Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

The willow is too close to the house.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

I really should read my own blog.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

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

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

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

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

No one could have predicted…

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

In my day, never was longer.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / ‘The Pain Phase’ (Open Thread)

‘The Pain Phase’ (Open Thread)

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We’re all longing to see Trump suffer a crushing, humiliating, ego-shattering rejection at the end of this interminable election season. I visit those electoral vote map sites and drool over improbable 400+ EC vote scenarios as greedily as I’d eye a plate of warm chocolate chip cookies.

But as much as I loathe Trump to the depths of my soul, I also have bottomless contempt for Jared Kushner. Even more so after reading CNN’s account of Bob Woodward’s April interview with Kushner, in which the whey-faced, noodle-armed nepotism hire discussed the Trump admin’s catastrophic mismanagement of the pandemic like a Dollar Tree-brand Gordon Gekko:

Kushner on the pandemic in April: “There were three phases. There’s the panic phase, the pain phase and then the comeback phase. I do believe that last night symbolized kind of the beginning of the comeback phase. That doesn’t mean there’s not still a lot of pain and there won’t be pain for a while, but that basically was, we’ve now put out rules to get back to work. Trump’s now back in charge. It’s not the doctors. They’ve kind of – we have, like, a negotiated settlement.”

The statement reflected a political strategy. Instead of following the health experts’ advice, Trump and Kushner were focused on what would help the President on Election Day. By their calculations, Trump would be the “open-up president.”

I assume the “last night” Kushner referred to during the interview was when Trump took over the coronavirus briefings and turned them into a clown show. It wasn’t the Rose Garden conference when they tried conning Americans about a Google website that would allow people to identify symptoms and find nearby testing — that pack of lies was a month in the future when Woodward had his chat with wee Jared.

More from CNN’s account of the Woodward tapes:

Kushner went on to tell Woodward that Trump did a “full hostile takeover” of the Republican Party when he became its presidential nominee. He also told Woodward, “The most dangerous people around the President are over-confident idiots” and that Trump had replaced them with “more thoughtful people who kind of know their place.”

Sweet banjo-strumming Jeebus, the arrogance of that smug little fuckface. The Lincoln Project (I know, I know) dropped a gut-punch of an ad that brings home what was (and is) at stake while Trump and Kushner were congratulating themselves and angling for political advantage as the virus doomed people:

Kushner would describe that as the “pain phase,” I guess, and we’re still in it. I wonder what the “pain phase” for Trump and Kushner will look like? I’m afraid it won’t be nearly as acute as they deserve, but let’s do all we can to make sure it starts with an electoral curb-stomping.

Reader Interactions

162Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    I wonder what the “pain phase” for Trump and Kushner will look like?

    Oh my. You should lock this thread before the comments trigger a call from the authorities. Cole wouldn’t like that.

  3. 3.

    Shakti

    I just got a phone call from my mother. She’s freaked out about the container in front of the Supervisor of Elections. I had her send me a picture and it looked the same as last time (when I voted in the primary).

  4. 4.

    Aleta

    Washington Post, By Juliet Eilperin

    Trump will open up more than half of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest to logging and other forms of development, according to a notice posted Wednesday, stripping protections that had safeguarded one of the world’s largest intact temperate rainforests for nearly two decades.

    As of Thursday, it will be legal for logging companies to build roads and cut and remove timber throughout more than 9.3 million acres of forest — featuring old-growth stands of red and yellow cedar, Sitka spruce and Western hemlock. The relatively-pristine expanse is also home to plentiful salmon runs and imposing fjords. The decision, which will be published in the Federal Register, reverses protections President Bill Clinton put in place in 2001 and is one of the most sweeping public lands rollbacks Trump has enacted.

    The new rule states that it will make “an additional 188,000 forested acres available for timber harvest,” mainly “old growth timber.”
    For years, federal and academic scientists have identified Tongass as an ecological oasis that serves as a massive carbon sink while providing key habitat for wild Pacific salmon and trout, Sitka black-tailed deer and myriad other species. It boasts the highest density of brown bears in North America, and its trees — some of which are between 300 and 1,000 years old — absorb at least 8 percent of all the carbon stored in the entire Lower 48′s forests combined.
    “While tropical rainforests are the lungs of the planet, the Tongass is the lungs of North America,” Dominick DellaSala, chief scientist with the Earth Island Institute’s Wild Heritage project, said in an interview. “It’s America’s last climate sanctuary.”

