Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

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

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

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

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Biden-Harris 2020 / Friday Morning Open Thread: Joe & Kamala Are Ready

Friday Morning Open Thread: Joe & Kamala Are Ready

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272Comments

  3. 3.

    Immanentize

    Good morning All.

    I think Biden can continue to lay low. Let the convention bounces fade and then watch and comment as Trump makes mistake after mistake. So far, it’s been a winning strategy.

  6. 6.

    Baud

    Kamala interview on Today show.  This morning.

    ETA: Craig Melvin is trying to make a thing about the not traveling issue.  That’s in the next segment.

  7. 7.

    Jeffro

    @Mousebumples: good morning back at ya!

    five minutes of the orange moron last night was all I could take.  Here’s hoping that America is equally tired of him come November.

  9. 9.

    MomSense

    I fell asleep during the dump’s speech last night.  His delivery was just so terrible and what he was saying was both boring and deranged.  After listening to hour after hour of scare words and slogans they lose all meaning and impact.

    It was so irresponsible to pack people in the crowd like that with no masks and then have them sing and shout.

    There was a wedding in Millinocket Maine with 65 attendees at the church and reception and it has caused outbreaks in that town and in a jail and nursing home in other parts of the state. The death associated with the wedding was someone who didn’t even attend the wedding.  That was a smaller gathering in a state with a much lower COVID positivity rate.

    That rally was a fucking super spreader event held by a death cult.

  11. 11.

    Betty Cracker

    Not since his neighbor snatched him off a riding mower and gave him a sound thrashing over a lawn waste disposal dispute has Rand Paul faced such grave physical danger:

    There are longer videos of the Retreat to Trump Grifternational Hotel available on Twitter. From what I saw, Paul wasn’t in danger of anything worse than a heckling.

    The crowds must’ve been contained many blocks away. Some air horns and chants could faintly be heard during Trump’s speech from the South Lawn. The tweet of the night award goes to Amy Klobuchar:

  12. 12.

    Ken

    @Jeffro: I’m waiting for the TV ratings.
    Does anyone know how sensitive they are? For example could they detect a blip at 11EDT that would be a lot of people tuning in for the news, saying “he’s still on?”, and turning the TV off again?

  13. 13.

    Ken

    @MomSense: I didn’t watch, but from what I’ve read this morning, it sounds like Trump’s speech was just a re-tread of what all the other speakers had said over the four days? By the fourth or fifth repetition, anything gets boring.

  18. 18.

    Kay

    Nate Cohn
    @Nate_Cohn
    8h
    I see many of you think Biden has responded to this, which is literally true. But this isn’t a high school debate, where biden ‘responds’ simply by contradicting it. the RNC spent several days elevating a claim; a couple of interviews doesn’t undo the damage, if there was damage

    The NYTimes returning to their standby- it isn’t the factual basis of the claim by the Republican that matters, what matters is the response by the Democrat.
    While they are willing to admit that it is “literally true” that Biden has responded, they will continue to insist that Biden hasn’t responded sufficiently.
    This exact sequence was used in 2016. Same play.
    This is what I mean when I say they are “conventional” rather than ideological. It’s just a very limited range. There’s a kind of narrow band in which they operate and that’s why it repeats, the same, over decades.

  21. 21.

    Bruce K

    My parents and brother – now essentially refugees from Donald Trump’s America, having been lucky enough to flee for their lives – are trying to get their absentee ballot requests sorted. Apparently New York requires physical forms with “wet” signatures for the absentee ballot requests.

    As for my voting plan:

    I’m an exile.

    I’m voting by absentee ballot the day it becomes available to me.

    Because I want to come home to the United States of America, not Donald Trump’s America.

  22. 22.

    Immanentize

    @rikyrah: I suspect he and Jill actually wander happily around their wonderful home.  Then he goes to the basement for interviews.  Like I had to practice the baritone horn in the basement….

  23. 23.

    zhena gogolia

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    Oh, but the New York Times (Peter Fucking Baker) tells me he was “calm and relaxed.” Not a word about the lies, the violations of the Hatch Act, the babbling that I heard in the few clips I saw.

  25. 25.

    satby

    I love these MazeDancer! I’m retweeting and going to be sharing one every few days on the book of faces. Thanks for them!

  27. 27.

    WereBear

    @MomSense:

    That rally was a fucking super spreader event held by a death cult.

     
    Apocalyptic cults always get impatient with all the waiting, and try to jump-start the end of the world. Since it is supposed to end with them ruling over all, it makes a twisted kind of sense.

  30. 30.

    Kristine

    Mornin’, Everyone!

    Didn’t watch one second of the RNC convention. The stills were bad enough. Supposed to be a stormy day here in far NE Illinois as a cold front moves through.

    I requested my mail-in ballot a couple of weeks ago. As soon as it arrives, I’ll fill it out. Not sure whether I’ll mail it or drive 10 minutes, go through the metal detector, and drop it off at the Board of Elections.

  34. 34.

    SFAW

    @MomSense:

    There was a wedding in Millinocket Maine with 65 attendees at the church and reception and it has caused outbreaks in that town and in a jail and nursing home in other parts of the state.

    Mrs. SFAW and I are driving up to Belgrade and Poland today. [I’ll wave to you at some point.] In preparation for the trip, we got tested yesterday. Of course, we had been told results would come back in less than one hour. Which turned out to be 72 hours, of course. To quote super genius Rick Perry: “Oops.” So please don’t drop a dime on us with the Staties; we’d hate to get dragged off to the hoosegow in cuffs.

    Not sure if we’re going to get/have any lobstah, but might go to Bayley’s in Pine Point. If they’re open.

  36. 36.

    SFAW

    @Immanentize:

    Like what a husky makes in the snow.

    There’s a very old joke — I first heard it re: Tricky Dick — that has something to do with “signatures” in the snow.

  39. 39.

    Kay

    @zhena gogolia:

    It was an awful speech. Way too long, poorly written and delivered in his phony phrasing that sounds most like a sneer. Packed with lies, too, of course, but even as entertainment it was just plain bad.

    I don’t know if the attempt to gin up hatred and violence they’re working on outside the speechifying will work but that speech did nothing for him. He’s a bore.

  40. 40.

    Lurkermirth

    @Kay: But FTFNYT responds this way for Democrats – never for Republicans. It’s less ideological, but consistent anti-Democratic Party (and its elected officials) bias. Republicans always get the benefit of the doubt.

  42. 42.

    SFAW

    @Jeffro:

    five minutes of the orange moron last night was all I could take.

    Five seconds is more than I can take from that lying, corrupt motherfucker.

  47. 47.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @WereBear: So how does one photocopy a signature onto a ballot? Has anyone ever actually done such a thing? That is a really strange phrase meaning simply, “sign this.”

  49. 49.

    oldgold

    I watched the first few minutes of the malignant narcissist’s speech and thought of the millions of Americans who have restricted attendance at funerals of loved ones, put off weddings and other important rites of passage out of respect for others humans health. Then, I had to turn it off and seethe in my darkened room.

