Did anyone else find themselves feeling really discouraged after reading the comments in the midnight thread last night? I read the thread this morning, and I could feel the wind go right out of my sails.
The sky is not falling. The sky may be turning red from all the fires, but it is not falling.
Reading Balloon Juice is not supposed to pull me down. It’s not supposed to make me want to slit my wrists. It’s not supposed to make me feel like the game is so rigged we may as well lay down and die.
I get discouraged, too. Yesterday was a hard day for me, but I made myself pick one thing – just one thing – from the long list of things that I didn’t feel like doing. I called to check in on my 90-year-old friend who didn’t like Hillary but just couldn’t bring herself to vote for Obama, and didn’t like Hillary so she voted for Trump in 2016.
By 2016 I had concluded that she was either racist and sexist or was a die-hard Republican and just wouldn’t say so, but she’s 90 years old and grew up in a different world, so while I can’t seem to forgive my family for their votes, I can forgive her. I called to check in on her yesterday, and she told me that Trump is crazy, that he needs to be locked up in an institution, and that she doesn’t think we can survive 4 more years of Trump. That was a surprise!
Yes, they will lie, cheat and steal to win this thing. I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I wonder if – no matter what we do – they will steal it. But that way lies madness.
The sky is not falling. We are ahead in the polls. We are working our asses off. We all need to be shored up at times, I know I do. But focusing on the worst case of WHAT IFs feels like the worst thing we can do.
I pulled these quotes from the top of the Things We Can Do list. I thought they were worth remembering when I put them up, and I think so now, too.
We’ve been living under the thumb of an abuser for four years. Trump winning at all was a traumatically horrible surprise. We’ve all got PTSD from Hell, and are inclined to trust nothing because the hits keep coming from nowhere. But the well established fact is, these are not evil masterminds. They are not Lex Luthor. They’re shitlords. ~Frankensteinbeck 8/9
Another thing is that we have agency. We can act, speak, demonstrate, vote, etc. We are not merely inert vessels to be act upon by malign forces. Even saying “fuck you, you can’t beat me,” under your breath is an act of resistance to incipient tyranny and one I recommend that people start with whenever they start feeling defeated. ~Omnes Omnibus 8/9
This is a hard moment. Not because of this morning’s nonsense but because of all the threats we face through this election. We cannot control everything that happens to us, either individually or in our civic existence. But we can avoid losing battles in our own heads before they even start. Let’s not do that. Don’t cower. ~Josh Marshall 7/30
Is there one thing you have done TODAY to impact the election result?
Open thread.
Baud
I didn’t go back to read that thread. Explains some reactions I was seeing in the morning thread.
Elizabelle
Missed that thread. Thank Dog.
Agreed. Action trumps (ha ha) hopelessness. We have — what — about 45 to 49 days. Early voting has already started. We are already voting the bastard out.
Ivan X
Thank you for starting this thread. It really struck a nerve and is exactly what the doctor ordered. I was struck by how without hopefulness I felt this morning — not just because of last night’s thread, though that didn’t help amidst the pandemic, the air quality, and the specter of Trump — and how that made me feel there’s no point in doing anything. And that is how they win. We need to push back hard against that feeling here. I appreciate it.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I read aloud the George Takei twitter thread that Anne Laurie front paged this morning. That helped lift up my mood at least, and that of my wife.
Takei spent his childhood reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and saying “and liberty and justice for all” behind barbed wire, locked up for no reason. That was worse than whatever each of us is currently experiencing. It really was.
If he has hope, can I do less?
Zzyzx
Glad I missed it too.
I got excited today because it rained a bit and the sky looked clearer so I could do my normal power walk but it turns out that the smoke rolled right back and there’s my headache again.
Elizabelle
LOL. Not linking, but here’s the blogpost title: Late Night Open Thread: Scary Tales for Political Adolescents
And started off with a Financial Times link: what if Trump does not accept the election result?
Yeah, I remember sliding right past that whole post. The present is scary enough; not gonna spend any time on “what if’s”.
Also, FWIW, I am amazed that Michael Caputo may still have a job at CDC. Have not heard otherwise.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Please keep in mind that any discussions which dampen our mood and make us psychologically prepared to accept a Trump win are likely of Russian origin.
It’s insidious, but we can fight back if we call it out. Let’s build up an immune response.
I didn’t read the thread. I read the first couple lines of the tweet or article it started with and decided it was bed time.
Felanius Kootea
I’m a permanent vote by mail voter in California, as is my husband. We’ve made a plan to vote the minute we get our ballots in October and to drop off our votes in an official ballot drop box to avoid postal service problems. I’m also donating to Biden/Harris monthly.
I was on that thread last night and it pissed me off because of the defeatism but I do understand why people are pessimistic. I’ve fled one country in my lifetime; I’m not going anywhere this time – I will stand and fight for all it’s worth.
Chief Oshkosh
I woke at 4, worried until 5:23, said “fuck it”, got up, and got the day going. Plowed through the most boring part of the work that had to be done today, felt better, and now I am better.
Point? Just get moving on SOMETHING…ANYTHING, and you’ll kill the feelings of hopelessness, of frustration.
Elizabelle
More fun from the Wisconsin Democrats.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Out here in California, the sky is indeed falling.
Kay
They sure are strong, especially with the opportunity cost. The Trump campaign spent 3 months on law n order. That’s 3 months they can’t get back. They paid an enormous upfront cost in time and all the money in the world can’t buy it back. As always, Trump’s a bad businessman. You have to count time! It’s not free!
Kent
My black friends laugh at me.
“We’ve been working upstream our whole lifetimes. You guys have 3.5 bad years of Trump and you give up in despair? Put on your big boy pants and get some shit done”
Cheryl Rofer
Thanks, WaterGirl.
I didn’t read the late night thread. I don’t read a lot of threads, but I do see the occasional Eeyores.
I’ve attributed it to the necessity of venting, but that venting can spiral down.
November 3 is seven weeks from today. And then, yes, we have a couple of months until we have a president again. I am confident Biden will win – all the indicators are good – but not so confident that I’m sitting back.
In terms of mental health, I try to do a few little extra things for myself as I can. Yesterday I needed some things at the nursery and bought a couple of bags of bark mulch I didn’t strictly need but have made one area a little more attractive. I spread it this morning.
Starting up piano lessons again has given my week a little more structure – something to work toward.
When the end is in sight is when it gets most difficult, and Trump and company are doing everything they can to make it worse.
Do not obey in advance – Timothy Snyder
Montanareddog
The Pale Scot linked to the full speech in an earlier thread and it is worth watching. This is just the highlight moment. I hope it cheers others up as much as it did me.
Ed Milliband takes a 2 by 4 to Bojo the clown
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
I did and I was. And it’s not the first time either. Sometimes the comment section here can become very negative, almost to the point of being toxic. It’s almost as bad as LGM at times. I firmly believe that the “we’re all doomed!” comments drive other commenters away. When was the last time we saw Mnem? Or Steve in the ATL? Or Yarrow? M^4 hardly comments here anymore.
I understand it’s natural for people to drift away, but Mnem was a regular commentator for at least 10 years or more. Yarrow was also a regular commenter. They haven’t been seen since late last year
CaseyL
Today I signed up for social media monitoring training through Common Cause, as part of the Protect-the-Vote volunteer campaign I signed up for weeks ago.
opiejeanne
@Baud: I read it last night. The bad parts were like the worst sort of imaginary disaster porn, the if this happens we’re doomed… well, we’re doomed anyway. .
zhena gogolia
@Kent:
Great comment.
Baud
@CaseyL:
I hope they assign you to Balloon Juice.
CarolDuhart2
Here’s something I always remind myself-thanks Rick Wilson. ETTD. Trump can’t help but be self-destructive and step on rakes. I think he could have just let the Government run on auto-pilot for four years, including the pandemic response, and he would have had Obama’s economy and have been a strong contender for a second term. Sure, being President means that there’s some crisis or another-that’s life, but even here he could have handed it over to Congress or something-just send the money to whoever needed it.
He could have given even a off the cuff denunciation of the Nazis at Charlotteville, and Joe Biden might not have run.
He could have let experts handle the pandemic, and major donors might still have given to his campaign, especially Sheldon Adelson who’s now losing money on empty casinos.
He could have not said the pussygrabber stuff, and maybe Republicans might still have the House and a decent chance to keep the Senate.
trollhattan
Quibble: ash covering everything outdoors indicates sky=falling.
Soprano2
I think Sab’s dog dying suddenly put everyone on that thread in a sad mood, plus that news about the ICE camp where they’re doing forced hysterectomies on women came out last night. Sometimes there’s just so much bad news at once that it’s hard to resist the down spiral. After lunch I’m going to put flowers on my sister’s grave, today is the 8th anniversary of the day she died. So, this day is particularly suck for me.
opiejeanne
Thank you, WaterGirl. Since we don’t have sunshine here on the West Coast (chain-smoking the forests and fields) we needed the bit of sunshine you added to the day.
trollhattan
@CarolDuhart2:
You have a valid point. Of course, what makes Trump Trump is being himself, and taking a 5-year hiatus from being Trump is not possible for Donny–he can’t stow his inner Donny 5 minutes.
Baud
@Kent:
In fairness, black people aren’t faced with a moral dilemma concerning the future of their relationship with their friends and family. Unity is a source of strength.
White people are in a cold civil war with the majority of them on the wrong side.
That aside, agree.
MJS
Today I told Act Blue to stop sending me inaccurate texts (claiming I’ve contributed $0 when I have contributed) and to work on the tone of the texts they do send, which come across (to me) as very Trump campaign-like, i.e., how dare you not contribute anything!? Don’t you know what’s at stake?! I’m hoping someone takes the response to heart and adjusts the message. “If our records are accurate, please consider contributing what you can so that we can reclaim this country” is a much better message, in my view.
CaseyL
@Baud: Hopeless cause. I’d use up my penalty cards on the swearing alone.
chopper
i just ignore the threads full of downers. i understand the sentiment, and i have those days, but the closer we get to this election the more i try to think of things in a different way. cynicism is normal, but it isn’t always healthy.
trollhattan
@Montanareddog:
Question time is probably my favorite thing about Parliament. BoJo’s performance art is not good at all in that forum and his hair raking does not have its desired effect there. Maybe he needs a Finnish barber?
What the Tories are pulling, ripping up the Brexit deal with the EU in front of their faces, should enrage all UK citizens but it seems a LOT of the English are all in. What are the odds it rips the UK apart, beginning with the Scots?
catclub
speaking of something to do: Since 65% of Florida voters voted to end felon disenfranchisement, maybe there will be another ballot initiative to end the associated poll tax.
