.
Dems in Array https://t.co/c3e3ypOOfV
— James Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) October 10, 2020
Consider the circumstances!
Are we still cosplaying The Masque of the Red Death or have we moved on to The Fall of the House of Usher now? https://t.co/KwYGEk9374
— Maryn McKenna (@marynmck) October 10, 2020
Only thing this sumbitch has ever wanted to share — presumably to spread the blame around:
… Guests for Saturday’s event won’t be tested for the virus and won’t be required to wear masks, setting off fresh concerns that the White House itself has become a vector for the disease. Earlier Friday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, decried a previous gathering at the White House to celebrate Trump’s Supreme Court nominee as a “superspreader event.”…
On Saturday, Trump will speak to a crowd gathered by conservative activist Candace Owens, whose Blexit Foundation encourages Black Americans to leave the Democratic Party.
[Gonna be interesting to see how many not-paid-to-do-so non-Caucasians actually show up for this.]
His speech is being billed as “Remarks to Peaceful Protesters for Law & Order,” according to an invitation. He’ll address the crowd from the Truman Balcony off of the Blue Room, a large state room on the main floor of the White House. More than two thousand guests have been invited, according to a person familiar with the event.
In a statement, the White House said attendees will be “instructed” to wear a mask while at the complex, but will only be screened for Covid-19 with a temperature check and “brief questionnaire” — not a test. The statement added that attendees will be “strongly encouraged,” but not required, to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s coronavirus guidelines, such as social distancing and mask wearing.
“The health and safety of all attendees is our priority,” the statement said…
Guys, relax.
It’s just an infectious man holding an illegal campaign rally at risk of death to federal workers. https://t.co/muUHVGmJvu
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@TheRealHoarse) October 9, 2020
Correctamundo https://t.co/XNrgd4QRjt
— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) October 10, 2020
Baud
A couple of interesting non-political Politico stories.
Apparently, Google phasing out third party cookies on Chrome is anti-competitive.
GOP shenanigans in 1960.
Baud
Why don’t we have a Whexit event?
Baud
Baud
The Fat White Duchess
It’s an old tradition (Pharaohs, among others I think?) for the ruler to take a large retinue with him into the afterlife, to serve him there.
debbie
I don’t suppose anyone on Fox asked Trump why he hadn’t condemned the plot to kidnap and torture Whitmer?
Chyron HR
@Baud:
Nice try, Satan.
different-church-lady
No longer content with being indirectly responsible for Amercan deaths through indifference, Trump decides to take a more active role in the process…
Geminid
Curious: Would Texas jackals who saw the Hegar/Cornyn debate last night care to comment? I read part of a transcript put up by a local tv station, and I thought Hegar did well, but I’d really like to know how the debate came across to Texans.
Baud
Long politico article about Biden, progressives and foreign policy.
Ken
Best response to Maryn McKenna’s Poe tweet from “Jono”:
(“M. Valdemar” is about a man who dies under mesmerism, and keeps talking for months thereafter. So far that’s only Cain but we’ll see what the coming months bring.)
Baud
@different-church-lady:
Maybe he’ll show his commitment to the Second Amendment by shooting them all.
Ken
We’re calling it “the 2020 election”.
Chyron HR
Will Lady G show up to claim that the cops will stop killing Black people if they swear fealty to the GOP?
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Wag
@Baud: fascinating piece of history. Thank you for sharing this.
rikyrah
Owens is pregnant. If she doesn’t care more about her meal ticket then why should I?????
rikyrah
I believe that Pence is positive .And, Senator Pittypat from South Carolina ??
CliosFanBoy
conservative activistUncle Tomish fool Candace Owens,FTFY
Chyron HR
@Baud:
Don’t let the lack of Social Security cuts fool you into thinking Biden isn’t cutting Social Security, Berniebros (and -belles)!
different-church-lady
@Chyron HR: That’s absurd: the cops would never agree to it.
Amir Khalid
As you Americans say, bologna.
Baud
@Chyron HR:
That article is about foreign policy. The most ridiculous thing I saw is a demand by someone that Biden not listen to Susan Rice.
Steeplejack (phone)
@rikyrah, @Baud:
Good morning! ?
rikyrah
Read the second tweet
Two thousand ????
At the COVID-19 zone known as the White House
debbie
@different-church-lady:
The metaphor of Trump as Contagion!
trnc
DT has been holding them for us.
Ken
For some reason, it’s normally spelled “baloney” when it means nonsense. Both “bologna” and “baloney” can refer to the sausage.
CliosFanBoy
@Ken: but do they both have the same first name?
rikyrah
Ken
@CliosFanBoy: No, bologna’s first name is O-S-C-A-R and baloney’s first name is D-O-N-A-L-D.
Baud
@Ken:
@trnc:
So we’re almost certainly going to win the popular vote. My question is, are the polls, especially of seniors, such that Dems have a shot at winning the white vote for the first time since 1964? That would be something.
Ken
I’m feeling vaguely happy that according to electoral-vote’s projection today, the largest EC delegations in the “strongly” or “likely” categories for Trump are Indiana and Tennessee, both with 11. That’s because Texas is only “barely” and FL/GA/NC/VA/PA are all in the Democratic category.
Shrillhouse
I remember the good old days, when the idea of a campaign rally on the WH lawn would trigger discussions of the Hatch Act, rather than discussions of a clearly mentally-ill president staging yet another super-spreader event. But, September is gone…
sanjeevs
Brave of Fauci to call the WH event a superspreader.
Other than Fauci can you name anyone In the administration who stood up to Trump and hasn’t been fired and maligned
Baud
@Ken:
Can’t believe Indiana voted for Obama in 2008. Where did all those voters go?
Amir Khalid
@Ken:
I am rather more familiar with American English than you think.
different-church-lady
@debbie: I used to say Trump was the symptom, not the disease. Turns out I was wrong.
Steeplejack (phone)
The craziest thing I read yesterday was in the Axios story about no bombshell Durham report before the election. There was a quote where some GOP aide on the Hill said:
I was flabbergasted to think that (a) that’s really the biggest issue for their base, given all the disastrous crap that’s happening, and/or (b) they really think that’s the biggest issue for their base.
debbie
@different-church-lady:
We all were. Bigly.
trnc
One poll showed white men had moved from something like +13 for DT to +1 for Biden. One poll, blah, blah, but still could be the indication of a trend (for this election, at least).
Baud
@Steeplejack (phone):
I had that reaction as well when I saw that quote.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Ken:
I believe Amir was making what we Americans call a joke.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: Back to their Chicago graveyards.
different-church-lady
@debbie: Upon review, it’d be better if I’d said, “Turns out he’s both.”
Ken
@Amir Khalid: My apologies, it was not intended as criticism but as trivia.
Using that to segue, an interesting bit of trivia from electoral-vote.com. If Trump loses Florida this year, he will be the only president in history to lose two different home states. There have only been three presidents who lost their home states, and they only did it once.
trnc
@sanjeevs: I believe Fauci cannot be fired by DT. I assume early happy talk toward DT was meant to bring him into the fold and not alienate him, but I guess he learned something about sociopathy this year.
Baud
@trnc:
Right. If white men are at +1, we have white women, which means we would win the white demo. I think that would particularly sting Trump and the GOP.
different-church-lady
@Steeplejack (phone): Not enough of us call Trump a joke, so who are we to define humor?
trnc
Why not both?
different-church-lady
@Baud: You know what would really sting Trump? Punching him in the face. Repeatedly.
hells littlest angel
… Guests for Saturday’s event won’t be tested for the virus and won’t be required to wear masks, setting off fresh concerns that the White House itself has become a vector for the disease.
Sounds like his handler finally showed Trump the Queen of Diamonds.
Central Planning
@Amir Khalid: @Ken: For some reason after seeing your posts, my brain decided to recall the Oscar Meyer jingle…
My balogna has a first name, it’s O S C A R. My baloney has a second name, it’s M A Y E R…
Apparently the ad is from the early 70s when I was just a wee lad. It must have been imprinted on me – https://youtu.be/rmPRHJd3uHI
different-church-lady
@trnc: Indeed, check revision at #46
Ken
@trnc: If white men are at all close, Trump will lose the white vote because white women are pretty strongly against him this time around.
That could become annoying as the pundits scramble to find a demographic that Trump didn’t lose, so they can anoint it as being the “real Americans”.
Baud
@Ken:
When he runs in 2024 from the Supermax in Colorado, he can make it three for three.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
Por qué no los dos?
catclub
@Steeplejack (phone): Hillary hate worked so well for them, starting about 2012, that they want to go back to what worked. Kind of like the drunk looking for his keys under the street light.
trnc
@Baud: Oh, hell, yes. Losing any one white sub-demographic is bad enough for DT, but losing them all might cause his thumbs to fall off.
zhena gogolia
It really is Jonestown, isn’t it?
