I am absolutely unable to get over this video of @KamalaHarris dancing in the rain in chucks. pic.twitter.com/TD38hUISN2
— Meena Harris (@meenaharris) October 19, 2020
I like leaders who are not afraid of the rain:
So later today, Lockheed-Martin here in Colorado and NASA are live streaming OSIRIS-REx scooping a sample from asteroid Bennu. I’ll try and put up a post around that time if my day doesn’t go sideways.
In other news, a new duck hut is on the way and hilarity will ensue as I try and put it together and the ducks reject it (because my ducks HATE change – I can’t even move their feeding station). There will NOT be a live stream of this event.
Open thread
PsiFighter37
2 weeks to go…coming down the home stretch.
TaMara (HFG)
This made me giggle.
Jeffro
I need to hurry up and go get a pair of Chucks before they’re all sold out.
zhena gogolia
Thanks for the cheery post.
I read this as “duck hunt” and my heart stopped.
We’re worried about the three beautiful chickens we usually see on our walk (two a lovely golden color, one a rich brown). They haven’t been there the last few times. People don’t eat chickens like that, do they?
Another thing I have no control over, like the election.
TaMara (HFG)
I will not apologize, this ad made me feel good. Lead the way Utah:
cain
It is not only Kamala’s birthday – but also my grandmother – who turned 99 today! We had a zoom call with family – she’s still sharp as a tack. My grandfather died at 100 about 10 years ago. They was a huge to do about it when my grandfather turned 100 because it was unheard of that a man who reaches that age would still be married with his spouse – so they were the oldest couple around.
TaMara (HFG)
@cain: That is awesome. Happy birthday to Grandma cain!
cain
@TaMara (HFG):
Did they just do a “I am a mac, I am a PC” commercial? :-)
PsiFighter37
@TaMara (HFG): Easy ad for a Republican to do in a state that he will win by 30-40%.
lowtechcyclist
Happy birthday to my wife’s birthday twin! Tuesday, October 20, 1964 was a very good day.
cain
@PsiFighter37:
But makes the Republican look like a soft moderate who is willing to fraternize with the enemy!
A Ghost to Most
Woot! For our next vice president.
In fun news, it only took us ~20 minutes to close down the comment section in the WaPo article about Lush Rimbaugh ‘s terminal diagnosis.
The mods were deleting 80% of the comments.
MJS
@PsiFighter37: Yep. Plus, if the Republican candidate supports Trump, his words are empty, and his character is suspect and should be attacked. This is how we get Trump – “Oh, my Republican opponent isn’t bad, I just disagree with his policies”, while said policies are designed to degrade everyone who isn’t a white male. Sorry, not digging this.
mad citizen
Happy Birthday Kamala! Like so many here, already voted for you
I think we should have a counter like the old Jerry Lewis telethon. Timpani! We’re over 34 million early votes on ElectProject.
Ken
@TaMara (HFG): I clicked through to see, and the reason they aren’t getting Scott Baio is that the reunion is to support Biden, and Baio’s a Trump supporter. That made me wonder, have there been any cast reunions to support Trump? I haven’t heard of any.
Baud
William Henry Harrison shudders in his grave.
It brings to mind Obama’s iconic rally in the rain on the eve of the 2008 election.
Gin & Tonic
@cain:
Hope you kept your pants zipped.
WaterGirl
TaMara, where did that top photo of Kamala come from? It’s so beautiful.
germy
Geoboy
@Gin & Tonic: Semi-related: “Sorry about taking off my pants at your gender reveal party. I thought everybody was participating.”
cain
@Gin & Tonic: ewwwwwww lol
CaseyL
Happy Birthday, Kamala – and cain’s grandmother!
Whyever not? (*grin*) Make it PPV, and what a great fundraiser that would be!
Do the ducks eventually adjust to the new thing? Do you remove the old thing to, ah, encourage them?
TaMara (HFG)
@WaterGirl: It came from a tweet – from the campaign, I think.
TaMara (HFG)
@CaseyL: Yes, eventually they adjust. The old chicken coop will, hopefully, go to a new home. It’s in okay shape and free to someone who will come get it.
Mary G
The portrait of Kamala and the “Unburdened” video are both phenomenal. Lot of insanely talented people working for Biden/Harris.
mrmoshpotato
@TaMara (HFG): Now we know huts are ducks’ preferred abode. We’ll need pictures.
mrmoshpotato
@cain: ?
