Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

I’m starting to think Jesus may have made a mistake saving people with no questions asked.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

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

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Second rate reporter says what?

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

This chaos was totally avoidable.

You are here: Home / Elections / Biden For President / Joe Biden: Fit, Funny and Trolling FOX

Joe Biden: Fit, Funny and Trolling FOX

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This has made me smile all day.

Open thread

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179Comments

  6. 6.

    lahke

    Just want to tell the person who linked to the Bernadette Banner videos several posts back that I spent THE WHOLE DAY on them. And I don’t sew….

  7. 7.

    Amir Khalid

    I can’t believe Fox News actually put that in a chyron. Still, I suppose it could have been worse: “FOX NEWS REPORTER, A WHITE MALE, IS BIDEN’S RUNNING MATE”

  10. 10.

    Amir Khalid

    @mellowjohn:

    It would have to be a custom bike wth a bigly strong frame and a bigly wide comfort saddle for Trump’s bigly wide posterior.

  14. 14.

    Punchy

    So…..pulling up something from a thread below, to clarify: the payroll tax elimination is just extra $, but as a loan?  And taxpayers have to pay off the entire “loan” in their next tax bill?  Is this correct?  If so…..holy effin shit is that going to be the ugliest of ugly surprises to the low-info popalation come April….

  15. 15.

    Mallard FIlmore

    @Nicole:

     

    WHERE’S YOUR HELMET, JOE?

    In the late 1970s a bicycle magazine had a little international news segment. A professional lady bicycle racer in Europe was slowly weaving around the post race crowd, on her bike, somehow tipped over, hit her head, and died.

    Always wear a helmet. It protects your head from impact, puncture, and abrasion.

  18. 18.

    M31

    I thought Joe was going to announce his ‘running mate’ — as in the person he goes running with, hahahaha.

    That’d be a challenge to Trump, our self-proclaimed fittest president in history, lol.

  21. 21.

    Another Scott

    @TaMara (HFG): +1

    That was exactly my thought as well.

    Though I suspect that the next time we see him on a bike, he’ll be wearing a helmet.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  22. 22.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Punchy: apparently these “executive orders” are basically press releases released with a lot of fanfare and blowhardery, as most of his are

    ETA: also, the hashtag “trumpcan’trideabike” was trending earlier, and you know he saw it

  23. 23.

    piratedan

    @WaterGirl: to be fair, if he was wearing a helmet, Faux would have claimed it wasn’t him… just saying, since they misrepresent everything else, I see no reason not to believe they would have done said same…  surprised that they didn’t claim that he caused a major traffic accident and that lives were lost with his frivolity…

  25. 25.

    James E Powell

    @Punchy: 

    holy effin shit is that going to be the ugliest of ugly surprises to the low-info popalation come April….

    If it happens in April, Biden will be blamed.

  26. 26.

    Kay

    Maggie Haberman
    @maggieNYT
    ·2h
    It’s one executive order and three memoranda. The one on evictions directs the government to find ways to help homeowner and renters but on its own does nothing to halt evictions.

    Guffaw. So typical of the low quality hires- “directing” someone else (undetermined!) to do the work they’re supposed to do.
    I think they fucked unemployment ALL up, too. I can’t make heads or tails of that mess. Why don’t they just golf and steal taxpayer money and let the grownups handle this?

  30. 30.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I hope Pelosi and her lieutenants go all in on mocking Presdinent Dealz tomorrow. “We’re here trying to negotiate, but the Deal Artist dealt himself a little golf vacation…” Point out that he neither read nor wrote his little book

  31. 31.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    The one on evictions directs the government to find ways to help homeowner and renters 

    An EO directing homeowners and renters to vote for Democrats would be the most helpful thing he could do.

  34. 34.

    Bill Arnold

    @M31:

    I thought Joe was going to announce his ‘running mate’ — as in the person he goes running with, hahahaha.

    I heard that as Joe suggesting that Peter Doocy run after him to continue questions. (Took a second though.)
    Peter was either slow on the uptake, or not … equipped for running while questioning Joe.

  35. 35.

    Gin & Tonic

    @WaterGirl: I understand we are a minority, but to bicycle people, riding without a helmet is a really bad look. It is as jarring and upsetting in its way as seeing maskless Trump all the time.

  38. 38.

    Gin & Tonic

    OT, but is anyone else finding that Mason jars for canning are absolutely impossible to find these days? Nobody, but nobody, seems to have them in stock.

  43. 43.

    dmsilev

    I didn’t set out to compost Sean Hannity. It was something I settled on after considering several other options and rejecting them one by one. The first was leaving him in the basement indefinitely. That worked for a while. I could almost forget about him there, but then I would go down with a basket of laundry and see him and think, I have to do something.

