The papers are signed!!! #BidenHarris2020
A reporter asked Kamala Harris about Trump’s VP eligibility claim and true to form, she gives an answer that refuses to diminish the meaning of this moment. pic.twitter.com/Ti56QH9BMp
— José (@josecanyousee) August 14, 2020
Hey… remember Netroots Nation?
I’m in this fight with @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris all the way. But it’s not enough to win the White House—we need to elect Democrats up and down the ballot to put people in positions where they can enact the big, structural changes we need. #NN20 https://t.co/SnExmkRA16
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) August 15, 2020
only thing I’d dispute here is Trump actually suing everyone instead of just threatening to sue everyone and quietly folding https://t.co/85c7STL7dy
— counterfactual ?? (@counterfax) August 15, 2020
======
The GOP Death Cult’s attempt to hijack the Post Office deserves — and will get — a post, or posts, of its own. But just to remind you that it’s in no sense a lost cause:
NEWS: The inspector general for the USPS has agreed to examine Louis DeJoy’s changes to delivery, partly with an eye toward looking at impact on mail ballot delivery, @ewarren‘s offoce confirms. First reported by @marshallcohen. And not a moment too soon. https://t.co/V9ifZIfewQ
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) August 14, 2020
NEW from @USPS: “We are suspending the removal of collection boxes at this time. All postings on collection boxes will be removed, as we will no longer be pulling any boxes.”
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) August 14, 2020
If Jon Tester, Maxine Waters, Joe Manchin, & Elizabeth Warren are all raising equal hell about an issue, that should be a signal that Democrats are pretty damn unified about the problem & you need to go yell at republicans.
— Mangy Jay (@magi_jay) August 15, 2020
To this point on the politics of blatantly gumming up mail delivery:
Trump job approval (per new Marist, Morning Consult polls) — 39%
USPS approval rating (June Harris poll) — 91% https://t.co/hXVqbLnLui
— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) August 14, 2020
He’s trying to make people panic and give up, it’s the con, it’s meant for both sides, to make us think he’s unstoppable. Nope, we are going to stop him.
— Virginia (@vavetisedu) August 14, 2020
1) They overestimated their own slickness; and
2) They vastly underestimated the backlash
An effort this clumsy and stupid is a Kushner Deluxe.
Won’t be shocked to hear his name come up in all of this.
2/2
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) August 15, 2020
I don’t say this lightly: when we escape this Trump hell, America needs a Presidential Crimes Commission. It should be made up of independent prosecutors who look at those who enabled a corrupt president. Example 1: Sabotaging the mail to win an election. #SaveThePostOffice
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) August 14, 2020
raven
OK, to took three weeks to get but now it’s down to the basement to put the recumbent bike together!
Cheryl Rofer
AL, you and I are thinking some of the same things this morning.
This is one of the things I’ve been pondering: why the timing on all this is so bad. The attempt to push Kanye as a spoiler. So many things about the pandemic; not all of that is under his control, but some could be turned to his favor. The clumsy birther attack on Kamala.
All of it gives us time to mobilize and overturn his attempts. It’s possible that the attack on the Postal Service will help us turn out the vote. Twitter is full of information about how, when, and where to vote, and you and Betty have been getting that information out here.
I don’t get it. But I’m glad they don’t either.
Gin & Tonic
I’ve read that Julian Bream has died. RIP.
Gin & Tonic
@Cheryl Rofer: OT, but all the video I’m seeing from Belarus today is really inspiring.
Ken
… he went on national TV and blabbed the secret plan.
Cheryl Rofer
@Gin & Tonic: It looks like Lukashenka is on the way out. I don’t see how he reverses this.
RedDirtGirl
Does anyone know anything about this group?
My first thought was that it’s just dressed up ‘both-siderism’. But I’m still intrigued.
For every issue it provides (their idea of) left, center, and right commentary.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: I had to look that one up. Even tho I have seen them, I had never heard what they are called. Have fun.
CarolDuhart2
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/julian-bream-classical-guitarist-of-profound-influence-dies-at-87/2020/08/14/dac9e9ec-de3c-11ea-8051-d5f887d73381_story.html
87. A long and most productive life. Thank you, Julian.
Sab
@Gin & Tonic: That’s sad.
Mary G
This tweet purports to give the names and email addresses of the board that oversees the USPS, who have the power to fire Louis DeJoy. I sent emails to all of them.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: A guy has a youtube putting it together that is an hour long!
OzarkHillbilly
Bald eagle attacks government drone and sends it to bottom of Lake Michigan
That eagle’s eyesight is either so bad it can’t tell the difference between a fish in the water and a drone or… C’mon guys, you know as well as I it was being territorial.
Heh.
Raven
Video???@OzarkHillbilly:
Van Buren
@RedDirtGirl: I’m a little skeptical after perusing for a bit and seeing that they do not seem to cover Climate Change.
What issue is more deeply polarized?
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: If he didn’t have left over parts at the end, he did something wrong.
prostratedragon
@OzarkHillbilly: What’s bald eagle for “Ptui!”?
MomSense
Last night I was talking to my dad because I’m at his house in Maine this weekend and I needed his help to find the family reunion Secretary’s books. We were curious if they had the reunion during the pandemic. While I was looking he told me that the daughter of one of his friends might come by. He said her dad was one of his friends and was a freedom rider. They were all active in the civil rights movement. He said his friend was in one of the busses and was beaten but survived. Then he said his other really close friend James was also pulled off a bus and beaten but didn’t survive and that he was one of his mentors who read and advised him on his thesis. My dad was very emotional talking about them last night – which is not his usual way.
I read the minutes of the meetings from1917 to 1926 and the only year they didn’t have the reunion was 1923 because there was a resurgence of a more virulent strain of the Spanish influenza that year. There were quite a few deaths reported in the 1924 minutes of children and young women. ? Apparently the influenza hit pregnant women very hard.
JPL
@Gin & Tonic: I was going to ask you about the latest developments. Apparently he wants Putin’s help.
OzarkHillbilly
@Raven: Not in the article, probably nothing but a blur anyway.
JPL
@MomSense: That is so sad, but what a fascinating journal.
Hoodie
@Cheryl Rofer: People frequently confuse Tromp’s amorality, his willingness to ignore rules and norms, with competence. His one innovation was being a fit for a time in which a segment of the population was ripe for outright racism, another segment was ensconced in a bubble and viewed politics as atomistic consumer choice, and another was apathetic and alienated, giving an opening to a racist demagogue with experience in mass marketing to morons and abuse of legal process. It doesn’t mean he’s a tactical or strategic genius. Most authoritarians aren’t, or are in a very tight sphere.
debbie
I’m not understanding that first tweet. Her response to Trump’s lie is to say she’s in it to win it?
Baud
@Hoodie: Agree.
debbie
@Cheryl Rofer:
Trump has never, ever been able to keep anything to himself. He’s never been strategic in any way; he’s always been the slash and burn kind of person whether it’s business, politics, or family relations.
WereBear
@Cheryl Rofer:
As a novelist, rule one about villains is: They don’t think they are villains.
Rule two is: Evil sows the seeds of its own destruction.
Trump exists because decades of Right Wing Propaganda (call it what it is) that masqueraded as “news” created what The Professional Left podcast calls “reprogrammable meat bags.” Sad to say, they are exactly right.
