Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

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

Consistently wrong since 2002

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Battle won, war still ongoing.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Infrastructure week. at last.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Everybody saw this coming.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

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

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Biden-Harris 2020 / Thursday Morning Open Thread: Don’t Panic (That’s Trump’s Job)

Thursday Morning Open Thread: Don’t Panic (That’s Trump’s Job)

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The Democrats are on this, seriously.


I think our beloved Kay will approve of this plan, which turns the ‘norms’ Trump and his cohort have so gleefully violated into actual laws. As she says, the GOP has made it abundantly clear that they can’t be trusted to behave, without the explicit threat of punishment spelled out.

And, IMO, Philip Bump at the Washington Post has the right idea — “Parsing Trump’s ‘there won’t be a transfer’ comments”:

As the 2016 election approached, then-candidate Donald Trump’s rhetoric escalated. He would lose only if there was fraud committed against him, he said at multiple points, and he regularly derided the process as “rigged.” …

When he won the election anyway, this idea that he had somehow been cheated persisted. After all, he had lost the popular vote, so he has repeatedly as president asserted that somehow millions of illegal votes were cast without being detected, enough to suggest that it was he, not Hillary Clinton, who was actually the choice of the overall electorate four years ago…

“Mr. President, real quickly, win, lose or draw in this election, will you commit here today for a peaceful transfer of power after the election?” a reporter asked. He noted various incidents of violence that have occurred in recent weeks, apparently to demonstrate the elevated national temperature. “Will you commit to making sure that there is a peaceful transferral of power after the election?”

Trump’s answer was not reassuring.

“Well,” he began, “we’re going to have to see what happens.”…

“We want to have—” Trump continued, before changing direction. “Get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very trans — we’ll have a very peaceful—”

We’ll awkwardly interject here to illustrate how Trump’s thought process was probably playing out. His argument, which he seems perhaps to actually believe, is that mail-in ballots are subject to massive fraud, which is not at all demonstrably true. Since those ballots will be counted after Election Day, he views them (or, at least, hopes America views them) as suspect. While counting the ballots is obviously necessary to determine the will of voters, Trump argues that the inclusion of those ballots is itself an act that introduces instability and uncertainty, a factor that will erode public confidence in the count. Again, this is only because he incorrectly claims that these ballots are subject to rampant fraud, but that’s his position.

But he doesn’t really finish that thought before he realizes what he’s about to say. He begins, “We’ll have a very peaceful—” But the only way to end that sentence is with “transfer of power.” And the only way you have a transfer of power is if he loses. And he can’t admit he loses. So, instead, he abruptly transitions.

“There won’t be a transfer, frankly,” he continued. “There’ll be a continuation.”…

Trump’s campaign cannot be dead, because saying that out loud would be too cruel (to Trump’s ego). Instead, he insists, the campaign is going on a lovely car ride, very soon, after which it will move to a farm upstate where it can run free, forever!

Reader Interactions

207Comments

  2. 2.

    debbie

    SoS LaRose is slow-walking additional drop-off boxes for mail-in ballots. He said he couldn’t do it without judicial approval. He got that approval, but refuses to act because “the process needs to play out.” Lying asshole.

  3. 3.

    Princess

    I keep saying this, but one of the people who died was Trump’s own brother. And this is his reaction.

  5. 5.

    MJS

    Good Morning. Nitpikcing, but phrasing Trump’s claim that mail-in voting is subject to massive fraud as “not at all demonstrably true” is a poor choice in an otherwise good article. It is either “demonstrably false” or “not at all true.” As currently written, it could be read that while it hasn’t been demonstrated to be true, it could be true.

  7. 7.

    debbie

    @Princess:

    PBS’s “Frontline” recently ran a program called “Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden” which compared the lives and careers of both. If you watched it, you’d understand why the “beloved” brother disappeared from Trump’s consciousness almost immediately.

  11. 11.

    John S.

    Twitter is such a cesspool.

    Most of the comments to that Biden ad are bots or Trump’s screeching cultists talking about “the riots”.

    Because somehow, the two police officers in Louisville that were shot and suffered non-life-threatening injuries are more important than 200k dead from COVID-19.

    The mind reels.

  12. 12.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    Some people still can’t bring themselves to talk about Republicans the way they talk about Democrats.

    Oh, I don’t know about that. The Naderites and Stein-kopfs seem to have no problem saying Dems and Rethugs are exactly the same

    ETA: And, of course, “lefties” like Griftwald and his ilk think Dems are worse.

  15. 15.

    mrmoshpotato

    The Soviet shitpile mobster conman knows enough loyal Americans who believe in democracy are way past done with his fascist shit.

    I look forward to Lady Justice caving in all of their fucking orange fascist faces.

  17. 17.

    debbie

    Yesterday’s yard sign count: On a 26-minute walk, 45 Biden signs vs. 2 Trump signs. Practically every walk turns up a new sign or two. There were a couple of homes with for sale signs and with Biden signs; usually, sellers don’t have any signs so as not to alienate any potential buyers.

  18. 18.

    John S.

    @SFAW: Apparently the weighting of a Blue Life is quite substantial.

    Because their Wingnut Math™ is that only 6% of those COVID-19 deaths were really from the virus, so only 12,000 people have actually died.

    So 1 Blue Life = 6,000 Non-Blue Life.

    I’m not even going to attempt the math on what these cretins think a Black Life is worth, because anything higher than zero is probably too much for them.

  20. 20.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker: It’s one or the other.

    Honestly, I’d rather Trump steal the election than to see voters legitimately reelect him.

    My completely speculative prediction: Biden’s win will be overwhelming and Trump will claim that the early call on Election Night proves that there was fraud.

  21. 21.

    Kay

    All of Trump’s threats aside though, even if the President were someone other than Trump and the stakes were less high, it would be a weird election for Democrats. There are so many close states. There’s a reason apart from what Donald Trump thinks or says that Democrats are so unsettled – they’re unsettled because there’s three groups of states where it’s Biden up 5/6, then Biden up 2/3, then basically tied. They have an enormous field where they’re competitive and while the potential benefit runs in Biden’s direction when he’s tied in states like Texas or Georgia, it also adds uncertainty.

  24. 24.

    Jerzy Russian

    @debbie:    Not that many yard signs here yet, but I did see a bumper sticker that said “Fuck Trump and fuck you for voting for him”.

  26. 26.

    SFAW

    In light of the Traitor-in-Chief’s stated intentions to declare himself “President”-for-Life, I was wondering what the over/under number would be for Rethug “senators” resisting that. I figure, for “one senator,” I’d take the “under,” but that’s because I’m a cynical asshole.

    I think an enterprising journalist should ask each Rethug “senator” what they would do if The Traitor tried to pull that. For that questioning, I assume there would be 100 percent crickets. [To me, “I don’t deal in hypotheticals,” “well, he hasn’t said that,” “Fake News!!!” are functionally equivalent to crickets.]