  44. 44.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    The problem with Trump’s ‘promise the moon and not follow up’ strategy is that not delivering on his promises pisses people off more than the promises help him.  That’s how he sank himself at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.  He held those news conferences, declared all kinds of stuff he was doing, his polls started to go up… and then none of it happened, and his polls nosedived.  It turns out everyone paying attention enough to hear his promises expects results.

  45. 45.

    The Moar You Know

    I understand we are a minority, but to bicycle people, riding without a helmet is a really bad look. It is as jarring and upsetting in its way as seeing maskless Trump all the time.

    @Gin & Tonic: Can so testify. My wife hates a helmet and won’t ride with one, and I refuse to ride with her if she doesn’t. I raced NORBA for seven years, she rode her bike around the neighborhood as a kid. I get why the disconnect, but damn, people…if you get on a bike wear a fucking helmet. Sooner or later it’s gonna go bad. That helmet can make a huge difference.

  46. 46.

    WaterGirl

    @raven: I get that those are the rules for a normal person, but this is the Democratic candidate for President so I would think that everyone would be super-extra-careful.

  50. 50.

    WaterGirl

    @Gin & Tonic: I know, that was my first thought, too.  No helmet?

    I know how important it is – 3 years ago my neighbor, who virtually ALWAYS wears a helmet – was riding back from Octoberfest and tipped off his bike and landed on his head.  It’s like a condom or a mask: wearing it almost all the time isn’t good enough.

    I personally HATE the bike helmets because most of what I love on a bicycle is the breeze and the feeling of freedom.  So I stopped riding my bicycle, because to wear a helmet made riding not enjoyable.  Sad.

  52. 52.

    Another Scott

    @Gin & Tonic: McMaster-Carr claims to be able to deliver at least some kinds next week.

    https://www.mcmaster.com/mason-jars/

    (I’m always impressed with them.  I can order something at around 8 PM and have it the next day via UPS Ground.  Not the cheapest, but great service and they almost always have everything I need in stock.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  54. 54.

    MC

    I am profoundly depressed, because every day it looks less and less likely that it will be possible to turn out Trump in November.

  57. 57.

    Gin & Tonic

     

    @Major Major Major Major:  I’m willing to bet I’ve been riding seriously longer than they’ve been alive, so not a noob. This is one area where their stupidity has no effect on me, though, so I don’t care.

  58. 58.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @MC:

    every day it looks less and less likely that it will be possible to turn out Trump in November.

    Why?  Trump is doing historically badly in the polls, and all his plans have turned to shit.  This one is already starting to disintegrate before the day is up.  He’s toast.

  59. 59.

    catclub

    @The Moar You Know: I get why the disconnect, but damn, people…if you get on a bike wear a fucking helmet.

    I think the benefits of riding without a helmet outweigh the risks.

    If the choice is – ride without helmet

    versus

    don’t ride at all.

     

    I pick ride.

  60. 60.

    WaterGirl

    @MC: I am not sure why you think that.  Regardless of what the polls say, and which way the wind is blowing, there is really no way to know until all the votes are counted in November.

    That uncertain state is a very uncomfortable one for me, so sometimes I swing into positivity and sometimes I fear the worst.  In both cases, my sense of how I think it will turn out is based on my feelings, because the truth is there are no predictive facts.  We have never been here before.

    The best antidote for me is to focus on doing everything I can so we get the outcome that we want.  If you want some ideas for things you could possibly do to take action and feel less helpless and less hopeful, check out this thread from earlier today.

    https://balloon-juice.com/2020/08/08/what-we-can-do-85-things/

  61. 61.

    scott (the other one)

    @MC: That is an entirely reasonable thing to feel. It’s also what the Trump, Barr, the GOP and the Russians want you to feel. Don’t give in to them..

  62. 62.

    Wapiti

    @Gin & Tonic: I’ve taken to referring to the grocery store as the Soviet Safeway because they seem to be out of odd things all of the time. Both the Soviet Safeway and the Soviet ACE Hardware here have jars and lids, but they had no Sure-jell or washable labels for a couple of weeks. But this is Seattle, so people might be putting up strawberry or raspberry jam and not much else.

  63. 63.

    catclub

    @scott (the other one): There was a report that China and iran were working to help biden, while Russia is working to help trump.

    Is anybody going to see if trump will say that one of those is okay but the other is bad?

  65. 65.

    Jay Noble

    @Punchy: The EO uses the word “defer” or some form of it throughout. So it comes back as “Due” but without any penalties is my reading. It also is vague on the employer side.

  66. 66.

    Matt McIrvin

    @WaterGirl: For me, part of the anxiety is the feeling that the rules are changing such that even if I do something, it will turn out to be the wrong thing.