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
No. The Jonestown folks didn’t kill innocent people who wanted nothing to do with them.
prostratedragon
@trnc: Not fireable because civil service, but also the head of a federally funded agency located in Bethesda, MD, where its labs are.
catclub
@Ken: Hasidic Jews?
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Uh, there were many children among the victims. They also killed a congressman as I recall.
catclub
@Baud: But wasn’t there a congressman that they did kill?
Gin & Tonic
@Ken: Overweight neckbeards with half their teeth.
Gin & Tonic
@Baud: Leo Ryan?
Sloane Ranger
@sanjeevs: Christopher Wray?
Although he hasn’t stood up to Trump as much as ignored him.
low-tech cyclist
@zhena gogolia: Yep. Every day is Jonestown all over again.
catclub
I learned something:
Leo Joseph Ryan Jr.
(May 5, 1925 – November 18, 1978) was an American teacher and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the U.S. Representative from California’s 11th congressional district from 1973 until his assassination during the Jonestown massacre in 1978.
Leo Ryan – Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Leo_Ryan
Feedback
About Featured Snippets
People also ask
How many people died at Jonestown?
What happened to all the bodies at Jonestown?
Who died at the Jonestown airstrip?
Kay
Baud
@catclub:
@Gin & Tonic:
Ok, relatively few innocents.
Amir Khalid
@trnc:
Dr Fauci is a career civil servant. His boss is Francis Collins, NIH director; NIAID being one of the institutes under the NIH umbrella. Ordinarily, Dr Collins would be the one to initiate any move to sack Dr Fauci. But Dr Collins has publicly said he cannot imagine having cause to do that.
Baud
@Kay:
OMG they cancelled Biden!
catclub
grrrr
RSA
Trumphoid Donald. I hope contact tracing is eventually performed on these White House superspreader events.
Baud
@Amir Khalid:
Plus, firing Fauci would give Biden 50 states.
catclub
@Baud: It really isn’t the time to argue over who killed whom.
mad citizen
@Baud: I’m still here in Indiana. Hoping somehow we don’t embarrass ourselves on this. The Dem leaders here are so bland. We might flip my congressional district though.
Ken
The problem is he’s a joke from a post-1988 Joker. Instead of campily tying Batman to a giant novelty rocket, he’s (literally) spraying the city with deadly toxins to kill thousands.
sanjeevs
@Sloane Ranger: I’d forgotten about Wray.
I had low expectations of him given he was appointed by Trump and was close to Comey and Mueller.
But he’s been ok – so far
Kay
@Baud:
The professor says ordinary reporting on the views of the prospective justice isn’t “in good faith”.
No discussion on this judge is permitted, although the judge participated in a letter writing campaign to rescind an award to Joe Biden, so her political views are allowed.
TS (the original)
@Baud:
Not sure about Wyoming.
Amir Khalid
@Central Planning:
My Bologna is Weird Al’s parody of The Knack’s My Sharona. That’s what the word brings to my mind.
Kay
I feel like he lied too. That hospitalization wasn’t “just to be safe” which didn’t make sense at the time- they don’t admit you to a hospital because you request it. Absolute nutjobs. They all lie constantly.
Baud
@Kay:
I look forward to Biden ignoring Supreme Court decisions that he determines are not in good faith.
Central Planning
@Amir Khalid: That also was a formative song of my youth.
Bluegirlfromwyo
@TS (the original): Me neither lol.
Amir Khalid
@Baud:
That too. Dr Fauci has been the people’s hero in this pandemic, in contrast to Trump.
John S.
@mad citizen: My uncle lives in Terre Haute. No offense, but “bland” seems to describe a lot more than just the Dem leaders in Indiana.
But then, I live in batshit crazy Florida.
PST
@Baud:
My mother was a Hoosier Obama-Obama-Trump voter. I never understood why, and I guess I never will because she’s gone now. The best I can do is that some low-information voters who nurse a sense of dissatisfaction but are unable to reasonably assess the cause of their discontent put the blame on “those crooks in Washington” and always go for the candidate that seems to them to be more of an outsider. That lets them bounce from left to right without a rational explanation.
Kay
@Baud:
It’s all victimization and Right wingers are being treated unfairly for their views. They report that the judge joined a letter really viciously attacking Biden and the judge is somehow the victim, so much so that it may not even be mentioned. You didn’t hear a word from Joe Biden, not in ’16 when they published the letter and not now.
hueyplong
@Kay: And you damn well don’t take remdesivir “just to be safe.”
I’ve already moved on to whether his twitter account will continue after he’s gone, a la Mr 9-9-9.
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: That Kennedy stole the 1960 election is one of those everyone-knows-it things that I remember going around in my (at the time) conservative neighborhood in the Eighties.
Steeplejack
@Kay:
Yes, that “precautionary measure” for Christie didn’t turn out very well.
Meanwhile, Giuliani and Barr have receded from public view as well.
. . . Just checked. No news on Barr, but Giuliani is scheduled to appear at 12:30 EDT today at a county Republican event in Kingston, NY.
Danielx
@different-church-lady:
If ever there was a backpfeifengesicht face, it’s his.
sanjeevs
Chris Christie is out of hospital
Amir Khalid
@Kay:
Chris Christie is also morbidly obese, which doesn’t count in his favour against Covid-19.
Llelldorin
@Amir Khalid:
To be fair, he didn’t claim it was their “number one priority,” or even a particularly high one. In their priority queue it might rank somewhere just below “tasty canapés.”
Mai Naem mobile
@Sloane Ranger: I saw a blurb somewhere that Wray is on Donnies hitlist to be fired if he’s reelected.
Kay
@hueyplong:
I don’t hope that he dies (and I know you don’t either) but I am having trouble feeling sympathy for them. I have some, but I have less than with others. I saw a story about an infected, hospitalized Wisconsin bar owner last night. He’s in really bad shape but he also threw a Trump event in the bar- which he insists doesn’t mean he’s backing Trump- and now wants to warn people about the severity of the illness. IN that story – in the warning story- he again complains about the governor’s virus control measures. He’s complaining about 25% capacity in his bar from a hospital bed.
A sympathy triage is called for. The least culpable in this get the most.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
Oops, that’s Kingston, PA.
Shalimar
@zhena gogolia: They also gunned down most of the cult members who demonstrated sanity at the end by trying to run away.
Kayla Rudbek
@hells littlest angel: and the idiots running the Notre Dame alumni club of Washington DC are sponsoring football game watches out at bars this Saturday. Now granted the bars are more likely to enforce masking than the White House, but still all it’s going to take is one RWNJ alumnus who went to Covid Amy’s announcement…
Kay
@Amir Khalid:
Right he has additional risk factors so he could say that. He say “I might have gotten sicker because I have these risk factors and so was hospitalized, and you might have them too”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@catclub: Jackie Speier was IIRC an aide to Leo Ryan, she was shot at Jonestown. She played dead until help came
Humanities Prof
@Baud: Actually, they did. Several of them, including at least one U.S. Congressman.
Steeplejack
Confirmation (9:15 a.m. EDT):
Kay
@Steeplejack:
Maybe when he talks about it later this week he’ll manage to tell the truth. He was hospitalized because he was very sick. That’s why they admitted him.
hueyplong
@Kay: You’re right that I don’t want any of them to die, but it’s not all kind hearts and coronets. I want them to see their repudiation while in good enough condition fully to comprehend the extent of it. And to experience the lasting disfavor of the nation as well as the verdict of history.
I’m cool with Trump outliving me so long as he’s conscious of being reviled every step of the way.
yellowdog
@trnc: He’ll still have non-college rural white men. Them’s the real Muricans.
Mike in NC
Attendees at this MAGA rally will be unmasked and squeezed together like sardines in a can. Expect that many won’t live to see November 3rd when their god-emperor falls.
Danielx
@PST:
All true. Being a lifelong resident, I can safely say that intellectual consistency and logic are not big concerns for a lot of Indiana voters.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: Not that I’m complaining about it, mind you, but I can’t decide which factor weighs more in issuing a pass to Biden for being aggressively wrong on foreign policy that Hillary Clinton was denied: the reality of Trump as president vs candidate or good old fashioned sexism.
Both voted for the Iraq War, but Biden was far more gung ho about it, and from a perch on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee where he had power to shape policy and whip votes. If the Trump people weren’t absolute idiots, there’s footage they could dig up on that which could be damaging.
Kay
@hueyplong:
Well, first we have to beat him and they’ll all be out in force the next 25 days, lying their asses off.
We need record turnout partly to keep it away from the justice they’re installing to throw it to Trump. Give them 2 points nationally for their electoral college advantage, a half a point for their voter suppression efforts and a half a point for their political judges. We have to beat them by 5 in every state up to 270. 5’s a lot in swing states. It’s a big lift.
