Among those who get their election news primarily from Fox “News,” 86% say that Trump is delivering the “completely right” or “mostly right” message about the pandemic and 39% say that QAnon—an insane conspiracy theory—is “somewhat good” or “very good.”https://t.co/XRxVHmrjF0
— Max Boot (@MaxBoot) October 13, 2020
Straight down a cult-hole of self-reinforcing unreality…
I’m packing my toothbrush and waiting at the curb to be rounded up. https://t.co/QaDIAepkEs
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) October 17, 2020
We have to laugh, because the alternative is despair. Wonkette is, as ever, brilliant:
Followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory have had quite a month. On the downside, they’ve been banned from practically every social media site and also from Etsy. On the upside, Donald Trump has remained resolute in his refusal to condemn them, which has made them feel very empowered and what have you.
There are, of course, only a few more weeks left for all of the things they’ve been promised to come to fruition. If Trump loses the election, they lose all hope of the martial law, military tribunals and mass arrests of their dreams, and will have to go back to fretting about the martial law, military tribunals and mass arrests of their nightmares. They’ll be back to worrying about Jade Helm type things, of being put in FEMA camps, of jack booted thugs banging down their doors, rather than the doors of Hillary Clinton and Tom Hanks.
But today is the day many of them have been looking forward to for a long while now, a day that is supposed to turn things around. October 17, because of how Q is the 17th letter in the alphabet. It is to be the day Donald Trump announces, at a rally in Dallas, the city where John F. Kennedy was assassinated, that he is replacing Mike Pence with a new running mate — the surprisingly not dead John F. Kennedy, Jr…
I’m guessing at least one of the Trump kids will end up as a prominent QAnon leader/speaker, by this time next year, if the whole clan isn’t in jail or wearing ankle monitors. Eric would be my first bet, but the shock of seeing his second powerful father-figure hauled off in handcuffs might just unsettle Jared’s tiny smooth brain past the tipping point.
Tucker Carlson’s guest tonight was the niece of Osama bin Laden, who has endorsed Donald Trump.
That chyron… pic.twitter.com/U3Nt6ONP51
— Travis Akers (@travisakers) October 17, 2020
Bin Laden's niece endorsed Trump not because she's a jihadist she's just part of an anti-Semitic cult connected to multiple kidnappings, terrorist plots, and assassination attempts around the world. pic.twitter.com/coFDmx9J5D
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) October 17, 2020
Open Thread: Hamilton Cast Getting Out The Vote
NotMax
Slouching toward Bedlam.
feebog
All aboard, next stop, Crazytown.
mdblanche
Dallas seems a bit on the nose.
Sally
Did anyone else read that tragic WaPo story of the Dem candidate for Congress for north west Georgia? Sorry for the naked link. He stood against a wealthy Q interloper with AR – 15’s . So awful, I wish some Dem leadership could reach out to him (Kevin).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/10/17/kevin-van-ausdal-qanon-marjorie-greene-georgia/?arc404=true
He has withdrawn from the race, a broken man. These people really are mean mean mean dregs of society. I despair.
patrick II
In fairness, JFK jr probably appears less dead than Pence.
Amir Khalid
Noor bin Laden is clearly no Islamist and not part of al-Qa’idah. (I’ve read that Osama’s activities made him something of a black sheep in the clan.) She’s endorsing Trump against Biden because of a personal beef: Biden was in the room with Obama when Seal Team 6 whacked her uncle.
This
is bigotry against Islam, pure and simple.
oatler.
JFK Jr? “He got better.”
Aleta
Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.
— Carl Sagan
NotMax
@oatler.
Sounds most like someone has unearthed a copy of Nancy Freedman‘s Joshua, Son of None.
lgerard
@Amir Khalid:
The cult is QAnon
Cameron
@Amir Khalid: But she’s Muslim, isn’t she? Why didn’t Fuckhead Karloffson call her names and denounce her?
Amir Khalid
@lgerard:
I didn’t know QAnon was that international. The description certainly fit a bigot’s view of Islam.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Amir Khalid: I can’t be 100% sure, because I speak excellent but not perfectly fluent Ironic, but I think the cult he means is QAnon.
Aleta
How does it look for taking the Senate? I don’t have a clear idea of the possibility any more.
