Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Let there be snark.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

I really should read my own blog.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Bark louder, little dog.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Tick tock motherfuckers!

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

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

No one could have predicted…

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

You are here: Home / Past Elections / 2020 Elections / Open Thread: Where Is The Love

Open Thread: Where Is The Love

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On November 3rd, the United States will decide as a nation which path it would like to walk, a path which will affect generations to come. We want this video to be a reminder that in these unprecedented times, we must stand together. We must choose the path we would like to walk for our future, and whether that path is one of inequality and hate– or equality, unity, and love. We would like to formally invite you to #VOTELOVE this November 3rd. Thank you for watching. – Black Eyed Peas

will.i.am bringing the magic again.

1

“Justice is what love looks like in public, just like tenderness is what love feels like in private,” said Dr. Cornel West

There is so much we need to repair. We can’t let up on the accelerator until we have the WH, the House AND the Senate. And remind people their local races are equally important.

Open Thread: Where Is The Love

I was really touched by this.  It’s from this article, which also features that awesome photo of the two of them in that convertible.

Sigh, last night another fire blew up, west of Estes Park. The entire town of Grand Lake is evacuated and the fire has almost reached the continental divide. It sounds like the fire has spared Grand Lake itself. The fear is, with the forecasted winds between now and Sunday, the fire could cross the divide and threaten Estes Park as well.  That’s three large fires, all in the northern section of Colorado. Watching the slurry planes and water helicopters working is eerie.

Open thread

Reader Interactions

81Comments

  1. 1.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    “Justice is what love looks like in public, just like tenderness is what love feels like in private,” said Dr. Cornel West

    and trump is what it looks like when you spend a decade sabotaging the Democratic Party because Obama didn’t get you good tickets to the inauguration.

  4. 4.

    trollhattan

    We’re two months from the shortest day of the year and fires are still kicking up in Colorado? Here (NorCa) it’s a red flag day–hot, windy, dry. Will continue through Friday.

    It’s a La Nina ATM and that can mean drought conditions this winter. We shall see.

  7. 7.

    Miss Bianca

    I could see the smoke plumes yesterday from one of the upstairs windows – and I’m 300 miles away! : (

  10. 10.

    Kay

    Biden’s polling is (actually) really good and it’s been good for months. I think people are perhaps afraid to just say that because they’re superstitious, but those are the facts :)

  14. 14.

    cain

    Check out this great twitter thread that talks about white supremacy but then gets all distilled down to our pal – Glenn Greenwald ”

    1) So now we have self-described “progressives” like @ggreenwald and @mtracey telling us that the threat of white nationalism in the USA is “nonexistent” (as Tracey put it), and when called out for that GG chimes in and claims that we “needs be keep the threat in perspective.” pic.twitter.com/89CDRKzN1v— David Neiwert (@DavidNeiwert) May 20, 2019

  16. 16.

    different-church-lady

    Perhaps he should have patted Hunter suggestively on the hip at the convention. I mean, according to precedent that’s completely appropriate, am I wrong?

  17. 17.

    miserybob

    Ugh.  I need to vent.  I just yelled (full-out, masked) at a middle-aged lady strolling through the grocery store without a mask.  There’s a mask mandate in Denver.  As I walked by her I told her she needed to put on her mask.  She said “Why don’t you say that to my face!” and I just lost it.

    I know I shouldn’t have done that.  I’m a grown person and I know that yelling at somebody isn’t going to help anything.  That sure didn’t change her mind, she probably feels vindicated.  I just couldn’t help it.  Every last goddamn thing has me on edge.  A teenager remote schooling, construction going on at the house, this election, people talking about Halloween parties like that should even be a thing this year, so many fires I have Covid symptoms every day.  Covid rates are skyrocketing in Colorado.

    It’s one damn year, people.  Wear a mask and stay home for one damn year.  It sucks.  Nobody wants to do it, I don’t want to do it.  But that’s where we are.

    Thank you for listening to me rant.  I think I’m calming down now, but I feel like crying.

    Wheee!  Fun.

  18. 18.

    Kay

    There’s really two kinds of parents in the world- parents who think their kids are possessions and exist as a reflection of the parent and parents who think their kids are worthy individuals in their own right. Trump is the first and Biden is the second. The first group won’t even recognize Biden’s approach – hence their confusion- and the second group will know it immediately.

  19. 19.

    Nicole

    There’s a story told about Mr. Rogers- that he was secretly a Navy SEAL during WW2 and did terribly violent things in the name of duty, and that’s why he created his TV persona.  None of that is true, of course, but it’s funny to me how easily some people (family members of mine included) bought into that story, preposterous as it is, because we, as a society, are so uncomfortable with men demonstrating kindness and being nurturing.  That’s not how men are supposed to do masculinity!  IT CANNOT BE.

