Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

We still have time to mess this up!

Consistently wrong since 2002

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

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

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Let’s finish the job.

I really should read my own blog.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Sunday Afternoon Open Thread: Signs

Sunday Afternoon Open Thread: Signs

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Wonder if this dude got a quantity discount…

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95Comments

  2. 2.

    geg6

    Trump signs are sparse in my very Trumpy neighborhood. No Parnell signs at all. More Biden and Lamb, which I find somewhat astonishing.

  3. 3.

    Starfish

    Some people online said that those Trump signs are from 2016 when someone was giving them away for free. On the sign to the right, it says to vote in March.

  4. 4.

    Kay

    I’m sure there are “shy Trump voters” but I know there are “shy Biden voters” because I have met them and it is really bad that that never occurred to political media – it should have. I think it goes with their general approach to Democrats- that we’re not Real Americans.

    In a really Trumpy area like where I live and work the Trump supporters are extremely loud, obnoxious and belligerent. Perhaps unsurprisingly given that they admire the Trump Family, they are also weirdly entitled. I had one Trump supporter come in the the D headquarters and demand I tell her where the Trump headquarters was- when I told her I didn’t know she insisted I was lying. “I think you do know”. It’s apparently my job to tell these morons where they can get their Dear Leader flags.

  5. 5.

    A Good Woman

    In the twitter comments there is a reference to Biden signs being American/Union made.  I am on the board of a NFP that uses union print shops, and there is a union ‘bug’ on the signs and posters that show it’s union made.  I think I see one on the Biden sign.  That may account for the price differential — locally made by union labor.  Can we say that about the GOP signs?

  7. 7.

    zhena gogolia

    The cover image in the NYT Sunday Review section (paper version) today was a sea of Trump signs surrounding one lone Biden sign. If you looked way at the bottom at the tiny print, it was to illustrate an article about how Trump won rural PA in 2016.

    I showed it to my husband and he could not believe it.

  9. 9.

    bbleh

    Remember those slightly pathetic desperados at your high-school pre-game rallies?  The ones who were over the top in team-themed clothing, cheering and yelling, and just generally making embarrassing pests of themselves?

    That’s lawn-sign guy.  And he never grew out of it.

  12. 12.

    opiejeanne

    Yes, signs really don’t mean anything, don’t move the needle at all.  The last time I put a sign in my yard was for a school board election, two of them, actually, and one got stolen. That one was out at the corner of our yard, where most of the traffic is.

    I really want to put a big one up in our yard, maybe hang it from the porch rail. I notice that the Democrats here rarely put up a sign advocating anything higher than state politicians and wonder if they’re timid about arousing the wing nuts among our neighbors. .

  13. 13.

    zhena gogolia

    @opiejeanne:

    In a blue town in a blue state, I put a Kerry-Edwards sign in my yard in 2004. The next day my sign had been stolen and the neighbor’s Bush-Cheney sign put up in its place.

  14. 14.

    Kay

    And, there IS no Trump Headquarters in this county, nor do they need one, since they’re all in their homes posting elaborate conspiracy theories on Facebook and spending hundreds of dollars on his crappy merchandise.

  15. 15.

    Duckpond

    That array of dozens of Trump signs looks to me like the prototype for the future COVID-19 memorial. 200,000 signs (and growing) arranged in neat rows and columns. Perhaps with an ever-burning dumpster fire at the center.

  16. 16.

    Kay

    @A Good Woman:

    Union printers are a staple of D campaigns. I actually had such a good experience with the union printer in Toledo that D campaigns use I now use them for printing at the law office. It costs a little more but it’s nice work and I appreciate and reward nice work. They ship it to me- sometimes with a post-it smiley face – I think they like me better than the other customers :)

  18. 18.

    JPL

    When Ossoff ran for the sixth district, his signs were everywhere, and he lost. I didn’t see McBath’s signs and she won. Signs don’t vote.