Is it likely that the margin of a D win might need to be large to prevent the GA Senate race being stolen or given to courts to decide ? If so, how large? (Same question for other close states.)
It’s going to be a difficult week for me (for other reasons) so I’ve transferred my trepidation to the Senate.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
On the next Tucker: we interview Pol Pot’s niece on why she’s endorsing 4 more years of Trump
Anne Laurie
@Amir Khalid: I don’t think the tweeter in question is talking about Islam — he’s talking about QAnon (which is indeed an anti-Semitic cult).
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
This Qanon stuff is like Linus van Pelt waiting in a pumpkin patch for the return of The Great Pumpkin
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
On the next Tucker: we interview Josef Mengele’s grandson, Biff Mengele, on why he’s endorsing 4 more years of Trump
NotMax
@David The Establishment Koch
An entire scrum of people who have a pin-up picture of the Medusan ambassador from Star Trek as their screensaver.
NotMax
@David The Establishment Koch
They never are completely expunged. Papa Doc Duvalier’s grandson is already set to run for president of Haiti in 2022.
piratedan
@Aleta: from what I gather, this is where we stand on the Senate races:
AZ – flipping from R to D, Kelly has a significant lead on McSally
CO – flipping from R to D, Hickenlooper is handily ahead here
NM – Open seat, going to D. Lujan is boat racing his opponent
where we look good:
MI, Peters is up in most polls, but one outlier shows its closer (D hold likely)
ME – Collins is down anywhere between 3 to 7 points based on polls, D pickup likely
NC – despite his missteps, Cunningham looks to be flipping this seat from R to D
tight races (all trending D in direction)
IA – Greenfield ahead
AL – latest polling showing Jones up by 1
AK – latest polling shows Gross down by 1
SC – Harrison even with Graham
GA – Ossoff up over Perdue in latest polls
GA Special – Warnock looking very positive to at least get to runoff if not win outright
KS – Bollier has been competitive and has been within single digits for a while
MT – Bullock has been up a point, down 2 then even again… trending on this has been capricious
Wave election possibilities
TX has been tightening (Hegar)
MS has been tightening (Espy)
KY (who knows, not a lot of recent polling here but McConnell is a cockroach, very hard to kill but McGrath has been more aggressive of late)
it looks like we have AZ, CO and NM as likely pickups, MI also looks likely, it was commonly thought Jones in AL was a goner, but he’s been surging of late. You add in ME and NC, the Dems likely take the Senate, if any of the other toss ups come thru, then we have more opportunity for more progressive legislation as the window usually stretches to the left of Manchin.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
?SHOTS FIRED ?
opiejeanne
@Sally: This is a terrible story.
Aleta
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: Scientology?
bjacques
@Amir Khalid: you have no idea. I lost a dear British friend to QAnon not long after it blew up. It’s massive in the UK. They turn up at anti-mask demonstrations in Europe. NL also has plenty of QAnkers and fellow travelers.
Funnily enough, none in Russia, the most paranoid country on the planet.
CaseyL
@Sally:
@opiejeanne:
Between QAnon, and Rupert Murdoch systematically turning people into RWNJs in three major countries, I am overwhelmed by how fragile many peoples’ grip on reality is. How they get sucked into these pathological worldviews, and eager to act out godawful cruelties.
My mind has been in some strange places in my life. I’ve come this!close to going mad. But NEVER anywhere that diabolical. Not even close.
LongHairedWeirdo
I know it’s crazy to discuss this like it was, you know, semi-sorta-kinda-sane.
Still: if there was a conspiracy theory that Donald J. Trump, Superhero, was taking down a satanic cabal of pedophiles, and he were to announce “I don’t know anything about (Qanon)”, any rational follower would be forced to come to grips with how he clearly *isn’t* taking down a satanic cabal of pedophiles.
I mean, come on; a replacement-level bullshit artist could say “they’re expecting great things, and all I can say, right now, is, there are great things coming.” Trump isn’t even competent at playing along with bullshit.
Other than pointing out the obvious (if this were a left-leaning conspiracy theory, prominent Democrats would be forced to denounce it), and other than pointing out that the very *existence* of such a hideous conspiracy theory shows our nation is *truly* fskced up… um… actually, I got nothing. Those two points kinda say everything that’s needed.
