Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

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

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

…and a burning sense of injustice to juice the soul.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Spilling the end game before they can coat it in frankl luntz-approved dogwhistles.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

If West Virginia and San Francisco had a love child.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

This blog will pay for itself.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

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

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

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Saturday Morning Open Thread: Readership Capture

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  2. 2.

    Baud

    Don’t stop, make it pop
    DJ, blow my speakers up
    Tonight, I’ma fight
    ‘Til we see the sunlight
    Tick-tock on the clock
    But the party don’t stop, no
    Oh, whoa, whoa-oh
    Oh, whoa, whoa-oh

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    “Whaddaya mean I banned Tic Tacs? We’ve got to put a lid on this NOW! Tell Jared to drop whatever it is he does and get his pasty butt in here this minute!”

  4. 4.

    m.j.

    The video shows a black guy with the mask under his nose.
    Don’t fall for this. It’s easy to shit on Trump.
    These are still Republicans and they are the problem.
    Don’t give me any of this, “enemy of my enemy,” bullshit.

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    In 1999, the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke predicted that the Internet would help give birth to a “coming white revolution”.

    The news media did not give him friendly coverage, he wrote on his website, but on the internet, he could reach supporters directly, starting a “chain reaction of racial enlightenment”.

    For the next 20 years, Duke, one of the most notorious hate group leaders in the US, was given free rein to spread his white supremacist message on one internet platform after another.

    Now, after years of protests and a surge of white supremacist terror attacks around the globe, social media companies are belatedly limiting Duke’s reach. Twitter said on Friday that it had permanently suspended his account, citing “repeated violations of the Twitter Rules on hateful conduct”. YouTube banned his account in June. Facebook banned Duke in 2018, the company said, more than a year after he participated in the violent white supremacist protest in Charlottesville, Virginia.

    Twitter’s decision to permanently ban Duke came more than a decade after Duke created his account, in 2009, and more than eight years after he started posting regularly, in 2012. He has tweeted tens of thousands of times, often weighing in on national events and sharing white supremacist and antisemitic conspiracies. He had more than 50,000 followers at the time his account was permanently suspended.

  8. 8.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    How would banning Tik Tok work? Wouldn’t that take elaborate blocking technology? I suddenly find I have no idea how things work.

    On another topic, my publisher, Inspired Quill, will be open for submissions in Sept. This is the first time in two years they’ve opened. They’re a small press, so the distribution is limited, but they treat me well. If you’re interested, consult their website and mark your calendar.

  10. 10.

    Brachiator

    If we’re already at the ‘ban TikTok’ stage of campaigning on desperate failing anti-China xenophobia there’s a chance that before this is over Trump might actually shoot a panda.

    I guess it’s inevitable that Trump will stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot a panda. Fox News will carry it live.

  11. 11.

    Ken

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: You could disable the apps using the certification process. That’s happened a number of times, usually when malware is detected but sometimes for criminal activity.

    They’d need to get the device companies involved, meaning Apple would get to choose between Trump’s tantrum and the country that makes all their hardware. I’d expect them to split the difference by going to court, figuring in six months it will be moot.

    In theory you could block the servers, but that’s hard. As has famously been said, the network treats censorship as a failure and routes around it. The Chinese have that capability but they built the “great firewall”. They also have a huge number of people and programs monitoring internal content.

  12. 12.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: How would banning Tik Tok work?

    I don’t know but the Chinese ban stuff on the internet all the time.

    ETA And Ken competently answered your question with knowledge. What a f’n elitist.

  13. 13.

    Chris Johnson

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: It would work to make a hell of a lot of Generation Z kids think Trump is a fucking fascist.

    If he was less dumb, he might be able to effectively be a crypto-fascist, but there are a hell of a lot of people out there (including, sadly, former friends of mine) who are not smart enough to be crypto-fascist. To do that you have to be able to comprehend opposing arguments and weasel around them. Trump is able to comprehend nothing: his brain is goddamn rotted cheese.

    I hope he pushes the anti-mask thing as hard as he can, plus hydroxychloroquine and bleach. It does serious physical damage to our enemies. And Putin doesn’t stop him, because it’s doing serious physical damage to Americans… but right now, it’s more like a bright line between Americans and ‘Confederates’, and I’d just as soon see Putin’s shock troops go down.

    I would rather see them subject to the justice system, but things are more than a little out of hand, and you work with what ya got.

  15. 15.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: What a f’n elitist.

    LIke someone who drops “Attenboroughesque” into conversation has room to talk.

    BTW could it actually be Attenborough in the PL ad?  He’s still alive.

  16. 16.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ken: I don’t think it’s actually him, the voice sounds a little deeper than DA. It’s a nice touch tho.

  17. 17.