  20. 20.

    frosty

    @geg6: 
    I’ll say it again. I drove around South Central PA a few times in the last few weeks. I am SO SICK of seeing Trump signs. They’re everywhere, and probably about 20:1 Trump to Biden.

    I know Obama said “Yard signs don’t vote” but this is demoralizing. I think we’ll lose occasional voters who figure it’s no use.

  21. 21.

    Mary G

    My beef with the Biden signs is that I ordered one on August 11 and it still hasn’t come yet. Update: got an email yesterday that they had been shipped, but USPS has no record of the tracking number.

  22. 22.

    Bobby Thomson

    Jarvis hasn’t ever met a Democratic presidential nominee he didn’t want to shiv.

    FFS, signs don’t vote and the county organizers often give them out for free or a reduced rate to get names and volunteers.

  23. 23.

    AliceBlue

    Is anyone else seeing “Jesus 2020” signs?  I live in rural Georgia, and there are a number of these in my small town, sometimes alongside Trump signs and sometimes alone.  I thought it was just a local thing, but I’m seeing a few in southside suburban Atlanta too.

  24. 24.

    Kay

    I bitch about yard signs because they’re such a pain, but I think they matter for “affinity”. People need other people to validate their choices. Democrats or Biden voters will go by the Biden campaign office and tap their horn- it’s like “I’m one of you”. Whatever. Give the people what they want. If they want yard signs, after what they’ve been thru, it’s the least I can do.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    @Mary G:

    Update: got an email yesterday that they had been shipped, but USPS has no record of the tracking number.

    They can attach a tracking number to a mailing before USPS gets it.

  28. 28.

    Another Scott

    @AliceBlue:  I’ve seen some orange signs in my neighborhood in NoVA saying something (very roughly) like:

    Be respectful of your neighbors
    who are Republicans
    and those who are Democrats

    I haven’t noticed any organizational logo on the signs. Dunno if it’s more than a local thing or not.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  34. 34.

    frosty

    @Kay: 
    I wouldn’t put out an Obama or Clinton sign in THIS neighborhood but I’m pissed off enough about the “Trump – No More Bullshit” flag next door that i’m ready to put Biden-Harris on my front porch railing.

    Maybe with glitter all over the back of it in case somebody steals it.

  35. 35.

    Kay

    I love how we ended up with two Republican debate moderators and one neutral. Biden will be fine- he’s a good debater and he knows a lot about a lot, but it sure doesn’t look to me like Republicans are being silenced- they’re everywhere and they never shut up.

    Now that we’ve ended conventions can we also end these debates? The moderators are horrible.

  38. 38.

    hells littlest angel

    My local Democratic party gives two signs for one $20 contribution, and I’m reasonably sure the whole $20 goes to the party. I find it impossible to believe Trump’s not getting his beak wet from sign sales.

    Anyway, my signs went up yesterday in a very red part of a purple district in a blue state. We’ll see how long they stay up (I have flirted with the idea of buying a shotgun).

  40. 40.

    The Moar You Know

    Last time I did a bumper sticker some asshole shot out my window with a pellet gun. Not even political; turns out one of our local surf shop logos is also used as a gang membership sign in certain neighborhoods here, and I was just parked in the wrong place.

    And I have never even considered a yard sign. I live on a closed street, for starters.

    Signs and stickers, they mean nothing. A vote. That means everything.

  41. 41.

    JPL

    @Mary G: USPS holding up Biden signs is where we are at.

    edit..   I see that a reasonable explanation can be made.  Please keep us updated.

  43. 43.

    Kay

    @frosty:

    Oh, you especially have to.  Trump people are all about status- they feel they are not given the status they deserve, hence their belligerence. The big displays have to be answered. Think of it like standing up to a bully. Once you do it once it gets easier.

    So many people have those video system doorbells now I am just waiting for the first yard sign theft bust. I will laugh and laugh.

  44. 44.