Achrachno
@Aleta: And Kirstie Alley is a scientologist — it all ties together.
Luckily it’s a very small fake religion and no one likes them. Minimal influence.
NotMax
@bjacques
Both Pakistan and Uganda ain’t exactly chopped liver on that menu.
LongHairedWeirdo
@Amir Khalid: I’m a servant of the truth, and you seem to be speaking truth as best as you can.
That said, the only response I can have to “OMG someone is telling nasty lies about a Trump supporter” is “man, paybacks are a bitch, ain’t they?” I say that with full respect to what you have to say, and, I confess, I’m too tired, too cranky, and too frickin’ angry over a President who is determined to not only ignore the deaths of Americans, but who is trying to actively *cause* such deaths, to care too much.
I promise to be a bit more concerned come morning.
Achrachno
@piratedan: “MI also looks likely, it was commonly thought Jones in AL was a goner, but he’s been surging of late.”
Those two are only maybes. Fingers crossed, but “likely” seems too strong. There’s a lot of energy out there on the D side, so many good things are possible, but no counting chickens just yet. We’ll be lucky to win either.
Lige
I know it’s kind of the least of it but what an insult to JFK Jr’s good name. Like he would come back to life to work with the worst human in the world! It’s hard to fathom how deranged these people are.
piratedan
@piratedan: and for those that haven’t been able to track the detail and nuance in the close races, I’ll try and do a quickie summary (as I understand it)
Iowa – Greenfield has slowly been inching ahead and in their Iowa debate, Ernst committed a notable gaffe by having no clue on the current prices on Iowa commodities are. Greenfield knew what the numbers were, for anyone paying attention, it looks like Ernst is the one out of touch in Iowa.
SC – Speculation regarding Graham stemming the onslaught of bad press by not looking to a total dick in the Barrett hearings with cover being provided by Senator Feinstein of CA (which pissed everyone off as she not only praised him for his handling of the dog and pony show, but embraced him, despite his lack of COVID testing) This race is STILL tight.
GA – Perdue has been dog whistling his racism of late and that looks like a desperation move as Ossoff has started to inch past him in the recent polling (matching Biden’s improvements). This could still waver back into the GOP column but its a damn sight more promising than it was two months ago. Kemp’s voter suppression efforts will still play a part here.
TX – Cornym has been gaffing up a storm and Hegar has been pouncing on him with a steady media campaign and with the Texas voting numbers, this one continues to bear watching. Some of the last polling I saw had her down only 1. But, this is Texas, was it an outlier, will all the new Texas voters come down on the Dem side…. This would be a fantastic get if Hegar pulls thru, she reminds me as being in the Duckworth mold.
AK – Sullivan has been getting some crappy press lately due to his personal ties to a mining operation that has the potential to harm the other state boondoggle, salmon fishing. Gross has been getting enough money to start making a media impression and thus far, its favorable. Sustainable, we don’t know yet.
Hope that this helps to bring some clarity in the hopeful election climate….
Sally
@opiejeanne: It really shook me. I wish a senior Dem could reach out to him. This is totalitarianism in a nutshell. Make people too afraid to run against you. He looks like a nice guy. He and his team were just swamped (pun intended) by insanity. Tragic.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@bjacques: Why is there QAnon in the UK? Why would they be interested, especially when Dump has an dreadful 15% approval and 76% disapproval rating in the UK?
piratedan
@Achrachno: while I agree on the skepticism on Jones, I just don’t see the likelihood of Michigan splitting their tickets when Trump is down 7-8 in Michigan… I just don’t. Can it happen, yes, likely? In THIS environment… have a hard time buying that.
TBF, everyone was writing Jones off as a foregone conclusion and it IS Alabama, but since Jones does have a good record there both as AG and in his current term and the weakness of his opponent, I can still be hopeful.
LongHairedWeirdo
@LongHairedWeirdo: I wanted to add: I respect Islam, and its adherents. And I know that my comment above is a bit (or “more than a bit”) mean-spirited. I’m sorry about that – I mean, really, I’m sorry, because I know it matters.
