Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

This blog will pay for itself.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

I was promised a recession.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

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Monday Morning Open Thread: Vote for the Decent Guy

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  1. 1.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    Dump’s con-job about being rich and not needing any donations is working – his plebs aren’t donating.

    HA!

  3. 3.

    Betty Cracker

    We get to vote today, woohoo! First day of early voting in Florida. We requested mail-in ballots, but in the most Florida twist ever, humidity sealed the official return envelopes shut before we even opened our packets. So, we’re returning our ballots in person at city hall to ensure there will be no fuckery.

  4. 4.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    Disgusting loser Ryan Grimm wants Biden to lose so he can say Bernie Woulda Won

     

     

    Democrats knew the entire time that this would be Trump’s final move, and that this would roughly be how it rolls out. If there does turn out to be a ton more that is legit and credible, they can blame Russia all they want, but they’ll have themselves to blame for walking into it

    — Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) October 18, 2020

    As Favs points out, if they had something they wouldn’t have been so desperate to blackmail Ukraine to manufacture a fake story which led to Dump’s impeachment.

    I guess this tweet makes sense if you choose to ignore an entire impeachment hearing where Republicans spent months looking for dirt, found nothing, and then we saw multiple Trump Administration officials testify that Trump, not Biden, abused his office.

    — Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) October 18, 2020

    Moreover, Biden has been in public life for 48 years, he’s run for president three times and twice for vice president and nothing has ever come out. He’s so clean that when he was in the Senate he was the poorest guy there. He literally ranked dead last, 100 out of 100, in terms of lowest wealth in 2006. He was poorer than Bernie.

  6. 6.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    @Biff Baxter:  He did the same thing in 2012:

     

    “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough sees the 2012 election as a toss-up between President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

    Nate Silver, who runs the FiveThirtyEight blog at the New York Times, doesn’t think the election will be close – so he offered to make a $1,000 bet with Scarborough over the outcome, with the loser having to donate that sum to the American Red Cross.

    Silver made the proposition after Scarborough sent a series of tweets early Thursday morning suggesting nobody knows how the 2012 election will unfold and that the race is a dead heat.

  7. 7.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: He’s so clean that when he was in the Senate he was the poorest guy there. He literally ranked dead last, 100 out of 100, in terms of lowest wealth in 2006. He was poorer than Bernie.

    I did not know that, but I don’t find it surprising at all.

  9. 9.

    SectionH

    @OzarkHillbilly: Joe rode the train from DC to Delaware daily to get back to his kids – I thought everybody knew that story… He was not a fu cking rich asshole.
    Sorry if dd not detect  your snark.

  10. 10.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SectionH: I thought everybody knew that story…

    I did. Not sure what that has to to do with his wealth. Joe is a people person. I can see him taking the train just so he can talk to folks.

  11. 11.

    Geminid

    Driving across eastern North Carolina last week, I caught a pro trump ad trying to scare people with exaggerations of Biden’s gun safety policies. I’ve heard it a few times since. A base motivation tactic.  Biden’s rural development ad had a broader appeal, promising support for rural health care and hospitals, expanded wifi, clean energy investment, and access generally  to federal resources, so as to “strengthen the Middle Class in rural America,” so young people won’t have to leave.  I also caught a couple African American radio stations, one gospel, one secular. The hosts on both spent a lot of time emphasizing the importance of voting, alongside some good paid advertising with the same message.

  13. 13.

    Kay

    @TS (the original):

    Ryan Grim
    @ryangrim
    ·Oct 17
    The temperature on this stuff is so high it looks like the only outlets willing to touch it are the Post and Fox News. Fox has a source confirming one of these key emails is legit, which hasn’t been confirmed by other media yet

    The excitement is palpable. They’re hoping for more personal dirt on Hunter Biden. Maybe there will be more on his drug abuse! Did you know he’s an addict?
    All this high minded bullshit about “transparency” and “censorship” and they’re all hoping for scandalous dirt on Hunter Biden.
    “In the public interest”, my ass. This is celebrity gossip.
    Oh, well. Hopefully the public won’t fall for it again. If they do they probably deserve Donald Trump.

  19. 19.

    TS (the original)

    @Kay:

    Even when denying that it is real, that it means nothing etc etc the pundits know they are giving air to the possibility that  but his emails is of great concern.

    I don’t think sane Americans can be fooled twice by this, but it just cannot be an election on the merits – if it were, trump would be lucky to win one state.

  20. 20.

    Geminid

    @Kay: Grim, Greenwald et al just have it in for the Democratic party. I will remember this after the election, when they bring their bad-faith arguments to the “progressive”/establishment debates that will follow a Democratic victory.

  22. 22.

    Cheryl Rofer

    I have been wondering if the “shy” voters are the former Trumpies who are embedded in a vocally Trumpy environment and don’t dare say they are voting for Biden.

  23. 23.

    Baud

    It’s also important to win the Senate to prevent Ron Johnson from having a continuous hearing on Hunter Biden.

  24. 24.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    It’s too hot for anyone but Fox to handle!
    I love that the serious journalists of The Intercept are so excited to paw thru Hunter Biden’s underwear drawer. The “DC Bureau Chief”, no less.

  25. 25.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    They have been trying to find a. BUT HER EMAILS for Joe Biden since the beginning.

     

    And, any muthaphucka ? that purses their fingers to type that FOX is the only one willing to touch the story….AS IF we are supposed to pretend along with him that they are an actual news organization ?

     

    Get the ENTIRE PHUCK OUTTA HERE ??

  28. 28.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @SectionH: I knew that story too. I knew he wasn’t made of money like Loeffler is. I just never put much thought into it one way or the other.

  30. 30.

    germy

    We WANT a BORING president you members of the in-a-bubble-media. Not all of us are emotional adrenalin junkies or want PTSD just from watching the Commander in Chief. This isn’t just about job security through ratings, some of y’all need to seek help for your addiction to chaos.