    Phylllis

    @Baud:  I’m reading Humankind by Rutger Bregman*. Just finished a section on the Kitty Genovese story. While I knew your statement to be true prior to reading it, Bregman’s recounting of the true story and how the NYT and Abe Rosenthal made bank on it for years certainly reinforces it.

    *Terrific book btw.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    They really don’t matter. Clinton won all the debates because Trump doesn’t know jack about anything, and it didn’t matter at all. He’ll just use it to spout 500 more lies. Have it, don’t have it, I don’t care and either does any other voter.

  46. 46.

    Geoduck

    In my blue(ish) town in a blue state (WA), I haven’t seen a single Shiatgibbon sign anywhere. Instead the resident GOPers are going the half-measure dog-whistle approach, and all have signs up for the dangerous unqualified doofus (a COVID-denying small town sheriff) who’s running for governor. I’m sure out in the hinterlands the national signs are up in full force.

  47. 47.

    Sab

    Well, I found the Trump office in Summit County Ohio. It’s within easy walking distance of my house! No wonder there are so many Trump signs in my very Democratic neighborhood. Not just the usual yard sign Republicans but everyone who votes Rebuplican now seems to have a yard sign.

    I hope they do become shy, because I will never forgive them, and I never want to even talk to any of them ever again. 2016 an extremely uninformed voter could maybe have misjudged Trump. Nobody in 2020 can use that excuse.

  49. 49.

    JPL

    @frosty: My neighbor has a Biden sign, but it’s near his door which has a camera.  Since I live alone, any type of vandalism would freak me out.

  50. 50.

    Kay

    @frosty:

    There’s this nice thing that happens in red areas where a voter will sidle up to you and let you know they agree. That’s what I mean about “affinity”. If I’m active in an election cycle I feel bad when we lose because I’m a bad loser, but also because I have met all these people and I like them and want them to win.

  51. 51.

    debbie

    Here, in a four-block by four-block area, there are more than 50 Biden signs vs. 2 Trump signs. Yesterday, I drove through two more conservative areas and only say 2 Trump sign in each. I’m sure there are more Trump supporters, but they lack the balls to display their candidate.

  53. 53.

    mrmoshpotato

    Fucking nutjobs.

    Other than the once again lying, selectively edited and thus misleading video, this repeated argument of blaming Biden for his policies dealing with disasters that occurred under Trump is the ultimate sign the @GOP is a propaganda, insane, & dishonest party worthy of destruction https://t.co/jhDnLPNsvk— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) September 13, 2020

  54. 54.

    Sab

    @Sab: I have noticed that tho old law and order guy on the corner of the housing development does not have any signs up at all. This yard is a pri,e location and he usually has lots of them. He is mostly Republican but he did have one for Cordray last time.

  55. 55.

    Splitting Image

    @WaterGirl:

    Crikey, so it is!

    In the end, journalism lost sight of its simple, vital reason to exist: to inform the public. Think back on story after story and round table after round table and ask whether it was conceived and executed to help inform the electorate or instead to entertain them and grab their attention or make the journalist look like the smart one. Our job is to make the public smart.

     

    I thought this was particularly pertinent to his tweet.

  56. 56.

    CarolPW

    @Mary G: I got an email update that the masks I had ordered had been shipped. When I clicked on the tracking number it went to USPS and they had no record of it. But the email said it had been shipped DHL smart mail parcel ground, and when I went to their tracking site they had it in their system.

  58. 58.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Kay: That happens in my building. My neighbors are mostly Republicans. The Ds keep quiet but you learn to read the signals. One woman confessed to me after I mentioned in passing some story I’d seen on Chris Hayes.

  60. 60.

    jackmac

    Got my Biden-Harris yard sign today from my local far, far west suburban Chicago Dem HQ. Cost was $10 (or whatever I could afford, they said).  I gave them the $10, figuring it would go towards their good work.

  61. 61.

    Ken

    @Starfish: @catclub: Yeah, they’re for a March 15 2016 primary.  They also don’t have “Pence”.

