Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

This fight is for everything.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Bark louder, little dog.

These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

This really is a full service blog.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

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

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

So many bastards, so little time.

All hail the time of the bunny!

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

When I was faster i was always behind.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

One lie, alone, tears the fabric of reality.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

You are here: Home / Elections / Biden-Harris 2020 / Friday Morning Open Thread: Shanah Tovah!

Friday Morning Open Thread: Shanah Tovah!

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Regardless of our religious affiliation, or lack thereof, I think we’re all pretty well ready for this year to be over.

Re-upped from my late-night post:


Washington Post explainer here.

Readership capture:

Process reminder:


Final paragraphs:

… In a contingent election, House members have to choose among the three people with the most electoral votes. Each state delegation gets one vote, and 26 votes are required to win. In the Senate, the choice is between the top two electoral vote-getters and each senator gets a vote, with 51 votes required to win.

What if that fails and the House hasn’t elected a president by Inauguration Day? Then the 20th Amendment takes over. It says the vice president-elect acts as president until a president is picked. And if there’s no vice president selected by Inauguration Day?

Well, then the Presidential Succession Act applies.

It says that the speaker of the House of Representatives, the Senate president or a Cabinet officer, in that order, would act as president until there’s a president or vice president.

Things might well change by that date, but if you’ve ever dreamcast the phrase ‘President Nancy Pelosi’…

Reader Interactions

152Comments

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    ‘President Nancy Pelosi’… Nothing against Nancy, but please, no. These people out here are barely hanging on. If she became President, even if for only a day, the resultant explosion of stupidity would engulf this country. These people don’t think any more. Like Pavlov’s dog they just react as they’ve been trained to.

  6. 6.

    raven

    We lost another friend to cancer and are going to line the street in the cemetery in an attempt to support her family.  Here’s part of her obit

    Her friendships were many, cemented in mutual loyalty, and measured in decades. Impatient with platitudes and superficialities, she was disarmingly authentic, her smile radiant, her laughter quick, her judgment slow, her capacity for joy contagious, and her empathy for the suffering boundless.

  7. 7.

    WereBear

    Good. Because some people I trust were discussing the Presidential tea leaves last night, leading to “Herd immunity? 6 million dead!”

    And I admit I didn’t sleep well last night.

  8. 8.

    satby

    Good morning. 46° here right now, and a frost advisory for overnight tonight. Autumn is coming on fast. Thinking I’ll just yank the tomato plants this afternoon and get that bed ready to move the iris I have temporarily parked in a pot into there on Sunday.

    Gives me something to think about besides the coming election and the vandals currently running the joint.

  13. 13.

    Jeffro

    Whoa…sane AND decent?  next they’ll be trying to tell us Joe has half a brain and won’t be personally profiting off of the office every day.

    personally, I am looking forward to all of the times in the next four years when I can go to a restaurant, concert, movie, or even just send my kids to school.  We’ll call those “Biden Days” and be sure that every trumpista we know hears about it, too ?

  15. 15.

    japa21

    @raven: So sorry to hear that. Sometimes people forget life and death exists outside of Covid.  As is said so often, “Fuck cancer.”

  17. 17.

    satby

    @raven: Condolences to her friends and family. She sounds like she will be sorely missed, and her family will appreciate the show of support from you all. RIP.

  18. 18.

    Geminid

    I read that the biblical name for Rosh Hashana is Yom Teruah- “Day of Shouting and Blasting.”   Just another day for Balloon Juice.             I hope this will be a good year for all of us.

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Speaking of the crazy: QAnon conspiracy theorist to feel warm embrace of Republicans in Congress

    Members of Congress like the Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney, House minority whip Steve Scalise, Illinois congressman Adam Kinzinger and South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, have strongly warned about letting the QAnon movement spread through the government. Congressman Jody Hice withdrew his endorsement of her. At one point during the campaign, the GOP consulting firm WPA Intelligence was working with Greene, but has since cut ties with her. A bipartisan resolution was introduced in the House condemning QAnon. House majority whip Steve Scalise initially denounced Greene but has since signaled more openesss to her. He told CNN he would like to sit down with her soon.

    Kinzinger said in an interview: “I think it really seeks to undermine representative democracy, and if you get to the point where you believe … if you start to think that all these decisions and everything is being thrust by a group that is really not accountable to your vote, such as satanist pedophiles, eventually it leads to people feeling disaffected, and that can lead to disintegration of democracies.