Call this crankiness, or a moment of weakness, that caused a lapse in my thirst for justice. If it were anything less than Trump, and Qanon, and I’d be more guarded, even at my worst/crankiest times.
Aleta
@piratedan: Thanks friend.
Given GOP deception and theft, as well as incidence of T-nominated higher-up judges overturning lower rulings, how much of a winning margin in Senate vote counts is enough, I wonder.
Sister Golden Bear
@CaseyL:
We’re not so far from the demon-haunted world than we’d like to think.
bjacques
ew to an @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: the UK is a large country. While it’s true that QAnon iconography and demonology are US-centric, the idea of fighting mass child abuse is a hook with worldwide appeal. And QAnon has now incorporated COVID quackery, which is definitely international.
Achrachno
@piratedan: Sorry. It’s late and I got myself confused — I was thinking Mississippi for MI. Yes, Michigan is likely to go D.
I’m hoping both Jones and Espy win, and I bolstered my hopes with cash to both. We’ll be lucky to win either, but it could happen if the stars align properly, or whatever.
Geminid
Comic Brent Terhune does a hilarious send up of Q-Anon in his “Message from Q-Anon.” Well, I can’t get the link right, but it’s worth looking up for comic relief.
Amir Khalid
Is there some kind of DOS attack against Twitter going on? I depend on the Malaysian Ministry of Health’s Twitter feed to keep me updated re Covid-19, and too often it doesn’t load for me.
oatler.
The twitter feeds of both Chuck Todd and Meet the Press are shut down, at least on my browser. Maybe shame?
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Surely they have a real web site of their own?
Ohio Mom
I tried googling “Osama bin Laden niece QAnon” and the results, claiming that she is a QAnon fan, were all from outfits I’ve never heard of. Might be the same rumor being endlessly repeated?
I can see Amir’s concern that too many people automatically equate Islam with anti-Semtism, and I can see that this woman (too lazy to scroll up for her name) is the sort of colorful character who attracts attention. But she seems to me to be a novelty, not important and not influential. Her 15 minutes will be up shortly.
Amir Khalid
@NotMax:
They do, but they tweet the daily numbers out well before they update the website.
Sebastian
@Geminid:
Yes, the swinging lightbulb is fantastic.
Chyron HR
So… did it happen?
Sm*t Cl*de
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
The UK had its fair share of Sovereign Citizen cockwombles, convinced that if they knew the right legal incantations they could wipe out their tax obligations and send courts packing. Moving on to Qanon is no problem at all.
And it’s hard to grasp just how intensely these loons want to believe bad things about celebrities and politicians. Even before Qanon came along offering to confirm their beliefs, they held other forms of blood-drinking child-trafficking celebrity belief systems. You have to remember, these are garbage people. They really resent the notion that anyone else might not be garbage, and might be morally better than them; and they seize gratefully at any suggestion that in fact everyone else is equally garbage. They have an existential need to believe that anyone who has the power to do so, is doing the kind of thing they can only fantasise about. So Qanon is tailor-made for them.
AlaskaReader
@piratedan:
Salmon in Alaska is no boondoggle. It’s a sustainable renewable natural resource that feeds Alaskans and huge segments of the world market.
NotMax
@Sm*t Cl*de
Cue The Deviants.
Garbage can make you feel so good
Make you feel like you think you should
:)
jl
@Aleta: GA has early in person voting, absentee ballots are verified and processed upon receipt, so counting should begin election day morning. So if there is funny business, I guess we’d hear from the lawyers as it emerges.
I’m mostly concerned about states with no in person early voting that have only ‘in person absentee’ early voting and no validation or processing until election day or just a few days before: MI, PA, WI, and I think IA. NH too but it’s pretty small.
Splitting Image
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
One way to rephrase what you just said would be to say that 15% of the UK are upset because 76% of the country do not show proper respect to their social betters. Trump gave these people permission to show their “inferiors” just what they think of them, and QAnon gives them a framework to do so.
jl
@AlaskaReader: My understanding too, excellently managed fisheries. And great fish. Nice to have kin with a farm by Copper River.
Mel
@Amir Khalid: I’ve been having trouble with it for two days. About every fifth link I click will load; the others don’t. I get a “something went wrong” message, and a “try again” to click (which fails to load as well).
