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

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

T R E 4 5 O N

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Technically true, but collectively nonsense

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So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

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Peak wingnut was a lie.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Fyre Festivus Preview

Fyre Festivus Preview

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Remember Fyre Festival — that fraud perpetrated on the idle rich by scammers who paid social media influencers to lure wealthy dupes to Bahamas with promises of top-tier live music, luxury accommodations and gourmet meals? It was in 2017, the Before Times, and therefore shrouded in the mists of antiquity.

But recall if you will the bill of goods the scammers sold attendees about an “immersive music festival” over “two transformative weekends” at Pablo Escobar’s former private island. It turned out to be swarms of mosquitoes around squalid FEMA tents and stale sandwiches in an abandoned resort parking lot, followed by infrastructure and logistics challenges that marooned attendees and prompted them to sue the shit out of the organizers. And those scammers had about four months to plan it.

I recalled Fyre Festival when reading about preparations for the upcoming Republican convention. One doesn’t want to make the Republicans’ terrible mistake of ratcheting down the expectations bar. But we’re among friends here, so there’s no harm in wondering what can possibly go wrong. Politico:

President Donald Trump had just pulled the plug on plans for an in-person convention bash in Jacksonville, Florida when a handful of his top political aides met in a conference room in suburban Washington, sitting in front of a blank whiteboard.

Their task seemed overwhelming: To plan out a four-day convention in four weeks — an undertaking that typically takes a year or more. It was the second time this summer that the president had blown up the GOP’s convention.

The group — which included lead convention planner and ex-White House official Tony Sayegh, deputy campaign manager Justin Clark, head of advance Max Miller, and the president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump — had no set budget. They had no speakers lineup and no venue. In short, they had to figure out from scratch what the whole thing should look like.

The result of their efforts will become known starting at 8:30 p.m. Monday: One of the key decisions Trump and his advisers made was to start a half-hour earlier than Democrats, meaning Republicans will have two-and-a-half hours of programming each night.

Trump is micro-managing the shit out of the event because of course he is. He will go to his grave believing he’s a media genius because venal media types propped him up and wiped the racist drool off his chin so they could first sell a serially bankrupt fraud as a successful businessman on a reality TV show and then sell that same buffoon as a presidential candidate.

But the truth is, the network professionals aren’t running this shit-show, Trump is. And he scraped clean through the bottom of the barrel early in his administration, so the hires executing this event are decidedly of the lowest quality. From The Times:

Republicans involved in the planning admit that anxiety began to set in two weeks ago. But on Saturday, they said that they were now confident that a fully realized lineup was in place — and that in contrast to the Democrats’ virtual event, voters could expect something more akin to a regular convention, with a focus on live onstage moments featuring Mr. Trump, whom aides described as the week’s “talent in chief.”

Typically, the nominee makes a mundane appearance early in the convention — waving or watching from the wings — before a major speech at the end. Mr. Trump has dismissed that model and now plans to directly address the nation in prime-time on each of the convention’s four nights. The president wants the opportunity to rebut charges made against him throughout the Democratic program, aides said, particularly on his handling of the coronavirus crisis.

The article notes that Trump and aides believe the Democrats’ tone was “dark” and “depressing” and that the GOP edition will be “upbeat.” And it’s true that even as incompetent an assemblage as this event’s organizers will be able to produce some #Cult45 sycophants not named Trump to sing the short-fingered vulgarian’s praises on stage.

But it’s hard to imagine the “talent in chief” pulling off “upbeat” if he’s appearing nightly to counter slights about his performance. If he speaks extemporaneously, it will be the usual airing of the (white) grievances that make the rallies such an appalling spectacle to audiences outside the cult. If he sticks to the ‘prompter, it’ll be a hostage video.

It doesn’t sound like the St. Louis gun couple and smirking teen are there to contribute to positive programming either. I’ve had a few psycho bosses too, so if the organizers weren’t such awful wretches, I’d almost feel sorry for them. As it is, I might have to hate-watch at least some of the Fyre Festivus on TV starting tomorrow, hoping for technical glitches and wardrobe malfunctions.

Reader Interactions

357Comments

  1. 1.

    waspuppet

    Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean anything. Not to say he’ll necessarily win — indeed, if there’s anything close to a fair election, he’s in for a historic shellacking — but we all know who’s going to vote for him and we all know why. And they’re not going to be dissuaded by sloppy staging or a lack of — you know, actual smart Americans talking.

    As for Trump talking every night, that was overdetermined. Of course he was going to do that. It’s the only reason he ran for president, and the only reason he wanted to be president (to the extent he did, which wasn’t much).

    I think people are looking at this backward. Trump had to be convinced to let anyone else talk.

  3. 3.

    WaterGirl

    I think I read that two “professionals” from The Apprentice were running the Republican convention.  Surely they would know what they are doing?  Of course, when the client runs the show, all bets are off.

  5. 5.

    Frankensteinbeck

    To an asshole, ‘praising me’ and ‘mocking people I hate’ are both upbeat.

  6. 6.

    germy

    I just heard the taped conversation with Trump’s sister, the retired judge.

    The way she talks about her brother, she sounds like she could be one of the commenters here.

  9. 9.

    Paul W.

    @waspuppet:
    With Biden in the lead it isn’t about how much this event moves the polls… it’s that we go another week closer to election and it leaves the Biden lead in place.

    I wanted to point out how petty and counterproductive a longer runtime than the DNC was. That was some serious programming and some nights I got a little over it but just making a movie longer does not make it better and I think regular people will be checking out faster and more often. Maybe networks too.

    Not getting my hopes up that this moves the needle, but boy wouldn’t it be great! If Trump announces another record scratch idiotic policy like defunding Social Security again we could get some great commercial fodder.

  10. 10.

    germy

    @oatler.:

    I asked if police were involved. Employee says they have security at City Center and he thought they were handling it with DC police. But neither security nor police did anything.

    If i punched a waiter I’d be sitting in a jail cell right now.

    There really are two sets of laws in this country.  One for the rich, and one for the rest of us.

  11. 11.

    Denali

    I refuse to hate watch. I have been to Nuremberg. I have listened to the grandson of a     Nazi Good German speak about the evil unleashed on a good country. I have watched in horror as one of our great institutions-our mail service – has been slowly taken down.  People know. Why do they comply?  Why are we all not out in the streets?  Is it just easier to go along until we have lost it all?

  12. 12.

    mrmoshpotato

    So Dump and everyone else at this epic shitshow (calling it now) are going to be “upbeat” while they whine like little bitches about how “unfair” everyone is to them and about how everyone else is a loser?

    Who ready for sad farce turned up to 11?

    ETA – is Rudy scheduled to shout his face off again?

  14. 14.

    jnfr

    I don’t think an extra half hour is going to be helpful when they barely have a program put together. And Trump every night? He might actually drop a few more points in polling

  15. 15.

    mrmoshpotato

    @oatler.: I’ve been in mourning over the state of this country for over 3.5 years.  I wonder if punching a Trump supporter would make me feel better.

  16. 16.

    A Ghost to Most

    So now the Democrats are using Mail Drop Boxes, which are a voter security disaster. Among other things, they make it possible for a person to vote multiple times. Also, who controls them, are they placed in Republican or Democrat areas? They are not Covid sanitized. A big fraud!

    Moves and countermoves. They always double down.

  19. 19.

    mrmoshpotato

    @A Ghost to Most: If the Soviet shitpile is so concerned, it’s time to hang up on Vlad and start calling election boards.

    Oh wait, shitpile’s just a chaos agent.

  20. 20.

    rp

    I’m hesitant to say this out loud, but, as Betty notes, we’re among friends: I think this convention is likely to be the final nail in trumps coffin. At least a few non-die hard republicans and independents are going to watch this, and trump speaking every night is going to scare the hell out of them. I don’t know if Biden will get a huge bump or anything, but I think this will end any chance trump has of turning things around.

  21. 21.

    scottinnj

    One other event that will bear watching – Trump would be doing his acceptance speech on Thursday evening, and Hurricane Laura is pegged to hit the Louisiana coast as a borderline Category 1/Category 2 storm late Wed/early Thursday. Obviously there is still a lot of uncertainty around the path and intensity of this storm and exact location, but if it came to pass, would Trump defer the speech to deal with the storm (ha ha I know). Else you will have optics of giving of speech while there is destruction going on.

    I for one hope the storm slows/stalls/weakens so this scenario actually doesn’t play out, but this is something else to watch.

    https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at3+shtml/114508.shtml?cone#contents

  22. 22.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    He wants to claim his pandemic response is the bestest ever? And talk every night? As I recall, when he appeared daily with the virus taskforce, his ratings at first went up because it felt like he was at last concerned. But as he continued to appear, his ratings dropped because people saw how useless he was. I expect we’ll see a similar pattern here.

    I’m not going to add to his TV ratings by hate-watching. I will hate-read about it though.

  23. 23.

    Luciamia

    “Talent in chief”

    I think I just threw up a little.

     

    Audience? Live events? Wanna bet how many will be wearing masks.

  24. 24.

    debbie

    Democrats could have no better advertisement for themselves than Trump’s nightly speeches. Period.

  25. 25.

    Cheryl Rofer

    Trump also plans to address the nation tonight on a great health breakthrough. Listen to Gregg Gonsalves:

    I don’t plan to listen to/ watch any of this. At this point, I just can’t bear to listen to his lies and his smarmy toadies. There will be clips of the worst moments on Twitter. That will be more than enough.

    Empathy, humanity, hope, and participants with human skin last week. Trump and his Trumpublicans this week.

  26. 26.

    mrmoshpotato

    @rp: Surely 4 days of screaming that everyone’s a loser and his daddy Vladdy says everyone should treat Dump tremendous bigly will turn around nearly 4 years of destruction and disaster.  No?

