Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

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

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

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

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

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

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

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

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Sometimes your words just hypnotize me

Sometimes your words just hypnotize me

by | 206 Comments

This post is in: ,

I have a terrible confession to make: I no longer find winger discourse amusing in general — it’s been far surpassed by rose twitter for creative stupidity. Scott Adams can still bring the derp though. So I’m ambivalent about this

Speaking of stuff I saw on Twitter:

(Another terrible confession: I like conservative data guys David Byler and Sean Trende better than Nate and Dave Wasserman now. But maybe everybody does.)

So let’s raise some more money for Al Gross.

Alan Gross, Alaska Senate

Goal Thermometer

You can see all our candidates here. I’ll try to have another House list soon.

Reader Interactions

206Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    That title accurately describes the Scott Adams video. He should do audio for people who have trouble sleeping.

  2. 2.

    jl

    OK, someone isn’t going along with the script at Fox News. Not a fan of Wallace, I thought he should have come down a lot harder on Trump during the debate, but he’s not ‘bothsiding’. Better than some of the cowards in corporate news media (hi Chuck Todd!)

    @grynbaum

    ‘ Chris Wallace, live on Fox News, says of Trump: “He bears the primary responsibility for what happened on Tuesday.” ‘

    https://twitter.com/grynbaum/status/1311751529133678592

    found via Josh Marshall twitter.

  3. 3.

    PsiFighter37

    Liking Sean Trende more? Barf.

    That said, both Silver and Wasserman make regular asses of themselves on Twitter.

  4. 4.

    sanjeevs

    it’s been far surpassed by rose twitter for creative stupidity

    True that. No more dogwhistles from the right any more.

    It’s the Rose crowd who are constantly attacking Dems only because they want to help them

  5. 5.

    DougJ

    @PsiFighter37:

    I like Byler better than Trende.  But I think Trende has been smart about the suburban shift away from Trump.  Granted, I think it’s very personal for him — he hates Trump in a way that Silver and the rest don’t.  But I learned a lot from his tweets highlighting the trend.

  6. 6.

    piratedan

    My understanding is that Adams’ flounce from Trump has already been walked back and he’s safely ensconced within the gentle folds of the GOP

  7. 7.

    Ohio Mom

    I have never been a Scott Adams fan but Wow! The man deserves credit for this confession.

    It’s not easy to admit you were wrong about something. Most of us can have a hard time just coming clean to someone in our innermost circle. He just publicized it to the world.

    So good for him, and may this be tne first of many epiphanies.

  8. 8.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @PsiFighter37: I don’t get the Nate hate, but then I don’t read his Twitter feed. I’ll say this though…if the standard is “don’t like X because he says stupid stuff on Twitter”, the people it’s possible to like on Twitter is a null set. Everyone on Twitter says stupid stuff. Not everything on Twitter is stupid, but if you tweet enough you’re going to say something dumb pretty regularly.

  9. 9.

    Ohio Mom

    Pirate Dan: Sounds like I might have typed and hit Post too soon — no matter. Scott Adams can still have my wish for more epiphanies. Maybe another will stick.

  10. 10.

    JMG

    Byler and Trende play fair. They admit their social media stuff is as motivated by hope as by data, and then they describe the data fairly. Wasserman will never ever say Democrats are winning. Nate is now an employee of the Disney empire, and knows if he gets this election wrong, he’s on the street. So he will hedge the possibility of a Trump victory to the very end.

  13. 13.

    Edmund Dantes

    Nope. Adams is already back in Trump’s arms. Cause Dems said mean things.

    I feel for the onion writers everyday. Cassandra’s in their own time.

  14. 14.

    sanjeevs

    @JPL: And the ridiculous way he framed the economy questions (yes we’re in the crapper but we’re doing way better than economists expected thanks to your inspiring leadership, sir)

  15. 15.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    It’s easy to make fun of the right wing entertainers who are terrible, which is almost all of them. But unfortunately there are a few way out wackos whose product I like. And Adams is one of them. Dilbert has often made me LOL.

    Larry Niven and Orson Scott Card are the others.

  16. 16.

    RSA

    Scott Adams: “My personal financial situation is much worse for having supported the President.” (approximately)

    I laughed. Good.

  18. 18.

