It seems as though the White House prioritized the appearance of a packed crowd over social distancing. Cool cool cool. https://t.co/sI2ZC5DKEy
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) October 10, 2020
As it turns out, after distributing 2,000 invitations, looks like they did scrape up ‘a few hundred’ non-Caucasians this afternoon. They’re wearing matching tracksuits t-shirts because they were bused in from a ‘Blexit’ convention…
You know the opening of Batman Begins where a swarm of bats swirl together to form a huge bat symbol?
This is that but with coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/VkKW3h7m77
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) October 10, 2020
About 400 or so here at White House, just by rough estimating, for Trump’s 1st in-person speech after his coronavirus hospitalization. pic.twitter.com/SczM8tLh6t
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) October 10, 2020
To be clear, the WH said it wasn't a campaign event. But attendees were wearing Trump campaign hats, and the president repeatedly bashed Biden and called on his supporters to vote.
— Grace Segers (@Grace_Segers) October 10, 2020
Per the turncoats at the NYTimes:
… Mr. Trump, who emerged wearing a white surgical mask, peeled it off as he began his remarks. His voice sounded strong and his aggressive message playing down the threat of the virus was unchanged. But the event that the White House had previewed as a huge “peaceful protest for law and order” was uncharacteristically brief.
White House officials said the president would speak for 30 minutes, but he kept his remarks to just 18 minutes in total. A typical Trump rally, in contrast, often runs for at least 90 minutes. A large bandage on top of his right hand was a reminder of the treatments and infusions he had received over the past week. And atypical for a president who usually keeps his crowds waiting, Mr. Trump started right on time…
For days, Mr. Trump has been pressing advisers to let him resume campaigning, and the White House event on Saturday was a compromise from advisers who wanted to delay the president’s re-entry on the campaign trail.
The gathering was also the latest effort by the president to show he was not as sick as news outlets, including The New York Times, reported last weekend, when he was said to have been administered supplemental oxygen. In a Fox News interview on Friday night, Mr. Trump denied that he had experienced any trouble breathing and said he was no longer taking any medications.
In several phone calls last weekend from the presidential suite at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Mr. Trump shared an idea he was considering: When he left the hospital, he wanted to appear frail at first when people saw him, according to people with knowledge of the conversations. But underneath his button-down dress shirt, he would wear a Superman T-shirt, which he would reveal as a symbol of strength when he ripped open the top layer. He ultimately did not go ahead with the stunt…
Still slapping on too much orange foundation, to ‘correct’ the sickly-pale skin tone…
President Trump takes his face mask off before delivering remarks from the White House balcony to speak to supporters for a campaign rally dubbed as a “peaceful protest”. (Reuters/Tom Brenner) pic.twitter.com/rSfBCzZFHF
— Tom Brenner (@tombrennerphoto) October 10, 2020
It was illegal for Donald Trump to hold his nominating convention at the White House in August.
And it is morally bankrupt for Donald Trump to hold another super-spreader rally at the White House today.
The law and ethics don’t matter to this President. Nor does our health.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) October 10, 2020
From balcony at WH, Trump told crowd the virus is “disappearing.” But that’s not true. Yesterday, Johns Hopkins reported 990 deaths and 57,420 new cases, a high level of spread that continues to worry health experts. Trump and top aides are still recovering from COVID-19
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) October 10, 2020
I know there’s some struggling to accept this idea but every day that goes by the president outwardly demonstrates total insanity and no interest in appealing to the normals is a blown opportunity to save his own ass and we should embrace it
— kilgore trout, acting president (@KT_So_It_Goes) October 10, 2020
Incredible Drudge homepage pic.twitter.com/6ElncapdNb
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) October 10, 2020
mad citizen
Thanks to jackals I watched The Death of Stalin tonight. Pretty entertaining.
From earlier thread, I’m not counting out Covid with respect to Trump yet
Local news tells me my state (Indiana) had our highest number of cases today. Good times. We are failing.
Mike in NC
Fat Bastard will hold several hate rallies in the next few weeks, but the end is near.
NotMax
Sinking ship displayed on Truman balcony. Film at 11.
//
Danielx
Ohhh-kaaay… and this guy has the launch codes for the world’s largest nuclear arsenal within thirty feet of him 24/7.
Well hey, I certainly feel reassured, how about you?
Note to self: increase inventory of, uh, substances of every variety.
James E Powell
Today – it’s still Saturday on the Left Coast – John Prine should have been celebrating his 74th birthday. Instead his family and fans are celebrating John and his songs in Picture Show: a Tribute to John Prine on youtube. The show will run through tomorrow, Sunday. It’s well worth it for fans and anyone curious.
Mike in NC
@mad citizen: “Death of Stalin” was a very good movie, even though Steve Buscemi bears no resemblance to Nikita Kruschev.
dmsilev
(with apologies to George Orwell,)
NotMax
Won’t paste the whole comment here; take a gander at what Charlie Cook lays out, downstairs.
Ken
@Mike in NC: Has the campaign released an event schedule yet? I think there was one yesterday that had Trump speaking in Florida today, but Pence took that one instead. I expect it won’t be the last late rearrangement of the plans.