  27. 27.

    Emma from FL

    I am so emotionally exhausted that I’ve become vicious. Let them drink oleander juice! I don’t remember the author, but I remember the quote: stupidity is the one incurable disease. To which I say: good!

    Then my Catholic mother’s teachings rise up and kick my arse.

  31. 31.

    Ken

    They had no speakers lineup and no venue.

    OK, no venue I’ll grant them, though it was stupid to wait so long before cancelling the in-person meeting (but that comes down to Trump). But what conference organizer doesn’t know who’s speaking four weeks before the event?

    (And of course there’s a Trump relative on the planning committee.)

  32. 32.

    RedDirtGirl

    Is there a way to watch without getting counted? I don’t want to contribute to their numbers, but I too am rooting for injuries.

  33. 33.

    Ken

    @Luciamia: Oh, that wasn’t the revelation that the “Trump-Approved!” build-a-wall was a big scam, and the arrest of yet another Trump campaign manager?

  37. 37.

    dmsilev

    From that NYT article,

    The Democrats’ relatively smooth experience belied the complexity of mounting a virtual event, from juggling dozens of remote video feeds to avoiding embarrassments like losing picture or sound. To ensure professionalism, the Democrats relied on Ricky Kirshner, the producer of the Super Bowl halftime show and the Tony Awards.
    The Republicans’ celebration is being coordinated by longtime Trump loyalists including Ms. Conway; Justin Clark, the deputy campaign manager; Hope Hicks, a senior White House adviser; and Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law. Tony Sayegh, a former Treasury Department official who was brought on as a consultant to help handle the convention, is overseeing plans with Max Miller, a former White House official who took charge of campaign events after Mr. Trump’s sparsely-attended rally in Tulsa, Okla., and who has little experience in television production.

    So, given an extremely complicated and somewhat unprecedented event to put on, one party spends three months planning and puts a guy with extensive experience in similar events in charge. The other party spends three weeks and just barely escaped handing things over to Jared Kushner. Sounds about right.

  38. 38.

    CaseyL

    The only way I think this will “move the needle” is if T* does well enough for some “undecided” voters to admit they intend to vote for him.

    (I don’t believe anyone is honestly undecided at this point.  They’re going to vote for T* but don’t want to admit it.)

  39. 39.

    lowtechcyclist

    It doesn’t sound like the St. Louis gun couple and smirking teen are there to contribute to positive programming either. I’ve had a few psycho bosses too, so if the organizers weren’t such awful wretches, I’d almost feel sorry for them.

    Yeah, I’d feel sorry for them if they weren’t working for the Dark Side.

    And I bet that their guest speaker lineup will have them looking back nostalgically at the time Clint Eastwood debated a chair.  Can’t wait to hear what Balmy and Clod have to say.

  40. 40.

    Roger Moore

    @jnfr:

    I don’t think an extra half hour is going to be helpful when they barely have a program put together. And Trump every night?

    My assumption is that the extra half hour every night is to accommodate Trump speaking.  If his speeches aren’t pre-recorded, I sincerely doubt they’ll keep to their schedule; Trump will always want to keep talking.

  41. 41.

    Kropacetic

    Their task seemed overwhelming: To plan out a four-day convention in four weeks

    Someone in Trump’s orbit should have seen this coming.  Trump has no idea what he’s doing.  They should have at least been making surreptitious backup plans before Trump yielded to the inevitable cancellation of holding this in a packed house.

  42. 42.

    Kropacetic

    @lowtechcyclist: And I bet that their guest speaker lineup will have them looking back nostalgically at the time Clint Eastwood debated a chair.

    To this day, I can’t think of a better metaphor for the entire Republican party.  Maybe if he put a literal strawman up there…

  43. 43.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @scottinnj: I suspect Marco will have taken a lot of the energy that otherwise would have fed Laura so I don’t expect L to get any stronger. I do worry that Marco could pull Laura further east into it’s wake. My NOLA son doesn’t need any of this on top of the Covid.

  44. 44.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Ken: No no.  His allotted time will be thoughtful with measured tones, and he will read his speech full of thought out, workable ideas like someone who’s seen the English language before while actually looking at the camera.

    HAHA!  I KID!

  45. 45.

    e julius drivingstorm

    Any chance Pelosi could announce the formation of a Trump impeachment inquiry committee based on the Senate intelligence report so Trump could dig his own hole deeper this week in response?

  46. 46.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    What time tonight is this scheduled for? It feels like something thrown together at the last minute as counterprogramming to the scheduled Biden-Harris interview on ABC (which I won’t be able to watch, alas, thanks to a weeks-long dispute between ABC and Dish TV).

  48. 48.

    Soprano2

    I can’t believe anyone but Trump thought it was a good idea to have to fill an extra half hour of programming every night.  Who but the cult members is going to watch that much of it anyway? If they all speak in “Fox News Code” I think the average person will have a hard time understanding what they are talking about half the time. I don’t know how they are going to make four nights of angry fearmongering and grievance-airing into something remotely positive. My husband says he wants to watch some of it just to see the difference from the DNC. I’m not sure I can stomach that,  I’m sure there will be clips on Twitter.

    I wonder,  will “lock her up” make a comeback? They all think everyone still cares about that.  I believe average people who don’t pay much attention to politics will be horrified at what they see, especially of Trump, especially if they watched some of the Democrat’s convention.

  49. 49.

    mrmoshpotato

    @dmsilev:

    The other party spends three weeks and just barely escaped handing things over to Jared Kushner. 

    Now now.  We still have all of Sunday and 20 hours of Monday to hand this off to the pasty-ass boy jeanious.

  52. 52.

    Jake Gibson

    @Emma ” Only two things are infinite, the universe and stupidity. And I’m not sure about the universe.” Albert Einstein?

  54. 54.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    CPAC goes prime time, starring the President of the Untied States (see it, leaving it)

    I’m thinking of the opening scene of Mary Trump’s book, when they all gathered for a celebration of her aunts’ birthdays, and the toast at dinner by Fredo was all about the election and how great daddy was. I think the trump speeches are going to be every bit as subtle, delivered with the same glaring, sweaty desperation in degrees ranging from panicked and needy Fredo up to the pathologically confident Ivanka, who knows she has daddy’s total devotion and is probably dumb enough to believe she has a political future.

  55. 55.

    Gvg

    Trump and associates thought the DNC convention was depressing because we talked so much about defeating Trump and stopping their plans. I don’t think the majority of voters took it the same way. Trump doesn’t know how to see anything but through his own eyes, or even why he should. Not just morally, but strategically.

  58. 58.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I had to read this twice before I realized you weren’t talking about Marco Rubio and Laura Trump. I was very puzzled 

    LOL Same here!  “Oh, he’s talking about the hurricanes.  Oh!”

  59. 59.

    Nicole

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I had to read this twice before I realized you weren’t talking about Marco Rubio and Laura Trump.

    I’m glad it wasn’t just me.

    And then I had a thought of, was the naming deliberate and was it intended as a suck-up to the GOP or an insult, but I checked 2014 and the names were there that year too (hurricane names are reused every 7 years unless it’s a big one and gets retired).  Whew.

  61. 61.

    Jeffro

    10+ hours of lies, hate, and rambling Q-speak?  Hard pass.

    I am just going to read the summary in the post each morning and move on with other, far more important things in my life.  Which is to say, everything and anything else in my life. ?

  62. 62.

    Sloane Ranger

    I thought that some backroom person involved in The Apprentice had been brought in to handle the technical side. In one respect it should be easier since, as far as I can find out, they’re only using a couple of locations and fewer speakers so they’ll be less juggling between feeds.

    The big problem they will face is doing it live, which allows all sorts of things to publicly go wrong.  Add to this the static locations and likely long speeches from Agent Orange and I think a lot of people who aren’t cultists are going to get bored and turn it off.

    Plus Democratic counter programming. If it’s as good as the Convention could pick up some viewers fleeing the opposition!

  64. 64.

    Roger Moore

    @Soprano2:

    I can’t believe anyone but Trump thought it was a good idea to have to fill an extra half hour of programming every night.

    Trump gets what Trump wants because nobody around him is willing to go against his wishes.  That’s the power of a personality cult.

  65. 65.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yes, I think you’ve got it. It was announced last night at 11:30 Eastern, so we know that it was another tantrum.

    I don’t know what time, don’t intend to watch this one either.

    The air quality is a little better today, so I’ll be going out with the kitties in a bit.

  66. 66.

    japa21

    The Chicago Sun-Times is not waiting for Trump to sell himself. They have, inordinately early, endorsed Biden in today’s paper.  It is a rather longendorsement but I loved this particular paragraph.

    It would be enough for us to argue here for a vote against Donald Trump. Our country can’t take any more of him. If the Democratic alternative were a sock puppet, we’d urge a vote for the sock puppet. But in Biden and his vice presidential running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, we see a team — and an agenda — well worth voting for.

  68. 68.

    Danielx

    Usual suspects will hail the shitshow as greatest of all time if It emits at least one coherent sentence (“Lincolnesque!”), doesn’t froth at the mouth and doesn’t take an enormous dump onstage, whether accidentally or by design.

  71. 71.

    mrmoshpotato

    @japa21: Even if the sock and googly eyes were foreign-made, the sock puppet would still be more loyal to the United States.

  72. 72.

    There go two miscreants

    “He will go to his grave believing…”

    I had to read this twice just so I could enjoy it again. That sentence is a thing of beauty!

  76. 76.

    sdhays

    I just have to laugh that they think “upbeat” is the appropriate tone with what will be 180k+ deaths and the worst employment rate since the Great Depression. Regardless of what they think “upbeat” actually is.

  78. 78.

    WaterGirl

    @Sloane Ranger:

    I thought that some backroom person involved in The Apprentice had been brought in to handle the technical side.

