I think the Conways are having us on.
My daughter, Claudia, is beautiful & brilliant. She has access to top doctors & health care & lives comfortably
Like all of you, she speculates on social media
Yet she’s 15
You are adults
We have COVID, but it’s clear who’s really sick
— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) October 6, 2020
I’m not the first person to make this observation, but last night KAC had a brief cameo in her teen’s TikTok video, and now I’m convinced it’s true. They’re angling for a reality show since the one they’re currently starring in looks like it might get canceled.
Anyhoo, open thread, until such time as someone comes along with a better one.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
rikyrah
BC,
You up this early?
What, can’t sleep?
Baud
Congrats to the winners.
rikyrah
???
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
sanjeevs
CNN poll has Biden up 16 points – 57 to 41. That’s post debate, pre diagnosis.
Trump has gained non college whites Since last month. Everywhere else he’s dropping fast
Anne Laurie
Whoops… wasn’t keeping track of the time…
Just moved my post forward an hour, Betty!
Baud
@Anne Laurie:
Jesus, dammit, what is this, the Trump White House????
Jk
Chyron HR
President Gaspy McGasping?
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: Haven’t had a decent night’s sleep in nearly four years.
debbie
Can there be too many Biden yard signs? Last night, I counted 47 in a 29-minute walk. I’m wondering about creeping complacency.
Bruuuuce
Now we know who dressed as the Hulk and smashed El Gordo’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame:
Kay
Making friends wherever they go:
mrmoshpotato
I’ll gladly watch the American Nuremberg trials. Oh wait! Kellyanne Conjob will be there as a defendant!
Fuck these people.
Baud
Interesting.
debbie
@Kay:
Publicity whore. Period.
Barbara
If Conway is implying that others are exploiting her daughter she should name names, otherwise, fuck off.
Betty Cracker
@sanjeevs: I was just reading about that, and CNN says most of the polling was done after Trump’s diagnosis was made public, which could be significant. I didn’t think he’d get a sympathy bounce because people already hated how he was handling the virus, and according to this poll, he didn’t.
Now I wonder how this Triumph of the Ill (H/T: Cole) stunt will play. Not well, I hope. I am happy to note that the non-Fox News media is nearly as contemptuous of Trump’s idiotic antics as it ought to be. Good.
mrmoshpotato
@Chyron HR: The Soviet shitpile mobster conman who called a global pandemic a hoax and fake, along with a bunch of other Trump trash?
gene108
I have no words
https://www.wkbw.com/news/local-news/80-year-old-man-dies-following-dispute-over-wearing-face-mask-at-west-seneca-bar?_amp=true&__twitter_impression=true
Bluegirlfromwyo
@Barbara: She’s not going to name herself. That poor kid.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@rikyrah:
We were watching that. My wife said “Acosta made a funny!”
The evening CNN anchors, Burnett, Cooper, Cuomo and Lemon, have been full-bore Olbermann (from back in the ‘Countdown’ days) to varying degrees for about a year now. I never thought I’d see the day when a corporate news outlet like CNN would remind me of what MSNBC’s reputation (but not reality) is.
The CNN reporters and analysts, however, have been the same execrable stenographers…until recently. As I said in another thread, it was as recently as March that Dana Bash was making glorious pronouncements about what the Coward-in-Chief was saying vis a vis the plague. It prompted Betty Cracker to comment that the Orange Fart Cloud got elected, in part, because of godawful hacks like Bash. I’d include Acosta and his ilk in that category.
But with her “shit show” and “Baghdad Bob” cracks and then seeing Acosta make a brilliant analogy on the fly when talking to Cooper, well, it’s a sign of a sea change in how one of the most mainstream of Village Media Idiot outlets views this (mal)administration.
mrmoshpotato
@Barbara: She should also just fuck off.
sanjeevs
@Betty Cracker: I think Biden gaining votes gaining so many of the older demographic is really significant. Very hard to suppress those votes using any of the traditional GOP methods
Baud
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
I wish we could tell how much of the current polling is indicative of a more balanced media.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Heh.
“Don’t cry for me, America.”
“Don’t worry, we won’t.”