The Republican Base had to become the most gullible, manipulatable, spite-motivated, and hate-filled ambulatory voters with the minds of goldfish. And they did it!
And then a guy who spent his whole career conning such people stole them.
He’s the hard-core stuff! He doesn’t dog whistle, he goes right into their veins, pure and uncut!
The Republicans saw his overwhelming vote advantage, told themselves they could keep him in line, and leveraged him into the highest office in the land.
And now, their greatest triumph will be the instrument of their doom.
Let’s make it so.
Baud
@debbie: She basically ignored it. I’m sure she’ll have a more direct response if asked about it during an interview instead of this setting.
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
There are a few around here. They’re so low to the ground, I worry about them being on streets along with lousy car drivers.
debbie
@RedDirtGirl:
I’m suspicious because the page design is so crappy.
Geminid
Texas Democratic Senate candidate M.J. Hegar has a good interview in Rolling Stone. In her own way, Hegar may be as good a candidate as Beto O”Rourke. No soaring rhetoric. Just hard shots to Cornyn’s body. And Cornyn is somewhat of a cypher Texas voters; I saw a poll taken last fall showing 33% approved, 33% disapproved, and 33% had no opinion.
Mary G
So cute:
Ken
I thought the proverb about inviting a bear into your house to keep you safe from a wolf was originally Slavic, but maybe not.
MomSense
@JPL:
These notes are so matter of fact. They voted to use some of their funds send condolence cards but the only discussion other than to note who died (we still do this) was just a note at the top saying no reunion 1923 and then the note next to the names of the people who died the year before. I’m not sure what postage cost then but the total amount of money the reunion association had in 1924 was 7.24.
The next book starts in 1927 so there are some interesting times to come for the family.
The writing has faded a bit, but the penmanship is amazing.
debbie
@Baud:
Ah, thanks. Subtlety isn’t my strong suit in the morning.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Question: Colbert had a segment in which a woman who had recovered from COVID interviewed a doctor about why people didn’t believe it was real. Both she and the doctor wore masks. Did she really have to be masked? She no longer has it and can’t catch it–at least so we think.
debbie
@MomSense:
Your father’s stories and your family’s journals: What gifts you’ve been given!
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Yesterday, I saw somewhere that immunity only lasted 3 months. I doubt anyone can know anything definitively about COVID.
Ken
@debbie: See this morning’s COVID thread. The CDC reported that immunity lasts at least three months; the media (surprise, surprise) turned that into only three months.
Cheryl from Maryland
@Gin & Tonic: This is sad news. I played a recording of John Dowland Aires performed by his Quartet incessantly during college.
debbie
@Ken:
Not sure I disagree with the media on this. This is no time to be sunny and optimistic.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@debbie: I think the 3 month figure originates in their only having recovered 3 months ago. That’s as long as we’ve been able to measure so far.
But you’re right that nobody knows for sure.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Hoodie: I get why people conclude he’s being strategic though. I look at the open destruction of the post office, much used by rural and elderly people (ie Trump’s voters). And I wonder if anyone could really be that stupid. Strategery is an alternative explanation.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Patriot Mail Users!
Chyron HR
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Yes, because if they don’t then the President of the United States will seize on it as proof that (((they)))’re lying to us about masks.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ??
rikyrah
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mary G: I just want to pick her up and hug for a long long time..
rikyrah
Uh huh
OzarkHillbilly
(GIF)
Morzer
@prostratedragon:
Ph’tui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn
MomSense
@debbie:
The thing about a home that’s been in the family for a couple hundred years is that there is history all around. They all kept journals and were packrats generally. Before I leave this weekend I have to take some photos of the militia records. My ancestor was the clerk or scribe or whatever. He recorded the people who were fined if they didn’t keep their muskets clean, or taken away if they were seen being irresponsible. I have proof of the well regulated part and I want to send the records to Adam.
JMG
There’s a good deal of poli sci research in support of the very commonsensical theory that if you try to make it harder for people to vote and they find out, it just pisses them off and makes them more determined to vote no matter what. Messing up the mail is a surefire way to let them know about their vote being in jeopardy. Doing so in August gives them lots of time to figure out how they’re going to vote anyway.
Nicole
Re: immunity- science is showing that the antibodies only last about 3 months, but that’s not unusual for viruses (see- was it Raven, yesterday, commenting on discovering he got schnookered into getting his flu shot a month or so too early?). What will tell the tale is the memory B cells, and whether and how long they last- they’re the ones that keep you from getting sick with the same illness again because they recognize the intruding virus before it can gain a foothold in the body again. And nothing will tell that tale but time.
That said, smart for the patient to stay masked in the segment, both as a just-in-case, and also to set a good example for viewers.
sanjeevs
@Cheryl Rofer: Plan A was definitely to ensure they were running against Sanders. I think they were pretty sure he would win right up until Super Tuesday.
Nicole
Follow-up- I had to get an MMR booster last spring because I took the titer test and came up negative for measles immunity (I got vaccinated twice as a child; I have the record of one and the memory of the other and I’m sure I got it again before college). I mentioned it at my son’s school, and one of the other parents, who works in virology in a university setting, had all sorts of opinions about antibodies vs killer T cells and memory B cells and what does the most to fight off an infection and I swear, it was almost like watching a sports fan dissing the opposition. It was pretty funny. And very informative.
OzarkHillbilly
Waiting for a New Deal job program? These US parks are already hiring
As unemployment soars, local governments and non-profits have created conservation jobs in the Roosevelt mold
Meanwhile, donald trump goes golfing.
zzyzx
@debbie: There’s a difference between being sunny and optimistic and following the science. What the science knows now is that apparently for at least 3 months, immunity lasts. That’s a much different statement than immunity goes away after 3 months.
We need to be clear because that’s the only way to get policies and changes that will actually help fight this instead of just feeling like they should work.
Nora
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I’ve often had that reaction to other people I’ve dealt with. When someone does something really spectacularly stupid but doesn’t even seem to realize how stupid it is, I sometimes find it hard to believe it’s possible to be that stupid, and instead want to believe there’s some really deep strategy somewhere. Nope. It’s always stupid, never strategy.
zzyzx
@MomSense: as someone in a very small family that is scattered throughout the country and whom I maybe see once every 2-3 years, reading, “the family reunion Secretary’s books,” fascinated me just because of how different of a world that was.
Kay
@JMG:
I think the Trump people didn’t anticipate that “messing up the mail” is a huge issue in vast swathes of the country. They don’t understand this because they don’t know how anything works. They don’t have the background information necessary to draw ordinary conclusions about systems in this country, or how changing those systems might blow back negatively on them. They have no governing experience and they come out of a very wealthy slice at the top- the top 5%. People in those spheres don’t rely on the mail. They don’t even think about the mail. There’s no “waiting for my blood pressure meds” in that world. They don’t wait for anything. Trump’s thinking “can’t they just FedEx it overnight?” if he even goes that far, because worrying about that would be someone else’s job. Which leads to the second thing they don’t understand, which is the vast scale of this country. How big it is. How “delaying the mail” isn’t a 5000 person problem it’s a 50 million person problem.
NotMax
@Dorothy A. Winsor
Yes, for basically the same reason that when it is 3 a.m., with no other moving vehicle around for miles in any direction, you still stop at the red light.
mad citizen
@Hoodie: Dang you’re a good writer! A great summation of why trump. Another aspect to Cheryl’s question about the stable genius is that (and I probably read it here) is that he treats each and every day like it is an episode of a reality tv show. All that matters is the day. I don’t know which came first, that organizing idea, or his nonstop BSing, but they certainly go hand in hand.