    Take the very first two items on your list, about absentee ballots. I already requested one, and I’ve been promoting them, and now I’m worrying that that was wrong, because Trump’s actions to sabotage the Postal Service mean all these mail votes will just go into a black hole! All that stuff we thought was good is maybe actually bad.

    I’m seeing a lot of people urging other people NOT to vote by mail, that in-person voting is the only kind that’s going to work. And there’s all this sort of martyr-y talk going around about risking death by COVID is a thing we just have to do, putting our bodies on the line for the cause.

    It all feels built on sand because they’re trying to undermine us at every turn.

  67. 67.

    Origuy

    When I was 17, back before bike helmets were a thing, I was riding and crossed railroad tracks at an angle. I caught a wheel in the track (apparently, I don’t remember) and went over the handlebars. I woke up in the hospital with 13 stitches in my upper lip and a concussion. Fortunately, someone put me and my bike in his truck and took me to the hospital. My parents were a way for the weekend, too. If I’d been wearing a helmet, I could probably have stayed conscious.

  72. 72.

    WaterGirl

    @Matt McIrvin: They are indeed trying to undermine us at every turn!

    The thing is, you were smart to request the absentee ballot, and you don’t have to decide whether to send that back in or vote in person until much closer to the election.

    So you were smart to get it – you have options.

    They are trying to make us feel helpless and hopeless and overwhelmed.  Fuck them!

  73. 73.

    ThresherK

    @maxcat07: If you want to see a feeble bike, I have seen photos of CT Governor John Rowland on a bicycle. Not sure if it was a staged stunt or if he ever rode, but he never looked like it

  74. 74.

    ThresherK

    @Origuy: I won’t say how I have a porcelain incisor, but I’m responding to your post for a reason.

    That, too, was ages ago. The impact didn’t hit my head in the helmet region, but I’ve been with one for so long I feel naked without my helmet now.

  79. 79.

    Kent

    @Mallard FIlmore:

    In the late 1970s a bicycle magazine had a little international news segment. A professional lady bicycle racer in Europe was slowly weaving around the post race crowd, on her bike, somehow tipped over, hit her head, and died.

    Always wear a helmet. It protects your head from impact, puncture, and abrasion.

    Hundreds of car passengers would be saved each year if they wore helmets too.  Are you going around and hectoring motorists to wear helmets?

  80. 80.

    Punchy

    @Jay Noble: so will I owe every penny they’ve “deferred” come April, a percent of that amount, or will it depend on something else (like household income)?   Can we decline to have it deferred?

    This is nuts.  ~100mill people are going to have an unexpected tax bill come April and have zero idea WTF caused it.  I sure hope the media makes this very clear to everyone that this is a forced loan, albeit zero-interest, that comes due in 2021….

  81. 81.

    Jay

    @catclub:

    the actual report is that China and Iran, PREFER Biden,

    while Russia is actively working to re-elect the Soviet Shitpile Monster.

    but it’s the MSM Jake, so they gotta lie in the headlines and leads

  82. 82.

    Jay

    cops to a woman being stalked by an abusive ex: i’m sorry, we can’t do anything until after he kills you ?‍♀️cops when someone tweets a picture of them taken in public where there is no expectation of privacy: FELONY CYBERSTALKING! HARASSMENT! MY LIFE IS AT RISK!!!!— molly conger (@socialistdogmom) August 8, 2020

  84. 84.

    Alison Rose

    1. I agree he (and everyone else there) ought to have been wearing a helmet, because come on.
    2. When the fuck is he actually going to announce the damn running mate? I’m getting tired of this whole drawing it out as long as possible shit. I get that he has a lot of amazing women to choose from, but make the damn choice.
    3. It’s International Cat Day and my cat was fucking thrilled about it.
  85. 85.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Nelle: I can’t believe trump is suing in PA to block ballot drop off. I hope it’s pissing people off, and I hope the case isn’t being heard by a trump judge.

  87. 87.

    MC

    The “plan” seems to be to disrupt the process to the extent that there is no clear election result. It’s already bad, and they still have three months to wreck everything.

  89. 89.

    Bruuuuce

    @Kent: There’s a difference, as you surely realize. Cars ARE the protective layer that helmets provide for bike riders, and are pretty well designed to protect their inhabitants.

  91. 91.

    Baud

    @MC:

    It’s ok to feel apprehensive, but it’s not ok to try to spread apprehension by arguing about how powerful Trump is.

  92. 92.

    WaterGirl

    @Alison Rose: I believe Obama announced later than this, relative to the convention.  This is not particularly late for Dems or even Republicans for that matter.

    That’s just bullshit media hype.  They are like children waiting for Christmas.

  93. 93.

    Bruuuuce

    @MC: I was today years old when I encountered this quote:

    “Despair is a narcotic. It lulls the mind into indifference.” – Charlie Chaplin

    As others have noted, the effective counter is action.