  27. 27.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud:

    My completely speculative prediction: Biden’s win will be overwhelming and Trump will claim that the early call on Election Night proves that there was fraud. 

    And the mail-in ballots just keep punching Dump in the fucking face. :)

  28. 28.

    Princess

    @rikyrah: Oh, I know. And I know all of us know. But I feel like it is important to put it in words from time to time, to expose it to the light.

  30. 30.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    My completely speculative prediction: Biden’s win will be overwhelming and Trump will claim that the early call on Election Night proves that there was fraud.

    Well, yeah, but in fairness: he’d claim fraud for anything less than being re-elected with 80-plus percent of the vote.

  32. 32.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Agreed. A landslide would avert so much potential trouble.

    @Kay: True, it injects uncertainty, but I find that so encouraging, that the polling has it so close in unexpected places. I interpret it as a groundswell against Trump.

  33. 33.

    Starfish

    @John S.: The replies to all the politicians are trash on Twitter, with the replies to Hillary Clinton in 2016, being the worst. Remember that not that many people are on Twitter, and it does not reflect reality.

    I block the incoherent nonsense pretty quickly.

  34. 34.

    JMG

    Unexpectedly close polling in a state also increases turnout. It makes people feel their vote is really significant. Face it, that’s been a tough sell to Texas or Georgia Democrats in statewide elections for oh, the last 40 years.

  35. 35.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    One of the things I worry about, because I tend to spot dark linings inside silver clouds, is that the same Russian fuckery that turned likely-Dem-victories in 2016 into narrow losses (e.g., Feingold to Johnson) will be at work in this year’s senatorial races. Although I’m sure Hanging Chad Wolf is all over that. But for which side, I ain’t sure.

  36. 36.

    Kay

    Chris Hayes
    @chrislhayes
    ·12h
    Increasingly of the belief that the hope for American democracy (at least in recognizable form) is an unprecedented mobilization effort, turnout and flooding of the zone by pro-democracy forces over the next 40 days. Those are the stakes.

    I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to handle Trump and the Trump Administration’s compulsive lying, because it’s a genuinely difficult problem for anyone who opposes him. Dealing with liars is really hard- I know this in my law practice. You like to think it’s just a matter of marshaling a devastating response – “you, sir, are a LIAR” but this isn’t how it works. That’s how it works in tv and movies but not in real life. There are always people who will believe the liar. Always. They’ll be a tiny grain of truth in what the liar says and people who want to believe the liar will seize n that and then you’re off to the races bickering over whether or not the tiny grain of truth is real.
    I’m somewhat sympathetic to media because it ISN’T just a matter of calling it a lie and correcting it- it’s much more difficult than that.
    But “flooding the zone” seems like something to try. They’re flooding the zone with misinformation. The counter to that is to flood it with real information and I mean FLOOD and I mean flooding done by Trump’s opponents- political actors. Meet the barrage of lies with a barrage of counters.

  37. 37.

    Central Planning

    @John S.: I had a wingnut coworker try and pull that bullshit math on me.

    I asked him if he considers plane crashes to be caused by gravity. He got a weird look on his face for a minute. I was quiet and savored the realization that was about to happen. He changed the subject without another word. Winning!

  39. 39.

    zhena gogolia

    @debbie:

    I just got my Biden-Harris sign! It looks as if the mail carrier skipped us and then came back after dark and left it inside our front storm door last night.

  41. 41.

    Lapassionara

    Meanwhile, here in Misery (thank you, OH), our Governor and his wife have tested positive for Covid-19. I am suspicious by nature, so I am thinking maybe this is just an attempt to get out of the upcoming debate with his Democratic opponent.

  42. 42.

    Mustang Bobby

    To quote myself:

    Let’s just go with the foregone conclusion that no matter what the vote count is on Election Night or in the days after as the mail-in and absentee and overseas and military ballots are counted, Trump will never concede. He will not do what every losing candidate has done in living memory: take the stage in some hotel ballroom or some gathering in front of somber supporters and staff and say in some fashion that he called the president-elect to congratulate him and mutter some platitude about how the system works and God bless America. He is mentally and physically incapable of doing that. Indeed, he’s admitted as such with his ominous threat yesterday about “we’ll have to see” about the outcome. And we can be sure that he’s already drafted an army of lawyers to challenge every mail-in vote in every state — except, of course, his own — and there’s even talk about going to the various state legislatures where he has allies to overturn the electors that will be the ones who actually cast the votes that matter in the Electoral College in December to try to persuade them to vote for him regardless of the actual vote count in the state. He could drag this out to January 20, 2021 when he shows up — maskless, of course — and demand that Chief Justice Roberts swear him in to a second term, even if Joe Biden is standing there. So, what do we do?

    What we do is show up at the polls in early voting where it’s done and on Election Day in such overwhelming numbers for Biden and the Democrats that no matter what Trump says or does, the landslide we deliver makes the 1980 Reagan/Carter election night look like a close one. We fight back with every lawyer who ever passed the bar that still believes in the Constitution to be ready to counter every argument in court, and we have to make sure that the “what-ifs” about this election and the nightmare of four more years of Trump are the stuff of apocalyptic political pot-boilers that you find in paperback novels at the airport.

    We have to win this election as if our lives depend on it.  Because it does.

  43. 43.

    A Ghost to Most

    “It is here,” she said. “We are here. It is happening. We don’t have to wonder anymore. As individuals, we don’t have to wonder what it would be like to live through a time like this. We don’t have to wonder anymore how we would react or act or what we would do for our country if our country was ever in this kind of situation. You now know what you would do for your country if your country is ever in this much danger. It is whatever it is you are doing right now. What you are doing now and what you are planning to do for the next six weeks, that’s what you are made of, and that’s what you will be able to say you did when your country needed you. What you did when your country needed you.”

    Rachel Maddow

  44. 44.

    mrmoshpotato

    @SFAW: How can you tell? ?

    I’m just so disgusted by the past 4 years of entirely preventable death and destruction, and the COVID-19 non-response just ???.

    (Insert Anger from Inside Out here.)

  45. 45.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    You like to think it’s just a matter of marshaling a devastating response – “you, sir, are a LIAR” but this isn’t how it works.

    I was listening to Norm Ornstein on On Point yesterday. He was talking about ending the filibuster, and McConnell’s abuse/weaponizing of it during Obama. Meghna brought up the “Harry Reid started it, libtard, har har” BS, and Norm pointed out that Traitor Turtle held up three noms for the DC Circuit Court of Appeals for a year or more, so Harry had no choice but to do a little limited nuking. [I remembered that Reid didn’t have a lot of options, but had forgotten the details.] I heard that and thought that presenting that info to RWMFs would have zero effect.

