I have a very simple view of the debate. It was 90 minutes long. During that 90 minutes:
- 65 people died of COVID in the US.
- 2 died in Canada.
- 2 died in Germany.
- 10 died in Spain.
- 9 died in Italy.
- 10 died in France.
- Nobody died in South Korea, New Zealand, Australia or Japan.
Also, Kristen Welker did a good job.
The end.
(Edited to add the Asia stats, thanks Randy in the comments.)
BruceFromOhio
Ohio lurches toward the next spike, and the fucking shitwhistle still leads Biden in polling.
schrodingers_cat
Nothing that the WH occupant says surprises me. I expect nothing but malevolence, stupidity and bigotry from him. That’s who is.
What still manages to surprise me are his media enablers itching to give him a pass, the likes of Susan Page and Amy Walter. Its all a joke to them. They reveal their own bigotry by being his enablers.
I didn’t watch the debate yesterday but if my Twitter feed was any indication lies and bigotry were flowing freely from Lying-Bigot-In-Chief
— immigrant who kept all her USCIS appointments and followed the letter of the law.
mrmoshpotato
No. Every question wasn’t framed as “You traitorous orange Soviet shitpile mobster conman, you are destroying the US by… Vice President Biden, how would your administration start to fix the shitshow this orange asshole will leave to you?”
Seriously, Dump needed to be told to shut his orange face way more and stop making faces like the assclown ass-sucking manbaby that he is.
ETA – oh, and I don’t think she asked why Dump was too chickenshit to do the second debate via teleconference.
John S.
@BruceFromOhio: I watched a clip on The Guardian of one of their reporters on the ground in Youngstown. I don’t have much hope for Ohio.
randy khan
0 deaths in Australia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand over 90 minutes.
Elizabelle
@schrodingers_cat: Let’s you and I have fun writing letters asking PBS to can Amy Walter. If you saw her moronic tweet last night, she got scolded hard.
We are a big country. Cannot be that hard to find someone who can analyze political races and not act like a sports fan who thinks it’s all just a giggle.
I’m not sure precisely what Susan Page does, but she was awful, too.
Nicole
We allowed our ten-year-old to watch the debate with us last night and I discovered that he knows more profanity than I thought he did.
John S.
@mrmoshpotato: Oh you mean like this top notch question from Welker?
This exchange of course is dutifully being framed all over right wing media as “Biden forced to defend Pelosi and Democrats inaction”.
Yeah, Welker was awesome.
BruceFromOhio
@John S.: It could still go either way, two different polls from the last week and 538 are all in within the margin of error. But the traffic cone leads in all three.
That it’s even close is infuriating, the cultists want to take everyone with them on this suicide run.
On the upside, I’ll be able to buy a used Harley in the spring for a low price.
BruceFromOhio
@Elizabelle: Dr. Rachel Maddow.
Brachiator
@randy khan:
But a serious spike in cases and hospitalizations in Europe.
trollhattan
@Nicole:
Heh :-)
In lieu of the Donny hour I’ve been binge-watching “Mrs. Maisel.” Rachel Brosnahan deserves ALL the statues.
FlyingToaster
Welker’s performance was only okay (which is head and shoulders above Wallace and head above Guthrie). She needed the CPD mic control guy to cut Trump off when she said “10 seconds” and that mandarin menace went on for 45+ seconds. She needed to frame some questions from the D side, instead of basically being all Republican talking points.
Last night, each side was playing strictly to its base. Biden’s “I give a damn and I’m competent” versus Trump’s “I hate the same people you do and I’m gonna stick it to ’em”. Fucking waste of time.
52 million people have already voted. None of those votes (which include mine) were changed ?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@trollhattan: We binged that too. It was fun. Now we’re on Netflix watching reruns of West Wing. Its tale of competent government feels like a fantasy.
trollhattan
Republican’s worst nightmare: voters voting, a lot of them.
See, it’s not hard at all if the people in charge dedicate themselves to making it as easy as possible for everybody. (FWIW county population is 1.4 million.)
Brachiator
@FlyingToaster:
What could Biden have done to expand his message?
Hoodie
Was listening to an interview with Lewis Black while walking this morning and he said something that summed it up in a manner aligned with your reference to Covid deaths during the debate. Paraphrasing, Black said the problem is that we inevitably end up talking about him, not us. Biden needs to have a closing argument somewhere along those lines, e.g., “are you sick of talking about him?”
germy
download my app in the app store mistermix
@FlyingToaster:
Yes she did but the CPD only muted microphones during the two minute opening statements of each round, so she had no control over muting. She cut Trump off a lot, and didn’t act like a toady (like Chris Wallace). So, I’d say she did a good job given the restrictions of the format, which are huge.
WaterGirl
@Nicole: “WTF?” Did he use that one?
zzyzx
4 years ago at this time (penultimate Friday before the election) was the Comey press conference. Trump is really running out of time for an October surprise.
Crashman06
Foolishy dipped into the mentions of Silver, Cohn, and Wasserman on Twitter. Too many random GOP trolls crowing that A) higher GOP voter registrations in NC, PA, and FL; B) high turnout in some red districts and lower turnout in some blue districts in the 3 aforementioned states; C) Shy Trump Voter theory; and D) GOP advantage in numbers on election day means T’s going to win. I’m convincing myself it’s all BS or willful misrepresentation, but ugh, it does have me a little shook. My own fault, as I violated a golden rule of election season: Twitter is bad and you should never look at it.
WaterGirl
@BruceFromOhio: Don’t forget to have your new Harley fumigated.
Raven
So people are going to see an interview with a person and decide all is lost huh?
BruceFromOhio
@WaterGirl: Or how about “GTFOH”, or perhaps “AYFKM”. Those are faves around the FromOhio fortress.
germy
It reminds me of the movie where Jack Nicholson’s Joker tells Batman “You made me!”
laura
My takeaway from the “debate” is that a monster suggested that a clean floor and a mylar blanket was a very good outcome for children and babies ripped away from the loving arms of a parent who sought a better life.
I will go to my grave with a burning rage against any and all who participated in this act of barbarism and those who’d look away and still support the pig shagger and his party.
Nicole
@trollhattan:
While doing the last 100 of my Postcards to Voters I discovered someone put up a lot of 1980s miniseries on Youtube, so I listened to the magnificent kitsch of Stephanie Powers, Stacey Keach and Lee Remick in Mistral’s Daughter while I wrote out messages to SC and FL. It was very soothing.
BruceFromOhio
@germy: I LOL’d.
Ksmiami
@BruceFromOhio: eh a lot of his supporters will be laid up or dead by the election so…
This administration needs to be sent to The Hague
Nicole
@WaterGirl: He used the F one, in phrasing I hadn’t heard from him before.