WaterGirl
@Mary G: I want to know who the artist is for that beautiful picture of Kamala.
mrmoshpotato
@A Ghost to Most:
germy
KenK
Kamala gets my vote for the chucks, regardless what she’s doing in them, notably ass-kicking ;)
cope
Re: OSIRIS-REx and Bennu, it’s also being covered on NASA TV online or in your cable package if you have it. The TV feed will include a briefing at 3:00 EDT followed by coverage of the smash and grab of Bennu beginning at 5:00 EST. A tricky set of maneuvers has been pre-programmed into the spacecraft as the radio wave travel time one way to OSIRIS-REx is about 18 minutes so no live control of the intrepid robot explorer is possible.
Also, too, they won’t know for about 10 days if they managed to gather up any of Bennu’s surface materials. This will be determined by measuring the mass of OSIRIS-REx. The sample collection mass goals range from a couple of ounces to a couple of pounds.
There won’t be live pics from the process but images should give a good idea if everything went well. There is a secondary collection site if there is an abort of today’s attempt or failure to gather up sufficient samples.
I have followed the exploration of space since I was a kid in the ’50s and ’60s. I remember waiting anxiously for copies of National Geographic or Scientific American to come out with pictures from various Ranger, Pioneer, Mercury and Gemini, missions. Now, I’ll be watching mission control coverage of this ambitious program live from my home. What times we live in…
MisterForkbeard
@mrmoshpotato: The update is that Rush says the treatment is not going well and the cancer has advanced.
germy
Elizabelle
@MisterForkbeard: Being a cruel jackal, I would be good with Rush checking out before Election Day. It could happen.
germy
@Elizabelle:
wouldn’t you like to see him live long enough to see #45 lose and go into exile?
mrmoshpotato
@MisterForkbeard: Not surprising. Beating stage 4 cancer would be a miracle.
KenK
@zhena gogolia: @#4; Another thing I have no control over, like the election.
Well, you can vote and have some measure of control…
mad citizen
@Elizabelle: I watched Rush’s two minute video last night, and based on that he’s not knock knock knocking on hell’s door yet. My tweet to one of his supporter’s tweet was “Maybe that thing on his head is making him ill. I’d get that checked out.”
His voice is a shell of itself, pre-drug abuse. So much hypocrisy. I remember back in his early days he would talk endlessly about personal responsibility, how that made his side so much better.
Elizabelle
@germy: That is the consolation.
My mom had lung cancer, and patients can go out really quickly at the end, although who knows where Rush is in his progression?
This mean jackal would be fine if he does not make it to cast a vote, but I’m good with more time for him to witness the debacle he and others foisted upon the Republican party. May they all go down hard.
For anyone who thinks this is classless of me: people are not going to be any kinder about Rupert Murdoch. Nor was there widespread grief at Roger Ailes’ fall (metaphoric and the physical one that took him out).
These men proved a worse threat than the Nazis, in all honesty. Because they are carving out the country from within. Destroying its institutions, and families even.
To hell with them all. And soon. Murdoch must be called to account for the UK and Australia, too.
I will be kind and wish Rush the best of palliative care. But: time’s up.
pacem appellant
Here’s the link for the OSIRIS-REx mission. Looks like the collection event will take place at 2:50pm PDT.
https://www.asteroidmission.org/
Elizabelle
It amuses me the WaPost even opened that story to reader comments. They usually don’t. Someone was asleep at the switch.
Amir Khalid
It’s occurred to me that the Trump campaign might have tried to play up the contrast between Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in age, vigour, and sex appeal. You know, insinuating that she might upstage him or be plotting against him. If Joe and Kamala are who we think they are, it certainly wouldn’t work; but it’s there to be tried and I kind of wonder why the Trumpistas haven’t gone there.
By the way, my Bluetooth mouse just died on me. I need to go get me another one tomorrow. Feh.
CaseyL
@zhena gogolia: If they’re hens kept for eggs, then they’re not for eating – until they get too old to lay eggs, after which what happens to them depends on whether they’re considered pets or livestock.
If they’re free-ranging, and the neighborhood has any predators, then one or more of them may have become a coyote’s lunch.
germy
Elizabelle
@germy: LOL!
zhena gogolia
@KenK:
I already did. But I live in one of the states where my vote doesn’t matter.
zhena gogolia
@CaseyL:
They usually are in a coop, although sometimes they are walking around during the day. I doubt that they were let out at night — we have coyotes and foxes.
FelonyGovt
This is a great day! It’s my 44th wedding anniversary as well as Kamala’s birthday.
germy
Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancee and pro-democracy group he founded sue Saudi crown prince in his slaying
MisterForkbeard
@Amir Khalid: They did go there. There was a whole subplot for awhile about how Kamala’s going to take over, and there’s a few versions of this:
CaseyL
@zhena gogolia: Maybe you could ask whoever lives there? Just say that you enjoyed seeing the chickens during your walks, and wonder what happened to them?