MisterForkbeard
What the hell happened with that “TV medical exam”, anyway? I assume it was a complete BS, but how did it go? What did they actually pretend to do?
ant
I was so thankful after hearing he had covid because that meant the green bay rally got canceled last weekend.
We have enough covid droplets in the Fox Valley as it is without him spreading it around all over.
It’s hard enough for us with friendships that have been cultivated over decades turning out to be fucking trump people. I really wish he would stop with the fucking rallys. And make testing easier for people.
Is it really too much to ask that he take a covid test before the debate, and not spread it to Joe Biden?
I mean, if he infects Joe, does he think that helps him? What about all the others he’s infected? I don’t understand why more republicans aren’t more pissed off at him. He has ruined his reelections chances. He’s a fucking loser.
Jeffro
It really is crashing and burning…not with flames, but with virus and fever and insanity. Hope you like what you bought, GOP, it won’t last but another couple of months.
Many of us told you so back, oh, five years ago. But this is where an utter lack of principles leads you: tiny paid-for crowds watching a sickly game show host do his best Mussolini impression from the WH – the White House! – balcony in violation of federal laws, centuries of respected norms, and of course any sense of honor, common sense, or decency.
dmsilev
That he could only manage fifteen or so minutes of speaking, without even any travel either, at a mini-hate-rally says that he’s nowhere near recovered from the virus. He might no longer be contagious, though given the …odd reluctance to release a negative test I have my doubts, but even after that there can be a long road to true recovery.
If he were any less …him, the experience might give him some empathy, but that seems unlikely all things considered, so we can all take pleasure in his wheezing and lack of energy and so forth without guilt.
dmsilev
@Ken: Supposedly Trump is going to be doing a rally in Florida on Monday. Needless to say, that is subject to change.
Edit. From the Post,
sdhays
In somewhat related news, someone in the previous thread mentioned that COVID Amy’s children have infected people at their school.
She is just absurdly awful. Terrible judgement (is that important for a judge?) and just a lying liar.
Nothing surprises me about the Senate Republicans anymore, but I’m not clear on the motivation at this point to vote before the election? Is it to get her on for the ObamaCare ruling? Or does McConnell fear that his caucus will lose their nerve after the election? I know Dump’s motivation, but McConnell doesn’t give two shits what Dump wants by now since Dump has already made the nomination and his heading for defeat. So what’s driving McConnell’s timetable now, if it isn’t Dump?
MagdaInBlack
@James E Powell: Thank You for this. Ive been a fan since I was 16. Thats 46 years of Prine =-)
NotMax
@MisterForkbeard
The rabbit ears died.
:)
HumboldtBlue
The Queen meets the Trumps.
dmsilev
@sdhays: I think he expects Trump to lose in a blowout, and confirming a SC nominee in a lame duck session after a blowout will absolutely guarantee that the Democrats expand the Court in response.
sdhays
@dmsilev: Because jamming it through before the blowout would be so much more legitimate?
Not saying you’re wrong, but that’s some weak tea.
laura
@James E Powell: Well thank you for that. I’d have hoped to have seen him again, one more time, last weekend at Hardly, Strictly Bluegrass (in the before times). Here’s the linky for a very brief time – it will do a poor heart no end of good and includes a very loving remembrance of John Prine:
https://www.hardlystrictlybluegrass.com
Yutsano
@sdhays: It’s Yertle. He’s doing it because he can. It’s his last flex of power before he either becomes Minority Leader or (Allah willing!) is unemployed. Hoping for the latter, expecting the former.
piratedan
@dmsilev: also have to consider that this was a Candice Owens thang, so this was Blacks for Trump (allegedly, although how many mercenaries were engaged is entirely open to speculation) rally…..
Maybe Trump didn’t feel that they deserved his best effort and just wanted those Black people off his lawn….
Kay
@dmsilev:
It’s just insane to me that there has been so much focus on the hypothetical “court packing” Joe Biden is apparently going to do by decree when we are looking at an incredible rush job to seat a justice who has had virtually no media scrutiny of any kind.
It’s nuts. They’re ignoring the actual justice and going on and on and on about the theoretical justices, which of course is exactly what the actual justice and her backers wanted, which is why they launched that coordinated campaign to make any questions to or about her presumptively off limits as an attack on her religion. It’s the slickest political tactic I’ve ever seen. They have made it so any questions to her are “offensive” and instead we’re getting outraged demands that Joe Biden respond to questions.
The Moar You Know
Can you imagine Trump ripping off his shirt in front of the world’s media and that huge-ass gut spilling out, resembling nothing more than a trash truck dumping its putrescent load, if said load was wrapped tightly in a too-tight blue t shirt?
Now you can! Sorry not sorry!
MisterForkbeard
In worse news, my 18-year-old kitty is feeling badly. She’s long had slight kidney/hyperthyroid issues, and today she’s been peeing a whole lot, with a little red in it. She’s in “good spirits”, whatever that means for cats. But I’ve put her in the bathroom with extra litterboxes, full water bowls and so on and am going to spend a big chunk of tonight in there giving her pets and making sure she has all the scritches she needs.
Aleta
(Reposted from below)
Today in a town where I was volunteering, which always votes majority Dem nationally, I was surprised to hear and see one of those Tr truck parades (crossing a bridge 6 blocks away). A LOT of trucks (most must have traveled from elsewhere) being extra noisy and obnoxious. Because aggressive exhaust systems gather votes like bunnies lay easter eggs.