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Making a play for the LDS vote! Hey, whatever it takes. I watched part of Biden’s town hall last night and didn’t even smirk when he did the bipartisanship schpiel. Truly, whatever it takes.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@sanjeevs:
Technically it’s harder to suppress a *white* older demographic by traditional GOP means of voter suppression.
It also hasn’t helped that part of Hair Furor’s message is that it’s okay for that older demographic to die in support of the economy, herd mentality or whatever non-sensical shit that flies out his pie hole. Imagine that, a reliable voting demographic that turns against you when you want them dead.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker: Now I have to watch The Taco Chronicles!
Matt McIrvin
The possibility that terrifies me now is that Trump’s team have literally decided to use his contagious illness as a political weapon–no one who isn’t in the cult is going to be willing to get physically close to him or his people, and that can be exploited. They’re going to try to goad Biden and Harris into putting themselves in serious danger of infection and call them chicken if they refuse.
The thing is, we’re entering a situation in which refusing might even be politically advantageous, but I’m not sure our side recognizes that yet.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
Neither Biden nor Harris give a shit about that.
ETA: I do hope Harris brings a weighted purse to the debate in case Pence decides to break through the plexiglass to bum rush her.
debbie
@Matt McIrvin:
“What, are you stupid, man?”
Betty Cracker
More poll pron, this time from Detroit News re: Michigan:
Jesus, Mary and Joseph — that lead among seniors!
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I hate to say it, but I don’t know if we get these types of polling numbers by running a leftier campaign. We liberal Democrats have to really think about how we approach politics going forward. I for one am really tired of these massive swings in governance.
WereBear
Since the thread is open, and it’s pertinent to our Neo-Nazi overlords, I have been thinking about how dependent these high-ranking Republicans are on gobs of money. Sure, it’s competitive, and their most prominent source of self-esteem, but it also keeps them insulated. From the little people.
They move from private jet to fawning subordinates to the FINEST meals and lodging, all catered to on every level, all reinforcing their “above it all” status because, they tell each other, they are just that awesome.
I have long been baffled by COVID not invading the White House, considering how they absolutely scorn any precautions except, apparently, a testing regimen that I noted had a lot of false negatives. Still, can’t complain about the timing, can I?
It must be because they are in a bubble of their own. Just like in “Masque of the Red Death,” sealing themselves away works… until an uninvited guest shows up.
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
My Dad & his fiancé are both retired, in their mid 70’s and she’s on oxygen because of lung problems.
All that doesn’t matter though because Biden’s a radical socialist. ?
I’m really temped to go visit, lock out Fox News, OANN, etc., on their cable box and install a blacklist of the most popular RW sites on their router.
Trapped Lurker
Well, I (a suburban, white, old, college-educated woman who happens to be a lifelong reliable democratic voter) filled out my absentee ballot and put it in the drop box near my house yesterday. Maryland will not wait till after Nov 3 to count it. So I’ve done my part to help us get a result early, and have satisfied my daughter that I’ll not venture out on Election Day and risk exposure to COVID. This election feels like it’s lasted for eternity. FSM grant that this nightmare will be over soon.
I though if I voted I could maybe look away from the train wreck that is our country for a bit, but doesn’t seem to have helped.
I spend a lot of time focusing on what I can do instead of things out of my control (politics), and I’ve given what I can to Democrats. But I will be grateful when we can talk about *anything* other than Trump.
SFAW
@Barbara:
Fixed
WereBear
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman):
Your call, but I’ve heard of miraculous recoveries with such tactics.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
The senior swing might be partly due to a more traditional advantage for Democrats- Biden runs a lot of ads on protecting Social Security and Medicare.
JPL
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Dana Bash has no more shits to give. I stream New Day with Berman in the morning. IMO CNN erred by giving Tapper two hours in the afternoon, and not airing Brook Baldwin in the afternoon
edited because I missed your last paragraph
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
Good morning! ?
geg6
@Matt McIrvin:
Dude, chill. Have you met Joe Biden and Kamala Harris? If so, do they seem the types to cower at being called names by the pre-school bully?