Baud
@Kay:
Trump was reacting to the Dems pushing people to vote by mail because of the virus. There was no strategy. Just the usual stream of consciousness that his underlings were left to implement.
Luciamia
@Cheryl Rofer: I think it’s cause his MO is to sow chaos an throw sand into every gear as soon as they pop up, regardless of the timing. There’s never any long range strategy.
Gvg
@Dorothy A. Winsor: since the subject was people not believing, I think she and the doctor are trying to set an example for non believers. Watchers absorb messages from what they see.
you are being too logical. We need to influence the superstitious who are hostile to our message. They would jump on the woman not wearing a mask as “proof” she didn’t believe, without understanding their own ignorance. We can’t give any exceptions right now.
catclub
Earth’s magnetic field. too easy.
NotMax
The entire post office mess is looking more and more to be the straw that breaks the elephant’s back.
Baud
@catclub: God I hate Northies.
Kay
@Baud:
Right but no one around him has the background understanding to say “sure- you’ll screw up absentee balloting which may help us, but you’ll also delay all other mail”
The complaints in the news – and the complaints in the news are everywhere- aren’t about ballots. They’re about delayed mail. People here initially blamed it on “covid”, just vaguely.
Now they know it was Donald Trump :)
Chief Oshkosh
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Based on my experiences with most of my extended family, those rural voters will nearly-immediately take up the USPS “failure” as another example of how Big Gubmint don’t werk!
You simply cannot underestimate the ability of these people to never, ever understand what fucking time of day it is.
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: @Nora: If one’s first response is, “Are you a f’n idiot?” Inevitably, they are.
NotMax
@Baud
Funny, you don’t look Poleish.
;)
(works better spoken than written out)
catclub
It is really hard for you and me to think there are people who do not notice this. But they don’t read this blog, either.
Kay
And the MAIL was and is delayed where I live. The onset of delays coincide perfectly with Trump hiring his latest crooked incompetent to “run” something. It started with a few complaints from people coming in our office and then we saw it and now courts here are seeing it.
By the time he made his announcement that he was deliberately screwing up the postal service to help him remain in power people already knew the mail was delayed, they just didn’t know why.
Cameron
@Kay: I have to disagree. They know exactly how things work: when you want something done, tell someone else to do it. Why do you need to know any more than that?
Spanky
@catclub: Not so fast. The earth’s magnetic field is getting less and less polarized to the point that scientists expect the polarity to flip in the very near future.
Nicole
Has anyone else had acquaintance on social media post a long list of illnesses, allegedly on the CDC website, that could preclude someone from wearing a mask with a “don’t mask bully; you don’t know what someone else is going through” blah blah message? I saw one today, looked through the list and spotted Reynaud’s Syndrome on it, which is caused by being cold, for fuck’s sake. I would like to find out where the list originated from so I can call it out because it’ s getting old.
I replied today and inquired about one acquaintance providing a link to the CDC webpage that has this list. I imagine I’m not going to hear back.
H.E.Wolf
All 6 board members, per Electoral Vote blog, are appointees of the current president. [Scroll down to the Q&A for mention of the board members.]https://electoral-vote.com/#item-1
That said, I think it’s a great idea to let them know your opinion about the Postmaster General’s behavior!
Yesterday I received a phone call from an intern in my US Rep’s D.C. office, thanking me for my voicemail on the topic of USPS and saying my (Democratic) Rep is on it.
[ETA: I wasn’t surprised my Rep is on it; I was surprised to get a call-back. :) ]
Kay
@Cameron:
We saw the same thing with schools. They don’t know 1. how schools work or 2. what a BIG thing the public school system is. Miami public schools alone has 350,000 students. They’re running a city. A city filled with people they’re directly and solely responsible for 6 hours a day- their city has no adult citizens.
catclub
right back at you, the question was ‘what is more deeply polarized’?
NotMax
Some weekend gently get up to speed music played on one of the strangest looking instruments in the pantheon.
Ken
@Spanky: Well that would just be the cherry on top of the 2020 sh*t sundae.
Geminid
@OzarkHillbilly: Part of Elizabeth Warren’s excellent Green New Deal plan was a ten-fold increase in funding for existing federal soil and water conservation programs. This and clean power initiatives were pitched as environmental measures, but we will need job generating measures to climb out of this depression, and this kind of environmental spending will do a lot of good. Americorps is still around, but barely funded, and could be expanded so hundreds of thousands of young (and older) people could learn job skills while insulating and fixing up poor people’s homes. Another reason why we need to flip Senate seats this November.
OzarkHillbilly
@Spanky: I’d have picked Jupiter’s magnetic field myself.
catclub
Also: s/schools/healthcare/ — see Trump’s famous quote “nobody knew…”
prostratedragon
@Morzer: Aha! BJ has so many knowledgeable commenters that I knew someone would come through.
catclub
@Ken: umm, … soon means on a million year scale, so in 1000 years is rapid.
catclub
1. I agree you can get a flu shot too early.
2. I would suspect that since the viruses also change rapidly, there is not sufficient evolutionary advantage to having immunity last much longer.
Ken
@catclub: Oh, I’m aware of how geologists treat time, and that astronomers are worse. But let’s face it, Trump is touching the Earth’s magnetic field right now, so it’s doomed.
Immanentize
Here I sit in the parking lot of Rice Stadium (Go Owls!) Waiting for the Immp to receive his rapid test results. He should be negative. We’ve been super careful, especially the last two weeks.
If he is negative, he gets to move into the dorm. If he tests positive, he has to go to the plague dorm where they will do a proper full test.
Please cross toes, fingers and eyes while looking toward Houston for us.
germy
prostratedragon
@NotMax: Might be better/cuter written out here in Chicago.
Sure Lurkalot
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Another alternative explanation is Jared Kushner.
Nicole
@catclub: In the case of the flu shot, I think they’ve made their best guess about what the flu virus is going to evolve into by the time they’re offering the shots in late summer, but because antibodies drop over time, they recommend getting it in September or October, as it takes a few weeks to get to maximum antibodies, and they do fade over time. My guess is the memory B cells are there for that strain, but because the regular flu evolves so much year-to-year, they don’t recognize the following year’s.
I’m curious if they’ve done studies about getting a flu shot in August vs. October, with actual data to back it up, or if this is just the medical profession applying what we know about immunity to the situation (i.e., antibodies peak this many weeks after immunization, therefore, best to get the shot during this window). Because the shot you’re getting in August is the same one you’d get in November.
PPCLI
@Kay:
I think that originally the Trump-Dejoy plan was “just” to destroy the ability of the USPS to function adequately, so as to make it politically feasible to sell it off at bargain basement prices to connected Republican donors, framed as a way to “fix” the post office. (“Run the Post Office like a business, blah blah…”] No doubt Trump and Dejoy themselves would have been in for a taste, properly disguised and laundered, of course.
Then it occurred to Trump that he could use this to kill two birds with one stone, and he couldn’t resist blabbing about it. Now he has probably blown the whole scheme.
NotMax
@Immanentize
It’s come to this. In order to enter college you’re required to fail a test.
:)
Paws virtually crossed.
RedDirtGirl
@Van Buren: hmm. Thanks for that.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
Hoooooooot Hooooooooot. Thinking healthy – negative thoughts!