I looked it up on the news tonight, reported as ‘hundreds’ driving through several towns in the 2nd district. I looked for photos on twitter; saw almost none but found this inept lie posted today by the R candidate for the U.S. House (links altered) :
“
@ MET*Victoryjust surpassed 1.8 million voter contacts!The energy for
@ real*T*in the state is smashing records!”Funny thing is, Maine’s population is only around 1.3 + million.
Also saw a photo of the Watch Party on VP debate night at the ‘T-victory field office’ in Bangor (city where T did a rally in 2016, and flew into a few months ago to pretend to care about fishermen). Total of nine people in front of the TV. Mostly the same people as the 6 in another photo posted the same day as “training new volunteers on how to knock doors.”
This weekend was supposed to be the big 2D drive to contact voters all over the place.
Today in a town where I was volunteering, which always votes majority Dem nationally, I was surprised to hear and see one of those Tr truck parades (crossing a bridge 6 blocks away). A LOT of trucks (most must have traveled from elsewhere) being extra noisy and obnoxious. Because aggressive exhaust systems gather votes like bunnies lay easter eggs.
I looked it up on the news tonight, reported as ‘hundreds’ driving through several towns in the 2nd district. I looked for photos on twitter; saw almost none but found this inept lie posted today by the R candidate for the USHouse (links altered) :
“
@ MET*Victoryjust surpassed 1.8 million voter contacts!The energy for
@ real*T*in the state is smashing records!”Funny thing is, Maine’s population is only around 1.3 + million.
Also saw a photo of the Watch Party on VP debate night at the ‘T-victory field office’ in Bangor (city where T did a rally in 2016, and flew into a few months ago to pretend to care about fishermen). Total of nine people in front of the TV. Mostly the same people as the 6 in another photo posted the same day as “training new volunteers on how to knock doors.”
So, state truck energy: belly out. Area field office energy: belly up.
Eural Joiner
If you enjoyed the Death of Stalin you should really check out Avenue 5 on HBO. It’s the Trump era on a spaceship and it’s cutting – the ongoing funeral gag is beyond good!
NotMax
By tonight or tomorrow he’ll be bitching and moaning that it was a capacity crowd and the failed media refused to turn the cameras to show the hundred of thousands lined up outside the gate who the WH wasn’t able to accommodate.
Eural Joiner
Aleta
@Aleta: Mysterious weird energy took over my comment box, sorry.
The Moar You Know
@dmsilev: not going to be a shock to anyone here that there is no such test. This Conley guy is quite a piece of work. What rock did they find him under?
joel hanes
If I understand the on-the-spot reporting I saw, the chairs were set out at least sorta distanced, but the attendees themselves spontaneously moved the chairs closer to pack themselves in.
Kay
Senate Republicans are ramming thru a SCOTUS justice next week. The only thing people know about her is she attended a White House superspreader event.
So what are they all talking about? Joe Biden’s hypothetical 10th and 11th justices.
I know its incredibly impertinent of me and probably a violation of religious liberties, but is anyone ever going to ask any questions of this judge they’re rushing thru while working as hard as they can to squelch all debate and inquiry into her work or positions by insisting any question about her is offensive and off limits? It’s bullshit. No other nominee in my adult life got this kind of elaborate deference.
I would suggest all job applicants lead with the religious angle. It seems to work like a charm to silence any kind of evaluation.
Hoppie
For your amusement: Received a text today “This is G1 Research, conducting a November election poll. Share your opinion confidentially here” with a link. So I looked up G1 Research, which turns out to be a reich-wing push-poll outfit.
For S&G I clicked through, and got “For statistical reasons your profile is not inherent to this survey. Thank you for your attention.”
WTF? That’s not even English.
My take is the ignoramuses think “inherent” means “relevant”.
I also think what happened is they spammed 859 area code cells — I got my phone in Lexington, KY, twenty years ago (859 = UKY, get it? and yes the phone ghods did that deliberately) — but since my ‘puter says I’m in San Diego, sayonara.
To be push-polling this late, someone is nervous. Prolly Andy Barr, but I’d rather it was Mitch.
dmsilev
@The Moar You Know: My understanding is that Ronny Jackson recommended him for the job.
HumboldtBlue
@NotMax:
Reassuring.
mad citizen
@Eural Joiner: I saw the first episode of Avenue 5 and bits of others waiting for Curb episodes but never got into it. For some reason Hugh Laurie annoys me. And I’m not a sci fi guy either so I’m sure I’m missing some of it.
MisterForkbeard
@sdhays: I think we don’t know yet if her kids infected their teacher. All we know is that her kids tested positive (she says) “sometime in the summer” and that apparently some of their teachers are sick with covid now.
But again: taking your kids to an event like this and then letting them go to school is massively irresponsible.
Felanius Kootea
@sdhays: What’s driving McConnell now? He has the power to seat a new Supreme Court justice, so he’ll do it. There’s no other consideration. He’s all about power and wielding it.
ETA: Or what Yutsano said.
Kay
I have literally heard more about Joe Biden’s imaginary 10th and 11th justices than I have about the real 9th justice Republicans are planning on rubberstamping after holding a pro forma fake hearing next week, since they’ve all pre-announced they’ll be installing her.