The reality is that he’s the one who looks scared and panicked. Only the cultist hardcore are falling for his dimestore Mussolini act. Look at the latest CNN poll. Especially those numbers among seniors and women. He’s so fucked.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Obamacare is going to be like that- Democrats will be running on Obamacare 20 years from now. It will be expanded just like they’ve expanded Medicaid 4 times but everyone still calls it “Medicaid”.
Helpfully, Republicans insisted on naming it “Obamacare” :)
Betty Cracker
@Baud: I’m finding it tough to draw any hard conclusions from an election held during such a weird time against such an insane opponent. The upside with Biden has always been that he doesn’t scare older white people, so he puts states like Florida and Ohio in play.
From my perspective, chasing the older white vote is worth it only if Trump can be resoundingly defeated rather than narrowly edged out. Lefties who might otherwise be disgruntled with a Biden candidacy and stay home or vote third party seem willing to grit their teeth and do the right thing to get rid of Trump. But it’s a unique circumstance. Not sure what it tells us about the future.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I noticed that last night — lots of emphasis on Medicare and Social Security in the ads streaming into FL. Trump’s ads seem like they were shot in February 2020.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Baud:
I figure that all they did was point at Trump and say “there, look there. His soul? Yeah. There.”
p.a.
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman): Anecdotal evidence that these lockouts actually do work!
Open thread, funny (not haha) contractor story: Around 2010-ish had a landscaper do quite a bit of work: plantings, brick walk, brick wall. Brickwork great, no issues. Plantings: wanted mimimal maintenance evergreens, say spring/fall pruning, nothing needing constant tending, but did want holly each side of front entrance. Other plantings work out; occasional trimming. Holly pretty robust, but that’s not the issue. THE ‘SCAPER PLANTED JAPANESE HOLLY, WHICH I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW WAS A THING. BLACK BERRIES???. Now admittedly I’m an atheist, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the holidays. I just wanted a nice, traditional holly display, but I won’t pull them out because it’s not the bushes’ fault… ?
satby
Do it! Their health may even improve a little without the daily ragegasm blood pressure spikes.
Kay
I thought this was kind of wild:
It’s 55 in South Carolina. I’ve seen the national polling supporting Roe for years but I didn’t know it polled so strongly in conservative states.
Amir Khalid
@Matt McIrvin:
No one outside Trump’s immediate orbit really needs to meet him f2f, do they? And right now, the fact that Trump is coronavirus+ is sufficient reason for anyone outside that orbit to refuse an in-person meeting. Any threat of consequences for such a refusal is likely an empty threat.
Matt McIrvin
@WereBear:
I think in Tufekci’s Atlantic article she put her finger on it. COVID infection is extremely clumpy–it’s driven heavily by superspreading events that are low-probability but huge when they happen. Situations you’d swear would get everyone infected can not do so simply by dumb luck, making everyone complacent. And then luck runs out sooner or later. It’s as if the thing is wired to defeat human intuition about what’s safe.
prostratedragon
Guardian long read today about slavery reparations programs, anchored by an example of a program in Evanston, IL.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Agree! We’re on unchartered territory. Millennials are getting older which usually means an increase in voter turnout. But the GOP’s strongest supporters are white people in their 50s, so they are likely to get even more radical as they get older. And the country is still getting less white, for all that entails. I think we’ll be forced to throw away old assumptions and start thinking anew about everything.
It’ll be interesting in a good way, I hope, as opposed to the Trumpian way.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I just think it’s a really solid campaign. They have been doggedly hitting it for months while Trump flails around wildly following every half-baked gimmick Fox News comes up with.
If Trump and the Trump Administration were more disciplined and less addicted to pundit chatter and celebrity they would have just hit the economy over and over. It’s his strongest argument.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
According to Salon the latest master plan from the plague rat in chief is now is he’s going to ignore the election results and appoint is own electors. That will end well.
Immanentize
I like the fact that the Harris/Pence debate will have obvious plexiglass dividers between them. It’s like a third debater with just one issue will be on the stage. Huge win for our side (being that of science and rationality).
Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman)
Baud
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I don’t know what that means but ignore it. As Biden said at the debate, the choice is ours, not his.
