Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Every day Vance writes another chapter in the book called “Worst VP Pick Ever”.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

Somebody needs to explain to DeSantis that nobody needs to do anything to make him look bad.

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

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

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Can we lighten up on the doomsday scenarios?

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

“Let’s not pretend [Trump] wants to engage in high-minded discourse.”

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You are here: Home / Elections / Biden-Harris 2020 / Open Thread: Joe Biden Live, Expected to Address Woodward Info

Open Thread: Joe Biden Live, Expected to Address Woodward Info

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Not to stomp all over Adam…but this is going to start soon and I’m thinking we may want to hear what Biden has to say. And I know you guys can bitch about Trump and praise Joe Biden simultaneously, right?

Open thread

 

Reader Interactions

235Comments

  2. 2.

    JPL

    So when will we see an ad showing trump campaigning and playing golf, when he knew about the coming storm to the USA?

  3. 3.

    Sloane Ranger

    Don’t know if this is covered in the previous thread but Trump has apparently said that the idea of Kamala Harris becoming President is an “insult to the US.”

    Racism, misogyny or both?

  8. 8.

    jonas

    @JPL: I’m sure the Project Lincoln guys are having to breathe into paper bags at this point to keep from loosing their shit.

  13. 13.

    Elizabelle

    Yea Gretchen Witmer!

    Speaks of Trump’s lack of leadership.  Says the Woodward story broke while he was on the plane.

    Here he goes … yelling about it.

  14. 14.

    Elizabelle

    He knew, he played it down, he lied.  He had the info.  He failed to do his job.  On purpose.

    No lies told.

    Kind of wish Joe would say it more softly, cuz this is going to be the newsbite tonight.

  16. 16.

    mrmoshpotato

    And I know you guys can bitch about Trump and praise Joe Biden simultaneously, right?

    You know us well. ?

  17. 17.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Sloane Ranger:

    Don’t know if this is covered in the previous thread but Trump has apparently said that the idea of Kamala Harris becoming President is an “insult to the US.”

    Racism, misogyny or both?

    Both! So totally both!

  19. 19.

    RaflW

    I guess one way to make the rape allegations story — and of course the story of Bill Barr’s continued descent into corruption — in the news this morning ‘go away’ is to have an explosive “Trump knew and didn’t give a sh*t about you or me” story blaring this afternoon.

    So. Much. Winning.

  20. 20.

    Elizabelle

    I prefer non-yelling Joe.  Outrage is tiring.  Joe is intelligence and decency; does not need to lie.

    The “losers and suckers” he just lobbed.  Did not need to be shouted.  (And he did not shout it.)

  21. 21.

    bluehill

    I hope these info dumps keep coming. Keeps Trump’s campaign playing defense and potentially lessens the impact from Barr’s October surprise. Now, I’m wondering what Trump oppo is slated for October.

  22. 22.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @RaflW:

    I really do think Dems need to go after that story. All he has to do is hand over a sample. If he were innocent, he would be exonerated. What does he have to hide? The POTUS refusing to hand over a sample in a lawsuit where rape is involved is a big deal. He’s more or less admitting that he raped somebody

  24. 24.

    Elizabelle

    @zhena gogolia:   No, missed that one.  Thank goodness.

    I like listening to speeches.  It’s easier when the speaker is not yelling.

    Anger and outrage inspires the GOP.  We use ours to work for solutions.

  25. 25.

    JPL

    @Elizabelle: This is why yelling  is okay, my grand imp was at a daycare that cared for children whose parents were traveling back and forth to China.   Because of YY_Sima Qian comments, I did mention not to have contact with folks returning from a business trip unless they had been back at least two weeks.   In January and early February the media barely touched the virus if at all

    I’m pissed that it didn’t have to be this way

  26. 26.

    Highway Rob

    I’m something like 20 minutes behind. Is Biden the only guy left in the country who uses “pal” without the implication he’s about to kick your ass in, then kick it back out so he can kick it in again?

  27. 27.

    oatler.

    Refreshing to see a Biden speech instead of the usual Trump/Pence  twaddle we get from Fox’s local affiliate.

  29. 29.

    jackmac

    @bluehill: The ‘October Surprise’ may actually be Trump’s tax returns being leaked to the New York Times and/or Washington Post. Fun times!

  30. 30.

    Elizabelle

    This is touching.  Joe keeps a running list, each day, of casualties in the Armed Forces.  Killed and injured.

    Also COVID deaths.

    Eisenhower did that too.

  32. 32.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Elizabelle:

    That fact came out last year during an impromptu interview with folks on the street. When one woman asked about veterans Joe went on a rant similar to today’s and produced his casualty list.

  34. 34.

    patrick II

    @bluehill:

    The consensus so far seems to be an indictment of Hunter Biden (at least).

    But that doesn’t seem to be enough to be a “surprise”.  Perhaps indictments of Hunter, Hillary, Barack, and Joe for carrying out the greatest crime in American history — the false investigation of Donald Trump.

    More likely though, Strozk and  McCabe.

  35. 35.

    JPL

    Wow..  Even on May 21st trump was saying masks are stupid.   Shouldn’t be surprised since apparently he still does.

  37. 37.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Put this on top of him repeatedly mispronouncing Kamala’s name which will surely piss off both black and women voters.  It was both racist and mysoginist.

  38. 38.

    Kay

    A whistleblower is alleging that top political appointees in the Department of Homeland Security repeatedly instructed career officials to modify intelligence assessments to ensure they matched up with misleading public comments from President Donald Trump about Antifa and “anarchist” groups, according to documents reviewed by CNN and a source familiar with the situation.
    Specifically, acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf and Acting Director of US Citizenship and Immigration Ken Cuccinelli, both Trump appointees, directed officials to change intelligence assessments based on Trump’s political rhetoric, an order the whistleblower says amounted to an abuse of authority, according to the documents.

    I love the whistleblowers, few of them that there are. If we survive this I want statues to the whistleblowers erected.

    Incidentally if anyone is still counting the times the AG has lied to the public, here’s another one.

  39. 39.

    Gin & Tonic

    @jackmac: I’m so old I can remember when the New York Times published a very well-documented, 14,000-word story about Trump tax fraud, based on years of returns. Really moved the needle, didn’t it?

