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I really should read my own blog.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

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Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

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You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Biden-Harris 2020 / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Avengers Assemble!

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Avengers Assemble!

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And if anybody deserves to say I told you so…

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234Comments

  3. 3.

    Baud

    I’m pleasantly surprised how little they’ve relied on Obama this campaign.  Speaks to our strength and bodes well for our future.

  5. 5.

    MomSense

    Oh my god Rocky Mountain Mike has some really funny songs.
    Tonight is voter protection training!

  7. 7.

    debbie

    I don’t know when the screenshot of Hillary’s speech was grabbed, but look at the number of people tweeting about it! ?

  8. 8.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    Anyone notice Grand Duchess Anastasia Ivanka’s absence from daddy’s triumphant campaign trail.

  9. 9.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I managed to stay in bed all night this time. Still woke up 3 or 4 times but was able to fall back asleep each time.

    So just Blch.

  12. 12.

    WV Blondie

    A little hidden symbolism in the new ad? That shot of the little town on the bluff where two rivers come together is Harpers Ferry, the site of John Brown’s raid (and plenty of fighting during the Civil War).

  15. 15.

    hueyplong

    Biden abides. I don’t know about you, but I take comfort in the fact that he’s out there, takin’ ‘er easy for all us sinners.

    Well, that about wraps it up….

  16. 16.

    p.a.

    Not his style, but would love Joe to troll by making a few calls, getting some campaign workers & camera into SCOTUS ‘big room’ w tape measures & blue tape. Put tape on bench: new chair… new chair… new chair… new chair

  22. 22.

    Patricia Kayden

    "In fact, Ms. Stahl had worn a mask at the White House up until the start of her taping with Mr. Trump, including when she first greeted the president … The CBS crew was tested for the coronavirus before entering the White House."https://t.co/oKUOO29sDo— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 21, 2020

  27. 27.

    Betty Cracker

    Hubby and I were watching baseball last night when the Sam Elliot-narrated ad came on. The mister is a “normie” who doesn’t follow politics closely. He said Biden should run nothing but that ad from now to November 3.

    We agreed it has broad appeal but might be especially effective with older, more moderate voters. As Cheryl R observed on Twitter, Biden is reclaiming patriotic symbols. Trump has spent four years defiling them (literally humping the flag!), so that’s a visceral shift.

    I like the “Unite” ad, though it might give some folks around here the vapors because it alludes to the fact that Biden wasn’t everyone’s first choice. :) I think that nod to competing agendas makes it all the more effective for the audience it targets.

  29. 29.

    There go two miscreants

    @Matt McIrvin: Yeah, I watched that one yesterday and at first I couldn’t believe I was hearing music — looked around to see if I’d left a radio on. Quite stupid to think that any musical accompaniment (scary or otherwise) made sense for this kind of interview.

  30. 30.

    MattF

    Occurs to me that Obama having won a second term must really infuriate Trump. Although it means that Trump will never admit defeat.

  32. 32.

    zhena gogolia

    @Betty Cracker: 
    That doesn’t give me the vapors at all.
    What gives me the vapors is when every single goddamn mention of Biden has to start with “Biden isn’t perfect, but . . .”
    News flash: Harris (my first choice), Warren, Sanders aren’t perfect either.

  36. 36.

    Kay

    Chris Megerian
    @ChrisMegerian
    How the president spends his time these days — A senior White House official said Trump had told aides he wanted to go after Stahl and brainstormed ideas after the session with a group of aides in the Oval Office.

  40. 40.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Well, it’s not like there are more pressing issues facing the country than Leslie Stahl’s impertinence!

  42. 42.

    eric

    @Betty Cracker:  I heard that line differently. I heard that line directed at a certain subset voters who prefer a different candidate — disaffected republicans, more so than disaffected democrats.

  43. 43.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers was fidelio

    On my way to vote. Have snacks and a folding chair, knitting and reading material.

  45. 45.

    Betty Cracker

    @eric: In the Unite add? That line was illustrated by shots of Sanders, Warren, Yang and Buttigieg. But if disaffected Reps want to glom onto it, we’ll take ’em! :)

  48. 48.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Feeling sentimental and a bit melancholy today. It’s the 75th birthday of my younger siblings, twins Joyce and Steve. For years, we’d talked about some kind of family reunion to celebrate the milestone birthday; obviously, 2020 had other ideas. They’re in earlier time zones than I am (Steve in Prescott, AZ and Joyce in Aurora, CO) so I’ll wait until evening to call them. Missing my birth family, which doesn’t happen all that often.

  49. 49.

    Quinerly

    @Johnnybuck: glad I read before I typed “Liberal, Kansas.” I’ve actually been through it on one of my trips to New Mexico. It’s not on my normal route, though.
    DOG, I miss my old life of 4000 plus miles road trips.

  50. 50.

    Betty Cracker

    Did y’all see the NYT report that dropped last night on Trump’s business dealings with China? That might complicate one of the planned attack lines. Turns out Trump paid far more in taxes in China than he paid in the USA.

  52. 52.

    TS (the original)

    I lost a friend today because she came to coffee & said Donald Trump deserved a second term. What an amazing man he was.