Matt McIrvin
@Amir Khalid: I’m thinking about the debates. I think Kamala Harris is already taking an unconscionable risk if she goes ahead with debating Pence in person, even with that plexiglas barrier that the Pence team is already mocking her for. And you know this is going to be the game plan for the next Trump/Biden debates–the Trump team will try to go ahead with them and argue for minimal precautions, trying to get the Biden team to be the one that ducks out for safety reasons so they can crow about hidin’ Biden.
Baud
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman):
It was a weakness in 2016. I can’t blame them for doubling down on what brung them.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
You’re the one who works for that scumbag Kelly who got you infected and then your child in turn, for all the wealth and privilege you boast about. Might be time for some serious self reflection.
mrmoshpotato
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: A few days (weeks, millennia?) ago, there were threats that Rethuglican-controlled states would send Rethuglican electors even if Dump was a loser (SAD!) in that state.
SFAW
@Matt McIrvin:
At the next (if there is one) Biden-Trump “debate”:
“Whatareya Joe, chicken? C’mon, Chicken Joe! Bwaak! Fraidy-cat, fraidy-cat! My dad’s tougher than your dad! You wanna do something about it, chicken? Nyah, nyah! (Sticks out tongue)”
Something like that? Is that what you’re envisioning? Yeah, that would be a total winner for Trump.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t think there’s a real recognition in media how many seniors live on Social Security (and food stamps, and housing subsidies). A LOT of people can no longer work yet have no retirement savings and either don’t own a home or have no equity in the house they’re living in. They don’t pay any attention to the stock market at all. They (sensibly) pay attention to their sole source of income, which is Social Security.
JPL
@Kay: Wonder what would happen if the general public realized that they were going after Griswold, because privacy is not a right in the Constitution.
mrmoshpotato
@Immanentize:
Immanentize
No crazy Trump tweets yet today. I suppose he deserves a little lie-in after that grueling ride across town.
zhena gogolia
@rikyrah:
“Covita” is brilliant!
We need some Antonio Banderas singing “Oh, what a circus, oh what a show.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d56xwT8LZ4
ETA: and I think Trump understands Evita about as well as he understands “Born in the USA.”
mrmoshpotato
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman): Moxon needs to look at the past 40 years. Minds will be blown.
Yutsano
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Oh that’s funny. States have the process for how they have their electors set enshrined into law. So pretty much any swing state will get nowhere with this. And any state that might go along with this is already in Drumpf’s column. But I could see someone like Kristi Noem doing this, if for nothing but the suck up value.
Baud
@mrmoshpotato:
Haha.
BTW, I should have said this years ago, but I love that Twitter handle.
Immanentize
@mrmoshpotato:
Clarice….
*But Pence is no genius, although he and Trump are serial killers.
Matt McIrvin
@SFAW: I think the game plan will be to try to force Biden to be the one who backs out. Insist on an in-person debate with Trump and Biden standing close together, hearty handshake to begin. What have they got to lose? Their guy has already been infected and pronounced COVID-19 no big deal. (It doesn’t matter if he’s actually too sick to perform, since the point isn’t for the debate to literally happen, it’s for the Biden team to be the one that refuses.
And there’s going to be a temptation to call his bluff.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: The LDS community accounts for 6% of the population of Arizona, and they probably vote at a relatively high rate. So Kamala Harris giving an interview to the Desert Times is a very good idea. I like that Biden and Harris are giving lots of interviews to state level newspapers. It’s easy to discount “old media” now, but these newspapers still have wide circulation and influence, especially among older voters.
mrmoshpotato
@Baud: And Steve’s movie and comic book chops are second to none.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Baud: Interesting maybe, but I still find it hella annoying. Sorry, I don’t think one has to have “faith” to have good values. And I know quite a few people who supposedly have “faith” who do and say the exact opposite of “What would Jesus do”. I am kinda tired of people conflating ones religion and belief in religion with being a good person. I try to do the right thing and be kind and help others because it’s the right thing to do, not because I’m afraid I will go to Hell or be struck by lightning if I don’t. People who sincerely have faith can be very caring , good people. They can also be horrible, judgmental, intolerant, people.
mrmoshpotato
@Immanentize: Clarice, our daddy Vladdy said we could have a Christo-fascist theocratic state!