  41. 41.

    Elizabelle

    @MomSense:

    Holy hell I just heard the news.

    And the pity is, you could say that at least 3 of any 7 days, through the entire Trump occupation.

  42. 42.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @patrick II:

    an indictment of Hunter Biden

    Ha!  Fuck, no.  Barr already had the FBI comb Biden for anything usable.  They came up with nothing.  Barr ordered them to do it again, because Trump ordered Barr to do it again, and they’ll come up with nothing again.  It is much, much harder for the DoJ to indict a public figure than it is for street cops to frame a random nobody.  Trump can’t do it.  Barr may come out with some made-up statement about Burisma, but he’s not Comey, who had a reputation for neutrality and professionalism.  It’ll be the Nunes Memo all over again.

    And frankly, if Trump could indict Hunter Biden, or literally any of his political opponents, he’d have done it already.  The guy has zero patience and would not listen to any advisors urging he wait.

  43. 43.

    RaflW

    @patrick II: I don’t have my finger on the pulse of the “chicken, or shit with glass” undecided demographic, but by that point I’m sort of stumped what an indictment by a deeply, obviously corrupt DOJ would do, other than confirm what an absolute stool sample Barr is.

    Yes, the press would briefly hyperventilate. But the nation’s priors about Joe Biden are very different than they were for Hillary (which is certainly in part an additional indictment of the press, but that’s a topic we’ve covered in great detail already).

  44. 44.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Latest fire update. Here on the SF Peninsula, it’s been like an apocalyptic dawn all day thanks to a combination of the marine layer and fire smoke. Sky is orange and is so dark many of the streetlights are on. It’s really quite eerie and totally messing with my sense of time.

    I can’t even get a good photo of it, because the iPhone refuses to accept that the sky looks like that and keep auto-correcting photo, even before I edit it.

    But allegedly the air quality isn’t too bad because smoke is above the marine layer, those my sinuses disagree. And to be thankful for small things, at least it’s cooled down after last weekend’s triple-digit heat.

  45. 45.

    PenAndKey

    @Elizabelle: I have absolutely no problem with Joe yelling today. As far as I’m concerned today’s revelation is severe enough that Trump should be summarily impeached, prosecuted, and face the maximum penalty legally available for treason. There is a place for calm deliberation. We are not in that place.

    @Sister Golden Bear: It’s been a while since I used an iPhone, but can’t you just swipe up or down in the default camera app to manually change your exposure? That might be enough to get a shot. If you’ve got strong contrast between the clouds and the rest of the image turning on HDR will also help.

  48. 48.

    PJ

    I think Biden is yelling because he is genuinely angry at Trump’s deliberate lying about coronavirus.  I think those mentioning it are right that it needs to be used judiciously, but I don’t think Biden is that kind of politician.  I also don’t think he has any fucks left to give about Trump’s failures, unlike the media, who will continue to talk about a “pivot”, “this is the day Donald Trump finally became President”, “Trump’s convention rhetoric has been effective where Biden’s was not”, etc.

  50. 50.

    RaflW

    @Litlebritdifrnt: My reaction to that was “wow, Republicans are also going to infuriate Americans of SE Asian origin” and to wonder how shriveled Nimrata Nikki Haley’s soul must be.

  52. 52.

    JPL

    Rather than playing golf, trump could have ramped up factories to create PPE or at least stop export of masks to other countries.

  53. 53.

    Kelly

    Update my brother and brother-in-law have made it into the fire zone and our house is still standing. They’re packing buckets of water around to put out the smoldering bits with but it looks pretty good. They were on the phone updating me on this when county sheriff came by to see what they’re up to which is also encouraging. We don’t expect they’ll be power for a very long time perhaps months but we like to camp. All the houses on our side of our road are fine all the houses on the other side of our road burnt down

  54. 54.

    RaflW

    I know it’s awfully quaint of me, but on days like today I recall that newspapers from coast to coast called for Bill Clinton to be removed from office for a dumb and risky lie about peccadillos.

    Trump can admit that he is totally indifferent to 185,000 deaths (on the way to 250,000 or 300,000) and we get silence on resignation as the appropriate action.

  55. 55.

    MomSense

    I just listened to a snippet of the tape and I want to smash things.  He knew.  He fucking knew – all of it. He knew how contagious, how deadly, how it spread and he intentionally gave out false information in addition to not mounting any kind of defense.  He needs to hang for this.  I’m not exaggerating.  This is – I can’t even.

  56. 56.

    JPL

    Someone opened the faucets full blast

    A senior Department of Homeland Security official alleges that he was told to stop providing intelligence analysis on the threat of Russian interference in the 2020 election, in part because it “made the President look bad,” an instruction he believed would jeopardize national security.

  58. 58.

    bluehill

    @Frankensteinbeck:

     

    @patrick II: Given how Barr lied about the Mueller report, I’m expecting the Durham report to appear to be bad on the surface based on dubious Ukrainian sources with close-ties to Putin.

    However, at this point, it seems too obvious. I think Barr probably knows that won’t be enough, so I’m expecting something we haven’t heard before.

  61. 61.

    narya

    Since it’s an open thread, I will share that the tile design is fixed, and looks GREAT. There are three tiles left over. There’s a 2-row space above the tile above the sink that doesn’t have tile, and it didn’t go down to the floor in one corner (that you won’t be able to see and was only a “if there’s enough” spot), and I will sit with those to see what I think. I may decide to leave as is. If I don’t, I’ll just order a bit more and pay for them to come back and do it as an add-on. The place over the sink could also have other stuff there–e.g., another small shelf–so I really will sit w/ it for a bit. SO RELIEVED.

  62. 62.

    Kay

    Donald J. Trump
    @realDonaldTrump
    · Mar 9
    So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 per year. Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!

  65. 65.

    patroclus

    I don’t see the Woodward book/tapes as all that new.  I’ve seen Trump downplay and lie about COVID in real time for nearly 9 months – I certainly don’t need smarmy Bob Woodward to tell me something I already know.  And if they were bombshells, then he should have been a journalist and reported them back in February and March.  I’m glad Biden focused on jobs while in Michigan – that’s more important than Woodward trying to make more money and Trump lying yet again.

  68. 68.