Someone on the street behind my townhouse complex used to keep chickens in their yard. The hens would come into our complex because some of us put food out for squirrels, which the ladies were happy to eat. I loved seeing them. I even got a kick out of the Chief Hen pecking at my storm door (“bam! bam! BAM!”) when I wasn’t quick enough to put the food out.
Then they all vanished, and I did go to their house to ask about them. Apparently someone in the neighborhood complained, so the hens got shipped out to someone in a more rural area. (At least, that’s what I was told.)
mad citizen
@Elizabelle: This is well said Elizabelle. I’m on board with No Quarter for these traitor-grifters. The song was a John Paul Jones showcase for Zeppelin; I’m not sure who wrote the words, but an excerpt:
Walking side-by-side with death
The devil mocks their every step, ooh
The snow drives back the foot that’s slow
The dogs of doom are howling more
They carry news that must get through
To build a dream for me and you, oh, oh, oh
They choose the path where no one goes
They hold no quarter
They ask no quarter
Kent
@Amir Khalid:
Oh yeah. In the fever swamp evangelical Christian forums where I sometimes lurk the conspiracy theory du jour is that Biden is a pawn to insert Kamala Harris into the White House and that the reason Nancy Pelosi is exploring the 25th Amendment is so that they can remove puppet Joe and install Kamala as president after the election.
Umm…..OK. And why would that be a bad thing you ask?
It’s because white evangelicals can’t tolerate the notion of either a woman or black person leading them. It just goes unsaid because no one even has to say it.
zhena gogolia
@CaseyL:
Oh, right, they were sent to live on a farm! Like my childhood hamster . . .
I’m afraid to ask. I think I’ll just let it ride. They were clearly well cared for, so I’ll hope for the best. My favorite days would be when there was half a watermelon in their coop.
Elizabelle
@Kent: If those g-damn evangelicals think Biden is senile, to hell with them, too. Faith in something they cannot see, and no ability to evaluate what is right out there, not hidden from them. At all.
A friend who is a practicing Christian thinks the fake Christianists have damaged themselves and are not going to recover from this.
Need to look up what finally got folks to pipe down after all the Jonathan Edwards stuff of the 19th century … hopefully it was not the Civil War …
Baud
@Kent:
They’ve evolved from thinking Dems were gong to install Hillary as president. Progress!
mrmoshpotato
@germy: Terrible! LMAO!
mrmoshpotato
@FelonyGovt: Congrats!
TaMara (HFG)
@cope: I just included this great rundown in the live feed post (up around 4:30 edt). Thanks!!!
Ken
I’m sure their fever dream continues by claiming that after Biden steps down, Harris will name Clinton as her VP, then step down in turn. Then probably Clinton appoints AOC as VP.
Kent
Christianity is collapsing in epic numbers here in the US. I noticed that when I taught in Waco TX. Youth from hard core Baptist families were rejecting the anti-LGBT stuff in a big way. Not all of them, but large numbers. And as a science teacher I had huge interest in Darwin and evolution because doing a book report on say Darwin was a way for kids to rebel against their fundie families.
I think (and hope) that going all in for Trump will have irreparably damaged the evangelical church in this country.
Elizabelle
@Kent: I think so.
When the rest of us can see that the calf is not even golden …
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: That’s a horrible way to look at your vote. It always matters. If for no other reason than that a lot of people risked life and limb, prison, and more to ensure that people have the right to vote. There are people today being denied their right to vote and treating it as though it doesn’t matter insults them. We should not forget that.
Sorry for jumping on you but it is important.
lowtechcyclist
Evangelicalism has been taking quite a hit in recent years anyway, but supporting Trump through family separations at the border and putting the kids in cages while supposedly being “pro-family,” and being unfazed by hundreds of thousands of mostly preventable Covid-19 deaths while supposedly being “pro-life,” has exposed them as an empty shell (or “whitewashed sepulcher” in words they’d recognize) of a dead faith that’s really just a rallying point for their tribal identity at this point.
I expected evangelicalism to have a long, gradual decline as more young people left it than stayed, but I’m thinking it may not be so slow anymore.
Jess
I got to vote today on her birthday and mine!
Jess
@Kent: Love this!
evodevo
@Elizabelle: The talibangelicals are hemorrhaging membership in increasing numbers every year. They keep coming up with strategies for dealing with this problem, but refuse to open their eyes and see that the problem is them and their rigid cultural biases. Da Yoots are deserting them by the carload, and not coming back, and their only answer is to Jeezus even harder and double down. In former times, a bad economy and political stress would increase church attendance…not happening nowadays, for some reason…
Elizabelle
@Jess: Happy Birthday, Jess.
May you be voting for years and years. And for Kamala again, too!