  50. 50.

    mad citizen

    @Jinchi: This is the early leader for the funniest thing I will read today–thanks!  “Ratings fall despite Pence speech”

    I link the recent Lincoln Project ad called “Adultery”.  I’m guessing when someone found this 1997 footage of Pence talking on his radio show about adultery, it was “we have to make an ad” at LP HQ. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dEYnLpGzl4

  51. 51.

    satby

    I don’t know WTF is wrong with the site, but I’m so sick of getting the duplicate comment screen after every other comment I could scream. It only happens here and I comment on lots of sites.

  55. 55.

    WereBear

    @OzarkHillbilly: I think NY laws lag behind modern tech, so switching to mail-in from a standing start, while still being impeccable about the laws in case of challenges, has been a mixed bag.

    Mr WereBear and I are monitoring the early voting; worse case, we can drive 45 minutes and vote in late October, but rumor have it that vote by mail is going to be heavily supplemented with early voting stations to keep crowds low.

    We have a paper ballot we mark so there’s an audit trail. We decided that’s more secure than mailing. Also, we can walk down to the polling station on the actual day if all else fails.

    And we will.

  57. 57.

    MazeDancer

    @satby:

    Your Voting Plan is particularly inspiring, driving someone who can’t to vote on her schedule.

    Here it is tweeted, for those on Twitter who can RT. And in the sidebar list that WaterGirl is kindly keeping posted for inspiration, and handy re-tweeting fun,

    If everyone just asked another person “Have you made a Voting Plan?” that could help.

  58. 58.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I didn’t watch last night. But I am more nervous than I was. I don’t understand how anyone can vote for Trump and the country he creates around us.

    OT: I’ve had a stiff neck for three days. I probably just slept wrong but of course I’m madly googling “covid and stiff neck.” Turns out there is some aftereffect like that. Of course.

    I’ve started writing again. It makes me feel better. This book is about a girl who’s a glass maker.

  62. 62.

    kindness

    Trump is done.  He’s toast.  I’m fearful of how much of it he’s going to burn down between now and January 21st.  Republicans won’t stop him.  They’ve already shown us that.

    The ugliness of the haters Donald has whipped up is horrifying.  We knew they were there.  I didn’t think there were so many.  Uncle Joe will be a good healing presence.

  66. 66.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @WereBear: We only have absentee balloting with an acceptable excuse in Misery. I’ve never bothered figuring out the details and won’t now for 2 reasons. #1, I read somewhere that up to 20% of absentee ballots are rejected because… signatures don’t match, missed one step in the process, etc, and #2 our little precinct is so sparsely populated we can easily avoid any kind of crowd.

  67. 67.

    dnfree

    Someone talented should do a video comparing Trump’s version of America with Biden’s at the end of that ad. At the end of Trump’s  speech, after he said we’d land a woman on the moon and plant our glorious flag on Mars, he went into a version of history where “we” came here on the Mayflower, built homes and churches, rode west in covered wagons, established a nation….somewhere in there “we” freed slaves, etc.  And we fought bravely at Gettysburg. There was some acknowledgement of immigrants, but not much, and none of native Americans and people who came here against their will. And of course nothing about diversity of race, creed, nationality, sexual orientation, etc. as Biden mentions in that ad. Those pilgrims built churches, not mosques or temples.

  68. 68.

    Slappy Kincaid

    Completely off topic:  Here in Raleigh, NC, the jail has now been put on lockdown “until further order” but there are no reports as to why (but I can guess).

    On top of that, building owners are boarding up in advance of organized protests tonight.  My building’s owner told us that the hotels in the area suddenly went to near full occupancy, with no indication of who showed up to get rooms in advance of the protest.  It may be activists and protesters, but I am suspicious that the out-of-towners are not protesters but a substantial number of anti-protesters.

    I am expecting to see some bad shit go down in Raleigh tonight.

  72. 72.

    TS (the original)

    @Kay:

    Always wanting the democrats to prove the negative, while the GOP never has to prove the positive. Political media. I have no idea why they act in this fashion.

  74. 74.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    You can go back and look for anyone at the NYTimes using this sequence “Donald Trump must respond to the Democrats charge of X” and you won’t find it.

    Republicans, the legitimate people in power, attack the illegitimate people and those people must respond. There is no conventional analysis that goes the other way, where Republicans must respond. Harris gave a speech. There are no calls for Trump to “respond” to it- in fact, political media barely covered it.

    They see us as always on defense because they see Republicans in power as the natural order.

  76. 76.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Agree completely.  And the worst part is, too many people on our own side internalize that second class status.

  77. 77.

    Kathleen

    @Steeplejack (phone): Doing “real journalism”! Imagine that. OT but Trump wants to assemble a dossier on David Fahrenthold at WaPo because of his reporting on Trump’s businesses. I already subscribe to WaPo but I would subscribe immediately if I didn’t. I hope WaPo sees surge of new subscribers in support of David. We can’t afford to lose a courageous reporter and must support him. God knows media sycophants won’t.

  79. 79.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Immanentize: We went there two years ago, on one of our regular fall Finger Lakes trips. Still a great place. The exhibit on the discovery of low-loss glass (for fiber optics,) including Donald Keck’s lab notebooks, was fascinating to a geek like me.

  81. 81.

    MomSense

    @SFAW:

    Oh cool.  I’m in Portland today, so not far from Bayley’s.

    Clearwater is pretty close to Belgrade. I drove through a couple weeks ago when we went to visit friends upta camp.  A real camp not a Rockefeller cottage kind.

  82. 82.

    Subcommandante Yakbreath

    Doing this shit at the White House was bad enough, but seeing the Washington Monument used as part of the fireworks display left my jaw on the floor. As has been said so many times, every time you think it can’t get worse they surprise you.

  83. 83.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I see Trump rambled for an hour last night. Maybe political speeches are different, but I used to give presentations at professional meetings. In my field, we were allotted 20 minutes (about the length of Biden’s speech). My experience was it’s much better to leave the audience wanting more than wishing you’d shut up. At some point, people just start mentally making their grocery list.

  84. 84.

    MazeDancer

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It’s true, absentee rejection rate is high, alas.

    #1 Reason is people don’t sign the outside envelope.

    Unfortunately, not reading the dang instructions is a good plan for many things, but not getting your absentee vote counted.

    You and I are very lucky that we share the goodness of uncrowded polling place. But for those that aren’t so blessed, and feel safe doing so, blocking out time to Early Vote is the best bet for watching your vote get counted.

  85. 85.

    Immanentize

    @Gin & Tonic: I love the Finger Lakes….  And if you go to the Corning Museum area, you can also take in Watkins Glen State Park, wander the gorges and watch the races — if they are still happening…

  86. 86.

    Spanky

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Stiff neck usually means tension. You may wonder why it waited until now, but who can say? Might have been the convention “grand finale”. Heh.

    Get outside and enjoy some morning sun. That should help.

  87. 87.

    Haroldo

    @TS (the original):

    @Kay:

    Always wanting the democrats to prove the negative, while the GOP never has to prove the positive. Political media. I have no idea why they act in this fashion.