    I heard that also, but I was thinking they were bringing in two of them from The Apprentice, but I might have the number wrong.

  79. 79.

    Ken

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: “Can you hear me? Can you hear me? I don’t think they can hear us. What do I do?”

    Then later the reverse problem, with the moderator saying  “You’re on mute, use the unmute button” while all we see are flapping gums.

  80. 80.

    JMG

    I agree with that guy Tom Nichols that the more Trump talks on TV, the more votes he loses. Speaking all four nights of his convention has a real jump the shark feel to it in terms of its affect on most voters. “I’m tired of this program! What else is on?”

  81. 81.

    sdhays

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: What would be the point? They didn’t have a an actual nominating process anyway. Why bother with the delusion that the Republican Party gives a shit about democracy, especially in its own institution? Better to just go full fascist and have it over with.

  82. 82.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Ken: I used to have a friend S who I’d call to go to things with me when my hoped-for date fell through. I’m sure she appreciated that role.

    We’re going to see a lineup of camera-hungry grifters who could be asked to speak on 2 hours notice.

  84. 84.

    Betty Cracker

    I agree with those who say the convention won’t move the needle with voters. Only partisans pay a lot of attention to the conventions, and they already know whom they’re voting for. But a big success or high-profile failure certainly gets noticed by the media types who shape the narratives around the race. I think that can affect low-info voters’ general perceptions of the candidates and party.

  88. 88.

    ThresherK

    This is some ’30s German TV footage,  just one of a number you can find.

    That link is going to be at once more educational, absorbing (for as long as I can stand it), and (in its bizarre way) entertaining than the Fascist show this week.

  90. 90.

    WereBear

    I’m sensing another Supertrain in the making!

    In 2002, TV Guide ranked Supertrain number 28 on its “50 Worst TV Shows of All Time” list. (Wikipedia)

    Only 28? It’s a personal favorite :)

    Should I have gone with Cop Rock? Discuss.

  91. 91.

    gkoutnik

    Hope I’m wrong – but I think the RNC will be not-astoundingly-awful enough to avoid the media doing “highs and lows of the RNC and the DNC” bothsider bullshit.

  92. 92.

    oldster

    Betty, just writing to congratulate you on “Fyre Festivus”. Not only a witty pun, but also an insightful frame for your analysis.

    I always love your ability to turn a phrase. (You should hear me cackle sometimes) I admire even more your ability to appraise the situation  so  acutely that  the appraisal is valid even without the catchy phrase.

    “This will be a corrupt and exploitative airing of grievances.”

    Perfectly accurate.

    “Fyre Festivus.”

    Perfectly accurate, and funny, too.

  95. 95.

    Jinchi

    Mr. Trump has dismissed that model and now plans to directly address the nation in prime-time on each of the convention’s four nights.

    This is the least surprising news in the world. Trump must always be the center of attention. There will be no forum for rising stars to stand out (like Barack Obama 2004). Nikki Haley won’t be given an opportunity to appear as an example of the future of the party to women and minorities . Even Mike Pence, who undoubtedly dreams of running for the top spot in 2024, can forget about making his mark. This is Trump’s convention with an emphasis on DJT.

  96. 96.

    Ken

    @WereBear: There were several shows that were cancelled before the first episode aired, and at least one (“Turn-On”) where some stations pulled the plug during the first episode.  We should be so lucky.

  97. 97.

    mrmoshpotato

    @gkoutnik:

    Hope I’m wrong – but I think the RNC will be not-astoundingly-awful enough to avoid the media doing “highs and lows of the RNC and the DNC” bothsider bullshit. 

    Sorry.  You’re already wrong!

    Dump could take a dump on stage each night, and professional assclowns like Upchuck Todd would still bothsides it.

  98. 98.

    Suzanne

    @CaseyL:

    (I don’t believe anyone is honestly undecided at this point.  They’re going to vote for T* but don’t want to admit it.) 

    This.
    If anyone is really undecided at this point…. I bet they’re barely sentient.

  99. 99.

    cope

    I will watch the convention through the Colbert filter. He will be live all week and I anticipate some pretty funny stuff/things/shit/antics/faux pas/flubs/glitches and speeches by “only the best”. The details I will catch up with online including, of course, in here.

    This is gonna be great.

  100. 100.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @mrmoshpotato: chuck todd’s complete absence from MSNBC’s prime time coverage was something. Did NBC do live coverage? is that where he was?

  108. 108.

    ThresherK

    @WereBear: Cop Rock was ambitious. Supertrain was a ripoff of The Love Boat and/or Fantasy Island.

    Cop Rock was expensive owing to the songs, and the staging thereof. Supertrain was expensive largely owing to the malfunctioning models which swallowed tens of thousands of dollars and barely showed up on screen, and absorbed the creators’ focus, when they should have been concentrating on casting, chemistry, and recreating whatever it was people watched The Love Boat for.

    Cop Rock was an interesting failure. The life of Supertrain was Shakespearian-level fiasco which should serve as a warning to many.

    So, no: Supertrain is the bet here.

  109. 109.

    Chief Oshkosh

    In developments that I think are being driven by last-minute changes that shitpile team is having to make, there is a shitpotload of FAA TFR announcements and changes going out for Trump-related activities right now. Prior to the Shitgibbon, such last-minute, pop-up TFRs were rare. Shitgibbon made them a lot less rare (gots ta get his golfing in), but the CHANGES to just-recently-announced TFRs is a new twist and will fuck with airspace use a lot. I don’t think it will matter at all to airline operations, but it is developing into a major clusterfuck for just about all other aviation. Hopefully this shit settles down before the storms hit.

  110. 110.

    Ken

    @mrmoshpotato: Has the RNC sent out the links to their electronic channels yet?

    (Asking largely to find out if they even have electronic channels.  I still think there’s a non-zero probability they’re going to use a free zoom account.)

  113. 113.

    geg6

    @mrmoshpotato:

    I have to say, after some very, very brief interruptions for talking heads the first night, MSNBC’s coverage was stellar.  No talking heads, no commercials, no shenanigans of any kind.  And the pre-show was good and the first fifteen or twenty minutes of the post-show were excellent.  Of course, it was an all-woman crew that really shone: Joy Reid, Rachel Maddow and Nicolle Wallace were fun to watch and they all seemed to be having a great time.  I liked it.  As soon as BriWi took over, though, it all went downhill from there.

  116. 116.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @ThresherK: anybody else want to see “the Love Boat” rebooted as a dark and gritty drama with Captain Stubing as an anti-hero? or maybe as the unwitting tool of the anti-hero Your Ruthless Cruise Director Julie McCoy? maybe played by beloved character actress Margo Martindale? The Lido Deck having become the place she executes those who cross her?

  117. 117.

    Ken

    @WaterGirl: Temporary Flight Restrictions; areas that aircraft are not allowed to enter.  Website; you can click on the restrictions to see why, and the ones for “VIP Movement” are what Chief Oshkosh means.

  120. 120.

    artem1s

    It was in 2017, the Before Times, and therefore shrouded in the mists of antiquity.

    Earth-That-Was

  124. 124.

    yellowdog

    @OzarkHillbilly:  A Weather Channel meteorologist last night said storms are unlikely to weaken each other; they are almost two days apart . And he expects NOLA to be under water again. Marco will stall after landfall and produce lots and lots of rain, which Laura will add to. This will be a major flooding event.

  126. 126.

    sdhays

    @gkoutnik: I expect the media to be true to form and grade them on a different set of criteria, so it’s already designed to not be a disaster, even if Dump pulls down his pants and makes a poopy on the lectern while assaulting several American flags.

    Which makes me wonder – will Confederate statues and flags be as prominent in this RNC as they are as top priority concerns for the Preznit and his party?

    ETA:

    Beaten to the punch by @mrmoshpotato.

  127. 127.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @WereBear: as the undercover DEA agent (played by Everybody Loves Raymond‘s Brad Garrett) closes in on Julie’s Maztlan operation, Doc (Deadwood‘s Brad Dourif) must deal with a double outbreak of listeria and syphilis as a global-warming-fueled supercell typhoon nears the path of The Pacific Princess…..

  128. 128.

    Elizabelle

    @mrmoshpotato: 

    Tiffany Trump speaking at the RNC is like someone on a lifeboat climbing back onto the Titanic.

    Laughing. That is my favorite diss of the morning.

  129. 129.

    waspuppet

    @Paul W.:

    … just making a movie longer does not make it better and I think regular people will be checking out faster and more often.

    Donald Trump cannot conceive of the possibility that any problem cannot be solved by him talking more. In fact, he cannot conceive of the possibility that any problem can be solved any other way.

    50-plus years of sitting at a conference table with paid sycophants telling you your every word is genius will do that to your brain.

    Also, there’s probably some sort of I-have-more-energy-than-Biden thing going on in his head.

  131. 131.

    dmsilev

    @WaterGirl:

    I heard that also, but I was thinking they were bringing in two of them from The Apprentice, but I might have the number wrong.

    From the NYT,

    The team is consulting with Mr. Kim, who served as Mr. Burnett’s head of business development for about a decade, earning production credits on “The Celebrity Apprentice” and “The Voice.”
    Mr. Kim, whose production firm has received $54,274 in payments form the Republican Party’s convention committee, has a relatively low profile in the TV industry. Several producers who worked on “The Apprentice” said last week they had never heard of him. In 2010, he served as a judge for the Miss Universe pageant, with an official bio saying he “negotiates, packages and manages deals with brands and agencies” for Mr. Burnett’s programs.
    Chuck LaBella, the other consultant, has a long relationship with Mr. Trump dating to his time as a talent wrangler on “The Apprentice”; he also worked on pageants for Miss Universe and Miss USA. He was linked to Mr. Trump’s inner circle after Michael D. Cohen, the president’s former lawyer, steered Mr. LaBella to Keith Davidson for legal work. Mr. Davidson was the Hollywood lawyer who negotiated payments on behalf of two women who said they had affairs with Mr. Trump.