    Jinchi

    Apparently Trump won’t agree to changes in the rules he broke on Tuesday.

    Trump signaled he would not agree to rules changes for the remaining debates. The Commission on Presidential Debates said yesterday that “additional structure” would be required for the remaining debates, after Tuesday’s event devolved into a chaotic mess, largely because of Trump’s constant interruptions. But the president and his re-election campaign said they would not sign off on any rules changes for the remaining two debates.

  20. 20.

    dmsilev

    @sanjeevs: And also the “Vice President Biden, why haven’t you exercised your nonexistent authority to do something about riots in Portland?” question.

  21. 21.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    If LBJ lost Cronkite Dump lost Dilbert he lost people who still read crummy comics.

  23. 23.

    dmsilev

    @Jinchi: So, he’s going to double-down on the asshole quotient, which I feel will go over real well in a town hall format.

  26. 26.

    Marci Kesserich

    Scott Adams’s went all in on Trumpism because they were buying what he’s always selling: convincing the aggressively stupid that they’re secretly the smartest person in the room.

    Trouble is that he’s had enough terrible hot takes in the past that they were the only ones left who would have him. I don’t blame him reaching for a parachute, but as it is he’s got nowhere to land even if he gets off the flaming dumpster dirigible that he’s been boosting for the last four years.

  27. 27.

    JPL

    BTW   Has anyone read the New Yorker  article on why Kimberly Guilfoyle left Fox news?   She might have an addiction problem not just for drugs.   She was accused of sexual harassment.  Maybe it’s common now a days to have staff come over when you aren’t completely clothed?   Maybe it’s common even to have them look at  the genitalia of the men you have been with, but I just don’t think so.   I kinda surprised her marriage to Newsom lasted as long as it did.     link

  28. 28.

    grumbles

    What the bloody fuck is going through Adams’ mind? I literally cannot follow his train of thought. He takes pains to make the viewer clear that he “takes personally” the Mango in Chief’s televisuals, and it just makes no sense.

    But to answer his question, why is it so hard for Don to “fix it”? (Walk back his Charlottesville comments or “Proud Boy” comments?)

    Because there is nothing to fix. The president is simply stating his beliefs and recognizing his brownshirts.

    This has been another episode, &tc.

  29. 29.

    Tim C.

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Card hasn’t done anything good this century, even his older stuff contains hints of shall we say .. an interesting and conflicted personality.

    Likewise Niven always seemed more authentic-Heinlein libertarian as opposed to a Card like social conservative.

  30. 30.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Yay!!  I just mailed 40 GOTV postcards for Al Gross the other day.

    Dear ___, 

    Who voted many times to weaken/repeal the Affordable Health Care, with no plan to replace it?  Sen. Dan Sullivan DID!!  Alaskans need healthcare but we don’t need Sullivan.  Let’s elect Al Gross, a doctor with a degree in public health.  He will fight for healthcare for ALL ALASKANS!  

    Thank you for being a voter!

  32. 32.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jinchi:

    Those debate “rules” both campaigns signed off on — do they list any kind of penalties or consequences for violations, is it just kind of a vague threat?

    “You’d better play by the rules, or else!!”

  34. 34.

    CliosFanBoy

    @grumbles: He’s long been a nut.  He was so into “the Secret” back in the day.  “Dilbert” was funny at first, then it became repetitive and dull.

  36. 36.

    TS (the original)

    Speaking of the media – 2 days after the debate & there is no sign of Joe Biden on the front page of the Washington Post (online).

    What are they going to do when trump loses the election?  I’m sure y’all will have many suggestions.

  37. 37.

    Mallard FIlmore

    @Jinchi:

     

    Apparently Trump won’t agree to changes in the rules he broke on Tuesday.

    I have some suggestions for Mr Biden in the next debates, which he will not see since I am only a crank on the internet.

    1) make up some flash-cards he can hold up at appropriate times, instead of trying to outshout Trump. One card should have “LIE” written in big Sharpie letters.  This will be more respectful to the moderators than speaking back at Trump.

    2) If the fire-hose of bullshit gets too intense, raise your arm and give the internationally recognized hand signal of “yack yack yack yack yack”. Oh, and roll the eyes for this.