Amir Khalid
@Kayla Rudbek:
People go to a bar to drink. To drink, they take off their masks. Once they’ve had a few, they get careless about putting their masks back on and social distancing. They might also get belligerent with a bar worker if reminded to do these things. I’m not so sure these rules would be enforced any better in a bar than at the White House.
Danielx
@mad citizen:
Hey, don’t be dissing my man Evan Bayh!
Aka: the man who never took a leak in the morning without checking a public opinion poll first.
NobodySpecial
Purgis. It’s like Sturgis, only everyone has a Tricycle.
hueyplong
@Kay: All true. Occasionally I treat myself to a slice of optimism about the future, or at least enjoying a moment of how I’d like it to be.
NotMax
Mentioned in the food thread. Guess what opened in NYC yesterday?
(shakes head) What a world, what a world.
Yutsano
@Betty Cracker:
That all comes from the head idiot. He’s convinced that what worked last time has to work for him again, including the “massive number of uncounted voters” he thinks came out for him last time. His attacks on Biden are only scandals of projection: Biden has to be doing whatever in Ukraine that he himself has done with Russia in order to win. Basically: he can only see what his narcissistic mind wants to see and nothing else is important. What’s really amazing (and tells me there’s a shit ton of illegal coördination going on) is that none of the super PACs have done anything along these lines. It’s a huge blind spot that no one for the Republicans is grabbing.
TS (the original)
@Kay:
I think they earn more for this – especially in relation to postal votes not being received and/or not being counted for any number of reasons.
Amir Khalid
@Betty Cracker:
Shh, don’t give them any ideas.
KithKanan
@Amir Khalid: @Central Planning: Useless trivia/TMI: I’ve used the Men’s room at my alma mater where he recorded the demo version. The university is inordinately proud of this fact, to the point there is (or was) a sign commemorating the occasion.
John S.
@NotMax: I’m very good at throwing axes when I’m drunk. Seriously.
We used to go to Ren Fests where axe throwing is a common event. I can’t throw them for shit sober, but drunk, I can hit bullseyes all day. I even won a few awards for doing it.
Still, this is an epically bad idea.
Amir Khalid
@KithKanan:
Weird Al is truly deserving of this honour.
Zzyzx
I just randomly checked, and there are definitely starting to be hospital capacity issues in the upper midwest/mountain time zone. We’re right on the cusp and the hope is just that maybe we’ll get lucky and the wave crests below the peak.
If we do start seeing stories about Montana and Wyoming and Utah having hospitals turn people away, good luck going back to your, “Eh, we overcame this!” approach President I Can Be Bothered.
BruceFromOhio
Rules for thee, and not for me.
Blind pig finds acorn. Pictures at 11.
Received my mail-in ballot yesterday. Will fill it out and return it to the BOE in person on Tuesday. Am still trying to track down a BOE contact that can tell me for certain if the county still needs poll workers.
Soprano2
If Biden wins white voters it will be quite hard on the press, because he will have won the “real” ‘Merican voters so it will be harder for them to make it seem like Democrats are out-of-touch elites. They’ll probably find a group like non-college whites who voted more for Trump and start treating them like they’re the “real American voter”. It’s what they do regardless of what happens. In their minds Hillary didn’t have many supporters (because they hated her) even though she won the popular vote, because she didn’t win white people in the “right” states.
I hope so many people vote, and vote early, that all the Republican voter suppression can’t work. I know people still have PTSD from 2016 about polls, but here’s what I tell people – it wasn’t the polls that were wrong in 2016, it was the pundits who said Trump couldn’t possibly win. Few are saying that now.
Tony Jay
Blexit? Seriously? Couldn’t they come up with a portmanteau of ‘Black’ and ‘NAMBLA’? Was ‘Blackfire Island’ already taken? Dickheads.
One of those songs that sounds great until you pay attention to the lyrics, at which point it gets filed in the novelty Gary Glitter bin under “Songs Jimmy Saville had on repeat”.
Anya
@Steeplejack (phone): Anything Trump is obsessed with is adopted by the base. Basically, Trump’s ravings are the ‘issues’ the base cares about. I am just surprised that they’re admitting it that openly.
I wonder, how Durham feels about that? Is he a tiny bit uncomfortable or feeling any shame that he agreed to countenance Trump’s preposterous claim that Obama spied on his campaign? Do these supposed professionals care that, at best. they come off as patsies and enablers? This always puzzles me.
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
“I am rather more familiar with American English than you think.”
J’accuse!
Outside of that, how are you doing these days?
Soprano2
Another thing – I’ve never seen the reelection strategy of actively trying to sicken and kill your voters. I can’t imagine that will work out well for Trump.
mad citizen
@John S.: No offense taken at all. I’m about to make it 60 years–all my life–in this Hoosier state. We are bland. Our current R governor is begging and pleading (he used those words) with people to wear masks. In the early COVID updates I felt he talked to us like we were kindergarten age. Yet he’s up by 15% or something for re-election.
Daniel beat me to the Evan Bayh dig–I couldn’t stand him, yet he was held up as the “charismatic name-recognition” Hoosier Dem
Don’t want to be a negative Nelly, so I’ll say our population center of Indianapolis has been nicely developed over the decades and we did have a top 10 (or even 5) convention business in the Before Times. Hoping that comes back. I was downtown last week for the first time since March and it is depressing to see a ghost city.
SFAW
@yellowdog:
Fixed, to make it easier for the FTFTFNYT to find them.
Jinchi
Nobody will be tested because he isn’t worried about catching it himself, anymore, and whether the attendees wear a mask or not, it’s perfectly clear that Trump won’t be. Despite the fact that we know masks are most useful when worn by those like him who are contagious. Trump simply isn’t capable of caring if other people get infected, at this point he’s actually an advocate.
TS (the original)
ElectoralVote has a good write-up on the debate that isn’t.
NotMax
@mad citizen
Evan is a real son of a Birch.
(rimshot)
The Thin Black Duke
Put down the Monkey’s Paw, Donnie.
pluky
@trnc: Trump vis-a-vis the Republican party is a comorbid,
Tony Jay
@Soprano2:
Won’t they just shift effortlessly to breathless coverage of how Democrats winning amongst ‘natural Republican/real American voters’ inevitably means discord and disarray when the activist/minority base starts feeling side-lined*?
* Because, of course they’re going to be side-lined. How could Democrats fail to push away ‘Those People’ now that they’ve become respectable by winning the support of the only America that counts?
Yutsano
@Tony Jay: You and I both know we are not dealing with smart or rational humans here. Not to mention her success at this has been severely limited from what I understand. I’m pretty sure most of the Black population in the US is smart enough to know who has been trying for the last 40 years to keep the protections from the Civil Rights laws from the 1960s and who has been working to undermine them.
mad citizen
@Danielx: Need to acknowledge your genius dig here. So glad he never ran for president, was the nominee, or was picked for the VP slot. Indiana already has a lot to answer for with Dan Quayle and Mike Pence.
On a more positive note, Evan’s dad Birch authored TWO constitutional amendments, 25th and 26th (voting age). Very rare air indeed. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/opinion/birch-bayh-constitution.htm
And if the E.R.A. ever makes it, a third. But read the link to learn about his nearly successful attempt to eliminate the Electoral College–so F-ing close! Who blocked it? Strom F-ing Thurmond and southern racists. If we can topple the statues and confederate flags, we can topple the EC. The Dems need to take this on forthwith!
Kay
@Zzyzx:
DeWine in Ohio raised the alarm about 4 Ohio counties- 3 are Trump strongholds and the 4th is an Ohio-famous “bellweather”. I knew it was inching up. We’ve had three outbreaks in local schools just in the last 2 weeks. I’ve had my high school son tested twice because he’s had mild breathing issues that are probably seasonal allergies. He’s (second time) now a good sport about it, although the first time I kept him home from school he got really pissed and we had a huge fight. He doesn’t think it’s fair that everyone isn’t taking precautions and he’s right- it’s not fair. There’s not a thing I can do about that.
Kropacetic
This will just be “yet more proof” that Dems should focus all their efforts on the white working class.
Jinchi
They don’t want to lose Lindsay Graham. If they remind him that Biden was pro-war, he might remember that Trump is a kook who’s unfit for office.
KithKanan
@mad citizen: @John S.: Both of your states are famous for, among other things, annual sporting events consisting of driving the same track 200 times while making only left turns.
frosty
@Tony Jay: True. Sounds great. Fortunately Weird Al saved it with better lyrics: “First you put the mustard on…”
Kay
@TS (the original):
Trump’s last town hall didn’t get much attention because Biden wasn’t there but it was truly awful. He’s horrible with people. Fine when he’s in front of a crowd bellowing for 2 hours and obviously very skilled in manipulating media people, but he flat out sucks with one on one interactions. He’s a freak who doesn’t know how to act or what to say. He can’t even arrange his face in a fake listening expression.