    “You’ve seen it all around the world.”

    But other top Republicans, such as Donald Trump and the House majority leader, Kevin McCarthy, have welcomed Greene’s presence and the QAnon movement in American politics. Trump called Greene a “future Republican star”. McCarthy, through a spokesperson to CNN, said he looked forward to Greene and other Republicans winning in November. Separately, a McCarthy spokesperson denounced some of Greene’s past comments. The House Republican leader has also said he has had discussions with Greene and is convinced she does not believe QAnon conspiracies any more. Georgia senator Kelly Loeffler said she supports Greene. Other Republicans have said they have had positive conversations with her recently.

    Other top Republicans are undeterred from associating with believers in the QAnon movement. Vice-President Mike Pence was slated to attend a fundraiser hosted by QAnon supporters, but that fundraiser was canceled. The Iowa senator Joni Ernst recently pushed a QAnon theory about the coronavirus.

    So despite the opposition by some Republicans, Greene is poised to come into Congress with supporters and allies.

  27. 27.

    Mustang Bobby

    @Phylllis: I retired a year ago (August 31, 2019) and went to work part-time for two District-managed charters; one in Miami Springs and one in Doral.  I’m doing what I did with the District: managing grants budgets.  It keeps me occupied…

    I’ve also written 21 plays of various lengths (ten-minute to full-length) since January.  That’s kept me sane and sober. :)

  34. 34.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    He was good! I thought. Biden knows a lot- it was apparent in the debates v other Democrats and it becomes more apparent in comparison to Trump. People who know a lot don’t have to work so hard at producing “zingers” or whatever because they’re comfortable with just about every question. There is no policy question he’s likely to get that he doesn’t have a fairly extensive background with. It’s just plain experience and it pays off.

  41. 41.

    PST

    It’s less than 60 degrees here in Chicago, but I’ve been sitting on the balcony in my robe watching interesting clouds roll by quickly as the sun comes up. Beautiful in a dark way. We’re driving to Toledo later to welcome in the new year with my 96-year-old mother-in-law. At this point, she would rather take a few chances than isolate completely, and I think she’s right. I see there’s at least one other old Toledo veteran here this morning.

  42. 42.

    Kay

    My favorite part of this story:

    What actually transpired in the room stunned a number of those in attendance. Vanity Fair has reconstructed the details of the meeting for the first time, based on recollections, notes, and calendar entries from three people who attended the meeting. All quotations are based on the recollections of one or more individual attendees. Kushner, seated at the head of the conference table, in a chair taller than all the others, was quick to strike a confrontational tone. “The federal government is not going to lead this response,” he announced. “It’s up to the states to figure out what they want to do.”

    I think the private sector captains of industry and finance might have leaked this story to show that they did make some effort to pitch in because the bungled, incompetent US response also reflects poorly on them, but if so I’m glad they did.

  44. 44.

    NotMax

    Well, that was different.

    Put on a frothy college antics B picture from 1941 found on Prime to run in the background while puttering in the kitchen slapping together a late dinner, as wasn’t feeling peckish until about 1 in the morning. The kind of movie I need look at only now and again and can just as well mostly listen to once am able to associate voices with the characters.

    Do have a habit of reading the opening credits to scan for unusual names. So was still watching when came the rather, um, unconventional opening scene.

    :)

  45. 45.

    Betty Cracker

    @rikyrah: Biden did a lot better at his town hall than Trump did at his! Biden rolled out a line that might be part of a longer-term strategy to differentiate his economic focus vs. Trump’s: Park Avenue vs. Scranton, and accused Trump of being too focused on Wall Street (fact check: true).

    I thought Biden got a bit shaky toward the end. Visually, he seems worryingly aged, IMO. But he was way more coherent than Trump, had a grasp on policy, unlike Trump, and is capable of expressing normal human emotion, empathy and humility in a way that seems remarkable after four years of being brayed at by malignant narcissist, so that creates a positive contrast.

  46. 46.

    Phylllis

    @Mustang Bobby: I thought you had retired. I planned to at the end of this school year, but we are moving towards consolidating with the neighboring district in our county & our new superintendent has asked me stay at least one more year after this. I’m slowly shedding responsibilities tho-training another sucker co-worker to take over Perkins/Career & Technology by the end of the year.