Annie
@trollhattan:
Er, no. It’s not the sky. It’s ashes. And I live in San Francisco so they are falling on us here. It’s ashes. And you clean them off. And then you do it again — I do it again. And again. And the time will come — it really will — when they are not falling any longer.
Maybe I just feel better because we have some sunshine today, and the air is a little better.
Please can everyone remember:
greenergood
OT: Sorry, but what’s with this Caputo bloke? https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/michael-caputo-scientists-sedition-cdc-hhs-facebook – Adderall or Colombian nose salts? He sounds deranged, which is just right for the Drumph, but not so good for the rest of us, seeing as he’s (just checking Wikipedia): ‘assistant secretary of public affairs in the Department of Health and Human Services in the Trump administration although he has no background in health care’. How reassuring …
?BillinGlendaleCA
In happy news…
The kiddo posted an incredible picture she took of Knik glacier northwest of Anchorage that she took with her iPhone. I really need to tell her about the mistake I made of not taking a good camera with me to Seattle when I was in grad school.
Ked
Been posting more at LGF than here the last couple of years, but it’s a similar crowd, and a similar mood.
I’ve struggled to put together what I think about the current moment, but a few things in this post made a few things gel
1. Yes, we should be wary – there are real threats out there, but it is also true that the Trump admin is the most incompetent band of nincompoops in the Exec branch since at least Hoover. They mess shit up all the time, but they do it badly, and while we need to be ready, we also need to be realistic.
2. The one they do well is liberal-baiting and making everyone in the country froth at the mouth.
3. THIS IS THE ACTUAL STRATEGY: Make everyone so anxious about the election that we give up, and don’t vote. People who comment on political blogs are not the primary targets of this, but like every other Rethug strategy it’s about depressing turnout. If they get 10% of dems and independents not to show up, they probably win.
4. Even at this, they’re really bad. Because one of the subtexts is “I don’t have to go vote for Trump, he’s just going to rig the election anyway.” Or alternatively, the Dems are.
5. Resist, resist, resist! Just because Trump is too incompetent, doesn’t mean he’s not trampling over the guardrails that would prevent the next Republican president – or even some over-ambitious Dem – from seizing power.
Conclusion – if you believe what they are saying, you’re a fool. If you don’t act to counter it, you’re going to lose eventually anyway. Allowing it to depress you is allowing them to win.
opiejeanne
@Chief Oshkosh: We can’t do much in the garden today, still dangerous air here, so we’re making a big apple pie using our own apples. The pan I’m using will give us more than the usual 8 slices, maybe more than 10.
Made marinara yesterday from stuff we grew, made zucchini bread the day before. Maybe we’ll make some pickles later. Processing the stuff we grow is like a job, helps focus the mind/offers distraction for a while.
Another Scott
Finally got my Biden / Harris bumper stickers (ordered from the Biden Store) today. They were shipped from Austin, TX.
That is all.
Cheers,
Scott.
Cameron
https://youtu.be/a9Bs4xhDyxw
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
That up by 10 in WI is very encouraging. Hopefully it holds. Combined with the Green Party being denied, this is great news for a must win state
different-church-lady
That. Right. There.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Ked:
Exactly. They want us to feel discouraged so we won’t bother to vote. And we should act to counter the bullshit.
James E Powell
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Now that’s going too far!
different-church-lady
@Annie: We don’t even have to get 100k Trump voters: we can get 100k more of our voters to the polls.
Kent
What do you mean? Black people don’t live and work in apartheid ghettos. Most have as many white friends and co-workers as we do. They’ve been doing this their whole lives.
Nelle
As I’ve mentioned, I’m the Democratic GOTV person for my neighborhood. I’m branching out beyond the registered D’s a bit in my evening walks and chats with neighbors. Last night, I asked N if they were registered and she said yes, they are registered R’s. But not this kind, nor were they in 2016. Two more votes 45 is not getting in Iowa. 44% of registered D’s in my county have requested absentee ballots compared to many fewer R’s. And it seems like the R’s that are requesting them are not all going to be party line votes. I take encouragement by the teaspoon, if need be.
Now, to strengthen my stomach for the Bernie household that says they prefer 45 to Biden. The last encounter ended with him telling me the only reason i could support Buden is because i am uninformed. May just pass them up.
oatler.
As Eeyore might have said, stop parading in my rain.
JMG
Fatigue breeds dark thoughts, and we’re all tired. But as far as can be known, we’re ahead, ahead by enough Trump isn’t close enough to cheat. Seven weeks to go. All those apocalyptic scenarios? Nobody would be putting them out there for fear clicks if Trump was heading to re-election. Remember that.
Baud
@JMG: Exactly. The media knows what’ll get clicks.
Montanareddog
@trollhattan: That was not PMQs but the debate over the bill that reneges on the Working Agreement signed by Johnson himself just 9 months ago.
I believe that the Government case was supposed to be presented by the Business Secretary but, rumour has it, Johnson heard that Keir Starmer (a skilled prosecutor who has skewered Johnson at every PMQs since he became Labour leader) would not be there as he is self-quarantining. So he came in person cos he ain’t askeered of Ed Milliband. Well he is now.
SiubhanDuinne
Well, I haven’t actually done it yet, but I’m signed up to do phone-texting for the Michigan Dems starting tonight. Have committed to 10 hours (two hours each Tuesday and Thursday remaining in September).
km
Today: I am compiling a list of volunteering opportunities for my kiddo in Wisconsin. I’ve already pestered her to check her registration far too many times & I know she will volunteer but might not know where to look. And I’ve sent her a link to state legislature races in WI where Democrats have a chance of flipping or winning an open seat. (from the list at https://sisterdistrict.com/candidates/ )
And then I’ll go text bank into Georgia and North Carolina.
opiejeanne
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Is there a link?
Baud
Liberals take some pride in being creative and abstract thinkers, but this is the dark side of that.
Sometimes you just need to think less and focus on getting the ordinary and mundane tasks that need to be done.
Dupe1970
@catclub: You might have a better chance if you require that the state of Florida indicate in writing within 30 days of release the precise amount owed with full itemization or it is assumed their rights are fully restored and they owe nothing. Or some such.
different-church-lady
Boy, that WaPo op-ed really fucked with our heads, huh?
And that’s exactly what it was designed to do.
Elizabelle
Ha ha. Not clicking, because Glenn Fucking Kessler. But for once, information in the headline and not just a teaser. Washington Post.
Trump says there are 25 ‘witnesses’ disputing report that he disparaged fallen troops. Nope.
la caterina
@catclub: I sent some money yesterday to a fund that is paying people’s fines. That felt good. Seems like Bloomberg should just go ahead and pay ALL the fines with whatever he’s got in the couch cushions.
L85NJGT
Late September? Time for the WWC I didn’t leave the party, the party left me….. media blitz.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne: Not sure how or if I should link to her FB.
A Ghost to Most
Google “toxic positivity.” It prevents people from honestly assessing their situation.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Can you copy and paste the picture to a neutral site?
MazeDancer
@Nelle:
Do not engage. Closet racists and sexists, the lot of them. Also, they live to get you angry,
Don’t bother.
Barbara
Incessant negative messaging is paralyzing. My father could extract a dark cloud from the bluest sky. The barrage of negativity basically ruined my brother’s life. Or maybe he inherited the Eeyore gene. Whatever. Whether its commenters here or the news media, the consistent focus on the bad things that might happen divorced from actual facts or reporting is hand wringing without much purpose. I get it, some people feel the need to vent and express their worry and concern, but for those of us who find that to be basically not much more than a projection of their fear onto us, we should skip it. You don’t actually learn anything through worry.
FlyingToaster
Saw the above the fold tweets on the midnight thread (as I was finishing up last night’s baking) and was pretty much, “Not tonight, Satan”.
Everyone needs to gauge the top of each post and decide if you want to go down that rabbit hole right now… Or as they used to warn at Sadly, No: “I’m staying in the boat, ’cause them mangoes is rotten.”
Up heah in the bluest of blue states (the
People’s RepublicCommonwealth of Massachusetts), our SoC already sent out our corrective postcards to DeJoy’s shitcard (sent only to HerrDoktor). So we know we’re registered; we know that the Russians have been unable to compromise our registrations, and we’ll be able to hike down to Town Hall next month and vote early for Biden/Harris. And Markey, and Clark, and a passel o Democrats. Or wait to Nov 3 and vote 4 blocks away. So long as we wear our masks, and wait on the tape lines.And WarriorGirl is back in school, live, mornings! Everything else is virtual: remote afternoons, remote music school, remote makerspace Minecraft sessons. They’re going to attempt a masked and socially distanced violin group play-in (well, play in the front yard of the school) in a couple of Saturdays. We don’t have a lot of time left for outdoor stuff; it does get cold up heah in the frozen north.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
I watched the Princess Bride reunion thing the other night, and even with all the glitches it was fun (I actually enjoyed the Q&A more than the actual table read).
But I won’t be watching the P&R reunion (though I might throw WisDems another ten bucks). Had never seen Parks and Recreation when it was on; after I got Netflix a few months ago, I was excited that I could binge-watch it, but half a dozen episodes was enough to persuade me that my time was better spent napping. Simply cannot warm to Amy Poehler, although she wasn’t the only reason.
I know everybody else’s MMV, and that’s fine. What a dull world it would be if we all agreed, eh?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@A Ghost to Most:
You never offer any solutions beyond vague generalities of mass violence after Election Day.
We have to do our best to make it impossible to steal the election and just go from there. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. Wallowing in despair and constantly believing we’re fucked no matter what we do plays into Trump’s hands. It’s what he wants
Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
Agreed.
There go two miscreants
I almost always go back in the morning and read the overnight threads…right after my self-flagelation. Fortunately, the Covid-19 update thread is usually there to cheer me up!
OK, needs more sarcasm font, I guess. Seriously though, I wasn’t depressed because it seems that we’ve plowed that ground a number of times before. And the George Takei thread was moving and cheering!
Also: what Kent pointed out. Black people in America have put up with this crap since forever. (ETA that I am an old white guy)
My action for today (working on it now, in fact): checking to see what $$ I can give this month, and going down the list to make the contributions.
MazeDancer
Whenever you feel the blue willies, do something. Cheryl is right, Anything is better than nothing.
And spend time at 270toWin.com
Nothing is more reassuring than clicking on pathways to 270 that include losing both PA and FL. (Which isn’t going to happen)
Biden winning in AZ changes everything. As does his lead in MN, MI, and WI.