    Gravenstone

    @Sloane Ranger: 

    Racism, misogyny or both?

    Both. With the added dimension that she has insulted Trump, so her ascending to his title would be a grave insult to him as well.

  69. 69.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): At this point all Carroll’s attorneys need to do is get a sample from Mary Trump. It won’t be an exact match, but it will be close enough that the only other argument the President would have left is either one of his brothers raped her, one of his sons raped her, or one of his nephews did. Those excuses would be silly, though I’m sure Hugh Hewitt would be happy to promote them.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    @JPL:

    I wonder if Homeland Security are worried about appearing to be so closely tied to Donald Trump. It’s just stupid to be a federal entity and alienate half the country.

  72. 72.

    Gravenstone

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): As others here have correctly noted, if he provides a DNA sample for this suit, it becomes open season because there are likely dozens if not hundreds of women who would come forward seeking the same sample.

  73. 73.

    catclub

    @jackmac: The ‘October Surprise’ may actually be Trump’s tax returns being leaked to the New York Times and/or Washington Post.

     

    If it is Barr:  1) announcing that Durham’s investigation of the investigation will be coming down with indictments.

    2)indictment of Hunter Biden for something.

  77. 77.

    patroclus

    @JPL: No it isn’t.  I just watched John Roberts and Ari Fleischer do just that on Fox.  And they ended the segment with a lengthy discussion on why Trump should get the Nobel Peace Prize for the UAE arms deal.  It won’t be hard for Fox at all – that’s what they do; it’s just meat and potatoes for them

    And to Fox, all this pales in comparison to Pelosi’s hair appointment and Biden yelling.

  78. 78.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @bluehill:

    I think Barr probably knows that won’t be enough

    I’m not impressed by Barr’s intelligence.  He’s thrown out ‘shocking revelations’ that prove Trump is innocent and was set up several times already, and they flopped so badly hardly anyone remembers he tried it.  He looks like a genius compared to his boss, but most of his successes have been refusing to do something or drawing things out in court, both of which are incredibly easy to do.  Most of the law suits he’s sent to the Supreme Court have turned to shit in his hands and the legal theories they’re based on are dimwitted garbage.  I am not afraid of Barr.

  79. 79.

    Betty

    @Kelly: Good news for you. Sorry to hear about your neighborhood. These fires are truly frightening. Hope they can soon get them under control.

  80. 80.

    catclub

    @Gravenstone: there are likely dozens if not hundreds of women who would come forward seeking the same sample

     

    I think it was surprising that Ms Carroll kept a coat.  I would be surprised if many of those affected women kept evidence for decades. Maybe one or two.

  81. 81.

    gene108

    @RaflW:

    I also remember Bill Clinton handing over a DNA sample, because of Ken Starr’s investigations.

    Bill did not ask AG Reno to be his defense attorney.

    The scale of Trump’s corruption will be mind boggling, if it ever comes out.

  82. 82.

    Doug R

    @The Thin Black Duke:

     

    Maybe I misinterpreted, but some people seem to be concerned that Biden is angry about Trump’s latest atrocity.

    Concern trolls are concerned Biden will sound shrill if he expresses emotion like emotional robot Hillary did once.

  83. 83.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Kay: The political appointees told the career DHS folks to stand down all Russian election interference, including working to establish countermeasures, back in 2018. Either because the political appointees were scared of retribution for being disloyal to the President or because they had bought into the President’s belief that it was all a Democratic hoax intended to bring down his presidency. To use a Star Trek reference, not only are the shields down, but the shield generators were taken down by the command staff!

    Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies.

  84. 84.

    OGLiberal

    @patroclus: Atrios posted a tweet by someone pointing out that Woodward had taped evidence that a) Trump knew the virus was worse than he let on and b) Trump was intentionally going to lie to the public about it – and he kept that to himself for 6-months until right before his book was going to be published.  Seems kind of effed up on Woodward’s part.  And yes, we know Trump has been lying but when St. Bob says it the beltway media folks take notice.

  85. 85.

    Kelly

    @Betty: one of the houses that burnt down is the neighbor that banged on our door at 1:30 in the morning telling us we all had to get out of there

  86. 86.

    Lapassionara

    @Gravenstone: the Carroll lawsuit is for defamation, not for rape. I believe the rape was long enough ago that the statute of limitations has passed. I assume that the other alleged rapes are long enough ago that the victims can no longer sue.

  89. 89.

    Elizabelle

    @The Thin Black Duke:   I said that I don’t like yelling, as a method of delivering a response.

    Do you recall Obama yelling?  Maybe he did.  I know he had to shout some campaign speeches, over the rain and crowds.

    Personally, I find succinct and seriously delivered remarks a lot more compelling.  I guess a lot of viewers are good with “theatre.”

    Yelling means that some viewers will say “look at that, he’s yelling” rather than listening to the words said.

    Which were very succinct and serious.  And, truly, undeniable.

    (Although I see his nimnod press secretary is telling us not to believe what we hear and read, again.  Cross at her neck, bright pink sleeveless dress, since it’s FoxWorld at that podium.)

    YMMV.

  90. 90.

    gene108

    Bob Woodward has blood on his hands. Shows should cancel his promotional appearances, and the public should boycott buying his book.

  92. 92.

    dnfree

    @narya: so glad for you!  I didn’t comment the other night, but I was hoping something could be done. Sometimes it can, and sometimes it can’t be done easily or without great expense. You will be looking at this for a long time with a feeling of relief!

  93. 93.

    Elizabelle

    @Kelly:   Relieved for you, but sad for your neighbors.

    It’s always astonishing to see the photos, a row of houses spared amidst devastation.

    I am glad that, in electing Biden and Harris, we will elect an administration that takes climate change seriously and will work to lessen its impacts and prevent its further fuel, as much as possible.

    I know the West has always had forest fires, but calling this set “apocalyptic” is about right.

  97. 97.

    Amir khalid

    @Doug R:

    There’s a difference between visibly angry and out of control. Biden is visibly angry, for good reason; he’s not out of control. That’s the right place to be.

  102. 102.

    different-church-lady

    @Gin & Tonic: You gotta understand: a lot of his appeal to his base is due to the fact that he’s the shittiest person on the planet and he still became president. So the shittier he acts, the more they love him.