    That picture of Joe and Hunter is lovely, and I’m not surprised it made a lot of right-wingers freak out.  It struck right to the core of the lonely, angry, neglected child inside each of them.  I have never met a Republican who didn’t have unresolved Daddy Issues.  Those that eventually resolved them didn’t tend to stay Republican.

  20. 20.

    RaflW

    The East Troublesome fire in CO is shocking. I watched the evening update on FB video last night, and was at that point aghast that it’d gone from 21,000 acres to 30,000 in a day. Grand Lake folks were on a pre-evac status when I went to bed (I’m in MN, not CO at the moment, and our CO place is south of the Williams Fork fire which seems not to be that much danger for us).

    But the explosion to 125,000 acres utterly blows my mind. Rocky Mountain National Park seems, to my untrained eye, to be at risk now. And it seems likely that many structures including homes on the west shore of Grand Lake are lost. We won’t really know for a bit.

    The climate disaster is under way. And has been for years. But all the assholes who’ve said since the 80s that it’s ‘too expensive’ to deal with, well, fuck them. I noticed that the Calwood fire (Longmont CO area, that Tamara has been experiencing smoke effects from) managed to cross US 36, and while that edge is now considered contained, the damn thing is ON the wildland/urban edge of a major metro area now. This ain’t just California that is a serious risk.

    eta: I don’t mean that last bit as anything at all against CA. I just mean that what has been a west coast story much of the summer, except for a few days when I-70 was impacted near Grand Junction months ago, is of course a national story. Drought is in place in close to 50% of the lower 48!

  21. 21.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I’m just throwing caution to the wind and being happy about it. If I’m wrong we’ll both be unhappy election night but you will have been unhappy longer :)

    I don’t believe in the “complacency theory” of politics. I think people want to be on the winning side.

  22. 22.

    James E Powell

    @Betty Cracker:

    I like it for the people it’s aimed at. I’ve been kinda wondering why we haven’t seen more of that clip with Trump saying he’s not responsible.

  23. 23.

    eddie blake

    @miserybob:

    fuck it. punch them in the fucking THROAT. let them gasp for breath. tell ‘em that’s what they’ve got to look FOWARD to.

     

    (FWIW, my neighborhood is between two cluster hot spots. i have NO patience for the fucking plague-rats. i’m ALSO 6’6”. )

  24. 24.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Nicole: What IS true is that Bob Ross was a sergeant in the Air Force and decided he’d do something that never required him to scream at anybody ever again.

  29. 29.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Kay: I don’t believe in the “complacency theory” of politics. I think people want to be on the winning side.

    Undecideds break for the leader.  In sports, there are always bandwagon fans.  As dumb as that may be, we want them voting for Joe and the rest of the Democrats.  So I say that everyone needs to stuff their worries down deep inside where they cause ulcers and sleep disorders for the the next little while and project confidence.  Fuck it, fake if you need to.

  30. 30.

    cain

    @miserybob:

    Sorry to hear that. It’s best to alert the management in these cases – and follow that up with a picture and then a tweet at the grocery store in question. If it gains traction – things will happen.l

  31. 31.

    RaflW

    @cain: Greenwald doing near-daily hits on Fox, including on Fucker Tarlson’s show tells me all I need to know about that garbage man.

    Calling Glenn a shitstain would be an insult to the useful functions of a colon.

  33. 33.

    cain

    @RaflW:

    All those poor animals as well. Maybe hunters and what not will get behind this since hunting and everything else is all at risk.

  35. 35.

    KenK

    @miserybob: you should have just decked her and been done with it. Clearly, safety, for her and others, is pretty low on her priorities. Much less so than making a political “statement”. Plus, you’d have gotten some angst out of your system. jk, sorta…

  36. 36.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: I think the perception of Hillary Clinton’s inevitability in 2016 did hurt her–it meant people on the left who didn’t personally like her weren’t motivated by negative partisanship to push anyway, and it also contributed to the media needling her much harder than Trump because they saw Trump as comic relief rather than as a future President. But all that got established very early in the cycle.

  37. 37.

    RaflW

    @Omnes Omnibus: “Stuff their worries down deep inside where they cause ulcers and sleep disorders for the the next little while” tends to describe my Hillary feels. Joe was not my first choice, but he picked my first choice as his running mate, and frankly I don’t have to fake anything now in terms of believing Joe & Kamala can win.

    My knife edge is wether we’ll have 51 votes in the Senate (52 would make me quite happy, 53 delirious).

  38. 38.

    Dan B

    @miserybob: Thanks for “losing it”.  There are many healthcare workers and food processing workers, widows, widowers, and orphans who have lost and are fearful of losing.  There are people losing their homes and skipping meals.

     

    Lose it for them and everyone with a shred of empathy.

  39. 39.