    — JEN KIRKMAN ??‍? (@JenKirkman) October 16, 2020

  31. 31.

    satby

    Admittedly not online as much as I used to be, but has NotMax been around? Haven’t seen him on the late, late or morning threads but it could just be me.

  33. 33.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    You’re supposed to take away that Joe Biden was personally involved in Hunter Biden’s business deals. That’s the inference they’re pushing. It isn’t in the emails but what is IN the emails is never the point of these thefts, because there wasn’t jack shit in the Clinton campaign emails either.

    The Intercept people are worse than Bannon and the rest of the people on the Trump team, in my view. Trump team are running a smear campaign. The Intercept people are pretending this is some high minded exercise in transparency. They won’t even own what they’re doing.

    The public doesn’t actually have any “right to know” what Hunter Biden does in his personal life. That is not an actual right. They’re excited about scandalous personal dirt on Joe Biden’s son and they are too dishonest to admit it. I prefer Bannon. At least he’s a proud scumbag.

  34. 34.

    germy

    @Kay:  I love that the serious journalists of The Intercept are so excited to paw thru Hunter Biden’s underwear drawer.

    Greenwald was really pissed off when transcripts came out during a court case revealing that Steve Bannon has a contact at… The Intercept

     

    (It’s probably Greenwald himself)

  36. 36.

    germy

    a 14% tax hike on american families.  82% of american families would pay more.

    These are the claims a Trump TV ad keeps making.  A really dishonest ad. It’s in heavy rotation in my neck of the woods, and there ought to be a law against lies in campaign ads.

    (But then there’d be no republican campaign ads)

  37. 37.

    Kay

    @germy:

    Can they all go back to scolding the Oberlin Student Council on political correctness?  Is “cancel culture” no longer America’s most pressing issue?  That was boring as shit but at least it was limited to the 11 journalists who make more than 500k a year.

    Who’s covering the cancel culture beat now that they’re all reading Hunter Biden’s personal emails?

  38. 38.

    Geminid

    @Kay: Grim, Greenwald et al just have it in for the Democratic party. I will remember this after the election, when they bring their bad-faith arguments to the “progressives” vs establishment debates that will follow a Democratic victory.

  40. 40.

    Tony Jay

    Chris Evans is among the #Avengers cast assembling on Oct. 20 for a Biden campaign fundraiser hosted by the Russo Brothers

    Meaning there’s really good odds that the rescue-foetuses staffing Tang’s Re-Election Klavern are, right this moment, signing contracts with Ivanka’s sweatshop empire to produce authentic ‘Agent of Hydra’ costumes for the actors in their pushback ads. Because they are that smart.

    Crush these people. Save the genepool.

  41. 41.

    germy

    How The Discourse works:

    Democrats have a public discussion about maybe someday considering doing court expansion and get savaged by Republicans, and thus the press, for norm violation.

    Republicans just go ahead and sabotage the Census for political gain to virtually no debate.

    — Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) October 15, 2020

  42. 42.

    Kay

    Well, we made it thru an entire summer of “scary black people have burned down all the cities” promoted by these exact same people so I suppose we’ll make it thru yet another round of “but the emails”.

  47. 47.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Whatever else happens, Ron Johnson has to be targeted and defeated in ’22, which is when he is up, I think. Jesus. The SLEAZE. It’s just oozing out of him. You feel like he might actually reek of sewage.

    Whoever is the Mark Kelly of Wisconsin – this is your moment.

  48. 48.

    John S.

    @germy: Here in Florida, they are playing that one and some “ooga booga” tabloid style ad about Hunter Biden and China that has the production value of a 5th grader.

    Desperation is a stinky cologne.

  49. 49.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    If Trump loses the entire summer wasted on “scary black people are rioting” will be what he blames. And he’s not wrong! WTF? He doesn’t even poll that well on law n order. That’s what he gets for listening to Tucker Carlson.

  50. 50.

    Betty Cracker

    The irony of The Post dump is that it looks like Hunter Biden was under enormous pressure to earn tons of money to support the family precisely because Joe Biden was following the rules instead of engaging in pay-to-play corruption like the Trumps do every single day. The Trumps just openly collect emoluments from foreigners, cash enormous checks from lobbyists for events held at Trump properties, etc.

  51. 51.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Maybe there’s a photo on the laptop of Hunter with a scary black person, like Cory Booker.

    Now that’s something that would be too hot to handle.

  52. 52.

    JWR

    @Baud:

    Speaking of the deficit, NPR had a bit this morning about the Deficit, (oh my!), and the woman introducing the segment said something like “some are growing concerned about the Deficit“, and that “our Deficit reporter has been following the Deficit. So, Mr. reporter, how is the Deficit beat?”

    But the story actually wasn’t all that bad. It highlighted Jerome Powell saying in no uncertain terms that the deficit is something to worry about after the pandemic, (gotta keep that deficit worry alive), especially while so many people are out of work and not paying taxes, but certainly not right now.

    They also mentioned that the deficit under Trump was already deeply in the red because of his tax cuts. So good for them.

  54. 54.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Stonekettle Retweeted
    Suzanne Davis
    @suzannedavis525
    ·
    11h
    The best of Twitter today is @Stonekettle
    timeline where he’s retweeting hundreds of personal testimonials about how the ACA helped them, their families, their livelihoods & their lives.

    Thanks, Obama.

    Thanks, Jim.

  55. 55.

    Baud

    @JWR:

    It won’t affect the election, but it’ll hamstring Biden. But I’ve now heard more about the deficit in the last few weeks than I have in the preceding three and a half years.

  56. 56.

    Kay

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    don’t dare say they are voting for Biden.

    The most undercovered story of this election are the Trump supporters performative, public displays of intimidation in places like where I live. I wish all those thousands of reporters who headed out to small town diners would come back and watch the loud trucks rolling thru town with the confederate and Blue Lives Matter flags waving. It’s not intended to persuade anyone. It’s intended to intimidate.
    If I get thru this without yelling back at them and there being a resulting incident it will be a miracle. I have had it.
    The sheriff’s department here thinks there will be “unrest” after the election and they’re not talking about the ladies handing out Halloween candy at the Biden headquarters. They’re afraid of their own godammned fellow Trumpists. I’m less intimidated by them than the police are.