    We just gotta hope he’s lost everyone but his base.

  104. 104.

    Calouste

    @JPL: Yep, if that piece of shit really cared about people not panicking, he could have started preparations in the background. He didn’t. And of course he is still anti-mask.

  107. 107.

    Adam L Silverman

    @JPL: He chose not to because he doesn’t care. I honestly think the unstated part of the sentence about not wanting to cause a panic is “in the stock market” or “on Wall Street”.

  109. 109.

    Kay

    @germy:

    I’m going to be a D poll watcher. I’ll let you know if I see any Trumpsters. You have to “enter” in Ohio – file an entry with the county court and then take an oath, so of course he’s giving them bad/incomplete  information again and they won’t be allowed to strut around bothering nice people.

    You can’t just wander around in there. They’ll have to plan or they’ll be “out beyond the flags” in the general public area. The flags are the border of the polling place.

  110. 110.

    Hoodie

    @OGLiberal: Of course, the obvious conclusion is that Woodward sat on this because he didn’t want to steal the thunder from his book.  However, a possible alternative might arise from the fact that Woodward is notorious for being a fucking credulous dope.  I think he gets a lot of access precisely because of that, i.e., his subjects count on him falling for their bullshit.  They can sometimes get tripped up because he’ll later regurgitate everything like a fucking tape recorder, in keeping with his newspaper history.  Others will react to the facts differently than Woodward, who is often too dense to understand the full implications of what he has learned.  He may have actually took from this exchange that Trump was serious about fighting COVID and bought into the cockamamie “avoid panic” line.  I guess it’s possible that, when things like the revelations about veterans being losers and suckers came out, it finally got through his thick skull that Trump is a purely transactional, sociopathic monster and was holding back this info about COVID only because he was worried about re-election and didn’t give a shit as to how many people would die from his misinformation.  However, it’s just as likely that Woodward just stupidly waited for his book to come out, and the publisher just happened to have timed the release to just before the election to maximize sales.

  111. 111.

    Kelly

    @WaterGirl: most of the houses on that side of the road are second homes so that’ll help some. No idea when we’ll get back in maybe soon. Don’t really know where everyone fled to

  112. 112.

    Kay

    @raven:

    I don’t know, but the Trumpster response is definitely the babies. They’re attacking Harris on abortion and that’s why he’s rolling out the list of Right wing nut judges. I bet they see it in their internal polling.

  113. 113.

    different-church-lady

    @Kay: Any moment now there’s gonna be audio of Trump calling aborted fetuses “losers”, just wait.

  115. 115.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @Kay:

    What the heck is going on with the white Catholics.

    They haven’t been able to go to church so they’ve missed months of hectoring from the pulpit about how evil Dems in general and Biden in particular are because they want to kill the baybeeez?

    Actually, I doubt that’s it, because so few Catholics go to Mass regularly, and I have the (totally unsupported by evidence) impression that abortion isn’t quite as dominant a message as it was, say, 20 years ago. Modern Catholicism’s strong social justice and compassion message is more likely to be part of the cause, especially because that fits so well with the way Biden visibly lives his life.

  116. 116.

    Kay

    @raven:

    Favorable views of Biden have increased significantly among white Catholics. Almost two-thirds (66%) now hold favorable views of him, compared to 40% in July.

    These people. The man has not changed at all since July. They’re so fickle! No one can rely on any of them.

  117. 117.

    JPL

    @Adam L Silverman: Graham is trying to say trump wanted to keep the public calm.   Someone needs to challenge Graham and ask why then didn’t he order more equipment just to be safe.

  118. 118.

    Elizabelle

    @different-church-lady:   Yeah.  I was reconsidering, and thinking that some viewers will pick up on the emotion in the yelling, and Biden is speaking the truth.  Short, declarative sentences, too.

    We’re told we need to associate emotion with political appeals — the GOP does that constantly in a negative fashion.

    And this is not merely a “political” issue.  It is, as you point out, life and death, and Trump chose death (for those other Americans) here.

    Must confess, I associate yelling with Republicans — we’ve seen too many crazed weasel faces.  So I clearly took this one differently from a lot of you.

    Much as I found myself wincing at male deep Southern accents in a (completely nonpartisan) movie a few months back.

    It’s aversion conditioning.  ;-)

  120. 120.

    Hoodie

    @Kay: Because he’s a genuine member of the tribe?  Seriously, stories from the DNC about carrying Beau’s rosary, etc.,  would hit home with a lot of Catholics I know.  Especially female ones.

  121. 121.

    Benw

    Aside from the horror of the COVID reponse, I’m curious about the nuclear weapon system. What is it? It is a real thing or something in Trump’s brain? Can we point it at Trump and test it?

  122. 122.

    Hoodie

    @Elizabelle: Go watch the video of a much younger Biden ranting at George Schultz about the Reagan admin supporting apartheid South Africa.  Joe can do irate and get away with it (the shit eating grin on Schultz’s face is priceless).  A lot of people like that.  The key is to otherwise be the nicest guy you can imagine.

  123. 123.

    Adam L Silverman

    @JPL: Graham will say anything to keep himself in the President’s good graces and those of the President’s base of supporters. If that means he has to completely contradict himself tomorrow, he will.

  124. 124.

    Ken

    @Kay: That same page shows Trump favorability dropping since March among white evangelicals, white mainline Protestant, and white Catholics.

  126. 126.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:  re Catholics with favorable impression of Biden:

    Glad to see that.  Some may realize he is authentic about it, and lives his faith.

    John Kerry was also Catholic, although I don’t know that helped him much.  Running against a “wartime” president who had actually avoided serving in a war.  Unlike Kerry himself.  Le sigh.

    Re that PRRI religion poll:  the white voters whose favorability rating for Trump leapt was — white unaffiliated voters.  What is up with that?  It’s still just 29 to 36.  That is a deplorable favorability rating.

  128. 128.

    Lapassionara

    @Hoodie: I have also heard that Trump agreed to sit for interviews on the condition that Woodward not release the tapes until right before the book came out. I don’t know if that is accurate.

    What I noticed is how knowledgeable Trump seemed to be in the early tapes, then by the later tapes he was not remembering some of the warnings he was given. Not sure what that means.

  130. 130.