    Amir Khalid

    I confess I’m not seeing the scandal here. There are parts of the world where it’s perfectly normal for a straight guy to greet his buddy with a kiss on both cheeks. These people who freak out at the sight of a loving interaction between father and son need to get out more. Or maybe they just need to get out of the Republican bubble, where they see the perfectly normal things a rival Democrat does as sick and perverted.

  40. 40.

    Kay

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I agree. I think there was probably a measurable bandwagon effect for Obama in 2008. You could feel it- womp. They came over. And it was fun! You wanted to be on that side. There was a lot of positive energy.

  41. 41.

    miserybob

    @cain: Thank you, that would have been the smart thing to do.  Although she would likely have freaked out at the photo.  She was spoiling for a fight, as well.  I think a lot of stores have told their employees not to confront people, so I don’t know if they would have done anything.

    Anyway, I’ll try that next time.

  42. 42.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @miserybob: Tell the store that you will not continue to shop there if they don’t enforce the rules.  You will shop someplace else that takes the safety of its customers seriously.

  43. 43.

    different-church-lady

    @RaflW: I’m proud to say I had him figured out on first contact — which was someone singing his praises at Daily Kos back when he was giving tepid criticisms of Bush. Something just seemed off about both the Greenwald quotes in the posting and the way the praise was being delivered. It didn’t pass the smell test, even though GG was nominally saying something that a liberal would agree with.

  44. 44.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I’m letting a draft sit for at least a week to get some objectivity. In the meantime, I’m supposed to be writing a short story to clear my mind. I’m not working very hard and my mind seems to be clear as good glass, ie nothing in it.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I think there’s less commonality between ’16 and ’20 than people say. Trump wasn’t known in 2016. He’s the rare politician where incumbency isn’t an advantage. It’s a big lift to dislodge an incumbent and Biden was polling ahead way back in January, before Covid. It’s just a completely different situation.

    Donald Trump is unpopular. He has no redeeming personal characteristics to fall back on when events don’t fall his way. Obama did. 2012 was a grind because the economy still sucked and there was such ferocious Right wing opposition to Obama but people liked him. He had banked that and when he needed it it was there. Trump doesn’t have it.

  46. 46.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Amir Khalid: It is just toxic masculinity at its worst. Remember, the guy they like knocked his own son to the floor in front of his college dorm-mates for refusing to wear a suit and tie to a baseball game. That’s the kind of fatherhood they admire.

  47. 47.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @miserybob: I know. We all do. Sometimes it’s all I can do to keep from screaming something shockingly horrible like “Get COVID and die then!” That lady needed to be told she’s being a selfish idiot. You go ahead and cry too if it makes you feel better.

  48. 48.

    Benw

    @Kay: yeah, also in 2020 it’s the virus. Trump didn’t fix it and Biden says he will. That’s galvanized the sane voters. The R’s may still steal it, but they won’t outvote us

    Fucking VOTE

  49. 49.

    Miss Bianca

    @miserybob: 

    Yeah, well, at least Denver *has* a mask mandate. Here in the sticks, our new (old, white male) Public Health Director is depending on “community good will” to comply with public health orders, since he has no intention of enforcing them. So, mask usage has become so spotty here that I just don’t want to go anywhere at all. Except the library and the Mennonite bakery, the two places where patrons appear to be taking the mask signage seriously.

  50. 50.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: It’s interesting to look at the collection of state-polling EV charts since 2004 on electoral-vote.com. There were multiple times in 2016 when Hillary Clinton’s position in the state polls were as good, or nearly as good, as Biden’s–and the last one was in mid-October. But she couldn’t hold it. Trump was his own worst enemy–he’d do or say something awful and Clinton would pull out this huge lead.

    But then there would be some nonsense that would cause the race to revert to neck-and-neck–the 9/11 pneumonia scare, Wikileaks dropping a new tranche of emails, Comey showboating, whatever. Whenever Trump wasn’t the main story in the news, that regression would happen.

    And the pattern just happened to catch her right at Election Day, and on top of that there was a modest regional polling miss.

    That pattern isn’t happening this time around. The Biden-Trump hypothetical was close when the primary campaign was still going on, and Biden was getting a lot of hits within the party. But ever since he clinched the primary he’s been way ahead. It’s almost the opposite–Hillary Clinton looked in great shape during primary season while she was crushing Bernie and Trump was one of many candidates, then these up-and-down waves started later.

    What Biden looks like is more like the home stretch of Obama’s ’08 campaign after the financial crash. Only it’s the whole year since the spring.

    What strikes me now is that Obama was probably in more danger in 2012 than I thought at the time. One of the big stories that year was that the poll aggregators and election modelers were way more confident about his chances than the media were, and the win got spun as a triumph for their prediction efforts. But that was probably unwarranted.

  53. 53.

    Citizen Alan

    @Matt McIrvin:

    What strikes me now is that Obama was probably in more danger in 2012 than I thought at the time.