Not sure what’s going on with that. I initially thought it might just be a local issue, but maybe not.
jl
I don’t follow QAnon org charts. So, this nonsense is from the ‘JFK Jr is alive’ splinter group that has it’s own leader? Or is the Big Q of all QAnon itself saying this
Edit: how many splinter groups does QAnon have anyway? And for snark, how many of them aren’t run out of Putin’s shop?
Aleta
@jl: Thanks, reassuring for GA.
jl
@Aleta: I’m looking for good sources for news on election fixing, anyone know, pls leave a link.
As for GA, I’m hoping the main tools for fixing works through keeping people from registering, and hard to access polls, but not sure. Hoping tools after voting begins are weaker than before it begins.
TS (the original)
@Mel:
I had the same until I realised you just have to go to the address bar & resend the link. That works whereas the try again does not.
Anne Laurie
In this sense, QAnon is like antifa: not an organization, but an ideology.
As I understand it, the Vice-President-JohnJohn Qers are being refudiated, to various degrees, by the ‘serious’ Qers.
Tragically for (the people around) the participants, cults don’t splinter like glass, they splinter like wood… not one big shatter and a predictable number of wounds, but an infinite number of new shards and new victims.
Anne Laurie
When ‘all of twitter went down’ this week (for some people, not everybody, not all at once), the company eventually announced they had been doing a major ‘restructuring’ of the whole network to help deal with increased traffic.
Depending on who you choose to believe, this may or may not be true, and the ‘increased traffic’ may or may not have been attacks on the network by state-sponsored disinformation sources — not just neonazi/foreign national attacks on the US election, but also China’s ongoing feuds with Hong Kong / Australia / Taiwan / Pakistan / et al, EU/British sovreignity-and/or-coronavirus-control spats, Russia & Turkey feuding over Armenia-Azerbaijan, etc. etc. etc…
Sloane Ranger
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: A lot of European nations have QAnon believers. They tend to emphasise local conspiracy theories and fantasies, linking them to the international Deep State, Satan worshpping, blood drinking conspiracy led by YKW.
People used to blame Prussian militarism for the rise of the Nazi’s. I think it’s a lot simpler. There is a significant percentage of the human race who are susceptible to these things and, if the conditions are right, they can take control.
oatler.
@NotMax: 
Ptoof!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Certainly fits Tucker Carslon’s view of Islam, which makes the whole thing so crazy. I think the plot is gotten so complex even wingnuts can’t keep it straight.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
That dates back to the Medieval period in Europe. Frequent accusation against the Jews and the bases of the Witch turnings.
Worth noting the Witch burning happen doing a major crises in Christianity, the protestant reformation and there is similar one with the rise of unbelief.
geg6
@jl:
Actually, PA has early voting. It’s just not called that. Once a County has the ballots for mail in votes in the mail, you can go to your local elections office and vote right there. They have booths set up outside if you wish to do it. Also, my signature was checked when I dropped mine off at the elections office, so it will be counted as soon as polls open at 7am on 11/3.
debbie
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
He is getting the COVID-19 to spread really quickly. Does that help, Kirsti?
Princess
@Amir Khalid: QAnon is, alas, international. Lots of mass protests in Europe and Canada about it I can’t speak for the poster but my original assumption was that the poster was speaking about QAnon. Frankly, it didn’t cross my mind that the poster could mean Islam, but I can understand why you read it that way, and why it could be read that way.
jl
@geg6: Yes. My concern is that, AFAIK, they don’t validate or process them until election day. Most other swing states start counting before election day. But head of Election Project said PA should get it done in 1 to 3 days after election, which is reassuring.
geg6
@jl:
I asked when I dropped my ballot off and the guy there told me that they will start counting (feeding them into the scanners) as soon as the polls open at 7am. He said he thought they would get most of them scanned before the polls closed. At least, that’s what he thought for my county.
Matt McIrvin
The attempt at smearing Joe Biden through Hunter Biden has backfired so thoroughly that it’s circled all the way around to anti-Biden lefties complaining that it’s making Joe look too good and we shouldn’t extrapolate what he’ll do for the people from his treatment of his son!
jl
@geg6: Thanks! That is reassuring, and consistent with what the Elections Project guy said.