Ken
Selfish bastards want to live and see their grandchildren again.
Kay
@JPL:
They know the far Right position is unpopular:
They’ve gotten away with this dishonest speaking out of both sides of their mouths for decades now- where they tell the religious Right one thing and tell the general public another. A showdown was inevitable. Eventually the truth was going to come out and the truth is they’re far to the Right of the public.
zhena gogolia
@mrmoshpotato:
Hilarious!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman): You would be doing God’s work.
zhena gogolia
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone:
I hope you’re not running for Vice President of the US. If so, don’t put that in an editorial for the Deseret News.
We have to win by any means necessary.
Baud
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Did she say any of that? I read her point to be that people who profess to be “of faith” should strive to do better and help improve the current situation.
satby
We don’t get these polling numbers by running an in your face leftist campaign. [Plus it always helps when we’re running against an obvious death cult.] A majority of the country does not identify as liberal or progressive, though a majority likes liberal or progressive policies in general, and that’s been true for decades. Running as moderates while passing progressive legislation is going to help this time; and if it’s a sweep maybe we can start to demonstrate how progressive policies as enjoyed by the rest of the first world would end up being more cost effective, in spite of the dreaded high taxes that keep Americans from voting for the party that promotes them.
mrmoshpotato
OT – Yes, YouTube, a chicken gyroscope.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman): Do it, in the interests of their health, and mental well-being. And yours. Wish I had done this when my folks were alive. The metric ton of conspiracy theories and crap my parents, especially my mother, believed their last few years was horrible.
Baud
@satby:
The right has done a good job of making enough people fear us even when they agree with us.
SFAW
@Matt McIrvin:
Matt, you gotta reel it back in a little. Your hypothetical is not that far removed from “Trump will demand an unmasked, no barrier arm-wrestling match. He’ll try to get Biden to ‘chicken out’ etc etc.” If Biden responded with the Biden equivalent of “Fuck off, murderer,” the only people whose support he would “lose” would be people who were never going to vote for him in the first place.
That said: since Trump is insane, I can see him stalking Biden around the stage, a la 2016. One would hope the Secret Service would protect Biden, or Biden would mace the Mass-Murderer-in-Chief
ETA: And Fuckhead’s team already refused any format changes in response to the “Shut the fuck up, Donnie” requests that came after the first debate. So the idea that the debate format will change into something as insane as a touchy-feely-kissy format is kind of unlikely — especially considering the Mass-Murderer-in-Chief has COVID.
E
@sanjeevs: Didn’t that poll go up through the 4th which means it included Sunday. We learned of his infection Thursday night.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman):
Sounds like they make up part of The Crazification Factor.
SFAW
@E:
But the polling didn’t include the vanquishing of COVID by the Manliest President EVAH, so FAKE POLLS!!!?!?!
jonas
@Betty Cracker: Sympathy bounce? I think most people are like “What a reckless idiot! Serves him right!” The only people out there who have any “sympathy” for this shitshow are his deplorable 27 percenters — which, by the looks of things in the polls, he’s going to hit in about a week or two.
satby
@Baud: yes, and it’s been a carefully constructed campaign against “socialism” going back more than 60 years now. Complete with alternative right wing “think tanks” and right wing media going mainstream.
But progress is possible. One of those think tanks set up was the AEP (conservative but officially non-partisan) and Norm Orenstein is a resident scholar there, and now one of the harshest critics of not just Traitortots, but of the Republican party as a whole. Smart people learn.
Edit: but he’s still a conservative. Just one with principles. We need more of them, we can work with those kinds of people.
yellowdog
@mrmoshpotato: There is either no no law to stop them or they can change the law.
ljdramone
@Geminid: the link in comment #15 is to Kamela Harris’ op-ed in the Deseret News, the oldest newspaper in Salt Lake City. The Deseret News is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, so giving Harris space for an op-ed strongly implies that LDS Church authorities support Biden / Harris over Trump / Pence.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Baud: Yes and no, she’s tiptoeing pretty close to it.