  47. 47.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    They just don’t have to work as hard as people who don’t have a lot of experience. You can say “immigration” to Biden and he has this huge bank of things he knows to draw on. He was in the US senate when they got closest to an immigration deal, under Bush. They wrangled over it for two years, and that was prior to being VP.

  48. 48.

    Baud

    The NYT has to NYT.

    Biden, Facing Voters in a 2020 Rarity, Attacks Trump From a Battleground State

    NYT > Top Stories / by Katie Glueck / 7h

     

    At a town hall event near Scranton, Pa., the Democratic nominee played up his local roots as he sought to connect with voters after many months off the campaign trail during the pandemic.

  51. 51.

    Kay

    Dave Weigel
    @daveweigel
    6m
    The 2nd and 3rd debate actually broke with tradition, asking two questions framed around John Podesta’s hacked email. But I can already see the first debate asking general questions and the next-day spin being that they tried to skew it for Biden.

    TWO debate questions on Podesta’s rice recipes. Oh, gosh. Remember that? When things were running well enough that we had the luxury of 16 months of discussing emails?

  55. 55.

    Mustang Bobby

    @Phylllis: The state is flooding the districts with buckets of money to deal with Covid-19 and remote learning to the point that they can hardly keep up with it.  We at the charters have four separate grants that pay for everything from cleaning supplies to laptops for the students and teachers.  It is a record-keeping nightmare, and adding in the fact that we have to run it through an understaffed district office makes it to the point that a second retirement would be good for me right about now.

    Off to work — remotely today.  See you all later!

  56. 56.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    I remember hearing Trump speak in PA and slam Biden for abandoning PA when he moved to DE. Not one person pointed out that Biden was 10 years old at the time. Assholes.

  57. 57.

    johnnybuck

    @Betty Cracker: He does look old, but it feels like we kind of need that sort of wisdom and gravity at this point and time. Or maybe I’m just thirsty for competence and command. If he looked listless, or scattered it might be one thing, but I thought he took a two by four to Donald Trump.

  58. 58.

    Geminid

    Cook’s Political Report changed its ratings for VA5th from lean republican to toss up, and CO3rd from solid to lean Republican. Both are districts where the incumbent Republican was beaten by a more conservative challenger. ME2 went from lean D to solid D.

  60. 60.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @raven: Your home town made the pages of the Guardian: Athens, Georgia, was my home. Its leaders are letting Covid-19 wreak havoc

    Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, a Donald Trump acolyte, was slow to order safety measures and quick to lift them, even limiting individual cities’ abilities to create a stronger framework than his recommendations. Despite weak steps from state leadership, Athens was full of smart and careful residents, and the community remained much lower in case and death metrics than other population centers in Georgia throughout the spring and summer.

    Hold tight….

  65. 65.

    Betty Cracker

    @johnnybuck: Biden did a great job slamming Trump, and it’s such a target rich environment that he had plenty of opportunities! Biden has always had a tendency to wander off into policy minutiae in a way that might have be detrimental in a normal political environment. But in the current hellscape, it’s positively refreshing and probably an advantage.

  68. 68.

    NotMax

    @Luciamia

    If you make several is that considered a braidy bunch?

    :)

    Heard tales of Jewish grandmothers who each and every Friday would make one large loaf for the table, plus individual mini-loaves for each of the grandchildren.

  69. 69.

    raven

    @SiubhanDuinne: We’d been friends for 20+ years. Eight years she married a great guy who happens to be and eminent bee scholar. He was given some high level British recognition for his work and the photos of them at the ceremony were awesome. She was the daughter of Cuban expats and had such a great time when she was able to travel there. Oh yea, she and I would fight like cats and dogs. . .she hated football!

  73. 73.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: My friend on FB who constantly posts pics of her calling her things like “hag” would probably have a heart attack and die if Pelosi became president. You’re right, it’s like Pavlov’s dogs, they just react.

  74. 74.

    Jeffro

    File this one under “stopped clocks being right twice a day”, or something: Brooksie wrote a normal, almost completely truthful column today. Who knew the guy was capable of this?

    You might have thought that the Democratic and Republican Parties are different versions of the same thing, but that’s no longer true. As Jonathan Rauch of the Brookings Institution has noted, the G.O.P. is no longer a standard coalition party. It’s an anti-political insurgency that, even before Trump, has been elevating candidates with no political experience and who don’t believe in the compromise and jostle of politics. Right now, Republicans are a culture war identity movement that suppresses factional disagreement and demands total loyalty to Trump.