Matt McIrvin
@jl: “1 to 3 days after election” means Trump is definitely going to claim he won Pennsylvania.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin: hahaha
Maybe Hunter did drop off the laptop. Joe knows how to play 11 dimensional chess.
jl
@Matt McIrvin: If Dems win AZ, FL and NC, it will be called election night and Trump would still say he was robbed. Trump will start saying continuously that it’s fixed as election nears.
jl
@Baud: It took a botched Russian smear for lefties to say anything about Biden looking good.
I don’t like snarking about the Dem factions, but couldn’t resist.
Progressives hate saying it, but are grumbling that Biden and his campaign doing well. So, progress.
Ken
Either that, or she’ll be regularly appearing on Fox as they rehabilitate bin Laden as a way of attacking Biden and Obama.
Uncle Cosmo
@Amir Khalid: Try refreshing the page. Over the last couple of weeks, when I click onto a Twitter link, more often than not I get a message that “This is not available to you.” When I refresh the page it loads just fine. Strange.
Over the last couple of days I’ve gotten a few repeated messages of “Something went wrong – try again”. For those reloading doesn’t seem to work. Very strange.
Good luck, Geetar Guy.
Uncle Cosmo
Maybe someone finally choked Choke Toad, the Van Dyke of Misunderstanding. Dare we hope?
trnc
True. We expect flies to hang around on dead people for a couple of minutes.
trnc
What is my takeaway supposed to be of her? If I found out my uncle were a notorious mass murderer, I wouldn’t be pissed off at the authorities who decided to take him down unless I thought he had been framed. bin Laden was not framed.
debbie
So, did JFK Jr. have much to say last night in Dallas? ?
trnc
This happens to me more when I right click the link and choose new tab. I realized recently that new tab is the default for links on BJ, and the new tab usually loads correctly the first time.
When I do get the “Try again” page, clicking the try again button doesn’t always work, but the page refresh does.
Ivan X
For everyone asking “How could people believe QAnon” or any other conspiracy theory, I found the book The Unpersuadables (original UK title: The Heretics) by Will Storr to be highly illuminating and a great read. He interviews, without judgement, all kinds of “hard position” people of every stripe, from extreme pro-science religious skeptics to past-life therapists to Nazi apologists to a bunch of other people, and weaves it in with pop brain science and his personal epistemological exploration. He arrives at the conclusion that human brains are wired for stories, and it will latch on to them or fabricate them outright in their absence.
Ken
Not that I’ve seen, but the international satanic blood-drinking cannibal pedophile ring controls the news.
— Actual QAnon supporters this morning, probably
different-church-lady
@NotMax: Grand-Baby Doc? Baby-Baby Doc?
different-church-lady
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: Crazy lady says what?
jonas
A few weeks ago, the podcast “Reply All” — an awesome podcast btw — did an episode on QAnon. It centers on the creator of the infamous 8chan imageboard, Frederick Brennan, and his theory about who’s behind this thing. No spoilers, but it contains equal amounts idiocy and incredible savvy about knowing how to push the buttons of certain gullible people on the right.
debbie
@Ivan X:
Specifically, stories that explain the unknown (mythology, religion, etc.). I wonder if it’s the need not to be afraid that makes the story so latch-on-able.
different-church-lady
@Matt McIrvin: This is Trump: before the night is out he’ll claim he won Yugoslavia.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Geminid:
Brent Terhune’s message from QAnon.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Amir Khalid:
Twitter has been a little shaky for me the last day or so. For some reason using my browser refresh button works better than the Twitter “try again” button.
SFAW
@Amir Khalid:
Maybe already noted, but: Zeddy linked to a tweet from the niece, in which she has multiple QAnon hashtags (e.g., #WWG1WGA), not al-Qaida links
ETA: That particular tweet starts with “From Switzerland,” and shows her wearing a MAGA jacket/windbreaker/something-or-other
Ian
@Baud:
That would really bring the story full circle, wouldn’t it?
I’ve done some stupid things in my life blackout on alcohol or drugs, but I have never taken my computer to get repaired in that state.