  94. 94.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @WaterGirl: and if Biden has anybody on his staff who’s the heavy, that person should get on an all-campaign conference call, everybody from Dodd and Rendell down to the interns: “I’ve got two words for everybody today: Shut. The fuck. Up.

    ETA: and I believe Obama announced his Biden pick on 8/23

  96. 96.

    Matt McIrvin

    Yes, waiting this long to announce the running mate is actually completely normal. It usually happens at convention time, or immediately before it if the nominee is a really foregone conclusion.

    We’re just anxious because the primary race has been effectively over and Biden has been the presumptive nominee for so long, and the general election campaign is so anxiety-provoking.

  97. 97.

    Yutsano

    @Punchy: An executive order doesn’t relieve a business from submitting their 941 with the formulation for calculating the tax for both the business and the Social Security and Medicare taxes for the employees. He can’t order a tax form rewritten on a dime. That takes planning and testing to make sure the form is correct and understandable. Not to mention it would take a reprogramming of the IRS computers that won’t have any funding behind it to accomplish that task. He can’t just handwave a payroll tax cut into existence. There has to be a process for it that an executive order just can’t do. So yeah I wouldn’t even worry about it.

  98. 98.

    WaterGirl

    @MC: You talked the other night about having suicidal thoughts.  I am wondering whether you saw my message at the time, inquiring about whether you have thought about how you would do it.

    That’s where you cross into the danger zone, so if you have thought about how you would commit suicide, I would really like you to call a hotline tonight.  It’s important.

  99. 99.

    Alison Rose

    @Baud:

    @James E Powell:

    @WaterGirl:

    I get that in normal times, this is how it goes. But it’s not normal times, and I feel like there’s been much more teasing about it than usual. I’ve been texted/emailed probably five times to “vote” on my favorite from a list and be told YOU’LL BE ONE OF THE FIRST TO KNOW!!!! I’m just like……….the world might freaking implode next month, who knows, just tells us already.

  102. 102.

    Kent

    @Bruuuuce:@Kent: There’s a difference, as you surely realize. Cars ARE the protective layer that helmets provide for bike riders, and are pretty well designed to protect their inhabitants.

    https://www.askadamskutner.com/brain-injury/brain-injuries-related-to-car-accidents/

    According to the Center for Disease Control, 30% of all injury related deaths are contributed to traumatic brain injuries. Of these, more than 14% are the direct result of automobile accidents. Auto accident related TBIs are the leading cause of death for those 5-24 years of age. Non-fatal TBIs, are the leading cause of 15-44 year olds requiring hospitalization.

    Making kids wear helmets inside cars would save 100x more lives than making them wear helmets while biking.

    Look at all these people about to die during rush hour in Copenhagen.  The horror:  https://youtu.be/FXw_t172BKY

    What this country actually needs is decent cycling infrastructure so people can bike safely away from cars.

  103. 103.

    WaterGirl

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I totally agree.  And if Joe doesn’t have someone who plays the heavy, then that’s a problem in and of itself.  Shut the fuck up is right.  Stupid Dodd and Rendell should crawl back in their respective holes.  Bad choices on Biden’s part, I think.

  106. 106.

    WaterGirl

    @Alison Rose: The Biden campaign asked you to text vote for your VP favorite???  That’s dumb.

    Obama swore he’d tell us by text before they announced anything.  But when the other candidates on the short list go told they weren’t chosen, that leaked to the media from their peeps, so by process of elimination, the media told us the night before that it was Joe.

    I still got the text at 5am, though.  :-)

  110. 110.

    dmsilev

    @WaterGirl: Dodd is a campaign adviser, but I think Rendell is just out on his own shooting off his mouth. Not much leverage to get him to shut up, sadly.

  112. 112.

    Baud

    @MC: I’m not frightened, but I don’t want to see people who are understandably feeling nervous to create problems for other people who are fighting their own nerves. 

    And if WG is correct, then I hope you take care of yourself.

  113. 113.

    Bruuuuce

    @Kent: I’d like to see more granular results on the auto/TBI results. Specifically, I’d love to see the breakdown of 18-25 (or even 16-25) vs 5-17 year olds, and of the older ones, how many were driving vs how many were passengers. I’m not arguing that cars aren’t dangerous, but they DO provide far more protection than bikes (and dissipating/redirecting the enormous forces and energy involved in anything more than a very low speed crash is really hard — that we’ve been so successful is, of course, no reason not to continue to seek improvement).

  114. 114.

    MC

    @WaterGirl: I’m not suicidal right now. I have the hotline # you provided close at hand, as well as some other resources. Thank you for asking.

  115. 115.

