Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

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

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

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

The willow is too close to the house.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

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

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

You can’t love your country only when you win.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Biden-Harris 2020 / Friday Morning Open Thread: This Is How We Win

Friday Morning Open Thread: This Is How We Win

by | 180 Comments

This post is in: , , ,


Auto Draft 23

(Drew Sheneman via GoComics.com)

Reader Interactions

180Comments

  2. 2.

    NotMax

    This is primarily info for WaterGirl.

    You asked for documentation of Recent Comments oddities. Had a few spare minutes so put together a side by side snapshot comparison.

    Refreshed a comments page in one tab and also the front page in another tab at about 4:08 a.m. blog time and then took screenshots of the Recent Comments on both pages. On the left is their appearance on the front page, on the right as they appeared at the same time on the comments page. The differences are stark.

    To recap, both shots were taken at essentially the same moment, both after the respective pages had been newly refreshed only seconds before.

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    If it’s your thing, a spate of lesser SF movies covering cheesy to chessier to cheesiest begins in a few minutes on TCM. Almost demands heat lamped, cooked who knows when hot dogs served on a soggy bun as accompaniment.

    War of the Planets
    The Cosmic Monster
    Satellite in the Sky
    The Green Slime
    The Queen of Outer Space
    The Wild, Wild Planet
    .

  4. 4.

    Chyron HR

    Voting for Biden doesn’t mean you agree with every position he holds or that you can’t oppose decisions he makes as president. It just means that you’re prioritizing the Constitution, truth & decency in this election.

    I guess he ran out of room and had to include “And at least he’s not the evil she-beast Shitlery.” in a follow-up tweet.

  5. 5.

    Ohio Mom

    NotMax:

    My, you are observant to catch that! The quirk of this site that gets me is extremely slow loading time.

    It seems to have to do with the appearance of the banner ad on the top of the page — it takes its time showing up and the rest of everything won’t completely load until the banner is finished arriving.

    Yes, my phone is ancient but I don’t have this problem anywhere else in blogtopia. I live with it because I am addicted to BJ.

  8. 8.

    lowtechcyclist

    Democrats in the House are working on a $2 trillion-plus reboot of their COVID-19 relief bill in an attempt to restart stalled negotiations with the Trump administration.

    Um, they passed the CR yesterday.  There went their leverage.  So this is just HEROES Act, The Sequel, a bill for show, that Mitch will ignore just like he did with the original.

    I’m starting to wonder if Pelosi isn’t a GOP mole.

    ETA: And rather than conduct the negotiations on the CR openly, where the Dems could publicly look good for what they tried to put in it, and the GOP could publicly look bad for what they tried to take out, it was the product of behind-the-scenes negotiations with Mnuchin.  Things will still be rotten and people won’t know who’s at fault.  Self-sabotage.

  9. 9.

    prostratedragon

    Coming to Vimeo on Oct.1, A Time to Stir, a 15-hour documentary about the 1968 student uprising at Columbia University. Something interesting from the review at Guardian [My emphases]:

    The historical value of Cronin’s work became apparent this summer when William Barr, Donald Trump’s widely detested attorney general, gave an interview to the New York Times in which he claimed to have been on the “jock line” in 1968. “This was a bunch of conservative students who took offence at the radicals occupying the buildings. They felt the administration was not being sufficiently gung ho and decided to take matters into our own hands. They physically surrounded Low Library and wouldn’t let food in our out. It was all a bit theatrical.

    “Barr said he saw 12 people end up in hospital after a fist fight. I thought: that never happened! I’ve talked to enough people and seen enough footage. No one went to hospital that day. A Washington Post editorial used my film to discuss how a big part of the Barr story is essentially about the manipulation of memory. A few weeks ago, Barr was testifying in front of Jerry Nadler, a Democratic congressman who was also at Columbia in 1968. They were arguing about whether it was right to crack down on protesters in Portland. There’s a sense that we’re still fighting the culture wars of 1968.”

    Btw I arrived at Columbia September of the following year. Obviously, many participants were still around and there was still a lot of activism, especially Spring 1970. I think I know the man sitting on Alma Mater in the accompanying photo, and definitely know the one interviewed in the article. I can’t wait for the film, but even if you don’t check it out, that review is worth a look.

  11. 11.

    debbie

    Colbert mentioned that the FL AG is accusing Bloomberg et al. of buying votes with their program for paying felons’ fines so they could vote. She looked exceedingly angry.

  14. 14.

    Ohio Mom

    That is quite the gesture by Schwarzenegger but the idea of it makes me uneasy. It strikes me as a form of giving up on the idea of self-government.

    We’re just going to wait until a wealthy person adopts an interest in allowing us to vote? What’s next, getting grants to pay for city council meetings, underwriting the expense of open records, and so on?

    We already depend too much on the whims of rich people to fund medical research, environmental protections, arts and culture, social services, education, the list goes on.

    But now it’s the mechanics of government?