    Ken

    @Brachiator: I guess it’s inevitable that Trump will stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot a panda. Fox News will carry it live.

    I’d love to see the spin trying to explain how he actually meant to drop the gun with the safety off and shoot himself in the foot.

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Something fun to read about:

    A Taiwanese octogenarian couple who run a small-town laundry service have become an online fashion sensation by modelling abandoned clothes on Instagram. Chang Wan-ji, 83, and his wife Hsu Sho-er, 84, have racked up nearly 600,000 followers on Instagram over the last month as their attitude-filled fashion portraits went viral. They have even been featured in the Taiwanese edition of Vogue and Marie Claire.

    The couple have run a laundry for decades in a small town near the central city of Taichung. Over the years, customers have either forgotten or failed to collect reams of clothing that the couple never felt able to throw away.

    Reef Chang, 31, their grandson, hit upon the idea of using the clothes to alleviate the couple’s boredom. “My grandpa and grandma were staring blankly at the streets because business wasn’t good,” he said. “I wanted to find something new they could enjoy doing.”

    The pair were naturals in front of the camera.
    ……………………………..
    “Modelling these clothes makes me feel 30 years younger,” said Chang. “Many people are telling me, ‘You are famous now and you look younger’.”

    Hsu felt so, too. “I am old in age but my heart is not ageing,” she said. “I like to put on pretty clothes and go out to have some fun.”

    They do have style.

  20. 20.

    JPL

    Microsoft is close to a deal to purchase Tik Tok, but trump doesn’t care.     He still wants to ban it, because he’s afraid of Sarah.

  24. 24.

    Lee

    Fyi there is a report of Rep Bass heaping praise on Scientology at a ribbon cutting event in 2010.

    That to me is a disqualifier

  25. 25.

    John S.

    @m.j.: I don’t think anybody here believes the Republicans at the Lincoln Project are our pals. But they are doing valuable work to help get Trump and other Republicans out of office this election, and I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

    Democrats should be taking notes and understanding how to run effective operations like this in the future when the Lincoln Project starts running ads against Democrats again.

  26. 26.

    debbie

    I don’t know if it’s because I’m in a reddish state, but I’m disappointed there hasn’t been a more vociferous response to Jarvanka’s campaign plan to kill off libtards.

  27. 27.

    JPL

    Tomorrow trump might sign his health care plan and soon he’ll sign his immigration plan, but today he’s banning tik tok.    Oh and he asked Brazil to help him win the election.

  29. 29.

    Mary G

    Alexander Vindman lets Twitler have it in the WaPo:

    Despite some personal turmoil, I remain hopeful for the future for both my family and for our nation. Impeachment exposed Trump’s corruption, but the confluence of a pandemic, a financial crisis and the stoking of societal divisions has roused the soul of the American people. A groundswell is building that will issue a mandate to reject hate and bigotry and a return to the ideals that set the United States apart from the rest of the world. I look forward to contributing to that effort.

  31. 31.

    Spanky

    @Lee:

    Fyi there is a report of Rep Bass heaping praise on Scientology at a ribbon cutting event in 2010.

    Personally I’m hoping for Harris. Having said that, the quote I read from a Scientology church ribbon cutting sounded totally anodyne. Certainly not “heaping”.

    Stop it with the puke funnel.

  32. 32.

    PsiFighter37

    @Lee: Not a report – the video is there on Twitter. Not a huge fan that it appears the Daily Caller is doing a better job than Biden’s vetting team is.

  33. 33.

    debbie

    @m.j.:

    Sure, turn your back on someone fighting Trump. Go it alone and see how far you’ll get.

    Stable the purity ponies and welcome whatever help is out there. Too much is at stake.

  34. 34.

    JPL

    @debbie: No, but he said yesterday, he might sign it Sunday.

    TRUMP: “We’re going to be doing a very inclusive health care plan. I’ll be signing it very soon. It might be Sunday, but it’s going to be very soon. We’re also doing a full immigration plan.”

  36. 36.

    Ken

    @JPL: Oh and he asked Brazil to help him win the election.

    “President Bolsonaro had no comment, as his lungs are filled with a fungal infection due to a weakened immune system caused by taking hydroxychloroquine.”

  37. 37.

    Ken

    @JPL: TRUMP: “We’re going to be doing a very inclusive health care plan. I’ll be signing it very soon.”

    There’s definitely no bill from Congress. Does he think he can create a health care plan by executive order?

  39. 39.

    Spanky

    @PsiFighter37: She’s a politician. Politicians need to show up for their constituents. I thought she did a pretty good job avoiding most of the Scientology shit and zeroing in on the one aspect of L. Ron’s creed that said all people are created equal. She rode that little pony through her whole mini-speech.

  40. 40.