    Mallard FIlmore

    @Kent:

     

    Hundreds of car passengers would be saved each year if they wore helmets too. Are you going around and hectoring motorists to wear helmets?

    Visions of Peter Griffin wearing water wings as he eats his soup. ;)

  116. 116.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: I am not a big fan of the DNC anyway, but that seems kind of dumb on the part of the DNC.  Sort of condescending and insulting for them to pretend that what we think plays into the VP decision.

  119. 119.

    WaterGirl

    @MC: I am glad to hear that you are not there right now.

    Even though you are not in that place right now, if you have considered a plan for how you would do it IF you were feeling suicidal at the time, then you are very much at risk, and I would ask you to please make the call tonight anyway if that’s the case.

    Otherwise, we are pretty good at supporting one another here.

  123. 123.

    Mallard FIlmore

    @Kent:

     

    What this country actually needs is decent cycling infrastructure so people can bike safely away from cars.

    I have crashed going about 30mph on a straight modest downhill with no traffic and would be dead without a helmet.

    Did you know the resonant frequency of a 10 speed road bike is shivering speed?

  124. 124.

    mrmoshpotato

    @mellowjohn: Don’t you remember the Orange Bitchwaffle saying he’d never be seen riding a bike as a way to mock John Kerry?

    Also, guy who wouldn’t walk with other G7 Leaders (probably didn’t have the stamina) riding a bike?  You’z funny!

  126. 126.

    Kent

    @Mallard FIlmore: I cycle a lot and wear a helmet when I’m out riding hard and fast in the suburbs where I live.   But I also freely hop on bike share bikes around central Portland for short hops and never bother with a helmet.  It’s all context.

    I just get annoyed by all the nanny state obsession with bike helmet laws which are demonstrated to reduce cycling.  What we really need more than ever is better cycling infrastructure.  Or really infrastructure for all small medium-speed vehicles (bikes, e-bikes, scooters, one-wheels, etc.).   That is hugely lacking in this country.  This country won’t ever be Copenhagen or Amsterdam in terms of cycling.  But that’s what I’d be aiming for rather than universal helmet use mandated by law.

  127. 127.

    Bruuuuce

    @Kent:

    What we really need more than ever is better cycling infrastructure.  Or really infrastructure for all small medium-speed vehicles (bikes, e-bikes, scooters, one-wheels, etc.)…rather than universal helmet use mandated by law.

    Embrace the power of “and”. As has been pointed out, helmets are a lifesaver. And while the infrastructure would be useful (in NYC, where I live, we’re seeing a move toward such infrastructure, though because so many roads can’t have a slice taken off their width with a physical barrier, many bike lanes are as yet just painted in), the logistics are going to be difficult (not insurmountable).

  128. 128.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @MC:

    The “plan” seems to be to disrupt the process to the extent that there is no clear election result.

    There is no plan.  If there was a plan, Trump would not be freaking the fuck out on a daily basis.  All there is is a lot of flailing.

  129. 129.

    Ruckus

    To the no helmet crowd. I rode motorcycles for over 50 yrs, have over 1/2 million miles under my belt, not counting motorcycle racing. Wore a helmet 100% of the time except on a pit bike. Never got much above walking speed on those. I fell down/got knocked down twice in all those decades, never once while racing. The first time, no harm, no foul. The second time I was sliding down the road head first after a coyote ran out in front of me, when a truck hit me, bumper hit the helmet. Walked/rode away. OK only about a 1/4 mile to home but still. From where the bumper hit the helmet and how the helmet was damaged there was a pretty good chance that without a helmet I’d be dead. You never know who, what, when, where, why, how something is going to go wrong. It’s a simple equation. Wear a goddamn helmet. Or die young and stupid. Bicycles are a lot slower than a motorcycle but your head hitting the ground really doesn’t give a damn about that speed, it’s the fall that does it.

  132. 132.

    frosty

    @Matt McIrvin: I’m seeing a lot of people urging other people NOT to vote by mail, that in-person voting is the only kind that’s going to work.

    Ms. F talked me into voting in-person. We want to see our votes counted on election night and have PA go to Biden without waiting for mail ballots.

    To be fair, though, our polling place is an ex-school gym – high ceilings and loads of floor space. Probably the best anti-COVID indoor environment we could ask for.

  133. 133.

    prostratedragon

    @James E Powell:  It dawned on me that that’s why this nonsense is structured as it is, all the goodies come now, all the payback under the next President. Assuming nothing else derails this thing, we could always keep shouting about it.