    And even my formerly beloved ABC has turned to garbage when it comes to political reporting (particularly wrt the US).

  88. 88.

    dnfree

    @MazeDancer: agreed. Early vote is my plan. First there’s the higher rejection rate for mail, then the uncertainty of mail processing, and then there’s the election-day effect of who’s ahead vs waiting for absentee ballots to be counted. And who knows if someone would decide to tamper with ballot boxes where mail ballots can be dropped off?  I think if it’s at all possible people should vote in person. in Illinois, if you request a mail-in ballot, apparently that’s your ballot. If you change your mind you have to bring that ballot with you to the polling place. You can’t get a new one.

  90. 90.

    Haroldo

    @MazeDancer:

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    It’s true, absentee rejection rate is high, alas.

    #1 Reason is people don’t sign the outside envelope.

    Unfortunately, not reading the dang instructions is a good plan for many things, but not getting your absentee vote counted.

    You and I are very lucky that we share the goodness of uncrowded polling place. But for those that aren’t so blessed, and feel safe doing so, blocking out time to Early Vote is the best bet for watching your vote get counted.

    Ed at Gin and Tacos discusses this here:

    http://www.ginandtacos.com/2020/08/19/following-instructions/

  91. 91.

    Chyron HR

    @Betty Cracker:

    “This is what it’s amounting to. Our politicians are getting bombarded by protesters.”

    Who could have known that health care turning America into a minority rule apartheid state would be so complicated?

  92. 92.

    Gin & Tonic

    Here in the state most often used as a term for land area in news stories, we can vote early in-person starting October 14. Since we use the optical-scan paper ballots, it’s just like normal – fill the bubble, feed it into the machine, watch the counter go up. My town’s Board of Canvassers’ office is actually closer to me than my polling place, so that’s what I’m doing.

  93. 93.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @MazeDancer: I wish we had early voting but alas, our Republican betters in Jeff City have seen fit to deny us the travesty of voting when convenient. After all, all those poor people working 2 or 3 part time minimum wage jobs might be able to fit in a trip to city hall if it were available.

  95. 95.

    dnfree

    And signature matching is more art than science. If you live in the same place for a long time, you probably registered years or even decades ago, and it’s entirely possible your signature doesn’t look the same. Maybe you’ve developed arthritis. Apparently some states have a procedure to notify you of a rejection and let you go to an office somewhere to verify it’s you, but other states just toss the ballot. I’m actually suspicious to some degree of this push to vote by mail in states that aren’t used to handling it in volume and may have outdated procedures.

  96. 96.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: There was at least one book where the SCA were the heroic guardians protecting the world. Worlds, plural. I think it was House Between the Worlds by Marian Zimmer Bradley.

    I vaguely remember a Peter Beagle story where they played a major role as well.

    We once went to a medieval kids day at a museum and there was a guy giving a workshop on how to make your own chain mail. I just kept thinking, “why?” This was long before cosplay became so popular other than SCA and Civil War reenactors.

  99. 99.

    Betty Cracker

    @Subcommandante Yakbreath: True, the Washington Monument fireworks display was illegal and grotesque in its implications for democracy. But I don’t think it had the intended effect either, at least not on anyone outside the cult. My immediate thought upon seeing the clip was that it looked like an erectile dysfunction ad, and I saw that sentiment expressed on Twitter, so it wasn’t just me…

  103. 103.

    Bruce K

    @OzarkHillbilly: I suspect a “wet” signature is an actual physical signature instead of something scanned in – i.e. they want the physical piece of paper that was actually touched by the pen used for the signature. The Overseas Vote Foundation’s system may not be acceptable to the New York County Board of Elections.

    @rikyrah: I’ve been in Greece for over ten years now. My parents and brother took advantage of dual citizenship to come over from New York this summer, because my folks are at extremely high risk in the event of COVID exposure.

  104. 104.

    WereBear

    I think the key to not worrying about mail-in ballots for states not already set up for it has to be early voting in all kinds of areas. After all, so many of these places are empty!Heck, send a truck down the streets like an ice cream wagon!

  105. 105.

    Jeffro

    @Ken:I’m waiting for the TV ratings.
    Does anyone know how sensitive they are? For example could they detect a blip at 11EDT that would be a lot of people tuning in for the news, saying “he’s still on?”, and turning the TV off again?

    Oh, you did that too?  =)

    I doubt they’re that sensitive, but I have no doubt that was a majority of America’s reaction to his crap.

  106. 106.

    germy

    Perfect description of the RNC:

    America, we’re paying for a campaign commercial in a house we own for a man most Americans didn’t vote for.

    — Dan Rather (@DanRather) August 28, 2020

  107. 107.

    Josie

    @dnfree:

    I don’t know about other states, but in Texas, if you did not receive or don’t have the mail-in ballot with you, you can vote with a provisional ballot.

  108. 108.

    germy

    i want to just point out a quick *positive* messaging thing here that biden did that dems don't do often enough. he mentions that trump violated the hatch act. then he stops and says, people don't know what that is, here, let me explain it in layman's terms. pic.twitter.com/QJzR5wAgcp

    — Oliver Willis (@owillis) August 27, 2020

    And of course the interviewer looks bored as hell. “Let’s get back to the horserace, or failing that, some tasty theater criticism!”

  110. 110.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @TS (the original):

    I have no idea why they act in this fashion.

    The national press socialize together, and their clique was founded and their members selected by rich old white men.  The clique is led by rich old white men, and their primary job skill is bullshitting, taking very little information and talking about it for hours.  They frequently express their belief that brown people are scary and that ‘entitlements’ need to be taken away.  #MeToo revealed that the club is thick with misogyny to the point of rape and especially protection of rapists.  All that is demonstrably true, and is enough by itself to explain the visible news bias.

  112. 112.

    Jeffro

    @Subcommandante Yakbreath:

     

    @Betty Cracker: did y’all see that great pic of protestors holding up letters that spelled out “trump failed 180000 died” in front of the Washington Monument as the fireworks were exploding?

    I hope people are retweeting the SHIT out of that pic today

  113. 113.

    clay

    Does anyone know if Trump mentioned the hurricane that had hit the Gulf a few hours before his speech?

  115. 115.

    martha

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Ahhh, glass. I’m a stained glass hobbyist and have done a bit of fusing, bead making, and glass blowing. You might want to check out the Stained Glass Museum in Ely, Cambridgeshire, in the UK.

    https://thestainedglassmuseum.com/

    In my experience, the glass artists in the UK still use traditional methods, more than the US. (Basically the same techniques that have been used for centuries.) I’ll be so interested to hear about your progress!

  117. 117.

    Ohio Mom

    I’ve been off-line and am now just catching up. Am I to understand that last night’s “festivities” included an opera singer belting out Hallelujah?

    And are we to believe any of that crowd would have any knowledge of Leonard Cohen or that song if not for Kate McKinnon’s rendition of it on SNL right after Trump’s election?

    Have they listened to the lyrics? It’s a dirge. Makes no sense for a celebratory event — They’ve been holding that grudge for almost four years, waiting for an opportunity to troll back. Every time you think you understand just how petty they are, your understanding is increased and deepened.