    Mary G

    Sad measly turnout to greet Twitler in Tampa. Love the one guy in the back by the fan.

    First rule of Presidential Advance: if nobody shows up, “collapse” the event (close the gap between the press in the back and the crowd up front), though “crowd” seem to be too generous a term in this case. More like a small gathering. Then fire your Advance Director. pic.twitter.com/xqFMAarwke— Greg Jenkins (@jenkinsgreg) July 31, 2020

  43. 43.

    Spanky

    @Mary G: I figure the guy in the back by the fan is a Democrat who was just diagnosed with the ‘Rona, and this is his way of contributing to the Trump campaign

     

    ETA: Or at least that would be me, if I were in such unfortunate circumstances. Like living in FLA.

  45. 45.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    To keep my brain from rotting this week, I started taking Duolingo Spanish. It just sent me email saying I learned 147 words this week. Hola! Por favor! Sombrero!

  46. 46.

    ThresherK

    @Mary G: I’m getting a Frank Drebin vibe, when Trump step up to the mic and everyone in attendance on the tarmac is really here to see Weird Al Yankovic.

  50. 50.

    Ken

    @OzarkHillbilly: My “big three” phrases for travel would be:

    • Where is the bathroom?
    • Please stop that at once.
    • Please take me to the American embassy.

    Although after the last few years, maybe I should change the last to the Canadian embassy.

  51. 51.

    Ken

    @debbie: ? will be signing piles of blank pages

    “No, Daddy, you committed yourself.  See? Here’s your signature on the papers.”

    “I don’t remember that….”

    “Yes, the memory thing. That’s why you committed yourself. We had a long family meeting about that and you decided it would be best. Don’t you remember?”

    “I… I don’t remember that….”

    “Oh come on, Dad-Sir. What do you think happened, we found a blank sheet of paper with your signature and printed the committal paperwork on it?” (Fredo is hushed by the other two.)

  52. 52.

    Mo MacArbie

    I was watching Mexican League soccer for a while around the time of the World Cup. It eventually dawned on me why every team seemed to have a guy named Pelota.

  53. 53.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Brachiator:

    He’ll either have it done or someone will hold up the weight of the weapon and aim it for him. Fat Lord Fauntleroy can’t be bothered with active work on any muscle, and effort fatigues him.

  54. 54.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Ken: No. It’s definitely not Attenborough. In fact I don’t think the narrator is English, just putting on the accent. Good attempt though, although not as good as John Hillerman’s Higgins.

  55. 55.

    WereBear

    @John S.:

    Democrats should be taking notes and understanding how to run effective operations like this in the future when the Lincoln Project starts running ads against Democrats again.

     
    Wouldn’t it be pretty to think so?

    The problem in this is not Democratic incompetence. The entire corporate media empire is based on denying them any outlet if they are anything but weak and ineffectual.

    The Lincoln Project is about getting rid of Trump, but that is where the alliance ends. They are doing it to save the Republican party, whatever demonic form and name that might take.

    The Progressive movement, like it or hate it, came from alternate forms of media which reached new people with harsh truths. It was ruthlessly policed by right wing/corporate media (but I repeat myself) but managed to break through anyway.

  56. 56.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ken: Once stopped at a roadside food stand/restaurant on the Pan/Am highway when one of the gals asked for the bathroom. The owner/cook/waiter turned around and pointed to a hole in the wall. Not a window opening, not a doorway, a literal hole in the wall that one had to bend over and waddle thru, going to a roofless rubble filled room with a hole in the floor.

    Nothing but the finest facilities.

  57. 57.

    TS (the original)

    Don’t know about anyone else but I found the LR video stunning. I hope trump is seeing each and every one of them.

  59. 59.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @Lee:

    Her age is my disqualifier, along with her lack of significant management experience of a large agency.

    Too many olds for too long, too many long term hobbyhorses.

    Kamala Harris all the way.

  60. 60.

    Emma from FL

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s actually a pretty good way to start learning or reviving a language you once knew. I’m doing French revision at the moment. That and the Tex French grammar program at UT have done it for me.

  61. 61.

    Ken

    @Danielx:

    We are in year three of infrastructure week.

    (Which makes me realize what a stupid phrase that was to begin with. You don’t fix all this country’s infrastructure problems in a week.)

  62. 62.

    NotMax

    @OzarkHillbilly

    Step up from the (and I use the term loosely) motel we found ourselves in when stranded by an automotive breakdown in Brazil, which offered the amenity of a muddy open trench running down the middle of the patch of bare ground separating the two facing rows of (using a different word even more loosely) cabins.

  68. 68.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I was once having an issue during a stop in Mexico (our bus between the port and Mayan ruins at Chacchoben, near the Belize border had stopped at a roadside market). I’d brought a nasty gut bug with me on that trip that had gotten a little better, but there was a resurgence on the bus ride. Conditions were…less than perfect.