    Elizabelle

    @Hoodie:   Thanks.  Will look for that.

    And — Biden was on the right side of history on that one, too.

    Yea Joe.  (PS.  I bet George Schultz is voting for Biden.  Quietly.  Schultz will be 100 this December 13.  Hope he is still of sound mind.)

  132. 132.

    Hoodie

    @Lapassionara: That’s also a distinct possibility.  Woodward would not do anything to violate an agreement like that because he has this kind of simplistic sense of journalistic duty.  He’s a weird dude.

  134. 134.

    Kay

    @Ken:

    I’m only paying attention to Catholics because…PA, WI and MI and because Trump is paying attention to them. Do they really like Pence though? Ugh. Just horrible. Smarmy. They didn’t even like him in Indiana.

  137. 137.

    Elizabelle

    That PRRI August 2020 Trump favorability rating by political affiliation.

    Republicans    82

    Independents   34

    Democrats    11

    Ouch.  And LOL.

    And with the GOP, it rose from 77 to 82 since April 2019.  Deplorables on parade.  Although — could that be accounted for by some GOP decamping to Independent or even Democrats during the year??

  139. 139.

    RaflW

    @Elizabelle: A metric I might need to look for, or maybe someone has it handy, is the party ID breakdown. It would seem that the remaining rump of the party should be shrinking, but human behavior is damned strange.

  142. 142.

    Mary G

    @Kay: Seems to me that a schism may be developing between the real Catholics who follow Jesus’ actual teachings versus the Federalist Society ones who’ve sold out religion for political power. For example, this scalding thread:

    I raise my voice in fervent opposition to the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast's scandalous offer of an award to Attorney General Barr for his "exemplary Christlike" behavior. I urge the group to immediately rescind their inivtation, and I urge anyone reading this to join me. https://t.co/W6o8MOWQGj— Sister Helen Prejean (@helenprejean) September 8, 2020

    What is Christlike about a Catholic believer using his discretionary power as Attorney General to undertake a series of speedy federal executions? In contrast, those in power before him for 17 years chose not to seek death.— Sister Helen Prejean (@helenprejean) September 8, 2020

    It has been solely at the direct command of A.G. Barr that five human lives have already been snuffed out, and two other persons—William LeCroy and Christopher Vialva—await almost certain death in a couple of weeks.— Sister Helen Prejean (@helenprejean) September 8, 2020

    What is so grievously scandalous about bestowing a "Catholic" award on this man, so keen to kill criminals under his jurisdiction, is that his attitude and behavior so flagrantly contradicts Catholic teaching. The Church vigorously opposes government killing without exception.— Sister Helen Prejean (@helenprejean) September 8, 2020

     There’s more, but you get the idea. I have a friend who’s a go-to-mass-every-day Catholic, and she is furious with Barr and the PTB in the church who side with him, and her priests are firmly on Sister Helen’s side.

  143. 143.

    Kay

    @RaflW:

    Dan Friedman
    @dfriedman33
    ·58m
    “Murphy provided…Nielsen with documentation reflecting that the number of documented [known or suspected terrorists] crossing the southwest border only consisted of no more than three individuals, not 3,755 individuals as she had previously attested to in her testimony.”

    This gutless liar now works for someone else, probably still lying her ass off.

  145. 145.

    Martin

    @Elizabelle: Yeah, there’ll be some of that. That’s the challenge with surveys based on self-identification – you have to keep careful track of the size of those identification populations.

    That’s why surveys can be so hard to run – you have errors in your survey make-up combining with errors in your survey results. That’s what ‘house effects’ is usually referring to – Ras doesn’t put their thumb on the result scale, but on the makeup scale – they assume the electorate is more conservative than it is.

  146. 146.

    Jeffro

    @JPL: So we have

    • lied about the deadliness of the coronavirus, causing tens of thousands of unnecessary American deaths
    • had DHS downplay the danger of armed white supremacist terrorists, and create a non-existent ‘antifa’ threat
    • had DHS also stop doing intelligence work/analysis on the active threats posed by Russia to our country and the upcoming election.

    All for who?  Why, the World’s Most Innocent Man, of course!  All so he wouldn’t “look bad”

    Oh my.  I don’t *just* want him in jail or tarred and feathered, not anymore…

  147. 147.

    Kay

    @Mary G:

    I hope so. We don’t need that many of them. In the crucial Great Lakes states.. :)

    Hopefully Biden won’t say that, right? I would, but that’s why I’ll never be President. One of the reasons.

  149. 149.

    JPL

    @Jeffro: Barnes and Noble must love my book selections, because in order to escape the chaos of the day, I just order darker books.   My latest isn’t quite that bad though, Anxious People.   

  150. 150.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: I’m trying to picture what went on in the heads of those 26% between July and August…and can’t get there.

    Did Joe start dressing better?  Maybe they didn’t know him and they all hit the internet to do some research?  A quarter of all Catholics had a ‘lightbulb moment’ of some kind as we moved into our sixth month of quarantine?

    Verily, ’tis a mystery…

  154. 154.

    Mary G

    Dude’s gotta go:

    President Donald Trump has named Sen. Ted Cruz as a potential nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.Trump included Cruz among 20 possible picks for the high court if Trump wins a second term in November and a seat later becomes open. https://t.co/gjoqw3tXrs— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) September 9, 2020

  159. 159.

    JPL

    While at Mar-a-Lago after hearing about the virus, how many of his golfing buddies did he tell.   I wonder how much money they made selling in January and then buying after the crash.  You know they did.

  160. 160.

    prostratedragon

    @PenAndKey:  I strongly agree with the first paragraph, especially as to impeachment for reckless disregard of his duties. I myself have long suspected that he was a knowing and deliberate traitor as well. Congress must go on the record as strongly as possible for this, and damn the Senate Republicans if when they act as they did last time.

  161. 161.

    Jeffro

    Um trumpov announced that he would put Tom Cotton or Ted Cruz on SCOTUS if re-elected?

    I didn’t think there could BE any additional GOTV fuel for Democrats this election but hoo boy, did I ever guess that one wrong.  Cotton and Cruz appointed to SCOTUS for life, oh my

  162. 162.

    Ken

    I just realized that that “Expected to Address Woodward Info” is not the Trump failing that Biden was planning to address when his plane took off.