  134. 134.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @MC:

    Let me add, and I think a lot of people should take this to heart, because it is increasingly important in the Trump era:

    It is difficult and scary for regular, even a little bit intelligent people to deal with hostile idiots.  They do something, and we want it to make sense.  We try to interpret it in terms of what it would mean if we did that thing.  It ends up looking like a diabolical plot, because surely no one would form a squad of about 80 guys to harass protestors in Portland and that’s it.  That’s too petty, too dumb a waste of effort.  But now it’s becoming clear, yes, that was it.  There’s no follow-up.  It was not part of any master plan.  Surely no one would run the post office into the ground without having some greater goal in wanting it destroyed.  I think we’re going to find out that the post office was run into the ground because an asshole MBA type was determined to operate it under asshole MBA rules.  The actual changes disadvantage people more the farther out of an urban center they are, so it’s actually a terrible plan if fixing the vote is their goal.  Doesn’t Trump do incredibly stupid shit that isn’t just badly thought out, it wasn’t thought out at all and there’s no follow-up?  All the time?

    We’ve been living under the thumb of an abuser for four years.  Trump winning at all was a traumatically horrible surprise.  We’ve all got PTSD from Hell, and are inclined to trust nothing because the hits keep coming from nowhere.  But the well established fact is, these are not evil masterminds.  They are not Lex Luthor.  They’re shitlords.

  135. 135.

    frosty

    @TaMara (HFG): Most mail-in ballots can be dropped off instead.

    Not in PA. We had it for the primaries, then the R lege got rid of dropoffs. It’s currently in litigation. We can still drop them off at the election board in the County Courthouse but that’s it. For now.

    ETA according to WaPo it’s in litigation by the Trump Campaign.

  136. 136.

    Ruckus

    @Ruckus:

    I also owned a bicycle shop, specializing in racing and triathlon. I’ve ridden a lot of 2 wheeled vehicles, in several different countries and all kinds of weather. Every mile you ride is amazing and could easily be your last, motorized or pedals. It makes life a different color, a different tone, a different experience. But like everything/anything that heightens the experience of living, there is an additional risk but given modern technologies one can lessen that risk to some degree. You don’t explore caves, you don’t scuba dive, mountain climb, without proper equipment, hell you wear a seat belt when you drive. Why would you ride a 2 wheeled device without proper equipment?

  138. 138.

    opiejeanne

    @FlyingToaster: We found pints at $11dozen at Target, and larger sizes at similarly reasonable prices. We bought a dozen pints because we made pickles this week and were running low on jars. The way the cucumber plants have been producing I was pretty sure we’d have another round of pickles soon, but the weather has changed and it’s like summer is gone. The highest temp for the next 10 days will be 77, and it’s been rainy and cold. I can ripen green tomatoes on the counter, but not the canteloupes and pumpkins if we don’t get some more heat.

  140. 140.

    Ruckus

    @frosty:

    Most states that allow vote by mail you have the ability to deposit your ballot into an official ballot box, either before or on election day. I suggest that everyone vote on that paper ballot by mail and avail yourself of direct deposit. You know your ballot got there, and it helps screw shitforbrains. A win-win as it were.

  141. 141.

    frosty

    @Yutsano: First time I’ve mentioned this but I am so pleased to have an IRS employee commenting to clarify things like you just did.

    Along with all the other expert jackals. Like Mob Enforcers. We usually don’t get the inside skinny on that profession.

  143. 143.

    Alison Rose

    @WaterGirl: I don’t think it was the campaign, but some PAC whose list I somehow ended up on. I didn’t take the bait.

    I’m not having a conniption fit over this or anything, I’m just tired of waiting. Everything is uncertain, it would be nice to get one of those uncertainties crossed off the list.

  144. 144.

    prostratedragon

    Josh Marshall, recently:

    We cannot control everything that happens to us, either individually or in our civic existence. But we can avoid losing battles in our own heads before they even start. Let’s not do that. Don’t cower.

  145. 145.

    opiejeanne

    @Ruckus: About 1986 a neighbor kid fell off her bike and nearly died. She was riding on the sidewalk and hit her head against the retaining wall in a front yard. She was in a shared room in the ICU for a couple o f weeks. The other kid in the ICU with her was the boy who had the traumatic head injury from skateboarding and died. Both those kids are part of the reason California has laws requiring helmets and other protective gear. Becky survived. She was 7 and one of my older daughter’s best friends. The boy was about 11 or 12, I think.

  148. 148.

    mrmoshpotato

    @opiejeanne:

    @Ruckus: My tires went out from under me riding down to Critical Mass one Christmas.  I happened to be going over the river at the time.  Glad the side of my helmet got the bridge grate’s scraping and not my nogging.

  149. 149.

    prostratedragon

    @mrmoshpotato:  Eh, I think you know the one … it’s been absorbed into every other single cuisine around here. Just checked the instacart, and there is some showing back up since Thursday, but a lot of less-familiar brands and formulations and still no Barilla no.7 for a month. Chickpea pasta? OK maybe … but [shudder] edamame pasta? Not here.