Say hello to Houston for me. My mom used to live there. I am now craving Berry Hill fish tacos. The restaurant is on Westheimer and I think there may be another near the galleria. I should warn you that you will be forever disappointed with all other fish tacos forevermore. Their lemonade is awesome, too.
prostratedragon
@NotMax: And for an encore, “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.” Thanks, I’d heard of those and even heard one before, but had never seen one.
raven
About two hours! Now to see if I can adjust the tension down.
Calouste
So the post office said three months out that they can’t handle the postal ballots in time, which apparently is about a 1-2% of increase in mail volume over a week. So how are they going to be able to handle the annual flood of holiday greeting cards then?
Sure Lurkalot
@Kay: Many also can’t conceive of an organization whose sole purpose is not profit. We know the post office is facing difficulties because of changing technologies and diminishing business but many businesses face that and find solutions to expand their reach. For the PO, one is community banking.
In addition, my RWNJ brother spent a career working for a company you would all recognize and I wonder if he believes said company would be profitable if it had to fund pension liabilities 75 years in the future.
frosty
@raven: My wife got one a couple of years ago after a couple of falls (no injuries). She loves it. It’s certainly a lot easier on the butt!
Although now it’s been sitting a little more after we got the folding eBikes for traveling.
RedDirtGirl
OzarkHillbilly
@Nicole: They also try to figure out as best they can which type of flu will be prevalent that year. It’s a bit of a pin the tail on the donkey game and they don’t always get it right.
NotMax
@Calouste
Funny how the letters sent to the states about supposed inability to handle the volume arrived in a timely manner, innit?
Betty Cracker
@MomSense:
That’s fabulous!
Immanentize
@NotMax: That is so good!
Jeffro
@Cheryl Rofer:
It’s because a) they’re lazy b) they think everyone can be manipulated as easily as the national snooze media and/or their dumb TCNJ base c) they never both to solicit opposing views/actual strategists d) they think the world of their own opinion e) they also engage in magical thinking if and when it means they can keep being lazy, not soliciting other opinions, or continuing to revel in their own “genius”.
This USPS thing is going to blow up in trumpov & Co’s faces. Let’s get that Postmaster General up on the Hill to testify, stat, Dems!
Brachiator
@Cheryl Rofer:
Does this make Putin look like some kind of moderating voice of reason and the quest for peace in the region?
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: Warren does seem to be influencing Biden on economic policy, which is all to the good, IMO. Maybe the GND elements of her plan will make their way to the platform or at least be considered. As the tweet above illustrates, Warren is a team player. Always has been. I’m not sure why some Democrats still dump on her like she’s a common Bernie. ;-)
NotMax
@frosty
Know deep in my marrow that if got aboard one I’d be fast asleep within three minutes.
;)
Immanentize
@MomSense: I just had Berry Hill tacos yesterday!!!!
I had the pork and grilled chicken. BiL had the fish tacos. $2 street tacos on Fridays!
Danielx
Back porch conversation with spousal unit last night: she indicated her sister was concerned about Kanye West pulling black folks’ votes from Biden. I didn’t even know how to respond for a couple of minutes, then said my first reaction was that the concept was pretty goddamned insulting to black peoples’ intelligence. On the other hand, there were probably some white people out there who would write in Ted Nugent if given the opportunity, but the idea that black folks would automatically vote for a disturbo like West solely because he is black is ridiculous.
Spousal unit then said well, sixty odd million people DID vote for Donald Trump…I had to say, okay, got me there.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: Because she committed the mortal sin of being friendly with him.
sdhays
Good god, the very first question is about the goddamn stupid birther attack?
Who TF is that “reporter”?
Eunicecycle
@Nicole: Yesterday I started to enter a store that had some kind of screed on the door about no, their employees were not wearing masks and no one can question them because of HIPAA and the 4th Amendment (?). I went in briefly but left because I was very uncomfortable. This is in Ohio with a mask mandate.
Immanentize
@NotMax: Now Immp approved!
He failed his test. WOOT!
Jeffro
@Kay: the REALLY amazing this is that – in addition to getting 160K+ Americans killed by their incompetence, trumpov & Co have managed to also screw up:
all for the re-election/keep-out-of-jail prospects of the country’s most corrupt president ever.
And he’s somehow STILL in the high 30s/low 40s in terms of support! I swear Fox is there strictly just to keep Republicans’ support from collapsing in the face of things that would absolutely kill any Democratic politician. It’s like a reinforced steel floor beyond which it’s not possible to drop – IF you’re a Republican!
And the sad thing is, if they had just handled the pandemic properly, by-the-numbers, no-egos-involved, the Ill Douche would be rolling to re-election right now.
(Sad from their perspective, not mine!)
RedDirtGirl
@Kay: Did you see yesterday’s Alexandra Petri article? Priceless.
OzarkHillbilly
@Danielx: To quote Norman from the Wire: “Black people have been voting for white people all their lives.” For a lot of white people, voting for a black person is a simple impossibility. Comparing the 2 groups is not just apples and oranges, it’s kumquats and zucchinis.
NotMax
@Immanentize
@·)
Be proud, papa.
OzarkHillbilly
@Immanentize: Good, my hands were locking up from all that finger crossing.
Brachiator
@PPCLI:
This makes a lot of sense. Trump is a clumsy despot. He often rattles off his resentments and peeves early. And then he stumbles around for the means to make his will be done. He had been talking nonsense about mail in voting being bad.
But this is the problem. Trump is a clumsy despot, but he is still a despot. And he would never be able to get away with any of this without the help of the GOP leadership. A lot of cleanup will need doing after the election.
Jeffro
I have no doubt he’ll believe whatever he needs to believe in order to maintain “private = good, public = bad”. They all do that.
Kay
@Immanentize:
Good luck! I’m so glad he’s starting college!
RedDirtGirl
@Immanentize: fantastic!
JPL
@Immanentize: Still waiting? Ohio State had 2000 students arrive at 4 for testing and they had to stand in the pouring rain.
artem1s
Vote Vets has a great ad out
Vote Vets – War on USPS
JPL
@Immanentize: ?????
zhena gogolia
@Immanentize:
Congratulations!
Jeffro
OT from all this Post Office stuff, and almost as infuriating: Kathleen Turner is still butthurt from the way Kamala Harris went after her boy Kavanaugh, so Turner’s already looking forward to cheering on Nikki Haley (against Harris) in 2024.
Really edging into Hewitt’s territory here with the framing and lies. What a pathetic person.
JPL
One of the negative ads that trump is running has a female standing silently with cards that tell the story of mean Joe eating babies. Any who I just looked up a few minutes ago and Jimmy Kimmel was doing the same thing to announce his return lol
zhena gogolia
@Jeffro:
Okay, you mean Kathleen Parker. I thought, God, I didn’t know Kathleen Turner was a RWNJ like Jon Voight.
Kay
@PPCLI:
I agree. Likely. I looked in the past couple of days because I wanted to see if the onset of delayed mail reports coincided with Trump’s new bad hire starting work and it does. When the new hire arrived he delivered the usual Right wing free market babble about how he’d streamline and improve efficiency too and the postal service (like Social Security) is a public asset they’ve been dying to get their greedy paws on for 50 years.
Brachiator
@Immanentize:
Plague dorm. What a concept.
So glad that the test turned out negative!!