    Full disclosure: currently have “Popular Problems” in the car’s CD player.”

  120. 120.

    TS (the original)

    @germy:

    And of course the interviewer looks bored as hell

    I don’t think she can move any muscles in her face, that look never changes.

  121. 121.

    Elizabelle

    @Spanky:   Wait until the dancing in the streets when Trump goes down.

    We have to be more patient than we ever expected, at the outset.

    Caveat:  must happen in 2020 or early 2021.  Latest.

  122. 122.

    TS (the original)

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    All that is demonstrably true, and is enough by itself to explain the visible news bias.

    It explains the US –  but why news like the BBC in the UK and the ABC in Australia seem to have headed down the same track is showing how independent news sources are fast disappearing.

  125. 125.

    germy

    @TS (the original):   Terrified of looking enthusiastic or appreciative of Biden in any way.

    The determined, frozen expression of one who will NOT be accused of being a liberal media.

  126. 126.

    patrick II

    I have to say Donald Trump was right (not morally or medically of course) in his desire for a crowd.  Imagine how dull that speech actually was without the pretend cheering support of the captive audience.

    The crowd was why he needed the White House so badly.  No one else would let him have an audience.

    But that crowd was not his normal rabid audience from which he takes energy.  So, even with that particular crowd, it was low-energy Donald.

  127. 127.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: My kid would have loved the idea of making chain mail when he was grade school age. We once took him to a Renaissance Fair and bought him a wooden sword. He was so thrilled that he was ready to go home right then. He had everything he needed.

    @WereBear: I like research too. At some point, I have to stop myself from putting in all the details I learn because the reader will not care. Like, you know those round spots you see in the middle of really old glass windows? Those are there because they made flat glass by blowing it and then spinning the punty so the glass made a flat disc. The round spot is where that glass was attached to the punty.

  128. 128.

    germy

    @patrick II:  I wonder if he perceived how weird Kimberly (got fired from Fox for sharing dick pics) Guilfoyle appeared yelling and arm waving in an empty studio.

  129. 129.

    patrick II

    @germy:

    I think so.  Donald has a limited skill set, but understanding the relationship between the crowd and speaker is one of them.

  131. 131.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @martha: It’s entirely possible that when you read what I wrote, you’ll have to make allowances for mistakes. I fear real experts.

    It’s like I can’t read fiction about how professors function without saying, “That’s not how that works!” Drives Mr. DAW crazy. And I can’t watch crime shows with my FBI buddy because buddy keeps making the same kind of comment.

    PS. Thanks for the link.

  132. 132.

    germy

    Ben Carson is a medical doctor. No. Mask.

    — Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) August 28, 2020

    Covid cases now have been traced back to the Sturgis biker rally.

    I wonder if there’ll be an uptick in cases a few weeks after this convention.

  133. 133.

    Immanentize

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: In the LOTR “extra features” there is this facinating segment about making all the chain mail for the movies.  Mostly two people worked for more than a year making mail.  Of course much of it was made from aluminum so people could actually stand to wear it for shoots.  But it was still made link by link  They say their fingers were permanently changed.

  136. 136.

    Ken

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: The fiction flubs that irritate me most are when it’s something that nearly everyone does, so all concerned – including the writers, actors, and directors – should have known better. The canonical example is where two people are typing on one keyboard, which has happened on NCIS.

  138. 138.

    Haroldo

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    @WereBear: I like research too. At some point, I have to stop myself from putting in all the details I learn because the reader will not care. Like, you know those round spots you see in the middle of really old glass windows? Those are there because they made flat glass by blowing it and then spinning the punty so the glass made a flat disc. The round spot is where that glass was attached to the punty.

    However, FWIW, I did like Peter Carey’s description of Prince Rupert’s Drops in Oscar and Lucinda.

  139. 139.

    TS (the original)

    @germy:

    The determined, frozen expression of one who will NOT be accused of being a liberal media.

    I thought it was plastic surgery. Frozen face.

  140. 140.

    Immanentize

    @germy:

    I wonder if there’ll be an uptick in cases a few weeks after this convention.

    And I wonder if:
    The pope is Catholic,
    A bear shits in the woods,
    Dolly Parton sleeps on her back,
    An accordion player will wear a pinky ring….

    Et cetera

  142. 142.

    Amir Khalid

    After seeing that Biden ad, I would crawl over broken glass to to vote for him — and I’m not even American.

  145. 145.

    dmsilev

    @Ohio Mom:

    I’ve been off-line and am now just catching up. Am I to understand that last night’s “festivities” included an opera singer belting out Hallelujah?

    And are we to believe any of that crowd would have any knowledge of Leonard Cohen or that song if not for Kate McKinnon’s rendition of it on SNL right after Trump’s election?

    Have they listened to the lyrics? It’s a dirge. Makes no sense for a celebratory event

    Remember, this is the Party that thought “Born in the USA” was a blind celebration of American patriotism.

  146. 146.

    mad citizen

    @Ohio Mom: I think you understand correctly OhioMom.  I didn’t see it post-speech, but from reading here last night it seems to have happened.  I follow the trump music issues as Neil Young is now suing trump in New York for improper use.  I was speculating that whoever owns the rights to Hallelujah (hopefully Cohen’s family) may not have put it on the list that means politicians need to ask an artist’s permission before use.

    I agree with you on the inappropriateness, but that song has become such a cliche, a trope if you will.  It’s an incredible song, I’m not knocking it–just one of those where lazy people don’t seem to listen to the actual words (like Born in the USA; Rocking in the Free World).

    Also from upthread, so hard to repudiate Trump and this whole situation, while simultaneously practice kindness and togetherness.  But we must do it.  Trump’s whole gameplan is Us vs. Them; pitting americans against each other.  It’s interesting, our R governor is cruising to a 20 point win–his commercial is “we’re all one Indiana” “all in it together” and his latest he said he wouldn’t engage in divisiveness.  Of course this is easy to do if you’re not in a close race.

  150. 150.

    Jeffro

    @Amir Khalid: hey whoa there, Amir…George Will’s in the WaPo today saying that Biden “needs a Sister Souljah moment”

    For realz!! LOLOLOLOLOL  My sides actually hurt.  =)

    George…baby…Biden seems to be doing quite well without your BS. I know you want to keep him from running away with it, but…he’s already running away with it.  KEEP your stupid advice!

  155. 155.

    WereBear

    @germy:

    Covid cases now have been traced back to the Sturgis biker rally.

    I wonder if there’ll be an uptick in cases a few weeks after this convention.

     
    By all the laws of epidemiology, I don’t see how it cannot.

  156. 156.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    George Will’s in the WaPo today saying that Biden “needs a Sister Souljah moment”

    Republicans embraced a 17 year old who murdered two people but Democrats have to explain that they don’t support extremists.
    I don’t mind that political media do this- it’s one of the 5 things they say over and over- “Democrat must defend against X” – but could they possibly, just once, phrase it so Republicans have to defend?