  57. 57.

    raven

    We spend hours here with “IT”S NOT OVER”, “KEEP UP THE FIRE” and then bitch because Joe says the same thing.

  58. 58.

    Tony Jay

    It’s the same old story anywhere there exists a not-Conservative Party challenging an actual Conservative Party.

    “Wow. Look at these unproven allegations of some sort of undefined wrongdoing giving the nebulous impression that greater sins are being hidden from public view. If you want us to stop front-paging and promoting them without making even the slightest effort to ascertain their accuracy all you have to do is convince the mostly anonymous partisan agents making the allegations to publicly proclaim your innocence, otherwise we’re just going to assume that it all must be true. Mmmkay?”

    Those poor credulous journalists. You’d think that maybe they’d have noticed how they keep on being played, but they’re just so damned innocent they can’t even imagine that anyone would lie to them. /s

  59. 59.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    They’re afraid of their own godammned fellow Trumpists. I’m less intimidated by them than the police are.

    It’s harder for them because of their preexisting friendships.

  61. 61.

    hueyplong

    @Baud:  And the number of those people who are actually on the force. Those are the guys doing all the killing we’ve witnessed.

  62. 62.

    Kay

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    I met my middle son at a Barry Bagels in Toledo for coffee yesterday and when I arrived there was some fucking insane Q person standing at his table yammering at him. He’s quiet, he barely speaks, he had a bandanna around his face as a mask and when I saw him he looked at me like “rescue me”. I walked up said “what’s up?” to Q nutjob and she mumbled something and slunk off. The guy behind the counter gave us two free Rice Krispies treats, I assume because we had been harassed in his store. Is this a regular thing? The cult now approaches people minding their own business in a restaurant?

  65. 65.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: I snapped and gave the “LOSER” sign to roadside Trumpers who were waving Confederate, blue line and Trump flags at passersby in my town this weekend. My husband scolded me for it a little because I was in a convertible, but I was also going 45 MPH and they were on foot, so there was no danger. He said there was no reason to respond, and I said they waved their tatty merch AT me, so obviously they were attempting to provoke a response; they just didn’t get the one they wanted! ;)

  66. 66.

    germy

    @Kay: 
    Is this a regular thing? The cult now approaches people minding their own business in a restaurant?

    It’s their final GOTV push.

  67. 67.

    JWR

    @Baud:
    @JWR:

    To be clear, yeah, just hearing the word “deficit” so much seems odd. It’s like one of those words that come into vogue from time to completely unpredictable time. /s

    ;)

  68. 68.

    Peale

    @Kay: He’s peddling the notion on TV that Hunter Biden’s computer had child porn on it.  I say, if we can’t take him down, we start rifling through his kid’s lives. I mean, he is a senator and a wealthy man. I’m sure his kids have benefited from that, so why not go looking into it?

  69. 69.

    Geminid

    @Baud: When The Intercept burned whistleblower Reality Winner, they claimed their circulation of classified material with tell tale source identifiers was unintentional. But I doubt this was accidental. The poor woman is in prison because she entrusted materials showing Russian interference to an unscrupulous outfit that has consistently downplayed Russia’s role in American politics.

  73. 73.

    Danielx

    @Baud: 

    Truth. Amazing how deficits only become an issue when a Democrat sits in the Oval Office. Almost makes you wonder if Mark Meadows is pining for his glory days as prime shitflinger of the Freedom Caucus, when the dreaded deficit was one of several bats he could use on Obama.

  74. 74.

    jonas

    If millions of Trump supporters are purposely lying and trying to sabotage the polling, then why are downballot Republicans like Collins and Conryn all of a sudden trying to distance themselves from Trump? We’d be getting leaks from campaigns around the country saying their internals show Trump up by 5 or something, so they’re not sweating it. Why are they so desperate to ram through ACB? Why isn’t McConnell passing a massive stimulus so that Trump starts his second term with a strong economic recovery?

    Not the behavior of a party that secretly knows it’s going to win…

  75. 75.

    debbie

    @germy:

    You’d think the media would want a boring president too. What kind of masochists want more of the press conferences where the president or his minions do nothing but rip your faces off?

  77. 77.

    Baud

    @germy: 

    When was the last time you saw Glenn this animated about literally anything?

    Never, because I don’t follow discredited journalists. But I appreciate the people doing yeoman’s work to keep an eye on their shenanigans.

  79. 79.

    JWR

    From one of the above tweets:

    over five years later and reporters still think “I find trump interesting” and “trump is interesting” mean the same thing

    One of the Sunday morning shows had Rich Lowery on to defend Trump, and he said of his Townhall that at least it showed us that Trump is “compelling”. Yeah, compelling like a flaming Trump Tower.

    But interesting? Maybe in a clinical sort of way, I suppose.

  81. 81.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @debbie: If Trump’s finances are as bad as they seem, I wonder how that impacts his kids’ finances. How will they earn a living after he’s out of office (god willing)? I’d think the ability to license the Trump name would be much diminished. OTOH, Ivanka and Jared seem to have been socking away a ton of money

  82. 82.

    Mousebumples

    The standard, take nothing for granted, and leave it all on the table and VOTE caveats apply, but I had some morning schadenfreude reading this…

    Will Steakin (@wsteaks) tweeted at 6:10 AM on Mon, Oct 19, 2020:

    NEW: Internally, the Trump campaign is increasingly worried that Trump’s chances of winning NC, a state they view as essential, have all but evaporated.