Congrats and hope that everything is smooth sailing from here on out.
Kattails
@Mary G: This person posted the business MAIL addresses of the USPO Board of Directors, and suggests writing letters, as why give them a reason to say oh, well, there are alternatives to the mail?
OldDave
@Jeffro:
Parker. Not Turner. Parker
ETA: zhena gogolia got there first. Nevermind.
frosty
@Immanentize: Congratulations! Celebrate the failure and cross fingers he doesn’t fail anything else freshman year ( a bar I was unable to leap over).
Chemistry. Ugh.
Gin & Tonic
@Jeffro: But boy, was she hot in Body Heat.
Oh, Kathleen Parker, you meant
ETA: wow, I’m slow.
NotMax
@JPL
Not one for emojis, so hoping get this right. ?
(Supposed to be clinking champagne glasses, although it unfortunately also looks like a turkey’s butt.)
Danielx
@OzarkHillbilly:
Spousal unit was fucking with me for her own amusement.
Kay
@Jeffro:
God, the world-weary, insufferable fake sophistication of these people. As if she understands anything at all about the Democratic base- the voters.
They’re dinosaurs too, these people. Trump’s coalition doesn’t read op ed columns and the rest of the country is dealing with real and pressing problems and no longer has time for this. Donald Trump has now directly and negatively impacted every person in this country. You can’t escape the disasters. They reach into every single home. If he wasn’t SURE he hit all of us he just MADE sure he did by fucking up THE MAIL. But she’s bored by all this. It’s conventional.
Baud
@Jeffro: Pay no attention to the white guy at the top of the ticket.
Gin & Tonic
@zhena gogolia: Hey, did you see where Russian TV translated Trump’s “nasty” comment about Harris as омерзительная. Pretty harsh, but maybe they know what he really meant.
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic:
No, I didn’t see that. I’m so depressed that I don’t watch much Russian TV
ETA: I probably would have gone with наглая or сварливая.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@NotMax: Huh. That’s an organ pedalboard, that somebody has connected to the body of a piano. Never saw that before.
Speaking of strange instruments, I assume jackals are familiar with this old video of some guy named Frank Zappa playing the bicycle on the Steve Allen show?
Zappa comes on at 0:45, starts making… um… music at 5:00, and the orchestra joins them around 12:00.
It’s odd but not that different from some classical “new music” I’ve heard.
NotMax
@Kay
Trying desperately to find something, anything they can fling at the wall which will stick.
This year the wall has been generously coated with Teflon.
PPCLI
@Jeffro: Ah, yes. Kathleen Parker, who wrote the immortal “Calm down. We’ll be fine no matter who wins.” column just before the 2016 election.
By that point Trump had made it %100 clear that if elected he would deliver exactly the corrupt, incompetent, pathologically dishonest sh*tshow that he has in fact delivered.
So I think we can safely treat anything she has to say as worse than worthless.
raven
@frosty: Cool, this has magnetic tension and, damn, the lowest is tense but I guess I’ll just have to get used to it. Now back under the truck for a 4th try at the starter!
germy
@PPCLI:
Well… she’ll be fine.
germy
@Gin & Tonic:
What’s their translation?
raven
@Immanentize: The only drug test I’m getting will be take home!!!
NotMax
@Ceci n est pas mon nym
Pedal piano. Not exactly a commonplace, yet Mozart composed for it.
germy
@Gin & Tonic:
She was also the voice of Jessica Rabbit.
Gin & Tonic
@zhena gogolia: I don’t watch it either, just read about it.
O. Felix Culpa
@Immanentize: All digits and orbs duly crossed. Good luck
ETA: And now I see the Immp
passedfailed! Congratulations!Gin & Tonic
@germy: That word is more like “repulsive” or “disgusting.” It’s a very strong word. Z-G is better at translation and literary nuance, though.
germy
Disney Instagram Comedy Series seeks Voice Over Talent
Production Description
Seeking funny and creative non-union voice over talent of all gender/races for Instagram comedy series filmed with Disney Dorables toys.
Production states: “Talent will voice a parent performing knock-knock jokes and riddles in the voice of various well-known Disney characters. Talent should be able to record from home and have access to high-quality microphone. Potential to be an ongoing position for the remainder of the year. Also seeking adult talent able to perform kids voices.
https://www.backstage.com/
WaterGirl
@Immanentize: I crossed my fingers and curled my toes, since crossing my toes appears to be a physical bridge too far. Also turned and looked in the direction of Houston while I did it.
Hoping that by the time I get to the bottom of the comments, I will hear that the test results are exactly as expected.
edit: You posted the results before my 5-minute edit window closed. Yay!
NotMax
@<a href="https://balloon-juice.com/2020/08/15/saturday-morning-open-thread-71/#comment-7816254+"germy
“Non-union?”
efgoldman ’em.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Because Disney is so broke they can’t afford to pay union scale?
@NotMax: You got there first.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Opportunity to be grateful you don’t also possess any, um, hanging bits capable of being crossed.
:)
zhena gogolia
@germy: @Gin & Tonic:
G&T is correct. The problem is that “nasty” in English has connotations of both repulsiveness and insolence or meanness. There are probably about ten different Russian words you could use to translate it. If I were translating DJT’s “nasty” into Russian, I’d probably highlight the insolent/mean part of the spectrum rather than the repulsive.
Josie
@Kay:
This is it exactly. They don’t use mail to order necessities, pay bills or rent, etc. They don’t need Social Security or Medicare. Their world is not our world. That’s why we need to get them out of government, root and branch.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
So… Cossackious.
;)
germy
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
Cambridge dictionary:
The word chosen by the Russian TV isn’t even included here. I would go more with meanings 2 and 3 rather than 1.
ETA: For me it should be one of these: наглая (insolent), сварливая (quarrelsome; usually used about women), злобная (malicious, angry), maybe гадкая (repulsive) if you want to stress the repulsiveness. омерзительная for me would translate into English as “revolting.”
debbie
@MomSense:
I wonder if the house is like one of those old ones that, when the walls are opened for rewiring or renovations or whatever, all kinds of stashed-away treasures are discovered between the framing boards (sorry, don’t know the correct term).
Cheryl Rofer
@RedDirtGirl: One way I check on websites that are new to me is to look for an “about” page saying who they are, if it’s not obvious. If you don’t like the people in charge, that says it all. If they don’t say who’s in charge, I usually steer away.
Cheryl Rofer
@Brachiator: It makes Putin look smart enough not to invade another country when his attempt in Ukraine has gone so badly wrong.
I’m sure he would like it to make him look like a voice of moderation, but a lot of autocrats are having a hard time simulating that these days.
germy
debbie
@germy:
All meetings have been rescheduled to take place at the golf course. //
sdhays
@germy: Wasn’t he actually never invited in the first place?
Jeffro
@zhena gogolia: Sorry…I’m an idiot (but we knew that already)
Yes, Kathleen Parker :)
debbie
@Immanentize:
More than you can imagine is crossed for the Immp!
ETA: Yay!
Kristine
@NotMax: here’s hoping ?.
Jeffro
@OldDave:
@Gin & Tonic: apologies all around!
Cheryl Rofer
And congrats to collegiate Immp and his proud parent!
zhena gogolia
@Jeffro:
I’m just glad I don’t have to “cancel” another actor.