(I will say this, he asked permission to swear beforehand.)
germy
BruceFromOhio
@Ksmiami: Entirely possible. Never thought of Galatians 6:7 as a social experiment in culling the cultist herd, and yet, here we stand.
geg6
@John S.:
I doubt very much it was actually Youngstown, as much of the city is black. It was probably Boardman, the worst of suburban hells you can possibly imagine. Nothing but malls, mini-malls and chain restaurants.
pacem appellant
@Nicole: Our 11 year old was watching up until they starting talking about kids in cages. She started crying and asked us to turn it off.
Ksmiami
@BruceFromOhio: Old Testament God sent lots of floods and plagues… and if Republicans don’t want to wear masks…
randy khan
@Crashman06:
I think the Shy Trump Voter theory is hooey. There’s no evidence for a meaningful shy voter component in previous polling (and there’s a lot of adjustment in polls to address not getting enough people in a specific cohort). Also, my anecdotal experience is that Trump voters rarely are shy.
WaterGirl
@germy: Joe should have followed up: “You mean because of the way you were humiliated by Barack Obama when he mocked you at the correspondent’s dinner and the entire room laughed at you?”
James E Powell
Cristina Cabrera @ TPM has a great summary of the Village’s never-ending struggle to declare a NEW TONE. This is worse than being “wired for Republicans,” as Josh Marshall put’s it. This is denying reality in order to promote Republicans. In this case, it’s the worst Republican president ever. He’s going to lose. Why do they feel the need to suck up to him? Who are they serving?
Matt McIrvin
@zzyzx: On LGM people were speculating in the comments that Barr’s surprise announcement of an investigation of bullshit Biden crimes would have to drop today, by the 2016 calendar. I think maybe he could do Monday.
germy
Like his life depends on it…
Amir Khalid
@germy:
Trump strikes me as being at least much The Penguin as he is The Joker.
WaterGirl
@laura: That really hit me in the face, too, during the debate. Nothing says “soft and comforting” like a mylar blanket, when you have just been ripped away from your parents.
Crashman06
@randy khan: You’re right, of course. Also, the way that theory’s been described to me sounds like it would take a lot of widespread coordination to pull off which doesn’t seem to be a specialty of that kind of demographic? I think it’s all irrational fear on my part, but it’s still there..
WaterGirl
@Nicole: You are raising him right! :-)
John S.
@geg6: Here’s the video story.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2020/oct/21/broken-promises-and-alternative-facts-how-donald-trump-failed-ohio-video
You may very well be right. I know that here in South Florida, the media gets lazy and calls everything “Miami”, even in cities that are 30 miles away.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Crashman06: Well, here’s a snapshot of my state of PA.
I guess there’s enough margin there to be anxious about Election Day and I will be until Nov. 4, possibly longer if there’s a court challenge to the mail-in votes that’s taken seriously. But honestly I think that’s about as solid a lead as we can hope for in every category.
BruceFromOhio
@randy khan:
Complete and total hooey dredged up to give them a unicorn to write about.
Crashman06
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Very good breakdown. Thank you!
germy
laura
@pacem appellant: Please tell your daughter that it made me cry too. You dont have to be a grown up to recognize evil.
patroclus
@randy khan: I completely disagree although I wouldn’t use the term “Shy Trump Voter.” There are a LOT of Republican voters who do not like Trump and do not want to vote for him. But they have been part of Team Republican for most of their lives and don’t wish to vote for Biden or Democrats either. The deranged Frank Luntz’s focus group was filled with them – they want to vote for someone with Biden’s demeanor and Trump’s “policies.” Many, if not most, of these voters are going to end up voting for Trump even though they don’t want to admit it – they see what we see, they hate his bad behavior, but they are Team Republican. In my view, this is why the polls have tightened a point or two in the last week and will continue to tighten some more. Trump will need 90+% of these to come home to make it close.
Sab
Pointless speculation about Melania and their usual spat over holding hands in public. Is she a highly overpaid, unpleasant, not dutiful wife (my point of view), or a mother really pissed off that she and her son got covid (my husband’s point of view.) Either way I don’t care, except I am slightly curious. It’s like wondering about the betas in my fishtank. What are they thinking?
Miss Bianca
@WaterGirl: Every time I see a reference to this, I think about that experiment they did with separating baby monkeys from their mothers, and giving half of them a terrycloth doll to cling to, and half of them a bare wire skeleton frame.
The monkeys who had a terrycloth “mama” turned out some statistically significant amount less insane than the other group.
All that, so they could “scientifically” prove what any caregiver knows: nothing soft and comforting to cling to as an infant will make a mammal baby nuts.
OK, now I need to go pound my head against something.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@laura: The first day Rachel Maddow had to say “babies in cages” she pretty much lost it on air.
germy
laura
@WaterGirl: nothing dries the eyes of a terrified child like a warm, absorbent mylar blanket.
Hungry Joe
Since when trying to explain Trump we like to reference Queeg and the strawberries, here’s an extension/expansion:
Lt. Keefer (ultimately the villain, but never mind that now) suggests to the other officers that Queeg’s Quixotic (sorry) search for the messroom key, and thus the strawberries, was a pitiful attempt to recapitulate his one success as an officer: Years earlier, on another ship, he had been instrumental in finding the culprit who had a duplicate key to the messroom. This is exactly, but exactly what Trump is doing with the Hunter Biden laptop. He sees But Her Emails as his great triumph in ‘16; now, he imagines, But His Emails will lead to victory in ‘20. Deja vu, Deja strawberries, Deja laptop.
(“The Caine Mutiny” is a great book, BTW. Really holds up.)
Sab
@pacem appellant: She’s not a voter (yet.)
Edmund Dantes
@Crashman06: Tom Bonier is a good follow on Twitter for voting demographics stuff. Seek him out. He helps point out what is and isn’t BS. He’s mostly a Dem operative as I understand but he plays it straight in the analysis.
Ruckus
@Nicole:
Nice to see that in an age where anger at nearly half of the adults in his country is normal and necessary, even if it’s not good, he’s managed to understand this fully at ten years old.
FlyingToaster
@Crashman06:
Sigh.
I have answers, but answers won’t help fuckwits…
NC and FL are retirees relocating to those states permanently. Look for corresponding rises in [D] registrations further north.
This may be a factor of the ‘rona or of group voting projects like Souls to the Polls. Also, mail and dropbox votes are still in process (right now it’s taking Boston 4 days to process dropbox and mail ballots).
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Yeah, go ahead, tell me another one.
The real problem is that pollsters have to call more numbers to get a pickup at all. So the people who answer the phone are increasingly older, poorer, and skew toward luddites. Not even remotely representative of the electorate.
and
Irrelevant.
The more votes counted BEFORE Election Day, the fewer that have to be counted after polls close. Which means that the networks will be projecting the winners a lot sooner than 2016.
Chyron HR
@germy:
There, there, Bibi. Biden’s not going to bomb Israel no matter how vile its leaders are.