    The campaign had considered NC “super safe” as recently as just a few weeks ago, sources told ABC News

    https://t.co/HNC34XpGAi

    (https://twitter.com/wsteaks/status/1318147491456602113?s=03)

  83. 83.

    germy

    NEW U.S. judge formally strikes down Trump administration attempt to end food stamp benefits for nearly 700,000 unemployed people, blocking as “arbitrary and capricious” the first of three such planned measures to restrict the federal food safety net. https://t.co/DStCx83n6Z— Spencer Hsu (@hsu_spencer) October 18, 2020

    Wouldn’t it be nice to elect a government that was NOT so cruel and vicious that we had to rely on judges to protect us from it? https://t.co/7MAoBncIwD— Roy Edroso (@edroso) October 19, 2020

  84. 84.

    John S.

    @debbie: You mean like how she actually does business with China and magically had a bunch of trademarks granted thanks to daddy interfering?

    Nope, nothing to see there. Just Trump being Trump, libtard.

  85. 85.

    debbie

    @germy:

    There is no better descriptor of the Trump administration than “arbitrary and capricious.” Take note, people of the future.

  86. 86.

    Princess

    I learned recently that Brazil has no extradition treaty with the US. Is that why Glenn Greenwald lives there? Does it have something to do with underage minors? It wuld be irresponsible NOT to speculate.

    (I’m kind of serious. The way he defended Coleman and that guy in MA who hit on college students was off the hook this summer and I started to wonder why he was so defensive. And that inthe context of Trump, someone mentioned Brazil has no extradition treaty.)

  87. 87.

    germy

    Enrique Tarrio, chairman of Proud Boys and head of Latinos for Trump walking in Miami with “Stand Back, Stand By” on his Proud Boys shirt. They intercepted a Biden caravan, threatened us, circled our cars and ran supporters off the road. pic.twitter.com/0Qz9SjZyPa

    — Sofia Hidalgo (@sofiamhidalgo) October 18, 2020

  89. 89.

    John S.

    @germy: Which is why Trump and Mitch have been desperate to pack the courts with judges who will be cruel and vicious, just in case the Legislative and Executive branches fail to hold up their end of the bargain.

  90. 90.

    TS (the original)

    @Peale:

    I say, if we can’t take him down, we start rifling through his kid’s lives. I mean, he is a senator and a wealthy man. I’m sure his kids have benefited from that, so why not go looking into it?

    You don’t understand the rules – this doesn’t happen to republican’s children. If it did the information/stories on the trump offspring would be a longer volume than War & Peace.

  91. 91.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I snapped and gave the “LOSER” sign to roadside Trumpers who were waving Confederate, blue line and Trump flags at passersby in my town this weekend.

    It’s going to happen. They pull up either alongside or behind me in the 60,000 dollar truck they’re paying for over 72 months, all decked out in Trump merch and gun the engine. I know what they’re doing and I’m sick of it.
    Is there any bigger load of bullshit than the “shy Trump voter”? They’re the most obnoxious people in the world.

  93. 93.

    trnc

    I’m old enough to remember way back to 2 weeks ago when Scott Adams was done with DT, but I guess being “done” is pretty much on brand for a “let’s fake out the polls” dude.

  94. 94.

    Soprano2

    @Cheryl Rofer: I have been wondering if the “shy” voters are the former Trumpies who are embedded in a vocally Trumpy environment and don’t dare say they are voting for Biden.

    I wonder how many wives of “loud and proud” male Trumpies will secretly either vote for Biden or not vote for president at all. If anything, I think there are “shy Biden” voters in these heavily Trump places. He doesn’t have to get a majority in those places; just a point or two could make the difference.

  95. 95.

    Anya

    @Kay:  I hate to say it but David Frum said it best:

    The people on far right and far left who publicized the obviously bogus @nypost story were not dupes. They were accomplices. The story could not have been more obviously fake if it had been wearing dollar-store spectacles and attached plastic mustache.— David Frum (@davidfrum) October 18, 2020

  96. 96.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Mousebumples: I have been informed by Some Guy on the Internet that since the polls say Biden has a chance in NC, and he knows in his gut that Biden has no chance in NC, therefore all the polls are nonsense.

  100. 100.

    Kay

    @satby:

    Right, no mask and she’s right up on him even though the tables are set deliberately far apart. He reveals nothing to no one so I doubt he said it but he’s already voted for Biden.

    I was annoyed at the guy behind the counter not because there’s a Q nutter in his store but because she’s supposed to be wearing a mask but then he was nice coming over and dropping off the Rice Krispies treats, but only after nutter was out of the store. Maybe he’s afraid of them. I am not afraid of them and so therefore am going to end up in some kind of awful altercation.

  102. 102.

    Matt McIrvin

    @germy: Yeah, they were warning against Nazi-inspired racism at the same time they were running skull-caliper-tastic pamphlets about “How To Spot A Jap” and maintaining segregated Army units. The cognitive dissonance was noted, probably contributed to the civil-rights movement.

  106. 106.

    Matt McIrvin

    (Remember “Reality Check” and his million other nyms, the guy who came in every election cycle to inform us of how the Republicans were going to crush us in a landslide with UNLIMITED CORPORATE CASH? This year’s versions of that guy are busy on Twitter right now trying to spin the data some way that points to a Trump landslide.)

    (Granted, Trump did win in 2016, but only after Mr. Check had spent the entire primary season crowing about how half a dozen different candidates were going to crush Trump, and *we* were the Trump fans for saying Trump was going to beat Jeb Bush or Ted Cruz or whoever. He seemed like a strangely reluctant MAGA.)

  108. 108.

    Kathleen

    @Baud: NYT already partners with Breitbart and Bannon. I want to ask them why they uncritically signal boost disinformation from a white nationalist.

  111. 111.

    HinTN

    @TS (the original):

    I don’t think sane Americans can be fooled twice by this, but it just cannot be an election on the merits – if it were, trump would be lucky to win one state.

    Sadly, that would be mine.

  113. 113.

    narya

    I went to my local community-supported brewery yesterday, to pick up howlers of peach Berliner Weisse and a doppelbock, and a four-pack of one of their IPAs, and there was no one in the place, and they are super careful, so we actually SAT DOWN INSIDE A BAR AND HAD A BEER. The room is pretty wide open, the staff were masked, and the beer (a Belgian dubbel and a wet-hopped rye amber) was tasty. I long to be able to do that again, with multiple people in the place and, dare I say it, live music.