    …

  6. 6.

    Slappy Kincaid

    Kushner is the perpetual cover shot of Punchable Face magazine.  He’s the snotty, condescending bully that the kids who wanted to feel elitist sucked up to and everyone else loathed in high school.

    Hated that guy from the moment I saw him.

  7. 7.

    zhena gogolia

    Who the hell is “Kennedy”? She had an “interesting” interview with Giuliani on Fox.

  8. 8.

    Amir Khalid

    He also told Woodward, “The most dangerous people around the President are over-confident idiots”

    Jared’s not wrong there. It’s just that the over-confident idiots at the White House, like his FIL and himself, have surrounded themselves with meek and compliant people who can’t save them from their own worst impulses.

  10. 10.

    burnspbesq

    I don’t care where they go or what they do after next week—the Lincoln Project have been fantastic allies in this campaign.

  12. 12.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    Kushner went on to tell Woodward that Trump did a “full hostile takeover” of the Republican Party when he became its presidential nominee. He also told Woodward, “The most dangerous people around the President are over-confident idiots” and that Trump had replaced them with “more thoughtful people who kind of know their place.”

    Wow.

    This quote should accompany every definition of the Dunning Kruger effect.

    I remember him saying that the free market will fix PPE shortages, which shows a *stunning* deficit in the understanding of economics. The free market can fix “shortages” when the problem is that the price has gone up, and people aren’t yet willing to accept that; but the reason for the quotes is, economically speaking, it’s only a shortage if you can’t buy what you want *at any price, no matter how high*.

    And PPE is the sort of thing that people who need it won’t resell, *at any price, no matter how high*, when there is limited production, and a perceived need for more than can be produced.

    And you know, I’m a genius (no reason to hide it!), but for all that I sometimes assume people are my intellectual peers, when I’m *way* over their heads, I *know* this isn’t difficult reasoning. Econ 101 will tell you about shortages (and, in fact, Krugman/Wells’ textbook did exactly that for me); and if anyone thinks that the Trump Administration has gotten *better* people by now, they aren’t even paying attention to reality (much less part of the “reality based community”).

  14. 14.

    Steeplejack

    @Amir Khalid:

    “If you’re looking around the table and can’t figure out who’s the overconfident idiot, it’s you. Or maybe you’re all overconfident idiots.”

  15. 15.

    burnspbesq

    The markets see through Trump’s bullshit about a V-shaped recovery. At this hour, the Dow is down over 800 points.

    If you want your 401(k) balance to bounce back, YKWTD.

  16. 16.

    trollhattan

    @Aleta:

    David Bernhardt is the most dangerous member of Trump’s cabinet who nobody knows about. He’s competent, connected, has an agenda, is not finished.

  17. 17.

    Jim Appleton

    Let’s not forget Ivanka telling the hoi polloi that her dad is completely and infallibly bestest at all the science stuff.

     

    Fuck all of them into one giant grease spot.

  18. 18.

    Xavier

    “The most dangerous people are the overconfident idiots”

    As Jim Wright points out, no more self-awareness than a dog licking its own balls in public.

  19. 19.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Kushner on the pandemic in April: “There were three phases. There’s the panic phase, the pain phase and then the comeback phase. I do believe that last night symbolized kind of the beginning of the comeback phase. That doesn’t mean there’s not still a lot of pain and there won’t be pain for a while, but that basically was, we’ve now put out rules to get back to work. Trump’s now back in charge. It’s not the doctors. They’ve kind of – we have, like, a negotiated settlement.”

    So Mr Only the Best here thinks he can cut a deal with a force of nature. So he though if he offered the Virus the Blue States as a sacrifice it would be satisfied?

  20. 20.

    kindness

    I look forward to Trump’s kids being despised by their peers in Manhattan for the rest of their lives.  Oh sure, Ivanka & Jared will have a couple of suck ups to bolster their loneliness but they will be openly scorned when they show their faces at polite society functions.

    Just imagine charities and foundations sending their checks back.  That will be delicious.

  21. 21.

    Searcher

    It wasn’t the Rose Garden conference when they tried conning Americans about a Google website that would allow people to identify symptoms and find nearby testing

    Incidentally, that press conference kicked off a firestorm inside Google of frantic work to make sure things worked as well as the could on Maps/Search for COVID related queries.

    Not because there was a plan or a desire to make true the lies, but because it was clear there was no plan and people would soon be looking to Google for answers they really should be getting from elsewhere.