I guess we’ll find out about her after she tanks the ACA and guts what’s left of the VRA. I guess we can read those opinions, unless that too is also a violation of religious liberties and offensive.
debbie
@piratedan:
Certainly explains why he didn’t care about distancing or anything.
joel hanes
Throughout this long unpleasantness, I’ve thought of the GOP as Ahab, fanatic, frozen in a maladaptive pattern, lashing itself ever more intricately to the thrashing carcass of this bloated white whale.
May they all go down with the ship.
mad citizen
@Kay: I’m trying to contain my outrage over this, but tweeted my local tv station tonight because after a few lines about trump’s lazy event, there line about Biden was “he still is refusing to answer the question about court packing” with no context. It is infuriating.
Aleta
@The Moar You Know: I wonder if they bought him for just the perks (AF1!!) or if they turned on the trusty old Ivanka charm machine too.
Yutsano
@Kay: Kay…she’s getting scrutiny. Right now on Twitter this article from CNN has been trending since this morning. Uncomfortable questions about her are coming forward, and not just because of her possibly being Covid Amy. She’s being shown as fervently anti-abortion. It’s going to come up in both Judiciary and on the Senate floor. Let the media also bother Biden. She’s not going to skate onto the court that easily.
Alison Rose
Since it’s an open thread and I’m sure we can all use a nice news story now and then:
There’s a video at the link of the moment they found out they won, and it’s joyous.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@mad citizen:
I watched “My Octopus Teacher” tonight. It was warm, moving and a surprisingly intimate look at a sentient creature that is rarely understood.
Love seeing them on dives – followed one along a reef wall until my own air was becoming a problem on a night dive; even saw a breeding pair once.
Percysowner
@MisterForkbeard: So sorry about your kitty. I have a 17 year old cat and every checkup I hold my breath that he’s still okay. I hope she can hold on and feel good for a while. It’s so hard to have to make decisions when they get old and sick. My heart goes out to you.
Mai Naem mobile
@NotMax: I am not sure a Reagan/Carter blowout is even possible with the electoral college, voter suppression and COVID19. I sincerely hope I am wrong.
different-church-lady
My god that is pathetic…
CaseyL
The focus on Biden possibly court stacking pisses me off, too. It’s obvious the GOP is trying to ignite a made-up scandal, and equally obvious the MSM is happy to go along. I hope Biden verbally slaps silly anyone dishonest enough to ask him.
He might, too. Uncle Joe is being surprisingly, gratifyingly, pugnacious.
Also – I read somewhere on Twitter, and can’t remember if it was mentioned here, that the reason SCOTUS has 9 justices is because, way back when, there were 9 circuit courts. Well, now there are 13 circuit courts. If the idea is to have a SCOTUS justice for each circuit, we need 4 more anyway!
Redshift
I would be kind of fascinated if today’s rally and the others that have been announced are because campaign staff have convinced themselves they’ll help, or they’re just courtiers playing to the whims of the mad king so they don’t get
executedfired.The Moar You Know
@Aleta: somebody is paying him. Of that I have no doubt.
Mary G
I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas.
Ruckus
@Kay:
They are in the bottom of the ninth and 40 points down and the coach is a raving lunatic who should be wearing a jacket with wrap around sleeves instead of a jersey and their only pitcher who hasn’t quit the team has one pitch left, not the style of pitch, one actual throw left, and has no real idea how he’s going to get that across the plate. The players who haven’t yet quit are 4th stringers who’ve never played a game in MLB. The owners of the team have left the stadium and set it on fire, and the spectators are grabbing fire hoses and putting it out, seeing as how they own town and the property. And the opposing team is manned and ready to win in style – 40 to nothing.
Marcopolo
@Mary G: Here you go:
The even split with men is not something I thought I’d ever see.
Salty Sam
I’ve had a coupe of interesting suggestions pop up in my YouTube feed- one was Tucker Carlson glowering “Democrats want to completely change how government works!”, and the other was Hannity stoking the panic- “Democrats are plotting the greatest power grab in history!”
1- ummm, yeah, that’s right… and
2- it’s always projection with these assholes.
NotMax
@Ruckus
If the name weren’t already taken, Official Monster Raving Loony Party would be appropriate.
Redshift
@Kay: Yeah, I’m pissed off about it, too. My impression is that the way Republicans have seeded this into the media is through their reflex to treat any ignoring of a question as suspicious. Republicans are hoping it will be some kind of wedge issue, which I don’t see happening, but it’s still annoying.
I feel like we’re getting more writing in mainstream outlets about how the GOP has screwed with the courts for decades, though, which I feel is more likely to build acceptance for expanding the Court than political junkies making “Pack the Court” the lastest slogan that all Democrats must declare fealty to.
James E Powell
@MagdaInBlack:
Me too. I’m pretty much a rocker, but I’m always there for anyone man or women who picks up a guitar and tells a story
@laura:
Thank you for that link. I have bookmarked and will check it out tomorrow. Right now, I downing my second Handsome Johnny while I’m listening to a Prine playlist, then I’m going to bed.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Mary G:
BANG
The race is tied among men, 48%-48% in this poll, … while Biden is up 59%-36% among women, the widest margin among women for any presidential candidate in exit polls dating to 1976. (That includes 62%-34% among suburban women and 54%-41% among suburban white women.) Biden’s vast 69%-25% lead among moderates, if it holds, would be a record by far.