KithKanan
@Nicole: Kids know these words from the playground, even if they’re smart enough not to use them around their parents. At least, I did as a kid in the comparatively more prudish about swearing 1980s. I mainly know this because I have a stupid acronym insult BSHCICTFASOABN that I can date coming up with for sure to a playground at a school I only went to for K-3 and that stood for “Bull Shit Headed Completely Idiotic Childish Total Fucking Asshole Son Of A Bitch Nitwit”. So yeah, I ‘knew’ all of those words at some point before I was 10 and knew I wasn’t ‘supposed to’ say them.
WaterGirl
@Miss Bianca: I know, it’s beyond horrible. Nothing less than state-sanctioned kidnapping and child abuse.
laura
@Miss Bianca: I have no doubt that Stephen Miller was well aware of that study. I presume he spent a lot of time studying the Caucescu regime as well. He is filth. He and his wife.
Kent
Only thing that matters is whether or not it shifted the race in any meaningful way. I don’t think it did. The CNN poll of who won pretty closely matches the national polling of presidential preference. I don’t think that is coincidence
Four years from now, no one will even remember that this debate happened. They will remember the first one because it was so feral.
Calouste
@germy: Can people just stop with that shit? 2020 is a party compared to most of history. 1918 was already a lot worse (Spanish flu and World War I), and it doesn’t exactly get better the further back you go.
WaterGirl
@laura: They are monsters.
ProfDamatu
@Miss Bianca: It gets even worse. Permutations of that experiment involved adding aversive stimuli to the “cloth mothers,” like randomly blasting a scary noise or blowing air in their faces. The baby monkeys *still* preferred the cloth mother over the bare wire one. Thankfully, that sort of experiment is a lot less likely to happen now, with the IACUC approval process.
debbie
Proof that Trump was muzzled, chemically or otherwise: He did not respond to Biden’s dig about him being stuck in a sand trap while the pandemic raged.
Ruckus
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Even if WW isn’t a totally competent government, it was so far ahead of the absolute disaster in the WH now that it shows that is still an absolute affront to humanity that anyone still supports this fucking clownass, because a TV show can be a better reality.
Cermet
I’m lost by the post that the race is close – the race is very much all on Biden’s side so far. Georgia is a dead heat! Georgia!!! All previous Blue states are polling high for him and NC and FL are both polling in his favor. The race does not look in any way bad for Biden. Hell, Iowa is nearly even. This has the look of a landslide. Like Obama’s first win – if dems turn out, the thugs really have little chance.
Crashman06
@FlyingToaster: Thanks for this breakdown. Not entirely sure I understand all of it but I do appreciate it! Also didn’t know that dropbox processing could lag; that’s interesting.
Kent
Oh please. Are we going to look at 2020 and say…well, it wasn’t as bad as the Black Death or the Antonine Plague of 165 AD?
Arguably, on a lot of measures from public health to economics to governance, 2020 is the worst year we have had since World War 2. That’s a 75 year period. And it didn’t have to happen.
Sab
@BruceFromOhio: I live in a smallish Ohio city and it is so damn frustrating. The cities are mostly okay, but we have a lot of suburban, exurban and rural voters who don’t acknowledge facts until God hits them upside the head with tragedy. If nobody in your family dies then there isn’t a risk.
Eunicecycle
@Miss Bianca: oh God, I remember reading about that experiment in college. It was horrible. And to think we basically did that with human children. I can’t let my thoughts go there too long because the depths of my rage cannot be measured.
Mallard Filmore
According to Google (Google’s result page format was a surprise), Thailand had zero deaths also.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=covid+deaths+Thailand
Roger Moore
@James E Powell:
It’s not who they’re serving but what: The Narrative. They can’t tolerate a situation in which both sides aren’t mirror images of each other or the election looks like a blowout, so they must push The Narrative of Both Sides and Horse Race.
Ruckus
@Matt McIrvin:
The people that pay them.
James E Powell
@John S.:
Like the tendency to talk as if the whole of southern California is Los Angeles. Local news calls it “the Southland” but I don’t think anyone else in the world does.
Cermet
@germy: LOL – BiBi see’s the direction of the wind (don’t need a weatherman – lol); he isn’t stupid enough to be that easily baited.
schrodingers_cat
@Elizabelle: Her giggling gets on my nerves. I added to her ratio last night.
gene108
@Elizabelle:
Sports fans DO NOT think “it’s all just a giggle”. They are serious. They are dedicated. They will drive out any commentator, who insults their intelligence, and is not knowledgeable on their team or sport of interest.
If political journalists were as serious as sports reporters, we would be a better country.
Kent
Honestly, all we need is a one electoral vote margin and winning the Senate. Both Bush and Trump have showed us that you can rule with absolute iron authority and zero deference to the other party as long as you take the White House. They do whatever they fucking want with zero deference to Democratic sensibilities just because they won close races and even lost the popular vote.
I like a landslide as much as anyone. But a 1 vote electoral college victory is just as good. “Mandates” are a bullshit affection of the press. Power is power and you either use it or look for excuses not to. I expect Dems to use whatever power they have with ZERO consideration of Mitch McConnell or Ted Cruz’s feelings.
geg6
@John S.:
Yeah, they showed a lot of the actual city, but also stretches of Boardman (the Drumpf ralliers and, most likely the old couple with the Drumpf shrine). I also saw what I believe may have been the rural towns on the far outskirts. Youngstown is only about a 25-30 minute drive from my Western PA town and I know it well. My mom was actually born there.
Kent
@gene108: That’s true. The most seriously analytical threads over on LGM are the NFL football threads. Really.
sheila in nc
@Cermet: And so many people have already voted.
Orange County NC (pretty “blue” place, I admit) has 111K registered voters out of a population of about 150K.
As of Thursday, 10/22, the 8th day of early voting, over 30K of them had cast in-person early-vote ballots.
schrodingers_cat
@Roger Moore: I think it is more than that. They would never do the same if it was a Democrat that was 10 points behind. They are either Republicans themselves or they like Rs more than they like the Ds.
Nicole
@KithKanan: I was also a kid in the 1980s, and my from-a-young-age nerdishness insured I didn’t learn a lot of these words until much later. I remember two boys saying something rude to my best friend and her giving them the middle finger and the boys gasping and saying, “OOOOHHHHHHH!” and I had absolutely no idea why a raised middle finger would provoke that reaction. The memory makes me laugh now, but at the time, I was aware that my ignorance was somehow due to my inborn uncoolness.
I made up as an adult with what I was deprived of as a child, profanity-wise. ;)
trollhattan
@James E Powell:
Yup, everything between the Grapevine and San Diego is LA. Easier that way for those who don’t identify highways starting with “The.”