NotMax
Am immersed in season two of a Serbian series on Prime swimming in the underbelly of 1930s Belgrade. Don’t really like it yet can’t stop viewing it (in small increments).
Season one was, overall, a better ride, although still a slog.
Black Sun, for any who might be curious. Has been favorably compared by some reviewers to Peaky Blinders.
Jeffro
@Kay: I think that’s what set me off, too – the boredom, that word ‘ennui’. She can afford to be bored, she’s that privileged. It’s kind of unbelievable but not really.
Another Scott
@RedDirtGirl: I’d never heard of it before, but looked at their About and FAQ pages.
This is wrong on so many levels.
Our family didn’t watch Cronkite, we watched Huntley-Brinkley. Cronkite was hated by many, many people.
The problem isn’t that news reporting isn’t somehow perfectly unbiased, or that partisanship is ruining the press, it’s that it’s too often both-sidered to death in the USA. Too many national outlets play lip-service to telling us what’s really happening.
HuffPo “hard left”? FoxNews “leans right”??!!!!
Hard pass.
YMMV.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
@zhena gogolia: Ha!
No need for that – I hear there’s a whole “culture” that will do it for you. Fox said so. ;)
rikyrah
@Kay:
Also, the Post Office is FULL of Veterans.
Full of it, and they don’t understand that Postal Workers do have pride in what they do.
debbie
@Cheryl Rofer:
I think he’s also masquerading as a voice of moderation on Iraq. That gives Pompeo the room he needs to look like a tough guy. /eyeroll/
rikyrah
@Kay:
You have a former General like Russell Honore talking about having to go to WALGREENS to get the meds that haven’t come in the mail. Implicit in that is all the bullshyt that people have to go through in order to get a second supply of medicine, because the computers tell the pharmacists that the supply is FILLED.
they haven’t added in that aggravation.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Was glad to see John Tester put his fellow Republicans in Montana on blast about this Post Office bullshyt
L85NJGT
@germy:
It’s the four-in-hand. He always looks like some dipshit kay-det.
Haroldo
@NotMax:
Doesn’t look (or sound) like Jimmy Smith…..
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
We are crossing everything for Little Imma :)
SFAW
@Baud:
I think it would be good humor if someone whispered in the Moron-in-Chief’s ear that Senator Harris was actually born in Auckland, and that she’s actually Maori.
Which would be followed by his usual “many people have said she was actually born in Australia — or was it Austria?? Can you check on that? — and so she’s not egibigible. Smart people, some of them lawyers who received their degrees from Trump University.”
Frankensteinbeck
@Kay:
I’ve been saying this and people keep brushing me off. Maybe I should have emphasized the timing as evidence this is not about the election. The guy in question has business interests against the USPS, and is a standard Galtian asshole. Trump hates the post office because of petty spite against Amazon and general hating the government. These are not new things.
Trump put a guy in whose goal was to Run The Post Office Like A Business using standard asshole business policies. When that destroyed everything, he (in the Galtian mind) would have proven the Post Office is inferior and should be sold off.
Then someone complained that doing this was making it hard to mail in ballots and Trump went “Hooray! I’m sure not going to fix that!” It’s after-the-fact and not thought through.
NotMax
@rikyrah
Um, Tester is a D.
zhena gogolia
@NotMax:
He’s also Jon.
PETER STRZOK
MICHAEL BENNET
CORNEL WEST
rikyrah
@Danielx:
I am going to just say this like this.
I think that this is so important to some in the Media, and why they want to make Kanye a thing is because..
They are legitimately ashamed of their fellow White people.
They doubled down on Whiteness, because that’s all Dolt45 offered.
And now, their vessel for White Supremacy has cost 160,000 American lives.
And, shown that many White people lack character, and lack good judgement.
Until Jesus returns, White people will be responsible for the worst President of the United States.
Period.
And, you have to deal with that it was your parents, grandparents, family, friends, that did that to this country.
But, if they can point to Kanye being taken seriously…and all these Black people voting for him…then, it’s not just WHITE PEOPLE.
They want to ‘ both sides’ it.
But, I have news for them.
This isn’t 2016, where we could suspect, and believe that Stein was nothing but a phucking paid Russian Spoiler Stooge.
This is 2020, where we have clear evidence that everyone remotely involved in this campaign is REPUBLICAN.
Being this obvious helps for several reasons.
We can shout it from the rooftops,
and, completely discredit those Hoteps and others who might try and push KOONYE to the Black community.
Ain’t nobody got time for this bullshyt, and KOONYE and his sex tape wife need to be obliterated.
Frankensteinbeck
@Cheryl Rofer:
Can we get more information about this point? Last I heard he might not have taken all of Ukraine, but he had part of it and an internal distraction for his potentially rebellious population and it was at least a partial victory. I am very much not disputing you. On the contrary, you’ve said something where I’m delighted to hear I misunderstood and want to know more!
rikyrah
@Immanentize:
YEAH!!!!!
go Little Imma:)
Shakti
@Cheryl Rofer:
He feels immune from the consequences of any prosecution. He should’ve been convicted of the impeachment charges but the Republican controlled Senate went all in for him. He expects all of the judges he appointed to be in the tank for him along with the Republican governors who control the election apparatuses.
He feels great and this is his way of rubbing in our faces because he thinks we have no power to stop him, so why does he need to be careful or exercise guile? It’s like frat boys filming hazings or those lynchers with their post cards.
rikyrah
@NotMax:
Sorry,
should have said, his fellow Montana Politicians – who are Republicans.
SiubhanDuinne
@Immanentize:
YAY for failure! Congrats to the Immp — may his college experience be a great one!
Kropacetic
Are we going to go through this with every black candidate? Do they think no black people have ever been born in America?
NotMax
@rikyrah
First on the bandwagon for Baud!/Immp 2036.
;)
prostratedragon
@Kropacetic: The eastward march of depatriation will go on. Today Oakland, tomorrow Cincinnati!
germy
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Immanentize: Good for him!
Captain C
@Kropacetic:
Most likely, yes, at least for all of our lifetimes.
I think they think no Black people count as Americans, and look for rationalizations to make it official, at least in their eyes. They still resent the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments and want them to go away.
MagdaInBlack
@Immanentize:
Congratulations =-)
SiubhanDuinne
@zhena gogolia:
Yeah, that confused the hell out of me, too.
Another Scott
@Kropacetic: Yes, they will try it with every black candidate.
They try everything until they find something that grabs enough attention.
It’s what they do.
And it’s infuriating that the MSM serves as a megaphone for it.
Grrr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus
@RedDirtGirl:
Probably holds the concept that if you can’t define reality, give all sides and stand back and watch. Or maybe “Non slanted news is unavailable so we’ll give you everything and you’ll be happy enough to pay us!”
Matt
@RedDirtGirl:
Translation: “AllSides media is a right-wing front operation”
Seriously – if they’re rating the channel that puts on the Tucker KKKarlson White Power Hour as only “lean right” they’re either fools or liars. In neither case should they be taken seriously.
Kropacetic
The MSM is there to make excuses for the right, advance moderate Republicans, hamper moderate Democrats, shut out the left, and make money for themselves and all others with no scruples.
Kropacetic
I had never seen this word before, but the contextual clues were sufficient to have me rolling on the floor after I quickly figured it out.
Not even Kanye? ::looks pleadingly to Captain C::
germy
Well said.
That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.