    It’s weird to only apply this to one side! It includes an assumption they’re making that they’re not saying and must explain.

  157. 157.

    Kay

    What is the media assumption behind the fact that they constantly insist Democrats defend against Republican charges but do not insist that Republicans defend against Democratic charges?

    That’s context we need. They can’t just keep it to themselves.

  158. 158.

    Ken

    @WereBear: Love that about the punty. But then, an opportunity comes up to use a bit of that research, and you feel warm all over :)

    Just don’t go all Dan Brown, and have it turn out that at the midsummer solstice the punty focuses the rays of the sun on the floor tile under which the treasure map is buried.

  159. 159.

    Winston

    Excerpt from Margaret and Helen:

    Night Four: Land of Great Asshats – Ben Carson put a cup of coffee to sleep. In the land of greatness if you stay out past curfew, some white guy also out past curfew gets to shoot you. It’s in the constitution. Oh and, Trump lied.
    …
    Take Trump for example. He lies. He lies a lot actually. And in the beginning, we were all taken aback by it. It was almost comical until it wasn’t. I’ll release my taxes but then I won’t. I admitted to sexually assaulting women and then I was really just joking. I told my wife I do until I didn’t. He lies. And then he lies about his lies. And then he lies so much we begin to normalize it because… That is just Trump being Trump. At least you always know what is on his mind. He’s not afraid to say what he is thinking. And before you know it, you’re drinking bleach, sticking a lightbulb up your ass, eating aquarium cleaners, not wearing a mask and just like that – 180,000 Americans are dead.

    Read the whole thing. It’s worth it and will make you laugh.

    https://margaretandhelen.com/2020/08/27/trump-lies-and-before-you-know-it-youre-drinking-bleach-sticking-a-lightbulb-up-your-ass-and-using-the-c-word/

  160. 160.

    Kay

    It isn’t that our activists are more dangerous than those on the Right- that’s not it because a Right wing extremist just murdered people at a protest.

    But for some reason our activists are still more objectionable than those on the Right. Why is that? What’s the operating assumption they all hold that allows them to insist we denounce when Republicans don’t have to?

  161. 161.

    WaterGirl

    @satby:  I know you’re on your Kindle, but I don’t know what model, what OS and what browser you are using.  Or maybe there’s only one browser option on a Kindle?

    If you can take a minute and tell me those things, I can see if there’s someone else on BJ who has the same setup – so I can find out if they are having the same issue.

  163. 163.

    Steeplejack

    @Ken:

    I’m amazed that in this day and age so many actors still can’t do plausible fake typing on a keyboard. It’s painful to see them just mashing random keys, left hand, right hand, left hand. They should at least have a stock phrase, like “the quick brown fox” or something, that they can deploy to make it look like, yes, they’re really doing that complex data search that will bring up the original architect’s detailed plans for the Russian embassy in 15 seconds.

  165. 165.

    randy khan

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    Corning has one of the great experts on early glass making, a guy named William Gudenrath.  He periodically (not this year, obviously) goes to Europe for workshops on early glass, and I think there are a couple of videos showing the processes as done before modern furnaces, etc.  (I know I’ve seen one of them.)  I’d check out the Corning Museum of Glass YouTube channel, or you probably can search YouTube for his name.

    For other research you might want to do, Corning has digitized pretty much its whole collection, and I think you can search by time period so you can see the kind of work being made in the period that interests you.  If memory serves me correctly, it’s a lot of beakers with little nubs on them called prunts to make them easier to grip with greasy hands, but there may be other things as well.  And Corning has a fantastic library, which might also be a resource you can use.

    My wife and I are glass collectors, and we know Bill.  He’s a great guy and, in addition to being a scholar, he’s fantastically skilled at making  Venetian-style glass works.  (Really, the two go together in his case.)

    I don’t know where you live, but you can see high-quality glass demonstrations in all sorts of places around the country.  If you tell me what state you’re in, I’ll be happy to tell you if I know of anything near you.

  166. 166.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @satby: Well, if you don’t troubleshoot it, it will keep happening and eventually people will say “Has anyone heard from Satby?  Remember her?  She used to comment here.”  Plus, it is kind of mean to WaterGirl, who seems to live to fix things around here, to tell her there is a problem that is driving you away but you won’t help her fix it.

  167. 167.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Winston:

    Thank you! I love Margaret and Helen and it has been awhile since I have been over there.  Some days they and Wonkette and this place are the only things keeping me sane I think.

  168. 168.

    AWOL

    @Elizabelle: His son, Adam Cohen, will probably sue, I imagine.

    Jeff Buckley was an idiot. He pimped that as a religious song; it’s a clever song about long-gone rhythms of sexual ecstasy. Connection and disconnection.

    Plus, Cohen was a Buddhist.

  169. 169.

    A Ghost to Most

    @kindness: He’s lost the vote. That hardly means he won’t find a way, any way, to remain in power. The hard work begins the day after the election.

  170. 170.

    Woodrow/asim

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: my chief resources come from the Society for Creative Anachronism. They’re the people that run most of the Renaissance or Medieval Fairs.

    Hey — actual Scadian here, started in the 90’s now inactive (for those aware of SCA structures, I have a Laurel, one of the high-end awards. I also ran, among things, Pennsic University, organizing 1000+ classes on a campsite in PA). Also worked at a Renn Faire as a belly dancer for quite a few years, so I know that world pretty well, too.

    Just so you’re clear — the SCA doesn’t run Renn Faires. The SCA is a non-profit with its own complex structure and organization that’s not part of the constellation of mostly for-profit companies that run Renn faires.

    I’ve loved both spaces, but they are remarkably different in some key ways! It does neither space justice (or injustice, there are reasons I no longer do SCA or Renn Faires!) to conflate the two. :)

  171. 171.

    Steeplejack

    @Jeffro:

    George Will is increasingly irrelevant. And/or he definitely needs to get some new material. The “Sister Souljah moment” was 28 years ago!

  175. 175.

    Ruckus

    FTFNYT is a conservative paper. Owned by, run by conservative money humpers. To expect anything different from the editorial staff that is never going to be anything different is not reality. We think because NYC is rather liberal, the paper should reflect that, but that is an unrealistic ideal on our part. The Washington Post changed because it was bought by someone who is far more liberal than the owners of the FTFNYT. Until someone like minded buys it, it will not change.

  176. 176.

    Woodrow/asim

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: There was at least one book where the SCA were the heroic guardians protecting the world. Worlds, plural. I think it was House Between the Worlds by Marian Zimmer Bradley.

    Bradley was a co-founder of the Society for Creative Anachronism, although she didn’t play much after it started actually being a structured “thing:”

    And frankly? That’s for the best. She’s no-joke a monster. Her Wikipedia article’s section on the abuse she inflicted/assisted in is fairly anodyne as these things go…but still needs a Content Warning for Child Abuse, and is no joke to read.

    It’s some Epstein/Maxwell – level fuckery.

  177. 177.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Amir Khalid: I will say this about Rowling – at least she acknowledges that it would be hypocritical to hold the views she does and retain the award.

  178. 178.