    The Democrats are still a normal political party. In 2020 they rejected the “base mobilization” candidates who imagine you can magically create a revolutionary majority if only you go purist. Biden is a man who doesn’t do culture war, who will separate the cultural left from the political left, reduce politics back to its normal size and calm an increasingly apocalyptic and hysterical nation.

    The Democratic Party is an institution that still practices coalition politics, that serves as a vehicle for the diverse interests and ideas in society to filter up into legislation, that plays by the rules of the game, that believes in rule of law. Right now, it is the only major party that does that.

    (don’t worry – I’m not going all fanboy here – we all know this is just for today. And he still got on my nerves with ‘political left vs cultural left’ and ‘increasingly apocalyptic and hysterical nation’: hel-LO, David, there’s no “Q” on the left, m’man ;)

  76. 76.

    Jeffro

    @Baud: we sure could use a nice Democratic majority in the Senate…it’s weird to feel so personally invested in the Senate races in other states, but that’s how it goes.

  78. 78.

    Jeffro

    K-thug’s column today asks the obvious question: what is it with trumpov still being anti-mask?

    Biden ought to cut an ad where he puts on a mask that says “TRUMP” on it, and says, “Hey – wear whatever kind of mask you want, I don’t care one bit.  Just wear it, for yourself and your loved ones.”

    LANDSLIDE

  79. 79.

    Ken

    @Jeffro: Brooks may dimly recognize that four more years of Trump will get around to some variation of the Night of the Long Knives targeting Republicans like him.

  80. 80.

    Baud

    @Jeffro:

    Given how Trump is portraying as AOC’s submissive, I suppose that Brooks column is helpful for people who are inclined to listen to what Trump and Brooks have to say.

  83. 83.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: He was good! I thought. Biden knows a lot- it was apparent in the debates v other Democrats and it becomes more apparent in comparison to Trump. People who know a lot don’t have to work so hard at producing “zingers” or whatever because they’re comfortable with just about every question. There is no policy question he’s likely to get that he doesn’t have a fairly extensive background with. It’s just plain experience and it pays off.

    I think it’s both funny and sad that in the conspiracy-prone Republican mind this turns into “They had to have given Biden all the questions, he answered them way too well”.  They’ve become accustomed to Trump’s babbling non-answers, and think anything better than that must be due to cheating! The idea of studying the issues and having a pretty good idea what people are concerned about right now leading to having good answers is a concept they just cannot grasp anymore.

  84. 84.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @raven:

    Twenty years is a long friendship, and a real loss for you. I love the obituary snippet you posted.

    Last New Years Eve, I lost my best friend to cancer. Had known her since high school sophomore geometry class — 1957! Her birthday would have been a few days ago, and I found myself grieving on and off all day.

    Condolences to you and to everyone who knew and loved your friend.

  86. 86.

    Immanentize

    @raven: Sounds like a true friend — at least I love my friends who fight….  Cancer does indeed suck.  By the way, I assume that the line in the obit:

    Impatient with platitudes and superficialities,

    translates to “did not suffer fools lightly.”

  89. 89.

    Soprano2

    @raven: Well, you know that’s all projection. LOL Trump reportedly uses drugs all the time, so of course he says Biden must be using “performance enhancing drugs”, and all his cult members will just repeat that.

  91. 91.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Jeffro:

    (don’t worry – I’m not going all fanboy here – we all know this is just for today. And he still got on my nerves with ‘political left vs cultural left’ and ‘increasingly apocalyptic and hysterical nation’: hel-LO, David, there’s no “Q” on the left, m’man ;)

    Today, just not being a frothing bigot ignoramus is “doing culture war.”

  92. 92.

    Ken

    @raven: @Soprano2: It could be projection, or it could be lies to cover lies. Trump said Biden is senile, and since he can never be wrong….

    I’m leaning toward the second, but only because it reminds me of a funny bit in Terry Pratchett’s Making Money.

  93. 93.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @NotMax: …the rather, um, unconventional opening scene…

    Um…are you aware that it was quite common in the day for undergraduate theater companies from all-male universities to perform, even on tour in the hinterlands during intersemester holidays, with half (or more) of the troupe in drag?

    Here’s a classic example from the Princeton** Triangle Club prouction of 1916. Unfortunately Scott’s grades were too poor for “her” to go on tour, but they still used the photos of “the most beautiful girl in the show” for publicity, notably in the fishwrap later to be known at BJ as FTFNYT…

    **NB the program shown in the opening scene identifies the college in question as “Quinceton.” Whoever made that flick were quite aware of just what & who they were satirizing.