    Now no jurisdiction is going to take Arnold up on this. It is just grandstanding. My worry is that this shows our public discourse is veering where it shouldn’t.

  17. 17.

    John S.

    @Ohio Mom: Our public discourse is already in the gutter. Can you actually get more in the gutter once you’re already in the gutter?

    I mean here in Florida, we’re talking about Schrodinger’s Poll Tax. It’s not a poll tax when it comes to blocking convicted felons from voting, but it is a poll tax if Bloomberg wants to pay it and restore their right to vote.

    The gutter is the gutter.

  20. 20.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I have a stress test this morning. Apparently it includes an injection of radioactive material and possibly an IV as well as walking on a treadmill. I can’t tell about the IV. I think I’m stressed

    Also I can’t have coffee this morning. These people are monsters.

  21. 21.

    Splitting Image

    @raven: 

    Hmm, a post on how to win with a shot made by the losing team?

    You’re misunderstanding. We’re the LAKERS here. The lesson is that last minute Hail Marys don’t affect the outcome if the other team is far enough ahead.

  22. 22.

    debbie

    Here’s the current outrage around here. A white woman was rudely shown the door for refusing to mask up at a high school sporting event (masks are mandated with zero tolerance at these things). She claimed to have asthma, but she seems particularly un-asthmatic in her vocal resistance.

    The school district and the security guard have received threats. Because of course.

    I have asthma, but I would wear a mask had I been there. I can’t imagine being held responsible for shutting down a kids’ sports program.

  26. 26.

    hueyplong

    @debbie:  People with asthma tend to take COVID seriously. She’s either lying or about to have a sheepish convo with her God.

    I’m good either way.

  28. 28.

    Immanentize

    @John S.:
    The legal problem with Bondi’s position is that the State just took the position in the 11th Circuit that if people couldn’t immediately pay for their fines and fees that third party charities would step in and pay them for those individuals.

    I think it is now clear that the payments were not the goal, but voter suppression is.

  30. 30.

    satby

    @Baud: There is a fantasy on the left that the pain of ordinary people is leverage that can be used against the GOP.

    which makes the people who buy into that fantasy as bad as their opponents, who think the pain of ordinary people is deserved.

  32. 32.

    satby

    @Ohio Mom: I think the assumption on Arnold’s part is that with greater access to voting in this election, better representatives will be elected and further attempts to suppress voting reduced. Not to start an “adopt a precinct” movement.

  36. 36.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @satby: I’m with Ohio Mom on this one. Arnold is assuming no one will take him up on this offer ( I really doubt it is even legally feasible at this point in time). As to whether he is doing it just to make himself look good, or to show the hypocrisy of any GOP statements on respecting the vote, I lean towards the latter.

  38. 38.

    CCL

    Someone here mentioned act blue’s front page ticket. It’s currently on track to hit 7 billion sometime today or this morning. That cheers me up.

  39. 39.

    satby

    @hueyplong: People with asthma tend to take COVID seriously. She’s either lying or about to have a sheepish convo with her God

    Exactly. That particular lie REALLY pisses me off. Don’t use my (severe) medical condition as your fake excuse for not wearing a mask. But here in Mike Pence’s state, his equally evil replacement just dropped all covid restrictions: no masks, bars and restaurants fully open, etc. The culmination of fudging their covid records for months is the claim that it’s now safe to just live like the disease doesn’t exist.

  40. 40.

    Gin & Tonic

    @raven:  Still quite a shot. We were watching that in real time, and my son said if somebody did that in the 1980’s NBA, he’d be charged with being a witch or something.

  41. 41.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly: 

    As to whether he is doing it just to make himself look good, or to show the hypocrisy of any GOP statements on respecting the vote,

    Those aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, I would say they go hand in hand.

  42. 42.

    OzarkHillbilly

    <a href=”#comment-7871289″>@Gin &amp; Tonic</a>: “Well, we did do the nose… and the hat… But he’s a which!” And he certainly made LeBron look like a newt there.

  45. 45.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: I acknowledge the possibility but I am trying to see/emphasize the best in people. Not saying I will succeed.

    The glory is in the struggle.

  48. 48.

    Baud

    @satby: How is that cynical?  I’m saying that anyone who makes the GOP look bad makes themselves look good (or at least better). Like night follows day.

  49. 49.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Baud: There is a fantasy on the left that the pain of ordinary people is leverage that can be used against the GOP.

    As our favorite MAGA hat Brent explained, it won’t change their minds “shitty people have shitty values” Trump said 200,000 deaths didn’t matter and the crowd cheered and laughed.

  50. 50.

    TS (the original)

    Someone mentioned yesterday that  https://electoral-vote.com/

    was a good site to follow the polls, election news etc. I had completely forgotten about it but went to check it out and I’m suitably impressed – also much cheered about the state of the parties.