  22. 22.

    VeniceRiley

    whey-faced, noodle-armed nepotism hire

    Yeah I saw him called elsewhere “pot sticker skinned” and “embaled pen*s” and there are not enough insults in the universe. He literally looks like his soul: And uncanny valley made flesh.

  24. 24.

    Aziz, light!

    In a just world, when Jared and Ivanka have returned to whatever is left of their New York social circuit, everyone they encounter gives Jared a swift kick in the balls

    ETA or what Kindness said above.

  26. 26.

    BR

    @burnspbesq:

    I don’t care where they go or what they do after next week—the Lincoln Project have been fantastic allies in this campaign.

    My bet is it’s going to fragment. Wilson and Galen I think will flip to running primaries for GOP upstarts in 2021 and then run those candidates against Dems in 2022 if they win. I think Nichols and Stevens and maybe Schmidt (and some others like Frum) are chastened and may sit out GOP politics for maybe 4 years or more.

  28. 28.

    fancycwabs

    If the numbers follow historical trends, we’re looking at 2.35M early votes, total, in TN. Add another 700k on election day (vs 900k in 2016), and we might top 3M total votes cast in 2020.
    Trump got 1.5M votes in 2016 in TN, and looks to pick up precisely two more with Tomi and Ben moving to Nashville, but other than those two, I don’t see someone looking at the last four years and saying, “yeah, I want some more of that.”
    In any case, since there’s precious little polling in TN, I think it might be closer than folks think.

  29. 29.

    West of the Rockies

    @Steeplejack:

    Didn’t Kennedy try to come off as the “adorkable nerd girl” on MTV who really was just awkward and not bright (unlike a true nerd)?

  30. 30.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Trump’s now back in charge. It’s not the doctors. They’ve kind of – we have, like, a negotiated settlement.”

    My god. Trust fund princeling with the degrees daddy bought him thinks he’s Zuckerberg, but I suspect Zuckerberg makes sure extreme medical protocols are followed in a hundred yard perimeter of every space he does or might find himself in.

  31. 31.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I just got back from casting my votes for Joe ‘n’ Kamala, Jon Ossoff, Raphael Warnock, Carolyn Bourdeaux, and all the down-ballot candidates with a D after their name.

    I know voting in Georgia has a terrible reputation — deservedly so, in many instances — but this is my fourth time of voting in person during the 2020 cycle, in three different locations, and I have to say it’s been quick, easy, and efficient every time. And although I live in a northern suburb of Atlanta, it’s a demographic hodgepodge, so the efficiency is not about being a white area getting preferential treatment — it’s true anywhere in sprawling, racially-diverse Gwinnett County. (I will admit to checking the average wait times online for each location and waiting until today when I found one that was showing about 10 minutes. A week or two ago the lines at every advance voting location were much longer.)

    And yes, Water Girl, before you ask, I’ll add my report to the “I Voted” tally. I’ll even email you a picture of my sticker and the little stylus they gave us to use on the touch screen instead of our nasty germ-laden fingers. By the way, everyone was wearing a mask, everyone was social distancing, and all the poll workers wore masks AND face shields AND gloves, AND were behind sneeze guards! Taking as few risks as possible, for sure.

  32. 32.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    I wonder what the “pain phase” for Trump and Kushner will look like?

    I’m going to quote you:

    Don’t know about y’all, but just as soon as it’s safe to participate in an angry mob, I intend to join one. Voting these grifting ghouls out won’t be nearly enough. I want them to have to flee the goddamned country, change their names and undergo reconstructive surgery.

    Or put their heads on pikes and display them on Pennsylvania Ave.  Or tumbrels and guillotines.

    Otherwise, they won’t ever have a “pain phase”.

  35. 35.

    patrick II

    The guy I can’t stand the sight of right now is DeJoy. His goal is to destroy democracy in 9 months. As much as any of them, I would like to see him go to jail for the rest of his life.

  37. 37.

    Searcher

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: I’ve booked my trip for the inauguration.  I expect the mob to be more joyful and peaceful, but it is very important to me that the crowd equals or exceeds Obama’s, to really bookend the Trump administration on both sides.

  39. 39.

    Gin & Tonic

    Yesterday I posed a question to the jackaltariat about Seresto flea/tick collars. Well, I took the collar off shortly after reading a few of the comments and doing some more reading on the interwebs, and the dog slept through the night and had a completely normal-looking bowel movement this morning.