From the article:
“Over the past four years, as we’ve seen so much callousness and cruelty, I’ve thought a lot about how faith governs our public life — how the values of our leaders are reflected in their actions. Are we, as a nation, living our values when we separate babies from their mothers? When we desecrate the planet God has entrusted to us? When in the wealthiest country in the world, we allow millions of children to go hungry?”
I’m sorry but I Don’t think “faith” should govern our public life, and conflating faith and “values” here , as she is doing is the very thing I don’t like to see in public life. A politician/legislator’s sincerely held faith-based “values” may dictate that women should not be able to obtain birth control or medication abortion, that a person should not be able to get an abortion, even if they may die if they do not, that a person should not be allowed to refuse resuscitation, even though they have a very poor/fatal prognosis (see: rules at Catholic- owned hospitals).
yellowdog
@Yutsano: The point is to cause legal confusion and delay until the vote has to go to the Jouse, where the shitgibbon wins (if he is still alive).
SFAW
@yellowdog:
Not if the Dems flip a strategic number of seats. Unlikely perhaps, but not impossible.
Soprano2
If Barrett gets on the Supreme Court, I’m afraid we’re going to find out. I’ve been telling people this for awhile, that if they can manage to get “Roe” overturned they’re going to go after birth control too, because they’ve convinced themselves that some of the best, safest birth control methods cause abortions. People think I’m crazy when I say that, so I tell them “Did you think 30 years ago we’d be where we are on abortion rights now?” Conservatives want to throw us back to the times when contraception was more unreliable and harder to get, under the theory that then all the sluts will quit having unapproved sex. (Of course, all their women will still have access, because wealthy people can always get anything they want. It’s only us little people who have to give it up.) The opposition to abortion and birth control is all about controlling young women’s sex lives. To me the “tell” on this is that none of these anti-choice groups make any attempt to actually prevent unwanted pregnancies.
cope
@Baud: I have been an Andrea Ghez fanboy for probably 15 years. The work she and her team have done imaging the center of the Milky Way is, frankly, astounding. Being able to resolve individual stars at 25k light years distance as they orbit SgrA* (the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy) is a technical feat more than worthy of a Noble.
For the unfamiliar, she and her colleagues take images of this distant neighborhood in the center of the Milky Way over time and generate time-lapse movies of the motions of these stars. Using the known masses of the stars (done with some well established astronomical methods) and measuring the velocities of said stars by tracking their positions over time allows for the computation of SgrA*’s mass via Newton’s Law of Gravitation. These observations and calculations are how we KNOW the mass of SgrA* is some 4 million times that of the Sun. The are dozens of relevant videos on the YouTube if you are interested
This recognition of the work she and her cohorts have accomplished is very well deserved.
Geminid
@Baud: How left is blue Virginia? After last fall’s state elections, the Wason Center, Rachel Bitecofer’s old outfit, polled upcoming General Assembly issues, and asked a question regarding self-described ideology. 7% said strong liberal, 13% said liberal, 23% said moderate, lean liberal. The aggregate of those groups is 43%; the aggregate of moderate lean conservative (16%), conservative(22%), and strong conservative (11%) was 49%. But there hasn’t been a close statewide race since 2014. Virginia republicans have pretty much lost the center.
Sloane Ranger
@mrmoshpotato: I think it’s a bit more sophisticated than that. Their plan seems to be to challenge everything about the election in court and get everything so confused about whether the votes had been accurately counted, then announce that, in view of the confusion, the legislature have no option but to appoint a set of electors (Republican, of course.)
sanjeevs
@E: Yes , my mistake its Oct 1-4
Baud
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: I still read it the way I read it, not the way you do. Whether we like it or not, a lot of political leaders in this country have religious faith, and I think it’s important to state that faith alone doesn’t give you values. If people are going to invoke their faith and claim that their faith is good, their values and their actions should reflect that goodness.
Shalimar
I’m convinced Kellyanne is as narcissistic as Trump. Claudia and the other kids are just props in her life, as important as hair, makeup and a good face-lift. That said, Claudia seems to be soaking up the adulation these last few months too, so a reality show does seem inevitable.
SFAW
@Soprano2:
Yeah, I’ve been worried about Griswold for more than a couple of years.