VeniceRiley
You’re right and your husband is wrong, of course. I have seen her do that many times pre covid as well. Surely someone must have a montage of them all on youtube somewhere.
Baud
@Calouste:
And no Balloon juice!
germy
And then they blame the tragedy on The Liberals.
Calouste
@Cermet: Of the last 3 polls in Texas, 1 is a tie, the other 2 have Biden up by 1.
James E Powell
@patroclus:
Agree completely. Republicans are more tightly bound and more likely to vote Republican no matter what than Democratic voters. Been this way for my whole life.
In 2016 they ignored Trump’s defects because they hate Hillary Clinton. They don’t have that for Joe Biden, so that may deter some of them. But I may just be kidding myself.
Anoniminous
@ProfDamatu:
Ah, yes.
The days when torturing animals was somehow supposed to give insights into human behavior and schizophrenia was caused by mommies talking mean to their children.
mrmoshpotato
@John S.:
Glad I didn’t watch. I would’ve popped a blood vessel.
Mallard Filmore
@Matt McIrvin:
Barr needs to be quick about it or Trump won’t sign his pardon, and then Barr will deliver up a defective self-pardon for Trump. No doubt, Rosenstein being in hock himself for the baby snatching, can write something up instead of Barr.
206inKY
@laura: Totally agree.
VeniceRiley
This in Politico should give all cause for hope. The early vote was 47million when it was written and as of now the number is 52 million.https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/23/early-voting-numbers-swing-states-431363
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl:
@Nicole: In the interest of sociology, we need a list of course words he used broken down into “I knew he knew that” and “Where the hell did he learn that one?”
Just Chuck
@James E Powell:
Power. Being the court stenographers is their only aim, and they will never ever rock the boat.
KithKanan
@Nicole: I was/am a huge nerd, so we can probably chalk that up to gender differences in socialization. Or maybe I just palled around with Bad Influences?
mrmoshpotato
@zzyzx: Comey can suck Dump’s orange nutsack.
Sab
@Miss Bianca: My stepdaughter’s mother was a single mom whose MS became debilitating when she was twenty and her daughter was four. Mom went to a medicaid nursing home and child went to unpleasant foster care at age four.
This kids in cages really triggered her.
She spoke the language. She lived in the same town. Mom’s friends kept in touch. She sort of understood why it was happening. She knew where and how her mom was. She got to visit mom weekly.
My husband adopted her at age ten. She loves and trusts him completely. She is forty now and she will never get over the shock of that initial abrupt separation. She has to make a huge effort to trust anyone long term.
These kids had none of the few advantages that she had. These kids are damaged for life. They may well move on, but it will not be easy on anyone.
Also too, Betsy DeVos and her horrible adoption charity made a fortune trafficking these kids into unsuspecting Christian families who will have no help in coping with the consequences.
West of the Rockies
I loathe Chuck Todd. Let’s hear yet again from folks in Turd Blossom Hollow about how Biden worries them…
How ’bout we hear from people in San Francisco or Detroit?
James E Powell
@gene108:
Agree completely, notwithstanding Skip Bayless.
Roger Moore
@gene108:
Yep, all of this. I think that kind of accountability is why sports commentators like Bob Costas and Bryant Gumble have been successful in moving from sports broadcasting to news and political journalism.
West of the Rockies
@Miss Bianca:
Man, what does Barron have to cling to?
Shalimar
@Matt McIrvin: If Barr does announce an investigation of Biden on Monday, Pelosi should have an impeachment of Barr ready to go by Wednesday. The “investigation ” would be using his office to promote libel.
Barbara
@Shalimar: She should add using his office to promote the personal interests of the president to the mix. The DOJ handling of the defamation charges against Trump is utterly shameful. I was joking with my husband that were I the DOJ lawyer, I would be asking for and agreeing to time extensions at every step of the process. An extra 60 days to answer? Sure!
Betty Cracker
@VeniceRiley: I think a high turnout election is good for Democrats up and down the ticket, and this is looking like a high turnout election.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: ugh ugh ugh ugh ugh
Subsole
@Sab: Most likely some variation on “Tomorrow I get to poop again!”.
HumboldtBlue
trnc
That was indeed framed as a Luntz wet dream, but she didn’t just lob softballs at DT. At one point when he started making an excuse for something (everything), she said “You’re the president.” It should be one of the clips shown over and over on the news shows, but that’s a whole other thing.
MisterForkbeard
@Shalimar: Agreed. Especially with the “If you take the unverified story seriously, the FBI has had this hard drive for over 8 months and waited until shortly before the election to announce an investigation. This is clear investigation interference and using the DOJ to help the President. We’re moving to impeach Barr immediately, and we hope that a future DOJ will examine his behavior closely for illegal corruption.”
WaterGirl
@West of the Rockies: I didn’t say anything earlier this week when I saw it, but I saw a photo of Barron and Melania and it just about made me sick to my stomach.
He was standing with his mother, and the set of his head as he looked off into the distance was so very Trump-like, and he had a dead-eyed stare. It was very unsettling.
This kid probably never stood a chance, and I fear there is now another generation of damaged Trumps, who will follow in his father’s footsteps. Damage handed down from father to son, over and over. So depressing.
Nelle
@BruceFromOhio: Also gives “cover” for cheating.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I would think it’s helpful. Perhaps Trump inspired a few more people, but it’s hard to imagine he inspired that many.
zhena gogolia
@Hungry Joe:
Good analysis.
Bringing me a memory of the great acting of Fred MacMurray and Humphrey Bogart doesn’t hurt.
germy
@WaterGirl:
This photo?
https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2020-10-14/first-lady-melania-trump-reveals-son-barron-had-coronavirus
zhena gogolia
@laura:
I hope he studied the end of the Ceaucescus.
James E Powell
Here’s an interesting twitter thread from Simon Rosenberg on youth (18-29) turnout.
I am always skeptical of claims that “this time, the kids are coming out,” but maybe this is the year.
FlyingToaster
@Crashman06:
It’s purely a volume problem. If you’re anticipating ~10% of the electorate will drop ballots in the 2 weeks of early voting, you hire X employees to process those votes.
Instead, after 6 days of early voting, 28% have dropped or mailed-in ballots. Oops.
RE: the other items:
The item that is iffy is the retirees. It’s possible that NC & FL are like PA, that you’re seeing people change their registrations to align with their actual voting pattern. But since these are being claimed as new registrations, it’s more likely retirees. Their kids, back north, are increasingly less likely to register in any party, but Democrats are still more likely than Republicans.
PA I don’t have an explanation for. Pennsyltucky is real? People were purged and are counted as new registrants?
Yarrow
@James E Powell: A young relative of mine turns 18 just after the election. She is SO ANGRY that she isn’t eligible to vote in this election. Everyone she interacts with in her general age group that can vote has already voted early or has plans to vote. The kids she knows seem to be fired up. Her siblings who are not that much older than her have already voted – Dem all the way down the ballot.