    Raises the question of why Trump retweeted it – No, I take that back.  In fact I’m going to try to stop using the phrase “raise the question” for anything to do with Trump.  The answer is always either narcissism, senility, or criminality.

  62. 62.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    Editorial from Science magazine:

    When President Donald Trump began talking to the public about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in February and March, scientists were stunned at his seeming lack of understanding of the threat. We assumed that he either refused to listen to the White House briefings that must have been occurring or that he was being deliberately sheltered from information to create plausible deniability for federal inaction. Now, because famed Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward recorded him, we can hear Trump’s own voice saying that he understood precisely that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was deadly and spread through the air. As he was playing down the virus to the public, Trump was not confused or inadequately briefed: He flat-out lied, repeatedly, about science to the American people. These lies demoralized the scientific community and cost countless lives in the United States.

    Over the years, this page has commented on the scientific foibles of U.S. presidents. Inadequate action on climate change and environmental degradation during both Republican and Democratic administrations have been criticized frequently. Editorials have bemoaned endorsements by presidents on teaching intelligent design, creationism, and other antiscience in public schools. These matters are still important. But now, a U.S. president has deliberately lied about science in a way that was imminently dangerous to human health and directly led to widespread deaths of Americans.

     

    h/t https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/09/11/science.abe7391?rss=1

  63. 63.

    jackmac

    @frosty: I’ve see my fair share of “no more bullshit” Triumpie flags.

    I think a reasonable response could be:

    “Biden-Harris 2020 — CUT THE BULLSHIT”

  64. 64.

    Bill Arnold

    @hells littlest angel:
    We’ll see how long they stay up (I have flirted with the idea of buying a shotgun).
    If it’s not too far to the road and the road is not high-traffic, considered getting a cheap webcam, configured to send motion detect emails to a free gmail account. Then if you can ID the perp, you can blackmail them. :-)

  65. 65.

    Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)

    @frosty: I’m not too far away from you in Berks County PA, in the semi-rural part which is very Trumpy. a moderate # of yard signs and those stupid flags too. All on the same houses as in 2016.

    I was given a yard sign by a friend who is handing them out in Northern Lancaster County and I put it out a week ago, no vandalism so far. There are NO other ones at all that I’ve seen within 5 or more miles of my house.

    I agree with @Kay: If they help a few people with affinity to Biden realize they aren’t alone around here its worth it.

  66. 66.

    trnc

    I’ve pointed out this contradiction before, but there’s a type of person who believes that outward, highly public signs of Trump enthusiasm (yard signs, rally attendance, etc.) are more reliable than polls BUT that Trump voters are too “shy” to tell the truth to pollsters.

    That’s a weird comment. With a potential voter base of tens of millions, there can be plenty of loud and proud cult members AND plenty of silent enablers.

  67. 67.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    I love that. People who aren’t online have a lot of pent up complaints about Trump. They come in to the headquarters, and just start venting. You feel like they can’t say it anywhere else.

  68. 68.

    MagdaInBlack

    @Bill Arnold:

    If those signs have metal frames perhaps we can arrange for it to give a ” mild, harmless, corrective ” shock, like an electric fence back home on the farm.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    @JPL:

    Since I live alone, any type of vandalism would freak me out.

    I understand that too. I was okay with no door knocking this season because the truth is most of these people are armed and a bunch of them are insane. I think it’s too risky for the volunteers. All you need is one Q nutter who is coming off 12 hours on you tube.

  71. 71.

    TS (the original)

    @A Good Woman:

    That may account for the price differential — locally made by union labor.

    I saw the differential & immediately thought it was a fundraising effort – and the smart team knew how much they could charge without reducing purchases. If they are made by union labor – an added bonus.