  150. 150.

    laura

    @Kent: just one squirrel, bag hanging from the handlebars, non- perpendicular crossing of railroad tracks, loose wheel, city bus, fallen olives, drugged and deranged driver looking for bicyclists and you’re lucky to escape with your life. That’s Alan, Steve who had turn learn the lesson twice, spouse, marcy  and londa’s boy. Friends and loved ones who were all involved in serious bicycle accidents in the last few years. Helmets save lives. And more bike friendly communities would be great.

  152. 152.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @prostratedragon:

    Pasta is getting short in supply, especially spaghetti.

    fifty quatloos the quinoa and vegetable-pastas are still there

    ETA: I’ve tried several and they’re pretty good, but I’m told they don’t last.

  153. 153.

    frosty

    @Ruckus: Sadly, PA doesn’t start counting absentees and mail ballots until after Election Day. We need to run up the score on 11/3 so we don’t get a lot of bullshit about fraudulent late voting.

    It’s a small risk based on my polling place. I’ll take it.

  154. 154.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Frankensteinbeck: Another thing is that we have agency.  We can act, speak, demonstrate, vote, etc.  We are not merely inert vessels to be act upon by malign forces.  Even saying “fuck you, you can’t beat me,” under your breath is an act of resistance to incipient tyranny and one I recommend that people start with whenever they start feeling defeated.

  155. 155.

    Matt McIrvin

    @TaMara (HFG): In Massachusetts it’s a town-by-town thing. As far as I can tell, my town has never had drop boxes (mail ballots are quite new here). However, in-person early voting is an option at City Hall if you want to beat the rush.

  156. 156.

    frosty

    @Ruckus: When my brother hit the car that pulled out in front of him unexpectedly (motorcycle brakes locked and wheels sliding) he went over the top of the car and hit the pavement on the other side. He said the sweetest sound he ever heard was his helmet hitting the pavement.

    Me, I dumped mine twice, without a helmet, at <15 mph, on one of them the helmet was in my backpack. Sheesh.

  157. 157.

    luc

    @opiejeanne: Both of these tragic accidents but much more the resulting California bike helmet laws are the reason that millions of kids now don’t get to bike at all, because it is such a scary dangerous activity that you have to wear a helmet.

    Congratulations to statistics that show a decline in bicycling injuries, when parents prevent their kids from cycling in the first place and drive them everywhere by car.

  159. 159.

    smike

    @prostratedragon:

    It dawned on me that that’s why this nonsense is structured as it is, all the goodies come now, all the payback under the next President…

    Yep. Remember GW? They know somebody has clean all the shit up, and it isn’t going to be them.

  162. 162.

    FlyingToaster

    @opiejeanne: I had gone online to check who near me still had them in stock, and then drove by to make sure.  Both Ace (Swartz in Newton and Tags in Cambridge) had both pint and quart jars.  Shaws in Waltham had pint jars only, however, they have oodles of lids, and since we had jars at home but no lids, I grabbed a box.

    SureJell and Bell’s  have both been in short supply.  I did find SureJell at Hannaford, but I got the last box.

    Fortunately, the raspberries are done, now.  WarriorGirl’s cherry tomatoes and strawberries are coming in, though.

    This week, my grand search will be for 2lb KAF whole wheat.  I found 5lb at the Allston StopnShop, but my bin only holds two pounds.

    And my hot water heater bit the dust last night; the tech came by this am before the supplier closed, so we confirmed it’s coming up Monday from NY.  However, we don’t know when the truck will get to Bwahstin.  It’s likely to be cold water only until Tuesday.

  163. 163.

    Another Scott

    @MC:

    Sometimes it seems that there is no hope, that it is impossible to stop injustice.@repjohnlewis was nearly beaten to death by people who denied his humanity.He kept fighting, and he won.If John Lewis can still say "be hopeful" after all he's been through, we can be hopeful. https://t.co/DQifY1hIpu

    — Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) June 27, 2018

    Hang in there. We will build a better world together.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  166. 166.

    Xenos

    I am going to a beach town in NL tomorrow, will do some biking.  Helmets are not used except for road bikes, everybody else skips the helmet but rides granny-bikes in dedicated lanes. It seems to work, which interesting because the bike culture developed from the horrifying increase in deaths from adopting  car-based commuting in the 60s.

  167. 167.

    Groucho48

    I suspect either Biden or one of his staffers remembered the mocking Obama got when he wore a helmet biking. Remember all the photos of Obama wearing a helmet and dad pants alongside a photo of Putin riding a horse bare chested? Who needs that?

