Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

When I was faster i was always behind.

Fight them, without becoming them!

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

No Kings: Americans standing in the way of bad history saying “Oh, Fuck No!”

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

When we show up, we win.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

The unpunished coup was a training exercise.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2020 / Sunday Evening Open Thread: Bounce the Squatter-in-Chief

Sunday Evening Open Thread: Bounce the Squatter-in-Chief

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  2. 2.

    Splitting Image

    Comparing 2020 to 2016, it looks as though Trump has exactly the same amount of support he had four years ago, but Biden has locked up 20% more support than Clinton had at this point in the campaign.

    This is obviously great news for Donald Trump because I’m starting a new job as an MSNBC host which will have me offering commentary on my weekly New York Times column.

  3. 3.

    Martin

    Ah, yes, the 2008 starburst bounce, which ended right after the first Couric interview, IIRC.

  5. 5.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    Had a Trump supporter with a “Keep America Great” face mask come through my line today at work (saw more Trump swag than usual, actually). Was talking with another man about being tired about “politics”. Then she started talking about the “terrorist” Trump killed and how a friend of hers who lives in Croatia that supposedly knew the Iranian general Trump murdered, said he was a horrible man and it was a good thing he was dead; that the reaction in Croatia to the news was totally different from the one in the US. I corrected her, saying he was an Iranian general that Trump killed. Still insisted that it was justified because he was “bad”.

    Didn’t get the chance to continue and say that I’m sure he was, but that’s neither here nor there because I let it drop. You can’t just murder a prominent military officer of a sovereign state you’re not at war with. It’s a violation of international law

  6. 6.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    There’s a post over at Kos that has a video that shows the murderer Kyle Rittenhouse repeatedly punching a young lady from behind. The people who were shooting the video got out of their car and confronted the little punk ass murderer and knocked his ass on the ground for attacking her. This allegedly happened in July so it’s a recent attack.

    Now the Republicans who are defending the murdering punk can also defend him for repeatedly blindsiding a young lady.

    I can see why he wanted to get in to law enforcement.

  9. 9.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    Lots of videos keep coming out about this POS. Kind of undermines the whole “self-defense” defense, doesn’t it? He was unstable and went to Kenosha looking for a fight

    Has anything come out about his parents/guardians? Where the hell were they leading up to this?

  15. 15.

    Sebastian

    I’ve spent the last few days in a funk like probably most of us. The level of bullshit is just overwhelming, the silence around USPS is demoralizing, it almost feels like they are going to get away with it.

    I also keep thinking about something Adam asked several times on this blog when the topic of resistance came up: what are you going to do? The answer to that is of course a sobering “nothing” because we will not pick up arms and start revolts.

    But then it hit me. “Nothing” is exactly what we will do. I believe with every ounce of my being that we’ve all HAD IT UP TO HERE WITH THIS BULLSHIT. The gerrymandering, the vote suppression, the SCOTUS, FOX, … fucking everything. Government requires the consent of the governed and that just no longer exists. Yes, one can force me under threat of violence not to do something but nobody can force me and millions of others to work and consume and live as if nothing has happened. The NBA strike showed how simple and powerful it is and with every day I am more convinced that the country will shutdown so completely and entirely that the whole system will come crushing down.

  16. 16.

    Ohio Mom

    Goku: How is the search for a nursing job going? It’s good that you have the supermarket job to tide you over.

    Ohio Dad is looking for a new job. The roller coaster aspect of the job search is hard.

  17. 17.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Baud:

    Do you think when Trump sees stuff like this, he climbs the walls in a freak out? Or does he delude himself and dismiss it?

  18. 18.

    Matt McIrvin

    That 2008 bump is why I always think it’s hilarious when people claim that Obama caused the economic crash because the markets were responding in advance to his inevitable, predicted win. That was the one period in the entire general-election campaign when McCain was ahead!

  19. 19.

    Luciamia

    All the right wing defense of Rittenhouse. It’s like they’re saying Murder is fine if your intentions are good.

  21. 21.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Luciamia:

    All the right wing defense of Rittenhouse. It’s like they’re saying Murder is fine if your intentions are good.

    To me, it’s more like “murder is fine as long the right people are murdered”. They will almost never say that, but instead try to use the “it was self-defense against a mob!!!” to hide their depravity

  23. 23.

    cain

    @Splitting Image: This is obviously great news for Donald Trump because I’m starting a new job as an MSNBC host which will have me offering commentary on my weekly New York Times column.

    it’s good that some of us Balloon-Juicers are working their way into media jobs at places like MSNBC. :-) I look forward to your commentary.

  24. 24.

    Matt McIrvin

    I understand that in reality the electoral college exists and that’s life, but winning it while not winning the popular vote means you don’t get the moral and intellectual superiority partisans crave.

    Unless you’ve spent decades carefully building up the ideas that “voting is a privilege, maybe it should be restricted to landowners like the old days” and “this is a republic, not a democracy” and rule by an anointed minority is actually what you’ve convinced yourself is desirable.

  25. 25.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Ohio Mom:

    Goku: How is the search for a nursing job going? It’s good that you have the supermarket job to tide you over.

    Waiting until after I pass the NCLEX. I could technically get one now, but it would be kind of embarrassing if I failed it and had to tell my employer….

  26. 26.

    cain

    I’m staying the hell away from downtown Portland this evening – (not that I go there often, being 15 miles away) – I expect roving bands of Proud Boys and others looking to rough people up and possibly even have a death as payback.

    That asshole apparently was menacing some couple with a knife and bear spray and someone intervened and shot him. Perhaps we should remind people that Oregon is an open carry state and that yes, we can use the #2A option when necessary especially in defense of someone.

    Whether the man is a BLM protester or not – it doesn’t matter from a law perspective.

    Regardless – these people have no honor, and will go out to rabble rouse and continue to terrorize this city. There is nothing positive or aspirational about these assholes.