    Now, I majored in math and spent the first decade of my working life as a statistical analyst, so I know full well that one data point gives you insufficient information for any conclusion; correlation is not causality; all that stuff. But not having to deal with explosive diarrhea from the dog affects your analytical faculties. I know some wise guy will say “you have to put the collar back on and see if it recurs” but, you know, no thanks. I’ve cleaned up enough shit for a while.

  40. 40.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    @geg6:

    Jesus Christ, the replies to that tweet:

    “Nobody will show up!”

    “Desperate times…”

    “You can SMELL the fear!”

    “Too little too late”

    And the one positive reply I can see gets drowned out too, encouraging Biden and Obama to campaign in TX, NC, and SC:

    “Ya, so we can shoot em lol”

    “Yes, divert resources to states he has no chance of winning”

    What planet are these people living on?

  41. 41.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    @kindness: If there is justice, their friends will be new friends they make in prison. Ooops – they will probably act all entitled and too-good-for-the-masses to make friends.

    And that *wouldn’t* happen to nicer people. Damn shame; but their own doing.

  42. 42.

    OGLiberal

    My wife is having trouble sleeping at the thought that this fool is going to still be president after the election.  (Both of our kids have pre-exists so that makes it even scarier.)  She doesn’t think he’ll actually win but that he’ll use the courts to stay in power.  I told her that if the polls we’re seeing now are even remotely close to being accurate and the good folks in this country go out to vote like they should then it won’t be close enough for any court decided tomfoolery*.  I think and hope I’m right.

    Anyway, we’re in deep blue NJ and still dropped our ballots off at the drop box in our very blue town, just to be safe.  Confirmed the county got them.  At the Congressional level, unfortunately, our rep is Chris Smith and he’s not even going to come close to losing.  Good news is that next year he’ll likely to go back to being NJ’s only GOP rep after that jerk Van Drew loses.

    *Judicial fuckery in the face of a clear Biden win – and it could happen! – might be the proverbial straw.

  44. 44.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Searcher:

    How will that work during The Plague Times?  I’ve often wondered exactly how a Biden inauguration would look like.  In normal times, it would be mobbed beyond belief.  Now…

  45. 45.

    John S.

    @BR: Or they can start a new party. Hell, call it the Lincoln Party. It’s long past time this country bucked the two-party system. The GOP has already dipped a toe into the water, so they might as well take the plunge.

  47. 47.

    BR

    @John S.:

    Yeah, they may have to, but I think party adherence is too strong and they’ll find it easier to just primary everyone. I don’t expect them to be allies come February, though they may be preoccupied with intra-party squabbles for a year or two before they turn back against Dems.

  48. 48.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    @Gin & Tonic: That *is* spot-on statistical analysis. The MLE is that the collar was the cause.

    Yes, you’re right, with a single data point, the MLE can be horribly wrong. Sample the single red ball in an urn with a million green balls, and the MLE is “they’re all red”. (If you’ve only sampled one ball, and it’s red, how the *heck* could you guess anything else?)

    But for your purposes, and your goals, the MLE gives you the data you needed, and you’d be better to wait for more, uh, *problems* before considering that your analysis might be incorrect.

  49. 49.

    different-church-lady

    So has Trump told us why it’s all his frozen fans fault that they missed those buses that never came for them?

  51. 51.

    Betty Cracker

    Oh goody! I’ll admit I’m curious and have been amazed that no one ferreted the arrogant shitstain out. I hope it turns out to be Kellyanne Conway.

  52. 52.

    Brachiator

    He also told Woodward, “The most dangerous people around the President are over-confident idiots” and that Trump had replaced them with “more thoughtful people who kind of know their place.”

    I always suspected that Young Jared had no soul. His conversation with Woodward confirms my suspicions.

    It says much, none of it healthy, that Trump let Ivanka marry this cocky little sycophant.

  54. 54.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Betty Cracker: I honestly can’t decide if I care, ETA: I mean, beyond the “Is You’re So Vain about Beatty or Jagger?” level. I guess if nothing else it will provoke The Beast into ever more incoherent rantings at his 60 Minute Hates, which some people think dig him a deeper grave with ‘suburban’ voters

  55. 55.

    Humanities Prof

    @kindness: Low-hanging fruit here, but the obvious flaw in your logic is the assumption that either of them would write a check to a charitable organization in the first place.

  56. 56.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Goku (Amerikan Baka): The ones where they have to believe that everyone hates Obama and Biden and that Trump will win. Because they bound up all of their own self-worth in Trump and hating Democrats.