Stay reality based. Don’t borrow trouble.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: https://www.billinglendaleca.com/Patreon/Stuff/n-cmXxdR/i-Mg2L49z/A
James E Powell
@Nelle:
Thank you, you’re doing God’s work out there. Back when I lived in Cleveland I did door to door work nearly every cycle. I remember the stuff I heard, the abuse, the insanity, and most of all the unbridled racism. Just smile, say thank you, and keep walking. I would tell my friends and they just did not believe me.
Keep the faith. You bring in Iowa and get rid of Ernst, dinner’s on me.
Baud
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Oh, that is gorgeous.
Elizabelle
@SiubhanDuinne: I have never seen Parks and Rec either; hear it’s good.
And no, won’t be watching. But it’s interesting that the WisDems are able to pull in “the big guns.” I hope some of the other state parties have virtual programs in the works. It’s a great idea.
And we libtards have all the best entertainers. We do, we do, we do. With very limited exceptions.
SiubhanDuinne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
WOW!
Kay
This would be a great political science project- I don’t think it’s ever happened before. WTF with that middle age group?
jackmac
@Another Scott: Still waiting for my order. It’s been almost a month. But that’s okay. if the are flooded with orders, that’s a good thing.
trnc
@SiubhanDuinne: I did phone banking on Sunday for the state party and am planning that for most Sundays. Most people hung up right after I asked for the person listed, a few asked who I was first and then declined further conversation (although usually not rudely), but I can’t say that surprises me in today’s environment. I don’t mean just political, but the fact that people get all manner of unsolicited calls and just don’t want to deal with it. I think it doesn’t help that the dialer system routes the number through NY, so the call recipients don’t realize I’m actually calling from NC.
I did get one guy who made some noises about not liking the way DT behaves, but would never vote for a democrat because (fill in BS here). I just told him that was an interesting opinion but didn’t engage because
1) I was still feeling my way and trying not to have the dialer website log me out, and
2) If there’s anything I’ve learned since 2016, it’s that if anyone supports DT at this time, nothing I can say would change their mind.
So, my goal is to just encourage non-DT supporters that I reach to go out and vote blue.
Elizabelle
@?BillinGlendaleCA: OMGosh. Even more spectacular than expected.
That one could win a contest prize. Your stepdaughter is one talented photog.
Baud
@Kay:
Prime midlife crisis territory?
Also remember that those age figures are skewed by race.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Ooh, that was meta!
Benw
@?BillinGlendaleCA: great googly moogly
Kirk Spencer
It may be odd, but my means of reminding myself to get back in the fight is to look at my list of messes that need cleaned up as soon as we win. Yes it’s long, but I suspect solving some will clear others just due to common partoes’ involvement.
And fwiw, I only need my personal number one to remotivate. In short version, fix the kids in cages horror.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Kay:
Reagan Babies.
SiubhanDuinne
@Elizabelle:
Yes, absolutely. I get that I’m not their audience, and delighted they are doing so much to attract and retain new voters.
Elizabelle
@A Ghost to Most: I don’t think “toxic positivity” means what you think it does, in this context.
Do you think people here are just sitting on their asses this election? Taking everything for granted.
Oh, right. Of course you do.
You’re going back into the pie filter if you keep this up.
trollhattan
@Montanareddog:
Interesting, thanks for the further detail. Did not realize BoJo was filling in–he sure got gored for not prepping and thinking he could just BoJo his way through.
trollhattan
@Baud:
Now stop that!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: It would be better with a real camera(in addition to not being able to print it at any real size due to the limited resolution of the phone), but it’s washed out at the sun, a real camera has ways of dealing with that(you’ll see examples in my next OTR).
trnc
Even a 30 day restriction from requiring any newly “found” fees to be paid would be an improvement over the possibility of a new fee showing up literally on election day, notwithstanding the fact that it’s ludicrous that the state doesn’t know all fees owed at the time of release from prison.
Ruckus
@Ivan X:
At work today and of course the radio is on the same station it always is, which plays the same music it did 30, 40, 50 years ago. They’ve added new DJs and now have a morning crew of 3. Insipid, vapid, annoying are their names. They asked a question, which is “If there was one thing you could get for free for the rest of your life what is it? My answer was oxygen. Everyone else was something irrelevant. That’s the way most people who aren’t in dire need of air and food would answer. Most of us are in that position and that is why many people don’t see reality, don’t see the world around them, they see some mythical world in which their idea of perfection is all there is.
Benw
It’s not much but I just got and tacked up my early voter info form and plan to show up on the first day.
I also mailed back my poll worker application yesterday.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
The fact that the other side has to resort to outright tinfoil, lizard men from space have come to eat us all, conspiracy theories might mean we are winning. Maybe not a specific election, but were winning the debate.
FlyingToaster
@Kay:
All the racist, misogynist, xenophobic assholes I went to HS with. Which is why I moved East for college, and then further East until I reached the ocean, just to fucking escape them.
And, mind you, they’re running the state government in Missouri, nowadays. Jeebus!
opiejeanne
@la caterina: They don’t know how much is owed, and Florida isn’t obliged to tell them how much they owe in order to have their voting rights restored.
Medicine Man
I don’t think Progressivism is really conducive to being content or even optimistic, at least not politically. We’re not happy with the way the world is and a little too used to things not going our way. 2016, of course, is the epitome of these fears, making it really hard to have any trust that people are going to do the right thing.
Things have gone well beyond politics as a spectacle however; Trump became president because a lot of people said “why not, what could go wrong?” What I know, is that four years later there are less people looking at government like its a show to be watched rather than something you’re all living through.
Luciamia
“Made marinara yesterday from stuff we grew,”
Maybe its a reflection of my anxiety levels, but at first I thought you meant ‘marijuana.’ ?
opiejeanne
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Ok, never mind. I thought maybe she was on Flickr.
Ruckus
@Elizabelle:
Who’s going to fire Caputo?
shitforbrains thinks he is normal.
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
In its defense (not that it needs one) it’s a character-driven show that works better as the episodes accumulate and one starts anticipating who’s going to do what. Sum > parts.
e.g., Folks will sniff that they caught one Seinfeld episode and loathed it and everything about it, which is basically the whole point of the show–bad people, acting badly and getting punished for it. I do acknowledge some folks just like sitcoms to be “Full House” or “Designing Women.” There’s a ton of bandwidth to fill and with Netflix et al, something for literally everybody.
Barbara
@A Ghost to Most: Sure. My mother in law being Ms. Pollyanna Sunshine insisting that she could have dessert even though she had diabetes was exhibiting — literally — toxic positivity. My father telling me that my failure to get into Harvard Law School (rather than the other elite institution I got into) would doom my career was not. As if people here are drowning in positive messaging.
Kelly
We are one Oregon Coast out of the smoke. The knot in my stomach has loosened up considerably.
Let’s see, this summer a 60′ falling snag just missed me, the fire just missed our house, should I really be in the tsunami zone?
trollhattan
@Ruckus:
It’s taken Trump four years to find all his little Trumplets. He’s not ditching them now!
Marcopolo
@Kay: Seems to me the most pertinent piece of information coming out from all of these polls is that Trump’s support with the olds has cratered. This is backed up by Watergirl’s anecdata. Which is a big effing deal as the olds do vote. NYT politics fellow on NPR a couple hours ago said they are seeing a shift of anywhere from 10-20 points. Which is one of the things that explains this FL poll which just dropped:
trollhattan
@Luciamia:
“Ma, can I have more of your sauce?”
trollhattan
@Marcopolo:
Oh please, oh please, oh please. We’ve been very very good! Just one Florida, is that too much to ask?
Barbara
@Kay: We had an extended discussion on just this point a while back. In my view, the answer is: Ronald Reagan. And I would bet that if you polled that group by five year instead of 20 year band, you would find that the 55-64 group is even more skewed than the next five year bands.
White people who came of age between 1978 and 1987 (of whom I am one) are perhaps the most likely Republican voters of any age demographic since they started keeping track. They have been voting Republican for decades, and for most of them, it is not personal to Trump. No doubt for some of them it is, but it’s a whole generational shift.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
If Trump had merely did a Cumo impersonation on the virus for the last six months he would be strolling to a victory in November. The man is an idiot.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@opiejeanne: She’s not on Flickr, FB and IG; but I posted a link to a copy on my site upthread.
Annie
@different-church-lady:
Or both! ?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@James E Powell:
Hah. It can get pretty bad over there. One of these days LGM is going to need a welfare check or something
Kay
@Barbara:
We did, but it’s just interesting. Especially interesting is the difference w/65 +. The gap there is bigger than the gap with people younger than 45.
I wonder if it’s Facebook. Anyway! Doesn’t matter because Biden is so strong with older voters.
cleek
Trump’s entire MO is to cause chaos and then slink away with what he can grab.
all that despair? that’s the chaos he’s going for.
Barbara
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Yep. It is truly astounding. I am still astounded. It’s the one thing that makes me certain he is really and truly a stupid man. He cannot fathom anything deeper than a piece of paper.
James E Powell
@Kay:
I would like to see that group broken down further. 20 years is a pretty wide net. Then I’d like to ask them 5 – 10 questions to figure out just what they are thinking. It would probably give me agita but it might reveal something useful.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Marcopolo:
It’s sad that the opinion for how well DeSatan has handled the pandemic is so polarized. Still, good news that he’s ahead in Florida for now, at least in this poll
Immanentize
@Kay:
It’s not an overwhelming advantage (42-51). That group has probably benefited the most from the Obama recovery and are in an earning place/job situatiuon where the things roiling the country (including covid) probably impacts them less than others?
Luciamia
.” The man is an idiot.”
He always knows better than anybody about everything. And that will never change.
Kay
@Marcopolo:
Right but that’s why it’s interesting. It would be one thing if it were “45 and up preferred so and so”. But it’s like this middle number is holding it back from “blowout”. It becomes more apparent as he loses support with all the other ages – that’s the only reason people started noticing it.
Aleta
@?BillinGlendaleCA: WOW.
Litlebritdifrnt
I am still shaking with disgust about the forced hysterectomies news. I thought the RWNJs were pro life, or is that just for white folks? This is scary stuff and echoes the past with the news coming out of the German camps.
James E Powell
@Marcopolo:
Some men, you just can’t reach.
Geminid
trump’s 2016 vote total was second lowest of any of the 10 major party presidential candidates running in 2000 and since, not far ahead of McCain’s 2008 vote. He may have added some voters since, but I doubt if the total exceeds his defectors. It’s probably the opposite. On the other hand, I have never seen Democrats as energized and unified as they are now. So I think I’m going to see a very good election for Democrats from top to bottom, a wave election. That said, I’m tense as hell, and I don’t think I’ll be able to relax until Joe Biden is sworn in as President. Even then it will probably take a couple days.
rp
@SiubhanDuinne: Did you start with the first season? If so, skip it and go right to season 2. They retooled the show after the first year.