    I was stunned, then lost it. He has turned me into a horrible person. I don’t like who I am any more.

  59. 59.

    Barbara

    @Kay: And yet those courtiers, I mean “officials,” are probably leaning forward in their chairs breathlessly praising every idea as just brilliant.

  62. 62.

    Peale

    That uptick in October on who will handle corona virus better is the exasperated hope of voters who thought that once Trump got sick he’d finally take covid seriously. Those were the shy Trump voters who are looking for an excuse to vote for him again.

  63. 63.

    Kay

    @Barbara:

    It’s just all so silly. They really sat around and spent time planning an attack on her? And what was the plan, anyway? All I saw was Trump tweeting insane ranty sentence fragments. It took more than one person to come up with that?

  68. 68.

    Betty Cracker

    @Immanentize: Schmidt says if Trump goes down hard, the cue-a-nun kooks and “entertainment” wing will take over the party. He’s probably right, at least in the short term.

    One thing Schmidt said that I really appreciate but do not think will come to pass: any Republicans who have been complicit in Trump’s destruction have disqualified themselves from future presidential runs.

    Should be true. Almost certainly isn’t. Little Marco will pirouette on a dime. All of them will, and the money bags who actually control the party will embrace them gratefully.

  70. 70.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Trump’s broadsides against science put GOP governors in a bind

    Republican governors are pleading for basic public health precautions as their states face a new wave of coronavirus cases, even as President Donald Trump downplays the pandemic’s severity and tells people to move on with their lives.

    The clashing messages come as large swaths of the country experience uncontrolled spread that state officials fear could swamp their already strapped health systems. They’re putting out calls for volunteers to help staff hospitals, placing new limits on public gatherings and urging, or in some cases mandating, the wearing of masks.
    ……………………….
    The push by Republican governors whose states are in danger of being overrun by a new wave of infections and hospitalizations reflects the disconnect between politicians who are fighting the virus’ real effects on the ground and Trump’s reelection campaign, which is trying to project optimism that the country is turning the corner on infections, even though the statistics don’t back him up.
    …………………………….
    But with less than two weeks until the election, the president has insisted that coronavirus concerns are exaggerated, called the government’s leading infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci an “idiot” and a “disaster” and relied more heavily on Scott Atlas — a coronavirus task force member who backs protecting vulnerable populations while loosening nearly all Covid-related restrictions and letting the virus spread unfettered among healthy people.
    ……………………….
    Trump’s message — delivered at closely packed, largely mask-free rallies — has left local health experts begging his campaign to skip their state.

  71. 71.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: I picture Trump giving out orders — have her arrested!  Freeze her bank accounts!  Plant drugs!  And his henchpeople replying:

    “We’re on it, boss!”

    Preferably in the high, NY accented voices of the Zoo guys who were sent to retrieve the BAD leopard in Bringing Up Baby.

  75. 75.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @TS (the original): I don’t think you did nothing wrong. If anything, getting angry when someone says something obscene to you validates your worth as a normal and compassionate human being. It’s not our obligation to make idiots who vote for Trump comfortable.

  76. 76.

    Peale

    @Immanentize: yep. I really do want revenge on the rural people who want to make my life as miserable as theirs. If ACA is overturned and we need a replacement passed, I would not at all cry if it contained no funding to keep rural hospitals afloat. Why waste money on people who won’t take common sense steps like wearing a mask? I’m getting tired of having to live in fear that the next time they’ll cough up an even more vile candidate than Trump. I’m going from your standard bog liberal democrat to  full on “you know that Pol Pot branch of Stalinism might be worth exploring”.

  81. 81.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: @Immanentize: I feel the same here. If you watch it (3 mins) what he says is that while right now there are GOPers who are putting some distance between themselves and trump (Sasse, Cornyn,…) the party itself will double down on the crazy with more Qanon etc candidates running and winning post trump. That they will wholly embrace the election fraud conspiracies and worse.

  82. 82.

    Immanentize

    @Betty Cracker: I agree with Schmidt — what he is describing is a process of distillation — fewer Republicans who are all really nuts.  A 30% party.  Who still might have significant power in the Senate, so why change?

    As for collaborators not being able to serve in office?  That will be up to us.

  84. 84.

    Baud

    @Peale:

    The most Republican house district in the country is still 1/3 Democratic.  That’s the hostage problem we face in trying to go the vendetta route.

  85. 85.

    geg6

    @TS (the original):

    You are a good person who is stunned to find out that his/her friends are monsters and like other, more evil monsters.  You are justified in your reaction.  Think of the over 500 children (that we know of) who were torn from their parents/relatives and who will now never be reunited with them because we have no idea who or where their parents are or who we have lost track of in the foster care system.  That alone should convince you not to feel bad about losing that “friend.”

  88. 88.

    Kay

    @Ken:

    The Democrats where I live are incredibly risk averse (understandably) and all they want is for it to hold, but I think there’s the potential for it to get bigger. They tend to look only at the downside of uncertainty but there’s possible upside too.

  91. 91.

    Baud

    @Kay: Biden isn’t going to take a “risk” to make the wave bigger.  He’s just going to do what he’s been doing but try to reach more people.  His steadiness in staying within himself has brought him to this point, and it’s not going to change two weeks out.