    A lot of folks were very happy with Ted Wheeler dragging Trump. But most of us here still think he’s a major asshole for not dealing with PPB – who incidentally have largely allowed Trump supporters to do whatever the fuck they want. Ted needs bring the PPB and the community together and work to get rid of some of the privs that the police enjoy.

  28. 28.

    Matt McIrvin

    The R convention doesn’t seem to have made Trump significantly more popular, but it did a great job of convincing people who are already Trump fans that they’re on an express train to landslide city, and demoralizing us by being deeply horrible. That’s part of the job of a convention, I suppose.

    I was expecting both conventions in this weird year to be essentially a no-op in terms of actually moving votes, and as far as I can tell they sort of were. Biden’s lead might have widened a little; hard to tell and it probably won’t last. Trump’s convention might have given a bunch of Republicans COVID-19, too early to tell.

  29. 29.

    Ohio Mom

    Watergirl: You have a good memory!

    After the first business trip, which consisted of ten 12-hour days in a row, Ohio Dad decided that job was for a much younger person. He left on very good terms — they appreciated that he’d given it his all.

    The entire experience was one that will make a good story, sometime in the very far future.

  30. 30.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Unless you’ve spent decades carefully building up the ideas that “voting is a privilege, maybe it should be restricted to landowners like the old days” and “this is a republic, not a democracy” and rule by an anointed minority is actually what you’ve convinced yourself is desirable.

    You shoot that shit down by asking this hypothetical person why they hate America so much. Also too, in response to that “this is a republic, not a democracy” you say “Actually, this is a representative democracy”.

  31. 31.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    What they’re saying is that they’re planning to murder us.

    More like, they are planning to live vicariously through the terrorists who are willing to throw away their lives to murder us.

  32. 32.

    Ohio Mom

    Goku: Happy studying for that test and good luck with it. Does your school provide any help, like a review class?

    Keep us posted.

  34. 34.

    WaterGirl

    @Ohio Mom: Holy cow, ten 12-hour days in a row, that’s too much.  Good for Mr. Mom (ha!) for being willing to admit it wasn’t a good fit.

    OT, have you ever seen any of the times I have sent you email or responded in a comment after you say you can’t reply to people on your phone?

  35. 35.

    NotMax

    @Matt McIrvin

    Nitpick. Not strictly landowners only. Until after the Civil War, voter eligibility was the purview of the individual states. In most, but not all, cases ownership of a determined value of personal property (usually £40) sufficed in lieu of land ownership.

    Still limited eligibility to somewhere between 6% and 10% of the population.

  37. 37.

    Baud

    @NotMax:

    In most, but not all, cases ownership of a determined value of personal property (usually £40) sufficed in lieu of land ownership

    Commies.

  39. 39.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin: Has any convention ever led to a sustained bump in the polling or had an effect on the outcome of an election?  I think the debates might have, but I’m not sure about conventions.

  40. 40.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Ohio Mom: The kid’s school didn’t help with review, Madame paid for her review course.  The kid said the test wasn’t too hard.

    I had dinner with Madame and the kid last night(birthday dinner*), the first time I’ve dined at a restaurant.  They had tables and burners out in their parking lot.  Korean BBQ, yum.

    *Madame’s was yesterday and the kid’s is Thursday.

  44. 44.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: seems to me the most consequential convention in my memory is the GOP in ’92, and not in a good way for them. The Two Pats, Molly Ivins “It sounded better in the original German”, Barbara Bush trying pull them back with “however you define family, that’s what we mean by family values”. I’m trying to remember anything else about it. I remember being struck by how angry Marilyn Quayle seemed, in no small part because of the difference with her husband, who even when trying to perform righteous anger seemed like he was trying on his dad’s suit, and wondering if people could see how it didn’t quite fit. Marilyn’s anger was real, and all her own.

  45. 45.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Wasn’t Hoover well-respected? He had been Secretary of Commerce before and was highly sought during/after WW2, for his financial/humanitarian expertise, wasn’t he?

    During a 1938 trip to Europe, Hoover met with Adolf Hitler and stayed at Hermann Göring’s hunting lodge. He expressed dismay at the persecution of Jews in Germany and believed that Hitler was mad, but did not present a threat to the U.S. Instead, Hoover believed that Roosevelt posed the biggest threat to peace, holding that Roosevelt’s policies provoked Japan and discouraged France and the United Kingdom from reaching an “accommodation” with Germany. After the September 1939 invasion of Poland by Germany, Hoover opposed U.S. involvement in World War II, including the Lend-Lease policy. He rejected Roosevelt’s offers to help coordinate relief in Europe, but, with the help of old friends from the CRB, helped establish the Commission for Polish Relief. After the beginning of the occupation of Belgium in 1940, Hoover provided aid for Belgian civilians, though this aid was described as unnecessary by German broadcasts.

    During a radio broadcast on June 29, 1941, one week after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, Hoover disparaged any “tacit alliance” between the U.S. and the USSR, stating, “if we join the war and Stalin wins, we have aided him to impose more communism on Europe and the world… War alongside Stalin to impose freedom is more than a travesty. It is a tragedy.” Much to his own frustration, Hoover was not called upon to serve after the United States entered World War II due to his differences with Roosevelt and his continuing unpopularity. He did not pursue the presidential nomination at the 1944 Republican National Convention, and, at the request of Republican nominee Thomas E. Dewey, refrained from campaigning during the general election.

    Glad he wasn’t reelected. He probably wouldn’t have run for a 3rd or 4th term, but this idiot was in favor of appeasement to the Nazis

  51. 51.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Appeasement was a popular policy.  Those who did not want appeasement were frequently  seen as warmongers.  Also, in the US, isolationism was, and is, relatively popular on both the right and left.