I think he should have as many as he wants.
Emma from FL
@Baud: My dearest, next time you link to an article by an malicious numpty, please add nuclear mushroom emoji. Txs.
Amir Khalid
@SFAW:
I’m all right.
While I am quite familiar with American English, I’m more comfortable with the British spelling they taught me in school.
brantl
@different-church-lady: Only if you find graveyard humor (literally!) funny.
Dorothy A. Winsor
IMHO, the Trump campaign made a mistake in announcing how many people they invited to their superspreader rally. If, say, 500 people show up now, they look like losers. If they hadn’t said they invited 2000, they might be able to say that’s a good crowd.
brantl
@different-church-lady: I don’t think you can hurt him above the neck, that thing with the claw-hold on the top of his head hasn’t caused any notable discomfort.
Ken
Thank goodness we don’t have to even do that much on the internet. I just skim everyone else’s comments looking for hooks on which to hang my witty bon mots. Much easier than doing the same thing face-to-face, or (as it is generally called) “conversation”.
Matt McIrvin
@Soprano2: National polls weren’t wrong in 2016. State polls seem to have been systematically wrong by a few points in the upper Midwest–it was a very regional effect. The pollsters all claim they’ve adjusted their turnout models to try to account for that.
I think a lot of us were fooled by the unnatural success of aggregated state polling in calling Obama’s wins (sometimes down to the last electoral vote) into thinking the process was more infallible than it really was. It seems to have been a chance small-number thing. Obama’s 2012 win in particular was probably more chancy than people who had followed Sam Wang and Nate Silver thought it was.
(Silver, to his credit, has always hedged his predictions more than Wang did, to the point that many called it excessive. But 2016 suggests that it’s not excessive–it’s the counterintuitive behavior of fat-tailed distributions, where the really wild outliers can be more probable than you’d intuitively expect from a small sample.)
Chief Oshkosh
@Kay: They’re just re-programmable bags of skin at this point. Hell, if Trump told them all to wear duct tape over their mouths and nostrils to protect HIM, they’d do it. Fuck ’em. I care only to the degree that their suffering and dying helps others understand that we are in a worsening pandemic.
mad citizen
@KithKanan: Yes! I don’t know if the Indy 500 makes it through this century. It was cool for decades as the speeds kept increasing, but once they topped out (and had to dial it back), that element is gone. (I was at qualifying in 1977 when the 200 mph barrier was broken). But Roger Penske now owns it so very good management, etc. The race attendance has come back in the last few years. We always tout is as the world’s largest one day sporting event–300K or so attendees.
It used to be when some bad accidents and auto racing (and spectator) deaths happened, people would call to ban auto racing. Now we’re playing all manner of sports risking the death of the athletes. There might be more athletes die of COVID this year than auto racing accidents.
Elizabelle
Good morning. I know Anne Laurie highlighted Time magazine’s cover this week.
Now: check out The New Yorker. A tiny orange hand throwing red meat to a hungry white dog, with lots of big, white, sharp teeth.
The meat is humorous, once you look at it again. Brilliant cover. The New Yorker has been on its game with Trump.
Ken
@mad citizen: Technically the speeds haven’t topped out, but it would take considerable re-engineering to go faster. Although as Randall points out, it’s not the machines that are the problem:
A Ghost to Most
@KithKanan:
I’m not a racing fan, but that seems an entirely gratuitous cheap shot.
Perhaps you’d prefer a sparkle pony fashion show?
/gratuitous cheap shot
Betty Cracker
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Before Trump, I would have assumed the POTUS advance team found 2K people to attend, received and screened RSVPs and added a few extras for good measure. But we can’t assume anything of the sort with these morons. I hope he refuses to come out on the balcony because only 10 people showed.
Elizabelle
@Soprano2: I may be out of my tree, but I don’t believe Trump legitimately won the EC victory in the swing states. I think that was manipulated. I am not sure it was a polling error. It was theft.
And never forget all the voter disenfranchisement in Wisconsin, a lot of which is under a microscope this election.
Shame on John Roberts. For shame.
Tony Jay
@Yutsano:
I’d imagine that the Dixie Swastika branding around post-1960s Republicanism would have done that job quite effectively amongst everyone with the requisite amount of dermal melanin and functional optic nerves. I know there have always been Black Republicans who could convince themselves that the Ameriklanists were just a fringe demographic unfortunately attracted by the heartfelt, flag-waving patriotism of the ‘real’ Republican Party, but with the rise of Trump-style White = Right populism they’ve got to be seriously considering a rush for the exits.
What baffled me about the Owen shitshow is the choice of branding. Blexit? Really? How moronically obtuse do you have to be to stick with a name based on the chaotic withdrawal of a collapsing nation-state from a successful international alliance and think that that would be attractive to anyone with a brain?
Then I realise my mistake, and it all makes sense.
Aziz, light!
@Jinchi:
It’s a blessing from God.
Kay
@Ken:
He’s a tragically poor listener. Just really bad. He gets the first few words and them immediately moves to composing his answer in his own head so is no longer listening so misses things like “my mother died”.
I think about this a lot- bad listeners- because I do so many hearings and listening is more important than talking. I have come to believe people who are really poor listeners in a public setting like Trump is are poor listeners partly because they have poor grasp of the subject matter so they are frantically trying to keep up. That’s why they need the extra time to compose an answer. People who are confident they understand the central facts or issues don’t have to do that- they have the time to listen and still compose a response in an ordinary amount of time. Trump is always running, running, running just ahead of what he knows. It’s all an accomodation for his laziness.
TS (the original)
@Kay:
I doubt Trump wants to do it. He first wanted to go to Florida for a rally (where Pence is now supposedly going as his substitute).
The campaign (if it even exists any longer) is worried about Biden getting the extra media time. NBC should beware any spending on organising, trump may not turn up.
?BillinGlendaleCA
The Truman Balcony isn’t off of the Blue Room, it’s one floor above the Blue Room.
Kay
@TS (the original):
I don’t think he’ll do it either. I think he’s not well and would have trouble staying ok for what is honestly an exhausting thing- for anyone.
But I hope he does. You don’t really get a sense of what a freakish oddball he is as a person until you see him trying to decipher a normal interaction. He’s fucked up. I don’t know what happened to him but something did, and it was bad.
Tony Jay
@Kropacetic:
Indeed. And any tardiness in adopting Republican policies (for these are the policies that WWC/Real Americans want, natch) will be proof that the Democrats are prisoners of identity politics/fringe extremism and therefore unworthy of the votes of the people whose faith they ‘betrayed’.
Modern Political coverage is easy. It’s like this shit just writes itself.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
This Olivia Nuzzi piece is mostly a rehash of “trump is weird and surrounded by enablers”, but I remain fascinated by his simplistic and toddler-like language
I think it was in the debate when somebody brought up down-playing Covid, and he said, “No, I up-played it.” Once when he was trying to formulate some insult about Biden he introduced it with, “I don’t want to be nice or” … pause for thought… “not nice”.
Kropacetic
@Tony Jay: I’m having visions of a 2028 primary featuring Kamala Harris and a mediocre white male Democrat yet to be named who the media insists is the Dems’ only chance of winning.
Geminid
@Kropacetic: I would like to see Democrats focus on delivering for all “working class” people. Better health coverage through public option, and at the state level, Medicaid expansion. And really substantial infrastructure spending, including clean power transition and energy conservation programs, structured in ways that encourage higher wages. Sure, some white working class soreheads will still gripe because that’s what they do, but generally working class people know a good economy when they see it. And an economy that benefits working class Americans benefits all of us.
prostratedragon
@NotMax: Now there’s a business I’d like to see fail. And why are there any in the outer boroughs?
Tony Jay
@frosty:
Unless he changed the entire theme of the song (which I assume he did) that just makes it sooooo much worse.
Plus, y’know, adding anything mustard-themed to this blog never ends well.
Lulymay
@Kay: “in good faith”… That’s the trouble with these bible thumpers – in good faith is a moving target.
Kropacetic
@Geminid: Oh, yeah, I’m just talking about media framing. I know the Ds are the only ones trying to deliver anything for working people of any sort.
KithKanan
@A Ghost to Most: I hope it was taken in the spirit in which it was intended.
As for my home state, hosting the modern Olympic Games is generally recognized as being an unprofitable exercise in vanity. We’re the only state to have done it three times, and we’re currently planning a fourth, which definitely says something about us.
Geminid
@Geminid: I would also like to see labor law and regulation tilted more in favor of unionization. If you want to reduce income inequality, unionizing Amazon bond companies like it would be a good start.