Miss Bianca
@laura: yeah, well, if Miller is taking his cues from the Ceaucescu regime, I gotta helluva spoiler alert for him…
On second thought, nah. Let him experience the end on his own.
Faithful Lurker
@WaterGirl: Where did you see the photo of Melania and Barron? I’d like a proof of life.
raven
@Yarrow: Tell her you know a guy who came home from 3 years in the Army and a year each in Korea and Vietnam and had to wait 14 months to reach the voting age of 21.
Miss Bianca
@ProfDamatu: that, too, tracks with my experience as a baby mammal. :/
Kent
@Yarrow: My 17 year old is 5 months too young to vote this election. Enrages her to no end. There are zero Republicans within any of her circles here in WA. The only ones she knows are a few evangelical friends she still is in social media contact with from when we lived in Texas 4 years ago. And they aren’t really friends anymore, just childhood friends that she still follows on social media.
Faithful Lurker
@Faithful Lurker: Sorry, I should have waited a minute for the picture to show up
Kent
@raven: That certainly puts it in perspective.
Librarien
@mrmoshpotato: Her questions definitely had GOP framing, like the one on the minimum wage, which was “Doesn’t a higher minimum wage hurt business?” instead of “Shouldn’t workers get a higher minimum wage?”
evodevo
@debbie: I’d say, from the looks of him gulping air like a guppy at the close of the debate when he was trying to hold hands with Melamine, he was experiencing O2 deprivation….
randy khan
@Crashman06:
I get it. Believe me, you don’t want to know about my irrational fears.
Yarrow
@raven: I will do that! What I’m also doing is getting her fired up to vote in the 2022 midterms. Her vote can have a big impact then since voting drops off in midterms and young people are typically less likely to vote in midterms. She really hates Trump, though, and so wants to vote against him and she’s missing the chance by days.
Sab
@Kent: We all voted for/with your daughter in Ohio ( me, husband, three kids, their mother, one voting grandkid.) All voted. Swing state. Hope that helps. Granddaughter felt the same in 2016. Should be better this time.
mrmoshpotato
@WaterGirl: Sorry. (We all damn well know it’s orange too!). (Sorry again!)
xjmuellerlurks
Early voting update from East Tennessee… We went to the Hamblen County courthouse and voted today. In line at 11:20 am and out the door at Noon. About 40-50 folks waiting in line during out time there we were there. We’re a little county (70k pop) in a deep red area, but the folks running the election are on top of things: no talking about candidates while in the building; no candidate promoting clothing: masks and plastic gloves provided. There were no armed “poll watchers” (not even any visible police which weird for a county courthouse), just regular folks exercising the franchise. When I hear about the voting nonsense in some other red states I realize I’m lucky. My sister in law voted by mail, we voted early today, and my brother in law will vote on the Third. We all got to vote the way we wanted to. If only it was like that for everyone.
randy khan
@patroclus:
You’re talking about something different – the “Shy Trump Voter” theory is that there are a bunch of people who are, and always have been, committed to Trump but are afraid of the opprobrium of their neighbors (and pollsters) and so won’t talk about their support. So they refuse to respond to polls, etc. There’s evidence to support what you’re talking about for what I’ll call publicly undecided voters, but not for the theory that people are actively hiding what they always have planned to do.
Crashman06
@randy khan:
Not that I want anyone else to experience it but good to know the feeling is shared.
Sab
@FlyingToaster: I grew up in Florida. I live in Ohio. I know so many people who retired there and came shrieking back about the tiny lizards. Anoles? They are very cute, small and they don’t even bite. Plus they are chameleons. And they eat bugs and insects that might bite you.
Anoles scare you but you haven’t mentionned the many poisonous snakes, also too alligators
ETA: Also, Fl has some very large very beautiful spiders that hang on webs in trees. None of them every bit me so probably safe. But large.
evodevo
@Sab: and then there are the Burmese pythons and iguanas lol
Kent
Thanks. Unfortunately we probably have 30 members of the extended family who live in “Pensyltucky” probably exactly mid-way between Philly and Pittsburgh in Mifflin County (Amish land) Dairy farm families and such. Judging from the fundamentalist Christian memes they post on FB they probably more than counter-balance you out.
marklar
@Miss Bianca:
We covered Harlow’s monkey studies in my Intro to Psych class this very week (timed to coincide with the upcoming election), and the results are worse than you remember. The monkeys clung to the ‘cloth’ mothers as infants, but as adolescents were all socially delayed, had no interest in relationships (friendship or sexual), and when Harlow forcibly mated them, they took little or no care of their offspring.
The writing assignment/discussion board prompt this week is to analyze the child separation policy at the border in the context of Harlow’s research, and to make suggestions as to whether we can rectify the problems we’ve created.
raven
@Kent: So you are a fisheries biologist?
WaterGirl
@germy: nodding. yep, that’s the one.
opiejeanne
@gene108: Mostly true, but why do we still have Joe Buck?
WaterGirl
@Faithful Lurker:
It’s this one. First time I think I’ve ever seen a real smile from Melania, and she is looking at Barron.
Sab
@evodevo: They are not native so they don’t count. Kind of like most of Miami.
Kent
@randy khan:
I have never in my life met a “shy” Trump voter. I knew lots of shy Democrats when I lived in TX. But out here in Blue WA I haven’t met a single “shy” Trump voter. They wear their MAGA on their sleeves so to speak. Nothing shy about it. Part of the appeal of Trump is that you can unleash your hidden asshole and let your MAGA flag fly free.
WaterGirl
@Faithful Lurker: I had no idea where I had seen it, so I was glad to see the link from germy!
Sab
@Sab: I am very dated. We left in 1966. Most of Miami has since then actually been from Miami, except LeBron who we still claim as ours (plus his excellent wife, also ours.)
Kent
That was my first career. I started working as an observer biologist on fishing boats in Alaska then got my graduate degree in fisheries management and marine affairs at UW in Seattle and worked for NOAA in Alaska, Seattle, and Washington DC for about 15 years. I spent most of my time involved in the management of the commercial fisheries off Alaska and marine mammal protection. When I worked there it was called NMFS. Then in the early 2000s they tried to rebrand the agency as NOAA-Fisheries.
Then I met my wife and her medical training and career brought us to Texas and I started a second career teaching HS science in Waco where my wife was doing her residency. She got offered prestigious faculty teaching jobs so we stayed longer than we meant to in TX. Four years ago we moved back to the Pacific Northwest (Vancouver WA area) and I decided to keep teaching rather than try to get back into fisheries work as that would have meant a lot of travel and such and I’m pretty much the one who keeps track of the kids while my wife puts in long hours as a doctor.
Lyrebird
@gene108: Word!
I know little about sports, but PLEASE could we have them bring on Charlie Pierce and Jemele Hill instead of the ones they pick now?