There used to be a RWMF catch phrase, “The Constitution in Exile,” which I think they pegged as from 1935 on. The RWMFs are trying to do away with all that, which includes Social Security, Griswold, maybe Loving, probably a number of significant others that I can’t recall. On the plus side, they may try to rise to the occasion, by seeking to emulate that SCOUTS giant, Roger Taney.
satby
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: A specific religion should have no governance in a secular society like ours. “Faith” is non-denominal and not particularly Christian. Buddists have faith, Hindus have faith, Native American shamen have faith. Don’t let the X-Tians co-opt and corrupt the term. People can be very liberal and be operating out of their principles founded in their faith, whatever that is. Or out of none at all. Generic statements noting that “faith” drives a lot of people’s morality isn’t endorsing religion in particular, though Christians who don’t follow Christ’s teachings seem to consider faith as something they have a monopoly on.
Wapiti
@Baud: The members of the LDS church are a religious minority; they aren’t free of risk if the Evangelicals get control. Likewise Biden (Catholic) and Harris (raised in Black Christian church, married to a Jewish person).
So appealing to them makes sense. Give members of your opponent’s coalition a way out. And once they vote with the Democratic Party, they might be willing to do it again.
prostratedragon
@rikyrah: Bravo!!
SFAW
@Baud:
I don’t know if it’s still the case, but it used to be that the demographic/lifestyle group that polled the worst was “atheist.” Worse than Black, Jewish, gay, maybe even Satan-worshippers. So, yeah, faith is still a big part of the political environment, like it or not.
Morzer
@Soprano2: You can add gay marriage to the list of things that religious extremists like Coney Barrett want to get rid of.
evodevo
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: It’s suddenly become personal, now that reporters are turning up positive in droves…funny how that works…
Another Scott
@Betty Cracker: The Economist has Biden on a pretty steady EC trend up since the debate – a mean of 341 today.
https://projects.economist.com/us-2020-forecast/president
Maybe Donnie will remind women today that he thinks they should be put on trial if they have a miscarriage. That will help him get back on track, I’m sure. Donnie’s obviously a Super Stable Genius about all things medical.//
Grr…
Run up the score Team D!! Vote the monsters out!!
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
@Sloane Ranger: That sounds right (no pun intended). It’s been about 8000 years since I came across the story.
Shalimar
@Kay: Trump runs a lot of ads in Florida on protecting Medicare and Social Security too. It’s infuriating that they lie so blatantly about that, though I have read that Kelly is pulling away from McSally in Arizona mainly by pointing out her actual votes.
catclub
of course, one faith value that binds some together is …. hatred of Mormons.
mrmoshpotato
@Another Scott:
I can believe any woman voted for Dump after he told Chris Matthews on live TV that their should be punishments for abortions.
(Yes, I know he was just talking about non-rich, non-white women, but still…)
Betty Cracker
@Kay: It’s such a tough nut to crack because anti-choice extremists are one-issue voters, like gun nuts. The extremists’ positions aren’t popular at all, but non-extremists seem to mostly ignore the danger until the kooks have all the power and the situation becomes absolutely intolerable, but by then it’s so hard to reverse. Very frustrating.
catclub
yeah, didn’t she announce that she was leaving the whitehouse at the end of … August? After the last crisis with her daughter and emancipation.
Yet, she has not seemed to leave.
geg6
@Matt McIrvin:
You keep thinking that people are buying his shit at this point. They aren’t. He has no credibility with the public, every poll shows that. By huge numbers. Quit with the panic and doom porn.
Geminid
@ljdramone: Yes, I misspelled The Deseret Times. I did not know it was an LDS newspaper. Interesting.
geg6
@Matt McIrvin:
And the American people will totally agree with Biden on this. Probably 73% to 27%.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: “Joe Biden is the Pro-Life Candidate,” by D.J. McGuire came out recently in Bearing Drift, published by self-described Virginia conservatives. McGuire makes a very persuasive case.
Geminid
@catclub: I bet the LDS community took note of how political evangelical leaders went head over heels for trump, after giving Romney such tepid support in 2012.
Luciamia
@SFAW: Someone should just tell her that those just sound like alternate facts.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
yeah, that video looks very staged
ballerat
@Immanentize: That’s what I thought too when I saw plexi barrier Jaime Harrison brought to his debate with graham. Jaime is very smart.