SFAW
@jl:
A personal prejudice/pet peeve of mine:
If you’re talking about the BernOrBust-ers, use a different term than “progressives.” “Progressives” is what liberals sometimes call themselves when they’re leery of being called “liberals” by the RWMFs. [Yes, yes, I know there are other reasons people refer to themselves that way. But they’re generally not what BJ-ers sometimes refer to as “leftier than thou.” And, no, I’m not channeling Emo Philips.]
In any event, THIS particular liberal is pretty effing happy that Biden’s doing so well. I hope I’ll be even happier on November 4th (give or take).
SFAW
@jl:
If Dems win any states outside of CA, NY, MA, and a few other deep Blue states, he’ll make that claim.
debbie
@SFAW:
Sigh. I heard a promo (I think for The New Yorker Hour) about an interview with AOC saying the Dems need to be just as partisan as the GOP has been under Trump. I don’t think laying down and being the welcome mat Republicans use to clean their galoshes is the answer, but giving as good as you got will only perpetuate the ongoing disaster.
SFAW
@Steeplejack (phone):
Not his best effort, although he’s generally pretty funny. I have to admit, the first time I saw him, I thought he really was a RWMF. Well, for about 15 seconds.
jonas
@debbie: In the case of QAnon, the “story” seems to be one that has obsessed people for millennia, namely “children in peril.” The medieval Jewish blood libel, early modern witch crazes, the satanic ritual abuse scare in the 80’s — they all played one way or another on people’s fear about the vulnerability of their children and the projection of those fears onto diabolical scapegoats who then needed to be pursued and destroyed.
SFAW
@debbie:
We won’t know until we try. Much as I love(d) Obama, the whole “look forward, not back” dictum was (to me, at least) problematic. It’s one of the reasons I’ve been talking about a “Truth and Retribution Commission” for a long time.
I’m not talking about lying (as Rethugs do like breathing) in service of “the greater good,” but I’m 1000 percent OK with Dems reversing whatever evil policies Rethugs have implemented, by using their (I hope) power without qualm. Expanding the courts? Sign me up. House/Congressional investigations of everything the Rethugs did? Tell me how can I help.
As an old fart, I don’t expect I’ll live to see things made right — IF the Dems “allow things to run their course.” So I’m OK with Dems playing hardball, as hard as they can.
Chief Oshkosh
@debbie:
I vigorously agree. We should not [just] give as good as we got. We must “give” so much more than what we got (and continue to get from the RWNJs). We must crush our enemies, see them driven before us, and hear the lamentation of their families.
(Sort of) kidding aside, it does nobody any good to pretend that magical thinking isn’t deadly to humans and the planet. Crushing magical thinking in the political sphere is imperative.
Steeplejack (phone)
@SFAW:
His best one, in my opinion, is the Lake Travis boat disaster. “I just kept saying, ‘Leave me! Leave me!'”
SFAW
@Steeplejack (phone):
“Some people* say” the best parody/satire is one where you’re not quite sure of it’s “legit.”
*Big guys, tears in their eyes, saying “sir” a lot.
Another Scott
@Sally: Haven’t read the story, but from the headline, it reminds me of Hoarse Whisperer today:
Thread – https://twitter.com/TheRealHoarse/status/1317824065944649728
tl;dr – (Paraphrase) ‘We must confront people who push harmful ideas, not just attack their ideas. By not confronting the people, we elevate them and give them an undeserved seat at the table.’
I’m not sure I fully buy it (the Streisand Effect is real and sometimes shunning is better), but it’s worth thinking about.
Also relatedly, he and dick_nixon point us to a NZ TV interview with a RWNJ who was drubbed out of politics:
It was delicious the way she shut him down when he started spewing nonsense about “the flu is worse…” US interviewers should take note.
We have to fight the monsters, even if we’re yelled at as “uncivil”.