    I also suspect that the section of road they were traveling on was closed to traffic, was pretty flat and had no angled RR tracks or other hazard. Biking in those conditions is very safe. Back when I cycled on roads, I always wore a helmet. But, nowadays, I only ride on a bike/jogging trail at a leisurely pace and often don’t bother with a helmet. You have to assess the risks.

  169. 169.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @MC:  Chill dude; if Trump was that competent he would be strolling to  a second term right now. The Pandemic was Trump’s golden ticket to get a do over for the last three years and he screwed it up royally. Just keep Cumo in mind; Cumo was widely despised by New Yorkers up until the pandemic and Cumo is a bit of a national hero now for mostly just doing his job during the crises.

  170. 170.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Yutsano: From what read Trump is just ordering them to stop the withholding, not the tax liability. Both Bushes did the same stunt during their admins.

  172. 172.

    J R in WV

    @WaterGirl:

    That’s close to 7% of cases. I wonder what % of the population children are.

    Looks like…. Google says:

    In 2017, there were 73.7 million children younger than 18 in the United States, accounting for 22.6 percent of the total population.Sep 13, 2019

  173. 173.

    yellowdog

    @Frankensteinbeck: MC is correct. Between hacked voting machines, regular voter suppression, and postal voter suppression, he will cruise to reelection or create enough chaos to force a congressional vote, where he wins.

  175. 175.

    Chris Johnson

    @yellowdog: Bollocks. He was already doing that full tilt in 2016.

    All you are doing is trying to lay the groundwork for a total denial of reality, which is the only thing Trump or his people will have available to them. Stop it.

    It’s like Adam Silverman thinking that people will cling to their norms and failed institutions when life collapses around them, and that this clinging will bring us the apocalypse even when everybody is getting harmed by it.

    Fuck that noise. Even IF they are fool enough to try and do what you say, we fight back. That is how it will be.

  176. 176.

    Gvg

    @luc: Honey, bicycling was going to decrease anyway. The world is more crowded and distances are further than they were when I was a kid. Schools are bigger and also the districts are more spread out.  I think that more parent work and have to leave earlier means more parents want to drop the kids before daylight at school also has an effect.

    we lived out in the country and had trouble getting my nephew to learn. The roads were narrow with no sidewalks and fast cars so the only place for him to ride was on the driveway with no nearby friends to motivate him. Then he got older and stayed at grandparents in town after school, still not near friends so he learned some for exercise grudgingly because we thought he should learn. Last year he finally learned in 5th grade because of a big boy scout pack bike ride. Still hated it. This summer with the pandemic going stir crazy he finally likes it at grandparents. Some of his schoolmates never learned and looking around it has to do with neighborhoods and infrastructure not helmets.

    Biking also went way down when the University helped the city afford an improved bus system. This also helped affordable housing by spreading out the possible living areas. Inadvertently they helped the working poor as well with job access, however fitness appears to have gone down. According to my father, bicycles are currently almost unavailable due to the pandemic making people decide not to bus so their is a shortage due to increase in demand. That probably won’t last past a vaccine though.

  177. 177.

    Miss Bianca

    @Origuy: Coming up on the 30th anniversary of my bike accident. A guy in a black BMW bounced me off his windshield in downtown Chicago. Even with a helmet, I was knocked out. Lost teeth, part of my tongue…went through years of surgeries and wrangling with insurance companies. And just think, I only had the helmet at all because a boyfriend had given it to me. Hadn’t been wearing it on my ride the night before, it was pure chance I donned it for that ride.

    Shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn’t been wearing it. I’m fanatical about helmets for both bike and horseback riding – never, ever ride without one.

  178. 178.

    planetjanet

    @Kent: Just wear your helmet, dude.  It is just common sense.

    FYI.  I wear a mask as well.  It actually helps to keep my throat moist while I ride.

  179. 179.

    J R in WV

    Back in December of 1972 I was still in the Navy, my ship was in the Ingalls yard for a complete overhaul. I was with my friends after shift, and it was a Gulf Coast thundershower. So I volunteered to ride another guy’s 10-speed to pick up our car across town and come back so no one got drenched but me.

    Was T-Boned on my left leg by a little British sports car. Hit the left side of my bare head on the hood, bounced off into the roadway and did the right side. Woke up face down in 2 inches of water. Heavy after work traffic, folks were real helpful, ambulance to ER. Bike was bent, seat was bent around my left thigh. Pressure wound on my scalp, in the rain, gory mess, looking like I was bleeding out.

    Broke my neck, although that wasn’t found for about 3 weeks. Still suffer from those injuries. A helmet for bikes wasn’t invented back then so far as I recall. I did ride some after that event, but it wasn’t the same. in WV the hills are too steep and the roads too skinny for me to enjoy road biking. Or maybe I just can’t get past that wreck and associated injuries. Don’t do motorcycles either. I like all the airbags and a good IIHS safety result.

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