Just One More Canuck
@germy: those contradictions ain’t gonna heighten themselves
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: What I liked about Warren’s Green New Deal program is that she didn’t try to reinvent any wheels. She took existing government programs and private sector energy development and figured out how to turbocharge them. Economist Robert Pollin emphasizes that at this point initiatives like energy conservation, clean power, a smart grid, etc. save money in the long run, and a swift transition is a matter of financing. To this end Warren made a federally sponsored Green Devolopment Bank that could finance clean energy and conservation projects a centerpiece of her program. Germany has had this kind of financing for years. As for why people like to pick on Warren, I am reminded of a saying by a psychoanalyst, maybe Freud: “sooner or later we reach the complexes.” In the case of misogyny, it’s sooner.
Johannes
@prostratedragon: Pfui. Or that may be wolf, as in Nero Wolfe.
Ruckus
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
She may be compromised in many differing ways. Some systems may be damaged from the virus damage and therefore more susceptible to other issues, lungs, blood, etc. And there is so much that the medical community doesn’t know about this, is she still a carrier of the disease for example, or a carrier of a modified version.
cain
@WereBear:
But with Qanon – he’s going to lose them even further – sunk in conspiracy theories – these people will not be manageable. Even if the Republicans go back into power they will have factions that will not agree with each other (other than tax cuts.. maybe) and will continue to pour more power into the executive because that’s the only way a functioning govt will happen – meanwhile with Trump at the helm, those institutions are only there to serve Trump not Republicans.
cain
So you’re saying by attacking the USPS they are in fact attacking Christmas. You think sending postcards is going to be economically viable if there is no USPS? yeah.. everything will be a lot more –
War on Christmas
It’s on.
MomSense
@Immanentize:
The fish tacos are the best. Damn, I’m so jealous!
cain
@Jeffro:
That’s gonna be some fucked up shit come 2024 – when we’ll have two women for the presidency both of Asian Indian descent.
Yutsano
Okay, I know Dolt45 is incapable of this kind of planning but it’s possible DeJoy is, so hear me out. What if the October Surprise is Drumpf magically fixes the Post Office just in time for the election? It’s amazingly dumb and short sighted but since nothing else is sticking might as well try a gambit that everyone notices right in time for mail-in voting. Or it’s his razor and DeJoy took the job to eliminate his competition. But I occasionally wonder…
Frankensteinbeck
@cain:
Nikki Haley cannot get the Republican presidential nomination. A minority woman who properly cheerleads the white patriarchy makes white racists feel good enough that she can sometimes, on rare occasions, be allowed a state-representing post like governor. She’s still a sidekick and a token in that slot. They’re not going to let a dark skinned woman get within a fucking mile of the presidency. Like Cain and Carson, if she runs she will seem to be picking up steam at first as white racists vote to let you know they’re not racist, then the instant she seems actually viable they will drop her like a hot rock and the nomination will go to the most virulent white supremacist misogynist asshole they can find.
EDIT – @Yutsano:
Naah. They both already wanted the Post Office destroyed for reasons totally separate from the election. It’s an interesting question to raise, but it doesn’t fit.
There will be multiple October Surprises. Huge odds one will involve a DoJ investigation of Biden. They will be unbelievably stupid and backfire on Trump.
Yutsano
@Frankensteinbeck: Could you even imagine Ben Carson on the campaign trail? The late night host jokes alone would be comedic gold. And then there would be Trevor Noah…
Nah, Droopy won’t do it. He’s never run a political campaign (as far as I know) and going for President from the jump isn’t easy even with institutional support that he won’t have. Looking at you West.
Frankensteinbeck
@Yutsano:
Carson ran in 2016. He briefly looked viable (EDIT – not winning, you understand, just a real candidate with a chance), then the voters all stampeded to Trump.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Kay: Plus youth, relatively, of people like Kushner. We had the local downtown post office (beautiful building with a wonderful WPA mural in it) closed down several years ago, with PO functions moved to what had been the PO annex on the outskirts of town. Big fight to keep the old building which didn’t succeed. When I talked about the issue with one of my coworkers in his twenties, he was unconcerned because he didn’t use the PO and said all his communications were by email.
Yutsano
@Frankensteinbeck: Sheesh. That got stuffed down my memory hole. Of course once Tang Man pulled all the oxygen out of the room remembering them all seems Herculean at this point. Or my brain is still foggy.
MC
@Frankensteinbeck: Since there have been twelve October Surprises every day since Trump took office, how will these manage to stand out?
Ken
I’d love to see the responses if it were put up for sale, with the requirement that the buyer follows all the current policies for a minimum of, oh, 75 years (since that’s what’s in the pension fund).
That would include the union workforce, the requirement to provide first-class letter service to every household in the country at a single price, the reciprocal arrangements with foreign postal services, the special rates for books and bulk mail, the forever stamps, et cetera.
Yutsano
@MC: Good point. Granted he has yet to have one that hasn’t shot him in the foot yet. He and his family are lazy and stupid but he is surrounded by people who supposedly aren’t. But I think a lot of the people around him are also out of touch with the general Zeitgeist of the American public right now. Some of them also agree that there is that “silent majority” that will make Dolt45 win again. They’re totally ignoring the huge number of people who are decidedly against what the President stands for and those who are just turned off enough to want an alternative. Plus I’m actually optimistic about da yoots. I don’t think we’ll break 35% of them voting but even that percentage could be a big tipping point in a lot of races. I just have this feeling this time that I didn’t have in 2016. I could be totally off but we’ll see.
Kay
@cain:
This is an amazing QAnon story:
LongHairedWeirdo
re: a Presidential Crimes Commission, and putting people in jail if they aided and abetted or obstructed justice, absolutely. We *desperately* need that. People need to learn that, no, you can’t assume the right wing media machine will generate enough noise to make it politically unpalatable to go after outright criminals.
We also need to audit the OLC. and ensure there are controls in place so that a lawyer can’t find the thinnest of legal justifications for an action or policy, and claim it’s a sound legal opinion, one that *should* the the same as settled case law, unless/until a court reviews it. If the bar is intended to anything other than a rubber stamp, lawyers should be terrified to sign off on garbage opinions for the OLC.
Which is not to say the OLC won’t issue some *horrible* opinions, but since the OLC decided the plain wording of the law regarding provision of tax records could be ignored because a particular request *might* be harassment, and the co-equal legislature should be given no deference in the matter, the author of that memo should be sweating bullets, realizing that there are some lines you just don’t cross, and they’re on the wrong side of one.
Another Scott
@Frankensteinbeck: Yup. Their incompetence always shines through.
Yup.
But we still have to run up the score. Fight for every vote!
Cheers,
Scott.
LongHairedWeirdo
@Ken: Yes. The Republicans want to get rid of the USPS so that FedEx and UPS can deliver mail in Manhattan, and really, who cares about people in rural areas? Don’t Republicans call them flyover states anyway?
(I’ve only heard the expression “flyover states” from Republicans and other soi disant “conservatives” so I assume it’s their term, and they’re projecting.)
Another Scott
We have to keep in mind that it’s not just Donnie. It’s the whole GOP. They all need to go.
(via LOLGOP)
Cheers,
Scott.
Frankensteinbeck
@Yutsano:
Kay’s phrase ‘low quality hires’ leaps immediately to mind. In any other setting, Barr would be considered a pathetic incompetent, but he shines in the Trump administration because only occasionally shoots himself in the dick. His list of stellar successes consists of going “Nuh-uh, you can’t make me!” and that’s about it.