    Ornstein also talked about the functional equivalent of Cleek’s Law. I was disappointed that he didn’t mention the name.

  50. 50.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

     I interpret it as a groundswell against Trump.

    I do too but if you’re me and you think the best defense is a blowout that’s maddening because it’s right there close but still just out of reach. For Biden’s campaign it means they’re dealing with this huge field- obviously better to have more routes but also complicated.
    One of the (many) things that pisses me off about Trump is what I interpret as his OUTSIZE attention. Most of political commentary comes out of his perspective. I object to this because not everything is driven by what Donald Trump says and his inner thoughts. It isn’t just “Donald Trump issues threats, the country reacts!” The country is proactively shifting away from him. There’s agency and factors apart from him.

  51. 51.

    SFAW

    @mrmoshpotato:

    What’s that about “Hanging Chad” Wolf?

    It’s just that I’ve recently heard a number of stories mentioning the “hanging chad” FLA clusterfuck from 2000.

  54. 54.

    Baud

    @Kay: Good point.  We’d like to see Reagan 1984 or Clinton 1996 numbers.  Those elections were clearly over well before election day.

  55. 55.

    prostratedragon

    My, my, and me trying to be all sanguine and shit:

    The New York Times reports that Durham “has sought documents and interviews about how federal law enforcement officials handled an investigation around the same time into allegations of political corruption at the Clinton Foundation.”

    The Times’ sources say that branching out to include a review of the Clinton Foundation investigation is “highly unusual,” and has led some prosecutors who worked on the case to refuse to meet with Durham’s team.

    Link to original Times story

    I guess the optimistic take is that this means they’re running out of fools tools or weapons.

  56. 56.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mustang Bobby: I’m betting Dump screeches that 300-500 trillion people voted illegally.

    The POS couldn’t even bear an electoral college win but popular vote loss in 2016.

  58. 58.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    Right. We have to start putting Iowa into Tier Two- it was in Tier Three :)

    What’s kind of fun is every time he creeps up in one state he drops in another state he was supposed to carry easily. I think he won Iowa by 9. You know they were counting it in his column. They can’t. They can’t count on Ohio either- they’re still favored to win there but they gotta be nervous.

    I’d rather be Biden than Trump – most of the uncertainty runs against Trump.

  61. 61.

    marklar

    @Princess:

    I keep saying this, but one of the people who died was Trump’s own brother. And this is his reaction.

    Trump likes family members who don’t get dead.

  64. 64.

    prostratedragon

    @mrmoshpotato:  Background: some years ago an NBA team, Phoenix I think, suffered a blowout filled with the kind of oafishness one might expect from really bad ball. The coach was asked afterward what he thought of his team’s execution. He said he thought it would be a good idea.

    Now, there are two ways to take that, but I wouldn’t overthink it.

  65. 65.

    Betty Cracker

    @JMG: Great point!

     

    @Kay: It is outsize, and I don’t know what we can do about it other than, as Chris Hayes said in your quote above, flood the zone. I am sick with anxiety about the first debate. Seriously, I don’t think I’ll be able to watch it without several cocktails because so much is riding on it. That’s the opportunity to break through the Trump cacophony.

  66. 66.

    Skepticat

    … which turns the ‘norms’ Trump and his cohort have so gleefully violated into actual laws.

    Whatever makes you think for a moment that will make a particle of difference? They’re already breaking laws left and right with no consequences.

  67. 67.

    Steeplejack

    I’m watching the 8:00 a.m. replay of the Morning Joe opening (from 6:00 a.m.). Rev. Al Sharpton just made a good point: if Trump is successful in getting a justice on the Supreme Court before the election, that justice would have to recuse herself in any case arising out of the election.

    Would that hypothetical justice do that? Aw, hell, no. But it’s another weapon in the Dem arsenal—a stick to beat the GOP with and drum up public outrage.

  69. 69.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: That’s really the case for every election since it became possible to follow state polls on the Internet (around 2004). In fact, this is the LEAST close one since then. In previous cycles a lot of these states would oscillate between, say, Kerry +2 and Bush +3.

  71. 71.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JMG:Face it, that’s been a tough sell to Texas or Georgia Democrats in statewide elections for oh, the last 40 years.

    Which I’ve never understood considering the fact that local races have a far larger impact on one’s life.

  72. 72.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    One of the things that I find comforting is the Trump people are genuinely bad managers. They have never managed any large national effort competently and contesting counts in 9, 10, 11 12 states in a coordinated manner is a huge undertaking and it’s REAL- it’s a real job. It’s not just sending the low quality hires out to lie to the NYTimes- they have to actually throw out ballots.

    Flood the zone.

  76. 76.

    zhena gogolia

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’ll only be able to watch it through the lens of BJ. I can never watch debates except after the fact. But based on Biden’s performance in the Dem debates and recently, and based on the utter inability of Drumpf to even PRONOUNCE HIS OWN NAME recently, I have a good feeling about it

    ETA: Even that thing in the debates that everyone here was laughing at Biden about, “turn off the record player” — when I actually watched the clip, I thought it was sweet and endearing. It was very clear what he meant and he didn’t come off as babbling.

  78. 78.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I don’t think debates matter that much. I get caught up in them every cycle but I have yet to encounter someone who was persuaded by them. I think they’re entertainment for a (relatively) small group of the public.

  79. 79.

    Baud

    @zhena gogolia:

    Obama was rusty with his first debate against Mitt, but I think the Biden team are prepared to ensure that doesn’t happen again.

    Biden will be fine in the debates (as will Harris).  The uncertainties are: (1) how does he handle Trump’s lying and his gish gallop and (2) how fair will the moderators be.

    ETA: Hipsters are into vinyl. Biden knows what he’s doing.

  81. 81.

    Zzyzx

    Where I am now is that I know that what Trump is doing – to the degree that he has a plan – is designed to terrify us. I know that he’s throwing aside our entire government in order to do so.

    The thing is that knowing that isn’t enough to stop it from working. This is what I was warned about in Hebrew School and while it’s easy to say “It’s easy. Just make it a landslide,” in reality, 40-45% of the population is going to vote for Trump and there’s nothing (well nothing morally acceptable) we can do to stop that.

  83. 83.

    Baud

    @Zzyzx: 40-45% for Trump is a landslide for Biden, especially when there’s no significant third party draw.

    McGovern and Mondale got 40% of the vote.

    ETA: As did Goldwater in that smackdown.

  85. 85.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Betty Cracker: Oh the debates…

    Dump: My daddy Vladdy says you’re a total loser sleepy Joe, and I should be crowned king!

    I regret watching any of the Rethuglican shitshow in 2016.  I shouldn’t’ve even watched the debates.

    No debates for me this year.

  86. 86.