    Bruce K

    @rikyrah: Applications for my folks and brother are already in the mail. I called and confirmed that I’m still on the absentee ballot list. Also I confirmed that the ballots themselves can be sent to New York County Board of Elections via courier service.

    We’ve got a plan. Action begins as soon as the ballots become available.

  180. 180.

    MattF

    @Jeffro: Yeah, George Fucking Will can’t help it. It happens a lot— some RW commentatorian writes something that’s sorta reasonable, and then adds something stupid, just because.

  182. 182.

    Kay

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I don’t follow sports, but it’s wild to watch professional sports have this serious, heartfelt debate about civil rights while over there the executive branch of the US government behaves like a bunch of ridiculous clowns.

    The NBA is run better than the United States. They’re actually dealing with things over there. Facing issues, putting process in place to protect their players, you know, governing.

  183. 183.

    mrmoshpotato

    @prostratedragon:

    He got Anderson Cooper to drink water for him by proxy. 

    Hahaha.  I watched Dale, that Canadian-born American treasure, refute 3 lies, and that was enough for me.

  184. 184.

    geg6

    @OzarkHillbilly: 

    My staff assistant has an image of my signature that she copies and pastes to scholarship letters and the like. Like almost every day. So, talking about wet signatures isn’t in the least strange to me. When students have to verify certain things for their financial aid, federal regulations use the phrase to make sure that those certain verification items have a wet signature, meaning it can’t be imaged and sent via email or faxed. It must be mailed with the wet signature.

  185. 185.

    Kelly

    Music: Hall and Oates “You’re a rich girl and you’re going too far cause you know it doesn’t matter anyway” has replaced Steely Dan “I can’t get to you thru the US mail” as my current earworm.

    Assholes: I’m worried and exhausted by the durability of Trump’s 40% or so support. The size and persistence of the Asshole Coalition has been a surprise to me since Election Day 2016. We’ll be dealing with them for the rest of our lives. I thought the election of Obama meant the good folks had won for all time.

    Respite: Heading out for a mild and scenic Class 2 whitewater kayak trip today. Forecast is blue sky and a high of 86.

    Voting Plan: I’m an Oregonian

  188. 188.

    Jeffro

    @Steeplejack: Oh I know that.  =)

    And I wholeheartedly second Kay’s notes above – it’s the background to everything that’s wrong in our politics.  There are two sets of standards: one for Democrats, and one (ie, none) for Republicans.

  189. 189.

    realbtl

    Re: Hallelujah.  Band I was in did this song until the highly religious singer wanted to bring in new Jesus-y lyrics.  I said fine, I’ll just leave the stage for it.  It pissed me off as the tension between the sacred and profane give the song its power.

  190. 190.

    StringOnAStick

    Crap; I’ve been working on Hallelujah as part of my song list because it really suits my range and I’ve got a thing for minor key songs.  I had been thinking before last night that maybe it’s become a cliche but now I’m afraid that performing it will make people think I’m a Trumpie.  Maybe I’ll just put it on the backburner for a couple more years, or until the Cohen estate sues the shit out of the TRump campaign.

  191. 191.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Steeplejack: He’s made this demand in every election. Every election, Democrats needs to attack their base and disavow them.

    Weird how this doesn’t get applied to Republicans. Just odd. And this is with Republicans literally defending a teenager who broke several laws to even arrive armed at a protest where he proceeded to shoot three liberals.

  193. 193.

    Kelly

     

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Hoover got about 40% of the vote in 1932.

    True. My view of history since the founding of our Republic has changed in the last several years. We’ve always had assholes to bedevil us. Like weeding a garden we’ll always have to contend with them.

  194. 194.

    PST

    @dnfree: Yeah, Illinois has good voting laws, but you really have to make you choice of mail-in vs. early in-person. I would be fearful of some mix-up (or at least slowing things down) if I requested a mail-in ballot and then decided to show up. So I’m voting early, which has always been a breeze. If there’s a line, I’ll just keep going back till there isn’t. Retirement has its privileges.

  197. 197.

    Jeffro

    Jamelle Bouie did a great job connecting the dots in today’s NYT: Kenosha tells us more about where the Right is going than the RNC did.

    Rittenhouse was a fan of the president — he took a front-row seat at a January rally in Des Moines — but that connection is less important than the atmosphere created by Trump’s words. A president who speaks of shooting people in the street — who elevates those who threaten to shoot people in the street — cannot be separated from the individual who does, eventually, shoot people in the street.

    Truth.

  199. 199.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Thread is dead, but in light of all the comments about last night’s post-speech music selections, I must share this brilliant insight from Doktor Zoom over at the Wonkette place:

    some of the weirdest musical choices we’ve ever seen, like following “You’re a Grand Old Flag” with “Hallelujah,” the first time a political convention has pulled off a Cohan/Cohen medley.

    Priceless.

  201. 201.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Woodrow/asim: Well… damn. I have quite a collection of Darkover books in my treasured sci-fi library.

    I had some vague awareness of people saying that they didn’t like her, but thought it had something to do with writer-to-writer interactions. No idea there was anything as extensive and as horrible as this.

    It looks like those allegations came out in 2014. Frankly I haven’t even heard her name for what has to be 15-20 years.

    She’s going to have to join wingnuts Scott Adams, Orson Scott Card, and Larry Niven of “problematic people whose work I still have fond memories of”. Along with Bill Cosby. Still have fond memories of seeing him in a live show.

  202. 202.

    Kay

    John Roberts
    @johnrobertsFox
    · 2h
    When I say this could become a model for future incumbents, I’m talking about both parties. You can’t beat the backdrop – and the Washington Monument fireworks blew away any balloon drop I have ever seen. Incumbency is a powerful bully pulpit. The genie is out of the bottle.

    Oh, God. I’ll draw the line for myself. I will object if Joe Biden or any other Democrat steals public money and uses it for the political campaign. I don’t care if these people are celebrating the new lower standards as evidence of super-savvy bidness innovation- I want the higher standards back. No stealing.

  203. 203.

    Winston

    I want to go back to a comment I made yesterday about the 1968 election. Humphrey was like Trump, today. Responsible for the the previous 4 years as LBJ’s VP. He was more toxic to the antiwar faction than Nixon. However, Nixon wasn’t promising an end to the war. The fact that the Democrats gassed me in Chicago and then eschewed the candidates I supported in McCarthy and McGovern who were saying “We’ll bring them home in ships” and Nixon who was saying “Peace with honor”, meaning it wasn’t over by a long shot, left me but one option. I was 20 years old during the convention, turning 21 a week later and registered to vote during my lunch hour on my birthday before heading to the bar. There was only one candidate at that time who was promising to end the war and it was George Wallace. He was the best of three evils in my view, so when the time came to cast the first vote in my life I had to vote for that sick son of a bitch. It took me a long time before the cynicism wore off. I never voted for Bill Clinton, but did vote for Gore. After that fiasco, I vowed never to vote Republican again, but if Democrats gas me again for wanting a democrat candidate, I don’t fucking know.