  116. 116.

    Kay

    Trump’s campaign manager put forth 3 possible ways he wins- the most interesting part was all 3 include North Carolina. The other interesting part to me was all the Trump win scenarios include Florida, to the extent that they don’t even mention it. They include it like Biden would include Maryland or something, which to me seems almost like cheating even in the “possible win scenario” game.

    Will Steakin
    @wsteaks
    NEW: Internally, the Trump campaign is increasingly worried that Trump’s chances of winning NC, a state they view as essential, have all but evaporated.
    The campaign had considered NC “super safe” as recently as just a few weeks ago, sources told ABC News

    I have to say, as stressful as this has been the sheer number of states in play have made it much more interesting than an ordinary election. Probably better for the country too- how all these states are getting swing state-like attention. Texas went from “don’t bother” to intense competition. That’s good for the country. All states should count.

  117. 117.

    germy

    “A huge reason that our politics is not so extremely polarised and so far out there is because we no longer have any Murdoch-owned press” // Why New Zealand rejected populist ideas other nations have embraced https://t.co/Ds1qsmf82y

    — Prof Fiona de Londras (@fdelond) October 19, 2020

  118. 118.

    Anya

    Greenwald is a fraud at every level. I thought he was at least serious about American foreign policy and government transparency. During the Obama admin he used to strongly argue against American government’s one-sidedness towards Israel but Trump admit basically nuked any pretence of fairness or having the Palestinians at the table and not a single protest from Greenwald. He’s just a libertarian with some rightwing ideology. Not sure why he was so against Bush but somehow he became a Trump defender.

  119. 119.

    Kathleen

    @Geminid: Oops! Our tech savvy sophisticated white guy Fascist loving whistle blowing protection technology we used in attempt to bring the Black Guy down failed this time. Awkward.

  121. 121.

    Kay

    Advisers now fear that, because the state counts and reports both day-of and mail-in votes together on election night, losing North Carolina could be a clear white flag.

    Good. Gives us another state to hope for in the “put them away early” category.
    Remember- our goal is not just to win but to win by enough that Trump can’t throw it to the Trump judges he chose for just that reason. Do not let the judges get it, or you lost before the hearing starts.

  125. 125.

    Kay

    @Anya:

    I never liked him- I think his writing is designed to deceive. There are words I read as a lawyer that put me on guard to bullshit ahead and one of them is “clearly”. He does a lot of dumb trickery like that.

    He’s SO angry that liberals and Democrats are donating to the Lincoln Project that it sounds almost like the LP cut into his income stream. Maybe liberals aren’t buying his stuff anymore, hence the move Right to more lucrative ground.

  127. 127.

    TS (the original)

    @HinTN:

    According to 538 that would be Wyoming with trump ahead 66:30 in a population of 550K  Is that your state?

  129. 129.

    Ken

    @Kay: Terry Pratchett called “clearly”, “obviously”, etc. wallpaper words because when you see them you know someone is covering up a great big crack in their argument.

  131. 131.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: I recently read a pretty good article about the roots of low Latino voter participation in Texas–there are many reasons for it, the “Latino community” isn’t a monolith, but I get a definite impression that one contributor is just a sense that Texas is hopelessly deep-red in national elections anyway, so their votes won’t matter. That perception may be changing.

  133. 133.

    Amir Khalid

    @germy:

    To judge by you guys (i.e. American jackals), it’s less an uncomfortable sense of deja vu than confidence tempered by the realisation that a leading position in the race is not yet a win..

  134. 134.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Yep, NC is about the same as FL, i.e., Biden is at around 49% and Trump at 45-ish. Too damned close for my comfort, but that the Trump people are COUNTING on either one is just nuts, let alone both.

    It’s also interesting that the Trump people don’t even talk about winning the popular vote. (Trump does, but in a delusional way.) Their whole case hinges on eking out a narrow EC win.

  135. 135.

    Jeffro

    Where is that caravan this year, anyway?  Did someone forget to plant some “walkin’ around money” money down south of the border?

  136. 136.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    I’m not a fan of the people behind LP, but they are providing value to us in a way that GG refuses to.  I can understand why they get donations.

  138. 138.

    Kay

    @Ken:

    I think he’s clever but his writing is designed to make you stop thinking. There are what I think of as “stops” all through it. This IS. Announcements where an argument or facts should be. I think that kind of writing is deliberate, and I think that because I see it in the course of my job all the time.

    The last longer piece of his I read said “Congress” had passed something to bar military action – but it wasn’t “Congress”. It was the House. It infuriates me. He knows the difference. He wants you not to think too hard about that sentence.

  140. 140.

    Gin & Tonic

    Funny story. A Ukrainian historian wrote a book about the Soviet-era poet and dissident Vasyl Stus, who died in a labor camp in 1985. Stus’ lawyer back then was Viktor Medvedchuk, who is currently an oligarch and an ally of Putin’s. His representation was, unsurprisingly, ineffective. The historian presents some reasons for that. So Medvedchuk brought legal action, and a court in Kyiv today banned the book. Within an hour it was sold out everywhere in the country.

  141. 141.

    Kay

    @Ken:

    He was attacking the ACLU on Twitter because they’re no longer as pure as he is- that was the charge- “flush with Resistance cash, the new hires…”

    I take personal offense at legal pundits who opine on practitioners. You fucking try it, Glenn. Go to trial. Let me know how it goes. Winning a one sided, theoretical  argument where you own the platform is easy. Harder to bring or win a lawsuit.

  142. 142.

    VOR

    @Kay: 

    The most undercovered story of this election are the Trump supporters performative, public displays of intimidation

    Back in 2017 my son went to school at a small liberal arts college in a rural, small town in an area >95% white. About 20% of the students were international so if you saw someone with dark skin or wearing a head covering, they were almost certainly a student.