    3) When pestered with questions from Trump, early on, say he will only answer questions from the moderator, or audience, and ignore any others.

  38. 38.

    Redshift

    There should be a law against punditry from election data guys. Most of them still do decent numbers work most of the time, when they use their authority from being good with data to make claims outside of that is when they start sucking.

    Come to think of it, expand that prohibition a little beyond punditry and it could take care of Chuck Todd, too…

  39. 39.

    mrmoshpotato

    Scott Adams can go fuck himself with a rusty chainsaw.

    Today I learned that agreeing with Democrats and saying I won’t vote for Trump makes them hate me extra and threaten me. So I’ll be voting for Trump.— Scott Adams (@ScottAdamsSays) October 1, 2020

  41. 41.

    JPL

    At 27 I posted a link to the New Yorker article about Kimberly Guilfoyle.   Does she survive this, or is smut just accepted now a days.

  43. 43.

    bluehill

    @Jinchi: I think Trump’s trying to force the commission to cancel the remaining debates and then proclaim that Biden was scared. They should call his bluff and just say that they’ll have the moderator make sure that both candidates abide by the previously agreed up rules.

  45. 45.

    sanjeevs

    @JPL: So she started her relationship with Don Jr. right about when she was being fired from Fox.

    Other than that there’s nothing really surprising unfortunately. Fox is Fox.

  47. 47.

    Steeplejack

    @West of the Rockies, @dmsilev:

    Also closely associated with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).

    My personal opinion from reading Twitter is that the red rose is usually a sign of a Sandernista or a leftier-than-Sandernista.

  52. 52.

    Ken

    @TS (the original): What are they going to do when trump loses the election?

    I’m wondering how local TV stations will survive after the election, given that political ads are providing upwards of 90% of their revenue.  I can only imagine it’s like retail with the surge of revenue in December, except it’s a four-year-long cycle.

  55. 55.

    Morzer

    @JPL: It’s Trumpworld and she’s being paid to be Don Jr.’s “girlfriend” so… probably.  Mind you, you can see why Junior increasingly appears to be on drugs when he appears in public.  Imagine having to deal with endless pictures of the genitalia of other men who have participated in the Kimberly Guilfoyle Experience. Imagine having to listen to the play-by-play commentary delivered in that demented bellow she uses.

  56. 56.

    West of the Rockies

    @JPL:

    I scanned the linked article.  I’m not surprised exactly, but did not know much about this woman other than that her taste in men seriously declined.  I know She is considered to be pretty, but she has such a military-grade mean girl face.  She’s kinda scary.

    Oh, and of course she survives this.  In Trumplandia, such behavior is no problemo.

  59. 59.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    @Steeplejack:

    Which sucks that it’s so associated with them since the rose has long been a symbol of social democracy/democratic socialist parties. Many of which have actual accomplishments to their names

  60. 60.

    Lyrebird

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Dilbert has often made me LOL.

    Larry Niven and Orson Scott Card are the others.

    Yeah, I like your list, and for me Heinlein’s on it as well, though he was probably less of a whack job than these three.

     

    Dilbert has made me cringe as often as LOL, but when I worked in corporate R&D his cartoons were so spot on…

  63. 63.

    mrmoshpotato

    @satby: The Lincoln Project just put out a new video Decency

    Rethuglicans talking about decency.  HA!

    Did everyone proceed to throw themselves into the Sun out of shame?

  65. 65.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    @mrmoshpotato:

    @Baud:

    The replies his followers make along with his own on that thread give the impression that he never meant what he said in the video. He was trolling. Which basically makes him a sociopath because he appeared to deliver it with such sincerity

  67. 67.

    JPL

     NEWS: Hope Hicks, who traveled with Trump aboard Air Force One to and from the presidential debate on Tuesday, and to his Minnesota rally yesterday, has coronavirus, sources tell me.

     

    please please please..   just sick enough to shut him up

  73. 73.

    CliosFanBoy

    @Lyrebird: Can’t take O.S. Card.  But like Niven.  Heinlein was ruined for me by the incest plot in “Time Enough for Love.” CREEPY.

  76. 76.

    catclub

    @JPL: Sounds to me that she is highly qualified to be in charge of trump campaign finance.