I gave a little bit of cash to his campaign. He’s a Dem to keep an eye on, esp if he wins: six years of senate experience, then it’s almost 2028.
matt
Maybe they’re trying to have a reality show, but KAC is super gross and without being part of the Trump circus/American collapse spectacle I don’t think anyone will want to see her evil face.
matt
@debbie: driving around SE Portland where I live (out in the hinterlands) I looked around and couldn’t find a single Trump sign anywhere. Lots of Biden signs.
matt
@Morzer: Pack the Court! With 35-40 year olds.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Baud:
All counter-factuals is bunk, especially since trump went and got himself infected, so it’s hard to say. I still think Bloomberg was ready to jump in as an indy if, by his lights, he had to.
Normie voters are skittish horses, who generally want a social safety net, out of basic decency and and an awareness that their own circumstances can change, but they don’t want their own boats, which are often a bit rickety, rocked. Incrementalism is not a dirty word. Twitter does not reflect the electorate. Maximalist slogans that excite twitter tend to fall flat when exposed to the real world. That Barack Obama guy maybe actually knew what he was doing.
And, more for political junkies even thought it shouldn’t be: Any campaign/movement that pretends that Congress doesn’t exist, or can be rolled over with “passion” or “enthusiasm” or “energy” is selling its voters a lie.
ballerat
@Soprano2: I don’t think you’re crazy when you say that. I think you’ve been paying attention and are calling it like it is.
Ian
@Barbara:
You can’t run a RW grift if you arn’t somehow a victim of the evil liberal conspiracy.
cain
@matt:
Yeah, but that’s SE Portland. I’m living out here in Hillsboro, and I see a number of Trumper houses. Although one guy took down his Trump campaign flag so that he can put halloween decorations. He has a huge cross there too.
The next two houses from there are ostensibly Trump because I remember seeing a banner but they took it down, but the house after that definitely had a Trump. Over all though, not many – and maybe biden signs are a bit more. Some are more subtle and just have “Black Lives Matter” signage.
I don’t have any political signs on my yard. I rather not advertise. Last time my signs got stolen :P
Aziz, light!
I suspect he isn’t feeling well.
smedley the uncertain
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: AMEN!
Just One More Canuck
@Baud: I’d be good if she used a claymore on him
Uncle Cosmo
I have been urgently concerned about this, as early counting would appear to violate the Maryland Code, Election Law §11-302(b)(1), which states that “A local board [of elections] may not open any envelope of an absentee ballot [NB: mail-in ballots treated the same] prior to 8 a.m. on the Wednesday following election day.” I was concerned that violation of the Code might provoke a judicial challenge to the effect that every ballot opened early should be considered “spoiled” and therefore invalidated – which would be disastrous for MD Democrats.
However –
IOW any Thuglican rodentfornicator who would challenge the early counting in court would essentially have to discredit the Governor’s emergency powers, a much tougher proposition with minuscule chance of succeeding.
So go on & drop those ballots off, folks!
(Just wanted to put this out here for anyone who might have shared my concerns.)
FTR (1) Mr Frosh is a Democrat so there should be no pro-GOP bias in that office; (2) I got a callback from them within an hour after leaving a message – fast work from our public servants!
Uncle Cosmo
FTR, it’s the Deseret News, which is indirectly owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. (“The Mormons!”) “Deseret” is, according to the LDS canon, a word from the sacred Book of Mormon meaning “honeybee” and signifying industry. Utah is “The Beehive State” and there’s one of them on the State flag.
The foil to the News is the decidedly non-LDS Salt Lake Tribune, which appears to have a higher circulation & although generally respectful of the largest church in Utah, does enjoy tweaking its stuffy nose on occasion. There are more “Gentiles” (i.e., non-Mormons**) in the Beehive State than most non-Utahns realize.
** iow, LTSDS – “Later-The-Same-Day-Sinners”. Only the Mormons could categorize an observant Jew as a Gentile. Go figger.
Uncle Cosmo
@mrmoshpotato: “I do wish we could chat longer, but I’m having an old fiend for dinner.”