    Kay

    For the people who are scolding Democrats for being alarmed I would ask this – “what would alarm you? What could Donald Trump or Republicans do or say prior to the election that would make you concerned about the country?”

    I think the answer is “nothing” so I’m not accepting being scolded. Every single time we have been sternly scolded and told one or another institution or entity or norm would hold that institution or entity or norm has failed. I’m done being lectured. I’ll do my own risk analysis. Analysis is: “risky”. That’s rational.

  87. 87.

    Baud

    @Kay: I think being alarmed is legitimate. What I don’t like is treating dystopian speculation about what will happen as a done deal.  Too many people think they’re Nostradamus.

  88. 88.

    Zzyzx

    @Baud: In general I’ve been one of those “norms will protect us. Don’t ask for trouble” people, but when Trump and the Republican Party are outright floating trial balloons, well maybe he’ll be too lazy to follow up. Maybe the Supreme Court will protect us. But we’re getting into dangerous territory. Once you seriously start suggesting it, it – by definition – becomes thinkable and the last few decades are showing that the only thing that has made our government functional were that certain things were taboo.

  89. 89.

    Kay

    @Zzyzx:

    to the degree that he has a plan – is designed to terrify us

    He doesn’t think about other people enough to do anything for them, including terrifying them. What he says is 100% about him. He’s telling himself he will be able to win somehow and that is terrifying us. But he isn’t doing it by plan. He doesn’t recognize our existence enough to troll us. He’s a sick fucker. Absolute psycho. There is no one else in his world other than himself.

  90. 90.

    hueyplong

    @prostratedragon: The coach’s approval of his team’s execution was a John Mckay press conference when he was the coach of the extra bad, expansion Tampa Bay Bucs.

    It’s an all time great, right up there with “Playoffs?!?” and “They are who we thought they were.”

  95. 95.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I agree. I also think it probably also drives down turnout so shouldn’t be indulged in excessively. Just as a practical matter.

    The truth is Donald Trump isn’t at all confident. His entire stump speech has turned into telling his voters how they must litigate and eke out a victory. It’s a bitter loser speech. The truth is they never even contemplated winning the most votes. His entire strategy is predicated on a miraculous 5k votes HERE along with another 10k votes THERE. It’s the opposite of confident.

  96. 96.

    Baud

    @Zzyzx: I agree. We’re in a bad place and we can’t count on the things we used to be able to count on.  But I don’t think it’s useful to preemptively declare failure. I’d rather be defeated than give up.

  97. 97.

    hueyplong

    @prostratedragon: It’s entirely possible PHX did a replay of the Mackay thing.  The setting has definitely been conducive for years and years.

    I should have included the Stengel quote.

  98. 98.

    Crashman06

    @Baud: I like this take. Appreciate your level-headedness. Things are dangerous now but let’s keep our heads up and keep fighting.

  99. 99.

    Baud

    @Kay: Is there even a question of him losing the popular vote again?  It’s all about whether he wins the electoral college, by hook or crook.

  100. 100.

    prostratedragon

    @hueyplong:  We now close, or try to, with “Son, we’d love to have you on our roster this year, but we are going to try to win a pennant …”

  102. 102.

    Soprano2

    @Princess: I keep saying this, but one of the people who died was Trump’s own brother. And this is his reaction.

    As long as Trump himself doesn’t get it, he thinks “nobody” is affected. It’s the attitude of a toxic narcissist.

  103. 103.

    jonas

    @Baud: My completely speculative prediction: Biden’s win will be overwhelming and Trump will claim that the early call on Election Night proves that there was fraud.

    No speculation necessary. This is what is going to happen. Trump has pretty much said it out loud. The only questions are whether the margin of victory will be large enough that they can’t tie things up for weeks doing recounts, a la 2000, and whether Trump unleashes his brownshirts to try to stop the counting of mail-in ballots by force. Governors are going to have to be ready to have NG troops protect county and local BOE offices.

  104. 104.

    lahke

    Was just listening to NPR, and Steve Inskeep refused to run the tape of Trump talking about mail-in ballots because “it’s all lies”.

    I guess even NPR has its limits.

  105. 105.

    hueyplong

    I wish my name were over Baud’s and Kay’s comments over the last 20 or so posts.

    Part of the late campaign is to demoralize Dems about the process so as to keep the election close enough to steal.  If the last 3.9 years haven’t been enough to create the wave, I’m not so sure about us as a nation.  Our institutions have failed us, but we voters haven’t had our turn yet and we haven’t yet failed.  Push through, figuratively shoot Trump in his ugly mug by voting for Joe Biden, and save America.  It’s a fairly simple plan and one each of us can execute with minimal inconvenience and only moderate risk.

    I’m going to vote in person.  If I get the virus, well, I’ve had a good run and my legacy will be to have helped to fuck Trump’s shit up.  Only Hitler killed more Americans and I’m not having it.

  106. 106.

    MomSense

    I signed up to do election monitoring.  Not crazy about being around all those people but this nightmare won’t end itself.

    fuckem

  108. 108.

    Soprano2

    @Lapassionara: Meanwhile, here in Misery (thank you, OH), our Governor and his wife have tested positive for Covid-19. I am suspicious by nature, so I am thinking maybe this is just an attempt to get out of the upcoming debate with his Democratic opponent.

    I hadn’t thought about that. Do you think he’d go that far? I mean, they could just reschedule it. I wonder if it’s an attempt to have it, get virtually no symptoms, and then say “See, I told you COVID isn’t that big of a deal”. If they really have it I hope they both get really sick and become long-haulers, because Parson has been horrible on COVID. I’m lucky I live in Springfield, at least we have a mask mandate here. The city council has been remarkably good considering this is a 60% MAGA part of the state. The rest of SWMO has been terrible, though.

  111. 111.

    Nelle

    My husband will be a poll worker.  He is 76.  He didn’t do three tours in Vietnam to watch this shit.  He is healthy.  I’m not.  He may be spending two weeks in the basement afterwards,  but I don’t get in his way when he is this determined.

  112. 112.

    Zzyzx

    @Baud: I’m not saying we’ve lost as much as they’re trying to “trigger the libtards” and it’s worked. I’ve been triggered. Between Corona and not having seen a friend or done anything fun since March and our weather going straight from nonstop smoke to nonstop rain, it’s exceedingly hard to shake the bleakness.

    As much as it matters in WA state, my ballot will be put in the Green Lake drop box within 24 hours of receiving it.

  117. 117.