    You can check against this day in previous elections. I went back to 2008 & Biden is doing much better than Obama was at this point in time. He is also doing better than Hillary, but not by so much – which shows how much “those emails” and James Comey cost her in the last days of October.

    Current EV Count Biden 323 Ties 35 Trump 180

    Their analysis and poll information is good.

    This was from yesterday

    Two National Polls Have Biden Leading Trump by 10 Points
    Quinnipiac University released a national poll yesterday, with Joe Biden leading Donald Trump by 10 points, 52% to 42%. Marquette Law School also released a national poll yesterday with Biden also ahead by 10 points, only 50% to 40%. Both pollsters are highly regarded and the polls are very similar, so there is every reason to believe them.

    The Quinnipiac poll has Democrats supporting Biden 96% to 2% and Republicans supporting Trump 91% to 7%. Independents are slightly for Biden, 49% to 41%. Only 5% of the voters say they might change their minds. If that is true, it is hard to see how Trump can catch up. That means his primary route to winning has to be through voter suppression, slowing the USPS, limiting the number of drop boxes, court decisions, and everything else that doesn’t involve the voters.

    On the Q Poll, women are supporting Biden 58:38 while trump is ahead with men by only 1 point. I had to do the math to agree that this leads to a 10 point total lead for Biden. it looks like it should be more.

    I have to keep reading positive things – and this is a good place to find them.

  51. 51.

    satby

    So today I’m basking in the glow of finding a rescue for two very senior labs whose owner is going into assisted living years before she ever assumed she would need to. People wonder why I’m so adamant about not taking on new young rescues as my old crew passes on: it took two weeks and calls to rescues in three states to find a breed rescue willing to take on two very old, potentially very expensive dogs. Rescues very seldom have those resources and fosters. I’m just relieved I don’t have to tell an old lady already grieving all her sudden life changes that her dogs would probably just be euthanized.

  55. 55.

    Matt McIrvin

    @satby: The problem with left accelerationism is that the people’s suffering is not going to convince them to support you unless they think you actually want to do something about it.

  56. 56.

    hueyplong

    @rikyrah: You speak for me.  No longer assuming good intentions on anyone’s part until they make a showing of it.

    Hope to be working on a different attitude on Nov 4.

  57. 57.

    satby

    @Baud: That people assume Arnold thinks no one will take him up on it. That’s cynical to me, I assume good faith in that. Totally agree he intends to highlight GOP hypocrisy on voting as his main motive.

  62. 62.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Ohio Mom:  We should have a system that pays for everyone’s health care, right?  Does that mean that we shouldn’t give to GoFundMe’s for people who need help?

  64. 64.

    Betty Cracker

    Radical clerics are making demands on Trump regarding the SCOTUS pick:

    Robert Jeffress, senior pastor at First Baptist Church in Dallas, expressed concern about holding a confirmation vote before Election Day.

    “You never want to give a child their dessert before they eat their meat or vegetables. So I’ve had a concern that it could possibly spoil the appetite of conservatives,” Jeffress said. But first, he said, the president has to navigate the divergent demands from evangelicals.

    It’s from an NBC report. Trump’s support from evangelicals is lagging in the polls, so he’ll probably pick Barrett to shore it up.

    Trump and the low-quality hires think RBG’s death is a campaign game-changer in their favor. I suspect they will be unpleasantly surprised by how this plays out in the next several weeks.

  65. 65.

    danielx

    @Immanentize:

    Inasmuch as the state couldn’t/wouldn’t tell people exactly what they owed, yeah, pretty much.

    One of the few cases where it’s really not about the money for Republicans.

  68. 68.

    satby

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: it’s often really sad when the dog outlives its person.

    Unless there’s rock solid plans for the pet’s future care with a named guardian, it’s a nightmare and usually ends with a terrified animal in a pound for a number of days before it’s almost inevitably euthanized. And trying to get people to understand that and quit adopting animals that will almost certainly outlive them makes me an unfeeling monster, or so I’ve been told.

  69. 69.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Betty Cracker: I think the Republicans did get a modest polling bump from RBG’s death–you can see it in some of the state polls. There was the perception that it was a “win” for them, liberals were sad and conservatives were positively gleeful. There’s a chunk of the population out there that just likes to support whoever seems to be winning. I don’t know if that perception will last for another five weeks, though. They could drag it out by having news about the SCOTUS confirmation pop periodically.

  71. 71.

    Soprano2

    @debbie: Colbert mentioned that the FL AG is accusing Bloomberg et al. of buying votes with their program for paying felons’ fines so they could vote. She looked exceedingly angry.

    They’re angry because their plan was to create these Schrodinger fines to keep felons from ever regaining their voting rights, thus thwarting the will of the people in Florida. Bloomberg is messing up their evil plan. I have no doubt they’ll soon be back in court making the opposite argument that they never intended for charities to be able to pay off any of these fines, or saying that somehow for whatever reason Bloomberg is “different”, and that’s not what they intended dammit!! I wonder what it will finally take for Republicans to start losing ground in Florida.