    Tim Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, declined to comment on the appropriateness of Guilfoyle overseeing the Trump campaign’s finances, given the allegations about hush money and harassment levied against her by her former assistant. Murtaugh referred inquiries to Guilfoyle’s lawyer.

  78. 78.

    beef

    @Lyrebird:

    Let’s add John C Wright to that list.   His politics were present in the Golden Age, but kind of worked.  Then he turned to writing fantasy and things went downhill badly.   Sometimes I think he’s one of those artists who made a bargain with the devil:   one good story, and everything else after is no good.

  81. 81.

    JPL

    Proud Boys changed the subject from taxes, and now Hope will lead the news tomorrow rather than Don’s girlfriend.   hmm

  82. 82.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    @JPL:

    I personally don’t think so. We probably wouldn’t know if Trump actually tested positive for sure unless he had to be rushed to a hospital. It wouldn’t be able to be hushed up at that point

  83. 83.

    Baud

    @JPL: Don’s girlfriend was never going to lead the news.

    I don’t think we’re done with taxes either. And Proud Boys seems more damaging anyway.

  86. 86.

    Ken

    @beef: Wasn’t Wright one of the sad puppies (or whatever they called themselves) that tried to rig the Hugo Awards?

    (Ah, the good old days when that was considered newsworthy.)

  87. 87.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    @Baud:

    @JPL:

    I agree with Baud, especially about the Proud Boys thing. That’s about as damaging as the taxes story or more

  88. 88.

    Morzer

    @beef: John C Wright has been deranged for years. His blog is one endless parade of self-pitying, hateful paranoia.  And yes, he was a Sad and indeed a Rabid Puppy.

  89. 89.

    JPL

    Well I guess in a taped interview for the Al Smith dinner, trump said the virus was pretty much gone, so Hope probably does have it.   sad

  90. 90.

    Chyron HR

    @JPL:

    Proud Boys changed the subject from taxes, and now Hope will lead the news tomorrow rather than Don’s girlfriend.

    “You fools!  He’s shitting his pants to DISTRACT US from when he pissed his pants!  He played you again!”

  91. 91.

    Morzer

    @catclub: Kimberly Guilfoyle is a lying, bigoted, sexually abusive creep with barely two braincells to rub together. She’s way over-qualified to be Trump’s finance chair!

  93. 93.

    MisterForkbeard

    @bluehill: I think if Trump keeps violating the rules, they just need to stop the debate. That’s it. Likewise if he won’t have his fucking cheering section wear masks and follow THOSE rules.

    The moderator can carefully explain that Trump agreed to the rules to the debate and got his three warnings, and now they’re stopping because POTUS is a child who can’t follow directions. And they can just let Biden make the rest of his debate answers uncontested.

  95. 95.

    JPL

    So assuming that she does have and apparently is ill with it, I sure hope that those donors that trump smoozed with this afternoon sleep tight after hearing about this.

  98. 98.

    MisterForkbeard

    @catclub: She’s a fucking TV new personality who’s dating Trump’s son. Not only is it not appropriate for her to be involved, she doesn’t have the bleeping background to do the job correctly, either. It’s a grift. They’re paying her to do no work and fleecing donors.

    I’m annoyed that we even have to consider this “in light of the new discoveries” – it was never appropriate.

  99. 99.

    Redshift

    @beef: That guy wrote something good once? I read some of his Hugo-nominated stuff in the Puppies era, and it was… bad. I mean, like sixth-grade creative writing class bad.

  101. 101.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @bluehill: They should call his bluff and just say that they’ll have the moderator make sure that both candidates abide by the previously agreed up rules.

    They should simply state that the moderator will have control over both candidates’ mikes and will be instructed to kill a candidate’s audio if he tries to verbally (or physically for that matter) interfere with his opponent answering a question. And then say, Show up or not, it’s your choice. Don’t show & your opponent gets the entire time.

    I also like the idea of Joe coming out with flash cards:

    MALARKEY!

    LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE!

    OFF TOPIC!

    IRRELEVANT!

    ANSWER THE QUESTION!

    etc. (I’d like WHINEY-ASS TITTY BABY too but that may be a bitch too far…

  102. 102.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Morzer: I think what’s going to happen is that the Commission will declare that the rules have changed and the moderator can mute people after a warning if they go over their time.