    Just remember that they’re cultists, shrug and move on.

  60. 60.

    JCNZ

    Jared will turn out to have been “Anonymous” (I hope). He and his hideous wife had a private dinner with the Times’ publisher a month before that piece was published.

  61. 61.

    Calouste

    @Betty Cracker: George Conway tweeted this morning that he had spoken to “Anonymous”, so Kelly Ann would indeed be the shortest connection. Whoever it is, the shitgibbon’s rage is going to be off the charts. Hope Hicks is probably the one that would most likely cause him to actually stroke out. (I think it’s going to be someone relatively not well known though)

  62. 62.

    MisterForkbeard

    @Betty Cracker: I’m curious, but I bet it’ll be someone non-senior. In this administration, an interim deputy secretary of undereducation and cockwaffling or something.

    In terms of sheer schadenfreude I hope its Kushner. That would be so, so amazing. Kellyanne makes some sense, as we know she shit-talks constantly and feeds the press news, and she doesn’t work in the Admin any longer.

    EDIT: Wait – like, TODAY wednesday? Neat.

  64. 64.

    zzyzx

    @BR: yeah but what happens when they primary everyone and Q-anon people keep winning? I don’t see how the Lincoln Project people end up recovering the Republicans.

  66. 66.

    LongHairedWeirdo

    @Betty Cracker: Ah, yes, the famous “don’t worry too much about Trump, we’re all insubordinate, and no one is exactly sure *what* would happen in a crisis, because we’re all so used to ignoring his orders, if we don’t agree with them. So, ‘Don’t Worry; Be Happy!'”

    The level of dis-reality a person needs to accept to support the Trump administration truly *is* astounding.

  67. 67.

    Brachiator

    @different-church-lady:

    So has Trump told us why it’s all his frozen fans fault that they missed those buses that never came for them?

    Did you see the CNN story on these last Trump rallies? Trump is like a kind of Bizarro Political Jesus at the Last Supper. Trump keeps telling his door supporters that he is better than they are, that he is doing them a favor by even bothering to show up, and that they need to vote for him or else he will go away forever, presumably to the heaven on earth that is Mar a Lago.

    A week earlier at the Des Moines airport, he warned a crowd of adoring fans huddled outside a plane hangar he’d never return unless they reward him with Iowa’s six electoral votes.

    “I may never have to come back here again if I don’t get Iowa,” he said. “I’ll never be back.”

    And yet, his base continue to eat this stuff up. They want the abuse. They see Trump as powerful. And his grievances are their grievances. They drink from his poisoned chalice and feel satisfied.

    Link to CNN story

  68. 68.

    Keith P.

    @Betty Cracker:  SOunds like it is Kellyanne, with the news the identity is being released today being broken by….George Conway, who referred to this person as “a patriot”.

  69. 69.

    hueyplong

    It’s way past the time when I cared who Anonymous was. The only thing it means to me today is that Anonymous obviously thinks Trump will lose.

    Jared and Ivanka both look just like mannequins. Surprised they are not so described more often.

  71. 71.

    JCJ

    Driving this afternoon I saw a sign that at first looked like a Trump sign, but underneath his name where “Pence” would be instead it read “$0 and $750” and then below that “Make Tax Fraud Great Again”

  73. 73.

    rp

    If it’s Kellyanne…blah. She’s still vile and the reveal isn’t that interesting. OTOH, the equation might change if it’s someone still in the admin. Mnuchin is a possibility. He’s not a true believer or an idiot. He was also trying to negotiate with Pelosi.

  74. 74.

    James E Powell

    @Betty Cracker:

    Sure, I’m a little curious, but I’m mostly thinking too little, too late. Should have said who you were and what you knew before the ship hit the iceberg.

  75. 75.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I can’t tell how much of this is snark

    Rosie Gray @RosieGray · 2h
    when Anonymous turns out to be a deputy undersecretary somewhere that no one has ever heard of, I will allow myself a smug smile, then never think of them again

    Ben Smith @benyt · 8m
    So I’ve been told who Anonymous is on the condition in not name him, but was permitted to share my impression that @RosieGray will feel spiritually, if not technically vindicated

    So, a man who was lower tier Cabinet secretary? a low-wattage non-cabinet advisor? Rick Perry? McMaster? John Fucking Bolton? that Pence aide who used the term lodestar or north star or something?

  76. 76.