  54. 54.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: Conventional wisdom is that the mass chaos at the ’68 Democratic convention helped sink Humphrey, but that’s really the only case I can think of. The bumps are often real but they usually wear off after a couple of weeks on the outside, even when they’re big.

  55. 55.

    Kay

    Dave Wasserman
    @Redistrict
    ·6m
    Pinellas Co., FL – one of the biggest bellwether counties in 2020, in my book. Clinton carried #FL13 by 3% in ’16, Biden up 14% in this poll.

    It’s a congressional poll but they also poll the presidential while they’re out there. So we probably have polls of all the bellweather counties because they’re included in congressional polls.

  56. 56.

    Ohio Mom

    BillinGlendaleCA: I’ve been calling this “The summer of eating out in parking lots.” We don’t go out much but when we do, we only go to places that have set up outdoor seating. Also, we go for a late lunch — 2:30 or so — or an early dinner, between 5 and 5:30, and we usually have the parking lot to ourselves. So we feel pretty safe.

    Some restaurants do a better job of decorating the lot than others, but even with lots of planters, it’s still a parking lot. I’m glad for it though, and will miss the blacktop after fall gets going and it’s too cold to eat outside.

    Watergirl, I remember an email from you right after the site was updated, suggesting I use the big X on the text page, which I tried but it didn’t work as well as using the text tab, which is what I do. It works well enough. I remind myself that I don’t have to type in my nym and email anymore, and take pleasure in that.

  60. 60.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Ohio Mom: They had little open air canopies out in the parking lot.  The table extended outside the canopy so they could have a burner for cooking(it’s Korean BBQ so you have to cook at the table).  There were a few empty tables when we got there, but there was a line when we left.

  61. 61.

    Jay

    Reminder that Boston police union president is facing dozens of charges of child rape against multiple victims, including a relative. He hides his face in front of every camerat.co/iPszhYkLFw— cell phone\\self-own♿️ (@g3thaunted) August 30, 2020

  62. 62.

    There go two miscreants

    @Matt McIrvin: demoralizing us by being deeply horrible

    I wasn’t demoralized; I expected it to be deeply horrible. I enjoyed all the ridicule it attracted here and elsewhere online.

  63. 63.

    Ohio Mom

    The post-convention bounce I remember was the one caused by Palin’s debut. It was scary there for a while.

  64. 64.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Omnes Omnibus: @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Granted. I’ve tended to defend Chamberlain (hey, Republicans, did you know he was a conservative?) for his appeasement policies because I’ve felt he knew that not only was intervention unpopular politically, the UK and France needed time to rearm. Appeasement was in a sense about buying time

  66. 66.

    Marcopolo

    As to whether there will be any bouncing around, here’s a tweet from an elections guy who I respect looking at one of the very few polls that have come out since both conventions ended:

    I wouldn’t usually pay much attention to this particular result, but since we’re in a sparse polling environment right now, I’ll echo what a few others have already said: this is just not where Trump wants to be in FL-13 coming out of his conventiont.co/YjWydSIi4Z— Nate Cohn (@Nate_Cohn) August 31, 2020

    In case you do not click through, the House numbers are Charlie Crist (D) 55% – Anna Luna (R) 39% & the Prez numbers are Biden 54% – Trump 40%.  In 2016 Clinton & Crist both won this district by 4%.  As always, take all poll results with a grain of salt. It’s just a snapshot in time and should not affect how much effort we put into electing our folks.

  71. 71.

    Kay

    Well, I’m not going anywhere for Labor Day just like I didn’t go anywhere for the 4th – in fact, the only vacation I’ve had has been to a horrible extremely Trumpy town in Pennsylvania because it’s halfway to NY and my daughter wouldn’t go anywhere else because she was afraid she would 1. get sick, 2. get the baby sick, or (best case!) have to quarantine and miss work for 2 weeks.

    So this is a lot of fun, living in America. You can go to work but you can’t go anywhere else. Seems like a rip off, to me.

  72. 72.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Here’s some good news for people who love hate bad news

    Dave Wasserman @Redistrict
    Pinellas Co., FL – one of the biggest bellwether counties in 2020, in my book. Clinton carried #FL13 by 3% in ’16, Biden up 14% in this poll.

  74. 74.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    I haven’t seen Republicans the media this confident of victory since the fall of 2018.

    The corporate media is dying to unleash their pent up “come-back”, “pivot”, “dems in disarray” articles they have stacked to the ceiling.

  75. 75.

    Jay

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    while the Allies needed time to arm up, the big mistake was  Czechoslovakia, which was a major arms producer.

    40% of the German Tanks involved in the Invasion of Poland were Czech, 30% of the German Tanks involved in the Invasion of France, as well.

    small arms, artillery, aircraft, etc.

  76. 76.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): There’s this famous comic novel, Ilf and Petrov’s The Twelve Chairs, that is set in the early years of the Soviet Union, and something that keeps coming up in the book is that all the characters really, really hate Neville Chamberlain, but it’s for completely different reasons than everyone today hates Neville Chamberlain. It’s weird to see.

  77. 77.

    Patricia Kayden

    Republicans and FOX News have circled the wagons to justify and normalize Rittenhouse’s crew.As my pseudonymous friend notes, some of these guys are immersed in Hitlerism. Years of a negligent GOP and social media exploitation have brought us the summer of 2020: t.co/H5Ys7AwsS6— Michael Edison Hayden (@MichaelEHayden) August 30, 2020

  81. 81.

    Another Scott

    Wanna singlehandedly stop a disinfo catastrophe in October?

    Tell Twitter to eliminate Trending Topics for the whole month.Gaming Trending Topics was Wikileaks’ strategy. It’s how Pizzagate emerged from the fringe.

    And for what? Slightly more engagement?

    Just turn it off. t.co/qIYZHy8aRu

    — Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) August 30, 2020

    Bad actors work to find ways to game The Algorithm. Whodathunkit??