Quiltingfool
Okay, I see I’m not the only one who gets down in the dumps when reading all the “Trump’s not gonna leave if he loses” or “Trump supporters are going to start killing people if Trump loses” scenarios. I handle this by walking away from the iPad and go sew some pretty fabrics together to make a pretty quilt, with help from my cat, Baby, aka “Quilting Supervisor.” Then I think about how lazy, stupid and inept Trump is, and about all his low quality hires (hat tip to Miss Kay!) who aren’t the brightest crayons in the box. I think about Trump supporters in my neck of the woods, and no, they aren’t going to kill people or really do much of anything, except whine, if Trump loses. They may talk the talk, but they won’t walk the walk. They know they won’t skate if they commit a felony and get caught. And, I think they know, deep down, that Trump is a lying shitbag, but outwardly supporting him means you are a member of the tribe. There will always be crazy people who will do harm to others, and I hate that; but they will probably have a consequence for that action that will have a serious, negative effect on their lives. Doesn’t help those who were harmed, but cold comfort in some form of justice.
Anyway, those thoughts cheer me up. We just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other – and not back down.
Barbara
@Kay: True. Older voters (“the greatest generation”) have also trended consistently Republican over the last few cycles (basically, ever since Clinton left office). I think there may be a few cultural factors in place for why they but not their younger cohorts have shifted. First, Biden really does know how to talk to older people, and they know him. Second, they really did grow up in a cultural milieu that prized decorum to a much greater degree. Maybe Trump’s crude, threatening nihilism was acceptable when it was aimed at immigrants and you know who, but when it starts throwing off consequences for you personally — I mean, consequences like death — all of a sudden you might find your bearings and see him a little more clearly. And third — saying this softly and not trying to unfairly generalize, but older people exhibit more entrenched patterns of race and gender bias. Biden versus Trump levels that particular playing field for them.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
“He” being Biden
geg6
Thank you, WG. I am staying out of late night threads from now until Nov. 3 because that seems to be where all the Debbie Downers are most of the time. Reading last night’s made me almost suicidal.
As for me, I went and picked up my postcards from the local Democratic Committee office. The atmosphere there was the exact opposite of that. Very nice, energetic and highly motivated people there. It was a real balm to the soul. In very good news, my John’s brother, who hasn’t voted since the 1970s, has re-registered and will be voting. Against Trump. That’s one non-voter we’ve gotten on board that will not ever show up in any of the PA polls, but if there are a lot more like him, we’ll have it in the bag here.
Marcopolo
@Kay: Well, the obvious humorous answer is it is just identity politics :). Biden is older than Trump. Or it could be that Covid-19 which is so much more deadly for older folks and Trump’s botched response to it has been the straw that broke the camel’s back for them. Or it could be the respect for the military thing. Or a combination of all of that.
Anyways, I am just hoping that that advantage sustains and that the Biden campaign ups their outreach efforts to the segments of the Hispanic population that are not captive R voters (looking at you Cuban subdemographic).
Kent
This is the weirdest thing to me too. I’m in that group and I just don’t get it. We mostly grew up with Reagan. But still. A lot of water under the bridge since then and I think we mostly supported Obama 12 years ago when we were 30s and 40s.
I’ve heard various theories. But none that really explain to my satisfaction why this age group is so thoroughly MAGA.
And Trump is not one of us either. He is 15 years older.
WaterGirl
@Benw: Everything is something!
Kay
@Barbara:
I’m grateful to the 65+ people because I think Florida is key to avoiding a lot of the worst case scenarios. Florida puts him away and it puts him away early. It’ll save us a lot of bullshit and angst.
I think it’s a myth that Florida is particularly bad at election administration too. I think swing states get much more scrutiny than states that are never close get. It only looks bad because you’re seeing it :)
piratedan
@Barbara: and as a member of that generation I have no idea why…
we grew up with Watergate being a thing….
the end of the war in Vietnam….
the possibility of being drafted again to go to war in Iran was a thing
the end of the oil crisis was still a thing
Maybe many of them bought into the bullshit that Reagan sold, I sure as hell didn’t…. watched him fuck up in the Middle East, watched him shit on civil rights and unions (breaking the aircraft controllers) and his relaxation of regulations on the financial sector allowing white collar crime to flourish… never understood the appeal.
Marcopolo
@James E Powell: That’s the strangest number to me in the poll. If you look deeper you see that skeletor’s Covid-19 number is worse than DeSantis’. It’s as if folks still think Scott is governor or something.
Kent
Here in the Portland metro they are now telling us that we maybe won’t see our smoke clear until the weekend.
Sheesh. I’ve never wished for rain so much in my life while living in the PNW.
The Moar You Know
@Barbara: my mother’s got this in spades. “Happy Birthday” = “one day closer to death”. I’ve spent most of my life trying not to be wired that way. It’s exhausting and I didn’t sign up for a life of squatting under my bed in terror.
Barbara
@piratedan: Maybe for the same reason we got Hoover in the 1920s, after the trauma of war and pandemic. And even looking at those numbers, it’s worth noting that more than 40% of people polled are not voting for Trump. It doesn’t take a big shift in numbers in a large population to change the critical mass.
H.E.Wolf
Thank you for this thread!
I have done 1 thing today. I asked for and received a dozen new addresses from http://PostcardsToVoters.org, for an African-American man running for the GA State Legislature on a platform that emphasizes better access to health care. The photos of his family, and himself as a youngster and as an adult, lifted my spirits first thing this morning.
Wait; I did 2 things. I also logged into the database for my State Democratic Party and began my daily volunteer task of matching up new volunteers with their local field organizers. Seeing the steady arrival of dozens of new volunteers – with numbers on an upward trajectory – cheers me up every day.
The Moar You Know
@Kay: old Gen Xers, young boomers. I still am convinced it’s because this is the demographic that got the joys of forced busing, implemented (I feel deliberately) in the most incompetent, traumatizing, hamfisted way possible.
Barbara
@The Moar You Know: I am never going to be an optimist because it takes determined effort not to expect bad things to happen. But I saw the impact of sustained negativity for myself and my siblings and was determined not to replicate the poison that keeps you too afraid to try anything new for fear of failure.
Marcopolo
@Kay: I think Nicole Wallace nailed the issue with Florida on her show yesterday. She said something to the effect that FL is ground zero for modeling every aspect of awfulness that Trump embodies, including gullibility for conspiracy theories, racial animus, and DeSantis (who she called Trump’s mini-me) & the entire state gov’t apparatus rebroadcasting all of Trump & his campaign’s lying bullshit.
Kathleen
@Kent: Every time I freak out (20 times a day) I think about what African Americans have endured and accomplished during hundreds of years of Fascist rule in the Southern states and what they continue to deal with today and tell myself I don’t have the luxury of wallowing in despair.
Another Scott
@cleek: Yup.
We should remember that he was cheering on the great recession because it meant that (if he actually had any money) he could buy property on the cheap.
https://www.cnn.com/2016/05/19/politics/donald-trump-2006-hopes-real-estate-market-crashes/index.html
There should come a time when nearly everyone should recognize that it’s not all incompetence or him not caring – he actually enjoys breaking stuff and society.
You know he’s rofling in private about all the idiots and looosers who show up at his rallies and crowd in to see him and then end up in the hospital 7-21 days later. “They love me so much they’re happy to die for me!!1”
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
West of the Rockies
That thread last night was sad. Sab lost a beloved dog, so that made things worse. The article mentioned in this post (and a 538 article examining the same issue–“Oh, no’s! Whatever shall we do if Trump refuses to leave? We’ll be helpless!”) brought out the Chicken Littles, for sure.
Immanentize
@Litlebritdifrnt: “Pro life” is just the motto printed on right wing cudgels. Meaningless unless screaming at some woman to get in line!
Roger Moore
@different-church-lady:
I think the underlying problem is that our heads have already been fucked with. We are all being faced with a whole bunch of really serious problems- COVID, fires, black people being murdered by police, etc.- and it can all feel overwhelming. I suspect that a lot of us are suffering from mild depression. It makes it much easier to fall into a funk when you hear this kind of thing.
An important part of fighting it is not letting ourselves get trapped into a sense of helplessness. Some of that is steering clear of that kind of column whenever possible. But it’s also really valuable to focus on what we can to do about stuff like that.
Immanentize
@Marcopolo: But that split is a pretty good stand in for Trump v Biden.
James E Powell
@piratedan:
What Reagan sold plus what was sold about Reagan. I am shocked how many essentially liberal and D voting people I know who refer to Reagan as if he were a good president with many positive achievements. He was a horrible president, with horrible rhetoric, policies, and appointments.
H.E.Wolf
@Kay:
The FL State Democratic Party did a very canny thing 2 years ago: it tested the effectiveness of the Postcards To Voters’ writing campaigns on GOTV in one county, saw that it made a significant difference, and asked PTV to bring their volunteer writers to bear on sending every registered Democrat in FL a postcard asking them to sign up for FL Vote By Mail.
Postcards To Voters volunteers not only wrote to every county in FL, they made a 2nd pass this summer in the most populous counties, to pick up Democrats who hadn’t been reached the first time through.
When you see the reports of the FL Democrats’ Vote By Mail numerical advantage in 2020, which is 700K or so, some of that is due to the million-plus postcards written by volunteers since 2018, BJ jackals included.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Barbara: “The Greatest Generation” is pretty much dead, I think the youngest would be about 93 or 94. Now, if you’re thinking of the Silent Gen, they’ve been a pretty reliable voting bloc for Republicans in the past.
piratedan
@Barbara: could very well be, could be that a good many members of my generation there already had societal upheaval fatigue and the nostalgia that Reagan sold them has an appeal. I had a hard time watching him hire the same set of unprosecuted asshats that surrounded Nixon as if Nixon was just some sort of one-off and not representative of the feeling for what was developing within the GOP in that they needed to be in charge to keep those n*****-lovin Dems from every being in charge.
Baud
@West of the Rockies:
It’s so strange that that was the trigger, because of all the nightmare scenarios, that’s one that’s the most easy to deal with.
I believe it was Buttigieg who said that we’ll find some chores for him to do.
Kent
@piratedan: I’m in the same generation.