    Jeffro

    1. I hope Biden just basically ignores the debate questions and grills the SHIT out of trumpov…”where’s your health care plan, Donald?”…”why can’t there be a peaceful transfer of power, Donald?”…”where the fuck are your tax returns, you fraud?”.  Just ignore Wallace and keep grilling Mr. Innocent every time.
    2. While I’m busy dreaming…I’d also like it if our national snooze media could also ask that second question and walk American voters through that: “if trumpov loses the election, from his perspective, doesn’t he just go back to being rich, famous, beloved?  Wouldn’t he get to carp endlessly on Fox and OAN, golf even more than he does now, and rejoice in having ‘Made America Great Again’?  Why does he so desperately need to remain in office?”  Why, indeed…
  118. 118.

    Honus

    Re Josh Douglas comment in the post about poll workers:  here in central Virginia we have a surplus of poll workers.  Volunteers are being put on waiting lists. People are very motivated, at least in this locale.

  120. 120.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @JMG: One of the reasons that the act as though you are 20 points behind philosophy  is dangerous.  Confidence is contagious.

  121. 121.

    prostratedragon

    @hueyplong:  Stengel. As memorable as Yogi, but Yogi was a sweetheart. Stengel … [tilting hand]

     

    You know, that one really is a scream, isn’t it?

  123. 123.

    Soprano2

    @Kay:

    Right. We have to start putting Iowa into Tier Two- it was in Tier Three :)

    What’s kind of fun is every time he creeps up in one state he drops in another state he was supposed to carry easily. I think he won Iowa by 9. You know they were counting it in his column. They can’t. They can’t count on Ohio either- they’re still favored to win there but they gotta be nervous.

    I’d rather be Biden than Trump – most of the uncertainty runs against Trump.

    ITA, and I wish the press would start covering it more like that, because Biden has expanded his field and shrunk Trump’s. If it were the other way around that’s all they’d talk about. I will always believe that the press wanted Trump to win in 2016, and many of them want him to win this year because he’s so much fun. I can just hear them groaning about the prospect of covering Biden. They’re already (wrongly) griping about how Harris won’t give them (that one reporter, actually) interviews. They love the way that Trump gives them easy headlines and stories every single day. They know he’s bad for the country, but he’s good for them personally.

    I also wish they would quit asking Trump if he’s going to accept the results of the election, because that makes it seem like there’s a question. There’s no question, he has to accept the result of the election. Don’t make it seem like it’s OK for him to not accept it! How hard is it to understand this? They’re feeding him by asking the question over and over again. He also makes it sound like a given that the Supreme Court will decide the election; they should point out that this is far from a certainty, and most likely won’t even happen at all.

    I’ve been wondering how Trump and his MAGAs will react if Biden is ahead at the end of election night. Everyone is assuming that Trump will be ahead, but that’s not a given. If Biden is ahead, then they’ll forget every argument they’ve made for the past 6 months and seamlessly pivot to screaming about how all the mail-in votes have to be counted, blah blah blah.

    I heard a “Morning Edition” story this morning about voters in PIttsburgh. They actually went to a city and talked to black voters!  OMG, perhaps they’re learning at least a little bit.

  125. 125.

    Honus

    @Sab: I like the Charles Barkley quote after a loss when he was with a bad Arizona team: “Yeah, I had a bad game. Now I know how the rest of y’all feel”

  126. 126.

    Fair Economist

    @SFAW: Also, Harry Reid, *didn’t* start the attempt to end the judicial filibuster. That was the *Republicans*, in 2005, with McConnell aggressively supporting it as a Republican Senate leader.

  127. 127.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    No, they never even tried for the popular vote. This is more and more the position of the GOP too, and I think it’s absolutely poisonous for a political party. They no longer even attempt to appeal to anyone outside their base. Trump’s speeches are REALLY insular- he speaks in Right wing code. He’s just marinated in far Right internet themes.

    It’s one of Biden’s great strengths, IMO. He talks like a normal person. To listen to him you don’t have to have lived on the internet for the last three years- you have all the context you need from just ordinary observations of events.

  131. 131.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I read Trump supporters on Twitter and their whole argument is the electoral college. These are not confident members of a political party or movement- they cede 3/4 of the country before they begin.

    It’s the same with their arguments for the SCOTUS justice – we are going to ram this down your throats because we can. There’s not even an attempt to persuade on the merits. The Trump approach has completely captured the whole Right wing. They ARE him.

  132. 132.

    Benw

    @Jeffro: my guess is that the Senate R’s are rushing the SC pick through is not to “line up behind Trump” as I’ve seen in some articles, or sway the election, but because when Trump loses (which they expect), they want a rock solid majority that will ferociously prevent any investigations into McConnell/Chao, those insider trading Senators who knew early on about COVID, who of them knew about Trump’s illegal calls to foreign leaders, and all the other general graft and conflict of interest they’ve ALL been up to the last 4 years (and longer)

  133. 133.

    sanjeevs

    These people really deserve each other

     

    A leading congressional ally of President Donald Trump alleged last week that Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) threatened to withhold financial support for the president’s re-election effort unless he helped get her top Republican opponent out of the race.

    According to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Loeffler or her representatives approached the Trump campaign and offered to spend tens of millions of dollars on Trump’s behalf. But that financial support would only come, Loeffler’s team supposedly said, if Trump helped convince Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) to drop his Senate bid. Gaetz supports Collins and was speaking at a campaign event.

    This is what the Loeffler team went to the Trump team with,” said Gaetz. “They went and said, ‘Look, you guys gotta get Doug Collins out of this race’… She said, ‘I have $50 million for this project, and I can either spend my $50 million getting new voters and helping the Trump campaign, or I can spend that $50 million taking out Doug Collins

     

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-ally-matt-gaetz-kelly-loeffler-offered-trump-dollar50-million-to-help-get-her-opponent-out-of-the-race

  134. 134.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Baud:  As I said in one of the overnight threads: He (Trump) and the GOP are a threat, but we are currently winning and they aren’t 10′ tall and bullet-proof.

  135. 135.

    narya

    So there’s a cemetery near me–I run past it in the morning. As I have been starting a little later, the gates have been open, so yesterday and today I ran in the cemetery. It was great–could leave the mask down the whole time! no people!–and this morning I saw a small pack of what I assume were coyotes. They weren’t sure what to do about me–they kept an eye on me, but also moved away. I just maintained my distance and pace (well, except pausing to snap a photo), and then I ran into two of them again, later in the run. This may explain why I haven’t seen a rabbit in 3 weeks or so (I’d often see as many as half a dozen).

  137. 137.

    Geminid

    Political scientist (and engineer) Rachel Bitecofer spoke about yard signs in a tweet series a couple weeks ago. She said that there was no quantitative evidence that yards signs have any effect on elections. Not surprising, because that effect would be hard to measure. But her gut tells her that yard signs are effective and advocated that the Democrats try hard to get signs out there.

  138. 138.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: We won’t have those kinds of numbers. It’s just not possible. Our absolute best case is Obama 2008-level numbers, and closer is likely.