    Given what was happening, I’d have probably preferred an Asian toilet.

  70. 70.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Ken:

    They’d need to get the device companies involved, meaning Apple would get to choose between Trump’s tantrum and the country that makes all their hardware. I’d expect them to split the difference by going to court, figuring in six months it will be moot.

    Tik Tok, motherfucker.

  73. 73.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @NotMax: Hey! I think I’ve been there! No, wait a minute, that was Mexico too.

    Actually never spent much time in h/motels in Mexico, with the exception of the Hotel Taninul outside of Valles. Sitting out at the stinky pool drinking cervecas fria served by senoritas muy hermosa…. What better way to sooth the aches and scrapes of a weeks worth of chopping jungle?

    *My picture* hung in the lobby for about a decade or so. (It was actually a quite nice picture of the very expansive main room in the cave above the hotel, I was the very small unidentifiable figure in the bottom left of center, pic was taken by a fellow caver)

  75. 75.

    mrmoshpotato

    @JPL:

    He still wants to ban it, because he’s afraid of Sarah. 

    The reality is that that might actually be the reason.  And that’s beyond fucked up, even for a Soviet shitpile mobster manbaby.

  76. 76.

    Another Scott

    @WereBear: Dunno.

    https://lincolnproject.us/

    OUR MISSION
    Defeat President Trump and Trumpism at the ballot box.

    We do not undertake this task lightly nor from ideological preference. Our many policy differences with national Democrats remain. However, the priority for all patriotic Americans must be a shared fidelity to the Constitution and a commitment to defeat those candidates who have abandoned their constitutional oaths, regardless of party. Electing Democrats who support the Constitution over Republicans who do not is a worthy effort.

    It’s a nice slogan.  And defending the Constitution vitally is important.  But they do not agree with our policy goals.  (It will be interesting how much they stretch Constitutional arguments over policy differences – is universal health care “constitutional”?)

    That’s fine, and we need to have genuine, good-faith arguments about policy to move forward.

    tl;dr – They’re not Democrats.  But they are allies in getting rid of Trumpists of all stripes.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  78. 78.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Ken: HA! I’ve got a caviar story too. Was caving with some Arkie friends and one of them pulled out a tin of caviar he brought back from Russia to share with everyone. As each person took the smallest of not so adventurous nibbles, their faces screwed up in disgust. When the can got to me, I was like, “Ya bunch of scaredy cat pansies, how bad can it be?” and took a man sized bite.

    It wasn’t a NY second later when everything I had eaten for the past week was banging on my pharynx to vacate the premises post haste. I somehow someway managed to keep it all down, but that was some of the most vile shit I’ve ever eaten.

    It had to have gone bad because no way could people actually convince themselves that that was some kind of delicacy. Or could they?

  83. 83.

    NotMax

    @mrmoshpotato

    It’s sort of darkly ironic to recall all the lengths (and concomitant demonstrations) places like France endured to enact bans on the veil.

    And now….

    //

  84. 84.

    Ken

    @JMG: Agreed that it had to be bad.  Also agree with “that’s all” – I’ve had it a couple of times and never understood the fuss. Probably a lot of social signaling.

  85. 85.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @mrmoshpotato:

    I mean the thing is, she’s not that good and for me, lip-synching somebody is neither funny nor entertaining.  It would fit, though, that the self-absorbed prick would wig out about it.

    I’ll admit, I just don’t see the charm. To each their own, I guess.

  86. 86.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Lee: I prefer praise of a cult artfully drizzled.

    (Yes, it’s totally disqualifying, and I can’t imagine the attack ads that would be made.)

  88. 88.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Heh. Once got afflicted with the bug in a high mountain village. W/o getting into all the hilarious details, I found myself vacating my bowels in the middle of a road during a monsoon downpour at 6 AM. Up above me was a hut with a little girl in the doorway (3 y/o?) staring at this idiot gringo shitting in the road.

    If only I’d had a peso for her thoughts.

  89. 89.

    m.j.

    @debbie:

    If I turn my back they will stab me.

    Where were they during the Mueller investigation?

    Where were they during impeachment?

    You cannot trust Republicans. This much should be clear.

  93. 93.

    Ascap_scab

    @Brachiator:

     

    I guess it’s inevitable that Trump will stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot a panda. Fox News will carry it live.

    It won’t be Trump, he’s too chicken to do it. He’ll send Junior to do it.

  94. 94.

    Another Scott

    EXCLUSIVE: Turns out Susan Collins has run more than 20 campaign testimonials from “regular Mainers” who happen to be state GOP officials or former Collins staffers – and it isn’t disclosed. My latest in @Salon https://t.co/t8cufzEIVY

    — Roger Sollenberger (@SollenbergerRC) August 1, 2020

    This is my shocked, shocked face.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  96. 96.