    Searcher

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:  It’s certainly going to be a risk, and if we’re in the middle of another upswing like we are seeing right now I admit I’ll probably chicken out.

    But I figure that I’ll be outdoors essentially the entire time, aside from the train ride in (and masked train rides don’t currently look to be as risky as churches or restaurants), and I can mask up the entire time outside.

    Aside from that it is mostly rationalization; so far the riskiest thing I’ve done this pandemic is work at a food pantry and go into a hardware store a half dozen times. I figure I’ve earned a risk from all of my good behavior, and ensuring a peaceful transition of power (by having 1-2 million of the new President’s most fervent supporters [although to be fair, I’m not sure I make the top 1-2 million; I’d like to think I’m at least in the top quintile] in town to cheer him and Harris at every opportunity, boo Roberts when he comes out to administer the Oath, and glare angrily at anyone who wants to delay or contest the process) is worth the risk.

    After I get home I can self-isolate for 1-2 weeks and take a couple of COVID tests to make sure I don’t spread anything around if I do get sick.

  77. 77.

    Calouste

    @Betty Cracker: It will be today, not next Wednesday. These people have a book to sell and no one will give free publicity pay attention to them next week a day after the election.

  78. 78.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    @Brachiator:

    I’ll never understand (well, I do actually, it’s because their grievances are also his) how they could see such a pampered manchild who always whines about how mean and unfair everyone is to him as being strong

  80. 80.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    @MisterForkbeard:

    Oh, I know. It’s still bizarre to see it though. And all over that tweet too, so soon. I guess they follow that account, but still, don’t they have anything better to do? I doubt all of them are bots or paid trolls

  81. 81.

    Betty Cracker

    @Keith P.: I didn’t see that Conway tweet — off to look at it now! Also, according to the Twitters, it’s TODAY Wednesday, not next Wednesday, and the person will be giving interviews between now and election day. Also, possibly related, David Corn says a source told him to stand by for news at 4 PM, so maybe that’s when the big reveal will occur? Hmmm.

  82. 82.

    Betty Cracker

    Well, I am disappoint…

  85. 85.

    narya

    @kindness: What I want for them is prison, but I doubt I’ll get that joy. My second choice is that all of the money is gone–no more access to the properties, nothing. Some RWNJ foundation will likely throw them some bones, but that’s it. And I want them shunned. I never want to see their smug faces again, and I want them to have zero access to the NY and DC society to which they think they are entitled.

    @patrick II: I second that.

    @Gin & Tonic:  But was there naked mopping involved?

    My parents mailed in their ballots (in Eastern PA, so they are especially useful ballots!) and today, while on the phone w/ mom, I checked to make sure they’d been accepted, and they have been.

  87. 87.

    Kent

    Folks….

    I’m cheering for a landslide as much as anyone.  But let’s not forget what the Republicans taught us in 2000 and 2016.  It’s that even a 1 point electoral college win while losing the popular vote confers every bit as much power as a complete landslide.  Bush and Trump were by far the two most authoritarian presidents we have seen in the past 100 years.  The governed with zero compromise or conciliation to the other side.  Bush rammed through his tax cuts and war. Trump has utterly destroyed the executive branch and turned it over to the businesses in which it regulates.

    I expect Dems to ruthlessly use power if they win, regardless of what the vote is.  You don’t get MORE executive power with a landslide.  You get every bit with just a 1 vote electoral college margin.

  89. 89.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    @Betty Cracker:

    I think it could be Kirstjen Nielsen, especially after reading that (apparently) she was opposed to the “locking up kids” thing. (But, yes, that still continued to happen on her watch.)

    I add: if it’s someone that high up. It could be some second-tier bureaucrat we’ve never heard of.

  92. 92.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    @Kent:

    I agree. I am a little concerned about FL. I think it’s going to be very close. Not necessarily needed, but it would secure Biden’s victory early on Election Day night

  93. 93.

    Aleta

    Kushner left out the phase where he and his companies buy or are investors in distressed hotels and rental properties after Republicans blocked the Covid relief they requested from Congress.

  98. 98.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Cheryl Rofer: Even less than my skeptical imagining…

    and I believe he was defending family separation as a policy just a week or so ago

    adding… I mean, is he even enough to draw The Beast’s ire?

  99. 99.

    pamelabrown53

    @West of the Rockies:

    Hah! I always thought that Kushner had his first shave at @ age 30. Damn, he is pasty!