ABC News/Washington Post Poll rated A+ by 538
Salty Sam
@joel hanes: LP has a new ad, with another potent metaphor, in cartoon form. Horrified female Repub elephant wakes up in bed with a snoring DJT, grabs her clothes and sneaks out, and makes the “Walk Of Shame” home. It’s brutal. See it here:
https://youtu.be/ej19lEizSk0
Marcopolo
@Redshift: Honestly, the MSM coverage of Barrett is atrocious. Next time Biden is asked about court packing he should point out that the seat Barrett is currently occupying on the 7th Circuit was stolen from Obama by McConnell.
On January 12, 2016 Obama nominated Myra Selby, a very accomplished AA lawyer from Indiana, to the seat Barrett currently occupies. McConnell never let her nomination proceed.
HumboldtBlue
Well this is awkward and prolly not the best wedding planning.
MisterForkbeard
So that’s two hugely great polls at +12 Biden.
Wonder if there’s more.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
I’ve never seen a political party commit suicide but I think it is happening right in front of us. And the last time it happened sounds to me like it was for the same basic reason, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
James E Powell
@Kay:
This is because, as Josh Marshall puts it, the press/media is wired for Republicans. Or as another famous person – I forget which one – said, every night the news is What are the Republicans angry about today?
Duncan Black at Eschaton today:
That’s the way it’s been since Reagan. For me, that means ever since I graduated from college, more or less my entire adult life.
It’s why I have this unhealthy anger toward everyone who did not vote for Hillary Clinton in 2016. We needed at least three but probably four straight Democratic presidents to change that. What we lost there cannot be regained in my lifetime.
Calouste
McConnell is trying to ram through COVID Amy, because Arizona has a special election that the GOP is going to lose, so they might not have enough votes in the lame duck session. Don’t know about the Georgia special, that’s most likely going to go to a runoff.
Marcopolo
@Salty Sam: While this ad might be entertaining to some folks, it’s a lousy political ad for moving any voters. While LP has created a couple good spots the vast majority of what they turn out is the ad version of performative politics. I really hope folks here are smart enough not to give them any money.
James E Powell
@Ruckus:
I think there are problems with your metaphors – there are no points in baseball, only runs – but I think you have it right.
Marcopolo
@MisterForkbeard: Nah, just the same ABC/WaPost poll posted 2x 10 mins apart.
Though additional polls are supposed to drop tomorrow.
Fair Economist
@Marcopolo: That’s pretty much in line with the polling from last week (averaging +10 for Biden, including a +14 and a +16 in TV network polls). Nice result, but not “devastating”.
HumboldtBlue
Biden’s team has hit the Black community with the mayor ad, the Asian community with the second ad and now the farming community with the third ad.
Marcopolo
@Fair Economist: Yeah. The ABC/WaPost poll is rated A+, gold standard, though. And I think the male vote splitting evenly is the big shocker.
I guess getting the rona is emasculating for a fair number of male Trump supporters.
HumboldtBlue
@James E Powell:
You rang?
Sally
I should post this in a not dead and not so late/early thread, but, it is my understanding that seven justices is the minimum for hearing a case in the USSC. So, Biden should enlarge the court to at least fourteen so as to reduce the wait times for important cases, and ensure enough cases can be heard. There is ample justification for enlarging it to thirteen as given by someone here with thirteen district courts now, instead of nine, which is why there are nine justices. But thirteen does not allow two cases to be heard in parallel courts. So fourteen, fifteen if you want a floater, or to be able to utilise the entire set at once. If it were me, I’d go for twenty one so as to expand the number of cases that can be heard. And just because I would want to teach certain creatures a lesson. And just because.
TS (the original)
@Mary G:
Please let it be/include Texas. For Beto and Wendy Davis.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@James E Powell:
CaseyL
It’s great that Biden is +12 in national polls, and I do understand that kind of national lead means it would be harder for the GOP to finagle vote totals, but the state polls are still the most important.
Particularly in swing states where GOP governors and legislatures are doing their damndest to keep people from voting. If Biden was +12 in those states, I’d feel a lot better.
Geoduck
@Calouste: Also, there’s the ever-present danger that COVID will smack down enough GOP senators that they lose the needed votes, causing the whole thing to collapse.
Another Scott
ICYMI, KrebsOnSecurity:
Good, good.
Cheers,
Scott.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Sally: I’m pretty sure a revised Judicial Act can change any hearing requirements, they aren’t constitutionally based. I’ve been a proponent for 15 justices that could be divided into 3 justice panels much like the appeals courts do. If a litigant is not happy with the ruling of the panel they could request an en banc review just like is done on the appeal courts.
HumboldtBlue
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
That’s a helluva an idea. That’s why we read this blog.
Ruckus
@James E Powell:
The closest I’ve come to being a fan was my father who had a box at Dodger stadium that he would either take customers to or give them the tickets. He gave me the tickets once and a buddy and I went to the game. I think I was 16 or 17. OK day, didn’t care about going back till last year when a buddy (different) had tickets to a home game and we went. IOW not my cup of tea….