  204. 204.

    catclub

    my suggested bumper sticker:  No Football? Blame trump

    No travel? Blame Trump

    No bars? Blame Trump

  205. 205.

    J R in WV

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    August 28, 2020 at 8:36 am

    @WereBear: So how does one photocopy a signature onto a ballot? Has anyone ever actually done such a thing? That is a really strange phrase meaning simply, “sign this.”

    You use your hardware to print out the e-ballot, mark it, sign it, scan it into a PDF, and email that document in. I renewed the registration for the Mazda that way earlier this summer, since the DMV offices were all closed.

    I presume you could do that for ballots, IF it was legal to do so. PDFs can be created which are not modifiable, so it would be impossible for some one other than the creator to have signed the PDF e-document. A Canon 3-in-one printer can print, scan and fax documents, for something like $99. In color, also, too.

  206. 206.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Haha. The first Dem that tries it will be designated by the media as “no better than Trump.” They won’t be gushing about how much better it is than the Balloon Drop.

  208. 208.

    Chyron HR

    @WereBear:

    I wonder if there’ll be an uptick in cases a few weeks after this convention.

    By all the laws of epidemiology, I don’t see how it cannot.

    Just shoot the audience after the speech is over.  They’ve served their purpose.

  209. 209.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Kay:

    Oh, God. I’ll draw the line for myself. I will object if Joe Biden or any other Democrat steals public money and uses it for the political campaign. I don’t care if these people are celebrating the new lower standards as evidence of super-savvy bidness innovation- I want the higher standards back. No stealing. 

    Throw in an uppercut to John Roberts’ balls as a treat to yourself.  It’ll make you feel better.

  210. 210.

    Chyron HR

    @Winston:

    I vowed never to vote Republican again, but if Democrats gas me again for wanting a democrat candidate, I don’t fucking know.

    The Great Burning One would spit if you called him “a democrat candidate”, you fucking know.

  211. 211.

    Baud

    @Winston:

    if Democrats gas me again for wanting a democrat candidate, I don’t fucking know.

    You’re safe.  These days, we only gas people for wanting committed independents who run in the Democratic primary.

  213. 213.

    Winston

    -So going to Chicago during the 1968 Democratic convention. I had a wife and a 2 year old son and we had a cabin on a lake in Northern Indiana 90 miles from Chicago. My brother had just got back from the war and was radical anti war. All my single friends used our place to drink beer and smoke dope and take drugs and were also anti war and we hung out and watched the convention thru the police riot on Wednesday night. Everyone agreed we needed to be there the next night to support our brothers. Well, I had to work, but they picked me after I got off and we headed out to Chicago, found a parking spot in south Grant Park and started walking up Michigan Ave to the area of the melee. It was still daylight and when we got to the fringes we could smell the gas and all hell was breaking loose. A canister of C4 landed about 15 feet from where we were and Weldy rushed over and picked it up and threw it back at the cops. We started running back to the car, not looking back. Weldy had burns on his fingers from picking up the CS4 bomb. We got in the car and hightailed it home. True story.

  215. 215.

    Sloane Ranger

    Has anyone already mentioned that apparently 4 people tested positive for COVID-19 at Monday’s opening of the Republican Convention?

    What’s the betting for last night’s rally?

  222. 222.

    Another Scott

    @Winston: That comment is not even wrong.  It’s an example of a category error.

    Humphrey didn’t set Johnson’s Vietnam policy.

    Democrats didn’t gas you, Daley’s police did.

    Etc.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  226. 226.

    germy

    @Another Scott:

    Daley was a Democrat.

    But voting for Wallace as the “lesser of three evils” is sort of textbook white privilege.

    “We sat around all day taking drugs”  but oddly enough the police never kicked down the door.  They were too busy locking up people of color for marijuana possession.

  229. 229.

    Citizen Alan

    @germy: Supposedly, Gohmert’s made a full recovery, whatever that means for a man in his age cohort. Which lends further proof to my theory that evil ignorance apparently confers immunity to Covid-19.

  231. 231.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Winston:

    but if Democrats gas me again for wanting a democrat candidate, I don’t fucking know.

    what? as in: what the fuck is this now?

  232. 232.

    J R in WV

    @WereBear:

    @Woodrow/asim: That and her husband are Peak #MeToo in the science fiction world.

    I hope.

    Nope. M Z B died in September, 1999, and much later her daughter accused her of sexual assault, check out the Wiki biography Wodrow linked to just above your comment. No Me Too for ms Bradley, died before that ever started, not qualified as an abuser anyway.

    Really sad as wife loved her work. Me too, actually, tho not as fond of it as wife was.

  233. 233.

    piratedan

    @Kay: because in their minds Kay, their property is worth more than your life… and if you’re harshing their buzz over what they consider to be their property, be it a street or a public building… well, you takes your chances.

  234. 234.

    Feathers

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: I went to a writing workshop run by the MWA some years ago. Someone asked a question about keeping track of research and world building, with the example of the street number ranges for their fictitious town. One of the panelist (I don’t remember who) leaned into her mic and said: “At a certain point you have to decide if you are a writer or a scrapbooker.” There was a gasp from the audience, and not a few laughs and claps. I laughed. Tell myself that a lot when I find myself overpreparing and not doing.

    Have you read Nicola Griffith’s Hild? It’s a wonderful book set in Anglo-Saxon Britain. One of the things that I really liked about it is the way that it really delved into the women’s clothmaking, the details of the work, it’s economic importance, as well as the social nature of how the women worked together and the pleasure they took in the excellence of their cloth. I’d really look to it for how to weave (sorry) an enormous amount of historical detail into a book and make it enjoyable for the reader.

  235. 235.

    Another Scott

    In other news, Abe is resigning as Japan’s PM because of poor health.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-politics-abe/ailing-abe-quits-as-japan-pm-as-covid-19-slams-economy-key-goals-unmet-idUSKBN25O00F

    He actually tried to get Japan’s economy moving and showed that even spending a lot more money than some said was wise wasn’t enough. Disinflation is a real and insidious thing.

    He also fanned Japanese nationalism and needlessly antagonized Japan’s neighbors. That’s playing with fire.

    It will be interesting to see who follows him, and what their policies going forward will be…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  237. 237.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    I just kept thinking, “why?” This was long before cosplay became so popular other than SCA and Civil War reenactors.

    One point when I was doing Civil War reenactoring we were marching back to camp and started singing “John Brown’s Body” and that is a vastly different song, much more darker and viscous, when sung by a bunch of tired armed men than say when the Mormon Tabernacle does “Battle Hymn of the Republic” That’s why do reenacting. The past has been Disneyfied and reenacting tears threw that.

    Also, I could see this militia nonsense coming back then, the idiots who joined the “western” Confederate units clearly wanted to re-fight the war, when they  weren’t getting drunk and injuring themselves with black powder weapons. Color me totally un-surprised one of these dumb asses was ruining with a loaded rifle, dropped it and killed two people.

  239. 239.

    germy

    @Citizen Alan:

    So now we get to hear Gohmert say “I had it and it’s no big deal!  No worse than a bad cold!  Open up, throw away those masks, and no more money for you!”