    So, we’re not exactly talking top-grade technical production wizards here.

  134. 134.

    WereBear

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: as the budding romance heats up between that mysterious millionaire (The Wire’s Michael K. Williams) who pretends to be a poor man who won it in a contest and the struggling actress (Game of Thrones‘ Maisie Williams) who is secretly trying to finance the solution for a dark family secret.

  136. 136.

    Ken

    @Luciamia: Don’t worry, the asteroid is only two meters in diameter so the odds are low that even a small fragment will reach the ground, much less do any damage – or any good.

    @mrmoshpotato: Less than a 1% chance of collision.

  137. 137.

    artem1s

    @WaterGirl:

    Mr. Trump has dismissed that model and now plans to directly address the nation in prime-time on each of the convention’s four nights.

    I think I read that two “professionals” from The Apprentice were running the Republican convention. Surely they would know what they are doing? Of course, when the client runs the show, all bets are off.

    this is one of those times that the skills don’t necessarily transfer. yes, they know how to produce an episode of a show with a canned formula and get it ready to air on time. it’s likely they are thinking this is basically four episodes stitched back to back. then there is the part that is more akin to producing a major sporting event like the Olympics, where everyone is actually located in multiple places and will require multiple crews working in sync with one another.  the Dems made it look easy because they did it well.  I have my doubts about anyone connected with this because everything that Trump touches dies.  it dies because he is forced to accept low quality hires again and again, because skilled competent people don’t want to work on a project that looks fucked up.  the people who work with Trump don’t care if it looks bad, they only care about getting their upfront fee.  this is gonna look like a local TV news show, with pundits gushing the exact same script every night.  Trump voters aren’t going to watch this for more than a few minutes at a time. and if he gets a spike for the 10 minutes he’s on air, he’s gonna crow about it.  never mind that a good portion will be watching to see the train wreck.  he’s after ratings so he can boast about them.  sure it will resonate with Cult45. but the GOP – Moscow Mitch – is not getting what they want and need out of it. it’s going to be 4 nights of Dolt45 attacking GOPers too.  it won’t hurt Trump but it can hurt the Senate races.

    this is definitely good news for John McCain

  138. 138.

    Jinchi

    @CaseyL: (I don’t believe anyone is honestly undecided at this point.  They’re going to vote for T* but don’t want to admit it.)

    There are definitely undecided voters. Something like 40% don’t even make it to the polls in a typical election. I’d be surprised if you didn’t know a few people who are die-hard Republicans, but also utterly disgusted by DJT. You probably also know a few who are thrilled by DJT, but don’t give a damn about the Republican party.
    That said, barring Trump completely going off the rails, I don’t expect the conventions to move anyone.

  140. 140.

    trollhattan

    NPR had yet another Cletus safari today, this one was White Senior 2016 Trump Voter Special Edition. What are white senior 2016 Trump voters thinking about Trump in 2020? They openly call him a liar and morally dubious. Who do 2016 white senior voters plan to vote for in 2020? Trump, thanks for asking.

    My surprised face is at the shop and unavailable for deployment at this time.

  142. 142.

    Falling Diphthong

    Anyone taking odds on Trump deciding to seize the media’s frenzy with an “I AM Q ANON” announcement?

  143. 143.

    JPL

    @Cheryl Rofer: I’m pleased to hear that the air quality is better.   A friend in the San Francisco area just said they were expecting more lightening.    Newsom is apparently appealing for help from Australia and Canada, but those countries are hesitant because of the virus.   Whatever happened to the good ole USA.

  144. 144.

    Ken

    @artem1s: the people who work with Trump don’t care if it looks bad, they only care about getting their upfront fee.

    Oh, are they finally insisting on the money in advance?  ‘Bout time, but they might want to wait until the check clears.

  146. 146.

    Suzanne

    @trollhattan:

    Who do 2016 white senior voters plan to vote for in 2020? Trump, thanks for asking. 

    Waiting for the Norma Desmond of this blog to show up wasted, call me a twit, and #notallboomer all over the place.

  149. 149.

    trollhattan

    @JPL:

    All of north and central California are under red flag warning through Monday night because the remnants of some hurricane or other are due through the joint. A similar storm gave us our current crapton of fires a week ago and while lightning can’t burn the same place twice there’s ample fuel left for new ones elsewhere.

    Ugh.

  150. 150.

    mrmoshpotato

    @JPL: Not a problem.   It’s a red state so FEMA will be ready.

    Don’t be so sure.  Black people live in Louisiana.

  152. 152.

    Ken

    @JPL: FEMA, FEMA, where have I heard that recently? Oh yeah, Trump was planning to strip all the disaster funds to pay extra unemployment benefits. As far as I know none of the states have taken him up on it, so maybe they’ll be able to react to the double hurricane.

  153. 153.

    Suzanne

    @mrmoshpotato: Send the hurricane to Rod Dreher’s place and watch him turn it into proof that “Social Justice Warriors” and trans people are threatening his religious liberty to be a dickhead.

  155. 155.

    smedley the uncertain

    @WaterGirl: Temporary Flight Restrictions  issued by FAA in this case related to Trumps itinerary and apparently multiple changes ..

  156. 156.

    TS (the original)

    @JPL:

    California & Australia have helped each other with the fires many times in the past. It becomes more difficult with COVID-19 concerns.

  161. 161.

    Falling Diphthong

    Old theory re Tiffany Trump: She was recruited by the CIA, who appreciated her incredible ability to remain invisible in any circumstances. She’s been discreetly hanging about bad guy locales eavesdropping for the past 3 years.

    Modified theory: Her handlers realized that completely skipping the convention could set off a “Where’s Tiffany?” human interest story, so as her part of her cover of “never-seen instagram influencer” she has to put in a brief photo op with the family.

  162. 162.

    Roger Moore

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Does the article say how close it will be, or does CNN need to be beaten with an empty 2016 podium?

    Part of the problem is that nobody knows for sure just how close it’s going to get; there weren’t enough observations to refine the orbit that much.  IIRC, their best guess is it will get within a few thousand miles, and there’s about a 0.4% chance it will hit.

  163. 163.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    The biggest trump humping troll i know on the book of faces just shared a pic of his latest tattoo.  The Statue of Liberty covering his entire shoulder.  Now if the SOL was a real person, he would have called her a green democrat c#$! from France.  The stupid….it burns.

  164. 164.

    sdhays

    @dmsilev: Oh, I HOPE they make it like a pageant! If Donnie wears a tiara, I will actually tune in, even if it gives him the ratings he craves.

  165. 165.

    Lyrebird

    I wish I had the time and talent to organize watch parties all over the country for DEM convention re-runs! Things are a bit hectic for me, so I have not yet had time to watch the roll call or the family interiews.

    Would it not be awesome to have more viewers re-watching the Biden Harris convention than the RNC show?

  166. 166.

    Suzanne

    @mrmoshpotato: Rod Dreher is that social conservative dude at The American Conservative who lives in Louisiana and blogs about 300 times a day about how society is crumbling because of “Wokeism” and “Drag Queen Story Hour” and how white people are being made to feel BAD BAD BAD! Coincidentally, he has a book to sell.

    I hate-read his blog, which is constantly full of (probably fabricated) anonymous letters from Christians complaining about having to take diversity trainings at work.

  168. 168.

    Jinchi

    @Roger Moore: IIRC, their best guess is it will get within a few thousand miles, and there’s about a 0.4% chance it will hit.

    And to be clear, these small bodies pass the Earth all the time. One flew by about a week ago and we didn’t realize it until it had already passed. Chelyabinsk was 20 m across and no one spotted it until it lit up the skies over Russia.

    Astronomers are getting better at finding them, so we get more stories about them, now.

  170. 170.

    sdhays

    @mrmoshpotato: Didn’t she have a brief spot at the 2016 convention? I seem to recall she spoke a for few minutes trying to say some nice things about Dump and eschewing politics, but I might be misremembering.

    I figure there’s at least an implied threat regarding the will, but she’s also a Trump. Her mother is awful and her father is worse and she’s been spoiled and damaged like the rest of them.

  180. 180.

    Ascap_scab

    Didn’t watch any of the Dem convention, just caught the recaps which was enough.

    I will NOT be watching any of the GOP Hatefest. No need to give any ratings to that fucktard, especially if he is mouthing off every night.

  181. 181.

    randy khan

    I’ve thought a bit about this, and while of course Trump speaking every night is something you’d expect given his need for attention, it’s not at all clear who the headliners would have been if Trump wasn’t the closing speaker each night.

    There’s nobody for the usual slots for heroes of the party – the Obamas in the case of the DNC – because the Republican Party’s most prominent members, like G.W. Bush and Romney, are not Trump supporters, have withdrawn from politics (Ryan, Boehner, Palin), are dead (John McCain, not that he would have been invited) or would not help (McConnell).  Pence is, let’s face it, practically invisible and deservedly so.  That leaves 4 nights of The Donald as the most logical approach to goose the ratings, even if the history of the COVID-19 briefings suggests that too much Trump not only is possible, but likely to create problems.

  183. 183.

    WaterGirl

    @Suzanne: You had asked at one point if we could do a fundraiser for the Democratic office that had been set on fire?  DougJ wasn’t able to find anything for that specifically.

    Is anything happening on that front?  Would we just give to the local party?  Any specifics you have would be helpful.

  184. 184.

    L85NJGT

    The DNC was depressing to the morons because they are high on their own supply. They actually expected Joe to show up shuffling around in his bathrobe and asking for a pudding cup.