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  85. 85.

    Kay

    DeJoy. Also, he inherited the trucking company:

    His prolific giving to organizations and GOP candidates, including $1.2 million to Trump, has also drawn a spotlight to the transactional appearance of some of his contributions. His wife, Aldona Wos, is a prominent donor as well, and has been nominated by Trump to serve as ambassador to Canada; her nomination is pending.
    The records reviewed by the AP reveal a pattern of DeJoy’s family winning coveted opportunities after making generous contributions.
    In one instance, DeJoy’s son, Andrew, secured a slot on Duke University’s tennis team in 2014 while his parents wrote a series of large checks to the school’s athletic department.
    The team was ranked 14th in the nation by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association and drew a host of top national and international prospects. But Andrew DeJoy was not one of them when he joined as a walk-on freshman months after the season started.

    The whole DeJoy family just rising on merit, I see.

    Very inspiring. If you work hard and hand Duke a bag of cash with 700k in it you too can play on the tennis team.

  86. 86.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    His Mom dressed up in some camo, grabbed her rifle,and the kid and headed off to Kenosha so he could murder a couple of people.

    I haven’t heard a thing about his father but I’m not expecting much better than his mom.

  90. 90.

    Martin

    @Kay: I don’t think it can be overstated the degree to which conservatives believe that the US is in a permanent decline that can only be addressed by removing selective population. That’s what the ‘race war’ is about. It’s not a direct ‘lets murder some black people’, it’s a form of population management and can take almost any form.

    Covid is okay so long as the deaths are larger among the undesirable population than the desirable one. The NRA is about ensuring the desirable population outarms the undesirable one. The soviet union implemented this, China is currently implementing this – the removal of Uyghers to protect social order.

    So we’re doing it now through immigration policies, the tariffs are part of this by not cleansing the people, but by cleaning their labor and therefore their value. Opposition to gay marriage is part of this. Voting rights and gerrymandering are obviously part of this.

    So of course they support this. Through their lens, these policies are increasing their social and economic influence. If you’re a conservative, you’re winning right now.

  94. 94.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Matt McIrvin:

    The chaos was primarily in the streets of Chicago and was caused by the cops who were beating up anyone who looked like an anti-war student. They even pursued them into hotel lobbies. Many delegates inside at the convention were extremely upset since their kids were being attacked by coos on the streets.

    Also wasn’t there a floor fight over the seating of the MS delagation. Fannie Lou Farmer was one of the (shock,horror) blacks who had claims to be seated as part of the delegation.

  95. 95.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Odie Hugh Manatee: That’s what I am asking.  Is there any confirmation that the photo is her?  That she drove him there? Etc.?  I haven’t seen any yet.  At this point, they appear to be rumors.  I am hesitant to spread them.

    ETA:  I am not willing to abandon truth yet.

  96. 96.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Ladyraxterinok:

    The chaos was primarily in the streets of Chicago and was caused by the cops who were beating up anyone who looked like an anti-war student. They even pursued them into hotel lobbies. Many delegates inside at the convention were extremely upset since their kids were being attacked by coos on the streets.

    the policeman isn’t there to create disorder, the policeman is there to preserve disorder

  97. 97.

    Marcopolo

    @WaterGirl:  While some of the violence should be laid at Trump’s feet, the issue that the protestors have with Wheeler is his failure to deal with the Portland police department. It was failure of the civil leadership in Portland to deal with police abuse that initially set off the protests 3 months ago.  Over those three months Wheeler really hasn’t done much to address that core problem.

  98. 98.

    Jinchi

    Melania doesn’t place a high importance on other people’s wants and desires, according to the book. Winston Wolkoff says she has sometimes said over the years: “Pleasing anyone else is not my priority!” The author said she wished she had Melania’s confidence and her ability to put herself first without thinking much of others.

    What a warped perspective. Any normal person would read the first sentence as absolutely trashing Melania, and yet the author describes herself as wishing she could be so selfish!

  99. 99.

    Geminid

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): On the other hand, Czcechoslavakia was militarily a stronger potential ally than Poland, with a sizable arms industry and a defensible border. And as Churchill pointed out in the British parliament, the Soviet Union was willing to help defend the Czheckoslovakian state. When Chamberlin sold out the Czechs, Stalin correctly concluded that the British would not stand up to Hitler, would in fact encourage him to expand eastwards at Russias expense. So Stalin made a deal with Hitler just days before Germany attacked Poland.     The French recognized that it was critical that Czeckoslovakia be supported, but were afraid to do so without Britain. As with the British, at the time the Munich agreement was a relief to the French people. When French Premier Daladier returned to Paris and appeared on a balcony before a  large crowd, they burst into cheers, Daladier turned to a companion and said, “The fools.”     The Deadly Embrace is a riveting book that covers the period from Munich through the Ribbontrop-Molotov pact to the German invasion of Russia. A great read. I’ll put up the authors and publication date in a minute or so in case anyone’s interested.

  100. 100.

    Kay

    @Martin:

    The Democratic postal governor, the one who resigned, said “DeJoy was not a serious candidate for the job”. Everyone knows exactly what that means- not in any way qualified and would never have been chosen in a merit-based process.

    The icing on the cake is the arrogance. It’s not enough that he buys the job. Instead of just squatting in there quietly stealing while the career people do the work, which no one would have noticed with this administration because they’re all insanely corrupt and just the VOLUME of the corruption exhausts and defeats people,  he has to affirmatively destroy the place.

  101. 101.

    Jay

    @WaterGirl:

    PPB has been besties with the Nazis for years.

    PPB is one of the most Nazi Cop forces in the US.

    Wheeler does nothing about it and when the defunding calls started, he gave them a raise.

    Wheeler is “performative”, he yells at Dumph, mealy mouths progressive values, and does nothing with the powers he controls.