    In our state there is a ballot issue the Republicans took time to pass in May that would repeal most of the Clean Missouri reforms that the voters overwhelmingly passed just 2 years ago. Mostly, it would put redistricting for the state house back like it was before, in the hands of Republicans who have already gerrymandered the state offices so that they get around 12 more seats in the House than they should, which gives them a supermajority. They can’t ignore Clean Missouri because it was passed as a constitutional amendment. I hope the people of MO reject what the Republicans are trying to do, because it would benefit everyone for the statehouse to be more balanced.

  73. 73.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Many years ago I was sitting with my oldest sister as she cried about the inevitable death of her beloved Emma, an 11 y/o German Shepard who had given to her Singer a 6 y/o male, and to me Hoss, who had died of cancer some years before at the age of 2.

    2 months later Singer died of a heart attack. Her BF Bill and I dug the grave in her garden but Peggy insisted on burying Singer on her own. One month after that Peggy collapsed on her front porch and was dead by the time she got to the hospital.

    Poor Emma was just lost. Wondering where everybody went. Bill kept her and she managed another 2 years but was always looking for my sister..

  74. 74.

    Soprano2

    @satby: I totally understand, my mother has told me she won’t be getting any more cats. She’s already made arrangements with the woman who runs one of our local animal rescues to find homes for her cats when the time comes (hope not for several more years at least, my mom is 86 but in relatively good health!). She did this after going through having to find homes for my sister’s 9 cats after she died.  That’s something most people don’t think about; a cook at our pub died of a sudden heart attack a couple of years ago, and we adopted his 12-year-old dog who is sweet as all get out but has a skin condition that makes him look pretty rough. We knew that if he went to a shelter the outcome wouldn’t be a good one. He’s been a great dog!

  75. 75.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JPL: to make it impossible to vote in this election?

    That’s all the GOP cares about, this election. Not what they might actually do if they win.

  76. 76.

    John S.

    @Immanentize: That is quite obviously the point. But Bondi is no longer the AG here — Ashley Moody is our new fembot Republican AG. And as an added bonus, her daddy is a judge here in Florida.

    @Betty Cracker: It really is, but I can’t take credit for it. I saw it in a comment on Twitter somewhere.

  77. 77.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2: If only the unions were to push back against this like they did Right to Work for less. I remain hopeful but it is a thing flying way under the radar here.

  78. 78.

    Betty Cracker

    @Matt McIrvin: It’s anecdata, but if the reaction of the 20-something women I know (and their peers) is indicative of a broader trend, liberals may finally disprove the axiom that they don’t care about the SCOTUS. I’ve seen some sneering from pundits about RBG’s status as a cultural icon and meme. Well, that’s powerful stuff to younger folks who might not otherwise be all that political.

  79. 79.

    Ken

    @SiubhanDuinne:  the first (science) analogy that came to my mind was Michaelson-Morley.

    To me, M-M is more like voter fraud – they keep saying it must exist, but every time they look for it, nothing is found.

  82. 82.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: I know, I’ve seen barely any advertising about it at all. Of course, I don’t watch local news much anymore. It’s so insulting how they constantly ignore what the voters have plainly said they want.

  83. 83.

    satby

    @Soprano2: It haunts me. I’m reasonably healthy, as were quite a few of the 200k+ recently departed, and I have 6 animals. Most of them old, all of them considered somewhat unadoptable even when they were younger. Finding new homes for 6 animals at a pop, many of whom need medications? Not likely. My kids both have multiple animals themselves, so they’re at best good for one each of the dogs.

  84. 84.

    John S.

    @Ken: Whereas Schrodingers Poll Tax is both a poll tax and not a poll tax. If the Republicans want to block convicted felons from voting, it’s not a poll tax. If Republicans want to block Bloomberg from paying off the fines so convicted felons can vote, then it’s a poll tax.

  85. 85.

    trnc

    @Ohio Mom: That is quite the gesture by Schwarzenegger but the idea of it makes me uneasy. It strikes me as a form of giving up on the idea of self-government.

    We already depend too much on the whims of rich people to fund medical research, environmental protections, arts and culture, social services, education, the list goes on.

    But now it’s the mechanics of government?

    I don’t like the trend, but this would be one of the few efforts by a wealthy person to enhance the govt, as opposed to snack companies putting vending machines in public schools to profit off of lack of educational funding. It also distinctly opens the possibility that we can get more representation by people who want to govern instead of those who see the tax base as something to siphon off to their wealthy donors.

    Finally, if a govt is going to make a bad faith claim that they can’t afford to support the basic mechanics of govt, I welcome a spotlight that puts the onus on them as to why they would turn down this offer.

  86. 86.

    Marcopolo

    @CCL:   You must be looking at a different ticker cause even with the current surge in donations it is not going to increase $300M today.  It is on track to hit $6.7 billion sometime in the next hour or two, up from $6.698B.