  93. 93.

    narya

    @OzarkHillbilly: I’m losing sympathy for them. As they might say in a farm state, you reap what you sow.

    @Betty Cracker: This is definitely one of my fears–but I’m most worried that they will just trash as much as they can, and stuff as much cash in their pockets as possible, which just makes the cleanup that much harder. It’s become the SOP: wreck everything, and then we have to clean everything up in two years, because they will take back a House of Congress somehow. I think the only thing that could work would be to call it all out–this is taking longer because the previous admin put us in this spot and repair takes time.

  95. 95.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: Well, he is spending money to expand the possibilities (like in Texas) which really might help in the State legislative races there.  Biden is staying the course for his campaign, but his campaign is expanding Democratic victory opportunities.

    I’m starting to have 2018 feelings.  Maybe too much coffee?

  96. 96.

    narya

    @TS (the original): Jumping on the bandwagon. “So you approve of separating children from their parents and then losing the paperwork?” “So you think it’s okay that you paid more in taxes than he did? And [as of yesterday] paid more in taxes to China than to the US?” I’m sorry for your loss, because loss is always hard.

  98. 98.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Kay:

    It’s just all so silly. They really sat around and spent time planning an attack on her? 

    Hey now.  Planning on more whining like the stupid, shithead babies that they are is planning for this Soviet shitpile mobster manbaby and the rest of this criminal trash.

    Give them some credit for sticking with what they know.

  99. 99.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: I do think polling has improved since 2008/2012 because there is more of it and there are more overt poll watchdogs.  Also, reaching cell phone users and considering voter education have improved outcomes.  It might even be a marketplace success story — especially when outfits like 538 started rating poll accuracy.  Not an exact science, but improving I think.

  102. 102.

    jimmiraybob

    @Immanentize: 

    “Although I am certain it is possible, it’s hard for me to imagine a further bend around which they might go.”

    It’s a circular thing.

  103. 103.

    Barbara

    @Immanentize: This has certainly been the pattern in California and Virginia, where the crazy has become ultra concentrated.  Sasse’s brand of pious “common sense” seems destined for electoral annihilation, but it is an ecosystem in which demagogues like Tom Cotton will likely thrive.

  104. 104.

    Kay

    Sean T at RCP
    @SeanTrende
    ·1h
    A lot of the rural white voters without college degrees that Trump is hoping to turn out have sons, grandsons, nephews and neighbors like Hunter. The attempt to portray him as a crackhead is poisonous, on many levels.

    So, so true. The Ohio legislature created a special “grandparent guardian” fast track probate court process that can be filed without an attorney because we had so many grandparents caring for their grandchildren- the children of drug addicted parents.

  106. 106.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: Exactly.  The hope is (from my comfy blue seat in indigo MA) that the distillation process will open opportunities for Democrats in your state (and others).  Or, like what happened in reverse in Texas in the 80s-90s, former Democrats might start seeing takeover opportunities in the Republican primaries overwhelming the husk of the Republican party in some states.

  110. 110.

    Barbara

    @Kay: They don’t know their own supporters. It is a form of celebrity culture that is wholly unidirectional. No idea whether it really matters because it has so many cultish and tribal aspects to it.

  111. 111.

    Gin & Tonic

    @geg6: Even Frankie understands that “marriage” is a civil contract issue, which the state allows religious institutions to administer in some instances. But just as I don’t need Church blessing to sign a lease or take on a mortgage, I don’t need it to marry someone. The more people realize that the better.

  112. 112.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Baud:  that was shrewd. Allowed him to benefit from Obama nostalgia without looking like a cut-rate substitute.

  113. 113.

    Baud

    @Immanentize:

    Yeah, but Republican voters turned off by Qanon and Proud Boys will still vote conservative, so we’ll have to deal with the people they vote into office from inside the tent.  But it’s the only way forward because I don’t see how the GOP rights its ship.

  114. 114.

    Bobby Thomson

    @John S.: the usual suspects are about to cancel Sam Elliott but he is catnip for a certain – cough – WW – cough – target audience.

  118. 118.

    Emma from FL

    @Gin & Tonic: I think you’ll find Father Francis’ point is primarily to protect the Church by creating a path for gay Catholics to remain inside the precinct, so to speak. Unlike the die-hards, he can count with the best statisticians. But I hope to Jesus he’s still living with the nuns that make his food personally.

  119. 119.

    Kay

    @Barbara:

    It really stuck out in the debate for me, not for the active drug addicts but for all the parents who have lost one. There are so many older people who have lost their grown children to drug addiction here- deaths. I know NINE and that’s without people I know thru the law practice.

    I know one family who lost their adult son and then HIS teenage son.

  120. 120.

    Betty Cracker

    @Dupe1970: By “normie” I mean he doesn’t pay much attention to politics. We agree on issues and candidates 95% or more of the time. He’s bemused by how obsessively I follow politics, as if it were a weird hobby like ghost hunting. :)

  121. 121.

    Salty Sam

    @Betty Cracker: Schmidt says if Trump goes down hard, the cue-a-nun kooks and “entertainment” wing will take over the party.