@schrodingers_cat: @Elizabelle: I don’t have y’all’s stomach for this.
raven
@Kent: Huh, I have a friend who is in that line over in Wenatchee. He’s a UW grad as well
https://www.pevenconsulting.com
Mallard Filmore
@Librarien:
“Why are destructive labor wage rates a good thing?”
Sab
@Kent: My grandfather grew up on a dairy farm in western Pennsylvania, and one of his sister’s was a Presbyterian (teaching not spiritual) missionary to Africa (southern Sudan). She spent twenty years there and loved every minute. Came home during WWII. Then taught in inner city Pittsburgh. Loved that too
ETA: Middle school. “Always interesting. Kept you on your toes.”
schrodingers_cat
@Crashman06: Twitter is an excellent resource but you have to be discerning about who you follow.
terry chay
@patroclus: Those people had an option during th 2016 primary and their party chose Trump the more the field winnowed.
Must not be many of them. in the four years since, I guaranteed that cohort shrunk, not grew. Same thing is why Clinton got elected twice, and had Gore easily win the popular vote.
cain
We are going to play by Kurgan rules!
zzyzx
@Kent: while I would tend to agree with you, saying that you haven’t met one isn’t an argument against, because – by definition – they wouldn’t let you know.
It’s more that this is both an unprovable assertion and it hasn’t shown up regularly in the data, so I’m not going to stress out over it too much.
Kent
@raven: Yeah. Most of the fisheries biology work here in the Pacific Northwest is all salmon stuff. That’s outside my area of expertise. My whole career was working with blue water groundfish like pollock, cod, halibut, sablefish, flatfish. Also shellfish like king crab and scallops. In Alaska salmon is entirely state-managed so I never had anything to do with that.
All the blue water groundfish management here in OR is handled out of the NOAA offices in Seattle where I used to work and we didn’t want to move back to the Seattle area. So I’m sticking with teaching. Which I frankly enjoy more anyway than dealing with commercial fishermen.
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
You leave out a more likely possibility — they know full well that their boss’s bosses are Right Wing Republicans, and that their prospects for pay raises and camera time on the best new shows rest in those hands.
My wife was in the news biz her whole career. Many of her coworkers were liberal union members, but they worked for a boss who was a neanderthal (No offense to Real Neanderthals !!) Republican. So many of them played a chameleon game, looking as conservatively objective as possible.
Wife called a crook a crook, was elected to the second most powerful office in her nationwide union local. She got screwed by more than one boss.
Crashman06
@schrodingers_cat:
I actually stopped logging into my account years ago. My problem is I occasionally head directly to some commentators/poll aggregator feeds to see what’s going on and then get pulled into reading the cesspool of randos @ replying them. Big mistake!
raven
@Kent: As much as I love to fish I know little about it but reading the “Western Flyer” was eye opening the way the boat followed the ebb and flow of the different species as they were fished out. I’m keeping track of the rebuilding of the Flyer and it is astounding
eta of course our not to be mentioned banee is a commercial fisherman in Sitka.
J R in WV
@West of the Rockies:
Perhaps a sweet and affectionate grandma? He can’t turn out as bad as father Donald, who never sees him.
geg6
@West of the Rockies:
Apparently, a giant stuffed lion in a marble and gold living room with no other soft surface in sight.
Kent
Oh, I’m sure there are shy Trump voters. I’m just not convinced there are an inordinate number of them relative to other voters such that it would distort polling data.
geg6
@WaterGirl:
The good news is that Jr.’s wife seems to have fled as quickly as she possibly could and with their kids. Maybe they’ll be the Mary Trumps of their generation.
Ken
“No. Henry Ford understood that over a century ago. Workers who earn more spend more, and that increases business revenues across the board. We saw that again earlier this year, when putting millions of barbers, bartenders, and sales clerks out of work crashed the economy. And the working class does largely spend their additional income, unlike so-called wealthy people who may need to use everything they get to pay off their hundreds of millions of dollars of debt to unnamed creditors.”
— Fantasy NFLTG Joe Biden
Kent
@raven: Sitka fishermen are most likely pretty cool. One of my good friends was fishermen out there. It’s mostly salmon and herring fisheries which are sustainable. The unsustainable fisheries on the west coast are the bottom trawl fisheries that are mostly big corporate operations out of Seattle.
The history of fisheries politics in Alaska is mostly one of smaller sustainable Alaska fisheries battling big Seattle corporate interests (and later Japanese interests operating out of Seattle-based subsidiaries). In fact Alaska statehood in the 1950s was largely an effort by the state to regain control over its salmon fisheries from Seattle-based canneries that were driving it into the ground. That was long before oil was discovered in Alaska.
Redshift
@Kent: For me, the thing that makes the “shy Trump voter” seem unlikely is that they also aren’t donating to his campaign. Plus Republicans have a long history of things like declaring “skewed polls” and Rasmussen is the only one that’s right, and it blows up in their faces every time.
For all their bluster, if they’re relying on these things, it means they know they’re losing and are trying to pretend they’re not instead of having a plan to change that.
Redshift
@Crashman06: Yeah, the thing that keeps Twitter enjoyable for me is that I made a resolution years ago, “don’t get into arguments with idiots,” and I stick to it.
geg6
@FlyingToaster:
Pennsyltucky is totally real, but I think the majority of new GOP registrations here are formerly un-engaged white men (and some women), probably in the 34-54 yo age group without college degrees. Also some of those in the same demographic who once were registered Dems (they are in a union or farmers) who are changing their registrations from D to R, which does reflect their reality. Purely my opinion, but definitely what I see on the ground here.
germy
NotMax
@Nicole
Gratifying to learn there that among readers of B-J comments are ten-year-old habitués.
;)
Roger Moore
@Kent:
How do you know? This is the whole thing about the “shy voter” theory: you would never know who they are because their defining characteristic is that they never reveal their interest in voting for Trump, even to pollsters. It’s basically impossible to know if there is a subset of voters out there who are so secretive about their preferences that even pollsters can’t find them. Of course the flip side of this is that you wonder how the person claiming there are lots of shy Trump voters out there is supposed to know about them if they’re so secretive.
geg6
@Yarrow:
My 19 yo niece has voted in her first presidential election. My 28 yo niece, who has voted in one before, is even more motivated this time as she now has a 1 yo baby girl and a baby boy coming in February. She’s fired up and ready to go.
Another Scott
@James E Powell: +1
I saw the first small T/P sign in my neighborhood today (on a street I usually don’t walk down). It was kind of shocking. There are maybe 20 yards with B/H signs that I’ve noticed and the majority have no signs. This subdivision is very blue (typically ~ 70/30), but lots of NoStepOnSnek vanity license plates, so we all know that there are a substantial RWNJs too.