  94. 94.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Jeffro:

    K-thug’s column today asks the obvious question: what is it with trumpov still being anti-mask?

    I don’t think there’s anything complicated to understand. Trump lives by, and promotes, elementary-schoolyard notions of strength and masculinity. Wearing a mask is like carrying an umbrella because Mommy made you. A cool boy would never do it regardless of how hard it rains. And he also instinctively understands that stigmatizing this is an instantly visible way of distinguishing his followers from the other people–that kind of division is what he specializes in. It doesn’t matter how many of his own supporters it kills.

  96. 96.

    Matt McIrvin

    (In related news, “dirtbag left” types are now starting to call the COVID-19 lockdown a neoliberal plot, in case you thought they couldn’t get any dumber.)

  97. 97.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    I dropped this into the dead thread – evodevo gave a great response from the standpoint of USPS personnel.

     

    With DeJoy, it’s hard to determine how much destruction is planned malevolence or whether it is just a happy byproduct of rich white-boy sheer incompetence and being over-focused on meaningless metrics that feign efficiency or achievement.

    I mean, look at the failure point – “our trucks go out on time or earlier, regardless of whether they’re full”.  This is pure MBAism, and looks like something done to “wring out the inefficiency” by making the lazy moochers on the sorting  and handling end of the inefficient government behemoth work harder.

    With conservative business practice, it is never about the service, product or experience you deliver. It is all about being able to pretend like you’re on top of things while making a stack.

  99. 99.

    WereBear

    Woke up to discovery one of my favorite musicians, Van Morrison, is a covidiot.

    Ah well. I can forgive. He’s 75 and I’ll blame frontal lobe degeneration.

  100. 100.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Speaking of friends who have died, I found myself thinking of my long time Ozark caving buddy Walter the other day. I no longer recall why but for whatever reason I had made him a gag gift of a hinged box with a lock on it. Across the lid it said “Pandora’s.” It had a rather satisfying if ominous rattle when one shook it. Not being satisfied with the torture of his wondering what it contained, I also gave him the key so that he would have to daily resist the temptation to open it. Many’s the time he reminded me to “Go fuck yourself, you asshole.”

    I last saw him on Labor Day 8 yrs ago and 3 weeks later he was dead of cancer. Took only 4 months for it to burn right thru him. He went to his grave not knowing what was in that box.

  101. 101.

    Betty Cracker

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Rings true! The same mindset prevails among Trump’s low-quality nepotism hires (though I don’t think either actually has an MBA).

    On every issue, from Middle East peace to PPE production to job training programs, they directed minions to do make-work projects that didn’t do shit to address the problems but gave them something to point at as “progress.”

  102. 102.

    Geminid

    @Immanentize: I’m hoping the Bloomberg people can get Judge Judy in a few ads. Her Bloomberg ad was pretty good.  But I’m also hoping Bloomberg effectively appeals to Spanish speaking voters. Looks like they collectively will be a decisive factor in Florida. And voting Democratic can become a good habit.

  103. 103.

    NotMax

    @Uncle Cosmo

    Yes, am aware. It’s purely a celluloid romp. And BTW, the all-female school in the same flick is Mar Brynn.

    Disclaimer at the start reads: “Any relation to real college life is purely coincidental.”

    Movie was also the first screen credited appearance of Alan Hale Jr., then 19 years old (much later Skipper on Gilligan’s Isle).

    @There go two miscreants

    Heh. Groucho was many things but leggy was not one of them.

    :)
    ;)

  105. 105.

    Sloane Ranger

    @rikyrah: Very well. His grasp of detail was impressive. On occasion, he answered the question he wanted rather than the one he was asked, but that’s common among politicians.

    I assume the RWNJ media will be out and about claiming he was fed the questions in advance or even wrote them for stooges to ask. Cest la vie!

  109. 109.

    JPL

    @rikyrah: hahaha      I have no doubt that Mike will let us know.

    I’m Mike Bloomberg and I’m ready to serve as your next ambassador to………

  110. 110.

    Baud

    @Geminid: Democratic constituencies have a bad habit of overreaching when they think they’re the decisive factor.  I just hope it all works out to our mutual advantage.

  111. 111.