  87. 87.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Betty Cracker: Bagging on wine moms who revere Ginsburg is a whole thing for left-bros, including some actual Democrats like Loomis who see this all in terms of court strategy and will never forgive her for not retiring 10 years ago. They don’t understand her symbolic importance or they do but they’re actively contemptuous of it.

  88. 88.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2: It’s so insulting how they constantly ignore what the voters have plainly said they want.

    One might think this behavior would piss voters off, but apparently it’s quite alright because they keep sending the same assholes back year after year.

  90. 90.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly: Agree.  The Republicans have figured out that their voters will not abandon them as long as they hate us enough.  Their only risk is being primaried by Q people from the right.

  91. 91.

    Marcopolo

    @Soprano2:

    Mostly, it would put redistricting for the state house back like it was before,

    The Dirty MO ballot initiative would do much more than just roll back the change to redistricting.  Among these awful changes would be changing the census information used in redistricting to exclude non-citizen residents of MO & all residents under the age of 18.  Because, you know, the only folks who use MO government services are residents who are eligible to vote.

    Please go to my link and read up.  You & every other right-minded Missourian should be outraged at what the Rs are trying to accomplish with their Dirty MO ballot amendment.

    Of course, the kicker is that the ballot wording approved by our shitty SoS Ashcroft makes the amendment seem fairly benign.

  96. 96.

    eric

    @Betty Cracker: I am wondering if we will see Thomas retire now.  Word is that he does not want to stay forever.  As a 72 yo true believer, however, there is a chance that there will be eight years of dem president to name his successor.  Alito is 70.  I doubt that it enters his calculus yet.  The GOP never talks outwardly about losing, so I dont think that we will hear rumblings for Thomas to retire until after a Biden win, so that they could race it through.

  97. 97.

    Soprano2

    That electoral-vote.com site is poll porn. The thought that Texas is weak Republican is so encouraging. If they lose Texas that’s the whole ballgame for them. It was particularly interesting to see the polls on this day in other elections.

  98. 98.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Soprano2: Their EC count has been showing some tightening (which honestly is nothing we shouldn’t expect)

    The graph there makes me think this isn’t the year for Texas, but it’s close enough that we’re forcing the Republicans to spend money there.

  99. 99.

    Salty Sam

    @WereBear:@NotMax: I have a sneaky fondness for them because once upon a time, that was 50% of the science fiction on television.

    Beggar’s banquet indeed.

    Growing up in Houston in the 60’s, KTRK-TV carried a Friday night feature called “Weird!” (followed by “Late Weird!”)- pure cheeseball B-grade Sci-fi/horror from 50’s/60’s.  As an adolescent of the times, it was a high point of the week.

    ”Attack of the Killer Shrews” stands out as a favorite, and “Island of the Mushroom People”.

  100. 100.

    Soprano2

    @Marcopolo: You’re right, I forgot about that odious census provision. I agree, it’s awful all the way around. I hope the voters pay enough attention to defeat it.

  101. 101.

    Jeffro

    @TS (the original): I will say this for trumpov, he helped break our 50-50 deadlock/polarized nation with his awfulness.

    I mean, it only cost us 200k lives, 100k small businesses, a year of our lives, and something like $3T to shift 4% of voters from R to D, but lemonade out of lemons and all that.

    Also, what in the everlasting fuck is wrong with those 42% still with him??  Never mind, I don’t even want to know.

  102. 102.

    Soprano2

    @OzarkHillbilly: One might think this behavior would piss voters off, but apparently it’s quite alright because they keep sending the same assholes back year after year.

    It started when they got the MO voters to OK term limits. It got rid of Democratic incumbents in more rural districts and replaced them with Republicans, and then in 2010 when they won so much it allowed them to gerrymander the state lege to death. Down here there are two districts – two! – where it’s possible for a Democrat to win. Back in the early ’90’s there were several Democratic reps from this neck of the woods. Now, we only have one, with one other district where a Democrat has a decent chance to win. More and more I believe the 2010 election was one of the most consequential elections of my lifetime. It’s what enabled so much of the bad stuff that’s happened over the last decade.

  103. 103.

    matryoshka

    @Matt McIrvin: “There’s a chunk of the population out there that just likes to support whoever seems to be winning.”

    Very true. I think this is a result of our political discourse following the template of sports. To many, I think this election looks like just another stadium game of some sort, and they fail to see or care about the real consequences of what is going on. FOX News keeps them buffeted from reality and focuses their rage where it wants. They feel gleeful when someone else is down, because it means they’re up. Trump himself is concerned with nothing more than “winning,” to the point that disagreeing, being sick, and dying are all aspects of “losing.” To someone like me, not steeped in sports, it is a weird and limited binary view of the world.

  104. 104.

    Matt McIrvin

    @NotMax: “The Queen of Outer Space” was what the title segments in “Amazon Women on the Moon” were mostly parodying, though it’s not entirely fair because the original movie was clearly intentional camp itself.