    Trump will flip his lid and refuse to participate because they’re “cheating”. And maybe he’ll get them to back down.

  103. 103.

    jl

    @JPL: I don’t remember seeing that. I didn’t watch and am looking at selected clips. Was Wallace doing sarcasm with that bit?

  105. 105.

    Morzer

    @Redshift: John C Wright has one of the most sloppy, overdone prose styles I have ever seen. I have heard that his early stuff was decent/good but apparently he had a huge heart attack, converted to ultra-hardline Catholicism and was never the same again.

  106. 106.

    Baud

    @Morzer:

    She was quarantined on AF1 on trip back from Minnesota.

    The fact that Trump didn’t leave her there is the most human thing he has ever done.

    Maybe today is the day he became president of the United States.

  107. 107.

    Richard Guhl

    @UncleEbeneezer: That’s great! I’ve been sending him some contributions. There’s a scandal brewing in Alaska regarding a mining deal that reeks of a political fix, and Sullivan is somehow enmeshed in it.
    A lot of Alaskans said they didn’t know much about Al Gross, but when they learned about him, they liked him. It’s a cheap media market, and meanwhile, Alyce Galvin is running a credible campaign against the fossil, Don Young.

  108. 108.

    Redshift

    @Morzer: It will be interesting to watch his compulsion to be the center of attention battle with his compulsion to accept no rules but his own. I honestly don’t know which will win out.

    If he was capable of being strategic, I would suspect that he blew up the first debate so he’d have an excuse for bailing on the town hall, because he did dreadfully at the CNN town hall. (All those non-rich white males were allowed to ask him questions!) But despite how some people agonize, he’s not an evil genius, he’s just evil.

  110. 110.

    jl

    @MisterForkbeard: “I think if Trump keeps violating the rules, they just need to stop the debate.”

    I still think just adding a bell to signal time’s up is best idea. One that goes ‘ding-dong’. If done with the right cadence, it will drive Trump crazy after a while.

    Remaining debates will get worse, but so what? I think revealing the real raving mad toxic inner Trump unchained is the top priority.

  111. 111.

    Redshift

    @Morzer: Ah, interesting. I’m trying to remember if he was the one who had a story nominated that was an obvious ripoff of The Magicians, which I think had won the year before.

  112. 112.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @jl:

    He absolutely did say it, and I don’t think he was being sarcastic at all. It was more like the desperate wheedling delivery a mother at the end of her very last nerve employs to try and get the two-year-old to just STOP SCREAMING!! It was cringeworthy.

  114. 114.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Morzer: I don’t read anything from the Sad or Rabid Puppies anymore. It’s ALL insane stuff.

    I’ve gone back to re-read some of their older stuff I already owned. At the time, I remember thinking it was a little weird but readable. Now I look at it and go “Yep, there’s the sexism. And how white christianity is the only thing that can save us. And how everyone who doesn’t own a gun is a pussy, liberals or people that care about actually solving the problem are awful, etc.” Etc.

    It’s been a useful filter for reading books. I have whole swaths of people I can ignore now.

  118. 118.

    Redshift

    @Chyron HR: Yeah. Trump’s one great talent is making people pay attention to him. To him, not to whatever he wants them to. And while I’d like to see more of Joe and Kamala on the front pages, Trump getting more attention right now is not a positive thing for his prospects.

  119. 119.

    oldgold

    Tweet

    @WHO13news

    BREAKING NEWS: Theresa Greenfield leads Joni Ernst by 12 points in new poll.

  120. 120.

    MisterForkbeard

    @jl: Okay, new idea. Each candidate gets their own sound played when they run over their time or interrupt.

    For Trump, it can be about grabbing women by the p*ssy. For Biden, it can be telling Trump to just shut up. Perfect.

  121. 121.

    MisterForkbeard

    @oldgold: I think we saw that earlier today – 51 to 39? Jesus.

    Gonna need some confirmation on that one though, since it’s way out of left field.

  122. 122.

    bluehill

    @Baud: Hope may be amoral or immoral, but I don’t think she’s dumb. Probably remembers Kim being abandoned in Iowa(?) and told Meadows that Kim doesn’t know half of what I know.

  123. 123.