    They wasted a ton of money on commercials setting a narrative that had no hope of sticking, because it had no basis in reality. Now yo-yo is grabbing the mic, AGAIN. Weren’t his new and improved daily virus briefings supposed to save his ass? Martin Longman was correct back in June. Trump is a spend political force and should have stepped aside. He won’t because he doesn’t give a shit about his family, party or country.

  186. 186.

    Suzanne

    @WaterGirl: Here it is.

    For those who didn’t hear, the building in midtown Phoenix that held both the Arizona Democratic Party and the Maricopa County Democratic Party was firebombed. The building is a total loss. The building kind of had two halves, and the MCDP side was completely destroyed, including all of their computers, campaign materials, etc….. and none of it will be replaced before the election. They could very much use financial support.

  187. 187.

    Ken

    @randy khan: the Republican Party’s most prominent members […] are not Trump supporters, have withdrawn from politics, are dead or would not help

    You forgot “or are in prison”.

  189. 189.

    Feathers

    @artem1s: yeah, the Dems knew that trusting one guy who totally knows his shit but nobody’s ever heard of was the way to go. Don’t know that the Reps will be able to pull that off. Knew someone on the Romney digital team. That they were ever hired as an intern, much less given a role and title let me know all I needed about that.
    It’s just so easy to bullshit about this stuff, and Republicans have become hardwired to trust bullshitters over competent adults.

  190. 190.

    Another Scott

    @Suzanne: I donated earlier.  Got a very nice thank-you note by USPS in return.

    Thanks for letting us know about it.  Here’s hoping they’re making progress on getting back on their feet.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  191. 191.

    Quinerly

    Don’t know if anyone has mentioned it and not sure if national news has covered it. St. Louis crazy gun couple owes $25,000 in delinquent property taxes.

  192. 192.

    Another Scott

    @Quinerly: “Taxes are for little people.”  :-/

    Least shocking news of the morning thus far, but thanks for passing it along!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  195. 195.

    Suzanne

    @Another Scott: It’s heartbreaking. I can’t tell you the number of times I’d been in that building. And almost everything is gone.

    But what survived unharmed? The US and Arizona flags, and an award named for President Obama for registering voters. Also a papier mache donkey from the 2016 convention.

  197. 197.

    Quinerly

    @Ken: they had a GoFundme up several weeks back. As I recall, Tucker Carlson had suggested it on his show. So they ran with it. Quickly taken down.

  198. 198.

    L85NJGT

    @Feathers:

    They’ve become hardwired to kick backs. It’s the practical outcome of Citizens United. Those low rent hacks went with it, even as this outcome was self-evident at the time of the decision.

  199. 199.

    Citizen Alan

    @WereBear: I will see your Super Train and Cop Rock and raise you Whoops!, America’s first (and last) post-apocalyptic sit-com.

  200. 200.

    kindness

    I’m not looking forward to the RNC convention but the car wreck qualities of the shit show they will be putting out will certainly draw eyeballs.  Republicans will rain Fire and Brimstone (we don’t need any more fire out here in Ca thank you very much) on us proclaiming Democrats and ‘the left’ as not citizens and not deserving any rights at all.  Which is their only go to move.

    It’ll be ugly.  I won’t be able to stomach the whole thing and will be happy for a tight Cliff Notes version.  Which makes blogs a neccesity.

  203. 203.

    Barbara

    @kindness: Based on the online ads I am seeing, they seem to have settled on a message that Joe Biden has been kidnapped by radical leftists who are not in control of the Democratic Party.

  204. 204.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Jinchi: It’s a couple of meters wide. Objects that size typically don’t make it to the ground, and if they do they don’t do a lot of damage. The unusual thing is that it was even tracked.

  206. 206.

    Just Chuck

    I suspect there won’t be much to hate-watch.  Most likely technical glitch will be the feed simply cutting out.

  207. 207.

    Citizen Alan

    @ThresherK:

    Cop Rock was an interesting failure. The life of Supertrain was Shakespearian-level fiasco which should serve as a warning to many.

    I actually watched Cop Rock in its entirety when it was rerun on VHI many years ago. And I was struck by the fact that it worked quite well as a police drama, which makes sense as it was a Stephen Bochco show, after all. But the music (a) wasn’t very good and (b) interrupted the drama every time it threatened to actually become compelling. If you cut the songs, it would have basically been Hill Street Blues in a half-hour format.

  208. 208.

    scav

    @Quinerly:  That’s just an intergral  part of the Republican American™ Suburban® Lifestyle® Dream™®! Real Patriots™®$$$™® do not put their money where their mouth is and pay taxes to support the nation. That’s what Private Industry Foam Fingers and Flag Doormats are for!

  211. 211.

    Suzanne

    @Barbara: It is terrible. Also, the arsonist appears to be a former volunteer who had been banned from volunteering for the party due to some sort of inappropriate behavior. So I’m sure it feels like a total betrayal, too.

  212. 212.

    Ruckus

    @Jeffro:

    Watching Soupy Sales reruns for 10 hrs would be far more productive than 10 minutes of shitforbrains. Also far less mentally challenging, trying to figure out which of his mental deficiencies is front stage at any moment.

  213. 213.

    Yutsano

    @Ruviana: I hadn’t gone through the comments because reading them 10 at a time gets tiresome. But it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest that he’s getting dragged for this stupidity.

  216. 216.

    laura

    I plan to tune in every night – for a few minutes and then off. Doing my part to help the ratings drop off.

  218. 218.

    Ruckus

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Why would they waste time with that?

    A better question of course would be – what is that?

    I’d bet this is going to end up being a 2 1/2 hr shitforbrains racist rally every night.

  219. 219.

    WaterGirl

    @Suzanne: Thanks, Suzanne!

    I will send that info to DougJ, who I think planned to do that as part of the BJ fundraising.

    If DougJ creates a BJ Act Blue for the Maricopa County Democratic Party, the money would go to the same place as the link you put, up.  Correct?

  222. 222.

    Ken

    For the “I didn’t know they did that” file:  I just checked weather.gov, and all of Montana was a single color which almost never happens. Checking the legend, it’s for an abducted child amber alert. I’ve not seen the National Weather Service publish those before before so maybe it’s new, or maybe they don’t publish all of them?

  226. 226.

    cain

    @debbie: I want Rick Schmidt to live-tweet this thing.

    I will be going to Chez Tom for my diet of live tweeting – Nichol is particularly good at documenting and commenting on the crazy.

  228. 228.

    Citizen Alan

    @L85NJGT: Nope. IIRC, it was all original music. Very bad original music, as one might expect if you tried to crank out an original score every week that touched on topics like police brutality and a racist judicial system.

  229. 229.

    zhena gogolia

    @L85NJGT:

    Yes, the songs were original and tied to the action. I didn’t like the music much but I thought it was a great concept, and the actors were wonderful.

  230. 230.

    Yutsano

    @WaterGirl: It wouldn’t surprise me if that whole affair is tied up in court and will be so until the amount of time to collect expires. Granted I don’t know if that happens for property taxes but still people like those will pay more to lawyers just to avoid paying any taxes they owe for reasons. And yes most of the time those reasons make little sense.

  231. 231.

    WaterGirl

    @cain:  Do you have a link?  I can throw up a list of good live blogging for the R convention.  That will give some options to the folks who kind of want to follow along but don’t want to give Trump the ratings.

  232. 232.

    Winston

    Hilarious thread. Is it my understanding Brock Turner is not going to be on the stage of the RNC now?

  234. 234.

    cain

    @e julius drivingstorm:

    Any chance Pelosi could announce the formation of a Trump impeachment inquiry committee based on the Senate intelligence report so Trump could dig his own hole deeper this week in response?

    That is NOT a bad idea at all – triggering Trump while he will be on every night is great way to attack Republicans. The Lincoln Project definitely got his number and would easily leverage any of that – make sure he sees it on TV.

    Get him to rage – every night.

  238. 238.

    James E Powell

    @Jinchi:

    There are definitely undecided voters. Something like 40% don’t even make it to the polls in a typical election.

    I agree there are people who have not decided whether they will vote. But I doubt there are a significant number of people who don’t know for whom they will vote, if they do. They may tell pollsters and themselves otherwise, but they know.

  239. 239.

    Ruckus

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Exactly. Last time there was a major weather attack on NOLA – Katrina, a republican maladministration did shit. And that one was at least marginally competent. OK very, very, very marginally but still that’s heads, and tails, above shitforbrains.

  240. 240.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Jinchi: It probably won’t hit.

    Well, the fundies say the Great Tribulation will last seven years, so we’re only just past the halfway point.

  241. 241.

    West of the Cascades

    @Ruckus: between two hurricanes and California’s immolation, the environmental disaster news stories will be providing heavy competition for the disaster that will be flowing from the RNC.

  242. 242.

    RaflW

    The overall theme is “Honoring the Great American Story.” Each day has its own topic: The Land of Promise on Monday, the Land of Opportunity on Tuesday, Land of Heroes on Wednesday and Land of Greatness on Thursday.

    Since Trump of course it the greatest American, it’ll be his story they highlight each night.

    And keynoting on ‘land of heroes’ night will be Mike Pence and Donald Trump (are you keynoting if you speak each of the four nights?). Neither of whom served in the military.

    And lemme guess, they’re going to highlight heroes like Bernie Kerick, Joe Arpaio and Michael Behenna. (Gee, all three were pardoned by this man. Hmmm.)

  244. 244.

    Yutsano

    @RaflW: Oh I bet they drag out the Navy SEAL that Dolt45 pardoned. I’m sure they can dig up some other Special Forces guys as well.

  246. 246.

    lowtechcyclist

    @oldster:

    Betty, just writing to congratulate you on “Fyre Festivus”. Not only a witty pun, but also an insightful frame for your analysis.