  241. 241.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Sloane Ranger: Right. IIRC, there weren’t that many people there for the RNC. Maybe a few hundred, and they were all screened ahead of time with tests and temp checks, etc. And they still got at least 4 positive cases from it.

    Last night’s hate rally was 1500 people in very close quarters without masks and yelling and screaming loudly. Definitely will get a lot of people sick.

  243. 243.

    J R in WV

    @Winston:

    Humphrey was like Trump, today. Responsible for the the previous 4 years as LBJ’s VP.

    Just NOPE to this whole sentence! As if Pence is in charge of Trump’s executive orders? Not so. And just as Pence is not Trump. HHH was NOT LBJ at all.

    I didn’t vote for Humphrey, as I was only 18 at the time… I did watch the DNC police riot. While Daley was technically a Democrat, he was at least as right wing as Wallace, although prone to use dog whistles rather than shout “Segregation, today, Segregation Tomorrow,  Segregation Forever“! on camera!

    This was back when racists were in both parties, before the Rs separated out from the left wing race mixing Democrats.

    But Humphrey was never LBJ, and did believe in getting out of Vietnam ASAP. So far as we can know, given that he never had a chance to do so in reality….

    ETA to add more bold to Wallace’s chant.

  246. 246.

    Winston

    @J R in WV: Maybe so, but Humphrey was LBJ in the eyes of the anti war left at the time. I’m not saying that was right, and I have regretted my vote ever since. But Humphrey had no plan to end the war. Not even “bring them home in ships”

  247. 247.

    Feathers

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: She did some really great interviews about it as well. Talked about how modern stories where girls just say “sewing is stupid, I’m not doing stupid girl stuff” and stomp off to have adventures, is completely ahistorical. That sewing produced the clothes that everyone wore. There were no machines. Everything the community had was produced by human hands. A girl who was “too good” for working would have been rightly condemned.

    ENOLA HOLMES appears to fall into this trope. The trailer has her declaiming loudly that she doesn’t embroider. It is treated as a joke, and is mostly about how the men don’t notice her other skills. Looking forward to it.

  250. 250.

    Feathers

    @Woodrow/asim: I’m old enough that I grew up thinking all artists were terrible people in their private lives. The nice ones were the exceptions. Some of it may have been reading lots of biographies and history. I had been raised with feminist ideals, but what I was reading saw the artists as heroes. I saw horrible.

    But Bradley, yeah, that’s bad, bad, bad. Cornelia Read came from a very old, very wealthy family, but in the generation where the money ran out. She wrote some mysteries about an amateur detective in a similar situation. She also wrote about the horrors of parents finding themselves and reveling in the newness of the sexual revolution, and the devastating consequences of not protecting their children.

  252. 252.

    Winston

    Yes it was lily white in my county. But by the end of 1969 all my white friends were in jail for drug charges.No black people in the county to harass. Did you know there are counties like that?

  253. 253.

    catclub

    @Annie: I thought one of those ‘escape from the Mt Baker volcano’ movies was just an advertisement to tell you the only safe place is in your Jeep Cherokee, or whatever.

     

    deconstructing law and police procedurals

  255. 255.

    Another Scott

    @Winston: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Humphrey_1968_presidential_campaign#General_election

    On September 30, hoping to separate himself from the policies of the Johnson administration at the advice of O’Brien who noted that he needed the anti-war vote to win in New York and California,[80] Humphrey delivered a televised speech in Salt Lake City to a nationwide audience, and announced that if he was elected, he would put an end to the bombing of North Vietnam, and called for a ceasefire.[81] He labeled the new policy “as an acceptable risk for peace.”[82] The plan was compared to Nixon’s, which the candidate stated would not be revealed until Inauguration Day.[83] After the speech, anti-war protesters stopped shadowing Humphrey’s appearances, and a few McCarthy supporters joined the campaign. Donations totaling $300,000 were immediately made to Humphrey,[84] and he also improved in the polls, cutting Nixon’s lead to single digits by mid-October.[78][85][86]

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  256. 256.

    catclub

    Voter advocates are encouraging that option, because the witness, ID and notary requirements can be fulfilled on the spot by the election workers on staff at the office. Alabama

     

    Voting by mail instates that do not encourage voting. Alabama here. Mississippi is similar.

  257. 257.

    Hoppie

    @mad citizen: I’m in for the Truth and Retribution approach.  But here in the Peoples Republic of California we will be the fifth largest economy in the world, and oh so much better off when we stop subsidizing the asshats.  They can shove it.

  259. 259.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @J R in WV: One of the classic vocal impersonators – I think it was David Frye – was asked on a talk show during the ’68 campaign if, as George Wallace claimed, there “wasn’t a dime’s worth of difference” between the major candidates. He replied,

    There’s plenty of difference. Just take Vietnam:

    Humphrey says, It’s a dirty little war, but we’ve got to fight it.

    Nixon says, It’s a dirty little war, but we’ve got to fight it, and we should be proud to fight it.

    And Wallace says, It’s a dirty little war, but we ought to get down on our knees and give thanks, ‘cuz it’s the only war we got!

    (Paraphrased from memory, 52 years on)

  265. 265.

    Another Scott

    @Winston: I was a 6 year old kid living in the Atlanta suburbs at the time.  ;-)  At least one former colleague was there.  He said it was a scary time.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  271. 271.

    2liberal

    @dnfree:And signature matching is more art than science. If you live in the same place for a long time, you probably registered years or even decades ago, and it’s entirely possible your signature doesn’t look the same. Maybe you’ve developed arthritis. Apparently some states have a procedure to notify you of a rejection and let you go to an office somewhere to verify it’s you, but other states just toss the ballot. I’m actually suspicious to some degree of this push to vote by mail in states that aren’t used to handling it in volume and may have outdated procedures.

     

    I just emailed the county recorder in Maricopa county , Arizona asking if I could have my signature on the envelope notarized and the response was they are very good with this (most of Arizona early votes by mail) and also I can put my phone number on the ballot to be contacted if need be.

  272. 272.

    SFAW

    @MomSense:

    Oh cool.  I’m in Portland today, so not far from Bayley’s.

    Clearwater is pretty close to Belgrade. I drove through a couple weeks ago when we went to visit friends upta camp.  A real camp not a Rockefeller cottage kind.

    Went to Belgrade, decided against the area: we decided it’s too far from where we want to be. That is, assuming we don’t win PowerBall and can by a lakefront cottage in addition to our “real” home. Didn’t get a chance to go up to Clearwater, but thanks for the suggestion a few weeks ago.

    Ended up going to the Clambake (also in Pine Point) for dinner. [Yeah, I know ..] It was OK, nothing special, as we expected. [I’ve been going there(off-and-on)  since they were a 20-foot-wide takeout place, 50-some years ago. When they started, Ken’s Place was the big dog, and The Grove (which is now Bayley’s clam shack or whatever) had pretty good fried clams. ]

     

    Anyway, according to the trip odometer, we drove 400-plus miles today. My age is catching up with me; I used to be able to do that and still be ready to roll.

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