Ruckus
@HumboldtBlue:
Agreed, hell of an idea.
Go BillinGlendale
Sally
@Ruckus: So no one likes my twenty one! Sad. But seriously, thank you for this BillinGlendaleCA, I too have been advocating for fifteen. It’s a great number, $15/hr, fifteen Justices, I’m sure we could think of other fifteens ;)
TS (the original)
@Marcopolo:
Like anything he does – trump can’t get it right. He should have got a sympathy vote – but the lack of caring for others, the hospital ranting, getting treatment that most people could never get, telling the relatives of 210,000 people they weren’t strong enough to overcome the deadly virus and the continuation of spreader events lost the sympathy that could have been there.
I think this is also why he keeps losing the female vote in greater and greater numbers.
The Lodger
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Excellent idea!
NotMax
@TS (the original)
Don’t forget calling his (and only his) contracting it a blessing from God.
Salty Sam
@Marcopolo: I dunno, depends on who the targeted audience is. Most of their ads are aimed at Repubs, and even if all they do is shame some of them to sit out the election, that’s fine by me. The principals in LP have a significant share of responsibility for creating the monster we are all dealing with (not just Trump, but the entire Repub establishment. Maybe they’re just trying to work off some karmic debt. (That’s a joke!)
And yeah, on Nov 4, they cease being allies.
mrmoshpotato
@dmsilev:
OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE! CAN WE HAVE AN ADULT IN CHARGE AGAIN ALREADY?!
TS (the original)
@NotMax:
Everything that has happened this year, has shown he cannot handle any sort of a crisis – and he seems to do/say the opposite of what is expected from anyone, let alone the president* of a country with over 300million people. He scored a trifecta for the first 3 years – and then he lost the bet.
Saying the virus was a blessing from God was nonsense to both religious people and atheists. Coronavirus was his gift for being stupid, more than anyone he had the ability to do the right thing – but he denied reality until it happened.
The current similar actions of GOP senators may gain them a SCOTUS Judge, but could well lose them a seat in congress. Burying your head in the sand, rather than getting a covid test is beyond stupid. It shows you care nothing for your nearest, dearest and everyone else. A question related to these refusals should be on many senate surveys.
Mary G
David has #Trump2020 in his Twitter bio. Keep right on whistling past the graveyard, I told him.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax:
But definitely not having a sad at what a shitpile of bigots and imbeciles (and tax cheats) (h/t Driftglass) they have turned their party into over 40+ years.
Ruckus
@Sally:
I’m just thinking out loud here but 21, in a lifetime appointment is maybe too many. In that vein I also think it should not be a lifetime appointment, 20 or 25 yrs maybe, but not lifetime. I’d like to see some changes in our government, only because so much around it has changed over the decades. The house should have much more equality in the numbers of humans per house member. IOW CA shouldn’t have 30-40% more constituents per member as say Montana. The number of constituents per house member should be reasonably equal to the least populated state +/-. As senators seem to have more to do with land than people they should have a term limit, say 5 terms/30 yrs. Also voting/rep districts limits are not created by political parties, they have to be a grid system, although in many states they won’t all be the same geographic size, but a district will have approximately the same number of humans. So one district could be made up of several grid boxes and some would be made up of one grid box. They will of course never be exactly equal but close.
Mary G
@Mary G:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
TS (the original)
@Mary G:
Monmouth is A+ from 538 but it has a D bias of +1.3 I don’t quite understand Nate’s stats he also has it with some other negative states – I think subtracting about 2 point for the bias would cover it.
Thus it would be from Trump +1 to Biden +9 – which is probably what has happened. Let the GOPers carry on with their fake polls meme – as long as democrats vote because their lives depend on it.
piratedan
@Mary G: they don’t seem to realize what happened when the President contracted COVID and what it means… is that people could see
a) it wasn’t a hoax
b) Trump wasn’t special
c) anyone could get it…
For whatever reason, all of the other shit that went down before never made an impression, but when Trump catches it, well guess what, the guy who has been telling us all that its not a big deal now has to go to the hospital for it leaves a mark.
That’s essentially seven months of messaging shot to shit in a day, yeah, polls are going to reflect that. What’s surprising is that its not more.
So many people are STILL in fucking denial or just don’t care because they can’t be bothered too… I need my pro sports, I need to be able to eat out and drink booze and go to the movies…. I want my old life back!!!!!!! The assholes in charge wouldn’t just bite the bullet and enforce a real lockdown properly so now we’re still shambling along with some places more or less doing okay and a bunch of other people insisting on being assholes.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Wait, Trump Herald of Nurgal lost Drudge? That makes no sense.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus:
That requires a Constitutional Amendment, ain’t gonna happen. Changing the Court and how it’s organized only requires a statute.
Sally
@Ruckus: Yes you are right about twenty one being too many. I’m just being ornery. I’ve advocated fifteen several times on this here blog. Three to get even and three to punish! Seems fair to me!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
That’s the thing, everyone wants a return to a normal life, and it’s clear now the that an’t going to happen with President Stoner Dumb Ass Drama Queen.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mary G:
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that kind of movement before.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
A boy can dream can’t he?
So many things have really changed over the last couple hundred years that maybe we need to rethink some things, even if that is hard and requires something we don’t have now, 2 responsible political parties.