  163. 163.

    divF

    @Haroldo: I read the article. His saying “I crunched the numbers” pretty much guarantees that he is an innumerate idiot. Plus the splenetic hate.

  164. 164.

    Louise B.

    @Kelly: I’m late to this thread, but fellow Oregonian here wishing you and your neighbors well.  So many wonderful Oregon towns are just burning down right now.  It’s heartbreaking.

  166. 166.

    Emma from FL

    @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: I go to church once a month with a retired former co-worker. She is a old line Polish-Catholic and a flaming liberal. We were both expecting the sermon would be filled with “hints.” Surprise. Nary a one. All about social responsibility to each other and remembering that we were all children of God. Anodyne Catholic preaching.

  169. 169.

    Emma from FL

    @Haroldo: Guaranteed he’s going to get his arse handed to him by the Bish. Fewer people in the pews, less money for the local charities. Every Catholic counts.

  170. 170.

    geg6

    @Mary G:

    My brother-in-law and my niece are leaving the Church.  My sister did it several years ago (over a homily about abortion that offended her), but her husband (a faithful Catholic and active in their church) and niece still go to Mass every week.  My niece attends a Catholic college.  They were at Mass a couple of weeks ago and the homily this time was simply a call for all the faithful to vote for Trump.  Not those exact words, but pretty much.  They have both written to the pastor (he shares responsibility for their church and several others and it was another priest who was giving the homily) personally to tell them why they are considering leaving.  My niece is leaving for sure, she is so pissed.  The brothers who run her college aren’t this nuts (they were favorites of Dan Rooney and Mr. Rogers), so she will be attending Mass when at school but not at home.  Brother-in-law is considering the Episcopal Church in town.  They aren’t keeping the flock together with all this shit.

  171. 171.

    Chyron HR

    @Mary G:

    Trump included Cruz among 20 possible picks for the high court if Trump wins a second term loses in November and a seat later becomes open before January 20.

  173. 173.

    mac8

    @Kay:

    As a mostly-lapsed Catholic in Ohio, I think what’s going on is that a lot of Catholics have started paying attention and finally shook off the “abortion is the only important issue” brainwashing.

    For so long it has been drilled into our heads that abortion is the only important issue and implied or outright stated that good Catholics should vote as if that’s the only issue on the ballot.  About half of Catholics (including most of my family, thank goodness) had the response to that of “yeah, no, we’re still voting for Democrats because social justice/environment/health care/etc.” but the other half bought into it.

    I think between July and August Catholics started paying attention, got reminded that hey, Biden is Catholic and his faith is important to him, and oh, look, Trump is an asshole and things suck.   I’m just keeping my fingers crossed it holds true through this election and beyond that.

    @Haroldo:   Ugh.  Yeah, people like him are why I stopped going to mass.

  176. 176.

    Ruckus

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    Pretty much the same here in socal with the fun addition of ash. My car was white, now it’s sort of an off white/gray mess. So much ash that I couldn’t see out the windshield. No use washing it. Yet. And the discussion of evacuation of parts of 7 cities still is ongoing.

  177. 177.

    Mary G

    @geg6: Well, my dad was a Jesuit who quit the church when he met my mom, and wanted to stay a priest, so he joined the Episcopalians. One of his intern-ish assignments was at St. John’s in LA, where they nailed the big front doors shut in protest of the Vietnam war. All the conservatives flounced off in a hissy fit when they started ordaining the women and the gays, so it’s a comfortable fit for liberals if you have to go to church.

  179. 179.

    Jeffro

    @Chyron HR: I think that’d be the final straw and we Dems would have to push to impeach any SCOTUS judge confirmed in that window.  And/or pack the court, mightily.

    We’ll need to do something about these 10 “unfit” clowns that they’ve already confirmed, including the one they voted on today.

  182. 182.

    Citizen Alan

    @Elizabelle:

    Running against a “wartime” president who had actually avoided serving in a war. Unlike Kerry himself. Le sigh.

    Sixteen years later, and I am still gob-smacked that a former Republican employer told me in 2004 after the election that he had no respect at all for Kerry’s military service because “the only reason he volunteered was to burnish his military credentials for a future political career.” I regret that I left that job and moved away, and so have never had the chance to ask him what he thought about John McCain, who ended up flying jets (and later crashing them) instead of cleaning latrines during Vietnam due to blatant nepotism despite being a fuckup for most of his military career prior to his capture and internment.

  183. 183.

    Kent

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    Latest fire update. Here on the SF Peninsula, it’s been like an apocalyptic dawn all day thanks to a combination of the marine layer and fire smoke. Sky is orange and is so dark many of the streetlights are on. It’s really quite eerie and totally messing with my sense of time.

    I can’t even get a good photo of it, because the iPhone refuses to accept that the sky looks like that and keep auto-correcting photo, even before I edit it.

    But allegedly the air quality isn’t too bad because smoke is above the marine layer, those my sinuses disagree. And to be thankful for small things, at least it’s cooled down after last weekend’s triple-digit heat.

    At least it’s a dry heat!

    And it’s not just CA.  There are fires exploding all over here in the PNW and so far 5 mountain towns have burned to the ground in OR and several in WA.    My parents live in the Salem area and say the fairgrounds are full of fire refugees camping out with their animals because all the local hotels are full.

    I guess someone out here forgot to rake the forests this summer.

  184. 184.

    Keith P.

    Senator Kennedy (R-LA) is really giving a profile in courage on Trump’s Woodward tapes. (on CNN)

  188. 188.

    Martin

    @Kent: I saw that a town in WA was almost completely wiped out. Didn’t even make the news here. We’re just overwhelmed by it all.

  190. 190.

    Mallard Filmore

    @Jeffro:

     

    Oh my. I don’t *just* want him in jail or tarred and feathered, not anymore …

    Unfortunately, the absolute best outcome will be more like he dies peacefully at the age of 250, wearing an orange jumpsuit while confined at Gitmo.

  192. 192.

    scav

    @Lapassionara: He’s also just repeating the last thing said to him —rather like his policies or actions  — he’s also a low-budget recorder that is instantly wiped at the best of times.

  193. 193.