As horrible as Donnie is, he’s still going to get votes. Joe is going to do better than Hillary did with them in large part for the reason you cite.
There’s no “Anyone But Biden” saying, the way there was for her.
:-(
Cheers,
Scott.
Ken
Applying the rule “it’s always projection,” I hypothesize that these shy Trump voters are getting together in the basement of a pizza parlor to share their stories, support one another, and eat the succulent flesh of kidnapped children.
raven
@Kent: I’m not sure how old this is but Dave was a BJ guy
In this episode, we jump into the fray with Southeast Alaska salmon #trollers fearful about their future. They’re concerned about the state’s strategy for renegotiating the Pacific Salmon Treaty, a formal agreement between the U.S. and Canada to cooperate in conservation and harvest sharing arrangements. It is a complicated story and our episode, “Whose Fish?” is a snapshot, resonating with questions about resource allocation, the negotiation of international treaties and livelihoods under stress.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@trollhattan: Brosnahan is great but as it goes on you realize Alex Borstein is arguably the real star of the show. She’s Melissa McCarthy level hilarious…she has that McCarthy/Vince Vaughn motormouth thing where she just starts erupting in rapidfire hilarity that just goes on and on.
mali muso
I have noticed a recent proliferation of yard signs proclaiming “Jesus 2020”. The top half of the sign is red and white (Jesus) and the bottom is blue and white (2020). Not quite sure if this is the logical extension of the Trump cult proclaiming him the messiah, an “pox on both houses” sanctimonious posture, or what.
James E Powell
@randy khan:
The stories of the Shy Trump Voters sometimes are referring not to shyness, but to the pollsters failure to predict the higher than expected turnout of racist white voters in 2016.
Another Scott
@WaterGirl: In one of the early books about him, he supposedly told his wife that he wanted nothing to do with the young sons (at least) – that he would take over when they turned 18 and before then they were her responsibility.
I have no reason to doubt that, given the way his elder spawn have turned out.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ken
@mali muso: Perhaps “Jesus 2020” is a wish for the second coming to get a move on? It would be like the Sweet Meteor of Death but (presumably) not meant as a joke.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Nicole: Speaking of 1980s content on Youtube…somehow every episode of Newhart is up on Youtube. The first couple of seasons – especially the first season – were kinda so so. Then they replaced the original rich girl turned housekeeper who was pleasant but not very funny, with Julia Duffy, who was unpleasant but very funny in season 2, which helped.
By the end of season 2 (I think) the Kirk Devane character, who was supposed to be a major source of comedy but just wasn’t that funny, was gone. To make up for that they added the very funny Peter Scolari as a main character, plus Larry, Darrell and Darrell.
After that they had Tom Poston, Julia Duffy, Peter Scolari and the Larry/Darrrell/Darrell trio as talented comic oddball characters with Dick Loudon getting in a lot of funny deadpan quips amongst them. I started watching them again in May and if nothing else the intro with the soothing score by Henry Mancini with bucolic scenes of the Vermont countryside are a brief, soothing balm in these troubled times.
Miss Bianca
@marklar: Oh, I do remember those parts, believe me. I think I said the one group was “less insane” than the other, but that didn’t make them anywhere close to normal.
Man, what we’ve done to animals for the sake of “science”. And people for the sake of ideology. : (
mrmoshpotato
@Ken: I see you saw my comment about Comey sucking Dump’s orange nutsack and raised me.
Kent
Some of those have crept into my extended family world. It’s mostly evangelical MAGA folk who will still absolutely vote for Trump to “save the babies” but are distancing from the Trump campaign, probably mostly because of the loser stench. If he was up by 10% they’d probably be all victorious MAGA right now.
bluehill
I think there’s large pockets of shy Trump voters concentrated in Russia. Pollsters definitely not accounting for them except the Fox twitter polls.
MomSense
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
I loved that show. Used to watch with my dad.
Jeffro
Biden & Co have a new ad up (on Twitter, at least): we found it, here’s trumpov’s plan to beat Covid-19!
LOLOLOL
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@patroclus: What I would think is far more likely is Trump Fan Boi Voters. The only time they show up to vote is for Trump and don’t give a shit about anything else so the pollsters don’t view them as likely voters.
Uncle Cosmo
From his Wiki bio:
IOW, good old-fashioned motherfucking nepotism. The same way he got his Emmys – because the sonofabitch flat-out sucks at his job.
Kent
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: I tried to introduce my daughter to MASH which was the seminal comedy when I was her age in HS and the cool one because it as anti-war.
What I notice now is how absolutely sexist it is from today’s lens. It doesn’t age will in that respect. Take away the war part and it’s mostly white male doctors drinking, joking and trying to get into the skirts of every nurse within 10 miles.
mali muso
@Kent: That was kind of my impression as well. Too “shy” to put up a Trump sign but trying to convince themselves that they are doing the Lord’s work. blech
James E Powell
@Uncle Cosmo:
Maybe you missed it, but this fall there was an explosion of savvy contrarian voiced “Actually, Joe Buck is good” columns all over the internet. It was like they were getting paid to say that.
Ian
@Redshift: If they are a real thing, then I will wager my hat there are 5 shy democratic voters hidden amongst the maga swarms afraid to speak out for every one trumpie intimidated by our evil liberal cancel culture.
(((CassandraLeo)))
@Shalimar: Pelosi should impeach him in any case. My understanding is that the Senate has to consider an impeachment before it can consider any other business. This means that an impeachment of Barr (or anyone else) would delay the confirmation* vote of Amy Covid Barrett… probably until after the election. It would be perfectly timed, particularly since the majority of Americans don’t want her confirmed anyway. And her message to the Senate should include the phrase “Merrick Garland sends his regards.”
Cēterum cēnseō factiōnem Rēpublicānam esse dēlendam īgnī ferrōque.
geg6
@James E Powell:
Good lord. How much did they pay those people to write that tripe? The only sports announcer I hate more is Mike Milbury.
Ruckus
@germy:
If they don’t blame liberals for all the “bad” things, they might have to take some level of responsibility. Boy can I make myself laugh some days.
raven
These signs are all over our neighborhood and the Bohdi approves!
Kent
@(((CassandraLeo))): The senate doesn’t HAVE to do anything. There are basically no constitutional limits to Senate procedure and no statutory restrictions. So they can change the rules at any time. There aren’t any secret Dem procedural maneuvers that will stop the Barrett vote
And they could table an impeachment inquiry in 5 seconds on a party line vote.
Miss Bianca
@raven: The Bodhi abides.
Kent
@raven: What do they mean? I haven’t seen those before.