    CW – First people on the scene were BLM/ANTIFA medics. They were in the middle of administering first aid and PPB came in and kicked their medical supplies away and forcibly removed them. The police are not medics. The BLM medics have been preparing for gun shot wounds. ? t.co/dVlqavFB0t— FrostBitten (@frostylady131) August 30, 2020

    Portland Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty (@JoAnnPDX) again calls for Mayor @tedwheeler to put her in charge of the city's Police Bureau. She says her staff is working on 30-, 60- & 90-day plans to take over. Wheeler is currently the police commissioner.t.co/0s2APky6CN— Everton Bailey Jr. (@EvertonBailey) August 30, 2020

    Police escorted these people into portland. they shut down roads to get them here— itsmelaceyimfine (@imlaceyimfine) August 30, 2020

  104. 104.

    Jay

    @WaterGirl:

    he’s also the Police Commissioner, who has refused to deal with the Nazi Friendly Rioting every Night PPB for his full term,

    <blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Police escorted these people into portland. they shut down roads to get them here</p>&mdash; itsmelaceyimfine (@imlaceyimfine) <a href=”https://twitter.com/imlaceyimfine/status/1299927582670872579?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>August 30, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

  105. 105.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Ladyraxterinok:

    Robert Kennedy would probably have been the dem nominee, but he was murdered in June just after winning the CA primary (We were living in CA then) And MLK was murdered in Memphis that summer before the convention

  108. 108.

    Jay

    I was one of two medics on scene when the man who died last night was shot. I barely had time to begin an examination before the cops pushed and baton-ed me off of his body. That man was alive when I left and it will haunt me for the rest of my life that they screamed about 1/2— Sierra Boyne (@BoyneSierra) August 30, 2020

  109. 109.

    Geminid

    • @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): On the other hand, Czcechoslavakia was militarily a stronger potential ally than Poland, with a sizable arms industry and a defensible border. And as Churchill pointed out to the British parliament, the Soviet Union was willing to help defend the Czheckoslovakian state. When Chamberlin sold out the Czechs, Stalin correctly concluded that the British would not stand up to Hitler, and would in fact encourage him to expand eastwards at Russias expense. So Stalin made a deal with Hitler just days before Germany attacked Poland.     The French recognized that it was critical that Czeckoslovakia be supported, but were afraid to do so without Britain. As with the British, at the time the Munich agreement was a relief to the French people. When French Premier Daladier returned to Paris and appeared on a balcony before a  large crowd, they burst into cheers. Daladier turned to a companion and said, “The fools.”       The Deadly Embrace is a riveting book that covers the period from Munich through the Ribbontrop-Molotov pact to the German invasion of Russia. A great read. I’ll put up the authors and publication date in a minute or so in case anyone’s interested in a period even scarier than the present mess is. At least so far.
  110. 110.

    catclub

    Trump is getting away with complaining about unrest while he is the president.  He needs to be asked what he will do differently to solve it in a seconds term, and why he is not doing that now.

     

    I think Mccain’s bump was because many people had doubts about electing a young, inexperienced black guy, and Mccain was a ‘responsible’  elder statesmen. Then the markets dropped and McCain had no clue [with patented deer  in headlights stare] , while Obama did.

  114. 114.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: The Deadly Embrace: Hitler, Stalin, and the Nazi-Soviet Pact, 1939-1941. By Anthony Read and David Fisher. Gripping history, with good personal portraits of Hitler and Stalin.

  118. 118.

    Ridnik Chrome

    Based on his job performance, Trump should be losing by twenty points in every poll in every state, and the fact that he’s not is reason enough to worry.

  120. 120.

    Mike G

    I understand that in reality the electoral college exists and that’s life, but winning it while not winning the popular vote means you don’t get the moral and intellectual superiority partisans crave.

    Which never stopped Bush/Cheney or Trump acting like they had complete ideological supremacy or any need for bipartisan restraint.

  121. 121.

    WaterGirl

    Question.

    I set Black Panther to record tonight – for the “no commercial interruptions” version of Black Panther.

    I set it manually since Tivo didn’t show the Black Panther listing for tonight, so I looked just now to make sure it really was Black Panther and not what is showing on the schedule.  I know it’s the right thing because the first words were the name of ruemara’s post the other night.

    But right before it started, they flashed the “this has been edited for content and reformatted for your screen” message.  So does that mean this isn’t the full Black Panther movie?

    I have never seen it, so I don’t want to watch some watered down version.  If someone who has seen it watches the ABC version from tonight, could you let me know if it’s the full Black Panther or if some scenes have been cut?

  122. 122.

    Another Scott

    wonkette.com/in-texas-mj-hegar-hopes-to-flush-big-john-cornyn-out-of-us-senate

    While Texas isn’t among the top GOP-held seats being targeted to flip the Senate, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee’s internal polling found the Hegar/Cornyn race close enough that the DSCC committed over a million dollars to Hegar’s campaign earlier this month.

    On top of that, while Donald Trump has plenty of support in Texas, it’s not the absolute lock it had been for him in 2016; polling has shown Biden very close to Trump, and a Public Policy Polling survey after the Democratic convention showed Biden with a one-point lead over Trump. If there’s a strong enough turnout for Biden in November, Cornyn may be a goner, too.

    […]

    To win, Hegar will need a lot of things to come together: The Biden campaign is spending heavily in Texas, and strong turnout among Hispanic and Black voters would help her considerably. And Cornyn has to decide how to play his relationship with Trump: if he attempts to distance himself from the top of the ticket in an attempt to win over suburban white women, that’s likely to piss off rural Trump supporters, who mostly support Cornyn solely because of the “R” after his name, not out of any particular love for the senator. Remember those tea party boos.

    And yeah, it’s also going to come down to money, too. Cornyn has a huge war chest, but Hegar is one of those underdogs who’s within distance of winning in this insanely unpredictable election year. Send her a few bucks if you can!