Betty Cracker
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: “One of the diers.” Jesus God.
evodevo
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s simplistic like that because he is searching for the right word and his continuing loss of memory cells means he can’t find it…he knows there is one, but it is now inaccessible, so he has to substitute the language of a toddler…
Geminid
@Kropacetic: I see what you were saying.
Haroldo
@Tony Jay:
You do have a way with words, to be sure.
Jinchi
@Baud: 300 children died at Jonestown and the adults were basically given the option of drinking the Kool-Aid or getting shot.
I’m sure there were plenty who willingly committed suicide, but lots of others didn’t.
debbie
@Kay:
DeWine was as hair-on-fire as I’ve ever seen him. There won’t be another shut-down, but an awful lot of people (1,500 just yesterday) will be getting sick pretty soon.
debbie
@Matt McIrvin:
Around here, there’s a lot of talk about shy voters, and apparently Trump has an 11-point advantage over Biden. I can’t tell whether this is the usual ratfucking or not, but I can’t imagine they would think this would discourage Dems from voting.
Kay
@debbie:
They should probably start worrying about rural hospitals again. I had a sense of dread all week.
Tony Jay
@Kropacetic:
“Governor Bob Bland’s candidacy surprised many on the Party’s left wing who assumed that Vice President Harris’ coronation would proceed unchallenged, but after video emerged of the Midwestern Democrat wowing Heartland voters at the Tri-State Rodeo try-outs with an impromptu banjo recital from the back of his battered pick-up truck, grass-roots enthusiasm for the man nicknamed “Bluegrass Bob” surged, leading many centrist commentators to dub him the “Great White Hope” of an increasingly divided Democrat Party, and sparking accusations from some anonymous pro-Harris defenders that Bland’s very existence was “borderline racist”.
That kind of thing?
debbie
@Elizabelle:
I had to Google for the Time cover (yikes), but I think the New Yorker cover with Trump wearing a mask over his eyes still takes the prize.
sdhays
@Tony Jay: It helps when you just assume that 95% of Americans have no idea what a shit-show Brexit is.
Tony Jay
@Haroldo:
I wasn’t sure if those references would translate across the Atlantic, but I’m not really that up-to-date on my American celebrity kiddie-fiddlers.
debbie
@Kay:
And meanwhile, the bar owners and restauranteurs continue to whine. Someone needs to sit them down and show them the statistics. They say they’re following all the regs, but the numbers say otherwise.
Tony Jay
@sdhays:
Oh I would be delighted to tell them all about it. At length. In relentless detail.
They wouldn’t listen though.
cmorenc
What exactly does Trump hope to gain from his 2k rally at the WH lawn? How does this sort of event increase turnout (especially in swing states) which he would not otherwise have been able to attract to come out and vote?
This is more about seizing one of his dwindling opportunities to bathe his ego in MAGA rally glory in a Presidential setting than about anything tactically or strategically beneficial to his election chances.
L85NJGT
@sdhays:
It’s a phonetic mess – rolls off the tongue like bleg-shit.
laura
@Jinchi: Thanks Jinchi. Jonestown didnt start as a cult. It started as a church and the gospel that Reverend Jim Jones spoke was of unity, racial harmony and equality. It was a very powerful message in the San Francisco bay area during a very tumultuous time. Black businesses were going under as the mechanization of the waterfronts in San Francisco and Oakland led to huge layoffs. Historic neighborhoods were gentrified and freeways sliced through the City. I went to school with kids who had family members that moved to Guyana with the promise of a simple, better life. It didnt start as a cult. But Jim Jones became drunk with power and it was Jim Jones who is responsible for the deaths of a captive group and those who attempted to leave.
Kay
Another fucking clown. Honestly has there any group of people who have been more an abject failure during Trump than lawyers? Every single government lawyer failed. There’s two groups- those who actively took part in the lawlessness and those who looked the other way in the interest of their own careers. They serve no one but themselves.
mad citizen
@Ken: Thanks for that. I found my copy of “What If” just the other day (new carpet so packing and unpacking of books). I need to read it sometime.
I was thinking of this famous (in the racing world) incident where a race was cancelled due to a fear of drivers blacking out from 5G forces: https://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=93412&page=1 ”
Extreme G-Forces Prompt Race Cancellation”
Of course all good Hoosiers know the speed king is Arie Luyendyk in 1996: “Isn’t it ironic? Arie Luyendyk ran faster than he ever had, or ever would again, during practice for the Indianapolis 500 in 1996—faster, in fact, than any other driver ever has at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. And then he finished 16th on race day.
Luyendyk’s “unofficial” 1996 practice lap of 239.260 mph is so well known, the “un” hardly seems to matter. He is the speed king of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and he made it official by setting records for the fastest averages in one (237.498 mph) and four (236.986 mp) qualifying laps, also in 1996.”
cain
@Central Planning:
I too remembered that jingle. It’s funny how a lot of us would remember that.
philostopher
@Betty Cracker:
My biggest concern is they’ll be strongarming low-power federal employees into attending this petri dish event. Threatening them with firing if they don’t saddle up and ride into the plague.
Kay
@debbie:
It’s hard for me to tell. I think schools are just as likely to be spreaders as bars. The kids are (mostly) asymptomatic, getting a test is a PIA and takes 3 days to get results so no one is doing it. They’re going home and spreading it. They must be. Maybe bars also are but I don’t think we can just isolate out bars.
Matt McIrvin
@debbie: Democrats believe that optimistic talk fosters complacency, so they usually try to talk like they’re losing. Republicans believe that people like winners and hate losers, so they always try to talk like they’re winning, or they have some secret ace in the hole. I suspect the Republicans have more the right side of this, in terms of electoral effects. But I do think that in 2016 a lot of people who didn’t like Hillary Clinton anyway used complacency about her chances as an excuse not to support her.
Haroldo
@Tony Jay:
Years in OZ helped to bolster my Brit kiddie-fiddler IQ. (Tho’ the powers that be in that country do a pretty good job on their own, it pains me to say.)
The Lodger
@Kay: Between this and the Christie story, I sense a vast lack of disturbance in the Force.
Kropacetic
I’m still a little peeved about our Congressional primary last month where, from a diverse slate of great candidates, a young white man emerged. He had a history of problematic views and his platform was the blandest of boilerplate. His website read like a pamphlet for first-graders explaining what a generic Democrat is, no new ideas or anything remotely suggesting he thought deeply about any of the relevant issues.
Seems to be a lot of that going around.
Jinchi
Trump is really checking all the boxes on this one. Inviting 2,000 people to join him, maskless, at the White House and bask in the ravings of a drug addled carrier of the worst pandemic in 100 years. But also to explicitly direct it towards his few black supporters, around a theme of “Protesters for Law & Order” days after 13 of those were arrested for planning to kidnap the Governor of Michigan whose crime was trying to control the spread of the virus in her state.
We’ve joked about the Republican party being a death cult. But it’s literally true now.
Geminid
@Geminid: sorry, I meant “unionizing Amazon and companies like it…”
Tony Jay
@Haroldo:
Oh yes, that would do it. When Rolf Harris asked “Can y’tell what it is yet?” did anyone suspect how bleak the real answer would be?
Elizabelle
@debbie: I love that one.
Also Trump’s sailboat, that has a Klan hood as the sail.
I have saved them all.
patrick II
Trump figures news video of him getting a crowd of black voters shoulder to shoulder while speaking to them while infected will increase his popularity with the proud boys.
Matt McIrvin
@mad citizen: Roller coasters often give riders between 4 and 5g acceleration (“upward”, by Munroe’s conventions) on turns and other elements. It’s only momentary, of course, and will only occur a few times in a ride. But I do know that’s rarely enough to cause loss of consciousness but will sometimes cause “gray-out” in which there’s temporary loss of vision from blood rushing away from the head. That’s not what you want if you’re driving a race car.
Kay
The frauds are all wearing masks in the new ad. Hundreds of thousands more will die if these people remain in power and the economy won’t recover for a decade. They’re destroying this country and grabbing huge piles of cash doing it. They’ve all done very, very well financially as a result of destroying this country, so they simply don’t care.
Tony Jay
@Kropacetic:
I wonder if anyone’s checking to see what shell PACs are providing seed-money to these candidates. I certainly wouldn’t put it past the Kochs and Mercers of this world to have looked at the electoral viability of the post-Trump Republican Party and decided it might be a worthwhile investment to start purchasing seats at the Democratic table, as it were.
They’ve got to be doing something with all that money they’re not spending on the GOP this cycle, haven’t they?
LeftCoastYankee
@Ken:
NYT 2021: “Russian hackers are the real Americans!”
trnc
That’s essentially the same thing for an attention whore like DT.
Kay
Democrats in Ohio – county chairs in the rural counties- are encouraged by early vote turnout. Not absentee returns, which people cite every election but are not a good measure, but in-person early vote turnout. Actual voters, showing up. They think our side is showing up.