    Hoodie

    @Haroldo: Having observed Catholics as a pagan outsider (wife is Catholic) for now going on 30 years, there is a hell of a lot of variation in the flock.   I meet more male Catholic assholes than female ones, but the women run the churches.  The males tend to do male bonding crap.

    Back in the early 90’s we got married in ceremony presided over by a priest who ran a dying parish in a poverty ridden area of Baltimore  where my wife lived and taught school.  The guy was an absolute mensch.   My experience has been that the monks and priests that serve poorer areas tend to be less dogmatic and political.   Affluent parishes attract the zealots and politicians – go figure.

  194. 194.

    Kent

    @Martin: 5 towns in the foothills of the Oregon cascades have gone up in smoke today alone.  And the Holiday Farm fire east of Eugene blew up from about 20,000 acres to 105,000 in the past 12 hours.  That’s big even by CA standards.  The towns of Blue River and Vida along the McKenzie River have both burned down.  It’s following the river valley.

  196. 196.

    J R in WV

    @narya:

    I’m happy for you,  we know what it’s like to have something all planned go off for you!

    Now waiting for the photos of your new kitchen to run!

  197. 197.

    Roger Moore

    @Gravenstone:

    if he provides a DNA sample for this suit, it becomes open season because there are likely dozens if not hundreds of women who would come forward seeking the same sample.

    Only if they were able to save something that got his semen on it.

  198. 198.

    Keith P.

    @catclub: Definitely….he’s a Louisiana Kennedy (the original spelling is probably “Kinnidee”).  He kept trying to claim this was “gotcha reporting”, but the anchor kept getting back to “This is the President.  On tape.  Here, let me play it for you.”  the responses were all the standard stuff (“I didn’t hear it”, “I’m interesting in Louisiana issues”, “I need to hear it in context”)

  201. 201.

    Barbara

    @Keith P.: “I’m interested in Louisiana issues” apparently doesn’t include the fact that Louisiana has more COVID cases per 100,000 residents than any other state and the fifth highest death rate in the nation.  Mardi Gras was celebrated on February 25.  Sounding the warning on the possibility of airborne transmission might have avoided a catastrophe among his constituents.  This guy, unbelievably, is a medical doctor to boot.  And they call themselves pro-life . . .

  202. 202.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mary G: Just wait till he nominates the replacements for Ginsburg, Breyer, Thomas, and Alito the week before the election and McConnell confirms them. The Constitution doesn’t say a president cannot nominate a replacement Supreme Court justice while the justice they’d be replacing is still serving. These are the four oldest justices, they all have some significant health issues, so it’s only prudent to make sure that their replacements are confirmed and ready to go should anything happen so nothing disrupts the Supreme Court’s ability to function.

    And I wish I was joking.

  203. 203.

    NickM

    You’d think if Catholics had swung 25% for Biden it would show up in swing state polling, since virtually all the swing states except maybe NC have pretty large Catholic populations.  But that doesn’t seem to be the case — Biden is leading by about the same margin in all of them now as he was in July.

  204. 204.

    Haroldo

    @Hoodie:

    I concur, but I believe the church needs a major overhaul.

    From what I’ve witnessed, the women in the church are by and large the moral driving force.  Put them in charge.

  205. 205.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Emma from FL: Actually several bishops and archbishops have supported him and endorsed his videos. Pope Francis issued instructions about three weeks ago that American Catholic clergy need to knock this stuff off, but the ones doing it ignored him. They also believe he isn’t really the pope, so…

  206. 206.

    Martin

    @WaterGirl: Yeah, we’re losing this fight.

    The Bear fire and the Claremont fire (the ones near Paradise/Oroville) were at ~30,000 acres on the last report last night. They don’t have an updated report on that today (very unusual) but climatologists looking at satellite data believe they merged and it’s now 300,000 acres. It grew ½ of a Rhode Island in less than 24 hours. Reports are that it’s already jumped Lake Oroville and it headed for the city.

    I don’t know how they haven’t called for an evacuation of Oroville already. It looks like the front of the fire moved 12 miles last night and it’s maybe 5 miles from the city. Depending on how windy it is up there, these fires can move 5 miles in under an hour. That’s what happened to Paradise in the Camp fire – the fire was advancing faster than the cars could get out of town.

    But things are out of hand in OR and WA as well, and we already have a LOT of help from other states. Some of these fires are big enough that the smoke rises and basically creates a dry thunderstorm, adding new lightning strikes to how the fire is able to spread.

  207. 207.

    Martin

    Looks like CA has lost about 20% of our solar production due to the smoke. That’s not helping the rolling blackout problem.

  208. 208.

    narya

    @WaterGirl: Prolly a dead thread, but YES. If I could dance, and/or carry a tune, there would be dancing and/or singing. You will all have to settle for pictures of the kitchen.

  210. 210.

    patrick II

    @Elizabelle:

    Only at the White House Correspondents dinner where he even embarrassed his “anger translator”

    Obama’s anger translator.

    Obama took that opportunity to speak his mind under cover of comedy.

    But I think have seen him legitimately angry after one of the school shootings and Republican recalcitrance.

  212. 212.

    Aleta

    …

    Travis Medema, regional forestry manager for Eastern Oregon, told the Board of Forestry during a virtual meeting that the Pacific Northwest and the entire nation are both at preparedness level five, “which means there are literally no resources available” that can be deployed to new or growing fires. … Medema said thousands of homes have been destroyed in the fires. He indicated that at least some Oregonians have died ….
    …
    Medema said the “catastrophic growth” of the fires is making it difficult to keep accurate tallies of the acres burned. He predicted it “will take days to get accurate information, months to contain fires” and decades for Oregon communities to recover.

    The most challenging fires are in areas of “extreme drought or abnormal drought” in Oregon, Medema said. Hotter than average temperatures predicted through the fall will likely keep the fire risk high.

    “We anticipate the remainder of September to be extremely challenging based off the temperature outlook,” Medema said, adding “that theme and trend continues” in forecasts into October and November.
    …
    Near the end of the meeting, board member Cindy Deacon Williams recounted the large-scale evacuations she watched near her home in southern Oregon near the Alameda and Obenchain fires — and then her own evacuation. “I think the entire Rogue Valley was in chaos,” Deacon Williams said.
    …

    Tom Imeson, chair of the forestry board, said Deacon Williams’ experience is unfortunately not unique. “That fear exists from southern Oregon all the way up the Cascades to Clackamas County and almost every major drainage, rural community within those drainages,” Imeson said. “You’ve got thousands and thousands of Oregonians who’ve experienced that same thing.”