    Jeffro

    @Matt McIrvin: I think trumpov hates masks because a) they’re obvious evidence of his failure to contain the “hoax” virus that did not magically “all go away”, and b) his orange spray-tan rubs off on it.

  112. 112.

    Baud

    @JPL: As billionaires go, he wouldn’t be the worst ambassador.  At least he’s served in political office, and in a pretty cosmopolitan city.

  113. 113.

    Gin & Tonic

    Melancholy. My dear wife showed me a FB post put up by a mutual friend of very long standing. It shows a photo of him, aged ~18, with two of his closest friends, whom we also had known. Both are dead, one a long time ago and one more recently. The friend who posted this apparently has advanced liver disease, so it won’t be long before he’s joining his friends.

    What a drag it is, getting old.

  115. 115.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Immanentize: Dunno if Scott was talking through a character on this, but he was def talking about himself when he wrote

    “I didn’t have the top two things,” he reasoned, “great animal magnetism or money. I had the two second things, tho’, good looks and intelligence.”

    (IIRC the quote goes on to say, ” – so I always got the girl.”)

    “Good looks” on the pretty end of the spectrum, far removed from “animal magnetism.” A no-brainer for that show, which he helped to write. Too bad he couldn’t go on tour. Scarred him for life, clearly. ;^D

  116. 116.

    Barbara

    @Matt McIrvin: Actually, I think that Krugman’s diagnosis is more subtle and probably more on the mark: people wearing masks is a constant reminder that Trump has not manged to corral the virus.  It’s a mark of failure.  Even though, really, we would be wearing masks no matter who was president or what steps they had taken, because wearing masks is going to be the best way to contain the virus until an effective vaccine is widely available.  It’s a sign of his narcissism that he personalizes everything as a reflection of himself.

  117. 117.

    Jeffro

    @Jeffro: interesting…Brooks’ fellow NYT columnist Jamelle Bouie is on Twitter right now noting that Brooks’ distinction between Biden and Bernie/AOC/Warren (ie, ‘centrist Dem’ vs ‘radical Left’) is a “mirage”…”Bernie/AOC/Warren are well within the mainstream of American politics”

    Which is true, actually.  Much more in the mainstream than Cruz, Cotton, Hawley, and the entire House Freedumb Caucus.

  118. 118.

    Baud

    @JPL: Probably not my first choice, but I wouldn’t go ballistic over Commerce.  It’s frankly pretty weak in terms of the power of the office compared to other Cabinet level departments.  The major task for Commerce next year will probably be redoing the Census.

  119. 119.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Dave Wasserman
    @Redistrict
    ·51m
    Rating change: #VA05 race between Cameron Webb (D) and Bob Good (R) moves from Lean R to Toss Up at @CookPolitical as Republicans sound the alarm.

    Trumpy! Was Trump +11.

    I want Biden to break out because I think that weakens the whole GOP going into the actual vote and reduces the chance they fuck with it. Trump could not have done all this damage without the help of the GOP Congress- they have to feel threatened by him.

  120. 120.

    Ken

    @JPL: Oh dear. That means the Republicans will be running ads with an ominous baritone voice intoning, “Joe Biden will name corporate billionaires to his cabinet….”, guaranteeing them a sweep in the Hypocrisy Awards.

  121. 121.

    NotMax

    @Jeffro

    In more than some ways am reminded of the high official (War Minister, if memory serves) who at a meeting of the senior members of the Japanese government immediately following Truman’s announcement that an atomic bomb had been used on Hiroshima argued on the record that it was all a hoax and the Americans had no such weapon, not budging from his claims even as messengers were delivering to the same meeting initial eyewitness accounts of the devastation.

  122. 122.

    Baud

    @Jeffro:

    Much more in the mainstream than Cruz, Cotton, Hawley, and the entire House Freedumb Caucus.

    How are we defining “mainstream” here, because these people have a lot of real people who support them?

  125. 125.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    I think trumpov hates masks because a) they’re obvious evidence of his failure to contain the “hoax” virus that did not magically “all go away”,

    I think that’s true of Trump supporters. Visual, daily reminder of the failure. They’re snowflakes!

  126. 126.

    JPL

    @Ken: I don’t think Joe plays golf though so there is that.    When Fox starts talking about the deficit  non stop, we’ll know Joe has this.   My guess is that the 3rd week in October, deficits matter.