  139. 139.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @MJS:

    …phrasing Trump’s claim that mail-in voting is subject to massive fraud as “not at all demonstrably true” is a poor choice in an otherwise good article. It is either “demonstrably false” or “not at all true.” As currently written, it could be read that while it hasn’t been demonstrated to be true, it could be true.

    They can’t help themselves. It just feels too weird to them to fully embrace the fact that the Democrats are right and the Republicans are amoral shit weasels. So, you end up reading textual tics like the one you highlight.

  140. 140.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    I just got 500 more. They’re hard to get.

    I now have the most among the NW Ohio counties which is causing (IMO) some envy from the other counties :)

    I got some directly from the printer 2 weeks ago and I called to check where they were and he said “we’re running red tonight and blue tomorrow” which I think means he’s printing both sides signs, which is fine and good for him, I just thought it was funny.

  141. 141.

    evodevo

    @narya: Yep..here in northern Ky we used to have rabbits and groundhogs when we first moved in in the ’70’s…the coyotes showed up for the first time in the early ’90’s…there were no more rabbits/groundhogs sighted either live or roadkill for YEARS  – we just recently started seeing a few rabbits hanging around.  That’s how thoroughly they were wiped out…

  142. 142.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Geminid: It’s funny; the main thing that yard signs and bumper stickers do for me is help identify assholes.  If they have a Trump sign, well, there there you have it.  I have a feeling I am an outlier on this and wouldn’t want anyone to interpret this as my saying that their signs are useless.

  143. 143.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @John S.:  These blue lives matter mooks…they do realize that vast majority of police shootings for the past many years have been perpetrated by right wing extremists right?

    That’s one thing I don’t get about the police viewing them as allies. They’re the #1 threat to blue lives. But I guess a blue life doesn’t matter if it was taken by a RWNJ. Another case of IOKIYAR.

  144. 144.

    Jeffro

    @Kay:  Bouie and others are tweeting about that very thing…the GOP as a whole has given up trying to appeal to a majority of Americans…their own constituents!…on just about anything.

    It’s all gerrymandering, ‘alternate delegations of electors’, voter suppression, suing Bloomberg, etc etc. Never a thought of asking what voters actually want or would vote for.

  145. 145.

    Jeffro

    @sanjeevs: wow…talk about ‘rooting for injuries’ here!

    Loeffler’s scary.  She had this whole nice-ish person facade, and now she is ALL IN on trumpism.  Even more than that Rep up in NY.  “More conservative than Attila the Hun!” (eyeroll)  Oh, okay Miz Loeffler…

  147. 147.

    Ken

    @narya: So there’s a cemetery near me… this morning I saw a small pack of what I assume were coyotes.

    Could be ghouls.  They have a canine appearance and often run on all fours.

  149. 149.

    Spanky

    @Omnes Omnibus: Oh no, not an outlier. Or if you are, I’m right there with you. I’m making mental notes of where the Trump signs are, where the Trump “No More Bullshit” flags are, where the “Law and Order” signs are. I want to know who these people are. And every one I’ve been able to see who occupies the place, it’s a white male or family, with all the indications of being in the trades.

  151. 151.

    Immanentize

    @What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:

    Question along those lines:. Whatever happened to the shooting of officers in Compton?  People were crazed about that, certain that the King of all of BLM would soon be arrested.  But, nothin.  I can’t help but think the police either know it was a winger or another officer as that was the same moment that the gang within the Compton force was revealed in the media.

  152. 152.

    H.E.Wolf

    The Electoral Vote blog post this morning has a lot of good information. https://www.electoral-vote.com

    The poll aggregations can be found in the middle and at the end, with plenty of other news throughout. It’s a day when co-blogger V writes the articles (they alternate: Z is a historian, and is a little bit snarkier).

  153. 153.

    Immanentize

    @Geminid: And or demoralizing to the opposition.  People want to back a winner.  And some won’t vote rather than back a loser.  That is why, IMO, the right is now coming up with outlandish plans and ideas to make sure they win.  It is the equivalent to a Hail Mary pass.  Once worked for BC against UM!  But they are losing.  And they are feeling it.

  154. 154.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Geminid: It probably is.  It is nailing one’s colors to the mast in some ways.  The neighbors see and can judge.

    Just an observation:  The people I see around Madison with Libertarian and old Ron Paul stickers on their (inevitable) pick-up trucks all look like Boomhauer from King of the Hill.

  155. 155.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Trump and Melania arrived at the Supreme Court, to “pay their respects” to RBG. The entire time they Stodola by the casket, in the portico, crowds of protesters chanted “VOTE HIM OUT! VOTE HIM OUT!”

    I enjoyed that.

  156. 156.

    Geminid

    @Immanentize: Both officers are out of the hospital, facing long recoveries from multiple gunshot wounds. They’re lucky. One probably survived because his female partner was able to apply first aid until the ambulance came. Reward money for the shooter is now up to $640,000.

  157. 157.

    Jeffro

    Jennifer Rubin’s down with the plan: Here’s Why Biden’s Lead is Big and Could Get Bigger

    The good news for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is that he is doing extremely well in national polling. His lead has hovered around an average of 7 points in FiveThirtyEight’s average and in the RealClearPolitics average.

    With the exception of one outlier, every poll released on Wednesday had Biden with a lead of between 6 and 11 points. Taking Quinnipiac’s numbers, we see a now-familiar pattern: Biden has a huge lead with women (20 points) and has closed the gap with men (he is down only 1 point); he has recaptured White women, whom Clinton lost by 9 points (Biden is up 2 points); and has turned Clinton’s small deficit of negative 3 points with White, college-educated voters into a huge lead (24 points) — while improving just a tad with White non-college-educated voters (Clinton was down 27 points; Biden is down 24). Biden has also improved with seniors (now even) and with younger voters (he is up 31 points).

  158. 158.

    bluefoot

    @debbie:

    Not far from me there’s a 2-unit house.  The top floor porch/deck has a huge Trump banner, one of those thin blue line desecrated flags, and a “we appreciate and support our law enforcement” sign.  The bottom floor porch recently sprouted a Biden-Harris banner and a Black Lives Matter sign.  I would be amused if it weren’t for thinking about how it must be to live there.

  160. 160.

    Jeffro

    First, for all the caterwauling from Democrats about the Biden campaign (Not out enough! Not progressive enough!), this is among the best-run and best-financed campaigns I have witnessed. The Biden team deserves credit — if for nothing else, for shutting out the noise of under-informed consultants and disregarding Twitter’s self-appointed experts. It has both harnessed the left and enticed a steady parade of Republicans to back him.

     

    Second, the mainstream media is spectacularly awful at predicting what events may help President Trump (e.g., civil unrest, an open Supreme Court seat). Trump has the unique ability to provoke a backlash among critics equal to or greater than whatever benefit he derives from the nonstop flow of incendiary rhetoric, knee-jerk actions and reality aversion. Stunts such as jamming through a new justice are not helping matters.