Tony Jay
@Jinchi:
Well given what it’s going to do to living standards, employment opportunities and the viability of the National Health Service, continued support for the original Brexit meets all the standards for “Death Cult” too.
Hell of a thing to homage, though.
trnc
That’s too bad, seeing as how he’s the most expendable one from DT’s point of view.
Jinchi
I agree. I doubt it’s a coincidence that the latest spike occurred soon after the start of the school year as many states opened for in-person classes.
Baud
@Kay:
When Trump has lost the baby snatchers….
debbie
@Kay:
I become borderline homicidal every time I am told how Trump saved us from far, far worse by stopping planes from China. Bullshit! The virus was already here, you assholes!
Bring this up in your ads, Joe!
Kropacetic
@Tony Jay: Maybe, certainly hope not. I was just thinking that if you’re a moderate and want to hold office*, the Dems are the place to be right now. Double plus that if you’re here in Massachusetts.
*To what end? I’m not sure. It’s weird that we elect so many politicians whose defining feature seems to be “no higher ambition for what we can achieve for society through our government.”
RandomMonster
@Betty Cracker:
I’m wondering if he’ll be gasping for air too much to emerge on the balcony. If he does, I wonder if he’ll be able to talk for long, or if he’ll just jut his jaw out like Mussolini and nod.
Speaking of which, did they even schedule the time he’s supposed to talk?
Jinchi
Has Trump publicly expressed good wishes for any of the other people who contracted covid at his superspreader event?
Hope Hicks? Melania? Anyone?
Did any of them get advantage of his new cure, Regeneron?
I mean we all know he is a super specimen, but certainly he doesn’t think the rest of them are.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I feels ya. Every piece of nice news for Biden brings back a twinge of 2016 trauma and resentment.
debbie
@Kay:
I think the fiasco with mail-in ballots in Franklin County may result in even more early in-person voting. If this mess-up was due to GOPers deliberately screwing up the process, they just screwed themselves over again.
Kropacetic
Meanwhile, China is doing far better at containing the virus than we are.
He also complains that he is called xenophobic for doing this, while travel restrictions were ultimately broadly embraced. But the travel restriction isn’t the xenophobic part, it’s the focus on a particular country and the fact that he thinks this solves the whole problem.
RandomMonster
@debbie:
Not only that, the strain that hit NYC so bad arrived from Europe.
cain
We are talking about Trump here. Besides, they’d just gaslight and say it was always this many – they will admit to nothing.
trnc
@debbie: Our current status is prima facie evidence that the travel ban was security theater. Another clue is that, while he banned travel from several European countries, he left the UK off the list even though they had a higher infection rate than some of the countries he banned.
zhena gogolia
@debbie:
And when he made his snap announcement stopping flights to and from Europe, people poured in from Italy — no one traced them as they came in the country — and there were crowds shoulder to shoulder in JFK. I believe a lot of the outbreak in NYC area was traced to this insane decision.
dmsilev
@Kay: There’s a nice overview of early/mail-in voting nationwide at this site. One very encouraging number: Democrats are getting their ballots in at a substantially higher rate than Republicans so far (9 percent of Ds who were sent ballots have returned them, vs 6.4 percent of Rs). Combine that with the much larger number of Democratic voters who requested ballots…
The Lodger
@L85NJGT: Or Blech-sit.
Cameron
If I hadn’t seen it spelled out, I would have assumed it was “Blechsit.” ETA: The Lodger got there first.
Ken
Studies show that 19% of human neurons are devoted to memories of advertising jingles, with an additional 13% to made-up statistics.
Jinchi
They should get on the phone with the leader of New Zealand. Or South Korea. Or Germany.
Or …. well just about any other country in the world at this point.
Steeplejack (phone)
I would just like to mention that no one in the press has apparently expressed any concern for, or even mentioned, Melania since she and Trump were both declared positive at the same time. I don’t have her on my tracking left because I don’t think she really got it. The White House just didn’t like the optics of (at the time) only Trump and pants presser Hope Hicks having it.
Plus it gives Melania an excuse to hide out and not do any First Lady stuff.
John S.
@RandomMonster: That’s not possible. Everyone knows that Kung Flu originated from China — otherwise it wouldn’t be called that, silly Libtard!
/MAGAT
The Lodger
@Cameron: Ozark Hillbilly must be taking the day off.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: Love the meat and arm with the tiny orange hand. Can you explain what the rest of it symbolizes?
Baud
@Ken:
—-Abraham Lincoln
Uncle Cosmo
They stopped being more afraid of the economy cratering under the GOP nominee (who called for an emergency meeting & proceeded to demonstrate he couldn’t find his arse with both hands) than they were of the skin color of the Democratic nominee who reassured them that he could deal with it.
Hard to believe, after the last 4 years, how many of the alleged political geenyusses here still can’t wrap their heads around the plain fact that Barack Obama’s election was an aberration, born (like FDR’s in 1932) from fear of the state of the nation. I guess everyone’s forgotten how we all high-fived one another on Election Night 2008 celebrating the arrival of the “post-racial society” & then went home sighing with relief (Whew, glad I don’t have to worry about that slimy political stuff any more!) while the tireless undead promoters of the Global Oligarchy Project ginned up the backlash that eventually gave us Orangecandyass.
Ken
Hey, I just noticed – happy Ten – Ten – TwentyTwenty, everyone!
Jinchi
We’re still learning from home here, but they’re talking about opening schools back up starting with the elementary kids. How are the schools handling things there? Do they have full class sizes? Are the kids wearing masks?
patrick II
@debbie:
My response to stopping planes from China is: and then what? There is no national testing policy, mask policy, contact tracing policy, no money or help for schools or states whose economies are damaged by the virus. Did you think you were done?
Not to mention that it wasn’t Trump who started the travel ban, it was the airlines themslves (from NYTimes):
Trump jumped in front of the parade.
So, what has the Trump administration done about COVID? Pretty much nothing except steal some PPC destined for blue state hospitals to be shipped to red-state governors or sold back to the blue states by republican profiteers at a profit.
Luciamia
@Central Planning: Everything old is new again. The old Owl and the Tootsiepop commercial is back on air.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Kay: But we learned that Rod’s even more of a monster. Telling his people to get back in there, no toddler is too young for child separation at the border!
[In the voice of Walter from The Big Lebowski…]
“One year olds, Dude.”
Elizabelle
@WaterGirl:
Throwing red meat to the white supremacists.
And a Trump T-Bone steak, at that.
Weirdly enough, the dog is square and looks mechanical. Could be a ballot box too.
Artist is David Plunkert, and it turns out he also did the cover with Trump sailing in a boat with a Klan hood for a sail, after Charlottesville. (August 2017; here is the image. Trump’s own hot air is his wind by which to sail.)
WRT the 2017 cover, from the link immediately above: “President Trump’s weak pushback to hate groups—as if he was trying not to alienate them as voters—compelled me to take up my pen,” David Plunkert, the artist behind next week’s [August] issue, said. Plunkert seldom takes on political subject matter, but felt moved to do so in light of Trump’s response to the violence in Charlottesville. “A picture does a better job showing my thoughts than words do; it can have a light touch on a subject that’s extremely scary.”
And Trump did it again and again, particularly in recent weeks. The New Yorker went back to Plunkert, who does not disappoint.
Kay
@dmsilev:
Democrats in Ohio do not believe absentee requests or returns are a good measure. It was explained to me as you would need a very large percentage before that would be reliable, so something like 50% of all absentees returned and then compare . They DO think early in person vote in D areas is a good indicator of turnout because it has tracked in the past. If they turn out for early vote they also turn out for day-of vote. The upper midwest swing states for Democrats works roughly like this- they need huge turnout in 2 or 3 or 4 populous counties and then they need to shave off 1000 here and 1000 there in more rural counties. It’s simple- it’s just not easy.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack (phone):
Plus she was just caught on tape saying fuck Christmas.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: The August 2017 one is terrific. thanks.
craigie
@Elizabelle:
I have always believed this too. Trump lost both the popular vote and the EC, and then some combination of Russian hackery and GOP fraud pushed him over the line. It’s just too much of a coincidence that he managed to eke out tiny wins in the exact states and counties necessary to “win”
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
Only is able to do that because we’re allowed to say Christmas again!
//
Kathleen
@Baud: Biden has not fallen into what trapped Hillary Clinton – being a female targeted by right, left and Russian forces who want to destroy her. Also no mention of Russian attacks in 2016 or the role African American voters play in Biden’s support. Still it managed not to be too snarky and made some good points so baby steps.
Kay
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
What I love about the monster is he also takes it upon himself to tweet about ethics and oaths.