    I’m looking forward to the Sarah Palin Comeback Tour!

  122. 122.

    Citizen Alan

    @OzarkHillbilly:  It includes me to down here in Mississippi. And I still wish the democrats would rain hellfire down upon us when they win. They should never have allowed this shithole state back into the Union after reconstruction.

  124. 124.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Betty Cracker:

    As Cheryl R observed on Twitter, Biden is reclaiming patriotic symbols.

    I find myself seeing the “thin blue line” version of the US flag as a desecration. It and the Trump flag are common enough that just flying the red, white and blue could become a liberal symbol.

  125. 125.

    narya

    @OzarkHillbilly:  Yeah, i was thinking of that (and you, actually). I mean the governors, specifically–I have some faith that folks like yourself are able to take steps to protect yourselves, though I’m sure it is a much, much heavier lift than here in Blueland.

  126. 126.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Besides the debate, has Biden done anything overt about the addiction issue to each those Ohio and midwest voters?  Not a criticism, just curious.

  127. 127.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: pre covid, I was going to *Franklin Co Dem party meetings and fund raisers. We’re trying, tho I have to admit there was something of a naive “hope springs eternal” vibe to them.

    *because Washington Co apparently doesn’t have a DEM party anymore, or at least not one that wants me as a member

  128. 128.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: I just realized — Campos vote count anticipates 20 million more votes in this year’s election?  With Trump getting 3 million more than last time?   Seems unlikely to me.

  129. 129.

    Ken

    @Gin & Tonic: I think he’s still drawing a distinction between the civil contract and marriage, which is considered a sacrament by the Catholic church.  I don’t think we’ll see that sacrament extended to gay weddings, or even smaller steps such as allowing priests to officiate at them, or allowing them to be held in the church (the building, I mean).

  131. 131.

    Immanentize

    @Baud: So a possibility is that conservo-Dems will slowly take over the rump Republican party leaving us with a true Center left party and a Center party.

    Ok, pass the bong.

  132. 132.

    Emma from FL

    @Baud: Why do you think the damned institution still manages such outsized influence? Someone always comes along to push it.

  134. 134.

    geg6

    @Kay:

    Same here in Western PA.  So many white, rural/suburban families impacted.  They loved their kids, too, just like Uncle Joe.

  137. 137.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I haven’t seen anything. It is on the radar screen for Dems though. I once went to a town hall style event for Sherrod Brown and it was “about the ACA” and he spent the ENTIRE time on the addiction and mental health treatment parts and this is in a Trump 65% county.

    Biden is good at those “look at the camera, speak directly to voters” moments. I wonder if an ad where he talks about how addiction has affected his family would be effective. I just cannot describe to you how sad the parents of addicts are, it is torture for them and it goes on and on and on. Maybe it’s too raw and he doesn’t want to do it, which is understandable.

  138. 138.

    Baud

    @Immanentize: 

    I don’t know. The rump 27% is still a lot of voters for a two party system to manage when one party (ours) rejects them entirely. Supposedly, minority men are slowly moving to the GOP column, so it’s possible the two parties will eventually be divided more on gender than on race.

  139. 139.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @OzarkHillbilly: To the extent Schmidt** is correct, all of us in the GOP delenda est camp need to take whatever time is needed to recharge the batteries after November 3, and then return to the fight – the 2022 Senatorial map is favorable & it is entirely possible that one last push will cart the Global Oligarchy Party off to the dumpster of History while the crazies and the principled conservatives*** have at one another to duke out what sort of starboard-leaning opposition party emerges from the smoking rubble.

    ** A juvenile trick one of my HS classmates back in the 60s showed me – we’d get free brown-paper book covers reverse-printed in dark blue with ads for various items, & one year the lead ad was for Schmidt’s bread – a little coloring-in of every other letter with a Bic and wallah! (Don’t recall if they suspended him or just took him around the back of the school & shot him.//)

    *** All 12 of them. Maybe 13…

  140. 140.

    Betty Cracker

    @Matt McIrvin: I agree completely. In my redneck o’ the woods, there are lots of flags desecrated with a “blue line” and a few American flags that have been defiled with Trump’s hideous visage. I’ve never been one to attach much significance to a colored piece of cloth, but I find that downright offensive.

  141. 141.

    geg6

    @Ken:

    Agreed, but it’s really something for this long time former Catholic to even see this much support for same sex couples from a pope.

  142. 142.

    Emma from FL

    @Ken: I will bet money in that sooner or later it will turn into “a priest may not officiate but  will be able to offer a post-ceremony blessing”. Unless of course Francis has a “heart attack” and we get one of the reactionaries in.

  143. 143.

    Barbara

    @Emma from FL:

    I think you’ll find Father Francis’ point is primarily to protect the Church by creating a path for gay Catholics to remain inside the precinct

    More like, the point is primarily to protect the Church by creating a path for Catholics under the age of 30 to continue being receptive to remaining within the Church.  Discrimination against gay men and women is a huge turn off to many people, of course, but it is a total non-starter for the rising generation, who will not remain within an institution that is so hostile to gay people.  Even 10 or more years ago, when I was actually active in a church, I heard this quite frequently from people, that when their children got to the age of 15 or 16 they simply refused to continue participating in any church activities because of the way the church denigrates gay people.