  127. 127.

    zhena gogolia

    @Kay:

    The first time a student wore a mask to my class early last March, I had a moment of terror. Now we’re all in masks all the time and it’s so normal. Not fun, but normal.

  128. 128.

    Kay

    One of the Democrats on the county board of elections took the GOP members to task for not wearing masks at BOE meetings. They have to meet in a conference room so they can socially distance because the GOP people refuse to wear them. Delightful low key rant, a recitation of their failings, front page of the local paper. He asked them how they can justify putting elderly poll workers at risk – “people you know, people who do this work because they want to help”- by telling people they don’t have to wear masks.

    Bravo. I’ll tell him so when I see him.

  129. 129.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Well, it looks like Spanish speaking Floridians are only a potential Democratic constituency at this point. And my impression is that the they mainly want competent goverment and a strong economy in which upward mobility is possible. Hard to overreach on those issues.

  132. 132.

    Kay

    @zhena gogolia:

    I’ve gotten used to it too. I even have “my favorite mask”. I got it from my middle son- it’s the IBEW mask they sent out to electricians. Black and stretchy with soft ear cords. He has about 20 littering his car interior – they wear them on every job. I snatched one. He calls it “mask hoarding”.

    I might buy one of the ones people wear to gyms- I saw one yesterday on a court clerk who is also a yoga instructor and she says it’s wonderful. It’s snug. I hate fiddling with it.

  133. 133.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: I can only imagine their daily horror at having to put on a mask…”the liberals were right! grr my god-king got it wrong! grr how can I go on living if liberals were right and my god-king got it wrong grrrrr!”

    I exaggerate, but not by much.

  135. 135.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I got an email from our county clerk. I don’t know if someone is screwing with Illinois voters or what.

    Many voters have received notification from the Secretary of State’s office that the Lake County Clerk’s office did not receive their vote by mail ballot application for November.
    Our records indicate that you have submitted a ballot application.

  136. 136.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: My district!  This is awesome news.

    The GOP could have run with a relatively moderate (and incumbent!) Republican, but the pro-trumpov religious right guy won their primary (the outgoing rep had the audacity to be ok with gay marriage).

    Meanwhile, the Dems are running a Black, charismatic, moderate, young professional.  I’m going to L-O-V-E it if/when Webb wins.

    Virginia Republicans are the best: they absolutely refuse to learn!

  137. 137.

    TS (the original)

    @Kay:

    RCP polls for direction of country

    Wrong track +48, +46, +44  Even Rasmussen has Wrong Track +22

    For sane/logical people that has to be tied to trump – and that is what Biden is now doing every chance he gets.

  138. 138.

    Marcopolo

    Good morning folks. Anyone from Virginia around? Rumor is early voting has begun in your state:

    The first voters in @LoudounCo on this lovely Friday morning. ❤ pic.twitter.com/03DaWCGqsd— Phyllis Randall (@PRandallcares) September 18, 2020

    46 days until the election. Lines at the polls. Good chance we see 60%+ turnout in a presidential election for the first time since 1968

    I’ll be voting in 11 days :).

  139. 139.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    I would like to avoid problems, so I’m watching to see if Biden starts pulling well ahead. I think that solves a lot of the problems. I think there’s a possibility that might happen. There’s always downside risk but there’s upside too. I don’t want to forget that.

    I hate to go to the doctor. Hate. My family doctor told me “this avoidance is just as bad as hypochondria- it’s just the other side of it- get to the middle”. True!

  140. 140.

    Marcopolo

    @Geminid: Whenever you talk about hispanic voters, keep in mind there is no “hispanic voting bloc.” There are hispanics of Mexican descent, of Cuban descent, of Guatemalan descent, of Puerto Rican descent, and so on, and there are also hispanic voters whose families have lived in the US for generations (literally a century or two). These folks do not vote in lock step. For example, while Cuban-Americans tend to vote R; Mexican-Americans tend to vote D. Any good campaign’s outreach to the hispanic population is a complex process.

  141. 141.

    Jeffro

    @Marcopolo: I’m seeing a LOT of long lines on various social media sites…all around the state, apparently.  I think folks just want to get their vote ‘in the bank’ and be done with this election.

    I have already done some yard sign delivering and offered to be an early morning poll-watcher on Election Day.

    Still trying to decide on the Election Day menu at home…I will probably need to pace myself so I don’t end up nervous-snacking all day and rupture myself ;)

  142. 142.

    Miss Bianca

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Wearing a mask is like carrying an umbrella because Mommy made you. A cool boy would never do it regardless of how hard it rains.