    A bunch of young, white kids, I assume locals, began driving through campus in pick-ups, rolling coal, and shouting slurs at the non-white students. This became a regular event. I posted something on Facebook saying how crappy this was and my MAGA cousin responded by claiming the real story was all the discrimination against those poor MAGA people. See, they were oppressed and unable to express themselves in public without condemnation. I blocked her and haven’t looked back.

  143. 143.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Cheryl Rofer: I have been wondering if the “shy” voters are the former Trumpies who are embedded in a vocally Trumpy environment and don’t dare say they are voting for Biden.

    This, since when has a MAGA hat been shy about their views

    I’d more believe that a lot of Trump voters are apolitical fan bois who only vote for Trump and that’s it, so that’s why the pollsters miss them, but shy?

  144. 144.

    Spanky

    @Amir Khalid: Also the knowledge that the election is not necessarily in our hands. Foreign fuckery was made obvious in 2016, and there has been no assurance that that was even addressed.

  146. 146.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    Just got back from my walk. I saw two Biden/Harris signs and a big Trump flag. There was a blue sign farther along than I usually go, so I kept going until I could read it. It said “Wu-Tang Is Forever.” I’m counting that as the equivalent of BG in Chi’s Medium Cool threads.

  147. 147.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Amir Khalid: This time is much different that 2016 – the press has been unable the play the good week for Republicans and then a good week for the Democrats like they did in 2016. Like the tweet about the town halls showed, the press really planned to give last week to Trump but then Trump went and lost a debate with himself.

    It’s hard to see Trump whining, but  at the same time Trump has been trying various ways to fix the election for months.

  148. 148.

    leeleeFL

    @Kay: I have studiously ignored Grimm for quite a while now.  Because his h–d-on for a Bernie vindication has rendered him completely untrustworthy.  I know the Media is generally not trustworthy if there is money or scandal possible to flog, but he is as transparent as glass and I haven’t got enough years left to entertain even a second of his bull shite

  149. 149.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    What amazes me how is how that whole section of the internet abandoned the civil liberties beat. Trump is federally prosecuting protesters right now with ridiculously exaggerated offenses. The US Marshals and police killed one, and that story- the justification for lethal force-  is hinky as hell. No interest at all from the “civil libertarian Left”.

  153. 153.

    Jeffro

    I know we knock the press a lot (and rightly so) but here’s something that needed to be reported on, and so they did: This Time Around, Undecided Voters Inspire a Special Kind of Scorn.

    L to the OL!

    The humorist David Sedaris, considering the psychology of the undecided voter, once envisioned a scenario on an airplane. A flight attendant comes through the cabin offering passengers a choice of two meals: chicken, or a ”platter of s— with bits of broken glass in it.”
    “To be undecided in this election,” he wrote, “is to pause​ for a moment and then ask how the chick​en is cooked.”
    Sedaris was writing about the choice between then-Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain in 2008 — a bitter election cycle that looks impossibly serene in retrospect. This year, many people see the choice as something like chicken (boiled, unseasoned) vs. flying the plane into a mountainside.

  154. 154.

    Kay

    @leeleeFL:

    OK, an example. The Post reporters who first got the Hunter story wouldn’t put their names on it. Seems like a big thing if you’re on the Hunter Biden beat, right?

    Here’s his Twitter. You’ll find the Fox news story about the supposed verification. I can’t find the story about the Post reporters who wouldn’t put their name on the Biden smear. So, weird omission.

  155. 155.

    artem1s

    @Geminid:

    Grim, Greenwald et al just have it in for the Democratic party

    Grim, Greenwald, Bernie, the stans,et al have it in for anyone who doesn’t subscribe to the notion that we need a messiah to lead us all to the promised land. They didn’t just fuck us in 2016 by splitting the vote, they also pushed the notion that you don’t need any help from the House and Senate to get things done in government.  they believe in Trump’s version of the Presidency. An strong man who will bend everyone to their will. It doesn’t work that way and never has.

    Also, they only care about keeping their grift going.  The more stable the government is the less they can fleece their rubes.

  156. 156.

    TS (the original)

    @HinTN:

    Tennessee is a mere +13 – well below many other states – but there are very few polls, unfortunately they aren’t needed. Will have to wait for the election to see if Wyoming still leads.

    I hope those blue dots can spread. Kennedy & Jimmy Carter won Georgia.

  157. 157.

    Kay

    @Chyron HR:

    We’re having this whole debate about police reform- goes directly to what they supposedly wanted their whole lives- and …they chose to debate “cancel culture”?

    You know who’s covering it obsessively? This guy:

    Radley Balko is an American journalist, author, blogger, and speaker who writes about criminal justice, the drug war, and civil liberties for The Washington Post

    People show you who they are. Balko is the civil libertarian. There seems to be ONE.

  160. 160.

    James E Powell

    @artem1s: 

    they also pushed the notion that you don’t need any help from the House and Senate to get things done in government.

    I recently had a conversation with a few people who are educated but willfully ignorant about politics. “Obama was president for eight years and we still have poor people, so why should I vote for Democrats?” It’s like the right-wing congress, courts, and propaganda machine don’t exist. There is no point talking to such people.

  162. 162.

    TS (the original)

    @James E Powell:

    That version of America is gone forever.

    I never thought there would ever be a trump version of America, so I can’t say forever at this point in time.

  163. 163.

    BruceFromOhio

    @Kay: I’ve been thinking about same for Portman. I’ve lost touch with the state Democratic party since 2016, time to renew that relationship and see what’s happening for 2022.

  165. 165.

    Luciamia

    So if all those Trump voters are waiting till elections day, won’t they get caught up with the crowds and other problems that may still pop up?

  166. 166.

    BruceFromOhio

    @Kay:

    The most undercovered story of this election are the Trump supporters performative, public displays of intimidation in places like where I live. I wish all those thousands of reporters who headed out to small town diners would come back and watch the loud trucks rolling thru town with the confederate and Blue Lives Matter flags waving. It’s not intended to persuade anyone. It’s intended to intimidate.