Can they at least stop fucking lecturing people? They’re scumbags. I don’t take ethics lessons from scumbags. He should sit back, enjoy his fat paycheck at the fancy law firm he gets as a reward for abusing those children and STFU.
He’s a child abuser. That’s what he is. Whatever his intent was on wanting to punish their parents or promote his own career by taking orders from monsters, he abused X number of children in the process. Forget what their parents did. The Trump lawyers abused children. That’s not in dispute. In a real legal scheme in the US, one that is not perverted by these fucking monsters, we don’t abuse children to punish their parents. No one does that. He did.
trollhattan
Good Biden ad, featuring Samuel Jackson.
trollhattan
@zhena gogolia:
“When they go low, we go after Santa.”
Still boggled the president of Notre Dame was busy acquiring the rona at Trump’s virus cotillion. If my kid went there I’d be yanking her back to the Commie Coast, pronto.
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: That ad gave me goosebumps. Literally.
Kathleen
@debbie: Maggie Haberman fake tweet “Sources troubled by Whitmer’s comments blaming Trump for encouraging the plan contend it wasn’t fair to consider it a kidnapping because the alleged victim is a adult.”
scav
@WaterGirl: Maybe it’s a new Republican game of honor, trying to get a low Trump Number — how directly one can connect one’s infection to the Covidicater in Chief’s.
zhena gogolia
This is excellent.
A Ghost to Most
This is a good thing:
Jeffro
@zhena gogolia: it will be in three weeks
MomSense
Had the most unexpected day. I had to drive two hours to pick up a case file so I invited my youngest and his girlfriend to drive up with me and play tourist. After I picked up the file I went to a yarn shop I used to visit. There is a new owner as if two weeks ago. She hired me to knit samples and I’m going to design accessories for yarn she carries and then she will sell the pattern and yarn as kits – I’ll get paid for the patterns. So weird how things happen.
Elizabelle
@MomSense: You will be so good at that! What a wonderful opportunity, for both of you.
And: socially distanced, remunerative work. Woo hoo!
Tony Jay
@Kropacetic:
If it’s anything like over here you’ve got to imagine that even “one-term Representative from Wherever” adds a bit to the CV, never mind the opportunities for neworking that come with elected office. Those willing to commit a decade or so to being reliable votes for ‘moderate, bi-partisan’ legislation will stack up quite a bit of credit in the post-office Executive Vice-President for Public Outreach and Lobbying Jobs stakes.
They’re auditioning for future posts in the private sector, and competition is fierce.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Love that. Get rid of the Trump Virus.
So good!
yellowdog
@Betty Cracker: Has anybody checked Craig’s list ads?
MomSense
@Elizabelle:
Thanks! Who knows what will happen but at least it will be something creative and fun.
MagdaInBlack
@Kay: I heard Jennifer Rubin on the radio in the way home last night ( Chicago progressive radio) and that’s exactly what she called them all: child abusers, morally and ethically reprehensible, and should be punished for the rest of their lives.
Kathleen
@Soprano2: I foresee disaffected Leftists morphing into Real Americans.
Brachiator
@trollhattan:
Great ad. Gets right to the point.
Elizabelle
@trollhattan: Love that.
Samuel L. Jackson. And also the animated GOP elephant who wakes up from a bad one night/four year stand with Trump.
Brilliant advertising.
BruceFromOhio
@debbie: Not surprising, he is stuck in an awful position:
There’s no where to go.
cain
@Ken:
?
Kay
@MagdaInBlack:
If in the course of punishing the parents you abuse children you are, in fact, a child abuser. The parents could have been punished without abusing the children- we know that because Obama did it. The Trump lawyers chose to abuse the children, so not poverty or a lack of education or anything else that might be a mitigating factor. They are as much child abusers as any random criminal defendant charged with that crime who is shuffling thru the court system in belly chains and plastic slippers.
Privileged child abusers actually get more severe punishment in my county court. There’s a recognition that there are no mitigating factors, so not an IQ below 70, no family history of abuse, no drug abuse or poverty or 6th grade education. They would do more time than the average defendant.
Kathleen
@debbie: Hamilton County is now a red zone but Cincinnati Public is proceeding with on site classes on Monday.
Brachiator
@patrick II:
Yep. Trump likes to frame it as though he was protecting the US from China itself, who was sending people who had the virus. It’s more of his “close the border” mentality.
He also claims that “many people” opposed him and he bravely made the decision. But as you note the airlines had banned some travel, and US health officials largely backed the policy.
But it was insufficient, as fact checks show:
But “swift action” against an easily identifiable enemy, China, is easy to grasp and always appeals to Trump’s base.
MagdaInBlack
@Kay: She made that point about Obama as well. Also that not a single F-N one of them stood up to this. Apparently she had a column about this, which I’ve not googled yet.
The Moar You Know
@Tony Jay: 99-plus percent of Americans who have heard the term Brexit (a small minority, maybe 20% of the populace at best) think Brexit is a cross between the Declaration of Independence and the Confederacy’s secession from the Union.
I have been to both multiple Sainsburys and Marks and Spencer food floors throughout England and Scotland and have seen how much of your food is imported and where from. Brexit is going to starve the UK and I mean that literally.
trnc
@trollhattan: Will watch. Any chance it’s “Go the fuck to VOTE?”
ETA: OK, just watched. Still a really good ad.
L85NJGT
Weekend at Donnie’s
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Yay for that!
WaterGirl
@trnc: Sadly, no.
catclub
boy did THAT get deep sixed out of the news quick!
Dorothy A. Winsor
Throw in the Supreme Court nomination and we’ll talk.
Tony Jay
@The Moar You Know:
Definately. On the one hand we’ll have the Brextremists insisting that food shortages are character building “Dig (a grave) for Britain” and referring to “this EU blockade”, meanwhile the corporate henchmen running our Government will use their complete failure to negotiate trade agreements with the EU as leverage for forcing through horrendous cuts in food standards, opening up the UK to any shady operator with a pallet of chemically treated chicken gizzards for sale.
What a future!
Matt McIrvin
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The stated deal is not one I’d take, but I’m not the one who decides…
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Matt McIrvin: Would you do it if the Barrett nomination were withdrawn?
Elizabelle
@MagdaInBlack: Here’s the Jen Rubin column. The second half is particularly interesting. She really slammed the DOJ, and recommended firings and state bar action. Weirdly, she did not touch on prosecution and possible prison sentences, but it would seem those should be under discussion, too.
WaPost: New report on Trump’s child separation policy makes it clear: Cruelty was always the point
I wonder if any Pat Robertson law school grads (Regent U) are still embedded at DOJ, from GW Bush’s tenure. Get them out. And remove those who stood by (career or appointed) and replace them with better DOJ attorneys and staff.
Sloane Ranger
Just seen a video of people gathering at the WH for the COVID rally. Why are they all wearing the same light blue T-shirt and red hats? Is that some security thing, the 21st century uniform of the Trump Youth what?
Elizabelle
@Dorothy A. Winsor: No. Do not take that deal. Trump needs to face criminal and civil charges.
No more Nixon pardoning. And I think Biden-Harris should pack the Supreme Court, no matter what happens. Make that branch of government more responsive to the majority of US citizens.
Also, do we know if that reporter is even a credible source?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Elizabelle: Trump will be out of office soon anyway, so that’s not much of an offer.
MisterForkbeard
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I don’t believe it. I think at most this is a “If I lose, then we’re going to protect me” discussion.
I almost hope they try this. Trump can still get nailed on state charges (as can the rest of them), possibly still some federal charges. And it would give ENORMOUS political cover to Biden’s DOJ to go after the entire rucking administration. These fuckers are so guilty and corrupt they pardoned themselves, so clearly there was a lot of wrongdoing going on, people are mad about it.
Elizabelle
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Or dead/severely disabled by COVID. And I will take either of those options. (Health or electoral defeat.)
Elizabelle
@trnc:
That would be great! Needs to be the next ad.
Kay
@MagdaInBlack:
I don’t understand why the Trump lawyers are telling us now. One or more of them gave information to the NYTimes or we wouldn’t have known Sessions deliberately and specifically sought to abuse children.
If they didn’t stand up then, and they didn’t, do they think it makes them look better to leak it now? It doesn’t. We all know the only reason they’re covering their asses is Trump looks like he’s losing. They look worse.
MagdaInBlack
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Pardon for what? He’s been perfect, he’s done nothing wrong. It’s all fake news.
I’m confused.
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
Whatever. Do you also type with your pinkies (or “little fingers” as you Anglophiles prolly say) uplifted?
Glad you’re OK, always good to see you here. [Not that I thought you were absent; I just spend somewhat less time here these days.]
MagdaInBlack
@Elizabelle: Thank you for doing my home work for me. I’m doing “lazyass” Saturday here =-)
MagdaInBlack
@Kay: Self-awareness not their strong suit?
