Rugosa
@frosty:
Frosty and joyceH – I just had a chilling image of clashes between the goons and local police if that were to happen. What chaos is Trump sending us into? I can’t believe this maniac can’t be stopped before November (effectively January) but the Senate will support him to the end.
Parfigliano
@West of the Rockies: My understanding is Limbaugh has a pretty aggressive cancer so there is that.
Keith
@JoyceH: I like this idea, but who would arrest them? In general, local police mostly love this fascist stuff.