    WereBear

    @Another Scott:

    Lincoln Project:

    Defeat President Trump and Trumpism at the ballot box.

     
    I suspect that is where our policy goals stop being the same.

    What is Trumpism? Isn’t it saying Republican things in an outside voice instead of dog whistles? Isn’t that playing into letting Republicans rebrand themselves yet again without changing a thing?

    Are you assuming good faith?

  97. 97.

    Another Scott

    @Another Scott: Relatedly, https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/510044-frustration-builds-as-negotiators-struggle-to-reach-covid-19-deal

    Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said that it was “disappointing” that they couldn’t agree to a one-week unemployment fix ahead of the deadline and warned that if they aren’t able to get a larger deal during a once-in-a-century global health emergency they will be viewed as a failure.

    “Congress has to rise to the crisis. It is too serious and if we can’t work together in a bipartisan, bicameral way in the midst of a persistent pandemic that is causing such harm to people’s health and to their economic stability then we will have failed the American people, so I just feel strongly that we have to get there,” she said.

    She’s an animatronic caricature.

    We have to vote them all out.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  98. 98.

    Ken

    @Another Scott: Didn’t that also happen with some newspaper’s regular “heartland voter” articles?  It turned out that many of the people they interviewed worked for the Republican party – strange bit of luck randomly running into them in a Pennsylvania diner.

    I’m also remembering that some of those people appeared in multiple interviews over a period of months.

  99. 99.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @WereBear:

    The progressive movement broke through the media because it attacks Democrats.  Elizabeth Warren became a media darling because she looked like the next Sanders, tearing down the Democratic Party from within*.  Notice that as it became more and more clear that Warren is a team player, the more she has been sidelined in the news to a name in ‘the progressive wing’ that the narrative assures us hates the Democratic Party.

    *For these purposes, Sanders counts as a Democrat.  In particular, he is good at poisoning young Democrats against the party.

  101. 101.

    Another Scott

    @WereBear: The LP folks are allies of convenience.  That’s all.

    I don’t think they are advertising geniuses that show Democrats how to campaign.  I think they know how to push Donnie’s buttons, and they know how to appeal to strong partisans like us.  But I doubt that 90% of marginally attached voters know or care who they are.  If they help sway non-Democrats and help them recognize how horrible Donnie and his enablers are, then that’s a good thing.

    Sometimes you have to temporarily align with the USSR to defeat a worse enemy.

    Eyes on the prizes.

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (“Who has only seen a handful of their ads.  And who is surprised that Bitecofer is a “Senior Adviser” for them.”)

  102. 102.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @WereBear: I’m assuming they are still Republicans with the same old conservative low tax/free market/strong defense policies (to use their terms) that they’ve always held.

    ETA: and that doesn’t make them our enemies, it makes them our political opponents

  103. 103.

    Another Scott

    @Ken: Yup, it’s a common problem.  An NPR News reporter has been caught a few times interviewing someone with strong ties to the GOP (and never mentioning it) as if they’re some average concerned Joe Everyman.

    It needs to be called out, whoever does it.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  105. 105.

    Mike in NC

    Trump speaking about a soldier who went missing at Fort Hood, Texas: “So we’re going to look into it very powerfully”. Who the fuck talks like this? It’s like he is still struggling to master the English language at age 74. Jesus help us all.

  107. 107.

    mrmoshpotato

    @John S.:

    Democrats should be taking notes and understanding how to run effective operations like this in the future when the Lincoln Project starts running ads against Democrats again. 

    Psst. OMG Why Can’t Dems Go After Republicans Crazy-Hard Like The Lincoln Project?

    And the fact is, you will find nothing in any of the Lincoln Lad’s ads that Liberals haven’t already  been saying and writing about the Right every day for decades, using whatever tiny platforms we could carve out for ourselves to warn the country that the GOP was dragging us into the fascist abyss.

    But as long as the growing existential from the Right could be kept at arm’s length and as long as the warnings were coming from the Left, the Beltway media remained 100% committed to maintaining the status quo: using their control over where the cameras are pointed to keep us America-hating, terrorist-loving Libtards the hell away from any national dialogue about politics and relying instead on the unfailingly wrong political insights of its most esteemed members

    And long as it did not threaten them personally, the Beltway media insiders could get away with palling around with liars and monsters, feeding them all the flattering, free airtime they wanted.

    But once the monster they had created turned on them personally, all of that inconvenient history was rewritten in the blink of an eye.

  108. 108.

    NotMax

    Okay, raised a laugh from me. Headline in an online newspaper seen in a muddled but marginally amusing British show* running on Prime at the moment:

    “Jewish Father Almost Pays Compliment To Son – EXCLUSIVE!”