    I love “The Green Slime” just for its ridiculous late-Sixties fuzzed-out-rock theme music, which is itself kind of incongruous because the movie looks like something from ten years earlier. “GREEEEEEN SLIIIME!!!! [guitar riff]” Marvel in the realization that that movie came out the same year as “2001: A Space Odyssey”.

  105. 105.

    Soprano2

    @Marcopolo: Of course, the kicker is that the ballot wording approved by our shitty SoS Ashcroft makes the amendment seem fairly benign.

    Didn’t the court throw out that odious “description” (that didn’t mention that it repealed what was passed just two years ago!) and write a much better one?

  106. 106.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker:Trump’s support from evangelicals is lagging in the polls, so he’ll probably pick Barrett to shore it up.

    In the end, I don’t think he could bring himself to nominate a non-white Justice.  And he knows his fundie base will flip out with joy when he nominates Sister Barrett.  Which is fine by me: with almost all things he does, he riles up his base and riles up ours even more.

  109. 109.

    Baud

    @Matt McIrvin:

    There’s a chunk of the population out there that just likes to support whoever seems to be winning.

    Which is a large part of why there’s such a negative reaction to defeatist rhetoric.

  110. 110.

    Jeffro

    @Matt McIrvin: Yes – it’s great that TX is within reach!  trumpov absolutely HAS to have it, Biden doesn’t.

    So many paths to victory at this point, it’s kind of amazing.  And having said that, now I will shut up and work like we’re 10 points behind (knowing we’re nearly 10 up! ;)

  111. 111.

    Marcopolo

    @Soprano2: Threw out the really bad one for a slightly less bad one.  I’ve already had a couple friends, who were filling out absentee/mail ballots call me to go over it.

  112. 112.

    Ohio Mom

    Omnes Omnibus:

    To me there is a qualitative difference between friends and neighbors pitching in to help one another (barn-raisings, Go Fund Me’s, PTO candy sales for the school band, etc.) and the idea that to get societal-wide things done, our best option is to hope a gazillionaire has a whim in our favor (and not a whim that sets us back).

    For one thing, the people throwing a few dollars in the Go Fund Me don’t get to influence the direction of the project. I don’t get to determine what doctor or hospital my ailing neighbor goes to. I have no strings to pull.

    It goes without saying we should be taxing the wealthy at a rate that will allow us collectively (through government) to accomplish the things that need doing, according to policies based on data and expert understanding of the issues at hand. They won’t always get it right of course, but the alternative is something like Bill Gates deciding to play God with public schooling. Where is our input, however indirectly, there?

    Bloomberg is offering to give gifts to individuals (I am assuming he will abide by the tax laws limiting the amount of such gifts, whatever it is these days).

    Schwarzenegger is offering to take over a government function. That shouldn’t be in his purview. We shouldn’t approve of him overstepping like that. He wasn’t elected.

  115. 115.

    Chris Johnson

    I just tweeted

    “I don’t know man, the hooks Russia has into big T are pretty deep.”

    about a million different ways, in the middle of the ‘Flynn’ trending pile of shit on Twitter. It’s from the Politico article. I don’t know man… if anyone else wants to pitch in and help make the case that the FBI (and presumably Obama) knew before 2016 that Trump was Russia’s, and that they didn’t have satisfactory evidence, and that they were scrambling for a Hail Mary play knowing the consequences of failure… I can see there being problems with the FBI desperately trying to make that case, and not quite being able to seal the deal. I can even see that it’s an issue, that on the whole you don’t want the FBI acting this way.

    I can also see that they had an idea, even back in 2016, that the consequences of NOT proving that Trump and Flynn were already Russian-aligned traitors were so severe that they just had to go for broke.

    It’s almost like they thought their failure could lead to a President Trump, hundreds of thousands of Americans dead, and Putin putting bounties on American soldiers, unopposed. Funny, that. It’s almost like they did these unseemly, overly-aggressive things for a reason that they considered overwhelmingly important. Ya THINK?

  117. 117.

    Matt McIrvin

    @geg6: He’s great when he’s writing about labor relations and labor history, which is his actual area of specialization, and I really like his grave series. Outside of that his worldview is so steeped in doom and horror that he makes me here look like a bringer of sunshine. (To the point that there’s a logical disconnect: if defeat is as universally inevitable as he says, why even bother with the fights he seems to care about?) And he seems to have a posture of moral contempt for anyone who reads him.

    Paul Campos makes HIM look like an optimist.

  119. 119.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: The new guidance about F-1 student visas is awful. If it goes into effect it will decimate many universities, college towns and American science.

    The students themselves will find other avenues, other countries to go to.

    ETA: They have proposed a hard cap of 2 years and 4 years on F-1 visas depending on the country of origin.

    ETA2: Right now your F-1’s validity depends on the length of your program, which is more logical IMO.

  120. 120.