    THIS THIS THIS. It’s in fucking OHIO this shit is happening.  The whack cultist down on the corner has an visitor occasional visitor with a huge confederate flag waving from the back of his pickup, with “Go ahead, try and take it” emblazoned across the bottom. Alabama or Tennessee it wouldn’t surprise me, but OHIO? Wtf is wrong with these people?

    Cold civil war indeed, Gaia save us all. And this crap isn’t going away because of one election.

  167. 167.

    Barbara

    @Kay: Once upon a time I was a petite, pretty college girl who couldn’t seem to sit alone in a cafe without some guy — young, middle aged, anyone — sitting across from me and trying to draw me into their vision of the world, sometimes (not always) paranoid af. Eventually I must have started to look unreceptive, but it was eye opening to see how crazy people can be, locked into a world view that is deeply twisted. They are just waiting to be harnessed.

  169. 169.

    BruceFromOhio

    @JWR: Like “this train wreck is interesting” versus “this sunrise is interesting.”

    Then there is “this train wreck at sunrise is interesting” which feels like a day ending in ‘y’.

  171. 171.

    Barbara

    @TS (the original): People really fail to understand the deeply entrenched, life long influence of FDR voters on subsequent national elections. Reagan began reversing it, but even Bill Clinton benefited from it. They are almost totally gone and now we have to march through the Armageddon of the similar effect of Reagan voters to get to the other side. Deep breaths.

  172. 172.

    Betty Cracker

    @Luciamia: Yes, and it’s looking like one of those problems might be a huge spike in coronavirus cases in the places Trump most needs to turn out in-person voters. It was just incandescently stupid on multiple levels for Trump to demonize mail-in ballots.  Trump’s political team is far from top-notch, but even those morons must’ve been tearing their hair out when he opened up his big yap on that issue.

    I think he’s afraid he’s going to lose — and he should be; there’s a good chance he will — and decided on MAIL FRAUD as the catch-all excuse that could protect his fragile ego, much like unsubstantiated accusations of VOTER FRAUD are his go-to excuse for losing the popular vote in 2016 by millions.

  173. 173.

    VOR

    @BruceFromOhio:  I see people flying confederate flags on their trucks here in Minnesota too. I have a nephew who wears a Stars and Bars belt buckle. I wonder if these people know which side Minnesota fought on.

    The State of Minnesota still has the flag of a confederate unit which was captured at Gettysburg. The First Minnesota suffered 82% casualties on the 2nd day at Gettysburg holding Cemetery Ridge. Periodically groups from Virginia ask for the return of the flag but the response from Minnesota governors of 3 different political parties has been the same: we paid for it in blood, go suck an egg (paraphrasing).

  175. 175.

    Kay

    Chris Megerian
    @ChrisMegerian
    The president “has plotted with his team on a pre-election promotional campaign to try to convince voters a vaccine is safe, approved and ready for mass distribution — even if none of that is true yet.”

    We’re experiencing a Covid uptick where I live. The majority of the news about it has been around schools- kids are testing positive so the local districts all went to their plan for that, which is quarantine. The public school athletic associations, the various leagues and such, all have different rules so right now two of our high schools have to forfeit play off games because we have covid positive students. We’re just marinating in this stuff daily- the practical realities. It is everywhere.
    The response is to pretend there’s a vaccine?

  176. 176.

    PST

    @Kay:

    I met my middle son at a Barry Bagels in Toledo for coffee yesterday…

    There’s a place I’ve been more than a few times — Sylvania once in a while but mostly Westgate, which is close to my mother-in-law’s. She’s 96, still living in the house in Lincolnshire where she moved as a new bride, so we visit her as often as we can. I usually find an excuse to go to the Packo’s nearby as well. Go Toledo!

  177. 177.

    eric

    @Immanentize: I am assuming the use of “patently” was self sarcasm.

    But i disagree with you and kay: some judges need a pointer word to tell them that this is really the crux of the matter. Sometimes, “clearly” works, sometimes it does not. Clearly, you have never dealt with those sorts of judges ;)

  178. 178.

    tokyokie

    @Matt McIrvin: 

    I recently read a pretty good article about the roots of low Latino voter participation in Texas–there are many reasons for it, the “Latino community” isn’t a monolith, but I get a definite impression that one contributor is just a sense that Texas is hopelessly deep-red in national elections anyway, so their votes won’t matter. That perception may be changing.

    Hispanic babies in cages in the county in which you live can do that.

  179. 179.

    The Moar You Know

    I learned recently that Brazil has no extradition treaty with the US. Is that why Glenn Greenwald lives there? Does it have something to do with underage minors?

    @Princess:  True, yes, and horrifically, yes.

  180. 180.

    Miss Bianca

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    I have been wondering if the “shy” voters are the former Trumpies who are embedded in a vocally Trumpy environment and don’t dare say they are voting for Biden.

    That would be my suspicion. Of course, I live in a really Trumpy area, so maybe that’s just my wishful thinking.//

    Still, ’twill be interesting to see what the actual vote count looks like in my county. My ballot finally came on Friday, so I get to vote today, whee!

  181. 181.

    The Moar You Know

    I was annoyed at the guy behind the counter not because there’s a Q nutter in his store but because she’s supposed to be wearing a mask but then he was nice coming over and dropping off the Rice Krispies treats, but only after nutter was out of the store. Maybe he’s afraid of them. 

    @Kay:  He’s been told not to fuck with them.  I damn near lost my job at Starbucks 18 years ago for throwing out, and calling the cops on, a customer who literally punched another customer in the face and pulled a gun on him, as the recipient of said punch had been having relations with gun guy’s wife.

    I got in trouble.  Not Mr. McPunchy gun guy.  He got a hundred dollar gift card from the company.  I am NOT kidding.

    That was my last ever retail job.  Really brought home how expendable they consider you.

  182. 182.