    *The Jewish Enquirer

  109. 109.

    Barbara

    @JPL:  If past is prologue, his various executive orders on pharmaceutical pricing suggest that his health plan will be some kind of retread of whatever regulatory steps agencies have already been doing but haven’t quite managed to finish. No idea what that would be here.

  110. 110.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Emma from FL: I’m reviving my German. There’s a great free online program from the Volkshochschule. It’s geared towards immigrants, which gives me an idea….

  111. 111.

    Ken

    BTW why was Trump flying into Florida? I doubt it was to organize the preparations for Isaias, but if so my sincere condolences to everyone in Florida.

    It does make hash of the stated reason for cancelling the New Hampshire campaign event, a chance of rain.

  112. 112.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    @PsiFighter37: Thankfully, there’s one top VP contender who has been vetted by being a potential front runner in the 2020 Dem Pres primary for over a year, enduring the gauntlet of trolls, haters, bots, and bros – and the only thing that stuck was “she’s a cop”.

    No surprises with Kamala at this point, I’d wager. Does that make her the “safe”/“do no harm” choice for VP?

  115. 115.

    WereBear

    @Frankensteinbeck: The progressive movement broke through the media because it attacks Democrats.

     
    Which only proves my point. Our corporate media supports attacks on Democrats from any source.

    And ignores anything to the contrary. If it weren’t for social media there wouldn’t be any coverage of the current protests, just as all those IMPEACH protests during W were not covered.

  116. 116.

    WereBear

    @Another Scott:

    (“Who has only seen a handful of their ads.  And who is surprised that Bitecofer is a “Senior Adviser” for them.”)

     
    Yes, a recent tweet of hers was selling further reading by praising Lincoln Project members rather abjectly. Turned me off: I liked her better when she was just stating facts, and supporting them.

  117. 117.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mary G:

    and a return to the ideals that set the United States apart from the rest of the world 

    Being a first-world, and wealthiest, country that doesn’t have universal healthcare because fuck everyone who’s not super rich?

  118. 118.

    Just Chuck

    @John S.:

    Democrats should be taking notes and understanding how to run effective operations like this in the future when the Lincoln Project starts running ads against Democrats again.

    Ratfuckers gonna ratfuck, yes.  But one imagines the Democratic party won’t hand them nearly as much ammunition.

  119. 119.

    Betty Cracker

    @Frankensteinbeck: It’s almost like there’s some other difference between Sanders and Warren (aside from the fact that unlike Sanders, Warren has been a Democrat for decades, worked for a Democratic administration, does not define her politics in opposition to the Democratic Party, etc.) that could explain this. Maybe if we think on it real hard, it’ll come to us…

  121. 121.

    WereBear

    @Another Scott: Oh, I watch the ads and they sure know how to put the knife in. But these are the same people who used a racist campaign against McCain, and I don’t forget that.

    VoteVets is doing another great job, but I don’t see nearly the coverage and discussion about it. Why aren’t their excellent ads also getting notice?

    Why is Lincoln Project sucking up all the bandwidth? That’s a “tell” that they just want us all to forget the collapse of New Coke.

  123. 123.

    WereBear

    @OzarkHillbilly: They still are. They haven’t “seen the light.” Maybe that guy with the book coming out, where he admits “it was all a scam.”

    And he’s retired. And still making money from the same old grift.

  124. 124.

    zhena gogolia

    @WereBear:

    The LP people are the ones doing the hyping. They’re very good at getting their message out there. Step one is making the video, step two is getting it disseminated, and that is where they are tops.

    I am not going to carp about them as long as the battle still rages.

  125. 125.

    WereBear

    @Another Scott: The latest episode of The Professional Left podcast has a funny story about that.

    Apparently, there’s a local diner what was a wingnut gathering spot, highly popular with the FNYT reporters who wanted to check the pulse of the heartland. The owner went racist rant on Facebook, and didn’t take it down soon enough.

    BLM protestors showed up to cover the sidewalks nearby with their message. Guy’s daughter, who worked there for like 30 years, openly quit, saying “I’m not cleaning up your messes any more.”

    He’s gone out of business.

  126. 126.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ken:

    There’s definitely no bill from Congress. Does he think he can create a health care plan by executive order? 

    It’s the luxurious, classy and tremendous bigly healthcare at a fraction of the cost that the Soviet shitpile mobster conman has been working on for *checks notes* two weeks!

  127. 127.

    A Ghost to Most

    “Y’all better buckle up. This sh…stuff is real.”

    – Michael Steele, discussing the election result “What If” planning he participated in. All scenarios led to street violence, with Ds wringing their hands and saying “But the law!”, and Rs doubling down.