    Jinchi

    @Immanentize: I think it is now clear that the payments were not the goal, but voter suppression is.

    That became clear when they successfully argued that ex-felons must first pay off all fines before they can get the right to vote, but the state is not obligated to tell them how much they actually owe.

    I’m not sure how even Bloomberg can pay undefined debts off.

    (I hadn’t heard that the State literally argued that charities could help pay off the debts, though. It probably sounded like a good legal argument at the time.)

  125. 125.

    Denali

    This analogy of sports to politis is quite on track. It is why we see the headline of a Trump comeback in the Times. The media also feeds on this-  a landslide is boring- a close race keeps the interest and the ratings high. While we would love a landslide election, because what’s his name could not contest it, the odds are against it.

  127. 127.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Denali: I remember thinking Papa Bush was gonna win in 1992 because there was so much buzz about his comeback in the last couple of weeks of the campaign. Didn’t really manifest in the votes.

  128. 128.

    HinTN

    @Immanentize:

    I think it is now clear that the payments were not the goal, but voter suppression is.

    That’s been clear from the beginning. They just said the quiet part out loud because they just can’t help it.

  131. 131.

    The Moar You Know

    Unless there’s rock solid plans for the pet’s future care with a named guardian, it’s a nightmare and usually ends with a terrified animal in a pound for a number of days before it’s almost inevitably euthanized. And trying to get people to understand that and quit adopting animals that will almost certainly outlive them makes me an unfeeling monster, or so I’ve been told.

    @satby: Makes two of us. I’ve had two senior animals. It is something that most people just don’t want to do. Expensive and they don’t live long. Lots with bladder/bowel lack of control. Some of them deeply traumatized, so you don’t even get a loving senior, just one that hides from everything and everyone. And if you go before your dog/cat goes, you’re dooming that animal, unless they “hit the lottery” with a rescue (and it is that level of odds) to a short and horrific ending.

    I’m in my mid fifties, our current dog has about five to seven years to go (I’d like more but the numbers are what they are) and I will probably own one more. But none beyond that. I’m not checking out and leaving my animal behind. That’s monstrous.

    Keep telling that truth no matter how few friends it wins you.  It’s really important.  I do it a lot.  Fuck their feelings.  Leaving an animal to die without you is the act of a literal monster.

  133. 133.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Fear not, DAW – you will get an injection containing a small amount of technetium-99 & asked to walk on a treadmill while they use the emissions to track your coronary arteries’ function.

    When I had mine (well over a decade ago) I took some pleasure in explaining to the doc that the tracer he was using was an element that is no longer found in nature (at least in this solar system) and had to be bred in a nuclear reactor (8^O)!

    After that I was injected with a small amount of the gamma-ray (8^O)!! emitter thallium-201 (another element that never cracked the Periodic Table Top 20) & laid to rest under a gamma camera, which zipped around like a drunken R2D2 above my chest for ~45 minutes looking for coronary activity.

    I guess I must’ve passed because they couldn’t find enough wrong to slap me into a hospital. Though I didn’t need to use a night light for the next week due to the residual glow. (Just kidding – the doses are really minuscule, & since I live in uptown Baltimore without blackout curtains I never need a night light anyway.)

    You’ll be fine!

  134. 134.

    Betty Cracker

    @Salty Sam: In the 70s and 80s in the Tampa Bay area, our cheesy horror movie show was “Creature Feature” hosted by Dr. Paul Bearer. Good times!

  136. 136.

    Miss Bianca

    @lowtechcyclist: It’s amazing to me how, in the teeth of all available evidence, you continue to nurse the delusion that somehow you know more about how to legislate than Nancy Pelosi does.

    What was that about “Lord, give me the confidence of a mediocre white man…”?

  138. 138.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Watching the ceremonies for RBG as she lies in state in Statuary Hall of the US Capitol. In tears as Denyce Graves sings the spiritual “Deep River.”

  139. 139.

    Gin & Tonic

    @schrodingers_cat: Didn’t see you around the other day. My DIL received notification that her application is “documentarily qualified.” Next step (and next-to-last step) is interview. Maybe before Christmas?

  140. 140.

    Elizabelle

    WaPost reporting Virginia Governor Ralph Northam and Mrs. Northam have both tested positive for COVID.

    And, watching the RBG service at Capitol too. Missed most of Denyse Graves; what elegance.

    WaPost item in full:

    BREAKING NEWS: Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and his wife, Pamela, were notified that a staff member in the governor’s residence had tested positive on Wednesday. They both subsequently tested positive for covid-19, the governor’s office announced Friday.

    A statement from the office said Northam is experiencing no symptoms, while his wife has “mild symptoms.” Northam is continuing his duties as governor, his office said.

  144. 144.

    debbie

    @Baud:

    Right, but allowing high school sports to take place requires masks without exception. No doubt she went there with a plan of defiance, but why, unless she’s a total asshole, risk shutting down sports?