  161. 161.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    It’s all just nonsense. Yesterday, instead of defending the SCOTUS pick they’ve already announced they’re rubberstamping, they all argued that Democrats are anti-Catholic. WTF? How is this an argument?

    Even if Democrats WERE anti-Catholic, which would be pretty funny since the Democrat nominee is Catholic and most of the Catholics in Congress are Democrats, what does that have to do with the merits of the SCOTUS judge they’re rubber stamping? It’s all this “meta” bullshit, “Republicans ARE this and Democrats ARE that”.

  163. 163.

    Immanentize

    @Geminid: That is good news indeed.  But where is the investigation?  Like Kay says, police are not so good at their one job — solving crimes.  Isn’t it awful quiet for a double police shooting?

  164. 164.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Omnes Omnibus: Thanks for that.

    You’re welcome! I was introduced to their blog ~ 6-8 months ago by my partner, and I’m impressed by the two writers. They are clear, specific, and thorough.

    I like their sense of humor. Recently they said that comparing the 2020 national conventions wasn’t like apples and oranges, it was like apples and jellied moose nose (and they included a recipe for the latter).

  165. 165.

    Jeffro

    @Jeffro: One thing that strikes me about these polling numbers: trumpov must have next to no support from college-educated women (unless they are seniors, in which case he’d have about half of them).  Am I reading that correctly?

  166. 166.

    Kay

    I know I harp on this – that the NYTimes political coverage is horrible- but it is horrible and I want it recognized. You can like the recipes and the book reviews and the coverage of climate change and admit the political coverage sucks, because it does.

    Here’s their online front page right now– no specific coverage of Biden and/or Harris. That’s the norm. They went from covering exclusively emails in 2016 to not covering the Democratic candidate at all and they’re bad enough that I’m actually okay with this. This is the best we’re getting.

    If you want coverage of Donald Trump head over there- that’s all your getting.

  168. 168.

    narya

    Here’s a thing that gives me a tiny bit of hope: the democratic convention was extremely well-organized. Things went smoothly, they had pros running things, the whole thing was professional, in the best sense of that. And Nancy Smash saying the other night that they’re not going to show all their cards. In some ways, the biggest deficit that the Rs have is a “leader” who is both demented AND narcissistic, and who thrashes around. (Yes, this is breaking things. Yes, that’s very bad.) The whole R campaign, up and down the ballot, is in subservience to that.

  169. 169.

    SFAW

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    It’s funny; the main thing that yard signs and bumper stickers do for me is help identify assholes.  If they have a Trump sign, well, there there you have it.

    I’m sorry to report that I’m pretty much the same way.

  172. 172.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    they Stodola by the casket

    I do find autoincorrect, or misspellcheck, perplexing in the extreme.

    What I typed, of course, was “…they stood by the casket…”

    Stodola? WTF? (Yes, I know there’s a folk song called “Stodola pumpa,” and now it’s going to be the day’s earworm, I can just tell. Stupid 2020.)

  173. 173.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Soprano2: If it were the other way around that’s all they’d talk about. I will always believe that the press wanted Trump to win in 2016, and many of them want him to win this year because he’s so much fun. I can just hear them groaning about the prospect of covering Biden

    There is that vibe, also remember Trump’s show was on MSNCB, he’s one of them, the mediocre white male infotainment personality club.

  175. 175.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Zzyzx:  If you’re still here reading, may I recommend writing a few postcards to help lighten the bleakness?

    http://PostcardsToVoters.org is my favorite because their style suits me; and there are lots of other options. In your general area, Wallingford Indivisible has been providing batches of 20 postcards to writers (though I don’t know much else about their effort).

    Maybe there could be a BJ “write in realtime” blog post (or blog thread) one of these days….

  176. 176.

    hueyplong

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques: Spend about 10 minutes on Noel Casler’s twitter site and you’ll know that NBC had the goods to expose Trump as the non-human he is a decade ago.  It’s disgusting.

    But we’re better off focusing on turnout than imagining year four of the Jeb(!) Bush presidency.

  177. 177.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Immanentize:

    Ha! Saw that after I posted my correction @ #172. Didn’t know the meaning of “stodola,” but I am now guessing that “Stodola pumpa” is Czech for “stable genius”?

  178. 178.

    zhena gogolia

    @Kay:

    Not covering him is better than their 2016 coverage.

    Their political coverage stinks to high heaven. If they’re not talking about Biden, it’s good news, because they haven’t been able to flog any non-story that hurts him.

  179. 179.

    Geminid

    @Kay: Us…and Them!    The New Republic had a very good article by Rachel Bitecofer this year in their February issue. The subject was lessons of the 2018 midterms and their relevance to 2020. She gives a good explaination of the concept of “negative polarizaton,” demonstrated with some interesting political sociology surveys.

  180. 180.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    One of the things I’ve been noticing is the Right talks about Trump like they did about Bush after Katrina, just anything to turn the topic on how awful the Left is so they don’t have to think about Trump. So I suspect Trump is just one more major screw up from Bush post Banking Collapse. Maybe it’s happened already, we will see in the election, but it feels like to me that moment is really close. So the way I see it even if Trump manages to squeak out win in the electionis his support is going to  implode by summer next year. It’s just a matter of before enough long it takes enough conservatives to admit to themselves the situation is fucked.

    It would be far better if Biden wins, but a Trump win isn’t the end of the world. Ether which way it’s going to be a fight for the next year because the More Conservative that Attila the Hun 27% will fight a Biden administration on testing, vaccines and mask use and just about anything else sane until the fact that their communities are being shunned by the rest of America as dens of filthy plague rats is to unbearable.

  182. 182.

    Soprano2

    @Jeffro: @Kay:  Bouie and others are tweeting about that very thing…the GOP as a whole has given up trying to appeal to a majority of Americans…their own constituents!…on just about anything.

    It’s all gerrymandering, ‘alternate delegations of electors’, voter suppression, suing Bloomberg, etc etc. Never a thought of asking what voters actually want or would vote for.

    This is definitely a losing argument. I see all my MAGA friends on FB doing this too. They aren’t even trying to persuade anyone anymore, it’s all being butthurt over how they’re so persecuted and posting memes about how awful Democrats are. One of my cousins posted a meme saying that Congress should have the same healthcare as everyone else. I asked her how that would even work, since there is no national healthcare here, and in fact I and my husband have different plans. Which plan is the one “everyone” is on? After two or three go-rounds she said that they probably have a plan that pays 100% of everything, that it’s a perk of the job. I think I’m going to ask her today exactly which plan she thinks they should all have. And you know, of course, the meme only has pictures of Democrats on it, no pictures of Republicans in Congress. It’s all so nonsensical.