  135. 135.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @zhena gogolia:

    Holy shit – dude could make a mint prank calling business people and politicians, recording the calls and broadcasting them.

  137. 137.

    WereBear

    Amid pressure from younger family/friends I have been wading in the video arena.

    As a lifelong bookworm, I’m like the “people who love printed books” when it comes to video. Yes, you can find almost any subject being illustrated on Youtube, and sometimes that’s great. If you need something demonstrated.

    If you are looking to skim the info to find the nugget you need, fuhgeddaboudit. This is the source of my greatest exasperation, and why I’m still a fan of the good old transcript :)

    But as someone who bailed on corporate media during the W administration, it’s a whole new world. With a lot of differences that leap out at me now.

  139. 139.

    NotMax

    @WereBear

    A moment of pity for the two delegates who will have to sheepishly mumble her name when called upon during the online convention.

    ;)

  140. 140.

    SFAW

    @Ken:

    There’s definitely no bill from Congress. Does he think he can create a health care plan by executive order?

    Well, he sort-of has. It’s just not what rational beings would associate with the term “health care.” To be less abstruse: aiding-and-abetting the murder of persons in Blue states*, or states with Dem governors, is a form of “health care.” Just not a form which leads to better health. But you libtards are always splitting hairs.

    Not unlike your simple-minded objections re: whether he is “protecting the Constitution”: is he actively trying to set fire to the actual document! NO, HE ISN’T. [So far.] Q, E, and checkmate, libtards!

    * which is why I have often referred to him as the Murderer-in-Chief, of course.

  141. 141.

    scribbler

    I think Sarah Cooper gets a bad rap when people say she’s just lip syncing.  Granted, not all of her videos are home runs (who bats a thousand?) but when she’s on her game, her videos offer a smart, sharp, sometimes broad but other times amazingly subtle critique of Trump.  And considering that she’s making these videos during a pandemic (so she’s limited to the props and locations she can find in her home, and plays all the supporting characters herself) I think she does an amazing job.

  142. 142.

    SFAW

    @m.j.:

    I don’t recall anyone here saying “boy, that Rick Wilson is MY kind of Democrat, let’s give him some official position in a [hoped-for] Biden Administration” and so forth.

    In other words: can we just win the fucking election first, instead of deciding we’re too pure to receive help from Never-Trumpers?

    ETA: Does “m.j.” stand for “Mote Juste”?

  144. 144.

    artem1s

    the LP is made up of Reaganites who are sick of the TeaParty loonies running the show. As soon as Trump is gone, they will return to their Supply-side Voodoo Economics and claiming only they know what America should look like. Every social problem will be up to the states to solve – not the business of the Federal government.  Their current alliance with god botherers and wingnuts has served them very well. They have plenty of judges who will rule exactly as they are told. Time to ditch the Trumpistas and return to the status quo of old dead white men running everything.

    Personally I think they let it go one idiot president too long. I don’t believe they can save the party of “no true Scotsman’.  But they will try.  For once I think the Dems may have finally gotten thru to a lot of folks that midterms and Congressional races mean as much or more than who is sitting in the oval office.  And who the next Prez hires is at least as important as their platforms.  In all honesty I wouldn’t care which party anyone ID’s themselves with.  If someone prefers to keep their options open by calling themselves an independent or Teabagger, it shouldn’t really matter as long as they aren’t creating chaos just for the sake of chaos. But the reality is, if you don’t choose to align yourself with the only party that is interested in protecting the rights of everyone, then it’s a dead giveaway that you are only on the side of the ‘fuck you, I got mine’ party. The LP may believe they can return to Raygunism once this is all over but I don’t think they are fooling anyone into believing they are returning to the party of Lincoln.

  145. 145.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mike in NC: 

    “So we’re going to look into it very powerfully”. Who the fuck talks like this? 

    Someone who’s been too chummy with the Russkis for 30+ years?

  146. 146.

    WaterGirl

    @Ken: I haven’t read all the comments yet so I will probably regret saying this, but…

    Lawfare talked about this on their blog a week or two ago and my takeaway was that this could happen if Apple and Google wouldn’t make the app available on their platforms. But otherwise, there’s no mechanism to do this.

  150. 150.

    m.j.

    @SFAW:

    You don’t understand.

    All I’m saying is Republicans aren’t to be trusted.  That’s it. Nothing more.

    If they are helpful in the moment I have no problem with that.

    Moments pass.

  151. 151.

    RobNYNY

    @Ken: If you don’t have mother of pearl spoons for serving the caviar, plastic is actually better than sterling silver, which imparts and “off” taste. I had to endure that once. Ah, what a bitter memory.

  153. 153.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    Forbes article “ If Microsoft Pays $5B For TikTok America, Buy The Stock.”