  146. 146.

    Miss Bianca

    @Betty Cracker: Our cheesy sci-fi/horror movie hosts in the Detroit area were Sir Graves Ghastly (weekend afternoons) and The Ghoul (late night, much more hipster-y than old Sir Graves, who was decked out in a kind of Dracula get-up. He had a great sinister laugh, I remember it to this day!)

  149. 149.

    schrodingers_cat

    @mali muso: Of course it going to be terrible for the current and prospective international students. But I decided not to mention that because with a few exceptions, the problems facing immigrants and long term visa holders who live and work here and their problems mostly elicit a shrug and yawn at best and open hostility at worst.

  150. 150.

    Falling Diphthong

    “Voter registration surges after RBG’s death.”

    Oh happy day. The time to get het up about Supreme Court appointments is during presidential and Senate elections–after a vacancy opens it is far too late. Maybe Trump finally drove that lesson home to occasional voters?

  152. 152.

    catclub

    @John S.: but it is a poll tax if Bloomberg wants to pay it and restore their right to vote.

     

    I am really pleased that Bloomberg came through and is putting up money to pay remaining fines.  I was worried he would promise and not come through.

  154. 154.

    catclub

    @schrodingers_cat: Of course it going to be terrible for the current and prospective international students.

     

    It is also terrible for the future of research and medicine in the US. But that is too far in the future to worry about.  Another thing that will need to get fixed ASAP.

  157. 157.

    Captain C

    @Ohio Mom:

    Now no jurisdiction is going to take Arnold up on this. It is just grandstanding

    If they don’t take him up on it, it also shows that their claim that closing polls is due to financial issues is utter bullshit, which may help in the long run.

  159. 159.

    schrodingers_cat

    @catclub: It only takes effect on Jan21. And I am sure that the universities will litigate it.  But as an immigrant these attacks feel personal whether or not they affect one directly.

    I have a cousin by marriage who just started his master’s program at Northwestern. I worry about him.

  161. 161.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @germy: My word, that brings back memories of Mr G, my 8th grade science teacher. Teutonic, tall, and wide for his height, Mr G was kind of a wimp when it came to controlling the classroom.

    Until one day in a moment of utter exasperation he whirled on one of the hellraisers & threatened to sit on him. Which shut everyone up toot-sweet.

    It was a revelation for the mild-mannered Mr G. From that moment on, every time pandemonium threatened, he would squelch it with the mere hint that he might just lower his planet-size carcass** onto the chief miscreant (making a sound very similar to *squelch!*). And learning would proceed apace.

    **NB: Someone that large never develops hemorrhoids – if anything, it’s asteroids. Just FTR. :^D

  162. 162.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @mrmoshpotato: Never saw QL so I couldn’t say. Judging from my one prior experience in a Krankenhaus – for lower-back surgery that never happened** – they might’ve had to slap me really hard to get me back inside.

    **Fortunately. The neurosurgeon found nothing amiss in my tests, declined to “open me up just to poke around”, & called for a consult with an orthopedic guy, who took enough x-rays to make me fluoresce but also found nothng. Two years after they released me, the source of the problem was discovered –  which surgery could not have fixed. /tmi

  165. 165.

    MisterForkbeard

    @John S.: It’s hard to overstate this, but: Republicans do not care about the suffering of ordinary people. Their COVID response is part of this. They don’t care about shutdowns, either – they were actively plotting for them a few years ago and publicly bragging about it.

    Even if Democrats had to shut down the government, then what? Republicans and media talk about how Democrats are hypocritical about shutdowns and both parties are the same, and Republicans are happy because it proves government can’t work, etc.

    The real Pelosi isn’t doing this is because it’s a useless tactic and would set us back. It would also distract from Trump’s awfulness, which is important during the election.

  172. 172.

    Ken

    @NotMax: I’ve seen reviews of Wishman’s movies and directorial style on several sites. Bad movie sites, admittedly.

    One comment that stuck with me was along the lines of “You do not realize that there is a grammar and logic to film, for example where the camera should be pointed, until you see someone who completely ignores those rules.”

  176. 176.

    J R in WV

    @satby:

    I’m just relieved I don’t have to tell an old lady already grieving all her sudden life changes that her dogs would probably just be euthanized.

    I’m goad for you. Sorry it was so much work, and so stressful for you.

    We’ve adopted two young dogs, so now we’re into dogs for the next 15 years.  In retrospect I doubt the wisdom, but it has made wife very happy. She didn’t even get angry when they ate the couch one night.

  178. 178.

    Proudgradofcatladyacademy

    @Baud: in the medical office where I work we say to patients looking for exemption because of <insert chronic issue that is manageable but deadly when combined with COVID) if you are too sick to wear a mask for the few hours you are at store, event or wherever mask is required you are too sick to leave your house and need to be quarantined for the duration of the pandemic. Would you like us to write that letter for you instead?” No takers as of yet.

Comments are closed.