    Yeah, everyone knows that cool boys blow off going anywhere in the rain, whether it’s to school or to a ceremony honoring war dead, because no umbrellas and what if their cool boy hairdos get messed up?

  143. 143.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Marcopolo:

    I’ll be voting in 11 days :).

    That certainly seems premature to me. I mean, the President will be unveiling the health care policy he’s been talking about, which may be a game-changer. I think you should wait and make an informed choice when *all* the facts and policies are on the table.

  144. 144.

    StringOnAStick

    @WereBear: Sorry to say that Van Morrison became a born again Christian decades ago; that’s what the album “Avalon Sunset” was about, the sunset of non-Christian beliefs (in his POV).  When he performs Brown Eyes Girl now he changes the line “making love in the green grass behind the stadium” to some version of “Having fun” that is decidedly non-sexual.  I love his older music but he’s definitely into the Christian based culture war stuff and had been for a long time.

    I wouldn’t walk across the street to see him perform now; if he’s going to make his art about Christian dominance then I’m not giving him my money.

  145. 145.

    Chris Johnson

    @Matt McIrvin:(In related news, “dirtbag left” types are now starting to call the COVID-19 lockdown a neoliberal plot, in case you thought they couldn’t get any dumber.)

    Upthread someone said at least there’s no Q on the left.

    Don’t be silly. They literally try to also GET the left, with literally QAnon. There’s a huge difference between AOC, between most progressives in fact, and ‘dirtbag left’. I’ve become increasingly convinced, after personally walking too close to those folks in all sincerity, that they’re just as Russian-run as the craziest QAnon.

    A dead, dead fucking giveaway (and what drove me off) was when they started talking ‘Russiagate’ and sounding exactly like 4chan /pol/. And I’ve also hung out in 4chan, years ago when I was in dire straits and things were really bad, and so I have seen these places, these people.

    Russia captures and directs extremists of ALL kinds. If we end up having Balloon Juicers who are all about sending troops into the White House and literally lining up the Trump traitors against the wall instead of following rule of law, and they’re SERIOUS, they are probably also Russians hanging out with us trying to get a reaction that they can use to feed some other pile of extremists.

    Quick precis: damn right there’s a Q of the left. It’s Q, in that it is Russia doing exactly the same thing the same way.

  147. 147.

    JAFD

    Raven – My sympathies ‘Sic transit gloria mundi…’

    “Three ships…” Have thought, check high tide times for the Kill van Kull, spend some nice day at Bayonne Point, watch ships head in and out…

    L’Shanah Tovah, everyone !

  148. 148.

    Tip

    Sexism in 2016:  “I don’t want Hillary to be president, so I’m voting for Trump.”

    Sexism in 2020:  “I don’t want Pelosi to backdoor into the presidency in a contested election, so I’m voting for Biden to make it a landslide.”

  149. 149.

    Geminid

    @Marcopolo: I did not speak of “hispanic voters.” I spoke of “Spanish speaking voters” who “collectively” may be a decisive factor, because I also am aware of the points you mention.

  150. 150.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: We finally got a big pack of commercial ones in different colorful patterns, the kind that go over the ears, so there’s always several clean ones to grab.

    But my favorite one is still the one my mother sent me–she’s a quilt and fiber artist in Virginia and she knows how to sew indestructible things. It’s in an almost camo green pattern, maybe a little too macho. But it’s this big thick tie-on mask, so secure that I never have to fiddle with it once it’s on (though it can be a bit inconvenient if I have to quickly take it off for some reason), big enough to easily deal with my nose and beard.

  151. 151.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Chris Johnson: AOC is a real progressive. Her ties to the Bernie/Justice Democrats/Our Revolution crowd have steered her wrong sometimes, especially early on, but she cares about government and she’s learned fast.

    The Taibbi/Stoller/Bruenig crowd, they’re rapidly just turning into some kind of MAGA freaks with an arbitrary “left” designation. Michael Tracey already got there a while ago.

    During the Obama years I thought a lot of these people were just anti-power and would flip back to opposing Republicans once Republicans had the power again. It’s really disappointing that they haven’t. Trump takes control and they just keep on bashing Democrats as if Democrats still control the world

    Is Russia literally running them or are they just easy dupes for memes coming from the Russians? Maybe doesn’t make a difference. I think BiP was probably just a dupe, for instance.

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