SFAW
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
In addition, throw in Traitor Turtle’s resignation and trial for Treason, along with Wilbur Ross and The Traitor Bill Barr doing “hard time,” and I might consider it.
germy
Splitting Image
@Uncle Cosmo:
I don’t remember it that way.
Certainly a lot of people patted themselves on the back after 2008, overlapping with the group who stayed home in 2010 to “teach the Democrats a lesson”, but I think that the real breakdown took place after 2012, when it was impressed on the more
conservativereactionary parts of the country that 2008 was most definitely not an aberration. Trump voters could have handled 2008 knowing it was a one-off not likely to happen again. They flipped their goddamned lids when 2012 proved that it wasn’t.They lost whatever was left of their minds when Barack Obama himself said that racism was not over. As I recall, the Trump wave really took off after the Trayvon Martin murder and the Ferguson protests. The backlash against Obama spread beyond the tea party when he spoke out against black men being arrested on their own doorsteps and black kids being shot by bad cops, or even wannabe cops. Obama said that work needed to be done and Trump voters mobilized to make sure no one would be able to do it.
It’s difficult to regard FDR’s election as an “aberration” when it resulted in the Republicans being purged from the national government for twenty years. Looking forward, Trump’s defeat could be a one-off if people sit on their hands after this election and allow the GOP to come roaring back in 2022. On the other hand, if people are willing to support Biden and his successors as well as a previous generation supported FDR, then we can make Trump’s election the aberration, not Obama’s.
germy
J R in WV
@Tony Jay:
Oh My doG that is amazing. Could a song be more despicable than that song?
Majik 8-Ball says “Signs point to NO”!!!
Thanks for this information, I had no idea pedophilia was ever so publicly celebrated.
Jeffro
@mad citizen: Indianapolis is a fun town to visit – lots to see and do with the kids ?
debbie
@Kathleen:
No adult kidnapping victims? Idiots.
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Don’t fall for it, SDNY!
sdhays
@debbie: It’s right there in the name: kidnapping.
Check and mate, libtard. //
philadelphialawyer
@Betty Cracker:
Neither Hillary nor Biden “voted for the Iraq war.” They voted for inspections with the possibility of war if the inspections turned up WMD or the inspections were denied. The Bush/Rove/Cheney regime had already decided on the Iraq War. Indeed, I believe it was spokesdouchenozle Andrew Card who “clarified” that the Iraq War was a “new product,” and thus was scheduled to be released after, not before, Labor Day (in 2002…like new cars and new TV and Broadway shows, I guess, which come out in the Fall as opposed to during the summer vacation season). The war was happening regardless of what Biden or Hillary did. Indeed, the inspections went forward, and Blix reported no WMD, and so, under the very terms of the resolution (which was passed months after the crooked, illegitimate, warmongering Bush regime had already decided to go to war) which you erroneously describe as “voting for the Iraq War,” there should NOT have been a war.
Bush, Cheney and Rove are to blame for the Iraq War. Full stop. Not Hillary, not Biden, not any other Democrat.
Stop repeating lies.
Elizabelle
@MagdaInBlack: We have the most lovely soft rain falling in Richmond VA. Love a Saturday like this!
Jeffro
@craigie: You guys can count me in this group, too.
I think they electronically added in votes from infrequent R voters, starting later in the day and continuing until the polls closed. It’s the closest I’ll ever get to wearing a tinfoil hat but oh well.
Elizabelle
@Jeffro: Yep. Just a few voters per precinct, and not greedy — just under the margin for an automatic recount.
I hope so much that those voting records can be examined in future years (months!) and evaluated. Voters contacted, even: did you turn out and vote? I think the fuck the fucking Electoral College rubber stamped an illegitimate election result.
Kay
@MagdaInBlack:
I think Biden is going to have a kind of “reform” government, whether he wants one or not, simply because so many institutions were tested and they failed. That’s an opportunity to raise standards on ethics and professionalism. We should take it. The country wouldn’t have collapsed this quickly without structural rot and decay being present when he took office.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Uncle Cosmo: Same argument applies to Trump Herald of Nurgle. The Right saw the Left’s get one it’s great dreams, a black intellectual as president and The Right decided it could have it’s great dream; an entitled, faux business man, arrogant, knucklehead of a TV host as president. Both got their wish and well, reality has a Liberal bias.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
color me dubious about this report– I still think trump has already pardoned himself, his immediate family, and anyone his lizard-brained sense of self-preservation tells him might flip
debbie
@sdhays:
Oh, let’s tell them that the term was coined because baby goats were the real targets.
Ken
When I ask myself who at the (alleged) meeting would have spoken to Jewish News USA, there’s an obvious pair in Jared and Ivanka. But then I notice it’s Saturday, and would they be able to attend the meeting? I’ve seen conflicting reports on their Sabbath observations.
EDIT: Then I click over to the JNUSA twitter feed and don’t see anything in the last two days, though maybe they used other channels? But then why the twitter handle?
NickM
@SFAW: He’ll win the people with fewer than 10 toes demographic, along with the skunk-eaters.
MagdaInBlack
@Kay: Where you say “reform” i say purge, but yes…there needs to be a grand clean sweep. We/He will need to clean up after the elephants.
That being said, it’s a lovely day in Chicagoland, and Im going outside to read….something non political =-)
Captain C
@SFAW: I’m starting to wonder if the continuing Cletus Safaris are really an excuse for FTFNYT reporters to go out on road trips to rural diners on the Times’ dime. The editors and bursars probably don’t even care as long as they get their Real Merkin stories.
Kathleen
@debbie: That was me being silly and snarky. But it sounds like something Maggie would dreg up.
Kathleen
@debbie: LOL!
Another Scott
The Kremlinologists aren’t taking the weekend off.
Thread speculates that he’s still getting draws/infusions/fluids/covering-an-old-bruise/etc.
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Ken: It could be that they are just floating the idea to see which way the wind might blow if they actually did try to make a deal.
Or it could be total bull.
Tony Jay
@J R in WV:
I know. You don’t even notice what you’re humming along to until “…the touch of the what the what now?”
‘Different time’ my arse.
SFAW
@Captain C:
I doubt the diners in “real ‘Murica” are any better than those in/near NYC. Just whiter.
Uncle Cosmo
@Splitting Image: First off, thanks for engaging with me on this topic.
The 2008 election wasn’t even over before the GOP started fighting the Democrats tooth & nail (Al Franken and Norm Coleman, anyone?). The socalled Tea Party was in full swing. Remember Scott Brown taking Ted Kennedy’s former Senatorial seat in MA? And Democrats lost 63 seats in the House in 2010.
IMO the Thugs thought they had everything on course to turn “Obummer” out in 2012 – right down to Karl Rove’s Election Night shrieks of disbelief that Rmoney had lost Ohio and with it the election. Four years of trying to work across the aisle had given the GOP the impression that Obama would be easy pickings. They simply underestimated the political skills of his organization. At that point they had nothing left but hard, full-on racism.
Disagree. The GOP held the Presidency and both houses of Congress from 1918 until 1930. Herbert Hoover took office as the most highly thought-of Republican since TR. Sans that little dustup known as the Great Depression, Hoover might well have rolled to a second term, despite the misery endemic in the countryside (where commodity prices had crashed in the 1920s and impoverished millions of farmers). But people were scared to death, jobless, starving, and Hoover had shown he had no clue (no matter what the revisionist Thugs and glibertarians want us to believe). Hell, even the plutocrats were frightened – mainly of incipient Red revolution (cf. Butler, Smedley)! And the Bonus Army eviction sealed his fate.
Biden’s victory needs to be so one-sided that 2016 gets classified as an extinction burst by future historians. The question is, have the American people been sufficiently frightened by Trumpistas run rampant that they stay involved, or are they going to skip back home & tend their own gardens? We Democrats are notoriously bad at the eternal vigilance that is the price of liberty – and we are dealing with an electorate that’s been told since at least 1980 to look out for #1 and one you’ve got yours, fuck everyone else.
Uncle Cosmo
Remember Hercules and the Augean Stables: Forget the shovel and the trashbin, divert the Missifreakin’ssippi at full flood through the three branches & build back better from bedrock.
ballerat
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
He’s a toddler about life and death. He really doesn’t grasp mortality, not even his own.
Reminds me of a poem “Janet Waking” by John Crowe Ransom.
Trump is 74 and he’s only now struggling with (and failing) that moment the rest of humanity has had of waking to be conscious of mortality.
He’s missing some basic parts that are necessary to become a human being.
The Lodger
@germy: Those who stand for nothing will fall for anything.
sgrAstar
@Dorothy A. Winsor: fake news.
?
The Lodger
@Captain C: Because nothing screams “tourist destination” like rural Youngstown. Not to mention the food.