  213. 213.

    Sebastian

    @jonas:

    I don’t trust them but they hit hard. What they have achieved though is to raise the quality of our video hitters like VoteVets and MeidasTouch (who were a bit choppy at first but are really good now).

    I donate monthly to Meidas.

  216. 216.

    Calouste

    @Aleta: But even the experience of almost getting caught in a wildfire won’t stop those Eastern Oregonians for voting for the party of climate change denial.

  217. 217.

    Aleta

    Fires were burning in seven Oregon counties and rural and suburban homes miles away from Portland, Oregon’s largest city, were under preliminary orders to prepare for possible evacuations. Three prisons were evacuated late Tuesday and Brown called the state’s blazes unprecedented.
    …
    Fires in 2017 and 2018 crested the top of the Cascade Mountains — the long spine that divides dry eastern Oregon from the lush western part of the state — but never before spread into the valleys below, said Doug Grafe, chief of Fire Protection at the Oregon Department of Forestry.  “We do not have a context for this amount of fire on the landscape,” he said. “Seeing them run down the canyons the way they have — carrying tens of miles in one period of an afternoon and not slowing down in the evening – (there is) absolutely no context for that in this environment.”

    …
    (A)t least four major fires were burning in Clackamas County, a suburban county in Oregon that’s a bedroom community of Portland. The entire county of nearly 420,000 people was put on notice to be ready to evacuate late Tuesday amid winds gusting up to 30 mph. Another major fire in southern Oregon prompted evacuation orders in much of Medford, a city of about 80,000 residents. And several huge blazes burning in Marion County, southeast of the state’s capital city of Salem, merged overnight — turning the sky blood-red in the middle of the day. Thousands of people were braced to flee if evacuation orders emerged.

  218. 218.

    trollhattan

    @Meyerman:

    One of those times when you say, “Most of the state is covered by smoke” somebody responds “You’re exaggerating” and you show them the sat image. “Oh, wow, it really is.”

    Our AQI is “only” 92 I guess because the smoke isn’t hugging the ground today, while it’s mighty dim for midday. Ranged anywhere from 150-250 yesterday.

  223. 223.

    Ruckus

    @VeniceRiley:

    I live about 4-5 miles from the latest socal fire, work about 6 miles from it, it is red sky, ash, and the smoke is at about 500-600 feet. We can see sky on the horizon to the south and west.

    Looking towards the fire can see smoke rising from the fire.

    Latest size report is 11,500+acres.

  224. 224.

    Gin & Tonic

    Somebody on Twitter said Woodward is the Walter Durant of the coronavirus outbreak. Hard to argue.

  225. 225.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Haroldo: Two words: Father Coughlin.

    After hinting at attacks on Jewish bankers, Coughlin began to use his radio program to broadcast antisemitic commentary. In the late 1930s, he supported some of the fascist policies of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Emperor Hirohito of Japan. The broadcasts have been described as “a variation of the Fascist agenda applied to American culture”.[2] His chief topics were political and economic rather than religious, using the slogan “Social Justice”. After the outbreak of World War II in Europe in 1939, the Roosevelt administration finally forced the cancellation of his radio program and forbade distribution by mail of his newspaper, Social Justice.

    It might also be pointed out that the “Christian Democratic” parties that sprung up like toadstools in postwar Western Europe would more honestly have been named “Catholic Falangist” (note similarity of “yoke and arrows” to the fasces).

    But hey, whaddaya expect from a ruthlessly hierarchical religion that demands absolute obedience to “the princes of the Church”? One of many good reasons I walked out on it 6 weeks after my Goyishe Bar Mitzvah Confirmation.

  226. 226.

    Uncle Cosmo

    Someone please rescue my comment from moderation – apparently I had too many lynx (imported with a c&p) which have since been removed, but FYWP doesn’t fucking care…

  228. 228.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @geg6: Dad had it right 60 years ago when he said

    The Church doesn’t care if I’m in the pews on Sunday, so long as our collection envelope has enough green in it when it goes into the long-handled basket.

    I wish Papa Frankie all the luck in the world trying to fix that hideously corrupt and avaricious monstrosity, but I fear when he’s gone the key to understanding the One Holy Catholic And Apostolic Church will still be those three little words, Follow the money.

  229. 229.

    J R in WV

    @Gin & Tonic:

    That’s really harsh. Accurate, of course, which is truly harsh, as it should be.

    Walter Durant was, of course, the FTNYT bureau chief in Moscow during the Stalin rule, and who reported that there was NO FAMINE in the Soviet Union, because he was eating just fine.

    Those starving folks in Ukraine, who had their harvest confiscated and shipped away, that was a hoax, just ask Mr. Durant.

    Woodward isn’t quite there, he just waited to report his story until it was a wrap… But pretty close, if you ask me!

  230. 230.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Hoodie: Affluent parishes attract the zealots and politicians – go figure.

    Easy figuring: The more bucks you rake in for the Archdiocese, the higher you rise in the higherarchy. Preaching social justice gets you a life sentence to one of those poverty-ridden parishes. As true today as it was in 1967 when then-Fr. James Kavanaugh published A Modern Priest Looks At His Outdated Church.

    (BTW, what parish was that?)

    Last New Years Eve I got dragged along to an “interfaith service” at St. Ignatius Loyola & ended up standing about 10 feet from the swinish William E. Lori, Cardinal/Archbishop of Baltimore. I was reminded of the day in 1965 when I stood the same distance away from then-Baltimore County Executive Spiro T. Agnew at a library dedication – inasmuch as in either case I could have done the world a world of good by crossing the short distance and breaking the motherfucker’s neck.

  233. 233.

    dww44

    @J R in WV: Thanks for this explanation.  i googled him, but didn’t come up with this.  However something did come up for Walter Duranty, the NY Times journalist and Stalin apologist.

  234. 234.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Sebastian: I was largely being facetious. But the answer to every question about who or what would stop a President Biden from just doing X, provided X required action in the Senate, would be Mitch McConnell.

Comments are closed.