    I always love your ability to turn a phrase. (You should hear me cackle sometimes) I admire even more your ability to appraise the situation  so  acutely that  the appraisal is valid even without the catchy phrase.

    “This will be a corrupt and exploitative airing of grievances.”

    Perfectly accurate.

    “Fyre Festivus.”

    Perfectly accurate, and funny, too.

    Enthusiastically seconding this!

  248. 248.

    yellowdog

    @sdhays: At least she keeps her mouth shut. I read somewhere that she is attending Georgetown Law School. So she’s been in DC but has managed to stay undercover.

  251. 251.

    Gretchen

    I think the St. Louis gun couple still have charges pending against them.  Surely lawyers know better than to talk in public about their case while it’s pending, but they don’t seem very bright.

  252. 252.

    Suzanne

    @Gretchen: My God. It has to be fake. No one can possibly get THAT fraught all the time. Especially in response to such non-threats. Autumn must be terrible for him….. every leaf falls and he thinks the house is gonna fall down.

    Plus he’s a terrible person, so there’s that.

  255. 255.

    J R in WV

    Late in the thread.

    As many of you know, we live in the country, for the Eastern US, way out in the country.The county road crosses our farm, the old one-lane pavement ends just past our property line. Our driveway is gravel, off of a dirt road.

    Today we had a census taker visit. Nice looking young man from a couple of counties over, high school teacher, said the $17/hour is welcome income in the summer time, when he isn’t paid squat.

    His testimony was that the census is fucked up beyond even the US Postal Service. Duplicates, sent to visit specific addresses, skip other addresses, our next door neighbors were not on his list. When I told him I had completed the online form as soon as it became available, he was “Well, that didn’t make it to my branch of the Census…” He asked how many people live here, do we own it or is there a mortgage. That was it.

    Shared a couple of urban stories,  houses where the person who answered the door was “I’m just watching the house.” … “No I don’t know anything about the people who live here!” Neighbor said, “Well the SWAT team was in there a couple of days ago, there’s not supposed to be ANYONE in there now!”

    I know that’s who I would ask to house sit for me, total stranger who doesn’t know my name, nothing about me…

    I bet the total population this year turns out to be lower than it was 10 years ago. Fortunately, there’s nothing to prevent President Biden from restarting a REAL census next January, after he replaces the executive level of the Federal government.

  256. 256.

    Raven

    @JPL:  We’re gonna skeedaddle in the morning. It’s probably not going to hit here in the panhandle but we’ve had our week and the weather is going to be awful either way.

  257. 257.

    LuciaMia

    Synopsis of each of Trump’s convention speeches.

    “I’ve done more for_____________ than any other president in history.”

  258. 258.

    FelonyGovt

    @artem1s: A friend of mine, who is retired from stage managing live national TV events, knows the two guys who produced the Democratic Convention. They are experienced producers, responsible for many live TV events. My friend keeps talking up how hard those two were working on it, and for months, and what a feat it was that it went so seamlessly. The Repubs have no one like that.

  259. 259.

    J R in WV

    I’ll probably go to Wonkette for Evan’s live blog. If I watch any of it, I’ll use a private window, and I believe there’s a VPN between us and the WWW for extra privacy. Google doesn’t know where we are from day to day. Today they suppose I’m in New Mexico, imagine that! Yesterday I was in Coffeeville, Kansas, and the day before that in Upstate NY, near Canada!

  261. 261.

    Kent

    @J R in WV:I bet the total population this year turns out to be lower than it was 10 years ago. Fortunately, there’s nothing to prevent President Biden from restarting a REAL census next January, after he replaces the executive level of the Federal government.

    I’m convinced that it is fucked up beyond all repair.   I see two paths to a solution for a Biden Administration.

    First, on day one, pull back all the data collected under Trump as invalid/incomplete and issue corrected ‘ESTIMATES’ based on statistical modeling and such that correct for the estimated level of non-response in cities and such.

    The GOP will scream bloody murder about counting people in the census that were never actually counted.  You can guarantee that.  So, step 2 for the Biden Administration would be to present the GOP with a choice:  Accept the Biden Administration’s “adjusted” numbers or authorize a new 2021 Census.

    No doubt it will be fought out in court.  But Biden has to do one of those two.   There is no way they can allow Trump’s fucked up numbers to stand.  They can’t even let them get out for red states to use.  They have to completely and officially discredit them so that red states like Texas that want to use Trump’s fucked numbers for their own internal redistricting won’t have a legal basis to do so.

  263. 263.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @LuciaMia:

    Synopsis of each of Trump’s convention speeches.

    “I’ve done more for_____________ than any other president in history.”

    Alternatively, “Nobody loves the ______________ more than me.”

  264. 264.

    Raven

    @J R in WV: It’s a real cluster fuck. I applied shortly after I retired on a whim. With my background and being a vet there is no way they shouldn’t have at least contacted me but ZIPOLA. For the last three weeks they have been hounding me with phone calls, texts and mail. They use different number so blocking them does no good. No fucking way am I going door-to-door now.

  266. 266.

    Josie

    I laughed out loud when I read this sentence from a write-up by the FTNYT on convention planning:

    “Still, broadcasters will head into the week with some unknowns.”

    Understatement of the year.

  269. 269.

    JPL

    @Josie: If trump goes off the rails, Fox has been breaking away.   It will be interesting to see what they do.   Interesting in the sense, that I might read it the next day.

  270. 270.

    Raven

    @JPL: The backass way we go you pretty much have to. We plan it so we can hit pit stops on the back roads from Marrianna to Colquitt to Albany to Forsyth to Monticello!

  271. 271.

    LuciaMia

    “Nobody loves the ______________ more than me.”

    Thats both creepy and condescending at the same time.

  272. 272.

    Kay

    When this is over we need to talk about how such virulent, far Right racism came out of northeastern cities.

    If Donald Trump and the rest of these people had come out of Georgia or Alabama we’d all be talking about them as white southerners whose behavior came out of that culture. What is THIS Trump Administration culture? Well-off people who grew up in sophisticated northeastern cities and suburbs and had the most expensive education money can buy?

    Where are the think pieces about the cultural norms that produced these fancy, northern urban people who are as viciously racist, backward and stupid as any white southern sheriff who barely has a high school diploma?

  274. 274.

    Ken

    @JPL: If trump goes off the rails, Fox has been breaking away. It will be interesting to see what they do.

    Yes, especially contrasting how they explain it to their viewers, with how they explain it to their special audience of one.

  277. 277.

    Ruckus

    @RaflW:

    I’m not discounting the shitforbrains draft fiasco but this concept of never served in the military is a major part of the America – greatest military power ever! story that chaps my butt. I believe that less than 5% of the population serve in the military and if my time was any example, a good portion are there for reasons that have nothing to do with patriotism. And I personally know and have known many who gave their all, or pretty good percentage of their all in the military, I have to ask, what does that really mean for the country? We’ve been at war or close to it most of my life and what is the actual positive result? There’s Korea, we left Vietnam with our tail between our legs, we’ve been in the middle east for over a decade and a half and have accomplished what? Those are 30+ yrs of warfare, well over a third of my lifetime at war and in reality, what have we accomplished? Korean war = 40,000+ American dead, Vietnam = 58,000 + dead, middle east = 4,000 + dead, wounded in all 3, over 1/4 million and that doesn’t count the massive amount of non-Americans we’ve killed/wounded. What do we have to show for that loss of life? South Korea is doing well, Vietnam is doing OK, the middle east is a mess, how do we actually stack up in that rating system?

    So I ask again, what is the he/she didn’t serve in the military really mean? I think we should have a discussion about this, because republicans always seem to want to send someone else to war, usually for monetary reasons if you dig a bit, and complain and dress up like fake soldiers to prove their lack of worth, and most everyone seems to go along. We have highly militarized our police forces, for what, beating on citizens for complaining about beating on citizens? Maybe it’s just because I’m old, maybe it’s because I served, maybe it’s because I wonder why we’ve ended up here, the worlds largest military, with the self induced concept that we need to be the worlds police, while our police at home shoot people dead for no valid reason, and knee on their necks till they are dead for no valid reason. Is everyone the enemy? And if they are, enemy of what?

    I think we’ve lost our way as a country. The DNC showed what we could be, the RNC will show the direction we have been going. And yes I know a lot don’t like that RNC direction, but a lot have brought into the concept of superiority of something, something, racism, wealth, kill, and we need to acknowledge and define that, to acknowledge it is destroying our country and our own citizens worse than any outside influence.

  278. 278.

    sdhays

    Are the networks actually going to give 2 extra hours (.5 hour every night) more to the RNC than the DNC? How is that legal? I mean, Fox and CNN can do whatever they want, but don’t the broadcast networks need to be balanced at some very basic level?

  279. 279.

    Mallard Filmore

    @FelonyGovt:

     

    My friend keeps talking up how hard those two were working on it, and for months, and what a feat it was that it went so seamlessly. The Repubs have no one like that.

    It really can’t be that hard to put a camera on Trump and leave it there.

  281. 281.

    dnfree

    @yellowdog: It appears she graduated in May.   I looked her up the other day and it appears she’s a full-time social media influencer. Not out doing public service law. Maybe she’s studying for the bar exam.

  282. 282.

    Raven

    @Aleta: It was tough, this is not a great time of year and the gulf was angry. I managed a decent spanish yesterday and a nice blue this morning. I was wading/swimming beyond the first sandbar and getting the royal crap beat out of me. When I came in after about 20 minutes this morning the code enforcement guy bitched at me and told me it was $100 fine for being out there. I have a really nice fishing had I had tied under my chin and the wave just tore it off! I did manage to retrieve it later so all was not lost. We were fortunate to have this trip as our friends are going to sell. That’s 15 years of trips that will end after we come back in October. The saddest part is that Bohdi just can’t hack it any more. I took him to the bay and carried him to the water and he had no interest in that or the ball. It’s the price we bay but, damn.