Best I can figure, there is a large cadre of rapidly aging middle aged men in their 50s who are looking at shitty retirements and job prospects in a rapidly changing economy where age discrimination is a very real thing whether you are in construction or tech. And they just want to run out the clock for another 10 years or so without having their jobs replaced by some younger immigrant or robot or something like that. Even pre-pandemic when the economy was supposedly roaring, it wasn’t necessarily roaring for those in late middle age with job insecurity. There are millions of 50-something guys with crappy savings who need to get their shit together over the next 10-15 years if they are going to escape retiring in dire poverty. So stuff about replacing their jobs with immigrants or new industries or outsourcing or younger more tech savvy workers scares the shit out of them.
Trump doesn’t have the actual solutions, but much of what he says from immigrant bashing to China bashing to woke liberal bashing to keeping factories in the US and dissing woke green shit that “threatens jobs” is targeted directly at this demographic.
WaterGirl
@West of the Rockies: The news about Sab’s dog is shocking and sad, but that’s not what was so depressing, dispiriting, disturbing, and discouraging about the thread.
It was the negativity and the focus on everything that could go wrong.
FelonyGovt
@?BillinGlendaleCA: WOW with an iPhone???
Nelle
@James E Powell: I am but the smallest cog in a well-orangized county machine. But I blah-blah about what I do to show that even the smallest actions have an effect, both in my neighborhood, and here and on other social media, if it encourages others to do one small thing. And it channels my normal friendliness in the time of covid. I’m just realizing that most of my socializing in winter will be with my favorite book characters. (I intend to party hearty with Anne Eliot, Elizabeth Bennett, Levin from Anna Karenina, among others. Still working on the invite list for that.)
Nelle
@Kathleen: Agreed.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
so to understand this thread, I have to read another thread, some article from 538, and a half-identified Washington Post op-ed? this is like those Marvel movies, it starts to feel like homework
WaterGirl
@Roger Moore: Plus, the way we are feeling is no accident. There has been a deliberate and steady campaign to discourage people, make it feel hopeless, to depress turnout, etc.
It’s straight out of the authoritarian handbook. Here at BJ I’d like to think that we are smart enough to not fall for that. Or at least to be continually self-correcting when we see that we’re headed to that place.
it’s gonna take a conscious effort to not fall into that. I’m not talking about being Pollyanna and pretending that everything is great. But if there’s not a preventative action item at the end of the “what if” conversation, then it’s a dead-end and even having the conversation is not to our benefit.
The Moar You Know
OK, went to the dread midnight thread and left condolences for Sab. I have a dog. He is the light of my life. When I lose him I will be a basket case for a long time. So, Sab, I get it. I am so sorry.
That FT (brought to you by RT/Sputnik) piece brought you all down? Christ, I’m a doomer and I read that fucking thing yesterday morning and just laughed. What a joke. There’s doom porn but that was ridiculous even by the standards of doom porn.
Like me claiming I’ve got an 18″ dick ridiculous. Which I totally do, by the way. It’s just ridiculous to brag about it. Nobody believes you. I can’t imagine why.
Marmot
In the past, I’ve asked the Debbies Downer here why they do it. Usually, the answer is that they’ve suffered some trauma in the past and can’t face another horrifying disappointment. So they prep themselves by indulging in all that woe.
If that is your attitude, keep it to your damn self. You’re a liability. I’m gonna fight no matter what happens, Jack. You do too.
And when we win, I’m gonna gloat. Just like when Doug Jones won despite the preemptive sorrow of many Eeyores here.
Barbara
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Of course. I mean the silent generation — basically people born between 1930 and 1955, maybe the first wave of boomers and those that have distinct memories of being children during WWII. Younger boomers and Gen X had a very different experience growing up. I see that even within the same large families I have known — where the first 2 or 3 kids had a much easier time economically than their younger siblings. I mean, it’s striking.
WaterGirl
@The Moar You Know: It’s not that piece that got me down – I didn’t even read it. It was reading all the comments. I couldn’t even tell you which ones did it. All I know is that by the time I got to the end of it, all the wind had been sucked out of my sails. It felt relentlessly hopeless.
Roger Moore
@Baud:
My gut feeling is that Trump would normally be winning with the 65+ age block, but his bungled COVID response has lost them. “Sacrifice granny to Mammon” is not a campaign slogan that will win you the AARP voters.
Betty Cracker
@Marcopolo: I’ve shared my FL anecdata here before from conversations with my MIL and her friends in the 55+ community where she lives near The Villages. These folks used to go on cruises, go north to visit family in the summer, hit the early bird specials at local diners, play bingo, visit casinos, shop, etc., and Trump and DeSantis’s botched response to the pandemic brought their retirement dream to a screeching halt.
They have been idled in their homes for months on end when they don’t have all that many years left, and they are PISSED. I think Biden wins Florida — and with it, the election — as a consequence.
Barbara
@Marmot: I would not tell someone to keep it to themselves. If I were counseling them I would ask them to adapt the techniques I have, which is, game out the worst outcome, what it means for you, how you would cope with it, and most important, what you can do to avoid it.
opiejeanne
@?BillinGlendaleCA: That’s amazing! Thank you so much for arranging for us to see it.
Kent
@Betty Cracker: This.
If you are of working age and middle class you are still basically consumed with daily life except maybe working from home and helping your kids do distance learning. But you are busy with shit.
My retired parents have nothing to do to fill their time. Travel is out. All the normal grandkids stuff…going to soccer games, school concerts and plays, and so forth it out. Cruises are out. Europe is out. Mall walking is out. Dining out at their favorite places is out, even if they are open. Church is out (and that’s a big one for my parents). Even going to the grocery store is a whole lot more scary with Covid when you are 80 than when you are 30.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@FelonyGovt: iPhone 11 Pro Max.
Benw
@WaterGirl: you’re the best :)
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I have that exact phone but my photos don’t come out like that! :-)
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Hot diggity dog. Very nice.
Betty Cracker
@Kent: Exactly. I think it’ll be a lot closer than it should be in FL because plenty of seniors are in the Trump cult here, but my hope and belief is he’s lost enough of them to lose the state. I wouldn’t bet the farm on it, but that’s my sense of the race now.
narya
@Soprano2: I’ve been where you are; sending thoughts your way today. For years I’d have a gin & tonic on the anniversary and on her birthday, because it was her drink and it was a positive way to remember her.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: Are you taking photos of a glacier in Alaska?
Fair Economist
Some of that split between 45-64 and 65+ is a split within Boomers. Boomers are now 55-75, so about half of them are in each group. Older Boomers have long been more liberal than younger ones; older ones remember Kennedy and the Great Society; younger ones grew up in the “Me Generation” and many fell for the “Reagan brought America back” nonsense.
opiejeanne
@Luciamia: I have (accidentally) grown marijuana. A previous owner’s teenage sons had a couple of plants in the backyard.When we first moved in I thought they were a plant that somewhat resembles marijuana, until the plants get big enough, and then I really looked at them.
I gave the plants to the jazz teacher at my college.
Elizabelle
@The Moar You Know: OK, that was funny.
]@Marmot: I feel the same way. Have sometimes considered keeping a list of some of the more egregious “hair on fire” shit.
The Moar You Know
@Fair Economist: The same split shows in Gen Xers. The most old ones tend to skew hard right, and almost all of those were not old enough to vote for Reagan the first time, they just thought he was cool. This is my demographic. I think most of them are stupid and were poorly raised, but I thought that back in high school as well.
Most Xers skew pretty damn liberal. And that came real early and real suddenly, my high school class of 84 loved Reagan. Two years later, my wife’s class of 86 wanted nothing more than to piss on his grave. Same SoCal high school. They heard “nuke ’em all” and instead of thinking “Iran, of course”, took him at his word. Which they should have.
WaterGirl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: LOL literally
mrmoshpotato
I need ham and bread rolls.
Hello ham, egg and cheese rolls!
And then I clean my kitchen counter.
Elizabelle
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Nope.
Just make some calls to turn out blue voters. You are not missing anything.
Another Scott
There was some discussion of ducks yesterday. Dunno if this came up. ICYMI.
(via nycsouthpaw)
Cheers,
Scott.
satby
@West of the Rockies: Some of those chicken littles show us specifically to chum the waters. Note the commenter who constantly refers to “democrat” states.
People bloviating on a blog are just bloviating on a blog. AL subtitled her post “for political adolecents”. Don’t invest too much time in blather. FIDO
WaterGirl
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Okay, that made me laugh. Hope humor was the intention.
All you need to understand is that all the negativity in the comments on last night’s post was sucking the life out of me, so I wanted to remind myself and anyone else who is listening that the sky is not falling, and that despair is not the road that will lead us to a win.
I also asked people to share whatever they have done today to help move us toward a win.
West of the Rockies
@The Moar You Know:
Okay, just to address that… An 18-inch Johnson would be a nightmare for everybody involved. You’d pass out from an erection, you’d constantly kneel on the damn thing, you’d lose a lot of potential partners who would just say, “No damn way!”
I’d pass on being so endowed.
Man, the conversations at this place.
Gin & Tonic
This is interesting. I use Google News throughout the day. The first subject in the “U.S” section is about the ICE concentration camp hysterectomies. There are two headlines/links (it’s typical to have only one or two in each subject box.) One is from BBC, the other is The Guardian. You’d think this would be something US-based media would cover, no?
WaterGirl
@satby: I wasn’t even criticizing Anne Laurie’s post – just saying that the way things turned in the comments left me very discouraged.
Capri
When I get worried about the future, which occurs hourly, I think about the Wisconsin supreme court vote. It was hugely important as the conservative R running could be counted on to allow as much voter disenfranchisement as the GOP thought it could get away with. Wi is a vital swing state that could determine the presidential election so it really, really mattered. Do you remember all the hand wringing when vote-by-mail was struck down? And that GOP operative dressed like he was going to bathe in an Ebola lake at the bottom of a nuclear reactor smiling like the cat who ate the canary? Everything was stacked against the Dem and that person ended winning by a ton.
I think the same thing is going to happen in November.
Bill Arnold
@greenergood:
This lawyersgunsmoneyblog piece links to the NYTimes article on Michael Caputo but has the text for free:
Even by the standards of the moment this is completely bonkers (LGM, Paul Campos, September 14, 2020)
Excerpts (bold mine :-):
He then deleted his twitter account (yesterday evening?) after a twitter rant that I haven’t seen. (The [attention] spooked him. There are reports that some old tweets are quite racist; need to find an archive.)
Keep up the pressure; it affects wingnuts too.
WaterGirl
@West of the Rockies: I believe my exact words would be “get that thing away from me!”, but otherwise, exactly what you said. :-)
lol chikinburd
Coming late to this thread (as always), could I push back a little in a different way?