  144. 144.

    Marcopolo

    @Immanentize: Idunno, if the Rethuglican party’s path is a spiral ramp down to Hell there are an infinity of turns/bends–I mean there’s no bottom, right?

  145. 145.

    Jager

    @mrmoshpotato: 
    My niece is an ICU Doc in Sioux Falls. My sweet niece and her colleagues have a long list of intrusive tests planned for Governor Noem if she shows up at the hospital.

  146. 146.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: Interesting if it shakes out that way. Since patriarchy and white supremacy are so intertwined, it’s hard to gauge the potential effect, but my feeling is it doesn’t bode well. What do you think?

  147. 147.

    Immanentize

    @Betty Cracker: The blue line flags aren’t just a normal flag with a blue line — they are black and white.  And the blue line separates the top from the bottom.  They are the confederate battle flag replacement.

    ETA. I hate it so.

  148. 148.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Immanentize: I’m starting to have 2018 feelings. Maybe too much coffee?

    I’ve been deep in the database weeds, since early autumn 2017, with our state Democratic Party.

    The pattern I saw in the 2018 election cycle was that women, up and down the age and geographical ranges, turned out en masse to volunteer.

    The pattern I see in 2020 is that men are joining them.

    This election is about Determination – in more than one sense of the word.

  149. 149.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    @Gin & Tonic: One of the best quotes I saw about this was from the great Mil Millington. (When people asked him why he and his girlfriend hadn’t got married after being together so long and having two kids)  “Why are people so obsessed with a marriage license? I’ve got news for you if you don’t have a funeral you’re still dead, besides we spent the money we would have spent on a wedding on a loft conversion”

  150. 150.

    NotMax

    @Betty Cracker – @MattMcIrvin

    Nitpick. I opt for the term defacement as opposed to desecration.

    Sacred carries too much baggage as referring to something connected with or dedicated to a deity, a condition inapplicable to secular symbols.

  153. 153.

    clay

    @Immanentize:

     A 30% party.  Who still might have significant power in the Senate, so why change?

    Senate, and the judiciary.  The Trump/McConnell judges are going to be striking down good legislation for years to come.  Republicans won’t need to win national mandates to get what they want, so again… why change?

  156. 156.

    H.E.Wolf

    @mrmoshpotato: Off topic: I saw your kind reassurance in yesterday’s comments, many hours after the fact – and wanted to thank you and reassure you, in turn, that I’d read the original comment as complimentary, so no worries!

    Headed offline again for a while… together, we are going to sweep these monstrous creatures out of power. Elijah Cummings, John Lewis, and RBG are in our vanguard.

  158. 158.

    Ken

    @Baud: Sounds like the premise for a science-fiction story.  “Historians are divided on the origins of the uniquely American custom of women strangling their male children at birth….”

  159. 159.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker: 

    It’s hard to predict based on small and recent trends. The heavy support the Dems get from people of color has helped keep this country afloat. That said, it’s not a sign of a healthy system that the makeup of the two parties is so racially different. Non-whites deserve to have parties competing for them just like whites do. In that sense, I hope things do change. Parties divided by gender aren’t much better, but I suspect it wouldn’t be as skewed as the racial division has been.

  161. 161.

    Jeffro

    @Baud:  He must have Texas turning blue to get to 375. Do-able!

    I keep landing somewhere around 350 EVs for Biden/Harris.

  162. 162.

    Barbara

    @Immanentize: It’s really hard to see it. The real unknown is, what happens with all these wealthy donors who hate losing almost as much as they hate regulation? Where do they go if they are not inclined to simply sit it out?

  163. 163.

    TS (the original)

    @zhena gogolia:

    @The Thin Black Duke:

    @mrmoshpotato:

    And everyone else:

    Thank you for all the replies, but now I am thinking about this for days. I lost my temper and was somewhat incoherent in public –  and I have no idea how to overcome acting like this. It is giving validity to the way trump behaves – and causes me more grief than anyone else.

  165. 165.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay: I suspect he is still a father and being protective of his son. No matter how hard the GOP tries to drag Hunter into the election, Joe won’t go there.

  166. 166.

    Bobby Thomson

    @Immanentize: no, that sounds about right.  Rednecks who were lukewarm on Trump four years ago are all in now, but at the same time even more people who didn’t bother voting for Clinton are now scared shitless.

  167. 167.

    Jeffro

    @OzarkHillbilly: between Election Day and the Biden Inauguration, we all need to push, HARD, on just how bad the pandemic numbers have gotten under trumpov.  Especially with this not-really-a-3rd-wave.  It’s just out of control, and it means that Biden and the new Congress are going to have to spend a lot of money throughout the spring.

    It really needs to be the message: just like W wrecked the economy, trumpov wrecked the nation’s health AND the economy.

  168. 168.

    TS (the original)

    @narya:

    It’s easy after the event to think of what you should have said. I know what I should have done/said – maybe it will help next time. I am just a parcel of misery. sorry

  169. 169.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Betty Cracker: My wife was that kind of “normie” once. She knew she was going to vote straight-Dem on Election Day and didn’t see the point in spending hours every day reading about politics.