  284. 284.

    MattF

    @sdhays:

    Fox and CNN can do whatever they want, but don’t the broadcast networks need to be balanced at some very basic level?

    No.

  285. 285.

    Ruckus

    @sdhays:

    but don’t the broadcast networks need to be balanced at some very basic level?

    Like they’ve been for the last what, 40+ years?

  286. 286.

    Mo Salad

    @Yutsano:  They do follow ups and verifications. Mine involved calls from an unknown phone number. On the 3rd time, I finally answered. Glad I did. If it’s a simple advertisement, sure, blow it off. But if it is follow up, follow through and verify and clarify. You don’t want to give anyone a reason to invalidate your count.

  287. 287.

    Raven

    @Ruckus: It’s not that that scumbag motherfucker didn’t serve, it’s how he got out of it that pisses me off. I have great respect for people who stood up and said “NO” and being in school was what it was. This asshole runs around with his tough guy routine and he’s just the kind of fucker that would have gotten a blanket party.  With his shit.

  288. 288.

    ProfDamatu

    @J R in WV: I think the deal with the addresses is that enumerators only get sent to places that didn’t respond to the census. I guess your address was included mistakenly, but it’s not necessarily a sign of dysfunction that your neighbors weren’t on his list (which, by the by, he absolutely should not have told you).

    I think the biggest issue with the census is that first, field operations got a much later start due to the virus – not only from stay at home orders, but also because most of the almost 20 hours of training had to be converted to online. And with the end of field operations being shifted a month earlier, there’s going to be some urgency and chaos.

  290. 290.

    Immanentize

    @J R in WV:

    I bet the total population this year turns out to be lower than it was 10 years ago.

    I’ll go further and bet the total population is lower than the number of people who file state and federal tax returns.

    There is going to have to be a supplement or do over.

  292. 292.

    cmorenc

    @Jinchi:

    There may indeed only be a small < 5% of the electorate who are truly yet undecided whether to vote for Biden or Trump *if* they turn out to vote.  The critical question is rather: what % of that 95% of voters who are “decided” will actually turn out to vote, and will the number of voters “decided” for Biden who actually turn out outnumber the number of voters “decided” for Trump who actually turn out (and in what concentrations where?)  Maybe a better way to phrase the issue of “undecidedness” is how motivated a given voter is to actually turn out, rather than which way their inclination would lean if they did turn out.

    Trump won in 2016, despite the polling predictions to the contrary, because in the final days he succeeded in motivating an increasing number of his previously less-committed voters to turn out in three critical midwestern states, while a variety of factors (Russians, Comey, suppression, assumption that Clinton would win anyways, so why bother by less strongly motivated would-be Clinton voters etc) depressed Clinton’s would-be vote by just enough.

    But in the larger sense, you’re right in that there were actually vanishingly few undecided voters in 2016, and neither are there in 2020 – it’s all about motivating and enabling turnout.  And what about that <5% of the truly undecideds?  Most of them won’t turn out anyways.

  294. 294.

    Ruckus

    @Mallard Filmore:

    Reading between the lines, I’d bet you know that the camera on him is not the major issue. It’s everything else. The totality of the production, what actually gets made/seen, how it gets made/seen, how what gets made/seen gets broadcast…….

  295. 295.

    Gammyjill

    @Suzanne: Suzanne, do you have a link to the fund raising effort? Is it registered with ActBlue. I’d like to kick in some coin. Thanks.

  300. 300.

    James E Powell

    @Kay:

    When this is over we need to talk about how such virulent, far Right racism came out of northeastern cities.

    Agree we need to talk about this, but the Trump movement came out of the suburbs of northeastern cities. I can only speak about the places I know, the suburbs of Cleveland. In the years I was doing the precinct level campaign volunteer work, 1980 to 1998, virulent racism was always there. There is nothing I’ve seen or heard in the last four years that I didn’t see and hear in places like Strongsville and Parma in the 80s and 90s.

    The national campaigns occasionally obscured it, but in all the years I was involved in things back there, the theme of every Republican campaign was about the hatred of everything Democrats stood for. And in conversations, the most common objection to Democrats was that they were going to raise taxes to give free stuff to black people. I can’t say everybody always said it, but it was definitely more than three out of four.

  301. 301.

    Ruckus

    @Raven:

    Oh I agree 1000% on shitforbrains. And on the respect for people who stood up and said no, like Muhammad Ali.

    I was more talking about people who say “He didn’t serve!”, like it was a given that most people did. Or that serving was/is the be all end all of citizenship.

  302. 302.

    zhena gogolia

    When he’s on, he’s on:

    ? As former and current Republicans, “we all have a sentimental attachment to the Republican Party. We all loved ‘Old Yeller.’ But at some point you have to take Old Yeller behind the barn and put him down.” — @RadioFreeTom— Jennifer Taub (@jentaub) August 23, 2020

  307. 307.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Kay: two words: property values.  For a longer analysis, I’ve been reading a book titled Parish Boundaries by John T. McGreevy looking at the Northern Catholic racial attitudes in the 20th century.  Basically, the Catholics stayed anchored to their parish and it’s neighborhood in a way that people of other religions didn’t.  The Trumps? Well, they were the property developers so they would also want property values to stay high…

  309. 309.

    John Revolta

    Trump Night One: “I’m going to cancel Medicare and Social Security!”

    Night Two: “I might cancel Medicare and Social Security. We’re looking at a lot of things.”

    Night Three: “I never said I was going to cancel Medicare and Social Security!”

    Night Four: “The Democrats are going to cancel your Medicare and Social Security!!”

  311. 311.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Suzanne: I donated.

    I’m a little confused about something. Earlier in this thread you used the word “firebombed”, and if you Google you can find stories like this one that say an arsonist was caught on surveillance tape and arrested on Jul. 29, a few days after the fire.

    Yet on the fundraiser page they say the cause is under investigation. Is there some reason to think it wasn’t arson or are they being careful till he’s tried?

  312. 312.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @James E Powell: as I replied to Kay, property values.  Plus I will bet that the suburbanites in the 1980s were either part of the initial white flight (which I guess would be the parents of the Boomers, e.g. my grandparents’ generation) or the children of the white flight (Boomers, e.g. my parents’ generation).

  313. 313.

    Ruckus

    If you want to be a bit more discouraged today, google US presidents.

    You end up  with a picture of each one in a little box with a link to their wiki posting. Everyone but shitforbrains is a normal picture, shitforbrains has that stupid shit eating grin, that looks like he just pulled down someone’s shorts in 4th grade on the playground. I’ve seen that grin before but it was from someone on a mental ward, who was behind reenforced glass.

  315. 315.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @zhena gogolia: Once the weather cools Madame wants to see J Tree in the daytime, she was rather unimpressed with our night trip there.  I’ve wanted to see some things there that I’ve not seen on my night visits as well.  I’ll make sure to get a pic of Cap Rock.

  317. 317.

    Jinchi

    @JPL: If trump goes off the rails, Fox has been breaking away.

    Well if they break off in the middle of his acceptance speech, you’ll know it’s a good sign for the Democrats.

  319. 319.

    geg6

    @geg6:

    Adding:

    I read an article last weekend (NYMag, I think) that said the broadcast networks told the DNC that they would only show the last hour of both conventions each night because they were trying to limit the amount of false claims they were sure the RNC speakers would be spewing.

  321. 321.

    James E Powell

    @Kayla Rudbek:

    The people I’m talking about were mostly – like me – children of the initial white flight. And I get property values, but property values is the facially neutral way of saying “I don’t want to be around black people.”

  326. 326.

    dopey-o

    I asked my Millenial Daughter what drugs I should take to watch the RNC cluster-flock:

    Xanax & Bourbon

    Ketamin & Kerosene

    Purple Drank & Draino

    She told me she would be going out for barbeque monday night and would be home Friday a.m.

  327. 327.

    Morzer

    I shall be interested to see just how badly Trump bungles this speaking every night idea of his. Either he’s going to inflict nights of obsessive rambling and incoherent hatefulness on an unappreciative nation, or he’s going to produce his occasional sedated moron reads teleprompter speech for the first time without his glasses LOLapalooza, Neither is going to help him in the face of personal economic disaster for many and the corona virus for all.

  328. 328.

    Doug R

    @Ken: I remember one vacation in Los Angeles they were looking for audience for “What A Dummy”.

    NEVER saw ANY mention of it past that year.

  330. 330.

    Ruckus

    @Yutsano:

    Yes. Yes they are.

    But look at the numbers. 43% of republicans say it’s unacceptable. Now many of them will likely vote republican but that’s still not an insignificant number. If it were the only criteria for voting it would be a rout. And dems and independents are quite strongly not acceptable. I’d say turnout is the key here, and if even a semi sizable number of repubs don’t show, it doesn’t bode well for them.

  332. 332.

    Feathers

    @Kay: A big part of it is that authoritarian follower is a personality type. They will always be there. So how nasty they get is decided by how evil the authoritarians in the power structure are allowed to become. Republicanism, ever since the abolitionists, has been sold to the American public as the party of good, solid, Christian, moral, correct-thinking people. This is their self-identification. Racism becomes a moral good. It’s not that we don’t like them individually, but they bring down property values, bring down school test scores that determine property values, play loud music, etc., etc.

    Also, my two cents: The mantra of “go to college, so you can get a good job” sounded great and was good advice, but landed very poorly on a lot of people. So are the 65% (88% in 1990) without college degrees just supposed to accept that the jobs they will get are going to be shit jobs? Note also that this signals to employers that it is OK for non-college degree jobs to be shit jobs, because what did those fools expect?