    TikTok is worth big bucks, and I don’t see them getting shut down in the US, as long as they sever ties with the Chinese govt. No matter what Trump sez.

  154. 154.

    SFAW

    @m.j.:

    Unfortunately for you, I understand perfectly. Most, if not all, of us here understand who they are. In fact, I think we discussed this some time ago. But we don’t spend a lot of time on it, because reaffirming it is a waste of time/space.

    But thanks ever-so-much for explaining it all to us.

    ETA: “Most, if not all” because I don’t think we’ve ever made each of the commenters here sign an oath saying that we know who/what the Lincoln Project is/are, in order to be allowed to comment here. So I guess there’s always the possibility that someone doesn’t.

  155. 155.

    Geminid

    @WereBear: Rachel Bitecofer hit a career crossroads in May, when Christopher Newport University denied her a tenure track position in their Political Science department. She said it was a disappointment, but the decision did free her up to do what she does very well: correlating demographics with voting patterns, and positing effective messaging to bring voters to the polls. Applied political science. The people running the Lincoln Project know talent when they see it, and their association with her speaks to their good sense. Overall, Bitecofer tends to discount “conversion strategies”- flipping Republicans- in favor of mobilizing the “registered but don’t vote” pool of potential voters. She says that there were two million registered women voters in Texas who did not vote in 2016. But I think she feels the LP people are good at what they are doing right now, and she does not care about what they did in 2008 or what they will do in 2021.       Bitecofer writes some perceptive analytical articles for the Niskanen Foundation, and has a good, informative twitter feed. With pictures of her dog, of course.

  156. 156.

    WaterGirl

    @John S.:  @m.j.:

    I have to agree with m.j. on the choice of the black man with the mask under his nose.  They couldn’t have modeled a poor downtrodden black man if they tried, which I believe they did.

    Not the we shouldn’t welcome their ads, but they are surely taking donation money away from real democrats and voting-related organizations.

  158. 158.

    WaterGirl

    @mrmoshpotato:

    … and a return to the ideals that set the United States apart from the rest of the world

    I take your point on healthcare, but we did have ideas that mattered – democracy, respect for human rights (with an * for sure) free and fair elections, peaceful transition of power, etc.

    So what Col. Vindman said is true.

  160. 160.

    WaterGirl

    @SFAW: I, for one, appreciated the catch on the black worker who was cleaning something and had his mask below his nose.

    There’s no way that was an accident, and I think it’s important to note that even as they appear to be on our side, they are doing small things to undermine things we believe in.

  161. 161.

    MomSense

    @WereBear:

    Ooh, I tried to listen last night but I was dead tired.  I think I might pour a beer, take out my knitting, and sit on the porch to listen.

  162. 162.

    UncleEbeneezer

    That Kilgore Trout twitter thread highlights an American truth:

     

    DIVISIVE- pointing out racism or any other oppression.

     

    NOT DIVISIVE- Literally dividing people through discrimination, redlining, built-that-wall, Babies in cages, trans military ban etc.

  166. 166.

    Miss Bianca

    @zhena gogolia: I’m with you on this one. Good to see these guys hitting an appropriate target, with the truth this time, instead of a bunch of lies.

  167. 167.

    Miss Bianca

    @A Ghost to Most: I’m sorry, Michael fucking Steele says what now? Back down from the mountain with your “Dems are just a bunch of pussies” hot takes again, you rough tough he-man, you? Oh, what have we DONE to deserve your brand of rough-hewn wisdom, Grisly Addams??

  168. 168.

    Yutsano

    @Miss Bianca: Wait…what kind of planning would he be involved with anyway? He’s a washed up ex head of the NRC who hasn’t had any influence in Republican circles since he couldn’t defeat the fellow black man at politics. What the hell would he know about what Republicans are planning or how Democrats would react anyway? Someone is trying to make some noise because he’s feeling neglected. Or he somehow sees he has a role in the aftermath of the Republican party implosion. Protip Michael: you were a token. The Republicans will never have a use for you in the future.

  172. 172.

    joel hanes

    @Ken:

    That’s why I always take along my emergency mother-of-pearl caviar spoon (in its own carved-ivory travel case).

  175. 175.

    Another Scott

    @Yutsano: Steele was the first Black elected to statewide office in Maryland – Lt. Gov 2003-2007.  He does know a little about politics including in nominally blue states.

    I’m often mystified by him.  He’s not stupid, but he seemed more than happy to ignore and minimize what the GOP became under W, and T.  Occasionally he sticks his head up and says something ‘moderate’, then he disappears again.  I guess he figures the winning strategy is to just keep his head down most of the time, and then hoping to help rule the smoking rubble of the GOP when the Teabaggers and Trumpists are done.

    Dunno.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

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