    I remain convinced that Romney would have won had he not been a Mormon and/or had he been more willing to embrace racist attacks against Obama.

  54. 54.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @Betty Cracker: Damn, that was a great ad.

    I KNOW the folks at the Lincoln Project are like Russian allies during WWII, they’re gonna turn on us after we rid ourselves of the wannabe dictator. But for now, I’ll take them on our side.

  56. 56.

    taumaturgo

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Just to correct the record, Brother West is also responsible for the deportation and breaking up of thousands of undocumented workers families, the killing of American citizens by the US military w/o due process, the looking forward and not back when it came to the Wall Street gangsters, at the same time millions of families were told “yes you can” survive foreclosure. He is also responsible for a 2,400% increase in armaments transfer to local police, and worst, the nullification of Habeas Corpus constitutional protections. Who can forget Brother West awarding almost two billion dollars in contracts for the design and implementation of ACA website that turned into a complete shameful fiasco, the digital equivalent of frustrating long lines? Yes, we can morph into No, we ain’t. Even when he was willing to trade by offering in the great bargain cuts to Social Security and Medicare the GOP refused him and the workers who he claimed to represent dodge a missile, not the proverbial bullet. All taken together led to a wipeout for Democrats as the party lost control of the Senate and Congress and thousands of state and local seats, setting the scene for Hillary to lose the election to the worst presidential candidate in the history of the USA. Yes, fuck Brother West.

  57. 57.

    RaflW

    @Citizen Alan: “There are no Republicans left who love their own children.” That’s kind of essential if your plan is to die in 5-30 or so years and leave a long-term climate catastrophe for your heirs.

  58. 58.

    Just One More Canuck

    @Omnes Omnibus: I don’t remember a picture of a 15 year old Ivanka perched on Trump’s knee while and caressing his face while he’s sitting on a statue of two parrots having sex causing that much a a stir.

    It’s grosser and creepier than it sounds

  59. 59.

    cain

    @RaflW:

    Calling Glenn a shitstain would be an insult to the useful functions of a colon.

    It’s such a joke that he even considers himself a civil rights lawyer. The man is a steaming stinking piece of turd that’s stuck to this nation’s shoe.

  61. 61.

    cain

    @different-church-lady:

    @RaflW: I’m proud to say I had him figured out on first contact — which was someone singing his praises at Daily Kos back when he was giving tepid criticisms of Bush. Something just seemed off about both the Greenwald quotes in the posting and the way the praise was being delivered. It didn’t pass the smell test, even though GG was nominally saying something that a liberal would agree with.

    He was kind of favored here too. Occasionally has come in and started fights with people here. Our blogmaster I believe had regular correspondence with him – but dunno where it is now, but around the time of Obama he was well hated.

  63. 63.

    J R in WV

    @Betty Cracker:

    I don’t trust the Lincoln Project any farther than I can pitch Trump, but that particular ad really hit home for me. My dad died on election day, 2004 after a long siege with Hospice helping all they could. I still miss him every day.

    So this ad is a real tear-jerker for me. Thanks for passing it on.

  68. 68.

    WaterGirl

    @Just One More Canuck: It was totally gross.  I am pretty sure that right now, sitting here in my chair, I am making the same face I would make if I stepped in dog shit barefoot.

    Shudder.  I remember 3 particularly awful photos of Ivanka and Daddy.  Ugh.

  73. 73.

    Jay

    @miserybob:

    there is a small Thai shop owner, who with his grandson’s help, hacked the automatic door opener.

    an infrared thermometer takes your temp and a camera checks for a mask, ( properly worn).

    running a temp or not wearing a mask, the door won’t open.

  74. 74.

    JaneE

    If those are photos that trigger Trumpers, what did they think of Trump sliding his hands down Ivanka during the 2016 convention?

    As for the fires, stay safe.  Here in Bishop, 20 miles from the nearest fire (a small one at that) the air is unhealthy.  Prevailing winds are close to calm and just suck the smoke into the valley and leave it there.  The last two days going outside is like standing next to a campfire, so far as the smoke smell.  And we have it relatively good, compared to anyone closer to really big fires.

  76. 76.

    greenergood

    I can imagine that many men look at that first photo of Biden and his son, and sons think ‘has my dad ever been there for me like that?’ , while fathers might think ‘what a weak candy-ass father’ until it dawns on them: ‘why wasn’t I there for my son like that?’ As for the rest of males that think this is weak: your weakness is not recognizing that if fathers and sons showed that they love each other, then maybe everyone wouldn’t be so scared to show love for one another.

  77. 77.

    J R in WV

    @AxelFoley:

    Just put him in your pie filter list. I did, and I find that I never need to toggle him back into our reality. He’s an obnoxious idiot, knows nothing about anything.

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