  183. 183.

    Baud

    @Soprano2:

    FYI

    What type of insurance do our elected representatives in Washington, D.C., have? Is it true that they’re insured on the ACA exchanges now and that any repeal and replacement will affect them too?

    Under the Affordable Care Act, members of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Senate and their office staffs who want employer coverage generally have to buy it on the health insurance exchange. Before the ACA passed in 2010, they were eligible to be covered under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. (People working for congressional committees who are not on a member’s office staff may still be covered under FEHBP.)

    The members of Congress and their staffs choose from among 57 gold plans from four insurers sold on the DC Health Link’s small business marketplace this year.

    Approximately 11,000 are enrolled, according to Adam Hudson, a spokesperson for the exchange. The government pays about three-quarters of the cost of the premium, and workers pay the rest. They aren’t eligible for federal tax credits that reduce the size of insurance premiums.

  184. 184.

    sdhays

    @John S.: Apparently, COVID-19 has killed and maimed more police officers this year than have been killed or injured while on duty. So “blue lives” don’t actually matter, even to the “Blue Lives Matter” folks. What’s important is for the police to unquestioned power to inflict violence upon the public as they see fit.

  187. 187.

    PST

    @Baud:  The provision that forces members of Congress use the exchange is in the ACA, so a finding that the act is unconstitutional should automatically allow them back into the FEHBP.

  191. 191.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: I think they’ve gotten so used to just throwing BS around and seeing what sticks, one insult after another, all enabled by the news media…they’ve forgotten how to a) make a coherent, well-supported argument (of any kind!) and b) stick with it for more than 24 hours.

    I still enjoy needling my dad and brother about the caravans, the Clinton Foundation, and wondering why Comey & McCabe aren’t in jail.  You can go down the laundry list – absolutely nothing has stuck to the president*s enemies, and there’s a reason for that.

  193. 193.

    SFAW

    @Jeffro:

    Exactly.  Ask them to try and spell out how the GOP is actually meeting any of their needs.  They’re not.

    The Partei of Traitors is meeting the only need they care about: that no matter how bad they have it, The Others (especially POC) have it worse due to “government” action.

  195. 195.

    J R in WV

    @Mustang Bobby: 

    Well, said, Mustang Bobby, in both places!! I may quote you also, too!

    Also — good to see you speak up, I’ve missed you and I’m glad you’re back~!~ Hope things are good for you down Miami ways.

  196. 196.

    Geminid

    @Immanentize: I looked some more into local LA reporting,  and there is not much recent on the Compton shootings. But I saw that some surveillance camera pictures of the shooting was released a few days after. It showed a hooded, otherwise non-descript person apparently shooting into the passenger side of the police car from about 15 feet away. Will he be identified?  If he is, I don’t think we will hear about it until he is killed or captured. Then it will be national news.

  197. 197.

    Soprano2

    @Jeffro: @Soprano2: Exactly.  Ask them to try and spell out how the GOP is actually meeting any of their needs.  They’re not.

    I’d argue that the GOP is meeting what they feel is their most important need, which is supporting white supremacy in all things. The other need that’s being supported is “owning the libs”. Of course, we aren’t supposed to say that out loud on FB. If you do they get all indignant and butthurt and deny it to the skies.

  198. 198.

    Bobby Thomson

    I don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer, but I don’t see how enshrining norms as laws makes much difference to an overtly criminal president who pardons all his flunkies and ignores all laws and the Constitution.  If one of those guys makes it past the Maginot Line we’re pretty much screwed.

  199. 199.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @SFAW: Moshie “a little angry” – ? Must be a day ending in “y”…

    He might be a really nice guy IRL – salt of the earth & all that – who just needs somewhere to “dump” :^D his apoplexy so he doesn’t end up with a BP in five digits & blast blood out of both ears from a massive cerebral hemorrhage.**  And maybe every other blog gave him the heave-ho for conduct unbecoming; and here we are on a day ending in “y”.

    ** Right. And I might be Pope Frankie’s confessor.

  200. 200.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Baud: Too many people think they’re Nostradamus

    when they’re closer to Nostradumbass. (Finished that 4U! :^D)

    (ETA: Well fuck, Moshie beat me to it at #92 supra.)

  201. 201.

    Ghost of Joe Liebling*s Dog

    @lahke:

    Jeeeeeezussss … if they’ve lost Steve Inskeep — !

    (Filed under Things I did not expect to live to see)

  202. 202.

    SFAW

    @Uncle Cosmo:

    Cosmo, I (figuratively speaking) love ya, but you’ve recently been on a streak of dickishness which surpasses even my own. If “Moshie” is not your cup of meat, then move on — without attacking him personally, OK?

  204. 204.

    There go two miscreants

    @SiubhanDuinne: I used to work with a guy whose last name was Stodola.  Because it was capitalized in your comment, I assume that’s what your device inserted, a name. (Why? Who can tell?)

  205. 205.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Geminid: Lawn signs are important in one very limited sense: for a relative unknown running for a local office who needs to establish that s/he is a credible candidate worth voting for. And you don’t need that many; it doesn’t matter if your opponent outsigns you by 10-1 so long as you have enough up (say 30 in a state legislative district) and you have an election-day presence at enough polling places (with enough voters). We would take down our own signs on Election Day & take them to our assigned polling place & drive them into the ground or tape them to a fence.

    Re the Presidential race, it might be helpful to have a similar density of lawn signs just to establish presence in an overwhelmingly Trumpandemic district, so Joe will get those handsful of votes from there that together with the city vote may make the difference. But that’s about it.

  206. 206.

    J R in WV

    So I went to the pharmacy to pick up renewals on several prescriptions for both of us.

    Going out, I drive on our private gravel farm road for a quarter mile, then I turn onto the county road, which is also gravel to the edge of our farm. Then it’s a narrow one-lane barely paved road to the intersection with the really paved road, which is still so rural there’s no paint. But it is a through road, so more traffic than the dead end roads.

    One of the first homes is a fairly well kept trailer home, and they have put up a couple of big flags. One is a “Trump” flag, but it’s upside down. They may be unable to tell, actually.

    I can’t help but wonder how people who are functionally illiterate can make any use of the Internet…?

    I wonder if the folks in the trailer are aware that Trump doesn’t love them, and won’t work to implement improvements in their welfare check?

    I wonder about so much lately, so strange! it is very like being a bit player in a very strange Science Fiction drama of some sort…

  207. 207.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @SFAW: No. Not OK. I reject your charge of dickishness. Moshie is hands-down the most loudly and consistently angry poster on this blog, and everyone knows it. If it’s OK for him to subject the readership to his full-blown rage, but it’s “dickish” for me to comment on it, then you are strongly encouraged to rethink your opinion.

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