    Trump changed that. Now she’s often telling me the latest outrage (usually via Slate) before I read it on BJ.

  170. 170.

    MomSense

    @Immanentize:

    I think the big problem is that there really aren’t many policy differences within the Republican Party.  Trump is a crass spokesman who doesn’t shroud the bigotry, misogyny, and racism in principled conservatism bullshit.  What would be different post trump?  The only thing may be the Q crap but they’ve tolerated lizard people, obama on or from mars, birtherism, agenda 21, and other insane conspiracies for years.

  171. 171.

    Immanentize

    @Barbara: They could be the power to fix the party.  But they have such different agendas.  The Kochs and the Adelsons of the country are not seeking the same results.  It is a coalition of $$$, not a unified goal of resources.  I don’t think they can put Humpty together again.

  172. 172.

    Jeffro

    @Matt McIrvin:It and the Trump flag are common enough that just flying the red, white and blue could become a liberal symbol.

    In Virginia, there are lots of folks with ‘tea party’ vanity license plates on their cars.  My son asked me once what the Democratic plates looked like, and I told him “regular license plates are Democratic plates”.  He liked that a lot.

  173. 173.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Jeffro:

    It really needs to be the message: just like W wrecked the economy, trumpov wrecked the nation’s health AND the economy. 

    AND our alliances AND our standing in the world AND our ability to travel AND livelihoods AND our ability to get a good night’s sleep AND…

  175. 175.

    mad citizen

    I found this Princeton site the other day–seem to be using some analysis to get to their election predictions.  For a few days they have had Biden at 355 EVs.  It’s interesting they have the Senate 53 D and 47 R.

    https://election.princeton.edu/electoral-college-map/

    I also am skeptical Trump receives more votes this time than in 2016.  Months ago I had an 80 million number in my head–thought Biden should have announced it as a goal.  Turnout is amazing so far.  ElectProject counter about to go over 40 million early votes

    Haven’t worked out what it means for vote totals, but I hope for a bloodbath and that Trump ends up around 38-39%.  If that happens Biden is probably above 355 EVs.  Texas is a huge swing.

  176. 176.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Litlebritdifrnt: It wasn’t for the marriage license that I married my wife. It was the fact that without it, my pension would go away if I died. I figured after tolerating my ass for so many years, my wife deserved that much at least. There are a lot of little legal benefits to married couples that cohabiting people don’t get.

  177. 177.

    Immanentize

    @TS (the original): in my faith tradition, it is known as a sin against charity.  I feel it every day these days and am shamed by it myself.  Seeing it as such (a bad way to think/be) is the key to overcoming it.  Don’t be hard on yourself!  So many are feeling just like you.  But, because of Covid, I’ve had no real opportunity to blow up in the real, which I certainly would have.

  180. 180.

    Jeffro

    @Baud:Non-whites deserve to have parties competing for them just like whites do.

    But the parties have competed for non-whites’ votes – the Democrats have offered progress, the Republicans have offered ‘get back in your place’ racism.  When the Republicans lose the racism, then they’ll be back in competition for folks’ votes.

  183. 183.

    Barbara

    @TS (the original): Be kind to yourself.

    When you take self-defense lessons, one thing instructors stress is that attackers are relying on your innate sense of what counts as reasonable behavior.  If you are nice, people are nice to you.  You have to ditch that, because someone who is threatening you has demonstrated beyond debate that they don’t play by those rules.

    The parallel for us is that we set a high goal of civility and empathy for ourselves in how we treat others, including those who gleefully hurt other people and couldn’t give a flying fuck about what we think.  I have a cousin who simply cannot stop finding excuses for Trump and is one of those who keeps accusing others of forcing him to take up weapons against them.   I have another cousin who told me he thought my FB postings about how to flatten the curve, wear masks, etc., were hilarious.  Like, really ha ha ha.  I turned them both off.  I rely on my sister to let me know if anyone has died or is planning a family reunion (they aren’t this over the top in person).

    So maybe you shouldn’t have lost it with your friend, but you were justified in standing up for yourself against the psychic injury that she and people like her have been inflicting on us and would continue to inflict on us for a long time to come if it were up to them. When are they every going to have to account for the amount of harm they are doing?

    Losing control feels awful, but maybe maintaining that much control all the time in the face of people who feel zero compunction about doing the same is just too unbalanced for living a healthy life.

  184. 184.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Ken:  I actually don’t have a problem with that sacrament being limited to the people the Church says it should be limited to. Religious groups make all kinds of strange rules, which is their right, just as it is my right not to belong to a group which makes rules I don’t agree with. It’s when they impose their idea of those rules on non-members that I get off the bus. If I get a piece of paper at Town Hall that gives me the same rights with respect to taxation, health benefits, etc., etc., as someone who gets that piece of paper inside a church or temple, then that’s fine.

  186. 186.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: my wife and I got married when we decided to have a child.  The legal benefits to a child in a marriage are vast (Social security, tax, tuition, etc.). Not to mention the ease with which things get resolved (comparatively) if one spouse dies

  187. 187.