    Miss Bianca

    @Betty Cracker: I have to remember to utilize the “Loser” gesture the next time I’m tempted to respond when I pass Trumpies. It’s slightly less uncivil than giving them the finger. ; )

  185. 185.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Kay: For a sane government, I’d be applauding this. An outreach campaign to convince people “Oh my god just take the safe, well-tested vaccine when it’s ready” is something that we actually NEED in America.

    In this administration, it’s just a ploy to get people talking about a vaccine in general, and to dupe some into thinking it’s already here or about to be available. No actual public interest at all.

  186. 186.

    stinger

    @Betty Cracker:

    The irony of The Post dump is that it looks like Hunter Biden was under enormous pressure to earn tons of money to support the family

    I haven’t read the dump, but is that part even true? This is a family that was content — and reasonably well off — when Dad was a US Senator. Why would any member of his family need “tons of money”? And why would the onus be on Hunter? Joe could easily cash in if he wanted to.

  188. 188.

    frosty

    @HinTN:  I’m from PA and our state is a dead red mess with a few bright blue spots also. Fortunately for most elections the blue spots are large enough to take the statewide races. But we’ll have a Republican legislature forever.

  189. 189.

    James E Powell

    @Immanentize: 

    In the early days of Lexis – when it had a dedicated terminal – some of us spent a few hours search phrases like that just to see how many documents used “beyond peradventure” “it is hornbook law” ” we need not consider” and so on. Silly law students.

  190. 190.

    Ken

    @stinger: Why would any member of [Biden’s] family need “tons of money”?

    Everyone knows that all presidential candidates owe hundreds of millions of dollars to unnamed lenders. It’s part of the “new normal(ized)” you’ve probably heard about.

  191. 191.

    cain

    @Baud: 
    It’s all part of the playbook – as soon as it looks like the Democrats are in charge – we go back to worrying about the deficit – despite years of spending money. Nobody seemed ot have cared how much the Prez was spending on his golf trips every weekend. Now they are wiping their brow? Get the fuck outta here.

  192. 192.

    Ken

    @frosty: I think all states are a red mess with bright blue spots.  The only exceptions might be RI and Delaware, where the spots of blue are about as big as the state – and I’m not sure about Delaware.

  193. 193.

    J R in WV

    @Betty Cracker: 

    I snapped and gave the “LOSER” sign to roadside Trumpers who were waving Confederate, blue line and Trump flags at passersby in my town this weekend.

    Betty, please help me out. I don’t know what “the loser sign” is — presumably a hand sign? Perhaps involving a middle-finger? Or also perhaps an extended thumb and little finger?

    I dunno.

    Help!!

  195. 195.

    Peale

    @The Moar You Know: Despite what people may have heard, it actually isn’t that easy to get a visa to move to the US from Brazil and it wasn’t until there was finally gay marriage that a spouse could sponsor a same sex spouse. So I don’t know exactly what Glen’s spouse did for a living, but there’s lots of middle class people who don’t want to quit their middle class but expendable jobs in the US so that they can sweep floors in a restaurant somewhere and be paid off the books. Yeah, there’s an age difference between Glen and his spouse, but not one that is soooo big to imply that they started dating when said spouse was underage.  They had settled in Brazil long before Glen turned on Obama in March 2009.

  196. 196.

    Peale

    @The Moar You Know: Despite what people may have heard, it actually isn’t that easy to get a visa to move to the US from Brazil and it wasn’t until there was finally gay marriage that a spouse could sponsor a same sex spouse. So I don’t know exactly what Glen’s spouse did for a living, but there’s lots of middle class people who don’t want to quit their middle class but expendable jobs in the US so that they can sweep floors in a restaurant somewhere and be paid off the books. Yeah, there’s an age difference between Glen and his spouse, but not one that is soooo big to imply that they started dating when said spouse was underage.  They had settled in Brazil long before Glen turned on Obama in March 2009.

  197. 197.

    dnfree

    @opiejeanne:  Which hand works from the point of view of the observer? Doing it backwards would reflect back on the gesture-maker being clueless, right?

  198. 198.

    J R in WV

    @opiejeanne:

    Yeah, thanks.

    Google has a dictionary of hand gestures, who knew?

    I found it mere moments before you posted your helpful directions.

    Seriously, thanks!

    You are one of  my favorite B J commenters, even tho we have argued a little bit late at night. I should just keep to myself after ’round midnight!

  199. 199.

    Yutsano

    @GregMulka:

    Remind me again how devastating the debt from the South Sea bubble has been for jolly old England?

    Still being paid on to this day. So yeah, people need to fucking chill about “THE DEBT!!!” It’s not due tomorrow. Our debt to GDP ratio is still some of the best in the world. So yeah, relax.

  200. 200.

    bluefoot

    @germy: It’s easy to be addicted to chaos when you’re not the one being hurt by it.  Especially if you get off on watching other people get hurt by it and pat yourself on the back for not being one of those hurt.

  201. 201.

    Bill Arnold

    @debbie:

    Can’t we all start trashing Ivanka? It seems only fair.

    We should be gleefully trashing all of the Trump crime family. (A few exceptions; Barron, and perhaps Tiffany.) Trump literally called the Bidens a crime family recently, and it will probably become part of his rally shtick if it hasn’t already.
    I mean, there are serious allegations that the Trump Crime Family laundered billions of dollars for Russian organized crime. On a petty level, they regularly screw contractors and steal from the American taxpayers, and some of that is in violation of black letter law. On a governance level, they killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and they and their fellow rich people/country club members gained personally from these deaths.
    (That last needs a bit of work but it’s arguably true.)
    Etc. This could be carefully crafted for maximum emotion impact and spammed, with variations, everywhere.

  203. 203.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    • @VOR: Thanks for that story. I have never heard that before (about VA asking for the battle flag back. Of course I’ve heard of the heroes of First Minnesota). Good for Minnesota!
  205. 205.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Peale: OK, what is the deal about Glenn whatshisname? I never hear/read about him except here at BJ. Who is he and why does anyone care what he writes?

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