Cheers,
Scott.
marklar
@debbie:
I CAn’T bELIevE ThAt KilLArY Got tO joN Jon FIrsT! RIP, joN JOn.
debbie
@SFAW:
Assuming we get the numbers, the place where I would very much like to see partisanship is in reforming the rules of Congress (ie, up and down votes within XX days; single issue bills; no filibuster; no secret holds; etc.). As for cramming AOC’s green bill down the throats of the country, it just would not end well.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@jonas: the thing that makes me angriest about QAnon and their pedophile conspiracy theories is that, of the people I know personally or know about, who where molested as kids they were victimized by family members,a family friend or a trusted member of the community like a coach. Not some all powerful cabal or something. The idiots are also taking attention and resources from organizations that actual help missing and exploited children. They also are encouraging the people who bother people with blended families because they think the kid doesn’t look like the parent. Thinking of my mom’s friend from Puerto Rico whose oldest kid looked just like her blonde Swedish dad. The ton of annoying questions from people…
germy
SFAW
@debbie:
I’m not talking about “cramming AOC’s green bill etc.” because that’s not the issue. That’s merely a “point solution” for a specific problem. [Disclaimer: I don’t know enough about that specific bill, so maybe I shouldn’t comment on it. But, frankly, if it’s the right thing to do — as ACA was — I say shove it down their throats.]
Whatever the Dems do, Rethugs will scream as if the Dems had wiped out 12 generations of Rethug families. I’m talking about SERIOUS investigations — there are so many needed without having to fabricate anything like a Benghazi-kabuki. I’m talking about expanding the courts, to undo as much of the McConnell-promulgated damage as possible.
And the Dems need to do it in the first two years, because the electorate being what it is, and the MSM being enablers of the Rethug “agenda” [sic], we may not get more time than that
ETA: Yes, I realize that “cramming” something runs the risk of a 2010 redux. I’m willing to take that chance.
Another Scott
@Amir Khalid: Lately I’ve been having to do a force-refresh (shift click on PCs, dunno the equivalent on mobile) to get Twitter to work (via the web interface). Once I do it once, it seems OK for a few hours.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
different-church-lady
About the hardest conspiracy theory I’ll go in for is that Twitter is making it deliberately dysfunctional to get to them through regular browsers to drive more people into using their app, where they can do ultimate tracking utterly unfettered.
chopper
in all honesty, i did not have “OBLs niece is into QAnon” on my crazy election bullshit bingo card.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Sloane Ranger: there is also a subset of any population that likes to blame their or society’s problems on a group seem as ‘other’ sometimes it’s people of a different faith, a different race or national origin. Women also seem to be a favorite scapegoat. Some governments like to encourage this..cough cough Trump.
humans still seem to tend toward clanish behavior even in the 21st century.
Ken
@chopper: I did, but it’s in the same column as “Trump graciously concedes on election night and does everything he can to facilitate an orderly transition”, so I don’t think I’ll fill that column.
Ivan X
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Even in the 21st century? I don’t think clannishness, tribalism, and otherizing are something we can quickly educate our way out of. When that happens, we’ll need a new name for the species. Hell, I can feel those impulses rattle around my own brain, I just try to push back against them rather than indulge or try to validate them.
J R in WV
The Republicans have tried for their whole term in office to indict, try, and imprison well known and highly regarded Democratic folks. The major reason they failed at this is that well known Democrats DO NOT COMMIT CRIMES.
On the other hand, well known Republicans do commit crimes, perhaps not all of them, but a majority of them cannot help but take some of that sweet, gusher of funds. They steal and destroy Democratic ballots. They lie about good people, Democratic progressive people. Some of them (Roy Moore, Denny Hastert, Newt Gingrich, Gym Jordan) have a wide variety of sexual hangups which frequently lead them into committing sexual or financial crimes. They (Rudy G, Roger Stone, etc, etc) conspire with foreign agents to make it appear that Democratic people are committing crimes, even if they are not and never would.
No one needs to create a conspiracy of Republicans committing crimes, because so many of them have been conspiring to commit crimes all along. Those Republicans are the people we need to hunt down, indict, try and imprison. And their foreign helpers, many of those who are employees of the GRU.
Freemark
@SFAW: I think we need to cram long term reform down some throats. Get judicial reform first to make overturning less likely. Get DC and PR in as states. Pass Voting Rights Act. After this do absolutely everything we can to reform EC and gerrymandering. Those will be harder of course but will pay off for decades.
Bill Arnold
@Amir Khalid:
It did. I, too, had to parse if for a bit before realizing that it was structured as a too-subtle dig against QAnon.
Brutusettu
89%?
I guess that’s why so many are unstuck in time with social distancing and maybe even more so by mask.