Kay
@cain:
Here’s the local news story. No mention of QAnon or Donald Trump. Just the JFK/covid part of the conspiracy.
Chyron HR
@Kay:
I hope someone from the Sunshine Justice Squad will reach out to this downtrodden member of the white working class and soothe his economic anxiety.
LongHairedWeirdo
@Yutsano: When he started proclaiming himself a “wartime president” about Covid-19, I was briefly worried, especially as the news media kept carrying the dick-jerking Trump (white) power hour to let him lie about anything and everything with impunity.
(Oh. I’ve been informed it was the *DONALD J* Trump, not the dick… well, you can see how I got confused!)
See, there’s one thing you can count on with Trump: if people tell him he’s wrong, wrong, wrong about something, if it’s objectively, clearly, obvious that he’s wrong, he’ll keep doing it, to save face, just like a cranky, rebellious toddler scolded in front of playmates.
(Hey, Donnie-boy? It’s a bad look on a *toddler* too!)
FelonyGovt
Very late but wanted to congratulate @Immanentize and wish the Immp a very safe, successful and happy college career.
trollhattan
@Kay:
Slyman not very aptly named, methinks. But, who else is impressed a minivan can go 100+?
SFAW
@PPCLI:
What they meant was “run it like a Trump business,” which would explain a number of their actions.
debbie
@Another Scott:
This.
CaseyL
Welp. On Twitter, multiple tweets offer the phone numbers and emails of the USPS Board of Governors.
So I sent them an email saying, in effect, “everyone knows what you’re up to, so if you don’t want to be the subject of multiple criminal and civil investigations, how about you undo everything that you’ve done?”
I’m sure it will have the same effect as shoveling sand against the tide. Maybe I’ll also call them on Monday.
J R in WV
@Danielx:
Sixty VERY ODD million people DID vote for The Donald, now “president”Trump, back once upon a time. Very Odd people!!!
Yutsano
@CaseyL: I feel the need to make a note to folks to be kind to the administrative assistants who answer the phones. They’re not the ones making the awful decisions, and taking out your anger on them will guarantee they will not coöperate. Trust me. I know a few. These are definitely the people you want to keep on your good side.
EDIT: not directed at you. Just to humans in general.
Bill Arnold
@Cheryl Rofer:
This is in large part a consequence of the closed information[2] system that American “Conservatives” live in. Most of them have absurdly inaccurate (sometimes entirely counter-factually cartoonish) models of the opposition.[1] There is also a lot of wishful/magical thinking; the Norman Vincent Peale (D.J.Trump via his father) / prosperity gospels / etc belief systems in particular. These belief systems work better if one spends effort to arrange that the desired outcome is more probable(cough [3]), but they mostly don’t bother with that step.
[1] The ones that do model the opposition, like Stephen Miller, are much more dangerous.
[2] and disinformation. It is very easy to prod the right wing fever swamps; a lot of gullibility to work with. Many actors do this.
[3] Magic works better if there are no obvious violations of probability. The Rules of the universe. :-)
CaseyL
@Yutsano: I’m never rude to the poor person who has to answer the phone. I might say something like, “here’s a message for the corrupt ignorant monster you work for,” but I never say it rudely.
Jay
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
in some regards, it’s social signalling, wear a mask, 6 feet asshole, wash your hands you dirty , filthy animals,……
there is so much we don’t know, so no taking chances.
Martin
@Cheryl Rofer: There must be a breaking point. I mean, that’s what has preoccupied me lately and could use some assurance from Adam (if there is any to be given) but there must be a breaking point that someone doesn’t want to cross.
But I think the answer might be in a different place. Dictators always take these laughable efforts at legitimacy. They always have elections, they always slap ‘democratic’ on their nation when it’s anything but. This suggests the point isn’t just to retain power, but to retain power with the veneer that it’s earned, that somehow the people are supportive of this, even when the measure of that support is wholly fabricated.
I don’t think Trump wants to win as bad as he wants to be popular. And his measure of popularity is winning the election. And the way he calibrates that measure is by unpersoning the people he thinks are out to get him, or cheat him, or whatever victimization he imposes on himself, so it’s okay to exclude their ballots, because they were undeserving to begin with, but not all ballots.
A sociopath is someone who does horrible things and doesn’t need to convince themselves what they are doing is horrible, but everyone else who does horrible things finds way to rationalize it.
So just cancelling the election doesn’t achieve the goal of ‘winning’. And then of course, Trump doesn’t actually do anything himself, so all of his desires are filtered through all of these other people who have entirely different sociopathies and interpretations of the goal, so it looks so wildly hamfisted and incompetent because there is no central idea here like ‘free and fair elections’. How the leader rationalizes something doesn’t translate to the followers unless it’s baked into an ideology, which Trump doesn’t really do. Say what you will about McConnells worldview, at least it’s an ethos.
Bill Arnold
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
If it becomes a thing that people who have recovered from COVID-19 say they don’t wear masks because they don’t need to, then a significant subset of the American population will lie about it so that they can go maskless.
Also, we don’t know the level of protection provided by a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection; it could be that after a while, the adaptive immunity left is the slower kind, and if so then one still gets infected and could suffer additional morbidities such as long-term heart, lung, brain, kidney damage, even if overall COVID-19 severity is reduced.
Bill Arnold
@Bill Arnold:
Forgot to add, can still (probably) spread the disease.
WaterGirl
@Bill Arnold: Bill, I trashed your comment where the nym got goofed up.
Mike in NC
Last night we watched one of the most deranged movies ever, “The Brothers Grimsby”, written and starring British comic Sasha Baron Cohen. He plays an imbecile football hooligan whose long-lost brother is a secret agent with MI-6. It’s insanely raunchy and crude, very funny in places, and while it was made several years ago it has a couple of pertinent subplots: (1) a deadly virus to be released during the World Cup finals, infecting millions of people, and (2) Donald Trump has a cameo appearance as a villain!
J R in WV
@Matt:
I would actually say they are both fools AND liars, personally.
You don’t work for a “news outlet” that ranks KKKucker Tarlson as “leans right” without being a fool and lying about it.
Penn
The only way to save the US as a functional democracy on any level is to prosecute all crimes to the fullest extent of the law. All crimes. By anyone at every level.
lowtechcyclist
Right now, the House is on recess. They’ve scheduled a hearing on the USPS for September 17, thirty-three days from now.
So yeah, when I call up Steny Hoyer’s office (since I’m in his district), I’ll yell that they need to get back in session, and start holding hearings this week. (Wait, I just did that. Didn’t yell, but my tone was pretty sharp.) In prime time, as David Plouffe suggests.
Once they do that, I’ll yell at Republicans.
Another Scott
@Frankensteinbeck: Relatedly…
https://www.wonkette.com/gun-nut-blows-own-nuts-off-is-hailed-as-hero-by-fellow-gun-nuts
Some things shouldn’t be things, you know??
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@lowtechcyclist: https://rollcall.com/2020/08/13/senate-breaks-for-august-recess-with-no-coronavirus-deal-in-sight/
The first step in making progress is understanding where the obstacles lie.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Another Scott: Relatedly, …
Thread:
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
jayjaybear
@Kropacetic: No, but their default setting is “White=Real American”. People of color may LIVE in the United States, but the right wing doesn’t really think any of them are legitimate citizens.