    Ken

    @Baud: It may be a little late to get on the 2020 ballot in some states.  Stick with the Baud! 2036! plan from earlier this week.

  188. 188.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @TS (the original): and causes me more grief than anyone else.

    You are being too hard on yourself. If it bothers you that much, apologize to the individual for losing your temper, but not for the emotions behind that fact.

  190. 190.

    Marcopolo

    There ain’t a lot of “the youth” on this blog so this probably went under the radar for even the most politically minded & connected here, but last night AOC & Ilan Omar did a twitch (a platform that allows the live streaming of events–like playing on line games– to lots of folks) campaign event that was watched in real time by 435,000 mostly younger folks. And  they used this platform  to encourage everyone watching to GoTV & get more involved in politics. This is by far the largest GoTV event directed at young people ever.  Talk about rally sizes…

    In my crystal ball I see ten years from now where President AOC engages with millions of her supporters by playing games with them on the internet.

    Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just played a video game on Twitch to encourage voting

    Playing video games live on Twitch may not seem the most obvious way to get more Americans to the polls, but Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is not one to take a conventional approach.

    The Democratic congresswoman took the online streaming platform by storm Tuesday night when she livestreamed a game of “Among Us” against fellow Democrat representative Ilhan Omar and Twitch VIPs, such as pokimane, HasanAbi and Myth…

    The New Yorker used the opportunity to encourage viewers to vote, directing them to IWillVote.com, a Democratic party website with information on voting. “That’s really what tonight’s all about, and of course we are here to vote blue,” she said, a reference to the Democratic party…

    Ocasio-Cortez discussed voting with other players while playing “Among Us,” a murder mystery game similar to Mafia. A group of innocents live their everyday lives while killers, who have hidden their identities, commit murders at night. The group must determine who is guilty and get rid of the imposters before they lose their majority.

    The congresswoman asked the other gamers on the live stream how they were planning to vote. Myth, who has 7 million Twitch followers, said on Twitter that this would be his first time voting. “It’s super easy to do so do it,” he told his 2.3 million Twitter followers in a post.

  194. 194.

    Ken

    @Immanentize: “We contacted her Republican opponent to see what gaming rig he used. He answered that his family likes a nice game of Monopoly on Sunday evenings.”

  195. 195.

    Marcopolo

    @Immanentize: I haven’t been a hard core gamer/computer builder for a couple decades but seeing that system had 6 terabytes of SSD really made me feel old. My first internal HD was a whopping 10 MB and was considered top of the line in 1985. Oh yeah, and I had 640 KB of memory. Woohoo.

  196. 196.

    Barbara

    @Gin & Tonic: What many miss, I think, is that conservative Evangelical and Catholic Christians are panicked about finding themselves on the margins of societal norms.  They know that they could be like the Amish, living according to their own precepts, without interference.  They don’t want that.  They want to inhabit and, really, define, the mainstream.

  197. 197.

    zhena gogolia

    @TS (the original): 
    It makes us all lose our temper and get incoherent.
    When my Biden-Harris sign was vandalized, I screamed “F–k Trump” all over my neighborhood at 8:00 AM.
    It’s not our fault.

  198. 198.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Immanentize: Fuck Gov. Kristi Noem. She made her bed, now she must eat it

    I believe the relevant quote is

    You buttered your bread, now lie in it!

    Courtesy of that Poifick Maestro & Hero Of The Zeitgeist, one Bugs Bunny.

  201. 201.

    Immanentize

    @Marcopolo: When I was in high school I programmed on an omni 8

     

    ETA I currently have a 6T external for storage, and an SSD start up drive  I’m not sure what the 6T SSD gets you in speed directly over the combo

  203. 203.

    NotMax

    @Uncle Cosmo

    Or alternatively,

    You’ve made your bed a rolling stone
    And now the shoe won’t fit.
    You’ve had your cake and should have known
    You’d have to lay in it!
    .

      – “Once in a Blue Moon” from Little Mary Sunshine

    :)

  204. 204.

    TS (the original)

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I will probably have to – despite I see an apology being recognized as thinking the point of view is acceptable.

    Anyhow, I will try & not let my emotions get the better of me – on and off the internet.

    I appreciate having a safe place to fall apart.

  206. 206.

    sdhays

    @Jeffro: Vanity plates are just so American. In every other country, the license plates are a bunch of numbers and letters issued by the government and that’s it. But here, “individualism” means that I should be able to have a say even on the license number the government issues me for my car, and the government is ready to oblige because they can make some money off people’s vanity.

  207. 207.

    artem1s

    @Baud:

    “will go”?

    Good news, they will first attack their own. Remember how nuts they got after the RMoney loss?  Even Preibus was imploring the GOP to not be the party of stupid.   They have taken to eating their own dead before.  And now they have literally sacrificed the heart of their base up to the COVID gods. I’m betting the talibangelists will completely take over the party now and start calling for legislation to establish a state religion. I think they see an opening to completely push the secular capitalists and oligarchy class out of the party. The Barkers will take over the party and excommunicate what is left of old school GOPers. Gonna be a sight to see.  They will be so butthurt when they find out they can’t institute burning at the stake as punishment for being ghey or having lady bits.