    Morzer

    @MisterForkbeard: It’s been grimly fascinating to watch how the Puppies have become enthusiastic Trumpzis. Brad Torgerson and Larry Correia aren’t even pretending to be anything but white grievance fascists at this point.

  124. 124.

    lige

    @beef: I think John C. Wright literally fell on his head or something and then turned into a right wing nut job.  Also I have this memory of reading some early Card anthologies where he talked about himself while introducing stories and he seemed like a normal, college theater major type – I think he even talked about quitting smoking.   I’m not sure where that guy went.

  125. 125.

    Morzer

    @oldgold: I’ll believe that poll when Trump tells the truth about his finances.  Every other poll puts Greenfield ahead by 1-3 points but has Iowa pretty much even.

  126. 126.

    oldgold

    Also:

    Bloomberg News reporter Jennifer Jacobs reveals that Hope Hicks, a longtime close aide to President Donald Trump, has tested positive for coronavirus.

    Hicks traveled directly with the president aboard Air Force One this week, both to the debate and to his rally in Minnesota.

  128. 128.

    A Ghost to Most

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Likewise if he won’t have his fucking cheering section wear masks and follow THOSE rules.

    There are no stinking rules in Calvinball. That’s where we are, but with much less humor.

  129. 129.

    Morzer

    @lige: Wright used to be an atheist, was (and is!) obese even by Trumpian standards, smoked and drank to excess, had a massive heart attack after asking God to prove he existed and embraced extreme reactionary Catholicism as a result.  Which, you know, is a story of rigorous philosophical inquiry getting there in the end!

  134. 134.

    Baud

    Maybe Trump should cancel the debates.  I don’t want him on the same stage as Biden if he’s been near Hope Hicks.

  135. 135.

    Morzer

    I think that if Trump keeps interrupting, the moderator should simply deploy a thirty second clip of Obama roasting him at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner until Jabber the Nut breaks down in tears and flees the stage.

  138. 138.

    oldgold

    The WHO poll had Trump and Biden tied.

    Trump received 81% approval from Republicans. Ernst received only 65% approval.

    She is in big trouble.

  144. 144.

    prostratedragon

    At least 1600 DOJ alumni:

    In recent remarks, Attorney General Barr criticized DOJ career prosecutors for being insufficiently deferential to the Trump administration and the political leadership at DOJ. Attorney General Barr’s comments display a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of career prosecutors and why many of them have openly resisted his interventions on President Trump’s behalf. While it is of course true that the DOJ is managed by its political leaders, when those leaders violate their oath to faithfully execute the law, the career staff is obligated by their own oaths of office to uphold the principle of equal justice under law. All DOJ officials, including Mr. Durham himself, should respond to any improper efforts to influence the election by: reporting misconduct; refusing to carry out improper directives; and following the lead of Ms. Dannehy and others and resigning rather than violate their oaths of office. The Inspector General should protect the DOJ’s integrity by answering the call of the House of Representatives to open his own investigation into election interference. And given Attorney General Barr’s demonstrated willingness to use the Department to help President Trump politically, the media and the public should view any election-related activity by the DOJ — including any announcement or findings related to the Durham investigation — with appropriate skepticism.

    There’s a form at the link for more signatures of additional alumni. They’ll update daily until Oct. 30.

  150. 150.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @lige: I was very surprised to find out about Card’s politics. OK, we know from his intros that he’s a very dedicated Mormon, did the Mormon missionary thing (in Brazil, as a result of which he speaks Portuguese), and some of that stuff sometimes creeps into his stories and gets a little heavy-handed. But not enough to ruin the story for me most of the time.

    He seemed as you say like a normal-ish, intelligent guy, who should be able to live in the same reality as sane people. I was wrong.

    Larry Niven even more so. I like his commitment to getting the science right in his stories, and writing good compelling stories while featuring the hard science. So he really seems like a guy who should think logically and be scientifically grounded. And yet…

    I read a novel of his once where the basic premise was that when we stopped global warming, it turned out that global warming had been preventing the next ice age, so everything froze. Oops. I just accepted that as an interesting sci-fi “what if” and enjoyed the story. When I found out what a right-wing wackaloon he is, I realized he probably actually believes that premise. Against all the scientific evidence.