There are some of us who haven’t just now been thrown onto a fainting couch as a result of three and a half years of discouragement tons milder than that faced by most humans in history et cetera, but were in fact diagnosed decades ago, remain in therapy, and experience the present difficulties as an additive factor.
The points on the psywar-pushback side stand. If their presentation stays on the non-ableist side, we’re good.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I find keeping busy helps. I’m writing again, which I’d been unable to do for a while. And I’m doing Duolingo Spanish. I walk every day and lift weights several times a week. It all helps.
James E Powell
@Fair Economist:
I’m 65, at the younger end of the older group. Thinking back to the mid to late 70s and number of people just a few years younger who found a hero in Reagan, I’d say the world they graduated into formed them. It was the end of America’s Golden Quarter Century. This was almost universally blamed on unions and black people. Oil shocks that were attributed to evil Arabs.
And there was a widespread belief that we were losing to the Soviets. Part of it was a residual resentment from losing in Vietnam, but there were things that were hysterical fantasy. Movies like Red Dawn and a TV mini-series Amerika had the US taken over the CCCP!
Wapiti
@Kay: WTF with that middle age group?
My wife’s theory is that the 45-64 year age group believed that they would do better than their parents, just as their parents did better than the grandparents.
Those younger than 45 grew up understanding that the rules had changed and there is no expectation that they will do as well as their parents. “Make America Great Again” reminds them that America was never great for them.
Reboot
Re: What I’ve done: Last week I donated to the Biden, Greenfield, Gideon, and Cunningham campaigns, and to our local Democratic Committee for get out the vote efforts. Today I looked up our sample ballot online and researched Virginia Question 1, Redistricting Commission Amendment, which, if I’m understanding it right, might end up tossing decisions to the (conservative) judiciary. So a no vote to that, and a straight Dem ticket all the way. Early voting starts September 18!
West of the Rockies
@mrmoshpotato:
Those look good and super easy.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Wapiti: I think also they came to political awareness during the age of Reagan.
scav
Anyone interested in poll diving could play in here from Pew.
BBC highlights
Pew itself
Basically, Ouch.
satby
@WaterGirl: Takes more than a bunch of people yapping nonsensically on a blog to discourage me. Anyone using the construct of “democrat” shows their hand and is immediately discardable as a shit stirrer.
[Not including Sab’s comment on her dog or the many condolences in that]
WaterGirl
@lol chikinburd: All the more reason for folks who haven’t had the same struggles all along to be cognizant of what happens when we are sharing our worst WHAT IF fears.
There go two miscreants
@Another Scott:
Speaking of ducks, this was in my email inbox today:
https://www.instructables.com/id/Jet-Propelled-Radio-Controlled-Duck/
WaterGirl
@satby:
Absolutely.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WaterGirl: When I was up there in the summer of ’95, I took pics with a crappy film camera, still great pictures.
Barbara
@Bill Arnold: This is the guy who wants the rest of us to ignore the ever present threat of the pandemic and just get back to normal — I mean that is his literal job — and here he is crouching in the corner because he is afraid of his own shadow. Hey fellow, buck up and face your fears like you expect the rest of us to do.
Aleta
@Gin & Tonic: It’s been mentioned inside articles about the GA facility where a nurse went public, but not headlined. Could be reporters are trying to do more interviewing/searching?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/nurse-questions-medical-care-at-immigration-jail-in-georgia/2020/09/14/1eed5708-f701-11ea-85f7-5941188a98cd_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/09/15/ice-covid-irwin-complaint-nurse/
Barbara
@Reboot: I got into an interesting discussion with one of the people pushing hard for that amendment. I think I am going to vote no as well, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it passed.
mrmoshpotato
@West of the Rockies:
It’s the best of both worlds!
Another Scott
@There go two miscreants: The perfect Christmas present!!1
Cheers,
Scott.
Hob
@Elizabelle, @greenergood, @Ruckus: It’s not just that Caputo is OK in Trump’s eyes because they’re similar kinds of asshole. Caputo is very well connected with Republican administrations, specifically the most internationally-criminal elements of them. He worked for the Reagan administration in Central America and (in some unspecified capacity) with Oliver North. Then in the ’90s he got in on the ground floor with the oligarchy in Russia, and did some PR work for Putin in the US. He was part of Trump’s campaign and was a person of interest in the House’s investigation of Russian influence in the 2016 election. His official career experience is in PR/propaganda, but he’s also the kind of person who has extra credit with Trump just by being fantastically corrupt in general and being entangled with a lot of this administration’s specific corruption, so 1) they know there’s nothing too dirty for him to go along with and 2) he could cause more trouble if they threw him under the bus.
I think he’s also probably a legitimately unstable wingnut, based on some of his online behavior in the past when he didn’t have a GOP administration to back him up, but the above are reasons why it made sense for him to be in this HHS spokesperson position that he’s otherwise unqualified for, and why Trump might be reluctant to cut him loose even if the thought “these statements might be considered over the line” were able to get through Trump’s brain.
geg6
@Barbara:
It’s funny because my experience is exactly the opposite in my large family (6 kids). My parents got married post-war in 1948. My oldest brother was born a year later, my oldest sister in 1951 and the next two over the next three years. I didn’t come along until 1958 and my baby sister in 1964. None of us were wastrels, but undoubtedly my youngest sister and I have done the best professionally and financially. We are the only ones with graduate degrees and who have never dropped out of college (one sister trained as an x-ray tech–a non-college program–and one never attended any post-secondary and both brothers started college but never finished). There is no doubt in my mind that our education was the difference. I can also report that the Trumper people I know from high school and around here where I live now (just one township away from where I grew up) had lives much as my brothers and one sister did. Desperately scrambling in their 30s to find something to do with little education or training. They all found something to build a career around, but they have not done as well as I or my younger sister have.
Kent
@WaterGirl: The tell is that they’ve been doing it so long they don’t even notice it anymore.
When I lived in Waco TX a few years back, even the local on-air NPR reporters would do it. I would write irate snide emails to the station manager explaining that if they don’t want to sound like goobers to educated people then they need to learn to distinguish between nouns and adjectives.
Kent
@geg6: In a lot of ways, career paths are destiny.
In my extended family, everyone who has gone into education, health care, or government is liberal to centrist.
Everyone who has gone into construction trades, business, truck driving, or agriculture is full-tilt MAGA
geg6
@West of the Rockies:
I refuse to discuss the particulars, but I actually had that experience. In fact, he just passed away a few weeks ago. Nice guy but no way.
Gammyjill
@Ked: I like your comments and cool take on the current situation. I’ve never seen such an incompetent bunch as ever member and hangers on of the Trump administration. I have no doubt that Trump and his handlers will try to steal the election; my only hope is they’re too fucking incompetent to carry it off.
Kay
@Wapiti:
I agree with your wife. We see it in the law office- real bitterness that they didn’t do as well financially as they thought they would, or thought they should have which (sadly) led them to the belief that some other less deserving person got it. This is a very Trumpy area though, so I’m hearing from actual Trump supporters which probably skews my half ass “sample”.
Now that I saw it I look for it in every poll. I don’t know that it’s useful to understand what happened or even prevent it happening again but it might be.
I do believe that’s it, though.
Roger Moore
@Gammyjill:
Stealing a presidential election in the US outright is hard, because it’s really 51 different elections. You don’t need to steal all of those to win, but you’ll have to steal an implausible number unless you can keep things legitimately close.
JoyceH
I get all the cautions and the understanding that the right will at least try to rig the election. But to me, the most obvious election scenario is that the Blue Wave is so monumental that it’s obvious and called on Election Night, and that the Trump administration collapses like a house of cards left out in the rain. All these projections about what Trump will do if he loses the election – I just can’t see a guy who watched eight hours of television a day and tweets and golfs the rest of the time, is going to expend the energy to direct those elaborate plots. Will his minions try to run the plots for him? I can’t see that either, they’ll all be scrambling for a comfy berth somewhere in the Wingnut Welfare industry and doing their best to forget everything they ever knew about the Trump administration. We already know that a solid majority of the American people don’t just oppose Trump, they HATE him! I think the impromptu street fairs that will erupt when he loses will make that obvious. But maybe I’m just being a Pollyanna and the Eeyores are right? I don’t know.
But here’s a question. What is the best and safest way to donate to the Biden/Harris campaign? An on-line link that is the sure thing? Right directly to the campaign. (I guess here I’m being paranoid, and it’s more of a right wing thing to put up a website that appears to accepting donations for one thing and you’re really funding Steve Bannon’s yacht.)
Reason I ask – I don’t usually donate to campaigns and certainly don’t donate large amounts. But as some of you know, my twin sister died in December. And if Jane is somewhere where she is capable of thinking and observing the earthly realm, I know that the thing pissing her off the most is that she didn’t get the chance to vote Trump out of office. I still have most of her life insurance and just sold her house, so this is one time where I have a lot of liquid assets, and what better way to honor Jane’s memory that to donate the maximum to Biden? So – where do I click to do that?
Steeplejack (phone)
Inspirational tweet:
West of the Rockies
@geg6:
That’s the long and the short of it.
I am sorry you lost a friend though.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Sure, opiejeanne. Sure.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@James E Powell: Amen to that. I grew up and live in California and to my lasting regret, Reagan (as gov) signed my diploma from Cal. Redwood trees cause pollution, doncha know? OTOH, my first vote (you had to be 21 in those days) was voting in the CA primary for George McGovern in 1972. So I have one good political memory of those days. (Let’s ignore the 1972 general election, sigh).
Gammyjill
Coupla more things. When I look at the election this year, I remember 2018 when we went crazy with House wins – and good ones, at that. What made Dems turn out in an off year election? Fear? Anger? SOMETHING got these Democratic voters to the polls. Let’s see if we can repeat it this year!
Also, I’ve been donating supplies to animal shelters in the west. Amazon has lists from shelters and it makes me feel good to know I’m at least helping animals and those angels who are protecting them. I’m still giving to candidates through ActBlue but have cut that back a bit to give more to the animal shelters.
geg6
@Kent:
I am happy to report, regardless of career paths, we are all (or were, in my late oldest brother’s case) liberals and always have been. Oldest brother finally settled on being a millwright (through apprenticeship) until he was totally disabled by his bipolar disorder, oldest sister was an x-ray tech until she was totally disabled by her Crohn’s disease, next oldest brother worked for the county nursing home in maintenance until retirement and next oldest sister worked in the hospitality industry, mostly in management, until she retired.
We turned out okay, for the most part, regardless of our paths. That’s a tribute to my parents, who were very diligent in teaching us about history and politics.