Calouste
@Mary G:
Dukakis was up by 17 in one poll against Bush I, and down by 5 a month later.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: But you’d need 3/4 of the states to ratify, getting 3/4 of the states to agree the sky is blue would be a heavy lift.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Calouste: Yeah, that’s one of the cases I was thinking of.
DO NOT DRIVE AROUND IN A TANK JOE!
HumboldtBlue
I just heard the first overfly of Canadian geese headed north.
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
LOL
mrmoshpotato
@HumboldtBlue:
At least we can always rely on geese being assholes. Oh, and speaking of Canadian assholes – Ted Cruz.
Mary G
I’m writing letters to infrequent voters in Georgia through Vote Forward, and I have to keep stopping to rub cramps out of my hand, but I’m getting a nice big stack accumulated to mail in a week. I just have to watch using CA for the state. Luckily it’s easy to make the C a G.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Oh absolutely a heavy lift. Doesn’t mean it’s not the right thing to do. And it should be a heavy lift, but it’s changing something that is an almost entirely different realm from when it was enacted. How many governments have gone by the wayside over the centuries because they couldn’t see that a change was necessary because almost nothing is the same? I like our form of government because it has ways of keeping up with the changes in humanity, even if changing is hard. Many governments/countries stopped change at some point, seeming thinking that nothing would ever change. The republican party has come to the conclusion that any change from making the rich richer is wrong. Not that conservatives didn’t always see the world that way, it’s just that current life has worked out well for the very wealthy and most of them like that a lot better that their world and the lessor beings worlds are very separate. I’d like it better if they’d have to drive a trash truck a few months or machine metal or any number of things that require actual physical labor, and understand life isn’t all $600 bottles of wine and gold plated toilets. We actually still are in a time of snake oil salesmen, it’s just they work in politics far more than they used to. OK that and the same scams that snake oil salesmen have for eternity. Miracle Cures. Republican politicians have been selling snake oil for the last 50 yrs, at a minimum and that miracle cure is give us your money and we’ll give you nothing in return.
Jackmac
@MisterForkbeard: positive thoughts to you and your kitty. Our frail but still feisty 19-year-old quickly took a turn for the worse recently. Sadly, her condition deteriorated almost before our eyes and we knew we had to end her pain and say goodbye.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus: My feeling is we should concentrate on the things that we can change.
cwmoss
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Jack Balkin has another approach to S Ct reform that can be done by legislation not constitutional amendment and might seem less radical/hardball than simply increasing the number of justices.
https://balkin.blogspot.com/2020/10/dont-pack-court-regularize-appointments.html?m=1
Martin
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I like that idea. I would also suggest that the new arrangement eliminate the shadow docket by always having a panel available to review such requests in a more formal way.
oatler.
Don’t fret, Chuck Todd’s got Hugh Hewitt on tomorrow to reassure us.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Was just doing a bit of looking around on the net and came across this, a radio tower in the middle of a forest fire. It’s a live camera shooting it’s last couple of minutes.
OK to answer your point. I’m not saying this should be priority one, it’s a big deal and would take time. We have far more to worry about in the immediate future, but we also should be thinking what that future will look like farther out. I have a more than one track mind and I know you do as well. So if we can so can many others. I think we’ve been battling conservative values of fuck democracy we want all the money for most of my life. It’s destroying our country. People I knew died for this country, let’s at least make an attempt to honor their sacrifice with real democracy rather than granite and words that mean nothing. I mean shouldn’t we have learned at least that from shitforbrains and his buddy the turtle?
HumboldtBlue
That phrase is bugging me because it looks good in word and deceives in verse/song.
Say it out loud.
Ruckus
@cwmoss:
IANAFL but that sounds like a rather non political approach to fixing a broken process. I might suggest that we up the court to 11 members with another 11 in the rotation so that any particular death or incapacitation would end up being less political. We have increased the size of the court before, it seems to me that might also make the court a bit more responsive and less likely to become as political as it has.
Not sure I’ve explained my thinking as clearly as I’d like……
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Ruckus:
Again, that would require an amendment(so says BJ’s legal eagles). It’s better to concentrate on what can be done, expand the Court and the lower courts and structure the Court so it can handle more cases.
Sab
I don’t know where the Republicans are getting their mailing lists, but my mother got a postcard from Right to Life today. Mom was an Eisenhower Republican. She died in 2012. She was pro-choice. Right to abortion was the single most important issue to her.
I just had to laugh when I saw that card that they had spent time, effort and money on.
ETA: She loved Obama, mostly because of his grandmother and his wife.
Ruckus
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I see I was right, not all that clear.
I do not see where Jack Balkin’s concept that cwmoss linked to in #116 would require an amendment, the term of the court would still be a lifetime appointment, just the process would be more consistent and less political.
I guess what I’m saying is that there are probably a number of ways to make the SC slightly less a political land mine and more a court of law. I’ve heard a couple here tonight. Including your suggestion.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@KatzD
·
Federal Judiciary Act of 2021
Remove 1332(a) diversity jurisdiction amount in controversy requirement.
Establish the Court of Appeals for Small Claims (CASC) and region trial courts with jurisdiction over all diversity claims below 75k and traffic violations on federal land.