    OhPleaseOhPleaseOhPlease…

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  126. 126.

    opiejeanne

    @WaterGirl: Pretty sure that they have removed something, or some things.

    If you have Disney Plus, Black Panther is there with no extra fee and no ads. In full, unedited by people like ABC or the guardians of morality.

  127. 127.

    J R in WV

    @catclub:

    Trump is getting away with complaining about unrest while he is the president. He needs to be asked what he will do differently to solve it in a seconds term, and why he is not doing that now.

    I know what Trump will do to resolve unrest. He will send in fascist troops with armored heavy weapons to execute all the Democrats, Blacks, Immigrants, Native Americans, and liberals they can round up and shoot down.

    He isn’t doing that right now because it won’t help him get re-elected.

  130. 130.

    J R in WV

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    Every photographer thinks they’re fucking Ansel Adams.

    Didn’t Ansel Adams shoot almost exclusively in B&W though? He worked out how to capture all the tones from white to black in his negatives, which was harder than it looks, but I don’t think he ever shot with Kodachrome.

  131. 131.

    J R in WV

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    I don’t think people in today’s world will submit to being rounded up. I know I won’t. They might want to do that, I don’t think it will work out for them like they want it to.

  132. 132.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @J R in WV: That was my point, they love shooting in B/W, cause they think they’re fucking Ansel Adams.  Adams did a lot of stuff out of camera, using filters and doing a lot of stuff in the dark room.  If you just enlarged his negatives, you’d not get a finished Adams print.

  134. 134.

    Ruckus

    @Kristine:

    We have become nothing if not much more partisan over the last 55 yrs. And yes more than half of us have come a bit of the way better as well.

    But.

    Ignorance has led to far more staunchness in conservatism. They have learned to form together tighter in their ignorance and racism, which is really all they have left. And they didn’t start with much more than that then.

  136. 136.

    WaterGirl

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah, my concern is the “edited for content” part.  Without having seen the movie, I have no idea whether there’s anything in there that would get edited out.

    Disney apparently owns ABC now (I think that’s what I read earlier) today) so you’d think they would want to air the whole thing, but who knows

    edit: does Disney now own everything?  Just asking.

  137. 137.

    Alison Rose

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Yep. This is how I’ve tried to explain it to people I know who are confused when people who have been hurt by Trump’s admin still support him.

    He hates the same people they hate, and he tells them they’re right to do so. That’s it. He can shit on them, just as long as he shits on other people more.

    It’s depressing as fuck. I can’t comprehend being that hateful.

  140. 140.

    Chetan Murthy

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: They might try to start with the homeless.  I would like to believe that while there would be -some- in CA’s cities who would let that happen, most are decent, and would be unwilling.  I mean, it’s one thing for ICE to put undocumented immigrant children in concentration camps[1].  To put our fellow citizens, no matter how smelly, would be too much of a reminder of Father Niemoller’s confession, I would hope.

    [1] even this should be a bridge too far, but I get “what are we gonna do?  start attacking their cars, their houses, maybe run their wives outta the supermarket?”  We’re still at the point of “we’re going to follow the laws”.

    Ain’t no way the laws continue to matter, if they start rounding up -Americans-.  Oh hell, if the fucker wins, I’ll be learning to shoot, and storing weapons and ammo at a gun club.  Which will be selected for its politics as well as the quality of the training.

    They don’t understand that Route Irish can come to America.  Or hopefully they do.  B/c like they say, “any jackass can burn down a barn”.

  144. 144.

    Another Scott

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Yup.

    E.g. Moonrise, Hernandez NM – bloglovin.com/blogs/my-modern-met-1170172/surprising-story-behind-ansel-adams-most-6636635161

    […]

    According to a captivating video by the Ansel Adams Gallery, Adams snapped this now-famous scene as he, his son, and his assistant were en route to Santa Fe from an assignment in Northern New Mexico in 1941. As they approached the Hernandez village, a mesmerizing scene unfolded before their eyes: “The moon was about two days before full and the buildings and crosses were illuminated by a gentle, diffused sunlight coming through the clouds of a clearing storm.”

    Adams pulled over in order to get both a better look and a photograph of this remarkable phenomenon. After setting up his equipment, he quickly realized he could not find his exposure meter. Without this tool, he would not be able to determine the proper exposure for the photograph, and, consequently, couldn’t capture the scene in all its glory.

    With some quick thinking (and impressive prior knowledge of the moon’s light per square foot), however, he was able to improvise. This allowed him to estimate the exposure without the meter and capture a single negative before the “light failed completely and the magical quality of the scene was gone forever.”

    He took the precious film to his studio. Here, he developed the negative with multiple water baths to bring out its stark tones, but found it difficult to print. Over the next few years, he repeatedly revisited the negative, experimenting with different contrasts and printing techniques. Finally, in the 1970s, he achieved “a print equal to the original visualization that (he could) still vividly recall.”

    […]

    He was a master of his craft. Obviously. ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  145. 145.

    Kay

    Chris Hayes
    @chrislhayes
    ·43m
    To state the obvious, not a great state of affairs when the incumbent president has convinced himself that chaos, street fighting, mayhem and bloodshed benefits him politically.

    83 tweets today ginning up violence. And he has tens of millions of slavishly loyal followers.

  146. 146.

    MisterForkbeard

    @WaterGirl: Progressives do hate him. He hasn’t thrown the cops out and (IIRC) he’s pushed back on defunding. I think he’s also kept the chief of police reporting directly to him instead of to a less friendly city council member.

    I don’t think there’s much of a reason to hate him, but the fact that progressives are blaming him for the recent violence because he didn’t do enough to address their claims is… not great. And certainly not the right time to do it.

  148. 148.

    Kay

    I am glad about one thing- the last thing we heard from Kellyanne Conway was her view that more violence and bloodshed would benefit the President, politically.