CarolDuhart2
@Betty Cracker: Betty, I agree.I’m 63, and although I didn’t do all that much when things were normal, at least I could do my laundry during normal hours (I live in a condo with a laundromat), go on small errands, and spend time with relatives during holidays.
Now I can’t go anywhere, wonder if I can get an n95 mask so I can go on a walk, worry about every sniffle. I only leave my house for mail, laundry, have my grocery picked up by other people, and 3 doctor visits since March. Never supported Trump in the first place, but if you had told me last year it was going to be this bad, would have canned goods stacked to the ceiling.
Trump is underestimating senior anger.
opiejeanne
@Betty Cracker: I think your analysis is right, but I’d add that some of their friends may have died of Covid-19 and death has a tendency to focus the mind.
WaterGirl
@JoyceH: You could click directly on a link from the Biden campaign – you can get that by going directly to his website.
If you think your sister would approve of the fundraising we’re doing here for Biden and other candidates, you could give to the Balloon Juice ActBlue fund for Biden.
Our goal was 5,000 directly for Joe Biden, and we’re at 7,500. If you went all in for Biden there, you could get us to double our original goal.
Wherever you feel most comfortable, but I think both of those are absolutely safe places to donate to Joe Biden
edit: I am still so sorry for the loss of your sister. Your twin, no less. I remember the year my dad died the loss weighed on me so heavily, but the spring – in spite of the weight of my loss and being depressed – I would go out for walks because I felt like I needed to enjoy the days that my dad would have loved. It felt like my responsibility to him, so I may understand a tiny bit of what you are feeling with your sister.
Cheryl from Maryland
My postcard group is mailing out 60,000 postcards this week for Virginia’s GOTV to support five Democratic Candidates for the House. I personally did 2,000 postcards.
As for Trump not “vacating” the White House — easy enough to cut the power, wi-fi, food, water, and internet. I bet few if none of Trump’s inner circle know which building is the New Executive Office Building, but I bet many of Biden’s people do. The government can be run from there.
Humdog
@JoyceH:
Very sorry for the loss of your twin. Can’t really imagine what that must be like for you.
As for donations, I would probably split it between Biden and some swing state Democratic Party, such as WI or AZ, simply because large lump sums one place wig me out. It is a nice problem to have, tho.
Barbara
@geg6: I have more than 30 first cousins and it’s not like it’s a science, but I sometimes evaluate macro social trends by looking at their experience — divorce, church attendance, college completion and so on. It’s not that the older ones have necessarily had it easy, but when you look at things like completing college, full-time job status, access to pensions and mortgages — the older ones had the wind at their backs and the younger ones haven’t, even the ones with professional degrees. It’s not monolithic, just as support for Trump isn’t monolithic even within the demographic cohorts most likely to vote for him.
At my aunt’s funeral more than five years ago now, I realized that every person in the room who was under the age of 45 had never been married. This includes her youngest daughter, and all of her grandchildren. Some of them weren’t old enough, but the pattern was evident even for those who were. This would have been people born after 1965. Aunt had 8 kids, and her first grandkid was born before her youngest child. Probably close to 15 people.
JoyceH
Is joebiden.com the official website? It sure looks official. (Don’t know why I’m so paranoid.)
Betty
I sent in my mail-in ballot via Fed Ex today because Dominica still has no mail service with the U. S. since the regional air carrier shut down due to Covid. Very expensive. Lots of Democrats Abroad are determined to vote one way or another.
J R in WV
@MJS:
I have never received any texts from ActBlue.
I get exactly one email per donation, acting as a receipt for each donation, which I move to my ActBlue receipt folder. I’m pretty sure they feel that sending receipts is a necessary part of their business, and I agree with that.
JoyceH
@Humdog: “As for donations, I would probably split it between Biden and some swing state Democratic Party, such as WI or AZ, simply because large lump sums one place wig me out. It is a nice problem to have, tho.”
Okay, wait. The donation limit is per candidate, or overall for the election?
I thought I’d throw some money to my Congressional candidate, even thought I don’t expect him to win. I’ve lived here for over 30 years, and the Republican Congressman in my district always seems to stay in office until he dies and is replaced by a new Republican, who stays in office until he dies and so on and so on.
Brachiator
@WaterGirl:
I don’t mind if people honestly and eloquently discuss what they think and feel, especially if they provide examples or historical background.
This level of discussion does not discourage me. I don’t even understand the idea that I am supposed to give up or stop trying just because of what someone writes about how they feel.
And maybe some people really are seeking encouragement or reassurance.
These are tough times, politically and in terms of the pandemic. People are feeling the strain.
But the folks who come here seem to be hoping for something better than the crap that Trump is serving up. Their eyes are on the prize, even if they are feeling weary or kicked around.
And I don’t give two shits if Trump doesn’t want to leave. I will still be celebrating his defeat. And I expect him to do foul shit to undermine the election and to stir shit up. It’s who he is.
Democracy is under attack right now, here and in other countries. And it is odd, but telling that it is under attack by some of its own citizens, who want what they foolishly believe is the certainty of autocracy.
The fight is on.
James E Powell
@Roger Moore:
In 2000, it only took one. I blame New Hampshire for making it close enough to steal.
Marmot
@Barbara:
With respect, they’re actively harming us. Your approach would result in even more, unless you’re talking about a counseling session (I’m definitely not—I mean here and in conversations with other lefties).
This any better? If you’re on a gloom-n-doom spiral, shut your trap and get yourself some counseling. You have problems.
WaterGirl
@JoyceH: Yes!
https://joebiden.com
WaterGirl
@J R in WV: I don’t think the texts are coming from ActBlue. They are coming from some campaign that is using ActBlue to receive their donations.
Maybe MJS can copy the text and we can help figure out who to contact to make those stop.
WaterGirl
@JoyceH: You can give the full amount allowed to Joe Biden, which I believe is 2,800.00
On top of that, you could give to a hundred other candidates, if you wanted.
ltelf
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Wow, thank you. That was magic.
WaterGirl
@Brachiator:
Absolutely! We all need that sometimes. I know I do.
But playing out all the WHAT IFs – what if it’s 269 to 269 and it goes to the House or what if states won’t send in their electors so nobody can get to 270 even if the other one only has 100 and down the rabbit home, or what if he won’t leave even if he loses.
For me, it feels like that’s not useful for anything but getting me wound up and anxious.
We can’t control any of that, and they are all hypothetical situations. Let’s do what we can control. Donate, make a voting plan, get other people to make a voting plan, help get people out to vote, etc
edit: I’m not even criticizing the people who want to play those things out, but the unintended consequence is that it puts a whole lot of other people on edge. It’s not a game, it’s lives in the balance.
geg6
@Barbara:
Yeah, my parents had six kids and had all of two grandchildren, one of which they never met. Only four of us have ever even married. Of course, my second oldest sister has made up for that by getting married four times. :-)
Barbara
@Marmot: I don’t feel actively harmed and probably many others don’t as well, so that is one thing you are wrong about. When I see a thread going off the rails, I usually just tune out. Being the daughter and sister of dedicated doom and gloom specialists, I know that they often don’t even know how they come across to the rest of us.
Ruckus
@Kay:
The second half of their lives is still in front of them and their racism is encouraged by trump. They aren’t thinking, they are following the moron who says it’s OK to be a major assfuckinghole like their moron president. Oh wait, that is the moron president saying that, who they voted for because he’s been saying that all along.
James E Powell
@Barbara:
That’s exactly what I do. It usually works
Some people who are posting doom & gloom may be trolls, but mostly it’s people expressing anxieties. These are, after all, anxious times.
J R in WV
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
WOW, that’s a fabulous photo. She must have paid attention to what you have been doing!… Great composition, great color, properly framed, the whole thing works.
Tell her we said so!!
WereBear
Ruckus
@West of the Rockies:
Ok, I’m going to relate a story, only because it’s about a buddy who is no longer with us and he has no kids. He was built like a porn star. Not as big as you are talking about, but no slouch in that department. His ex said, “Having a race car means nothing, if you don’t know how to drive.”
Just a point of reference.
Reboot
@Barbara: That’s my sense, too, that it may well pass. It sounds like a good thing. Having come to VA from FL, though, I’m wary of how the citizen positions on the commission will be appointed.
geg6
@WereBear:
I got the least expensive Michelle Obama “VOTE” necklace and I wear it everywhere I go.
JAFD
Was up at 4:30 Monday morning (tummy bug), and WQXR decided to play Alan Hovhaness’ Symphony No. 50 “Mount St. Helens” Op. 360
If you want A Soundtrack For Impending Doom, you won’t do much better/worse than that.
Anyway, nj.gov sez all registered voters shall have their ballots in mail by Oct 5 So my plan is:
1 – if not received by Wed Oct 7th, holler
2 – read instructions, twice, with highlighter
3 – fill out ballot
4 – take to drop box (at courthouse if possible, probably one there)
5 – go to Board of Elections office, tell them I’m available to work Election Day, fill out form
6 – Sit down next to the statue of Abraham Lincoln (by Gutzon Borglum) in front of Old Essex County Courthouse. Get someone to take picture of me there. Send it to Ms WaterGirl, she will post it here and y’all can say how much my pandemic beard makes me look like a Civil War general.
7 – Acquire some more masks (Mayhaps me alma mammy has some half red/half blue (no electioneering by the officials!))
Stay healthy, happy, and hydrated, everyone !
opiejeanne
w@Dorothy A. Winsor: LOL!
The house behind my parents’ house had a bunch of teenagers who threw some seeds over the back fence that landed in Dad’s vegetable garden, and when dad was showing us his garden by that back fence we noticed a pot plant in among the tomatoes. He didn’t believe us when we told him what that weed was, so he pulled it up and marched next door to verify it with the sheriff’s deputy who lived there, because Dad always had to be right and I couldn’t possibly know more than he did on any subject.
The neighbor wasn’t home but his partner was standing on the porch talking to the wife, and she had to wave him off from arresting my dad on the spot. The partner verified that yes, indeed, that is marijuana, and confiscated it.
There was a funny moment while Millie was frantically trying to convince the partner that Dad was ok, don’t arrest him, and the partner with his eyes wide open was starting to bristle and seeming to grow, the way cops do. Millie’s husband came home about then and told him not to arrest my dad. Not at the moment, but later it was very funny.
Dad was then a bit suspicious about how we knew what it was, but Dave and I have never smoked pot. The idea is a bit repellant to me.
J R in WV
@Barbara:
I’m a white guy. I came of age when Nixon’s minions wanted to round me up and send me to Vietnam to fight what became NIxon’s war. I haven’t missed an election since I got home from the Navy.
I have NEVER voted for a Republican!