  209. 209.

    Another Scott

    @OzarkHillbilly:  There was a long piece on NPR yesterday where the woman reporter interviewed a woman and her family that she’d previously talked to in 2016. Voted Donnie then, and will again.

    And, of course, BTW, she’s a local GOP party hack who is doing work for some local candidate.

    (Roughly) “Donnie has to win again. He just has to. Or else it’s not legitimate…”

    Local GOP party hack still argues for GOP presidential candidate! Film at 11.

    Just astounding.

    Grr….

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  214. 214.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Marcopolo:  I just bought a new Mac laptop with 1 TB of storage and have been having much the same thoughts. Upstairs in my office is my old 10 MB Iomega (removable cartridge) drive, which was a huge advance in storage technology. I can’t bear to through out some old computer stuff, so it’s in a box I call the “Technology Museum”.

    And I remember handling huge 10 MB disk packs on what was called a “mini-computer”, a VAX. The disk drive was the size of a washing machine. And before that working with the IBM mainframe that had, IIRC, 5 MB available to programs.

    Cue “four Yorkshiremen voice”: You had megabytes! Luxury! I can remember working with 64 kB on the first PCs. And in one lab I worked in as an undergraduate, the professor had a 256-byte computer he’d picked up at a garage sale.

  215. 215.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @mrmoshpotato:

    What if you’re leasing Church property?

    (ducks)

    The imprimatur usually isn’t a problem. It’s the nihil obstat that often requires serious anointing of the Sunday palm.

    (geese)

  220. 220.

    Kristine

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Upstairs in my office is my old 10 MB Iomega (removable cartridge) drive, which was a huge advance in storage technology.

    I remember spending part of an afternoon every so often backing up my hard drive. Zipdisks. I still have them.

  221. 221.

    Sab

    @Kay: That’s my family too. My stepson has been drug free for about five years, but it was fifteen years of hell for everyone (especially him) before that. A lot of his friends from junior high school are dead.

    When Biden said how proud he was of Hunter for beating it I thought my husband was going to burst into tears. That’s how we feel too. But we know all these other families that didn’t get to say that.

  222. 222.

    James E Powell

    @Betty Cracker: 

    I like the “Unite” ad, though it might give some folks around here the vapors because it alludes to the fact that Biden wasn’t everyone’s first choice.

    Not vapors. Agita.

  223. 223.

    jnfr

    @OzarkHillbilly: 

    I slept a solid eight hours, but I was having panic attacks in my dreams. In my dreams I said to myself, “I’m having a panic attack.” Usually that sort of thing wakes me up, but I just kept sleeping.

    I figure by election day I’ll sleep 24/7 and have panic attacks in all my dreams.

  225. 225.

    catclub

    @artem1s: 

    I think they see an opening to completely push the secular capitalists and oligarchy class out of the party. The Barkers will take over the party and excommunicate what is left of old school GOPers.

    My understanding is that the secular capitalists and the oligarchs provide the money and the barkers provide the votes. Throw out the sec cap and oli’s and you have no money.

  227. 227.

    J R in WV

    @Marcopolo: 

    My first computer in 1984 was a KayPro with 64K of internal memory and two “floppy” disk drives, one to hold the program you wanted to use and the other for your data. And a DaisyWheel printer to type resumes and cover letters for my post-BSCS degree job hunt.

    It got me my first job, and connected me to BBS platforms on what morphed into the WWW after a few years. And now here I am on Balloon Juice, another newer posting site. ;~)

  228. 228.

    KenK

    @Betty Cracker:  Betty @ #39.
    “Well, it’s not like there are more pressing issues facing the country than Leslie Stahl’s impertinence!”
    To trump, there aren’t.

  229. 229.

    WaterGirl

    @TS (the original): Maybe tell your possibly -ex friend that you stand by everything you said, but you are sorry for the way you said it?

    And then make this your mantra, so you don’t continue to beat yourself up:

    The past is the past.  It’s what we do now that matters.

  232. 232.

    Ruckus

    @OzarkHillbilly: 
    I think I know where your inability to sleep went to.
    All the way to my house. Laid in bed for over two hours looking at the ceiling, probably only because I had go to work today. Or because of you, it can only be one or the other. It’s inconceivable that there might be something else…..

  233. 233.

    Ruckus

    @Betty Cracker:

    Joe brings reality into this no contest-contest.

    And reality is good in politics, rather than 4 years of the “love ME” bullshit that is doing nothing but screwing all of us right into the ground.

  234. 234.

    artem1s

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I suspect he is still a father and being protective of his son. No matter how hard the GOP tries to drag Hunter into the election, Joe won’t go there.

    I hope he can stick to his guns on this. The GOP, Murdochs, and Reichwing Radio Hatemongers have been attacking the First Family members for ages. Kids called fat and ugly, etc.  they typically prey on Democrats but also the perceived weaker members of the GOP. They take advantage of the paparazzi method of pushing until someone loses their shit in public and then leap on the real target. It’s time that the media understand we aren’t playing anymore. It’s absurd that people have to put up with this crap because a family member has decided to serve the public. Who among us doesn’t have a Billy Carter in the family?

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