    What a horror she is. Great that she discarded the last shred of decency she had before she decamped to her suburban mansion. That’s the quote that should follow her around the rest of her life.

  150. 150.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Ruckus:

    Ignorance has led to far more staunchness in conservatism. They have learned to form together tighter in their ignorance and racism, which is really all they have left.

    I’m 55; wasn’t there and conscious for the times you’re referring to, 55 years ago.  But from what I remember of my childhood, and what I’ve seen since, I don’t think they’re any more staunch than they were back then.  That is, I think they were always this way: it’s just that back then, nobody resisted, so they got their way, and that was good enough for them.  I mean, when I was a kid, everybody made fun of my name, even my “friends”.  I just got used to it, and Anglicized my first name (so long ago that I go by it to this day) to reduce the “teasing”.  And the rest of the racism (and misogyny and homophobia) followed on from there.  Really, nobody pushed back.  So why would they be angry?

    I remember reading about the legislative discussions of the Immigration Act of 1965, which followed from the immediately prior civil rights protests: many legislators were -assured- that the Act would never change the cultural makeup of the country, and it was at least in some great part based on those assurances, that the Act got passed.  In a way, those assurances were right: an  Indian guy like me, and an East Asian guy like my buddy K. we’re both culturally as “white” as you can be; the only real “foreignness” in us is our love for foreign cuisines, and neither of us is particularly drawn to our “birth culture”‘s cuisine.  But in another way, those assurances were dead-wrong.  If you take culture to mean “those people look like us” (dress, food, music, literature, work, intellect, none of those count!) then no, we’re not from the same culture as white America.  And after that Act, the US didn’t just open its borders a little: the US opened the floodgates to people from all over the world: refugees, but also doctors, lawyers, engineers, people with skills and who immediately achieved success, and would and did use that success to build lives as Americans.  People who didn’t look like Cletus, even if their children thought and ate and played and loved, just like Cletus.

    So yeah, those guys who are angry AF about us, and our invasion, have a point (in a way).  If a brown guy who likes all the things that other white Americans like, is still a foreigner merely because he’s brown, if San Jose is unrecognizable (b/c filled with people from all over the world (most of whom don’t look “white”), jostling each other at microbrew pubs and arguing over who has the best Buffalo wings)  then yeah, those guys have a point.

    It’s an incredibly small-minded and racist Fascist point (b/c what they’re really banging on about is blood-and-soil, not “culture”) but yeah, they have a point.

  151. 151.

    Kay

    I wonder if Republicans anticipated that telling Donald Trump that violence and bloodshed improve his chances meant that Donald Trump would immediately start fomenting more violence and bloodshed?

    Because that’s exactly what happened.

  152. 152.

    Ruckus

    @WaterGirl:

    It is a lot of hours. And depending on your age it could be a lot worse.

    However.

    In pro sports I had one 8 day event that I worked every year where my average over that 8 days was 15 hrs a day. Mostly because 2 of those days were longer, like 17-18 hrs long. Hey I’ve said before that it seemed like it would be a great job before I took it but the 3000 hrs a year got old real quick. Two of my best days – getting discharged from the navy, and quitting that job.

  153. 153.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: I always wondered about the line from the “All in the Family” theme song, “Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.”

    Archie Bunker is supposed to represent a certain kind of right-wing working-class stereotype. And obviously Norman Lear at least believed that type was nostalgic for Herbert Hoover decades after the Great Depression and the New Deal.

  154. 154.

    Chetan Murthy

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    You are aware we’ve rounded up US citizens before, right?  You’ve heard of Manzanar, right?

    Bill, for sure, you’re right to cite that.  I think there are a number of things that make today different (but then “this time it’s different” …. famous last words, yeah).

    1. today many more ethnic groups recognize that their survival depends on solidarity
    2. California is just much more nonwhite than it was in 1941. Much moreso.
    3. California (and the US) is much more -open- to the rest of the world, than it was in 1939: just as an example, if you wanna close America’s borders to “the dark ones”, they’ll also have to do so to the South Asian I/T workers who basically are the I/T staffs of most of corporate America.  It’ll be tough to keep that going.
    4. And then you could tell the same story about East Asians and China and Japan.

    But I think the big thing is that in 1945, nonwhites in America felt they were here on sufferance.  At some level, it was even true during the Civil Rights movement, in the sense that Dr. King and leaders intentionally aimed to excite the sympathy and gentleness of White America.  Contrast that with “we’ve got to get out the votes of people of color, to win this election”.  There’s too many of us now, and our children, more and more, view equal rights in America as our birthright, and we’re not going to give it up without a fight.

    But hell, if they tried, they’d destroy the country.  There’d be nothing left.  They’d be destroying their own food, houses, energy, everything.  B/c what do they make in the Heartland?  Grain and meat.  And raw materials.  That’s it.

  156. 156.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    @Chetan Murthy: It’s pretty easy for authoritarians to gin up hatred against “the other’.  Trump has already said he can solve the problem with the homeless, he’s not said how he’d do it; but he’ll remove them from the cities.  Where will they go?

  157. 157.

    MisterForkbeard

    @WaterGirl: Fair. Jay has some good points here as well – he could be doing a lot better.

    I’m still surprised at the depth of the hate the left has for him, though.

  158. 158.

    Chetan Murthy

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:

    It’s pretty easy for authoritarians to gin up hatred against “the other’.

    You’re right.  And if (for instance) Putinfelcher manages to gin up hatred against homeless people among enough Californians that we allow them to be rounded-up, then I will be both horrified, and convinced that we’re doomed.  But I’ve been heartened by the way that Asians in California (and all over America) have been “woke” by what’s happened to Muslim-Americans and Black Americans.  It took time, and hell, longer than it should have.  But it happened.  And I don’t really believe it’ll change back.  I think the same is true of Hispanic Americans.  And I look at the way that California (and all of America) has accepted LGBTQ people as just being a different way to love, as more proof.