    Also, employment and jobs just got worse, so a lot of people went to college and got degrees, but not fancy degrees. Employers responded by converting high school jobs into non-fancy college jobs. Of course the salary stayed the same, wiping out the investment students and parents made in paying for college. People did exactly what the Clintons and Obamas said to do and found themselves (or their children) loaded down with debt and trapped in shitty jobs.

    I think in the Northeast, proximity to the kids who did go to “good” colleges and got the “good” jobs bred a real contempt. A friend once told me that the American public school system is the perfect breeding ground for followers of Ayn Rand. And libertarianism is just racism with a fancy name.

    This thread is probably dead, so I’ll end here.

  333. 333.

    debbie

    @WaterGirl:

    His Twitter feed is here.

    Apropos of nothing:

    I wonder how Christians would feel if President Biden took mail trucks, mail boxes and mail sorters out of service at Christmas… so their cards weren’t delivered on time?
    — Billy Baldwin (@BillyBaldwin) August 23, 2020

  334. 334.

    Feathers

    @James E Powell: My parents didn’t white flight when they desegregated and started busing. It was astonished to arrive in New England from the (northern) South and discover that close friends would have gone to my high school, but their parents decamped to whiter, further out, suburbs. And people who went to those schools said just flat out racist shit to me in jokes, asking if I was scared, just flat out garbage. I first heard the n-word being used at me, in high school, asking if I went to that n— school. And being called a n— lover.

    I have no illusions of how racist “nice” white people can be.

  336. 336.

    Doug R

    @JPL:

     

    Newsom is apparently appealing for help from Australia and Canada, but those countries are hesitant because of the virus.

    We’re in the middle of our own fire season here in Canada
    BC Wildfire Dashboard
    We’ll probably send some equipment at least as our fire season usually dies down in a month, as opposed to the newest forecast for California that has their season going until November.

  338. 338.

    WaterGirl

    @debbie: Thanks.  I had no idea who Rick Schmidt was!

    Now that I see that it’s Steve Schmidt, thanks for the link!

    Boy his crucifixion of Cruz and the other 2 bozos last week was a thing of beauty.  It’s like they kept jumping in front of that train with signs that said “Do me next!”  (not literally, of course)

  339. 339.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    Martha McSally sinks to a new low.  It’ll be very sweet to see her lose on Election Day

    She wants supporters to “fast” for a meal — then give her the money that they save for her campaign.

    Stunned critics pointed out that this is the same senator who voted for tax cuts for corporations and billionaires.

    “We’re doing our best to catch up, you know, to get our message out,” she told backers in an audio recording of a recent meeting in northern Arizona obtained by CBS affiliate KPHO-TV. “But it takes resources … if you can give $5, $10. If you can, fast a meal and give what that would be.”

     

    h/t https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/martha-mcsally-fast-meal-money-mark-kelly-arizona-065201902.html

  340. 340.

    Anne Laurie

    Betty, I always enjoy your prose, but need to get this on the record: Fyre Festivus is genius.

    (Of course I’mma steal it, but I’ll give you credit!)

  342. 342.

    The Lodger

    @Raven: I was an enumerator 10 years ago. Postcards were due April 1, and I got my first response to my job application April 15 (about 2 months after I applied. ) we started knocking on doors May 1 and we were still trying to reach people in September. Also, the pay has only gone up 10% in 10 years.

  343. 343.

    Brachiator

    The group — which included lead convention planner and ex-White House official Tony Sayegh, deputy campaign manager Justin Clark, head of advance Max Miller, and the president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump — had no set budget. They had no speakers lineup and no venue. In short, they had to figure out from scratch what the whole thing should look like.

    Coming late to the threads, and to confess have mainly been ignoring the news.

    So, it looks like “Planning for a convention” is a task assigned to the teams on a typical episode of The Apprentice. The results will be amateurish and sloppy.

  344. 344.

    Brachiator

    @Geminid:

    Considering all the criminals who will be attending the Republican convention, I’m calling it “Hoodstock.”

    Ha! Very good.

  345. 345.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @geg6: My feelings exactly.  The three ladies should have their own weekly news wrapup show or something.  Lots of chemistry between them and fun to watch.

    And the DNC was so tightly run it became obvious there was no time to cut from the usual semi-obscure speakers on the stage early in the evening to the network talking heads.  And I can remember when they would cut away from the rollcall of states. The DNC virtual convention actually had a lot of positive aspects, which I don’t think people were expecting.  Especially the travelogue Roll Call of States and the intimate speech by Michelle Obama.

  347. 347.

    Ruckus

    @Brachiator:

    The results will be amateurish and sloppy.

    I believe they would have to improve a minimum of 800% over their individual records of achievement to be able to see amateurish and sloppy out the window of their limos.

  348. 348.

    lowtechcyclist

    @ProfDamatu:

    @J R in WV: I think the deal with the addresses is that enumerators only get sent to places that didn’t respond to the census. I guess your address was included mistakenly, but it’s not necessarily a sign of dysfunction that your neighbors weren’t on his list (which, by the by, he absolutely should not have told you).

    Yeah, it’s called Nonresponse Followup, unless they’ve changed the name. (I worked on the 2000 Census at Census HQ in beautiful downtown Suitland.)  The idea is that they only send a field rep to knock on your door if you didn’t respond online or by mail, because it’s way cheaper to process an online or mail return than to send someone to your door.

    I think the biggest issue with the census is that first, field operations got a much later start due to the virus – not only from stay at home orders, but also because most of the almost 20 hours of training had to be converted to online. And with the end of field operations being shifted a month earlier, there’s going to be some urgency and chaos.

    This. The Census is a huge logistical operation – in 2000, we hired over a half a million people as field reps – and this year it got crunched from both ends.

    And because it’s such a huge undertaking, a redo in 2021 is totally unrealistic. I doubt they could even pull it together in time for 2022, even if Congress passed the law authorizing the redo in time for Biden to sign it the moment he took his hand off the Bible.  2023 is about the earliest I think they could pull it off.

    Not saying I think they shouldn’t do it – I absolutely think they should: the Census needs to be honest.  But just saying we shouldn’t have unreasonable expectations about the timeline for it.

  349. 349.

    Bishop Bag

    @Raven:  Hey Raven…I was a Conscientious Objector during the Viet Nam War.  I spent two years as a Hand Crew Firefighter for the California Division of Forestry (Nowadays known as Cal Fire) in the California Ecology Corps at the Inyo Ecology Center. Basically it was a Minimum Security Prison that Ronald Reagan when Governor had converted to handle the Conscientious Objectors to the Military Draft. I am still so proud that I can say that I served my country for 2 years fighting fires and working on conservation projects throughout the State of California. I would have made a lousy unfit terrible soldier with a really bad attitude who probably would have wound up in a real prison anyways if I had not been granted my CO status. I know, Dead thread but I just wanted to respond.

  350. 350.

    2liberal

    @Suzanne:Waiting for the Norma Desmond of this blog to show up wasted, call me a twit, and #notallboomer all over the place.

    Who is the Norma Desmond of the blog?

  352. 352.

    sgrAstar

     

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Bill, I know JT very, very well. A fun little excursion she might like is the walk out to the Astrodomes from the Bighorn Pass Rd  parking area. The largish Domes are quite beautiful, and if you’re lucky people will be climbing on them while you’re there. The Wonderland of Rocks, where the Astrodomes are located, is spectacular. Take a map if you’re unfamiliar with the JT backcountry.

    ?

  353. 353.

    ProfDamatu

    @Raven: Hell, I applied in November and just started working a few days ago. There are clearly problems, but I don’t think that any of it is really the fault of the lower level employees. Which would include the people doing the hiring; procedures aren’t up to them.

    I decided to go ahead and sign on anyway kind of as a service, as I think it’s possible that this is it, and I’d like to help make sure the count is as accurate as possible , especially given how much population growth has happened in my area the past few years. The money is nice too, of course.

  354. 354.

    ProfDamatu

    @lowtechcyclist: Yep, was just trying to answer without being too specific; as I mentioned, I’m actually working as an enumerator this year. Kinda annoyed that it wasn’t a summer job as expected – I start teaching again on Wednesday, though I’m sure we’ll be online soon enough – but decided to go ahead and do it as a community service, because I don’t know if, as you say, a do over is feasible anytime soon.

    And it seems to me that all the issues are likely due to the difficulty of trying to pivot a gigantic logistical operation in the face of a pandemic. We’re also doing the surveys electronically, on dedicated iPhones, which I think is also a first.

  355. 355.

    ProfDamatu

    @Sister Golden Bear: Yeah, that’s called a proxy. For some addresses, we have to get a proxy like a neighbor – could be due to never being able to catch them at home, sometimes it’s because the current resident didn’t live there on census day – April 1 – and doesn’t know anything about the previous tenants, etc.

    My understanding is that this is because the census is legally required to count everyone, so knocking on neighbors’ doors is one way to try to get at least a count of people at each address. I know it’s annoying, but it’s very appreciated when you help!

  356. 356.

    ProfDamatu

    @Sister Golden Bear: Yeah, that’s called a proxy. For some addresses, we have to get a proxy like a neighbor – could be due to never being able to catch them at home, sometimes it’s because the current resident didn’t live there on census day – April 1 – and doesn’t know anything about the previous tenants, etc.

    My understanding is that this is because the census is legally required to count everyone, so knocking on neighbors’ doors is one way to try to get at least a count of people at each address. I know it’s annoying, but it’s very appreciated when you help!

  357. 357.

    brantl

    @J R in WV:

    Fortunately, there’s nothing to prevent President Biden from restarting a REAL census next January, after he replaces the executive level of the Federal government.

    It’s a once every 10 year deal, written into law. THAT will prevent it.

Comments are closed.