    In the political dictionary, his picture will be cross-posted in white boy privilege and failed vampire.

  102. 102.

    JAFD

    So, I got a postcard in today’s mail.  From Essex County Clerk,

    “THANK YOU FOR VOTING!

    Dear Voter,

    Thank you for returning your mail-in ballot…  Your ballot has been received by the Essex County Board of Elections.  If you have any questions, please visit EssexClerk.com, or call…”

    And below, phone numbers for Essex County Clerk (“Responsible for: Mailing of Ballots, Certification of Results’), Superintendent of Elections (‘Voter Registration, Maintain Voter History, Voting Machines’) and Board of Elections (‘Counting of paper ballots, Poll workers and locations, Drop boxes’).

    Also got my internet bill, a flyer from Domino’s Pizza, and a statement of ‘prescription drug claims for September’

    Hope y’all got some good news today.

  106. 106.

    patroclus

    @geg6: Well, Carly did “reveal” that the 2nd verse was about Beatty, but that Warren “probably thought the whole song was about him.”  According to wikipedia, it’s about 3 different men, definitely including Beatty, but also two others, possibly David Armstrong.  Not Mick.

  107. 107.

    MattF

    So, Anonymous is a no-name bureaucrat. IMO, the only endorsement that could make a difference at this point is from GWB, and I really don’t expect that. That said, it could make a difference because most Democrats have already voted, so most of the remaining potential voters are Republicans.

  111. 111.

    piratedan

    @Betty Cracker: i look at it this way, in comparison to others in this administration, he’s at least cleared a bar that is within sight of common decency, the others, not so much.

    I won’t crap on him for at least doing what he did which was a damn sight more than a whole shitpotful of other people…. in a way, I’m disappointed that so few stood up even as much as this guy did (and maybe not so much stand up, but maybe crouch)

  115. 115.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    the petty authoritarianism of the woman who put an end to the question: Who is the dumbest Senator, Johnson or Cornyn?

    POLITICO@politico ·1h
    Sen. Marsha Blackburn today asked if a Google engineer who has criticized her still has a job.
    “He has had very unkind things to say about me and I was just wondering if you all had still kept him working there,” she said

    just that question is an abuse of office

  116. 116.

    Anya

    I share your loathing of Kushner and his psychopath Barbie. My loathing is so intense that sometimes I worry about my sanity. I hope they never comeback to New York because they are chased away from everywhere.

  118. 118.

    Ruckus

    @Slappy Kincaid:

    He’s the guy who thought he was the bully everyone feared. He’s the moron who would get in the face of the geeky kid with glasses, and get his ass beat. And never learned any different.

  124. 124.

    Goku (Amerikan Baka)

    @?BillinGlendaleCA:
    Especially for diabetics.

    Toes have fallen off the feet of people with diabetes who don’t get adequate blood flow or have much feeling in their feet. This is common with improper fitting shoes.

  127. 127.

    Ruckus

    @Xavier:

    Less. The dog knows he’s licking his genitalia, and doesn’t care if he knows what to call them or that you are wishing you could do it. The people in the WH who are supposed to be smarter than a bag of manure, but are assuredly not, make that dog look like Albert Einstein.

  128. 128.

    laura

    That wax faced gormless entitled sociopath and his vapid side piece should expect a lifetime or two’s worth of shunning. I hope their children will turn against them for ruining their lives and expected social standing. I’m not calling for Caucescu style outcomes but if that should occur, dont expect me to organize the funeral luncheon.

    Also, where exactly did patriot hero Myles Taylor step up when Kelly and Neilsen were implementing child separation? He might move a few steps back in the tumbrel line, but he’s no patriot hero. Fuck every last one of these homegrown monsters.

  131. 131.

    JMG

    Local TV news did a story on early voting in Mass. and used my voting town (still registered there because we haven’t sold our house there yet). Town clerk said as of today, 64 percent of its registered voters have already voted. So turnout is going to be higher than the usual 75-80 percent.

  132. 132.

    Jmaloney

    Dear Betty,
    Your command of language, keen observations and irreverent wit make my heart sing!

  133. 133.

    Aleta

    After Taylor says   “rest assured, we will challenge (Biden’s progressive reforms),”  he imparts his advice to us:

    … it’s become clear to me how far apart Americans have grown from one another. We’ve perpetuated the seemingly endless hostility … the change must begin with each of us…

    Quotes Lincoln about being friends and about our better angels.