    I don’t see how he tears us apart.  I guess he’s going to try.  It would take a lot of skill, I think.  This isn’t Nazi Germany, where Jewish people were (IIRC) 0.3% of the population (that might be low, but certainly < 1%).  California is majority-minority.  Every major city has massive numbers of minorities.  Democrats are the ones who make the country actually run.  Destroy Democrats, destroy the economy.  It’s that simple.

  160. 160.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Danielx: The stipulated scenario is one in which martial law has been declared: there’s no other way they could arrest and large numbers of innocent Americans without due process.  At that point, y’know, all bets are off.   And especially here in California, the disruption to the nation’s economy (not to speak of the world) would be extreme.  But maybe you’re saying I should be downloading a copy of the Anarchists’s Cookbook while I have a chance?

  161. 161.

    divF

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Democrats are the ones who make the country actually run.  Destroy Democrats, destroy the economy.  It’s that simple.

    Question is, why don’t the plutocrats who own the enterprises you’re talking about see it that way, and use their resources to crush Trump ?

  162. 162.

    gwangung

    @Chetan Murthy: But hell, if they tried, they’d destroy the country.  There’d be nothing left.  They’d be destroying their own food, houses, energy, everything.

    Yeah, well, that’s a feature, not a bug, to them….

  163. 163.

    Subsole

    @divF:

    Because unlike conservatives we aren’t content to be treated like a bunch of forelock-tugging serfs.

    We expect decent pay and decent living conditions.

  164. 164.

    Subsole

    @Subsole: 

    Also a basic modicum of respect and dignity and for our neighbors and friends and family and coworkers to receive the same.

  165. 165.

    Chetan Murthy

    @divF:

    why don’t the plutocrats who own the enterprises you’re talking about see it that way, and use their resources to crush Trump ?

    There’s a thing called the “ceteris paribus fallacy”.  It’s the mistake of thinking that when I change the world in this one place, all the rest of the world will stay the same — that nobody else is changing the world elsewhere in ways that invalidate my assumptions.  These rich folks want lots of what Trump is offering, but they still want to live in big cities with all the things that big cities offer them. [sure, right now cities are painful b/c of Rona; but once there’s a vaccine, that’ll change back, just like it did after the Spanish Flu; the Roaring Twenties weren’t about everybody finding their Inner Farmer, after all.]

    Yes, they want to smash workers, exploit racism to keep people of color down, etc, etc.  But they also want their fancy cities (as has been long-noted, all those Fox yappers live in big cities, not in rural Kentucky) and all the wealth-creation that happens there.  When the response to Donnie sending troops into a big Dem city to round up -Americans- is chaos and civil strife on a massive scale, the richies will stop it, b/c FFS, they never meant for their backyards to be actually disturbed.  They never meant for their wealth to be destroyed.

  166. 166.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Chetan Murthy: Of course, all of this depends on all of us meeting whatever comes with massive resistance.  And frankly, i don’t think it will come, b/c our city and Blue state governments will resist.

  169. 169.

    Chetan Murthy

    @divF: Zuck is probably fascist-curious at -least- (possibly worse).  But his company still requires armies of STEM-trained immigrants.  What does he think happens when these people realize their families are at risk?  They keep coming to work and helping him empower Shitler?  Really?

    Yeah, the MOUs really do have a problem with seeing the longer-term impacts of their actions.  It’s rare that a gazillionaire seems to get the importance of these things.

  170. 170.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Chetan Murthy: That reminds me of an old essay Fred Clark wrote about G. K. Chesterton’s antisemitism: what freaked Chesterton out was seeing Jews act like regular Englishmen. He felt it was some kind of fraud, that these foreign people were play-acting at not being exotic, and that actually scared him. No amount of cultural assimilation was going to satisfy him; in fact it just made it worse because it was a racial suspicion.

  172. 172.

    Danielx

    @Chetan Murthy:

    I’m not saying anything at all except that there is no ammunition to be had right now, either in retail establishments or online outlets. It just ain’t there at any price.

  173. 173.

    Chetan Murthy

    @gwangung:

    Well, I don’t mean that.  What I mean is: our economy has generated all this wealth, because the basic necessities can be produced by only a small fraction of the population; all the rest of the population is able to produce luxuries (more or less) that everybody gets to consume.  And the rich skim off a massive percentage of all that.  It requires massive division of labor and frictionless flow of goods and work products across the country and much of the world.  Gum that up, and the economy grinds to a halt.  Gum that up, and for a while, the government can prop up the stock market by reckless money creation and lending to the rich.  But eventually, the economy’s going to stop, and then it all falls apart.

    Covid gummed up a large part of the economy.  If Shitler tries to take apart the cities, that’ll finish the job.

    I was reading that US tech stocks together are more valuable than the European stock market.  Something like that.  What does Donnie think he’s playing with, spooking these companies that depend on endless supplies of foreign STEM-trained workers?

  174. 174.

    Sebastian

    @Chetan Murthy:

    My good man, I really hope you are right but I am afraid if you spend one hour reading NextDoor you’ll come to find that there are more than just a few people who would happily help.

  175. 175.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Sebastian: I’ve read those posts; it’s why I closed my NextDoor account.  And maybe you’re right.  But I don’t think so, b/c there are too many people of color in the Bay Area.  I could be wrong.

  178. 178.

    Ruckus

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    He’s 17 so someone had to buy that gun for him. I mean he could have brought it from an unscrupulous dealer or a friend. Or it could belong to his parents or someone else. In any way it is illegal in both WI and IL for him to carry a loaded weapon, open or concealed.

    The person who supposedly took the picture of his mom said it was that same day in Madison.

  179. 179.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    @Kay: 83 tweets today ginning up violence.

     

    Which means his internal polling is in the toilet.

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