@KatzD
·
All circuit judges appointed between Jan 2016-Jan 2020 shall be reassigned to CASC.
All district judges appointed between Jan 2016-Jan 2020 shall be transferred to the trial courts
@KatzD
·
By statute, law students can argue before the court.
Also a picture of Mitch McConnell is hung in all the courtrooms. Till the end of time.
Tony Jay
@Salty Sam:
Bless their hearts. Still trying to erect an artificial divide between what the Republican Party is and what Trump has done to it.
If they were going to be honest about the situation they’d have the lady elephant get out of bed, look shamefacedly at the obese, snoring lump she’s been shacking up with, then shuffle into the kitchen to make breakfast for her man while the ‘camera’ pans over the wall photographs of her and Tang at their wedding day on the Mall (obligatory 3/4 empty seating for guests) and the family shot of the two of them flanked by long-trunked caricatures of the idiot children in red caps.
Not a one night stand, just another bad marriage.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Jackmac:
Sorry for your loss.
Kathleen
@Eural Joiner: Avenue 5 is hysterically funny. I’m surprised I haven’t seen more comments about it online.
Sab
@Tony Jay: Steve Schmidt had a ridiculous comment on Twitter about leaving the Republican party after 30 years because they had left their roots. Founded in 1854 to be against slavery and for human rights.
Seriously? Their 1854 principles attracted him in 1990? The Republican Party has been glaringly racist for all of the last 30 years. My parents were Republicans in the 1940s when it still could be said to be the party of Lincoln. There is no way anyone could have said that in 1990, after 8 years of Reagan.
TS (the original)
@oatler.:
Haven’t seen him on MJ for some time. Guess NBC had to find someone for him to talk to. Can’t imagine who would be watching that tomorrow – perhaps they want to use the low ratings to get rid of both of them.
Chris Johnson
@Sab: You don’t get ten point movements in the polls without prying some of these people’s fingers away from Trump, the current Republican standard-bearer. Republicans fall in line. To stop them from empowering a genuine traitor and monster, they’ve got to think THEY are the ‘real’ Republicans and the orange dude is a hideous impostor violating the true principles they stand for.
It only has to work for long enough to overthrow the Reich and restore functioning government. It also gives them an element in their recollection where they got tricked by a malefactor and had to reclaim their principles and sanity, which means they must conceptualize the idea that they CAN be tricked and cannot trust every ‘principle’ they think they have.
Tony Jay
@Sab:
They know all that, but they won’t say that, and the people whose job it is to ask them that don’t want to because they fear the personal and professional blowback of bucking the approved Narrative.
Bunch of Speers.
evodevo
@Hoppie: Yah, Georgetown Ky here…have gotten 2 calls to our landline in the last week from ANDY BARR, for whom I wouldn’t vote if I had a gun to my head…been a registered Dem for many, many years. Don’t know what that’s all about…
WaterGirl
@Salty Sam: People seem to like that ad. I do not. The Republicans didn’t innocently get into bed with Trump. After the last 4 years, the Rs are Trump.
This ad, to me, says, vote Trump out and the Rs will be good again.
I say hell no to that.
RAM
I’ve been ill with one thing or another most of my life, most recently having an emergency pacemaker install, so I’ve also had lots of IVs. If Trump still had an IV bandage on his hand that means to me he had an IV recently. I’m a bleeder and my IV bandages come off just fine within a couple hours and no leakage. The guy’s still undergoing treatment.
WaterGirl
@Sally: Oh my gosh, this is a horrifying idea. Games would be played to get the “right” set of 7 justices to give you the outcome you want. The Rs on the Supreme Court have shown that there is no limit to the depths they will sink to in order to further their agenda.
Uncle Cosmo
Bigger problems than that: As the Earl of Baltimore once famously remarked, baseball has no time limits; unlike football, basketball, soccer or ice hockey, you get 27 outs[1] and you go on batting as long as you don’t exhaust them.[2]
The election ends when the polls close on November 3, period.[3] Trumplthinskin & his Thuglican abbatoirs[4] are in the position of an NFL team down 3 scores and out of timeouts with 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter – and their opponents have the ball.
[1] In a regulation 9-inning game; 24 for the home team if it’s leading after the visitors have batted in the 9th; and at least 15 in an official game called after a minimum of 5 innings (12 for the home team if it’s leading after the visitors have batted in the 5th) /beisbol pedantry.
[2] From 1954 through 1993, the Baltimore Orioles played at Memorial Stadium, which sat in the middle of a residential neighborhood. The City imposed a curfew on night games before a workday: No inning could start after 12:01 AM. Games that ran overtime were suspended until the next opportunity to continue (in most cases the next day prior to the already scheduled game).
City ordinance also prohibited games at Memorial from starting before 2 PM on Sundays, to allow street parking for morning church services in the neighborhood. The Baltimore Colts, who also played at Memorial until they slunk off to Indianapolis (ptui!) in 1984, never started a Sunday home game before 2:05 PM. /sports trivia
[3] Or whenever the deadline is for posting mailed-in ballots (customarily postmarked NLT Election Day), though those votes will not be counted until received (usually up until some cutoff date; in MD I think it’s E-Day + 10). /elections trivia
[4] I originally intended to type abettors but I can rarely resist a pun this delicious; enjoy!