I am willing to admit that there are a few moral and kind Republicans, a religious and kind family of four next door, for the only example I’m sure of.
I will stake my belief that none of those kind and moral Rs are running for office, and that all of the Rs on the ballot are cheap criminal racist fascists. I could be wrong, but I don’t think so!
Ruckus
@Barbara:
One of the differences is the cost of a college education and the middle class job market changes, where to be as successful, you have to have a college degree, which costs a lot more than it did for their parents, who didn’t get one because they could be reasonably successful without it.
Mag
@CarolDuhart2: Trump would still be separating migrant families at the border, putting babies in cages and losing children, and performing hysterectomies on migrant women. Trump would still be trashing regulations the protect our air, water, and environment. Trump would still be funneling millions of taxpayers’ money to his own family’s businesses.
Certainly being Evil Lite has worked in the past. It worked for W, but the argument Trump could have sit back and coasted ignores the active destruction he’s doing too.
Every iteration of Evil Lite is just a little more evil and very likely a second 4-year sentence of Trump would be fatal.
Barbara
@Ruckus: All during the sixties and into the seventies, college was cheap, especially public universities. Then, when a certain critical mass of voting age people got their degrees, all of a sudden keeping taxes low became the most important thing on the face of the planet, precipitating a massive disinvestment from education that was certainly a key factor in making public universities massively more expensive for ensuing generations.
Ruckus
@J R in WV:
I don’t think you are wrong. Look on this blog and read the stories about the shitty republicans who have been in office for some years, and tell me they aren’t one of the few, but one of the many.
JAFD
To clarify: ballots to us voters of NJ should be in mail by Oct 5th.
Mailed-in ballot must be postmarked on or before 11/3, received by 11/10, and
https://covid19.nj.gov/faqs/nj-information/reopening-guidance-and-restrictions/how-can-i-vote-this-november-how-have-elections-moved-or-changed-in-new-jersey-because-of-covid-19
should answer most other questions.
Brachiator
@WaterGirl:
I am utilitarian, but not that utilitarian. Everything does not have to be useful.
I understand where you are coming from, I think, and don’t necessarily disagree. But maybe some people need to vent and even express their fears. If they have a place that they feel that they can come to and do that, I am fine with that.
In fact, I would rather that some people feel put on edge than that other people feel that they have been told to shut up and be quiet. But I also recognize that it is a fine line. I enjoy the conversation, and also recognize the practical side of encouraging people to contribute.
We’ve got some more days to go until the election. I hope that everybody hangs on while we get there.
J R in WV
@JoyceH:
We’ve been contributing $100 and $200 amounts for years via ActBlue, mostly to legislative candidates. They seem straight up progressive honest, and are on track to raise several billion dollars for Democratic candidates this year.
Google “Actblue for Biden Harris” and check it out. I get one email from them for each donation, a receipt, which I save.
ETA: My mom’s middle name was Jane. One of my best friends for 35 years is a Jane. So in my book, a great name for great people!
Ruckus
@Barbara:
Yep, and a significant part of the problem, because of the republican BS about all the increases were because of integration. Real conservatives are racists because racism is the basis of the current republican party, and has been for my entire life. Their financial concept is take all you can, before anyone else does.
Roger Moore
@Cheryl from Maryland:
Yep. Trump pouting and refusing to leave the White House would be a comedy, not a drama. The real danger comes only if he has backing from a unified Republican Party.
frosty
@SiubhanDuinne: I watched a few P&Rs and couldn’t get into it. It wasn’t Amy, I really like her. I think it was breaking the 4th wall and talking directly to the camera. Same reason The Office never grabbed me.
James E Powell
@Barbara:
I don’t think it was the college degrees as much as reaching middle class home owner status. Non-college whites, even union members, bought what Reagan & the Republicans were selling.
And the “keep taxes low” message was very much connected with a “Democrats give free stuff to black people” message.
JoyceH
And not a plausible one. At noon on January 20, his term ends, whether he concedes or not. The movers are going to troop in and pack up and tote away all his stuff. What’s he going to do to stop them?
I think it’s far more likely that he’ll go down to Mar A Lago for the holidays and just not come back. Not bother showing up for the inauguration at all.
I think the Biden team needs to realize that they’re on their own with the transition. I suspect they’ll hire a bunch of Obama alums to staff the transition and tell them how stuff is SUPPOSED to be done, because the Trumpies won’t have a clue anyway.
Cheryl Rofer
Biden already is staffing up his transition team.
J R in WV
@JoyceH:
This is so true !! Trumpies do not have a clue, which is why most all of them have committed multiple obvious felonies over the past 3.8 years!! No clue what is and isn’t legal for them to be doing!!
WaterGirl
@Brachiator:
In case there is any doubt, with this thread I am not suggesting that anyone shut up or that people should be told to be quiet. Or that it’s wrong to feel discouraged at times. Or wrong to share it when you are.
I guess what I am suggesting that we have the self awareness to know when we are headed down a road that only encourages discouragement and feelings of helplessness.
Miss Bianca
@MazeDancer:
This. This needs to be tattooed to my forehead so I see it every morning in the mirror. Also, too, so I can just point at it and not have to say anything when the other Eeyores in my life get started.
Miss Bianca
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Ohh…I haven’t been to Alaska in almost 40 years. That photo right there is making me yearn so hard to go back!
Chris Johnson
I’m 53. I think I know what it is.
Days and days ago I did a late post on how I’d been doing some therapy and reconstructing memories. I remembered things about my elementary school… and it was racial violence. METCO kids (bussed in from Boston) acting up and getting roughed up. Even being around it was traumatic.
My mom was determined that we wouldn’t be racist like HER mother, so she demanded that we accept that we were just like those kids, black or white, didn’t matter.
I am autistic and took her literally… and I’ve acted all my life like the cops etc. were about to beat up or kill or attack ME. And it wasn’t true. But it was real to me, because I took that lesson to heart and denied the privilege I DID have… and a lot of life really sucked.
I have a brother whom I think also accepted that lesson, and he struggles a lot and holds himself to a scary high moral standard. And I have a brother who seemingly didn’t… and he’s increasingly an anti-masker wingnut and will not talk about all his beliefs, and I think he’s not telling us that he is racist as fuck.
I think a lot of people who were children in the Seventies came out racist as fuck when society applied integration and did NOTHING to address material conditions and plunked black kids into racist white schools and more or less begged them to act out and justify why the whites didn’t want them around. I remembered an exchange between a kid and a teacher and the next thing you knew, the teacher physically threw the kid’s desk over. I don’t believe that would’ve happened to any of the white kids.
Gen X is the least numerous. And we are not unanimously racist as fuck, because we also loved us some rap music and embraced our own bad-boy status (black OR white) back in the day. The trouble is when we go ‘legit’ and start becoming the authority figures. I think Gen X can fall back on nasty, nasty racism… as that poll showed.
Chris Johnson
That’s exactly what I’m thinking about, and one more thing about Gen X.
I think we are no holds barred the one generation most likely to decide that the whole system is fucked and NOT vote… and that includes the MAGAs. I think there’s a pile of GenX MAGAs who are soaking up all the crazy propaganda and will be so busy confronting brown people at militia checkpoints they set up, that they will not vote because to them the system has already collapsed.
That, plus not voting because they are convinced the system is fucked. And if they do vote, it’s always the most anti-establishment choice no matter what: this is the Obama-Trump-BernieBro voter. Whoever’s gonna flip the table.
Again, not the most numerous generation. I’ll crawl over broken glass to vote Biden-Harris (and I love being reminded that Harris is on the ticket: my GenXness is like ‘danger of black woman President? actually that sounds cool as hell’) and I’m not alone. If you’re looking at demographic breakdowns of this I’d say, how MANY 45-65 voters are there that trend for Trump? Don’t be fooled into thinking that’s the same size as the younger and the olds. That’s late Boomers and Gen X. There aren’t as many of them/us.
Chris Johnson
@Bill Arnold: Oh, you mean ‘Caputo formerly employed by Vladimir Putin’. As in, google that and the first thing you get is this excerpt from Wikipedia:
Because THAT’S not suspicious at all.
These are stupid, arrogant, clown shoes people. Sometimes it’s obvious. Do you think everybody in the State Department, in the military, all the spooks and Deep State, are absolute and total idiots?
The question is what you do about it, when, and how publically.
Suuuuure. Trump appoints Putin’s fixer to a government post. Obviously means the sky is falling and they’re all complicit, yes? Not like anybody who’s Trump’s enemy is watching and keeping track of all this.
Sometimes it’s very, very obvious who thinks they can get away with what.
TerryC
@The Moar You Know: “Like me claiming I’ve got an 18″ dick ridiculous. Which I totally do, by the way. It’s just ridiculous to brag about it. Nobody believes you. I can’t imagine why.”
Thank FSM for those lowered urinals that allow us to pee without dropping our huge dicks into the urine.
Morzer
@Nelle: Could you play them some clips of Bernie giving his opinion of Trump and telling folks to vote for The Dude Abidens?
Omnes Omnibus
This fits here.
Morzer
@JoyceH: I’d pay good money to watch the Orange Abomination chain itself to the railings outside the White House and scream its repulsive facial equivalent off.
Marmot
@Barbara:
What? Listen up, wrongy wrongwrong. This thread is ABOUT how demoralizing the Eeyores were last night. Jesus.
Brachiator
@WaterGirl:
A late note. And I want to be clear that I was not directly any of this at you personally.
And I would hope that folks just listen to other commenters, when they are honest and sincere, whatever the comments, and not feel that they have to go away or demand limitations on areas of discussion.
Barbara
@Marmot: You don’t have to read it.
dnfree
@Barbara: you’re still off generationally. The end of the so-called silent generation was born in 1945. The baby boomers are the post-WW II generation, born 1946-1964. The silent ones were supposedly the 1950s conformist businesspeople. The baby boomers were hippies, at least some of them.
dnfree
@Kent: My family (baby boomers) were raised Republicans. My dad was disappointed that two of us became liberals, but he blamed it on our marrying social workers. Might be some truth to that.
No One You Know
@MJS: I’ve sent multiple letters to candidates using their platform.
I credit Mark Kelly’s campaign with getting Act Blue to stop making my one- time contributions recurring.
And also to reduce the number of whining begs for $3 and then discover the minimum contribution is $15.
Ruckus
@Kay:
I believe it is very important for the future. Everyone should be able to get an education that allows them to have a reasonable financial future. This actually does make the country a more prosperous place for all, rather only for those whose parents had enough to pay for that future, like say our current despot not in charge of anything, who was given all the possibilities, and none of the capabilities.