    Reuses Lincoln’s words as his own thoughts.  Then emphasizes his inspiring advice:

    Heed Lincoln’s words. …  we must reconcile with each other, repairing the bonds of affection that make us fellow Americans.

    So brave.  He just had to let us know what suddenly matters now.  As long as progressive policies are opposed.

  134. 134.

    Matt McIrvin

    Remember when Ivanka and Kushner were supposed to be the “moderating influences”?

    Everyone associated with this administration gets stink all over them and it won’t wash off.

  135. 135.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Aleta:

    Heed Lincoln’s words.

    Oh, like

    Fondly do we hope — fervently do we pray — that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether”…

  136. 136.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I couldn’t tell from the video, but I assume Trump’s comments are all from the 2016 Republican primary. AFAIK he hasn’t thrown Lindsey under the bus recently — or have I missed something in the endless, constant firehose of “breaking news”?

  137. 137.

    Kay

    Jake Tapper
    @jaketapper
    New CNN national poll; interviews conducted October 23-26, 2020 by telephone with 1,005 adult Americans, including 886 likely voters
    Among likely voters
    54% Biden
    42% Trump

    Good number!

  139. 139.

    Ruckus

    @Gin & Tonic:

    And none of us are really done cleaning up the shit. It’s just that the shit generators we all have to clean up after have 2 legs and don’t bark, they speak in bullshit.

  140. 140.

    Mike S

    Jesus! I had to stop that ad because that was me in May. Thankfully my mom’s place let me in safely to say goodbye but fuck man, that is a brutal ad.

  146. 146.

    There go two miscreants

    We’re all longing to see Trump suffer a crushing, humiliating, egobone-shattering rejection beating with a tire iron.

    FTFMe

  147. 147.

    Miss Bianca

    @Aleta: Fuck these fucking fuckers.

    Fucking forever and ever, amen.

    I mean, it just has become so obvious that the only point to his actions is to be the world’s largest Dick With Ears.

  150. 150.

    burnspbesq

    @Ruckus: 

    How much is the dow down since the first of the month?

    It closed at 27,817 on 10/1. It’s been as high as 28,837 (10/9 close). It closed today at 26,620. So it’s off 4.3 percent for the month. If you had half a million in your 401(k) on 10/1 and it was all invested in the Dow, you’ve lost $21,500.

  151. 151.

    VOR

    @kindness:  Just imagine charities and foundations sending their checks back

    You think they actually donate to charities and foundations? IIRC, the WaPo ran a series during the 2016 election trying to track down Donald Trump’s charitable donations and could not substantiate many. He held a fundraiser as an excuse to skip a debate and promised $5M to a veteran’s charity. They ran it down months later and found he had never made the donation and had to be shamed into it. This stuff on his taxes found worthless land he donated at inflated valuation after he was unable to develop it. Ivanka and her two brothers are not allowed to run a charity in New York because of their past charity mis-management.

  152. 152.

    Bill Arnold

    @zhena gogolia:

    Jared Kushner is always photographed like the camera is zooming in on the real killer in a Law and Order episode.

    I keep a Rogues’ Gallery of tabs of image search engine results for various … Rogues.
    J. Kushner’s image collection is by far the weirdest. He does not present as human.

  153. 153.

    Bill Arnold

    @kindness:
    I look forward to Trump’s kids being despised by their peers in Manhattan for the rest of their lives.
    Nice; consistent with your nym.
    I want them to fall (howling) into the middle class, and to feel deep sadness about their (justified) loss of influence, and to experience total social shunning.
    And that is … self-censored.

  154. 154.

    Ruckus

    @burnspbesq:

    Well thank goodness that my retirement account was eaten in the last republican fucking recession so I no longer have to fucking worry about my fucking portfolio.

    And thank you for the info.

  156. 156.

    Shana

    Having just watched the end of The Good Place (OMG – great finish!) can we at least include some butt spiders?

  157. 157.

    LadySuzy

    I was hoping for Barack Obama to go to Michigan. But the tandem Biden-Obama is even better.
    They’re not taking any chances. Good polls , but they need a good turn-out. It’s also about the Senate Seat.

  159. 159.

    bupalos

    whey-faced, noodle-armed nepotism hire

    Jesus. How does Cracker do this? She’s the goddam Lebron James of word-dunks

  160. 160.

    No One of Consequence

    @geg6:

    as I recall, wasn’t that song directed at James Taylor?

    I could be wrong. It is not unheard of.

    Peace,

    NOoC

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