  152. 152.

    geg6

    @JPL:

    @sanjeevs:

    BWAHAHAHAHAHA!  She irons his pant legs when he has them on, I’ve read.  I think it was back in the early days of this maladministration.  BWAHAHAHAHA!

  153. 153.

    sdhays

    My Twitter news feed just gave me the headline “Biden did not wear a wire to aid in the debate, The Associated Press confirms”.

    Thanks, AP. Now, please get to the bottom of whether or not Trump blew a goat right before the debate.

  156. 156.

    Ken

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: I liked many of James P. Hogan’s early novels, but late in life he took up some weird causes including Velikovskianism.  In fact one of his later novels was written using V’s catastrophism as if it were scientific, and when I first read it I thought it was a parody.

  158. 158.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Baud: And Proud Boys seems more damaging anyway.

    What is the “Proud Boys thing” you all referring to? Something other than Trump’s shout-out during the debate? These things are coming too fast for me to keep up.

  163. 163.

    Lyrebird

     

    @CliosFanBoy: Heinlein was ruined for me…

    YEP.  After I read Time Enough some of the skeeziness of earlier novels clicked for me.  I mean the *effort* the author went to to create a whole series of books to set up the creepy situation, ew.  For me, Stranger in a Strange Land and some of the super early ones (Have Space Suit Will Travel) are really worth reading.

    I did just donate almost all of my Pern novels by Anne McCaffrey, who I used to call the Dirty Old Woman of F/Sci Fi alongside Heinlein as Dirty Old Man.  Tried rereading the first novel, and there’s one main coy remark that is way over the line for me & still can’t believe she didn’t revise the creepy part in a new edition after she’d made her name.

     

    @beef: I haven’t ready any Wright stories…  if you’re still on the thread, what was the good one?

  165. 165.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Morzer: I think Larry Correia and.. Brad Thor? I think they were the worst of the lot. Overtly white chauvinist christianist.

    That whole episode really was illuminating. The puppies were all frothing insane conservatives, and they deployed the exact arguments that Trump uses for the election. Literally a “see how I fucked it up? That says it was always fucked up when I lost”.

  168. 168.

    Baud

    @Morzer:

    Gay marriage also seems to have played a role in turning Card from a conservative Democrat to a frothing crazy.

    Why didn’t he just get a divorce?

  172. 172.

    different-church-lady

    Rose Twitter = living illustration of the aphorism, “Never get high on your own supply.”

  173. 173.

    Morzer

    @Baud: *smiles* Card got tangled up in a controversy over his hostility to gay marriage and was so upset by being called a bigot that he left the Democratic party in 2013, IIRC.

  175. 175.

    Anya

    @oldgold: isn’t Joni Ernst the GOP Senator who was giddy about how the made up Hunter Biden scandal was going to help them with the election?

  176. 176.

    different-church-lady

    @Jinchi: Sooooo… Biden gets to go in front of cameras and Trump does not?

    Trump will agree to the new rules. Then break them.

  178. 178.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Ken: Hogan’s ideas were pretty brilliant early on. Unfortunately he wrote with all the style and panache of an elephant trying to tapdance in hipboots. His writing ability never evolved past the design-engineer/technical salesman level. For anyone with an ear for English prose, it was painful to read.

    BTW worse than a Velikovskian, Hogan was also a Holocaust denier. You could look it up.

  179. 179.

    catclub

    So I know that trump’s response to Hope Hicks is not “I  hope she will be ok” like normal people,

    but “who the hell let her get near me with that?’

  182. 182.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Wow. Meidas Touch is running an anti-Susan-Collins tv ad in a national buy. Have seen it twice today on MSNBC, including just now on Rachel. Sara Gideon must be getting a lot of financial support from out of state (although her name was never mentioned in the ad).

  183. 183.

    Leto

    So I haven’t read the site today, outside the front posts, so I don’t know if this has been covered but here in PA:

    Pennsylvania Republicans push committee to investigate presidential vote

    Republican lawmakers in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state in the upcoming presidential election, took the first step on Wednesday to create a committee that would have wide-ranging powers to investigate the vote, including the ability to subpoena election officials and members of the U.S. Postal Service while the election and vote counting are in progress.