  73. 73.

    evodevo

    @Baud: If the USPS has no tracking #, then the item hasn’t been submitted to our system yet, i.e. hasn’t been mailed…on the other hand, given the screwing we have suffered at the hands of the Orange Mad King’s minions, it may have just been misplaced…us peons do try, however handicapped we are by the managers…

  75. 75.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Those Biden-Harris lawn signs are so overpriced and unpopular that they sold out within 24 hours and I’m still waiting for my backorder.

  79. 79.

    Brachiator

    @Splitting Image:

    In the end, journalism lost sight of its simple, vital reason to exist: to inform the public. Think back on story after story and round table after round table and ask whether it was conceived and executed to help inform the electorate or instead to entertain them and grab their attention or make the journalist look like the smart one. Our job is to make the public smart.

    Sometimes the public is intent on being stupid. It’s hard to fight that.

    I thought this was particularly pertinent to his tweet.

    His tweet was not journalism; it was commentary.

    Also, the Biden signs attempted to engage voters by providing a number to text the campaign. Not sure how effective it is, but there is no evidence that Biden is trying to make money off of campaign swag.

  80. 80.

    VOR

    Guy down the street put in two extra flag stands so he is now flying 3 flags on the front of his house: real US flag, Blue Lives Matter flag, and a Trump 2020 flag. His son used to fly a Confederate Stars and Bars on his pickup.

  81. 81.

    glory b

    @frosty: I  hadn’t thought of it one way or another, but Rachel Bitecofer wrote on twitter that signs show momentum and are important enough that she urged the Biden campaign to give them away, that a show of force makes a difference, lets people know they aren’t alone.

  84. 84.

    debbie

    Apparently, this belongs here:

    I counted 35 Biden signs on my 28-minute walk just now. (Maybe 36; I was distracted briefly by a very cute puppy bounding my way.)

  87. 87.

    frosty

    @Kay: I’m thinking if one sign goes up maybe more will follow.

    We had a GOTV Zoom call Saturday with our latest parachute PADEM kids. They had to field a lot of complaints about the lack of yard signs. One person said they didn’t understand our County at all.

  89. 89.

    E

    I live in Staten Island. Staten Island went big for Trump in the last election, something by like 10 points. I’ve been out and about the last couple of days for the first time in months and I could report that there are virtually no Trump signs anywhere. I mean that literally. I think I saw at most one Trump sign in the past couple of days since I’ve been out and about. In the last election virtually every house had a Trump sign. You couldn’t travel 5 feet without seeing a home with a Trump sign. This time, nothing. I actually saw more Max Rose signs than Trump signs. I have no idea if that’s meaningful but it is really bizarre. In Staten Island in any election any Republican running will instantly have a sign on the front lawn of virtually every house. Yet in this election  there are no Trump signs to be found anywhere.

  90. 90.

    Chris T.

    @Kay: I had one Trump supporter come in the the D headquarters and demand I tell her where the Trump headquarters was- when I told her I didn’t know she insisted I was lying. “I think you do know”. It’s apparently my job to tell these morons where they can get their Dear Leader flags.

    Tell her: “OK, you go down here, get on the I-77 south and drive until it joins up with I-95 south.  Keep going until you reach US 98 at exit 68. Take that east, across the lagoon — you’ll know when you get to the HQ where 98 intersects the A1A.”

  91. 91.

    Chris Johnson

    @E: 
    Either the support literally evaporated to where there aren’t any Trump votes there, or the (probably fewer) Trump voters believe they will be bombed or set fire to or just murdered if they put up a sign… because it’s projection, ‘cos they’ve gone all QAnon and THEY are about ready to begin murdering us at random, in hysterical fear.
    I think the Q people, from what I’ve seen, will be more likely to NOT put out signs because they believe they’ll be literally targeted and murdered by pedophiles and blacks just for the sign. These people are really far from being able to live in civilization, they’re a straight up doom cult and that has consequences. They’ll either have 1000 signs and all kinds of insane stickers all over their car, or they’ll have nothing and they’re cowering inside and afraid of any passing stranger.

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