A Ghost to Most
Add me to the “Joe Buck is the biggest asshole in sports broadcasting” pile.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
Not sure that’s fair. Not sure it isn’t either, but it seems to me that a teenager in that environment, is going to have that look, no matter what. But what he does with his life is in front of him. I hate his father with the heat of a thousand suns , but the kid doesn’t have to turn into shitforbrains.
trollhattan
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Yeah, she gets to spread her wings later in season 1 (where I currently am) and while staying alone in the parents house plus getting kidnapped by the mooks are where she gets to shine. She was kind of one-note earlier, but they’re throwing so many characters at us it’s understandable.
raven
@Kent: From Megan
“I saw these signs all over midcoast Maine and felt so touched by them! I bought one for myself at a cool country store and then accidentally left it behind! Oh no!! The good news is that inspired me to print a bunch out and see if maybe others would feel uplifted too!![]()
These signs are not associated with anything other than what the viewer associates with love.![]()
Hmmm…that’s fun to think about, isn’t it??!![]()
The person who started making these signs in Maine in 2017 had this to say:![]()
“The thing about the heart is that it could mean whatever you want it to mean, but it’s all good,” said Peter Baldwin of Brooks, the man behind the heart signs. “There was such divisiveness over last year’s election, on both sides. It boils down to: where is the love?
Hey!! Where IS the love? That’s where I’ll be.”
I was not the person in this household who ordered one but it’s ok by me.
the proceeds are going here”
Aleta
@raven: I know that guy, from years back!
For 30 or more years he made the best apple picking ladders. A fire burned his shop down, the community did its best to restore it.
https://bangordailynews.com/2012/06/19/news/brooks-man-rebuilds-apple-ladder-business-after-fire-with-communitys-help/
WaterGirl
@Ruckus: I don’t think so. I have seen teenage boys look cocky, or scared, or mad, or angsty, and any number of other things. But I have never seen that cold, dead-eyed stare on any teenager.
Jeffro
@A Ghost to Most:Add me to the “Joe Buck is the biggest asshole in sports broadcasting” pile.
I guess folks have strong feelings about Joe Buck, but there was this one game when he correctly identified (and was clearly pleased about) a somewhat obscure Alice In Chains riff that was being used as outro/bumper music and…well…in my book that counts for something. ;)
raven
@Aleta: Cool! I sent the article on to Megan!
A Ghost to Most
Elizabelle
@A Ghost to Most: Yeah. I think Barron is on the spectrum, and he is no doubt one of the Trumps who hates the spotlight. I feel for him.
raven
@Aleta: She said
“I hadn’t heard that! But I spoke to him on the phone the other night and had a wonderful time!! He’s great!!![]()
“
Goku (Amerikan Baka)
@John S.:
Was it just a another Cletus safari? I’m not worried about Mahoning County. It went for the Hildebeast in 2016 by 3 points. I think Biden will be fine there. He may not win the state, but he doesn’t need to, as nice as it would be. The fact that it is apparently so close bodes well imo
Ohio Mom
West of the Rockies @110:
His maternal grandparents. Barron lives with them.
narya
@James E Powell: @Roger Moore: @Lyrebird: @geg6: I also nominate Peter McGuire (#shutuppierre) and Leigh Diffey WHO ONLY SHOUTS as worst sportspeople. Charlie Pierce did a thing for subscribers today, and someone asked about the difference between writing for sports and for politics (as Pierce has done both) and he said with sports, you can just come out and say that someone sucks.
@Kent: I get my fish from Sitka Salmon Shares–often it has the name of the vessel that caught the fish.
narya
@WaterGirl: I’ve seen some speculation that he’s on the spectrum (and I actually say that with kindness & compassion).
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@trollhattan: Tony Shaloub is also fantastic in it. Thank FSM he survived the ‘rona.
raven
@narya: Did you watch the video I posted?
A Ghost to Most
Watching Borat now.
May all your shits have antlers.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@MomSense: Check it out again – it holds up! I watched it regularly with my parents until about 1988 when I started college and didn’t have time to watch TV because I was too busy either studying or socializing. I’d forgotten the plot to almost every episode so it’s pretty much new to me. The one episode I did vaguely remember was the one where Dick gets sued for plagiarism.
@Kent: Newhart is very ’80s but I’m not picking up any sexist vibes from it, or anything un-PC, unless you view the L/D/D trio as somehow derogatory to rural backwoods rubes. But even they have their redeeming qualities. Mary Fran was too strong a female lead to make sexist tropes work – other than by lampooning them, which the show does. The most ’80s thing about it is the Stephanie-Michael combo – they are a total stuck up ’80s era yuppie couple. It’s played for laughs rather than as something to emulate though. There’s absolutely no racial diversity in the cast but, I’ve been to Vermont and there’s basically no racial diversity there to this day. So it’s not an unrealistic portrayal.
The show from that era that does have some sexism is Cheers. I still like it but there are moments in the Sam-Diane dynamic where they walk right up to the line of Sam getting physically abusive, which he never crosses that line onscreen but come close enough that it’s a little disturbing. Basically it’s implied that he’d be justified in popping her one which does not play well in these times.
barbequebob
@gene108:
Absolutely. I always tell anyone who will listen to me that sports journalists perform far more sophisticated analysis than political pundits. Sport journalists understand that “both sides do it”, as in all teams win some games, lose some games. But they (the journalists) also understand is that what differentiates teams is the frequency of winning and losing.
Aleta
@raven: Another cool thing he does, or used to, is drive his big ladder delivery truck to NJ during prime peach season to bring back bushels of prime peaches ordered by food coop members. Around here really good peaches in any quantity are like gold in distant mountains.
raven
@Aleta: sweet
Ohio Mom
Re: Jesus 2020 signs
I saw a news article on them. Some little southern church made them with the idea of the usual churchy stuff, reminding people to put Jesus front and center, etc.
They were thinking the signs were just for local display but somehow they caught on in a big way and orders started to come on from all around the country.
I’m guessing those church people are seeing god’s hand in this, that one of his mysterious workings is creating a fad. I know, I agree, there are plenty of more important things he could be working on instead.
J R in WV
@Uncle Cosmo:
While I do agree with you about Joe Buck, I still wonder every time I hear him working with Joe Buck to announce an NFL game, why, oh why does Troy Aikman get to call games for teams he either played for, or played against?
In no other American endeavor would someone with total and complete prejudice in one direction or another be allowed to participate in the sport he made his millions from. Plus I hate him individually, also too!!!
…
ETA to fix quote box formatting…
Aziz, light!
About Joe Buck, small world, in high school I went on a date with his sister Chris. I didn’t get to meet his dad Jack, but as a Cardinal fan I grew up listening to his voice.
WaterGirl
@A Ghost to Most: @Elizabelle: @narya:
I was not aware of that.
narya
@raven: probably a dead thread . . . but I didn’t see a video.
Vhh
@laura: I agree, but the problem is that for the GOP base, the wanton cruelty is a positive feature, not a bug.
Vhh
@Redshift: i say, skew away, let them think it’s in the bag and not vote.