    A state resolution to create the new panel in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives passed in committee along party lines Wednesday and could be voted on by the full House on Thursday.
    Pennsylvania Democrats expressed alarm Wednesday that the proposed “select committee on election integrity” in the Republican-controlled chamber could disrupt the election by subpoenaing ballots and bringing in election officials and others to testify before the vote count has been certified.

    “This bill is a fraud,” said state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta (D), in an emotional speech during the committee meeting on Wednesday. “Democracies die slowly, and I think this bill would be a fatal blow to our democracy.”

    Essentially Republicans could subpoena election officials/postal workers on Election Day to… idk other than to gum up the works, and sew chaos and confusion. I’m sure they won’t do this in Philly…

  184. 184.

    different-church-lady

    Why the fuck y’all not reading Margaret Atwood instead dis sci-fi bullshit?

    (DCL, +2, +.5, +another .5, + a bunch of .2s…)

  188. 188.

    Leto

    @SiubhanDuinne: Yeah; I’m ashamed that I didn’t know about it before seeing it on Rachel but I’m putting it here so we can bombard our state reps here in PA, letting them know it’s a fucking POS bill. It’s another disenfranchisement technique to sew chaos and confusion during the election. They’re already working with the Trumpov campaign to try to get rid of the results of the vote here so they can send their hand picked electors, so fuck’em. Work ain’t ever done.

  189. 189.

    Miss Bianca

    @Morzer: 

    You have got me laughing and gagging at the same time. If I literally die laughing like this, I am going to haunt your ass like that last pork chop.

  190. 190.

    Anoniminous

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    From the Southern Poverty Law Center:

    “Established in the midst of the 2016 presidential election by VICE Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, the Proud Boys are self-described “western chauvinists” who adamantly deny any connection to the racist “alt-right,” insisting they are simply a fraternal group spreading an “anti-political correctness” and “anti-white guilt” agenda.”

    Yet Another racist group, IOW

  197. 197.

    J R in WV

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Dilbert has often made me LOL.

    Larry Niven and Orson Scott Card are the others.

    I like Niven’s work, and did enjoy some of Card’s, until I learned about his homophobia.

    I have too many people I love that he hates, so fuck him, and Adams too!! Rusty tools!

  199. 199.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    New Lincoln Project ad: “Decency”

    That asshole has said and done so many unbelievably horrible things, but somehow standing on a stage and mocking a disabled reporter is still one of the most appalling things I’ve ever seen a public figure do. It still manages to shock me, every time.

    Which is of course why the LP folks put it in there.

  202. 202.

    J R in WV

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    Yeah, me too. It stuns me every time I see him twitching like that — what a pig he is. Could never imagine a human doing that anywhere, let alone at a big rally like that~!~ I just can’t even.

    What a pig!

  203. 203.

    Ooma

    I just got done talking to my son who lives in Alaska.  Gross has a real shot at winning this thing.  He says: “Gross is a good candidate.  That’s Key.  He is Alaskan born and raised.  Rural Alaskan too.  Fishing, hunting, commercial fisherman, doctor.  He connects with a wide range of Alaskans.  And he isn’t taking any of the Republican attacks.  He attacks back.  He is gonna win.  Sullivan isn’t even from here and hasn’t really lived in AK all that many years.  Gross has more money, more ads, more effective ads.  He is actually speaking in his ads.  Sullivan has others speaking for him.  Gross has done a great job connecting with Alaskan voters.”

    My son works on the slope and says even the oil patch guys are talking about Gross winning this thing.

    Your donations are working.  This is good news.

  204. 204.

    Citizen Alan

    @Lyrebird: The last Dilbert cartoon I saw was from a few years back (by happenstance; I think the strip itself was from the 90’s) and featured Alice, the token female engineer, responding to a (nameless) female coworker complaining about how women are underpaid compared to men with a snide claim to be the highest paid engineer on staff. I remember that strip specifically because I first saw it right around the time the Lily Ledbetter case came out, and I wondered “How would she even know for sure that she was the highest paid engineer? Lily Ledbetter never found out what her male co-workers made until her retirement party. And in most states, it’s legal for companies to make merely inquiring about relative salaries a termination offense.” And then, I remembered it was a Scott Adams strip, and so it was meant to be nothing but glibertarian anti-feminist agitprop and moved on.

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